Romans No.18 The Suffering and The Glory

Romans chapter 8, and the subject matter that we have to look at this evening is having a good groan. Not that that ever happens at Worthing Tabernacle. We have never known the church to really moan and groan, have we? Well maybe occasionally we have a little comment to make about things that we're not always too happy over, maybe.

But by and large the Christian has been called to a contented walk through life. And yet the Apostle Paul tells us in the 18th verse of this particular chapter when he's speaking especially on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he's telling us that one of the marks of the Christian lifestyle is that there is a good deal of suffering associated with being a disciple of the Lord Jesus. It's easy to pass over suffering, isn't it? As I say in the notes that I hand out, he laughs at scars who never bore a wound.

But there have been those, and the Apostle who wrote these words was one, for whom the Christian profession was a very very costly business. Someone has said that tracing the footprints of the Apostle Paul in Asia Minor is like tracking the course of a bleeding rabbit in the snow. He knew what it was to suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul wasn't sort of conned into being a Christian, was he? You remember on the Damascus road how when he was apprehended and he fell off his horse and the Lord spoke to him, how he was informed almost from square one that he had been called to suffer for the sake of the gospel amongst the Gentiles. Called to suffer. Our Lord Jesus, you remember when he was talking to his disciples, on occasions he predicted that the course that he had to follow was one which would bring him great difficulty.

In fact they argued with him, not you Lord, not Jerusalem, and not Jerusalem if it means the cross. And Jesus spun around on Peter and said, get behind me, Satan man, you don't really understand that the way of glory goes right through the obstacle of suffering. And our Lord Jesus went on to say that if this is the way the master went, the probability is that the disciples would have in some measure to follow the same course.

So here is the apostle and he doesn't make a great deal, does he, of the problems that confront him. Now quite frankly, if the descriptions in 2 Corinthians, the rare glimpse that you get into Paul's personal biography, if that was describing me and I didn't get front page of Evangelicals Now or a similar magazine week by week or month by month, I would really feel that the Evangelical church didn't appreciate the enormous contribution that I was making to the advance of the gospel. But when the apostle, who would have given a great amount of information for any budding biographer, when he adds up what he goes through for the advance of the gospel, as he writes to the Corinthians, it calls it our light affliction, our light affliction.

And here in the 18th verse of Romans 8, when he's dealing with the outpouring of the spirit, he says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. He got his eyes on the future. I told you on Sunday, those of you who were present on Sunday evening, about my good friend Don Hattersley.

He's a great man in many, many ways. I can speak of him now. He's with the Lord and it won't embarrass him.

I love to be with Don Hattersley. He was 90 when he died. He knew Campbell Morgan and Martin Lloyd-Jones extremely well.

And I had the very sad privilege of going through his personal papers yesterday. And it was interesting that when I went through his suit pockets, just in case there were personal things that needed to be destroyed or sent out to his daughter in South Africa, when I put my hand in his suit pocket or in his waistcoat, I would invariably pull out a piece of paper and on the paper was written a scripture, an encouraging verse from the New or from the Old Testament. He was a very professional man, an inspector of taxes, but a man who had come to a realisation that the most important thing in life to live for was the Lord Jesus Christ and the best thing to study was the Word of God.

I once said to Don when he was in Tring House as he moved in within the first few months, don't you ever get tired? Don't you ever get bored? And he said to me, and he pointed, and he wasn't trying to make some sort of comment that would impress the pastor. We didn't really have that relationship. He just pointed to the Bible, he said, how can you be bored when you've got a book like that to read? A man who was soaking himself in scripture, and scripture often speaks of what awaits us who belong to the Lord Jesus.

That's what the apostle has in mind. The trivial problems, the pressures of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Paul has his eye set on heaven.

I wonder if you've ever heard the name of George Jeffreys. He was one of the greatest uncelebrated evangelists that this country has ever produced, I think, certainly this century. He had a revival team that was very much used of God in the 1920s, 1930s.

They crowded out, packed out such places as the Crystal Palace, which was in existence then, and the Royal Albert Hall. He had an evangelistic band, a little team that toured around with him, and they'd sing choruses, a sort of forerunner of the modern scripture songs. One of the choruses said, sometimes I get lonely for heaven.

I get heart sick for heaven, and the glory I there shall behold. Well, the apostle Paul would have sung something like that. He gets homesick for heaven.

And so he brings us into what really is our subject matter that I've touched on this evening. With this sort of anticipation, it is possible, says Paul, to groan, to so desire to want to be in the future with the Lord, that the present becomes singularly unattractive as you long for the day of full redemption. So in the 19th verse, he talks to us about the first, can we call it, quote unquote, legitimate groan that there is in our world.

And it is indeed the groan in our world, literally. The creation waits in eager expectations for the sons of God. By the word creation, he's referring to our planet.

Possibly he's referring to our universe. In what sense does the planet groan? Have you ever thought about that? I was in Los Angeles last year. I mentioned to you, those who were present when I rehearsed some of my experiences in the southern part of the United States, I touched down to go through three earthquakes.

And I went to a church on a Sunday morning, which is as big as Notre Dame Cathedral, only made out of glass. It was called the Crystal Cathedral. Only the Americans could build a cathedral out of glass in a line where there is reckoned to be, sooner or later, the most disastrous earthquake.

There's a fault in the earth's surface. But when the pastor, who's written a book on possibility thinking, when he referred to the earthquake, he called it the earth correction that they had experienced during the last 24 hours. Well, that's a very positive way to look at it, isn't it? But I would say that the earthquake and all these rather disturbing features of nature are an indication of something that is wrong within the world, the natural world, a sort of frustration, if you please.

In the deserts in Namibia, you can go across an area which is called the moonwalk. And it's just like the pictures on the moon. In fact, you could almost believe that as you walk around, that sooner or later, you'll come across the American satellite that actually dropped down there and see moon men walking.

It's the most uncanny, unreal area that I've ever been in. And when you ask yourself, well, what's the reason for this particular part of the earth? Is there any point in it? It's very hard to answer that there is. There's nothing that will grow.

There's no life that can be sustained. Well, maybe some insect life, but there's nothing really of any significance at all. And so Paul, when he refers to verse 20, the creation subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, it seems to me he has this sort of thing in mind.

Do you ever ask yourself, what's the reason for the obscenity of the deserts? So many miles, acres upon acres of land that cannot be cultivated. Did God really intend it to look like that in the first instance? Was it like that in the first instance? You see, it seems to me from scripture, it seems to me from logical deduction, that when God first created the world, the universe, and pronounced it good, he could not have been using that word to describe some of the things that are present on planet earth today. So how do you explain what's happened? Well, those of you who are well-versed in the first three chapters of Genesis, you know that those chapters are amongst the saddest in the Bible, secondly, the second and third chapter, because they speak about the fall of man.

But when Adam fell, it wasn't just he himself who was cursed, was it? The word went out from the Lord in terms of the sweat of the brow that Adam would have to pay in order to subjugate, in order to cultivate the earth. No longer would it bring up fruit just automatically. It would need hard sweat.

Those of you who have a large garden or an allotment will understand that. But it wasn't always like that. Part of the curse, you see, that's in the world.

And yet when Adam fell, he did it from his own free will. I believe that Adam was the only man with free will, and Eve, for that matter, the only woman. I don't believe that the will is absolutely free today, maybe free in certain circumstances.

But as far as Adam and Eve was concerned, it was a deliberate choice that they made. Here was God's options. They determined to do that which was displeasing to the Lord.

And the curse came upon them, and rightly so. But it also hit the created universe. The creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice, but by God, the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.

Now, if words mean anything at all, surely, my friend, what this is referring to, that there is going to be a sense in which Milton wrote prophetically when he talked about paradise regained. See, I believe that when our Lord Jesus comes back, he will restore the heavens and the earth to what they originally were before the curse came. So, that's why in the notes, and I was following the notes when I started, I've lost out somewhere.

That's why in the notes I make reference to the Green Party. You hear a lot about the Green Party these days, don't you? Mrs. Thatcher, I understand, when I was abroad, made a green speech. Well, there are many ways in which you can describe Prime Minister's speeches.

What she had to say was that she had, and rightly so, a concern for the well-being of planet earth. The Green Party might rejoice to know that the Bible speaks about the return of the created earth to the condition that it was in when it first left, so to speak, the hands of God. And there is that in nature which groans for the return of the earth to what it originally was.

Autumn groans, don't you think sometimes? Winter groans, waiting for the spring. You get the whole cycle, as though the whole of the creation is reaching out for that state which will one day satisfy it and be multiplied eternally, be made an eternal constant. So says the apostle, when he thinks about the redemption of the planet earth, then, because he's going to be there on that occasion, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with all the blessings that there will be when the lion shall lie down with the lamb, when there'll be no further ecological disaster, no slaughter of whales, no viruses that affect seals, when there will be peace and harmony, when the presence of God will cover the world as the waters cover the sea.

We've got a great future in front of us. Now, it's not just the earth that groans, but, and we can understand this perhaps more obviously, there are those of us who groan, the groan of the redeemed. Do you ever groan? You have a look in your mirror and you think, is that really what I look like? I used to be a good looking fellow, a beautiful lady.

Well, I'm sure that 99% of you still are, but some of us show show slight indications of wear and tear, and we wish that we could move with the alacrity, with the speed that we used to move. We wish that the arthritic joints were not indicating their presence so feeling fully. We know, says the apostle verse 22, that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, we also groan. And by ourselves, he's referring to those who he calls as having the first fruits of the spirit. So he must be referring to people who are Christian, because it's only people who are Christian who have the spirit.

Look at verse 9 of the same chapter. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. You and I have the first fruit of our redemption.

The Holy Spirit has taken up residence within our lives. Elsewhere in the New Testament, he refers to it as the deposit, or if you like, as a seal. I think I've told you before that there is a Greek term that describes the word, that describes the function of the Holy Spirit in terms of the wedding ring, or more accurately, the engagement ring that you find on someone's finger.

What does the engagement ring mean? Booked, in a word. You appreciated that, you're all. Hands off.

There's something glorious in store for this particular young lady. Well, in that sense, those of us who've been filled by the Holy Spirit, we are sealed, we are engaged to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have his spirit within us.

Now, why is it then, if we have his spirit within us, that occasionally we might groan? Well, the legitimate groan has got nothing to do with spiritual experience, although obviously it's right for us to want more, but it has a great deal to do with what I touched on a moment or so ago, the inadequacy of our mortal bodies. The 23rd verse brings it out. We wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Aren't you glad that you're not going to have this old body to cope with in its present form throughout the whole of eternity? Now, it's not that it won't have any connection with the body that you now have. As the oak is in the acorn, it seems to me that our redemption body has some connection with our present body. But when we are given a body like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ, then all the physical restrictions that we now know will no longer be present.

The redemption of our bodies. You see, it's in that sense that I say in the second page or the third page in the top of your notes, Christians are only half redeemed. I don't mean that your salvation is in jeopardy, your spiritual security.

Of course not. Once in him, you're in him forever. You're absolutely secure.

The good shepherd of the sheep will never allow you to so distance yourself from him that your eternal well-being will be in jeopardy. But your body in the present state is not completely redeemed. So the Apostle John, looking forward to the second advent of our Lord Jesus, says, brothers, we do not know what we but when he shall appear, we shall be like him.

We'll have a body like unto his glorious body. Now, that brings us then to the third thing that knocks out these people who legitimately groan. They are those who are the first fruits of the Spirit.

They know something of the redemption of the body as it will be in the future. And they so look forward to that, that their lives are filled with hope, which is basically where I started this Bible reading, not so. Verse 24, for in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. If you unpackage all that, it means that you're so absolutely certain that there's something really good around the corner that it'll keep you going during the present time, even though difficulties may be part of your experience right now. That beautiful, lovely hymn, the modern hymn, we have a hope that is steadfast and certain, gone through the curtain and touching the throne.

Well, thank God for hope. You can't live without hope, can you? Once your hope is gone, all reason behind life has really dissipated. So here we have the apostle, and he's telling us about the future that there is.

And because the future is so great, it's possible to pick up that which groans for the coming quickly of that which is yet to be. The created, inanimate earth groans. Redeemed, sensitive people groan.

But there's a third element, if you please, that also is engaged in a bit of a grumble, a bit of a groan. And this is astonishing teaching, but thank God for it. It's really exciting.

Verse 26, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. And the apostle goes on speaking about the inspiration of the Spirit as he helps us in the whole area of prayer. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Now, you may have thought that when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, he brings joy. And there is a very real sense in which he does. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but joy in the Holy Ghost.

