Our Only Hope in Life and Death

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:03.759 Can read a passage you all are familiar with, but we will read it 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:08.750 because it's good to be reminded. It's excerpted from a flow of a text 3 00:00:08.830 --> 00:00:13.189 that really begins in chapter one of Romans, but we're coming to the crescendo 4 00:00:13.230 --> 00:00:18.269 of Paul's thought and he writes, and we know that for those who love 5 00:00:18.510 --> 00:00:25.539 God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according 6 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:31.140 to his purpose, for those whom he fore knew, he also predestined to 7 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:35.340 be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the 8 00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:40.609 firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and 9 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:46.929 those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also 10 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:53.479 glorified. This is the word of the Lord. So I'd like you to 11 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:56.520 imagine as we consider this text. Just to start here, and I'd like 12 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:06.709 to imagine you have a boring job. Your daily work is repetitive and meaningless, 13 00:01:06.909 --> 00:01:11.109 long hours, very little vacation, working conditions are stark and uncomfortable, 14 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:18.549 and this is not an unrealistic picture. I had a summer of job back 15 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:23.180 the summer before Randie and I were married in Memphis Tennessee where that's exactly what 16 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.099 my job was. I would awake each day at thirty, we get in 17 00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:30.819 the cart five drive to a gravel pit out east of Memphis, Tennessee, 18 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:37.489 and there for eight to ten hours have the exciting job of sitting in a 19 00:01:37.650 --> 00:01:42.049 birth with one other man, a small mobile home you might say, or 20 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:48.599 trailer, and trucks would load up with gravel from the shovels and then drive 21 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:53.799 over this passage and stop on the scales. And this is this was the 22 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:59.000 activity of the day. We do the counterweight, get the read, pull 23 00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:04.069 the counterweight, write the number on a ticket and handed to ten hours a 24 00:02:04.109 --> 00:02:09.629 day. Didn't talk to them. A lot of the Times they complained about 25 00:02:09.629 --> 00:02:16.300 the weight and that was a summer job for me. But the man I 26 00:02:16.379 --> 00:02:22.819 worked with and been there about twenty five years and and let's just say he 27 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.900 was not a conversation partner. Partner, he I would come into work every 28 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:29.580 day and he'd say how are you mark, and I'd say fine. James, 29 00:02:29.620 --> 00:02:30.889 how are you? We'd say fine and that was it for the day 30 00:02:32.729 --> 00:02:39.409 and we rotated back and forth because of the rules of the Union. Now 31 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:46.840 imagine that our boss and both of us are doing this job long term, 32 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:50.560 shows up one day and pulls each of us aside in private and he says, 33 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:55.400 Mark, I hate to do this to your b business has been hard 34 00:02:55.400 --> 00:03:02.310 and we're going to have to reduce your wages five percent this year and if 35 00:03:02.349 --> 00:03:06.229 it doesn't turn around, we're going to take away some of your friends benefits. 36 00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:09.469 Are Left to pay for your health insurance and part and I just want 37 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:15.580 to tell you in advance. And then he pulls James Society says, James, 38 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:19.539 I want you to know that things are going really well in the business 39 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:24.259 and you're a faithful worker and I want you to know if you can finish 40 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:28.930 off your thirty years here, I'm going to give you a bonus at the 41 00:03:29.009 --> 00:03:35.330 half a million dollars. Now, do you think the next day there would 42 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:42.479 be any change and how we would go about our work? Well, obviously, 43 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:49.560 because our futures had been painted in very different colors, and what we 44 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:55.229 expect in our future affects us now, because we're human. Human's live in 45 00:03:55.389 --> 00:03:59.069 the past and we live in the future. In the past we look back 46 00:03:59.110 --> 00:04:02.870 with regret and guilt, and in the future we look forward with expectation or 47 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:10.659 dread, with fear and anxiety and how we live now is directly related to 48 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:16.459 our believed in future and he would have changed our believed in future with those 49 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:21.139 words. Now, I don't know if you ever heard of a gentleman named 50 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:30.769 Victor Frunkel. He was a Jewish Austrian psychologist who was interred in the concentration 51 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:33.129 camps under Hitler and World War Two. Ended up in four different camps, 52 00:04:33.170 --> 00:04:40.360 ended up in Auschwitz Berkenhew at the end of his stay in the concentration camps. 