Creation's Sovereign Destiny

Romans E8, if you don't have a Bible with you, please take the time to open up your phone.

Let's just make sure there's no shame that you're texting.

It's just a blanket understanding.

No one is texting, and even if you have to, go for your life, it's all right.

There's no judgment, amen?

So look up bible.com if you don't know where to look, and get yourself onto the YouVersion app or Bible Hub.

There's another place you can find a Bible.

And if you just wanna sit there and listen, please do so, don't want to tell you what to do.

But if you have a Bible, it's really helpful.

My first mentor was an older man, a wonderful guy by the name of Reg.

And he got saved in Sydney when he came back from World War II.

He was a prisoner of war, he was a prisoner of war in a concentration camp.

And he told me that it wasn't a lack of food, or water, or even shelter that killed the men in that concentration camp.

It was a lack of hope.

He said it was tangible.

When men came in from the field, he was there for close to four years, people would come in and without hope, they'd die in a few weeks.

Hope, hope is both all-important and the middle child of faith, hope and love.

Love is the quintessential quality of life.

Faith is crucial, certainly for our Christianity and pleasing God.

But hope can feel like that proverbial, invisible middle child.

Hope is both a verb, it's something you do, it's a doing word, and it's also a noun.

It's describing a destination.

And it's the same in the Bible we'll find today.

Hope is a lot like a dream, isn't it?

You can have high hopes and just be a dreamer, which is the odd thing about hope.

It's sort of insipid in a way.

It's like, oh, they're just, they're a dreamer.

They're filled with high hopes, but it's not tangible.

It's not real.

And yet, hope is a dream like I have a dream.

Amen.

Dreams change society.

They change lives.

They change everything.

Hope.

It's often the future.

Yet, it requires daily activity tied to it to achieve it.

So as we come to the end of our series, we've cut it a little bit short, which hopefully will become clear.

Can we put up just a little advert for next week while I think of it?

This is why we've cut it short.

We're going to look at this series, which is an interesting one.

We're going to look at an overview of not...

Revelation will come at the end.

With Lord willing, we're going to do a Bible loop on the Book of Revelation, but the end of the world will do a survey of what the Bible teaches about the end of the world, which will lead us up to, as I say, Lord willing, a time of Bible study in the Book of Revelation.

So that is happening.

But that means that today is our last day for a while.

We hopefully will come back next year and finish off Romans, but we've done eight weeks today, I think is our ninth sermon in the Book of Romans, and we're at the end of Chapter 8, as Annika read for us, a truly glorious part of the Bible.

Romans E8, Paul has been teaching the people of Rome about their hope that's in Christ, and this is certainly culminated today in what he calls really a glorious hope.

It's beyond words to describe, it's eternal, it's sure it is our glorious hope.

And I'm gonna read a little bit before what we heard today.

Romans 8, 18, if you have it there, let's follow along.

Paul writes, I consider that our present sufferings, in verse 18, are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Our glorious hope is global in scope.

Paul is coming to the end of a section that he has been explaining the gospel to those in Rome.

He has said very clearly that no one is righteous other than the Lord Jesus himself.

And all have fallen short of the glory of God, yet through the perfect death, life first and then death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made a way, Romans tells us, for humanity to be reconciled to the Creator who made them.

Hallelujah.

This is for all who would repent and believe in Christ.

Faith in Christ grants a believer forgiveness, right standing with God, the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, and the hope of eternal life.

And very importantly, Paul tells the people at Rome and us, this eternal life will be lived out somewhere.

After this age ends, and we will talk about the two ages in weeks to come, about the end of the world, Jesus teaches that there's an age between his life and his return, the interadvental period.

That's one age.

And then there is an age to come, two ages.

The age to come is the age where believers are resurrected and it is lived out, not in a disembodied form in heaven, but on a new earth.

Amen?

This is the teaching of scripture.

Paul says, our present sufferings, because the Christians are suffering, and we do today, they're not worth comparing with the glory to come for all of creation.

Paul says, not only do human beings groan under the weight of a fallen world, but quite literally, the animals, the plants, the rocks, the sea, the heavens, they long for salvation.

I don't think we're meant to get too deep into, is my dog coming with me to heaven or not?

But it's just the reality of Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God.

And Paul is saying, all of creation longs for the redemption that Jesus made available.

