If you'll take your Bibles, please, and open them to the book of Romans, the eighth chapter. We come again to the passage that the Lord led me to for this season. So join me in standing out of reverence for the reading of God's word. I recognize that this is not what would typically be considered a Christmas passage. But I also recognize that there is no better time to discuss the deep and powerful purpose of our hope than the time celebrating the coming of Christ. The Romans chapter 8 and we'll begin at verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you give to us grace to understand. God, give us understanding, give us a sense of your presence, give us a perspective filled with truth that we might counter the lies of the culture. with the truth of your word. God, it matters how we think on so many issues and so often we quietly step aside, surrender the argument, or just join in on the side of those who do not speak your truth because either it's easier or we just haven't thought it through. So Lord, I pray that you would give us a perspective on the issues of this day. Give us a perspective on the questions of our world and the environment and the way that the creation itself is groaning under the burden of sin. God, let us see your truth and let us understand that in the midst of all of the chaos, there is still the hope that is ours in Christ. We ask this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So Paul frames his statement about man's relationship to creation in the context of rebellion, authority, and the impact of that rebellion. Last week we talked about God's purpose in subjecting the earth to futility in hope. We talked about the idea that the fall was intended before creation was begun. We talked about the idea that in this God is communicating something powerful and profound and important to us about the hope that is ours in Christ. So we're going to pick that discussion back up this morning and look a little deeper at the futility to which the Earth and all of creation was subjected, at the real problem of our age. And we're going to consider just how our thinking about and our responses to the groaning of the Earth are often only making the problem worse. So we're a little bit out of my normal pattern this morning. It's just a little strange, so I ask you to bear with me. I'm going to begin by addressing the official narrative. I'm going to begin by addressing what we're told is really going on. We're told that man is destroying the planet, that overpopulation and greenhouse emissions are the root of all of our problems. Now, to be fair, a very quick internet search reveals that things are definitely awry. For the first part of 2022 alone, there were heat waves in Europe that killed over 16,000, costing approximately $20 billion. Pakistan endured a flood that affected over 33 million people, and one flood event alone killed nearly 1,000 people. Estimated cost, 10 billion. As of October, which was the newest information I could get, the U.S. has experienced 15 different billion-dollar weather disasters. The Pearl River in Mississippi overflowed and left the city of Jackson with no drinkable water from July until the end of September when they were still on a boil mandate, which was the nearest I could come up with. Jackson's not a small city. Flooding in June ravaged Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, including Yellowstone, which closed the park for the first time in over 30 years. We again had a record fire season. There were record damaging hurricanes. Tornadoes abounding, 1,229 of them as of October. which, as a side note, is actually below the annual average of 1,333. But, of course, the media spins it to cause fear, acknowledging that while the total is down, the number of days with over 30 in a day is up. So things are definitely worse. I say all of that to ask this question. How do we think about these things? The culture and the world call us to cut carbon emissions, to reduce population, to eat bugs, to cripple economies, and to end agriculture. They tell us that these disasters are a result of our actions on the planet and they tell us that we have the power to change the environment and thus change the planet with our tactics and our efforts. That's the official narrative. For just one of the articles that I read, there was a comment posting to things like hunger stones becoming visible in the Elbe River in Germany and the Czech Republic. Now, I found that interesting, so I investigated a little bit more. These stones mark low water levels and they are inscribed to predict times of famine. The one that has recently been exposed was inscribed in 1616, keep that date in your head, in 1616 and says, if you see me, cry. Now, the author concluded with the hashtag, act on climate, and said that there is no time to wait. We have to do something. Now, that all fits the official narrative, but it makes me wonder. The stone was marked when? 1616. That means that long before fossil fuels and greenhouse gases were an issue of pop pseudoscience, water levels had been at these levels and often enough that they had seen a pattern and marked a stone so that they could prepare. This is not a new problem. The real issue is that man is responsible for the current condition of the world, just not in the manner that those in power want us to believe. It's not our use of fossil fuels that has created a world which is seemingly out to destroy us all, but it is our rebellion against the creator of the universe in the Garden of Eden. There is a focused effort to keep us scared and to keep us reactive to the news of all of the disasters because the narrative is ultimately about control. It's about the ability and the power of man to chart the course of his own destiny, the aim of social engineering, and all that is about that objective. The problem with the narrative is that God is the only one who has the ability, the power, and the right to chart our destiny. As creator, God has a design for us to follow, and a mandate for us to obey, and a relationship for us to engage in. He alone is the one who can show us the path which