Good News, We're Expecting

, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 5. Romans 5 for time of study in the word this morning. We are doing a verse by verse study through Romans 567 and 8, a journey. To the heart of the gospel is what we are calling it.

And as we continue in our study of this section of the book of Romans, we come this morning to Romans chapter 8, verse 23. And my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 23 through 25. And the title of the message this morning is Good News. We're expecting.

Good news. We are expecting that's a good thing, right?, when people find out that a woman is expecting the normal response is they congratulate her, they say, we're so excited for you. and she herself is thrilled to be expecting. the baby has not been born yet.

No one knows what the baby's going to look like. But the mere fact that she's expecting is viewed as a really exciting. A thing And that's essentially what Paul is going to be doing. A woman who's pregnant and she's spreading that news to others, she's doing so, to tell others the good news.

We're expecting Paul as he unpacks for us the gospel, in Romans 5 through 8, he comes to a section of Romans 8, where essentially he tells us some good news, and that is that we are expecting. And that is the glory to come. I, I got to start with this. I've got a, a pastor friend who was pastoring a church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And prior to his ministry there, he was pastoring a church in Ohio, which was his first pastorate. And he was telling me a number of years ago that when he was pastoring this church in Ohio, there was a particular Sunday where there was a singing group at his church. that included men and women, and they were ministering to the congregation there. And there was a particular woman.

In this musical group who gave every appearance of being pregnant. At least to this pastor. And so they, they ministered. and when they were done, they, the singing group sat down, the pastor got up and he was just effusively thanking them for their ministry to the congregation.

And then the pastor looked at this woman who had appeared to him to be pregnant. And said to her, Well, it looks like we have a baby on the way. Congratulations. When is the baby due?

The woman replied, I am not pregnant. Imagine that, She was wholly mortified and humiliated. He was mortified, and the entire congregation, talk about awkward. That's What that moment must have been like.

that pastor ended up, it wasn't too long after that that he left that church. And moved to Indianapolis and just started a church from scratch several 100 miles away. but after I heard that from this pastor, I've over the length of my ministry, I have been paranoid about making that same mistake. You've got to be really pregnant to get some congratulations.

From me, and I'm almost certain I would have made that same blunder if I did not hear that from from him. But here's why I begin with that this morning. Because the truth is, guys, you can, you can actually go up to any legitimately born again child of God. and say to them, Congratulations.

I see that you are expecting. We can really say that because that's Paul's point in this passage. And by the way, guys, if you go up to a sister that you think is pregnant, and say, congratulations, I see that you are expecting and if she says, wait a minute, I'm not pregnant, just say, no, no, I'm talking spiritually. But if you look at the language that Paul uses in this passage, this is really his point.

in verse, we, we see a particular word that shows up 3 times in verses 19 through 25, and verse 19, he speaks of creation that waits eagerly. Verse 23, he speaks of us who are waiting eagerly, and verse 25, he speaks of us who wait eagerly. And these three expressions are a translation of a word that means to expect eagerly with a readiness to receive. So it speaks of someone knowing that something is in their future.

And they're eager for it to come. It's not like they've got a root canal next week, and they're expecting it. That's not what this word is. It's no, it's something that someone eagerly is expecting.

They want this to happen. They're anxious for the moment to arrive, and they're ready. They're prepared for it. It's like a child who comes into the house, and he's really hungry.

He's been playing or Working hard, and the aroma of the meal is wafting through the house, and he is like just dying for, for dinner to come and he sits down at the table, he's got the fork and the spoon in his hands, and he's got the napkin tucked into his collar. And here comes the meal and the mom says to him, Johnny, did you wash your hands? And he's like, Yes, I did. That's done.

And I am ready. That's basically the idea of this term. It means to be expecting or waiting eagerly with a readiness for or to receive what it is that's being waited for. Now, what it, what is it that we wait eagerly for in this passage?

