Title: "Subject to Vanity IN Hope"
Text: Romans 8:20
INTRO:
1. Romans 6-8 Discuss the Subject of How a Man is Delivered from the Bondage of the Sin Nature & It's Corruption Through the Work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
2. It is a Message of HOPE to a World in Despair Because of this Bondage.
3. It is a Message About the Patience and Confidence that a Believer Can Exercise In the Sufferings of this Present Time Because of the Sure Hope of Glory We'll Enjoy In Eternity.
4. It is a Message About God's Sovereignty as Our Creator and His Amazing Plan to Gloriously Liberate and Liberally Glorify His Own Creation From It's Present State of Bondage to Corruption and Despair.
5. Our Text Verse is the Key that Helps Us Understand Just How God has Ordained to Carry Out His Plan.
Romans 8:20
6. I've Entitled the Message : "Subject to Vanity IN Hope."
I. Consider the Highlights of Our Text.
Romans 8:20
A. The Creature was Made ... By ... Him !
1. This is Where Everything Begins Between God & Man.
2. God Created Man -- Not the Other Way Around !!!
3. God Created Man With a Purpose.
Revelation 4:11 -- "For Thy Pleasure ..."
a. Man Failed In his Original Purpose By Rebellion and Sin.
Romans 3:10-12 c/f Isaiah 53:6
b. Jesus Pleased the Father By His Obedience AND By His One Time Offering For Sin.
John 8:29 & Hebrews 10:6-14
c. Through Jesus Christ , God Offers Man a Second Chance to Please Him.
I Corinthians 1:21 c/f Hebrews 11:6 & John 14:6
B. Made SUBJECT
Romans 8:20
1. These are Words Men Hate.
a. Subject
b. Subjected
c. Subjugate
d. Subjugation
2. The Words, Subjugate or Subject, Mean to Place Under Authority & Imply an Authority Over.
3. The Carnal Mind of Man Refuses to Be In Subjection to the Law & Authority of God AND the Other Authorities Under Him.
Romans 8:6-8 c/f Romans 13:1-2
a. This is Why Pastors Have Problems with their Church People Many Times.
b. This is Why Parents Have Problems with their Children.
c. This is Why Teachers Have Problems with their Students.
d. This is Why Employers Have Problems with their Employees.
4. However, - Like It or Not - Man was Created to BE IN SUBJECTION to God's Will, and that is Where the Problem Exists Between God & Man.
C. Subject to VANITY
Romans 8:20
1. This is Where the Genius of God is Revealed.
2. Every Worldly Pursuit in Life is VAIN ; it's a Fist Full of Nothing.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-8 & 14 c/f James 4:12-14
3. God Subjects Man to Vanity & Adversity to Cause Man to Consider
& Turn Man to God.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14; Ecclesiastes 3:9-14; & Eccl. 12:8 & 13-14
4. In a Way Ted Turner is Right when he says that "Christianity is for Losers."
a. The Ones that Have Considered and Realized that Our Real Hope in Life is Not IN this Present Time per se but IN GOD & His Time.
b. In the Final Analysis, It's the Losers, who Turn to God who Are the WINNERS when It is All Said and Done.
Matthew 10:39
c. In the Final Analysis, It's the Ones who THINK they are the Winners NOW that will End Up Being the Losers.
Psalm 73:1-20
5. It's the Vanity of Life We are Subjected to that Turns Our Hearts TO the Lord Jesus Christ, Who IS Our HOPE.
I Timothy 1:1 c/f Ephesians 2:11-13
D. Subject to Vanity IN HOPE
Romans 8:20
1. Many People Today are Looking Around At the Difficulties & Adversities & Vanities off Life, and Because of what they See All Around them they Have Lost All Hope that things will Ever Change.
2. This is Why there are So Many People Living Recklessly & Dying Needlessly in Our World.
a. Teenagers Drinking & Driving and Dying at the Wheel or Riding with a Friend who is Driving Drunk and Dying
b. Drug Addicts
1.) Risking an Overdose
2.) Sharing Dirty Needles & Risking Aids or Hepatitis
3.) Risking Bad Drugs or Drugs that are " Cut " with Bad Chemicals or Bad Processes & etcetera
c. Sexual Promiscuity with Multiple Partners
1.) Risking Aids or STDs ( Sexually Transmitted Diseases )
2.) Risking Unwanted Pregnancies
3.) Risking Sterility
4.) Risking the Loss of an Ability to have an Intimate Relation- ship with a Future Spouse in Marriage
3. The Hopelessness that So Many People Feel is Why there are So Many Suicides & Multiple Homicides.
4. God Offers the World a Better Way, a Way of HOPE.
Psalm 42:5 & Romans 8:20
II. The Vital Role that Believers Have in God's Overall Plan
Romans 8:14-25
A. The Whole Creation is Groaning & Travailing in Pain Together .
Verse 22
B. Our Hurting World is Looking for a Sign & Waiting for Deliverance from their Painful Struggles & their VAIN Lives in this World.
Verses 19-21
** C. The World is Looking for a Man Who will Demonstrate a Lifestyle of Liberating Hope that - though we are Presently Struggling Together - there is a Day of Deliverance Coming.
Verses 19-23
D. Though We Groan Together with the Whole of Creation, the Child of God has a Liberty that the Unsaved People in the World Do NOT Have.
Romans 8:14-24a
1. We Groan Together with the World.
Verses 22-23
2. We are Subject to Vanity and a Bondage to Corruption Along with the Rest of the World.
Verses 20-21 c/f Romans 7:14, 18, 22-24 ; & Philippians 3:20-21
3. We are Already Liberated from a spirit of Bondage to Fear & Hopelessness BY Receiving the Spirit of Adoption & the Witness that He Bares.
Romans 8:14-17, 18, & 24a
a. The Spirit of Adoption IS a Spirit of Love.
II Timothy 1:7 & Ephesians 5:22
b. Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear.
I John 4:18
c. The Witness of the Spirit of Adoption Tells Us that We will Inherit All that Belongs to God as His Heirs.
Verses 16-17
*** This Sufficiency Gives Us Confidence that We Can Handle Whatever May Happen to Us.
Philippians 4:13 & 19
d. His Witness Tells Us that If We Suffer, We Shall Be Glorified
Together With Jesus Christ.
Verse 17 -- Our Reward Awaits Us.
e. His Witness Tells Us - through Paul - that Our Glory will FAR EXCEED Our Suffering.
Verse 18 -- Our Reward is Worth the Struggle and the Wait.
f. Because We Have Received the Witness of God's Spirit, We are Saved & Delivered from the spirit of Fear & Hopelessness.
Romans 8:15-16 & 24 c/f Hebrews 11:1 & Romans 10:17
E. Our Testimony Before the World - the Testimony Our World is Waiting to See - is One of Confident Hope & Patient Expectant Waiting On God Until the Fullness of Our Inheritance is Finally Received.
Romans 8:19-25
1. We Only Have the First fruits of Our Inheritance Now, but What We Already Have is Wonderful.
Verse 23 c/f Ephesians 1:12-14
2. We Can Already Manifest a Partial Deliverance & Liberty from the Vanity and Bondage of this World, but What We are Looking For- ward to is Much Better.
Verses 19-23 c/f Philippians 3:20-21 ; I John 3:1-3 ; &
I Corinthians 2:9-12
3. In the Midst of the Pains and Travails of Life the World is Looking for the Manifestation of a Confident & Patient HOPE that things will Be OK Now & that EVENTUALLY things will Be MUCH BETTER.
Romans 8:28 & 31-39 c/f I Peter 3:13-15 & Romans 8:19
III. The Lord & His Creation are Waiting & Watching for YOU & ME to Manifest Ourselves as His Children of Hope.
** We Must Not Let them Down ; They are Both Depending On Us !!!
IV. Our Patient Waiting IN HOPE will Accomplish Several Things.
A. It Will Fulfill the Expectation of the Whole Creation which is Waiting for the Manifestation of that Hope.
Romans 8:19
B. It Will Demonstrate that God's GRACE IS SUFFICIENT for His People as the Bible Claims that It Is.
II Corinthians 12:9
C. It Will Demonstrate that We've had Some Experience Already with the Grace of God During the Sufferings of the Past AND that We've LEARNED SOMETHING FROM them.
Romans 5:1-5
D. It Will Work to Create a Thirst in the Unsaved to KNOW OUR GOD , Who Alone Can Give Such Hope.
Ephesians 1:12-14 c/f Matthew 5:13 & I Peter 3:15
E. It Will Bring Praise to God Within the Church by those Believers, who are Watching Us & Glorying In Our Patience Before the Father.
II Thessalonians 1:3-4