Let's turn back to Romans 8. Tonight, we're going to observe
the Lord's table together, and we're going to have a baptism.
I always think it's such a blessing to observe both of the Lord's
ordinances. Grace Way, she will be baptized.
And I'm going to be preaching on the subject, the fear of God. Very little is said about this
in our day. The fear of God. I've entitled this message, A
Better Day Is Coming. In verse 18, this is the verse
we considered last week, Paul said, For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Hadn't been revealed yet. But it shall be. Now you can't
say a better day is coming for everybody. That would be wrong.
It's not true that a better day is coming for everybody. There
is a place called hell. And that's not a better day in
any sense of the word. But for every believer, there
is a better day coming. And verses 19 through 25 are
a commentary on what that better day is, beginning in verse 19,
he says, for the earnest expectation of the creature or the creation.
He speaks of the creation throughout this passage of scripture as
a living thing. The world God has made, the universe God has
made. He says, the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God. It hadn't happened yet.
And creation itself is waiting in eager anticipation of this. In 1 John chapter 3, John says,
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. He's talking about
every believer. We're sons of God right now,
but it doth not appear what we shall be. You see, you can look
at any Christian and he's surrounded with weakness. He's housed in
a sinful body, living in a fallen world. And you don't see what
he's gonna look like one of these days. I love the way John says,
when he shall appear, we shall see him as he is, and we'll be
like him. One look at the Lord Jesus Christ,
one spiritual glimpse of who he really is, will perfectly
conform us to his image. But it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. Paul said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, didn't he? And we're surrounded by infirmities
and weaknesses. Look down in verse 26 of this
same chapter. We're going to be considering
this some next week, but look, look what it says. Likewise, the spirit
also help with our infirmities. You know what that word means?
Powerlessnesses, weakness, powerlessness. Creation itself, this world God
has created is awaiting this manifestation. Look in verse
20 of Romans chapter 8. For the creature, the creation,
was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him
who hath subjected the same in hope. You know, the earth was
cursed when Adam fell, wasn't it? We're living in a cursed
world. Cursed be the ground for thy
sake. The Lord said to Adam, it's going
to bring forth thistles and thorns. We're living on a cursed earth. The reason behind earthquakes,
the reason behind tsunamis, the reason behind hurricanes and
all natural disasters, we're living on a ground that's been
cursed. This world has been cursed by God. You know, before the
fall, this is amazing to think about, but you know, before the
fall, animals didn't kill each other. They didn't eat each other. The scripture says in the end
time, the lion will be eating straw. new heavens and the new
earth. I suppose that's saying that
there might be animals there, I suppose. But the point is,
before the fall, animals didn't kill each other. The wolf would
lie down with the lamb and there would be peace between the two
of them. You didn't have this food chain,
as it were, people killing each other. I mean, this land is a
rough place, isn't it? You look at nature and everything,
it's a rough place. It's a fallen world. And God's
creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, the scripture
says, not the sin of its own. But you know, the Lord has no
intention for this place to stay cursed. We're looking for a new
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. We're waiting for that. We're
looking for that. A better day is coming. Verse
21. Well, verse 24, the creation
was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him
who has subjected the same in hope. Because verse 21, the creation
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now, while
this creation is a beautiful place, It's a fallen world. It's unstable. You think of the
plates moving underneath the earth that causes the earthquakes.
You think of the volcanoes erupting. All the things the weather does.
Look at the animal kingdom. Life's hard on this side of the
food chain. It's hard. but it will all be liberated
from the bondage of corruption, and it will be a place fit for
something else that has not yet taken place, the glorious liberty."
