289 - THE BETTER HOPE / THE BLESSED HOPE
March 7, 1965
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Romans 8: 14 - 17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
On March 4,1965 in the local newspaper there was an article on the coming controversy in Protestant churches. And they quoted three leading theologians in Protestant life today, and they all, even though they have different ideas are in agreement with one thing--that we are going to have to discard some things from the Bible because they are relevant to modern day thinking--the modern man will not accept certain parts of the Bible. And, of course, this is Satanic. Before I start this morning I just want you to see how important this Bible is. We are getting some wonderful truths out of the 8th chapter of Romans, but they are valueless unless the Bible is the Word of God.
1/ In the past years out of our seminaries in Protestantism, we have had a doctrine called Neo-orthodoxy. Perhaps you have heard about it, but maybe you haven’t heard about it, but our seminaries are full of it. The doctrine is this--that the Word of God and Christ are not the same. That we can trust Christ but we must not trust the Word. That our faith is to be centered in Christ instead of the Word. Let me ask you--how are you going to trust Christ apart from the Word? They make a difference between the Word made flesh and the written Word. But there is no difference between the Word made flesh and the written Word. There is absolutely no difference.
John 1: 1 There we read, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is the Word--the Word of God. Now, go down to
John 1: 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.—the Word was made flesh and that is Jesus Christ. But the written Word is just as much Christ as the Word that was made flesh. We only know that the Word became flesh by reading the written Word. How can you find out about Christ without a Bible? How can you learn more about Christ without the written Word?
2/ I know this Book that I hold in my hand is a manufactured article. It will wear out. I wear out a Bible about every two years, and then I put it aside and go and buy a new one. The leaves just won’t hold up and the binding just will not hold up being used constantly. When you put that Bible aside, you haven’t discarded the Word of God, for you get another Bible. It is what is written in the Book that is important. Not the (leaves of paper--not the binding, the glue--it is the written Word.
3/ II Timothy 3: 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Everyone should memorize this Scripture. All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. The word, Scripture, is a word that means writings. So, all the writings are given by the inspiration of God. Now let us look at the word, inspiration. In the English, it means to breathe in, and that is the English. It means to breathe in, and that is the only word they could find in the English language that could express the Greek word there. Actually, the word inspiration, to mean breathe in does not really adequately describe the word in the Greek. It means it is the breath of God. Whether breathing in or out, I cannot say. But, actually this verse means all the writings are the breath of God. The breath of God is the Word wherever it is used, and that means it is the Second Person of the Trinity--the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the Word. Jesus Christ is God’s breath, and His Word is His breath.
4/ Now, let us go back to Romans 8: 17 where we read, And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
This is something I am sure the average person does not appreciate. The average person who reads his Bible just passes over this thought, but he should not. We are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between being an heir and a joint heir, and last week we gave you the distinction. We explained that if a man died leaving a large farm to four heirs--to four sons, the estate is divided evenly and each heir receives 25% of the whole--but if a man leaves a farm to four sons as joint-heirs, each man owns the whole farm. Each one can say, the house is mine, the barns are mine, the fields are mine, the bank account is mine. That wouldn’t work with man as he is today. But this will work when we are like the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I went you to see this vast difference.
5/ We gave you a wonderful verse--one that thrills my heart.
I Corinthians 3: 21 “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;”
How much is yours? Let me ask you a question. What would your answer be? All things are yours. You are wealthy beyond your fondest dreams you are rich beyond your wildest imagination. Notice, it says the world is mine. What belongs to Jesus Christ, and I am a joint-heir with Christ, it is mine. Life is mine, death is mine.
6/ We have been talking to you about this matter of rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
II Timothy 2: 15. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
There are many distinctions between the nation Israel, the earthly kingdom, and the church, which is the body of Christ. To understand this inheritance that is ours, that we are joint-heirs, we need to see our relationship to Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote (13) thirteen Epistles. That does not include Hebrews, for I do not think that Paul wrote Hebrews. But, Paul, in his (13) thirteen Epistles never says that Christ is our Shepherd. That is a great truth, and it is remarkable that Paul leaves it out, because the Shepherd and the Sheep is not a relationship of the Church of Christ. The relationship of the Church of Christ is that of Body and Head. Christ is the Head and we are the Body. So, Paul never says in his Epistles that Christ is our Shepherd. Neither does he say in the Pauline Epistles that we are sheep--not once.
7/ Paul does not say in the Epistles that Christ is our King. He says that Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, but he never says that Christ is King of the Church. If we are only earthly subjects of a king, we might be like it is in many lands where the lot of the subjects is never to see the king. They have no acquaintance with the king at all--but this is not our lot.
8/ Paul never says that Christ is our Teacher. He never calls Him Rabbi--you will notice in the Gospels, constantly He is called Rabbi, Teacher, and Christ is not our Teacher in the Pauline Epistles. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher. He teaches us about Christ. He shows us Who Christ is, and He teaches us about the Lord Jesus Christ. So, you see, Teacher and student is not the proper relationship for us. A student will listen to a teacher and believe all that he teaches, and profit by all that he teaches, but it is possible he wouldn’t like his teacher at all. You have heard many students say, the teacher, I have is a good teacher, all right, but I don’t like him, as a person. So, Paul never says that Christ is our Teacher--the Holy Spirit teaches us about Christ in such a way that we like Him more and more.
