well we continue our study tonight in the book of romans and i invite you to turn to romans chapter 8 at at verses of 18 through 27 tonight and that is found on page 1122 Romans 8 18 through 27 is our text let's give our attention to the word of the lord 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 not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies for in this hope 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 likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of god may the lord bless the hearing of his word tonight well paul has been in Romans 8 beloved in the lord paul has been in romans 8 presenting to us the great blessing and helping us to understand the christian life hasn't he of the spirit's work in the life of the christian that has been the crucial focus of romans chapter 8 to understand the person and the work of the Holy Spirit and what are the implications of that for the Christian very pastoral as we've been looking at the struggle against sin in chapter 7 and how the Christian is distinguished from the non-Christian as by the work of the Holy Spirit in his life and the chapter has been remarkably clear about this you'll remember he says here without the spirit we cannot be a christian uh he says this so um beautifully if anyone does not have the spirit of christ anyone who does not have the spirit of christ does not belong to him but if christ is in you then the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness nobody is a christian nobody is a true believer without the holy spirit he's simply saying And this is a marvel because he is helping us to understand what the Spirit is doing in the life of the believer. The evidences of that with the goal here of assurance. This really is the great chapter in the Bible on assurance. We remember last time he wanted to assure us that we have adoption as children, adoption as sons into God's family. And that it is the Spirit's work to bear witness in our hearts that we are children. That's a wonderful work of the Spirit. But sometimes that work is confusing for us. We have to say throughout history, especially in the church, people have not always been content with the work of the Spirit. We desire and we expect so much more on our terms. Kind of looked at that this morning. It's the confusion, I think, that creates for us uncertainty. Most people think of the Holy Spirit's work as something that is so extraordinary and something that is an outward manifestation of power. And we've had all kinds of movements in this regard. Enthusiast movements, tongue-speaking movements. For the holiest of people or those with the greatest gifts. i mean this was all in corinth that that we we have downplayed the very normal work of the holy spirit and that is so tied to what we learned of christ this morning it's not that we should think that the spirit's work and character is different from what we see in christ what we saw in christ's ministry it too is a kind of veiled work isn't it it too is a kind that the holy spirit's work is a kind of veiled work in that it doesn't bring a lot of outward attention. It doesn't distract us because the Spirit's great purpose is to bear witness to Christ and to show us Christ. So it won't be a ministry that's out of character with that All of that is to say that Paul is now explaining for us something, I think, that we fail to understand about the Spirit's work in the Christian life and that's what we're taking up tonight we have learned a lot of things here so far about the spirit how we are different from the wicked as the spirit is leading our lives that he's doing you'll remember the great focus the the hard work in our lives the challenging work one of the most difficult works of the spirit is something that doesn't get a lot of attention in the modern modern church today it's the hard work of mortifying or putting to death sin in our lives that's one of the chief works of the spirit he emphasized that if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live and then we looked at the spirit's word of reassuring us that adoption and inner testimony but i want you to look at the end of the last section where we ended off last time he said something rather shocking and paul was going to make a big issue of this so that we understand the spirit's work among us the spirit's work and witness is being tied to something something very important you'll notice look at verse 17 of the last section that we looked at the spirit himself 16 bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god and if children than heirs heirs of god and fellow heirs with christ here's here's the statement here's the lead statement for tonight's sermon provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him it's one of the works of the spirit and bearing witness and in His work in our lives is suffering. You don't get a lot of great movements, by the way, in history and a lot of great revivals entitling it the Spirit's work is to do this. It's hard. I mean, this is a very hard subject. But Paul wants to reframe our thinking on this. He mentions suffering now, and that's what he's working with in this section of Romans that we're looking. it includes, he includes the work of the Spirit working in us to suffer, you notice, with Christ. That's an amazing way to put it. That we may be glorified with Him. That's a great mystery of the Christian life. That's where it really gets difficult. That's where we find, obviously, putting to death sin is very challenging. But it all ties together with what's being described here. The mystery of the Christian life, the difficult thing that we struggle to understand. Why suffering? Why suffering? Paul, He doesn't want any of these Roman Christians. He knows this is a big confusion point for Christianity, especially in the first century, with all this desire for glory and a Roman Empire that was powerful and that everyone in this life seeks for glory, he didn't want them to think that the unique sufferings that... And this is a theology of suffering here, in that Paul viewed suffering as appointed. Remember in Philippians 1, he said, you are not only appointed to believe, so faith is