93-75 – When God Doesn't Make Sense – The Trumpet of the Lord

This sermon is Part 4 of the series "When God Doesn't Make Sense" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

This series was preached by Dr. Betters just six weeks after the death of his 16-year-old son Mark. Dr. Betters gives us a real, raw message as a man struggling with God, as a man wrestling with his faith. In his transparency, we see that Dr. Betters learned during this time that he is not very different from the rest of us. Walking by faith is hard, especially hard when God turns our lives upside down. God is in control of all things, even during these hard and emotional times. This is when we need the strength of other believers to help us through these times, to help remind us that God is in control and HE has a greater purpose for why things are as they are.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Let's join Dr. Metterns as he preaches this series when God doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

We have been trying to explore what the scriptures have to say, how we can glean certain principles from the scriptures to help us to deal with whatever pain we might be going through. Let me review for you where we have been. We've been trying to highlight six key principles that will help us whenever we experience some sort of sudden or protracted pain. And all of us at one time or another are going to do that. Either we're going to lose a loved one, or we're going to have an illness, or we're going to lose a job, or we're going to suddenly and unexplainably have something happen to us that's going to cause us significant pain. Now, some of us have gone through long, protracted periods of pain. Some of you have been enduring things for years. And you ask God to take it away, and he just doesn't seem to take it away. In fact, it gets worse. At times you wonder whether or not God has gone on some extended leave of absence or whether or not he even cares what is happening in your life. Now we've tried to lay out for you certain principles. Principle number one is the inevitability of the refiner's fire. That is, all of us are going to have to drink some sort of cup of sorrow. Now, not all to the same degree. Some will suffer to a greater degree than others, but all of us will be asked as Christians to endure some cup of sorrow. It's inevitable. And under that point, we tried to say three things. One, there is a price tag for our faith being refined, and that is the fire of testing. We must go through the fire of testing. That's the price tag. That is how God refines our faith. Secondly, the product of refined faith is the joy of the Lord. And remember, we're distinguishing between the joy of the Lord and emotional happiness. You can have the joy of the Lord transcending happiness. Our emotions betray us. Our emotions cannot be trusted. If you're banking on your emotions, you're banking on the wrong thing. You must learn to discern the joy of the Lord, which transcends emotion. And that is the product of refined faith. And then thirdly, the purpose of refined faith is to prepare us for glory. And that brought us to our second point. There is an eschatological dimension to suffering. As we approach the end times, there will be an increased satanic activity as Satan is unloosed in the last days. And as Satan is loosed in those last days, the Christians will have to know what they believe. You're going to have to understand what your faith means to you. Because in those days, and I believe we are rapidly approaching those days, if we are not already in those days, we will see a tremendous assault on what we as Christians believe. And if we do not know how to endure suffering before those days, we will certainly be lost in the shuffle in those days. So as Satan is unloosed in the last days, there is an eschatological or futuristic, that's what that word means. A futuristic aspect to our suffering. But it also rekindles for us the hope of Christ's return. Why is the second coming of Christ called the hope of the church? Why is it the blessed hope? Well, you see, our suffering, every one of us who suffer, every one of us who experience some sort of pain or suffering are being prepared for glory. Suffering rekindles the hope of Christ's return. We want him to come as we are going through the suffering. Why? Because when he comes, the suffering is going to be put to an end. The suffering is going to be terminated. There is an eschatological dimension to suffering. Principle number three: although sudden pain is incredibly self-centered, God does make sense even when God doesn't make sense. Now, these are four points that Dobson raises in his book, which I think are worth repeating. God is present in our lives even when he seems deaf or on an extended leave of absence. God's timing is perfect even when his timing appears to be catastrophically late. For reasons that are impossible to explain, we human beings are incredibly precious to God. And fourthly, our arms are too short to box with God. We shouldn't even try. And I thought he raised four very excellent points there that will help us even as we go through self-centered pain. And by the way, most intense pain is self-centered. Grief, we have learned, is deaf. We have learned in our own experience that grief is deaf. You just cannot hear certain things. Simply because the voice of grief is so loud that it has caused you to be deaf to other things. So it is incredibly self-centered. And during those times of intense pain, we need to learn how to effectively put into practice these kinds of principles. The fourth principle was this: there is a circle of fear that develops when we are experiencing some