Romans 8: 18-30
Notes
Transcript
A New Hope
A New Hope
Good morning my friends.
As we begin today I wants to remind you to pray for each other and our children.
We have seen first hand this week how life and lives can change in a moment. We have seen many children hospitalized, we have seen death and we have even seen others suffer as the result of someone’s action.
It’s heartbreaking, that I why I stress to you the importance of praying for each other, our families and yes our children. Death and disease are rampant in our world, and also the devil is at work to take away life.
Remember Jesus said he came to kill, steal and destroy. He will do it if he can my friends, and he will use what ever circumstance or event he can to take advantage of another.
But please pray, and hold on to Jesus. He came that we might have life and have it to the fullest.
Now today we came back to the of Romans. And we are looking at the next section of this chapter, verses 18 to 30.
We just finished sharing the joy of living life by the Holy Spirit, and how this life, lived in the Spirit also communicates our new place as a child of God. we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
Friends, there is joy in that.... and we are gonna move forward and focus on the future glory of our life in Christ.
From the moment we invite Jesus into our hearts, as new believers we experience so many blessings being included in the family of God. Today we are going to look at those blessings.
So let’s begin this morning, with this first thought...
1. Future Hope....
Our hope is in Christ, nothing else and to be in Christ, safe and secure because of His death, burial and resurrection ensures our future hope.
And this is the most anticipated movement for a person in their life time, it is the time when the pass from death unto life. Not just spiritually, but physically as well.
We talk about being a child of God, saved and redeemed, we enjoy this now but one day our physical life will change. Our life will change, our existence will change, and our destination will change. All this because of His future hope.
But anticipate suffering in this life, but that suffering isn’t permanent, and the suffering we face here, it will diminish in the light of we will inherit in Christ
Lets look at this first passage, verses 18-21
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Now understand, when you read Paul’s writing, He shares about navigating suffering in this life time. Paul suffered, just a few things I could tell you is his rejection from the religious leaders when He followed Christ. He was beaten, stoned, experienced hunger and thirst, was ship wrecked and placed in prison. Finally, in 64 AD, he will be beheaded for the faith.
So telling others how to navigate or deal with suffering is wise words my friends, because we all deal with it. Suffering is something we all will face at one point or another. No one is free of it, if you don’t believe me, read Job.
So lets break down what he is telling us.
1. Suffering Will Happen We have already established suffering is common to man, why? We live in a fallen world, a world touched by sin. So bad things happen, death and disease are present and yes it happens to all the world.
Remember last week, Paul established in verse 17, that suffering accompanies the members of the family of God. It is natural, in the world we live just as we experience good, there is bad in this life as well.
Jesus suffered on the path following the Father toward glory, why would we expect less.
But… here is the blessing, Paul says in verse 18… has difficult as our suffering is, it will not compare to the greatness of glory that will be revealed in us.
Can I say, wow, wow, wow....
Suffering will happen in this life, but it isn’t the end my friends. Jesus has guaranteed that...
And then Paul shares something that we don’t necessarily think about, all of creation is waiting with us...
2. Creation Waits with Us… Paul here personifies creation, that is awaits the our spiritual fulfillment as well.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
That phrase, “…waits with eager longing” is a phrase that carries the meaning of creation being like a person with an ‘out stretched neck” looking for that day of the Lord.
Why, just as we have suffered, this world has suffered. It was cursed under the effects of Adam’s sin. The earth would be difficult to work, thorns and thistles would come to hinder and hurt man. And creation was hindered from fulfilling the purposes for which God created it.
Hope is within sight, just as the day approaches for our freedom, so all of creation will be free from the effects and curse of sin.
A future hope my friends, it is coming.... But with faith we wait and believe, look at verses 24-25
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
We trust the Lord, we know we are saved and our hope isn’t in ourselves but Him. We wait with patience, looking forward to that day of our home going.
Now moving forward....
I know we still have to deal with life while we wait for our redemption to be realized finally and completely, But until then we have a present help.
2. A Present Help....
How wonderful it is, that we are not alone in our walk in front of God. He is with us through the person of the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the holy Trinity.
Lets go back to the text here, verses 26-27
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
One of the most glorious aspects of the Holy Spirit is the work, the ministry He fulfills in and for us, the believer.
Remember what Jesus said. John 16:7
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
And 10 days after Jesus ascension into heaven, we see Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit enters the world and with that, he rested on those believers lives and immediately there after a person came to faith in Christ.
The Holy Spirit goes with the believers each day, remember what I told you last week, He is the “Paraclete” in the Greek, literally meaning that He walks alongside us, the children of God like a good friend.
And there is so much that He does in and for us, but we are going to focus just on those things we see here in our text today.
Paul says that He helps us in our weakness. I like that word “Helps” He is a person in action, working on our behalf… In the context of the passage, we understand that “weakness” is our lack of understanding when we pray.
Prayer has been and continues to be one of the great mysteries of our Spiritual life. Please understand we know we are to pray, but do we always know just how we are to pray.
That is what Paul says in verse 26
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Now we know that God hears us when we pray, but honestly we also know we are inadequate when we do pray.
Where is our faith when we pray.
But here is something wonderful, when our faith is lacking, and when that lack of faith undermines our ability to pray, the Holy Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf, he knows our heart, our mind and what we need in that moment of prayer,.
So He is at work on our behalf, communicating to the Father what we had such difficulty to utter, So in that moment, He is at work.
Now lets go back, Paul says that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” verse 26b
In our groans, (Lets think about this) when we have no words for the moment of need, when we are praying, but words fail in expressing our heart, our mind, our need or the needs of others before God, that is where the Holy Spirit speaks for us, on our behalf in front of God.
But there is a caveat… at the end of verse 27. ”.....because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
My friends when we pray for those things, the need of another, the sorrow of a family, the provision needed by someone. We pray, of course we do, but the Spirit is there, taking what we do not know or do not know what to ask for.. and brings it correctly to the Father
Our groans, become His and He intercedes on our behalf to God.
We have a present help my friends, God is a work in and through His Holy Spirit to benefit us the believer, His child. The Holy Spirit is essential to our lives, to our walk, to our prayer and to our faith.
He, the Holy Spirit is our present help.
Now this brings me to my last thought for this morning,
3. His Purposes Revealed...
We must never forget my friends, the fruition of all we do, all that we pray for, is meant to fulfill the purposes of God in this world.
We are working and serving to fulfill the will of God in all things.
Have you ever thought about that? So often when we come to these verses, people interpret them by themselves. People interpret the “good” Paul talks about in this verse in so many directions.
Lets look at our text....
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Now these verses are encouraging, no doubt about that my friends, but we cannot apply it to everything we want… there is a base here for us to understand.
The subject here is God, He is the one who is literally at work in all things, in every aspect of life and creation we know that God is at work.
Let me say this - We are not Deists (as many are in our world today) But it says that God made or created and then stepped away and lets the world run its course.
No, No, No, God is active and at work in our world and in our lives.
So what dos verse 28 mean, Now you are going to have to listen close.
God is at work in the circumstances of life, directing the affairs of life in such a way that for those who love him, the outcome is always beneficial.
The good we think of, isn’t always what we think of as good, but understand it is good because it is how God is working in us for the best outcome.
Our difficulties, with this mindset it is easier to see how our difficulties are part of God’s total plan for changing us from what we are by nature to what God intends us to be in Christ Jesus.
Listen, take a child that grows up in a harsh difficult situation. My life your life.. God knows what sin is in the world and He knows how people will follow their will, their desires, what ever it may be.
What comes about because of sin is terrible, people suffer, people are put at risk. That doesn’t seem very good.
But God… O’ hold on to that , But God, He can take us who love him and work beyond that terrible situation for our good, take us in our broken condition and making us more into the image of Christ as we walk with Him.
God is always the answer, he can overcome in us for His glory. Praise be to our God.
Now take that and lets talk about the word “predestination”. We really do not like that word, it scares us. It scars us because who many preachers have held such a deep Calvinistic view that they have hurt others by pushing their thoughts.
First off, John Calvin, good man, great theologian 15th century. But I cannot support all that he taught or promoted. lets look at our passage again.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed into the image of His son...
If you disagree with me on predestination, it will not hurt my feelings.
Did God have the foreknowledge to know everything that would happen in the world throughout history and every person as well. Yes.
God is the sovereign King of the universes. Yes he knew all and everyone.
But the question is did God cause you to be saved, to be conformed into the image of His son. If you say yes, God choose you from before creation to be saved, then in the same respect God would have to have made some to be lost.
There is no choice in that...
God has given people free will, God allowed Adam and Eve the freedom to choose sin or not, to eat of the tree or not. And so He gives us the ability ot choose.
When I come to the idea of “Predestination” I believe this, ( and by the way, some preachers and people will not agree with me, I don’t care )
I say God knew, everything that would happen, And he knew every person who would come into this world. And he knows all that will be saved until the last day.
But as far as Predestination, that isn’t God causing people to be saved and some lost. No God knew those who would say yes, and those who would say no. Those who did choose Jesus, who did choose life He saved, people in their free will made the choice to follow Jesus. Those are the ones whom Paul calls the Predestined.
Those who freely choose Jesus, look at what happens..
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
So the predestined here isn’t about election or salvation, but God planned for all who say yes to Jesus are to be conformed into the image of Jesus.
Christ is our example, we are being made like Him, each day more and more, being justified at Salvation, and in the process of Sanctification, we are being changed, each day and each day until we see Jesus and thus we are gloriifed.
Made like Jesus in all things....
Each day our walk with Jesus would reflect that future hope we have in Christ, don’t you dare live like you have nothing… You are a child of the King. Heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ
As we walk each day we have a Present Help....., God has sent us the Holy Spirit to help us, intercede for us and so much more as we move closer and closer each day toward Jesus
Finally … We understand His purpose and it is revealed in us, God is at work through all the brokenness, never leaving us and his purpose is to continually improve this life, until the day we are perfect and see Jesus.
Yet, You have a choice to make....
It is up to you to follow or not.
Are you?
lets pray.