It's glory. And we've been unpacking that and looking at what this glory. is, it is a glory that will involve our being with Christ. And being like Him, it is a glory that is infinitely greater than our present suffering.

It is a glory that will not only be revealed to us, but also in us. It is a glory that will involve our unveiling as sons and daughters of God. And it is a glory that will involve our freedom from futility and from corruption. It's a glory we saw last week that all of creation is anxiously longing.

To see arrive. And so all of these things and so many more things are included in the idea of glory, and we are eagerly expecting this glory to come. And there's a, a certain intensity to the language that Paul employs in this section. I've already shown you the word waiting eagerly that shows up 3 times.

But look how all this fits in. We have anxious longing and verse 19. Waits eagerly in verse 19, hope verse 20, pains of childbirth, talk about expecting. what he's saying is that we're expecting not the way a woman who is married might expect a child, I expect to have a child at some point.

It's not that expecting. It's not even the expectation that a woman who's 2 months pregnant would have. Yes, she's expecting a child, but she's not expecting a child that day, or the next day, it's months down the road. It's the expectation of a 9 month pregnant woman, whose contractions have begun.

That's the intensity that Paul is using in his language here, pains of childbirth, verse 23, waiting eagerly, hope, hope, hope, hopes, and hope in verses 24 and 25, and then wait eagerly. This is Paul's description of the Christian life. A key word that you can use to describe what our lives are right now at this present, part of our pilgrimage is the word expectancy. We're expecting glory.

And in our passage today, what we're going to try to look at is 5 things. That we'll observe in these verses that we should be able to say with Paul by way of explaining our life of expectancy. Let me begin reading in verse 18. Paul says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly 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 also will be set free from its slavery to corruption. In the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And now here's our passage for today.

And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees. But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we wait. Eagerly for it.

5 things that we should be able to join Paul and saying by way of explaining our life of expectancy, of future glory. And the first of these things that we should be able to say is this, that we long for future glory so badly, we groan. The intensity of our longing is so much, so great that it hurts us. You ever wanted something so bad that it hurts?

That's what Paul is talking about, desiring something so greatly that we groan, we audibleize that longing. In the form of groaning, he says, and not only this, but we also ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly, and the groaning is attached to waiting eagerly. Now, let me talk a little bit about the idea of groaning. this word, like in James chapter 5 verse 9 in the book of James, he actually uses this word and says don't groan against one another, OK?

And the New American Standard translates it, don't complain. Complain might be a tad strong because to groan is to express displeasure. or longing, but you don't fully verbalize that, the complaining against one another. James is talking about is where we show by our body language, we, we sigh, and we groan, and we roll the eyes at one another.

And James says, stop that. OK, don't do that against one another. But that's the idea of the term. It's a groaning that doesn't always get fully verbalized, but it is there.

It is deep, and it is real. And Paul says, we groan for future glory. he uses this word twice in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. and look at this real quick.

we'll come back to this passage a little bit later. But he says in this house, speaking of our present bodies, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. While we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened because we want to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Here we see Paul is saying we groan, but that groaning is always attached to longing.

In other words, we groan, because we want something really bad. And we cannot wait for it to come. We are that eager. Now, there's, there's different ways of looking at what would be included in the idea of groaning in a passage like Romans 8.

Certainly, Paul is including the idea that we groan over our mortal bodies proneness to and slavery to corruption. Our physical bodies are mortal, they age, they die. We experience weakness. We experience sickness and disease, and we experience pain and limitations as a result of the mortality of our bodies.

There are things that some of us cannot do today physically that we could have done 20 years ago. and so we experience that limitation. And we groan at that as we experience limitations and pain in our physical bodies. Certainly, that's a part of what Paul is saying that we groan over.

