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Welcome to our study together of the book of Romans. We're looking together at
the book of Romans chapter 8 this week, the last half of that chapter. And today
in verses 22 to 27, a very famous portion of scripture that talks about three
groans, G-R-O-A-N-S, that we face in our lives.

These groans, this groaning that is a part of creation, a part of our lives, and
even a part of the spiritual work of God in our lives, teaches us how God works
in a real world where we face real struggles to make a real difference in our
lives. There are those people who think that for God to work, everything always
has to be happy. Everything always has to be a smile.

There can never be a groan or a frown. This is an interesting chapter because it
notes that through three different types of groaning, God is at work in our
lives. Romans 8, 22 to 27, the first kind of groaning that this chapter talks
about is the fact that all creation groans, verses 19 to 22.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Sons
of God is all believers. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by
its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the
creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the
glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up until this present time. It's a very fascinating phrase, passage of
scripture. It contains some information that we don't really see anywhere else
in scripture in a more powerful and concise way than we see anywhere else in
scripture.

This reminds us of the truth about creation. There are four truths to remember
about creation. First of all, remember that creation, this is from the entire
Bible, these truths, remember that creation began as a good creation.

What caused a good creation is a good God. Genesis 1, 31, it was good. God saw
it was a good, but here we see that it's a groaning creation.

What caused a good creation to become a groaning creation? Well, that's the
second truth about creation. What began as a good creation became a fallen
creation.

Genesis 3, verses 17 to 18 talks about this. Adam is called before God to be
accountable for the sin of eating of the fruit in the garden. God says, "Because
you listened to your wife and ate from that tree about which I commanded you,
you must not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all
the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will
eat the plants of the field.

" You see what's happening here? Not only did Adam suffer because of his sin,
not only did Eve suffer, but all of creation suffered. The ground was cursed
because Adam had been made responsible for creation, all of creation suffers.

Man's sin put thorns on roses, made animals into predators. This whole idea of a
natural disaster, like there's just something wrong with creation in and of
itself, that's not biblical. All disasters are man-made disasters.

Now, you can try that on your insurance company, it won't work, but when you
check it by the Bible, you recognize that there's no such thing as this act of
God kind of a thing where something goes wrong. It's really an act of Adam. Adam
is the one who chose to sin, and because he chose to sin, all of creation
suffers.

Notice that Romans 8 tells us that God allowed that to happen. Why? Why?

Because he allowed it to be subjected to come under the same punishment that man
did, so that it could be liberated, come under the same glory that man was
someday going to come under when God came to know him through his son, Jesus
Christ. That leads us to the third truth about creation. Began as good and
became fallen.

Number three, it now waits. Creation waits as a groaning creation. Instead of
saying that this pain that all of creation goes through is useless, Paul in
these verses amazingly compares the groaning to a woman who is in labor, the
looking forward to a birth.

That's an amazing picture in scripture, and it leads to the fourth truth about
creation. One day, it will become a glorious creation. J.

B. Phillips translates this verse, "The whole creation is standing on tiptoe,
eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God. " Earlier in the book of
Romans, we saw that these bodies that God has given us someday are going to be
redeemed.

We're going to be given new bodies. These verses indicate that it's not just us,
but all of creation that's going to be redeemed. At the end of time, the Bible
tells us there will be a terrible destruction of this present creation, but
that's not the end of things.

There it follows an incredible re-creation, an incredible redemption of all of
creation. All of creation groans waiting for that day when all of creation will
be a glorious creation. I could spend an hour talking about that, but that just
gets your mind thinking about the glory of God's creation.

That's the first groaning, creation groans. The second groaning in this passage
is, "We groan. " Verses 23 to 25, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the
first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our
adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who
hopes for what he already has?

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. " Here we
groan because we're waiting. We're waiting for our adoption and for our
redemption.

Every time we groan, "Oh man, a rotten day. Oh man, I wish I could grow faster.
Oh man, why did that happen?

" Every time you groan, it is a reminder to us to look to the promise of glory
because that is what's going to transform our suffering. You can focus on the
groaning if you want. I can too.

