Law & Grace - The Glory That Is To Be Revealed
Vern Peterman · Oct 14, 2012
Law & Grace, No. 85
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492633112396

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we've been going through this passage, I've been really excited just to see what is in it, the depth of what is here, and also as we go through it, the fellowship. One of the things we've brought out before and will bring out again is, in spite of the song that's often on gospel albums and that sort of thing, you've got to walk the lonesome valley. No way, not a chance, is that what God has in mind. So anyway, as we look at the passage that Wayne just read for us here, we'll start kind of by way of review.

We began starting in Romans 5 and summarizing that chapter by God's doing. We stand in His grace. We don't stand because we took a stand there, but because God placed us there. We stand in His grace and grace is the reigning principle. Those are some key and summary truths from that chapter. We were identified with Christ, chapter 6 spells out, with Christ and his death and his burial and his resurrection. And so we are dead to the sin nature and alive to God. That would be a summary of important truths from that chapter, chapter 6. And in the beginning of chapter 7, we have died to the law in order to be joined to Christ.

That is why and how we were joined to Christ, is we died to the law in order to be joined to Christ. You don't get mixes and matches in that. We didn't get sick to the law. We didn't get weakened to the law. We died to it completely, fully dead, in order to be fully alive and joined to Christ.

And then the thing we saw in the last half of chapter 7, starting with verse 7, trying to live by a law principle with even just one law, even one out of the Ten Commandments, right? Just one law stirs up the sin nature. The other truth going along with that is we can't simply will righteous living in our own power. That's stated in Romans 7. It's also stated in one half of a verse in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17. We cannot simply will to do the right thing and will not to do the wrong thing.

That is an exceedingly valuable proof of Scripture and one that probably most Christians don't get, but important that we teach it. Now, just to bring the point home, the law doesn't really help anyone to be righteous. It is, in fact, a yoke and a burden, and that's what it's called in Acts 15 when the Apostles are talking about it, about the law. The law is a yoke and a burden on the believer, but it doesn't help one be righteous. It defines righteousness, but it gives you no help in doing so, and that's the problem. We've also seen that in dealing with the flesh, and we define that, the flesh is the sin nature as it works through this human body. And living alive to God is not a task that we take on alone.

That's been the message so far in Romans chapter 8. There is no lonesome valley to walk. There is no, here's your assignment, go out and do it and I'll check back with you later. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. You are in the Spirit and the Spirit is in you for living out this truth. dead to sin, alive to God. There is no intent on God's part that you do it all by yourself. Or that he say, well, how are you doing? No. He has accomplished these things and made these truths to be true so that we are able to live out the very life of Christ, not to abide by the law.

The Believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the Believer. The Believer is also in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Believer. But while those two sound alike, they are for entirely different purposes. That's what we've been seeing here as we've been going through these chapters.

The Holy Spirit puts to work in our life the works of Christ. our position in Christ, the life of Christ, and the image of Christ. We are being transformed by a work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who implements all the things Christ has accomplished. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings about, by multiple ministries, by multiple ministries, brings out the very life of Christ in and through us.

Now today's passage, verses 18 through 27, is going to give us some perspective. Paul talks about the past, he talks about the present, and he talks about the future. So it's a passage of perspective in great part here. He will address the past, present, and future of this creation, and our place in this creation, past, present, and future. with a focus on hope. He brings up the word hope a few times in this chapter and that's not accidental. A focus is on hope. He's also going to give us here a perspective on suffering and creation's suffering. Our suffering and the suffering of creation. Sometimes we don't think of it in these terms but creation has been suffering.

You ever see some really neat nature photos, pictures of nature? Do you know that's a fallen world? That's what it looks like with sin. Can you imagine? Even the most awesome nature pictures, or your visit to some national park or place of beautiful scenery, that's a fallen world. That's with sin. Imagine what it was like without sin.

Our suffering and creation suffering. Finally, Paul is going to provide an insight here into the nature of our prayer and the Spirit's prayer on our parts. The Spirit prays for us. He begins with verse 18, not worthy to be compared with whatever suffering we endure and Paul himself suffered a great deal. So Paul is not being a theoretician here. Paul is not writing about suffering as like, well, that happens to somebody. No, as a matter of fact, we've included 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 28 as one of the slides there. Paul writes here, and I'm cutting kind of in the middle of his discourse, so he says, Are they servants of Christ?

I speak as if insane. I'm more so. And then he starts, "...in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep.