I love that language. The glorious liberty of the children
of God. We still live in a fallen world
and we still live in these sinful bodies. And how we struggle with
this thing of sin. We don't just get into it. We
struggle. We fight. We scrape. It oppresses
us daily. And you can't really know anything
about liberty until you're actually free from sin. And that won't take place until
that better day coming, when every believer will experience
the glorious liberty of the children of God. I thought of that scripture
in Psalm 1715, when David, the man after God's own heart, said,
as for me, as for me, I'll behold thy face
in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness." And I was just thinking about that this morning,
the thought of beholding His face in righteousness. And I
thought, the way I am right now, if I saw Him, I'd have to look
down instantly. I don't know that I could look at Him in the
face. I know I couldn't. But then, I'll be perfectly righteous. I'll be perfectly conformed to
the image of Christ. And I'll behold His face with
no shame, with no guilt, with no remorse, no regrets. I'll
behold His face in righteousness, awaking in His very likeness. I repeat, a better day is coming. When our change comes, we'll
be exactly like Christ in glorified bodies in a perfect world. Verse 22. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, up to this
present point. He speaks of groaning. This expresses
sorrow, pain, travail. I love the way he speaks of the
creation as being alive and groaning and travailing in pain until
that better day coming has come. I think of when our Lord was
nailed to a cross. The sun refused to shine as it
saw its creator nailed to a cross. The earth quaked in protest as
it saw its creator nailed to a cross. The whole creation groans and
travails in pain together until now, verse 23, And not only they,
but ourselves also. Believers. who have the firstfruits
of the Spirit. The firstfruits of the Spirit
is the new nature, that new nature that God has given us. The firstfruits
were a pledge of the harvest that's to come, weren't they?
Every believer has this new nature, this earnest of the Spirit that
lets them know, I'm gonna live eternally in the very presence
of God. The firstfruits of the Spirit. And not only they, but
ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even
we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit,
namely the redemption of the body. We groan as well, and like
I said, groaning is an expression of sorrow. We're housed in a sinful body
that we are not yet delivered from, and we're waiting on something
that has not yet taken place, that better day coming, the adoption,
the redemption of the body. the redemption of the body. These bodies are growing older,
growing more painful. Many of you all experience that.
I have to some extent. I mean, I feel, I sure don't
feel like I used to. And I'm going to feel a whole
lot worse. And some of you do right now.
And there's a reason. There's old age, and old age
is because of sin. You're living in a sinful, dying
body. But one of these days, that body
is going to be completely redeemed, completely delivered. You'll
live in a perfect body in the very presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you will be without sin. We can say with Job, and
though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh, my
new flesh, my glorified flesh, my flesh given to me by God,
I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eye
shall behold, and not another. I think of that scripture face
to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, what will it be
when with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. Now today we groan. Oh, Wretched
man that I am, I tell you what, I'm grown in that right now.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from this body
of death? That's always there. As long
as I still have sin, I'll be groaning that, and you will too.
Notice Paul didn't say, oh wretched man that I used to be, but oh
wretched man that I am right now. You see, only a believer
can make that cry because he's got a holy nature that sees what
sin is. An unbeliever doesn't know anything
about that, doesn't even understand sin. But a believer does, and
that's why he cries while he's in this body. Today we groan,
but a better day is coming. And you know, eternity itself
will not be long enough to behold the beauties of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I think of his great high priestly
prayer, Father, I will. You know, he's the only one that
can pray that way. You know that, don't you? Me
and you, we can't pray that way. We can't say, Father, I will
that you do this. But he as equal with the Father
says, Father, I will that they whom you have given me be with
me where I am that they may behold my glory. Would that be heaven
to you? to behold the glory of Jesus
Christ. Well, I want to be in that place
with the streets paved with gold. That shows how valueless gold
is there. They paved the streets with it. It's just not important
there. Beholding his glory. Now, Paul makes a very unusual
statement in verse 24. He says, for we are saved by
hope. Now what in the world does that
mean? I can get some understanding of being saved by grace. We're
saved by grace. I have some idea as to what that
means. We're saved by grace. And I can
even get some understanding of what he means by being saved
by hope. I mean faith. Thy faith has saved thee. But
what's this mean we're saved by hope? Well, hope, by definition, is
a confident expectation with regard to that which is not seen,
and it's something in the future. It's not now. It's something
that I can't see physically. If I have a hope for something,
I can't see it physically. It's not right now, but I'm waiting
for it confidently as it's going to happen in the future. Now
there are four adjectives used in scripture to describe the
hope of the believer. He says we're saved by hope.
