19 Expectations of Glory

Good morning. Okay, so we've been working through Chapter 8 of Romans. Interesting chapter because it has so much, so many incredible things that are just kind of quietly said. about us and about the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. And sometimes we just sort of miss it, miss them. Last week I talked a little bit about chapter eight, divided into four paragraphs. The focus is not salvation, but justification, or justification, but sanctification or spiritual growth. That's really what chapter eight's all about.

The first part, the first couple parts, verses one through four, teach us about the spirits liberating us from the law. and liberating us from the power of the flesh or the sin nature. A concept until you read Romans 6, you probably had no idea that the sin nature was as powerful as it is and that we need to be liberated from its dominion. And then verses 5 through 13, we learn that the Holy Spirit is incompatibility with the flesh. The spirit can't get along with the flesh. They can't exist in the same environment. They're mutually exclusive. They can't be mixed. The believer has an option, though. He can either walk after the spirit or he can walk after the flesh.

Paragraph three, 14 through 17, which we'll cover some of it today in review, the Spirit's leading and the witnessing to us as to who we are, where we are, and what we have. And so the focus today, though, is gonna be on 17 and 18, the Spirit's intercession as we wait, as we wait the glory to come. So, 16, 17, 18, and 19 that Connor just read, we will focus on 18 and 19, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. So last week we looked at a question, who are those who have the privilege, and I mean privilege, to suffer? All believers. It's like if you're in college someplace and you get a box of cookies from your mother, everybody comes around and says, you are gonna share those, aren't ya? We have the privilege to suffer.

Second Corinthians 1.5 says, for just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our suffering, as you are sharers of our suffering, so also you are sharers of comfort.

Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, most believers want to stop right there. But the verse goes on and says the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed unto his death.

Or 1 Peter 4.13, but the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation.

So suffering, we found out last week, isn't a voluntary matter. It's necessitated by relationship, our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Or you can say it this way, all men suffer. because they live in a fallen world. The privilege of believers is that their sufferings are specifically ordained of them to suffer to grow. So suffering isn't a condition of glorification. according to Merriman, you don't have to suffer to be glorified, but you will suffer. If children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer, or if so, it's a particle of fulfilled condition, a first class conditional clause we can say, since indeed we suffer, It's accepted fact that we're gonna suffer with Christ.

Second Timothy 3.12 tells us, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Will be, not option. We're gonna be. And why? Because men hate Christ. And why do they hate him? Because he lived what we call the Christian life, which is his life. And all believers get to share in that hate because you have the life.

So you don't have to look for it, it's there. The purpose is that we may be glorified with him. It's divinely designed that we're gonna suffer. It is divinely designed that we are going to be glorified with Him. Both of those things are by God's design and are true of us.

Last week I showed you this chart that the three words for join heirs with Christ, if indeed we co-suffer with him, that may we also be co-glorified together. Whenever you see in Greek, that little S-U-N in front of words, It means whatever the word refers to, whether you're an heir or a sufferer or you're glorified, it's a co-thing. You're gonna do it with him. It's automatic.

So the question is, who are those to be glorified with Christ when he comes? Paul says, in that of and to all saints, he says, Romans 5-2, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. back when we were studying in chapter five, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. There wasn't enough information yet to explain to us what the hope of the glory of God was all about.

In 2 Thessalonians 1.10, when he comes, he shall come to be glorified in his saints and be marveled at all them that believe. We're not gonna, he's not gonna show up glorified without us being with him.

First Corinthians 15, 23, Christ the firstfruits, then they that are Christ that is coming. Firstfruits were a part of the Jewish system that were offered to Jehovah as a representative of the whole crop. to be harvested was gonna be exactly like the first fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ is the first fruit of the new creation and all those that belong to him are just like him. When Christ our life shall be manifested, then shall you also, all the saints, all of us, with him be manifested in glory.

Guarantee. Now, are all, and I mean all the saints, children of God, technon, born ones of God. We know that if He shall be manifested, we, every saint, shall be like Him, for we'll see Him as He is. So they're all through Paul's epistles. There is this co-glorification idea that's presented to us, but there's also the co-suffering idea that goes with it.

Then we talk about if we endure in 2 Timothy 2.12, we shall also reign with him.

Yeah, interesting contrast here. Being a joint heir with Christ, and being a member of his body and therefore sharing those sufferings, that every member of a living Christ will suffer in a world where Satan is the prince. That's one thing. The other thing is this, acquiring conditionally, and I mean by your experience, The ability to have victory over Satan in the world and entering gladly into the conflict of these sufferings involved and ending is probably a whole different thing. It's one thing to know it.

It's one thing to live in this world. where Satan controls and suffering is a lot of all men. It's another thing to realize through God's word and through the work of the Spirit that the conflict is okay and conditionally I can walk in spite of all of that. So what's God's purpose here? What is he trying to teach us through suffering? He's fitting training one for reigning with Christ. You know we're all going to rain, right? You got that down? Though all his members are joint heirs with him, notice, endure hupamano, I think this is Chester McCauley's favorite word. He always translates it, load carrying ability, which means that before the training, you couldn't carry anything. And I was talking to Roger before.

When I was enlisted in the Marine Corps, I knew that I was gonna go to boot camp and suffer. And I was afraid. Because those guys can, I mean, what you hear is, oh my goodness, who wants to do this crazy thing? But when I was that age, you were either gonna volunteer or you were gonna get drafted, take your pick. So you were gonna go one way or the other. So I was gonna go and I was going to learn, well, Macaulay says it right, I was gonna learn how to carry my load. That's what I was really there for.

Romans 5.17 said, those who receive abundance of grace and of the right, the gift of righteousness will reign in life. You have to be made ready for that. Fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He knew the outcome. Because he knew the outcome, he knew it was his father's will and he endured the cross.

He carried his load. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons for what is a son whom the father doesn't discipline? Our fathers hopefully disciplined us as children and as young men for what reason? So that we could carry our load, we'd know what to do.

In James 5.11 it says we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings.

Again, back to my example of Marine Corps boot camps, 12 weeks long, and they're pretty savvy. It takes you a while when you're there to kind of figure this out because you're trying to, what you're really trying to do, what I try to do is to get in the middle of my platoon so no one would notice me. And whenever they said, do we have any volunteers, my hands were in my pockets. I wasn't volunteering for a thing, because I could see the guys that did volunteer, there was more suffering involved in that.

But what you find out about halfway through is what they're trying to do is keep you alive. They're trying to train you and teach you to carry your load for what purpose so that you and your fellow Marines can live in a very stressful situation. And once you start to think about that, you think, oh yeah, well this really does make sense. As a matter of fact, probably need more training.

One of my college roommates was a lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and he took a platoon to Vietnam for 14 months, and I was with him the night before he left. We were in Las Vegas, of all places. And he said, my platoon hates me. I said, they do, why? He said, because I'm training them to death. They are up early and they stay up late. And I said, why are you doing that?

He said, I want to bring them all back alive. And 14 months later, I saw him and he said, one wounded out of 76 guys. For a combat platoon of soldiers, Marines, to come back from a place like Vietnam with one person wounded is attributable to really, really good training. They all understood, they knew. So suffering or trials are designed for us by our Father so that we may learn how to carry our load. Boot camp in the military is designed for recruits to learn how to carry out their duties.

Do we have duties and responsibilities in the body of Christ? Yes, we do. And we're gonna have responsibilities in the millennial kingdom. The difference, though, of these two experiences is that believers learn how to be more and more dependent on the Holy Spirit to carry out God's assigned duties, relying on the divine power rather than your own strength. If I come out of boot camp and I think I can do it, which most Marines do, then I have confidence. But in this boot camp, this training from the Lord, I come out more and more and more dependent on Him and the Spirit of God to do and to carry out what He has proposed to do. It becomes a really bright day when we come to realize that our Father has taken on the responsibility to fit us out for our life here.

