The Environment & the Sons of God

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 for a time of study in the word, this morning. We're doing a verse by verse study through Romans 5 through 8. And as we continue in our study through this section of the book of Romans, we come this morning once again to Romans chapter 8, verse 19.

And my goal this morning will be to try to cover verses 19 through 22. If you want to give a title to the message, it would be And we're not This isn't, there we go, the environment and the sons of God. I've been in the ministry for about A couple of decades now, and this is my first green sermon. The environment and the sons of God.

And this topic immediately commends itself, as you look at verses 19 through 22. In fact, let me just read verses 19 to 22, and you can make mental note of or you can mark in your text where you see the word creation. Paul says, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly 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 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

4 times we see the word creation, which is going to basically establish our paradigm for the way we're going to handle the text this morning. But speaking of creation or speaking of the environment, as we're going to understand it this morning. Doctor Mike Bulmore, who pastors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who's a wonderful friend of the ministry here at Cornerstone back in 1998, wrote an article for the Trinity Journal that was entitled The Four Most Important Biblical Passages for a Christian Environmentalism.

And he gives 4 passages and spends a goodly amount of time talking about each one of them and unpacking what they mean, and the first passage he says is among the most important is Psalm 104.

The second passage he went to is Genesis 1 and 2. The third text that he went to. is Genesis 9:8-17. And the fourth text that he says is among the four most important passages in the Bible for a Christian environmentalism is our passage today, Romans chapter 8, verses 19 through 22.

in his article, he makes reference to a survey that had been conducted in which this question was asked. What are the most important obstacles to further development of an effective philosophy of creation that involves appropriate environmental concern and action by evangelicals? Says the most cited obstacle identified by well over half of the participants was the lack of teaching and preaching on the environment, particularly the failure to develop a robust theology of the creation.

I'd be guilty there 20 years and have not preached on the environment once, but we do so today.

and this is by no means the final word on the topic, as you see, there's other passages that are worth studying, but hopefully what we look at this morning will be a contribution to your thinking on this subject. The word creation that we see here in this passage on 4 occasions simply speaks of that which is created. That's essentially what the Greek term that is translated creation. means, but we have to actually go beyond like what the actual meaning of the term is and actually look at the context when Paul uses the word creation in these four verses, what is he speaking of?

and I think maybe you got a sense as we were reading through the verses that I think we can safely say and pretty much virtually everyone would affirm what you see here on the screen that when Paul in this passage is speaking of creation, he's speaking of that which God has created, that is now subjected to futility. And so that would exclude like good angels that have never fallen. He's also speaking of that which was subjected to futility unwillingly, or the idea could be unwillfully.

In other words, it was the part of God's creation that was subjected to futility through no fault of its own.

And that would exclude who? All of us in this room. It would exclude Adam and Eve. It would exclude human beings.

So when he's referring to creation, even though we are technically a part of creation, that's not what he's meaning when he uses the term creation. So whatever he means by it, it excludes good angels and it excludes human beings. And whatever he means by this term in this passage, it will experience deliverance from futility, and that excludes fallen. angels.

So basically, and, and we see Paul doing a contrast, like, whatever this creation is verse 19, it's eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. So he's basically speaking of all of creation, all of the material and the physical creation, apart from human beings. And that's what he's talking about in these verses. some would understand Paul to be talking about nature, that might be a good word that you could use in a passage like this, or the environment.

We can use the word environment. In fact, we're going to use that word in the way that we outlined this sermon. But when you think of environment, you'll have to think large scope environment. You'll have to think of universal environment, the physical material universe that we find ourselves in.

You'll have to think of the galactical environment, we in the Milky Way galaxy, that environment. You'll have to think of the environment of our solar system and where our planet finds its place in our solar system. And then you'll also have to think of the cosmos. You'll have to think of the Earth.

And the entire ecosystem. That it contains which makes up our environment. So our environment is massive and it extends to the outer reaches of the physical and the material universe, and Paul in this passage shows concern and gives thought to the subject of the environment. This raises the issue of environmentalism, and I know guys that there's a lot.

things that are said about this issue. The environmentalist movement is a massive movement that is global in its scale. it has a massive impact on, on business, on economics, on government and regulations and what have you, and it's a polarizing issue. what I want to do this morning is I want to assume the very best.

about most people, I know there's wackos out there on that side of the issue just like there's wackos. I've heard preachers who are wackos on the other side of the issue. So let's exclude the wackos and, and let's assume the best about everybody else. And here's, I think at best what we can find in common.

on this issue, I think people that are environmentally concerned, here's the assumptions I would make about them that I would assume that they're making unless clear and convincing evidence indicates otherwise. I think most people, perhaps part of the law that's written in their heart and something very ancient and deep that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, everybody looks at this planet who lives here and observes that something's wrong with the planet, right? I don't know anyone who disagrees with that.

