Romans 8:18-25

Take out your copy of God's Word, which I hope you have with you today, and turn to the book of Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I'll tell you it's a blessing to be here with you today.

My wife is not, and she wanted me to share her grief with you that she couldn't be here.

Our oldest son is sick once again as our house continues to be plagued with illness, and so I ask for your continued prayers for them and for her.

She really, really misses the church.

I'm thankful I can be here kind of to stand in her place and represent the family and to preach to you this morning.

Let's open together in a word of prayer, and we'll dive in together.

Father God, it is a blessing this morning to meet with your church, your church that was purchased by the life, the work, the death, the resurrection.

The ascension of Jesus Christ.

And thank you, Father, for these people who have the Spirit of God abiding in them.

We might come together and join as one to sing praises to your name, to study your inspired scripture.

And truly, God, we need you in this hour.

Father, the understanding of your word is as much of a miracle as the inspiration of it.

And Father, we cry to you this morning that we might see clearly the truths you would have for us this day,

that you would speak individually into our lives, that we might know you more and exalt you more as a result.

Amen.

We pray this in the precious name of Christ.

Amen.

And we have come in our study together of the book of Romans to chapter 8,

which is the great climactic chapter of the book of Romans.

It doesn't mean any of it's less important,

but I believe that the most precious of the truths are found in chapter 8.

And lest we forget where we've been,

I kind of want to run through quickly the rest of the book for you

to lay a foundation for us to build upon.

In chapter 1, the first 17 verses,

Paul gives his greeting and then his abbreviated,

his simplistic presentation of the gospel to us there in verses 16 and 17.

And then he begins beyond that to talk about humanity's great need of the gospel,

that no one, Jew or Greek, is exempt from the curse that Adam and Eve bought for us in the original sin.

And that there is nothing anyone can do on their own to gain salvation.

We are all in a desperate state.

We all need salvation.

In the beginning in chapter 3, verse 21,

he begins to greater develop the gospel of Jesus Christ for us,

to have us see that Jesus Christ stood in the place of the church,

bore the wrath of God that we had purchased for ourselves on our behalf.

And that if we place our faith in Jesus Christ,

in His person and in His work,

that we'll be saved.

And He develops that for us through the end of chapter 5, verse 21.

That helps me.

321 to 521 is His clear gospel presentation for us.

And then chapters 6 and 7,

He gives to us the negative benefits of the gospel.

Now, by that I don't mean the bad benefits, of course,

but the negative voice benefits of the gospel.

The things that no longer exist because of the gospel.

That we are now no longer slaves of sin.

We're not held captive to the power of sin anymore.

That we have, the body of sin has been brought to nothing.

That believers have died to the law.

You hear the negative voice in that.

In chapter 8, we come to the positive effects.

And He teaches us about the ministry of the Spirit of God in our lives.

The indwelling Spirit that we all have.

Those things are, the ministries of the Spirit,

are our sanctification and our security.

Chapter 8, verse 2, He says,

The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus

from the law of sin and death.

And the Spirit of God is about that work,

continually moving us toward perfection in Christ.

In chapter 8, verse 14, He says,

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

So the Spirit is a seal for those who have placed their faith in Christ.

That we are secure, that we are held securely in the hands of Christ.

And that we will, in fact, finish this process of sanctification.

So those are the two ministries of the Spirit of God.

But in verse 17, He introduces a new concept for the book of Romans.

And that's the concept of suffering.

So, in verse 17, He says,

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

provided we suffer with Him,

in order that we also may be glorified with Him.

And Paul was certainly a man who was familiar with suffering.

Turn quickly.

I want you to put your little ribbon or your finger here.

Turn quickly with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

I want you to see that this is not a concept foreign to Paul

that he's going to write about.

2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 25.

2 Corinthians 11:25

Paul writes,

Paul knew what it was to suffer.

Any careful reader of Scripture,

as I'm sure all of you are astute Bible scholars,

also know that it's not a foreign concept to the pages of Scripture.

Jesus talked about suffering in Luke 9, 23.

He said,

If anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself,

take up his cross,

which is a place people died daily,

and follow me.

Paul again wrote of suffering in 2 Timothy 3, 12.

He said,

Indeed,

all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted.

The author of Hebrews said it,

in Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12:6

verses 6 and 7.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves

and chastises every son whom He receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Peter talked about it in 1 Peter 4, 13.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings,

that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

So, what is meant of suffering?

What type of suffering are we talking about?

And I believe there's a great spectrum of suffering for the Christian.

