Life According to the Spirit, Part 6

If you would take your Bibles
and turn back once again to Rome, we are in the midst of a very
lengthy passage and very specifically we are in the midst of our consideration
of sanctification, but more specifically the Holy Spirit’s role in that
process. God has given to us divine assistance. The framework, the groundwork,
the foundation, if you will, was laid in our Lord Jesus Christ,
and those things are articulated in the first 11 verses. But then
in verses 12 through 27, Paul turns his attention and that’s
where we are on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the
believer. I want to jump right in. If you
would take your Bibles, look at Romans 8, beginning in verse
12. in order to set the context. So, then, brethren, we are under
obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.
For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But
if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body,
you will live. For all who are being led by
the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have
not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you
have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out,
Abba, Father, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also heirs
of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with
him in order that we also may be glorified with him. For I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed
to us. For the anxious longing of the
creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will,
but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation
itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption.
into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we
know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains
of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also
we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we
ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption
as sons, the redemption of our body for in hope we have been
saved. But hope that is seen is not
hope, for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope
for what we do not see with perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. And we have said that the Holy
Spirit is not just responsible for conviction. The Holy Spirit
is not just responsible for bringing us to life out of the dead, for
bringing us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit
does not just do those works and then stand back, but the
Holy Spirit is intimately and deeply active and at work in
our lives. We saw that there so far are
four specific things that the Holy Spirit has done and is doing
in the life of the believer. First of all, we saw that the
Holy Spirit is the one that gives mortification of sin that leads
to life. That is the putting to death
of those deeds of the flesh, the deeds of the body, as Paul
calls it here. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit
is the one that gives guidance that reveals us as sons. That’s the second great work
of the Holy Spirit in this passage. Anyone. who is truly being led
about by the Holy Spirit, who is truly a follower and being
led and instructed and guided by the Holy Spirit, is revealed
as a son. That God doesn’t just provide
this kind of guidance to anyone, but only his children. The third
thing that we saw is that the Holy Spirit is the one by God’s
design that creates and cultivates and communicates an acceptance
that engenders affection. We are so accepted by God that
we love him. We love God because he first
loved us. But the one that we’re in the
midst of, and this is a lengthy one, and that’s why we’ve taken
three weeks now running just to begin to deal with this. We’re
not going to finish today. The fourth element of divine
assistance that the Holy Spirit provides not only mortification
and guidance and acceptance, but the fourth element that the
Holy Spirit provides is an affirmation that promises an inheritance.
It promises us an inheritance. The Holy Spirit so interfaces
with us as Christians and gives us such a sense of affirmation
that we have no doubt, not only that we are forgiven, but that
one day we will enjoy an inheritance. We’ve seen what that is, it’s
God himself, we’ve seen that when we inherit, we inherit with
Christ. We partake of those things with
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul lays these things out
to us quite explicitly in verses 16 and 17. Look down again at
the passage. The Spirit himself bears witness.
We took it to be that profound interaction with the Spirit that
through conviction, through his leadership in our lives, through
affirming the things that God’s Word teaches, we so know that
the Holy Spirit is affirming us. The Holy Spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God. We come
away with no doubts. And there’s no doubt that Christians
in this life are going to have seasons, moments, even lengthy
episodes of doubt, of doubtfulness. of wondering whether they are
truly saved. But in the end, the Holy Spirit
comes to the rescue and again brings us to repentance and again
invigorates the heart of the Christian and again affirms him. That he is a child of God, and
if he’s a child. Well, if he’s a child, verse 17 says that he’s
an heir. The passage goes on to say that
if we’re an heir, what are we an heir of? We’re an heir of
God himself. We one day will inherit God himself. We will be with him and enjoy
him for an eternity. There’s one caveat, and we began
it last week. The one caveat, the one condition. Is that we suffer with him? The
passage reads like this, the spirit bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God and if children heirs also,
if indeed we suffer with him. in order that we may also be
glorified with it. See, the suffering has a purpose.
It’s not just that we go out and we find some difficult situation
to place ourselves in so that we can enjoy some suffering so
that one day we will be. That’s not it at all. There have
been those ascetics throughout Christian history that thought
the more they abused their body, the more suffering they put themselves
through. The more saved they would be.
