If you've been with us, we started a series at the start of the summer or I guess start of June. From 1 Corinthians 13:13 as our core primary verse. These three remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. And we we're going to take one month to examine each of these. We took the month of June to examine what is faith. And now in July, we're going to look at what is hope biblically. And then in August, we're going to examine what is love from the scriptures.
Today, we're going to begin looking at what is hope in accordance with God's word. And we're going to do so this morning in Romans chapter 8. So, if you have a Bible, we encourage you to turn to Romans 8. If you don't own a Bible, please let us know. We are going to get you a Bible. It's important for you to read the word of the living God. Romans 8 is where we're going to be this morning. I asked my sister if I could share a little bit of her story with you this morning as it pertains to hope. So, as a it was Reformation Day, also known as Halloween.
It was either 17 or 18 years ago. I can't remember if it which year, but was one of those two. 17 or 18 years ago, that my sister had a surgery. So, back it up if if a month or two prior to that, we could see something was seriously wrong with her. She couldn't stand up. She was holding on to walls to walk. Something was seriously wrong. And they were doing tests and they kept saying, "Ah, it's just an inner ear thing or whatever." and finally they kept pressing and and and they eventually did a scan and there was a brain tumor pressing up against her her her spine the spinal cord and it was dangerously close to her spinal cord and it require once they found out it required surgery immediately.
There was there was no opportunity to wait. Very scary as you can imagine. And they talked to the surgeon and the surgeon was so confident. He did these surgeries all the time and he made it sound like from what I understand like it was this was going to be easy peasy. We're going to drill a hole about the size of a tuni in the back of your skull and we're going to use a essentially like a glorified vacuum. We're going to suck this thing out like an egg through a hole. No problem. Easy for you to say.
As you can imagine, my sister and brother-in-law felt a measure of angst, trepidation, you name it. And yet, because of the confidence of the surgeon, there was this anticipation that she might be freed from what she had been suffering through for this last however long it had been. And so, the surgery day came and and we were all there in the waiting room as my sister was undergoing the operation. My brother-in-law, her husband was sitting there and he was trying to pass the time and trying to converse with us as if, you know, nothing was wrong.
And yet there was times I could I could see him just looking staring off in the distance wondering. It required patience because there's literally nothing we could do. It was completely out of our hands. So finally the doctor came and invited my brother-in-law and and my brother-in-law is a happy go-lucky guy. If you ever meet him, he's a generally he's got a just a joyful disposition about him most days on pretty much every day.
That day when he came back from talking to the doctor, it was the biggest I'd ever seen him smile. It was good news, but it required anticipation. It required patience. And all of these things are wrapped up in hope as defined for us in scripture. Romans chapter 8 lays these things out for us quite well. And so I want to do what I want to do here is read through this portion of scripture starting at verse 18 through to 25 and then just walk us through what the scripture says here regarding hope specifically.
So starting at verse 18, here's what it says in Romans chapter 8. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 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.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. It's the reading of the word of the Lord. Hope as defined here in Romans chapter 8 has many elements. We could spend all day looking at this, but I want to draw out two key elements from the text that define what hope is. One of those things is this, that hope is anticipatory. There is an anticipation that's built into this text, hoping for something that's better.
Now, for the pessimists among us, for those who are naturally critical thinkers, who are analyzers by trade and thus you are typically pessimistic, you can anticipate in the other direction too, can't you? And you might say, what do you mean by that? Well, let me give you a few examples. Oh, sure, things are great with my kids now, but they're not teenagers yet. What are you anticipating?
That it could get worse. Oh, sure. My vehicle works fine right now, but it hasn't hit 200,000 kilometers yet. What are you anticipating? That it could get worse. Oh, sure. The crops look great right now, but hail season isn't over. You're anticipating it could get worse. But in the scriptures for the believer, anticipation here is regarding something that's better than the present situation, better than this moment.
Re here in Romans 8, Paul is revealing for us the state of things presently and the things that are to come. But the present state of things he lists here are difficult. Notice these things in verse 18. He talks about sufferings. If I was to ask how many of you are feeling a sense of suffering right now in a whatever that may look like, I imagine that many of you would say, "Yeah, I'm suffering through this affliction or that trial or whatever."
Sufferings are part of this current state. Futility is listed for us in verse 20. The creation was subjected to futility. That's the current state of things. Verse 21 speaks about bondage to corruption. That's the current state of things right now. We are in a state right now where there's bondage to corruption. Verse 22 and 23 talk about groaning, this ache of heart.
