This week on QI, if we're continuing with our study in the Book of Romans and if you have your Bible turn if you will to the eighth chapter of Romans versus 18 through 30. Before we turn to that, let's go before the throne. Father, you are so kind and so merciful and so gracious, we are simply overwhelmed. When we look at our lives, Father, and we recognize what we deserve, it's frightening. We deserve nothing but your wrath, nothing but your condemnation, nothing but your destruction and yet. And yet, Father, your grace and mercy are overwhelming. And so we've come, we've come to say thank you and to praise you and to worship you. Father, we come with our problems. You've given us the privilege to come boldly into your throne room and so we bring those places where we hurt, the places where there is great pain, the places where we're afraid and lonely and empty where we've sinned. Father, we're not good people and we're not together people but we are your people. And so we ask that you would meet us at the point of the needs as you describe those needs. Father, as we move into this week, help us to be better than we were last week to love more than we did last week to care more than we did last week. Father, help us to be sensitive to your agenda not so concerned with ourselves and our agenda. Father, help us to be a blessing to all those that you love. Father, as we study your word on key life, as always, we pray for the one who teaches, that you would forgive him his sins for they are many. We would see Jesus and Him only and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Our text for this week, as I mentioned, is Romans 8, 18 through 30 and we're in the midst of a rather long study of the book of Romans. Now, last week our text was Romans 8, 12 through 17. And you will remember we went down three side roads. We noted that Paul presupposes responsibility and choice. That's Romans 8, 13. We noted that our relationship with Christ is one we receive Romans 8, 15. We noted that a Christian is not in bondage to fear Romans 8, 15. Then we turned to what the Bible says about the doctrine of adoption. The adoption of the believer, and we saw the fact of adoption, verse 15, the cry of the adopted Abba Father, verse 15, the debt of the adopted, we no longer owe anything to anybody but God, verse 13. The reality of the adopted, verse 16, the riches of the adopted, verse 17, and the cost to the adopted, verse 17. Now, we're ready to turn to our text for this week. Romans 8, 18 through 30, if you're in a place where you can get a hold of the Bible without people thinking you're a fanatic. Get it and open it and read along with me. And if you are not in a place where you can do that, you just listen and trust that I'm reading it properly. Paul, who's a very old and dear friend of mine, writes his follows, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance, likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we don't know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He for new He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. That He might be the first born among many brethren, moreover whom He predestined those He also called, whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified. Now we're going to study personal eschatology in most of the week this week, but I want to get on a couple of side roads. Side road number one, note if you will, the 29th verse where the word for new is used, Romans 8.29, for whom He for new He also predestined. Now a lot of folks believe that what's happening here is that God is looking into the future, finding out who's going to respond to Christ and who isn't going to respond to Christ. And then on the basis of this foreknowledge He chooses those who will respond properly, nay nay nay. That isn't what His verse means at all. The word to know means the most intimate and passionate of human relationships. Paul is saying, well, Paul is not saying that God looks into the future and decides on the basis of what He finds, but He will love who He won't love. Paul is saying that God in His sovereign will knows His own in the most intimate of ways. Now let me talk to you a bit about the doctrine of election. When we get to the ninth chapter of Romans, we're going to spend a whole lot of time on it. But for now, let me give you some good news. Before you were ever born, before God thought about anything else, He thought about you by name, He called you and loved you, and He drew you to Himself. Now you didn't know His name. You didn't know anything. Your parents weren't born yet. Your grandparents weren't born yet. The world had not been created before the foundation of the world. The Ephesians won. God knew you and called you to Himself. I know, I know. You're saying, well, what about my freedom and responsibility? That is a factor too. We're going to talk more about it later. We did last week's song. But for now, let me tell you a family secret. It isn't one you preach on street corners, or one you share with Joe Pagan or Jane Sinek. It's not one you tell your unbelieving friends about, but you need to remember it because it is very good news. God chose you. He picked you out, and because He picked you out, when there was no evil or gullet in you, He will never let you go. You oughta meet my wife Anna. She's something else. I was the president