The first description is a good hope. Second Thessalonians 2.16,
he hath given us a good hope through grace. And then we read
of a blessed hope and we read of a living hope and we read
of a better hope. Now, hope, hope. A good hope through grace. 2 Thessalonians 2.16. Now let
me say this right off the bat. If my hope doesn't find all of
its place in grace, it's not a good hope. The only hope I
have of being accepted by God, of standing before the Father
accepted and beloved, The only hope I have is if salvation is
all together by grace and it has nothing to do with my personal
works. It's what Christ did for me,
a good hope through grace. Now, if it's not through grace,
it's not a good hope. I don't want to have a flimsy
hope, do you? I remember one time, and I want to be sensitive
when I say this, but I remember it was heartbreaking to hear
this. I was standing in a funeral home where someone's mother had
died and they said well I was wondering if they were in heaven
and then I heard birds singing outside and it was November and
I thought she's in heaven those birds wouldn't be singing if
she wasn't in heaven and I remember I thought to myself well I hope
I have a better hope than that listen to some birds singing
and thinking you're in heaven that that's heartbreaking it's
you think it's ridiculous yes it is ridiculous but it's also
heartbreaking I want to have a Good hope. I don't want to
have a flimsy hope like that, a hope based on something that
I've done, or thought, or said, or intended to do, or because
some... No, I want to have a good hope, and the only good hope
there is, is a hope that's through grace. Now, a good hope, first of all,
let me give you four or five things about a good hope. I've
given you this before. This is one of my favorite sermon
outlines. I got it out of J.C. Ronald. It was really good. First
of all, a good hope. is a hope that you can explain. 1 Peter 3.15 says, Always be ready
to give every man an answer, a reason for the hope that's
in you. Now, you have a hope. Can you
explain it? Can you explain it? Can you explain why? Can you
give the reason for the hope that's in you? Now, I have a
hope. A hope is a confident expectation regarding the future. It's something
that I can't see right now, but I hope it's going to be this
way. I have a hope that when I stand before God in judgment,
I have a hope that He's going to look upon me and He's going
to say to me, Todd Nybert, well done. thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou in to the joy of thy
Lord." And everybody in here is thinking, how could he say
that to me? How could he say to me, well
done, because I know I haven't done well. I know that. How can
He say that to me? What's my reason for that hope?
What's the reason that I think that when I stand before God,
I'm going to be accepted? I'm going to be justified? I'm
going to be glorified? I can tell you what the reason
of that hope is. If God be for us, who can be against us? He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not freely with Him give us all things? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God justified them. Who is He that can condemn? Come
on, bring it on. It's Christ that died. That's
my hope. It has absolutely nothing to
do with my preaching. Anything I've done, anything
I haven't done, my hope is right here. When he said it is finished,
my salvation was finished, signed, sealed, and delivered. I'm already
saved. That's the reason for my hope.