Verse 22 speaks about pain, the pains of childbirth. There's a there's an echo here of pain in life. None of this came because we want it. Notice what it says there. Where are we at here in verse 20? For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. What does that mean? That's speaking of Adam.
Now, there are those there's a faulty thinking that exists that would say that we are not subjected to the sin of we're not we're not born with sin, but we become sinners along the way. That's biblically wrong. Adam is the what we refer to sometimes as the federal head of mankind. So, his sin comes down through all men. So, we are we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners by nature and then by choice. How do we know this?
Well, we're in Romans. Just go to chapter 5 with me. Look at what we read there, starting in verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one to come.
But you see sin came into the world through one man. And this bondage to corruption, this futility that the world experiences as because of sin. What is its effect? Well, back to Genesis. When sin came into the world, we see the effect of sin, pain, and suffering. In Genesis chapter 3, just after Adam and Eve had rebelled against this holy God and their sin, look at what we read in verse 16.
To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you." There's so much involved in that verse in terms of what's going on. There's physical pain. There is a continuous desire for that which is opposed to God. Men by God's design are called to lead.
And yet, the woman is going to try to usurp that leadership. It's built right in here. These are all parts of the fall. Notice what else we see in verses 17 through 19. To Adam, he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust. To dust you shall return. Suffering, trial, death, sorrow, all of this as a result of Adam's sin. And all of this came not because we longed for it, not because we wanted it, not willingly, but because Adam sinned and now it's come to all mankind.
That's the present state of things. But praise be to God. That this passage reminds us of the hope that exists for the believer. That that does not need to be the way it ends. That there's hope beyond. We can anticipate a greater day. This is wonderful. Notice all the descriptors in this same passage of the anticipation for those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18 again.
Incomparable glory. Look at what it says. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. This is awesome. We can't even wrap our minds around the glory of God. I don't know how many of you, A couple nights ago, the Northern Lights were out. I went outside with my family and we, you know, it's amazing how Northern Lights you look up and you see them and they look kind of neat and then you put them through the your camera lens and it just magnifies it.
It's just spectacular. And so we were taking pictures and we were comparing pictures and this is great and this is awesome. All of that as wonderful as as it is doesn't compare with the glory of God that is yet to be revealed. We anticipate this. Notice what else we see in verse 21. The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption.
Set free. So, we have this bondage to corruption that we all feel now, but we're going to be set free from it. All the ache, all the sorrow that we feel in this broken world of sin, we will be set free from that. For those who have repented and trusted Christ by faith. Praise God for that. We will experience the culmination of our adoption. Look at verse 23.
We eagerly await for adoption as sons. And you might say, aren't aren't I adopted right now? Isn't the testimony of scripture says that I'm adopted right now? Yes. But but is it isn't this text saying that we're we're waiting for our adoption? Yes. You might say, isn't that contradictory? No. If anyone here I don't we've adopted, but our adoptions were domestic. Has anyone here done an international adoption?
Yeah. So international adoption's different and depending which part of the world you adopt from. But let's say I've talked to a number of my friends who have adopted from Ethiopia. In that process, they adopted their children and their children were matched to them. The adoption was done. They were the parents of that child, but they hadn't got there yet. And sometimes it was upwards of close to two years between when the adoption was finalized and when they were able to through all the legalities and the paperwork and everything else get over there so that adoption could be realized in full.
Adoption was done but the children hadn't met their father yet face to face. They'd heard about their father. They knew of their father but they hadn't seen him face to face yet. We are adopted sons and daughters of the most high God. Those who are in Christ Jesus. But one day we will see our father face to face. The culmination of our adoption. So we anticipate that. That's a beautiful thing. We anticipate bodily redemption.
Notice that the redemption of our bodies. This broken body that will one day lay in the grave. One day we will be resurrected and we will be home with him. These are all things that we anticipate by faith. We believe by faith that this is what awaits us. As the hymnwriter said, "There the land that is fairer than day." And by faith we can see it afar. For the father awaits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there.
In the sweet by and by. This is what Paul was getting at when he says in verse 24 that hope that is this is the hope in which we were saved. Hope that is seen is not hope. And so you can see the connection here, can't you? Between faith that we examined in the month of June and hope just like faith, hope is in something that we can't yet see. We are anticipating it. It's coming, but it isn't here yet. We've we have hope in something we can't see, but it's sure.
