This hymn we just sang is a hymn of adoration of God, motivated by looking around at God’s creation. I think, for many of us, this is an experience we have. That is why, a lot of times, we need to step outside and escape a little bit into God’s creation, just seeing the wonders of what He has made.
Something happens in our soul: a rejoicing, a wonder, and a marvel at God. We just spontaneously praise Him. That is the feeling with that.
I have been meditating on creation, preparing for a couple of gospel messages I will share later in the month. I have been discovering how creation speaks. It has a voice with no words, with no sound; but, in the Scriptures, creation speaks.
Through these meditations, some more things have come up that I feel are especially for believers—some things from the Scriptures that are deeper, and perhaps something on God’s heart for us to contemplate.
I want to read a verse in Romans 8 to begin with, and then we will pray together. Romans 8:18:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us.
For the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God.
For the creature hath been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth together and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Let us read again verse 22:
For we know that the whole creation groaneth together and travaileth in pain together until now.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we thank You. You have brought us here together for this time, right now, with Your Word opened in front of us. Deep in our hearts, we know there is the Spirit’s groaning. We want to touch into Your heart, Lord.
We pray You would express it within us, and also in the hearing of our ears, that we can relate to and touch the throne of God with our own travailing. Let it be our experience, and as we look into these things of creation, may we see the largeness of what is happening.
We pray You would anoint this time. Really bless us with Your presence, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This voice of creation is mentioned in the Scriptures, but you do not need the Scriptures to show it to mankind. What I hope to do in the future is share just from creation—not from the Scriptures—with a group of unbelievers, showing the things of God.
It mentions in Romans 1 how there is no excuse for mankind, because the invisible things of God—His eternal power and His divinity—can be shown from what He has made. Looking around, we have no excuse but to know of the Creator, to know of His power, and to know that there is a God.
You can take it inwardly as well, with our own makeup. There is a wonderful book called Mere Christianity, where, from the conscience of man, C. S. Lewis shows that there must be a good God and leads you to the gospel without the Scriptures.
So, even by creation, there is a voice that goes out. In Psalm 19, it mentions this. I have already out-preached myself today.
Psalm 19 begins by speaking about this message that comes from creation. The first section of verses tells how the heavens declare the glory of God. It goes on to speak about the sun and the stars, and how there is something being proclaimed.
Afterward, it switches to speak about the Word of God, similar to Psalm 119. But at the end of the psalm, it speaks about the heart of man—the depth of the heart of man wanting not to fall into presumptuous sins, wanting to be searched by the Lord and kept by Him.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart” be blameless. This is the heart of man that catches the voice of creation. This is the type of man who sees it and willingly accepts it.
Romans 1 and Romans 2 mention how someone without the law, without the Word, responding to conscience, can seek for eternity and can find it. This is going on with creation.
Now, there is another thing happening with creation. As we look around at creation, we see its beauty and all these things, and we can definitely see the Creator. But there is also a mark of sin. There is a mark of corruption, and there is a depth of groaning happening inside creation.
It mentions here in Romans 8 that there is something wrong with creation—not just mankind. Something has happened and brought creation into a place where there is a longing throughout the whole universe.
From beyond the stars, down to the earth, the mountains, the trees, the animals—everything, even mankind—there is a deep longing for something to happen in the future. The thing that will happen in the future, Romans 8 says, is the manifestation of the sons of God.
At this hope for which creation waits, creation will be released from bondage, corruption, the burden of sin, and the destruction that has happened within creation.
We may go hiking and sit on a mountain—or a big hill, which to us is like a mountain—and look across the valley. We see the trees, perhaps everything full and changing, and then a mosquito bites you and you have to smack it. You know, even our wonderful view of creation is often messed up.
We want to sit in a tent, enjoy creation, and listen to the voice of God. But then the bugs get us, and then the bear is climbing around our tent. Something is wrong with creation.
