The doctrine of Glorification is the final step in the application of God’s marvelous redemption in Christ. There is coming a day when the saints of God will receive glorified bodies. Our salvation will be complete! It is an event set that will accompany the glorious return of our Lord. It is the hope of our faith! It is a truth that sustains our joy! What a great salvation! May the Lord give us a renewed sense of this truth. May it inform and reform our earthly perspectives and give us strength to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which (we) have been called.”
Listen, I'm going to break protocol for a moment. Let's stand back to our feets, and I wanna just inspire you for a few moments to simply worship our God. No music, no anything, just out of your own expression, out of your own heart, out of what God has given us in this conference, out of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, out of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the fact that we will one day rule and reign with him, that our king reigns, that he is worthy of our honor, worthy of our praise, worthy of our worship. He is good and his mercy endures forever. And so saints of the Lord, come on and let's just praise him for a moment.
Let's just magnify him for a moment. Heavenly Father, we stand to our feet, we lift up our hearts, we lift up our voices, we lift up our countenances, and we declare that you alone are God. That there are no other gods, but from everlasting to everlasting, you are king, and besides you, there are no others. Oh Lord, from the very depths of our being we worship you. We render honor to you.
We bow before you and humble ourselves before you. We stand in your presence out of reverence. We declare our unending, unbending love for thee. You are God, and you sent your son to die for us, and we are grateful, and we are overwhelmed, and we understand it mentally, but God, we express our love to you with everything that we have. Oh, we worship you, we adore you, We lift you up, we exalt and extol you.
Touch these, your people, Lord, to hear thy word. Cause them, Lord, to be changed by the preaching of the word. Exhort them and encourage them in their ministries and in their families and in their jobs. Be real to us this hour. Move by your Spirit in this place that you alone will receive the glory.
Hallelujah. Come on saints, let's just try something here. Stay with me now. Open your mouth and say something good about God. That's pretty good, come on, stay with me, stay with me.
Open your mouth and render honor and praise to him. He's our savior, he's our master, oh hallelujah. He's our king, he's our God, And we love Him. Oh Lord, touch now your people and be praised. And we'll make sure that you alone receive all of the glory.
It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. The people of Christ said, amen. Now, we do this at my church, and Scott let me preach, so we'll do it here too. Just look at somebody beside you, give them a high five and say I love Jesus and I love you too. Hallelujah, glory to God, oh I feel right at home.
Thank you Jesus. Whoo, all right. You may be seated if you can. Hallelujah, oh my goodness. Do you love Jesus?
Do you love Jesus? Hallelujah, friends, I greet you today in the name of our God and our Father, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. I greet you in the holy name of Christ Jesus, him who knew no sin but became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. Indeed he committed no sin, Neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin, hallelujah, and live to righteousness because by his wounds you have been healed and I greet you in the name of the Spirit of our God the Spirit of truth who guides us into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak And he will declare to us the things that are to come, who will glorify Jesus, for he will take what belongs to our Lord and declare those things to us. My name is Carlton, and I am the pastor of a wonderful family-integrated church in Chesapeake, Virginia, and I thank our gracious host, Scott, and his lovely wife for allowing this conference to take place and being so crazy as to put Karl McCloud in his pulpit. And I want you all to know, and I'm just saying this from my heart and we'll go to a text of scripture here momentarily from Romans chapter eight, but I just want you to know from my heart that this, what God is doing here in this movement, what God is doing here in this fellowship of churches, what God is doing here through the NCFIC and the various churches that are affiliated with it is a wonderful thing.
It's a good thing. It's a holy thing. It's a helpful thing. And The best news is that I believe our God is just getting started. I believe that there is still so much more that the Lord wants to do.
The devil has thrown everything he can at families and fathers and mothers and churches that are reforming according to this efficiency of scripture, but I got news for the devil today, he loses and our God wins. Hallelujah. And so I am grateful and thankful and as we close out this conference that has been so rich with such precise weighty doctrine. I get the honor and the privilege to discuss a topic where I'm not necessarily gonna take it to its heaviest point, but I just discern and felt in my heart that what this organization needs, what this body needs is to see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that we can go ahead on and give him everything that we have now for one day, we will rule and reign with him in glorified bodies, one day, a day soon to come, where every sin has been dealt with finally and forever, and from everlasting to everlasting. Don't we serve an awesome God?
And hasn't he given us a glorious gospel? And So today I wanna take you to Romans chapter eight just for a few moments. Romans chapter eight, verses 18 through 25, kind of picking up where Dr. Beekie left off last night. Not done nearly so well as he presented last night, but certainly with a desire to see you encouraged today and lifted up with your heart squarely upon our Lord.