Our Lord Jesus came that his joy might be fulfilled in us. And our Savior was certainly not the doer, somber fellow that some make him out to be. There was that in our Lord that enabled him to enjoy parties, attend banquets, be present at wedding feasts, enjoy the laughter and the play of little children.

But there were times when our Lord was confronted with the consequences of sin in our world. He groaned within himself, a man with a speech impediment, two sisters that were loved, who were heartbroken because their brother had been taken from them. When our Savior was brought face to face with these facts of human experience, the Bible tells us he sometimes groaned within, as though he hardly had, with all the eloquence that was his, the words to express his feeling in the face of the consequence of human sin.

Now, look, is another correspondence between the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Of course there is. We're talking about part of the Godhead, aren't we? Even in a natural family level, at a natural level, there is. If you had been able to meet my father, you'd see something about myself in him.

But we were by no means identical. My father was a short man. I'm a tall man.

But even now, as I look painfully, though it be, from time to time in a mirror and see my face, I see something of my father there. There's a resemblance. Now, you would expect that the Holy Spirit and our Lord Jesus would have a common denominator, if you like, in terms of emotional reaction.

And so when the Spirit comes within the heart of the believer, when he has been made welcome, you remember my teaching of last week, when he's been made welcome there, there is that in the Spirit nonetheless which picks up something of the consequences of sin in the environment in which we live. And the Spirit groans. He groans with our spirit.

You've never groaned? You see, I do believe in enjoying Christianity. I'm quite happy in a celebration. But I've known what it is sometimes, and I don't say this sentimentally, to burst into uncontrollable tears when I've been in North India and seen the thousands of people who do not know the Lord and seen something of the way that Hinduism has cut so deeply into this society.

There is that which makes you groan in your own spirit. And were it not for the fact that the Holy Spirit comes alongside you, within you, and empathizes and expresses in inarticulate language himself, you would think that you might burst with the emotion of trying to convey to the Lord that which you want for people who so desperately need him. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans.

As Jesus groaned, so the Spirit groans, looking for that day when there will be no longer any reason to groan, when all on planet earth and within the redeemed community shall be in order. Thank God, I say, for the indwelling of the Spirit, not just for the elation that comes with that overflowing of the Spirit, baptism, fullness, call it what you will. But thank God that sometimes when the Spirit comes, he helps us in our prayers to express before the Lord the inarticulate longings of our hearts, and what's more, he enables us in this whole mystery of prayer to pray effectively.

I find prayer difficult, do you? 18 years, 19 years or so in this pulpit or in this church that I love so much, and yet I tell you I find it hard to pray. I wait not for the Holy Spirit, I think my prayer life would be in an absolute shambles. You see, it's not so much that I don't know what to ask for, that there's a miscellany that's always crowding into my mind.

But the mystery of prayer is this, it's not just shooting off in the course of the way you want, the way your mind takes your thinking, it's rather hoisting the sails of your mind to the wind of the Spirit so that you can pray within the will of God. He who searches our hearts, God himself, knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. What we want to know more and more, my dear friends, not so in our prayers, is how to pray within the will of God.

Then you can pray so boldly, then you can drop the qualifying clause, if it be your will, because you are so sure in this specific situation that this is God's will. I never pray, Father, if it be your will, let India be saved. My prayer is, Lord, the Savior said, go you out into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all men.

I come against you, Satan, in the power of the living Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and I blanket India with my prayers and ask that the blood victory of Jesus on the cross may be effective in bringing millions from the bondage of Hinduism and Islam and what have you. So let's bring our little study to a conclusion. It's right to have a good old moan occasionally, as long as it's a biblical moan, as long as you're wanting to see the glory of God in our world, as the natural order apparently does, as your own body longs for a better vehicle perhaps to propel it, as your mind wants to be more relaxed as you try to sleep at night, as in the natural world and in the realm of the body, you know that there is something else that is yet to be.

So those of us who belong to the Lord infilled by the Spirit know that the kingdom of God, which is still nonetheless, has a future fulfillment and we long for the not yet to become a present reality. And so we ask God in his grace to enable to pray that kingdom into being. Isn't that why you say in the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It's come in part, but not in total. And we want to see it in all its fullness. We want to see Satan evicted from the planet earth where he only has squatter's rights.

We long to see the day when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. It's just a moment of quietness.