Turning Hurts into Hallelujahs | Part 1

As Christians, are we immune to suffering?

Here's a dynamic teaching of pastor and author, Adrian Rogers. The resurrection of Jesus is what turns every hurt into a Hallelujah. Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and death. There is no more condemnation for our sin, nor can it control us. And that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us. Yet, this does not make us immune to suffering in this life. Chapter 8 reveals four things to remember in times of suffering.

If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers begins part one of turning hurts into Hallelujahs. In our journey through Romans, we've come to chapter 8. We've called Romans the Constitution of Christianity.

This past week, I was in Washington, D.C. and saw again the original Constitution of the United States. In the Constitution of the United States, there is a bill of rights. But in the book of Romans, there is no bill of rights. We have no rights. In the book of Romans, we find the gifts of grace better than a bill of rights. Rights are for people who think they own something.

We own nothing but judgment. But thank God, by the grace of God, by the grace of God and by the gifts of grace, we are what we are. Amen? Now, I want to talk to you today about how that grace, how that resurrection, how what happened on that Easter morning will turn every hurt into a Hallelujah. Now, there are people who are hurting. And we look around and everywhere there's death and disease and confusion and pain and pain and moan and groan and sickness and sighing and crying and dying everywhere. I want to show you two verses from Romans 8. Look, if you will, in Romans 8 and verse 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. That means give life to your dying flesh. He will quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

And then look, if you will, in verse 18 of this same chapter. Paul says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Now, he's talking about hurts and he's talking about Hallelujahs.

And he uses a term that's a bookkeeping term. He's been doing some figuring and he says, I reckon. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. And he says in verse 11, this is true because of Easter. Listen, it's Easter that turns every hurt into a Hallelujah. It's Easter that turns every tear to a pearl. It is Easter that turns every midnight to a sunrise. It is Easter that turns every Calvary to a resurrection. Paul is talking about the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead.

And he says, If that Spirit, the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that raised Christ from that grave, if he dwells in you, then the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Now, there's several words I want us to think about. The first is the word guilt. Guilt. Think of that word guilt.

Just jot it down on a piece of paper. Guilt. The guilt that we express. Look, if you will, how Romans 8 begins in verses 1 through 3. There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Underscore the word condemnation, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Underscore the word flesh, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Underscore the word sin and death.

And think of those words. Condemnation, flesh, sin, death. That's a description of the world today. We are condemned. We are living lives according to the flesh, not the Spirit. And we find ourselves under law that the Bible calls here the law of sin and death, for the wages of sin is death and the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die.

And that brings up an interesting question. What about this thing called sin? Did you know that there are many people who are not believers and their problem is not a scientific problem? They're not wrestling with ideas like evolution or creation.

Their problem is the problem of history. They say, if there's a God and that God is a good God, then look at all of the suffering. Why, if God is good, why do we have sin?

Why do we have suffering? And they have a little argument, a little syllogism. And here's the way the syllogism goes. If there be a God, He would be the author of everything. Evil is something. So God is the author of evil. What kind of a God is it that has created evil? And so they say, I can't believe in a God who made everything and He made it like He did. And so, therefore, He must not be a good God if He's a God at all. But that's not straight thinking.

Let me tell you the way it truly is. God is the author of everything. God made everything perfect. And when God made man, God made His creature perfectly free.

Free will, then. Man's perfect free will is the origin of evil. God did not create evil. God created perfection. And God made man perfectly free.

And freedom, therefore, gave rise to this evil. You see, this is what makes us moral creatures. Somebody says, well, why didn't God just make us where we couldn't sin? Well, if God had made us where we couldn't sin, He could have no more fellowship with me than I could have with that pulpit or that speaker.

Because God made us moral creatures. Love is the highest good. And God wants us to love Him.

This is the first and great commandment. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind. Love is the highest good. But forced love is a contradiction in terms.

Forced love is not love at all. In order to love, we must be free to love, to choose to love. And in order to choose to love, we have to be able to choose not to love. And so God gave us perfect choice. And Adam chose in the Garden of Eden, the sons of Adam after him, to sin.

And that's where the heartache and the pain and the groan and the moan come from, as we're going to see in a moment. Well, that brings another question. Why didn't God just destroy evil? I mean, if He were all powerful, He could.

And if He were all love, He would. So why doesn't God just step in, obliterate the devil, cause all sin to be eradicated? Why doesn't God just go into every cancer ward and empty every cancer ward? Why doesn't God just take away the curse from nature? Why doesn't God just destroy evil and make it impossible for people to sin?

We're right back to the original question. If God were to destroy evil, just destroy evil, God would destroy every opportunity of choice, and if God would destroy every opportunity for choice, then God would destroy every opportunity for love, and therefore God would destroy the highest good, and therefore for God to destroy evil would be evil. No, God doesn't destroy evil. Friend, God defeats evil. How does God defeat evil?

And how does God defeat evil? Calvary and the resurrection, and God turns every hurt to a hallelujah, and God says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. You see, God is not finished yet. All right, there's the guilt that we express, verses 1 through 3.

Oh, but, friend, there's the grace that we experience. Again, look in chapter 8, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned to sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Now, what does this mean? What kind of grace do we experience? Well, number one, no condemnation for sin. Hallelujah. No condemnation for sin. Look at it in verse 1.

There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are what? In Christ Jesus. Now, what does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Well, God wants us to be saved. He's given us so many illustrations of salvation. One of the illustrations of salvation is Noah's ark. Noah's ark, the Bible teaches us in 2 Peter, is an illustration, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you want to know what it is to be in Christ Jesus, know what it was for Noah to be in that ark. And God was going to judge the world, and God said to Noah and his family, come thou into the ark. And Noah went into that ark, and then the Bible says, and God shut the door. Now, the ark was waterproof.

How do you know it was waterproof? Well, God said to Noah, Noah put pitch on the inside and on the outside. Pitch was a black, gooey, sticky substance. And Noah got a broad brush, and he and his helpers, whoever it was, they put pitch all over the outside of that ark. And then they put pitch all over the inside of that ark. That was to waterproof it. Now, water was an emblem, a symbol of the judgment of God, the wrath of God, that flood.

But not one drop of water could come through that gooey pitch. Do you know what the word pitch is? It's the Hebrew word kaphar, and it is exactly the same word that is translated atonement. Atonement, when Christ died on the cross, he made an atonement for us. And God says, put atonement on the outside. Put atonement on the inside.

Not one drop of judgment can come through that atonement. You see, we are in Jesus as Noah was in that ark. And because we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath, the storms of God's wrath beat upon that ark. And the storms of God's wrath beat upon the Lord Jesus. But I'm on the inside, and not one drop of judgment can come through. You see, because we're in Christ, there's no more condemnation for sin, and there's no more control of sin.

Notice what he says in verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. We said there are two laws in the natural world. There's the law of gravity, and there's the law of aerodynamics. The law of gravity is constantly pulling on us, pulling on us, pulling on us. It's holding you in your seat. It's causing you to stick to the earth rather than flying off.

But there's another law. The engineers call it the law of aerodynamics. And you can take a great airplane like one I was on yesterday, and that thing begins to rev up those engines, and it begins to roar and to suck in air through those great engines and squirt that air out the back, and that thing begins to rumble and roar and vibrate, and then suddenly it's aloft. It's flying 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 feet, 300, 400, 500 miles an hour going through the air. There is a greater power than the power of gravity.

It's the law of aerodynamics. Now, we are sinners. Sinners by birth, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, and there's that downward pull that the Bible calls the law of sin and death. But hallelujah. Hallelujah.

I say hallelujah because of that empty tomb, and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. So there is the guilt that we exhibit, but there is the grace that we experience. But now watch. Pay attention. The third thing, there are the groans that we endure.

Continue to read. Look, if you will, in verse 18 of this same chapter here, and he says this, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature, and for the word creature, you may write in your margin creation because that's what it literally means. For the earnest expectation of the creation, he's talking about all nature, waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity. That means it is not living up to its original intention, not willingly, but by reason of him, that is God, who has subjected the same, that is the creation, in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know.

Now listen, here's the key. If you don't understand this, you're gonna stumble in your Christian walk. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Now what does he mean by that? The whole creation groans. That means pain and pang and moan and groan and crying and dying and sighing. Look at nature, bloody tooth, sharp fang, claws, decay, corruption. Everything that you see is dying and crying and sighing. The foul breath of decay, the annoying tooth of corruption, it's on everything, everything, and it's on you.

It's in creation. Now what Darwin called the survival of the fittest is really the bondage of corruption. But there's a better time coming.

There's a better time coming. All of creation is standing on tiptoes waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. And God, when Adam sinned, God said the worst thing that could happen to a sinful creature would be to live in paradise. So God took Adam out of paradise. And God put Adam in a world that has the curse of sin upon it, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.

You're going to earn your bread by the sweat of your face. Why? Because I want you to know there's something deadly wrong in this world. And all of the pain and all of the sorrow that we see in creation, that's the fever of the infection which is sin. Aren't you glad that God gives you fever when you have an infection? You see, if you didn't have a fever, you wouldn't know you had an infection, would you?

So the fever is the symptom of the deeper problem. And so there's the groaning of creation. Look around at the world today. God didn't make the world this way.

God made the world perfect. There's a world that is marred and scarred and all of creation is groaning. Listen even to the wind as it goes through the trees.

It's in a minor key. Everything is groaning and sighing and dying. There's the groaning of creation.

Now watch this very carefully. There's also the groaning of the Christian. Notice in verse 23, this is talking about you. And not only they, what, the creatures, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of the body. Folks, your body is not yet redeemed. Your spirit is redeemed, but your body is not yet redeemed.

You are waiting for the promise of Easter. Therefore, you live in a body that has the curse of sin in it. And because you live in a body that has the curse of sin in it, I hate to tell you this, but I need to tell you this. You are not immune to suffering. Now you want me to tell you why we have so much suffering in the world today. I'm talking about those of us who are saved. Well, number one, we live in a creation that has a curse upon it.

It's just here. That's the way nature is, and that's where we live. And also, not only do we live in a world that has the curse of sin on it, we live with other sinners. There are other people in this world, and there are other people who would harm us. There are other people who make choices, and we suffer because not only do we live in a world that has the curse of sin upon it, but we live in a world with other sinners.

And then I'm going to tell you something else. We live in bodies that have the curse of sin upon men. Your body is not yet redeemed. You are a son, a daughter of Adam, and you were born out of a polluted gene pool. I'm telling you, folks, you have a polluted gene pool, and so sooner or later, you're going to get sick. Sooner or later, it's going to get you. Sooner or later, the doctor's going to thump on your chest at $50 a thump and say, you've got a problem.

Now, I'm telling you this. Sooner or later, just sooner or later, it's coming. It's the bad news that makes the good news good. Now, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message, but maybe today, you have a prayer request you'd like to share with us. You're suffering.

You're going through some kind of struggle. At Love Worth Finding, one of our great honors is to come alongside you and pray with you and for you. If you can, go to our website, lwf.org slash radio, and scroll down to find our prayer wall. There, you'll find the option to either submit a prayer request or pray for others or do both. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs.

Let us hear from you today. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD.

Mention the title, Turning Hurts into Hallelujahs. This message is also part of the insightful series, Foundations for Our Faith, volume two. For that complete collection, all 27 powerful messages, call 877-LOVEGOD or go online to order at lwf.org slash radio.

Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thank you so much for studying with us in God's Word today. If you'd like to start receiving daily devotions and links to this program, sign up for our daily heartbeat emails at lwf.org slash radio.

And don't miss part two of Turning Hurts into Hallelujahs tomorrow right here on Love Worth Finding. We received an email from a listener that was so encouraging. I want to share it with you.

She said, I'm thankful to the Lord for Adrian Rogers. I've been blessed above and beyond measure from his ministry. He's been used by God in a mighty way for my growth in Christ.

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