sort of sudden grief or pain or loss or extended pain or some sort of catastrophe in our lives. There's a circle of fear that says, what's next? What's going to happen next? We have heard countless parents tell us that they have been much more strict with their children in driving their cars since our son was killed. The circle of fear has even widened to you. I know that we are much more intense on curfews and where our children are. We want to know where every one of them are at every given time. Many of you have hugged your children a little closer since we've experienced our tragedy. Why? Because the circle of fear widens when we experience some sort of tragedy. But now here's the principle. As we are entering into that circle of fear, the very circumstance that precipitates the fear demands faithful friends who will not only empathize with the sorrow, but will not avoid the sorrow. There is a leprosy syndrome, and I think we've all experienced it at one time or another, or have been guilty of it. We don't want to be around people who are in intense pain. Why? Because it's too painful. We feel we have to answer some questions. When somebody loses a loved one, what's the last thing you want to do? You want to walk up to their house or go to the viewing or knock on their door and try to have answers, and you know you can't have any answers. It is a leprosy syndrome, especially as time goes by and you see the other foot drop. When the other foot drops, that is the reality settles in that this is permanent, that this is not going to go away, and the pain becomes even more intense, we want to avoid them even more. We've seen this happen again and again and again with different people, and it's very sad. But there is a circle of fear that can narrow as we learn as Christians the principle of Aaron and her. Remember the story we talked about in the book of Exodus where Moses held up a vision of the power of God to deliver? He was defining the enemy as the Amalekites, and his hands were growing tired and weary, and as long as his hands were held up in the air, Israel prevailed. But as his hands began to fall, the Amalekites prevailed. So what happened? God led to the side of Moses, Aaron and her, who held up his arms. You see, that's just the opposite of the leprosy syndrome. These are faithful friends who are willing to enter into the chamber of another sorrow, even to the point of holding them up, and even yes, believing for them when they fail to believe for themselves. We're directed back again and again to the promises of God. God continues to drive us back to what he said. This past week, as we struggled with some of our own pain, we uh were taken to the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, the paschal discourses we call them. And again and again and again we see Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. He is trying to prepare them for the fact that in the days ahead they were going to experience incredible pain. They were going to watch him be butchered on a cross. They were going to run for their very lives. The circle of fear was going to become so wide that these brave men were going to run with their tails tucked between their legs. The same Messiah, the same Jesus they saw raise Lazarus from the dead, was going to himself go to a cross and they were going to watch him die there. And with his death, all of their hopes, dreams, and aspirations were going to go right down the tomb. And Jesus knew this and experienced this alienation for them. And he told them that the hour is now come, the hour that he had spoken of. But read that 14th, 15th, and 16th chapter again and again and again in preparation for that moment. What does he say to them? He says again and again, and you can read it. Go home and study it yourself. What did I say to you? What were my words? What I have spoken. Again and again he says the same thing. I told you so, I told you so, I told you so. What's he doing? He's driving his disciples back into the word and says to his disciples, by doing so, I've laid out certain promises for you. Now you have to believe them. You know, we've had to come to that point. We're coming to that point where we have to understand God has said certain things. Now is the time to believe those things. Do we believe them or don't we? You see, God continues to drive us back to the promises of Scripture. But now that leads us into the fifth principle. Some questions will remain unanswered in this life, even though we have the scriptures. It is not a sin to raise questions to God. And there is great comfort in the fellowship of sufferings. That is, we know that as we suffer, our God suffers with us. There is nothing we have experienced that he hasn't already experienced. Can you imagine the enormous grief the Father must have had in delivering his only begotten son to the cross and watching him butchered there? How could we possibly say to God, you don't understand, when he himself delivered his own son to the cross? The fellowship of sufferings. And although the human experience and the human spirit is intricately associated with our emotions and there are stages of grief, all of the healing begins with good doctrine. What do you believe? What is fundamental to what you believe? The point I tried to raise for you there is that for the reformed Christian who believes that God is sovereign over all the affairs of men, initially it is more difficult to comprehend the whys of our pain when we know that God ultimately is in control of it. But ultimately down the road, the reformed position is the most comforting because then we resign ourselves to a sovereign God who does all things well. Well, now that's review. The