It’s just a silly point. It’s a silly thought. It’s not
true. Suffering is part of the Christian
life and that we must be willing to suffer. And that suffering
is part and parcel of the Christian life. Christ suffered and we
will suffer with Christ as we walk through this Christian life.
And as I’ve suggested in weeks past, Paul essentially enters
into a dialogue Perhaps with somebody who doesn’t agree with
him wholeheartedly. Paul says, look, you’re a you’re
a child of God. And if you’re a child of God,
you’re an heir. And if you’re an heir, you will one day inherit
God himself if if you suffer with Christ. And the cry would go up, and
it does, and it does often, doesn’t it? But Paul, our suffering is
Prolonged and profound, you don’t even know what I’ve gone through,
Paul. And even as we’ve already prayed. Who had this kind of
suffering in mind two weeks ago when we entered in, who knew
that nearly 200 families would lose their homes? You have no idea what I’ve been
through, Paul. And Paul says, for I consider
the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that is to be revealed to us. He almost rubbed
salt in the wound. Look, don’t tell me about your
sufferings. I don’t want to hear about your sufferings. Stack
them all up, pile them up, if you will, but they don’t even
compare. And it’s almost, as I said, if we
don’t have the Holy Spirit, if we don’t really know where Paul’s
coming from, if we don’t know what Paul’s been through, we
would think that that is a harsh. Unforgivable statement. How can
you possibly say that Paul? Well, simple verse 19 says it
for the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing
of the sons of God. God has a purpose to it and there
is a glorious end. And the very suggestion that
this is God’s doing is again insult upon insult to the child
who does not know God. To the person learning that salvation
or that rather sufferings have a purpose, a God ordained purpose. What is that purpose? Look at
verse 20, for the creation was subjected to futility, pardon
me, to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who
subjected it in hope. In hope that the creation itself
also will be set free from its slavery to corruption. Into the
freedom of the glory of the children of God. Now, we set the context
last week and I did it all for one purpose. We went through that lengthy
section. Of Second Corinthians, and I
did it just to show you that this is not a novice in suffering. This is not what some would call
a piker, someone who makes this grand statement that really he
isn’t prepared or able to even back up. Paul is not writing
checks his body can’t cash. Paul knows about which he speaks. And this is what we went through
in lengthy fashion. And the reason that I did it was to show you
that Paul knows suffering. Paul knew well suffering. Second
Corinthians 1123, just listen briefly. Are they servants of Christ?
They speak as if in saying, I far more so, and far more labors,
and far more imprisonments. Beaten times without number,
often in danger of death. Five times I received from the
Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with
rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.
The night and the day I spent in the deep. I’ve been on frequent
journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers
from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the
city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea. dangers among
false brethren. I’ve been in labor and hardship
through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without
food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such things, there
is daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.” And I
would say that that was the one that took the toll on him the
worst. That’s probably what produced the sleepless nights. In fact,
hasn’t even concern and care for God’s people even produced
those seasons in our life where we can’t even take food? It has. It did for Christ and it does
for all of God’s shepherds. We went through each one of those,
and I took my time with them all, six, seven pages of notes,
looking at each one, each episode from the biblical accounts and
then all of the ones that weren’t even recorded in Scripture. Why would I do that? Because
I wanted you to see that Paul was no novice. Paul wasn’t a
newcomer to suffering. Paul isn’t just making this insensitive
bluff. Paul knew exactly what he was
talking about. Paul knew suffering. And when he says. That I consider. We looked at that word and remember,
this wasn’t just a casual Cheap, if you will, conclusion that
he had drawn. This is something that after
examining all the data, after weighing all the facts, Paul
came to an absolutely settled and established conviction. I
consider I’ve weighed them all. I put all the sufferings in one
category and the glory of God in the other. I put them on the
scales, if you will, of justice, all of the sufferings and the
glory that one day we will receive. Paul says it’s not worthy to
be compared, they don’t even belong on the same scale. These sufferings, these sufferings,
he says, that are merely those of the present time. And we talked
about those other parallel statements in Scripture. Romans 818 says
it that I consider the sufferings of the present time aren’t worthy
to be compared, but the echo is throughout Scripture, not
limited just to these, but these are such excellent examples that
we cited them last Lord’s Day. Second Corinthians 417. Second
Corinthians 417 says for momentary light affliction, that’s what
