Present Sufferings & Future Glory

Transcript

GR 1441
07/25/10
Present Sufferings and Future Glory
Romans 8:18-25
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Romans together, Romans 8. We've been talking about God's work of salvation. We noted it is a complete package. In other words, when God saves a person everything that He has provided for them in Christ and promised them becomes theirs. But not everything that He has promised becomes an immediate reality. So we've talked about our salvation in the past, present and future dimensions. In the past we talk about our justification; that point in time when we heard, understood and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were justified by God, declared righteous by Him. So that past aspect of our salvation is usually viewed as justification, occurred in the past when we believed. The present aspect of our salvation is sanctification, that's the ongoing work of God in molding and shaping us into greater conformity to His character and preparing us for what He has promised in the future as part of our salvation. And then there is glorification, when we will enter into the fullness of the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him.

In Romans 8 we're focusing on that present aspect of our salvation, called sanctification. The word sanctification basically means to be set apart, same basic word we have translated “holy” and “saints,” those who are set apart from sin by God for Himself. And that process of working that out in our lives is sanctification. This is the part of our salvation that we are living out day by day. There are frustrations associated with this portion of our lives. In Romans 8:17 states: ”and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” We've become children of God through faith in Christ. That was the past aspect. We are moving toward glory, that's the future. The present aspect is we suffer with Him so that we can enter in and enjoy the future aspect of our salvation which is to be glorified with Him.

This is one of the most difficult things for us as believers. We like to talk about the fact we've placed our faith in Christ, we have been credited with the righteousness of Christ, our sins have been forgiven. We are viewed as righteous in Christ. We are a people destined for the glory of God's presence and we are looking forward to eternity with Him. But there is the present dimension that we are living in Him. And that is a time of difficulty and suffering. And sometimes there is confusion and we all to one degree or another sometimes experience this confusion. And that's when suffering intensifies. Just because we have become believers in Jesus Christ, have received the righteousness of Christ, are now the children of God on our way to glory doesn't mean our lives are immune from trouble. We still live in mortal, physical bodies as we've seen in Romans 8. We experience the same troubles that unbelievers experience—physical sickness, illness, various diseases, physical death at various ages. Just because you become a believer in Jesus Christ and are destined for glory doesn't mean you will have a disease-free life and live to a good ripe old age. Believers lose their jobs like unbelievers; believers have family problems like unbelievers have. Sometimes we think, Lord, I'm trying to live a godly life, be a godly person, do the best I can, raise my children right. And yet that doesn't keep us from experiencing the troubles that can come. We live in a fallen world. Jesus said, in the world you have tribulations, troubles, difficulties. Believers may experience added troubles with persecution for their faith, but it is also true we experience the same troubles as others. And we are all aware of that. It's all right for me to tell you, raise your children in the best environment you can, provide the best godly models for them, have them in church being taught the Word. But I can't guarantee you that your children won’t have trouble like the children of the world do. Be the best worker you can, honor the Lord with your life and your testimony at your job and you're the first one to get fired. Troubles just come to our lives.

And the first thing that we usually say when trouble comes is why, Lord? What have I done wrong? As though if we were doing everything the Lord wanted us to, that would keep us from having these kinds of problems. And that's what Paul is being directed by the Spirit to deal with. You can be the most godly person and living the life that God wants you to do, being that person at work and at home, but that does not mean that you will not have trouble, problems, suffering, that “things will not go wrong” from our perspective. They never go wrong from God's perspective as He deals with us as His children.

That's what he's showing us, how do we handle suffering? You understand suffering is part of the plan. Even for God's people living in a fallen world, in bodies that are not yet redeemed we have trouble. How do we handle it? How do I not settle down into discouragement, despair? Or just as bad, give up? It's not going to get any better. I know God is not going to change things so I'll just keep hanging on and hope someday He comes and everything is taken care of. In this we want to be careful also. Sometimes you hear preachers, I hear one periodically. I turn on the TV maybe early Sunday morning when I'm having my oatmeal and he always says the same thing. It's amazing to me, if you've heard one sermon, you've heard them all. And it's always God has good things in store for you. Things may be difficult today but tomorrow will be better. And the people clap. But you know what? I want to tell you, things may be difficult today, and they may be more difficult tomorrow, and they may never get any better in this life. You say, that's not what I want to hear, no wonder people go hear him and not you. But the truth of it is; that's what we're talking about here.

