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Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, the environmental issues are issues that
are much in the news in recent years. Only a couple of weeks ago as I recall the provincial
government in British Columbia infuriated the mining industry of that province when it took a
prime section of mining land and set it apart as wilderness preserve. The mining companies that
had spent $50 million in preliminary investigation were not pleased. Just this past week out on the
other end of the country, I heard that the Mac Mac Indians in the New Glasgow area were awarded
a settlement of $35 million caused by the pollution caused by the Scott Papermill. At almost every
day when you listen to court injunctions and the rulings, environmentalism has become a big thing.
Business knows how to cash in on that, of course, in marketing products that are so-called green
products, products that are environmentally friendly and that environmentally conscious people
are encouraged to buy a saw in the paper this past week that IBM is even coming out with a green
computer. By that, they don't mean a green screen. They talk about a computer that is energy
efficient, environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, the price is going to make a lot of people see red.
Environmental issues are a big thing. You can look at any school agenda, any school program,
your kids coming home from school and there is a constant emphasis on the need to maintain
our environment. And I suppose in a lot of ways that's good. I know, too, that from a business
point of view, there is a lot of abuse of that authority and that power, a lot of frustration and
oftentimes a lot of petty political people who take advantage of these kinds of things,
but nobody in his right mind can argue that the environment is not important.
Most people realize and understand that if we're going to live in this world, we better live with
it in such a way that we don't leave a legacy of disaster for those who follow us.
And Christians, I suppose, of all people ought to be in the forefront of looking after the
environment as stewards of the grace that God has provided. Having said all that, however,
I think we make a serious mistake. If we think that just being environmentally conscious
is going to save creation, I say that because if you listen carefully to the arguments of
environmentalists, there is missing in all of that argumentation. What the Bible would consider
to be the root cause of our problems, namely our alienation from God and our rebellion against his
will. God speaking to Adam and Genesis chapter 3 puts it this way, "Cursed is the ground because of
you, in toil you shall eat of it, all of the days of your life, thorns and thistels it shall bring
forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. Cursed is the ground because of you.
All creation groans because mankind put in charge of creation in the opening to chapters of
the book of Genesis have acted in rebellion against God, and all creation in turn has risen up
in rebellion against us. And the more we sin, the more we walk away from God, the more we exiled
God out of the picture, the more creation is going to groan under the prevail of its sin.
Famins, earthquakes, diseases that we don't know where they're coming from, all of those are a
consequence on a global scale of the judgment that God directs towards his people or towards the
peoples of the world because of their sin. Listen to Isaiah many years ago and Isaiah chapter 24
spells it out. So first did not many people are aware of the earth mourns and withers, the world
languishes and withers, the heavens languished together with the earth. The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants. They have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting
covenant, therefore a curse devours the earth. And its inhabitants suffer for their guilt,
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched. Sounds a little bit like ozone layer,
doesn't it? In few people are left. The earth wise polluted under its inhabitants where they
have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. All creation
grows because of mankind's rebellion. And the more that we have rebelled collectively against God,
the more we can expect environmental disasters and the chaos to get worse in the course of the
world. That's what the Scriptures promise. And it's important to understand, therefore, that if
our alienation from God is what causes our problem, then it is our restoration to God that
is going to solve the problem. And that's what I want to talk about in the time that we have
this morning because that's what Paul talks about here in this passage. He says, "I consider the
sufferings of this present time and not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
us or in us." We looked at that last week. "For the creation," he goes on to say, "weights with
eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility,
not out of its own will, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope." Because the creation
itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children
of God. What's he saying? Well, he's saying at least three things. Number one,
all creation groans under the travail of sin. We just talked about that a few moments ago. Verse 20,
"For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of him who
subjected it in hope." Creation, he says, "was subjected to futility." That's an interesting word
because the word futility means uselessness. It means vanity. The NIV translates it as frustration
and the picture is that of something which is unable to realize its full potential. He says,
"creation was subjected to futility. It is filled with frustration. It is unable to realize the
full potential for which God made it. Why is that? Because it is subject to decay." You know,
we look out our windows in a day like this and in a week like we've had in the past and we say,
"My, oh my, is in creation a marvelous thing that it is." But can you imagine what it would have been?
