Dale Partridge - The Impact of Sin on the Natural World -Romans 8_19-22

00:00:00.880 Amen. Good morning. We are blessed today to be in Romans 8 still, which is one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture.

00:00:13.320 Last week, we discussed that the children of God suffer.

00:00:21.440 We suffer for sin and we also suffer for our association with Christ.

00:00:26.480 We are part of the family of Christ.

00:00:29.940 We are members of the suffering servant.

00:00:34.180 And we cannot expect to have an inheritance of the family name with also not sharing in the family suffering.

00:00:42.960 Our Lord said, a slave is not greater than his master.

00:00:47.160 If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

00:00:50.040 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.

00:01:02.920 Ultimately, Paul was aiming to shift our perspective.

00:01:06.160 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.

00:01:17.380 He wants us to have an eternal perspective to strengthen our ability to endure the sufferings

00:01:25.720 that we take on in this time. I want you to imagine for a moment that an angel permitted you

00:01:34.840 to see heaven for 10 seconds, to bring your mind up, to see the future eternal state,

00:01:45.780 a new earth

00:01:47.620 without pain.

00:01:50.740 With family members

00:01:52.840 and friends around you.

00:01:55.100 Without sin

00:01:56.320 in the presence of Christ.

00:02:00.100 With warm weather.

00:02:02.460 With a beautiful earth.

00:02:06.600 No future death.

00:02:09.160 No fear.

00:02:10.540 No sin.

00:02:13.200 Imagine

00:02:13.920 the laughter and the bliss. Imagine seeing this, and then the angel pulling you down.

00:02:24.000 And imagine the angel says, does your current sufferings compare to that?

00:02:31.540 Do your current sufferings compare with what you just saw?

00:02:37.680 The answer would be absolutely not. It does not, not even close. And from that point,

00:02:43.800 that vision, that moment, that understanding of that eternal state, you would be able to endure

00:02:49.680 hardship because of the vision that was seen. And that is exactly what Paul is trying to do

00:02:55.200 in this text. He wants you to have an eternal vision. It permits you to endure. Perspective

00:03:02.160 changes the way that you can live. Today's text, the apostle makes a related statement.

00:03:13.800 In the same way that our sufferings are not to be compared to the inheritance of glory

00:03:17.580 that we receive as children of God, this fallen world with all of its creation and all the

00:03:23.620 plants and all the animals and all the matter are also waiting for glory, the restoration

00:03:28.160 of all things.

00:03:30.860 The earth, the creation actually suffer with us.

00:03:36.720 If you look down at your Bible on verses 8 and 19, I'm going to read, it says,

00:03:40.880 for the anxious longing of the creation

00:03:44.960 waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

00:03:49.460 Now this literary style is called an anthropomorphism.

00:03:54.160 It's a big theology word that says

00:03:56.080 that we are going to apply human characteristics

00:03:58.640 to inanimate objects.

00:04:01.280 The earth groaning, the animals groaning,

00:04:04.880 the plants groaning, eagerly awaiting anxiously. 0.81

00:04:11.740 And Paul explains that just as Christians experience suffering 1.00

00:04:15.520 and eagerly await the deliverance from these fallen bodies that are part of creation, 0.99

00:04:20.980 the entire creation, the animals, everything that we see outside is actually groaning with us.

00:04:29.040 It's waiting for the deliverance of this fallen state.

00:04:34.540 In Genesis 3, 17 through 19, we actually see that it's not just man that's cursed,

00:04:40.880 but actually the earth as well it says

00:04:47.080 cursed is the ground for your sake in toil you shall eat of it all the days of

00:04:52.860 your life but thorns and thistles it shall bring forth and you shall eat of

00:04:58.380 the herb of the field in the sweat of your face you shall be eating bread till

00:05:02.600 you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and dust

00:05:06.580 you shall return

00:05:10.880 I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who says,

00:05:12.360 when you grab a rose, you can thank Adam for the thorns.

00:05:19.040 Two chapters later, Genesis 5, 8, 29,

00:05:25.200 the text speaks to this curse on the ground. 0.92

00:05:27.500 It says, when Lamech had lived 182 years,

00:05:31.940 he fathered a son and called his name Noah,

00:05:34.820 saying, this one will comfort us

00:05:37.920 concerning our work and the toil of our hands,

00:05:39.900 because the ground which the Lord has cursed.

00:05:44.660 They were waiting for the promised serpent crusher

00:05:47.460 that's not just going to deliver them from their fallen state in the spiritual matter,

00:05:51.520 but actually restore the world to an Edenic state.