Romans chapter eight, verses 18 through 25, simply calling our time together today the doctrine of glorification. The doctrine of glorification and with a goal today of seeing the Lord give us hope and joy in what He has done and what He will do. The Bible says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. What a statement. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, hallelujah. For in this hope we were saved.
Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with Patience. Master, once again, touch our hearts. Keep us from the errors of men. Speak to your people by thy word.
In Jesus' name, amen. Now, our gracious host, Mr. Brown, said there is no greater joy for a family or a church than to embrace the true gospel. I don't have any Puritan quotes, so I'll figure out a quote the Puritan sitting over there, Scott Brown. There is, can't preach up here without a Puritan quote, so you're my Puritan, Scott.
There is no greater joy for a family or a church than to embrace the true gospel, and I agree. My brothers and sisters, what I'd like to present to you today in presenting the doctrine of glorification is I'd like to present to you that we have every reason to have joy. I'd like to encourage you that there is every reason to have hope, although it's a hope we don't see presently, it's a hope our God who never lies has promised and is yet to come. I'd like to encourage you that as I've already mentioned, There is every reason for us to, with a holy abandon, dedicate ourselves to all the tenets of the faith, to a biblical worldview, to the preaching of the gospel, to standing against the darkness, to uplifting the light. There is every reason and every hope to do so with vigor and joy and passion, because one day, the ratification of the victory of our God will be fully manifest and we will be fully changed to walk with glorified bodies.
In other words, what we see in our culture now is not the end of the story. There is coming a day where the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will be finished, where our bodies will be redeemed, and where we'll see him as he is. Why is this important, and why is this the tack that I'd like to take on this today instead of perhaps digging into certain principles but rather more of an exhortation? Well, frankly, it's because, you know, I've been here for a couple days now, and I think we need to smile a little more. Forgive me if that sounds pragmatic, but there's a lot of heads hanging low and hands that are down, And yes, we had a tough year and yes, some things happened, but let me just say it again.
Our God reigns and we will, despite our, this is the amazing part, despite our sin, despite our rebellion, he has chosen us, he has elected us, He has converted us, he has sanctified us, and is sanctifying us, and it's still not over. He is preserving us, and the end of that preservation will be bodies that are no longer tempted and wracked by sin. Oh dear friends, we amongst all people in the world should be the most happy and the most with joy. We amongst all people in the world should be the ones who lift their hands and lift their voices and lift their hearts and jump out of bed on a Monday morning, not because our circumstances are perfect, not because of some false prosperity heresy, but because our God reigns. And as I walked around and looked around and seeing so many of you doing so wonderfully with your families and your children.
There seems to be, you know, and I'll just say this and I'll get back to the message, but there's a difference between humility, which is good, and being depressed. I wonder if there's a way we can keep the humility but be able to rejoice in all that God has done and all that God will do. I understand that we are a people who are constantly looking at our sin, and because of what we've learned this week, that is critical. We must get into that place with God where we examine our hearts and examine ourselves and work that through and repent and cry out and look for all the witnesses that doctor, I can't remember all the witnesses, there was so many good ones, all the different points he gave. But that's critical, we must do that, but can we add to our walk and our faith an overwhelming, palpable, devil-irritating joy.
Dear friends, we come now to the last and great element of our salvation, the end of our faith, if you will, our final and glorious state, including the glorification of our bodies and our forever being with the Lord, hallelujah. And oh, by the way, and I think one of the other speakers mentioned this, I think it was Dr. Beekie, I think maybe even Kevin Swanson mentioned this, but just the mere mention of the fact that one day we will be with the Lord forever and ever, amen, should do something in the heart of a believer. And I wanna encourage you over our few moments together to allow that to occur because you're gonna walk out those doors and you're gonna go back to your homes and you're gonna go back and you're gonna wade back into the darkness, and wade back into pragmatism, and wade back into Marxism, and wade back into socialism, and wade back into the different abortions, and wade back into gay marriage, and all the states are dropping like flies, and wade back into a church that doesn't seem to understand the gospel. And so you, what sustains us, the Bible says, the joy of the Lord is our strength.