Suffering is part of God's plan for His children during this pleasant dimension of our lives. We don't always know the immediate purposes in the suffering, so we might say, “I can't see any good that would come out of this.” Well God doesn't say I have to see the good that comes out of everything that He brings into my life. All He does is to tell me how I am to live and conduct myself in every situation. Similar to what we do with our children. They don't have to understand everything that is being done; they don't have to know the reason you have for what you do for them as your children. All they need to know is what their responsibility is in conducting themselves properly and handling it correctly.

That's what we're finding out in Romans 8. Verse 18: “…if indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him” And the verses that follow, picking up with verse 18, are an explanation of that. The suffering and the glory and having a proper perspective on them, is what enables a believer to go through the same kind of troubles and trials and difficulties that many unbelievers go through and still not lose hope, be discouraged and depressed. And not just to be carried on with resignation, but have a positive, joyful, eager anticipation of what God is preparing us for.

Romans 8:18 begins with the preposition “for,” picking up on our suffering with Him so that we may be glorified with Him. “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” (8:18). The word “consider” means to come to some conclusions after careful evaluation. And Paul is taking into consideration all that he has written up to this point about the gospel, that we are sinners, condemned by a holy God, lost and without hope in the world, but God has intervened on our behalf with the provision of His Son, Jesus Christ. So he moved from talking about our sin and condemnation to the righteousness of God provided in Christ. Then he moves on to talk about the provision of God for us to live lives of holiness and godliness in a fallen world. And so taking all of this into consideration, I recognize “that the sufferings of this present time can't be compared with the glory that will be revealed.”

You'll note we're going to talk about suffering; we're going to talk about glory, the suffering and the glory. We talk about this present time and we talk about what is to be revealed, the future time. So it's this contrast and comparison that is going on—the suffering of the present time. I like the way it is literally put, and the present time gives you a good translation. But that word “present” literally is a little three-letter word that means “now.” We carry it over into English, “nun:” the now time. We are experiencing “sufferings of the now time.” It means the present time but I like that “now time” because it stresses that it's just this immediate time, the time in which we are living. The sufferings we are talking about are related to and limited to this now time, the time in which we are living. The time is really after our justification but before our glorification. These sufferings, they are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us. So the sufferings and the glory, the sufferings of the now time, the present time. The glory is the future time, the time yet to be revealed; the glory yet to be revealed.

And this becomes the challenge. Presently you are living in the suffering, the pain, the heartbreak. I mean, a loved one dies; it leaves a void. Certain difficulties and trials and painful experiences come into your life that can seem crushing. We're not minimizing the seriousness of the sufferings, but we understand they are just here for the now time. And there is no comparison; this is God speaking, of the sufferings that you are going through now with the glory that will someday be revealed to you. Note, he does not say those sufferings will be necessarily alleviated in the now time. They may be; they may not. I mean, you lose a job and you may get a better job. Then you say, I can see how the hand of the Lord was in that. But you may lose a job and never get a job nearly as good, and struggle to provide for your family and meet your needs and so on. It doesn't change what he is saying here. Any of the sufferings in this present time, as serious and overwhelming as they may be, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that someday will be ours as God's people. That's the basic statement.

Now he's going to show you how great that glory is compared to the suffering. You'll note that verses 18-20, 22 and 24 all begin with the word “for.” Paul is building a case here so that we as God's people know how to live through great and difficult trials.

The trials can't be compared; the suffering can't be compared with the glory. Verse 19: “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God” Creation is personified here. We're talking about the non-human creation—the animals, the trees and the flowers. There is an anxious longing. He personifies that creation. Often this is done in the Old Testament where we talk about the mountains singing or speaking and so on. Here you have the creation. It has an anxious longing. That word “anxious” doesn't mean anxiety, but an expectation, an expectant longing. It's really three words put together, a picture of someone standing on his tiptoes, stretching his neck out, reaching away from the body and trying to see something, expecting something. And here is that creation with this anxious longing, expectant longing as it waits eagerly. That becomes a key expression here: “waits eagerly.” It's going to be used down toward the end of verse 23 where we are “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons;” the end of verse 25, “with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” So there is a sense of anticipation, expectation and excitement. This is what we were really looking for; this is what we are really living for. So here the creation is anxiously longing, eagerly looking for the revealing of the sons of God.