day of the Lord. And this concept of the day of the Lord forms the heartbeat, the very core, the very essence of a restored hope to people who are in despair. We need to understand what God is going to do. What is the program? God knows the end from the beginning, we don't. But he laid out for us in Scripture the concept of the day of the Lord. Now, what I have done is I have taken the day of the Lord and broken it down into an acrostic for you. That is, each letter of the word trumpet, which of course is the voice of God in Scripture, each letter stands for some dimension or aspect of the day of the Lord. Why are we talking about the day of the Lord? We are talking about the day of the Lord for two reasons. One, I believe we're rapidly approaching that day. I believe we are closer to that day now than we've ever been before, and I'll show you why in just a moment. Secondly, if 376 times in the New Testament alone the hope of the coming of Christ is mentioned, don't you think God is trying to get our attention? Don't you think he's trying to tell us something? And for those who are hopeless, for those who are despairing, for those of you who think there's no way out of your situation, God has laid out for you the concept of the day of the Lord. Principle number one or aspect number one of the day of the Lord is it is a day of total restoration. Remember what we said the last time we were together for the Jewish mindset of the Old Testament? They had a perspective of the day of the Lord that was very shallow. They saw that the day of the Lord was going to be some sort of political kingdom that God would establish on earth, that it would be a day in which they would be brought into a position of prominence among the nations of the earth. And then the prophets come along and speak of a totally different concept, that the day of the Lord will be a day of destruction, that the day of the Lord will be a day of judgment and vengeance, that the day of the Lord is a day of wrath and the outpouring of God's anger upon his people, his own people who were apostate. That the day of the Lord was going to be a new day that dawned where redemption, which is not a deliverance from the material world, but a re-establishment and sanctification of the material world, is going to be brought to pass. What is God going to do? He's going to merge heaven and earth. And in so doing, he is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. Not new in the sense of destroying the old ones. We talked about that word that was used in Revelation 21. Let's take a look at that now. Revelation 21, verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, that's heaven, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. The holy city, the new Jerusalem. This is the church, the people of God, the true believers. And what does John say that in that day, this holy city, New Jerusalem, is going to come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Watch this, now the dwelling of God is with men. He will live with them. They will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. Now underline this. For the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. It is done, I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life, etc. Well, there are two words in the Greek for our word new. The first word is neos, that is new in the sense of age. That is like a new car. It's a different car from the old one, totally different. But that's not the word that's used here. The word that's used here is the Greek word kinos, which means new in the sense of essence or quality. And when you put the little prefix A and A in front of it, it means to renew something. So what's going to happen? The material world, the earth, which has fallen into sin, and because it has fallen into sin, has been separated from the glory of God, and heaven, which is where God's dwelling place is and where the people of God are, who are awaiting the physical resurrection of the dead, which as yet is still incomplete, that heaven and that earth are going to merge into one. And in essence and quality, God is creating a new heaven and a new earth. That is, he is bringing the spiritual world and the physical world together, just like he did his spirit and his body and glorified it. So he will glorify the earth by bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven. Total restoration. God is not going to destroy heaven and earth in the sense that he is going to start all over again. He's going to merge the two into one where he will dwell in the midst. Time is going to be no more because it's going to be swallowed up into eternity. God will recreate the earth devoid of sin, devoid of disease, devoid of the limitations of time and space and matter. And he will recreate heaven in that it will enter into the sphere of the physical, the two will become one, and that is why 1 Corinthians 15 was written to talk about what's going to happen to the dead in Christ. What's going to happen to those bodies? T. Total restoration. What does the R stand for? The R stands for the rule of God. You see, when the day of the Lord occurs, the visio dei, as the old fathers used to call it, the vision of God is this. The vision of God is the hope that God is going to bring about a redemption that is cosmic, a redemption that is corporate, and a redemption that is individual. Say, what do you mean? A cosmic rule of God. You know, the Bible tells us that we are to go into all the world, and the word used there is cosmos. We are to preach the gospel into all the world. That is the whole cosmos. We are only one little finite particle of matter in God's universe. The earth is only one tiny little speck on that beach of eternity. And