And so I really want to encourage you to allow this doctrine to do what it was meant to do and to do what it did for the early church, the church fathers and Christians from that time forward, to encourage them to walk with hope and to walk with joy. So we arrive at it now, our forever state, if you will, where we will see the Lord as He is, worshiping Him in complete holiness and fullness, enjoying his presence forever. By the grace of God and by the finished work of Jesus Christ, friends, the believer has been saved, not based upon any work that we have done, but based purely upon the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved. Despite our sin and iniquity, despite our rebellion towards God and his holy word, despite our own selfishness and worldliness and predispositions to sin, God saved us from sin, from death and hell.
The believer has been elected. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. God has chosen us to be his sons and daughters, hallelujah. That alone is enough to get the joy train started, in my opinion. I don't know about you, but I wasn't always a preacher, right?
I wasn't always, there were moments in my life where I loved sin and couldn't wait to sin, but thanks be to God that he has saved us, right? So he has elected us, he has chosen us to be a people for himself. The believer has been converted. God mercifully has shown us our sin and our law breaking and moved us towards repentance and faith, regenerating us and imparting to us by his Spirit the faith to believe. The believer has been justified, hallelujah.
The believer by an act of God's free grace has been legally declared, I'm just blowing my mind here. Legally declared righteous. What? I'm as guilty as I can be. I'm a big G on my forehead, but in the court of the cosmos, I've been legally, we have been legally declared righteous before our holy God by the blood of Christ, and it just keeps getting better.
The believer has been and is being sanctified. God in his grace and merciful provision has set the believer apart and continues to set the believer apart in and for righteousness. Throughout our lives we increasingly love and grow towards our master in a tangible, grace-filled holiness. And as we have seen and heard, the believer is assured of eternal life and preserved not by our own power, hallelujah, but by the power of God. Oh, friends, there's so much for us to rejoice over.
That brings us now to our topic, that one day, One glorious day in the future, one day that is so overwhelming to think about, I don't know, maybe that's why most of us don't think about it. Because who really longs for heaven? I heard that preached yesterday that we ought to have a longing for heaven, I so agree, but most of the people I know are afraid to think about dying, so they can never really long for heaven. But one glorious day, one joyful, overwhelming day, the believer will be glorified. Glorification, to define the doctrine, is the final step in the application of redemption.
It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died and reunites them with their souls and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like His own. There is coming a day where our bodies will be changed and where we will enter into the eschaton, we'll enter into the final stage, we'll enter into the final place where all the sin and all the pain will be all over, and every bit of righteous and holy judgment would have been executed by our righteous and holy judge and we will forever and ever and ever and ever be with him. Is that better than your tire that got flat on the way to the conference? Is that better than the water bill that's a couple of months behind due? Is that even better than the time you're having with your seven-year-old in family worship or in your homeschooling?
Indeed, it is better and it's meant to spur us forward to grace-filled and a loving action, a life filled with joy and great purpose to obey God and keep his commandments, a life that frankly reflects the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we who have been elected, and we who have been converted, and we who have been sanctified, and we who are assured, have every reason in the world to be able to lift our hands and our hearts and our voices and live lives of joy. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then in that day shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death. Where's your victory? Oh, death. Where's your sting?
The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but Do you know it? Thanks be to God who gives us what? The victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes, friends, I wonder if we realize, if we maybe have forgotten that because of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ that we who have been called by him have the victory. It certainly doesn't seem like that all the time.
It certainly can get a little interesting out there in culture and as a movement, we've had an interesting time recently. But through it all, because of what he has done, we ride upon his coattails and he gives us the victory. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor's not in vain. Because of the doctrine of glorification, because of all the other pieces, if you will, to the gospel message, You can be assured that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. And so when it's time to start a new homeschool year and buy that new curriculum, when it's time to explain to a friend or neighbor why you believe in biblical manhood or womanhood, when it's time to support your elders in tough decisions or go to a prayer meeting, when it's time to hit the street corner with tracks in one hand, a Bible in the other, and the word of the Lord on your lips, when it's time to give heart into good ministry or when it's time to go on that missions trip, when it's time to bear down against the principalities and powers that rack our world day to day.
Know that your labor is not in vain. When it's time to teach your teenage daughter to continue on in modesty because this honors our Lord, even though her heart and mind is constantly being ripped at and pulled at by a secular, evil, sexualized culture. When it's time to train your son to eschew pornography and to teach him about godly and honorable sexuality and wade into all of those uncomfortable waters, when it's time to do what the Lord has called us to do, when it's time to be a people set apart for his glory, oh my beloved brothers, you can be steadfast, you can be immovable, you can Abound in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain and one day we will experience even though through tribulation and travail in this life at times we will experience the complete and full Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ it will be done and done. We will receive the redemption of our bodies. Hallelujah.