Our sufferings can't be compared with the glory God has prepared for us because even all creation is filled with anticipation and eagerness for the time when we will be revealed as the sons of God. We are already the sons of God. Verse 14: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” And “you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father” (verse 15). That's a present reality for us. We became sons of God when we placed our faith in Christ and were justified by Him. But that hasn't been revealed to all creation. We just look like normal people. Your neighbors probably think you're just another “people,” next door neighbor. They don't know you are a son of the living God, a child of the God of heaven. That glory hasn't been revealed yet, but it is so real and sure in the plan of God, salvation for His people, that all creation is eagerly looking forward to that time when we will be unveiled before the creation in the fullness of the glory that is ours as God's children. Now how great must that glory be if all of God's creation is filled with such anticipation for that time when it will be clearly revealed that we are the children of God, the sons of glory.

He goes on to speak further about this subject. Verse 20: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it in hope” Creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption and so on. The creation was subjected to futility, a word that means purposelessness. Futility gives the idea emptiness, despair. In other words the creation was subjected to decay and destruction, it was not able to realize its purpose. This word is used a number of times in the Old Testament, when they translated the Old Testament in Greek the word translated futility. The overwhelming number of its use is in the book of Ecclesiastes, where we are familiar with it as “vanity.” Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All creation was subjected to futility, emptiness, purposelessness.

Not willingly but because of Him who subjected it. In other words it wasn't the action of creation that resulted in its subjection; it was the sovereign action of God as a result of the sin of man. We've seen in Romans 5 when Adams sinned, all humanity was impacted by his sinful act. But you understand not just all humanity was impacted by his sinful act, but all the creation was impacted by his sinful act.

Come back to Genesis 3. In Genesis 3 we have the fall. Adam and Eve sin, rebel against God. As the chapter moves on God metes out His punishment to those involved. Verse 17: “Then to Adam He said, ‘because you have listened to the voice of your wife, have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you...’” So you see the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly. It is not because the ground sinned, it didn't, but God subjected it as a result of the sin of Adam who was the epitome of creation to rule over creation. So everything descended from him and everything under him is impacted by the curse of sin. Cursed is the ground because of you. “In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you'll eat the plants of the field” (Verses 17-18). And you'll return to dust. We have all creation impacted. The animals become violent and turn against one another, the flowers bloom and die, the grass dies, decay and death overtakes the creation. The ground produces thorns, life become hard.

So that's what he's talking about back in Romans 8 when he says the creation was subjected to futility, verse 20, not willingly, not by its own action and choice. But because of Him who subjected it. That was the act of God in bringing the consequences of Adam's sin on all creation over which he was to rule, the non-human creation impacted by it.

Note the last part of verse 20, “in hope.” Verse 21: “that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” There is grace manifested by God, even in the punishment of sin. Because even as He brings punishment for sin and the consequences of sin on Adam and all his descendants and all the creation over which he ruled, God had provided hope that He would provide salvation, a Redeemer who would bring salvation for the descendants of Adam and for the creation over which Adam ruled. So it is subjected in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption, just as we saw men and women as a result of sin have been enslaved to sin and death, so the creation has been enslaved to the results of sin—destruction, decay, death.
But the hope was that in the redemption that God would provide through the second Adam, as we saw in Romans 5. There we saw there would be salvation for all of those in the second Adam, Christ. And in the work of Christ there would also be provided for the lifting of the curse from the creation so that God's work of salvation not only impacts man, but it impacts the creation.

So the hope is that the creation would be set free from its slavery to corruption, to decay, to death. Verse 21: “…into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” You see the lifting of the curse from creation is inseparably linked to the glory that will be bestowed in its fullness on God's children. So God's salvation comes through His Son and then to those who are in Christ. As a result of that work to those who are in Christ, it will ultimately be carried out to all creation. But it won't happen until we enter into the glory that God has promised us. We possess the glory in that it is ours; it is a right our inheritance and we are heirs, “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,” verse 17 told us. But I am an heir. I haven't entered into that inheritance yet.

Sometimes when we are together the kids will talk about what they will get when Mom and Dad die. But they better be careful, they “ain't gettin' it until we dead.” And if all goes accordingly we will have spent it all anyway. But this is what happens, we are heirs of God, it's ours in God's plan. And it will be there, He has promised us. And so the freedom for the glory of creation will come when we enter into our glory. We're talking about when the kingdom is established on this earth. Some of us, we speak of going into glory at death, and we do, we enter the glorious presence of God. But the full transformation of this body to a body of glory like Christ had after His resurrection, and the manifestation of our position as the sons of God in glory will happen at the establishing of the kingdom on earth. That's when the curse will be lifted from the creation, that's where all creation will see us in the fullness of the glory that God has prepared for us. The curse will be lifted from the creation.