of the student government at a small college in North Carolina, and there were only three of us, and one of us had to be president. I was a little bit bigger than that, but not much. I was welcoming the incoming freshman class, and Anna was sitting on the third row. I found out her name or background, her relationships, and approached her in the cafeteria. Surely afterwards we started dating, and I've never dated anybody else. What I didn't know was that she, though she hid it, liked me a lot, as much as I liked her. There's a very sexist statement, but I'm going to use it anyway. It's true in some instances. Too wit. I chased her, and chased her, and chased her, and chased her until she finally caught me. Anna didn't have to catch anyone, but when we talk about the doctrine of election, that's exactly what God is known. We chased Him and chased Him and chased Him until He finally caught us. Not only that, but before the foundation of the earth, before He hung the stars and hollowed out the valleys and made the mountains, He determined to allow us to chase Him and chase Him and chase Him until He finally caught us. Do I believe in the doctrine of election? Yes, of course. Bible teaches it beyond question. But let me, let me chase something else. If He had not chosen me, there is an chance of a snowball in a hot place of my ever finding Him. The apostle John said, we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. You see? You see I chased Him and chased Him and chased Him and chased Him until He finally caught me. Was I still free and responsible? Well, yes, but we'll leave that for another day. Let me mention another side road. Please note how ignorant we are in terms of what we ask in our prayers, Romans 8, 26 B. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. I got to tell you about the time Ruth Graham was asked, you've got always answered her prayers with a yes and she replied, don't be silly, of course he doesn't. If he did, I would have married the wrong man several times. Let me suggest something to you. Think back over your life about those times you have prayed for something. I mean really hard and didn't get it. And now I want you to think what life would be like if you had gotten that for which you prayed. I don't know about you, but I would have been a baseball player. I would have missed the joy of ministry. With Mrs. Graham, I would have married the wrong person on several occasions. I would have never gone to school. I would never have known wonderful daughters Robin and Jennifer. And they would have never gotten married to our wonderful sons-in-laws, Jim and Mike. I would never have been a preacher. And if I had been a preacher, I would never have come to Florida. I would never have met most of the friends I have in this life. Nor would I have ever done this broadcast. I would never have met the students at Reformed Seminary where I teach. I would have been able to know the colleagues that I love so much at the seminary where I teach. In fact, if I got an answer to all my prayers, I would not be talking to you right now today. And I think back and say to him, Father, I have been wrong so often in what I wanted and what I prayed for that I had decided to leave it up to you. If you say yes to me too often, I could be in very bad trouble, so not my will, but yours be done. That's it. That's a good prayer. And I think I'm a true Christian always prays that kind of prayer. Good heavens. What if you had answered that prayer that I prayed four years ago? I would have missed so much. My whole life would have been different. I would have failed in so many areas. I would have made a public fool out of myself. I've always wanted to be the pastor of a mega-church so everybody would call me Dr. Brown. And would think that I was great in stuff. If I'd gotten that, you know what I would have done, I would have messed it up. Aren't you glad that God has a personal filter and that when He listens to our prayers He says no to the things He ought to say no to because He knows they will be painful to us? And He says yes to the things that He ought to say yes to. And we ought to learn to trust Him. He says yes and no and wait and whatever He says is best. But Paul's statement here goes deeper than our request, doesn't it? The truth is that sometimes I don't know how to pray. Or even while I ought to see happen, I felt that way when my mother died. We, as you know, went up and lived with her for three months and were with her over Christmas and our daughters flew in. And it was a bitter, sweet time, but to be honest with you, I was very ambivalent. I hardly knew what to say to the father. I love my mother a lot and I still miss her. For months I would pick up the phone to call her and tell her something or ask her advice and then with great sorrow, remember that she was no longer there. I haven't been able to drive past the house where my mother died. So I knew I was going to miss my mother and I didn't know whether to say God, hold her, don't let her die, I need her. She was, it was time for her to go home. I mean, she was elderly really up in years. A lot older than a lot of you in Asheville who knew her, thought she was. And I knew she had cancer and I knew the doctor had said that it was terminal. So I know whether to say father, help her to have a quick death home going or heal her