will set us free from the curse of sin, and as a result, set creation free from the bondage which resulted from our rebellion. Beloved, understand that the creation longs to be set free. In fact, what we see as a climate crisis is really just the groaning of the earth. So I want to think with you about what it means that creation is groaning. I'm not going to pretend that there is some superpower earth consciousness. It's not groaning in a conscious way. I haven't gone all mystical on you in that sense. But the earth is groaning, the creation itself groans, longing to be delivered from the bondage of our sin, because sin is an unnatural thing, and man was created for fellowship with God. Genesis 2.19 says, Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. Now, this was not because God didn't know what he was gonna call the animals. It's not because God was out of ideas about what to call the animals. God didn't sit there and go looking at a giraffe and say, what do I call that one? Adam, you got any ideas? I'm all out. That's not the issue. It's not that God was bored with the process and it's not that God was out of interest with what he had done. What was going on here is that God has, from the beginning, designed a world in which he invites us and has created it so that we might participate with him in whatever it is that he is doing. He has created a world which allows us to have meaningful and real participation with Him in His labor. This has been true from creation through the gospelizing of the world, through the evangel itself. God has created a world in which He calls us to share the gospel, not because He can't do it without us, but because He won't. because he is unwilling to do these things apart from the involvement of his people, which is why he made the world the way he made it. Creation itself is groaning under the burden of this sin and actually longs to be free. Everything that we see gives us an understanding of this. Genesis 3 verses 8 to 10 say this, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Now what happened? What changed? Sin had entered in. They had rebelled against God. They had actively chosen to listen to the serpent and their own desires rather than what God said. The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Now there's a couple of things to note here. First of all, God was in the habit of walking among us in fellowship. This was a normal sort of occurrence. God came walking to them in the cool of the evening. They heard him when he was coming. Now, Jesus said nobody has seen God. So who was walking with them? Jesus. It was a pre-incarnate Christ walking with them in the garden. So he had come and walked with them on enough occasions that they heard him coming and knew what they were hearing. So this had been a habit, this fellowshipping which was going on. But secondly, and more importantly for our discussion today, our actions broke that fellowship. We broke that fellowship and we attempted to exalt ourselves into the place of God. If you think about it for just a minute, you'll recognize the truth that the temptation in the garden is the same temptation that has been plaguing us for all of time. Satan said to Eve, you won't die. God's a liar. You'll just become like God, knowing there's no good and evil. She didn't hear that part. What she heard was, oh, I can be God. And we know that every sin that we engage in is an attempt to make ourselves ruler over our lives. We set aside what God says, we set aside who God is, and we seek to make ourselves King, Captain, Commander. We seek to make ourselves God. And there is not a single temptation which you face which does not have at its core this fundamental issue. That is the shape of all sin. It always has been, and it always will be. As a result of that attempt, the authority which had been vested into us carried over into consequences for those who were under our authority. Keep that in mind. Authority has consequences for those that are under it. When governments do stupid things and other governments go to war against them, who suffers? The people. It's not the government. The governments seldom suffer. In fact, the governments get lots of money from other countries that are willing to pay them lots of money. The people are the ones who suffer. It is always this way, and it will always be this way, because authority has consequences, and actions of authority have consequences for those who are under it. When Adam fell, death became a reality, and mankind would experience sickness, mankind would experience disease and death, Adam and Eve's relationship was cursed with strife and tension that carries over into marriages today. Their children were guilty of fratricide. But more than that, and long before those things came to fruition, Adam and Eve themselves destroyed the purity of creation itself. Our sin was the vehicle by which the whole of creation was cursed. Look with me at Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, and we'll start reading in verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. And your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you. To Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return. So we see creation cursed, a world out of control, death entered creation, animals began to eat other animals, thorns and thistles being born instead of food, the ground itself in active rebellion against the authority of the man who was told to keep it. Now this slavery is a terrible reality and the whole of creation longs to be free from the bondage of this corruption which our actions have put it under. And that longing has impact in our world today. Paul writes in Romans 8 that the whole earth labors with groanings. Now, it should come as no surprise to us that the world lashes out at us. We see fires and floods, hurricanes and droughts, famines and pestilences, and we are the cause of our own worst plagues, and that's not even talking about the abomination of actual man-made plagues. But we're not the cause of it, mostly. as if our direct actions like driving a car or heating your home or eating a steak or heaven forbid