Dale Partridge - How to Have Hope in our Wait for Glory - Romans 8_23-25

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, stay open in that section of scripture because we are going to be going through Romans

00:00:08.160 chapter eight. We're going to continue on this wonderful chapter of the epistle to the Romans.

00:00:14.780 I am just getting over a cold this week, so I'm opening up a cough drop in case I need it here.

00:00:21.480 so last week we learned that humanity is not the only one suffering because of the fall

00:00:30.700 in Genesis 3 17 God says to Adam cursed is the ground for your sake

00:00:37.120 we learned that thorns and deserts and poisonous plants and carnivorous creatures and harsh weather

00:00:45.760 and volcanoes. All of these things were not a part of God's intention for creation.

00:00:53.520 These are actually sufferings of a fallen earth. We also learned that our mistake is

00:01:00.800 not appreciating the current earth that we have, its beauty, but rather failing to recognize the

00:01:07.580 earth and the beauty that we lost in the fall. We act like someone who is admiring Mount St. Helens.

00:01:16.600 I used to live up in the Northwest and my grandparents also lived in Oregon when I was a

00:01:22.900 child and I would go up to Oregon and we'd travel over into Washington and we would be able to look

00:01:27.660 at Mount St. Helens. And it's like looking at this beautiful piece of nature without realizing

00:01:37.980 that it's the aftermath of a massive explosion. It's only when an older person like my grandparents

00:01:45.060 would walk up to me and say, you should have seen it before. You should have seen it before.

00:01:51.260 I imagine that Noah had these same words because he was one of few people that saw the earth prior

00:01:59.380 to the flood and saw the earth after the flood. I imagine that people would come to him and he

00:02:06.440 would say, you should have seen it before. You should have seen it before. Ultimately, we look

00:02:13.500 upon this creation not realizing that it's a remnant of beauty. It's a remnant of beauty.

00:02:19.140 And in that oversight, we fail to see that it too suffers from sin.

00:02:26.960 The plants suffer, the ground suffers, the rivers suffer, the animals suffer, creation suffers.

00:02:35.000 Now in our suppression of sin, we fail to see that creation groans waiting for the redemption,

00:02:42.200 waiting for the restoration, waiting for it to be a host of righteousness and not a host of sin

00:02:49.900 and wickedness in the world. And we fail to see that it's longing for order and for harmony

00:02:55.960 and for goodness and for glory. And this is vital for the Christian because when we are content

00:03:04.780 with this earth, and when we are content with these bodies, our hope for new bodies and our

00:03:13.960 hope for a new earth is greatly diminished. But this doesn't mean that we merely just sit and

00:03:21.200 wait and do nothing. We just wait for the restoration of all things. No, we actually

00:03:27.100 have gospel work to do. We have a mission, a great commission, and we need healthy bodies

00:03:34.580 and an ordered environment to do so.

00:03:36.920 We just prayed for the government leaders.

00:03:39.560 This is a good thing.

00:03:41.080 We have a civilization to restore.

00:03:43.700 We have gardens to tend and cities to build.

00:03:47.120 We have a kingdom to establish through the power

00:03:49.200 and through the message and through the authority of King Jesus.

00:03:53.960 And we know that he's going to use our work.

00:03:56.340 He's going to use our evangelism.

00:03:57.620 He's going to use our justice and our righteousness.

00:04:00.700 He's going to use our churches

00:04:02.200 And he's going to use our work in the land and our schools.

00:04:06.600 All of these things he's going to use for the world to see the goodness of their king and his kingdom.

00:04:14.860 We often hear people say things like, you need to accept Jesus as Lord.

00:04:21.460 Or that you need to make Jesus as Lord.

00:04:25.760 The truth is that Jesus is Lord, whether you accept it or make him in that position.

00:04:33.120 Jesus is king, and we are here to tell the world about their king.

00:04:39.700 Ephesians 2.10 says,

00:04:41.280 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

00:04:46.180 which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

00:04:50.360 The truth is that we live in a time of already, but not fully.

00:04:56.460 Already, but not fully.

00:04:59.140 A state of fallenness that's being restored.