But God says, "Focus not on the groaning, but on the glory. " And he talks about
the redemption of our body. The Greeks in the days that the New Testament was
written had the idea that the body was something you got out of, away from.

It was a prison that held your spirit. That is not the concept of the Bible. The
Bible teaches us instead that the body is in pain.

It's in suffering. It's limited. But it's an important aspect of who God's made
us to be.

And God is using what happens even in this body that we have to build something
that will last for eternity. He is building in us something that's going to last
forever. And these bodies aren't going to just be thrown off someday.

They're going to be resurrected. They're going to be redeemed. They're going to
last forever.

When I begin to get a hold of that, when I begin to understand what that means,
he says in verse 25, "We begin to wait patiently for what God has in store for
us. " In verse 23, he says, "We wait eagerly. " In verse 25, he says, "We wait
patiently.

" When you put those two words together, we wait eagerly and we wait patiently.
To me, that equals anticipation, genuine anticipation of what God's going to do.
The truth isn't found in one or the other.

I'm eager or I'm patient. It's found in both. I am eagerly patient.

It's amazing to me that we miss out on this anticipation many times as
believers. We can anticipate the little things, but we forget to anticipate the
big things in life. I mean, if we can anticipate something like a dessert that
we're going to have at the end of the day.

I know what you do sometimes. You've got that Haagen-Dazs, that special kind of
ice cream, and it's not out where your kids can get to it. It's way in the back
of the freezer.

After they go to bed, you are anticipating getting it out and having a scoop or
two of that ice cream. We can anticipate that. We can anticipate a vacation.

We can look forward for months to a vacation someplace where we're going to go
maybe this next summer. If we can anticipate little things like that, we can
certainly anticipate every day of our lives, every day of our lives, what it's
going to mean to be in God's glory, adopted his sons, redeemed as his children
for all of eternity. That's better than Haagen-Dazs.

That's better than a vacation to Tahiti. That is something we can look forward
to for all eternity. Now, we're waiting for what God's going to do someday.

So, has God left us alone during this time of waiting, during this time of
struggle? No. No.

There is a third groaning that's talked about in this passage. Number three, the
creation groans. We groan.

Number three, God's Spirit groans, verses 26 and 27. In the same way, the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for.

Ever felt like that? We all have. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but
the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. When I don't know what
to pray, he does. God's Spirit not only knows what to pray, he actually prays
within us, talks to the Father on our behalf.

I'm not saying here that we don't need to pray. I'm over that one. The Spirit's
going to pray for me.

I don't have to ever worry about that again. The Bible tells us we have not
because we ask not. God tells us very clearly to talk to him about our needs.

This verse instead is telling us that when I feel I need to pray, but I don't
know what to say, and I just feel silent, he knows what to say. And he's
praying. He's interceding for me with groaning too deep for words.

Now, this doesn't come with sound. Some people say that it comes with some kind
of a sound. I've always thought instead that it's very silent.

The Holy Spirit is speaking in ways that we don't even understand. Right now,
you might feel this way. I don't know what to pray as you face a situation in
your family or at your work or in your personal life.

Well, let's pray right now. And as we begin to pray, realize that even before we
started to pray, God's Spirit was praying within you, groaning, talking to God
with words too deep even for your understanding. Verse 27 tells us that he is
interceding for the Saints in accordance with God's will.

You may not know what God's will is in a circumstance, in a situation. God's
Spirit does, and he's interceding for you right now. So instead of saying any
words, just rest in there.

Just right now for a moment, rest in the fact that God's Spirit within you is
communicating to the Father. Rest in the fact that God knows you like no one
else, and his Spirit obviously knows his will. So, as you rest in that fact,
sense right now the confidence and the love that comes from the fact that your
Father cares about you that much.

Sense the security that his Spirit within you is praying with that kind of
clarity. Jesus, we pray these things in your name. Amen.

Tomorrow, as we continue our look at Romans 8, we're going to be looking at some
of the best-loved and most quoted verses in all of the Bible. Romans chapter 8,
verses 28 to 30.