having a baby is actually breaking the earth. We are the cause of it in the sense that sin has corroded and eroded the foundations of the authority which causes the earth to move and act in an orderly and consistent fashion. Understand that when God made Adam and Eve he gave them authority over the earth. The earth would do what it was supposed to do because it was living under the authority of the one to whom God had given it. That's the way authority works. And this entire question about what the earth is doing now is directly connected to the question of what happened to the authority that was given to man that man himself threw away. This was the issue of the curse between Eve and Adam. When God said to Eve, your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you. He was not speaking of sexual desire. He was speaking of a desire to rule, a desire to dominate, a desire to control. That word desire is used only one other place in scripture, and that's in Genesis chapter 4. And that's when God says to Cain, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. There are other Hebrew words that are translated desire. That one is very specific. And it means a desire to control or destroy. This is the curse. This is why there is tension between husbands and wives. This is why the battle of the sexes exist. God gave to man the authority to rule his home, to rule those who are under his authority, to govern, to protect, to watch over, to provide. And woman, because of the curse, does not like being governed. In her flesh, she wants to be the one in charge. Beloved, understand this. It is sin, and it is broken. But it is the least broken part of our world. It really is. We broke the whole thing. And just as the tension between Adam and Eve exists today in marriages, so also the tension between mankind and the world which God made to be submissive to our hand also is out of order. The earth no longer recognizes our authority because we've abdicated it. We still have to do the job, but we sacrificed the strongest tool in our toolbox. The earth longs to be delivered from this bondage and it longs to be set free. So, we need to be on our guard for understanding that there is no shortage of false answers to the question, what in the world is going on here? There's no shortage of people who are willing to tell you, happy to tell you, demanding that you believe that we are really the problem in a way that we are not the problem. You see, when you mislabel the cause and often the nature of the dilemma, it should come as no real surprise that you then are wrong about the cure. If you don't know really what's causing what's happening and you treat the wrong thing, it's going to create problems. This is always true. We recognize it in the midst of every circumstance in our lives, but we seem to have forgotten it in the questions that are facing us about the nature of the world today. You see, all of man's answers depend upon man's ability. It's the Tower of Babel reborn. We will erect a structure into the heavens itself and therefore make a name for ourselves. And we see this in government, we see this in the scientific community, we see it in sport, we see it in popular culture, we see it in business, we see it in any sphere where man operates and has the ability to make a name for himself, that he is laboring to do exactly that. People desire to be known. They want to be respected as somebody worthy of being revered. This is why actors go and testify before Congress about science. Think about that for a minute. Actors instructing politicians about science. Wrong person, wrong question, wrong place, wrong answer. See, this all comes down not to the Tower of Babel, but to the power of Babel. Look at me at Genesis chapter 11. I want to show you something interesting about another key root in our issues. Genesis chapter 11, we're just going to read the first nine verses. Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. It came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone. They had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Indeed, the people are one. and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be held from them. Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." Now, we were told to do something. We were told to go forth, to multiply, and to subdue the earth. The creation mandate was for mankind to go abroad over the face of the earth, to subdue it, to bring order from the chaos. to bring beauty where beauty did not exist, to use the raw materials that God had given in order to fashion things that brought glory to the Creator. This is the creation mandate. It is still in force today. We just don't have the full ability to do what we were told to do. But I want you to pay attention to the fact that it says, mankind was traveling and they came. Do you ever stop to think about who they was? About all of them is the way I read it. So they went out in a herd instead of scattering themselves. And that's borne forth from the rest of the account that they were already rebelling against God. They were already refusing to do what he told them to do. And what was their reason? We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to be seen as great. We want the whole world to know who we are. Therefore, this is a good place for us to build a monument to our glory. This is a good place for us to set our stake in the earth and say, I am going to do what I want to do. Now, what they were doing, interestingly enough, is consistent with the creation mandate if you look at it from one sense. We were told to exercise dominion over the earth and to bring order from the chaos and to act in a manner that was creative and constructive. I'm going to build a tower. That's creative and constructive. Amen? I'm going to take things that aren't and make them into something that is. That's creative and constructive. We were given great and amazing power to accomplish what God had told us to do. Notice what God said. Now nothing will be withheld from them. I find that statement compelling. It's as if to say, if we actually use what's been given to us, the keys to do