Francis of Assisi, anyone remember Francis of Assisi?

He wrote a poem which was turned to a hymn by William Draper.

All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voices and with us sing, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, thou burning sun with golden beam, thou silver moon with softer gleam, thou rushing wind that art so strong, ye clouds that sail in heaven along.

The flowing water, pure and clear, make music for thy Lord to hear, thou fire so masterful and bright that gives to man both warmth and light.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Jesus said, if the people don't cry out, who is going to cry out?

The rocks.

Creation longs for redemption.

If you groan, if you groan yourself in the pain of a fallen world and the pain that you suffer in this life, as you long for the future age without sin, without suffering, you are not alone.

You're not alone.

Scripture tells us that all of creation longs.

It is global in scope.

Hallelujah.

This glorious hope, creation itself, is like God, the one living God.

You've done it in Jesus.

Return, Lord Jesus.

Finish this first age that the age to come might gloriously be revealed.

The planet groans for the same thing.

Our glorious hope is global in scope, and it is this hope, holistic in effect.

Verse 23, Paul writes, Not only so, but we also, ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what they already have?

But we hope for what we do not yet have.

We wait for it patiently.

When Jesus rose again from the grave, he was the first fruits from among the dead.

He was the model of every human being to come.

Humanity 2.0.

You know, I love my amens.

And a few hallelujahs as well.

But this passage is an amen passage.

You've got to forgive me.

I want to do it too many times, I know.

But Humanity 2.0 is Jesus risen from the dead.

And you know what, he didn't have any wings.

So if you're thinking, you know, I don't know what's going to happen when we get to heaven.

Maybe it's Philadelphia cheese ads.

We're floating around with wings.

I can tell you, in Jesus' name, it's the truth.

You're not having any wings.

Maybe the angels have wings, we don't know, but we don't become angels.

Our model is Jesus.

They thought he was a gardener.

They saw him.

In fact, when he was risen from the dead after he's ascended to heaven, he's at the right hand of the Father, as we often mention from this pulpit.

Stephen, the first martyr, looked up and said, Behold, the son of man, the right hand of the Father.

That's Jesus.

I recognize him.

Humanity 2.0.

We get bodies like this, but they're fully redeemed, resurrected like Jesus.

Hallelujah.

And you know what?

He ate fish in that body.

So we get to eat fish.

I'm sorry if you just don't like fish.

There's gonna be more than fish.

There's gonna be more than fish.

But Jesus in resurrected body, holistic in effect, this glorious hope that he had and we have in him, he ate.

I've always found that just fascinating.

For those who think we are disembodied spirits floating around in a cosmic oneness, like a new age hope, ours is more robust than that.

Amen.

We get to be risen from the dead.

Creation longs for a new earth, just like Jesus had a new body.

And so do we.

Paul writes, We ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

We are saved now, if you have faith in Christ, but it's now and not yet.

There is more to come that fuels our hope.

And with a clear hope of the future, it gives us something to strive towards.

And I think if you really get a hold of this wonderful truth that God will redeem the world, you've got to also appreciate he's going to redeem completely this world.

And I think this is not just being silly.

You can look in the mirror and you should say stuff like, I see you, you glorious thing.

Look at that body.

Hey, entropy is having an effect.

We know.

Sin has had an effect.

And some of us, you know, we've got genuine issues with our bodies.

Our bodies have been tough to deal with.

Health and all sorts of limitations in this age.

But honestly, with the truth of Romans E8 and the scriptures, we can look at our bodies and say, you are glorious because God says you are.

And in some wonderful way, what I look at there will be redeemed perfectly in Version 2.0.

It's holistic in effect, the hope that I have.

And so let's look after our bodies.

Our bodies are used, as Ben said last week, to live out our faith in.

We don't get to live out our faith in someone else's body.

It's in this.

And so our habits that automate this from mind to body, using emotions as well, and in a social context, they really matter.

And I think it is true to say our character is the sum of our habits.

What we do in our bodies reflects what we believe.

Our bodies matter.

So let's look after this one glorious body that we've been given, if we can.

Our glorious hope is global in scope, it's holistic in effect, and it is supernatural in power.

Verse 26, Paul writes, In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, we're in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

Romans E8 is Paul's unveiling of the wonders of the Holy Spirit's work in a believer's life.

