We should thank God for common suffering. because it's a reminder to us that there's a problem in the world. God put man on notice. And so when you see hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes and wildfires and heart attacks and cancer and all these things, believers and unbelievers alike experience what we call common suffering.
Now this was never a part of God's original design. This came into the world, the biblical explanation, because of sin. Welcome to Search the Scriptures. The Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Carl Broge.
Senior pastor of Community Bible Church. In Beaufort, South Carolina. Today's sermon is entitled, Beyond the present pain from the book of Romans, chapter 8. Verses seventeen through twenty five. We will see today.
that Paul reminds us while suffering is a part of life. It is only temporary compared to the eternal inheritance that we have in Christ. Suffering can take different forms. These are common struggles that everyone faces. The painful consequences of living in the flesh and the trials believers endure for their faith.
Yet all creation waits in hope for God's ultimate restoration. where every form of suffering will be redeemed. Let's join Pastor Carl now. As he begins. I want to invite you this morning to take a Bible, turn to Romans the 8th chapter, Romans chapter 8.
We have been in a series on our identity in Jesus Christ, as we've explored in great depth, Romans 5 through 8. And when you come to the eighth chapter, it focuses on the person and work of God the Holy Spirit. And what a contrast we've seen between the seventh chapter and the eighth chapter. In chapter seven, his focus is on the law. In chapter eight, his preoccupation is with the Holy Spirit.
And up until the eighth chapter, the Spirit of God has scarcely been mentioned. He has been mentioned once in chapter five, where it speaks of the love of the Spirit being poured out in our hearts. And then in the seventh chapter, He has told us that we don't Any longer need to serve in oldness of letter, but as born-again people, we can serve in newness of the spirit. But you step in the eighth chapter, and you're immediately struck by Paul's preoccupation with God the Spirit. In fact, 19 times in the span of 27 verses, he's mentioned.
In chapter 7, if you remember, he recorded that intense struggle. That we all know as believers. And he wrote about it.
So that we could learn from his life in Romans 7.15, he said, For what I am doing I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do. I'm doing the very thing I hate. Have you ever felt that? Struggle within. There's a part of you because you've had the birth from above, you want to please Almighty God.
But then there's a part of you that struggles in terms of carrying it out. He'll say in that same chapter, for the good I want, I do not do, I do the very evil I don't want to do. And so in the eighth chapter, he moves from his struggle and he gives us encouragement. He gives us how, by the Spirit's help, we can find victory as Christians. And so today, he's going to continue to teach us how the Spirit of God helps us, how he comforts us, how he encourages us, especially in the realm of suffering.
You can see the title of this morning's message is Beyond the Present Pain. Because this passage of scripture addresses that there's more to this life than just pain. There's a future day that's coming when everything will change. I thought about calling this portion of scripture the agony and the ecstasy. or maybe giving it the title The Groan in the Glory.
Because Paul wants us to realize that there is real present suffering and trials, but it doesn't even begin to compare with the future glory that we have.
Now, if you remember last time from verse 17, we learned that if we're children of God, then we're heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, then he adds in the second half of that verse, we only got halfway through verse 17 last time.
So in the second half of 17, he says, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
Now many Christians view suffering as negative. They view it as an uninvited guest, and their basic attitude is good riddens. I'm glad when you're gone. But God wants to use suffering in our life. We will suffer in this world.
I remember when we were in seminary, it just seems like we had trial after trial after trial that came upon us. It just seemed like it would never let up. It did, of course. But physical challenges with a new baby who had a tumor in his leg, and my wife with a thyroid tumor, just one thing after another, on and on and on. I remember reading A.W.
Tozer, who some 60 years ago said, It is doubtful that God can use anyone. whom he does not hurt. deeply. And so sometimes God uses suffering not in the way we would envision. but in the way that he envisions.
And so if you're struggling in some kind of a trial this morning, know it's part of life, whether you're a Christian or not. Everyone here this morning maybe in some sense is either suffering or you're getting ready to suffer. or you've just come out of a period of suffering. And so, how are we going to deal with it?
Well, Paul's going to help us. I want to begin by reading our passage. To give us a running start, we're going to begin this morning in verse 16. If you don't have a Bible and you'd like one, come, if you will, to meet the pastor a week from today, and you'll be gifted a Bible. The Bible is the only book God wrote, it's the only book, the only book.
that has fulfilled prophecy, where God hundreds of years in advance foretells the future. And he does that because only God knows the future. No other book can claim that. Follow along, verse 16. The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit.
That we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it.
Now, if you remember the context of the passage, he's been dealing with our birthrights. What are Birthrights that you have by virtue of the fact that you've been saved by grace. And the very first birthright we studied is that once you're saved, you are eternally secure and guaranteed a place in heaven.