And I believe it's time for a people waging war like you are to be strengthened in this call. No one ever said it would be easy to be different. No one ever said it would be easy to execute the sufficiency of Scripture in all areas of life. No one ever said it would be easy, just worth it. And even if we don't see the subsequent worth in this life, it's worth it in the life to come.
Not that our salvation depends on what we do, but those of us who are saved do. And so be encouraged. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen. Hallelujah.
So as we look at our texts, and forgive me for being a little excited, but we're talking about Jesus and I can't really help myself. And we're talking about the gospel and I can't really help myself. One day, this old fleshly body that's given me fits for my 44 years will be fully and finally done with, it'll be glorified, one day I'll see my God face to face, so it's worth it to keep going, it's worth it to keep moving, it's worth it to keep praying, it's worth it to keep fasting, we're going somewhere with all of this. It's not over, it's just beginning. In our text in Romans eight, the apostle Paul, after explaining, frankly, in quite a bit of detail what the true biblical faith towards our God looks like as it relates to salvation and how the true believer should view sin and righteousness.
The continuing power of the law of God that reveals our sin but does not save. And after encouraging the Roman saints to set their minds on the things of the Spirit, exhorting them to continue in the future because of the future glory of believers. He declares in verses 12 and through 17, as Dr. Beekie expounded upon last night, so then brothers we are debtors, not according to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for all who are led by the Spirit are, or Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Hallelujah. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That was explained so beautifully last night.
And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, which by the way, fellow with Christ ought to blow everybody away because we are so incredibly unworthy. Fellow heirs with Christ? Really? Oh my goodness. And so, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
Because we are adopted and become children of God, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ. True believers therefore will live accordingly, says Paul, even being willing to suffer, knowing that, Listen, that the day will come, well they will be glorified with him. In other words, there should be a willingness to suffer in this life as required and as necessary according to the sovereignty of God. And we motivate ourselves, we pray it through in this manner, we encourage one another, at least along this stream of thinking, because one day our suffering will be finally done with and because we were willing to suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him. The phrase glorified with him in Romans 8 17 should literally bring us to our knees in deep humility and worship.
I don't have the human words to describe our unworthiness and His worthiness. The Bible says, worthy is the Lamb. The Bible also lets us know that we are unworthy and yet by the sovereignty of God, by the grace of God, by the love of God in Christ Jesus, we are going to be glorified with him? Friends, if there's ever a reason to express your heart to God in worship and to rise up in joy and fervor and passion and love and obey the commands of scripture. If there was ever a reason to be overwhelmed by the gospel and overwhelmed by the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Think about this. We who are dark and dirty and depraved with sinful inclinations, even inclinations that we have to fight against day after day after day because of the gospel, because of the election of God who from, just because he wanted to chose some of us for salvation, because of the mercy of God sending his son To die, to carry the law in our place and die in our place on the cross because the Lord imparts to us the faith to believe because the Lord shows us our sin that we might repent and turn to him and him alone because the Lord sanctifies us. He doesn't just leave us there. He doesn't drop us off, but he helps us day after day after day. And if all of that wasn't enough, if he didn't do enough, then he puts the icing on the cake.
He takes the sinner from paradise lost to paradise restored. He takes us and he says, one day you'll be glorified with me. I will change your bodies. I will be near you and I'll be your God and you'll be my people and there'll be no sin between us. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God." So that ought to bring us to our knees in humility.
It ought to bring us to our knees in worship. Despite the gospel call to suffering, many of our sufferings are for the sake of Christ and his gospel. On the other hand, by reason of that union which is between Christ and believers, says the expositor's Bible commentary, he suffers with them. He reckons their afflictions, he is. He sympathizes with them.
And the consideration of this greatly animates and encourages them in their sufferings. And especially when they observe that they shall be glorified together with Him. Not only with, or not rather with his essential glory, nor with his mediatorial glory, but with that glory which his Father has given him for them." There is a glorification of the saints in Christ and a glorification of them by Christ and a glorification of them with Christ which will consist in likeness to Him and in the everlasting vision and enjoyment of Him. It is the ultimate fulfillment of the first catechism question. What is man's primary purpose?
It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It is the fulfillment of the thing that we desire the most. Oh, the wonder of the mercies and providence of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who has provided for us such a great salvation. What an awesome gospel. It would have been just fine for God to condemn all of us to hell, for it would have been just because we deserved it.