00:05:58.640 Just as humanity eagerly anticipates the restoration of this Edenic world.

00:06:05.160 A time when God and man can coexist together.

00:06:10.220 A time where God said, everything is very good.

00:06:15.740 In the same way, the natural world longs with us for that exact state.

00:06:24.560 And my hope is that at the end of this sermon, you will see, even looking out behind me,

00:06:30.900 a perspective that you had not thought about before.

00:06:35.160 And what I mean by that is that your chickens and your gardens and your livestock, they

00:06:44.080 actually groan with you.

00:06:47.520 The rivers and the rocks and the deserts cry to be made new.

00:06:52.920 If you fail to see this perspective, you're missing the magnitude of the fall.

00:07:00.160 Bible 1, 18 through 20 speaks of this effect of the fall through the effects of a famine.

00:07:08.300 It says in verse 18, how the animals grown, the herds of the cattle are restless because

00:07:15.360 they have no pasture.

00:07:16.340 Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

00:07:19.620 Oh Lord, to you I cry out for fire has devoured the open pastures and a flame has burned up

00:07:25.780 all the trees of the field.

00:07:26.740 the beasts of the field also cry out to you for the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured

00:07:33.800 the open pastures. Now too often, and this really gets to the heart of what I'm going to say today,

00:07:40.580 we look upon creation with awe. We make one massive mistake, one massive mistake when doing

00:07:48.580 this. Our mistake is not in appreciating the natural beauty of the earth that we see. We

00:07:54.560 actually often worship this earth in too much degree, but rather our failure is that we fail

00:08:00.540 to recognize the earth that we lost through sin. That is that we fail to understand that what we

00:08:11.260 see today, as beautiful as it may be, is actually a wasteland compared to what once was and what

00:08:19.980 will be. For example, when we go to the Grand Canyon, we look to the Grand Canyon, we're in

00:08:27.160 astonishment. It's beautiful. It's massive. But we're not even considering that we are astonished

00:08:32.560 with what actually is destruction from the flood. It's actually erosion, the falling apart of the

00:08:42.640 earth that makes it so beautiful to us. We speak of beauty about volcanoes and raging rivers and

00:08:50.280 tornadoes and cactuses without realizing they are not actually expressions of God's original intent

00:08:56.860 for the earth. We think of these jagged mountains that are inhospitable to climb as if they were

00:09:09.340 not stripped by floodwaters and that God's original hope was to have mountains that

00:09:15.100 look like teeth hanging out of the earth.

00:09:20.960 We cherish the sight of fallen trees that form bridges over rivers without realizing

00:09:26.580 that those scenes will never be a part of the new earth.

00:09:31.000 There will be no dead trees.

00:09:33.740 There will be no erosion and destruction.

00:09:38.100 These are all radical parts of the fall.

00:09:43.100 It's as if we look upon a war zone

00:09:45.700 with adoration and amazement

00:09:47.800 because we see the rain pooling

00:09:49.680 and the streams forming amidst the carnage.

00:09:54.540 In a sense, the destruction of the fallen world,

00:10:01.540 which is all we know,

00:10:04.660 has become our standard of natural beauty.

00:10:08.100 We don't know what a pre-flood world looked like.

00:10:13.800 We don't understand what an Edenic state would be like.

00:10:17.520 All we have is this, and even this is beautiful.

00:10:22.380 But again, the problem is not that we don't appreciate the beauty of the even fallen nature.

00:10:27.900 The problem is that we don't recognize the magnitude of beauty lost through sin.

00:10:33.540 we don't recognize how much has gone away because of the fall

00:10:40.540 we have actually become content with this earth

00:10:46.160 and when you become content with this earth you will never look forward to the new state

00:10:52.120 if you cannot look upon this earth and go as beautiful as it is I cannot wait

00:10:57.660 for the Edenic state that is not going to be compared to the glory

00:11:01.480 that's going to be revealed in us.

00:11:06.480 We can't even fathom a world

00:11:08.820 where 20-foot mounds of topsoil

00:11:14.060 are at the top of 15,000-foot elevations.

00:11:17.560 We can't even fathom a world

00:11:19.400 that have trees that wood is like rock

00:11:22.040 and that the trees are 500 feet tall.

00:11:24.960 We can't understand vineyards

00:11:27.220 that produce fruit unending

00:11:29.960 and rivers that flow without contamination of disease.

00:11:36.940 We can't fathom perfect weather without rain.

00:11:43.100 We can't fathom these things because we don't understand

00:11:46.120 the absolute glory that will be revealed in this earth in the future.