We look around and see that what happens on this planet is inhospitable to life in many instances.

There's hurricanes. There's tornadoes, and the tectonic plates are moving, creating earthquakes that destroy buildings and lives, and thousands of people lose their lives in such earthquakes, and there are tsunamis and There are floods that do billions and billions of dollars in damage and also take many lives. Indeed, I think we would all say what Isaiah observes in Isaiah 24:19. He says the earth is broken asunder.

The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack. Very good description.

and whether people would use that language, or even believe the Bible, I think pretty much everyone observes there's something wrong with our environment, here on planet Earth. And I think also, secondly, that, that intuitively, people, even if they're not Christians, I think people intuitively feel that mankind is somehow responsible for what's gone wrong. They may not know what to do with that. They may have never read the Book of Genesis or Romans chapter 8 to have a biblical framework to hang their hat on, but I think people basically have this intuitive sense that something's wrong here and somehow man is responsible.

and then thirdly, I think intuitively, most people have a sense that Earth needs to be delivered, and Earth's deliverance or salvation is somehow linked to man. In some way. I've actually heard from those that are anti-environmentalists who say this is arrogant to think that man could do anything that messes up planet Earth. but the Bible says we did do something that messed up this ecosystem, this planet, and we actually see in Romans 8 that the deliverance of this planet, of our environment is linked to our own.

Deliverance. This planet will not experience its deliverance from its brokenness until we, the sons of God, have come into our glory. That is the cue that deliverance will come to our environment. Now back to point number 2 here, I think people have an intuitive sense that mankind is responsible for what's wrong.

But then typical of fallen man, what we tend to do is we take our finger and we point away from ourselves at everybody else. And we'll find fault with everyone else, man. Why is the world the way it is? I know.

And we point to everybody else rather than to ourselves. Occupy Wall Street featured at least one protester holding a sign saying the rich are wrecking the planet. So he's found what's destroying the planet, and it's the rich. I can pretty much guarantee you the guy holding that sign is not a rich guy.

It's a guy who's pointing his finger elsewhere. People would say it's the capitalists, it's the business people, it's the rich. And what have you. And then there are people on the other side who actually would point the finger at the environmentalists and say, you're wrecking the planet.

It's because of people like you that there's all these regulations that force drilling for oil to be 50 miles offshore to where if there's an oil leak, it is so cumbersome to try to get that thing plugged up. And so everyone's pointing the finger at each other when I think we do well. And the scripture instructs us to do this, to point the finger at ourselves and see our responsibility in an ancient way, connecting all the way back to Adam and Eve for our responsibility for why our environment is in the state that it's in.

But there's, there's some news here that might be a little bit depressing, but ultimately Paul gives a very positive and glorious perspective on the environment, and the symbiotic relationship that we as Christians have to the environment.

this has been a long introduction, so we'll see how far we get through these 6 truths that we observe in this passage that give us perspective on the environment and what it has to do with us as Christians. Number 1, this is pretty much just derived from the definition of the term creation. The environment. is the product of the creative act of God.

The environment that we find ourselves in is the product of the creative act of God. Verse 19, Paul calls it creation. Verse 20, creation. Verse 21, creation.

Verse 22, creation. And if you look up the meaning of this Greek term, you will find that what it means is it speaks of something that is the product of a creative act. It's something that somebody creates. and then that begs the question, who is the Creator?

Well, Paul uses this exact word in Romans chapter 1, verse 25, and speaks of God as the Creator. So this environment in which we live, this planet and the universal environment containing the sun, the moon, and the stars, all of this is in existence because God willed it to be in existence. He created it. It is not the product of random happenstance that it came into existence.

This will be a major point of departure that you might observe when you are interacting. With somebody on this particular subject, but this is a biblical worldview and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. There's a second truth that we observed in this passage regarding the environment, and what it has to do with us as believers, and that is that this created environment anxiously awaits our unveiling as sons of God. The more I've thought about this point, the more touched I am.

by it. In Romans 8:19, for the anxious longing of the creation. And that word anxious longing, as we've seen as the idea of, of leaning forward, craning the neck in order to see, creation is on its tiptoes as it were, craning forward in order to see the revealing or the unveiling of the sons of God. In my son's biology class a couple of weeks ago, they talked about plants and a thing called phototropism, which is the movement of plants towards light.

