If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. You can also
follow me in your pastor's commentary as we continue working through
the book of Romans. The gospel to the Romans, as
our elder made it very clear to you, the title of our message
is We Grown. And we will take our time working
through that because it's a concept that actually encompasses the
whole of the Christian life. I have frequently spoken about
groaning within the narrow confines of those of us who are older
and struggle with getting up and moving about until our joints
are lubricated with the appropriate amount of blood. That is a truth
inherent in this topic as well, but it's much larger than the
weakness of old age. We are drawn by the apostle into
a deeper and more concrete understanding of not only the book of Romans,
but more particularly the work of the spirit of God, as was
introduced to us in chapter eight. You know, I stated that the spirit
of God was seldom spoken about by Paul in chapters one through
seven, but in chapter eight, he's spoken of 20 times because
he is the resident representative of both the father and the son
with the job of making the gospel a reality to every Christian. To make Jesus real to you, it
requires the third person. To make the father real to you,
it requires the third person. For the gospel to actually be
a reality to you, the third person must bring to bear on your heart
and mind in a renewing of grace and a revelation of his word,
the facts of what God has done for us in Christ. Without the
third person, we are merely speculating and listening in on a conversation
from God, about God, of which we know nothing about. And this
is why in Romans 8, the apostle deals with the deep and profound
relationship that the believer has between him and the Spirit
of God in the work of redemption and the work of sanctification
in their soul as a consequence of that grace that was brought
to us in Jesus Christ. We are dealing properly with
the concept of sanctification. I have stated it before, there
are three major categories. Theological truth that we We
both confirm and adhere to that basically encompasses the whole
of the Christian life. It is the work of justification
Which God did for us in Christ by which he has justified us
freely by his grace and Established a grounds of acceptance for us
before God for all eternity. That's shouting ground Justification
is shouting ground It's the place where you and I are secure in
our standing before God. Every Christian must understand
the doctrine of justification. It is not a feeling. It's a fact. It's not a notion. It's a reality
and a standing that every believer has. It's his position. It's
her position. It's their position before God
forever justified. That's the work that Christ did
when he died on our behalf on Calvary Street. The believer
knows that we are justified purely and solely by faith, and that
through the grace of God. We did not participate in the
accomplishment of our justification. It was done for us by someone
else, even Jesus Christ. And that reality was handed to
us by the Holy Ghost. the preaching of the gospel when
he raised us from the dead and said now this is who you are
in God through Christ and our soul said yes to that did it
not and then the work of the Holy Spirit from the point of
justifying us are showing us our justification now works in
our lives for the specific purpose of conforming us to the image
of Christ we are between grace and what glory And this pathway
between grace and glory is properly called in a time and realm of
sanctification. And sanctification can be comprehended
under several rubrics, but here's one that will stick. Sanctification
is always a relationship between two people. Sanctification is
always a relationship between two people. And because it's
a relationship between two people, It's always a struggle. When
you and I contemplate marriage, marriage is a struggle because
it's a relationship between what? Two people. It's two wheels coming
together, working together to build a unity under a covenant
paradigm. Are we married to Christ? Isn't
that what Romans 6 and Romans 7 laid out so clearly? He redeemed
us in order that he might what? Marry us. And you and I under
this Wonderful experience of grace in the realm of sanctification
because we're being conformed to the image of Christ have been
called to a struggle a Struggle and you have to embrace that
because change is never easy Transformation is never easy
Correction and development of character is never easy. It's
never easy for you and I to become something else other than what
we were And so the work of grace in your life and mine under the
rubric of sanctification is to bring us into conformity to Christ.
And we have several things that I want to remind you of along
those lines before we come to our main heading for today. First
and foremost, the Spirit of God worked in our life to exonerate
us from all guilt before the bar of divine justice, and this
is laid out in Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore what? Now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. Verse 1 clearly lays out the
exoneration of the believer. There is for the true believer
in Christ, evidenced by his walking in the Spirit, no condemnation. Now mark the word no condemnation
because here's what it means. There's nothing in the universe
that could ever allow the judgment of God to fall on you in a state
of eternal doom because of what Christ has done for you. The
believer never has to worry about ultimately being destroyed under
the wrath of God in his final catacrino, our judgment on humanity,
because Christ has taken our judgment for us. The Bible is
very clear in John 5, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whosoever heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life. and will never ever come into
condemnation, but has passed from death to life. That's the
state of the believer before God. The wrath that hangs over
the head of every unsaved person, every unregenerate person, the
wrath that will sink them into hell should they die without
Christ is a wrath the believer never has to worry about. And
in fact, I like the way Paul puts it. Paul says, there is
therefore now no kind of condemnation. The word literally means there
is no kind of condemnation that could ever bring you and I into
a state of judgment. A person can't condemn you. A
circumstance can't condemn you. Events can't condemn you. Nothing
in the universe can ever undo what Christ did to justify you
before God. Are you guys following me? Now,
that's important. That's important because Paul
knows where he's leading the saints. See, he's still talking
to his Jewish brethren about the question. So what motivates
the Christian to serve God with all of his heart, soul, mind
and strength? and to be committed to the cause of the gospel. What
motivates you to first seek ye the kingdom of God and all of
his righteousness? What motivates you to have an ethic of life
that says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain? What
motivates you to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself since
you're free? The Jews couldn't understand how can a man or woman
love God, love Christ, love the gospel, love the cause of the
gospel enough to lay down their life for Jesus if they aren't
meriting something from it? And the answer is simple, love.