It certainly includes persecution,

physical,

imprisonment,

martyrdom.

It includes those things without a doubt.

Suffering for the sake of Christ does.

But I think it also includes other things.

I think anything that we experience on the path to righteousness,

in the process of sanctification,

in this world that is unpleasant for us as believers,

is suffering.

I have a head cold today.

My head cold is a result of the curse of sin in this world.

If I sound nasally to you,

my head feels worse than I sound now, I'm sure.

That is suffering.

Young people feeling strange on a college campus,

where everyone parties and does what they want,

they seek their perceived greatest joy and momentary pleasure,

and you feel odd and out of place,

is suffering.

You may get made fun of for being a goody two-shoes,

or a holier-than-thou.

Certainly qualifies as suffering.

So all of us, in some way,

if we are in Christ,

experience this discomfort in this world.

We long for something greater.

So this morning is not just for those of you

who are going overseas,

where you may possibly experience persecution.

It's for all of us this morning.

Let's read together verses 18-25,

which is our text for today.

Paul continues his discourse,

verse 18,

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

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 that the creation itself

will be set free from its bondage to corruption

and attain 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 are 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.

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.

So not only does he give to us

this new concept in Romans of suffering,

but at the same time,

he begins to speak to us about future glory.

So he talks to us about a hope

that transcends suffering,

a hope that comes in above suffering,

a hope that is greater than suffering,

that puts suffering in its proper place.

And that hope is hope in future glory.

Look at it in the text.

Verse 18, he speaks of the glory

that is to be revealed to us.

Verse 19, he speaks of the revealing

of the sons of God.

And verse 21,

the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Verse 23, we wait eagerly for adoption of sons,

the redemption of our bodies.

And in verse 25, we're waiting for it,

the glory that is to be revealed to us with patience.

The glory that is coming

puts in proper place the suffering we experience now.

So what is meant by that,

this glory that is to be revealed to us?

He speaks of the redemption of our bodies,

it is the shedding of all the weight of sin in this world.

It is restoring us to our Adamic nature,

putting us back in the place we were created to be.

As Adam and Eve were created,

had perfect union with God,

lived in an environment that was totally unspoiled

by the curse of sin,

that is the place we're advancing back to

as believers in Christ.

It's an exalted state.

Daniel 12, 3 speaks of it.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.

And those who turn many to righteousness,

like the stars, forever and ever.

Matthew 13, 43,

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

He who has ears, let him hear.

We are working our way back to perfection.

That's what it means to be glorified.

If you have ever felt the weight of sin in your life,

and I pray that you have,

you will revel in this truth

that one day,

no longer will you have to battle with sin.

You will be perfect and complete in Christ.

That is the hope that transcends suffering.

But he elaborates a little bit to help us understand this.

And he speaks of the creation,

beginning in verse 19,

What does he mean by the creation?

I think it's important that we understand that properly

and get what he's talking about.

Certainly all things besides God are created.

I don't believe he's speaking of all things.

I don't think he's talking about angels or demons,

because we see that the creation was subjected in hope.

And angels and demons don't need hope.

Well, I shouldn't say it that way.

Angels don't need hope.

They are already perfect and holy and abide with God.

Demons need hope.

They're just never going to get it.

Their eternal state, both angels and demons,

has already been fixed.

So I don't think he's talking about angels or demons.

Is he talking about the lost, the unbeliever?

I would say to you, no.

Because he says that the creation was subjected to futility.

Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.

That's verse 20.

The lost willingly subject themselves to futility.

The lost willingly feed their flesh and sin against God.

So he's not speaking about those who are unbelievers, the lost.

He's speaking about those who are saved then?

No.

Because later he actually compares us to the creation, doesn't he?

Verse 23,

And not only the creation,

but we ourselves, writing this book to Christians,

have the first fruits of the Spirit.

So he's not speaking about Christians.

He's speaking of all things visible, inanimate and animate.

He's personifying nature for us when he speaks of the creation.

It's nature personified.

They have been subjected.

By whom?

Let's look at the text there.

For the creation was subjected to futility.

Futility.

The word futility here means devoid of appropriateness.

Frail, wanting in vigor.

The creation is not as it was intended to be.

And it was subjected by God.

It was part of the curse.

Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The nature itself was cursed.

Sin ushered in death, not just for humanity, but for nature itself.

Look at spring.

It's kind of a reminder of this as you go throughout your year.

Every year, we're currently in spring.

Nature puts on this great show, this big effort to live, to grow high,

to compete for resources.

You have the clearing in the forest with the pine trees.

They pop up first trying to grab some of that sunlight before they get shaded out.

But every year, summer comes, fall comes, the leaves wither, things go back into dormancy, things die.

It has been subjected.

It does not have the vigor that it was meant to have.

And it's because of our sin.

Isaiah 24, 4-7 reads,

The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.

So because of sin, the earth itself groans.

You see the language there?

Groans in expectation of the coming glory.

I read to you a number of weeks ago an excerpt a little bit longer than I'm going to read to you today

from the great sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards.

Part of that sermon was based off of this section of Scripture that we're reading today.

So I just want to read this to you again.

And the point he's making, just so you don't get all lost in his language,

is that the earth doesn't willingly even bear us,

the ones who ushered the curse into the world.

The earth would gladly get rid of us, quit serving us so that we might sin against God.

So listen carefully to this.

Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God,

the earth would not bear you one moment,

for you are a burden to it.

The creation groans with you.

The creation is made subject to the bondage of your corruption,

not willingly.

The sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan.

The earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts,

nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon.

The earth does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals

while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies.

You catch all that?

The earth doesn't even want us to breathe because we're enemies of God.

God's creatures are good and were made for men to serve God with

and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose

and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end.

And the world would spew you out were it not for the sovereign hand of him

who had subjected it in hope.

So we see this eager longing of nature, this groaning with him.

And that's a recurring word that we see in the text here.

We see it of nature.

We see it of ourselves as Christians.

And then in the coming weeks, verse 26, we'll see that the Spirit groans as well.

And we'll get there next week, Lord willing.

Groans within us.

Isaiah 65, 17 says,

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

And that's what we groan for as we suffer here.

Like the creation.

There's a phrase I want you to see in verse 19.

That phrase is,

Waits with eager longing.

The creation waits with eager longing.

And it's a very similar Greek phrase to verse 25,

speaking of Christians, that we wait for it with patience.

And it means, literally, to watch from the head.

So that's interesting.

So you have to pull that out a little bit more,

look at other places it's used in Greek literature,

to see that it means to watch with neck outstretched.

So the picture of it is a looking for something.

Like as if you're on your tippy toes.

To look out in expectation of the glory that's coming.

That's the picture we're getting.

The personification of nature is that nature groans

because it's been subjected to futility.

It's weak in vigor.

And it's waiting expectantly

for the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

This earth is in a downward spiral.

There are some who think,

macro-revolutionists,

that we're increasingly getting better.

We're not.

We're not.

This earth one day will be destroyed

and a new one will be created.

Praise God.

If you have any doubt of that,

you have to cut your grass

every single week right now.

And if you don't weed your garden,

the weeds will absolutely take over.

Chaos reigns in the world we live in.

Our house right now is being attacked by,

I believe what are called sugar ants.

They're everywhere.

This morning as I was looking over my notes,

I kept going.

And on my desk,

there's no food on my desk.

What are they doing?

Chaos reigns in this world

and it's spiraling downward

toward ultimate destruction.

And so he uses some interesting language

even as the nature goes through this groaning

and he speaks of childbirth.

Verse 22 he says,

We know the whole creation has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth until now.

Isn't that interesting language?

I've never given birth to a child.

I don't actually know what that feels like.

I'm told that it's absolutely horrible.

Sam, my wife,

has three levels of pain I've learned

over the past six years.

If I hear her exclaim from the kitchen,

and she's done something in the kitchen

and she outwardly speaks of it,

it's really not that serious.

I've learned that.

For the first couple of years,

I would throw, drop,

whatever I was doing

and rush to the kitchen.

I've learned that it's really not that big a deal.

I still go check on her.

She's usually burnt herself a little bit

or minor cut.

Not a huge deal.

That's the first level of pain for my wife.

If my wife jokes about pain,

she's at another level.

So I took Sam to Tallulah Gorge

before we got married

and we were down in the gorge

and hiking around

and she tried to hop across a rock

and she slipped

and she hit her tailbone.

And she hopped up and laughed it off

like, no big deal.

That was really spazzy,

but I'm good.

And I was told that it turned her backside

all kinds of colors.

And she was in a lot of pain for weeks.

So Sam has a second level of pain

that's worse than the expressive,

I'm in a lot of pain level

where she jokes it off

and laughs about it.

When Sam went into labor

with our first son,

I learned that my wife

has a third level of pain,

which is silence.

And when she says nothing,

she is in a whole nother place.

And I, knowing that,

in my knowledge,

her highest level of pain

was a joking level.

