The sermon titled 'The Sufferings of the Present Time (part 1)' by Steve Hopkins explores the concept of suffering as a Christian and its significance. The speaker emphasizes the importance of reconciling with others before partaking in the Lord's table and highlights that suffering as a Christian is proof of belonging to God. The sermon also discusses the purpose of suffering, which is to prepare believers for glory. It concludes with the assurance that nothing can separate believers from the love of God.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good afternoon. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans, where after many weeks we will be returning to our verse by verse exposition of chapter 8. We'll be picking up with verses 17 and 18.

Before we rise for the reading of the word of the Lord, I want to read from Matthew chapter 5, And in verses 23 and 24, the words of our Lord, he says, Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way and first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." You know, in just a few minutes or in about less than an hour, we'll be sharing in the Lord's table once again. It's a serious thing to share in the Lord's table if you have something against someone in your family, in the congregation, someone that you've not attempted to reconcile with, made some effort at reconciling with. You know, when I was a boy in church, my mother would say, Stevie, she'd call me Stevie, don't pass notes in church. Sometimes it's okay to pass a note in church. If that note is, I'm sorry.

Sometimes that's the best thing. Husbands, wives, brothers with sisters, parents with children, children with your parents. Do you have anything? Anything that's not reconciled? Remember that the passage here doesn't say if you have something against them it says if if they have ought against you.

You know husbands and wives you can just lean over at some point in time and say, hey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But we allow note passing when it's necessary in church. Let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord, Romans the eighth chapter. And we'll read together verses 17 and 18.

Let's read together the Word of the Lord. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Let's pray. Father, we as always God ask for a work of your Spirit amongst us, Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Spirit. As Spurgeon used to quote, as he ascended the pulpit, Lord, we believe in the Holy Spirit as the ancient creed also recites.

And we ask God that you would give the Spirit to them that ask in accord with your word to do a work in the hearts and the lives and the minds of your people, O God, that no man can do apart from you. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's be seated. Many of us were brought to tears this week when we read the news story of that precious family in Ohio, brothers and sisters, a Christian family that lost several loved ones in a horrific house fire, a husband and father of eight children, who was also a missionary and a pastor of a reformed and family integrated church after getting his wife and daughters out of the house, their house that was on fire, ran back in through the flames, hoping to save the life of his two sons.

I can't imagine the the grief that this family is experiencing right now. Hard for any of us to imagine. We need to be praying. May God give them the comfort and the peace that only He can provide. I know many have been praying and I hope that you'll continue to pray for them.

Their suffering is real and their suffering is immense. The title of the message this morning is The Sufferings of This Present Time, Part 2. As of today, Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in China, who we prayed for many times, as of today he's been suffering in chains for the gospel in China, apart from his wife and apart from his son, now for five years, one month, two weeks, five days, And I'm not sure exactly how many hours and minutes and seconds, but even as we are here right now, worshiping the Lord, and we have our families with us, beside us, and our hearts are lifted up with them and praise to the Lord. Our brother still languishes in a Chinese prison, along with many thousands of others in China. Please continue to pray for Wang Yi and his family.

Their suffering is real and their suffering is immense. Many of us are familiar with a woman named Johnny Erickson Tata. How many are familiar with her? For those who don't know, she was paralyzed from the shoulders down at the age of 17, losing the use of both her arms and legs after a diving accident that she was involved in, had underestimated the depth of water and dove in, and this was the result. On October 15th of this past year, Johnny Erickson Tata turned 74 and she's been in a wheelchair now for 57 years.

Her books have been an encouragement to hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people over these years, over those 57 years, and especially those who live in a state of continual suffering. In one of her books, Mrs. Tata, After decades of living in pain, writes, real satisfaction comes not in understanding God's motives, but in understanding His character, in trusting in his promises and in leaning on him and in resting in him as the sovereign who knows what he's doing and does all things well. He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer his embrace." Brothers and sisters, Christ is for us, as the psalmist said in Psalm 46.1, a very present help in trouble.

Amen? He is a very present help in trouble. Amen? He is a very present help in trouble. And nothing shall separate us from His love.