00:11:55.280 And when it comes to animals, talk about this for a minute,

00:11:59.420 We often think that lions were designed to devour

00:12:01.900 and that wolves have teeth designed to rip prey apart.

00:12:06.860 We call it natural.

00:12:09.940 But it is only natural in that it is fallen.

00:12:17.240 In the same way that it is only natural for man to hate God and love sin,

00:12:23.020 it is only natural for a lion to attack and eat a calf.

00:12:27.340 It is not.

00:12:28.620 God's intent. The world that we are so impressed with is actually a state of

00:12:35.400 creation not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in it in

00:12:38.620 all things including animals. It honestly should make you grieve at some degree.

00:12:45.980 There's a problem if we're not grieving to the loss that is in this world. It

00:12:53.720 It should add to the gravity of sin and make you long for it to be restored.

00:12:59.680 We are not to be content with this the same way that we are not to be content with these

00:13:03.540 bodies.

00:13:08.880 By God's grace, it will be restored.

00:13:12.020 Isaiah 11, one through nine speaks of this restoration and it speaks of it as if it comes

00:13:17.840 through the reign of Christ.

00:13:20.480 If you guys want to turn there, you can, Isaiah 11, 1 through 9.

00:13:26.820 It says,

00:13:27.580 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.

00:13:32.040 It's David's father.

00:13:34.380 And a branch from his root shall bear fruit,

00:13:37.300 and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

00:13:40.060 and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

00:13:42.060 the Spirit of counsel and might,

00:13:43.700 the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,

00:13:45.840 and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

00:13:48.260 he shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear

00:13:53.380 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the

00:13:57.840 meek of the earth and he shall strike the earth with a rod of his mouth and 0.96

00:14:02.380 with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked righteousness shall be 0.95

00:14:06.980 the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins now check this out

00:14:11.740 in verse six. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young

00:14:21.980 goat and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together and the little child shall lead

00:14:28.780 them and the cow shall bear and the cow and the bear shall graze and their young shall lie down

00:14:34.460 together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox and the nursing child shall play over the hole

00:14:39.040 of the cobra. And the weaned child shall put his hand over the adder's den. They shall not hurt or

00:14:44.640 destroy and all of my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the

00:14:49.360 waters cover the sea. When you look upon a dead desert with a lion dragging a gazelle

00:15:03.260 across dead plants.

00:15:06.460 That is not to be a place of contentment for us.

00:15:13.540 That is not God's intention for this earth.

00:15:18.520 There will be a restoration.

00:15:21.920 Verse 20 says,

00:15:22.980 For the creation was subjected to futility,

00:15:27.040 not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.

00:15:30.480 The creation, the heavens and the earth and the plants and the waters of the sea

00:15:37.060 were designed to praise God and serve God's image. 0.76

00:15:42.960 It was designed to be ruled by man.

00:15:46.760 But verse 20 says that it was subjected to futility.

00:15:51.280 Your passage might say vanity.

00:15:54.520 I want to break down these two words here real quick.

00:15:57.660 This subjection occurred because the earth was under the authority of man.

00:16:03.660 Creation was under the authority of man,

00:16:06.440 and the consequences of man's fall affected not just all of the humanity

00:16:09.880 that came from that man, but also everything under that man's authority.

00:16:14.800 Is that understood?

00:16:16.880 So when Adam fell, his porogyny fell, and also creation fell with him.

00:16:21.900 But the term futility speaks to this vainness, this inability to be subject,

00:16:35.740 its inability to attain its full glory.

00:16:39.000 It's probably the best way to put it.

00:16:41.720 The earth has been subjected to an inability to attain its full glory.

00:16:46.760 Now, we know the definition of glory is the rightful radiance response of a particular object.

00:16:51.900 It's to fulfill what you were designed to do.

00:16:55.780 A glorious earth is designed to house the people of God,

00:17:01.880 to host the people of God.

00:17:04.960 A glorious table upholds what is supposed to uphold.

00:17:09.880 A glorious husband is what God designed him to be.

00:17:12.580 And a glorious earth should host the righteousness of God.

00:17:16.620 these bodies in this earth

00:17:20.160 have not been able to attain the full glory

00:17:22.580 that they were intended for

00:17:23.920 in other words the sun

00:17:30.060 which was intended to shine

00:17:32.600 light upon the goodness

00:17:34.460 of God's image

00:17:35.320 now shines upon those who reject him

00:17:38.360 and the ground

00:17:40.440 meant to nourish the righteous

00:17:41.660 is now actually yielding

00:17:44.440 crops for both the righteous and the wicked

00:17:47.360 Even the rivers intended to provide sustenance to God's people now quench the thirst of evildoers.