You can see its beauty, just as you can still see the image of God in mankind. But the image of God is corrupted, and mankind is not as we ought to be. We are not as we were created to be at this point.
Soon, however, the redemption of our bodies will happen, and mankind will be fully restored to how we should be. So there is this groaning happening.
In the thirty minutes we have, I would like to go through all of time with creation: look at what has happened, look at what will happen, and see the groaning that is happening with creation.
I have so many verses. I do not actually use an outline up here, but I asked Emma to put up many verses because some of the things in the Scriptures about creation are things we do not often notice.
To begin, consider John 1:1. Before creation, before there was a beginning of time, there was the Word. The Word was God, and the Word was with God.
Before time started, there was God. There was eternity—there was just Him. From God, from no time, and from eternity came time.
We all believe this, but there are a few things about how creation happened that we should consider. John says that all things received being through Him, and without Him not one thing received being which hath received being. This is Christ.
“Received being” means created. Whatever was created—both the unseen and the seen, angels, earth, trees, mankind, everything that has ever been created—was created by Christ. The Word of God was the means through which all creation happened.
A similar passage is Hebrews 11. This is the chapter on faith, and it says that faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When you have the experience of faith, something from the eternal realm is brought into substance in time. Faith is that channel, and this is even how the worlds were created.
By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear.
The experience of creation was an experience of faith. Everything we can see has come from the unseen realm. In the beginning, when there was only God, it was unseen and eternal, before time. Then, out from God’s imagination and creative ability, He brought into substance everything that is out there.
You may look at something physical and say, “This is real. This is tangible. This is what I can study.” But what is older? What came before the substance was invisible and non-substantial.
Even the rules of matter and the actions within God’s creation are things we learn in physics. When you push something, it rolls. When it rolls and hits something else, that moves. When there is friction, it slows down. Something needs to affect something else.
This is the study of God’s creation. But the question comes to the person studying it: what started this, and what started this? You have to trace it all the way back to something that started everything.
It had to come from something beyond matter, even for matter to have a beginning. Otherwise, there would need to be matter to start other matter, and something would need to start that matter as well.
It is like when people ask, “Who are God’s parents?” One time, with some young people at home, we made up a set of parents for God on my chalkboard. They asked who God’s daddy was, so we wrote “God’s daddy.” Then we asked, “Who is his daddy?” We kept going up until we ran out of chalkboard, with so many daddies.
Finally, we said, “There has to be a final Daddy. There has to be Somebody Who never had a daddy. There has to be a God. There has to be Something that starts everything.”
With creation, it all had to start from a Being Who was never created, Who was never in time, and Who can create matter. When God creates, He can create out of nothing.
There is a Hebrew word, bara, used for creating something completely without raw materials. We can do many things with science, but we use materials that are already there. God used no materials; He created the materials themselves. This is something only God can do.
Consider Colossians 1:15-16:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.
All creation was created by Christ. This has to do with the end of creation as well as its beginning. The invisible things, the realm of angels, and everything beyond what we understand were all created through Christ originally.
Whatever came into being, whatever started with time, came through a funnel of Christ, so that all things would actually be for Christ. All of us and all the things we look around at, whatever corruption is currently upon them, started through Christ. It is really amazing to see that.
Then we come to the famous creation verse, Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This beginning is the beginning of all creation. It is God’s beginning. We know that it all came through Christ, from the invisible realm into the visible realm, through the experience of faith.
The heavens here refer to the far-off heavens, not merely our sky, but the whole universe. Then it specifically mentions the earth.
When the earth was created, something happened. In Job 38, the sons of God rejoiced. The sons of God mentioned there are angels. They are called sons of God in several places, especially at the beginning of Job.
When they saw the earth created, its foundations laid, and what God was doing, there was shouting and joy among them.
One of the famous angels we know a little about was originally probably called Lucifer. You can find notes about Satan’s fall in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, though I do not want to study that in detail right now.
There is one verse that stood out to me in considering creation—Ezekiel 28:15:
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.
