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And yet they were experiencing social ostracism because of their lifestyle change.

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They knew economic hardship due to loss of income.

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They experienced religious pressures because of the prevalent pagan idolatry.

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And they knew the meaning of rejection and misunderstanding in their families because

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of Jesus Christ.

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These are the same kinds of subtle pressures and quiet sufferings which all godly Christians

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endure from time to time.

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We learn in verse 17 that suffering is in the first place sure.

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He says, if indeed we suffer with Him.

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The idea is that it is an assumption.

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The if is not actually a doubt, it's an assumption that we will suffer with Him.

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If as is the case we suffer with Him is Paul's thought here.

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Suffering is sure.

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But notice also that suffering is shared.

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We suffer with Christ.

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The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians and he said to them, for it is graciously

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given for Christ's sake that you might suffer with Him.

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And not only believe on Him, but that you might suffer with Him.

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That too is the gracious gift of God and honor, the highest privilege that we can have is

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that we might endure suffering because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Our suffering is shared with Christ.

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And he says that our suffering is significant because it leads to glory.

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Just as surely as travail leads to childbirth, so suffering leads to glory.

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Not a meritorious kind of glory, a suffering rather do we endure, but a preparatory suffering.

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Our suffering is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, which the apostle says in

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2 Corinthians 4 verses 17 and 18 is not even worthy to be compared to the sufferings we

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have now.

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He says that glory is so great.

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It is so majestic.

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It is so awesome to consider that it's not even worthy to put into the same scales with

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a little bit of temporal suffering that we have in this world.

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Our suffering is sure, our suffering is shared, our suffering is significant.

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And whether our suffering be because we are Christians or we suffer the kinds of disappointments,

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hardships, uncertainty, and pain that all people know, in the midst of our suffering

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we sometimes forget what God has in store for us in the future.

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That failure to remember causes us to lose a sharp spiritual focus so that we can develop

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a spiritual myopia, a short-sightedness, so that we lose the longer, more distant view

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of things.

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I hope as we look at this text tonight that we will have an eye check, that we will check

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our distant vision, perhaps sharpen our focus as we consider the culmination of God's calling

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in our lives, the glory which is to come.

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Now this was on Paul's mind.

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This was not something that he wrote about without thought.

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He says in verse 18, for I consider, I reckon, he says.

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Paul is saying after careful thought, after having given this a great deal of prayerful

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introspection, he says, this is my fixed conclusion.

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What is that, Paul?

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That the present time and the suffering that we have now is not worthy to be compared to

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the glory to be revealed in us.

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He says here that we should consider the coming glory that we will have with Jesus Christ

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and two truths about it.

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The first truth about the coming glory is that it is the hope of creation.

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In verses 19 through 22, the apostle gives us a paragraph regarding what is sometimes

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called cosmic soteriology.

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It is a word about the salvation of the cosmos, the universe that God has created.

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He explains to us that the universe, that the creation is right now suffering.

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It is suffering because of Adam's sin.

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We know this from Genesis chapter 3.

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He says in verse 20 that the creation was subjected to futility.

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The word futility here comes from a verb that means to seek without finding anything.

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The idea in the word is that it involves an inability to reach a goal, a coming short

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of achieving one's potential.

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It's a frustration.

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He says that the creation around us, both animate and inanimate, is frustrated.

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It is experiencing futility.

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And that because of no fault of its own.

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It has been brought down to that point of frustration by God Himself.

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The creation originally given to Adam was a creation that was perfect.

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As you and I look around today, we see the suffering of animals.

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We see the depletion of resources.

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We observe the imbalance of natural forces, the pollution of our ecology, the extinction

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of some kinds of life.

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As we observe all of that, we have to realize that that exists because of our sin.

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The perfect creation was brought down and subjected to all of that travail and suffering

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and futility because of the sin of humankind.

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You say, well, why did God do that?

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Why did God bring the creation down when Adam fell into sin?

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Well, the answer to that is He did it so that man might still be able to have a certain

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rule over it.

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You see, the environment was made to fit a fallen king.

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He says that the creation now groans.

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It waits eagerly, He says in verse 19, for the revealing of the sons of God.

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That subjection to futility was one that was made in hope.

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The creation itself will one day share in redeemed mankind's deliverance from sin.

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Eventually, there will be a transformation in the creation corresponding to the Christian's

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redemption.

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He says in verse 2 that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free.

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That very same verb is used by God in the text here regarding the creation.

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It is eagerly looking forward to its own liberation, its own freedom from the futility to which

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it has been subjected by God.

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It longs for that day.

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It is anticipating eagerly the freedom that is known by God's dear children.

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You say, when will that be?

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The answer to that is during the millennium.

