A lesson by Pastor John Skaggs

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

P.O. Box 1447, Claypool, Az. 85532

520-425-8345 or 520-402-9134

Email: pastorjohn@gila.net

Date: 12-5-99

Sermon Number: 39

Text: Romans 8:18-22

Topics addressed in this lesson

(The believers inheritance, Christian suffering)

Those of God’s children who understand how they have come to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation have a good chance of enjoying the peace of God that surpasses human understanding. They are more likely to possess assurance of salvation. That is why Paul, from the beginning of his letter to the Romans, has worked to help us understand our salvation. Before he is finished with the letter he will have taught that God the Father, in eternity past, determined to save a number of people from the great mass of fallen humanity. God the Son, Jesus Christ, then purchased the souls of those chosen by the Father for salvation by offering himself a sacrifice for their sin. Then, in time, God the Holy Spirit applies the Son’s work of redemption to these lost individuals bringing them into the family of God, indeed, making them sons of God. At the moment one comes into the family or God, or is born again, God Holy Spirit begins to lead and guide the believing sinner toward his glorious end. That end is complete sanctification, glorification, and everlasting rest, in heaven with the blessed Trinity and all those who die in Christ. Paul has made it perfectly clear that this great salvation is entirely of the Lord without human contribution. Sinners are saved and kept by God in accord with grace through the gift of faith. Since all of this is true we can rest assured that what God has begun in us, salvation, He will surely take to its appointed end, i.e., final salvation and glorification. (Philippians 1:6 NASB) "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."

The true children of God will be led by the Holy Spirit through this life and delivered safe to God who chose to save them, and to the Son who shed His blood for their redemption. When we have arrived in heaven at last we shall enter into our inheritance as sons. Which statement brings us to our text for today. Romans 8:14-18 NASB. "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. {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!" {16} The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, {17} and if children, HEIRS ALSO, HEIRS OF GOD AND FELLOW HEIRS WITH CHRIST, if indeed we SUFFER with Him in order that we may also be GLORIFIED with Him. {18} 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."

The main purpose of Romans chapter eight is to teach Christians that they are secure in Christ no matter what happen to them in this life. He knows the Christian will suffer many hardships but he also knows that suffering is no cause for despair or discouragement. So he draws our attention away from our present suffering to our future inheritance with a view toward our encouragement. Paul tells us that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ! The first thing this proves is that the adoption that we enjoy is not a qualified one. We are not second class sons, rather we are sons indeed. We will share in the family inheritance with the Son of God, Jesus Christ! The believing children of Adam, sinners and rebels, will be glorified with Christ, and will share in His inheritance.

The heart of that inheritance will be the privilege of worshiping and glorifying God forever. Beyond that we will inherit eternal life. We will receive a new name, (Revelation 3:12). We will receive a crown of gold, (Revelation 4:4). Marvel of marvels, we will rule and reign with Christ, (Revelation 20:4)! We shall even sit beside Jesus on His throne, (Revelation 3:21). In the midst of suffering Paul calls us to look away to what awaits us, the inheritance of the saints.

This is not the first or the last time Paul tells his readers to look into the future for present comfort. Look with me at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB. "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. (Hope, by it’s very nature, looks toward the future. However, the unbeliever has no hope because he has no future with God. This life is all he has, therefore, when he, or someone he loves, dies, all hope is lost. Christians, on the other hand, are told not to grieve as if they had no hope.) {14} For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (So, in the midst of our grieving over the death of a loved one Paul instructs us to look forward with joy to the day we will see Him and our loved ones again.) {15} For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. {16} For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. {17} Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. {18} Therefore, comfort one another with these words."

There will come a day when death, sorrow, pain, and suffering, will be swallowed up by eternal life and joy unspeakable. I speak of the second coming of Christ! The day when we see not only our Savior but our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Therefore, comfort yourself and one another by looking away from the sorrow that fills this earthly sojourn to the future promised by our God.

This is the same kind of message Paul teaches in our Romans text. Since we are sons, we are heirs, and that which we are about to inherit should be the focus of and foundation of our hope and happiness. Our resurrection from the grave. The receiving of our glorified bodies. The reunion we will have with our departed loved ones. The eternity of it all, "We shall forever be with the Lord!" This is the comfort and assurance Paul offers to all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Notice the message is not a promise of comfortable circumstance and prosperity in this life. Rather, he offers the hope of a future that none but the sons of God, by faith in Jesus, will inherit. However, there are so many "Christians" who want to hear that all will be comfortable and easy in this life that a doctrine has been developed to accommodate them. I speak of the false doctrine of health and wealth and the preachers who promote it. Their gospel, which is no gospel at all, includes promises that Jesus never made. Millions are being told that along with salvation comes the possibility of perfect spiritual and physical health. In addition there are promises made concerning ones lot in life. The Christian, we are asked to believe, can be and ought to be quite rich in this worlds goods. If you come to Christ you can bubble and giggle through life both healthy and wealthy. Being saved will solve all your problems.