He's taken on the responsibility. And what we will be doing, reigning with the Lord Jesus in the future, He is training us for that. He is getting us ready. He's teaching us how to carry the load, which you find in the body of Christ and believers, What do you really do as a body? You carry each other's load. No one has to carry their own. You can help carry everybody else's.

So here comes the verse for today. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. It's an incredible verse. This word, consider, is our favorite word, reckon, logizima. It means to compute or to calculate. It means, the word refers to a process of reasoning with the results in arriving at a conclusion. I'm thinking through. the sufferings of this present time and I've come to the conclusion, I've reckoned that the sufferings that I have right now can't be compared to the glory that will be revealed in and to us.

To count it true because you have done the math, You counted every piece. You went through boot camp every single day. And when you got to the end, you graduated. And for the first time in 12 weeks, somebody says to you something other than an expletive deleted. They say to you, Maureen, God says to you, you're my son. You're an adult son. You now, by depending on me, can carry your load.

It's not a matter of experience, but it's a matter of fact. Can I or not? Well, I find out that no, I probably can't. And the reason I can't is because what I'm called to be and called to do is much greater than my ability to do it. So I'm learning dependence. That's what I learn in discipline in the school of God.

John Wesley said, frames and feelings fluctuate. These can narrow thy Savior be. Learn thyself in Christ to see, then be feelings what they will. Jesus is thy Savior still. You don't function based on feelings. You function based on the facts of God's word and faith. That's what makes you able to carry. That's what makes you strong in Christ.

So the idea, I think, is very common in Christians. That's a great and wonderful thing to be mightily used of God. Oh, to be a great evangelist or to be a great teacher or whatever, but that's an entirely false conception. The truth is that those who serve the Lord Jesus most truly go through the deepest suffering. You may have a more or less easy time I don't want to dishearten you by saying that it may not always be so, but if you really want to be greatly used of the Lord, remember, it may be by a deeper discipline of the Lord.

This is, the next couple of slides are from None But the Hungry Heart. This was a quote by T. Austin Sparks. What you find with these, what I call solid commentators on God's word, they all understand what suffering is all about, why you're doing it. A man, initials AC, says, many have lived under blue skies from birth.

To such I have a word, and this is, fear not, no lover of the Lord will ever be overlooked. He knows where to find his willing hearts, just give him time. He will not refuse. to his dearest, the joy that is bathed in the dews of Gethsemane. We don't look at Gethsemane as being joyful, but it is. Another quote from 613. There's no personal knowledge of God as we count on him, as we are particularly conscious of the deepening, of the depending on him and of his caring for us. There comes with this discipline an understanding that he's caring for me. He's looking out for me. As a matter of fact, he is purposely doing and bringing into my life this trial or this suffering that I have.

One without straits and victories really has no growing acquaintance with God. And where there is not this, however great the intelligence or sincerity, there is little or no saver. It is the trials and difficulties of the way that are opportunities for our hearts to grow in acquaintanceship with Him, and that's the key, acquaintanceship with Christ. And we'll be found that while there may be a great enjoyment in ministry, and an unfolding of the truth that really there is not strength, but in proportion as one has learned how God has been for and with one in the trials and sorrows of the way.

And as one has known him in them, so is one able to speak of him. It's interesting because there are a lot of people that can talk about what they think the Lord Jesus is or how he is or how he functions. One of the concerns is not to be concerned about the instruction of multitude of details, not to explain to us the reason for the trials. A lot of times we go to the Lord and say, well, why are you doing this? which are called upon to pass through.

He's working out everything to serve his supreme purpose. Everybody know what his supreme purpose is? To display the character of his son in those that he's redeemed. We use the term be conformed to the image of Christ, but I like the way it's phrased here, to display the character of his son in the redeemed ones.

Romans 5.3 talks about suffering produces trite character. It's his character is being produced in us.

