Welcome back to our studies on Romans 8.
And we're in the middle of it, beginning at
verse 18 in this study.
And we'll run through verse 25.
It's a section that belongs all to itself
and continues a narrative of explaining why
the world is the way it is right now, and
what we should be expecting in the new heavens
and in the new earth.
You'll remember in our previous study, we
were talking about the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit who is a Spirit of adoption,
and He's the Spirit of holiness, and He's
a Spirit of grace, and He's a Spirit who witnesses
with us that we are His children.
But He does that in a context of strife.
He leads us to put sin to death, a reminder
that we're not in heaven yet.
He witnesses with us and we pointed out that
the verb "to cry," where we cry, "Abba Father,"
in verse 15, was a verb that is used of Jesus
in the Garden of Gethsemane suggesting that
the Holy Spirit's witness to us is sometimes
in our deepest and darkest moments that we
are the children of God.
But again, a reminder that we're not in heaven;
we're in this world.
And so picking in up now in verse 18: "For
I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared.
or are not worth comparing, with the glory
that is to be revealed to us.
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."
And then in verse 21, talks about bondage
and corruption, and, and so on.
Three people are missing and presumed dead
in a landslide in the southwest region of
Berlin.
A controversial drug doesn't improve survival
rates of patients with lung cancer.
A hundred American students are quarantined
in China with suspected swine flu.
The southern elephant seal is in danger of
extinction, one of 44,000 animals and species
on the extinction threat list.
Well, that's just one newspaper on a certain
given day.
Death and disease and disasters, the sufferings
of this present time.
The sufferings of human beings.
Yes, and the sufferings of animals.
Cruelty to animals.
Sin in creation in all of its goriness.
Same old, same old.
That was just a headline or two from a certain
newspaper that I looked at recently.
But you'll notice, verse 19, 20, 21, 22, "Creation
is longing for redemption.
Creation is subject to futility.
Creation is in bondage to decay.
Creation is in birth pangs."
He's talking about the suffering.
He's continuing the thought from verse 17,
"Provided we suffer with Him in order that
we also may be glorified with Him."
We are in union with Jesus.
We are the children of God.
We call God, "Abba, Father."
But we suffer with Him, too.
Just as He suffered, we suffer.
The church is called upon to suffer.
Individual Christians, because we live in
this sinful world, suffer.
We live in a fallen world.
A world of emptiness and often meaninglessness.
And Paul seems to be reflecting here, and
actually there are a couple of words that
he uses here that are used in the book of
Ecclesiastes in the Greek translation in the
Septuagint version of the book of Ecclesiastes.
The same words are used, "All is vanity."
It's the word "futility" here.
Everything under the sun, life in this world.
And yes, from one perspective life without
God can be futile and empty, but even as a
believer, life can sometimes appear to be
futile and empty.
You work all the hours there are, and have
nothing to show for it.
You are employed in a job that gives you no
satisfaction, but you have no choice.
You can't just abandon the job; you have a
wife and family to feed.
So you find yourself in this world caught,
as it were, in a trap of futility.
Even as a Christian, even as a believer.
What does the preacher say in Ecclesiastes?
"The sun rises and falls, but it never reaches
its destination.
It just keeps on going round and round."
At least from the perspective of the Old Testament.
"The wind blows around but nothing seems to
be gained.
All the rivers run into the sea, but the sea
never gets full."
Think of the mighty Mississippi River flowing
into the Gulf.
But the Gulf doesn't rise feet, yards, miles
if you were to do the math and consider the
billions of gallons that are flowing into
the sea.
So where does it all go?
You work hard and you save for retirement
and the market crashes a month before you
cash it in.
You plan to retire in your dream home and
you live in Florida and it gets blown down.
Fairy tales are just fairy tales and you and
I live in the real world.
You can have all the money in the world, but
some of the richest people are some of the
most miserable people in all the world.
And just check the headlines of those magazines,
which you never buy, of course, at the checkout,
and you'll see how miserable the life of the
rich and famous can be.
And it's been like that ever since the fall.
It's been like that ever since Genesis chapter
3.
We live in a world that is cursed.
You work hard, but thorns and thistles invade
the ground and the work never shows the productivity
return that you think it should.
There are exceptions of course, but Paul is
speaking here generally.
And he's saying this world was subjected to
futility and it's not the devil who subjected
it to futility; God subjected it to futility.