I have been on frequent journeys, in journeys from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I've been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights and hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

This he wrote about a year after he wrote Romans that we're studying through. He wrote this before the shipwreck and the other things that he experienced that are recorded at the end of Acts. So those would be added on top of this. But Paul was no neophyte when it came to suffering. He knew what he was talking about. He had personally met with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had been to paradise. He just couldn't talk about it. Now, whatever suffering we endure, and Paul had suffered plenty, it is not at all to be compared. It's way out of proportion to the glory that is to be revealed, got this? To us. To you and me.

The glory to be revealed to us. Now, what is glory? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. God's essence, who He is, is so radiant that in the new heavens and new earth, that will be the light source. Don't need a sun. Don't need any other lights. That's completely adequate. God's radiant essence is glory.

Paul does not say that we might suffer. He doesn't say there's a possibility it could happen. He assumes that it will happen. There is and will be suffering. There is value and purpose in our suffering, and that's, I think, comforting for us to know. God does not have us suffer needlessly. As believers, that's one thing we can take comfort in. God is not wasting it on us.

There is use and purpose in all the suffering that goes on. Paul's point here, however, is that the glory to be revealed to us is far, far greater. So much that the scale is just lopsided. The scale isn't just sort of tilted slightly to the glory side. It's way, way off. Completely pinned.

There will come a time when Christ comes again and we will come with Him. Scripture spells that out real clearly. That will be our revealing to the creation when the earth will be in great part restored from the curse of sin. You see, what happened is God created a world that was perfect, but had Adam in the garden not righteous, but innocent. There's a difference. Christ is righteous. Adam was innocent. until he sinned, right? And he was no longer innocent, certainly not righteous. The world was then cursed. It has since that time, since the time of Adam's sin, the world has been cursed and groans awaiting this future time when there will be a substantial restoration of the earth. We have a hope and anticipation of what is to come when that glory of God is revealed to us. So the first revelation of glory will be to us, and then we, sharing His glory, will be revealed to the world, to the creation.

See that? He is glorious. He shares that glory with us. As He and we return with Him, that glory will be revealed to creation. See the sequence? Amazing. What's God's eternal purpose? To declare and reveal His glory and to share His glory with us that He may be glorified. That's God's eternal purpose. You're part of it. That's cool. That's really cool. The suffering that we go through now is not to be compared with this glory. This is going to be awesome! Really, really awesome.

Creation has a hope as well. We have a blessed hope, the blessed hope of Christ coming for us. That's our blessed hope. But creation has a hope as well when the sons of God, that's us, are revealed to the creation. Isn't that amazing? The creation has a hope.

You think about it, people get all really wrapped around the axle and turned around and exasperated and everything else about ecological problems and all the different problems in the world. Is that going to be around forever? No. Matter of fact, it's not going to get any better really until Jesus comes and he's going to do that with us. He's going to do that with us.

Here you have this chart, and I think this is just to kind of get the picture. I have not included in this going back to the time of Adam and the garden when Adam first sinned, but this starts with Christ's first coming and now the church age, that is the age that we're in now. And if I were to guess, I'd say we're about here, okay? And I haven't marked that on your chart, I don't think. But I'd say we're about there. Right about there.

But I hope the rapture's today. But that rapture will be the time when the Lord takes us up to be with Him. He comes for us. To take us to be with Him in the heavenlies. during this seven-year tribulation period and then comes back with us. So the rapture is Him coming for us, the second coming is His coming with us. See the difference there? First He will come for us and then He will come with us. Here to earth, that's what the creation is longing for and hoping for and eagerly awaiting for. The creation was subjected to futility. Futility, what is that? Boy, this is a big waste of time. Subjected to futility, but not hopelessly. There was even hope in that being subjected to futility. There was hope in that. What is the hope?

It's what God is doing, and the hope is what's going to take place when you and I come back here on this planet with Christ. With Christ. and he will have shared his glory with us revealed his glory to us first and shared his glory with us we will come back with him glorified and glorious what was lost for creation when the first Adam sinned is greatly restored on more and Christ returned and our own revealing our revealing when we come with him there will be at that time both a spiritual and a physical restoration of the creation.