It would have been just fine For God to save us from hell, but because he decided to not allow us to approach I'm not gonna let you die, but you have to spend eternity over there We would have deserved that as well It would have been just for God to save us from hell, but not honor us with what he's choosing to honor us with, for we don't deserve any honor or any glory. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places. It just keeps getting better. This is why I'm saying we ought to have joy because we ought to have passion and we ought to express our love for him in the keeping of his commandments because it just keeps getting better.
We deserve sin, death, and hell and He just keeps blessing us by his mercy and keeps blessing us by his sovereignty. He has seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Friends, this is what's so great about this doctrine. This final state, this final work of God upon Christians, Where he transforms, again, our mortal bodies, our physical bodies, to the eternal physical body in which we'll live forever and ever. Sure, if we die now, to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord.
That's the principle, so we know that in some form we go to be with him, but he's not done. Because there's coming a day where he chooses, because he wants to, to unite us with our bodies and to complete the work of redemption. Even creation will be transformed. Again, Paradise Lost to Paradise Restored. The sure knowledge that we will be with him.
Now, I need you to hear me here because there are moments and times in our walks where I think we need to check our motivations as to why we do what we do. And one of the things we've learned at this conference is that we're not as smart as we think we are and we need to stay humble and stay penitent. How many of you say amen to that? Okay, so that's one of the things that we've seen over and over. It's been a constant thing.
But here's something else that I wanna submit to you, okay? The sheer knowledge that we will be with him and that we will see him as he is can be for so many of us a great motivator. Listen, it was the impetus that drove the apostles to the very ends of the earth, that inspired the early church in the midst of great tribulation, and can and should revive us now to, as Kevin Swanson once said, disciple the children we love to the God we love. In other words, this doctrine, from start to finish, should motivate us to live lives that honor our God and King. It sounds like such a simple principle, such a simple exhortation, But when we boil it all down, so many of us only respond with passion and vigor and love when things are going our way.
It's the culture in which we live. We're kind of immersed in that sort of selfishness. But what drove the apostles, what drove the church fathers, what drove the Puritans, what drives true believers, as often as we'll allow it to, is that we're going somewhere with this. That one day all of this will be done, and the old saying in my growing up, and that only what we do for Christ will last. And we do those things with joy, and we do those things with love, and we do those things with vigor.
Listen, God didn't teach us right doctrine to cause us to be dead. Amen. Amen. You know, he didn't, and again, and this isn't about style or preference, it's about what's going on in your heart, okay? So don't get me twisted here.
This is not about you worshiping like me or me worshiping like you or any of that. This is about what's happening in our hearts. And what I don't wanna see happen to this movement as somebody who is a part of it is that we have the catechism down pat, man, and we've got the doctrine down pat, and we've got the ordus and the salutis and everything else going, and the salutis and the ordus and all of that. We've got the Latin and the Greek and the Hebrew, we've got commentary after commentary, we've got big books that if you don't wanna read them, it works really good for working out, because this is a really heavy book. I mean, wow, just the whole thing there, all right?
But where we, Part of our temptation, we have a couple, part of our temptation is one, taking ourselves a little bit too seriously and maybe thinking we know a little bit more than we do and kind of looking down on other parts of the body of Christ as if they have, you know, they don't have something we have. That's very tempting to do. We can't do that. But two, to fall into a dead orthodoxy where there's no vibrancy and there's no passion and you're afraid to death to go. I mean, those hymns are being sung over there.
I'm like, oh, these hymns are great. And, and, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And the words, and so your facial expression is not matching the words on the screen because I'm going, are they reading the same stuff that I'm reading? But God is so rich and He's so gracious to us and He's so merciful. And so there's a motivation, you know, There's a heart that flows from understanding the gospel, that we've been redeemed and set free from the power of sin, death, and hell, and that this coming day where, as good as this is now, to know that we're gonna be in eternity in the Lord, he's actually gonna redeem our fallen bodies too, our sin nature will be over and done with, and there will be no more rebellion, and there will be a new city and a new Jerusalem and a new creation.
Dear friends, again, this is what's so great about this doctrine. Knowing that this life is just a beginning. It's just a beginning. That the eschaton, or the end of all things, approaches, that the King of Kings will set all things right. And these things can, if we allow them, motivate us to keep going.
I'll be transparent and tell you that amongst the leaders of pastors who are here, the elders who are here, this week, a uniform comment amongst them all, at least the ones that I've talked to, I mean, to a person, and the ones I've heard talk, to a person has been something along the lines of, gosh, it's been a tough year. It's been a tough year. This one's attacking me and This one's coming at me and this one over here and I'm dealing with this. One brother said, and if you don't see me again, you know they took me out. To a person.