It ain't anything I've done. A good hope, number one, is a
hope a man can explain. And number two, it's got to be
founded in scripture. If I can't show my hope from
the scripture, my hope's no good. I don't know how many times I've
asked people, I said, what's your hope of salvation? And quite
often it begins with the word I. I fill in the blank. I did
this. You exposed yourself. You won't
find that hope in the scripture. If you're in it, it didn't come
from scripture. Now, if I have this hope, I better
be able to show that it's what the scripture teaches. Remember,
that's all that counts. What sayeth the scripture? When I preach, I want you to
see if I'm preaching from the scripture. If I'm giving the
truth of the scripture, that's all that counts. The Bible is
the holy word of God. Can I show my hope from the scripture? And thirdly, and I love this,
a good hope is in Christ alone. May God give me grace to say
this the way it ought to be said, but 1 Timothy 1.1 says, Christ,
our hope. Christ, our hope. My hope of
being elected is simply this. I was in Him. Chosen in Him. My hope of being justified is
He justified me. My hope of being redeemed is
He redeemed me. It's Christ alone. My hope of
being accepted is I'm accepted in the Beloved. Every part of
my hope is Christ alone, not Christ and. Christ alone. You know, I'm made to look to
Him only. I got nowhere else to look. My
only reason of being forgiven is God forgiving me for Christ's
sake. Have you ever, ever looked to
Christ alone? and found satisfaction in looking
to him. A good hope is Christ alone. And let me say this also about
a good hope. A good hope is felt on the inside. Hope's feeling it. Now, the worst
feeling I have ever had is the feeling of despair and hopelessness. I've had bad feelings. I mean,
all of us have. But the worst feeling I've ever
had is the feeling of utter despair and hopelessness. It ain't going
to get better. Oh, what a horrible feeling. But what a wonderful
feeling hope is. A hope that things are indeed
going to be better. We're saved by hope, aren't we?
That's what the scripture says. A hope is something that's felt
on the inside. You rejoice. We sing that song,
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And a good hope, not only
is it felt on the inside, a good hope is manifest on the outside. If my hope, if I'm no different,
now I realize I've got a wicked nature, an old nature that isn't
any better, isn't any better, and it's never gonna get any
better. That's what scripture teaches. But if I'm no different
than I was before God saved me, my hope is no good. You can just
write that down. My hope is no good. He that hath
this hope in him. And that's where the hope is.
It's in him. He, 1 John 3, 3 says he purifies himself even as he
is pure. You see this hope I have. It's something that's, it's something
that's manifest on the outside. And if it's not, it's not a good
hope. And a good hope is something
we continue in. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, here's exactly what I mean by that. The writer to the Hebrews
said, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and
rejoicing of the hope? Firm to the end. Now, when you first look to Christ, what was your hope? Well, your hope was that Christ
did everything for you and that all God requires of you, he looks
to his son for. That was your hope when you first
looked to Christ. You didn't look to your works.
You didn't look to your experience. You didn't look for your intentions. You look to Christ only. Now
you're to continue in that. Your hope never changes. It never
varies. You continue in it steadfast
to the end. Your hope doesn't change. There's
only one hope according to scriptures. There's one hope. One Lord, one
faith, one hope, one baptism. and you never vary from your
hope. You don't grow out of that. You
don't get better than that. You look to Christ only. You present us holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight if we continue in the faith grounded
and settled and be not moved from the hope of the gospel. What is the hope of the gospel? You don't leave that. Now, the second adjective that
is used to describe hope is a blessed hope. Titus 2.13, a blessed hope. Now, when we say someone is blessed,
what do we mean by that? We mean that the origin of that
blessing is God. If I'm blessed, It's because
God has blessed me. There are no other places of
blessedness. I think it's, I don't want to
be, I don't want to be, I don't know what I want to be, but when
people say blessings to you, I think, oh, you can do that.
You know, that the only one who can bless is God. He's the origin
of all blessing and all good. And I realize when people say
something like that, they might mean well by it, and I don't
want to be, you know, because I want the Lord to bless you.
And when I say, when I desire God's blessings on you, but I
know if you were blessed, it's because he blessed you. It won't
be, it doesn't have anything to do with me. Now, when we talk of
a blessed hope, We are speaking of that which has God as its
origin. Every blessing I have, if I have
the blessing of repentance, He gave it to me. If I have the
blessing of faith and if I believe the gospel, isn't it a blessing
to believe? Isn't it a blessing to hear?
When God gives you hearing ears and you hear the gospel and the
power, what a blessing! And you know that came from the
Lord. A blessed hope speaks of the origin of our hope. We have
this hope and the origin of it is God himself. And then we read
in 1 Peter 1, verse 3, of a living hope by the resurrection of Christ
from the dead, a living hope. Now, a living hope as opposed
to a dead hope. Now, let me tell you the reason
why I have a living hope as opposed to a dead hope, because my hope
lives. My hope is Christ. He lives, therefore I have a
living hope, not a dead hope, not a hope based in my dead works. Oh, my hope lives because the
Lord Jesus Christ lives. And then we read in Hebrews chapter
7, verse 19, the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in
of a better hope did. Is that an organ? Maybe I'll
just unplug it for a minute. Okay. I kept looking at that thing.