Our coming with Christ to also be revealed with Him will begin that time of substantially restoring creation. Substantially restoring creation. Ephesians 1, 9 and 10 actually points to this period of time, and we have it expanded and explained in a slide on page two of your handout. He the Father made known to us in the church, through the apostles and the prophets, the previously unrevealed mystery of His will, a mystery is something that was previously not revealed but now is. According to His kind intention, which He the Father purposed in Christ, and from the plan and perspective of God's administration of all things, which we now know includes the church, toward the full completion and final stage of earthly times, that is the summing up and the bringing into submission of all things in Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, including all the things in the heavens and things on the earth. That will be really, really cool and really glorious. The glory once revealed to us will become glory revealed through us. You see that? First it's revealed to us, it will be revealed through us.

Right now, since Adam fell into sin, the earth was cursed by God, and again, in hope. The creation has been made subject to its slavery to corruption. Sin causes nature to mourn and to groan and to suffer. This passage spells out, and you can find that, and I give several references in the Old Testament prophets. Why do we have ecological problems? Is it because the government needs to make more regulations to fix it? No. We have ecological problems based in sin. That's where they come from. Therefore, as the Old Testament prophets would write, the land mourns, the fish mourn, the birds mourn. That's what the problem is, it's sin.

That time will come, and it could be as soon as seven years from today, when Christ the Glorious One will return and we with Him, freely sharing and revealing His glory. There's a groaning and a hoping in this passage. All of creation groans and suffers pains in anticipation of the birthing of that time, the time of Christ's reign. And before that time, there will be a growing intensity of those pains.

That's spelled out in Matthew 24, 8. It's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. And that's something a lot of people don't get. They say, boy, things are getting really bad. Guess what? It's going to get a lot worse. And then it'll get a lot better. But a lot worse first.

Right now we have the indwelling Spirit, our position in Him as the firstfruits. And what do we mean by that? The beginning part of the harvest. We're just at the start. we too having a groaning and a hoping for our resurrection bodies like Christ's. Now, he brings up again, the second time in this passage, the adoption of sons. Adoption as sons, and the adoption as sons in this situation that he's talking about here is our resurrection.

This is when we get new bodies to replace these. Won't that be great? Maybe you'd like yours replaced sooner, but nonetheless, we'll get new bodies to replace these that we're in now. Our spiritual being, that is soul and spirit, is radically changed by God's doing at the moment we believe. One of those radical changes that takes place there is that we receive the spirit of adoption as sons. But the fulfillment of it, the final fulfillment of it, will be when we get our new bodies. That's the rest of the adoption as sons process.

The Apostle Paul used this term in places that had substantial Roman influence, and writing to Rome, of course that has substantial Roman influence, wouldn't you know? So this adoption of sons, we included this from last week's message. I won't spend so much time on it because of that.

But it was a process, I'll point out, that originated in Roman law in order for a Roman emperor to have someone that he had designated. If we think of adoption, oftentimes we're thinking of kids, maybe even babies. But this was someone who was an adult who was adopted.

And it's for the Roman emperor to be assured of having an heir that he wanted on the throne. And so it happened actually several times during biblical New Testament times. The consequences were the adopted son lost all his rights in the old family and gained more rights than a fully legitimate born son in his new family. He became an heir to his father's estate, even if other sons were born afterwards. It was a priority that couldn't be displaced. The old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out. All debts gone. Even criminal record gone. And it didn't matter how many or how big. All gone. Period.

That's really good news for us. And finally, the adopted son was literally and absolutely the son of his new father. And that's the position that we are in. In verses 24 and 25, we have faith in God and what he has promised will come about in the future. And that is the basis for our certain hope. When I say certain, I mean absolute hope, fixed hope, not an I hope so kind of hope. This isn't a hope of probabilities. This is a hope of 100% certainty.

As 1 John 3.2 tells us, it will be fulfilled in this way.

Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears to take us with Him, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. We will see Him just as He is and we will have a body like His. We will at that time be fully conformed and fully transformed to the image of His Son. We will be like Him. The process is going on now. You're being conformed and you're being transformed. Those are processes that are going on now. They will be brought to completion on that day. You will be fully conformed and fully transformed into the image of Christ.

Now there's not only a groaning, but a groaning and waiting eagerly. What we've seen here, and we'll see again in this passage, is that there is a groaning and that groaning is because of Adam's sin and curse, at least initially. We know that things should be better and we hope for better.

Isn't it interesting that people have a sense of, you know, it ought to be better than it is? People have a sense of, it ought to be different than it is. It ought to be like that. Isn't that interesting? People have an almost natural sense of, you know, it ought to be better, it ought to be different. This isn't quite the way things ought to be. There is a hope then for what is better and we know that things should and in fact from scripture will be better. Waiting eagerly or wait or waits actually occurs three times in this passage. That's an important perspective.