So with this growth comes the greater fullness of the Lord Jesus and the abundant spiritual wealth into which we have all been saved. It's not so much a matter of that form which we will be saved or as of that into which we were saved. The grand climax of the new creation is the revealing of the sons of God. That's the next verse we'll talk about.

So the suffering of this present time, what's going on in your life right now, I could say, raise your hand if you're suffering, and everybody's hand, and go up, because there's something going on in your life that's a trial to you. And you know what? That's a good thing.

The world tells us that suffering is a bad thing. The word of God says this is a really good thing that you suffer, because you don't grow without it. You don't grow. At the present time, it's necessary to have God's estimate of these days in which we live, or we can be misled into man's false thoughts, as an example.

Galatians 1.4 calls this a present evil age. Boy, if I watch television, it doesn't say that.

It's gonna get better. It's not getting better, it's dying. The days are evil. or this darkness, we've all, because we're pretty much a little bit older crowd, all of you have said to me or I've said to you over the last 10 years, boy, it used to be better then than it is now. Well, the darkness is increasing by God's design. The distress that is upon us, the fashion of this world is passing away. We somehow want the world, we have this, oh, I want the world to do better. It's not, it's an evil place. So he says, I consider the sufferings of this present time now.

If you compare them, you're gonna compare them, what's the worth of the glory to be revealed in us? You can't compare them. They don't compare. In spite of the horrors of Nero or Diocletian or the rest, or if you've ever studied the Spanish Inquisition, or the present-day murder of believers all over the planet, especially in Islamic countries, none of that can compare to the glory that will be revealed. so swallow up the brief earthly troubles that they shall not be named nor remembered in that day when Christ shall come. No matter what it was and how awful it was at the time that you suffered it, Newell believes that you won't even remember him, and I think he's right about that. It's difficult or impossible to depict in language all of or any real measure of what is meant by the glory which shall be revealed towards us.

In fact, as we know, we are to be glorified with Christ, to share in his glory and appear with him in glory. That's a fact. Colossians 3, 4 says, when Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. That's a true statement.

2 Thessalonians 1.10, when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all men. You who have believed, for your testimony to you is believed.

Not only will the saints behold Christ's glory, not only will we see the glorious Christ, this is the same God that Moses had to be stuck in a cleft of a rock so God could walk by and Moses could look at his behind, Glory, otherwise if he looked at him in his face, he would die.

But you and I are gonna be able to see him full on, full on the glory, but we're gonna be sharing the same glory. It isn't I'm gonna stand there and watch all the glory over there. No, I'm gonna be and you're gonna be part of it. We're gonna be glorified with him, imagine what that's like, or will be like.

Then he says that towards us or upon us, it will be a reflected glory, reflected from our Lord in his glory that will make the saints radiant when they return to the earth with the Lord Jesus in his second advent. I've often thought, well, what's it gonna be like in the millennial kingdom when we're all ruling and reigning and here are these believing Jews in Israel with the law written on their heart and possessed by the spirit of God and there's other saints around and stuff and then there's us. What are we gonna be?

How are they gonna know if we're a son of God? This is how. If you walk by one of them, they're gonna say, there goes the Son of God. How can they tell? Because the glory of God will come out of you for everyone to see, everyone. I can't imagine what that's gonna be like. But I won't have to worry about anything other than just by a visual observation, they will know that we're sons and we're the bride of Christ. Now, verse 19, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. This word anxious, longing, or earnest expectation is kind of a long Greek word that I don't intend to try to speak.

So I broke it up, or when I read it I broke it up. Apo, the first part of it, implies abstraction, the attention turned from one object to another. In other words, I've been paying attention over here and something has brought my attention over here. The next part is Kara means to watch with the head erect and outstretched. And the only example I could think of, I don't know if any of you have watched, any of you ever been to a golf tournament? And there's those big crowds and you're in the back doing this, trying to see over the guy in front of you. That's what this word means. And consequently, they're waiting, we are waiting in suspense. For what?