I hope you know, that teaching such as this cannot be found in the Bible. In fact, we find promises of suffering and hardship not comfort and ease. This is precisely why the Bible tells us to look beyond this world to the coming of our Lord and the promised inheritance. God points us to a glorious future which is our inheritance and must become our hope. This is what Paul wants the sons of God, suffering in this life, to focus on. Look away from the present suffering to the promised and glorious future that is yours in Christ.

The gospel we have been called to proclaim deals with both the present and the future. Think about it with me. Presently men and women outside of faith in Christ are under the wrath of God and if they die in this condition they will go to an eternal future of misery, torment, sorrow, and agony. The unbeliever often comforts himself with the thought that death will take him away from suffering. But we know this is not true. The most intense sufferings of this life will pale in the presence of the perfect un-mixed horror of an eternal hell. The worst thing that can be suffered in this life would offer welcome repose to those in hell. This is the bad news portion of the Gospel which speaks of the unbelievers present and future. The good news portion of the Gospel points us to a different present and a different future. The Gospel calls sinners to escape the future wrath of God by trusting in Jesus for salvation. This was the message of John the Baptist, of Christ, and of the Apostles. "Believe now, in the present, on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from the wrath to come in the, not to distant, future." They did not promise that all earthly troubles would vanish the moment one believed in Jesus. They did not promise that the Christian would never be poor, or sick, or exposed to the sorrow of death, or that they would always have the job they wanted. No, the focus of biblical preaching had and has to do with present repentance and faith in view of the wrath to come. The gospel always deals with the two possibilities each and every human faces. Either you will, at your death, begin to pay the penalty for your sins in hell forever. Or, you will begin to spend an inexhaustible inheritance of eternal glory in heaven with the blessed Trinity. Which will it be?

Those poor "Christians" who have been told that faith in Christ comes with a healthy, wealthy, trouble free, life have been done a severe injustice. For when things begin to go "wrong" and they’re surrounded by trials and troubles they will be terribly confused. They will think that they could not possibly be saved otherwise everything would be coming up roses. If they do still think they are Christian they will surely be convinced they are doing something wrong. Somehow they have messed everything up. This is exactly what the evangelist that preached to them in the first place will tell them. You don’t have enough faith, you don’t give enough money, you must do this, you must that, then the promises I made to you will come true. But they won’t ever come true because they were lies in the first place.

The true gospel never promises to make our lives perfect, and comfortable. On the contrary, Jesus declares in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. IN THE WORLD YE SHALL HAVE TRIBULATION: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Our life as Christians on planet earth necessarily includes suffering. But then comes the inheritance, an eternity in heaven sharing in the glory of Christ.

The honest preacher will speak like this, "The sufferings of this present age are real and to be expected. Believers and unbelievers must suffer the effects of the curse. I cannot promise you won’t suffer many hard things in this life. But I can say with confidence that the hard things you experience here are not worthy to be compared with the glory, the inheritance, to come." The honest teacher of God’s truth will tell his hearers to look past this veil of tears to glory, the glory that is the present and eternal possession of all who trust in Christ. You, my brothers and sisters have, as your own, an eternal, immeasurably glorious, inheritance in heaven. Hear the word of the Lord!

(1 Peter 1:3-9 NASB) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, {4} TO OBTAIN AN INHERITANCE WHICH IS IMPERISHABLE AND UNDEFILED AND WILL NOT FADE AWAY, RESERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, {5} WHO ARE PROTECTED BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH FOR A SALVATION READY TO BE REVEALED IN THE LAST TIME. {6} IN THIS YOU GREATLY REJOICE, EVEN THOUGH NOW FOR A LITTLE WHILE, IF NECESSARY, YOU HAVE BEEN DISTRESSED BY VARIOUS TRIALS, {7} that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; {8} and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, {9} obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." It is clear that if we are to have peace and joy in this life we will have to set our hearts and minds on things to come, not things present?