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In Acts 3, 21, it is called the period of restoration of all things.

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Jesus refers to it in Matthew 19, 28 as the regeneration.

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In the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the creation itself will experience the liberation

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for which it longs now.

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Ultimately, God will fashion it anew into a new heaven and a new earth.

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But understand that the creation that was made good now groans as it too eagerly awaits

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the coming glory.

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The coming glory is the hope of creation.

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But secondly, it is the hope of the Christian, the hope of the Christian.

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The apostle says in verse 23, not only does the creation grow as though it were in childbirth,

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but he says, we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan

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within ourselves.

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Notice that he is speaking to those who have what he calls the first fruits of the Spirit.

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Most of you probably know, but it bears repeating, the first fruits is a term, a biblical term

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that was drawn from agriculture in that day.

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It referred to the first of the harvest.

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It was the first cutting, the first pieces of fruit.

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The first evidence that the harvest was now ripened.

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It was the pledge of all that was to come.

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There was a feast in Israel called the feast of first fruits.

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At that time, at the beginning of harvest, they were to go into their barley fields and

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to cut down sheaves of barley to bring that then to the temple and to wave it before the

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Lord.

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That was an offering of first fruits.

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What it symbolized was that just as they presented the first fruits to the Lord, they recognized

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that all of the harvest also belonged to him.

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Now this term first fruits is used in the New Testament of Christ.

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In 1 Corinthians 15-20 it says, now Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits

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of those who are asleep.

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He's the first of his kind in his resurrection body.

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He represents what all of us will one day be who belong to him.

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He's the first fruits of that resurrection.

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The term is also used of Christians.

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For example, James 1-18 says, in the exercise of his God's will, he brought us forth by

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the word of truth so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among his creatures.

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So we are called the first fruits, the first of the harvest which is to come.

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In 1 Corinthians 16-15 it is said of the household of Stephanas that they were the first fruits

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of Achaia.

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In other words, Paul is saying that they were among his first converts in that province.

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And now there were going to be others saved like the household of Stephanas.

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They were the first fruits.

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Again the word is used in Revelation 14-4 of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, 12,000 from

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each tribe.

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And it says, these have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the

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Lamb.

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The 144,000 are saved and sealed at the beginning of the tribulation period as representatives

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of the greater harvest to come of both Jew and Gentile who will be saved in those years

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when God's judgment is poured out upon the earth.

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Now here, in Romans chapter 8, the word first fruits is used of the Holy Spirit.

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It calls the Holy Spirit the first fruits.

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What does that mean?

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It means that he is given to us as a guarantee of the future glory that is to come.

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He has brought to us now a foretaste of glory divine, as Fanny Crosby wrote in the hymn

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Blessed Assurance.

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But he is only the first fruits of that glory to come.

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He guarantees to us that we will participate one day in the fullness of that which now

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we have only tasted and enjoyed.

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He is called a pledge, a similar concept in 2 Corinthians 1, 22.

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God also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge, he says.

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Or in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the

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Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption

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of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

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One of the reasons that I am so convicted and assured about the security of the believer

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is the fact that God has already given to us a down payment, an assurance, a pledge

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that one day we will receive the fullness of the salvation that we have been given in

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Jesus Christ.

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And so we have the Holy Spirit within us as the first fruits, but we groan, he says.

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Now the groaning that we have is not one of pain, there is occasionally that kind of groaning

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too.

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But the groaning he has in mind here is the same kind of groaning that is in nature.

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It is the groaning of anticipation.

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It is the groaning of expectation, the looking forward to of that glory that is to come.

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The full inheritance that we have in Jesus Christ will be the revelation of Christ and

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our being made like him, which involves what he calls in verse 23 the redemption of our

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body.

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There he is referring to that consummating act of our salvation when our physical bodies

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will be changed from their lowly form at present to be like Christ's body of glory.

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You and I are saved in anticipation of that.

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Our gospel is a gospel of hope.

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We don't yet see it.

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I don't see it.

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If we would see it, it would not be hope, he points out.

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No, it's for this hope that we don't now see, but we anticipate that we have been saved.

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And it's toward the assurance that we will receive it, that we have been given the first

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fruits of the Spirit.

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Paul is telling us here that the future glory is so full and so complete that it cannot

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be fully experienced in the bodies that we have.

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Our bodies have to be changed so that we then can experience the glory that is to come.

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Dr. Leslie Allen writes, the salvation given at conversion has implicit in it promises

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which have yet to be fulfilled.

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Holy experience may now bombard the believer's senses, but it cannot reasonably invalidate

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his glorious hope because its fulfillment essentially lies in the future.

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We are the children of God right now, make no mistake about that.

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We have eternal life at this moment.

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But beloved, we are primarily a people of the future.

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We are not a people of this world.

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We are a people of a world that is to come.

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We are the first fruits of his creation.

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I don't know all that that means.

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I don't know all that God is going to create in that new heaven and new earth.

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But whatever it is, it is so wonderful that words in this book could not express it all.

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You and I have all of that in store.

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We will share in that coming glory.

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It is not small.

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It is not imaginary.

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It is very real.

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And it is so humongous that God cannot possibly put into one book all that it contains.

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That is the hope of the Christian, the glory that is to come.

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He says we eagerly wait with perseverance.

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How is it that we eagerly wait with perseverance?

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How practically speaking can we do that?

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Sometimes life gets tough.

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We go through sufferings, whether physical or emotional or persecution.

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And we wonder when is this glory going to come?

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And we say what the psalmist of old, oh Lord how long?

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How long?

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How is it that we wait eagerly in perseverance?

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Let me just give you a couple of thoughts about that.

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If we are going to wait eagerly with patience, we need to number one reckon our sufferings

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like Paul did, to see that we are going to suffer in this world, they are sure.

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To see that they are shared, that Christ suffers with us.

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He knows our pain that we pass through.

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And to see that our suffering is significant.

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We have to keep that in mind.

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As you compute all of the factors of your life and you see the hardship and the heartache

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and the disappointments, keep all of that in mind.

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Be sure that you are going to suffer in this world.

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Don't be surprised by it.

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But Christ shares it with you and it is significant because it is working in you and exceeding

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eternal weight of glory.

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The best is yet to come for you.

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It is passing.

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Suffering must precede glory.

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Reckon your suffering like Paul did.

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Secondly, be diligent in your ministry to others.

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When you and I are passing through suffering, it helps us to keep busy ministering to other

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people.

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Keep before ourselves the fact that when Christ come, we will one day stand at his Bema seat.

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And we have an intense desire that when we stand there before him on that day, that we

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might receive a full reward and not be robbed of any of it by carelessness and sloppiness

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and unfaithfulness in this world.

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And so as you and I pass through this world and we eagerly wait with patience, let's keep

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in mind that second thought.

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I want to be diligent in my ministry to others because when I stand before Christ, I want

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a full reward.

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And then thirdly, if I want to wait eagerly with patience, I must stay in the Word.

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I must stay in the Word of God to give me perspective of what life is all about.

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If I don't, I'm liable to end up like Elijah did and get discouraged and think I'm all

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by myself.

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We forget our focus and so I need to keep myself in the Word of God.

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Are you keeping yourself in the Word?

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And finally, if you and I are going to eagerly wait with perseverance, then we need to develop

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a romance with Jesus Christ and keep that romance strong.

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We must not allow the flame of devotion to burn low in our lives.

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We must preserve it.

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Jude said, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our

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Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

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Keep yourselves in the love of God.

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What does he mean?

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He means in essence this, I'll paraphrase it.

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Keep yourselves in love with God.

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That's what he's saying.

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Make sure that your heart beats with a passion for Jesus Christ.

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Don't allow yourself to become a spiritual adulterer or adulteress.

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Don't allow anyone or anything else take his spot, the spot of first love, the spot of

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preeminence in your life.

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I want to tell you that if you'll do those things, if you'll reckon your suffering like

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Paul did, if you'll be diligent in your ministry to others, if you'll stay in the Word to keep

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your perspective, if you'll develop a romance with Jesus Christ, then you will also eagerly

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wait with patience the glory that is to come.

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One of my favorite hymns talks about the glory that is to come.

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It's one that I'd like you to sing with me.

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If you'll take your hymnal.

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All of creation would join you in singing that because the creation around us tonight

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groans with eager anticipation for this day when Christ will come and give us glory.

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Beloved, let our hearts too eagerly anticipate His coming, eagerly anticipate it with patience.

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Let's pray.

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Lord Jesus, I pray that we will tonight, above every other concern of life, every other goal,

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every other motive, will have this as number one, eagerly anticipating the coming glory.

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Lord remind us as we pass through the battlefield of life, as we walk through the pilgrimage

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on this earth, that the best, the glory, is yet to come.

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And may we be willing to suffer whatever you call us to suffer, that we might one day realize

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the fullness of glory.

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May we faithfully serve you here that we might not be robbed of any reward on that day when

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we stand before your beam of seed.

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Cause our hearts, I pray, as we go from this service and through this week to beat with

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anticipation and longing for your coming and the glory that comes with you.

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We pray this in your blessed name, keeping in view and in focus your blessed hope and

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your return.

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Amen.

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Good night.

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A couple hours later, King thirsty, King struggling, King trembling, a мож invest