00:17:54.280 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.

00:18:06.360 The precious minerals of the earth that are designed to adorn this world have been used and slaughtered for profit.

00:18:16.400 the earth groans under the rule of wicked men. Now I'm not some liberal pro-earth green earth

00:18:26.660 guy that's saying that we need to go and save the earth because we can. Well we can't save the earth

00:18:31.240 just the same way we cannot save these bodies. But what I'm saying is that we need to recognize

00:18:38.180 that the earth was designed to host the goodness of God in man's or in God's image. But we are

00:18:44.780 unable to see that glory come to fulfillment because of the fall.

00:18:51.680 Isaiah 24, five through six says, the earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they

00:18:58.820 have transgressed the laws, violated the statues, broken the everlasting covenant. 0.94

00:19:06.700 Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt, end quote.

00:19:14.780 Ultimately, again, the Bible teaches that the earth suffers under the fallen state.

00:19:22.900 And the same way that our bodies suffer, as Christians even, through this fallen state,

00:19:27.600 the earth also suffers. The plants suffer. 0.63

00:19:32.320 The animals suffer. The mountains suffer. The rivers suffer.

00:19:37.540 it actually awaits for a restoration verse 21 says in hope that the creation itself

00:19:50.120 also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of

00:19:55.680 the children of god for we know that the whole earth or the whole creation your version might

00:20:01.460 say groans and labors with birth pangs together until now again like the earth

00:20:11.860 and like the church we eagerly anticipate the liberation the bondage from the curse so that

00:20:23.300 we can fulfill our intended glory to know God and to make him known to worship him to praise him

00:20:33.040 to be glorious and like the earth we feel this tension in our own being while we have souls that

00:20:41.160 have been made new our bodies since they're made of dust they're part of this earth and are also

00:20:46.680 part of this growing creation therefore in a sense we are actually groaning together we can feel it

00:20:52.720 You guys know I've been chronically ill for several years, and I can feel it.

00:20:59.440 My body doesn't work as it's supposed to.

00:21:04.120 Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a beautiful statement.

00:21:07.180 He says on this passage of scripture,

00:21:09.800 I wonder whether the phenomenon of the spring supplies us part of the answer.

00:21:15.820 Nature, every year, as it were, makes an effort to renew itself,

00:21:19.960 to produce something permanent.

00:21:23.780 It has come out of the death and darkness of all that is true of the winter.

00:21:29.440 In the spring, it seems to be trying to produce a perfect creation again,

00:21:33.860 to be going through some kind of birth pains year by year.

00:21:37.900 But unfortunately, it does not succeed.

00:21:41.320 The spring leads to summer, whereas the summer leads to autumn and autumn to winter.

00:21:45.620 poor old nature tries every year to defeat the futility of the principle of death and decay

00:21:52.860 and disintegration that is in it but it cannot do so it fails every time it still goes on trying

00:22:01.420 as if it feels things should be different and better but it never succeeds so it goes on

00:22:07.880 groaning and travailing and pain together until now it has been doing so for a very long time

00:22:14.760 But nature still repeats that effort annually.

00:22:18.060 But it will be one day set free from this corruption

00:22:21.480 into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, end quote.

00:22:28.640 The good news is this,

00:22:31.940 that by the grace of God, the gospel, the news of our salvation,

00:22:35.880 the future restoration of humanity and the earth,

00:22:39.760 God will allow through his people, even in this fallen earth,

00:22:43.460 to have joy in the midst of a broken state we have work to do in the midst of a broken state

00:22:49.060 we have a gospel to proclaim we have a society to restore but also we can actually have joy in

00:22:54.580 the midst of all of it psalm 98 4 through 7 says make a joyful noise to the lord all the earth

00:23:01.380 break forth into joyous song and sing praises let the seas roar and all that fills it

00:23:07.780 the world and all those who dwell in it let the rivers clap their hands let the hills sing for

00:23:15.580 joy together before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth he will judge the world with

00:23:20.520 righteousness and the peoples with equity Robert Haldane from the 1800s says quote the language of

00:23:30.500 scripture demonstrates the sins of men caused the creation to mourn but the mercy of God through the

00:23:37.080 salvation of men causes creation to rejoice. So what do we do now? What do we do now?

