Groaning & Glory

I ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Romans 8. Romans 8. I'm going to read verses 18 through 30. We'll be looking at verses 18 through 25. But let's look at the whole context of these verses, shall we? Romans 8 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 obtain the freedom, 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For with this hope we were saved. now hope that is seen is not hope for we hope for who hopes for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience likewise the spirit helps us in all our weakness for we do not know what to pray for what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? God is for us who can be against us.

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things Who shall bring any charge against God elect It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ Jesus, the one who died, more than that, who was raised, was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecutions, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? as it is written for your sake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered no in all these things we're more than than conquerors through him who loved us for i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor heights nor depth nor anything else in all creation would be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let's pray. Father now encourage us by your word. Give us hope that we might live in this life in a way that glorifies and honors you. Be at work in our hearts. Don't let these words just be words but living agents of your will that work in our hearts to accomplish what you want it to accomplish. We commit this time to you now, in Jesus' name.

Amen. There are seasons of reminders, at least for me. Maybe, I don't know if it struck you so much, but for me it has, quite possibly because I'm involved with funerals. but it seems to me recently that we've been surrounded by death. The week before I left for Memphis, I had two funerals. Lester Johns, Connie Roten's dad, died, and I had that funeral.

We had a dinner here. My neighbor, Phyllis Schauber, died. I had that funeral. And we had that dinner here as well. while I was gone I was well aware that Mary Beckel was taking her last steps of her journey and had no idea about Sharon Green's dad how far along he was and on our way home on um on on Thursday Sharon let us know that her dad Roger had died and of course as soon as we got home we went and saw Mary and Mary is on the very last steps of her journey and she will soon be with the Lord if she doesn arrive in heaven today We surrounded by death at times I went down, we went down to Memphis on Thursday, Friday, we had the board of trustee meetings, and one of the guys on the board, his name is Lance Quinn.

Some of you know who Lance Quinn is. Lance was John MacArthur's right-hand man for several years, and then he became pastor at Bible Church of Little Rock for another several years, and then he went back to California to work with John MacArthur again in a different ministry, and now he's the pastor of Bethel Church in California. I can't remember what town.

Lance is also on the board of trustees, and I bring Lance up because Lance is probably younger than me by a few years, Not very old, I don't think. But 22 months ago, Lance's wife, Beth, just seemed disoriented, and she just, something was wrong. They went to see the doctor and found out that she had brain cancer, really advanced brain cancer. And they gave her weeks to live.

22 months later, she's still here. Now, that involves a lot of radical kinds of treatment, experimental kinds of treatments. And as we're sitting there in the Board of Trustees, what happens is we meet on Friday night. Before we start anything, we just talk to each other. We say, what's happening in our families? What's happening in our churches or our ministries and what God is doing?

And Lance was talking about he and Beth and described some of the treatments she'd gone through. And at one point he said, you know, there's no cure. We're only holding death off for a little while. He said, you know what? Our grandkids are seeing what it's like to die well. And he said, I'm sitting on the front row.

Of course, there were no tears. Lance talked straightforwardly and told us these things How thankful he was to the Lord for the life they had together And you ask yourself, how is it that anybody can be that way? How is it that when death abounds around us, how is it that we can go on? How is it that we say, well, death has the final say, or so we might think, how do we keep going?

And the answer is, we live in hope. We live in hope. That ought to characterize God's people. We ought to be people of hope. So that if we're in Lance's position, if I was ever in that position, I hope I would be a man of hope like he is. If I was, as Mary Beckles' pastor, you know what? as I sit there with Mary and she can't as Beck and I were with her and Annie were with her the other day we don't know how much she can hear we don't know anything we don't know what's going on and she's just there looking like she's asleep and yet you know we don't sit around that bed weeping as if there's no hope because there is hope isn't there and that hope we find in these verses in the text before us.

I want to talk about living in hope. God calls you to live in hope. One of the things that ought to make us unique in a world of horror and disease and destruction and corruption and death is that of all people, we ought to be people of hope. And here is why in the verses before us are the reasons for our hope, or how we can live in hope. How we can live in hope.