Remember, faith works by what? That's exactly right. And Paul
is confident that the love of God shed abroad in our hearts
will keep us loving Christ and serving Christ no matter what
comes. Now as he's developing the doctrine,
the doctrine of the sanctifying work of the spirit, he's leading
you and me to understand that when you become a child of God,
you enter into a world of struggle and a world that hates God and
a world that hates you because it hates God. And because you
are in that world now, you and I have to be kept every day because
of the assaults that come against our soul. By the time you and
I turn the corner on the back end of Romans 8, we will be dealing
with Paul's exhortation that there is nothing that shall separate
us from the love of God. He will have to encourage us
to understand that whether it's heights or depths, whether it's
principalities or powers, whether it's angels or devils, whether
it's men or armies, nothing will separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. Though you and I will be led
to the slaughter like sheep, So remember the three concepts
that encompass Romans 8? No condemnation, no accusation,
no separation. And he's building that in order
to help you and I understand that you're going to take some
hits. You're going to take hits if you're a child of God. All
that live godly in Christ Jesus do what? Suffer persecution.
And so don't think that when once you come to Christ, you
never are going to have to suffer. In fact, you are made for suffering. You are made to struggle. God's
going to get glory out of your life precisely because he has
sent the third person into your life to work in us what we cannot
do for ourselves. So under our first point, as
we were working through our points, not only does the Holy Ghost
confirm to us our justification through the merits of Christ,
that's what to exonerate us means, to clear us from every accusation,
every blame, Every accusation that would come against us, we
would be cleared of in that day when we finally stand before
God. But secondly, the spirit of God not only exonerates us,
but it has and does what? Liberate us from the power of
sin in our fallen nature. Look at verse two. For the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has done what? Made me
free. That's called liberation. That's
called emancipation. has made me free from what? The
law of sin and death. Now the work of the Spirit of
God as articulated here is addressing Romans 7 where you and I for
several weeks dealt with the struggle. Remember what Paul
said? The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would
not do, I find myself struggling with. And he was led to cry out,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? Well, the answer is the Holy Ghost. The third person,
the presence of Christ, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God
in you is going to deliver you from that process of the sin
nature that would lead you into bondage and stop you from living
for the glory of God. In other words, as we learned
before, even though you are a new creature in Christ, while your
new disposition desires to do the will of God, it requires
the help of the third person to execute it. While your new
disposition desires to do the will of God, it requires the
third person to execute it. Your new man cannot by itself
fulfill the will of God. Are you guys hearing me? When
you are made new in Christ, the new nature in you, that incorruptible
seed in you, it has to be nurtured. It has to be strengthened. It
has to be guided. It has to be informed. And as
we're going to see in the latter part of Romans chapter 8, the
Holy Ghost helps us in the midst of our infirmities. That's what
he's there to do. And so Philippians chapter two,
11 and 12, which is our memory verse for the year. It is God
who works in you the will and to do of his good pleasure. Now,
this concept that I'm sharing with you now has to do with your
acknowledging that you need God's help to obey. Do you guys accept
that? Because you and I could talk
about obedience and never obey. You and I can actually know what
the will of God is and not do it. Is that true? And so you
might actually I had a young brother last night. We had a
powerful class Don't want any ladies listen to last night's
men's meeting. Please don't If you disobey me, we talked about
obedience this morning in our sunday school Obeying all the
ordinances of men now if you disobey me and listen, it's your
fault Because this is for men only this is a men only class
And I know some of you wives like to sneak in and listen to
the men's study, but last night was a little rough so I was talking
to a young man who had made a profession of faith in Christ, and he honestly
admitted after being broken down by the study, which is what the
Holy Ghost will do to you when you're serious about God. Don't
think you come to church and the Spirit of God doesn't poke
at the points in your heart that need to be addressed. That's
exactly what he does. And that's how you know you're
home, when God deals with you under the teaching and preaching
of his word. The young man came to me, he's about 21, 22, a college
student, and he says, Pastor, I've been going to church all
my life, and I know what the Bible says about believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm down with that, I believe on
the Lord Jesus, but how come I keep on sinning? How come I
keep on doing what I know is wrong? And he sincerely asked
the question, is it possible that I'm not saved? Is it possible
that I just have a head knowledge? and actually don't know Christ.
And I said, that's absolutely possible, young man. It's absolutely
possible that you can say all the right things about the Bible
and your heart not be right with God. Is that true? It was so
beautiful because he was so sincere, because he had heard me teaching
about how important it is for us in this generation to be solid
in the Word of God. Because the unbeliever in our
culture is so knowledgeable about so many things that if you and
I are weak in our understanding of the Bible, we will have no
way to discuss Biblical truth with them in any effective manner
and this young man heard last night in a serious men's meeting
That he was way behind the gun not only in his knowledge of
God, but in this which goes on in church all the time He sits
and listens to the preaching and does not do what God says
He just came up to me pastor. Can I talk to you? Because I
know you this thing called fornication I'm doing it and right while
I'm doing it. I know it's wrong. I So what
am I to do with that? Am I a believer or am I not a
believer? Isn't that a good question? Honest
question. I said it's possible you're not
a believer. See, believing is not just saying I agree with
the points. It's where the heart is convicted that the one who
died for me died for me to liberate me from the old path that I was
engaged in. And faith working by love now
is gonna move me to say, you know what? God helped me to stop
doing what I know is wrong. So I basically told him that.