53 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:46.079 And he was a student of humanity and he noticed the ways people cope 54 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:51.759 with life in those brutal conditions and and he said what he would he noticed, 55 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:56.430 more than anything else, so there were certain people that seemed to rise 56 00:04:56.550 --> 00:05:00.670 above the hatred and the brutality and the torture and and all that was part 57 00:05:00.709 --> 00:05:05.949 of living under the thumb of the Nazi regime in those days. And what 58 00:05:06.029 --> 00:05:10.300 he what he found, is that the people who were able to rise above 59 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:18.500 it always had a believed in future that gave them reason to endure. They 60 00:05:18.579 --> 00:05:23.569 had a picture of what the future was going to be like that put wind 61 00:05:23.649 --> 00:05:29.329 in their sales, even in the most difficult circumstances. And if they didn't 62 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:35.279 have it changed everything. He tells the story in his book about one of 63 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.600 his friends in the camp who had a dream that the war would end in 64 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:45.680 March, and his friend was convinced the dream was a revelation from God and 65 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.550 it filled him with hope. But as the date drew nearer, it became 66 00:05:49.589 --> 00:05:54.629 clear from the news reports they would catch that the war was not going to 67 00:05:54.870 --> 00:06:01.430 end on March thirty and as that became clearer and clearer, on March twenty 68 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:11.300 nine he began to run a fever. On March thirty he lost consciousness and 69 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:17.459 on March thirty one he died. For uncle says his loss of hope had 70 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:25.730 lowered his body's resistance to all the diseases in the camp. That's how significant 71 00:06:25.769 --> 00:06:30.009 are believed in future is. He was healthy as long as is believed in 72 00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:36.920 future was positive. He lost all confidence in life and died when his hope 73 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:43.040 was destroyed. And that's what we're talking about her his hope. Hope is 74 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:46.910 what we have when our future looks positive. We we need to know that 75 00:06:47.069 --> 00:06:51.230 the end of the story makes sense of all the bad stuff and the first 76 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:59.149 chapters. Andrew del Bunco, who is a professor New York University may be 77 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:02.660 retired by now. Put it this way, human beings need to organize the 78 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:10.579 sensations amidst which we pass our days. Pain, desire, pleasure and fear 79 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:15.209 into US story and when that story leads somewhere, it helps us navigate through 80 00:07:15.410 --> 00:07:26.250 life, through inevitable death, because it gives us hope. So we're talking 81 00:07:26.250 --> 00:07:31.439 about hope. Everyone has strategies to generate hope. Right, if you talk 82 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:35.519 to anybody anywhere in this country or any country the world, they have ways 83 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:40.560 of generating hope. They have to have a hope for future. So they 84 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.680 think that say things in the midst of suffering. They say I believe something 85 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:46.870 good will come of this, or I know there's a purpose in my suffering, 86 00:07:46.949 --> 00:07:51.550 or it's always darkest before the Dawn. The only problem is that may 87 00:07:51.629 --> 00:07:59.060 not be true. That's just wishful thinking. I had an older friend who 88 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:03.139 used to say in the midst of difficulties in life, people would come to 89 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:05.300 and say cheer up, things can be worse, and he said I cheered 90 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:13.610 up and they got worse. So hope has to be grounded, doesn't it? 91 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:22.009 It's not just wishful thinking and God gives us certain truth about our future. 