00:05:02.200 place where God offers a foretaste of the kingdom to come. We are here in a

00:05:10.080 version of the kingdom, in a portion of the kingdom, but the feast, the fullness

00:05:15.220 of the feast is not yet here. And while we labor in these dying bodies and on

00:05:23.100 this cursed earth, the message of Christ and his future consummation of the

00:05:28.420 kingdom, the thing that is coming in its fullness. It gives us hope and it gives

00:05:34.060 creation hope. Our Christian labors are not in vain because Christ is behind our

00:05:40.600 labors. Now in today's passage, the Apostle emphasizes that just as creation

00:05:48.540 groans, just as the earth and the plants and the animals groan and suffer

00:05:54.340 anticipating the final reversal of the fall and the restoration of all things,

00:05:58.420 it also rejoices through mankind's total redemption and the return of Christ.

00:06:04.840 It awaits eagerly for these things.

00:06:09.800 In verse 23, if you look down in your Bibles, we're going to go through verse by verse.

00:06:14.140 It says in verse 23, and not only this,

00:06:18.840 but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit,

00:06:22.460 Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

00:06:31.780 So as dust, we often look upon our fallen nature in a sense, like when we actually look at the world,

00:06:43.420 when we look at creation as dust, in a sense, we look upon ourselves.

00:06:50.040 We, our bodies, are a part of this creation.

00:06:53.800 We're made from dust.

00:06:55.580 We will return to dust.

00:06:57.660 And so when we look upon this fallen nature, we, in a sense, look upon ourselves.

00:07:04.240 We see the broken parts of creation.

00:07:07.600 We see the brokenness of our own bodies.

00:07:09.960 We see the remnant of what once was.

00:07:12.820 And although as Christians who have been forgiven in their spiritual debt,

00:07:17.500 we have no guilt or shame. And although we have been guaranteed adoption and sealed

00:07:23.260 by the Holy Spirit for redemption, and although we have resurrected souls that are filled with

00:07:28.620 divine purpose and hope, and although we have no fear of death because we have been forgiven in

00:07:33.280 Christ, although we have all of these things, we still groan. We still groan with creation.

00:07:42.460 we still suffer many trials. We still long for resurrected bodies

00:07:49.940 and we still wait for the manifestation, the fullness of God's promises to come.

00:07:59.020 But notice in verse 23 how the apostle does not say the resurrection of our bodies, but the

00:08:03.720 redemption of our bodies. This is an important distinction I want you to take note of.

00:08:08.600 But this is one verse that should help us fight against this Gnostic tendency in the

00:08:14.180 church, this Gnostic tendency in the church to say that the spiritual is good, but the

00:08:21.000 physical is bad, that the spiritual is what we focus on and that the physical is not something

00:08:28.060 that we care about.

00:08:29.420 Throughout the scriptures, we see that God is calling his people to care for their bodies.

00:08:35.780 and even though those bodies will die, we are to care for them still.

00:08:41.620 God is actually going to resurrect this body.

00:08:45.680 Jesus was recognizable.

00:08:48.700 It wasn't a new body in the sense that it was a different body.

00:08:51.540 It was the same body made new.

00:08:58.000 We also see that God's people throughout the scriptures create beautiful work

00:09:02.800 and we're called to care for the animals and the livestock and the crops.

00:09:06.420 And even though that all these things are going to be made new,

00:09:08.460 we are still called to do those things in the physical world. 1.00

00:09:12.440 Too many Christians have checked out of society, 1.00

00:09:15.260 refusing to invest in the material side of the world, 1.00

00:09:18.140 the physical side of the world,

00:09:19.460 because they think we shouldn't dedicate effort to things that are destined to go away.

00:09:24.900 And as a result, we check out.

00:09:28.900 We stop kingdom building.

00:09:30.740 We stop investing in society.

00:09:32.800 We stop taking dominion over the realities of the culture.

00:09:38.580 But Paul says to us, these bodies will be redeemed.

00:09:43.740 This immortal flesh will put on immortality, as he says in 1 Corinthians 15.

00:09:49.200 What I want to point out is that these bodies are not bad.

00:09:54.280 Okay, this earth is not bad.