And what I'm sharing with you right now around that is, it's
possible for you to hear some of the most accurate theological
truths and teachings that you will ever hear and still not
know the grace and power of the Spirit of God that will move
you by and by from disobedience to obedience. if you're not sincerely
talking to God about helping you do the right thing. Didn't
we say last week that one of the evidences of the presence
of the Spirit of God in us is that we cry, Abba Father? Now,
I'm very worried about a man or a woman who doesn't cry out
to God for help. Jehoshaphat had chosen the wrong
path, hanging out with the ungodly crowd, and it almost got him
what? Killed. And if it wasn't for Christ in
him, the hope of glory, crying out he would have died. So I love
the idea that a brother would be serious about his salvation
enough to say, what do I do? Here's the answer. You cry out
to God. You ask God to help you. Will he help you? Will God come
through and help a brother? If a man is being tempted to
do the wrong thing, will the spirit of God make a way of escape
for him that he can be delivered from that thing every time? But
what God is teaching you and me is that we can't play games
with God. When He sent that third person
into your life, He your partner for life. He's the one you talk
to and walk with and work with. You get to know God through Him.
He is your paraclete. He is your teacher. He is your
pedagogue. He's the one instructing you.
He's the one that's keeping you. He's the one upholding you. He's
the one admonishing you. He's leading you in the paths
of righteousness for His namesake. And if that's not happening,
we're not saved. So the Spirit continually exonerates
us from all guilt before the barbed justice. The Spirit of
God has and does liberate us from the power of sin in our
fallen nature. And the Spirit of God is leading us into processes
of separation. We talked about that last week.
It's called mortification. Remember that? The doctrine of
mortification. Now this is an area that works
with us, particularly in the area of sensuality. We have to
mortify the deeds of the flesh, don't we? Right, so now this
is the hard part because the Bible will give us paradoxes.
We talked about that. A paradox is an apparently contradictory
set of truths that seem to oppose each other. Let me share one
with you. The Bible says we are to love our wives as we love
our own bodies, right? So the assumption is, is that
we love our bodies. And I can look around here and
see you love your bodies. The assumption is we feed our
bodies, we nourish our bodies, we rest our bodies, we make our
bodies as healthy as possible. We don't hurt our bodies in general,
right? And yet Jesus says, if your right hand offends you,
cut it off. That's a tension. That's a paradox. Because now watch this. You have
to kill what you love. See it? See it? See, and I have
to say this because I know that it really takes grace for the
gospel to come home because we talk ourselves out of obedience.
We talk ourselves out of, we ration our head and talk ourselves
out of obedience. Here's what we say. I love what
I'm doing. It can't be wrong because I like
it. And so long as I like it, it
can't be contrary to God. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Many things that you like are wrong. And what we're
dealing with as we talk about walking in the spirit, is learning
what it means to make right decisions that honor God in our life and
thus afford us what Romans chapter 8 says is to walk in the Spirit
is life and peace. Here are the two marks that you
can look for when you're doing the right thing. If I'm doing
the will of God, here's what I can know. I have life and I
have peace. When you and I are not doing
the will of God, the Spirit of God will not endorse peace in
your soul. The life that you will be experiencing
while you're not doing the will of God is nothing but the carnal
life of this present world system When it says the ones that walk
in the spirit will experience life and peace It's talking about
the life of the Spirit of God the life of godliness The life
that comes with walking with God in his will and God doing
things in your life that are supernatural in nature like God
opening his word up and giving you such a hunger for it that
he reveals his glory to you more and more through the word. Like
God using you in events and circumstances where he opens the door where
you can talk to other people about Jesus Christ. Like situations
coming up where in your natural selfish disposition you wouldn't
even be mindful of a situation. But now that you have imbibed
the word of God and it has graced you to see things the way God
does, he gives you grace to answer the call, to be able to serve
God on the high level of the kingdom of God. And there's nothing
better than serving God. Is that true, child of God? There
is nothing better than serving God. Everything short of serving
God is really missing the point. The purpose for which he left
you and me here is to serve him. And one of the things the Spirit
of God will teach you is that He exonerates you, He liberates
you, He separates you from fleshly and carnal courses that are hostile
to God in order that you and I might experience what it means
to be available to His service. Now when I say available to His
service, mark this now. When you are walking in the Spirit,
it doesn't mean that you and I are ready to get on a plane
and go to China and do missionary work. It simply means that when
we're walking in the Spirit, we are in a place where God can
use us right where we are. Do you guys know what it's like
to walk in the Spirit? You know what it's like to just be in
that way of thankful obedience and cogitation of the things
of God. And then just because you're in that way, the door
opens up for God to use you. And you look and you realize
you're actually communicating the things of God to other people
in some practical way or some spiritual way. And you go, my
goodness, I'm walking in the spirit. It's not some mystical
thing. It's just a priority of a walk
with God that demonstrates that when God is with you Then God's
gonna use you to get his work done and you don't have to look
for it. It just happens It just happens
when you and I are Prioritizing our walk with God remember he
liberates us in order that we might fight for communion with
him This is a battle communing with God, isn't it keeping our
communion? It's going to get worse and worse.
The final one, the Spirit helps us what? Patiently anticipate
our final public sonship. This is where I want to start
talking to us today. The Spirit of God helps us to
patiently anticipate our final and public sonship. We are now
coming to the point of the message for which our text has brought
forth a term that we now have to consider. And that term is
groaning, groaning. The apostle Paul tells us in
Romans chapter eight, around verse 17. I'll go down to verse
20 and then 23. Here's what he says. For the
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him who had subjected the same in hope, because the
creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Now mark verse 22. For we know that the whole creation
does what? Groans and travails in pain together
until now. I'm going to explain that a bit
in a moment as to where you and I are in the 21st century. But
look at what the apostle says in verse 23. And not only they,
that is creation, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits
of the spirit, even we ourselves, what? Within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to with the redemption of our bodies. The
Apostle Paul has now done something for which I'm going to call your
attention to our next set of points. He's opened up the whole
spectrum of the believer's walk to include now more than your
own personal walk with him. But he wants you to understand
the cosmic scope, the cosmic scope of the believer's life.