and bring her back to me and so I didn't know how to pray. And my mother had more people in heaven she loved than she did on earth. And I didn't want her to go through a lot of things. Should I pray for a life or a death or healing, I just left it up to him and tried to trust him for what he decided. You know what I think would be the hardest thing about being an atheist. It would be to hold your child to see a magnificent sunset, to be particularly blessed and thankful for some incident and have nobody to think. Even as a believer, I am so overwhelmed sometimes with God's goodness. Are you this way that I simply don't have the words. I don't know how to pray. There are times when with Bev Shea, I sing the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, that he would love me and to be honest with you, I don't have the words. Now I'm not charismatic and I'm not in a costal. But I can understand those guys. I mean it would be nice to have a tongue and just let the Holy Spirit who knows better how to pray than I do to let it go and let him do the praying. As it is, I sit in the silence and that's exactly what happens Paul says. I don't have the words sometimes I say but you know my heart and I'm just going to sit here father, if it's all right with you and be quiet. Along this line, not only do we not as Paul says know how to pray properly, we don't know much about anything or how much is proper. I've been wrong so much in my life that I have to be careful not to anticipate about almost anything. I'm good at arguments. I was the president of the debate society in high school in college and with as much humility as I can possibly master, I hardly ever get into an argument that I don't win. But when I look back over my life, I find I won a whole lot of arguments when I was wrong. Listen guys, our vote is so small and the ocean is so big that I have to make all judgments tentative about almost everything except Jesus and the eternal varieties of the Christian faith. There are lots of books written today to tell everybody else other Christians, other churches, other denominations, other methodologies how they are wrong and outside the will of God. It's always done in brotherly love. I had an elder who just before he would get out of Howitzer and shoot me would say, Steve, I love you like a brother. Having so many times that when he said, Steve, I love you like a brother, I would say, Buck, I'm glad but I'm going to get down behind this desk before you start talking. Let me tell you something, I'll probably never write a book telling others where they're wrong. Not because they aren't wrong. I mean you guys are wrong a lot. If you disagree with me, you're always wrong. It is just that I don't like Humble Pie and if I wrote those kinds of books I'd probably have to write a book later apologizing about what I said in the first book. Believe me, I don't like making a public fool of myself. That's enough. Paul says that we hardly know how to pray. I'll accept that and I'm glad that I can trust God's filter when I pray. He has the wisdom, he knows about this whole thing and he knows a lot better than I do. The future is important for most of us and for most of us it is pretty frightening. A study of the future is called by the way eschatology, that means a study of in things. When a believer talks about the rapture, about the tribulation when they say that they're tribulational or mid tribulational or pre-tribulational. When they say they're pre-millennial or post-millennial or omelennial, when they talk about the great white throne judgment seat of Christ or about the whore of Babylon or the Antichrist, they're talking about eschatology. Now the rest of the week we're going to study eschatology and you say that's great. I'm facing divorce. My wife says she doesn't love me, my husband is left, my doctor says I have cancer, my children are in rebellion, I can't make the mortgage payment and you're going to teach eschatology. That's exactly what I need. No, no, no, I'm not going to teach that kind of eschatology. To be truthful, I don't know much about that. I get all kinds of questions and I have some tentative answers. Jesus is coming back, I know that. I know he's going to clean up the mess and maybe soon I kind of think that it is going to be soon. It's been said so often it's cliche, I'm panmillennial, it's going to pan out in the end. I told you about all I know about cosmic eschatology. This week we're going to talk about personal eschatology. What about you and the future? And listen to me, I have some very good news, so let's dig into it and get started. First, I want you to note, if you will, in this text the promise of the future Romans 8-18, for I consider Paul writes that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. I think it was Einstein who said not only is the world more complicated than we can imagine and is more complicated than we can imagine. Well, heavens like that, I don't know. I don't have the capacity to even think of how wonderful and how magnificent and how thrilling heaven will be for the believer. All three of my aunts are now home with the Lord. They were all Christians and loved Christ, my mother Leona, my aunt Levenia and my aunt Lita, and we were having dinner last night. And I don't know how the subject got started, but Anna said, can you imagine how much