God calls you to live in hope. How so? Well, let's begin. Verse 18. Live in hope by comparing. Live in hope by comparing.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. God begins by making a contrast between the present time or the present age and the future. He talks about the sufferings. It's literally the sufferings of this. present age. This present age, this present time, is the age that Jesus conquered.

It is the age, it is the era, it is the world, it is the time of sin and death, tragedy and suffering, Adam's sin and a cursed era. that is the age that Jesus conquered he conquered it by being subject to it and dying in it but being raised to a new life so that he is beyond it he is beyond that age he has conquered it that age no longer has a claim on him but although it's been conquered by Christ it remains the arena where the Christian lives out his new life. We're still in it. Unlike Jesus, we haven't yet been fully liberated from it.

The new life we enjoy is not yet fully worked out. It is present, but not finished. It has been inaugurated, but not consummated. It is, as we say around here, already and not yet. It is both. Now, every four years we have a presidential election, and the citizens of this country elect a man to that office.

And the day after that election, the campaign staff of the winner no longer calls him senator or governor or by his first name. What do they call him? They start calling him Mr. President. Is he the president? Yes and no.

He has to wait two more months before he assumes the office, before he has all the trappings of power and the trappings and the power of the president. They're not his yet. But in fact, he is the president, but not quite yet, right? Already not yet. And so it is with us. We live in this present age while belonging to the future where glory awaits.

So you see, the sufferings that are ours, because we live still in this present age, cannot compare to the future glory that is our inheritance. Yes we live in this present age but we have a future inheritance of glory that is ours because of what Jesus did That glory is ours. Now how many of you are living in the suffering of the present as if it were the whole of the story?

Some of you here, I know, some of you here are living in this age and thinking this is it. That's all you've got. This age. And you have no hope. Because that glory in the future is not yours. You may not even believe it exists.

But for those who belong to Christ, to the one who has transcended this age, to the one who has brought us, if you will, into the beginnings of it, that is ours. And we live in light of that. We compare the sufferings now to the glory that's going to be. We see death now. We see Mary laying there in her bed, not able to respond. And yet we know that's not the end, right?

Glory awaits her. And glory awaits us. This is not the end. This reality that we see as we sit in that room is not the end. There's more to the story. There's a glory to be inherited.

And so Christians set their sufferings against the glory of that age. And they say, when I compare this to that, whatever your suffering is, it doesn't have to be death or sickness, heartache, tragedy, your heart's been broken recently. But that's not the end of the story, is it? There's still glory that awaits you in Christ. I can't tell you how, in that meeting last Friday, as Lance was talking, it just, it was just almost, almost too much to take in, right?

And yet here was a guy who was living, looking at suffering against the backdrop of all that glory. He could talk he could speak he could articulate these truths because he saw glory beyond his life with Beth Your present sufferings do not undermine the hope of glory. The inheritance instead is yours as a child of God, is your inheritance. And so you live in hope by comparing.

No matter what you're going through, always put it up against the backdrop of glory that awaits you. It goes on, verses 19-22. Live in hope of universal freedom. Live in the hope of universal freedom. Verses 19-22. Verse 19-22. for the creation awaits 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 so live in the hope of universal freedom all of creation eagerly anticipates that day when you gain your inheritance which is what is the what is he talking about freedom from the curse freedom from the curse the glory what's part of our inheritance freedom from the curse the whole creation eagerly waits for the day when you will be revealed in the glory of the freedom from the curse now Paul personifies creation here you remember what personify means means to attribute human attributes to something so he's attributing this idea of waiting and groaning to the creation in order for you to understand the universal significance of your inheritance.

Now, what happened when Adam sinned? When Adam sinned, the whole earth was cursed. All of creation was cursed. He subjected it to corruption, frustration. It's out of joint. It cannot achieve the end for which it was created.

The earth is not what it was supposed to be. the earth produces an abundance of food only to have it swept away or to die To be swept away in a flood or die in the parchment of a drought The earth is fertile and its ecological systems are intricate, but we have to toil and sweat for it to give us anything. It's been subjected to this curse. It's out of joint. the earth is in bondage to corruption it cannot escape the endless cycle of deterioration I don't have to work to get this body right?