Nothing in this life or in the life to come. When we arrive at the end of this chapter, we will hear the conclusion reached by the apostle Paul, whose sufferings were real and whose sufferings were immense. And he will write to us, I am persuaded, for I am persuaded, that as I stand convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has chosen not to heal me, she said, but to hold me. And the more intense the pain, the closer his embrace.

John Newton, the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, says that the suffering of believers is designed for our everlasting good. Faith upholds the Christian under all trials by assuring him that every painful dispensation is under the direction of this Lord, that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings are appointed by infinite wisdom and designed to work for his everlasting good, and that grace and strength shall be afforded him according to his need." Close quote. Our opening text this afternoon tells us that we are, or assures us that we are the children of God. Those who are in union with Christ by faith, we are the children of God. And the Spirit who indwells us bears witness to our spirits of the fact.

And being the children of God, we are heirs of God. As we learned in our previous session on this passage, being the children of God we are heirs of God, heirs of God himself, and joint heirs with Christ. And being joint heirs with Christ means we share in everything. Being joint heirs with Christ means we share in everything that belongs to Him. Not only the glory but also the suffering.

In our first session on this passage we looked at the sufferings that every Christian experiences to some degree in his life with regards to our identification with Christ in a world that hates Christ. And I said, we have to understand something. Being recipients of the inheritance of the children of God involves a sharing not only in the glory of Christ that is to come in heaven but also in the sufferings of Christ on earth. Christ suffered on earth so we who are in him will also suffer." In John 15-20, we read the words of Jesus. Remember the word I said unto you?

He's reminding his disciples, The servant is not greater than his Lord. The things that happened to Jesus also happened to his people. And we talked in that session about suffering in relationship to identification with Christ and how Jesus said, If they persecuted me, they'll also persecute you. And the world will treat the followers of Christ the way it treated Christ. And how Jesus said, if they hated me, they're also gonna hate you.

If they listen to me, they're gonna listen to you. If they didn't hear my words, they won't hear your words. And I said, suffering with Christ is proof that we belong to God. That we are God's children, it's proof. Because we belong to Him, says Martin Lloyd-Jones, this is what happens to us.

The followers get the same treatment as the head. There is this unity in Christ. And here he comes to what I was saying. We share the blessings, but we also share the sufferings. We share the blessings, but we also share the sufferings.

If you're suffering as a Christian because you're a Christian, Lloyd-Jones goes on, it is one of the most profoundest proofs you can ever have of the fact that you're a child of God. And if a child of God, then an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Lloyd-Jones says, all Christ's sheep are branded with a cross. And that not only in the fleece but also in the flesh. It is burned in by a hot iron.

If you suffer as Christians and he quotes Peter, think it not strange as though some strange thing were happening to you. You are partakers of Christ's sufferings. If you're reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. He quotes Jesus. The Spirit of glory of God rests upon you.

If we are suffering as Christians, it is an absolute truth that we belong to him and that we therefore are joint heirs with him." The brothers and sisters, our sharing in the sufferings of Christ is not limited to persecution or the treatment that we receive from the world because we identify with Christ. Nineteenth century theologian Charles Hodge writes, we suffer as Christ suffered not only when we are subject to the contradiction of sinners, but in the ordinary sorrows of life. But in the ordinary sorrows of life, in which He, Christ, the man of sorrows, so largely shared." Hodge interpreting well the words of the apostle understands an end and a purpose of God in the sufferings of His people. He goes on, the design of God and the affliction of His people is not to satisfy the justice of God. No, Jesus did that for His people on the cross.

The design of God and the affliction of His people is to prepare them for glory. It is to prepare us for glory. We wonder, you know, or we should wonder, I guess sometimes why it is that once we are regenerated and we're born again, we're brought to saving faith, and we're brought to repentance, why it is that God doesn't just whisk us away to heaven immediately. There's a purpose. There's a purpose.

God will now sanctify us. He will cause us to grow in likeness to his Son as he prepares us for glory. As he prepares us for glory. What is glory? Not, oh, glory to you.

No. Glory is on that day when we will see Christ and be made likened to him, and this corruption will put on incorruptibility, and this mortality will put on immortality, and we will see him as he is in his unbilled glory forever. It is to prepare them for glory. Lloyd-Jones agrees, he says, this suffering that we undergo as Christians is preparation for the inheritance we will one day enjoy. We aren't fit for it now.