92 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:26.089 That gives us reason for a certain hope, not what may happen in 93 00:08:26.129 --> 00:08:33.440 the future, but what will happen now. Just want to start with thinking 94 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.840 about hope as we enter two thousand and twenty two. are believed in future, 95 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:43.789 as defined by God, will affect how we live day by day. 96 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:50.950 Now let's turn from the subject of hope and talk about a catechism question you're 97 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:54.820 probably familiar with at the Heidelberg Catechism. Question One, what is my only 98 00:08:54.980 --> 00:09:01.139 comfort in life and in death? I when I first read that catechism question 99 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:05.379 about ten years ago, I was I was just struck by the wisdom of 100 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:11.769 the wise pastors who put that down because they knew that the primary question the 101 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:15.929 members of their Church would ask in the midst of the set sorrow and pain 102 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:22.049 and sin of their daily loves, was what what's big enough to give me 103 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:28.639 comfort in this life and as I face death? They looked at their lives 104 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:33.799 and they said every day or every month there's some kind of two hundred pound 105 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.840 guerrilla pain and suffering in my life, and what is big enough to take 106 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:43.549 it on? And answering what's the five hundred pound hope. That answers the 107 00:09:43.629 --> 00:09:52.669 two hundred pound trouble or sorrow or sin. So I'd like to think that 108 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:58.899 you could Redo the catechism question to what is my only hope in life and 109 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:03.139 in death? What is what is the believed in future that's big enough of 110 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:09.889 for whatever I face in life and whatever I will face in a certain death? 111 00:10:09.850 --> 00:10:18.250 Well, I think Paul answers that in this passage. I think. 112 00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:20.600 I think Paul is taking up the subject of hope because he talks about it 113 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:26.480 just a few verses before and he's he's giving an answer. Let me let 114 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:28.639 me reread the passage and what I want you to notice is how much Paul 115 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:33.600 is talking about the future. We know that for those who love God, 116 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:39.590 all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his 117 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:43.669 purpose, that's future. They will work together for good. For those are 118 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:46.789 me, for near, that's past. He also predestined to be conformed with 119 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:50.740 the image of his son. That's future, in order that we might be 120 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:54.500 the firstborn among many brothers. And those are me predestined. He called in 121 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:56.940 those of me called, he justified, in those whom he justified he glorified. 122 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:03.419 That is future. He is writing to people who are asking what is 123 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:07.009 my only comfort in life and in death, are groaning with suffering, there 124 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:11.490 aware of their sin, and he tells them about the certainty of their future 125 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:18.169 in Christ, the grounds at an eternity past. He talks about present realities, 126 00:11:18.210 --> 00:11:24.679 but it's very much about a certain future before them. So we've introduced 127 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:28.799 hope. We've talked about the value of future certainty as we face all kinds 128 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:33.750 of difficulties in life. So let me now turn to two ways this speaks 129 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:41.029 to us. They're too, too two hundred pound guerillas in our life, 130 00:11:41.350 --> 00:11:45.509 if I can put it that way. Picking up on that analogy, one 131 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:50.340 is sin and the other suffering. One is sin and the other suffering, 132 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:58.220 or sin and sins. So let's talk about how the hope that Christ gives 133 00:11:58.419 --> 00:12:05.850 is greater than sin and sins. BELTTLE autobiographical here. When I was first 134 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:09.009 converted in one thousand nine hundred and seventy one, God gave me a profound 135 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:16.799 sense of freedom from sin. The sins that he had used to show me 136 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:24.120 my sinfulness fell away in a day and I became very aware of my forgiveness 137 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.240 before God and very aware that I was a new creation that was my verse. 