I didn't work for this I didn't do anything it just deteriorates right? when I go home when I go to my house and I drive in the driveway. I can see, and I do this every time I drive in, I can see where I need to do some work somewhere. And the fact that I'm not getting to it shows. Why? Because what does it take for a house to fall apart? Nothing.

Just don't do anything. It'll collapse eventually. Why? Because all of creation is caught in this cycle of endless destruction. desolation. It just deteriorates. That's part of the curse.

I remember first thinking about that. Isn't it amazing? What does it take for something to die, to be destroyed? Nothing. Don't do anything. Right?

The bricks crumble. The wood rots. The body just goes to pot. Right? we're subject to this endless cycle, this inescapable cycle of physical deterioration. And yet it said God cursed it in the context of hope. You know, there's always a question, depends on which translation you have, what do you do with that term hope?

But because of him who subjected it, in hope, creation itself will be set free. Or, in hope that the creation itself will be set free. Or is it, but because of him who subjected it in hope, comma. It depends where you put that comma. I think the comma goes after hope. I think he's saying that God subjected it in hope. subjected it to the curse in hope.

Why? The seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, it says. The very first promise of a Savior, in Genesis 3.15, it comes right in the middle of the curse. Right smack dab in the middle. Right? Everything's going to be hard for you.

The serpent's going to bruise, or the seed is going to bruise the serpent's, or not bruise, the seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent's head and bruise her heel his heel and then it goes on to talk about the the war that's going to erupt between the sexes and all the other horrible things that are going to happen right in the middle of the curse is that promise so the creation helplessly enslaved to decay exists in the hope that one day it will be liberated from that slavery and that hope is going to be realized when god reveals the glory of his children. The glory of his children. When you enter into that final freedom, when you finally receive that inheritance of glory.

Now look, here's what I think is happening here. What happened when Adam sinned? Adam is the representative, the apex of all of creation. He is the head of it all. He represents all of creation. Adam represents not only humanity, he represents all of creation, including the trees and the grass, everything else.

He represents it all. He's the king of it all. And what happens when he sins? When the representative sins, all that he represents is affected. All of the universe is cursed. So when that same representative is glorified, what's going to happen?

All of creation will be freed from the curse. That's why he says that the creation is longing, is groaning for the glory of the children of God to be revealed. You see? To reveal us as the sons of God. We'll be revealed finally as these are the sons of God. And because we're revealed that way, all of creation partakes in that.

And so creation is longing for the revelation of us as the sons of God God will display before the whole world the glory that Jesus now possesses and that is yours by inheritance Now right now you don look much like the sons of God Notice, he says that will be revealed, the revealing of the sons of God, verse 19. And then the freedom of the glory of the children of God in verse 21. All right? right now you don't look much like the sons of God but someday you will when you receive what God promised you now look Mark Twain wrote a story some of you have read it called the prince and the pauper if you haven't read the story you've maybe seen one of the movies there's been a couple movies made along that line the story of these two little boys one is Edward the son of Henry the 8th He's the prince.

He's the prince of Wales. He's the one who's going to occupy the throne next when Henry dies. Henry at this time is very sick, right? And there's this other little boy who looks exactly like the prince. And through things that happen in the story, they meet. And so they exchange places.

The pauper now lives in the palace and has everybody waiting on him. the prince is now running around in the streets, a pauper, right? And what's interesting is this, the prince, he goes everywhere saying, I'm the prince, and they slap him around and treat him badly and abuse him. Why? Because they think he's just some crazy little kid, right? But he doesn't look like a prince.

He's dressed in the pauper's clothes. He looks just like everybody else. But is he the prince? he most certainly is the prince and he doesn't forget what happened to him right well the point is at the end of the story he's revealed as he remembers where the seal is hidden that he had hidden the royal seal he's revealed as the prince even though he stands there in pauper clothes he is the prince that same thing is true of us we don't look like we don't look any different than anybody else but on that day the glory of the sons of god will be revealed to the whole world and everyone will see that we are what we claimed we were.

Right? And there's the hope. And so the whole of creation eagerly anticipates the day when God will reveal your status as sons by glorifying you The whole creation eagerly awaits that day because when that day of glory comes it will be free Finally, a creation that's doing what God always intended it to do. It will be gloriously free. Imagine living in a world like that.