If it weren't a world that was in the grip of the curse and if it weren't a world that was
convulsed by the disasters of nature, if you listen to the weather or to the news this past week,
then you know that out in the Midwest it's been raining and raining and raining for days
and everybody's getting flooded out. Creation was subjected to futility. It was never designed
to be that way. Why was it subjected to futility? It's in bondage to decay not by its own will
but by the will of him who's subjected it in hope. What he is saying there is that God cursed
the earth. He cursed the earth because mankind placed in charge to have dominion overall of
creation, rebelled against creation and God's judgment fell upon the whole created order.
Cursed is the ground because of you. In sweat you will eat of it all of the days of your life.
My father used to say many years ago, "Anybody that doesn't believe the Bible ought to just read
those couple of verses and then look at their own life's experience and discover that no matter
how happy and joyful and wonderful life is, it always falls apart in the natural. It is a world
subject to decay. It's beauty, it's glory, it's power, it doesn't last and all creation grows
with that travail." The second thing that he says here is that creation itself
is going to be redeemed. Verse 21 again creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay
and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. Creation itself will be set free from
its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. Who are the children of
God? What's God's people? People that by faith in Jesus Christ, the repented of their sins,
have become reconciled to the God and Father of Jesus Christ, have received the spirit of
sonship deep within their hearts. They know their ears of everything that is to come. They are in
a right relationship with God and because they are in a right relationship with God, God has
promised them glorious liberty. I love that combination of words. The glorious liberty of the
children of God. We've looked at that little bit in the past. Words can't describe it.
The promise that God has for his people to set us free from sin and from bondage, from decay,
where the things you put your hands to no longer crumble in the midst,
where you never live with a project that's never been incomplete, where you never live with the
frustration of knowing that you're up against invisible barriers and you can't break through those
barriers, where you never live with the idea that there are things in your heart that you want to
express, but they won't come out because we're in bondage to decay. The glorious liberty
of the children of God. When for all eternity filled with the Spirit of God, we will perceive his
heart and will perceive his mind and we will throw ourselves into his service, in his kingdom,
finding the kind of fulfillment that we have been intended to fulfill as the children of God,
can you grab hold of the glorious liberty of the children of God? No sickness, no frustration,
no anxiety, an ability to just throw ourselves into God's service and to know that there are
an ending distance of God's creation to be explored forever and ever. Well Paul says,
"All creation waits with eager longing. All creation itself will be set free from its bondage to
decay and enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God." I can't even begin to understand
what that might entail. We think of heaven as a place where the streets are paved with gold
and everybody wears crowns and sits around doing who knows what, but that's not at all the biblical
image. The biblical image is that God and his people are going to come to a renewed earth.
And this renewed earth with the power of the curse broken is going to release its harvest of
righteousness and glory in a way that we can't even begin to imagine many years ago, the prophet Isaiah.
Haught a glimpse of that is he does so often in his prophetic book when he says, "The wolf will dwell
with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the lion and the fattling
together and little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, their young shall lie
down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the whole
of the aspen, the weaned child shall put his hand on the atter's den. They shall not hurt or destroy
it all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters
cover the sea of the wolf shall dwell with the lamb." That's why throughout the scriptures,
if you start looking for it, you find all these references to the trees of the field will clap
their hands and the hills will skip for joy and we with our Western mindset think that the old
testament prophetic writers were probably getting carried away. I'm not so sure they're getting
carried away. I'm not so sure but that in eternity the very creation will resonate with the glorious
liberty of the children of God. The whole world waits to be set free and to receive the fullness
of the life that God had intended for his people. So Paul has said number one, whole creation
grows because of our sin. Number two he says there is coming a day when the very creation
is going to be set free to enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God.
And then he clenches his argument here in Romans chapter 8 by pointing out to us thirdly
that all of these hinges on the revealing of the sons of God. Listen again to verse 19 for the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Creation he says waits with
eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. The sons of God are God's airs,
mail and female, joyed airs together with Christ of all that God has and all that God wants to give us.
The word revealing there is a very revealing word if you don't mind me saying that
because it's the Greek word apocalypse. We think of apocalypse in bad terms but it really means
the unveiling, the revelation. People often call the last book of the Bible, the book of
Revelation. You couldn't be further from the truth. It's the book of Revelation. The revelation
of Jesus Christ given to John on the Isle of Patmas. The unveiling of his swender,
the pulling away of the veil, the demonstration to all of the universe. The Bible says there is coming
a day when the sons and the daughters of God are going to be revealed to all of the universe.