And so that's what's going on with the shepherds. I wonder what's going on amongst God's people. How's your year been? How are you doing? And can you connect with what I'm saying now that it's just a beginning, that's not over, that no matter what happens or what we see, our God is the victor, that his son rules and reigns now, and we'll see the full manifestation of his rule then.
And By his own grace and his own sovereignty, he's chosen to give us the victory with him. And that ought not make us prideful. That ought to make us tremendously grateful and humbled to where we become people who are not just doctrinally sound, which we must keep and hold with everything that we have. The big book almost fell, but I caught it. Not just doctrinally sound, but we're also passionate.
We're passionate in our families. We're passionate as we preach and live out the gospel. We're passionate in its preaching and its execution. We're passionate in his worship. We give our all to him as much as possible each and every day.
It ought to motivate us and inspire us to go forward in hope, knowing again that this life is just a beginning. The Apostle Peter wrote, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mentioned it once, but listen to it again, it's just so good. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, not into a dead hope, but into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable and defiled, unfaded and kept, not on the earth but in heaven. So this conference was about the power of the gospel, and specifically, it's about uniting church and family life under and in that power, the power of the gospel, anchoring all we do in its truth, and viewing the church and family through its lens.
So the question is, What role does the doctrine of glorification have in such a process? In verse 18 of our primary text, Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. This glory, as we have seen, and I'm keeping this simple for a reason, okay? This glory that we have seen is a transformed body, is a sin nature fully and finally dealt with. And it is literally an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth, according to Revelation 21, where there will be no more death, no tears, no mourning, no crying, for the old will pass away.
For creation, he says in verses 19 through 21, is waiting for this moment, literally waiting for this moment in time, longing to see the sons of God revealed in the glory they will receive, free from the futility of sin, freed from the bondage to corruption, and finally obtaining the freedom of the glory of the children of God. In other words, creation suffered because of sin and has grown ever since. When we are free, it too will be free. You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, and I will trust and I will not not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song and has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. With what? With joy. With a frowned up face? No, with joy.
With a wrinkled up nose? No, with joy. With a frown because they didn't sing the fourth stanza? No, with joy. With joy.
With joy, we will draw from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, Proclaim that his name is exalted. And as Scott Brown taught us the other night, with the imperative that's plural, sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." He commanded us as our brother to sing praise to the Lord. I command you as your brother to sing praise to the Lord, to sing praises to the Lord who saved us and is saving us.
For he has done gloriously. Let this be made known to all the earth." Yes, Difference, all of creation, yet groaning in the curse of the pain of childbirth, is waiting for the same day for which we await. You see it all around our world. You see it in travail and destruction. You see it in what seems to us to be needless loss of life.
You see it in earthquakes and famine and wars and rumors of wars. All of creation groans and waits for the day that we await where our adoption will be fully manifest. The word Paul uses there, adoption will be fully manifest, And we know that to mean by simple exegesis of the passage, not very deep right now, but simple. We know that to mean the redemption of our bodies. Christ, who according to Paul's First letter to the Corinthians is the first fruits of many brothers to rise from the dead.
One day, we too will rise from the dead. We who have the first fruits right now of the Spirit, but we will also partake of the redemption of our bodies. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. Because again, what is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, because we are all born depraved.
It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. Hallelujah, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written the first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven.
And as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. So just as we have been born in the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Hallelujah and glory to God. And so I command you and exhort you as your brother to consider the fullness of the gospel so presented to us and to praise the God of heaven and earth, to lift your voices and lift your hands and lift your hearts and lift your lives and lift your countenances and worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords who has given us such a great salvation.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His hosts.
Praise Him sun and moon. Praise Him all you shining stars, praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree, it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord. From the earth, you great sea creatures in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, Stormy wind, sounds like a weather report, fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together, old men and children. So nobody gets away here. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted.
His majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, a symbol of strength for his people. Praise for all his saints, for The people of Israel who are near to him praise the Lord." Psalms 148. Oh, dear friends, we have every reason to praise the Lord. Now, in the context of Paul's statement concerning our adoption, I understand this extremely well, what he's saying.
Like many of you, in this room, I'm an adoptive father. I have three adopted children, nine, four, and two. And as an adoptive father, there was a moment in each of my children's adoptions where they became my children. It was the day they were placed with my wife and I, days that we'll never forget. They were ours in almost every way when they were placed with us, almost every way.