00:09:57.800 Psalm 104, 24 says,

00:10:00.200 O Lord, how manifold are thy works.

00:10:02.800 In wisdom, have you made them all?

00:10:06.620 The earth is full of thy riches.

00:10:10.460 And said, what I'm thinking about here is that I want to make a distinction that yes,

00:10:14.660 these bodies are going to die.

00:10:16.140 And yes, this earth is going to be made new.

00:10:19.360 It's going to eliminate the corruption of the curse.

00:10:22.360 The purpose of death is the purification.

00:10:26.760 It's the removal of the curse. 0.97

00:10:28.420 We must die so that the curse and the corruption goes away.

00:10:32.800 for that reason we can actually see the value of death that becomes death becomes 0.62

00:10:37.100 heaven's door for us the renewal of the earth becomes the door for the

00:10:42.500 restoration of all things but in the same way that God will restore this

00:10:46.440 physical body he's also going to restore this physical earth and this is

00:10:49.900 important because our work in the physical realm is not in vain and I want

00:10:56.020 to explain this I want you to grasp this will the years of singing practice be

00:11:02.480 lost in heaven? Will skilled craftsmen lose their ability in a restored world?

00:11:10.840 Will the athlete loses strength and the artists lose their gift in the future

00:11:15.300 life? Of course not. Of course not. In fact they're only going to be amplified.

00:11:23.900 The time and the rigor that you put in today is not going to be lost for the

00:11:28.720 glory of God. No good thing will be lost. God is redeeming our bodies. He's redeeming this earth.

00:11:39.880 He's redeeming this culture. This should give us hope. Look to verse 24. It says,

00:11:47.720 for in hope we have been saved. In hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already

00:11:58.620 sees? So as I often remind you guys, we are going to be smart Bible interpreters in the church. I

00:12:04.340 want you guys to have a clear understanding of how to interpret the scriptures. You shouldn't be

00:12:10.440 10, 20 years in to the church and your understanding of scripture and not be able

00:12:15.620 to interpret it properly. So when you see the word for at the beginning of a particular verse,

00:12:23.880 it almost always signals that the sentence is an explanation of the previous sentence.

00:12:29.840 It's called an explanatory clause. Sometimes it's a causal clause, but you know that there's

00:12:35.580 a connection between the previous verse. It helps us to not take scripture out of its context.

00:12:40.020 in this case verse 24 is explaining the concept of waiting for the fullness of our redemption

00:12:46.720 it speaks to how we wait how we wait and how do we do that we wait in hope our longing for

00:12:57.740 redemption is expressed in hope hope is not the means of salvation it is the evidence

00:13:03.160 of salvation. Octavius Winslow said a great quote. He said,

00:13:11.440 The phrase, in hope we have been saved, does not imply that hope is the instrument by which we are

00:13:17.700 saved, but the condition in which we are saved. End quote. Colossians 1, 3-5 says,

00:13:24.360 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

00:13:28.700 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for

00:13:33.680 all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven hope in a sense is

00:13:41.960 the assurance of faith it's the reason for faith Hebrews 11 one says now faith

00:13:51.180 is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen according

00:13:58.700 In the Greek, this word hope is defined as, quote,

00:14:03.160 a desire for some future good

00:14:05.120 with the expectation of obtaining it.

00:14:08.580 A simpler definition would be confident expectancy.

00:14:14.360 Confident expectancy.

00:14:17.840 Without Christ, a person cannot have hope.

00:14:22.620 There is no future good for them.

00:14:25.560 The sufferings of this world are a foretaste of hell.

00:14:29.420 They can have superficial hope.

00:14:31.380 They can have worldly hope.

00:14:32.640 They can have conditional hope.

00:14:34.860 But this hope fades when the conditions change.

00:14:39.260 It certainly fades when they face tragedy or death.

00:14:45.800 But interestingly, those who have Christ have unconditional hope.

00:14:51.060 Our hope isn't dependent upon the conditions of this world,

00:14:54.100 but is unconditional because it's kept for us in heaven.

00:14:59.700 In fact, tragedy and death won't diminish our hope

00:15:02.400 but actually strengthen our hope.

00:15:04.180 Our hope actually is magnified through suffering. 0.99

00:15:11.480 Show me a suffering Christian and I will show you hope. 1.00

00:15:16.900 This type of hope, it weans us from the things 1.00

00:15:19.440 that we have in the present and puts our hope

00:15:21.960 in the things that we will have in the future.

00:15:24.980 That's what hope does.

00:15:27.280 This is why Paul says, but hope that is seen is not hope.

00:15:29.900 For who hopes for what he already sees?

00:15:34.360 The redemption we hope for, we do not yet have.

00:15:41.200 We don't have this substance of that hope at this point.

00:15:46.660 I hope for a new body.

00:15:50.380 I do not have that body at this time.

00:15:53.640 If we had it, we would not hope for it.

00:15:56.060 But since we still wait for it, we groan.

00:15:59.260 If you have not yet grown, you're just not old enough.

00:16:04.880 We groan with confident expectation for the redemption of our physical bodies.

00:16:10.080 And we watch the earth groan in confident expectation for its renewal.

00:16:16.720 Ultimately, we learn that salvation occurs in phases in the scripture.

00:16:20.260 We learn that there's a process to redemption, which is where the apostle is heading later

00:16:27.180 in this chapter as we get into this section later in chapter 8.

00:16:30.780 Salvation is secured immediately, but the process of salvation is experienced or attained

00:16:36.800 in phases from election to glory.

00:16:40.720 It's a process.

00:16:43.600 As I said earlier, we are living in an already, but not fully.

00:16:48.200 an already but not yet experience of redemption.

00:16:54.080 Verse 25 says,

00:16:57.520 But if we hope for what we do not see,

00:16:59.920 with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

00:17:06.020 We live in a time where hope has been pessimistically defined.

00:17:13.380 The definition that many of us think of when we think of hope

00:17:16.320 is wishing for something you know won't likely happen.

00:17:22.100 One man said that time destroys most hopes.

00:17:25.560 They fade and then they die, end quote.

00:17:28.420 We have heard people say,

00:17:29.720 oh, we hope to go to Europe one day,

00:17:31.940 or I hope to write a book,

00:17:34.100 or we hoped to adopt.

00:17:37.680 These are good things.

00:17:39.960 These are aspirations.

00:17:41.940 They're good aspirations,

00:17:43.260 but it's not what Paul is talking about here.

00:17:48.560 In other words, we use the word hope so casually

00:17:51.940 that it clouds the biblical definition

00:17:54.840 of what Paul is trying to communicate

00:17:56.880 on the concept of hope.

00:18:00.020 I believe 1 Peter 1, 3-5

00:18:04.120 is going to help us understand this type of hope

00:18:06.480 Paul is referring to.

00:18:09.520 Peter says,

00:18:10.440 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy,

00:18:16.900 which he caused us to be born again, to a living hope.

00:18:22.300 Pay attention to that word.

00:18:23.820 Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ of the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable,

00:18:28.060 undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through

00:18:32.820 faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

00:18:36.000 biblical hope is not our casual hope it's a living hope it's a different type of hope

00:18:46.740 the hope of heaven is not an aspiration it's a guarantee it's a future reality it's something

00:18:55.400 that we can bank on it is guarded for us in heaven by God the living hope is a hope that

00:19:04.920 is essentially inextinguishable. It cannot be removed. And it is living because it was

00:19:12.580 given to you by the living word. It is part of a living hope because of the living God

00:19:19.240 that dwells in you through the Holy Spirit. One theologian said, tribulation cannot destroy

00:19:26.360 the Christian's hope because the living God inspires it and guarantees its fruition. I

00:19:33.700 was thinking about this. 1959, Richard Warmbrand. He wrote a book called Tortured for Christ.

00:19:44.840 He was arrested for preaching the gospel in Romania. And in his book, he recounts how he

00:19:53.580 was beaten and tortured. He stated that the tortures included mutilation, being burned. He

00:20:00.840 was physically locked into a frozen icebox.

00:20:04.320 They would strap him to a bed and beat his feet with wooden sticks.

00:20:12.520 I remember he said something along the lines in his book,

00:20:15.400 I made a deal with the guards.