Now the people who read this, they understood that. They understood that because in the culture of
their day, a rich man's children, though they were heirs to his estate, in their childhood,
had no more power than did slaves. And the reason for that was that in those households,
the training and the instruction of the children was handed over to a trusted slave.
And as long as that heir was a child, he was under the authority of the slave,
so though he was the heir of everything that the father was going to give him,
he in fact had no more liberty or freedom than the slave. Paul, you'll recall, talks about
that in Galatians chapter four. He talks about it there in reference to the law. He says,
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner
of all the estate. But he is under guardians and trustees, and I catch this, until the date
set by the father. He is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.
What that means is that in that culture, the father would set an imaginary date where his child
would be publicly recognized as his son and heir to all of his estate. Up until that time he was
in bondage and he was no more than a slave because he was under the slaves of authority.
But on that day, having learned all the disciplines and the skills of the trade,
he was now ready to be taken into the company and to be revealed as the father's son.
All creation the Bible says is waiting with eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God.
There is coming a day when God will pull back the veil and he will demonstrate his children
to all of the universe for everybody to see and for everybody to marvel at.
For the time being, oftentimes it's not yet evident what we shall be.
We often go through training and through disciplining and the heir of the estate doesn't look
very glorious yet, but just you wait. Just like in the Southern United States, they still have a
custom for young women to come out as what do they call them, debutants? They have this big coming
out ceremony whereby they're introduced as adults sort of, after fashion, to their environment.
So God is going to reveal his sons and daughters conform to his image equipped to rule his
universe. Now, Sispoah, creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Wates with eager longing. The word literally means watching with outstretched head.
And if you want to try to picture that picture yourself sitting down at your dinner table and
your little puppy dog sitting beside you while you're having dinner and look at the look on his
face, that's eager expectation. All right? Our father's coming home with a present and the kids
have been been antsy and up and around and running to the door every moment to see if when he's
going to come and when he's going to give them the present, that's eager expectation, standing on
tiptoe. Outstretched head filled with expectation pulses, the whole creation is filled with expectation.
For that day when the children of God come into their inheritance, why? Because in that day,
all creation is going to be set free from its bondage to decay and they're going to enjoy the
liberty of the children of God. All creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of
the sons of God. Now, all of this has some pretty practical implications, does it not for environmental
issues? I'm not at all suggesting this morning that questions are not to be environmentally
sensitive. As I said a few moments earlier, of all people that live in the world, we who profess
to be the children of God who recognize that this creation is a gift that God has given to us,
we ought to be good stewards of all that which God has provided. And it's unconscionable that this
generation would leave a legacy of poison and pollutants and junk for other generations to have
to try to clean out. Having said all that, we need to understand that the greatest effort that
mankind puts forward to preserving this present creation isn't ultimately going to save it
or renew it because the Bible says this world and everything that is in it is stored up for
wrath and is stored up for judgment. There is coming a new day, a new heaven, and a new earth
in which righteousness reigns, a day in which the children of God are going to be revealed to
all creation. In that day, creation is going to be set free to enjoy the perfect liberty of the
children of God. And the best service that you and I can provide towards humanity interestingly enough
is not simply to throw our energy into environmental issues legitimate as that may be.
The greatest value that we can provide to humanity is to get to know God and to grow in our
relationship with God to reasons. Number one, the more we get to know God and walk with God,
the more environmentally conscious we become as God's children. It has practical implications.
But more than that, as we grow in our relationship with the Lord,
become the sons and the daughters that we are intended to be, we hasten the day of the coming of
the Lord Jesus, Peter says, in 2 Peter chapter 3, and we hasten the day when the children of God
are going to be revealed to all of the universe. And in that day, when we are revealed to all
of the universe, God will speak his word of liberation and the universe that grows under the
ultra-vail of sin is going to be set free and is going to be restored to the perfect liberty
of the children of God. I make a point to that this morning
because there is a philosophy behind a lot of what passes as environmentalism today.
That is at odds with what it is to be Christian. Not all of that, but some of that.
