Now we're going to read from the scriptures. Before I get to the reading of the word, I just want to let you know tonight we have the privilege of hearing a very gifted preacher. Ruffin Alfin will be coming to bring God's word tonight. If you've heard him before, you know how he is a faithful and a very effective preacher of the word. So I invite you to come tonight to hear our friend and brother Ruffin. Now we're going to read from the Bible. I'm in Romans 8. I will read Romans 8, 16 through 25. As you are able, I invite you to stand and receive the reading of God's word. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. This is God's word. I wonder, when you wake up in the morning and when you open your eyes, What typically is the first sound that comes out of your mouth? Is it just a sound? You're yawning and you're stretching, and that's the sound that comes out. Is it something like, good morning, good morning, dear? Are the first things that come out of your mouth, is it, oh no, I overslept? Or is the first sound that you make a groan, a groan? If you start your day with a groan, I affirm you. One dictionary defined a groan as a deep, long sound showing great pain or unhappiness. A groan can be the deep, disappointed moan when you open up the bill, the credit card bill, after a great vacation. Or a groan can be the soul sadness. When you exhale, you open the results to your application letter and you read the rejection. It's a groan that comes out. Groaning contains disappointment. Groaning expresses longing. This morning, the text tells us about groaning. Three things. We see that creation groans. We see that Christians groan, and we see that hope groans. Creation groans, Christians groan, hope groans. So creation groans, verses 19 through 22. Paul talks about creation groaning. Paul describes this universal groaning. It's the groaning of all of creation, all the animals, all the plant life, the structures and the systems of reality, all of it groans, and it's been that way for a long time. Creation groans. He says in verse 22, we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. When you look at life, when you look at nature, when you look at galaxies, what do you see? Well, one thing that you see is staggering beauty. You see this immense magnificence, but you also see at the same time, futility. It's like a gorgeous foyer mirror, but there's this huge crack across it, end to end. There's staggering beauty. Maybe you've seen video or you've seen footage of solar flares. Our own sun will have occasionally solar flares. And as large as our sun is, it's hard to take in the magnitude of how large our sun is because standing here as human beings, it looks like the sun is this big. But the truth is, these explosions, just the solar flare that explode from the surface of the sun, some of those, it looks like just a little tendril of, it looks like fire. Some of them are large enough, just that little flare It's enough to swallow dozens upon dozens of the entire planet Earth in just a flash. And there's something beautiful about that. But there's also ultimately futility in that beauty. As large as it is, as large as our sun is, it's just a modest-sized star in the universe. And our sun, our star, you know it's burning down. It's burning out. And one day, if the Lord were to tarry that long, our sun will just be exhausted and cold. So there's this beauty but there's also this futility. The sun will come to an end and ultimately become nothing left to itself. That's like in this large scale in creation. We see groaning, we see beauty, but we see futility. You see it also up close, like maybe you've seen the news video from the Outer Banks. Every summer, it seems like it's happening now more frequently, the wind, the waves erode the sand dunes, and in so many places, entire beach houses just collapse and are swallowed into the ocean. They collapse into a pile of boards in the water. As you see those kinds of things, you can listen to it, and you can hear creation is groaning. And not just buildings, but what about when your cat or your dog gets old, gets stiff, and finally dies? You're sad, and as you see this decay playing out with your loved pet, you sense your cat is groaning, your dog is groaning, your dog is in pain. You can even see the groaning in yourself in your own body when you wake up in the morning and you wake up and you're not stronger than you were, you're weaker. You don't have less arthritis, you have more arthritis. It's not just in the material universe, it's not just in nature, it's not just in our bodies. Creation groans socially. You see this kind of groaning in our social structures. Maybe you've got a sweet, sweet friend group right now, or you had one, and they became, they were real family to you. You enjoyed coffee together, you enjoyed sharing meals, you laughed together, you held each other and comforted one another, but the day comes. It feels like it always happens, doesn't it? The day finally comes when your friend group just drifts off into different directions, different cities, different moves because of jobs. You see it socially, you see the groaning in the systems and in the structures of society. Like this whole shutdown, the creation, the system is groaning. You see it when you look at the zeal to push out immigrants. You see it when you look at the increasing abortion of unborn life. You see it in the decades of black Americans receiving little restitution for all those civil wrongs, the system is groaning. Verse 20 says this, the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Verse 21 says, creation is captive to the bondage of corruption. Everything decays. Everything fractures. These days, you can take both of the major economic systems that are in play, capitalism, socialism. History