And we treated them thusly. We fed them. We changed them. We nurtured them. We cared for them.
We prayed for them. We protected them. We loved them with a Fierce love that only another parent can understand. But it is also true that in the context of their adoption and their placement, their placement was not their final adoption, all the adoptive parents know exactly what I'm talking about. Their placement was not the final leg in the journey.
That came later when it was given, when they were fully and finally adopted before, in our case, before a court and papers had to be signed and so forth. But that came later and those days were glorious because now even though we loved them and treated them as our own because they were our own, now it was legal. Now it was done. Nobody could take them away from us. We have the paperwork.
Sweetheart, you're not going anywhere. It's over. You're here. This is now your home. No one can take you from us now.
Be at ease. Enjoy every privilege. There's coming a day where even though we are saved, that our adoption will be complete, where the final papers will be signed, and we'll know it because we'll be walking around in glorified bodies. And that'll be that. And we're fully His, and He is fully ours.
And we'll see him face to face, and we'll walk with him again in the cool of the day. Hallelujah. Because when you consider the depth of our sin, how often we've purposely shamed him, blasphemed him, sinned against him, and he just keeps rolling out the grace and mercy. I'm going to call you and I'm go, I've elected you because I want to and I'm going to convert you and you can't believe so I'm going to make it so that you can. And I'm going to teach you, and I'm going to sanctify you, and I'm going to cause you to do that battle between law and love and I'm gonna keep you in that tension your whole life so that you stay alert and be watchful, because I love you.
But it's not done. I'm gonna keep speaking to your spirit with my spirit and through my word that you belong to me and that no one can snatch you out of my hand. But it's not over because one day that's coming. The true embrace that I wanna give you as your father, I'm gonna give you, and it's gonna be a physical embrace. I'm gonna give you a body, and I'm gonna reunite that body with the soul that I've saved.
And forever and ever and ever, you will be with me. And there is nothing the devil can say about it. But until that day, do what I've asked you to do. Be who I want you to be. Live how I want you to live.
Now be there with you every step of the way as a loving father would be for his children. Oh friends, we have so much to be grateful for and I pray that you leave this conference so encouraged because of the grace and mercy of our God. True believers are God's children right now, but there's coming a great day, a day where our hope, as Paul mentions in the text, And again, I'm just reading it through, not really trying to do an extensive piece there, but he mentions that a hope that we now can't see physically, but that is yet to come. There's coming a day where our hope will be realized, a day where as Paul implies in verses 24 and 25 of our text, a day where we will finally experience the fullness of the gospel. I'm not saying we're any less saved now.
I'm saying God's not done. He's not done. He's going to change us so that we'll live with him in glorified bodies for all eternity. So until that day, I exhort you. Wait with patience.
From verse 25. And as you wait with patience, may I suggest again and again here that we add to our patience a gospel-motivated passion and persistence. That when we take a hit, we examine ourselves for our sin, we repent when we find it, we get up, and we continue to do what thus says the Lord. Just because we've taken a hit or two doesn't mean we're not going to be obedient to our King. We'll just be obedient to our King, humbled as we should be.
Because of the finished work of the resurrected and ascended Christ, believers are called to be, as we've said, steadfast and immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. By way of encouragement, may I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that in this holy labor, that of immersing the church and family in the gospel and in this efficiency of Scripture, that holy work of measuring our lives, not by some worldly or cultural standard, but by the precepts of the Lord. May I encourage you that your labor is not in vain. God has uniquely, I'm quoting a Puritan here, See if you can guess which one. God has uniquely positioned the church and the family as the primary institutions for discipleship.
Each of them play a distinctive role for the glory of God. These two institutions are designed by God to function in harmony. Scott Brown, local Puritan. May I suggest that that is a holy labor that is not in vain. And may I exhort you not to back away from what God has commanded church and family to do, but to go at it with even more passion and even more humility, with a full understanding that we don't know it all and we submit ourselves to a sovereign God, but also with an understanding that it's worth it in the long run to honor His name, because He is so good that He's even going to, after He's done all this other work, He is going to glorify us and give us a place with him for all eternity.
The doctrine of glorification by way of applications that I've already mentioned, the doctrine of glorification can, among other things, provide church and family with real joy and lasting peace. It's amazing what happens when you get your mind off the temporal and put your mind on the eternal. It's amazing the sense of perspective. You know, all of a sudden that thing would seem so impossible and so insurmountable, all of a sudden becomes small, becomes tiny in light of the bigness of our God and what He has done. The doctrine of glorification can provide the church and family with real joy and lasting peace.