Notice this: when he was created, he was perfect in all his ways. In Ezekiel 28, the prince of Tyre is the human ruler at that time. But then it begins speaking of the king of Tyre, because the ruler behind that human ruler, behind the scenes, was Satan.
The description is beautiful: his closeness to God and his position among the angels. Then unrighteousness was found in him. He wanted to become God. Pride rose up, and sin began.
This begins the corruption and groaning of creation. All things were created by Christ. All things were perfect when they were created. Even the earth, when it was created, received shouts of joy at the sight of it. Everything was amazing.
But then sin came in through this angel and began to corrupt God’s creation. Angels are God’s creation. They had a starting point in time.
We do not know exactly all that happened. The Bible really focuses our attention on our own redemption, God’s plan, and God’s purpose. But there are hints of things that happened—tangents and little details that fit into the story of the Bible. Sometimes we can study and consider them, though we do not actually know much.
It seems that a third of the angels came with Satan in the fall. We do not know how it all happened, but Revelation speaks of a third of the angels coming down with the dragon. So it appears that many fell and began to corrupt.
In fellowshipping with believers, there are some things in the Bible that are hard to discuss because we are all very opinionated. It is a little like politics. I do not talk much about politics because people feel very strongly, and everyone is absolutely right and has studied very well.
There are some dangerous points in Scripture. They are not really dangerous, though, if we have a soft-hearted attitude of seeking the Lord, seeking truth, and growing in the unity of the faith.
Then we can fellowship about things. I can say, “I think I see a little bit here,” and someone else can say, “I think I see a little bit here,” and we can discover more together.
I do not like the approach I was taught in seminary Bible studies, which was basically: “You cannot really know truth. Here are five views. I do not know which one is right, and none of you knows which one is right, so never have an opinion.”
I think we can discover things together. The majority of Christians discovered that baptism was for believers, and they discovered that salvation was by grace through faith. There are truths that we can discover.
There is something concerning the groaning of creation that I want to bring up. I do not want anybody to throw a tomato at me, but I really believe this touches the heart of why creation is groaning. If you disagree, at least contemplate some of these things.
Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We know He created them in Christ, and when He created the earth, the angels shouted with joy.
But Genesis 1:2 says:
And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
What is happening here?
The first day begins in Genesis 1:3, where God says, “Let there be light.” The first day includes light and darkness, evening and morning. But in Genesis 1:2, I believe we are shown something of what was going on with the earth before God worked in verse 3.
I believe that, with the fall of Satan, corruption came upon this whole realm of the earth.
The words “waste and void” are used a few times in Scripture, even as a package. One place is Isaiah 34:11:
He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness.
This speaks of measuring a land in order to show the desolate place that has resulted.
Another place is Jeremiah 4:23:
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Both of these passages concern judgment and destruction. Waste and emptiness are the experience afterward. The place is laid waste. It is a mess. There is a void, an emptiness, and not in a good way.
There is an old thought from Greek mythology: chaos—that in the beginning there was chaos. Some may have adopted that thought, imagining that when God created things, He started with a large ball of chaos, a big lump of mess, and then shaped and formed it.
But when Genesis uses the word “created,” it differs somewhat from the word “made.” Created means brought forth from nothing; made means taking something and shaping it.
God created the fish out of nothing. He did not grab some water and shape it into a shark. He simply made them appear. In the creation of man, it uses the same word, even though later we see that God formed man’s body. With the soul of man, there was an out-of-nothing creation. The soul and spirit of man happened like this.
The words “waste and empty” were significant to me. But there is another verse, Isaiah 45:18, speaking of creation and using the same original word for waste:
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.
This one really got me. “Not as waste did He create it.” It is the same exact word. He specifically says, “I made the heavens. I made the earth. I did not make it waste. I made it to be inhabited.”
When God made it, He made it to be inhabited. Take that for what it is worth. There is a great book called Earth’s Earliest Ages by Pember, if you want to get really nerdy and study it. There is also a smaller book, The Mystery of Creation, by Watchman Nee.
But catch this thought: from whatever happened with the fall of Satan, probably all creation at that time fell apart. We know Satan’s fall happened before man’s fall, because the serpent tempting Eve was possessed by Satan. The one tempting mankind had already been in sin. He is the father of lies; he is the beginning of sin.
Imagine everything destroyed. The description of the earth is that it was covered in water, and there was no light upon the earth.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That would mean stars and all the things out there. But now the earth was covered in water, and there was some atmosphere of darkness—perhaps similar to the darkness over Egypt during the plagues, a darkness so thick that it blocked out everything.
But I think something else was going on: the groaning.
Deep in the heart of God was a groaning for restoration. The Spirit of God was hovering over the deep waters. In that darkness, with water all over the earth—probably all ice because there was no heat from the sun—it may have been like an ice age.
The whole earth was covered with frozen water, and around the earth, like a pregnant mother about to give birth, there was travailing, groaning, and a womb-like experience of the Holy Spirit. Then God began to restore.
If you notice the six-day creation account, it is a restoration of the earth. The earth’s rock was already there, and the waters were already there. God removed the darkness, the veil that had come upon the earth, on the first day.
Suddenly, perhaps in a foggy way through a thick atmosphere, the light of the heavens shone through. There was the ability to distinguish day from night. It was not fully clear yet, but there was a difference. The dark judgment was pulled off the earth, and God was working.
On the second day, He took the waters and lifted them up. The description is like an ocean placed in the sky. This matches up with the flood story. When it rained for the first time, the water in the sky was so thick. It had never rained upon the earth until the flood of Noah, which is why Noah’s boat seemed very silly to the people around him.
But the sky opened, and all the waters came down. It was as if that ocean fell upon the earth. This began a new experience for creation.
Before the flood, when God lifted up the waters, He placed the waters in the sky with an expanse between them. This was our air pocket. There was an atmosphere and then, probably, clouds much thicker than ours now. Then there was air around the earth. God was preparing it for animals, plants, and man.
Then He lifted up the ground that had been covered by waters. There are verses in the Bible concerning mountains that speak of their having been covered with water before He lifted them up, as though those mountains were already mountains when the earth was waste and empty.
God raised the ground so there could be dry land. Then He caused plants and trees to grow, preparing the way. He opened the clarity to show the sun, moon, and stars. He gave the stars as signs for mankind, to mark times and seasons.
He placed birds in the air, fish and water animals in the seas, and land animals on the earth. Last, He made man.
In these six literal days, I think we have a detailed account of how God restored everything. He set everything in order. The groaning and travailing of the Spirit of God found expression in these six days of birth.
There was beauty. All the days were called good except the second day. But generally, when God rested, He looked at everything and said, “This is good. This is good.”
Man was enjoying the Garden of Eden. The animals were given food to eat, and man was given food to eat. At first, mankind ate the fruit of trees and plants that gave seed—nuts and things like this. They were not actually eating the herbs, but the animals were eating the grass and herbs.
The animals were peaceful, and man was in charge. All the animals were brought to Adam, and he could name them all. Man was without sin. He was innocent, strong, and had a clear mind.
Parents with more than one child sometimes forget which child is which when they are yelling at them. When my mom would yell at us, she would eventually end with the kid she wanted. It would be, “Jeff, Gregg, Caleb, Fluffy, Jeff!” Fluffy was the dog.
But Adam could name all the animals, all the beasts, and he had their names down. He could remember them. His mind was clear.
I think that experience of the Holy Spirit groaning and birthing the recreation—the recovery of the earth—is a picture of the real groaning happening deep in our hearts with the Holy Spirit. I think it is happening again, and I think we can touch it as believers. We can step into the experience of it.
No tomatoes were thrown, which is helpful. I just want to hold that as a picture.
Now let us look at the destruction connected with mankind. The Lord had recovered the earth. He had brought in animals, plants, and man. Creation was back. Creation was good. Things were glorifying the Lord.
The Lord told Adam to take over the land, be fruitful and multiply, and protect the garden. Satan was still around; that is why Adam had to protect the garden. Evil was still out there.
If man had done what he should have done—taken of the tree of life, obeyed God, and become what God created him to be—all creation would have been covered with the glory of God. Creation could have been restored to what it should be.
But when man fell, sin brought in death. Man died spiritually immediately, and even the earth and creation changed immediately, at least a little bit.
Mankind’s body seems to have changed, because God told them that the ground was cursed. This is when thorns started. Originally, roses may have been flowers all the way up the stem, and you could grab the whole thing softly. But now, when you grab the rose, you cry. So you pick the thorns off first, and then you give it to your wife.
There did not used to be thorns. Thorns express the groaning of creation.
All the difficulties of gardening and all these things show the groaning of creation and the corruption that came through sin. When Adam sinned, this began immediately. The ground became hard to work. Man had to till it and remove what was in the way. Before, everything would simply produce.
Pruning and tilling would have made things more beautiful. But now, even to survive, you have to farm. You have to work for it.
Animals were originally given herbs and grass. But after the curse, mankind was also told to eat vegetables—to eat onions and things like this. Man’s diet changed slightly.
We do not know exactly what happened with creation for a little while, or how long it took for animals’ bodies to change. I have a slight theory that it probably went along with the height of creation—mankind. Man led the way into corruption, and I think he led the way into destruction as well.
Morally, man corrupted first in his soul and continued in corruption all the way to the flood. By then, man had lost understanding of good and evil. What was good became evil, and evil became good.
Possibly, animals had become wilder by that point. Possibly, there was greater danger among them. Originally, the animals were not eating meat. But at that time, I do not know what they were like. We know they changed at some point.
Mankind’s body began to deteriorate rapidly from the flood until Moses’ time. At the flood of Noah, God said that man’s body needed meat. Noah had brought extra clean animals—seven sets of the animals that were good to eat—and God said these were for food.
Their bodies began to die off more quickly. They had lived nine hundred and something years, and then they began dying in their five hundreds, then their three hundreds and two hundreds, all the way down to today, when we do not live that long.
If the body of man corrupted at that point, possibly the corruption of the animals really sank in at that time as well, and the corruption of creation increased.
One hint is the flood itself. The flood was the beginning of rain. Before then, there would not have been floods, storms, and weather-related dangers that are so destructive to mankind.
God created the earth to be inhabited, but there are places we cannot inhabit because natural disasters happen and kill people. I think these disasters show more of the groaning of creation. It is not as it ought to be.
Before the flood, there was not even rain. But now there is rain, destruction, mankind dying, animals dying, and many plants dying because of weather. The weather in God’s creation has become very corrupt.
You can look around and see the beauty of God, but you also see the groaning. Do not blame every lightning strike on God. God does use lightning in Scripture to describe His voice, and there may be a lightning strike that comes from God. But all this weather that is dangerous to mankind, I think, is the groaning of creation.
It is the depth of creation’s heart saying, “Bring the sons of God to be manifested. Stop all this corruption of sin.”
There are beasts attacking people and attacking one another. It is all part of the groaning of creation. Things are not as they ought to be.
Salvation came for mankind when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross. God willing, if we live until next week, we will get into the new creation and how the new creation in Christ is brought about.
For now, consider the salvation of creation. Just as creation came through Christ in the beginning, the salvation of creation and the new creation must first come through Christ.
If any man is in Christ, there is a new creation. This new creation includes everything in the very end.
With the salvation of man, something needs to happen in the future. It is the manifestation of the sons of God, which we read about in Romans 8.
The sons of God are not merely children of God. When it says “sons,” it speaks of a maturing of those children—sonship, having grown up. For that to be manifested is not simply for people to be saved, but for Christians to mature to the point where the Lord returns and restores all creation to what it should be.
That is the groaning of creation. Why does creation groan for the sons of God to be manifested? Because when the manifestation happens, the final number of mature saints will have been reached.
This maturity is not merely a matter of understanding or spiritual experience. It is maturity in the way of being overcomers, of expressing Christ, of being the Christian you ought to be. You can step into this as a brand-new Christian.
But when the full number of the sons of God is reached, something begins, and creation’s groaning will be answered. The salvation of man is deeply connected with the salvation of creation.
When I look around at creation in the light of this groaning, I feel my heart becoming much larger.
This morning, I was looking at Courage, and his big eyes were looking at me. He was sitting in a chair beside me, and I asked him, “Courage, are you groaning?” His ears perked up, and he ran over to the snack bar, where his treats are. No, he is selfish.
But when you see the eyes of a dog, an animal, or something else, deep down there is something unspoken. It is not that the animal is thinking something specific, but behind it all, God’s Word says the creatures are longing for something to change.
They long for things to be as they should be. Trees have some longing going on. To us, they can seem like nothing. Even animals can sometimes seem like almost nothing, depending on the person.
But there is something in creation, in all these creatures, that longs for us in this room—male and female—to become sons of God, to reach the point of bringing in the Lord’s return.
All creation is waiting for us. Everything is waiting for the full salvation of man. Man started this destruction, and through man God wants to end it. He has brought salvation, and now everything is waiting on us.
It puts something upon you. It is almost not a prayer; it is a groaning. It is deeper than a prayer.
As Romans 8 says, there are depths of prayer that cannot even be brought out through the mouth. We Christians have the Spirit of God deep within us. He knows the mind of God. He knows our mind. He knows what is in the spirit of man, because He is the Spirit of God.
The groanings that are happening, He can express. I am not saying that you make groaning noises. I am saying there is a depth of burden upon believers that cannot even be expressed, but the Holy Spirit helps us.
Our hearts begin to cry something. The cry we can express, which creation itself cannot say, is: “How long, O Lord, until You come and make this right?” Like the cry of the souls under the altar, it is the cry of creation.
But we are the ones who should cry it aloud. We have the voice, the hearts, the prayer, and the Spirit inside us.
Come, Lord Jesus.
This is the cry of creation. Creation is crying first, “Make the way. Sons of God, be manifested.” But for us, it becomes, “Come, Lord Jesus.” It becomes, “Jesus is my Lord. Jesus is Lord.”
There begins to be this groaning inside all mankind when we touch into this. It is happening beyond us. It is not just us. All things God created are longing for this to happen.
Everything is waiting upon us in anticipation, as if watching us. When we are around animals, when we are around God’s scenery, there is a deep groaning happening—deeper than a prayer:
When will you be ready?
When will you be manifested?
Very quickly, I want to mention the final groanings of creation in Revelation. When the sons of God are manifested, there is a rapture that takes those sons of God who are ready. Then all earth breaks loose. The groanings of the earth begin to be expressed in an intensified way.
The Lord Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” Christians are presently the preserving influence in creation.
But when Christians are removed—when those walking as salt are taken up—there begins an outward expression of final groanings. The full manifestation of the sons of God is about to happen. Perhaps in seven years they will all appear. Everything is about to be restored. Christ will come, lay the land bare of sin, righteousness will rule, and things will be as they should be.
But then creation begins to groan in a more expressed way.
In Revelation, the four horsemen come with the seven seals. Much of this concerns war and mankind hurting one another. But there is also famine and beasts killing people. Some believe these things are happening currently—wars, rumors of wars, and problems beyond the norm. That may be.
But later in Revelation there is a deeper groaning, a deeper expression of groaning.
Consider Revelation 8:7:
And the first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Then the second angel sounded:
And as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
and there died the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, even they that had life; and the third part of the ships was destroyed.
Then the third angel sounded:
And there fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the waters.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
This is the drinking water.
Then the fourth angel sounded, and a third part of the sun, moon, and stars was darkened. A third part of the earth was under darkness. The light was dimmed.
There are still things happening on earth, and there are still Christians here. But imagine a third of the grass and plants burning up.
When I did yard work for a living in Memphis, my boss was a Christian, and we used to quote this verse to each other. We did vanity yard work. I mean, we sprayed the weeds. My own yard is mainly weeds, but we sprayed and made yards into beautiful grass of specific types. I had to study and take a test for it.
As I was spraying chemicals and killing all the weeds, I thought, “Vanity of vanities. It is all going to burn.”
I think we should take care of the earth right now. But in the last groanings of the earth, a third of all that burns up. Imagine a third of all ocean creatures dying, the sea turning to blood, ships and people in the waters being destroyed, and even drinking water becoming bitter.
These are some of the final expressions of groaning. The salt is removed, corruption is happening upon the earth to completion, but these are birth pains. This is the final travailing and the longing for the sons of God to be manifested.
Beyond the trumpets, after the last trumpet, all Christians are taken up. Then there are the seven bowls of the wrath of God. Revelation 16:1 says:
And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth.
These seven bowls are the final groanings of creation. Creation’s voice is speaking loudly now.
The first bowl brings an evil and grievous sore upon those who have the mark of the beast and worship his image.
The second bowl is poured upon the sea:
And it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea.
Now every living soul in the sea dies. At the very end, Revelation says the sea exists no more. But at this point, everything in the sea has died.
The third bowl is poured into the rivers and fountains of waters, and they become blood:
Thou art righteous, Who art and Who wast, Thou Holy One, because Thou didst thus judge:
for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood hast Thou given them to drink: they are worthy.
Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.
The fourth bowl is poured upon the sun, and it is given power to scorch men with fire. The heat of the sun is beyond what you can handle with suntan lotion—I mean sunblock. Men are burned with great heat, yet they blaspheme the name of God and do not repent to give Him glory.
The fifth bowl is poured upon the throne of the beast, and its kingdom becomes darkened. This is the Antichrist’s realm.
The sixth bowl is poured upon the Euphrates, and its water is dried up to prepare the way for the kings and for the Lord’s return. Great destruction is happening.
Then comes the seventh bowl, Revelation 16:17:
And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is done.
There are lightnings, voices, thunders, and an earthquake greater than any since men were upon the earth. The great city is divided into three parts, the cities of the nations fall, and Babylon is remembered before God. Every island flees, and the mountains are not found.
A great hail, about the weight of a talent, comes down out of heaven upon men. Men blaspheme God because of the plague of hail, for it is exceedingly great.
This is the last groaning of creation—the final expression before the Lord returns, before He takes back the earth, and before everything is settled. This is the longing that is going on and that will be expressed.
What happens when creation is restored? There are some wonderful verses about this. Animals are changed back again. Mankind is changed physically in their bodies. The people on the earth experience something entirely different.
Consider Isaiah 11:6-9:
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
This describes the thousand-year period in which Christ openly rules and reigns. Consider it in the light of the groaning, restoration, salvation, and deliverance of creation.
The wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the kid. The calf, young lion, and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. The animals’ diet changes, and their animosity toward one another no longer exists. There are no more attacks from the lion.
Isaiah 65:20 also speaks about mankind:
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.
This means there are no more babies dying quickly in infancy. If someone dies at one hundred years old, it is as though they were a child. The age of man is restored.
They are not dying at eighty years old. Mankind in the kingdom, the people on the earth, will live long. There are no stillborn children. Things have changed.
The animals are made right. There is no need for people to eat the animals, and no need for animals to eat people. There is no need to fear the lion because they are friendly. Man has dominion over them again, and creation is restored.
What is all this about with creation? Why did God start it? Why does He have creation? What will be the final end of all things with creation—not merely the thousand years, but beyond that?
Ephesians 1:10 gives us God’s purpose:
Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him.