Also, included in what we groan about is our battle with sin. we have, as we learned in Romans 7, indwelling sin in our members, we have, according to Galatians 5, a flesh that is not our physical bodies, but it is affiliated with our physicality. And it is always waging war. Against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

And indwelling sin inside of us is always seeking to make us a prisoner to itself. And so we have to do battle in this life. We have to deal with the risings of sin within us. We have to say no to that, and resist that.

But every one of us that know the Lord long for the day when that battle is over. And we groan in the midst. Of that battle, we long to be free of even the presence of sin in our members as we do battle against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places as we do battle with Satan, we groan in the midst of that battle, right? in Pilgrim's Progress, it's interesting.

John Bunyan has Pilgrim on his way to the cross, and he's got that burden of sin that grows ever larger on his back weighing him down. And John Bunyan says that Christian labored in his walk, and he groaned and sighed underneath that to where others could observe that in him. Well, he comes to the cross, the burden rolls off of his back. He's now free, no longer groaning over the burden of the guilt of his sin, and he begins his spiritual journey in Christ.

And there's so many joys that await him, but he eventually encounters a polyon that represents the evil one. Himself, and he begins to engage in battle with Apollon. And as they're engaging in battle, listen to what John Bunyan says, what sighs and groaning burst from Christian's heart. Does that resonate With you And he goes on to say, you couldn't have found a pleasant look on Christian's face through the length of that battle.

He sighed and he groaned. And so certainly, our groaning is over just the experience of fallen physicality in this life, and also over our battle with sin and with evil from within and without. I would include in this also, as we're trying to help other people with their sin, we're trying to help other people and disciple them. And they've got spiritual forces lined up against them.

They've got indwelling sin. And as we labor on behalf of others to help them in their walk with Christ, we groan as we seek to minister to them. Write down the reference Galatians 4:19. Paul literally says to the Galatians, I am groaning, or I am experiencing the pains of labor over you all over again.

And so here he is groaning over the sin issues that he is observing in these people that he loves so much and is seeking to bring along in their walk with Christ. And so we groan in our ministry. We're burdened by this and we groan. But primarily, Paul's focus in this passage, while it includes these first two elements, primarily his focus is on the groaning that we experience because we want something really, really bad that has not come.

Yet And that's exactly how he uses it in 2 Corinthians 5, the passage I read a moment ago. We long for glory so much that it hurts us. We're vulnerable to that glory in the sense that we want that so bad. That it actually hurts.

That's why in his sermon The Weight of Glory, as we looked at this a few weeks ago, let me just read this part again where CS Lewis, as he's trying to open up what this glory is that's coming to us that we long for, this is how he describes that glory and what he's doing as he explains it. He says, I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret, the secret which hurts. So much the secret which pierces with sweetness. We are under the siren song of heaven.

We know something of the glories to come. We are smitten by that glory and forever changed by just that little awareness that we have. It far outshines anything in this life. Anything in this world and we long for it so greatly that we groan.

Our passionate longing is such that it hurts us. John Stott says our groans express both present pain and future longing. Some Christians, however, grin too much and groan too little. I'm going to leave you to ponder that in your care groups tonight and later in the week.

What does he mean by that? Some Christians grin too much, and he goes on to say such Christians know very little of a theology of pain. They don't understand it. They won't really let that into their thinking.

They grin too much. They groan too little. Let me say it this way, guys, you can, you can measure one's spiritual maturity in part by this how passionately do they long for future glory? Do they long for future glory, so passionately that, that they hurt for it.

That's one of the yardsticks that I think you can use. And if you ask that question of yourself, and you're like, well, I'm not doing that. Well, don't beat yourself up about that. That's what the cross is for.

But just realize, man, I, I must not really have an understanding of this glory, the way that I should, because if I did understand it the way Paul thinks I ought to, I would be hurting for it. So let that excite you and And arouse your interest in what this glory is and all of its aspects that God is intending to bring you into on the other side of death. There's a second statement that we can make. With Paul By way of explaining our lifestyle of expectancy, and that is that we groan for future glory because of the Spirit.