And in connection with that, I would think of this as doxa, which means glory, doxatropism. All of creation is leaning towards that moment of future explosion of glory when we as sons of God come into our own. And so that ought to inform us even in our relationship with creation that creation is, is for us. Creation is leaning forward, and it can't wait to see that day when we are revealed in glory.

We look at the sun as it were, the sun, the moon, and the stars and all of the creative order, all of that is leaning forward. It cannot wait for the day when we come into our own. That suggests to me friendship. With the created order, which wouldn't surprise us because the created order of things was created by the God who saved us and who's going to glorify us.

There's a third truth that we observe in this passage regarding the created environment and what it has to do with us as Christians, and that is that this created environment was subjected to futility by the sovereign choice of God. Hey, by the way, I should have said this a second ago. If you're really into the environment, and you really want to please the environment based on the point we just saw in point number 2. Here's the best thing you can do, that would make the environment the happiest, as it were, Put your trust in Jesus Christ.

Put your trust in Him. The created order is anxiously awaiting the day that the sons of God who put their trust in Jesus are revealed in glory. Nonetheless, point number 3 that we observe is that the created environment that we're looking at here was subjected to futility by the sovereign choice of God. even though we know that creation was obviously created by God, we observed that something's wrong.

And so we need perspective on that. Paul gives us a perspective on that. Look what he says in Romans chapter 8, verse 20. He says, for the creation was speaking at some point in past history.

The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly or willfully, but because of him who subjected it. Paul is pointing us back to a moment in history that is further explained in Genesis chapter 3, and you don't need to turn there, but let me just rehearse a few of the details of the story. God had told Adam and Eve, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it.

The day you eat of it, you will surely die, or you can understand it, you will surely begin to die.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, and they partook of that part of creation that he had said not to partake of, and curses came upon Adam and Eve. And we're not surprised that Adam and Eve were cursed as a result of the sinful choice that they made. But look at what else happens in chapter 3, verse 14. We observe that the serpent is cursed.

We're not surprised at that because Satan embodied the serpent and deceived Eve and led Adam into sin. But notice how God words this in chapter 3, verse 14. To the serpent, he says, Cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. What does that suggest to you?

What it suggests is that the serpent is not the only member of the animal kingdom that was being cursed here. It was the most cursed of all of the animal kingdom, but he says more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field, which means all of animal life, all of the animal kingdom was being cursed by God and being subjected to futility. And then, God speaks to Adam, in chapter 3, verse 17 and 18. And he says, cursed is the ground because of you.

Cursed is the soil, because of what you have done. And then he says, in toil, you will eat of it. Now, in saying that, he's not saying you will eat dirt. That's not his point.

dirt or soil has all of the nutrients that we need in order to thrive physically, but for the most part we can't just take dirt and eat that. Our bodies can't process whatever's in the soil that our bodies need from dirt or from soil, but plants are basically divinely created food making machines that get planted in the soil. And they as a factory are able to draw the nutrients and what have you from the soil and repackage that in a way to where hanging at the end of a little leafy branch is a delicious juicy tomato.

That's ready to be plucked and then eaten.

All that came from the dirt. When, when God is speaking to Adam and says in toil you will eat of it, what he's talking about is eating of the plant life that draws the wherewithal that man needs to thrive physically. So this is a curse upon the soil and plant life that grows from the soil. And essentially, guys, in cursing the soil that affected not only plant life but also all of animal life because everything ultimately comes from the soil.

by the way, on this note, I'm a big fan of eating organic foods and, as opposed to processed foods and what have you, but sometimes some people are so like, you got to eat organic, almost like that's the pure form of food. If you, you eat this, they almost give you the impression that that's like absolute purity. You're avoiding a lot of bad stuff by doing that when the teaching of scripture is that even a carrot that is grown. In a fully organic way is cursed.

It's, it's, it grows from soil that is cursed, and it is contaminated by that curse. I'm not saying don't eat carrots. Kids don't use that with your parents, but just we need to realize that the curse is everywhere. As a result of the fact that it comes from the soil which is cursed, and there are foods that are better than other foods, but all of it is affected and contaminated by the curse that God levels upon the soil.

Now Paul says here that all of creation was subjected to futility, was subjected to futility. We saw what this term meant last week in terms of man being subjected to futility, and the book of Ecclesiastes unpacks for us what all that means. But technically in this passage he's talking about creation. The nonhuman part of creation was also subjected to futility.

And this word could be understood as futility. It could be understood as frustration. That's a key word in helping you understand what this word means. Ultimately, it speaks of the inability to achieve the intended end for which it was created.