138 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:31.950 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And four 139 00:12:31.070 --> 00:12:37.870 months that went on this this total freedom from sins of the past. And 140 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:43.500 then it was as though the Lord said, okay, batter reality, and 141 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:50.059 I began to experience that passage in Romans seven where Paul says, for I 142 00:12:50.179 --> 00:12:54.220 do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want 143 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:58.210 is what I keep on doing. I found in me an inner law. 144 00:12:58.370 --> 00:13:01.970 I delighted in the Law of God, but I found something warring against my 145 00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:09.409 delight in God's law and defeating me many times. And it turns out that 146 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:13.559 this what I thought was a permanent freedom from sin's power, such that I 147 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.120 would never sin again, turned out to be a temporary law on the battle. 148 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:20.399 And now I was engaged in the day and day out, of being 149 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:26.080 in a war, the flesh warring against the spirit, the spirit against the 150 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:30.990 flesh and the words of Galatians five and and from that day to this, 151 00:13:31.629 --> 00:13:37.149 almost daily, fifty years now, it is it is my regular experience to 152 00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:41.230 face the fact that sin still dwells in me, as Roman seven says, 153 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:50.100 and the battle must be engaged and the desires of the flesh are deeply rooted 154 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:54.179 in my heart and no matter how hard I pulled, they don't get rooted 155 00:13:54.259 --> 00:14:00.289 out. We lived in Portland, Oregon when we were first married in reading 156 00:14:00.330 --> 00:14:05.809 bought a house and Little Arya called Laurel Hurst and I was in seminary and 157 00:14:05.889 --> 00:14:09.049 then serving in my first call in a church right in that area of Portland 158 00:14:09.129 --> 00:14:13.639 and we were working in our backyard trying to first time homeowners, trying to 159 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:20.240 fix up the yard, plant things, and I discovered weeds in my backyard, 160 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.990 surprise, surprise, and I decide to go out and pull those weeds. 161 00:14:24.990 --> 00:14:26.509 So I went out and spend a couple hours pulling all the weeds, 162 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:31.870 but I was all done. Next Day came out, same weeds. They 163 00:14:31.950 --> 00:14:35.710 come back and and I went to a friend. I said what, what 164 00:14:35.990 --> 00:14:39.820 is this thing? He said all those are morning glories. He said that 165 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:45.620 plant in your backyard probably has its roots in my yard two miles away. 166 00:14:45.820 --> 00:14:48.539 I mean he said these things they just spread everywhere and he says there's no 167 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:52.529 way you're going to get them all up. What's what? That's what it 168 00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:58.250 feels like with sin, doesn't or let's switch from rain soaked organ to the 169 00:14:58.250 --> 00:15:03.169 dry desert of Arizona. Have One of my first great surprises in coming to 170 00:15:03.289 --> 00:15:07.720 Tucson was in the middle of the hot month of June, hundred ten degrees 171 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:11.360 outside, you go out in your backyard and a weed has sprung up. 172 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:15.679 There hasn't been a drop of rain in two and a half months and there's 173 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.200 a weed. It's about that hot and you think I'll reach down pull it 174 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:22.990 out and you grab hold of that thing and ten minutes later your breaking out 175 00:15:24.029 --> 00:15:26.029 in a sweat, your hands are bleeding in the wheed is still there. 176 00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:35.139 That that's what sin is like, isn't it? That's what sin is like 177 00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:41.419 and we face that day in and day out. The sinful disadvires of my 178 00:15:41.539 --> 00:15:46.940 heart seem as though they never give up. So why should I keep pressing 179 00:15:46.059 --> 00:15:54.129 on? That's battlings. And what about sins? Well, let's talk about 180 00:15:54.210 --> 00:16:00.289 in that battle with sin. Sometimes God's people, yes, God's people, 181 00:16:02.009 --> 00:16:07.840 commit sins that, in the words of the Puritan, wound the conscience they 182 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.799 are. They are such transgressions that it's almost as though they gain a grip 183 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:18.909 in the person's heart and they become accusing sins and they spend their whole life 184 00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:22.710 tempted to regret and wish they had never done it and wonder how they could 185 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:25.950 go on as a Christian and have any respect of God's people having done the 186 00:16:26.070 --> 00:16:30.190 things that they had done. It really does happen, David King, David, 187 00:16:30.269 --> 00:16:37.860 would be an example. And we lose heart. We lose heart people, 188 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:41.059 God's people, do sin that way and God's people, in the face 189 00:16:41.179 --> 00:16:45.500 of such great and public sins, lose heart. So we have sin, 190 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:52.450 we have this constant battle and we had sins and that persistence of presence of 191 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:57.169 sin can take the wind out of our sails and we can become listless and 192 00:16:57.370 --> 00:17:02.440 discouraged. And the actual sins we commit, they overwhelm us with fears and 193 00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:07.440 doubts and accusation. So where do we go with that is? Is there 194 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:15.440 an end of the battle? Well, Paul wants us to know that they 195 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:19.710 is a certain future. That gives us hope and that hope gives us reason 196 00:17:19.990 --> 00:17:26.829 to endure. Look at look again at verses twenty eight to thirty. We 197 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:30.299 know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, 198 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:34.579 for those who are called according to his purpose, for those who me for 199 00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:40.779 nearly predestined to be conformed the image of his son, chosen an eternity past, 200 00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:45.210 Paul says, you, you, you are called according to God's purpose. 201 00:17:45.329 --> 00:17:52.049 He knew by name before the world's were made. What that means is 202 00:17:52.089 --> 00:17:56.529 very simply this. When God, the father, gave God the Son to 203 00:17:56.609 --> 00:18:00.200 bear your sin, he already knew everything about you and no matter what you 204 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:07.279 do or think, it's already factored into the equation. The father never says, 205 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:12.630 well, I didn't know you're going to do that. This goes back 206 00:18:12.710 --> 00:18:15.470 into the mind and heart of God, an eternity past. And then he 207 00:18:15.910 --> 00:18:22.190 calls us, he predestines us, he calls us out of death into life. 208 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:26.029 He justifies this, which means we're fully accepted before God, just as 209 00:18:26.150 --> 00:18:29.619 we are. And then he looks ahead and says you will be glorified. 210 00:18:29.819 --> 00:18:33.460 And to be glorified, as it is a hard term to describe, it 211 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:38.180 means we will share in the fellowship of Father, son and Holy Spirit, 212 00:18:38.579 --> 00:18:48.250 in a new creation forever as sons and daughters of God. That's the certain 213 00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:53.210 future than that is ours. The father gave his son for us, Jesus 214 00:18:53.329 --> 00:18:56.799 gave his body and blood for us. He intercedes for us, Paul says, 215 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:02.680 and the future is certain. He has fully paid for all my sins 216 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.960 and set me free from the tyranny of the devil, which is the answer 217 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:10.470 to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. He who began a good work 218 00:19:10.509 --> 00:19:15.509 and you will complete it in the day of craigs. He is able ultimately 219 00:19:15.670 --> 00:19:21.390 to keep you from stumbling. He is able ultimately to present you me, 220 00:19:21.950 --> 00:19:25.380 with all the battles of sin we have, with all the sins we have 221 00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:30.660 committed. He is able to present US faultless before his presence, with exceeding 222 00:19:30.779 --> 00:19:38.769 joys. So God gives us that vision of a certain future in the face 223 00:19:38.890 --> 00:19:42.009 of our sin, in the face of our sins, because the question we 224 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:48.289 ask in the battle is why should I keep fighting? And the answer is 225 00:19:48.490 --> 00:19:57.160 the outcome is certain. The outcome is certain. God gives us promises to 226 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.039 motivate us. Now just a word about how God motivates. God has two 227 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:07.390 ways of motivating his people. One his warnings and the others promise us. 228 00:20:08.950 --> 00:20:12.509 And for many years, being a good reform Christian, I thought the accent 229 00:20:12.630 --> 00:20:25.420 was on warnings. It isn't. The accent of scripture is on these fantastic, 230 00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:30.740 unbelievable promises of God about the certain future he holds for us, because 231 00:20:32.019 --> 00:20:36.250 because God, God knows that. Yeah, we can be motivated by fear, 232 00:20:37.890 --> 00:20:44.490 but it's much better to be votivated by hope, isn't it? If, 233 00:20:44.730 --> 00:20:47.769 if my hope is if my future is certain, then that gives me 234 00:20:47.890 --> 00:20:52.559 reason to joyously keep pursuing, rather than if God is threatening me, I'm 235 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.480 afraid of being punished and so I better keep pursuing. Those are worlds apart 236 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:02.839 in terms of how I live. God gives me promises, so I have 237 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:07.789 reason never to give up and confidence of what God might do. So today, 238 00:21:08.670 --> 00:21:14.069 for you, for me, no matter what your present battles, no 239 00:21:14.190 --> 00:21:18.230 matter what your past record is, your sin or your sins, you have 240 00:21:18.509 --> 00:21:22.099 in the father, son and Holy Spirit, the father giving the son, 241 00:21:22.339 --> 00:21:26.339 the son giving himself, the spirit of God given to show you Jesus. 