I.) We Have A Problem — Hope is Deferred
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But desire [a]fulfilled is a tree of life.
We have this Hope found in Scripture that
I Corinthians 15:25 Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
Notice the “Now … not yet” Aaron.
In this I Cor. 15 passage we note that the end is contingent: it will come whenever it is that he delivers up the kingdom to the Father. But this will not occur until “after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.” (I Cor. 15:24) Consequently, “the end” will not occur, Christ will not turn the kingdom over to the Father, until after He has abolished His opposition. Here is the certain hope (the divinely orchestrated abolishment of God’s opposition) that is currently deferred that, as the writer to the Proverbs inks, “make our heart sick.”
As God’s people we have this sure and certain hope that Christ reigning now, Christ will continue to demonstrably put His enemies under His feet, and yet if we only judge progress by the short term and by the immediate circumstance we might begin to doubt of this certain hope of Christ subduing of His enemies in space, time and History.
After all, if we look around us it seems we are beset on all sides.
Economics
I have repeatedly made it clear, in internal Federal Open Market Committee deliberations and in public speeches, that I believe that with each program we undertake to venture further in that direction, we are sailing deeper into uncharted waters…. The truth, however, is that nobody on the committee, nor on our staffs at the Board of Governors and the 12 Banks, really knows what is holding back the economy. Nobody really knows what will work to get the economy back on course. And nobody—in fact, no central bank anywhere on the planet—has the experience of successfully navigating a return home from the place in which we now find ourselves. No central bank—not, at least, the Federal Reserve—has ever been on this cruise before.
Richard Fisher is the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
One of the enemies that Christ will put under His feet is the enemy of Humanistic – Marxist – Corporatist economics which currently conspires against Christ’s Lordship in the market place.
And so Hope is deferred in the realm of economics.
Political
“Voters are confused about political cause and effect. They think of a Presidential candidate as their man. In fact, they are his people. They exist so as to get his branch of the CFR elected. Fanatically loyal party voters are the party’s hip pocket voters. The party can safely pay no attention to them. The party must court voters who are not committed to the ideals of its core supporters, who in turn overlook the fact that their man will sell them out on every major issue that did not have support from the CFR. Most of them have never heard of the CFR.”
Dr. Gary North
One of the enemies that Christ will put under His feet is the enemy of Humanistic – Marxist – Democracy which currently so conspires against Christ’s Lordship.
And so Hope is deferred in the realm of Politics.
Educational
The most controversial issues of the 21st century will pertain to the ends and means of modifying human behavior and who shall determine them. The first educational question will not be “what knowledge is of the most worth?” but “what kinds of human beings do we wish to produce?” The possibilities virtually defy our imagination.
Dr. John Goodlad –1969
Nation’s Premier Change Agent
Receiving Federal and Tax Exempt foundation grants for 30 years
From C. Iserbyt’s “the Deliberate Dumbing Down of America”
You can be sure that the human beings that the humanists like Goodlad are attempting to produce are not human beings who Love the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
One of the enemies that Christ will put under His feet is the enemy which is humanist Education which currently so conspires against Christ’s Lordship.
And so Hope is deferred in the realm of Education
Family
“Consequently, we are directly bound to reach the conclusion that unless some unforeseen renaissance occurs, the family system will continue headlong its present trend toward nihilism. There is of yet no force with sufficient power, knowledge, and interest to prevent this current trend. National states … have seemingly little interest in preserving the family. Their social processes are in the hands of bureaucrats and the atomists.”
Carle C. Zimmerman
Family & Civilization
One of the enemies that Christ will put under His feet, before He returns, is the enemy which is Atmomism which seeks to destroy the Biblical family at every turn.
And so Hope is deferred in the realm of family life.
Ecclesiastical
“In dealing with organized religion Leftism knows of two widely divergent procedures. One is a form of separation of church and state which eliminates religion from the marketplace and tries to atrophy it by not permitting it to exist anywhere outside the sacred precincts. The other is the transformation of the Church into a fully state controlled establishment. Under these circumstances the Church is asphyxiated, not starved to death. The Nazis and the Soviets used the former method; Czechoslovakia employed the latter.”
Erik von Kuehnelt – Leddihn
Leftism
What is interesting is that in our current epoch here is that in some quarters the Church is not having separation of church and state forced on them but is willingly embracing it. Similarly, the Church in many quarters is not being forced to be a fully state controlled establishment but is willingly embracing it if only because that is how one draws a citizenry that has become fully state controlled.
One of the enemies that Christ will put under His feet, before He returns, is the enemy which is a wayward Church which has lost its savor and has a bushel over its light.
And so Hope is deferred in the realm of the Church.