shows that both of them, when they play out, they decay. and they ultimately turn into oppression and human distress. The world is groaning. Can you sense it? Verse 22 says, you know it. You know it to be groaning. We know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. It may sound strange, but the Bible invites you into this. The Bible invites you to listen to the groaning of the world, not to turn away from it, but to listen to it. The friend recently told me about his dog, his dog being put down this summer. The dog had lived a full life. The dog had lived the lifespan that was expected for this breed, but now his dog was in constant pain. His dog was suffering, and he had exceeded his lifespan. And so the family knew it was time for the dog to be put to sleep. They fed him a generous last meal with the dog's favorite foods. In this case, it was steak and brownies. And they fed him that, and then they sat down on the floor, and my friend put his dog's head in his lap, and the rest of the family gathered round, and then first the vet sedated the dog, and the dog was just sleeping, and then the vet gave the second injection that stopped the dog, and the dog died, and everyone cried. The creation is groaning. Can you hear it? Can you sense it? It is okay. It is okay to acknowledge that this world is broken. It's okay to expect that things in this creation are broken. It's okay to anticipate that good things will end. maybe sooner than we want. It is okay to say, this hurts. Life hurts. Not only does the creation groan, but Christians groan. We see this in verses 18 and verse 23. Christians groan. Romans 8, 23. Not only that, but we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan. within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. It says, we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves. He's talking about Christians. He's talking about people who have the Holy Spirit inside them, Christians grown. That might sound strange to you. Christians of all people though, are people who have reasons to groan. So I'm going to look at permission to groan, but then also reasons to groan, like permission to groan. Some people say Christians should not groan, like you're not doing what a Christian should do if you're groaning. Some people say Christians should be joyful, and to themselves and maybe to others, they maybe implicitly say, stop groaning, start praising. I knew a young man whose older brother who was not old, but a young man whose older brother unexpectedly died. And his older brother who died left behind a wife and several little children. And the young man who survived him, the young man was a sincere believer, but it was very strange. He kept insisting, I'm not sad. I'm not sad that my brother is dead. I'm glad because he's in heaven. And it would be wrong for me to grieve if he's rejoicing in heaven. This text says that we who believe in Jesus, we who have the Holy Spirit inhabiting us, and we know that the fruit of the Spirit, what does it include? It includes joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and so on. But I want you to see that the Spirit of joy is also the Spirit who groans. We who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves, it says, groan within ourselves. Believer, you have permission to groan. Believer, you have a Spirit-filled heart which groans. Later on in Romans 8, verse 26, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings. That's one of the ways, one of the styles with which the Holy Spirit prays for you. with groanings which cannot be uttered." So a Christian is not a person who is always happy, always glad. A Christian also groans. The spirit groans. Jesus Christ, what do we call him? In Isaiah 53, he was a man of sorrows, much acquainted with grief. And so a Christian is not a stoic. A Christian is not an emotional stone, unmoved. by pain or loss, and takes it almost as a badge of maturity. I don't feel anything when others are in tears. The Spirit gives you a heart which feels, a heart which hurts. Like in diaper distribution, we just lost one of our moms this week. She died this past Thursday, and it hurts. It hurts so much. Do you have a heart that hurts? Jesus does. Jesus has a heart that hurts. Now, why do we groan? Let's talk about some of the reasons why a Christian groans. There are several causes for our groans. First of all, we groan because we are incomplete people. We groan as incomplete people. Verse 23, it says, we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly, and here's the incompletion, eagerly waiting for the adoption the redemption of our body. We groan because in some sense we sense that we are not complete. It says we groan eagerly waiting for the adoption. We're waiting for something that has not fully happened. The adoption, the redemption of our body. Now, if you heard last week, you might be thinking, well, wait a minute, just a few verses earlier, The text says, when you believe on Jesus, God adopts you. Like you lost your father, but now in Christ you've gained a father. The Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. We're adopted. But this divine adoption, it's both already and not yet. It is both now and not yet. The adoption is both now true, you are adopted, but it is also not yet fully finished. So in this sense, it is now true, legally. God completed, he finished the adoption. If you are in Christ, you are a son of God, you are a daughter of God. If you trust and you commit your life to Jesus, legally, the paperwork is complete and it's been approved. The adoption's finalized. It's now, it's already. But in this sense, our adoption is still not yet. It's in terms of our family likeness. You've been brought into the family. You have your own room. You have a bed. You've got the name change. But you're