We groan for future glory because of the Spirit. So if you're groaning and pining for eternity, and for heaven and for the glory to come, and you find that groaning welling up within you, blame the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that is making you do that. Paul says, and not only this, but we also ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly.

He's what he, what he's saying in part is it's because we have the Spirit that we are experiencing these labor pangs for the glory. To come He words this in a way that indicates that he thinks the readers would be surprised, or at least some of his hearers would be surprised. He says in verse 22 that all of creation is laboring and groaning together until now for the glory to come. And then he says, and not only this, but we ourselves look carefully, having the first fruits of the Spirit.

And now he says it again, even we ourselves grown within ourselves. So you might think Paul would say that Christians, what do they have to groan for? look at what you have. You've got the Holy Spirit, you've got a relationship with God, you've got complete acceptance by God.

You're always under God's gracious favor all day, every day, good days and bad days, waking or sleeping solely because of the work of Jesus, and it has nothing to do with your performance in the past, present, or future. And you get to live in the good of that every day and enjoy peace with God, and it's all for free. What do you have to groan about? I remember when I worked as a screen printer, when I was 19 and 20 years of age, there were times where I would get anxious over something.

And there was a non-believing guy that I worked with, that, that would say, dude, And he would point out to me what I had in Christ. He's like, I don't get why you would be anxious. And it was always a challenge to me. And so you might think, well, what do Christians have to groan about?

Look at this, you have the Spirit and all the blessings of the Spirit. And Paul would say, Yeah, uh-huh, that's right. And it's exactly because of that, because of that same Holy Spirit, that we are painfully longing for even more of the blessings of the Spirit that will come to us in glory. In fact, let me, let me say it this way., like when a woman nowadays, she's wanting to go into labor to have the baby, and everyone else is wanting that, they'll give her what's it called Pitocin to induce labor.

Understand that God gives to us His Holy Spirit for many reasons, and to render valuable ministries to us. But one of the reasons that God gives to us the Holy Spirit is to induce these labor pangs for glory in us. God gives us the Spirit and the job of the Holy Spirit. His assignment is to arouse in us a holy discontentedness.

And dissatisfaction with anything that this life has to offer to point us to the glories to come, to open our eyes to those glories to come and to arouse in us these longings for future glory. That's one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit and The reason the Spirit does that is so that the Spirit can arouse this longing and groaning so that the day will come when the glory comes and we enter into it, that our longing will meet its fulfillment, and the result will be an explosion of worship and praise to God.

When the Spirit observes us groaning for glory, the Spirit is very pleased and satisfied. And on that day when we enter into glory and we are exploding with praise to God and worship, because it's what we've been longing for, the Spirit will be very satisfied that he has done his job well.

Paul says, we having the first fruits of the Spirit. Part of what that means is all of the blessings that we have in Christ right now, the Spirit, we're like, well, this is incredible. I would be totally satisfied if this is all I ever had from you, God. And God through the Holy Spirit says, this is just the first fruits.

This you think this is great. This is just a down payment on a greater inheritance that is coming your way that will utterly blow you away. The first fruits in the Old Testament was like when the Jews would harvest their wheat or barley or vineyards or whatever, they would always, they were instructed by God to take the first fruits of their harvest and present that as an offering. To the Lord.

So it was always, God, we give you this, and there's so much more harvesting still to come. But we're giving you the first of our harvest. we're not going to wait and see how the harvest goes, and then we'll give to you, when the harvest is over. No, we don't even know how the rest of the harvest is going to go.

We don't even know what the weather's going to be like over the next couple of weeks. But here's the first of what we've harvested. God, we honor you by giving this to you. well, what Paul is telling us is that God has done that to us.

All of the blessings that we enjoy in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit to us that we enjoy day by day, the Spirit himself is simply the first fruits of a greater harvest to come. God is saying this is just one row, one row of a million acre piece of property of harvest that is coming your way. An incredible harvest of glory is coming. And my spirit and all the great blessings you enjoy in Christ right now is just the first fruits.