242 00:21:26.460 --> 00:21:30.779 You have, in God, in Christ, every reason to never give up 243 00:21:34.769 --> 00:21:41.529 hope in the face of our sin and our sins. And I think there's 244 00:21:41.569 --> 00:21:49.480 something else we face that might show us the need for a believed in future 245 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:57.720 that God has promised, and that is suffering, sins and suffering I have. 246 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.470 I have an awe of suffering in a pastor forty years and sixty six 247 00:22:03.509 --> 00:22:10.309 years, old. I have it. I have an amazement at what seems 248 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:17.940 to be the infinite variety of ways God ordained suffering in our lives. Suffering, 249 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:22.140 I almost say suffering, is holy. It's to be walked around with 250 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:26.539 a whisper and to tread the ground softly around it. They're all kinds of 251 00:22:26.619 --> 00:22:33.690 suffering. Prolonged suffering, severe pain, loneliness, betrayal by a friend, 252 00:22:33.809 --> 00:22:40.250 the loss of a child in a tragic death, financial loss, injustice, 253 00:22:40.329 --> 00:22:47.000 violence, war, wrongs done to us, wrongs that we have done. 254 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:53.920 That brings suffering to us. Paul calls it groaning. We grown in this 255 00:22:55.200 --> 00:23:04.069 life, we do, we do. And yet Paul has a promised future 256 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:12.019 for us that answers the most severe forms of suffering, the most prolonged forms 257 00:23:12.019 --> 00:23:18.299 of suffering, and it's in verse Twenty Eight. And we know that for 258 00:23:18.380 --> 00:23:22.619 those who love God, all things work together for good for those who were 259 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:26.410 called according to his purpose. Now that's about the future, isn't it? 260 00:23:29.609 --> 00:23:33.289 You're in the midst of the old things and Paul wants you to know that 261 00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:40.049 God is going to work all things for good. It's a bold assertion. 262 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:45.119 He people said, well, how can God bring good out of this, 263 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:51.440 whatever that suffering may be. I've stood with people next to the grave of 264 00:23:51.559 --> 00:24:00.069 the child they've buried. Parents are not supposed to bury their children, and 265 00:24:00.190 --> 00:24:07.430 they've asked how can God bring good for this? What's a bold assertion. 266 00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:12.059 It's a very simple statement, but we know he can because of the life, 267 00:24:12.539 --> 00:24:18.299 death and resurrection of Jesus. God is able to work all things together 268 00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:23.450 for our good because he worked all things together for our good and the death 269 00:24:23.490 --> 00:24:30.369 of his sirm Jesus was made like us in every way, tempted in every 270 00:24:30.410 --> 00:24:33.690 point as we are, yet without sin. He was a man of sorrows, 271 00:24:33.730 --> 00:24:37.809 well acquainted with grief, and at the end of his days he was 272 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:47.079 betrayed, rejected, abandoned, hated, slandered. People in power use their 273 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:52.869 power to oppress him and to destroy him. He experienced a mock trial of 274 00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:56.829 injustice, he was tortured with the delight of those to the delight of those 275 00:24:56.869 --> 00:25:02.710 who tortured him, and then he experienced the most shameful and excruciating death ever 276 00:25:02.869 --> 00:25:10.180 designed by man, crucifixion. Chrisifixion was designed to obliterate every good memory of 277 00:25:10.259 --> 00:25:25.569 that person's life. Real felt suffering beyond anything I've ever known. He entered 278 00:25:25.730 --> 00:25:32.690 into our world with us. And what was the outcome? Here was the 279 00:25:32.769 --> 00:25:34.490 outcome. God is able to take all things and work them for good. 280 00:25:34.529 --> 00:25:37.119 Well, exactly, because that's what he does, because he takes all the 281 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:41.680 injustice, all the torture, all the betrayal, all the abandonment, all 282 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.880 the mockery, all the shame of Crucifixion, his trial, his murder, 283 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:52.470 and out of it he brought the salvation of an uncountable multitude of all nation. 284 00:25:56.990 --> 00:26:02.190 That's sounds like all things work together for good, even the most evil 285 00:26:02.549 --> 00:26:07.259 things. Perfect it almost seems to be too weak a word to describe what 286 00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:15.059 God has done in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Maybe when 287 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:21.329 you were a child or heard about alchemy. Alchemy was a quest among medievals 288 00:26:22.650 --> 00:26:25.769 that lasted for centuries. It found out so many cultures of the world and 289 00:26:25.890 --> 00:26:29.849 it was it was the goal of these medieval alchemists to find a way to 290 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:34.359 turn base medals into gold that will, for obvious reasons right, I never 291 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:45.400 did figure it out, but God did God turn the lad the Base metals 292 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:51.309 of human perversion and wickedness and its most vile expression into the redemption of a 293 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:59.910 countless