Paul considered he had been through shipwrecks and beatings. stonings
to literally death’s door. All of that, Paul said, is momentary
and light. It’s passing. It’s of the present
time, as Paul says here in Romans. Peter said it as well, and Peter
knew suffering also. When Peter said in 1 Peter 1,
verse 6 and 7, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now the
sufferings of the present time Even though now for a little
while, if necessary, if God deems it necessary, you have been distressed
by various trials. Paul knew suffering. Paul knew
affliction. Paul knew these difficulties
and he considers them momentary and light in view of eternal
glory that he would one day enjoy. Paul says there is glory that
one day we are going to enjoy as Christians. And the glory
that he’s talking about is not only that of being resurrected
to be with Christ, but to be literally perfected in Christ
and to go and to be with Christ and God in glory forever. To
literally be immersed into glory. The glory that he’s talking about
here is future. It is ahead of us. It is promised. In a very real sense, we’ve already
gotten a glimpse, a foretaste as the hymns speak of the glory
of God. 1 Peter 5.4 says, when the chief
shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
And no, I don’t believe it’s a literal crown. We will be immersed
in the glory of God. Paul says, because of that, you
can’t even begin to compare. You can’t compare the glory of
God with these meager, paltry, momentary, fleeting sufferings
that we endure. And throughout Paul’s epistles,
Paul dwells on this great theme. Ephesians 3.10 speaks of the
manifold wisdom of God that now may be known through
the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly
places, there is already in a very real sense an anchor in glory. Colossians 3,4 says when Christ,
who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed
with him in glory. No wonder Paul says that a life
of glory, a life of being perfected in Christ, a life, an eternity,
with God makes even the worst of earthly sufferings, even the
loss of one’s home, even the loss of a loved one. It makes
it to pale in comparison with laying hold of eternal glory
that is unfading. As one concluded from Paul’s
understanding of the gospel, He was absolutely convinced that
the sufferings of this present time are only a very slight thing
in comparison with the glory that would in time be revealed.
The question to us. Is what is our perspective on
sufferings? Because we get quite myopic, we get quite focused
on our sufferings and we want to talk of that’s all we want
to talk about sometimes. How bad our work situation is.
How bad our health situation is. How bad our life station
is. How difficult things are for us. When Paul says in the
final analysis, they don’t even belong in the same conversation. They don’t measure up. Christian suffering, said one,
protracted as it may be, is only this present life. Which when
compared with the everlasting ages of glory, the glory which
is leading but a passing moment, affliction for Jesus sake, however
crushing it may seem, is in fact a weightless trifle when weighed
against the mass of the Christians inherited glory. And you say, well, that is just
an amazing statement. How on earth How do you draw
that conclusion, Paul? It’s almost harsh, as I said
a moment ago, to say that to someone who is in the midst of
suffering, as many of us are, various degrees of suffering.
And if I were to come up to you at the recounting of your difficulties
of life and I were to say, your sufferings aren’t worthy to be
compared, you would have a similar reply to Paul. How on earth can
you say that, Paul? And essentially what Paul says
in the verses that follow is hope, there’s hope. The sufferings
aren’t the end in themselves, but the hope of something greater.
Look at verse 19. For the anxious longing of the
creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Now, the little word for obviously
points us back to verse 18 and it links it. It subordinates
it to that verse. We know that it’s talking about
that. But specifically, what about
that verse is Paul playing on? He says a number of things in
verse 18 that the glory that is to be revealed to us is a
great glory. It’s very great. He also says
and intimates that it is certain it is sure if we suffer, we will
be glorified. But he also points to the future
element of it, that it’s off in the future and one day to
be realized, and in a sense, which one is Paul playing on
here in verse 19? And I would suggest that the
main idea of verse 18 is the fact that glory is future. That
it goes beyond it so far above and beyond these present day
sufferings. That it really ought to be more
in focus in the believer’s life. Look at the passage again. And
he says, for the anxious longing of the creation, we want to unpack
a little bit of this, this ancient longing is a It’s a very graphic
word, it literally means an outstretched head as if you’re yearning and
straining to see something. And it refers to an earnest expectant event that you just know of a
certainty is going to be. And just check your heart. I
know what my own says says frequently. When you’re in the midst of suffering,
when you’re in the midst of trials, when you’re undergoing some difficulty,
you’re not exactly straining expectantly to see and to experience
glory, are you? It’s hardly that we have a confident
expectation of God’s glory of spending eternity with God, but
that’s exactly what Paul says. is taking place here in this
verse. But we’re only halfway there.