And creation. Has been subjected to this futility. God created plant life in order to be eaten by human beings who would never die. Fruit being eaten by a human who later dies, that's not what that fruit was intended for originally.

There's a futility there as creation serves us, we die as a result of even the curse that's in creation. I think our minds can go in a bunch of places. Also, you think of the futility of creation, trees that God created that are standing there for years and years preaching the glory of God. Those trees are hewn down.

and thrashed apart and processed into paper. Upon which pornographic images are printed that cause the stumbling of thousands and whatever the ink that is used for the printing of those evil images that is from creation and it's being forced to serve sinful purposes and Trees and other things from creation are taken from the wild and are built into some pagan temple to the worship of a false god or fashioned into an idol. How creation must moan. Over this futility of being used by sinful men and sinful and wasteful and evil purposes, it is subjected to futility in thousands of ways that we cannot even begin.

To recount in this message this morning. Also, it is subject to corruption as the passage indicates, which we saw last week as the unending cycle in which conception, birth, and growth are relentlessly followed by decline, decay, death, and decomposition. And so yeah, man experiences that we talked about that last week. That makes sense because we're the one who made the evil choice in Adam.

However, creation was not complicit in this. Creation was not guilty in this. I mentioned last week our dog is getting arthritis, and we're not sure she's got a tumor growing out of her mouth and And looking pretty pathetic as the weeks go by, but our dog, what has our dog ever done to deserve that? What, what command of God did our dog disobey?

Now our dogs disobeyed many of our commands, but But our dog is is innocent, and all of creation is innocent. And yet all of them are subject to futility, and to this corruption that Paul is speaking of. And he says here unwillingly, or unwillfully, Lensky, the commentator says man is evil because of his own guilt. The creatures have no guilt.

Man suffers justly, the creatures unjustly. It is unjust in a sense that the creatures are experiencing this futility and corruption, in, in response to what we did, when they were not complicit in our guilt. But notice what the text says. Paul says that the creation was subjected to futility, not willfully, but because of him.

He's pointing the finger at God. Yes, it happened in response to man's sin. But ultimately, God is the one who made the sovereign choice to subject all of creation, all of nonhuman creation to this futility and corruption. But how did God do this?

Let's look at the 4th truth that we can observe here. This created environment, Paul says in this passage, was subjected to futility with an eye towards its future deliverance. God subjected creation to the same futility that man was subjected to. But when he did so, he did so with an eye towards the day when creation will be delivered with mankind.

When the Sons of God come. Into their glory for the creation, Paul says, was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption. There is a day when God is going to save the environment. God is not only the savior of sinners, he is the savior of the environment.

And when he subjected creation to this futility, he did so with an eye towards that day that creation would join us in this wonderful deliverance. There's a 5th truth that we observe here. And that is that this created environment will one day be ushered into the very freedom of the glory of the children of God. It's not like, we'll be glorified in creation, it'll be nice to watch us be glorified and their creation is left behind.

No, it's actually going to join us. Some of the glory that we will experience and the freedom from futility and corruption. Creation will be ushered into that very freedom that will be ours. And so our destiny and creation's destiny are linked in a profound way.

He says the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it and hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. What he's saying here is that we as children of God, we will in that future day be totally delivered from futility, and from corruption, and all that those things entail. And when that happens, creation will be brought in with us to experience that same freedom from futility, and from corruption.

Our destinies are linked.

The destiny of a believer and the destiny of the environment are linked in a profound way. By the way, after we are glorified, and, 1 Thessalonians 4 teaches that at the rapture, when Christ descends, he's going to like rapture the saints who are alive and he'll fully glorify them. And at that same time, all the dead who have died in Christ will be raised from the earth, and they're going to be fully glorified. God is going to raise their bodies from the earth, clothe their bodies with glory and immortality and life and strength, and their bodies will be rejoined to their souls that are right now in heaven, and we will live in an embodied existence through all eternity.

There will then be a seven year period of tribulation that will come. Upon the earth. and that will then culminate with the second coming of Christ. And when he comes, he's going to judge Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats, and the goats are going to be cast in the everlasting darkness, but the sheep who are not yet glorified will be brought into the millennium.

OK? So there will be non-glorified believers who make it into the millennium, along with the rest of us who will be glorified. when that occurs. But even those who will get into the millennium, who are not yet glorified, they will enjoy.

Get this, guys, that when we come into our glory at the rapture, basically, creation will not immediately be delivered, but it will experience a significant level of deliverance from the futility and the corruption that it now experiences. In fact, in Isaiah 11 and chapter 65, it talks about this measured deliverance that creation will experience and even human beings that are not yet glorified will experience. Listen to what he says in Isaiah 11, and the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them.