multitude. See, in the ancient world there were a couple different ways 294 00:26:59.950 --> 00:27:03.700 suffering was viewed. The stoics at except suffering, sort of lean into it. 295 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:10.940 The epicurean said avoid suffering much as you can. There were massochist who 296 00:27:11.059 --> 00:27:18.809 said make suffering happen. But it's interesting is in Christianity and in Jesus you 297 00:27:18.890 --> 00:27:22.569 have someone who didn't accept suffering and didn't avoid suffering it. didn't merely embrace 298 00:27:22.650 --> 00:27:30.000 suffering. In his death and resurrection he swallowed up suffering and transformed it into 299 00:27:30.039 --> 00:27:40.000 glory, which is why Paul and said Granthan's for says this momentary light affliction 300 00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:47.990 is working for us an exceeding weight of glory. It's being turned from lead 301 00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:56.069 into gold. And the Heidelberg had chism asks this question, and it's twenty 302 00:27:56.150 --> 00:27:59.579 six question. What does it mean for God to be my father? And 303 00:27:59.700 --> 00:28:03.740 one of the answers is he is able to turn to my good whatever evil 304 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:11.019 he sends me in this sad world. The last word is not suffering, 305 00:28:11.140 --> 00:28:15.369 the last word is not send the last word is the triumphant saving grace of 306 00:28:15.490 --> 00:28:19.569 God for his people through the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, Intercession 307 00:28:19.650 --> 00:28:25.849 of Christ. That's the last word, and you will, I will, 308 00:28:25.930 --> 00:28:30.440 will one day be presented to him faultless and with great joy, and every 309 00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:33.240 pain, every sorrow we have had in this life will be transformed into a 310 00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:44.470 weight of glory and we will not remember anything else. It's hard to believe 311 00:28:44.509 --> 00:28:48.549 that, though, isn't it? The suffering in the sin seems so, 312 00:28:48.910 --> 00:28:55.509 so much more real than these are just words on a page, and I 313 00:28:55.589 --> 00:29:00.140 got to apply this personal I'll end here. I teach. I go to 314 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:03.299 the country of Serbia three or four times a year to teach at a school 315 00:29:03.299 --> 00:29:07.259 for Future Church leaders. Small Church, one tenth of one percent of the 316 00:29:07.299 --> 00:29:12.930 population. God raising up a new generation of leaders. God bringing students to 317 00:29:14.049 --> 00:29:17.930 this school from who knows where. Not An impressive number of students, but 318 00:29:18.049 --> 00:29:22.009 God as at work that since I've been going back, they had this thing 319 00:29:22.049 --> 00:29:27.599 about testing. To get back in the state I have taken te negative. 320 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:33.640 Have to have a negative covid test within now, within one day of travel. 321 00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:37.440 When you get there, you get a test. You you're able to 322 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:41.430 go. Tested negative, get in the plane, twenty four hours arriving Belgrade, 323 00:29:41.549 --> 00:29:45.230 teach for the week, but the fourth day of teaching I'm thinking what 324 00:29:45.349 --> 00:29:51.670 if I test pausive. So, just so you know, you need to 325 00:29:51.710 --> 00:29:56.299 get this scene here. Serbi is on nobody's bucket list, okay, and 326 00:29:56.380 --> 00:30:00.019 there's a reason for that. It's not the kind of place you want to 327 00:30:00.059 --> 00:30:06.019 spend ten days in quarranty. I didn't even know if the hotel would let 328 00:30:06.019 --> 00:30:10.970 me stay if they throw me out on the street. So I'm thinking about 329 00:30:11.009 --> 00:30:14.250 this a lot, matter of fact, pretty much every waking moment. In 330 00:30:14.329 --> 00:30:18.450 the back of my mind I'm saying whatever I to stay. And then this 331 00:30:18.890 --> 00:30:25.200 passage came to mind. God is able to work all things together for good. 332 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.119 So I began to say so, Lord, if whatever you have from 333 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:37.190 me, you have something good in it for me, and if I'm supposed 334 00:30:37.190 --> 00:30:41.029 to be here another ten days, then there's something of you and of goodness 335 00:30:41.269 --> 00:30:45.150 that you have for me in that that I'll experience in a way. I 336 00:30:45.230 --> 00:30:51.579 never wonder if I just tested negative and came home and that hope that God 337 00:30:51.660 --> 00:30:55.779 will take all things and work them together for good was sufficient to answer my 338 00:30:56.460 --> 00:31:03.380 fear. And then I tested negative and came home. Sort applies in the 339 00:31:03.420 --> 00:31:06.849 daily life, whatever it is you're facing, whatever the sin is, whatever 340 00:31:06.930 --> 00:31:12.410 the suffering is take take this five hundred pound guerrilla promise and use it to 341 00:31:12.490 --> 00:31:17.809 answer that lightweight guerrilla of sin and suffering in your life. It's bigger, 342 00:31:18.210 --> 00:31:22.160 it's stronger, it's truer. In the face of sin, God gives me 343 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.400 a promise of a certain future of freedom from all sin and the face of 344 00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:30.759 suffering, God gives me the promise of a certain future of my suffering being 345 00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:34.950 transformed into glory. Amen, let me pray for us.