Come back to Isaiah 11. We talked about some of these passages when we studied the book of Revelation, particularly the closing chapters of Revelation and the establishing of the kingdom on the earth, a kingdom that is eternal, has a 1000-year first phase. But it is an eternal kingdom. In Isaiah 11, we have an example of the creation being set free from slavery to corruption. Verse 6 is during the time when Christ will reign as the opening verses make clear. Verse 6: “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will like down with the young goat…” You see the curse on the creation and the decay and destruction; death is removed. The calf and the young lion and the fatling will be together. So they'll be able to be in the same pasture. A little boy will lead them. I mean, the enslavement of the creation has impacted us because now there is violence that spills over. The animals are a threat to man, so you don't want to put your little three-year-old out to play in a field with a lion or a leopard. But when the kingdom is established, no problem. Go out and play with the big cats, will you? Verses 7-9: “Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; And the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” You see what has happened? The creation is set free from its slavery to corruption, decay and death, violence, destruction into the glorious freedom, the freedom to be what God intended it to be when He initially brought it into existence. Just as we will be enjoying the full freedom of being all which God intended us to be when He created man in His own image.

Go to Isaiah 35, this is the only other passage we'll look at; there are a number we could look at. You are familiar with this; it is often quoted usually when we say the desert will blossom like the rose. More correctly the flower they are talking about is known as the crocus, but the point is the same. Verse 1: “The wilderness and the desert will be glad…” You see again personifying the creation, the non-rational, non-human creation. The desert is glad. In other words it is realizing its potential, the purpose for which God created it. Verses 1-2: “The wilderness and the desert will be glad and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like the crocus, it will blossom profusely…they will see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God” Verses 5-6: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy, For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert, in the Arabah” So you see when the curse is lifted, lifted from man, from beast, from the ground, a glorious time and we will be there in the fullness of our glory as the sons of God. Now the glory He has prepared for us is so great that every part of creation is filled with an overwhelming, eager anticipation of that time. How great will that glory be! It's like it's on the edge with expectation, finally realizing the fullness of the purpose of the creating God.

Romans 8:22: “For we know,” continuing on this expression, and that's why he could say up in verse 18, “For I consider.” This is the conclusion I've come to as a result of careful evaluation, everything he has written up to this time, and now what's being unfolded. “For we know that the whole creation groans…” it's a key word because it's going to come up, we ourselves also groan in verse 23. But right now the whole creation “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together unto now.” I mean, the creation is in travail, under the weight of the consequences of sin. But you understand this isn't the last chapter. It is in travail like the pains of childbirth, the pain and agony of labor which are not the end. It's the birth of that baby and that changes everything. I mean, women don't have children because they like the process of labor. I've observed it, but I thank you, Lord, that I was not born a woman. I've never experienced it. It's great, but what is it for? The result is that all creation is going through this agony now of the pain and suffering and the consequences of sin and decay and death that come. But it's in anticipation.

And he has to interject here verse 23, “and not only this.” Not only the creation is groaning and toiling through this. “And not only this but also we ourselves…” And there is a strong stress on “we ourselves,” each of us, God's people. He'll repeat this twice in verse 23. Also, “we ourselves,” we believers, we have the first fruits of the Spirit. The Spirit dwelling in us is a first fruit as the promise of something to come. Even we ourselves, picks it up again, “groan within ourselves.” You see that stress: we ourselves “having the first fruits of the Spirit.” Even we ourselves groan, just like the creation groans, toiling under this time of suffering, difficulty. Because even though we've been redeemed, even though we are the sons of God we are still laboring, groaning through a life of suffering and pain and trials and all that comes with it. What are we doing? We're just like the creation, we are waiting eagerly. Just like we had in verse 19, the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Verse 23: “…we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body”

We've been talking about salvation, past, present, future and it's all part of that one work of salvation. So we distinguish between the past, present and future aspects of our salvation. But it is guaranteed. And that's the point of Romans 8, our assurance. Our salvation is guaranteed in all its aspects. And so we are eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons. Now we were adopted in the past. Romans 8:15: “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father” I am a son of God; I call Him Abba, Father. But now he tells me down in verse 23, we are “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons.” Then he explains it, the redemption of our body. In other words I am the son of God; I have been placed into His family. And now my eager expectation and anticipation is when I enter into the fullness of the inheritance He has promised and provided for me as His son. And that will be when the work of God's salvation is completed in me. My body is transformed to bring it into conformity with the body of His glory, the body of Jesus Christ after His resurrection. That's when I have my full status and I can take possession of all that is mine. Like somebody in a family of great wealth and they have a huge inheritance provided for them, it will be yours on your 32nd birthday, or whatever. Well they are a son, the inheritance is theirs, it has been guaranteed by the will, but it is not theirs in the sense of taking possession of it and entering into the fullness of it. My glorified body is a settled, guaranteed, assured fact. We have the first fruits of the Spirit, the giving of the Spirit.

II Corinthians 1:20: “For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes…” All the promises given to us in Christ are “yes,” they are settled, they are done; they are sure. Verses 21-2: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God who has also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” It is a down payment. Like you go and are going to buy something, you make a down payment. That's a guarantee that you'll pay the rest. The Holy Spirit is given to us as God's down payment; that He's going to do the rest. “…that He who began a good work in you will perfect until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) I have the Spirit of God dwelling in me, every believer does or else you don't belong to Him, we saw in Romans 8. And that Spirit is there as a seal, God's seal on me, the Spirit is the down payment, it's a guarantee that glorification will occur. It is more real than the things I can see and touch. God said it; that means it will happen.

Ephesians 1:13-4, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory” You see ultimately the work of salvation that God is doing in our lives is not for our glory, although we will receive glory, but it is ultimately for His glory. And that's the guarantee of it. For Him to fail would diminish His glory as God. I'm so important? No, because He has put Himself on the line, so to speak, He has guaranteed it. Can God fail? He has given us the Spirit. We have that inner assurance, the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.

Come back to Romans 8. So when he uses the analogy of first fruits he's saying the same thing as a seal or a down payment. The first fruits are a guarantee of a coming harvest. Here the first fruits of the Spirit are a guarantee that the process will be completed, our bodies will be redeemed, glorified.

Verses 24-5: “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” There is that “wait eagerly” again, we had it in verse 19; we had it in verse 23. Here comes the problem. I live in the present; I live in this “now time.” It's a time of suffering and difficulty, trials, trials that sometimes seem overwhelming, tragedies that come that I don't know I can go another day. And the hope is by its very nature something future that I don't have in my visible possession. I'm in the trial, but the hope is but a promise and the danger that presses in on us is that I become focused on the trial I can't go on without this child I have loved; I can't go through this experience. Life has lost its meaning. Wait a minute. My meaning is not in the “now time,” my focus is on the hope. That's why unbelievers can accuse Christians of “pie in the sky” people. You just want an escape from reality. The reality is you have much misery in your life, the reality is your God didn't take care of you, He didn't keep you healthy; He didn't keep your child alive, He didn't preserve your job, He didn't ... And so to avoid that pain you just want to put your hope in something in the future and you don't know whether it is true or not because you have never seen it. I have never seen a glorified body, I've never seen the resurrected Christ; I've never seen the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him. I have had loved ones who have died but I've never seen them glorified, I've never even seen them in God's presence before their body is glorified. All I have is a hope. They are right, the present reality is my sufferings are greater than theirs, my losses may be greater than theirs; my pain may be greater than theirs. And I am supposedly a child of the living God who lives under His care. Yes. But I can say with confidence that this is part of God's plan, that we suffer with Christ that we may be glorified with Him. To them it is “pie in the sky,” to me it is the firm promise of the eternal God. That's reality. I say, the reality is your suffering. Well the reality is my suffering and what I can touch and am experiencing, but you understand the glory is just as much a reality to me because I have the promise of God.

So that's what he is saying in verses 24 and 25, in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. If I say, I hope to see you today, we would say, open your eyes, I am here. Once I see you I don't have the hope anymore, I have the reality. So by the very nature we're talking about glorified bodies, we're talking about hope. What happens is, and we all tend to want to do it, we want to pull the glory from the future back into the present and try to tell ourselves, and we like it when preachers tell that story then, that God wants good things to happen to you today. He doesn't want you to have trouble, He doesn't want you to experience pain; He wants you to have the best job. We say, yeah, because I want to think that the glory that He has promised can be mine now and I can live in the now age with the glory. But this is a time of suffering. Now there is provision for God for me. I have the glory of His presence in me; I have His sufficiency for me in everything. But you realize how we go through suffering. I have lost my focus on the glory. My life is not built around my retirement. What happens if one of us dies before we get to enjoy all we've wanted in retirement or the stock market goes through a crash or our country unravels? What happens if my children don't outlive me? It is a great pain to lose a child. What do I do? How do I do this? I'm focused on the glory.