00:20:19.260 I would preach the gospel and they would beat me.

00:20:24.960 When asked how he survived 14 years of torture,

00:20:29.360 How did you endure so much pain and suffering?

00:20:36.840 He said that it was hope that kept him alive.

00:20:40.640 He said that it was hope of one day seeing his family again.

00:20:46.540 Hope that he might be able to preach the gospel one more time.

00:20:50.500 Hope that he would maybe be the day of his release, that the Lord would free him.

00:20:57.240 That's the power of living hope.

00:20:59.360 That's the difference between our casual hope.

00:21:05.500 It's an unexplainable version of hope to a non-believing world.

00:21:12.480 It's not conditional hope, it's unconditional hope.

00:21:15.960 It allows you to be upheld by Christ himself and it'll keep you going when nothing else can.

00:21:26.060 Philippians 1.6 says, and I'm sure of this,

00:21:29.360 that he who began a good work in you

00:21:31.640 will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

00:21:37.680 Therefore, Christian hope, living hope, it perseveres.

00:21:42.200 It perseveres.

00:21:43.240 Christian hope is patient.

00:21:45.760 Christian hope can endure the sufferings

00:21:48.020 of this present time. 0.97

00:21:48.860 It can groan with expectation

00:21:50.800 because the source and the substance of that Christian hope

00:21:53.720 is not worthy to be compared of the trials of this time

00:21:56.520 and because that hope is living.

00:21:59.360 It's living hope.

00:22:01.760 It's part of the spirit that dwells in you.

00:22:05.900 This is how martyrs can suffer torture without committing suicide.

00:22:11.860 I watch people often throughout this broken world take their lives.

00:22:19.320 But my experience is that when Christians, true born-again Christians, suffer,

00:22:26.520 that hope will persevere in them.

00:22:29.360 I watched a documentary talking about Fox's Book of Martyrs,

00:22:35.880 and I watched hundreds of stories of men and women

00:22:40.740 being willing to be boxed and battered and beaten and eaten alive and burned

00:22:47.580 and not take their own lives.

00:22:53.500 They walked in confidently.

00:22:55.420 what is that the only thing explaining that is living hope

00:23:04.880 this is how christian mothers can still smile after their child dies

00:23:12.700 this is how christian men in their hospital bed at 48 can still have joy facing the sorrows of

00:23:23.440 disease and death. They have hope. They have a living hope. A hope that only comes as a gift

00:23:33.680 of the Holy Spirit through the reception of the gospel. That's it. Paul says at the end of verse

00:23:41.840 25, that through this hope, we eagerly wait for the redemption. What worthy attainment is not

00:23:52.660 worth waiting. What eternal blessing is not worth the carnal suffering that we have to

00:23:59.460 endure. The hope of redemption is worth anything that this world can throw at you. The hope

00:24:07.660 of redemption is worth anything that this world can throw at you. And you need to remember

00:24:13.180 that because suffering is coming for you. And you need to see that the hope of redemption is worth

00:24:23.000 any trial that you may face. In other words, there's no comparison between the suffering here

00:24:29.840 and the reward waiting there. It's not to be compared, as we said a few weeks ago. The weight

00:24:36.620 here the trials here the pain here pales in comparison to the riches awaiting there

00:24:45.580 psalm 37 7 says rest in the lord and wait patiently for him

00:24:53.980 and this is our call

00:24:58.140 to wait for the fulfillment of our hope that's what we do we wait patiently

00:25:05.260 joyfully with perseverance through trials. We do not let suffering or trials or tragedies

00:25:15.200 overtake us because we do not have conditional hope, but unconditional hope. We do not have

00:25:22.540 conditional joy, but unconditional joy. We do not have conditional love, but unconditional love.

00:25:30.420 if i could zoom out and summarize what i believe paul is trying to communicate in this passage

00:25:42.920 it would be your christian hope will carry you your christian hope will carry you

00:25:53.560 I remember a few years ago in ministry, I was betrayed.

00:26:00.100 I was betrayed by a close friend and the pain was severe.

00:26:07.440 I came home after a meeting and I told Veronica that I was done with ministry, that I wanted

00:26:14.800 to be over with it.