Speaking of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul says, God gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. 2 Corinthians 5:5, He gave us the Spirit as a pledge. Pledge of what? Ephesians 1:13 answers that question.

He speaks of the Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. God is giving us the Spirit. And he's saying, my Spirit is yours. And this Spirit is a pledge that there is a greater harvest to come, and I will keep my promise to you.

In a sense, guys, when you give something as a pledge, if I gave to you one of my cars as a pledge of some promise, what I'm saying by that pledge and giving you that car is if I don't keep my promise, I lose the car. And you get to keep it. For God to take His Holy Spirit, and give them to us and say, he's yours. In effect, is saying, if I don't keep my promise of overwhelming glory that I promise you, I will be giving to you on the other side of death.

If I don't keep the fullness of my promise to you, I lose the spirit. That's a staggering pledge. There's no greater pledge. In fact, he was even willing to lose his son for some horrible hours on the cross in order that his son might shed his blood and die so that we can be saved and thus be brought into this inheritance.

But it's all the first fruits. As we celebrate the blessings that belong to us in Christ, the Spirit's job is to keep telling us this is just the first fruits, and there's so much more to come. Let's go to the 3rd statement that we can, or the 3rd thing that we can say along with Paul by way of explaining our lifestyle of expectancy. is that we eagerly wait for our adoption as sons to culminate in the redemption of our bodies.

You see, guys, when When we find out that we're expecting that the glory to come, the reason God tells us this in advance is because he wants that to start shaping the way we live, right? when a couple, for example, finds out that the wife is pregnant, and let's say they realize that she's 2 months pregnant, they start doing funny things. It changes their life. they start shopping and they start buying things that they would have never bought otherwise, and they start clearing out a bedroom and they paint it and they buy a crib and And they start behaving differently.

They, the child hasn't even been born yet. They're merely expecting, and they're already behaving differently. Many will go buy a different car, a larger vehicle to accommodate their growing family. Their behavior is being changed by what it is that they are expecting in a few months.

The reason God enlightens us to the glory to come. He wants our lives to manifest the very fragrance of this glory to come to where if a psychologist were to put us on the couch and try to figure out why do, why do these people behave the way they do, certainly that he would look into our past and find some explanation. He would definitely go to the cross of Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection. Find a big explanation for why we behave the way we do.

But to fully understand why we live the way we do, he would have to go into the future and look at the glory to come and go, OK, I get it. They're expecting. And this is what they're expecting. And it's already beginning to shape their lives.

And so that's why Paul is enlightening us to this. That's why this is good news that we are expecting. And the third statement that we can make along with Paul by way of explaining our lifestyle of expectancy is that we eagerly wait for our adoption as sons to culminate in the redemption of our bodies. In verse 23, Paul says, and not only this, but we also ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, i.e.

the redemption of our body. That's the idea. Our adoption of sons, which will come to its fullest culmination in the redemption of our body. Now, if you're a careful reader of scripture, this ought to Arouse a question in your mind.

and that is, wait a minute, if we're waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, then how does that fit with what Paul said earlier in this chapter about the fact that we've already been adopted as sons? And if you begin to research that, you'll find that actually in the New Testament there are 3 stages to our adoption proceedings by God. Phase one is when God predestined us to be adopted as his sons in Ephesians 1:5, Paul says, God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.

So actually, the first step of God's adoption proceedings of you actually took place before the world was even created, before you were born, before Adam and Eve were even created God thought about you and predestined to adopt you through Jesus Christ, if you're a believer in Him.

And then the second phase is would take us back to our point of conversion, along with our present experience each day right now. Where we are truly adopted sons of God. In Romans 8:15, Paul says, you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. So, we have been adopted, and we can now speak to God as Abba and Father, and the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children were heirs, also.