what God called us to do are all here. But we're not doing it in a way that is consistent with his testimony. We're not doing it in a way that's consistent with his will. This is all about authority. It's all about the authority that's been given into our hands as stewards over God's creation, not, and I repeat, not as masters of our own world. We are stewards. A steward operates on behalf of someone else. That means that he gets to decide what we do, not us. And we are stewards over God's creation with the purpose of bringing forth his glory. The creation mandate and the charge to rule over the earth and to subdue it is the divine echo that makes us different from the animals that we are called to rule. Of all of creation, man alone was given a living soul. Of all of creation, man alone was made a living spirit. We are different from all of the creatures. You are not an evolved monkey. Don't listen to that garbage. Don't pay attention to those who tell you that you are no more significant than the mouse that you killed in the trap yesterday. You are something else. You are made in the image of God. And as someone made in the image of God, your creation carries with it the command to echo forth what you have been made to be. You are more than merely flesh. You are more than merely ideas. You are the very image of God. And that carries with it a responsibility. It carries with it the challenge to live this out. Now, In the same way, though, what they were doing at Babel was completely inconsistent with the creation mandate, because they were going about what they were doing in a way that was out of step with what God tells us to do. Remember, God is very concerned with the motives of our hearts. Jesus made that plain in the Sermon on the Mount. He reminded us that it's not just not having sex with a woman who's not your wife, but you are not permitted to even look at a woman with lust, or you're guilty of adultery. It's about what goes on inside. It's about why you do what you do, not merely what you do. And this is the problem at Babel. We were told to spread out over the whole earth and to subdue it unto God, not to congregate in cities, building power for ourselves and defying our creator. Think about it for a minute. When you look at a political map of the United States, Where is the insanity? It's in the cities. It's in the major population centers. Why do you think that is? Because by their very nature, they are an attempt to defy God. By their very nature, they are an attempt to do things in their own way and to build monuments and towers unto themselves so that they have a name among all the earth. And it's not just the geopolitical climate of this nation. If you look at the scope of the whole Earth, you'll find the same thing to be true. The insanity congregates where the cities are. The insanity congregates where the population is most dense. You see, we were not told nor allowed to raise a monument to our own power and greatness because to do that ignores the fact that God alone is worthy of making his name great. If I'm gonna raise a monument to my name and my greatness, then what am I saying in doing it? I'm better than everybody else. That's the appeal of winning awards. That's the appeal of winning the praise of the world. That's the appeal of everybody saying, oh my goodness, you're gonna do great things, we'll give you a prize. Because I wanna make a name for me. And by making a name for me, I imply, sometimes state outright, that I'm better than everybody else. This is what they were doing, and they were doing it not on a scale of man to man, but they were doing it on a scale of man to God. They were saying to God, yes, you want us to build things for your glory, but we would much rather build them for ours. We would much rather do what we do for the sake of our glory and our name and our fame, because we're not really interested in doing what you tell us to do. The abuse of the power and authority given to us is still the same sin that we engage in regularly. I'm going to say that again. That abuse of power and authority which has been given to us is still the same sin that we as a people engage in regularly. Rather than exercising our authority over creation with an eye to stewardship and creation with an emphasis on redemption, we labor to overturn what God is to create as our task, and we exalt the physical creation itself, of which we're called to be stewards for the glory of God, as the end of all possible good for our existence, and we deem it as the highest possible good to leave creation unchanged, undisturbed, and above all, unused. This is rebellion. This is rebellion, and rebellion has consequences for authority. Pride is rebellion. We've been created to submit to the authority of God, made in his image, bearing his mark. We have not made ourselves, nor are we the master of our own world or destiny. I'm not going to tell the whole joke, but there's an old joke in which God and a scientist engage in a contest, and the scientist says, hey, let's both make a man. And God says, okay. And so the scientist goes to his lab and starts dragging out all of his test tubes and all of his stuff, and God says, wait, wait, wait, you have to provide your own materials. Just think about it for a minute. God said, let there be, and there was. But the phrase is ex nihilo. It means out of nothing. Out of nothing God created. He created everything that is by the power of his word, which brought to bear the intention of his singular will. Before anything was, God had planned the whole of it. Every moment, every deed, every action, every word, all designed to lead us to the Christ. Now, I want to drop that in here because it's very easy for us to become filled with despair when we think about how broken things really are. And I want to remind us all that no matter how broken it is, and no matter how bad it looks, and no matter how dark the days might be around us, These days are in the hand of a God who intended them all along. And just as the darkest days that the world had ever seen before the time of Christ were required to bring Christ, so also the darkness