00:26:17.340 and in tears, I thought, I can't do this anymore.

00:26:23.780 I can't continue on investing into people

00:26:28.720 that then not just leave, but leave with a vengeance.

00:26:37.120 It's pretty common pastoral pain.

00:26:42.140 And I remember being so adamantly convinced

00:26:45.100 that I was through with ministry.

00:26:47.340 and I woke up the next morning, and there was hope.

00:26:54.000 I woke up the next morning, I thought that the night before that the flame went out.

00:27:00.120 But I woke up the next morning, and the flame was still lit.

00:27:05.220 It is the only explanation for many pastors who have been through many difficult trials,

00:27:12.560 or many families that have been through many tragedies

00:27:15.260 or chronically ill individuals

00:27:17.660 or people that have faced such hardship,

00:27:20.500 the only reason that they can endure is because hope.

00:27:25.020 It's not a flame that I kept lit.

00:27:27.700 It's a flame that the Lord kept lit in me.

00:27:32.580 It's evidence of the call.

00:27:34.800 It's evidence of salvation.

00:27:37.240 It's evidence of mercy and grace.

00:27:39.820 It's evidence that it's not my control.

00:27:42.560 The greatness of the hope of redemption, a living hope, will permit us to bear up under

00:27:54.120 the difficult circumstances of life.

00:27:57.440 When you know that you have hope that cannot be extinguished, it will carry you under the

00:28:03.140 difficult circumstances of your life.

00:28:06.660 When you fear that you're going to give up, when you fear that you cannot endure anymore,

00:28:12.460 you fear that you're going to just stop and break you won't you won't not

00:28:21.280 because of you not because the strength that's in you not because of your

00:28:23.800 intrinsic performance or self-discipline or self-made-ness or strength but

00:28:32.840 But because of the strength of Christ in you.

00:28:43.080 It will be your hope of heaven that carries you.

00:28:47.320 It'll be your hope of the restoration and the redemption of your bodies that will carry

00:28:51.220 you.

00:28:52.720 Your living hope, the life of God in your hope.

00:28:57.320 I'll close with this.

00:29:01.740 the old hymn writer once penned in trials deep when shadows fall our living hope a beacon tall

00:29:10.440 for in our hearts God's life abides a flame that through the dark still guides though tempest rage

00:29:18.740 and fears assail this living hope shall never fail for in God's power it finds its rest a light that

00:29:28.020 shines amidst the test. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you sustain us. Father, we thank

00:29:42.900 you for the hope that you have deposited in our hearts through the word of God, through the Holy

00:29:48.360 Spirit. Lord, we ask that you would continue to strengthen our hope. Lord, that you would give us

00:29:54.860 color and understanding

00:29:56.740 and clarity of this hope.

00:29:59.340 Lord, that this hope would continue

00:30:00.880 to be magnified in us.

00:30:02.740 Lord, that it would carry us through any

00:30:04.400 possible circumstance that is given.

00:30:07.640 Lord, we ask that you would bless

00:30:08.840 us with wisdom

00:30:10.600 of this hope.

00:30:13.440 Lord, that we would see this

00:30:14.800 hope in others. Lord, that we would

00:30:16.740 encourage this hope in others.

00:30:20.060 That we would have

00:30:20.820 a theology of hope.

00:30:22.340 That we would have a gospel of hope. Lord, that we would

00:30:24.480 communicate with clarity a gospel that brings hope. Lord, that it would translate into action

00:30:30.820 and things that we would do for the kingdom of the Lord. We pray that you would bless us with

00:30:36.680 power and passion and perseverance and patience. Lord, that all these things

00:30:41.100 would be done because of the hope that's in us.

00:30:46.820 We ask, Father, that this would be true here, not just vaguely true in the world, but here

00:30:53.600 in these hearts, in this room,

00:30:55.860 in this church, in this town.

00:30:58.220 Father, we pray that you would bless this place.

00:31:02.000 In Jesus' name, amen.

00:31:04.580 Amen.

Dale Partridge - February 16, 2024

How to Have Hope in our Wait for Glory - Romans 8_23-25

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