not fully like one of the family in your character. in family likeness, in your character formation, your adoption, you could say, it's still in process. There are things that are still changing. There's things that are still being brought out that will be seen in you. It started but not yet finished. You don't yet have the full family resemblance to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is working out your sanctification in this life. And so our text today is set where all of us are now living. We're living in a gap between two markers in the race. In the flow of Romans, you have our justification and then you have our glorification. Our justification is the place where God has graciously declared us to be forgiven and righteous for the sake of Christ. Glorification is God's perfection of Christ formed in us. but we live in the gap between these two poles. That gap is our sanctification. The sanctification gap. It's the gap between once I was far from God and I was against God, but now my life is wrapped up in God and I act with God's character, but I'm not fully like Jesus. And we groan because we see a big gap between how I was before God saved me and how I will be when Jesus completes and finishes his work in me. This is true for all of us here. Every one of you, if you're a Christian, every Christian has a menu of your personal weaknesses, the remaining flaws, the remaining sins. It could be for some of you, it could be your irritability. It could be for some others, your narcissistic self-promotion and your pride. For others, it might be this streak of loathing and contempt that you have for someone. Or maybe it's just your out of control appetite for pleasure. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, when you look at the menu of things that are still not yet finished, you find that you've got this distaste about your own sins. And you groan, you groan over your own sins. You just wish you could fast forward to the end of God's renovation project that he's working inside you. And that makes these to be days of groaning. Why does a Christian groan? We groan because we are not yet as we will be. We groan for our sanctification to succeed. Now, a few more reasons a Christian groans. We also groan because of death. We also groan because of death. Verse 23, he says, we're eagerly looking for the redemption of the body, the redemption of our body. The Bible teaches that people are both body and soul. A human being is both a body and a soul. That's how God made us. He made us male and female, a soul joined to a body, and so when a person dies, it's the body which dies. It could be in a car crash, it could be just running down because of old age, it could be through cancer, just whatever happens, The cardiac signaling in the body stops. The electrical activity in the brain is done. The body has died, but the soul continues. Those who are in Christ, when the body dies, they immediately go to be with the Lord. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians 5. Absent from the body is present with the Lord. Those who are in Christ go to be with the Lord, but those who are not in Christ, go to the place of torment. Jesus talks about the rich man who has died and now his soul is in hell. These bodies though, these bodies were meant to live forever. Your body was never meant to endure cancer or car wrecks, but because of sin, sin broke our bodies. Sin brought death and now death reigns. And even now, in this life, your body aches. We long for our bodies to be well. There's this groaning. When? Why is my body not well? Our bodies long to be free of sciatica, to be free of glaucoma, to be free of Crohn's, and to be free of ALS. These bodies were meant to be whole. and to endure forever. And so we groan because our bodies suffer in this fallen world. In 2 Corinthians 5, for in this we groan. earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. For we who are in this tent, it's talking about the body, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, that is to die, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. So believer, you have permission to feel your pains and to groan. You have permission to groan with arthritis, to groan over your hearing loss. You have permission to groan and to long that your mortality may be swallowed up in life. You have permission to groan when someone else dies. Because we who remain, we know that if they're in the Lord, we may go to them, but they're not coming back to us. David groaning, grieving, his lost child with Bathsheba. Why do Christians groan? We groan because we long to sin no more. We long for sufferings to end. We long for life, for our bodies, not death. One more reason that Christians groan. We groan because we long to see God. And that's another reason why we groan. We long to see God. A Christian is a person who has God hunger. You have God hunger inside you. A Christian has this appetite for God. Do you have that hunger? Do you have a hunger to see God? Do you have a hunger to know God as your father? Do you have a hunger to know Jesus? To know him as a friend? Maybe you know other Christians and they talk about Jesus like he's this guy who's down the block and they could just go over They laugh together, they catch up, they go to Jesus when they need help. Jesus tells them things and it really gives them encouragement and direction. Do you long to know Jesus Christ as a friend? Do you have a groaning? to get more of God. Places like Psalm 42 verse two, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Another translation says, when shall I come and behold the face of God? I want to see him. I'd really like to see him. Can I ask you a question? What are you longing for? What are you saving up for? Whom are you making time for? Jesus