of the present age is required for the return of Christ. He will come again and He will set all things right. And it is this for which creation groans and longs. It is this restoration which is the heart. Because when we exalt ourselves and lift up the voice of our hubris and selfishness, it is a jealousy against God which drives us. All authority is derived from somewhere. If only those who have been elected to power would remember that. we would probably not be having some of the discussions that we have. Authority is always derived. You say, well, what about God? Well, his authority is derived as well. But his is derived from himself, from his own nature, from his own being. There is nobody great enough to give God the authority that is his own. He is ultimately the source of all authority. And so whatever authority we possess in this world is ours because God has given it to us. Whatever ability we possess in this world is ours because God has given it to us. Whatever purposes we have in this world are ours because God has laid them before us, called them unto us, and equipped them for us. And yes, the world is incredibly broken, but God is still God, so we still have hope. But this authority is a sacred trust. And we've broken that trust. It still remains our duty to labor under the authority which we have cast off. Now it is this ongoing rebellion which fuels the groaning and labor of our creation. For all of God's creation, out of all of God's creation, man alone is in rebellion." Do you ever think about that? What did Jesus tell the Pharisees when they told him, make your disciples be silent? He said, I'll tell you the truth, if they shut up, the rocks themselves will cry out. Why? Because creation does what it's intended to do. The creation is not in rebellion. When the earth brings forth thorns and thistles, it's in rebellion to you, but it's not in rebellion to God. It's doing what God told it to do, and it's doing it in the manner that God told it to do. So the things that we see going on in the world around us right now, the natural disasters, the environmental crises, all these things, they're not something that are in our power to control by our science. They're not in our power to control by the things that we do or pretend are going to make a difference. They are in our power to change, at least minutely, by our repentance, away from the rebellion and audacity which says, God, we don't need you to fix us. And ultimately, that is the heart of all of this, because this ongoing rebellion fuels the fight, and it causes the earth to groan, to cry out against us, to actively fight against us. You think about some of the things that occur, you think about volcanoes and the places where they erupt. It seems like it's very seldom in places where people aren't. I'm not telling you the earth is conscious, but I'm telling you that God is. God is using his creation to speak to us, whether we hear him or not. He's using the things that are going on to call us unto himself, and he's using the things that are going on because the creation itself is groaning for the coming of Christ. Creation groans for the revelation of the sons of God, Paul writes in Romans 8. 2 Corinthians 5.17, he writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, I've used that verse with people who come to Christ. I've expressed that truth to them. But I have to tell you the truth. I've never yet seen anybody suddenly, magically go poof! And they're completely new. It's not the way it works. God changes our hearts. He changes our wants, but we still have to wrestle through the old rebellions. We still have to wrestle through the old dilemmas. We still have to fight for every inch that he gives us. This is because all of this process is important for God's purpose. Even the rebellion of the earth itself is important for God's purpose, or it wouldn't be happening. We know that there is more out there. We know that God is going to one day bring to fruition the fullness of what he has promised he is making in us. And that promise is something that should excite us. But interestingly enough, it does excite the earth. It does excite the creation that God made, because at some level creation itself knows that there is something better coming. At some level, creation itself knows that God is going to bring to fruition everything he has promised, and creation groans for the coming of Christ and the restoration of all things. Look at 2 Peter 3. Put those anywhere, Gene would say, if he was here. 2 Peter 3, starting at verse 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since..." Now that's global warming, by the way. That's real global warming. "...therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?" looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." Now, this is a strange thing to consider. But at some point in our discussion, we have to acknowledge the truth that what the earth is groaning and longing for is its own destruction. There are times where facing our end is helpful. There are times where facing our end is beneficial to our soul. And the earth, in whatever way it understands things, understands this. Because it will be destroyed and remade, even as you one day will die and be reborn. Not in a different life with a different body of a different person. You're not going to come back as a cow or a beetle or any of that nonsense, but you will be given a new body prepared for the glory, which is prepared for you. You will be given a body fit for the presence of God. A body fit and prepared for the presence of glory in you. And a body which will be consistent with the purpose of God in eternity. Creation itself will be restored to be fully and completely prepared for what God intends it to be. Now I want to tell you this plainly and I want to tell you this clearly. There will be nothing that will fix the earth until that point. It cannot happen. No matter what people tell you that is going to happen if you drive electric cars, don't burn fossil fuels, or don't have babies, or eat lots of bugs instead of cows. Whatever they're pushing today, they're going to push something different tomorrow. Just hold your breath and wait. But you need to understand the truth that none of these things are going to change anything that actually matters. In the end, the earth will still progress to the point that one day God will destroy it. It will be burned up by fire and it will be remade a new heavens and a new earth. And it will be made a new heavens and a new earth free from corruption. So what the earth is longing for in its deliverance is the same thing that we as followers of Christ should be longing for in our deliverance. And it is freedom from sin. It is freedom from the indwelling corruption of our own rebellion against God. It is freedom from the thing that destroys us. It is freedom from the thing that makes us unfit, unhappy, unhealthy, unholy. It is freedom from that which we brought upon ourselves by our rebellion against the authority of God. The earth longs for that same deliverance. This is the hope of the promise of God. This is the hope that has begun for us as we consider the coming of Christ. Sin destroys everything it touches. It taints everything that we would build, everything that we would do, everything that we would think. It is a simple fact that any answer which does not submit to the God of the Bible is wrong. So if somebody proposes to you a way to do something and their proposition is contrary to scripture, you can set it aside without question saying, that's wrong. I don't care what it is. I don't care what it's about. If it's opposed to the truth of the scripture and opposed to the God of the scripture, it is wrong. It is clearly evident that schemes will unravel, the edges fray, and you don't have to be a conspiracy nut to understand that there is a conspiracy. How organized it is, I don't know. I'm not getting into all that. But all of mankind has been conspiring to remove God from his throne for all of human history. Now, are they going to succeed? Well, let's look at a messianic psalm. Look with me at Psalm chapter 2. And let's ask a question of three. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth have set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. This is what we've been talking about all morning. God's response. Verse four says, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. And the Lord shall hold them in derision. And then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the ends of the earth for your possession. And you shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust. I ask you the question, does that messianic psalm sound like a psalm of hope? It does if your ears are on right. It does if you recognize that the only hope that we have is that God will return and set all of this right. But to those who do not hear the truth and those who cannot hear the truth, such things sound empty or hollow or they sound like a threat. which I suppose they could be taken as one, God will not allow their schemes to come to pass. And they may succeed in the short game, but in the end, everything they have pretended to build will be destroyed. There is a clear warning here that those who will set their lives to be everything except what God tells them to be will not ever succeed. There is a clear warning here for us to recognize that everything that we are called to be must be submitted to the will and the Word of God so that our lives are not subjected to this punishment. We must submit ourselves to God. We must recognize that what God tells us to do is to surrender ourselves to Him. And this is the promise of God. He will send a Deliverer and that Deliverer is Christ who has already come. And ultimately, he will subject all things unto Christ. The rest of the promise is this. One day, Jesus will return and set all things to right. One day, Jesus will return and complete the work that has been done. And until that day comes, he has left this world in our charge and commanded us to labor to bring all things under the banner of his name. When we allow the world to frame the discussion about the wrong question, we're failing in that mandate. When we pretend that man has the ability to stop the groanings of the earth with his schemes, we continue the rebellion and are deceiving ourselves. When we go along with the naked emperor and praise his stunning new clothes, we are part of the problem itself. And when we quietly submit to the silencing of our voice and the stilling of our hands for the labor that honors God, we have joined forces with the enemy. Beloved, the gospel is our weapon. And the gospel is our theme. It is our hope and it is our joy. And the earth groans with longing, waiting with earnest expectation for the day when that will finally be made clear. and I don't know about you, but I don't want a rock doing my job. Amen? Jesus said it would. It said if I'm silent, the rocks will do my work. I don't want that. I love the fact that God made a world that he invites us to participate with him in. That's wondrous. That's the heart of relationship, is to do things with Him. To be a part of that labor. And it's foolish for us to surrender that. Let us seek His face. And let us repent of that sin which still plagues. And let us find our hope in Him. Because in Him is the only place hope exists. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you give to us grace in this day, and I pray, Lord, that you would remind us that all that we do is to be submitted to you. God, remind us that we still live under authority, and that as a people under authority, we have your authority imparted unto us. But we have to walk in that authority, and we have to obey your commands and do things in your way. God, deliver us from the foolishness which plagues the earth. allow us to see clearly and insightfully through the chaos and through the noise and the distractions that are being thrust upon us. Let us recognize that we do have one primary job and that everything else that we do is subject to that. Let us be a people of the gospel. Let us be a people always declaring the truth that Christ is King and that we have no king but Jesus. It's in His name we pray and for His glory alone. Amen.