Our trouble began in Genesis chapter three with the fall of our first parents into sin. But just a moment later they were given hope, something to look forward to, the coming of the Savior to subdue and eliminate the evil one along with sin and death. That first good news message is found in Genesis 3:15 NASB. "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; HE SHALL BRUISE YOU ON THE HEAD, AND YOU SHALL BRUISE HIM ON THE HEEL." The devil would bruise the Savior on the heel but Jesus would at last crush the serpents head, He would conquer the evil one on behalf of all who trust in Him. Our first parents had to deal with a life of suffering, sorrow, even murder in the family, but they set their eyes on the future, the coming of the Messiah who would one day reverse the curse of sin. He was their hope and happiness and He must be ours as well.

The children of Israel were given this same gospel in different words which gospel became their strength and mainstay through hundreds of years of turbulent history. Abraham and all of "godly Israel" looked beyond their circumstances to the promised and glorious future, to their inheritance. (Hebrews 11:8-10 KJV) "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. {9} By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the HEIRS WITH HIM OF THE SAME PROMISE: {10} For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." This world was not their home, they were just passing through on their way to the glory that was their inheritance. They all suffered much but hope sustained them. The world has no hope but we who are the children of God, we have hope. The hope of the resurrection, eternal life, the hope of the return of our Savior. (Ephesians 2:12-13 NASB) ". . . remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. {13} BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

Christians are the only people on earth who have a valid hope for the future. Once a believer gets a grip on this truth, the truth of his inheritance in Christ. Once he experiences the comfort, assurance, and strength, this knowledge offers the children of God he begins to wonder how the unbeliever survives for even and hour. They do so, of course, by refusing to face facts. They ignore the real issues of life and eternity by filling their senses with television, radio, football games, drinking, drugs, intellectual stimulation, and many other things. They do this for the express purpose of dimming the reality of the wrath to come and the death that awaits them.

The Christian, on the other hand, can face the evil of this world, the age old enemy death, and the suffering of this life, because of what waits for him in the life to come. He or she has an eternal inheritance of glory with Jesus Christ and nothing can compare with that. Hear again the word of the Lord.

(Ephesians 1:9-12 NASB) "He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him {10} with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. IN HIM {11} ALSO WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, {12} to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." Again I say, part of our glorious inheritance consists of the privilege of glorifying God forever in heaven. What a thing to look forward to!

The great mystery that has been revealed is that the Jews are no longer the only heirs of God. Now, since Christ, the Gentiles, us, people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Claypool, Gentiles, are fellow heirs, fellow partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus by grace through faith in Him. The elect from every nation under the sun will, "OBTAIN AN INHERITANCE WHICH IS IMPERISHABLE AND UNDEFILED AND WILL NOT FADE AWAY, RESERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, {5} WHO ARE PROTECTED BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH FOR A SALVATION READY TO BE REVEALED IN THE LAST TIME."

Listen to what Matthew 25:32-34 has to say about our future. "And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; {33} and He will put the sheep (believers in Jesus for salvation) on His right, and the goats (all unbelievers) on the left. {34} "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM PREPARED FOR YOU FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD."

(Hebrews 1:14 NASB) "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those WHO WILL INHERIT SALVATION?" The ministry of invisible angels is one of the benefits of our inheritance we enjoy right now.

(1 John 3:2-3 NASB) "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. WE KNOW THAT, WHEN HE APPEARS, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, BECAUSE WE SHALL SEE HIM JUST AS HE IS. {3} And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." Everyone whose eyes are set on the horizon, the future, the coming Savior and their inheritance purifies himself while he waits. That is, he lives for the Lord shunning sin, and pursuing holiness. He lives as though he is not part of this world, and indeed he is not.

Look away from your suffering beloved, look away from this world to the world to come. Think on the soul comforting and assuring truth of your coming inheritance. And you will soon discover that the suffering you experience in this life is not worthy to be compared to the wonders that await us. We must learn to walk by faith and refuse to walk by sight and sense. For the things we see, feel, and experience will all pass away but our inheritance in Christ is eternal.

Our closing text is 1 Peter 1:13-23 NASB. "Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, FIX YOUR HOPE COMPLETELY ON THE GRACE TO BE BROUGHT TO YOU AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. {14} As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, {15} but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; {16} because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." {17} And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, CONDUCT YOURSELVES IN FEAR DURING THE TIME OF YOUR STAY UPON EARTH; {18} knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, {19} but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. {20} For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you {21} who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. {22} Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, {23} for you have been born again NOT OF SEED WHICH IS PERISHABLE BUT IMPERISHABLE, that is, through the living and abiding word of God."