Why Then Do We Suffer?
2017-09-17
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
Memory Verse:
Romans 8:18 NKJV
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Life is full of trouble and pain. Often, we are left wondering why. Questions fly over how God could allow such suffering to take place if He is a loving God, or does He even exist at all. Today, let’s spend some time asking the question, WHY?
Job 5:7 Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
Job 14:1 Man that is born of woman is of full days and full of trouble
1. This World Is Not What God Intended
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
– God created a perfect world and a perfect world must include choice
– A perfect world could not include forced servitude and worship
– Garden of Eden created a perfect place (Genesis 2:9 – every good tree, pleasant to sight)
– 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Proof of man’s ability to choose good or evil
– Through an act of choice, sin entered into the world. Through that one act, the world
was forever changed.
– The world, and everything in it, are still God’s perfect creation but we messed it up, and we still do
“The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love’ and look on things as if man were the centre of them.”
(The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis)
2. Even Still There Is Hope
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
– Our hope is found in looking not at the pain and suffering of today but in the joy and promise of what is to come. But it requires patience.
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
3. Our God Is Still In Control And Taking Care Of Us
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– In the midst of the pain of this world, we remain fully in the perfect love of God
– Adrian Rogers said, “Sin is not just breaking the laws of God, it is breaking the heart of God.”
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world…No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.”
(The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis)