Our sermon text this morning comes from Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, we're going to focus in particular on the middle section of our passage. The text will be verses 18 through 25. It's a very rich passage. We won't cover all of the themes in it, but focus on what it teaches about the creation, God's purposes for the world that he's made. To give a little bit more of a context, we'll read from verse 12 and following. So Romans chapter eight, beginning at verse 12. Let's pay attention to God's holy word. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 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. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 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 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 have the first fruits of the spirit groan 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are grateful to you for your word. how it reveals to us all that we need to know for life, for godliness, for salvation. Teach us by it, we pray. Help us to be pliable under your hand. Encourage us, direct us, guide and strengthen, we ask in Christ's name, amen. Well, our passage this morning, brothers and sisters, is quite literally about a Christian worldview. that is a Christian view of the world itself, this creation, and how this creation all around us fits within God's redemptive purposes. Now, over the centuries, we have to confess that Christians have taken many and really quite different views of this topic. It's not been an easy one. On one extreme, just to give you some background, Think about how we approach this passage. Some in the history of the church have viewed this creation around us quite negatively as a source of temptation, as something that is corrupted, even morally corrupted, or at least morally corrupting. We can think here of the monks of the medieval church, for example, who thought that the things of the physical world weighed us down. and draw us after carnal pleasures. And so the solution, they thought, was to withdraw from involvement in this world as much as possible, have as little involvement in physical outward things in favor of that which they thought was spiritual. or on another extreme, a complete opposite view almost, some have viewed the present creation order, this world, so positively that they believe that Christian involvement in the world, Christian involvement in culture, Christian involvement in science, whatever it might be, is reversing the effects of the curse, even now, and slowly bringing about the full blessing that God originally intended for humanity to enjoy. We can think here of some modern viewpoints, particularly perhaps more radical, transformationalist perspectives. Christians who believe that through our activity as God's redeemed children, we are ushering in a kind of golden age of prosperity on earth by our involvement in art or science or culture of other kinds. Clearly, there's quite a span of difference between those two extremes. The earth on the one hand is thought of as a part of our problem, something to be rid of or avoid involvement with, or the earth is viewed as something in and through which we will experience full blessing now, or at least eventually here during the course of history. Well, in Paul's day, when he wrote to the Roman church, many different views were on offer as well. And so some of those seem to have been affecting the Roman church, if we read chapter 14 in particular of Romans, see how some of that played out. We won't get into all of that, but for our purposes in our passage, Paul sets out here to describe several crucial aspects of a Christian worldview. What are we to think of this world? What are we to understand about this creation and its position, its relationship to God's purposes? We'll look at this passage then under three basic questions. What really is the problem with the creation right now? What is the solution that God ordains? And how then should we respond as Christians to all of that? Firstly then, what is the problem with creation? One of the first things we should notice about our passage is how the problem that leads Paul to talk about the creation at all is the problem of Christian suffering. That's where he starts in verses 17 and 18. Verse 17, he says that we are God's children if we suffer with Christ in order that we might also be glorified with Him in the future. This then leads to the broader statement in verse 18 that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us in the future. And it's that then that leads to a narrower consideration of creation itself, especially in verses 19 through 22, where we will mainly focus. It's especially then a desire to explain Christian suffering that prompts Paul to write about what's wrong with the creation in a more general way. The reason for this has to do with how people often wrongly view suffering. Many people in Paul's day, and really many people in our day as well, believed that the creation was designed, even now, to work in favor of and confer blessing on those who are righteous. Those who are in favor with God. will experience blessing through the creation. On this view, if you're following God's will and doing what is right, this somehow puts you in harmony with the world around you as God has made it, and therefore you should expect blessing and prosperity. On the flip side, if you are experiencing suffering or hardship, this must be because of your sin. Viewing the world this way involves several serious distortions. Certainly, it is true that the Lord may send particular difficulties into Christians' lives because of particular sins. Scripture teaches this. In order that the Lord might chasten us, in order that the Lord might discipline and grow us. And so it's right when we do encounter suffering, right for us to examine ourselves, to see if, in fact, we are in hardness of heart in some way or in rebellion, that the Lord may seek to bring conviction in our lives. This much is true. But it is also just as true that not all suffering is a response to any specific sin in people's lives. The book of Job, for example, helps make that particularly clear, doesn't it? Suffering in this world is not necessarily a sign of God's disfavor in scripture, just as prosperity in this world is also not, in and of itself, a sign of God's favor. Reflect on this just for a moment. In this world, it is often the wicked who prosper most outwardly, physically, maybe even financially. And in this world, it is often God's children who experience the greatest difficulty, particularly due to persecution, but other things as well. Even just in Romans 8, Paul speaks about how Christians suffer under the natural order as it is right now. They suffer at times hunger. Of course, they suffer, all of us eventually, if Christ tarries, suffer death. Evidently then, the whole idea that this world naturally works to bless the righteous, or the idea that the righteous live in greater harmony with creation and so experience prosperity is simply not a true generalization. That's not the way God has set things up. Yes, the Lord may bless us in this life for our faithfulness. We pray that he does, but he also may not. Indeed, for some, their outward prosperity is really a fearful sign that the Lord is not disciplining them and chastening them as they need, but giving them over to what their heart desires by way of mere outward and physical prosperity. Paul actually goes on in our passage to describe a whole different kind of harmony, if you will, between creation and Christians right now. It's not a harmony in the midst of great prosperity, but it's a harmony in suffering, a shared experience of limitation, of frustration, and of longing, or as he says, groaning for something greater than what we have right now. as we bear up under present futility, as we bear up under the desire for greater glory. In verse 22, Paul describes creation groaning for freedom from corruption. Verse 23, he describes Christians groaning for future redemption. And then in verse 26, which we didn't read, he even describes the Holy Spirit Himself groaning within us as he intercedes for us through our prayers. Well, why all this groaning? Why a harmony of groaning? Well, when it comes to the creation itself, verse 19 of our passage says, this groaning is because creation has been subjected to futility. Verse 21 then describes creation currently being in bondage to corruption. It labors under these things at present. Now the term futility here needs to be understood carefully. It refers to lack of productivity or lack in particular of the ability to produce a lasting good. There are many, of course, temporary goods that we see in creation. many good things that God gives us in and through it, but these are transient, they're temporary, and they're often very easily undone or thwarted. You notice that this term, futility, as it's translated here, is a term that's used, it's probably most famous for how often it's used in the book of Ecclesiastes, often translated there as vanity or emptiness or some translations even say meaninglessness, which probably isn't the best translation, but futility is a very good translation. The book of Ecclesiastes describes how, while we may experience many good things in this life, and Solomon, of course, himself describes how he experienced pretty much more than anybody else as an ancient king, went out to explore the goodness of this world. Still, while we may experience many good things in this life, there is a final emptiness that we also experience in each of these good things, because they're temporary. because they're easily undone and because ultimately they are not fully and completely satisfying. In fact, Ecclesiastes observes, and this is important for our passage, Ecclesiastes observes signs of futility at work even in the very basic design of creation right now. Ecclesiastes 1 sees futility in the endless repetition of cycles over and over and over in the natural world that don't accomplish anything lasting or achieve any progress. Ecclesiastes says this, the sun rises, the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north. Around and around goes the wind, and on its circuit the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness. What has been is what will be. What has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 2 comments in a similar way about the constant back and forth and back and forth of the seasons of seed time and harvest. But then, of course, you need another seed time and another harvest, and back and forth and back and forth. In such things, the present design of creation has clear limits to it. God's creation is good, yes. And so we're able to plant in the spring, harvest in the fall, and what a blessing that is. But then we must simply repeat with no end in sight, all simply to maintain existence as it is now. It's good as far as it goes, but there's no lasting change in it. And our hearts long for something with greater permanency, with greater fullness, with greater satisfaction to it. This illustrates the kind of frustration or futility built into the world right now as God has designed it. As good as it is, this creation is simply not designed in its present form. to give us what is ultimate. Pleasure comes and it vanishes. It's not sustainable. You should notice that this in itself is not simply due to sin. The problem of creation isn't only the problem of sin. It is also the problem of the limitations of creation at present. It's more basic. The present design of the creation order is literally filled with these constantly repeated cycles again and again, producing no ultimate end. We can no more change this ourselves than we can