Why Does God Allow Suffering? Message 2

Introduction

A little boy was trying to move a huge rock in his backyard. He pushed, he pulled, he dug around it, but the rock wouldn’t budge. His father stood nearby watching. Finally, the boy slumped down and said, “Dad, I’ve tried everything and I just can’t move it.”

His father asked, “Son, have you used all your strength?”

The boy shot back, “Yes, Dad, I have!”

The father smiled and said, “No, you haven’t. You haven’t asked me to help you yet.”

That’s a funny little picture of how we live sometimes. We push and pull against the weight of suffering, trying everything in our own strength, until we finally realize — we were never meant to move it alone. Romans 8:26 reminds us that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” The God of the universe comes alongside us — not to remove every rock in our path, but to give us the strength and help we need to endure it.

And here’s the good news: not only does He help us in the moment (v.26–27), but He also promises that every rock, every weight, every painful thing will ultimately be woven into His good purpose (v.28–30).

Turn in your Bibles this morning as we continue to answer the question, “Why does God allow suffering?”

Let’s continue as I read Romans 8:26-30 and blend our text this morning.

Romans 8:26–30 NKJV

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Prayer

Message

In those first verses we studied last week, Paul led us in considering our suffering. We meditated on the reality of our suffering and the Bible states that the weightiness we give it is not to be considered against the backdrop of eternity and all that the Lord has in store for us.

Paul shared that not only do we groan, but creation groans in the hope of being removed from the bondage of this corrupt fallen world and as believers we hope for a redeemed body. We concluded in those verses we studied that our very salvation rests in that hope.

Let’s continue:

1. God is With Us in our Desperation V. 26-27

Romans 8:26 “26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Likewise

Notice an important word tagged on the front of the first verse we read this morning. The word “likewise.” The word likewise in the Greek is the word hosautos which means “in the same manner” or “in the same way.” Paul has just shared that creation groans, believers groan in suffering, and now he says, “in the same way the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.”

We are studying our text this morning from the vantage point of how God works in our suffering. But we learn an important aspect of how the Holy Spirit works in all areas of life for the believer.

What we need to understand is that the word is not a word about timing, as if He helps before or after our events in suffering or any other matter, but He is helping us right in the midst of what we are going through. His Spirit groans with us.

What does that mean? While you are hurting, He is interceding, at work on your behalf. Now we must be clear here. As we study this text and we dissect the topic of suffering, we can’t get lost from the main theme of Romans. Romans is a letter that centers on the Gospel of God’s righteousness revealed through faith in Jesus Christ.

Why is that important? I want you to listen closely here. As Pastor, I am keenly aware of several of our church members that are suffering to a great degree right this moment. As I share these words I am very cognizant of those of you that are listening and experiencing suffering as I speak.

Warren Weirsbe-God is not as interested in making you comfortable as much as He is to you conforming to His will for you.

I say that to say and we will learn this in our time together, but God is working an even greater purpose in you than just your suffering.

God is a loving God and He hurts when you hurt and yes, He’s concerned about your comfort, but His highest priority is causing you to conform to His will for you.

Now, as you think about that reality, there are times that we pray and we are not praying as we ought. 1) We do not see the complete picture and 2) We do not see the comprehensive picture.

In other words, God is omniscient and omnipresent-He sees other factors at work that could be a detriment if He performs what you ask Him. And secondly, we never know how far reaching His touch is in the lives about us that He is orchestrating for His good. In other words, God uses suffering times as glory times. God uses times of struggle to bring you and others to Christ.

John 11:3–4 “3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.””

When God’s Holy Spirit is working in this fashion I find somewhat like this example:

Ill. How many of you have grandchildren that have entered the stage of talking and the initial communications sound like gibberish? Your daughter or son and their spouse will help interpret what the baby or toddler is saying? Yet, at every stage due to her being with that child constantly the mother knows what the child is communicating. There are groans taking place:

Look at verse 26 closely:

Romans 8:26 “26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The Holy Spirit groaning to the Father & the Son in words that they only understand that are working together for our good regardless of what we are praying not knowing the full picture of what is to come, what God is working to accomplish, or how disillusioned we may be of not even knowing where to begin in our prayers.

That does not mean in any way that we quit praying because our Lord wants to hear from us, but when we are off base, He is dead on target. Amen.

That’s comforting to know that the Holy Spirit is never late, never disengaged, always front and center in what we are going through.

Note something important here as well with other matters of life besides suffering.

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.”

NASB states “The Spirit also helps our weakness”

The Lord is at work in all of our weaknesses, not just suffering.

Matthew 20:22 “22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.””

This response of Jesus was His words to the mother of James and John, and she asked the Lord:

Matthew 20:21 “21 And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.””

She had no clue of the big picture of the request she made on behalf of her two sons. She did not realize the cup of suffering our Jesus was going to walk through for our salvation. She was asking for her sons to take that same cup of suffering.

Ill. Buried Ms. Pat Gibson yesterday. The wife of the former Jack Gibson and the mother of Renee Wallace. I’ve known Renee and her husband Louie since I was a teenager. I visited Renee at the funeral home and she hugged me and shared that she had a real peace about her mother. Her mother had been suffering with cancer. The Holy Spirit had comforted her and helped her understand that if she continued her journey here on this earth it would be a life of suffering. You know along with me at varying points of that journey she prayed to the Lord to heal her mother. But at some point, a real peace came over her that God knows best.

John 14:16 “16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—”

Romans 8:27 “27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

Oh listen to me dearly beloved, we have been somewhat scholastic to this point, but may we all remember we are talking about a very emotional subject. We are discussing some of you right now that are in duress. You may be anguishing as we speak. As we read verse 27, let’s understand that God knows your heart. He doesn’t have a distant or casual knowledge, but He knows you intimately.

The Psalm we study tonight for example explains clearly. Listen to the Psalmist words in a few verses:

Psalm 139:1–4 “1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.”

When you are weary and too confused and do not even have the energy to pray, the Lord interprets our groans before a loving Father in perfect harmony with what He knows is best. Amen.

2. God Has a Design in Our Suffering V. 28

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

This verse is one of the most beloved verses in the Bible and it hangs on many of your refrigerators and walls in your home. But, it is also one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible.

This verse reaches well beyond comforting us, but concretes us-it anchors us in the storms of life. Amen.

Joni Eareckson Tada (who suffered paralysis as a teenager): “Sometimes God allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves. Romans 8:28 is the banner flying over every hardship that has come into my life.”

Warren Wiersbe: “Romans 8:28 is one of the most comforting verses in Scripture, but it must be read in context. God is working not to make us comfortable, but to make us conformable — to the image of His Son.”

Let’s clarify in our time together this morning that Paul is writing to the believer. Those who “love God and are called according to His purpose.”

A. The Scope-”All things”

Now let’s be clear here. Not everything that happens in your life is good. There is nothing good about a news article I read yesterday about twenty people in Bibb County, Centreville and arrests are ongoing. This group of twenty were victimizing children from ages 2-15 and sedating them to perform sexual acts with them. How sick can this deprived mind become? Oh listen nothing about that is good church.

I think about the scene not many years ago when the grandfather, Sam Anello was holding his granddaughter, Chloe Wiegand on Royal Caribbean’s, Freedom of the Seas-had sat his grandchild on a rail of a cruise ship assuming there was a barrier to protect the grandchild and when the grandfather sat the child on the rail the child fell to its death.

Oh dearly beloved, there is nothing good about that situation. I imagine the Grandfather has struggles each and every day over such a tragic mistake. I know parents in both cases are anguishing deeply knowing in either case that their child is dead or their child was abused in such a heinous manner. Oh no, listen, nothing is good about such a situation.

But oh dearly beloved, I have been at bedsides, I have been at the hospitals, I have been at roadside scenes and the question comes up, Why? How will God make something good come from this? I don’t know, I will never attempt to explain it, but for those that love God and are called according to His purpose, somehow, some way, God will use it for good.

Our little church here at Mt Zion has walked through a great deal of tragedy. And I imagine all across this room if individuals here that are victimized by tragedy and loss could share, they could share of some form of good that came from the loss.

There is nothing God can not use for good, your diagnosis, your betrayal, your loss, not even the prayers that were not answered in the manner in which you prayed.

The story of Joseph is a great example of how God works for good.

Joseph was the favored son of Jacob, which stirred jealousy and hatred among his brothers. When Joseph shared his dreams that hinted at a future where they would bow to him, their resentment deepened. One day, when Joseph came to check on them in the fields, his brothers conspired against him. They stripped him of his special robe, threw him into a dry cistern, and debated killing him. Instead, at Judah’s suggestion, they sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders heading to Egypt. They then deceived their father by dipping Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood, leading Jacob to believe his beloved son had been killed. What seemed like the end for Joseph was actually the beginning of God’s greater plan — for through slavery, prison, and eventual rise to power in Egypt, Joseph would one day save his family and countless others from famine, declaring, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

Genesis 50:20 “20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

Even human evil is not outside the power of God to turn to good.

B. The Source-”God works”

“We know that all things work together”

The qualifier is for those that are His people, believers, those who have been blood bought in His Son, His only begotten Son, Jesus.

“work together” those two words form one Greek word synergeo that we get our English word, Synergy. In the Greek the word means that God, the Holy Spirit is working together, a partner in labor, putting forth power together to assist. There is a fellow worker, a helper the Bible speaks of in other places, a paraclete. Dearly beloved, in the mud of our lives there is a deep orchestration, a providential orchestration that God is doing to accomplish His purpose

2 Timothy 1:9 “9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,”

Ill. The ambiance of a nice restaurant with a succulent meal. In the kitchen is mass energy and action and bumping each other and scurrying, and messes, and different stations working to accomplish the end result.

Oh dearly beloved, listen, there are times our lives seems like the back kitchen with so many sub parts of struggle, circumstances beyond our control, and we wonder how we will get through it. Yet, in the midst of the quagmires of this life God is working His perfect plan, His perfect meal plan for your life and bringing you into conformance of His image.

Some of you sit here right now and the knowledge of this subject can’t be absorbed due to the fact you are fogged at this very moment with difficulties. I remind you-Romans is not ultimately about suffering, it is about salvation. God is not ultimately about comfort, He is about causing you to conform to His will for your life. You may feel at this moment as if you are a broken mess and you do not see away out. Look up. That is what God wants you to do.

Hebrews 12:2 “2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

3. God Has a Destiny for Your Life V. 29-30

Romans 8:29–30 “29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

A. The Plan “Foreknew...predestined”

Oh listen church, before the first stars were hung, “before the foundations of the world”, God set His love on you. Isn’t that amazing. God had a roadmap for us before we were ever a twinkle in our parents eye.

Ephesians 1:4 “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”

Oh listen, it is not some cold, abstract foreknowledge, God has a personal love for you, a covenant love for you.

What is His desire and our destiny that He has worked towards?

To make you like Jesus-”to conform to the image of His Son.”

B. The Process- “Called...Justified”

Before that day you had ever accepted Christ, God planned that visit of the Holy Spirit in eternity past. And on that day, He called you to a saving knowledge of His Son, at that time you accepted Him as Savior, you were what we refer to as justified. Justified means that it was “just as if you had never sinned.”

Oh dearly beloved, God drew you to Himself through the gospel call and you were made right in Christ Jesus.

C. The Promise- “Glorified”

Notice that God speaks of that in the past tense. Oh dearly beloved, your future glory is as if its already done. That’s how certain your future is and you can be secure in that future.

Oh listen from that point that the bright light was on in the delivery room and you were tapped to breathe life and cry until that day you breathe your last, God’s plan has been to bring you home to Himself.

The God who began your salvation in eternity past will bring it to completion in eternity future — and every moment of suffering in between is part of the journey He has already secured.

Last week, we asked, “Why does God allow suffering?”

Part 1: We looked at the reality and causes of suffering.

Part 2: We’ve seen God’s insight, intention, and investment in the midst of it.

Romans 8 reminds us: God is not just watching from a distance — He is intimately involved, working every detail for the ultimate good of making us like Jesus and bringing us to glory.

Romans 8:38–39 “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.”

Invitation:

If you don’t know Christ, you’re carrying your suffering alone — but you don’t have to.

If you do know Him, you can walk out of here with confidence: Your pain is not wasted, your prayers are heard, and your future is secure.