says, where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Do you long to see God? Well, we see that creation groans. We see that Christians groan. Finally, hope groans. Verses 24 and 25, we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope, Why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Let me give you a definition for hope. Hope is expecting good is coming. Expecting good is coming. Hope is expecting that God, maybe we're talking about marriage. Hope would be expecting that God has marriage for you. And if not marriage, then he has for you a singleness that is even better than marriage. That's what hope would be. Or hope is expecting that your application will be approved. And if your application is turned down, hope is expecting that God's got something even better than having your application approved. Hope expects good. Hope expects that things are gonna be better, whatever happens, that things will be better, not worse. Are you a hopeful person? Or are you a hopeless person? Are you a person of hope? If you're a Christian, this will come out with how you deal with suffering. Three questions about how maybe, how you deal with suffering. The first question, is suffering turning you into a cynical person? The kind of person that just looks at everything, you're waist deep in suffering, and your attitude is just like, well, what do you expect? Life is rotten. This is completely the way it's going to be and had to be. Is suffering turning you into a cynical person? The second question, is suffering turning you to denial? Is suffering turning you to denial? Like, I just lost my job. I'm getting evicted. Well, let's just get back to watching the game. I just, I can't bear to look at it. Let's just get back to whatever's on the screen. Is suffering turning you into denial? Then third question, is suffering turning you into a despairing person? Like, you're suffering and it's been hard. And the place that you're landed now, the way you think, the way you talk is all is lost. God is either cruel or God is incompetent. Either way, I've got no reason for hope. Let's just find a cave where I could just curl up and hide and just lie forever in bed. The text says, believer, suffering for you, suffering needs to turn you into a person of hope. What's hope? What's the good that you can expect when you've got day after day of trouble and it just seems to be getting worse? Well, verse 18 sets out the hope that a believer can have. He says, Verse 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And so for the Christian, you may be in a deep, deep hole. You may have lost everything. And maybe your reputation is shredded. Maybe your family is falling apart. Maybe your accounts are all tapped out. And maybe your health, maybe your body is shattered. You survey your life and you can see nothing to cheer you. Verse 24 says, we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Christian hope says, I can't see. I can't see anything good in this. I can't see anything good in my broken marriage. I can't see anything good about my broken mind, but I can hope in the Lord. Recall Lamentations 3, it's written by a believer. It's written by a believer when his country had collapsed. It's written when his church was corrupt. It's written when the economy was wiped out and when he could not see God. Lamentations 3, starting verse 18, and I said, my strength and my hope have perished from the Lord. Remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, and therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Hope, hope groans, hope groans as it waits. As a believer, you can do both. You can do both simultaneously. You can groan and hope. What does that look like, to hope and to groan? 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For a Christian, on the one hand, your suffering and your stress may crush you and squeeze just groans that come out of your collapsing lungs. Groans come out of you. But also for a Christian, on the other hand, you know that suffering does not have the final say. A Christian can hope the expectation that good is coming. What's the hope? Not groans. The hope is not groans, but glory. That's what these texts keep coming back to, glory. Verse 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the Christian, all these groans, all this suffering, he says it will result in glory. He compares it to childbirth in verse 22. The whole creation groans. and labors with birth pangs until now together. Have you experienced childbirth? Have you ever witnessed a child being born? It is almost always the case that when a woman goes into labor and she's in labor, she endures terrible pain, terrible pain. The contractions are sometimes, one woman talked about it, being like this ring of fire. It can be like these hard steel spikes of pain. And then between the contractions, there's this groaning through it all, this groaning, the groaning all through the labor process. But every mother who has lived through that, every mother holding a baby, She knows that after the groanings, she held this little baby, and it was glorious. And as time passes, she might even say about that labor, all the pains, all the groans, it was worth having you, my little baby. Verse 18 makes a similar claim. The suffering of this present time, the sufferings of this present time, they aren't worth comparing to the glory which shall be revealed in us. Now he's not minimizing the pain. What he's doing is he's maximizing the glory. So like for you, how was this past week? How was this past year? Was it brutal? Was it a nightmare? If you are a Christian, this says There is such a greatness in store that all these tears over all these years, they will one day in comparison seem small compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. What is this glory? Like that