I didn't know what it was. I thought someone was out there
scraping their parking lot or something. But where was I? A better hope. A better hope. The law made nothing perfect. As far as law goes, all it can
do is condemn. That's it. It made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. And what is that better
hope? Lo, I come. In the volume of
the book it's written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. by the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now did you hear that? We are
sanctified once for all. A perfectly completed action
that never needs to be repeated. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one
offering, this is the better hope, by one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now that's the hope
of the gospel, that I'm already perfect. And it's something that
can't be improved on, can't be lost. It's already complete. My hope, my hope is that when
I am in heaven, I'll find out I've always been there, already
there, because my Redeemer's there. And I've, you know, people,
when somebody says, I'm as sure for heaven as if I'm already
there. I am already there in the person of my Redeemer. The
scripture actually says we're seated together in the heavenlies
in Christ Jesus. I am. That's my hope. That's
my hope. Now this is infinitely better
than a hope that's grounded on my law keeping it. The law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. Now we read in the scripture,
let me close with these quotes from the scripture. We read in
the scripture of the hope of the resurrection. There's something
to hope for. The hope of the resurrection.
And we read of the hope of the promise. God promised something. And my hope is in what he said.
It's totally in what he said. The hope of the promise. And
then we read in Galatians 5, 6 of the hope of righteousness.
We're waiting for the hope of righteousness. Now, remember, hope is something you
can't see. Can you look at yourself and see that you're righteous?
No, but you're waiting for it, aren't you? You're waiting for
that hope of righteousness. And we read of the hope of the
gospel. The good news, the declaration
of the good news and what a hope is in the gospel. And we read
of the hope of the glory of God. My hope is all founded in God's
glory. And you know what His glory is?
It's His ability to save somebody like me. You know, truly, I am a trophy of grace. In my salvation, it'll be evident
This was all of grace and that's his glory. Remember Moses said,
show me your glory. I make all my goodness pass before
you. I'll proclaim my name before you and I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. We read of the hope of salvation.
Saved. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save, He shall save His people from their sins. And
that's what I need to be saved from when I think of salvation.
I think of salvation from sin. Lord, save me. I'm not just talking
about save me from these bad situations I get myself into
or save me from this disease or that sickness. Good grief,
the best thing that could ever happen to me is if I die, save
me from my sins. Save me from the penalty of my
sin. I can't bear the thought of going
to hell. Save me from the power of sin.
I can't be saved unless you do that. Save me from the very presence
of sin. The hope of salvation. I have
a hope that I've been saved from my sins. Then we read in the
scripture the hope of his calling. I tell you what his calling I think in that scripture, you
see your calling brethren. How that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are
called. Well, that gives me some hope
right there that I'm called. Really does. We preach Christ
crucified unto the Greeks foolishness, unto the Jews a stumbling block,
but unto them which are called, called by the invincible, irresistible
grace of God. Christ, the power of God. I see
him as the very omnipotence of God. And Christ, the wisdom of
God. Oh, the hope of his calling.
We read of the hope of eternal life. We read of the hope of
Israel. Now, how can I be saved by hope?
It says we're saved by hope. How can I personally be saved
by hope? You know, it's really easy to
answer. If Christ is my hope, I'm saved by my hope. It's so
simple. If Christ really is my hope,
I'm saved by my hope. Now, I have a hope that on judgment
day, I'll be without sin, justified and accepted. Can I see it now?
No, no, no. But remember, faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I can't look
at myself and say, well, yeah, I'm justified, look at me. But
I have a sure and certain hope that I am. because Christ only
is all my hope. And we are patiently awaiting
that better day coming. Let's pray together.