We don't give up hope. There's never a place for a believer to give up hope no matter how bad circumstances get. Nor do we wait with dread. Oh no! Jesus is coming and boy is he ticked! Right? That's not the perspective we have. Right? We don't wait with dread. We wait eagerly for what's ahead or who's ahead and that's Christ. We wait eagerly for him. That's his point here. Christ coming for us is our blessed hope. It's a good thing. It's a really, really, really good thing. Now notice in this passage, when you get to the last part of it, who searches.

In Revelation 2.23, Jesus searches minds and hearts of the saints.

1 Corinthians 2.10, the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. But in this passage, God the Father searches our hearts, knowing the mind of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. God searches our hearts, knowing the mind of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. Christ, as we'll see in next week's passage, also intercedes for us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Christ intercedes for us.

There is no doing this alone. Have you ever had this feeling like, boy, I wonder if it's doing any good for me to pray? I just feel like I'm just talking to the ceiling or something. As you're praying, You have the Holy Spirit praying alongside, and you have Christ praying alongside. It doesn't get any better than that! None of this lonely stuff. This is really cool teaching. This is really great stuff.

We do not pray all by ourselves. Never. We never pray by ourselves. You have two persons of the Godhead that indwell you and in whom you are, that are there with you intimately while you are praying. You do not pray alone, ever. And you most certainly don't walk any lonesome valley.

The Bible teaches that there are three personal beings, one essence, this is termed the Trinity, a word not found in scripture but certainly taught in scripture, All three persons of the Trinity are involved in your prayer. And you are in Christ, and you are in the Spirit, and you are indwelt by Christ, and you are indwelt by the Spirit, praying to the Father. You pray to the Father, through Jesus the Son, by means of the Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in your praying, and two of them are involved with you intimately.

So prayer is, guess what? Intimacy. Prayer is intimacy. One of the things I've shared with Nancy is that we can start in our relationship, and Ephesians 5 has this sequence, we can start in our relationship with spiritual intimacy. It happens when we share things about the Lord and when we pray together. Intimacy. There is no lonesome valley. No, no. Something else I want to talk about here.

Our culture has long been telling us that our feelings ought to steer our life. Unfortunately, that gets grabbed by Christians as well. It's a false teaching, by the way. that our feelings ought to be steering our life. Well, if somebody feels that way, well, that's just completely true and valid, and that makes everything okay. As long as you feel that way, and are sincere about it, right? Our culture has been telling us that for decades. It's been telling us in songs, and movies, and other things.

That's not what Scripture spells out. And a lot of Christians get really wrapped around the axle about this. You'll have Christian groups where they'll say things like, take not your Holy Spirit from me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Guess what? I've got the Holy Spirit indwelling me. I'm in the Spirit all the time. And it doesn't vary. At all. Ever.

What people often do is they assume that there's a feeling that goes along with walking in the Spirit. And so they searched for the feeling instead of walking in the Spirit. Give me that feeling back like I had last Sunday. And if the pastor doesn't help bring the feeling back, they're really picked, or at least disappointed. Biblical faith is founded in the facts. Faith in the facts, the feelings go on top, experiences as well. But faith in the facts is the basis. We don't pursue the feelings, we pursue faith in the revealed facts of God's Word.

That's the place for feelings. That's the place for feelings. Not to steer my life. Not to direct things. As we go through this passage and see the Holy Spirit, what we find is it's not feelings that are to steer us. It's faith in the facts. The feelings go on top of that and are judged by God's Word. And it's an entirely different structure from what the world teaches us and frankly as it's taught in many churches. We don't cater here at Holly Hills to trying to get you all pumped up so you can make it through the week before you run out of momentum and need to come back next week. We don't do that. We don't try to manipulate your feelings. We tell you here are the facts to believe in. And the feelings go on top of it.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that as we look at these truths, we can have such great assurance that you are most certainly with us and you are intensely interested in our prayers. You are intensely interested in the things that you've revealed here because you love us and care for us. And we just pray that you'd bring these truths home to our hearts, that they would be lived out, that we would come to a realization of what wonderful intimacy we can have with you. But it's not in chasing a feeling, it's faith in the facts, and then the feelings follow. We thank you, Lord, for these wonderful and marvelous, deep and precious truths. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.