I say that because environmentalism, if you listen to it, is moving more and more into a direction
that humankind is but an other extension of creation. And that creation is no more significant
than all of the rest of us because we're all inhabitants of the world together. It flows out of
an evolutionistic philosophy. It flows out of an eastern religious mysticism
where we're shipping the earth and being in tune with Mother Earth
becomes a substitute for our relationship with the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
I found it intriguing yesterday. I was just reading through this latest youth for Christ mailing.
And Gary McDonald in this youth for Christ mailing quotes a gallop poll stating that young people
are green. Now gallop, I understand, is a Christian. At least I've heard it said that.
And let me just read you the little introduction and then make a couple of comments about it very
quickly. When gallop pollsters asked American youth about their views in the environment
just before the Earth Summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro in June of 1992,
they found that the majority believe in stewardship of our resources rather than exploitation.
I'll listen to the questions. And they sound very harmless.
But there's a twist there that I'm concerned about. 93% agree nature is God's creation
and we have a duty to protect it. I think we have no difficulty with that.
88% believe all living things have the same right to exist as do humans.
Do you believe that? You know, I have to think about that one. There's a whole philosophy behind
that is they're not in terms of what we've often called the cultural mandate. 86% believe humans
have a moral obligation to protect all living things, interesting question. The last question
is the one that intrigues me though because of the way that it's worded. 13% believe God intended
nature for human use. So don't worry about it. Not fascinating. 13% believe God intended
nature for human use. So don't worry about it. Isn't that interesting link? Where does that come
from? Well, that comes out of a philosophy and you hear it all the time where Western Christianity
is being blamed for the pollution of the Earth. Did you know that? Big thing in environmentalist
circles is that it is Christianity's perspective of man being the crown of creation that has caused
mankind to abuse creation. And that's why the world isn't such a mess. It's your fault as Christian.
Well, I beg your pardon, but I beg to take issue with that. I think it is true that there have been
many people in the Western world that have abused their position seen always does. I'm not at all
sure that it flows out of a biblical philosophy that says mankind is in charge of creation and
therefore because we're in charge of creation we're automatically going to make a mess of it.
I want you to know we have been destined to rule creation. Adam was created to rule over creation.
It was seen that made creation act up in rebellion against we who in turn were rebellious against
God. But when history is all finished and God raises his children to the throne we're not just going
to be another animal that is an extension of the created order, no survey. We're going to be the
children of the living God, sons and daughters, heirs of God's eternal kingdom. And forever and
ever we're going to rule over creation. And guess what? We're going to do it right because we will
have been trained by God to manage his creation. I alert you to that. Not to make you insensitive to
environmental issues but to help us to be aware of the spirit that is behind a lot of it
and to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and to understand that biblical teaching
clearly marks mankind as the crown of God's creation and therefore entrusts us with a keen
sense of responsibility about how to manage God's kingdom. And the principle of stewardship in
the scriptures is always faithful over little and I will put you over much. And Paul's argument
as we have been seeing and I close with this is that the struggles and the difficulties and the
testing and the temptations of life are all part of God's preparing us for the day when we ascend
to the throne and when we get to manage his eternal kingdom for his everlasting praise and for his
glory. All creation waits with eager longing for the revealing, the unveiling
of the sons of God. Let us pray.
Help us, Lord, to understand the issues in your word are always stewardship issues.
Help us to understand that the issues in your word are to whom are we accountable
and help us to understand that in your word we're not first of all accountable to one another
even or to the world but we're accountable to you. And help us to understand, Lord, that as we
are faithful in little, you put us over much. To that end, we pray that as your children,
you would give us the full measure of your spirit, that you help us to understand with increasing
clarity your plan and your purpose for all of your children and that, Lord, instead of grumbling
and complaining and spending our time being in love with this present world as does so much of the
world, we can see our glorious inheritance and we can see your hand in the training and in the
disciplining knowing there's going to come a day when we will be fully placed in charge of
everything that you have in all of the universe. To that end, give us your spirit as the first
fruits of that harvest. Help us, Lord, to be faithful in the little. Help us to bear a prophetic
word to our culture and to the nations, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness the
rub, and that he has given us responsibility to manage it for him. And then, Lord, help us to live
ourselves day by day with increasing liberty as the children of God. Thank you, Lord, for hearing us
in Jesus' name. Amen.