Paul doesn't develop it here, but remember our study in Revelation as we looked at the new earth and we talked about what that was going to be like. We're going to be living in an earth, and the earth doing what God gifted us to do with no hindrances of sin. I just can't imagine it. The whole creation groans with the pains of childbirth. It groans with anticipation, knowing that the pains result in a new age.

Do you see that picture? so many of you women here have had children you know when you read that the pains of childbirth you have a totally different meaning not meaning but understanding of that term that us men will never understand we've witnessed it we just haven't experienced it but the point is that at the end of all that pain there's a baby there's a baby and it just seems worth it That's what he's saying here. It's going to be born this new age. Right now creation is agonizing in the pains of childbirth, but it will see the glory of that new age when the glory of the children of God is revealed.

Finally, he says, live in the hope of final adoption. Live in the hope of final adoption. Verse 23 through verse 25. 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 or with 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 now believers also anticipate that glorious day.

Not only creation, but we are too. Not only is creation groaning, but we are groaning as well. And that because the Spirit is the first fruits of our glorious inheritance That is to say the first fruits in the Old Testament remember when you go out to harvest God said and you beginning the harvest the harvest has arrived everything ripe The very first fruit or the very first part of the harvest that you gather is not for you.

You bring it and you offer it to the Lord. It's His. The idea of first fruits, though, is the idea that the harvest has arrived. And what he's saying here is the new age has arrived. It has arrived. It is here.

The final age is here. Now, I want you to think about that. Already? Not yet. It's here. And the Holy Spirit is the first part of it.

Is the first part of it. is the very first part of that new age that's arrived. And he's the guarantee. He's the guarantee that you'll get all the rest. You see? He's the guarantee. That's what the firstfruits is about, the guarantee.

I mean, when you brought the firstfruits in, you're essentially saying, I believe that all the rest is going to be mine. Right? This belongs to God. I'm not going to keep it just in case. I'm going to give it to God. That's the guarantee.

You know, when you make a down payment on a house, why do you do that? Why do you put all that money down? Because that guarantees you're going to follow through, doesn't it? It guarantees that you're going to pay the rest. And so God is saying, here is the Holy Spirit. He is the guarantee.

He's the down payment. You know that God is serious about glorifying. you because he already gave you his Holy Spirit. You know the rest is going to come. You know the rest will be here because he's already given you the first fruits of it. And because we have that down payment, we groan. Because we have the first fruits of the age to come, we sense the tension.

We cannot fully enjoy the future because we still live in this cursed world with a body that's still subject to that curse with all its weakness. We're still in tension. Now look, what does the Spirit do? The Spirit gives us a taste of what glory is going to be like. I always look at the at the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit. What does it talk about?

It talks about Peace, joy, love, all those things. We're experiencing that now. We're experiencing, we're tasting what glory is going to be like with what the Holy Spirit is doing now. And so we groan because we can never find our comfort in the pleasures and the people of this age. We sense a certain disjointedness with this age because we really belong to the age to come.

And because of that, we just don't quite feel quite right here. Unlike most people. We sense there's something different. We know there's something different. We're in the already, not yet stage of our redemption. Alright?

We experience these things from the Holy Spirit. And it just makes us groan. oh when we'll have it all when there will be perfect fellowship can you imagine that in glory on a new earth we will experience perfect fellowship with god nothing interfering with that nothing i'm trying to imagine that kind of a life where there's going to be nothing between me and God. Nothing to confess.

Right? Nothing to feel bad about or shame about. There's nothing. Perfect fellowship. And perfect fellowship with one another. Right?

No one's going to irritate you ever again. Not because they've changed, but because you've changed. Right? No one's ever going to irritate me. I'm going to love everybody. Without qualification.

Can you imagine that? That's the way it's going to be. We're experiencing some of that. Because of that, we groan for it. Oh, we long for it when it will arrive in its perfection. And so we eagerly await our adoption.

He says, we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now, someone might say, wait a minute. Paul, you already said that we're children of God and that we're adopted and that the Spirit actually testifies the fact. You've told us that already. What is this all about? Notice what he says in verses 14 through 16.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God You're adopted already. You're already in the family. What is this? You're talking now about adoption in the future.