Look again at the passage for he says for the anxious longing
of creation. This isn’t I’ll tell you upfront,
this isn’t something that applies to believers anyway. The anxious
longing is not the anxious longing of the Christian. And I’ll tell
you why, as we go through this, there’s a number of different
options of what is implied by creation. And as I have a tendency
to do, I’m going to tell you each one of them and then we’re
going to poke holes in them and then we’ll land on a spot and
I’ll tell you why we’re there. One option was to say that this
refers to the entirety of creation, anything God ever created, mankind,
believers, unbelievers, all the angels, every created thing,
rocks, trees, all of it. Some said that it refers only
to mankind, only the rational creatures. Some said it refers
only to unbelieving mankind. That was easy to do away with.
Some said that it refers to believers only, and I’ve already told you
what I think about that one. Some said that it refers to angels
only. Which will be easy to do away
with. Some said that it has to do with what we call nature.
We’ll get back to that one. You see, the problem is with
lumping angels into this. Which takes out the first option
and the fifth option, if you’re keeping track, is that the Bible
doesn’t say anything anywhere about angels longing for redemption
because angels don’t need redemption. They can’t long for redemption
because they’re not corrupt in the first place, they’re not
decaying, they’re not they undergo no moral decay. They undergo
no physical decay. Angels are not longing for redemption. As one pastor said, while the
good angels are not only deeply interested in this work of redemption,
yet they are not in a sense partakers of the redemption of Christ.
They are not burdened with the consequences of man’s apostasy,
nor can they be represented as longing for deliverance from
that burden. OK, we’ve done away with angels.
And if you do away with angels, you do away with option one and
five, as I said. What about the option of all
mankind? Every rational creature is longing
anxiously. Well, that can hardly be said
of the unbelieving world, can it? That they have an earnest expectation
and hope that they’re longing to see the sons of God. They’re
longing to see the redemption of God’s elect. Can we say that
the unbelievers who are so steeped in their own sin, so blinded
by their own lusts? Can we say that they’re actually
looking up, craning their neck, longing to see God’s work done
in God’s people? It’s a silly idea. Some said, That it’s only unbelieving
mankind, and that’s an even sillier idea. An earnest expectation of the
redemption of God’s elect does not characterize those people,
and it really reduces us just to a few few possibilities now. Don’t worry if you didn’t write
them down, if you’re not keeping track, you know that I’ll. Lay
this out for you, there’s essentially two prominent explanations. We’ve already done away with
one to suggest that this is the deep longing of mankind, as one
put it. The deep longing of mankind for
a better future. And they even went so far as
to even suggest along the lines of what our current society is
engaged in, in this whole green initiative. Boy, if we could
only grab hold and preserve this society. If we’d only secure
a brighter future for ourselves, both economically and environmentally,
it just is goofy. And it’ll get goofier as you
see the problem. The only other option is to consider
this sixth and final option of what the creation was referring
to, it’s It’s the creation distinguished completely apart from man as
one referred to it as the non-intelligent universe. You say, well. Who does that talk about? Not
talking about a person at all, not talking about people, not
talking about believers, not talking about unbelievers. It’s
certainly not talking about Satan and the devil. It’s not talking
about angels at all. The only, as one pastor said,
the only remaining part of creation is the non rational part, including
animals and plants and all inanimate things such as mountains, rivers,
plains, seas, heavenly bodies. And you said, what? Are you kidding me? The anxious
longing of the creation, you’re talking about rocks and trees
longing to see the sons of God revealed. He’s finally flipped. No, bear with me. There are all
kinds of places in Scripture where rocks rejoice, where trees
cry out, where even inanimate things utter prayer to God. As one said, the prophetic representations
of the messianic period set forth not only inanimate nature, the
deserts, mountains and forests as rejoicing in the new order
of things, but also even the beasts of the field. Go with
me just in your mind’s eye to a number of scriptures and you’ll
know them as you hear them. Psalm 96, 12. Let the field exult. What? An inanimate field, a whole
field full of dirt. Regardless of what’s planted
in it, let the field exalt and all that is in it, whether it’s
wheat or weeds or rocks or stones or trees, whatever is in that
field is called to exalt. Then all the trees of the forest
will sing for joy, what? That’s what Paul is saying. That’s
what Paul is saying. The entire inanimate creation
right now, even as we worship, the entire inanimate creation
is yearning, eagerly desiring the revelation of the sons of
God. Psalm 98. Psalm 98. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Well, you say, I’ve been to the
sea and I’ve heard it roar. And he’s not using that as an
anthropomorphism of worship. Well, bear with me. Listen to
the rest of Psalm 98. Let the sea roar and all it contains,
the world and all those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their
hands. What? Let the mountains sing
together for joy. Isaiah 35-1, the wilderness and
the desert will be glad. The Ereba will rejoice and blossom
like the crocus. Isaiah 55-12, you will go out
with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the
hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you. And all the
trees of the field will clap their hands. You know what? wasn’t unaware
of this phenomenon in Scripture. Jesus, as the maker of the universe,
warned those who chided. They chided those that were worshiping
him in Luke 1937. They were calling out to him,
blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace
in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in
the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But Jesus
answered, I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will
cry out. What? The only possible interpretation
that makes any sense, given the context of this passage in the
greater context of the Scriptures, is that it refers to the totality
of God’s creation apart from humans, apart from intelligent
creatures. Angels aren’t included. The human
race isn’t included. But all of creation is there
in the popular sense of the word we would call nature, the earth.