appointed, but you are also appointed to suffer with Him. Your sufferings are appointed. How challenging is that to hear? He didn't want any of these early Christians and anyone reading this later to ever think that suffering meant that people are abandoned by God. It's quite the opposite. the particular appointed sufferings that come to us accomplish something that the Spirit is indeed working in us. That's his whole point here. They're accomplishing something. Whatever affliction. And suffering takes on all kinds of shapes and all kinds of forms here. He doesn't just include here persecution, or he would have said that. He mentions persecution at the end of chapter 8, but he's using sufferings as the general category of all of those pains, all of those difficulties, all those hardships that believers face in this life that are confusing for us, that are sudden for us, that are difficult for us, that make no sense and seem to indicate God-forsakenness. it's meant to be an immense encouragement tonight for us as we look at this so you'll notice from that lead there in chapter 17 in verse 17 where he talked about adoption and then that we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him i want you to notice now how he breaks into this subject and helps to reassure them in light of the difficulties because this is where people want to give up right here this is this is where people want to check out this is where they say that's enough and paul says let me help you with this for i consider that The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us he says something very powerful here whatever suffering comes in this life whatever suffering is appointed for you whatever suffering it literally means i it doesn't even bear comparison in this little moment of time to the glory that's soon to be revealed to us and us he's going to give we'll look at the glory here the sufferings of this present time all of them in whatever way they come at us between this period of the cross and the final glory of the resurrection which he mentioned earlier that the spirit who's going to give life to our mortal bodies in the resurrection the sufferings that we face i can't even begin to contrast what you're facing in the moment to that which is coming there are some passages you come to and you're really afraid As a pastor you're going to make things worse how do you describe this what is said here is beyond us and it was beyond Paul how do you communicate this it's kind of a tightrope to tell people this but it's so wonderful i think paul's struggling here i i think he's wrestling with how do you communicate the glory that is to come how do you even speak of that all paul could say to the corinthians was on this regard i has not seen nor ear heard nor entered in the heart of man the things that god's prepared for those who love him i can't even begin to describe it it's that wonderful it's that wonderful no one has seen it paul was caught up to the third heaven and saw things inexpressible with words he said but he was so afraid in that context of bringing too much attention to himself but this. glory of what he's talking about had not been fully manifested it's not been shown it's what he's talking about here: is so wonderful when the resurrection happens it's a glory that we will have that will dwell within us and a glory that we shall see john says it's not yet been revealed the children of god has not yet been revealed what we shall be but when he is revealed we shall when he comes in all of his glory we shall be like Him. we shall see him the purpose that paul is raising this is because he doesn't want believers to lose heart in the struggle i i think that's what tends to happen i remember when i was a young boy some of my father's teams there were guys on those teams he had some really good teams and there were guys on those teams who i just looked up to and thought so much about and i always want what happened to them and i remember one particular guy he was such a a great joyful joyful guy and he was always interested in me and i saw him later in life and he had been he was he was a police officer he had been so beat down his life went to shambles been so beat down and struggle um his children had had gone in bad directions i met him i didn't even recognize him this is what happens to people and you see these things wear people out these people this these things can change disposition and focus and trust and these things can really hurt people and challenge people and change people paul is helping us with that here there's purpose in all of this it's not even he says here that the suffering should be viewed this is where i found it hard that they should be viewed as an evil to avoid at all costs obviously no one wants to suffer and there's nothing wrong with trying to make a good go of life for ourselves but i think you all know there's very little we're in charge of there's very little that, we are in control of dad you say that to me stop worrying about what you can't control and Then he would say, by the way, it's not much. Paul is teaching us about suffering tonight. It's yielding something. It's doing something. It's creating something. Suffering, he says, is a pathway to glory. Training us to long for the glory that is to come. over and over in the scriptures you read these surprising statements therefore
We do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment notice the emphasis there is working for us it's doing something this affliction is working for us a far more exceeding weight of eternal glory notice he connected suffering with glory has a bearing on that paul had to learn this himself and my very suffering says paul christ is most revealed christ is most clear christ is most seen to me as i learned to trust him And wait upon him nobody says that's easy i'll come to your help in a minute But this is totally against our thinking this is this is totally against our thinking