As first Peter said, as we looked at it at the Lord's supper, it's a Jesus is a living hope. Our hope's in a person, and he's living. It's certain, but it's yet to come. Who hopes for what he already has? This is why, by the way, faith and hope won't exist in glory. We have faith in something we cannot see. But in glory, our faith will be sight. We hope for what we don't yet see, but in glory, he will be with us.
But love remains. We're going to get to that in August. But we have hope. And this is what Paul drills down on actually in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. If you have your Bible, you can go there for a moment. 2 Corinthians 4, the last few verses of that chapters. Here's what Paul says to the the the dishearted believer there in Corinth. They were going clearly going through trials and afflictions in Corinth at this time. And he writes this very pastoral letter, 2 Corinthians.
And in chapter 4, he says this to them. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look, that is to say, with anticipation, we look not to things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Same thing he is saying here to the believers in Rome. We have hope in that which we do not see. Hope in that which is better. You see, Paul said to the Philippian believers in Philippians chapter 1, as long as he's in this world, as long as he's living, it means fruitful labor for him. But his desire is to be home with the Lord, which he says in verse 23 of Philippians 1 is better by far. Better by far. See, that's the difference between the Christian who hopes and the worldly man and their hopes.
Anything the worldly man puts his hope in is temporal and it's fleeting and it will not last. We hope the worldly man who has cancer puts their hope in that cancer treatment to work. And listen, there's there's nothing wrong with going through the medical process and and having treatment, all those things. There's there's there's some of you are going through that. It's a good thing. But at some point, everyone will die. That treatment helps for right now.
God's made us to fight for life. That's a good thing. But because of sin, we all will die. So that treatment will not last forever. That cure lasts gives you a few extra years, which is good. But if you put your hope squarely in and only in that, it won't last. You hope for that promotion and for that raise. Again, we want to we want to pro provide for our families. So that's a good thing. But at some point, everyone's retiring.
It's not going to last forever. We we hope for happiness and ease of life and we all understand that. But everyone will endure pain. John 16:33 Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble." So all of those things will be dashed at some point. But for the believer who has hope in the person of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, the one who has purchased us by his blood, who has appeased God's wrath, who has made us right with him, who's justified us and set us firmly on the rock of Jesus Christ.
Our hope is in him which will not be dashed, which will not be shaken, and will never be taken. I don't know if you caught it when it was being read from 1 Corinthians 15 earlier. I want to take you back there and look at verses 22 to 26. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the first fruits.
Then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. At the end death will be destroyed and the saint who is with the Lord will reign with him forever. We hope in these things with anticipation.
So as we examine what hope is, anticipation, glorious, settled anticipation is part of that. It's also redemptive. Notice that all these things that we anticipate have a common theme. Redemption from what was previously broken. There's this incomparable glory as opposed to the glory of this world. The glory of this world is self arandizing and quite pathetic.
Look no further. If you want an example of it, I'd encourage you not to. But if you're really desperate to see a terrible picture of the glory of this world, watch the Oscars. I encourage you not to do that. But if you want to see a picture of what this world deems to be glorious, that's it. The puffing up of self, making self look good, political statements on that which they have no idea what they're talking about, all for the sake of making themselves seem glorious, and it's pathetic.
But the glory of God is beyond compare. That's what it says here. It says we're set free. Set free from what? Bondage to corruption. This is because of sin. We're set free from that. We experience, as we've talked about, the culmination of our adoption because previously we were not a people. And you might say, "What what do you mean by that?" Well, I'm going to take you to First Peter 2. In 1 Peter 2, verse 10.
Oops. 1 Peter 2:10, we have this this picture here given to us. He's referencing the Old Testament here. And he says, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, now you have received mercy. You have been adopted in. You were not a people, but now you're his people. Once you were you were out there, Satan was your father, but now God is your father.
You have a new family brought in by the mercy of God. This is glorious. Our bodies will be redeemed, that is to say, resurrected. Our broken bodies as we as we walk along life's path. Those of you who are currently 18, enjoy it. Those of you who who are 80 know what I'm talking about. I'm not there yet, but I'm starting to feel it.
But in glory our bodies according to our text here the will be redeemed verse 23 tells us there's a redemption of our bodies the resurrection where we will be with him that in that time they our bodies are subject to decay right now 1 Corinthians 15 listen to what we read here starting at verse 51 behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?" The believer can say that now.
