Heaven Bound (Part B)

Whatever tries to undermine your blessed assurance comes from hell or your flesh.

It does not come from description. God wants us to be sure that we're heaven-bound because how useful can you be if you're not sure? You're taking aim at things, but it will be a shaky one, and you're likely not going to hit that target. But that blessed assurance is a powerful thing, and if it weren't, Satan would leave you alone concerning it.

But he doesn't. He comes at Christians. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Heaven-bound is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in Romans 8. God wants creation to recognize him for who he is. Those fallen angels that make up Satan, because when we say Satan, it's not limited to Lucifer. It includes all of the demonic world, all of the fallen angels. They make up the enemy of humanity and of God, of course. And what they did or stopped doing, refused to do, was recognize God for who he was.

And so they lost everything on a gamble, thinking that they could overcome him. Now God has a creation of people, and he still wants us to find him worthy of our praise, of our trust, of our obedience, of all the things that go in that. God wants to be loved, and he is created so that he could be loved. Adam was Lord of Eden, but he lost it all. We believers, we will inherit all things, heirs of God and joint heirs in Christ. It says that in Romans 8, verse 17. And then when you look at Revelation talks about us being heirs. James, in his letter, we are heirs of the kingdom. God is going to bless.

He's going to reward. This is not all that there is. Being heaven-bound is so much to it that God has remained quite silent on the details, assuring us that there's nothing like it. Perhaps this is why evil is so hateful against the saved, because evil has thrown it all away, and the saved are the ones receiving it. They may have forfeited it. We're not.

We're going towards it. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. There are three groans recorded in this section of scripture indicating that God is very sensitive to what is happening. Here in verse 22, creation groans. In verse 23, we groan.

And then we get to verse 26, and we find God groaning, because it is not what he intended it to be. It is every bit of a curse. Everywhere we look, there is the desire for relief in this life. Scavengers can't be happy with their diet.

For example, flies and maggots seem to have it worse of all. But every crushed seashell that we come across on the beach or wherever we are, every dead and rotten log, every fossil that is found, these proclaim that all is not well outside of Christ. These proclaim that disobeying God has ruin attached to it.

Death. Sin has made the history of man a tragedy. But Jesus overturned creation's plight with the greater tragedy, the tragedy of the cross.

We see where this is going. We hopefully build ourselves up so we can get others to see it, because every Christian should have a burden for the lost. We all should want to see people. We should want to see people who are saved. We all should understand what the alternative to salvation is. And so there is an undisclosed worthy purpose behind the immense suffering allowed by God, as Paul referenced it, that he has allowed this to go forward in hope, better things, not the hope of possibility, but the hope of anticipation, a purpose so worthwhile that it could be achieved in no other way.

If there was another way for God to populate heaven with created beings who recognize his glory and his splendor, who love him back, who recognize his justice and his sovereignty and omniscience and omnipotence, if there was another way to fill heaven with those type of people, he would have done it. It is not. This is the way it's done. I think that's part of what Christ said. If possible, take this cup.

Well, it's not possible. It's the only way. You're going to remove the sin.

It's got to be a perfect offering, and you're it. Of course, he understood that. But he pulls it out into the light so we can see it happening. We can learn these lessons about how God does what he does and how blameless God is. Verse 23, not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption of the redemption of our body. Well, not only that, beginning of verse 23, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit. Well, those are the saved in Christ. Before his return, us now, Christians through, since the resurrection of Christ, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Christ of first fruits, afterward, those who are Christ at his coming. And that would be, of course, the church, true believers. Now, when I say church, I mean the true church, not the apostate church.

The church that is determined to obey the Lord, to follow the scriptures as best they know how, in the Holy Spirit. But the firstborn of the flock, now, when Paul wrote this, he's writing to Romans, he knows that the Jews would understand this and probably the Gentile Christians now in the church would have understood this. The firstborn of the flocks, the firstborn of your harvest, your crops, your grains, your vegetables at harvest time, they belong to God. They were to be given back to God.

It was just a small portion, less than a tenth. At harvest time, the Israelite went into his field of grain and cut a sheaf and he took that to the temple. It was a symbol of the first fruits and there he presented it to God. He was saying, God, all of this comes from you.

And I recognize that and I'm grateful for this. And again, you have a giant field of wheat when you take a handful and that's all you had to take to the temple for that particular offering. And in fact, all the offerings speak of sin and the damage that it has caused in symbol and type it has because you could never really capture all of history's misery through just one offering of an animal. But you could get the picture, you get close enough to understand things aren't what God meant them to be. When God created man and Adam and Eve, there was no death.

That came because of disobedience. Well, Christ, he was cut, he was removed and he was presented as the perfect offerings. So that sheaf offering, of course, speaks of the coming Christ, the first fruits of God's redemption, representing a lot more fruit to come. When you cut that sheaf and you took it to the temple, you were saying, here's just a portion but there's so much more. And Christ, of course, being the first fruits, we, the Christians, are the so much more because of his sacrifice, how much fruit has come out of Calvary. Well, all the heaven bound, those are the ones that are the fruit of the Spirit in Christ.

And so he says, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. Well, heaven's going to make it worthwhile. We believe that by faith, not by sight. The just shall live by faith. That's said four times in the Bible, three times in the New Testament, that Old Testament verse is upheld. Eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Yeah, Paul wanted to get out of here too. He said that to the Philippians. You know, it's better for me to go to heaven now, but it's better for you that I stay here and suffer with you and be your pastor.

This is glorification. Glorification is the final state of the believer, the final created state. We will be in heaven and we won't be in these bodies anymore.

We will not be subject anymore to any part of the curse. Verse 24. We were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Why does one still hope for what he sees?

Verse 25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Well again, this hope that he speaks of is faith. It is the hope of delightful anticipation of God's promises fulfilled without doubt. Not the hope of uncertain possibilities. God says, get your hopes up because I'm going to make the promise good. So if I were to ask you, are you saved?

And you replied, I hope so. Then I would say, such a hope usurps faith. That's not the kind of hope that Paul is talking about.

He said, well what gives you the grounds to make such a statement? Well, Romans chapter 4 verses 18 to 21, he talked about the hope of Abraham that did not waver. It was accounted to him as righteous as it was accounted to him as righteous. It was faith. Hebrews 11, 1, if you need to hear it straight out other than there in chapter 4, faith is a substance of things told for, the evidence of things not seen. There's evidence, there's proof, there's assurance in all of that. Whatever tries to undermine your blessed assurance comes from hell or your flesh. It does not come from the scripture. God wants us to be sure that we're heaven bound because how useful can you be if you're not sure? You're taking aim at things, but it will be a shaky one. You're likely not going to hit that target, but that blessed assurance is a powerful thing. And if it weren't, then Satan would leave you alone concerning it. But he doesn't. He comes at Christians. He tries to get them to doubt the finished work of Christ. And if you want to fight back, then just claim the promise. No, this is not a prosperity statement.

You got to claim it, brother, and just snatch it away. I think that guy in Texas that's, I don't know how many thousands of people do, the Olstein guy, he gets pretty near demonic activity if you ask me the things that comes out of his mouth. I don't want to get sidetracked by that, but at least you know where I stand. Verse 26, likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now, he's not talking about every single time, of course, but there are those times. We don't know what to pray, we don't know what to add, we don't know what to say. If I say not my will but your will, I am admitting that I'm not so sure of what I should always ask for, what I should always pray. But what he says here in verse 26, the Spirit also helps in our weakness. God hears our heart.

We don't have to use words. Someone who's mute can pray. Notice that the Spirit does not condemn us in our weakness. Has he assigned that for us? Does he want us to condemn each other when we find we're weak?

No. Hopefully we build each other up. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. I think when you, you know, you're not moved to pray, don't force it.

You don't have to. You can sit before the Lord. You could just sit in his presence. You don't have to verbalize what's on your heart because many times you don't know.

You're uncertain about things. So God, he overcomes our limitations. He intercedes on our behalf. He steps in. And what would happen if he didn't? If he just said, well, you guys got to figure this out.

Well, it's not going to get figured out. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us. He has access. He can't do this with the unbeliever because the unbeliever has not given him access. So in verse 26, where we are now, the indwelling Holy Spirit assists in my prayers, especially in those times when it's intense. But in verse 31, we read that God is for us. So if it is the Holy Spirit of God interceding, it must be on my behalf, which would be on behalf of others, too. But by the time we get to verse 34, Christ is making intercession for us. The Trinity is involved in our prayer, the Godhead. If someone says, well, you know, the word Trinity is not in the Bible.

Yeah, but the fact is, and the fact is alone in that one word, the Godhead. Jesus intercedes for us on our behalf in our eternal state, and the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf in our present state, our temporary state. So we have bumper-to-bumper coverage, comprehensive spiritual coverage, with groanings which cannot be uttered, the sympathies of God. You can, it sounds like the Spirit is groaning with us.

Why not? Jesus groaned. John chapter 11, this is when Lazarus died, still in the tomb, and Jesus saw how heartbroken everybody was. He was very sensitive to that. Not only was he sensitive to that, he was emotionally moved by it.

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. That's God become, come to us in human form. 100% God still. Physically 100% human. And there he is, moved by what moves us.

Not insensitive. He is not idle. He has his timetable.

He knows what he wants to do, and he will not be steered away from it. Paul's descriptive words depicting sin's impact upon creation is revealing. In verse 18, it was suffering.

What do you add to that? In verse 20, futility. That's a form of suffering for something to be useless. If you've ever been assigned a useless task, you get frustrated. What are we doing this for?

Let me see. So, imagine going through that in life spiritually. But as Christians, our walk is not to be futile, not to be meaningless. We're to have targets. We're to have things to do.

We're just wandering around. We build ourselves up. We let the Lord open the doors so that he can use what we've built up. In verse 21, he mentions bondage and corruption. In verse 22, the groans and the pangs.

Sin's impact on creation. Verse 27, now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. This is the Godhead in rhythm, in unity. There's no division in the Godhead. A kingdom that is divided, Jesus said, cannot stand.

Well, God's kingdom cannot fall. And, you know, you want that in the home. You want that in the ministry. You want that among in your relationships.

Can two walk together lest they agree? We want this unity of spirit. We don't always get it. We can not get it without going into sin. We have options. We can do things differently. But God has committed to our salvation and the sanctification, and they're not the same thing.

Well, they are and they are not. You can say when sanctification includes salvation, it most certainly does, but it goes beyond salvation, because then what happens? All right, you give your life to Christ.

Now what? Well, Christ's likeness is now what? The development of the conversion, and that's called sanctification. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, for this is the will of God. Your sanctification, God wants you to be better at serving Him all the time.

That's a never-ending process in this life, and we should be delighted by that. Thus the gates of hell shall not prevail. Thus the gates of hell shall not prevail. Matthew 6, for your heavenly Father knows what you need, that you need all these things, and I'm quoting that verse in connection to Romans 8 27. He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. If you have a God that has to learn or doesn't know everything, you have an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny God that's not a God at all. It's something you've concocted. You know, this is part of the problem. Have you ever spoken, I don't know if you do, I don't find them too many, too much, at least around here, I haven't, but have you ever spoken to a new-ager? They'll tell you, well, we're all gods.

Oh yeah? What's my pin number? If you can't tell me that, you can't be God because God knows everything. He knows that you're dumb for even thinking that you're a God. There's a way out of that, but this is man when he makes his idols. They're all defective.

They're all deformed because they're like the ones who make the idols, and the ones who make the idols are sinners, subject to the fall in creation because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Would you have anybody else's will? How about your neighbor? I wouldn't want my neighbor's will to be pushed upon me, but I don't mind God's will, at least I hope I don't. Joseph, in the book of Genesis, never blamed God for the injustices that God allowed in his life.

Joseph suffered for upholding God's principles. I would be saying, God, you think a little help here? I'm being righteous. I'm standing up for your word.

Where's the help? Instead, he saw God as an ally nonetheless. How does hell beat that?

When the Christians were flogged in the book of Acts, they were praising God. How does hell do anything about that? Well, hell will wait for the next generation, try to pick them off. You young teens, you get that?

Mom and dad loving the Lord? What about you? You think it's going to be automatic? It's not. You better get to work, a lot to be done.

We need you to step up. This recognizing that God was his ally in the midst of the hardship that he endured for righteousness sake, allowed Joseph to find himself in God's will. So we read in Genesis 41, Joseph speaking.

You know the story was sold by his brothers, his green-eyed brothers who were jealous about him into slavery. They were going to kill him and care what happened to him, all because he was godly and a little naive, but godly nonetheless. And then, of course, this Potiphar's wife, he had to deal with her, the Bible says, day by day until finally she sprung her trap. Hell has no fury like a person in the flesh, never mind a woman scorned. Anybody that gets in the flesh can launch the fury of hell. Anyway, Genesis 41, 40, the pharaoh says to him, you shall be over my house and all my people shall be ruled according to your word.

Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you. That's what Joseph got out of the hardship, the number two position in a superpower. And he made use of it. He saved his family. David, he suffered at the hands of a green-eyed king.

Joseph's brothers were jealous of him and that's what the green eye is, jealousy. King Saul was jealous of David. Remember the women came out thinking they were doing David a favor. Saul has killed his thousands.

Yeah, that's me. David has killed his tens of thousands. Oh man, that was it.

The keg was lit by that one. David suffered at the hands of that green-eyed king, but David became the king of Israel and the sweet psalmist of Israel. And man, how many lessons are wrapped up in the life of David.

David is associated with the new Jerusalem that, well, Jerusalem on Christ's return, geographical Jerusalem, where the kingdom will be set up on earth as opposed to the new Jerusalem that comes from heaven. Verse 28, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Well, I'm not going to try to exhaust this verse, I don't think.

You can't. There's just too much here, so we'll have to skim over. It's a super verse in the Bible. All Christians, when they come across this verse, I don't think they ever forget it.

Even if they don't memorize it, they know it's there. But how many don't know that all things work together for the good? How many don't believe? Well, we all have our moments, even as believers, when something happens to us and it's just hard to deal with it and we do have to fight doubt hand to hand. Sometimes we can fight doubt from a distance, sometimes we're not dealing with it at all, but there are those times in our life, if you stick around long enough, well, you are going to go hand to hand with doubt.

What you shall overcome. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.