We think that blessing blessing in this life which we all try to achieve is is when everything you know it goes it goes well and and children are doing great and everybody's making a good living and we're never struggling of course never wanting never thinking that living the paycheck to paycheck would ever be a good idea we want the picture perfect life we want picture your perfect children put great pressure on them to be that so we're trying to achieve as much as is possible something that will never be achievable in this life on purpose on purpose the minute anything goes wrong as we know in these situations we then struggle with questioning God's goodness and is he being kind to us or fair to us or why this and why that and we've addressed before people getting angry with God on these things how backward things are well scripture presents something kind of surprising doesn't It's the absence of trial it's the absence of suffering it's the absence of chastening and discipline that would be the exception that would be the exception i can't read the new testament and see it this way it doesn't mean that god doesn't give us a wonderful life to enjoy and many good gifts to enjoy but that this is expected it and paul says all of this is good for us in the sense that it's teaching us to long for what is to come in fact it produces in us a key word in this section is groaning it's a word that permeates this text groaning it means to sigh inwardly we never do this on the outside we don't ever really show people And this is why i'm sensitive to this i know people are often sighing inwardly even though they're smiling outwardly we sigh inwardly waiting anxiously for something well paul's going to show us this by saying your groanings have the great benefit of intensifying hope your groanings have the great benefit the inward laments the inward sighs have the great benefit of intensifying hope that makes you eagerly long and patiently wait for the glory that is to come now at this point paul does something rather surprising he he wants to teach us this and this is not abnormal to life this groaning goes on somewhere else and you can see it this groaning goes on in all of creation consider this god has so ordered things after the fall that everything around us in life in creation itself is groaning for glory look at verse 19 where he says for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of god for the creation was subject 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 the whole creation has been groaning together as in the pains of child birth until now he's talking about the very fact here about creation he almost personifies creation as if it were a person looking at all of creation this way to think of creation as a person for a minute think of it as a person just for a minute do you realize that creation itself is longing for this creation itself was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope creation is struggling creation is struggling the earth is struggling it? itself wants to be in a sense not by in The sinful categories and redemption categories that we have but but it wants to be redeemed it wants to be made new it's longing for this god subjected all of creation to this kind of frustration for you creation hadn't done anything wrong you know remember god cursed the ground because of us and then creation became subject to decay right away i mean it's a marvel that god so preserved creation so that we could still see its glory if you saw the pacific palisades after the fire he could have left It like that but he didn't but it's subject to decay it's it's it's ineffective in achieving the creation itself is not achieving what it was designed to achieve is what he's saying god withheld it god put a stop on it until we are complete so notice creation is is going to be redeemed from bondage to corruption sharing together in this grand renewal recreation that we have as the children of god you imagine how wonderful if god would preserve this this beautiful earth and all the glory that we see in it Imagine the glory that is to come of creation itself. It's groaning. It's groaning every time you see the volcano explode. It's groaning. What did the dogs and the cats do that. they die? I mean, it's hard. We get attached to these little guys boys and girls i know creation itself groans this is why plants are poisonous this is why spiders kill us that can kill us this is why tick can give you a lifelong disease this wasn't this wasn't what it was created to be it's held back it's subject to curse but we see a glimmer of that glory longing for the full revelation of that glory that god built and paul's point is paul's point in raising that is to encourage us you are suffering but don't forget the whole creation is eagerly waiting to show forth what god intended it to be and what he will in the new creation make it to be it's going to be awesome but it's groaning too well here's the tie he wants to encourage you with not only that verse 23 not only the creation but We ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit: now here's where the help comes groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Isn't that just true? You're groaning all the time. the inward man has been renewed, but you're groaning. You're groaning in all kinds of ways. I mean, isn't it just true for the Christian we desire to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we find ourselves, as Romans 7, giving in to sin that we shouldn't. doesn't that not cause groaning? in fact, we're often trying to fulfill the desires of our heart. We lament with groaning because we long for glory in this struggle. Think of what many of you have been through recently and we share this as the body of Christ. Hard deaths, difficult deaths. That's all here. the pain you're experiencing is a groaning it's groaning groaning in these sufferings and what is paul saying it's benefit is you're groaning for glory it's coming it's coming how many groans how much suffering how much death i mean jesus himself lamented wept over lazarus the groans that came out of him all of this produces an eager desire for the redemption of our bodies we groan in many ways at times the wrong way you know in the world people are trying to groan they don't really groan they try to deny this and and they try to keep themselves young and they do plastic surgeries and they do Botox and