Again, as Ben mentioned last week, Paul barely mentions the Spirit in the first seven chapters, but in 8 and on, particularly 8, it's all about the Holy Spirit.

So Paul's just been teaching about the power of hope.

Hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what they already have?

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

It's a hope in a renewed world.

It's a hope in a glorified, perfected body.

It's a hope, which is a noun, a description of a world to come.

But Paul also uses it as a verb.

It's a doing word.

It's active present tense.

So we're living with hope.

We pray verse 26 in the same way.

Stay with me.

I know this is convoluted, but in the same way as we hope for a renewed body, that's sort of abstract.

It's spiritual.

We pray now as a verb.

So we've got this abstract spiritual noun hope, but he's saying, no, you need the verb hope as you pray for the things that God wants to achieve in and through us now with that hope.

So just as our hope of renewed planet is supernatural and totally covered in the fingerprints of God, we know that we can't get there in our own strength, so is anything worthwhile that's going to happen in our lives now.

Is there an amen?

Our glorious hope in Christ is supernatural in power.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Jesus said, you can't do anything in your own strength, which takes quite a while for us to learn, don't you think?

But he said, without me, you can't really do anything.

We don't know how to pray, but we remember our glorious hope can only come to pass by God doing something miraculous, and the same is true for my life today.

I and you, we need to pray spiritually empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So can I encourage you, ask the Spirit to guide you as you pray.

It's his job.

Ask him.

We don't, Boris, we don't know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans, and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

We can sort of get an idea of the now and the hope of what it looks like, a future city that joins the earth, heaven and earth combined in something amazing.

I know it's hard to get our head around, but that's the noun of a description.

But we pray together with hope as a verb now, and it's the Spirit who empowers.

Is that groaning, is that just spiritual, the gift of tongues?

Probably not, it could be, it could be partly that, but not everyone has that spiritual gift.

So it's probably more the guttural prayers of raw and honest humanity before God.

Have you ever been in prayer and struggled to find words?

Because you're in so much pain, can I encourage you?

That's not a bad place to be.

You're just on your knees before God, groaning.

Know that the Spirit of God is in you, and giving meaning to those groans, because God loves you.

I wonder if you've discovered the utter liberation of realising, I am weak, but He is strong.

Anyone found that?

Not many of us enjoy the process of learning that.

That's hard.

But to get there and realise, I can't control my life.

I am weaker than I thought.

But the more I sit in that reality, the more the old Sunday school song comes to mind, Jesus loves me this, I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong.

They are weak, but He is strong.

We are weak.

But we are strong in the glorious hope of the gospel.

And when we come to pray before the Father, we come with that same glorious hope, which is spiritually empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Global in scope, this glorious hope.

It's gonna affect the whole planet.

It's gonna affect our whole bodies.

It's supernatural in power.

And it's sovereignly predestined.

Sovereignly predestined.

That was, we'll go down in history as a classic worship leader memory verse.

I've got a verse I'm thinking of.

Help me, help me.

But it was very cool.

Sovereignly predestined.

We know Paul writes that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

There's that firstborn word again.

And those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, he also justified.

Those he justified, he also glorified.

Isn't it so good to know that this seemingly chaotic train wreck of a world, careering out of control is not out of control.

History itself is in God's hands.

He is sovereignly controlling the direction of this planet's history.

Does he allow for free will in the midst of that?

Yeah, he does.

How he is in control of it all and allows free will is one of the mysteries of life.

But like a master chess player, he knows what we're going to do, and yet we have our free will.

He's in control.

When you put your faith in Jesus, your sins are forgiven.

The Holy Spirit comes to inhabit your life, and you are set on a trajectory of eternal life on a new planet beyond the grave, this earth, period, as the Americans say.

That's happening.

God's plan for your life cannot be thwarted when you remain in a posture of loving, of a loving child looking to their father.

We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

How does that all work out?

I think it's simply this.

God has predestined, predetermined that there will be a church.

There will be a bride for his son.

There will be.

No one's stopping it.

It cannot be thwarted.

There will be an army that represent him.

There will be a team.

There will be a work force, empowered by the Spirit of God and with the Gospel of Jesus.

They're gonna do the works that God has prepared for them to do.

And no one comes into that without the Father drawing them.

And Scripture says also that God's willing that none should perish.

But we also are left with a decision.