change the seasons. We can no more change this ourselves than we could make the streams not flow into the sea, or the path of the wind not circulate the globe. Yet, of course, we know that changes of that magnitude are exactly what Scripture says God will one day bring himself. Revelation chapter 21 describes the final future for the creation after Jesus' return, and it describes this surpassing fullness that it will have. In that future scenario there, John sees a new world in which there is no more sun or moon or stars or sea. And the tree of life described there, producing fruit constantly every month. not in a natural way that could possibly be accomplished here below, but in a new and fuller and final way. And whatever all that means exactly, and we won't get into all of that here, it certainly means this, that the present futility of creation will one day be transcended, will one day be surpassed. And yet at present, that's not the case. So Paul says, the creation groans. Of course, we know as well that sin greatly aggravates and complicates and worsens the situation. It brings about greater futility and it brings about as well what Paul describes as a bondage to corruption. Ever since Adam and Eve's first sin and God's response with a curse in response to that sin in Genesis 3, Ever since then, the unending cycles of seasons are also filled with thorns and thistles and other kinds of futility. Now, due to sin, what we build in this world can be blown over by storms or stolen by enemies. And our days and our years are also marred by sickness and ultimately death. This is certainly a large part of what Paul refers to then as the bondage to corruption. The greatest expression of corruption or decay is, of course, in the grave itself, which is, of course, an effect of sin. All of this helps explain then, again, why creation longs for something new. longs for a transcendent reality, something that will go beyond the futility that we see now, something beyond the corruption that we see all around us. This is the problem as our passage describes it. Full blessing, full satisfaction, permanent good cannot be produced within the present creation order, waits for something greater. The ravages of sin only make it worse in the meantime. What then is the solution? At this point, it should be clear from our passage that the problem that creation groans underneath is a basic problem, a far-reaching problem. Given the extent of the problem then, Some have taken the position, I mentioned it before, that the solution is simply for creation to go away, to be destroyed, to be annihilated. Creation is part of our problem, so creation must be eliminated. However, our passage speaks as clearly as any passage in scripture in the opposite direction. It says that the creation itself has a clear hope for it, a future that it eagerly awaits, verse 19. Verse 21, the future involves being set free from this bondage to corruption and obtaining freedom and glory. Groans now, but that groaning is not just a groaning of suffering and sorrow, it's a groaning of expectation. Verse 22 says that this groaning is like the groaning of childbirth, which is, of course, a groaning underneath true pain, yes, but a groaning in hope, a groaning in expectation for something new. or something joyful. So the futility of creation, such as it is, and it is very real, is still not a final futility. It's temporary. The groaning of creation is not just a groaning of giving up or of expiring. It's rather a groaning of expectation. So we have to be clear then that God's creation was not made in order to simply be destroyed. God's creation was made in order to ultimately obtain blessing, glory even, freedom, as this passage describes. But how? How will this come about? It's important to note also that this hope for creation does not come about from within creation. This hope for creation does not come about through the creation itself or through our human activity within it. We see this especially because we note in our passage when this hope will be realized. When will this transcendence of futility come about? This new world order. Verse 19 says that what creation waits for is something connected to the revelation of the children of God. Verse 21 speaks about creation obtaining freedom, and that freedom too is connected to the freedom that we will one day experience, the glory that we will one day experience, described as the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And yet we know from Scripture, and even from Romans 8 itself, that God's children will only be revealed, that is, made visible before all to see. And God's children will only be glorified the day of resurrection. That's why Paul describes, he goes right to that topic in verse 23, the creation groans and we ourselves groan, and what do we groan for together? We groan together for the day of the redemption of our bodies, the day of resurrection. And what is true of us now only inwardly, Now inwardly we possess already the Spirit of God, testifies within our hearts that we are God's children, and yet outwardly, read 2 Corinthians 4 for example, outwardly we still waste away. Inwardly we're being renewed day by day by the Spirit in our hearts, yet outwardly our bodies remain unchanged, they remain frail, they remain subject to sickness. weakness, and even, of course, ultimately death. And so this is what creation and we ourselves look forward to. That is when it will be fully revealed who God's children are upon Christ's return at the resurrection. Our bodies will be raised from the dead, and they will be fully glorified. We will be glorified not just within, but outwardly as well. This is the time that creation also longs for, the day when God's children will be redeemed and creation itself will be freed from bondage to corruption. Of course, this means that the solution for creation will not emerge in the midst of history. The solution for creation will not emerge because of our human activity here and now. Instead, it will come about by God's direct intervention, transforming with his own power. Just as God has himself placed limitations on the creation right now, he has ordained this futility that creation labors under. So it is that he himself will one day liberate his creation from futility and from the bondage of corruption. That is why, brothers and sisters, Paul says in verses 24 to 25 that what creation and what Christians wait for is not something seen at the present time, but it's a matter of still future hope. Important to speak to this in our own day, our modern period. Because of a variety of things that are put on offer to us as supposed solutions to our sense of emptiness. Whatever it is, brothers and sisters, that science or technology may offer us. And there are many good things, and we're very thankful for that. Medical progress in particular. Whatever it is that science may offer us, whatever it is that Christian endeavors in art or politics or other cultural areas may or may not produce between now and the resurrection, our passage still teaches this, that those benefits, that progress, as good as it might be, will not solve this problem. These things can only bring a limited change, change by degree. These changes that technology, that progress, that science bring will always exist right alongside of the futility, the corruption, and the suffering of God's people till Christ returns. In other words, the changes that might come during history will not bring about the more radical, the more fundamental transformation of the visible world that we all ultimately need and long for. Permanent good. Change from corruption to incorruption. from mortality to immortality, from futility to complete and final fullness. Present time, Paul speaks of in verse 18. Present time, when we as Christians experience suffering, is the time all the way up to the resurrection. Thirdly, how then should we respond? If this is the problem, as this passage at least describes it, if this is the solution that we look for in the future for God to remake and renew creation according to His own power, radically transforming it, then how should we respond? I think, in short, the answer is, with certainty, and with patience, certainty and patience. But I want to give three things here. The first is this, we should be clear that Paul tells us all of this in order to assure us of a final outcome by God's own doing, to give us confidence, to give us certainty about our future, even in the midst of our experience of suffering, even in the midst of hardship, even in the midst of futility and corruption. We all go through great adversity in this life. We're reminded of it many times, but we're reminded of it, for example, in the pastoral prayer. How many of the needs in this church do we ever get to in that prayer? We get to many of them. We seek to. So many things of necessity, of course, go not directly mentioned. It'd be impossible to mention them all. Christians do indeed, we all do, experience great hardship. This personal experience of difficulty can be fatiguing, and in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of that hardship, it can be tempting to ask ourselves if something is wrong with us. Is the Lord unhappy with me? Is the Lord just not paying attention? Is this message of the Christian faith and the Christian hope not really true? We see the prosperity of some unbelievers compared to the adversity that believers face. This could add to our sense of doubt and even unfortunately some Christians or some supposed Christians give false counsel and a false message in this regard. If you really trust Christ, you can have your best life now. Really? Is that what this passage says? The problem with that message, among other things, other than it's just being wrong, is that it casts you upon yourself to say, well, I guess I'm just not believing enough. Man, I thought I believed in the Lord. I guess I don't. I'm in the middle of this hard situation. Really a very diabolical message in the end, even though it sounds so cheery and hopeful. It's not real. It's an illusion. Paul tells us right up front here, the present time is ordained by God to include things like futility, like corruption, like suffering. And so, brothers and sisters, it shouldn't be a surprise to us and it shouldn't scandalize us. It should also not fundamentally discourage us. Yes, it's discouraging in one sense, but the bigger picture is full of encouragement because All of what we see now by way of suffering is something under God's control. It's something that he's ordained, that he understands what it is. He's even willed for it to be this way in order that he might bring about through it and after it something far surpassingly better. Paul says that the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing. with the glory to be revealed to us in the end. Think about that. Statement is not made by somebody who is unfamiliar with suffering, isolated from hardship. Statement was made, I dare say, by someone who understood and experienced more suffering than anybody in this room. And yet Paul knows. He looks true and real suffering in the eye and he says, not worth comparing. Brothers and sisters, the futility that you experience in your life right now, the sense of emptiness, the sense of longing for something greater, and also the hardship. These things are not out of God's control. Rather, they are ordained as something that God will use, among other things, to train us, to teach us not to look to what we see now for our meaning. Not to look to what we see now for our satisfaction, for our fullness, for our sense of purpose. So we look with a sure and certain hope to the future. Secondly, this passage teaches us to put our hope not in what is visible right now, but what is invisible. This is stated very clearly in verse 24. I want you to understand something here, what that means. It means, brothers and sisters, that we cannot measure the progress of the gospel by looking all around us and observing. We cannot measure the progress or lack of progress of the gospel as we might think of it by listening to the evening news. We cannot measure the progress or lack of progress of the gospel by getting updates about what bill has or hasn't made progress in the Senate or the Congress. What we hope for ultimately is something that far transcends all such things. On the negative side, we should not be fundamentally disheartened by what we see around us today, whether it's here in America or whether it's elsewhere. If Christians experience more suffering now or less suffering now, in and of itself, that doesn't tell us if the gospel is succeeding. If Christ's cause is advancing, or put positively, if Christians experience great outward prosperity and peace right now, that doesn't also mean that things are going well. Some of the greatest occasions for Christian witness over the centuries, some of the greatest advances for the church have come in periods of persecution and suffering, even martyrdom. And of course, some of the greatest periods of self-reliance and pride and apathy for the Christian church have come in periods of prosperity and success. Must remember then, we don't track the progress of the kingdom through political or cultural or other kinds of success outwardly here. We don't listen to the evening news and discern if it's been a good day or a bad day in the cause of Christ. No, we look up into heaven. We see Jesus Christ exalted above all on the throne. We look in our hearts, we see His Spirit at work there, testifying that we are His children, God's children, fellow heirs with Christ, even if we suffer with Him. in order that we may be glorified with him. We look at these things, these things that are not visible to the eye, these things that certainly don't appear on the news, these things that we can't measure, these things that we can't even fully comprehend, and we rejoice because we know that even apart from outward circumstances, either good outward circumstances or bad outward circumstances, even apart from that, we have a sure, and a certain and a glorious hope guaranteed to us by God in Christ. Nothing is fundamentally out of order in this world. Isn't that good news? Nothing is fundamentally out of control in this world. God, who has ordained this period of futility and suffering as also ordained to far transcend it, the glory that we can't even imagine. Finally, as we put our hope in what remains invisible, Paul exhorts us to wait for it with patience. Of course, this is not meant to say that as we wait, we do nothing. Wait for it with complete inactivity. No, that's not the point. Paul elsewhere, for example, in Colossians 3, exhorts us to work, to work heartily, to work from our hearts as unto the Lord in all things that we do. The question is not whether we are to serve God actively in our lives. We certainly are to do that. We are meant to do that. The question though, brothers and sisters, is where does your hope lie? Does it lie in the productivity of your work? Or does it lie in God himself and his transcendent promise? God may indeed choose to bless our efforts in this world to bring about some change now, a degree of change, some betterment perhaps, maybe even just for a time. God himself will directly, and by his own intervention, by the return of his son, by the resurrection of the dead, and by the transformation of this entire cosmos, do a greater, a catastrophic, and a glorious work. That is what our hope is in, and that is why we can and should be patient. Suffering of this present time is a suffering that we should undergo in the mode of patience. The work of this present time, all that we're given to do with our hands, is a work that we should endeavor after with patience, waiting for God to still himself do something far surpassingly greater. We look at what we see around us. If our hope is in visible progress and change, there's really one of two options here. We either become restless or we become fearful and despairing. We don't become patient. Even as we work for the good of this world, even as we seek to be a blessing to those around us, even as we follow after God with all of our hearts, giving all that we can to Him now in this life, we still wait with patience for something far surpassingly greater. That is our hope. That is what the Lord promises. So we pray this morning that God would be pleased to give us the certainty and the patience that's described here. We pray this morning that God would wet our appetites for that age to come, that we would long for it all the more, not be satisfied with what we see around us. We pray as well that God would be pleased to bring that day soon, to return to us, to transform all things something that beyond all we can ask or imagine. Let's pray together. Gracious God, we are privileged to have you describe here what it is that we can expect now and what it is that we can expect in the future. We ask, our Lord, that you would train us and discipline us not to be drawn in merely by what our eyes see, but to hear your word by faith to be more attentive to the reality of heaven now, to be more attentive to the reality of the new heavens and the new earth to come, the future that awaits us after Christ's return than we are to the passing and changing course of this and that thing in this age. Give us this maturity, we ask. Make us steadfast. Encourage our hearts with the confidence that all things are in your control. and bring us into this hope everlasting for our good and for your glory. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.