So we indeed are presently adopted sons and daughters of God, but what Paul is alluding to here in verse 23 is the final stage of our adoption when the whole purpose for which we were adopted reaches its fullest culmination. See, back in Paul's day in Roman society, they didn't typically adopt like infants like you would often see today. Generally, there was one reason that a man wanted to adopt someone, and that is he needed a son to carry on his name and to receive the inheritance and to carry that on in the years.

to come, that's the number one reason everyone had inheritance on the brain whenever they adopted someone.

And that's not on everyone's mind nowadays. And as a result of that, only sons were adopted for that reason. In fact, the word adopted that's used here in this passage, it has the word son in it because that's the only way they could think. No one really adopted a daughter.

They adopted a son because they wanted a son to carry on the family name and receive the inheritance. And it literally means the word adoption as sons means to place, to set as a son before one. And so what we realized just from this language and even the culture of this day, is that, when someone adopted, they were thinking about their inheritance, they had this inheritance, essentially that they wanted to give to somebody. So they adopt a son, make that son a part of the family, take on the family name, so that at the right time, that son could be given the inheritance that they were adopted for.

Now when that young man may be adopted, maybe he's 15 years old, he could, he's fully adopted, and he could call the adoptive father, Abba, or father. But that 15 year old has not yet entered into the full purpose for which he was adopted. He has not yet reached adulthood and received the full inheritance. And so when that moment does come and he reaches manhood and when the the adoptive father passes on that inheritance either through death or sometimes even when they're alive and they pass on a goodly portion of the inheritance to the son so they can carry on, that's when the purpose of the adoption reaches its fullest culmination.

And so what Paul is indicating for us is that God wanted to give us what he had on his mind, as it were, and in his heart is I, I have this inheritance of glory that I want to bring them into, so I need to adopt them. And to my family, I need to give them my name so that I can give them my full inheritance that I want to lavish them with. And so right now at this stage, guys, God is our Father. We've been adopted by Him.

We enjoy many blessings as a result of that, but we have not reached spiritual adulthood in the fullest sense, and we have not entered into the fullness of the inheritance that God has for us. And that moment will arrive. Look at the bottom of the screen, when we experience the redemption of our body, actually. The bottom of this screen, the redemption.

Of our body on that day of resurrection, when God raises our bodies from the earth and clothes our bodies with immortality and with glory and vitality, strength and vigor that will endure forever. And at that point, we enter into the fullness of the inheritance that God has for us. That is the point at which our adoption as sons comes to its culminating purpose. Now let me say something about the word redemption.

The word redemption literally means deliverance through the paying of a price. It means to rescue, to, to deliver through paying a price. So there's normally the idea of acquisition, but at its core it's the idea of delivering someone or something through the paying of a price. The price that was paid for the redemption of our body is the blood of Jesus.

He died. in order that we might experience the blessings that we are experiencing up to this day and throughout our lives, he also died and shed His blood so that one day our very physical bodies will experience a deliverance from futility and from corruption. And guys, this is a staggering affirmation by Paul. Speaking of the redemption of our bodies, the deliverance of our bodies.

Socrates and Plato, they, they viewed salvation as deliverance from the body. and in Paul's day in Roman society, most religions advocated that same idea of salvation that it is deliverance from the body. None of the religions in Paul's day had any vision for one's physical body. It was viewed as, as either worthless, or meaningless or downright evil, and salvation is deliverance from the body.

Christianity is unique in the contribution that it makes to this, because it is only Christianity that says God has a plan even for your body, and he will deliver your body from futility and corruption. Which takes us beyond what Paul's heart cry was at the end of Romans 7. bemoaning indwelling sin and the battle that rages, he says in chapter 7, verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? He's like, I long to be free from this body, to be saved from this body of death.

God says, I'm not going to save you from this body. I'm going to, amongst other things, save your body. I will deliver your body from indwelling sin, and from the presence of any flesh, I will deliver your body from any vestiges of weakness and corruption and decay. That you experience now.