sounds fantastic. What is it? What is this glory? Notice how he says it's something that's revealed in us, something that will be revealed in you if you are a believer. We've got these constant clues about it. This text doesn't go into it, but we get these glimpses of this glory all over the Bible. One place that's very tangible, glimpses of the glory in the transfiguration of Jesus. Do you remember the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount? Jesus went to the top of a mountain and there they saw with their own eyes, they saw some of his glory. It's what Jesus called the glory that he had with the Father in the beginning. The glory that he had with the Father in heaven. The glory that at the Mount of Transfiguration it made his garments shine like blazing light and the glory made not just his garment shine but he, the glory made him shine with the light of blazing suns. And the text says To you, it says humble Christian person, one day this same glory will be revealed in you and you will blaze with the glory of Jesus and the glory that made him shine. He came to share that with you. The glory that made him shine, you're going to shine with it and this is something that the groaning creation is looking forward to. Verse 19, all creation is eager to see the revealing of the sons of glory, the sons of God. It's talking about the day of our glorification, when God completes the formation of Jesus in you. And it says, we shall be like him. We shall be like him. And on that day, it's going to be this, the creation's groaning for it. It's going to be like this worldwide event. The living and the dead will be assembled. It's going to be a global event. It's going to be broadcast live across the planet. And it's going to be one of those rare events that everyone sees. Everyone will tune in. Everyone will have attended. And what will they see? What are they gonna see? They're gonna see God. And they're gonna see you, and God is going to say, look at my children. See how well they've turned out. One commentator says, we will be as perfectly holy as Christ, and thus, as dazzlingly beautiful as he is. And that is what glory is. conformed to the likeness of the sun. In all my life, there are only a few times when I got first place in something. One of the only ones I can remember is in junior orchestra in middle school. I was first chair violin. I was the concert master. But there were only two violins. That still counts, I think. The revealing of the sons of God is first place in the universe. That glory will make all of your pain and all of your losses seem a lot smaller. Like maybe you lost a lot of money this year and it really hurts. But if you're a Christian, the word offers you this, It hurts a lot less when you lose money in this life. if you know that you still have a fortune at the end of the day, a glorious inheritance reserved, imperishable in heaven for you. And on that day, we will agree with 2 Corinthians 4, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Now you've got to be sure of that. You've got to be sure of that, even if you don't see it. To have this hope, you've got to be certain in this thing which you don't see with your eyes, certain that glory is in your future. How can you be certain? How can you be certain that this glory is in your future, especially if now these are days of suffering? The key is in verse 17. Verse 17, it says, we are heirs of God joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Christ links suffering with Him with glory with Him. Christ links suffering with Him with sharing glory with Him. It's when you know that you're in Christ And if you suffer with him, you will be glorified together with him. You know how the sufferings of Jesus are so much a center of Jesus for us. The gospel tells us that Jesus suffered for us. He was punished for our sins on the cross. The gospel tells us that Jesus suffered with us and he suffers with us. Colossians 1.27, a Christian's suffering make complete, make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Jesus joins you in your sufferings, dear Christian. In some sense, you are entering into the sufferings of Christ by your own sufferings, and that will bond you to his glory. It was the extreme suffering of Christ that convinced the centurion His executioner, that Jesus was the Son of God. More precisely, it was the way, the way that Jesus suffered, it showed the glory of the Son to the centurion. Like how did Jesus suffer? It says he suffered with groans, and it says he suffered with hope. Jesus suffered with groans and with hope. He suffered with groans, Mark 15. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed his last. Jesus suffered with hope. He said, my God, my God. That Semitic repetition of intensification. Twice he said, God is mine. Even in death, I hope in God. Jesus suffered with groans. Jesus suffered in hope. And dying like that, it says, When the centurion who stood opposite Jesus saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. The groans and the hope of Jesus convinced the centurion of his glory. Do the groans and the hope of Jesus convince you? Amen. Let's pray. Jesus, we come to you, and maybe some of us come as sufferers, but when we come to you, we come to the one who suffered beyond anything we will ever endure. Because you suffered for us, you suffered in payment for our sins. But when we come to you and we look at your suffering, we see the groans And we see the hope, and it's our hope. And so would you establish in our minds that you have destined us in Christ for glory? And would that not cause us to pretend about our pain? But would that hope and this glory, would it so outweigh the sufferings that it would enable us to endure? and not lose hope in you. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.