And we live in this world, this cursed world.
And we can expect "the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune," to cite Shakespeare,
just because we're in this world.
We are Christians, we are united with Christ,
we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we
live here.
We have two zip codes.
We sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
but we also have a zip code here in this world
that's fallen and where the devil prowls like
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
We suffer in this world and some of God's
children suffer in this world for no crime
of their own, for no sin of their own.
Like Job, who loses ten children and his 401k
and then his health and he loses the respect
of his wife.
And not because he has sinned.
Well, that's what his friends said.
His friends only had one song and they sang
it to death.
"You suffer because you sin.
It is the consequence of your sin, you reap
what you sow."
And that's partly true, we tell our children
that, "You go down this road, and this is
what you can expect."
We tell our children that.
You do reap what you sow.
And yet, sometimes you don't reap what you
sow and people get away with murder.
And then you don't sow, but you reap trouble
like Job did.
And there's an unfairness to life.
And Job was taught, of course, to trust in
God.
And that's a message for another time and
another place, and actually another DVD series
like this one that's already been recorded.
But here, Paul is saying, "Just because you're
a Christian, just because you're a child of
God, don't expect that you won't suffer.
Don't expect that real trouble might not knock
on your door: the loss of a loved one, the
onset of a disease, your marriage might break
apart, your children might disappoint you,
your parents might turn against you."
And a thousand other things because creation
is longing for redemption, but it's not redeemed
yet.
It's subject to futility.
It's in the bondage of decay.
It's in birth pangs.
Do you see what he's saying?
He's talking about the second law of thermodynamics,
I think.
He's talking about entropy, that everything
is running down and its built into this universe
and there seems to be a principle of disorder
and decay in the universe in which you and
I live.
So what do you do?
And you throw your hands up in horror and
say, "Well, what's the point?"
And you become cynical.
Or you dive into despair and into a black
hole somewhere.
And you engage a therapist and see that person
for the rest of your life.
And then Paul says there's this, verse 18,
"I consider.
I consider."
I love the King James translation, "I reckon."
There's something about reckoning that's way
more positive than considering.
But do you see what Paul is saying?
There's a Christian mindset.
Yes, all these things are true.
The suffering is real.
The pain and hardship is real.
The frustration, the futility, the emptiness
of it all, it's all real.
It's not a, it's not a fabrication.
It's not something that I've just made up.
It's very real.
But I consider something else.
"I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed in us."
And do you see what Paul is doing?
He's saying, "Look up.
Don't look down.
Don't even look at the horizon, but look up.
Look up to Jesus.
He sits at God's right hand in glory.
You are in union with Him.
You died with Him, you are buried with Him,
you are raised with Him.
You sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
And we live you and I in the tension between
the now and the not yet.
Shall I say that again?
We live in the tension between the now and
the not yet.
"Now are we the sons of God, but it does not
yet appear what we shall be.
But we know that when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is."
There's a now, and then there's what we shall
be.
There's a now, and there's a not yet.
And a part of that not yet has broken into
the now.
That's the resurrection of Jesus.
That's Pentecost.
That's the Holy Spirit.
That's regeneration.
That's the assurance that we are the children
of God.
That's the cry, "Abba Father."
It's the not yet breaking into the now.
But I'm still here.
I'm still in a broken world.
A world that's decaying, a world that's given
to futility.
A world that's in birth pangs.
That's a graphic image, and I vaguely remember
it when my children were born and it's almost
40 years ago.
But I remember that what the Bible said was
true and my wife will concur that it was true
because she says that men don't really know
anything about it.
And that's the world we live in.
It's waiting for a birth.
And what is that birth?
The new heavens and the new earth.
It's what Isaiah 65 and 66, the last two chapters
of Isaiah speak about, a new heavens and a
new earth.
It's what Peter picks up in his second epistle.
That's our future.
Liberation from this futility.
It's what Paul calls in Colossians 1:20, "To
reconcile all things to Himself."
It's what Peter says in a sermon in Acts chapter
3 when he talks about "the restoration of
all things."
It's what Jesus talks about in Matthew 19,
when He uses the word, the Greek word palingenesia,
which could be rendered, "a new birth."
A being born again.
He's saying creation is going to be born again.
You and I have been born again, but creation
is going to be born again.
Look at how he puts it, verse 22, "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 firstfruits of the Spirit."
The firstfruits in the Old Testament sense.