All creation was created through Christ, and all creation will be summed up in Christ. In the very end, all creation will shine Christ.
Everything that is out there—unseen or seen, visible or invisible, plants, animals, mankind, stars, and all things—will finally shine Christ as they should.
There will be no more sin, Satan, demons, or devils. It will all be locked away. Everything will be gone. There will be no temptation of the world and no temptation of man’s flesh. Everything will shine Christ.
When you read descriptions of plants and animals, you find that plants can praise the Lord. Throughout the Word, there are descriptions of animals praising the Lord as well.
It is possible that animals will be able to communicate or talk. Remember, Eve was not shocked when the serpent came to her. If things were then as they are today, she might have run to Adam as soon as the serpent said hello. But she simply talked with him.
Perhaps animals could have talked. Even now, in corruption, some animals can communicate in a limited way.
Remember Balaam’s donkey. It says God opened its mouth so that it could speak—similar to opening a womb or opening eyes, as though there were some dormant feature. In Job, it says that the ostrich was made without wisdom, as if perhaps originally it had more wisdom.
We do not know what animals will be like. But we know that everything was created in Christ, created for Christ, and will be summed up in Christ.
All the heavens and earth are part of God’s purpose. Everything is going to shine Christ in the very end. God made the stars, plants, and animals for the sake of Christ.
The height of His creation is mankind, in what He desires to do through the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. But see the largeness of what God is doing.
Where are we now, in our time? Have we sensed the groaning deep down in all creation?
As you go around and see how big all of this is, as you see how far beyond ourselves it goes, and as you sense sin and corruption upon the earth—as you see an animal looking up at you, death in animals, and dying among creatures in creation—there is a deeper groaning happening.
It is in every single Christian, if you tap into it. We begin to tap into it by confessing Jesus as our Lord and longing for His return.
Creation longs for the sons of God to be manifested. What is our longing right now? Have we touched the groaning of creation as part of God’s creatures? Are we groaning now?
The other day, I was on my way somewhere, looking at the trees on Huguenot Road or somewhere, and suddenly there came upon me a sense that all around the world there is a longing for something to change.
It is not just God’s longing. It is every single creature. It is everything out there.
Deep down, creation is saying:
Stop what you are doing and follow the Lord Jesus.
Stop what you are doing and be the son of God you should be.
Stop what you are doing and be part of this restoration.
Stop the sins and the shame and all this stuff.
Be as you ought to be.
We are at the point in creation that makes the change.
I am not appealing for you to be nice to your cat. I am appealing for you to serve the Lord. I am appealing for us to bring in the Lord’s return.
Creation’s groaning will stop, and creation’s groaning will be answered. If we touch this, it is the Lord’s heartbeat. It is the heartbeat of the Spirit of God saying:
Come, Lord Jesus.
The Spirit and the bride say, Come.
Let us pray together.
Lord, I know that we are so overwhelmed sometimes with our own circumstances. It is so much for You to quiet our hearts and help us see beyond ourselves.
I pray that You would give us enlightenment from above. I pray that all of us, myself especially included, can walk on this earth with the largeness of the reality of creation and with the larger view of Your purpose, seeing beyond ourselves and seeing Your very heart.
Lord, I pray that every time we are out enjoying the beauty of creation and the beauty of what You have made, there can still be that sense inside us of longing for Your return. There can still be that discovery and hearing of the voice of Your creatures groaning for the sons of God to be manifested.
Lord, I pray that You would transform us in this way.
Even as we walk now, with Jesus as our Lord, living in Your kingship and walking on this earth, even interacting with creation, may we have the same connection of longing for what You are after.
Lord, we pray with those prayers that are deep in our hearts. We pray with those prayers that are beyond even our experience. We pray for Your return to happen. We pray for us to be part of it.
We pray that we would increase in our burden for Your return, our burden for things to change, and our burden for You to restore the earth.
We pray for ourselves right now that You would ignite this groaning deep inside of us. In Jesus’ name, amen.