they do all these endless things to try to make themselves young again. It's like part of the groaning is the aging. God put that in. That's why it's so backwards to think that God's love is not shown to us or He's failing us when He's training us this way to groan for glory aging is not fun but it teaches us to groan for glory it's exactly the design that we would not be satisfied with the way things are that that's i think a crucial point here that we would never live satisfied with the way things are it is not right our longing for what is to come intensifies through the groanings and that's what paul says in verse 24 for we were saved in this hope now hope that is seen is not hope for for who hopes for what He sees but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience he we're being trained in patience but but did you notice here the crucial difference the crucial difference for the christian in this age is And this is what we've been developing in romans 8 is the work of the spirit what has he been saying the whole time to us to help us you have the spirit you belong to christ The Spirit's work is a complete work. It's a full work. It's a finishing work. But now He wants to encourage us to help us to close this out, to understand here how the Spirit helps us. here in this particular weakness.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness and in the sufferings in a surprising way. Notice verse 26. Likewise, The Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. What an amazing verse Wow, what a verse. What is the Holy Spirit doing in the midst of all of this? Well, he says, you're facing a lot of difficulty, a lot of suffering, a lot of weakness. Do you know what the Spirit's doing for you? He's groaning for you. He's groaning for you. I think that's just such a wonderful comfort to us, isn't it? You don't even know what to pray for as you ought. Did you catch that It's not that we even know how to pray. take paul's thorn in the flesh unless i should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations a messenger of satan a thorn in the flesh a messenger of satan was sent to torment me so i pleaded with the lord three times that it might depart for me paul is is deeply wrestling with the lord over the suffering i remember what he did he went to the lord to pray and we think why would the lord allow this situation to happen for paul well think about what he says here paul didn't view the thorn in the flesh after the help of the lord as a great enemy when paul prayed he didn't know quite what to pray for what did he say take it away take it away And what did the lord say my grace is sufficient for you if you put the theology together here the spirit groaned in paul and helped him notice this by interceding with prayer for exactly what paul needed that's what's exact that's what that's what's being said here that what does the spirit do he makes intercessions for us with groanings that we do not utter the father hears the prayer of the spirit who's interceding on our behalf according to the perfect will of god so the spirit indeed is praying within us the spirit is calling out and directing and giving the perfect prayer for just what is right for
You when you don't even know what to say you don't even know how you'd handle it the spirit's unspoken prayer out loud to the Lord at least Paul's was was to remove it the spirit directed and prayed that the thorn would be kept and then Paul comes out strong my grace is sufficient that's the greatest encouragement if we're left to ourselves whatever we would never produce the life that is intended to have a groaning that is intended to long for the glory to come the spirit himself makes intercession for the saints according to the will of god he's making sure that what is needed in our lives and what is best for us is happening and that's what he wants to reassure them with tonight and you can appreciate then that no matter what comes down our paths god gave It to us god appointed it because as hard as it is it trains us to long for the new creation that's he's the first fruits of that and so he's going to fulfill that the spirit so the whole picture here tonight is paul is presented really what appears to be a hard life but it's a glorious life justified so that you have absolute confidence that there's no condemnation sanctified so that you are his children reassured that you are adopted children by grace and then completes the picture so far and we'll complete it next time with the wonderful section in Romans that we all love by saying you are an adopted son you have an inheritance but don't lose sight that in the sufferings and in the difficulties and in the trials they are producing by the spirit a groaning that is intended to keep us longing for the glory to come That's healthy That's good that's right for us and that's why God gives us grace and more grace to help us through it all so that we're never alone you're never alone I close with the words of first Peter beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you but rejoice to the extent that you partake in Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed you may be glad with exceeding joy if you're reproached for the name of christ blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of god rests upon you what a wonderful god we serve let's pray gracious lord thank you for the work of the spirit thank you for helping us in weakness and in sufferings thank you oh lord that the spirit intercedes within us with groanings too great for words to direct our lives in just the path that we need in your wisdom that is right for us for this glory that is to come can't even be matched with what we're facing now how could this comparison be made the glory to come so wonderful that you've prepared for all who love you thank you for encouraging us with these words tonight may we live in the strength and power of the spirit and whatever you have for us strengthen us oh lord that as your power rests upon us in our weakness our boast may be in christ thank you for the hope that is set before us may this week we live in light of that hope in whatever you have for us in Jesus name, Amen