Firstfruits as guarantee of a greater crop
that is to follow of a harvest.
So the presence of the witnessing Spirit is
the guarantee, the down payment of a harvest
that's going to follow.
"Who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown
inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies."
Creation is going to be born again.
Yes, that means that the new heavens and new
earth will have rocks and trees and rivers
and seas and I know that the closing chapters
of Revelation says, "And there'll be no sea
and no sun," and so on, but that's apocalyptic
language and needs to be interpreted according
to the rules of apocalyptic language.
But I fully expect to see rocks and trees
and rivers and oceans and freshwater fish
and saltwater fish and whales and dolphins
and beautiful, beautiful dogs.
With unconditional love and affection.
Running in meadows and chasing after squirrels
and rabbits and now a thousand questions occur,
and I don't have answers for all of the questions,
but it's glorious.
"I consider the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared, or are
not worth comparing, with the glory."
Creation is going to be born again and it's
going to be glorious.
And then Paul says, "Not just creation, but
we ourselves."
Because God isn't finished yet.
He's done something absolutely stupendous
in your life.
He's made you a child of God.
He's given you a new heart.
He's made you a new creation.
But there's Romans 7, "The good that we would,
we do not.
The evil that we would not, that we find we
do."
Or Galatians 5 that "the flesh lusts against
the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh;
and these are contrary, the one to the other."
But there is coming a day when we will no
longer have to struggle with sin, ever.
When we will be perfect.
Sinless.
In a new creation.
With all of its beauty and all of its grandeur.
And all of its magnificence.
And there'll be work to do.
And thoughts to think.
And books to write and music to compose.
And golf to play.
And you've got eternity to improve that golf.
And talents, and perhaps, I don't know, but
talents that you were never given here.
Imagine.
To explore the magnificence of all that God
has done.
And to worship Him in the splendor of His
majesty and its glory.
Glory in Hebrew and Greek, kabod and doxa,
both have the meaning of "weight."
Something weighty, something significant.
And there's a very famous essay chapter in
a book, a lecture that C.S. Lewis once gave
called "The Weight of Glory."
And it sums it up, doesn't it?
The weight of glory.
It's more than you can bear.
It's more than you can carry.
It's more than you can fathom.
The Spirit is the down payment.
The Spirit is the firstfruit, verse 24, "For
in this hope, we are saved."
So we have hope.
Not hope in the sense of, "I hope so."
Meaning, "I'm not sure, but I'd like to think
that this is true," but hope in the New Testament
sense of absolute certainty and confidence
and assurance.
In the midst of this fallen world.
In the midst of our current struggle with
sin.
In the midst of the futility, the despair,
the emptiness, there's hope, it's the hope
of glory, that we will be glorified and that
creation will be reborn.
We have such a future, you and I.
We have such a future that "eye has not seen,
nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the
heart of man what God has prepared for those
that love Him."
It's what God wants us to do.
I consider.
I reckon.
So life at this moment, stinks.
And you may use another more colorful word,
but it stinks.
It's a mess.
Some of it is beyond being solved.
There is no resolution to it.
It is so complicated and things have happened
in such a way that it cannot be undone now.
The child of God who sits in loneliness because
their life partner has been taken away and
there's an emptiness that nothing really can
fill anymore.
And there are days when they focus on it.
And there's a futility.
And Paul is saying, "Now, reckon.
Now consider."
Suffering here, glory to come.
And if you put them in a scale, the suffering
here and glory there, Paul says in 2 Corinthians,
the glory is going to break the scale because
it is so heavy.
It's heavier than any other suffering that
we may have here.
And that's hard to believe, isn't it?
So you have to exercise faith.
You have to trust God's Word.
You have to think about heaven.
"In my Father's house are many mansions, and
if it were not so I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I
go to prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto Myself, that where
I am, there you may be."
Also, "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
doth its successive journeys run.
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 'til
moon shall wax and wane no more."
I flew down last night.
The moon was right outside my airplane window,
and it cast a shadow in all the lakes as we
came down.
It was the most uncanny thing I've ever seen.
And the moon was huge and blue, and somewhat
red.
And it was beautiful.
And it was just a little foretaste of the
beauty and the wonder of what awaits us as
children of God.
Paul's lesson here, with which we close today,
is "reckon on it."
Think about it.
Consider it.
Believe it.
Trust it.
Thank you.