Watch this now. You and I live in a broken world. You believe that? Keep it right
here. I'm going to work with all four
or five of these points right here. What the Apostle Paul wants
you and I to know is this world is, as I've used before by analogy,
like the Titanic. It's taking on water and it's
sinking. Now that analogy is important
for you to grasp because a natural tendency in our fallen nature
is to try to get all we can get out of this world. Yep. And the Christians that are most
susceptible to that notion are American and European Christians
who have the potential of making lots of money and enjoying life
in the flesh. Stay with me for a moment. It
doesn't matter how much money you make. You're going to still
find that eerie sound called groaning following you everywhere
you go. Stay with me for a moment. It
is biblical theology properly to understand that the world
you are in is falling apart right before your eyes. If you misinterpret
that biblical worldview, you're going to waste your energy. You're
going to waste your time trying to enjoy life at a level that
can never occur for a real Christian. Will you please listen to me
carefully? The temptation for you and me is to try to find
paradise down here. The temptation for you and me
is to fail to understand that the reason for which God left
us here is missional. It's missional. It's not for
you and I to find as cozy and comfortable a place in this life
and enjoy until Jesus comes or we die. That's completely missing
the point. And for that reason, here's what Paul says. The whole
creation groaneth and travaileth right now. What do you mean,
Pastor? The whole creation is under the
curse of what? Sin. That's Genesis 3.17. God has cursed the ground. Because
of the fall of our first parents, you and I are facing a world
that's basically broken through sin. Ecologically, geographically,
sociologically, psychologically, emotionally, practically, and
certainly spiritually. Is there anyone in the house
who would dare to say, you know what pastor, the world's actually
pretty good. If you were honest and objective, what you would
realize that mankind outside of Christ is trying to do is
patch up the holes in the Titanic. paint it over with plaster and
tell you it's fine and it's going to get better when God has said
it's not fine and it's going to get worse. And in fact, stay with me for
a moment around the cosmic hope that the creation has been, as
it were, subjected to. God in his mercy has allowed
this world to be broken and constantly falling apart so that you and
I might know that we are broken and falling apart right along
with it. In other words, he's made this broken, fallen world
system compatible with you and me, who also are experiencing
a brokenness and falling apart. So young people, don't pay me
any attention right now, because I know you think you're getting
better. But you old people know, right along with me, that is
broken. Can I get a witness? Is it broken?
Watch this now. Is it falling apart? It's the
law of atrophy setting in. There's gravity setting in. The
second and third laws of thermodynamics are setting in. We're getting
colder. We're getting tired. And we hear
the groan, don't we? There's a groan in the creation
and there's a groan in the believer. That's what we just read. A groan
in the creation and a groan in the believer. We are all experiencing
the groan. Now here's the question. What
do you do in this process of groaning that is taking place
both in our world and in our own lives? And what I mean by
the groaning, I mean the constant coming short of that which we
hope for. You know how we seek to try to
achieve a goal and it just don't actually add up Are you following
me? Watch it. Now. This is the work
of god We will a say to accomplish a certain thing and we seem to
never achieve that goal It's like a mystery Watch this. I'm
going to become wealthy and financially successful And that's gonna make
me happy So some of you become wealthy and financially successful
and you're more sad than you were before you became wealthy
and financially successful. What's that all about? It's all
about the brokenness in our world. Watch this. That the world is
falling apart and we are falling apart with it. And here's the
reason why it's falling apart because of sin. Sin. Will you hear me? Sin. You gotta
know it. It's sin in the world and it's
sin in the believer. Sin in the world. You know, you
got our nations trying to preserve every endangered species on planet
Earth, right? And I know it's something to
laugh at, but these are insights into the ignorance of mankind
as to the destiny of our world. Stay with me, because the believer,
I find the believer falling prey to bad doctrine along these lines
all the time. We're going through Psalms 1,
and we're learning that the blessed man is the person that never
walks in the counsel of the ungodly. But see, you and I are constantly
bombarded by ungodly counsel. Like, you and I will think that
what God has called us to do is to save the spotted owl. to
save the smelt in the Joaquin River. And so you have masses
of people engaged in that because they think somehow that's going
to contribute to preserving the Titanic. It's not. It's not. And so long as you and I are
thinking, I want you to hear this now, that there is a successful
way to preserve this world, you are in danger of missing your
missional calling. Right, and so there are also
people who think that we can become better socially. Stay
with me for a moment because this is on my heart for every
one of you listening, particularly my children. The world will tell
you that all we have to do is just get along and love one another
and kumbaya and things will be great, right? But while they're
saying that, what they're not admitting is it's impossible
for us to get along and sing kumbaya until we come to know
Christ and acquire a new nature. And from that new nature, love
one another by the grace of God. So long as we are still in our
fallen state, we will continue to turn our plowshares and pruning
hooks into swords and spears and thrust each other through
under the law of self-preservation. Are you guys hearing me? Watch
this now. I want you to get this. While they will talk about unity
and harmony and oneness, what they mean is this, let's get
rid of God and we all can party. Stay with me now because this
is important. If you are 60 years old in here,
then you know that you have bought into a bunch of ideas and concepts
on a sociological political level over the years that you thought
had some validity to them and some credibility only to come
to find out that the people in these institutions and entities
were crooks themselves and always ultimately let you down with
the promises they have made for making our culture better. Now
Christians are not surprised at that. Can I tell you why?
God already told us all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So when we vote people into
office, guess what we can expect them to do? Are you ready? Fail
us. Fail us. Because so long as we
are involved in things that are patching up the Titanic, We are
missing the calling to which God has called us. Pastor, you
mean don't get involved? Sure, get involved, but understand
that if you get involved, it better be missional. You better
be in their salt and light. You better be in those institutions,
at those jobs, in those situations where you can open the door or
have the door open for you to share the gospel with the whole
group. When they're sitting there scratching their head, wondering
where the money went, And how come we haven't been able to
affect our plan? You can let them know. Well,
because God says the heart of man is desperately wicked above
all things. Who can know it? We know that
somehow somebody lied to us, hoodwinked us, took the money
and did something else with it. And we can expect it to fail
over and over and over and over again. Are you guys hearing me?