fun they're having in heaven right now, the things that they're seeing and the war stories that they're telling? Can you imagine? Well, no, I really can't. First one of these two lines says this, I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. I remember that first time I saw the ocean. I'd won a contest on my paper route for selling more subscriptions than anybody else. And the contest was you got to go to the east coast of North Carolina, that's pretty country. First time I saw the ocean, I've lived absolutely overwhelmed. I've never seen that much word. For once there was enough of something. I thought to myself, wow, I said to myself, now I said it backwards well. When I get to heaven, I suspect my reaction is going to be sort of like that in yours too. Only multiplied a thousand times a thousand. Lincoln, Stephens, who was a twit, by the way, visited the Soviet Union after the revolution. It said, I've seen the future and it works. Well, he hadn't seen the future and it did not work. But there, Krushchev said, we will bury you, the truth is they buried themselves. But in regard to heaven there's a sense in which I've seen Jesus. And in Jesus I've seen the future. And it's my future and it's your future if you belong to Christ. I saw the future in an empty tomb and a dead man walking and in a promise to it he said that we could do it too because he did it. I've seen the future and it really works. I've seen the future and it's really there. I've seen the future and it really makes a very big difference. I recently read Pope Paul's new book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. By the way, that's become a major big-time deseller. I read a review of it by a liberal twit who called the Pope's Conservatism in a Front to Repressive. That's when I decided I was going to read the book. I'm glad he doesn't shilly-shally. Now I disagree with a lot of things he says in that book. I'm not a Roman Catholic and if I were a Roman Catholic I would agree with all of it but I don't. But I liked it. It's nice to read a book for a change by somebody who believes something and doesn't mind saying so. And anyway, as I said, I'm not a Catholic so you would expect me to disagree with some of the things that Pope said. But a lot of it's great. By the way, I hope he isn't the any Christ. I sort of like him. I'm kidding. Every time I say that, I get letters. You know the best thing about that book, the title. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Dear friend, that's what we're going to do. Cross the Threshold of Hope. You don't have to be afraid. God is promised and he doesn't lie about anything. Anybody here want to live forever? You can, you know, if you know him. I don't know what politics you have under the right of Ginghis Khan, but even if you don't like Newt Gingrich, you can't help but like his line when he was criticized for accepting the multi-million-dollar contract for his books. He smiled and said, can I help it if liberal books don't sell? Well, that's certainly true about liberal theological books. They don't sell because they forget about heaven. It's true that it's possible to be so heavenly-minded that you're no earthly good, but it's also true that you could be so earthly-minded that you miss heaven. You don't have to because he's promised. That's a part of the Christians' eschatology. Now, secondly, I want you to note not only the promise of the future, but I want you to note also the reality of the present. Romans 8-18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time, etc. Now note, if you will, that Paul doesn't deny the reality of the present suffering. The next time some idiot who should know better tells you that the Bible is an unrealistic book. Tell him to go to heaven. I think I'm going to scream next time somebody says that to me. The Bible says these old died in faith not having received what was promised. Now that's realistic. I used to think I was going to be the new Billy Graham, and at minimum, be the pastor of a mega church where thousands were saved in hundreds of years. I used to think I was going to get better and better in every way every day. I used to think that I would have no pain and no loss. I used to think that I would always be faithful and always obedient. They will put on my tombstone. He died in faith not having received what was promised. Don't you tell me the Bible is not realistic, but it goes further than realism. Note the whole of that text in Hebrews 11. These old died in faith not having received what was promised, therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he had prepared for them a city. One of the problems with many Christians is that they live in denial, and if someone has said denial is not a river in Egypt, it is something in case you haven't noticed the world is not a very nice place. I have a friend in the hospital who in my question to her about whether she was frightened. She said, of course I'm afraid. You crazy people die in this place. Could have been said about the world. Am I afraid? Of course I'm afraid. People die in this place. Hurricanes happen. Man, you ought to go through a hurricane. Those of you who have great courage and trust God completely, you ought to go through a hurricane sometime. That will shake you up quick. People who say, I'm not afraid of death. Let me tell you, we live in a place where people die. People you love die. People get cancer and die. Businesses fail. Bad people do bad things. Of course I'm afraid. This is a bad place. I tell you about the slogan I saw while I go at red, eat a live frog in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you during the day. Yes, but truthfully, even if you eat a live frog in the morning, as bad as that would be, lots of worse things can happen to you during the day. You could die. You could lose a loved one. You could get jungle rot. This is a bad world, and the Bible is honest about it. But the Bible always says, you aren't home yet. These all died in faith not having received what was promised. That's real. Don't forget about that part, but don't forget about the second part. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared for them city. Try to remember that. It's part of the Christians' eschatology. Thirdly, in this is new, I want you to note not only the promise of the future, and the reality of the present, I want you to note the turmoil of creation. Romans 8.18 or 19 through 22. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation grows and labors with birth pangs together until now. So now you know why there are earthquakes, and while things are so messed up and why there are hurricanes, Stephen Donaldson has written some very good fairy tales for adults. His Thomas Covenant trilogy was good, and then he wrote three more on the same theme. The last three don't bother to read, he was just hustling a butt, but the first three are great. In any rate there's a man by the name of Thomas Covenant who enters another world through an old wedding ring. In that other world there is a wounded land, and he is sent there to do something about it. In the wounded land everything is bleak, dark, and painful. If you touch a tree or leaf it will give you pain. As I was reading the Thomas Covenant trilogy I thought about the earth and how messed up it really is. I thought about Romans 8, from the ozone layer to earthquakes to hurricanes to volcanoes, things just aren't right in the world. You know why? Because in Genesis 3 there were three curses, one for Adam and Eve, one for Satan, and one for the earth. God says, curse would be the ground. Something is bent, something is out of place, something is frightening about the earth. If you knew that now you know why. Just before my mother died we were driving to a restaurant for dinner and I saw a billboard and it said, love your mother, and I thought, well that's a nice thought. Then I saw the rest of the billboard and there was a big picture of the earth, and I was ticked, I was angry, and my mother didn't like my anger, and I said, mother, the earth isn't my mother, you are my mother, and if you treated me the way mother earth treats humanity I would disown you. Radical environmentalism is the false belief that the world is nice, pristine, and wonderful, and you have to be a fruitcake to believe that. I tell you, some of these people say some of the dumbest thing, there is great cruelty in nature. Mother earth is a child abuser. Animals are not cute and cuddly, they can be ferocious, and they can be mean, and what is that? A reflection of the earth groaning, waiting for the return of Christ, the eschatology of the future. You knew that, now you know why. First of all, I want you to note not only the promise of the future, reality of the present, and the turmoil of creation, please note if you will, the yearning of the believer, Romans 823. Not only they, but we also have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Something isn't right, you ever feel that way? I do. There just always seems to be something missing, something that is always lacking, and I get tired of those Christians who say they are perfectly content. We moved into a new house recently, we did it over the Christmas holidays, and the Bible says thou shalt not move at Christmas. And as always, when I was disobedient to the Word of God, I got into trouble. Folks, I heard in places that I didn't even know existed. It was, by the way, sort of a symbolic move, the end of some very difficult times. Let me take something. I love this new house. It has everything that we ever wanted in a house. It's the largest house we ever had. I can see a lake from my study window at the house, the reformed seminary where I teach is going to build a new 60 acre campus on the other side of that lake. I can go to work in a canoe. I can see tennis courts from my study window. They don't pay me to say this, but by the way, Syntrax, who built the development where we're now living. And I had some really bad experience with contractors, one stole $60,000 of insurance money and other. I paid for an alarm system three times. I mean, I can't tell you how bad I've been treated by contractors. And Syntrax said they were going to finish at a certain date and weren't able to finish. And we had locked in an interest rate with the bank. You know what Syntrax did? And they don't pay me to say this, but you know, these kind of nice things are going to happen that often. Anyways, Syntrax went to the bank and said, we're not going to finish at the time we said we did and we want to do it right. So we're going to pay down the interest so that the Browns will be able to have the same interest rate that they locked in