God has an agenda, a glorious plan for our bodies. That takes us back to Romans 8:11, where Paul says, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your presently mortal bodies through His Spirit, who dwells in you. The fact that the Spirit of God is inside of our bodies right now, that's very good news for our bodies. Because one day God is going to glorify us physically, raising our bodies from the dust of the earth and resurrecting them and clothing them with glory and immortality.

Coming back to that passage in 2 Corinthians 5, look how Paul speaks about this in a picturesque way. He says, for we know that if the earthly tent that's our present bodies, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God. So let people do what they want to our bodies. If it's torn down, we have a building or another body from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For indeed in this house, our present bodies, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Our new heavenly bodies. Verse 3, inasmuch as we having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, that's our present bodies, we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

Now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit. As a pledge. This is a wonderful commentary right here on what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 8. So we eagerly wait for our adoption as sons to culminate in the redemption of our bodies.

There's a 4th. or 4th thing that we can say by way of explaining our lifestyle of expectancy, and that is that we were saved into a life of confident hoping for the glory we have not yet seen. We haven't seen this with our eyes. But no one really should think us odd because a woman who's expecting a child, no one has seen that child.

The child has not been born, but no one thinks it odd that she's buying baby clothes in a crib and painting a room in her house, as everyone's like, well, that's totally normal. Of course they would do that, even though we haven't seen the baby. Well, we're the same way. We, and Paul is actually saying in verse 24, we've been saved into a life.

Of hope for the glory we have not yet seen, he says, for in hope we have been saved. What he, what he's saying by that is that God at the present time, he has saved us into this state. of hopefulness we have been saved to hope. God could have saved us on the day of our conversion and instantly transported us to heaven, where we see everything that is now ours, and forever live in the good of that.

If God did that, there would have been no opportunity for him to cultivate the virtue of hope in us. Apparently, hope is a valuable virtue to God. He loves this quality of hope. That's why in 1 Corinthians 13:13, faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Hope makes it in the top three of God's favorite virtues. And God, has set things up the way he has because he wants this virtue of hope to be cultivated and nurtured in us. God is pleased. He's pleasured.

He's glorified when he sees hope in us. And at the present time, we could say that God has saved us into hope. He wants us to live a lifestyle where the virtue of hope is manifested. And hope we've been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope.

You might say, Well, he saved us, but I want to see, I want to enter into glory right now. He's like, Well, hope that's not seen that is seen is not hope. Who hopes for what he sees? If, if you were brought into glory right away, and if that happened to every Christian, then there would be no opportunity for this virtue to flower.

And blossom. God is pleased when he sees this in us. What does the word hope mean? we tend to use the word hope nowadays to speak of something we're not sure about, but yeah, I hope, I hope I paid that bill.

I hope I turned the stove off, as you're thinking about that when you're 10 miles from home, heading somewhere, but you're not real sure, but you hope. That's how we use the term today. Understand that the word that's used here in the Greek, it It has every bit the strength and fiber of the word faith, only the orientation is pointed toward the future. OK.

But in terms of confidence and trust, it's just as strong of a word as faith. And that's why I throw the word confident, hoping. because that's the idea, a solid, confident, robust faith in future reality that is coming to us, faith in the promise of God. The word hope is a subset of the word faith.

You've got the word faith that speaks of believing in God confidently. Hope is inside of faith. It's that part of faith that is oriented toward the future. Does that make sense?

and so we've been saved into this life of confident hoping for the glory we have not yet seen. God wants us to live our lives right now to where our eyes are fixed on the glory to come to the degree that we understand it, and that that's shaping us, and we are confident that that glory is coming to us on the other side of death. And we're allowing that to shape our lives now. Steve Jobs, who passed away, several weeks ago, back in 2005, was speaking to the commencement class of Stanford University and spoke tremendous wisdom to them.