There will be a church.

Jesus will have a bride.

But I believe that the Bible teaches very clearly, you need to repent and believe.

And that is an act of your will.

And you'll never do it without God drawing you.

But He's willing that none should perish.

And I think He is drawing.

And somehow mysteriously, we have the responsibility of responding in faith.

Paul tells us here that if you have placed your faith in Christ, you have been justified.

That is declared not guilty.

You will be glorified.

Isn't that a wonderful truth?

He says this.

If you've been justified, you're also going to get glorified.

What does that mean in layman's terms?

If you start the journey, he's going to help you finish it.

You're going to get there.

This glorious hope, it's not just maybe, maybe, maybe.

No, it's a solid, confident hope.

Those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, he also justified.

Those he justified, he also glorified.

Again, how do you know if you're predestined?

I think the answer is simple.

You repent and believe, and you trust with all your heart, that Jesus died for your sin and rose again.

Sovereign means totally in charge, totally trustworthy, totally reliable.

Our glorious hope in Christ is not being taken away because it's God's plan that it happens.

Amen.

And dealing with concerns that some of us have sitting here today, concerns of God's plan for your life, of being somehow thwarted, like all those first four, global in scope, holistic in effect, supernatural in power, sovereignly predestined.

It still leaves us asking this same, for some of us, the same questions that he thinks the guys at Rome are going to ask.

And that's what he addresses in the end of this chapter 8.

He says, it's judicially invincible, what I just said.

Verse 31, what shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, just in case you're wondering, who could be against us?

Who can be against us?

He who didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he?

Hear this if you're a Christian sitting here today.

How will he not also along with him graciously give us, you, me, all things?

Who will bring any charge against them?

Who, those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

Christ Jesus, who died more than that, he was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Have you ever since putting your faith in Christ, disappointed yourself and God and sinned?

Yeah, I think we have.

We've done something that we know better than to do.

And you sort of left thinking, gee, I thought I was better than that.

I thought God was more powerful than that.

I'm a Christian now.

Why should I behave like this?

And sometimes you can get pretty harsh on yourself, not all of us, but some of us.

We go into a hard taskmaster mode, and we're like, you piece of garbage.

You know, you start talking pretty harshly to yourself.

If you sin, if you make a mistake as a Christian, Paul says our hope is judicially invincible.

It can't be defeated in a court of law.

Who will bring charge against those whom God has chosen?

Who?

You don't get to condemn yourself because Jesus paid the price for your sin.

You're not allowed.

You don't get to.

And you don't get to condemn someone else if Christ has forgiven them.

It's God's job if he wants to condemn.

We don't get to do it.

The glorious hope of Christianity is built on the work of Christ, which is once and for all.

We saw this in Romans 5 verse 1.

Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Justified means declared not guilty.

The judge's hammer has come down, not guilty.

You get to receive the hope of God when you put your faith in Christ.

If God is for us, if, if, it's a big question, if.

I wonder, I wonder if God is for you.

I wonder if God is for you.

Paul says, if God is for us, guess what?

He says, he is for us.

Hallelujah.

That's a hallelujah moment.

He is for us.

Romans taught us how he is for us because while we were still sinners, before we cleaned ourselves up, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

He loved us before we were lovable.

Who then is the one who condemns?

No one.

I'll put it to you from scripture that our glorious hope, if you are a person who has repented and put your faith in Christ, our hope is safe.

And you know what's wonderful?

It's ours.

It's a plural Greek verb in Romans E8.

We're not just by ourselves.

It's not my little hope.

It's our hope, brothers and sisters.

Our hope is sure.

That's why, partly why we come on a Lord's Day on a Sunday, and we meet together to lift up the name of Jesus and declare our hope in the present.

We say it as a noun, Lord God, be glorified in the future.

I can see it.

You're gonna be completely glorified, and we'll see you as you really are, and we're gonna live in the verb.

We're gonna do the hope.

We're gonna act as though it's real now, by your Spirit empowering us.

And it's a hope which is relationally inseparable.

It's what Annika read for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

No.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Paul says, the end of this wonderful eight chapter section of the book, I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Please receive that if you need to hear it today.

It's a wonderful, life-changing truth, the love of God for us.

No one can pry it open.

Like some of you, Leanne and I have experienced 18 months ago about the joy of becoming grandparents.