This kind of suffering is for the “now time.” I'm going to glory. That's why we have this “waiting eagerly” by the creation, “waiting eagerly, even we ourselves.” We wait eagerly. How? Verse 25: “…with perseverance we wait eagerly…” The original words were hupo meno. Hupo means “to be under;” and meno means “to live.” Why? Because you live under the trial, in the trial, the pressure is there. We have perseverance. It doesn't say God will take it away, if not this week, next week. That's the fallacy of those messages preached, God has good things for you and the troubles of today will be gone. He's preparing you for the good things He is going to give you tomorrow. Wait a minute, the only truth in that is He is preparing us for the good things, the glory. But He doesn't promise that in this present life. That's the future.

So with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. All of our focus, all of our anticipation is on the promise, the hope. But your life is not getting any better. Job lost all of his kids in one fell swoop. Did the world fall apart? Was God was out of control? He didn't know what to do? No. God has promised me good things. I don't know what tomorrow holds. There is a song, I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future. That's how we live. I live on that edge of eager expectation, not resignation—oh God, get me out of this; I can't take another day. No, that's not it. We are persevering; we have steadfastness about us because we have a hope that is not moved by what goes on. If the market goes down and they lose their material wealth, they've lost everything. I've lost nothing because I Peter 1 tells me there is an inheritance laid up for me in heaven and it is permanent. They physical losses of loved ones, they are not permanent.

You know what happens? When we get to Romans 12 he'll say, do not be conformed to this world. The world wants to press in on me, it tells me I deserve a good life now, it tells me what I ought to enjoy now. And pretty soon I begin to expect this and I begin to require it from God. And when it doesn't happen and things go wrong then I'm upset with God and I'm frustrated with God and I'm bitter. Wait. What happens? I've taken my eyes off the hope and I've looked to the sufferings of the “now time.” I was eagerly expecting something other than suffering and I'm not looking at the hope. I can't tell you what God has in the future for you tomorrow; I can't tell you what the outcome of your present trial is going to be. I can tell you if you are a believer in Jesus Christ what your future is; it's glory. Everything else comes to nothing in light of that.

Turn over to II Corinthians 4:16-8: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” I have a totally different focus of life than every unbeliever on the face of the earth. I look at the things which are not seen, they are looking at the things which are seen. Their happiness is built around what they can see; our joy and eager expectation is built around what we don't see. That means that our afflictions, our sufferings are momentary, they are passing. They are light compared to the glory. You put may afflictions on the scale with the glory God has prepared for me, the scale doesn't move. There is no comparison.

Psalm 73 is the psalm of Asaph, and he almost stumbled like we sometimes almost stumble. Verses 2-7: “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death; And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulge from fatness; the imaginations of their heart run riot” How often does tragedy happen to us as a believer and we look and the unbeliever seems to be doing so well. Unbelieving friends and acquaintances, they don't seem to have the trouble we have. I try to raise my kids to be godly, my kids have more trouble than they do, etc. Verses 12-4: “Behold, these are the wicked, And always at ease, they have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I kept my heart pure, And washed my hands in innocence. For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning” See what happened? He almost stumbled because he got focused on the “now” age, the “now time.” Then I looked at others, and I'm trying to be a godly person, and they are prospering. I almost became envious of the wicked and wished that I could be like them. Verses 16-9: “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. Until I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down into destruction. How they are utterly destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!”

You see what happens? When I came before the Lord my perspective was adjusted and I saw. The wicked seem to be doing well now, but they are going to destruction. The contrast is in verses 21-6: “When my heart was embittered, And I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant, I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And beside You I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” You see the difference? It is their destiny. The sufferings now, nothing compared to the glory to come. The unbeliever may live in a realm of prosperity now, but the end is destruction. That's what gives us perseverance, stability to keep on because our hope is before us.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for such a wonderful salvation. Thank you for being such a gracious God to bestow this salvation on those who believe in Jesus Christ, a salvation that is complete from beginning to end. Lord, even though now we may experience suffering and trial, You know the heartaches and burdens that are being carried even by believers here today. Lord, may we take heart that we endure through these sufferings because our eyes are fixed on the glory that is promised, that is our inheritance. And Lord, You are our God and You have promised that You will bring us to glory in Your time. We praise You in Jesus' name, amen.