as you look out into the created order of things, you can't help but imagine that God is going to bring about a rule that we will realize and comprehend that involves not only the earth, but all of the heavens. That is the cosmic dimension of the vision of God. Corporately, he is going to rule his church. That is the people of God who join with the new Jerusalem that's coming down out of heaven, where heaven and earth merge in this total restoration. God himself is going to rule and reign among his people. We will have a full restoration of the theocracy. That is, God Himself will rule corporately his people. He will talk with us face to face. We will hear his voice. We will see his glory. We will sit with him and rule the universe. Not just the earth, but the universe. Man will have dominion over the stars, over the created order of this renewed universe, and we will be served by the angels themselves. We will hear his voice. We will walk with him and talk with him. We will see his glory. Not only here on earth, but freed from the limitations of time and space and matter, access to the whole universe. Where Christ Himself rules. That's why Jesus said in the great Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 5, Blessed are the meek, for they will what? Inherit the earth. What does he mean when he says, inherit the earth? The earth as it is ruled by Christ, as it is restored by Christ in the day of the Lord. Revelation 21, verse 27 says, nothing impure will ever enter it. Nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Who will rule the earth? Who will have access to the stars in the universe? Who will sit face to face and talk with the Christ Himself? Who will experience day in and day out the glory of God, the visio dei, the vision of God? Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. And where will the rest be? In outer darkness, cast into hell forever and forever. Where are you this morning? Will you rule with Christ in the day of the Lord? Revelation 22, verse 3 says, No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. You see, the dead in Christ will rise out of their graves, their bodies will be glorified, their spirits and their bodies will come together, and Christ Himself will merge heaven and earth, and he will rule among his people, not only on the earth, but in this restored and reclaimed universe that God Himself has created. What does the U stand for? Unbroken covenants, the covenants of creation and redemption. The covenant of grace is the covenant that we live under. Unbroken covenants. You know, you study the whole of the Old Testament, every book of the Bible, every single book of the Old Testament keeps coming back to what God has promised in the covenant. The day of the Lord will show us how the chain fits together. That God, from creation to redemption, from the creation in the beginning to the new heaven and the new earth in the end, God has been faithful to his promises in this unbroken covenantal chain. But you see, even the covenants of grace in its various forms are temporal expressions of God's commitment to his people to restore them and to restore the earth. Go over to Isaiah chapter 35. I want to show you something. And if you're passing by Hosea chapter 2, put a finger there because we're going to come back to that. Isaiah 35, Hosea chapter 2. Two passages of scripture which I've extracted out of many possible scriptures to talk about the fact that you cannot separate the love of God for his people. Listen carefully, the love of God for his people can never be separated by the promise that God has made to restore his creation. You say, What do you mean? Isaiah chapter 35, verse 1. The desert and the parched land will be glad. The wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom. It will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it. Told you we Lebanese were glorious. The splendor of Carmel and Sharon, they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. You see what he's talking about? He is referencing the day of the Lord. Isaiah is prophesying what that glorious restoration is going to be like. And notice what he includes in his love for his children, the restoration of creation. Hosea says the same thing in chapter 2. In that day, verse 18, in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beast of the field. Notice the animals involved, and the birds of the air, and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land. No more war. So that my people may lay down in safety. I will betrothe you to me forever. I will betrothe you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. In that day I will respond, declares the Lord. I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth, and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land. I will show my love to the one I called not my loved one. I will say to those called not my people, you are my people, and they will say, You are my God. You see this love story? Isn't it beautiful? God is saying that in that day he will demonstrate his love for us by fulfilling this unbroken promise that he is going to restore creation at the point of redemption, and that we will be a part of that. You see, in the day of Noah when God destroyed the earth, he affirmed his continued fidelity to the world of creation by placing that rainbow. That rainbow of promise. Yes, I destroyed the earth, but here is the covenant of promise, here is the hope that I will restore my creation. In the Abrahamic form, God affirms his fidelity to the covenant community of the elect. I will make of you a great nation. Your seed will be too many to number. You will be great among the peoples of the earth. They cannot number