Watch this. So when we are talking about being delivered by secular
institutions, From the decay of this world system, you and
I are not only being distracted, we're being deceived. Are you
hearing me? But let me share something with
you while I got your attention. I'm so glad I got folks that
like listening to the Word of God. Let me share something while
I got your attention. God's about to help us. He's
about to help us. He's about to help you and me
strip ourselves of all the false notions. of how to do Jesus in
the 21st century. He's about to help us. Because
as Christianity has existed for 2,000 years all around the world,
follow this now, wherever it has landed, it has been a blessing
to that culture. But over time, that culture rises
up in opposition to the Christian gospel. Do you understand? And
right now we are seeing that in America. It's rising up against
the Christian gospel. The comfort zone with which you've
had to either be missing in action and have nothing to do with the
gospel, because that's how some Christians are. They're not sharing
the gospel. They're missing in action. The comfort zone. You
can kind of just bow out and kind of silently not have an
opinion. In a moment, you're going to
have to answer for your position. You're going to have to answer
for your position at school. You're going to have to answer
for your position on the job. You're going to have to answer
for your position at the gym, on the street. See, people are
getting ready to ask you, are you real about Jesus? As soon
as you go, yes, you're going to be marked out. Because the
word of God has to go in America. And real Christian values have
to go in America. Are you guys, are you with me
for a moment? A biblical worldview has to go because the whole system
that is now operating in the West is a system that has systematically
thrown God out and said we will no more have a biblical worldview. No more. No more. And we are
about to face it in some of the most acute ways, in some of the
most minute ways that you and I have not faced it before. Oh,
our brothers in the Middle East have faced it. Our brothers in
the East have faced it. Our brothers in third world countries
where the government is overtly hostile to a biblical worldview
have faced it. They know what it's like that
the moment that they have to reveal that they're Christian,
they're going to lose their job. They know what it's like the
moment that they are revealing that they're Christian, that
somebody is going to come burn their house down. They know what
it's like the moment they say they are a believer in Christ
that somebody's gonna pick an argument with them Lie on them
and set them up to be persecuted. They know what it's like Simply
because they are a believer in Christ and you and I have been
comfortably liberated from that kind of Serious assault, but
I want to share with you something right now. It's coming and here's
the opportunity that's gonna occur and God's getting ready
to sift and He's getting ready to separate the wheat from the
tares, the sheep from the goats. I know this is not a pleasant
message, but when it starts happening, you're going to thank me for
it. What you're about to see is a whole bunch of people who
profess to be believers in Christ demonstrate that they never knew
him in the first place, because the price that we're going to
have to pay for the gospel now is a price that people are not
going to be willing to pay. This is part of the suffering
that Paul is talking about. When I say that we are struggling
with the presence of sin in our world, we are struggling with
the curse of sin in our society, we are struggling with the curse
of sin on the nations. And what Paul has said basically
is this whole broken thing that you and I are going through is
designed to actually cause us to hope. Now mark how he puts
it. Paul says in the book of Romans
chapter eight, verse 23, And then he works this through through
25. He says, and not only they, but ourselves, that is creation,
which have the first fruits of the spirit. I'm going to talk
about this here in a second. Even we ourselves, what we grown within
ourselves. Waiting for the adoption to wit,
the redemption of our bodies for he's getting ready to give
us a an explanation, this is a purpose clause for we are saved
by what? Now he explains this by saying,
but hope that is seen is not what? For what a man seeth, why
doth he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with what? Patience, wait for it. Now watch
this now. Here's what he's saying. God
left sin in the world. God left sin in our bodies. He
left this broken thing that is troubling us every day in order
that we might have a hope that is outside of this world. that the believer might walk
in a hope in something that's down the line as opposed to right
now. This is very, very important.
It gets back to what I've been pressing for years to you and
me, that when you have a sound knowledge of the gospel... Your
hope is not in earthly prosperity or earthly blessings. Your hope
is in glory. Your hope is in Christ. Your
hope is in the return of Christ. Your hope is the resurrection
from the dead. Your hope is in a new heavens
and a new earth. Your hope is not invested in
this life. Listen to me. There's no hope
in this present system. This is really interesting. This
is really interesting because, and I don't want to get too sidetracked
on this, but if you are even remotely concerned about your
money, please understand it's going to go from bad to worse
too. I love our fellowship at Grace.
We have a good number of people here and professionals. And I
get a chance to rub shoulders with economists, businessmen,
some politicians, and individuals who know the infrastructure of
our world. And they are acutely involved
in the economical foundations upon which we operate. Do we
not know that our present economic system is destined to collapse? It's impossible for it not to
collapse. But because we operate out of
a normalcy bias, we stick our head in the sand and pretend
that it's not coming, when it's coming every day. And an astute
young lady asked me the question yesterday, Pastor, what should
I do knowing that we are having problems economically and maybe
one day we will be just like Greece facing the problems Greece
is facing, what shall I do? And I encourage her to understand
that it's important for the Christian to know the times. The job of
the Christian is not to be so isolated from the world that
he or she does not know what's going on. Every Christian should
know the times. You should be able to discern
the nearness or farness of evil in the world. You should know
the precarious nature of our government and our world system. Every Christian should be clear
on any day this thing could fall apart. And I better make sure
my soul is right with God so that I can hear from God, hear
from God, hear from God when he advises me which way to go. Are you guys hearing me? And
I think most of the Christians that I deal with are concerned
about where we are. We're concerned. And I want to
assuage that concern under just one principle in Romans 8. If
you are concerned, have hope. Have hope. Because the doctrine
of hope says that you and I are looking elsewhere for the solution
rather than this world system. I am not saying that we don't
go to work. I'm not saying that we don't be responsible citizens.
We should. I'm not saying that we shouldn't
make money. We should. I'm saying that we should do
all those things subordinate to ways subordinate to our missional
objective of being Christians. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It doesn't matter what you do for a living, your Christianity
has to be the framework with which you do it. You can never
let your occupation obscure your calling as a child of God because
you will compromise the gospel if Christ is not first in that
thing. I'm gonna be talking about this
on my Monday show. An Ohio judge, one of the local judges in Ohio,
he, like all the judges in America, received the decision that the
Supreme Court gave to marry same-sex couples. This is a brother in
Ohio. Just in case you don't know what
a brother is, a brother is a black man like myself. So this is a
brother from Ohio. I want you to check this out
now. And the brother from Ohio said in the newspaper, he says,
now, I'm a Christian. And I'm a judge. And notice what
he said first. I'm a Christian. And I'm a judge. And because my Bible tells me
that marriage is between a man and a woman and the appropriate
context and the appropriate time, I am obligated by virtue of my
Christian conviction not to marry any other than that design. Now
stay with me, stay with me. I'm showing you something. I'm
not beating up on homosexuals. I'm showing you something. I'm
showing you how he understood that the decision was not so
much pro-homosexual as it was anti-biblical. And this is what
you got to figure out, child of God. You got to figure out
all the celebrating that's going on is celebrating that's poisoning
itself against our Christian freedoms. And that judge says,
I might as well be the first one to start the trend of maintaining
my First Amendment rights. I might as well be the one to
say, I'm not doing it. You can't make me do it. I have
a constitutional right not to do it. Now watch this. And they
couldn't stop him. Now you know what everybody else
did? They went to the other judges down the hallway. I want you to listen to me. I want
you to listen to me. This is why you got to stop playing
games which are Christianity. You got to stop it. You got to
stop it. Because see, that judge had a
lot more to lose than some of us. Are you hearing me? I thank
God for that judge. Because see, this is what it
means to be a witness for Jesus. Are we not encouraged by a testimony
like that? We are utterly encouraged. You know what that means? That
means Christians now are going to be ready to take the hit like
that judge. See, obedience is contagious. Just like disobedience is contagious,
obedience is contagious. It's where God takes a believer
and puts him on a platform to suffer for Christ so the glory
of Christ can be manifested in his life. This judge is going
to be talked about bad by all of the news reporters all over
the nation. He will go down in history ignominiously
as a hater. Simply because he holds to a
biblical worldview listen, but the man is operating out of hope
he understands that the Titanic is sinking and What he is doing
is calling Christians and non-christians to the only escape which is in
Jesus Christ He's not going to capitulate Compromise and aid
in a bet in a in a in a growth process that you and I know is
going to corrupt this world system And every Christian has to take
that freestand as well. Every Christian has to take that
freestand. The stand for freedom, and it's based upon your hope
in Christ. It's based upon your hope in Christ. So what Paul
says here is we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is
not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet what? Hope for it. You know what that
means, salve, God? You and I realize that things that are now presently,
are not like they will be. Is that true? And that's where
the struggle comes in. This is where we've grown. Under
our PowerPoint now, dealing with not only the believer's hope,
but the spirit's hope. Notice what the text tells us
in verse 26. Are you there? Because he told us in verse 25,
if we hope for that which we see not, then we do with what?
Patience, wait for it. Likewise, in the same manner,
the Spirit also does what? Help our infirmities, for we
know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
itself make it intercession for us with what? Groanings, which
cannot be uttered. I thank the Apostle Paul for
this insight, because we would have never known it had the Spirit
of God not let Paul know to let us know, are you ready, that
the Holy Ghost is in on our groanings. He joins us in the groan. This is magnificent. I'm going
to ride this out for a few minutes. It's one thing for me to groan
over my sin, over the brokenness of my life. It's one thing for
me to groan about the issues of the world. And that groaning
literally means to complain. It means to be sad. It means
to be vexed about why things are not right. You know Jesus
groan, right? You guys know Jesus groan. In
the Gospel of Mark, he groaned. In the Gospel of John, he groaned.
And you know why he groaned? Because of the presence of sin.
He also groaned because he saw believers affected by sin. He
heard the unbelief of the saints and he sighed. the gospel of
John chapter 11 when Lazarus died remember how they were going
through all of the crying and the whining and the whole religious
stuff that we do when people die now Jesus had told them if
you believe God you will see the glory of God but they were
so wrapped up in the tragedy of Lazarus's death that Jesus
groaned you know what he groaned for he groaned because we don't
yet have the reality of the promise He groaned because you and I,
like Lazarus, are gonna die. He groaned because we're gonna
get sick. Right now, as I'm preaching to you, there are four or five
people in our church that are seriously ill. And so as a pastor,
they're on my heart all the time. And I'm groaning with them. Isn't
that what the Hebrew writer says? That you and I are to bear the
infirmities of one another. And because we're in the body,
we are to be sympathetic to others who are afflicted. Do you know
why? Because one day your pastor can have cancer. And I'll be
laying up in the hospital groaning over the consequences of sin
in my life. So we got brothers and sisters
right now facing Jordan right now. Do you hear me? Facing Jordan. And you know what they have to
be encouraged to do? Hope. They have to be encouraged to
know that what they're going through is not the disapproval
of God. Isn't it true, child of God,
that when we go through real pain, we really raise the question,
God, do you love me? Isn't it when we go through real
suffering, we're asking the question, whether or not, God, are you
chastising me? Have I done something wrong?
Because we're under the assumption that if we're children of God,
we shouldn't suffer, but we will suffer. And what God is teaching
us is to understand that suffering is part of this sanctification
process. to get your heart right with
God and get you ready to leave this world. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? So we groan in these bodies,
we groan in these bodies, but the joyful thing is, is that
the Spirit of God is groaning with us. This is wonderful because
what he's saying to you and me is, child of God, please understand,
the promises that God is giving you, that you are children of
the living God, and that while it does not yet appear what we
shall be, we know this, that when Jesus comes, we will be
just like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We talked about
that last week, right? That's the way the believer gets
through trials in his life. We don't let issues sink us into
despair because our hope is not in this life. Our hope is where? It's in Christ. It's in the glory
of God. And the Spirit of God helps us
with that. It helps us with that trouble.
Have you ever been at the sickbed of a true believer? And I'm talking
about a true believer that's on the brink of dying. This is
a testimony before I get to my last point. Because what I do
know is when you're healthy, a message like this means very
little to you. Have you ever been at the sickbed of a brother
or sister whose last breaths are right there. I want to help
you now. I want you to get this. This
is where I find out who's real and not. Will you hear me? When the believer is laying on
their sick bed and God has graced them to know the truth, which
is in Jesus Christ, and their mind is clear about the grounds
of their justification, and their mind is clear about their hope
of glory, while they're sitting there and cancer is rocking their
body at levels of pain that no morphine can stop. Anybody know
what I'm talking about? Have you witnessed it? Raise
your hand if you've witnessed it. A few of you have. Watch
this. And it breaks your heart to see them going through so
much suffering. Is that true? But watch this. Please hear me
now. When you are a child of God, the Holy Ghost The Spirit
of God is right there every time. It has never ever failed me to
see, every time. The Spirit of God buoys that
person up, strengthens that person, lifts that person up in their
soul. Oh yes, their body is weak. It's so frail and pathetic, but
you can hear in their soul the hope of glory. You can hear in
their soul, I'm ready to go. You can hear in their soul, I'm
looking to Jesus. And it's an absolute amazing
thing to know when a person is laying on their deathbed about
to breathe their last breath, that their eyes are clearly fixed
on Christ. Clearly fixed on Christ. Now
watch this. I know that that was a consequence
of a whole litany of things of which God told us we got to do
it before we get there. which we as teachers labor to
do week in and week out. To teach you to keep it real
with God. To teach you to make your calling
in election sure. To teach you to prepare for that
day. As a whole, mark this now, as
a whole we all gonna be there. You and I, very few of us are
gonna die, you know, real quick or in your sleep happy. I mean,
I prayed about that when I was a little child. Lord, if I'm
gonna die, could I die in my sleep? Or could I die so quick
it never, I don't feel nothing. Have you ever, have you ever?
Some of us have been preoccupied with the pain of death and we
just try to figure out if we can make a deal with the Lord.
Okay, so, but the reality is most of us are going to be sick
for a season. And that sickness is going to
be part of the final sanctification process that the Holy Ghost takes
us through, where he strips us of all of the false notions that
we have held and aligns our theology and gets us fixed on Jesus. See,
it's God's mercy to let you get sick before you die. I've told
you this many times. I'll deal with my last point
here. God will bring people into grace. and he's done it so many
times. They come into grace and they
didn't know they were sick. They come under the gospel, they
are so happy to be taught the truth of Christ, get stripped
of religion, falsehood, legalism, self-righteousness, the presumption
of being able to live like hell and still go to heaven. One of
the most shocking things that people find out when they come
into a true gospel church is that you really can't live like
hell and think you're going to heaven. That's one of the things
you discover. And so when they end up here
and hear the gospel and are able to look to Christ and to rest
in Christ, then all of a sudden they get the call. They're sick.
And they're laying on their deathbed. And they call for a pastor and
the elders. And you know what they inevitably say? I thank
God for his grace to have led me to a place where I could hear
the gospel and get my soul ready to leave this world. Are you
hearing me? I'm talking to you real saints. I'm talking to you
real. I'm talking to you real right now. I'm talking to you
real now. I'm talking to you about what really works. I'm
talking about the reality of God. How he shows up in the life
of a believer to prepare them to leave this world and to fix
their eyes on the hope of glory. But you and I are called to be
doing it now. So there is a cosmic hope because of the curse in
this world. Stop waiting for this world to get better. It
won't. There's the believers hope as paul talked about in
second corinthians 5 2 we groan Waiting for our new tabernacle
Aren't you waiting for a new suit? Isn't that what that brother
had said the other day? I got another suit coming We
groan waiting for our new suit because that's what god promises
us and the spirit is assisting us in that groan Next, that hope
defined is what we looked at. It's a future hope. And finally,
a spirit led what? All right. So that's my final
point as we close. You'll see this in the Bible
frequently. The Bible will tell you to wait on the Lord. And
again, I say wait on the Lord. He'll renew your strength. Wait
on the Lord. All those who wait on the Lord
will not be ashamed. There's a sense in which every
believer is just waiting. You got me? Pastor, that's boring. Not to me. Not to me. What I'm talking about right
now is so key. You'll find in the Bible there are situations
where what people do is, because they don't wait on God, they
get in trouble. Remember how Samuel didn't wait
on God? Not Samuel, but Saul. He didn't wait on God. He got
in trouble. King Solomon had told a very wicked man who had
cursed his daddy, David, out. I forget the young man's name.
It begins with an S. Shimeon. After David had passed away and
King Solomon had taken the throne, King Solomon went around to clean
up house, if you will. And he hunted Shimeon down. And
he said to Shimeon, Shimeon, I'm gonna find out whether or
not you actually have repented. Here's what I want you to do.
I want you to stay in Jerusalem and don't leave until I call
you. Are you hearing me? And Shimeon
said, oh, don't worry about it. I'm not gonna leave. I'm gonna
stay in Jerusalem. I promise you, I won't leave. Solomon said,
okay, but I'm gonna let you know the day you leave I'm gonna kill
you Because you cussed my daddy out and you should have died
for that But we're gonna find out whether or not you repent
it. I'm showing you a gospel truth right here Are you ready?
Shimei professed that he had repented and he was sorry and
everything and he went in and stayed in Jerusalem for a couple
years and Solomon didn't say a thing to him for a couple years
and And you know what he thought he would do? Take a ride out
of Jerusalem to go get one of his animals that strayed out,
some of his property. He left Jerusalem. Solomon heard
that he left Jerusalem. He said to his servants, go ahead
and go take care of business now. You know what Solomon knew? He hadn't truly repented. He
didn't understand the grace and mercy of waiting. Are you hearing
me? I'm gonna share with you and
shut it down right here. The grace and mercy of waiting. Are you waiting on the Lord? Are you in your soul clear that
your job is to wait on the Lord? Your job is not to leave the
cause of the gospel, to leave the kingdom of God and to meander
in the world and get all you can get until you die. Your job
in mind as we serve the Lord is to wait on him. Wait on him. We have been called out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Have we not? We have been turned
from idols to serve the true and the living God Have we not
and to wait for his son from heaven? Are you hearing me right
now? Watch this now the soul When
it's born again is being taught how to wait on God because God
is your consolation Christ is your answer Christ is your final
revelation. It is the final blessing that's
coming to you and me so long as we're waiting on God. Now
watch this. If you're waiting on God, you're not going to be
messing up a whole lot. But for us to wait requires the
grace of God. I'm going to show you one final
verse under that. That's why I say a spirit-led
what? Waiting. Go with me in your Bibles
to Galatians chapter 5. I want you to see this. A spirit-led waiting. We groan right now because we're
not what we want to be. Isn't that true? We groan right
now because we're not what we will be. We groan right now because
we're trusting Christ as our Savior. We enjoy his blessings
in our life. But quite frankly, a lot of things
are messed up, aren't they? Can I get a few honest people
in the house? We grown because God has granted
us a knowledge of his word at a level that actually increases
the conflict. One of my young men had stated
this a couple of weeks ago. When knowledge increases, sorrow
increases. Is that true? When wisdom increases,
grief increases. When you know that there's so
much more available for us than what we are experiencing now,
and you love his appearing, there's a groaning in your soul. And
it's a groaning desire for God to bring us into our full sonship. You know what that means? He has legally bought us by his
blood at Calvary. The Holy Ghost has informed us
in our soul that we're sons of God. But we don't look like it. And sometimes we don't what?
Just tell the truth in the house. And everything around us denies
that we are. And sometimes we wonder whether
or not we are. Is that true, child of God? We
struggle with the promise of being a child of God. As you
are more deeply and profoundly informed about all the promises
of God being yes and amen in Jesus, you begin to long for
being with Jesus more than anything. because you know when once you
are with him all this mess is over with. Are you hearing me?
Now for us to be able to wait on God requires the grace of
the Spirit of God. Listen to the language in Galatians
chapter 5 verse 5. For we through the what? Watch it now. It didn't say for
we wait. It says we through the what?
Do you see how It requires the spirit of god here for we through
the spirit what? Now what now leave it right there.
It takes the spirit of god To help you wait I want you to get
that it takes the spirit of god to settle your soul down And
cause you to stay on christ It takes the spirit of god to keep
your soul fixed on god. No matter where you are or what
you're doing Wherever you are in order for your soul to stay
in that state of looking to Christ It takes the Spirit of God That's
what he's here for To help you stay on point. Am I making some
sense? The goal of the Spirit is to help the Christians stay
on point and that's what suffering is here for That's what this
broken world is here for That's what trouble is here for Trouble
is here for you and I to stop thinking that we can have our
best life now. Trouble is here. So you and I
can stop thinking we could take a vacation on Jesus. Trouble
is here for us to realize that we've got to keep our eyes on
our hope. But the only way we can do it is by the spirit of
God. Now, in your own time, take that concept, the spirit of God.
And remember, the spirit of God uses means to strengthen our
waiting. And one of the means he uses
is teaching. preaching when you and I come
to church or come under the teaching of the Word of God are we not
strengthened in our soul are we not reminded are we not reminded
that this thing is all about Jesus are we not reminded over
and over again under teaching that our job is to keep our eyes
on Christ because when once we leave this building it's all
breaking loose on us is it not Once you and I leave these four
walls, we got to go back out to the battle, don't we, saints?
We got to go back out to the battle. And in some cases, as
soon as we walk out the door, we forget everything the preacher
said. Be honest with me now. It takes the Spirit of God to
keep us waiting. Now watch what he says. For we
through the Spirit wait for the what? Hope. See it? The hope of righteousness. The
hope, not just righteousness, but the hope of it. I have righteousness
by faith. You have righteousness by faith. The righteousness of God has
been imparted to us because of the presence of the Spirit and
the new nature in us. But we never ever do anything
perfectly. Everything we do is flawed. Everything
we do is tainted. Everything we do, everything
we think, everything we engage in comes short of the glory of
God, does it not? We never ever do anything perfectly. And because of that, we groan. We groan for the day when it
will be fixed and we'll be able to serve God in the perfection
of a sinless body and a sinless life. But that's only gonna come
when our hope comes. And our hope is who? Our hope
is Christ, amen, amen.