I thought we were adopted already. Well, let's think about it this way. Suppose, now assuming that we were much younger, suppose Beck and I would adopt a Romanian boy. We'll call him Tepes Vlad, okay? Say we paid all the fees, we went through all the paperwork, we have in our hand the official documents declaring that Tepes is now, Tepes Vlad is now Tim Pazma.

Now, that's not a good name. We'll call him Gary. Gary Pazma, okay? He's no longer Tepes Vlad, he's Gary Pazma. Now, is he our son? Yes.

Is there anything else we need to do for him to become our son? No. Well, then what remains? He has to enter into the benefits of that adoption. He has to come here. Right?

He has to come here. He has a new home. A new room that's all nicely painted. New brothers and sisters. A new school. Playground with everything there that he never had before. all the food he could possibly want.

In short, a whole new kind of life. There's nothing more to be done to make him our son. The only thing left is the benefits of that. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying. The only thing left in our adoption is the redemption of our bodies that we will start to experience. We will experience all that that adoption has.

We just don't have all the benefits yet. so you shouldn't be surprised that expectation characterizes your christian life that there's just this this kind of hunger for something more that there's there's always since you became a christian there's always there's always a more that there has to have we shouldn't be we shouldn't be surprised at that why look at verses 24 and 25 for for with 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 you saved with hope not in this hope as if that were the instrument by which you were saved But you were saved with hope. Just as creation was cursed in the context of hope, you were saved in the context of hope. Just as creation was cursed and there was hope, so you are saved in the context of hope.

You were saved at the moment of your conversion, but that salvation must wait for its completion when God glorifies you. You've always had a forward look in your Christian life. There's always been hope. You've always looked ahead. That should have been your experience from the first day you became a Christian. There's more.

Do you not experience that now? There's more. There's more to be had. You've always had that. Now, hope doesn't operate when you have whatever you hope for. I remember as a kid, I wanted a bike so badly, right?

And I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you when I say this. My dad did not make a lot of money. When I look back now, even in 1961 dollars, it was hardly anything. And he couldn't afford a bike. I remember having to save and save and scrimp for a bike. and I bought a used bike at that.

A red one. It's nice. 16-incher. Right? And a boy's bike, not a girl's bike. Remember when that used to make a difference?

And I anticipated that. And I would save and I'd look at bikes and I'd want it. And you hope and you hope. And what did you do while you waited? You're patient. You endured.

You just hung on. You kept going, right? so you patiently endure while you wait for your inheritance that's what he says you don't have it yet who hopes for what he already has you don't have it yet you don't have glory yet and so you patiently endure you keep going you just keep going he goes on in the rest of this chapter to tell you how you patiently endure what's given us to help us with that part of that being that God works all things out for your good, and He's going to get you to glory. Those whom He foreknew, He called.

Those He called, He justified. Those He justified, He glorified. That going to help us patiently endure But now we know we endure We stay with it We don give up When we faced with death of a father of a mom of a wife we don give up we don't walk around with a with a hopeless air about us instead we have hope we have hope today we move closer to the great explosion of glory that's going to come but we have to live in light of that we have to live in light of that always remember that your reality as a Christian involves this glory.

Jesus has already experienced it. And you're united to Him, which means what? That what He accomplished for you, you will most certainly experience. And because of Jesus on that cross, and then being raised from the dead, and you being joined to him in union with him, you too will experience the same glory that Jesus did. And that is where you must live.

That's the end of the story. The whole story involves glory. And you will be a person of hope. We will be people of hope if we live anchored in the glory that is ours. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, even if it's just me, even as I've been reminded in very concrete, real ways about the brevity of life and the inevitability of death, yet you've impressed upon my heart and I hope you've impressed upon these hearts here today the inevitability of glory for the people of God and so Father you call us to live in hope help us to live faithful to that call by remembering the glory that is ours, the inheritance of glory that is ours, we thank you.

For in your grace, you promise us glory, a glory we do not deserve, but a glory that you lovingly, willingly, joyfully give to us as our inheritance. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.