The whole entire creation. A non-rational creation viewed collectively, animated or inanimated, equivalent to all nature, Vincent says. This entire planet and universe is expectantly waiting. And they wait patiently and continually From the day that they were submitted to the, the creation was submitted to vanity, they started the waiting process. And they await eagerly. The hope and promise of creation is involved in the present makeup of the world. Maybe the people aren't expectantly waiting, but the environment they live in is.

Galatians 3.17, when God said to Adam, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. You think the ground is equally awaiting? Yes. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. and every other human being, all the days of their life, you have to work. You have to work. So the ground is cursed for man's sake. The creation is linked to man. Creation is not lifeless or inert.

It is a natural ally of who we are as souls. Our souls are earthbound. So why would they wait? Notice that the one event, the one event of the coming of Christ and the releasing of the creation from the vanity is the revealing of who you and I are. We're tied to that. We're tied to that. So the creation is waiting for us to be manifested in glory. That's probably not a very good comparison to all the suffering that's going on. Imagine again what that's gonna be like.

That the whole creation gets released of vanity because you showed up glorified in Christ. Revealing. What rises from it is a note of hope. in soaring triumphantly above all the pain of conflict. I know what's coming, and that really helps. The revealing and uncovering a laying bare, a showing what was never seen before.

Kenneth Weiss says that that is a non-rational creation subject to the curse, put upon it because of man's sin is expectantly waiting for the glorification of what? The saints, that it also may be delivered from the curse under which it now exists. So what does the world know about this kind of a verse?

Answer, nothing, nothing. The world knows that the end is coming. It's gonna be done. They're gonna die. And that's gonna be the end. That's the problem. There is no hope for those who don't know the Lord Jesus. Every single one of us ought to remember this verse.

Man's philosophy and science taught in their schools continually babble about evolution and the progress in the present condition. How much progress are we making? I'll leave that question open. and they go back in pure imagination millions of years, and then they go forward millions of years, what do they do? They're telling you confidently how things came to be, and when and what they will come to be, and they don't know a thing. They know absolutely nothing. And so I don't know why this hit my mind this week, You know who The Doors are? There's a band in the 70s, 80s called The Doors. Their lead singer was a guy named Jim Morrison. Well, he wrote and sang a song called This is the End. So I looked it up. This is how the world thinks.

This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that stands, the end. No safety or surprise, the end. I'll never look into your eyes again. This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end, my only friend, the end. It hurts to set you free. but you'll never follow me. The end of laughter and soft lies, the end of nights we tried to die, this is the end. That depicts the world's viewpoint of how they live today. This is the end. What happens when you die? That's why when you go to a funeral, In the world, it's the most sad, awful thing you can possibly do. When you go to a believer's funeral, it's a celebration.

It's a joyful time. Because when you think about it, our death is a doorway into life. is the doorway into glory, is the doorway into rest and grace, and most importantly, it is the doorway into the Lord Jesus Christ. So the glorified ones, summing up, who are the glorified with Christ when he comes? Chapter five, Paul tells us, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice. when he shall come to be glorified with the saints and to be marveled at all of them that believed.

That's us. Christ the firstfruits, then they that are Christ that is coming. Christ our life shall be manifested, then shall you also with him be manifested in glory. That's what we get to look forward to. This thing about the end is not true of us. It's just the beginning. In 1 John 3, 2, now we are all saints, children of God. We know that if he shall be manifested, We, all the saints, will be like him, for we will see him even as he is.

And in closing, I would say that the word of God has been given to us, as 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, so that we can behold his glory reflectively. When you read your Bibles, don't read them to cram your head full of facts or to become a theologian. Look for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed to you vis-a-vis the Holy Spirit, and you will see him reflectively, and that's just the beginning. That's just the beginning. When Christ is revealed, you and I will be revealed with him.

Let's close. Father again, the grace that you have extended to us and manifest to us and will now and in the future include us is overwhelming to our minds. We recognize that you discipline us so that we can enter into more fully and rest by faith in what you tell us is true of us now and what will be true of us in the future. We're so thankful. And we pray in your son's name, amen.