We aren't fit for it, but he's preparing us for it. He goes on, you learn things about the Lord Jesus Christ. See if anyone can identify with this. You learn things about the Lord Jesus Christ when you're suffering, that you would never know apart from suffering. We can all testify to that.

We can look back and thank God for times when things have not gone our way, when things have gone against us. Jones goes on, it is when you are in trouble and distress and tribulation that you begin sometimes to realize the glory of these wonderful promises. Sometimes, Sometimes you've got to be down before you can receive some of the best blessings. Has anyone experienced that? It is the pauper, he goes on to say, that is the desperately poor man, the man who's poor and he knows he's poor, who has nothing or very little.

It is the pauper, says Jones, who knows how to receive. The self-sufficient man, He doesn't need anything. He isn't aware of needs and he doesn't receive supplies. No, it is in this way that God manifests himself to us in some of the most tender manners and in some of the most glorious manifestations of his love. Sounds like Erickson taught it doesn't it?

Sounds like what she was saying. He's chosen not to heal me but to hold me. The more intense the pain the closer the embrace his embrace Jones goes on Paul's desire is to know something of the fellowship of this sufferings Christ's sufferings and to be made conformable unto his death. That's preparation for glory. That's this preparation for glory.

Charles Spurgeon once confessed, I'm certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain Whether it be the contradiction of sinners persecution from a world that hates Christ and hates us because we're identified with them, or whether it be the ordinary sorrows of life, as Hodge spoke of. We know that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and that whatever is ordained for us to suffer in this life is preparation for glory. Because we are heirs of Christ on the pathway to eternal glory in heaven, we will also walk in the steps of our Savior here on earth. I note in my Bible says, quote, receiving the inheritance that comes to us in Christ involves sharing in his sufferings the pathway to sharing in His glory. The pathway to sharing in His glory.

Verse 18 of our text this afternoon the Apostle writes, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. This is again a conclusion. Nothing is going to be able to separate believers from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. That's where he's headed at the end of the chapter. And here, a reckoning, a consideration that arrives at a conclusion.

Nothing we can possibly endure in the way of affliction on earth, where the persecutions or pain or troubles or sorrows can be compared to the eternal weight of glory that will one day be revealed in us. Nothing, nothing can compare, nothing can compare. Dr. Sproul writes, the bottom line assumption for anyone who believes in the God of Providence is that ultimately there are no tragedies. He's not saying that there aren't tragedies on earth.

He's saying ultimately it's not tragedies. God has promised that all things that happen, all pain, all suffering, all tragedies are but for a moment and that He works in and through these events for the good of those who love Him. That's why the apostle Paul said that the pain, the suffering, the affliction that we bear in this world isn't worthy to be compared, that it isn't worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the glory and the blessedness that God has stored up for his people. As we close, brothers and sisters, the sufferings we as Christians endure on earth are temporary. They're temporary.

Praise God. Praise God they're temporary. Nothing we are going through will last forever. As commentator Rob Ventura put it in his commentary on Romans, Earth will have no sorrows that heaven will not heal. Earth will have no sorrows that heaven will not heal.

Being heirs of God himself and joint heirs with Christ, our inheritance in the presence of God in glory is secure. It's secure. We can rest in that. It is, the Apostle said, kept by the power of God, reserved in heaven for you. Kept by the power of God and reserved in heaven for you.

And so we will one day enter into the joy of our Lord and into the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. This is the hope, the certain hope grounded in a certain expectation of the thing hoped for that the Christian can rely upon. It is the promise of God. Here's another promise as we close. Revelation 21, four.

And God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Amen. The gracious soul may look through the darkest clouds said the Puritan Thomas Brooks and see God smiling on him. Let's pray.

Father we we thank you God that though affliction may be lasting it will not be everlasting. We know that there is an end in our suffering And the suffering of those loved ones that we are praying for on a daily basis, whose suffering is real and is immense. We know, Father, that no one has ever been called by You to greater suffering than Your Son. And we thank You that He suffered in our place what we could never suffer and die to death we could never die we might live forever in your presence we ask for your help oh god as we're being prepared for glory that you give us grace? Give us grace, more grace, O God.

As your word says, grace for grace. Grace, O Lord, to trust your word, that the trial of our faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the coming of Christ. Amen.