00:23:48.060 Do we just wait for the earth and our bodies to be made new? Do we not engage this culture? 0.93

00:23:57.060 Do we just sulk in our broken state of restoration and wait for all things to be

00:24:01.600 restored? Do we do as J. Vernon McGee once said, not polish brass on a sinking ship?

00:24:10.380 No. As Christians, we know that our bodies and this earth must die before they are made anew.

00:24:18.580 We know that. We know that no matter how much God sanctifies our souls,

00:24:24.300 it will never progress into eternalizing our bodies. We, at least me,

00:24:31.600 I'm a post-millennial.

00:24:33.800 I am believing in the gospel to change this earth.

00:24:39.640 But I don't go beyond the text to believe

00:24:42.020 that it'll eternalize my body

00:24:43.940 or that it'll eternalize this earth.

00:24:45.940 I have hope for the gospel to change society.

00:24:50.020 But the creation needs to die before it's made new.

00:24:53.360 In the same way, we don't believe that the church's care for this earth is going to somehow

00:25:05.000 restore the world to its Edenic state. It's not going to repair the mountains and the destruction

00:25:11.820 that has been done from the flood. It's not going to make Sedona look like it did prior to Noah's

00:25:18.120 day. Nevertheless, do we not care for our bodies as good stewards? Does the sanctification of our

00:25:28.280 souls not uphold the physical life in our bodies? Does our obedience not actually protect us from

00:25:35.140 harm and from addiction and from problems of foolishness and injury? It does, absolutely.

00:25:43.180 And for the same reason, the church ought to steward creation according to God's will.

00:25:47.500 This is the original intention of God's design,

00:25:50.520 that we might rule this world well according to his will,

00:25:54.480 to have dominion over it, to care for it.

00:26:00.760 Again, my hope is not in this fallen earth.

00:26:06.180 But until Christ comes back to restore all things physically,

00:26:10.600 Christ is here restoring all things spiritually.

00:26:13.760 It's certainly going to materialize in a changed society.

00:26:17.540 The gospel doesn't come into spiritual beings

00:26:20.460 and doesn't do anything.

00:26:21.800 No, it comes into a spiritual being

00:26:23.120 and it actually materializes into a physical being.

00:26:25.660 It's going to change the way that you educate.

00:26:27.580 It's going to change the way you spend your money.

00:26:29.240 It's going to change the way you do your politics.

00:26:30.820 It's going to change the way you do civics.

00:26:32.440 It's going to change the way you leave your home

00:26:34.000 and the way you run your business.

00:26:35.220 All of those things are going to change.

00:26:39.220 But it's not going to rebuild mountains.

00:26:41.900 It's not going to save your body from cancer.

00:26:51.980 And so we should be asking and praying

00:26:55.020 that the Lord would give us the same tenacity

00:27:00.320 that the earth has to fight every year.

00:27:03.780 To fight every year for the restoration.

00:27:06.300 that we would be found distributing the gospel,

00:27:12.960 that we would be found restoring society,

00:27:15.240 that we would be found caring for creation

00:27:18.080 and the created things in a way that honors God.

00:27:23.460 Revelation 21, one through five,

00:27:25.440 and I'll close with this, says,

00:27:28.860 quote, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth

00:27:33.560 For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

00:27:40.880 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

00:27:48.180 He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

00:27:55.880 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

00:27:59.520 neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away

00:28:05.360 and he who is seated on the throne said behold I'm making all things new also he said

00:28:14.260 write this down for these words are trustworthy and true amen amen let's pray

00:28:23.160 father we thank you lord for the work that you're doing in the church

00:28:27.860 we thank you lord for the work that the church is doing in the world

00:28:31.740 father we thank you for the gospel that transforms societies and transforms hearts

00:28:40.180 and lord we understand that we must die like christ died and we understand that the graveyards

00:28:51.560 of Christians or the seedbeds of heaven. And Lord, we understand that our resurrection bodies

00:28:57.220 are going to be glorious and that this resurrected earth is going to be glorious.

00:29:02.200 Lord, we ask that you would give us a vision, that we would understand these things, that we

00:29:06.860 would see these things, that we would not have hope in the fallenness, but in the future,

00:29:11.000 that we would live as people who have their heads in heaven and their feet on the ground.

00:29:14.440 and lord we pray that these truths would transform the way that we live in our homes

00:29:23.280 that we would think about the generations coming forth

00:29:26.980 and that this text would penetrate every part of our being

00:29:33.880 we ask these things in jesus name amen amen

Dale Partridge - February 12, 2024

The Impact of Sin on the Natural World -Romans 8_19-22

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript