The Impact of Sin on the Natural World -Romans 8_19-22
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Summary
"A slave is not greater than his master, but a servant is greater than their master." - Romans 8:8-9 (NKJV) We are blessed today to be in Romans 8, which is one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture. In this text, the Apostle Paul says that the sufferings that we experience are not worthy to be compared to the inheritance of glory that we receive as children of God. He wants us to have an eternal perspective to strengthen our ability to endure the suffering that we take on in this time.
Transcript
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Amen. Good morning. We are blessed today to be in Romans 8 still, which is one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture.
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Last week, we discussed that the children of God suffer.
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We suffer for sin and we also suffer for our association with Christ.
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And we cannot expect to have an inheritance of the family name with also not sharing in the family suffering.
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Our Lord said, a slave is not greater than his master.
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If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.
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But then Paul told us that the sufferings that he's speaking about are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.
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Ultimately, Paul was aiming to shift our perspective.
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He wanted to give us an eternal perspective that we might see how unsuitable the comparison would be to our sufferings to an eternal state.
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He wants us to have an eternal perspective to strengthen our ability to endure the sufferings
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that we take on in this time. I want you to imagine for a moment that an angel permitted you
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to see heaven for 10 seconds, to bring your mind up, to see the future eternal state,
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the laughter and the bliss. Imagine seeing this, and then the angel pulling you down.
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And imagine the angel says, does your current sufferings compare to that?
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Do your current sufferings compare with what you just saw?
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The answer would be absolutely not. It does not, not even close. And from that point,
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that vision, that moment, that understanding of that eternal state, you would be able to endure
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hardship because of the vision that was seen. And that is exactly what Paul is trying to do
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in this text. He wants you to have an eternal vision. It permits you to endure. Perspective
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changes the way that you can live. Today's text, the apostle makes a related statement.
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In the same way that our sufferings are not to be compared to the inheritance of glory
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that we receive as children of God, this fallen world with all of its creation and all the
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plants and all the animals and all the matter are also waiting for glory, the restoration
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The earth, the creation actually suffer with us.
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If you look down at your Bible on verses 8 and 19, I'm going to read, it says,
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waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
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Now this literary style is called an anthropomorphism.
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that we are going to apply human characteristics
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the plants groaning, eagerly awaiting anxiously.
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And Paul explains that just as Christians experience suffering
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and eagerly await the deliverance from these fallen bodies that are part of creation,
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the entire creation, the animals, everything that we see outside is actually groaning with us.
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It's waiting for the deliverance of this fallen state.
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In Genesis 3, 17 through 19, we actually see that it's not just man that's cursed,
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cursed is the ground for your sake in toil you shall eat of it all the days of
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your life but thorns and thistles it shall bring forth and you shall eat of
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the herb of the field in the sweat of your face you shall be eating bread till
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you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and dust
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when you grab a rose, you can thank Adam for the thorns.
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the text speaks to this curse on the ground.
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They were waiting for the promised serpent crusher
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that's not just going to deliver them from their fallen state in the spiritual matter,
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but actually restore the world to an Edenic state.
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Just as humanity eagerly anticipates the restoration of this Edenic world.
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A time where God said, everything is very good.
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In the same way, the natural world longs with us for that exact state.
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And my hope is that at the end of this sermon, you will see, even looking out behind me,
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a perspective that you had not thought about before.
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And what I mean by that is that your chickens and your gardens and your livestock, they
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The rivers and the rocks and the deserts cry to be made new.
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If you fail to see this perspective, you're missing the magnitude of the fall.
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Bible 1, 18 through 20 speaks of this effect of the fall through the effects of a famine.
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It says in verse 18, how the animals grown, the herds of the cattle are restless because
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Oh Lord, to you I cry out for fire has devoured the open pastures and a flame has burned up
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the beasts of the field also cry out to you for the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured
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the open pastures. Now too often, and this really gets to the heart of what I'm going to say today,
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we look upon creation with awe. We make one massive mistake, one massive mistake when doing
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this. Our mistake is not in appreciating the natural beauty of the earth that we see. We
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actually often worship this earth in too much degree, but rather our failure is that we fail
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to recognize the earth that we lost through sin. That is that we fail to understand that what we
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see today, as beautiful as it may be, is actually a wasteland compared to what once was and what
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will be. For example, when we go to the Grand Canyon, we look to the Grand Canyon, we're in
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astonishment. It's beautiful. It's massive. But we're not even considering that we are astonished
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with what actually is destruction from the flood. It's actually erosion, the falling apart of the
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earth that makes it so beautiful to us. We speak of beauty about volcanoes and raging rivers and
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tornadoes and cactuses without realizing they are not actually expressions of God's original intent
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for the earth. We think of these jagged mountains that are inhospitable to climb as if they were
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not stripped by floodwaters and that God's original hope was to have mountains that
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We cherish the sight of fallen trees that form bridges over rivers without realizing
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that those scenes will never be a part of the new earth.
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In a sense, the destruction of the fallen world,
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We don't know what a pre-flood world looked like.
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We don't understand what an Edenic state would be like.
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All we have is this, and even this is beautiful.
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But again, the problem is not that we don't appreciate the beauty of the even fallen nature.
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The problem is that we don't recognize the magnitude of beauty lost through sin.
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we don't recognize how much has gone away because of the fall
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we have actually become content with this earth
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and when you become content with this earth you will never look forward to the new state
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if you cannot look upon this earth and go as beautiful as it is I cannot wait
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for the Edenic state that is not going to be compared to the glory
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and rivers that flow without contamination of disease.
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We can't fathom these things because we don't understand
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the absolute glory that will be revealed in this earth in the future.
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And when it comes to animals, talk about this for a minute,
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We often think that lions were designed to devour
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and that wolves have teeth designed to rip prey apart.
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In the same way that it is only natural for man to hate God and love sin,
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it is only natural for a lion to attack and eat a calf.
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God's intent. The world that we are so impressed with is actually a state of
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creation not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in it in
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all things including animals. It honestly should make you grieve at some degree.
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There's a problem if we're not grieving to the loss that is in this world. It
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It should add to the gravity of sin and make you long for it to be restored.
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We are not to be content with this the same way that we are not to be content with these
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Isaiah 11, one through nine speaks of this restoration and it speaks of it as if it comes
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If you guys want to turn there, you can, Isaiah 11, 1 through 9.
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There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.
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and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
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the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,
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and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
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he shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear
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but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the
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meek of the earth and he shall strike the earth with a rod of his mouth and
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with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked righteousness shall be
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the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins now check this out
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in verse six. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young
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goat and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together and the little child shall lead
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them and the cow shall bear and the cow and the bear shall graze and their young shall lie down
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together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox and the nursing child shall play over the hole
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of the cobra. And the weaned child shall put his hand over the adder's den. They shall not hurt or
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destroy and all of my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
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waters cover the sea. When you look upon a dead desert with a lion dragging a gazelle
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That is not to be a place of contentment for us.
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not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.
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The creation, the heavens and the earth and the plants and the waters of the sea
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were designed to praise God and serve God's image.
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But verse 20 says that it was subjected to futility.
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I want to break down these two words here real quick.
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This subjection occurred because the earth was under the authority of man.
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and the consequences of man's fall affected not just all of the humanity
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that came from that man, but also everything under that man's authority.
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So when Adam fell, his porogyny fell, and also creation fell with him.
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But the term futility speaks to this vainness, this inability to be subject,
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The earth has been subjected to an inability to attain its full glory.
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Now, we know the definition of glory is the rightful radiance response of a particular object.
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A glorious earth is designed to house the people of God,
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A glorious table upholds what is supposed to uphold.
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A glorious husband is what God designed him to be.
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And a glorious earth should host the righteousness of God.
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Even the rivers intended to provide sustenance to God's people now quench the thirst of evildoers.
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The trees that are initially created for sustenance and shelter have been misused to craft idols and take the wood to fashion weapons and kill one another with them.
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The precious minerals of the earth that are designed to adorn this world have been used and slaughtered for profit.
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the earth groans under the rule of wicked men. Now I'm not some liberal pro-earth green earth
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guy that's saying that we need to go and save the earth because we can. Well we can't save the earth
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just the same way we cannot save these bodies. But what I'm saying is that we need to recognize
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that the earth was designed to host the goodness of God in man's or in God's image. But we are
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unable to see that glory come to fulfillment because of the fall.
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Isaiah 24, five through six says, the earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they
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have transgressed the laws, violated the statues, broken the everlasting covenant.
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Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt, end quote.
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Ultimately, again, the Bible teaches that the earth suffers under the fallen state.
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And the same way that our bodies suffer, as Christians even, through this fallen state,
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the earth also suffers. The plants suffer.
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The animals suffer. The mountains suffer. The rivers suffer.
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it actually awaits for a restoration verse 21 says in hope that the creation itself
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also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of
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the children of god for we know that the whole earth or the whole creation your version might
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say groans and labors with birth pangs together until now again like the earth
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and like the church we eagerly anticipate the liberation the bondage from the curse so that
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we can fulfill our intended glory to know God and to make him known to worship him to praise him
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to be glorious and like the earth we feel this tension in our own being while we have souls that
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have been made new our bodies since they're made of dust they're part of this earth and are also
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part of this growing creation therefore in a sense we are actually groaning together we can feel it
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You guys know I've been chronically ill for several years, and I can feel it.
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Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a beautiful statement.
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I wonder whether the phenomenon of the spring supplies us part of the answer.
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Nature, every year, as it were, makes an effort to renew itself,
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It has come out of the death and darkness of all that is true of the winter.
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In the spring, it seems to be trying to produce a perfect creation again,
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to be going through some kind of birth pains year by year.
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The spring leads to summer, whereas the summer leads to autumn and autumn to winter.
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poor old nature tries every year to defeat the futility of the principle of death and decay
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and disintegration that is in it but it cannot do so it fails every time it still goes on trying
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as if it feels things should be different and better but it never succeeds so it goes on
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groaning and travailing and pain together until now it has been doing so for a very long time
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But it will be one day set free from this corruption
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into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, end quote.
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that by the grace of God, the gospel, the news of our salvation,
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the future restoration of humanity and the earth,
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God will allow through his people, even in this fallen earth,
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to have joy in the midst of a broken state we have work to do in the midst of a broken state
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we have a gospel to proclaim we have a society to restore but also we can actually have joy in
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the midst of all of it psalm 98 4 through 7 says make a joyful noise to the lord all the earth
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break forth into joyous song and sing praises let the seas roar and all that fills it
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the world and all those who dwell in it let the rivers clap their hands let the hills sing for
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joy together before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth he will judge the world with
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righteousness and the peoples with equity Robert Haldane from the 1800s says quote the language of
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scripture demonstrates the sins of men caused the creation to mourn but the mercy of God through the
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salvation of men causes creation to rejoice. So what do we do now? What do we do now?
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Do we just wait for the earth and our bodies to be made new? Do we not engage this culture?
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Do we just sulk in our broken state of restoration and wait for all things to be
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restored? Do we do as J. Vernon McGee once said, not polish brass on a sinking ship?
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No. As Christians, we know that our bodies and this earth must die before they are made anew.
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We know that. We know that no matter how much God sanctifies our souls,
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it will never progress into eternalizing our bodies. We, at least me,
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I am believing in the gospel to change this earth.
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But the creation needs to die before it's made new.
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In the same way, we don't believe that the church's care for this earth is going to somehow
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restore the world to its Edenic state. It's not going to repair the mountains and the destruction
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that has been done from the flood. It's not going to make Sedona look like it did prior to Noah's
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day. Nevertheless, do we not care for our bodies as good stewards? Does the sanctification of our
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souls not uphold the physical life in our bodies? Does our obedience not actually protect us from
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harm and from addiction and from problems of foolishness and injury? It does, absolutely.
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And for the same reason, the church ought to steward creation according to God's will.
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This is the original intention of God's design,
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that we might rule this world well according to his will,
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But until Christ comes back to restore all things physically,
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Christ is here restoring all things spiritually.
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It's certainly going to materialize in a changed society.
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and it actually materializes into a physical being.
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It's going to change the way you spend your money.
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It's going to change the way you do your politics.
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It's going to change the way you leave your home
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that we would be found distributing the gospel,
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and the created things in a way that honors God.
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For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
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He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
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neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away
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and he who is seated on the throne said behold I'm making all things new also he said
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write this down for these words are trustworthy and true amen amen let's pray
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father we thank you lord for the work that you're doing in the church
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we thank you lord for the work that the church is doing in the world
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father we thank you for the gospel that transforms societies and transforms hearts
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and lord we understand that we must die like christ died and we understand that the graveyards
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of Christians or the seedbeds of heaven. And Lord, we understand that our resurrection bodies
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are going to be glorious and that this resurrected earth is going to be glorious.
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Lord, we ask that you would give us a vision, that we would understand these things, that we
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would see these things, that we would not have hope in the fallenness, but in the future,
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that we would live as people who have their heads in heaven and their feet on the ground.
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and lord we pray that these truths would transform the way that we live in our homes
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that we would think about the generations coming forth
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and that this text would penetrate every part of our being