It's not often that a commencement speaker would speak to graduates of a secular university and tell them, you're all going to die. and it's inescapable. It's inevitable, but he put that stark reality in front of their face and told them how that helped him. He says, Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

There's a lot of wisdom there, but it's only partial wisdom. If Paul were delivering that commencement address, Paul would say there is something that is just as certain for the believer as death is, and that is the glory on the other side of death. Steve Jobs could not speak of that glory to come because he wasn't so sure about the afterlife. His biographer said that he was fifty-fifty.

Jobs specifically said he was fifty-fifty on whether there was even a God who existed. But he found as he approached death he was believing a bit more but was still unsure, but he hoped in our modern day English sense of the term that there would be an afterlife that was positive in some way. He did say, I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn't just all disappear. He wanted that, but he couldn't speak to anyone with any confidence about what lies on the other side.

Of the grave, the Bible teaches us very clearly that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. On the other side of death, people will go either to everlasting judgment or everlasting glory, and the sole determining factor will be what did they do with Jesus. Paul was very confident. There is something just as sure for the believer as death and taxes and whatever else, and that is glory on the other side of death if the Lord does not come first.

And Paul says it's that glory. It's not just the reality I'm going to die soon, but it's, it's what lies beyond that that's what's shaping me. And as we're shaped by that, we begin to manifest. And reflect the very fragrance of that glory that awaits us.

Let's hasten on to the last point. We'll just look at this briefly. A 5th and final thing that we can say along with Paul by way of explaining our lifestyle of expectancy is that we wait eagerly with perseverance for the glory we do not yet see. He says in verse 25, but, but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly.

For that word perseverance speaks of a willingness and ability to bear up under difficulties, things that we would prefer to not be underneath. This speaks of the ability and the desire to remain underneath less than ideal circumstances in a fallen world, and that we're OK remaining under those trials and hardships, because we know that glory is coming. And so that gives us a sweetness, and a patience and a willingness to endure suffering and difficulty, injustice, and trial.

This completes the picture.

We started off talking about how a mark of spiritual maturity is, is like, how passionately do you long for glory? Do you groan for it? But another mark of spiritual maturity is how patiently do you remain under hardships that you find yourselves in right now? How sweetly Do you remain under those hardships?

Are you so certain that there is a glory to come? And the hardship I'm enduring is only producing a greater weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. So what, if God wants me here right now, underneath this difficulty, this injustice, this hardship, then I will remain here because I know, I know that there is a glory that is coming. And thus observable by others as they look at us is a patience and a sweetness of disposition.

We are able to handle difficulties and hardships with a strength that the world could never understand, because that strength and that sweetness is being shaped by the glory. To come. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. If you're here today, and you've never put your trust in Christ, you've never had a relationship with this savior.

you're at the right place this morning. Come talk to me afterwards. I'd love to speak with you and pray with you and help you in your journey. But God loves you and he wants to save all those that are willing to come to him humbly and acknowledge their need for a savior.

Come talk to us afterwards. For those of us that are believers, what aroma do you give off? Do you give off the aroma of self? Or do you give off the aroma of heaven?

We can actually spread the very aroma and fragrance of heaven now if we allow our eyes to be fixed on the glories to come and to be shaped and molded by those glories. We're going to give our offerings to the Lord in just a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. Let's pray together.

God, we, we thank you for all of the blessings that are right now ours in Christ. And we're just blown away that as great as those things are. You say this is just The first fruits of an incredible harvest that's going to totally blow you away. And Lord, that glory is coming.

May we hurt for that glory. May we groan for that glory. May we be shaped by that glory. May we live a life of expectancy.

As we prepare and make ourselves ready at any given moment for this glory to burst down upon us. Thank you for the glory to come. And thank you for letting us know this now. That it might impact and shape The way that we live.

We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds that we give and do much with these funds for the glory of Jesus. We give ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said,