before. I mean, I was blown away. Now, I love what I do. I love the new house. I love working at Kiwif and teaching at the seminary. Right after we moved in the new house, I thought, man, I have a wonderful life. And we've been together 33 years. I have wonderful daughters. I even have guerrilla sons-in-laws that I love. I mean, they're wonderful. Mike and Jim. Jim came down to Christmas and we put up lines together. He's a doctor and he doesn't know anything about that. And I'm a preacher and I don't know less than he does, but they're still hanging there. I just thought, God, you have been so good. You have given so much. But I was standing in my house the other day and I had this awful feeling that something was missing. Immediately, I was convicted for my ungratefulness and I asked the father to forgive me. He of course forgave me. But he also reminded me of Romans 8.23. Something really is missing. If you expect to be totally happy and together in this world, you're crazy. If you're contented, you need to remember that this world, in this world, contentment is only for cows. Something's always missing. Why is that? It is your yearning. It is my yearning for whom it's the realization that this isn't all there is. It's the Holy Spirit prompting you that waiting for full adoption. The time when all things will be new and forever will really be forever. Remember Alfred E. Newman? I used to read Mad Magazine when I was a kid. I don't even know if it's still around. But Alfred E. Newman, that's silly looking guy that was always around. He said most people don't know what they want, but they're pretty sure that they don't have it. That's part of the Christian's eschatology. Knowing that what is yearned for, even if it isn't definable, will be given satisfied and resolved before the throne. Physically, I want you to note not only the promise of the future, the reality of the present, the turmoil of creation, the yearning of the believer, but I want you to note the character of hope. Romans 8.24. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen as not hope. For why does one still hope? For what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Was it Yeats or one of those guys who wrote ode to aggression urn? And on the aggression urn there's this guy that's reaching out to kiss this girl. And he says a lot better than I'm going to say that the hoping for that kiss is better than the kiss itself. Now, this point that Paul is making here relates to the last one, but let me show you something. If you want to rob a man or a woman of life, rob them of hope. Hopelessness is the harshest word in the English language. I think I've told you before, but let me illustrate with the two spaceships. If I said some of you guys, I'm going to put you on a space ship. The government has given me the authority to do that. It's going to be the most wonderful trip you ever took. I mean, it's going to be, so you're going to see things that nobody's ever going to see. I mean, you're going to see scenes. You're going to see universes and worlds that nobody's ever seen before. But we've got a problem. We don't know how to bring you back, but it's going to be a great trip. And then I told the other bunch of you guys. I said, look, we're going to send you on a space ship. And you're going to see things that nobody's ever seen before, but we're going to send you to a new world. And you're going to be the forefathers of that new world. And for mothers of that new world, you're going to start a whole new generation. And it's going to be a wonderful place to live. Now, which space ship do you think will you find people writing great music and great books and loving each other? I'll tell you, not on the first one, but on the second one. That's what Hope does. Hope gives you something to look forward to. Martin Luther's wife when he was depressed said, Dr. Luther God is dead. Now, that was quite irritating to the grand theologian. Don't say that wife, he said, but he persisted. Dr. Luther God is dead. Why are you saying that he asks why she replied? You're acting like it's true. If you're in a Christian, God has come from outside our world. And there's Hope. If you reach out to Christ and what he did on the cross, we're living on the threshold of Hope. And Hope Paul says it what is what causes us to really live to persevere to eagerly wait. Sometimes, the hoping for something is better than the getting on it, sixthly. Note, if you will, the commitment of the Spirit Romans 8.26 and 27. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, but we don't know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. How about that? You are on the prayer list of the Holy Spirit. And not only that, you're on the prayer list of the Son. We're going to talk about that next week. Romans 8.34, who is he who conquered, condemns, it is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen and who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Now, let me tell you something, that's two people praying for you, and you can get better prayers than that. The point Paul is making here is that something inexplicable about our hope and our ability to persevere is going on. I don't understand why I'm still doing this. You know, there are times when I've wanted to leave, and I said, Father, I don't know if I even believe in you anymore. There have been times when I wanted to give up, but something put gasoline in my engine, something made a difference. Something keeps me on trucking on. Something causes me to love more than I did, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. You're better than you are. You think I'm bad, you should have seen me before, and you should see what I'm capable of. You think I get angry very often. So many days, you see more restrained anger in me than you've probably ever seen in anybody. Why is that? Because I've got a helper, and the helper's name is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is that which enables us to be better than we are. To persevere until the end. The point Paul was making here is that there's something inexplicable about our hope, about our ability to persevere. You were a man or a woman from Mars, and you were to land on a spaceship on her, pick up the morning paper, and read what is happening in the world. Then someone should tell you that he or she believed in loving God, and in a future hope. You as a person from Mars would think, given the evidence that the person who told you that, had her butter falling off his or her cracker. Listen to me, if the evidence should suggest that there is no hope, where did you get your hope? When you look at yourself, the evidence suggests that you ought to be really bad, and you're better than you are. How come? Paul gives us the answer. It's the Holy Spirit working through us, giving us hope, praying for us, creating in us the supernatural life that we would never have by ourselves. Even Thomas used to say, what is it in your life that can only be explained by the supernatural? Let me taste them. Good question that, a whole lot. That's a part of my personal eschatology seventh. I want you to note not only the promise of the future, the reality of the present, the turmoil of procreation, the yearning of the Christian, the character of the hope, the commitment of the Spirit, please note also the specific of the promise. Thomas A28, and this is one of my favorite verses, and we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Did you hear about the rookie in on a professional football team who didn't get the chance to play very much? But he longed to get into the game, finally he got his chance. It was the last quarter of the game. The team was behind, and suddenly they called for him. The coach said, son, we've run out of timeouts and not going there and get hurt. Well, I wouldn't for a moment suggest that God says that to us, but the truth is that getting hurt is a part of the victory. How do I know? Because of Romans A28. We get thousands of letters each month here at Key Life, and some of you guys are going through incredible difficulties. I mean, I read some letters and just cry. Some of you have pain that I can't imagine. Listen to me, every circumstance of your life, no matter how horrible, is building a bridge to the future. A grand and glorious future, and you're a part of it. Every circumstance is working its way out by a sovereign God to get you home with joy and freedom and faithfulness to Christ as your crowning achievement. He promised. The optimist gets up in the morning and says, good morning Lord, and the pessimist gets up in the morning and says, good Lord it's morning. Christians are optimists because we know that nothing is going to happen ever that isn't a part of the sovereignty of God and that he won't work out for good. Then I've got one other point. I want you to know not only the promise of the future, the reality of the present, the turmoil of creation, the yearning of the Christian, the character of the hope, the commitment of the Spirit, the specific of the promise. I want you to know if you will the completion of the process, Romans 8, 29, 230, for whom he for new he also predestined, to be conformed to the image of his own son. That he might be the first born of many brethren, moreover whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified those he also glorified. My friend John DeBrine, I've been hurting to say a thousand times, you can be as sure of heaven as you would be if you were already there. You can be as sure of heaven as you would be if you were already there. Paul says that too, note the tents of this text, those whom he predestined, he called, those he called, he justified, those he justified, he also will glorify, doesn't say that, doesn't. Sometime in the future he will glorify, doesn't say that, he says, he has already glorified. Do you feel glorified yet? I don't. Of course you don't, because you aren't, but the scripture is so sure of the truth that it already isn't a accomplished fact. Let me give you a principle that I've given you before. Remember it because it's true what God begins, He always completes, and the very fact of its beginning is the promise and guarantee of its completion. What God begins, He always completes, and the very fact of its beginning is the promise and guarantee of its completion is God ever done anything in your life. When you received Him, did you know Him? Has He ever blessed you? Has He ever cared for you? Anything that He begins, He always completes, and the fact that He's done anything, that He's begun anything, Philippians 1-6 suggests that He will bring it to completion, and you can hang your hat on that. Do you think about that?