9/ We are members of His body and Christ is the Head of that Body.
10/ As we go on in this study, I want you to see the difference between being a member of the Body of Christ, and being a member of the earthly kingdom is that being a member of the Body of Christ, our inheritance is not divided. We are joint-heirs, and the important word here is the word, divided. He doesn’t divide unto us our inheritance we share in everything as we have in I Corinthians 3: 21 - 23. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
He is not going to parcel things out to us. And those who try to mix up the Kingdom and the Church, the Jew and the Body of Christ, fail to see this distinction.
11/ Luke 19: 11-19 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said, ”Therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, “Occupy till I come”. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, be thou also over five cities.”
Notice, this has to do with the earthly Kingdom--not with the Church, the Body of Christ, for the 11th vs. tells us that He spoke this parable because He was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear. And He tells this parable to show them why the Kingdom was not appearing immediately. And, so He likened Himself to a Nobleman who went into a far country--went to Heaven. He did this after He died, was resurrected, ascended into Heaven--but He has to return to receive this Kingdom, and He calls in servants and delivered to them (10) ten pounds, and said Occupy till I come. How did these servants occupy? Incidentally, we are not servants, we are members of His Body.
Of course, His return is a picture of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, not the Rapture of the Church. And, so, He called these servants to Him and wanted to know how much they had gained by trading. The first said, Thy pound hath gained (10) ten pounds. He said, “Thou hast been faithful in very little, have thou authority--now notice, over (10) ten cities. Then the second one--he said, I’ve gained five pounds. All right, have authority over (5) five cities. I want you to notice, that is not the church, God has not promised this to the Church--that belongs to Israel. Our inheritance with Christ will never be divided--we are joint-heirs with Him--whatever is His is ours, and we hold it with Him. God will not parcel out things as your inheritance--it is sure, it is wonderful, it is definite.
12/ Remember a point here, Jesus Christ will never say, Occupy till I come. The Lord Jesus Christ will say, All this is ours, enjoy it with Me. This is the difference.
13/ Matthew 19: 27, 28 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Notice, the (12) twelve tribes of Israel. It doesn’t say anything about the Gentilic nations. In other words, they will be ruling for Christ when He sits upon His throne, but this is not true of us as joint-heirs. It is true we will rule, but I believe we will rule from the Heavenlies, and we will rule with Him, not for Him. This is the difference between the Church which is His Body and the earthly kingdom.
14/ Now, let us notice the last expression in this verse. It is this--if we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. This part of the verse immediately suggests that we have to suffer to be glorified with Him. But that is not what the Greek grammar brings out at all, for notice it does not say, suffer for Christ--but it says suffer with Christ, and the great truth that we have been studying in this part of Romans is the doctrine of identification with Christ. We suffer with Him, not for Him.
15/ The three words, if so be, in the Greek is A-PEAR, and if you want to see a better rendering of that Greek word, -Pear.
Go to II Thessalonians 1: 6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: Where it says seeing it is a righteous thing with God. And there again, seeing it is a translation of the Greek A-Pear--so it would be much better to translate it here--seeing it is that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
16/ These sufferings are not the ordinary sufferings of this life. Since we have been joined to Christ, we may expect the same treatment that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ received. But this is not to concern us because we are going to be glorified together and dwell with Him forever.
17/ But there are sufferings which are common to all the human race, and the commonest of these sufferings are physical in nature. We have bruises and aches and pains, we suffer from disease and accident and catastrophe. All of us will die, our bodies are wearing out, and so we suffer physically, But, that is not what God is talking about here at all.
18/ Then there is mental anguish, and the saved and the unsaved suffer in this mental anguish. We suffer from the tensions that are about us, from the cold war and from the pressures that are put upon us at work. The unreasonableness of man.
19/ Then there is a common anguish that arises from seeing loved ones suffer--we may not have the pain, but as we see another suffer, grow weaker and die, we share in these sufferings. But that is not what God is talking about here.
20/ He is talking about the sufferings we share with Him. Rejections, hatred, the despising--notice, II Corinthians 4: 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Here we are told about the glory that is coming and the wonder of it--sometimes I realize we can hardly get a conception of what it is going to be like--we can’t understand this glory--it is away beyond our earthly comprehension. We are destined for glory and everything we suffer here is in no wise to be compared with the glory that God has reserved for you and for me. Notice, He says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. This thrills my heart--I expect to see you glorified some day, I don’t know just what you will look like, but you will be glorified and I am going to be right there with you.
21/ Notice, II Corinthians 4: 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Here we have a contrast between time and eternity. What we suffer here is just for a moment. If it lasts 12 1⁄2 years as it did with John Bunyan, or it lasts a whole lifetime, it doesn’t matter, it is nothing at all--time is just of the slightest interest, because someday we are going to have a weight of glory. Notice the contrast between lightness and the glory we are going to share will be heavy.
AMEN
REF: 289 - THE BETTER HOPE / THE BLESSED HOPE / March 7, 1965
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