And I don't get to look after Lucy by myself that much, but every now and then I get to for half an hour or an hour, because she's grandma's little girl more than grandpa's.

But when I'm the only one in the home looking after her, she stays beside me.

And everywhere I go, she's following me.

She's my little helper.

Where are you, Lucy?

Come here, grandpa.

And it makes me feel good.

And that gives me a picture of being in Christ, because where Jesus goes, like the little girl, I'm with him.

And beyond comprehension, where you go, he goes too.

Because where in Christ and Christ is in us, it's relationally inseparable, this child parent, child father, child lord relationship.

Will my faith make it through tomorrow's challenges?

Will your faith make it through tomorrow's unknowns?

Surely, you're seeing what he's predicting here.

There's no way you could read the end of Romans E8 and hear him say, it's probably gonna work out pretty easy for you.

Eat, drink, and be merry, and look forward to getting to heaven and the new earth.

He doesn't sort of say that.

He's like, you know what?

As I look to the future, the decades in front of us in the first century, and he's looking prophetically into all the end of this age, I think he's inspired by the Spirit to know there's gonna be some tough stuff for every believer to live through.

I think he's basically saying, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

Believers in Rome, whoever gets to read this and understand it and come under it into the centuries that follow, there could be persecution against you for your faith.

People you love will die.

Some of you will die for your faith before Jesus returns.

You will be probably maybe confronted by demonic powers.

Basically anything you could imagine happening could and maybe will happen to you in the future.

Because in this age the evil one is active and sin is having its terrible consequence on humanity.

But there's an age to come.

And Paul is saying, but nothing has the power to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You have a sure hope of that life to come, and a sure hope of your life making a difference now.

Amen.

Would you stand please?

When we put our faith in Christ, Romans E8 teaches us that we are tied inseparably in relationship.

We are safe in God's arms.

We started out chapter one, there was a graphic that Ben made up, and the name of the series was The Righteousness of God Revealed.

And that's how we started out chapter one, isn't it?

All through the Old Testament, there was a promise by God that he would reveal his righteousness, his justice and his holiness.

And he has done so in Jesus, hallelujah.

I wonder if you could look around, see some of these human beings in the room.

Many of us here are followers of Jesus.

And if you talk to everyone in the room, and you're not a Christian here, and maybe you could have a wide shot for those online.

These people around you, they don't have easy lives.

They have hard lives.

But they have a rock-solid hope in Christ.

And it helps, more than helps.

It transforms what can be a daily grind, but with a dream, with a hope, with a confidence that it's for something.

It's for the glory of the one who is worthy of glory.

Every one of us wants to live for some glory.

You're not worthy of it, but Jesus is.

Amen.

If you aren't one of the number who know Jesus Christ as Lord, can I invite you to receive him as Lord today?

Let God know that you've messed up.

He knows it already.

And let him know that you're willing to believe.

Ask him to help you, because he's willing that none should perish.

He wants you to put your complete, full, wholehearted trust in Jesus.

And he absolutely knows that you don't know much about what the process involves.

You don't know much about him, because you're just...

you're lost.

And he wants to find you.

This glorious hope is global in scope.

It's for the whole world, and you can be part of it.

It's holistic in effect.

We're going to get new bodies.

It's supernatural in power.

We're weak, but he is strong.

It's sovereignly predestined.

No one can thwart God's plan.

It's judicially invincible when you put faith in Christ.

No one can come and tell you that you don't belong because it's Christ who is perfect, not us.

And when we put our faith in Christ, we are connected in the love of God to Jesus.

Thank you, Lord God, for these first eight chapters of Romans.

We so appreciate them, filled with truth.

Lord, we confess that it would seem that Romans 7 is describing a pre-Christian life, but gee, the way we fail, it feels a lot like a lot of our lives.

We do the things we don't want to do.

We just stand here and we want to confess, Lord, we're sorry where we have failed to live up to the revelation You have given us.

We have the Bible in our hands and You have given us Your Spirit to guide us.

But Lord, we remember Romans 8.1.

Therefore, now there is no condemnation for us, for we are found in who?

Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lord Jesus, we give You all the praise, all the glory in this little tiny spot of the globe that You are Lord of.

And we want to say thank you for our living hope.

You are our living hope.

And all the people said?

Amen.

Let's sing together.

‍