So in the millennium, a mom will look out her kitchen and see her 4 year old son.

walking around with a 500 pound lion, and, manhandling that lion and hanging on it and she'll just chuckle and, well, that's Johnny. it won't, it won't bother her. She won't be freaked out by it. Verse 7, and the cow and the bear will graze.

they won't be predators. The bear will not be a predator. Their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like an ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of a cobra.

Imagine that in the millennium, a mom looks out her window and there's her 2 year old. right next to a massive cobra, and She doesn't think anything of that, and the weaned child will put his hand. On the viper's den, verse 9, and they will not hurt or destroy and all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Creation will be experiencing the early stages of this deliverance during the millennium.

It's a partial deliverance and even Those that come into the millennium that are not yet glorified, they're gonna, they're going to have children, and there will be descendants and there will be people that die in the millennium, but lifespans will be longer. So there will be a deliverance even when it comes to that, a partial deliverance. In Isaiah 65, it says no longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, for the youth will die at the age of 100. So he's saying there will be death in the millennium, but not like we know it today.

If someone dies at the age of 100, they will be considered like someone who now dies at the age of 15. Or 20, and the one who does not reach the age of 100 will be thought accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. Guys, you remember this from last week. Read through the book of Ecclesiastes.

This is the very vanity that bugs Solomon. It really frosted him that I spent all my life laboring and planting vineyards and building houses, so I can then die and then someone comes along and gets to enjoy all of that. This is vanity. And the text here is saying that this vanity will be significantly diminished in the millennium.

For as the lifetime of a tree, the text says, So shall be the days of my people. Well, that's during the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth. But then at the end of the millennium, there will be an absolute and full deliverance. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth will have passed away. John says, and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death. There will be no longer any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things will have passed away. He continues his description in Revelation 22. And to make a long story short, look at verse 3 at the bottom of the screen. There will no longer be any curse.

Absolute freedom. For heaven and earth. For human beings and for the created order of things, the physical and the material creation, there will be absolute and total deliverance from the curse, and anything connected to it and creation will join us. In the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Well, how does creation respond in the meantime? Here's the final truth. In the meantime, man. Imagine how much creation must long for this.

So in the meantime, this created environment groans and labors until this renewal happens. In Romans 8:22, Paul says, we know, we know, we Christians are clued into this knowledge. Those who don't know Christ don't know these things. They don't have this perspective, but we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

We know how to interpret the earthquakes. And the hurricanes and the tornadoes and the tsunamis and the floods, we know how to interpret these events amongst other ways of looking at them. We see these as birth pangs that actually hearken the closeness. Like when a woman goes into labor, she feels like she's dying.

She might say she's dying, but you as a husband are excited. Because a child is imminent, the labor pangs indicate the closeness, the imminence of something wonderful, and We see these. pangs of labor that the created order of things experiences as hearkening a coming day of glory when we and creation will share in the freedom of the glory of the children of God. I want you to go one step further than just thinking of creation as suffering labor.

This isn't normal labor. Ladies, imagine you go into severe labor, and somehow, some way, the doctor won't let you give birth. That's a horrid thought, even for me as a guy and much less for you as a woman. Imagine in severe labor and you're not allowed.

You're prevented. From giving birth. That's what he's talking about here. And there are labor pangs that already have started, but it's not the severe contractions yet.

Jesus in Matthew 24, speaking of the first half of the tribulation period, he says, You're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars then in that future day, famines, earthquakes, persecutions, all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. So in a sense, the birth pangs have started. But we haven't even reached in a sense, the early stages of the severe contractions. And so there's more to come.

There is mayhem to come, but we as believers have a way of looking at this. We know something that the world does not know, and this is part of the good news. Paul is unpacking the gospel here, and we are able to bring this good news and this biblical worldview to others. I would encourage you as you seek to do this and interact with others.

As Francis Schaeffer has said, the church must not only be right, but beautiful. Let us preach the truth to others who need it, but let's do so with beauty. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the depth and the magnitude of your word.

What a great God you are. What a great word this is that you have given to us, Lord. Grow us in our knowledge of these things. Grow us in our enjoyment of you.

Grow us, Lord, in our confidence. And you are God. And take us deeper in an understanding of all things gospel. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you at this point in our service, Lord.

We ask that you would take these funds that we give and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We love you, Lord, because you've loved us. Thank you for giving us the chance to give to you and to support your work. Do much with what we give and glorify your name.

At the same time, we give ourselves to you in Jesus' name. And all God's people said,