And all it contains, inanimate, animate, Creatures, the whole
of creation in that very real sense. Paul says is burdened
to the point of almost bursting, eagerly longing for deliverance. Look at the passage again, it
says, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly.
It’s longing. It’s passionately looking upward,
but it’s waiting patiently. It is trusting in a sovereign
God. It is. It is awaiting. It is awaiting with great anticipation,
but it is awaiting with patience. What is it waiting for? The anxious
longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of
the sons of God. You see in this. day in which
we live. As one pastor admonished. Sometimes
it’s hard, especially when you have this spirit of the day in
our churches, when the tendency is not to look more and more
like Christ, the focus is not that the initiative is not to
look more and more like Christ, but to look more and more like
the world. We want to look like the world. He says, the world is unable
to distinguish absolutely between Christians and nonbelievers.
People who call themselves Christians walk and dress and talk much
like everyone else. Many unbelievers have high standards
of behavior. You know, a lot of good people
that if if the world were the judge, they would say, well,
there goes. If you want to call him a Christian, that’s a Christian
right there. He’s living a Christian life because he’s good. Unfortunately,
it goes on to say many professing Christians give little evidence
of salvation. And so the world, the world is
the judge, the rocks and the trees, if they’re observing our
behavior, they don’t know who’s Christian and who isn’t. A frightened thought. True believers, if you are truly
in Christ, you are already sons of God, but it remains to be
seen, it remains to be revealed. In totality, who that is and
what Paul is pointing to here is the hope of a restored condition,
a restored state, if you will, to where we were before the fall.
When the earth then was cursed because of man’s transgression,
and you know where this is going, you know, Paul’s drift, I’m not
going to steal his thunder. We’ll go to Genesis three next
Lord’s Day and look at exactly where things went south. But
that is the orientation point. It is a restoration to that kind
of day and age. That’s why the earth is longing
and yearning. As one pointed out, the principal
point in the description of the apostle is that the subjection
of the creature to the bondage of corruption is not final or
hopeless. It’s not the situation that the
earth is stuck in forever. The leaves on the trees will
not always fall in autumn. Plants one day will bear fruit
consistently and regularly and the bugs will not feast on them. The situation is not final or
hopeless. The whole creation is to share
in the glorious liberty of the children of God. And many, you
know, the scriptures, many scriptures talk about the future state and
what things will be like in it. But the whole creation is envisioned
by Paul is looking forward eagerly. For the revealing of the sons
of God. Because that particularly particular event will mean glory
for the entire creation. In a sense, the very destiny
of nature is intimately intertwined. With that of God’s children. The sons of God. And in that
sense, there is great hope. The entire creation is hopeful.
Aren’t you? Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves in the midst of this long and even arduous passage,
and we ponder the very deep things of God that you have subjected
creation to futility. And that until Christ is revealed
in us, until your time when hope becomes reality, Father, creation
is literally longing, yearning for that day. Lord God, we rejoice. We rejoice in the hope that we
have in Christians. As Christians, we rejoice that
sufferings are not the end, but glory. Glory is the end. Lord, we thank You. We praise
You for Your Word. In Jesus’ name, amen.