II.) And Yet We Still Have Hope
Scripture refers consistently to his Hope that we have. In the book of Romans alone,
Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:24-25 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.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
What is all this Hope based upon?
A.) Scriptural Promises
Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are [b]Peter, and upon this [c]rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
Yes, we are surrounded but we have Hope because the promise here is that the gates of Hell will not be able to overpower the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Eeardmans commentary,
The gates suggest the picture of a fortress or prison which lock in the dead and lock out their rescuers. This would imply that the church is on the offensive, and its Master will plunder the domain of Satan (cf. 12:29; 1 Pet. 3:18-20).
The Reign of the Lord’s Anointed
2 Why do the nations rage[a]
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break[b] them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Here clearly is the promise that Christ ruling the Nations will rule the Nations. They will Kiss the Son or Perish in the way. And so while our hope may be deferred it is nonetheless a certain Hope.
I Corinthians 15:25 — For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
This passage may be a reference to Psalm 110
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Dr. Ken Gentry offers here,
References elsewhere to the Psalm 110 passage specifically mention His sitting at God’s right hand. Sitting at the right hand entails active ruling and reigning, not passive resignation. He is now actively “the ruler over the kings of the earth” who “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev. 1:5).
Here in 1 Corinthians 15:25 we learn that he must continue to reign, He must continue to put His enemies under His feet—but until when? The answer is identical to that which has already been concluded: it is expected before the end of history. Earlier it was awaiting the abolishing of all rule, authority and power; here it delayed until “He has put all His enemies under His feet.” The repetition of the expectation of His sure conquest before the end is significant. Furthermore, the last enemy that will be subdued is death, which is subdued in conjunction with the Resurrection that occurs at His coming. But the subduing of His other enemies occurs before this, before the Resurrection.
But as Christians we have this certain hope from vs. 25, that Christ, reigning now, will continue to exercise that reign that is already established.
In verse 27 it is clear that He has the title to rule, for the Father “has put everything under His feet.” This is the Pauline expression (borrowed from Psa. 8:6) that is equivalent to Christ’s declaration that “all authority has been given Me.” Christ has the promise of victory and He has the right to victory. Psalm 110, especially as expounded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, shows He will have the historical, pre-consummation victory as His own before His coming.
B.) The Character & Nature of Biblical Hope
The majority of secular writers in the ancient world did not see hope as being a particular virtue. Paul was accurate when he could write in Ephesians 4:12 that those without God were without Hope. The same remains true for pagans today. Those who have embraced a materialistic worldview live in a closed universe and those who are able to be honest with themselves realize that hoping is largely reduced to wishing.
However “Hope” in the Christian worldview is not reduced to wishing. In the Christian worldview Hope is based upon the Character of God and the fact that the universe is open to God of the Christian who can intervene at any moment.
Because of what God has done in the past in orchestrating world history to the point of the incarnation of Christ and because of what God is now doing in gathering His Church because of Christ’s work and through the Spirit, the Christian as a hope, that is characterized by certitude based on God’s promises and God’s past actions, that future promised blessings yet unseen will come to pass.
The Apostle gives an example of this kind of Hope of which we speak in II Cor. 1:10
10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Christian Hope therefore is not something, or at least, ought not to be something, that varies with the changing winds of circumstance. Rather Biblical hope, as Hebrews 6 teaches is,
19 … a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, (i.e. — eternal invisible world).
Because of this kind of Hope we can say with Lowell,
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
This is the Hope that Paul speaks of in Romans 15
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
God is the one who gives Hope. C.E.B. Cranfield writes in his commentary,
“The double reference to “hope” in this verse is especially significant. An essential characteristic of the believer, as this epistle has very clearly shown hope is perhaps that characteristic which has at all periods most strikingly distinguished the authentic Christian from his pagan neighbors.”
One thing we want to note here is that this hope is grace given. Note in vs. 13 it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we may abound in hope.
So, we are faced with these matters we spoke earlier of and yet, because of the Grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit we have hope.
Why even in the midst of our tribulation we can have Hope because we know that there is some kind of correlation between the our afflictions and our eventual eternal weight of glory.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Conclusion,
We can have Biblical Hope by remembering
This Is My Father’s World
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.
We can have Biblical hope by remembering,
“History has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith.” R. J. Rushdoony
Who could have ever envisioned that the ancient pagan world would have been conquered by Christianity?
Who could have ever envisioned that despite all the odds, and all the previous setbacks that God would deign to grant Reformation to the West in the 16th century?
Only those who were familiar with Biblical Hope.
The Church’s One Foundation
The church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain and cherish
Is with her to the end;
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against our foes or traitors
She ever shall prevail.