I tried to joke with her a lot

and I was not funny at all

to her.

So I know that that has been

a unique experience for her

and a whole nother level of pain.

So why does he talk about

the earth groaning

in the pains of childbirth?

And it's because

there's something glorious

and wonderful to rejoice in

at the end of that process.

It's very difficult for a man.

Ladies, I know that labor

is the worst for you.

It's very difficult for a man

to stand by and watch

his wife suffer in that way.

It's so hard because you want

to do something to help.

And I mean, just like massaging

feet and shoulders

just doesn't quite do it.

You want to take the pain away.

But you go through that

because you know

at the end of that process,

a baby will be born.

You'll hold your son

or your daughter in your hands

and so it makes the pain worth it.

How many crazy ladies

do you know

that go through this horrific

experience of giving birth

and like that day they go,

I want another baby.

My wife did it.

And my thought was,

are you kidding me?

Have you lost your mind?

I just watched.

I was so horrible.

But it was worth it in the end.

Right?

It was worth it in the end.

And that's why creation

is personified in this way

because the suffering

is worth the glory

to be revealed.

You know what Paul,

all the suffering

that Paul endured

and he says to us

in verse 18,

I consider the sufferings

of this present time

are not even worth comparing.

There's no point

in even setting it

on the scale together.

It'd be pointless

with the glory

that is to be revealed.

It's going to be

that much better.

It's worth enduring.

2 Corinthians 5,

4 and 5,

he wrote,

For while we are still

in this tent,

we groan,

being burdened,

not that we would be unclothed,

but that we would be

further clothed

so that what is mortal

may be swallowed up

by life.

He who has prepared us

for this very thing

is God,

who has given us

the Spirit

as a guarantee.

And there's that ministry again

of the Spirit of Christ

dwelling within us,

giving us a deposit

on what is to come.

So we certainly

enjoy this life

because of God.

We certainly get

taste,

glimpses of heaven

because we've been

brought back

into union

with Him.

But it is still

just a glimpse

of what's to come.

It's good now.

If you've experienced

the goodness of God,

it's so good now.

It's going to be

so much better.

Infinitely better,

in fact.

And so,

we have a hope

and it's a hope

that we don't see.

We don't experience

it in full now.

It's not that we've

been to heaven

and come back

and said,

that was a cool place.

I'm looking forward

to getting back there.

We haven't actually

seen it in full experience,

but we know it's coming.

We get glimpses of it

and we long

for it.

He says that,

for in this hope

we were saved.

Now,

hope that is seen

is not hope

for who hopes

for what he sees.

If we had this already,

it wouldn't be hope

at all.

But if we hope

for what we do not see,

we wait for it

with patience.

And that then

is the hope

that transcends

our suffering.

That allows us

to bear up

underneath it.

There is nothing

in this world

that can touch

your joy

in Christ.

Because this,

it's so good.

You have been

bought.

You belong

to the Most High God.

And one day,

as we progress

through this life,

as we progress

in this process

of sanctification,

this perfecting,

one day,

we will be perfect,

glorified,

done

with this world,

living in everlasting

joy

with him.

Suffering

in this world

isn't even worth

comparing with that.

Let's bear up

together in it.

Let's look like this

as we suffer.

Waiting

for the coming glory.

I think most of us

look like this.

Waiting

for the coming glory.

Oh God.

And I believe

that's what the world

sees the church doing.

And as we do that,

we look to the same

comforts that the world

looks to.

And we have such

a great comfort,

a coming

joy

that's going

to be everlasting.

If you've been here

much at all,

you've heard this

John Newton quote,

but it's so perfect.

I have to read it

to you again.

He said,

suppose a man

was going to New York

to take possession

of a large estate

and his carriage

should break down

one mile

before he got

to the city,

which obliged him

to walk the rest

of the way

to the inheritance.

He's got a massive

inheritance waiting

for him

and he's almost there

and his carriage

breaks down

and he can't

get there

except for walking.

What a fool

we should think him

if we saw him

wringing his hands

and blubbering out

all the remaining mile.

My carriage is broken.

My carriage is broken.

He wouldn't care.

He wouldn't give a rip

about the carriage,

would he?

Because his inheritance

will buy him

as many carriages

as if he could ever have.

He'd gladly hop out of it,

leave it behind

in his mind,

and press on

to the goal.

What a great joy

we have in Christ now

and what a greater joy

we will have in him

one day.

So let us together

as a church

bear up under suffering

in light of the hope

of future glory.

Let's pray together.