you like the stars in the sky. You will not be able to be numbered. And so God is affirming again his faithfulness not only to creation but to his people. In the mosaic form of the covenant, he extends his promise to the nation of Israel. He singles one nation out of all the nations in whom he would bestow the blessings of these unbroken promises. And then he raises up David and the Davidic form of this covenant, where he extends his promise and establishes his rule in kingship, so that in David we have a type of the king to come, where Messiah rules on earth among his people and promises to protect them as a warrior and to feed them as a shepherd. And so what do we see in David? A warrior and a shepherd. Christ who will rule with us and fight with us and for us and yet shepherd us. And even when Israel was exiled as an act of judgment, God raised up and purged a remnant through the ministry of the prophets. You see this again and again and again. God has a promise that he made it creation. God has a promise that he will fulfill it redemption. And in between, it is an unbroken commitment to his people. The day of the Lord. Unbroken promises, unbroken covenants of creation and redemption. What does the M stand for? Turn to Isaiah chapter 9 and look with me at verse 2. M stands for messianic blessing. You see, all that the prophets pointed to was the coming of Messiah. What does the word Messiah mean? Savior. That He would come and save His people. Isaiah 9, verse 2. The people walking in darkness, that's you. That's me. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. If you've never walked in the valley of the shadow of death, one thing it is very clear that the shadow of death is it's very dark. It's very isolated and it's very lonely. And it's very fearful. That is why when he makes this kind of a statement, that those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. A light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as a people rejoiced at the harvest, as men rejoiced when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, every warrior's boot used in battle, every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning. Catch this language. It will be fuel for the fire. And why is that? How is God going to do that? How is he going to take the war and the pain and the suffering that has nearly plundered us and the darkness that terrorizes us and bring it to light and roll it all up and burn it away? How's he going to do that? Look what he says in the next verse. Here's how he's going to do it. For unto us a child is born. To us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Who is that? That's Messiah. That's messianic blessing. And of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on, and what's that next word? Forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Listen to what Jeremiah says. You don't have to turn to it, but catch the flavor of another prophet. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line. Who is that? That's Messiah. He will do what is just and right in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved, Jerusalem will live in safety. And he goes on and talks about the restoration to come. Great promise in Jeremiah chapter 33. What does Hosea the prophet say? Afterwards the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days. We are the Israel of God, Galatians says. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem, see, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey. Who's he talking about? On a colt, the foal of a donkey, I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations, his rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. What's he talking about? The day of the Lord. Messianic rule. Our Messiah will rule the nations. In Jesus is the presence of the Messiah's kingdom. In the coming of Christ, listen, when Jesus Christ came the first time, he introduced to the world the final age. There is no other age to follow. When you go back to the Old Testament and you see the Abrahamic covenant and the Noah covenant and the covenant given to Jacob and the covenant affirmed in David, when you see these various forms of the covenant of grace, you always knew as you studied the scriptures there was another age to come. But when Jesus Christ, Messiah, comes to earth, and the prophecies of Zechariah and the prophecies of Isaiah are fulfilled literally in the coming of Jesus. He introduces to the world the final days, the last days, the last age. And guess what? We're living in that age. There is no other age to come. We are in the final days. Now, how long those days will be is totally up to him. But there is no other age to come. This is it. We are awaiting the rule of Messiah. The final invasion of God into the fabric of our lives as we know it will be when Jesus Christ comes again. And in that sense, Messiah will bring his blessings to his people in the full, complete realization of all that he anticipated for us. What does peace stand for? Pea stands for the people of God renewed. People of God renewed. Turn over to Exodus chapter 19. And look with me at verses 5 and 6. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. God has promised a people to himself. A remnant was preserved all the way through the Old Testament. No matter how faithless Israel became, there was always a remnant. No matter how degenerate the world had become, God had eight people that he saved in the day of Noah. No matter how irresponsible and sinful Sodom and Gomorrah had become, God spared Lot and Abraham and his family. All the way through the Old Testament, God preserves for himself what he calls his peculiar treasure. And even in these last days, when the church has become so apostate and we have failed to understand the gospel for what it is, God has preserved for himself a remnant. And he has promised to that people that he will renew them. You are a chosen people, he would say through Peter. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Why? That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you did not receive mercy, but now you have received mercy. See what he's saying? With the first coming of Jesus Christ, we are today, as we sit here today, we are the most privileged of all of the people of God who ever lived. We are more privileged than Moses, more privileged than Elijah, more privileged than the disciples, more privileged than David, because we are indeed living, having realized the promise of Messiah. And I believe that we are the privileged of the privileged, in that indeed we are living in the last days, awaiting our full and complete redemption. God is going to renew his people. How are they going to be renewed? This is the part we don't like. He's going to renew us through tribulation in order to prepare us for the glory of God. The day of the Lord. What does the E stand for? The E stands for the enemies of the people of God will be avenged. Psalm 37, verse 9 says, For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more. Though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. Matthew 13, verse 40, Jesus said, As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be in the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. Paul would say to the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 6, God is just. Listen to this. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. He will give relief to those who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people, to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. Isn't that wonderful? And what would Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15 that the last enemy that shall be destroyed is what? Death itself. Our enemies will be avenged. And what does the T stand for? Transformation by the Spirit of God. You see, the Spirit of God is particularly associated with the Messianic age. David himself was endowed as the prototype of the Messiah, as the prototype of the warrior king. He was endowed himself with the Holy Spirit. These are the last words, 2 Samuel 23 would say of David. The oracle of David, son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man appointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me, and his word was on my tongue. Those were his last words. Those were his last words. Transformation by the Spirit of God. In Matthew chapter 3, verse 16, we read, as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. You see, Jesus as Messiah would usher in the age of the Spirit. And it is through that Holy Spirit, day by day, moment by moment, second by second, that I and you who are Christians, we are being transformed into the very image of God. The veil is being removed. Yes, through suffering. The eyes that can see only darkness are beginning to see light. We are seeing as the Spirit of God reveals to us truth that day by day, moment by moment, Moment we are being conformed to the image of his son. And Jesus would say to his disciples, I'll ask the Father, and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And it is through this same Holy Spirit that God has made a down payment on your eternal salvation. When God saved you, he gave you the Holy Spirit, Paul would say to the Corinthians, it is now God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, he set his seal of ownership on us and put his spirit in our hearts as what? As a deposit, down payment, guaranteeing what is to come. Can there be any more wonderful truth than that? That God has given to me his Holy Spirit as a down payment. And what's that down payment say? Your debt is paid in full. I guarantee what is to come, that you will be fully and completely transformed by that spirit into the Imagodei, the image of God. Paul would say to the Ephesians, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing. Now he tells us what we're guaranteed: our inheritance until the day of redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. And until then, what's he doing? He's allowing us to suffer, he's allowing us to experience his sufferings. So that in that day our trials in this life will make sense. One final scripture as we close. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. If you're having trouble making sense, I want you to listen to one thought. Romans chapter 8. You see what God has done to you? He has taken a 1,000-piece puzzle. You ever see a 1,000-piece puzzle? He's taken this 1,000-piece puzzle. He's pulled one little piece out. And he's handed it to you. And he has said to you, What? What is this a picture of? And you look at it and you say, Lord, I don't know. I don't know what it is. But then one day, he holds up the other 999 pieces that have already been fitted together. And he says, Now, plug in that final piece. And then you stand back and you look at it. And you say, now it makes sense. Verse 18. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves have the first fruits of the Spirit. Groan inwardly as we wait eagerly. I gotta tell you, I know our family didn't really understand the word eagerly until recently. Eagerly for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. In other words, I'm not going to show you the whole puzzle. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

To learn more about Dr. Better's or our resources or confidence, visit N-A-R-C-I-C. You rest today in assurance that God can be trusted, even when you do not understand his thoughts.