To those of you who are struggling with your children, to those of you church leaders dealing with real, substantive issues in your churches, be encouraged. A day of glory is approaching. Don't quit now. Don't give up now, brothers and sisters. Our God will help us.
And even if it's our call to suffer for him all the way into our deaths, that, my friends, is a good life, a life that honors our King. For our King told us, in order to follow me, you have to be willing to carry a cross. And as I like to tell my church, and he wasn't talking about jewelry, The doctrine of glorification by way of a quick second application, I'm running out of time, the doctrine of glorification by way of a quick second application can help both the church and family see that his commandments are not burdensome. Oh friends, listen, In light of what's going to happen, even after the wonder of the salvation of our souls now, in light of the finished work of Calvary, the glorious incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God putting on flesh and carrying the law for us, in light of that, in light of the doctrine of glorification, in light of Christology, in light of all the great doctrines of the faith, these doctrines can help the church and family see that his commandments are not burdensome. In other words, literally what can happen when we consider the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that those hands that were down all of a sudden now have renewed vigor and strength because perspective has shifted.
What can happen is that family that had gotten a little, they got a little stagnant with their worship and begins to explode in the house. It isn't just, okay, come on, let's play the piano, you know what time it is, but it becomes something else. It becomes something else. It gets back to what it was supposed to be, a joyful explosion into the presence of God because of who he is, what he has done, and where we're going with this. Listen, if you don't like exuberant worship now, I don't know how you're going to feel about heaven.
The doctrine of glorification can, among other things, awake Church and family to the need to preach the gospel and make disciples. In my talk this afternoon, in transition to a family integrated church, one of my final points was this. As needful and as critical as it is for our children to be brought into the life of the church, as important as it is, it's still the gospel. And I'd rather be known as a gospel preaching church than a family integrated church. Because a family integrated, being family integrated is just, you guessed it, an outworking of the gospel.
That's all it is. The gospel seen in its proper light, these things begin to happen. And so awake, These doctrines can help us awake to the need to preach the gospel and to make disciples and listen, friends, by way of exhortation. When you leave these doors and when you leave this hill and When you go back to your various churches, you and I already know that most of the families that you'll run into at the Walmart and the Target and the Zippy Mart, okay, don't necessarily believe what you believe, dress the way you dress, Think the way you think. It might even think you're a little weird, a little strange.
May I encourage you, that being what it is, to wade into their lives anyway with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, To not view your modesty as some badge of superior holiness, but as a loving response to a loving God. The same God who by his grace can save the person next to you who, at least for now, may not be so modest. Because at one point, perhaps you weren't either. We have pictures. No, I'm kidding.
But it's interesting the glory of God. It's interesting the mercy of God. You know, there are pastors that y'all have interacted with this week who are heavy metal musicians at one point, rappers at one point, not gonna say who that was. It's probably wasn't our local Puritan, Scott Brown. Can you see Scott like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo?
Okay, that's another thing for another day. But it's the mercy of God. And so yes, the world needs what we have. May I encourage you to preach the gospel and love them hard, not leading with the external as if we're all of that, but leading with a Christ-based love that understands that a judgment day is approaching. And although I might receive a glorified body for which I am grateful for the glorification of the Lord and all of his gospel.
My heart breaks for this man, this woman, this family, who as of now is destined, as far as I can tell, to go and be with the devil and his angels in a place of fire and torment. May I encourage you to awake, let these doctrines, let this weekend awake you to the need to preach the gospel, to make disciples, and may I encourage you, at least for a moment, to allow others into your church that may not look just like you, let's get them saved first and then God begins to work through them these models and these things that we see. Let's not be a people that says us for and no more. Amen. Let's be a people that ministers the gospel and does it in love and grace and truth and power.
In truth, friends, and I'm closing now, Knowledge of our future glorification, like the rest of the gospel, transforms us from the inside out. It nourishes our souls, calms our fears, gives us boldness in our present situation, for it declares our citizenship is in heaven, fans the flames of our love for Christ who has gone to prepare a place for us. And it gives us hope and encouragement. The scripture declares, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive and who are left into the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself, hallelujah, will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so will we always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. I pray that you have been encouraged, not just today but throughout our time together, more to follow. I pray that each keynote and breakout has been a tremendous blessing to your family.
I pray that the joy that is ours because of the fullness of the gospel of Christ will be fully manifest in our homes and that that same joy will be fully manifest in your churches. May the Lord bless each and every one of you. Thank you for listening. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the Church and the Family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.