John MacArthur when he was passing away on his deathbed, he said, "I feel no sting." The sting of death is removed for those who are in Christ Jesus. The redemption of the body awaits. We experience freedom. The word free or freedom is used here a couple times in our text. And that word for freedom in particular that's in our text here, that's used only 10 times in the New Testament.
And every time it's pointing forward to an a liberty from our current condition, our current state that's founded in verse 21 in your text, the freedom. We obtain freedom, liberty. This all requires patience because it's something we don't have. Maybe we don't feel it. We don't experience all of these things right now. And so according to verse 25, we wait for it with patience.
The New American Standard says, "We eagerly wait for it or we wait eagerly for it." God's timing is such that we just cannot know when the end will come, but come it will. It is assured. And remember what Jesus said in John chapter 14. I'm just going to read you verse three. This is what he said. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.
The end will come. The master will return and he will bring his people, those who have repented and trusted Christ by faith, his people will go home to be with him. And all will be redeemed. And this world will be different. But in this world, we still feel the aches and sufferings and sorrows, don't we? As we have so we have to patiently endure and wait. A psychologist was once interviewing a patient.
This patient was chronically depressed. He hated his life. He blamed others for all of his trials and difficulties. He was obsessed with feelings of a low view of self and and all of this world was terrible and yada yada yada. He went on and on and on and finally after his he went on complaining for some time, he drew a breath. And so the psychologist tried to interject quickly and and he grabbed a white piece of paper, just a blank sheet of paper, and he told the man, "I want you to study this sheet of paper. Look at it.
Examine the vast whiteness of it and the purity of it. Just look how beautiful and white it is." So the patient begrudgingly obliged and looked at the paper. Okay. Yeah, I can see it's it's big and it's white. Great. The psychologist took it back. He took a pencil and he took it and he drew the smallest little dot, that's it, in the middle of the paper. And he handed it back to him. And he said to the man, "Now, what do you see?"
And the man said, "I see a dot." He said, "Okay, well, what else do you see?" That's all I can see, just a dot. He said, "Really?" The psychologist said, "The paper is just the same. It's still large. It's still white. There's the ocean of whiteness. And the dot is so infantessimally small. And all you can see is the dot. And the man said, "Yes, because I don't want it there." Imagine staring at a pencil mark when the vastness of the white ocean is behind it.
So it is for you and I when we fix our eyes on our present sufferings. When the vastness of eternity awaits through Christ. But we can all go there, can't we? Now, I want to pause here. I do want to give an important an important thing here that you need to understand that we all need to understand. Hope is not synonymous with earthly happiness. We can often think that way. If I'm hopeful, that means I have to be happy.
It's not necessarily true. There are those who are grieving, who are mourning, who are aching, who are sorrowful, and simultaneously bear the hope of Christ. These things can go together. In our prayer sheet that we have in our bulletin the last number of weeks, we've had Precious Ivy listed there, Chris and Becky's niece. She was given a very difficult diagnosis, 22 months old.
And as you can imagine, I would imagine the family is going through ache and sorrow and pain and angst of heart, rightly so, as we all would understand. And yet, in talking to to Chris and Becky about Ryan and Sarah, they are anchored by the hope of Christ. Pain, hardship, the trials, the present sufferings of this present sinful world, very real, but hopeful in Christ.
So friends, I I would encourage you if Jesus has proven himself trustworthy and he has. If he's proven himself faithful, and he has, then patient endurance as we anticipate the redemption that is to come, is worth every trial that we may endure, even with eagerness on the road of sanctification and its end, eternal life. Alexander Stro once said, "We are all pilgrims here upon earth.
This present earth is not our final home. Someday it will all be burned up by God's just judgment. But for now, we are journeying to our permanent dwelling, the new earth and the unshakable eternal kingdom of God and of Christ. That is our hope, friends. And we anticipate this hope with great joy because then all will be redeemed and we will be with him.
And so God, I pray that you would anchor us in the knowledge of this hope that we have in Christ. That though we live in a present world of sin and sorrow and suffering, there is something far greater awaiting us. And we have a sure hope because our hope is in Jesus Christ who is a living hope. And so, Father, we know that that we have redemption positionally. We've been redeemed in Christ, those who are in him, and yet we await the finality of our redemption.
And we do so with anticipation in hope. And we thank you for that. Father, if there be those here who don't know this hope, for whom this is a foreign thing to hear about, Father, by your spirit, we pray that you would convict them of sin and remind them that there is a savior whom they can thrust themselves upon and find newness of life even this day. So, Father, carry us, we pray, in these in these things and may be glorified as we carry along in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