So the chapter opens in verse 1: therefore, there is now, now, right now. forever. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I often get asked, and someone just asked me last week, is it possible to be saved more than once? And the answer, of course, is no.
Just as there's only one physical birth, There was only one spiritual birth. But people sometimes do theology by experience and they say, I got saved when I was 15. And then I went off and lived like the devil for the next two decades, and now I've been saved again, and my life has really changed. That just means you weren't saved the first time. You're only saved once.
And once God saves you, He saves you forever. Just as you only have one physical birthday, you have only one spiritual birthday. The second birthmark we unfolded was in verses 2 through 5: that our human spirits that are dead were described in the Bible as being physically alive, but spiritually dead. God warned Adam, and the day you eat from the tree, you will immediately die. And he died on the inside on that day, spiritually, began to die on the outside physically.
So we're born dying, we're aging, and if the problem is not solved, you'll die eternally. But the Spirit comes and inhabits our human spirit. And as verse 14 indicates, he can lead us. Then the third birthright that we studied was in verse 15, and that is that we've been legally adopted. And so we saw not only are we born into God's family through a spiritual birth, we're adopted into God's family.
And we examined why both of those truths are important. And so the reality of our adoption is made real by the fact that verse 16 says, the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God.
Now after reading all those magnificent blessings, someone might think, well, we're not going to experience any real difficulties. And if you listen to some of the pastors on television and on the internet, you might think that. They would say, well, if you're living right, you're just going to be blessed. and there'll be no heartache or trouble. It's called prosperity theology.
But it's not true. And so Paul gives us a biblical theology on suffering. Remember, everything you believe is based on something. Either read it in some religious book, or you made it up, or a friend told you, but just believing it doesn't make it true. And so if the only book God wrote is the Bible, And I could prove that to you if I had two hours, and I have a booklet, if anyone wants it, how to prove the Bible is true.
You get it when you come to meet the pastor. We have an authority in this book, and he's going to give us four principles for suffering. And if you're using a note-taking outline, there's one there in your bulletin. The very first principle is the actuality of suffering, the actuality of suffering. That's where I want us to begin our thoughts.
Notice again back in verse 16, the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we're children of God. I hope that's your testimony today. When you're born again, you can know you're saved not only on a finished, complete work where Jesus suffered and bled not for some of your sin, but 100%. As affirmed by his resurrection, and so the calendars of the world are dated because of a historical fact. Where Jesus was announced Lord by the resurrection.
And because of that, we are recipients of the new covenant that the Old Testament wrote about. Where the Spirit could come and live inside of us. And if we're children, if you have that testimony, so you can know you're saved in the finished work, and you can know you're saved experientially, that the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you and He starts changing you. There's a new awareness. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may be glorified with Him.
So we studied last time that we are heirs of God. Share and share alike. What Christ inherits, we too will share with Him. If indeed we suffer with him, he suddenly adds, so that we may be glorified with him.
Now, in English, the word if typically suggests possibility. If this happens, then so-and-so will happen. But in common Koine Greek of the New Testament, there are four conditional statements. And this is what we call, linguists call, a first-class conditional statement. And it is used as a rhetorical device to underscore an absolute truth.
When Satan said, if you are the Son of God, he wasn't questioning his deity. If you are the Son of God, turn these rocks. Into bread. He knew he was the Son of God. No one could be.
Tempted with such a thing, unless indeed he were God. Paul said, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, again, a first-class conditional statement. It's true, it's assumed to be true. True for the sake of the argument. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep, those who have died.
Why do they use this? Why don't they just say, since this is true? Because again, it's like a rhetorical question. It's used to get your attention. We used to say, as kids, if you wanted to make a statement, well, is the Pope Catholic?
And of course, the rhetorical answer would be yes.
Now, it's not true anymore, but still, nonetheless. And so if I believe Jesus died and rose again, so you have to step back and say, yeah, I do believe that. If I believe that, then this is true.
So it causes you to pause and to think. That's the purpose. He's not lecturing you. He's dialoguing with you to get you to think.
So if indeed we suffer with him, and of course we do on some level, because all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, then we are going to experience this future glory that he speaks of.
So he's pounding the pulpit. He's underscoring a truth. And so for those who dismiss suffering in the Christian life, they have certainly misrepresented the living God. James will say, consider it all joy, brethren, not if, but when you encounter various trials. You're going to suffer.
And that's the truth that's underscored here in verse 17. If indeed we suffer, meaning we do indeed suffer.
So we studied last time how God the Father adopts us. The Holy Spirit indwells us, but it is God the Son who crowns us because He has made us princes. He has made us fellow heirs. And we'll be looking further into that on the next few Wednesday nights. And so Jesus made this promise to the church in Revelation 3.21.
He who overcomes, and by the way, that's the testimony of Scripture. If you've met the living God, you overcome. You don't renounce Christ, you don't live for a period of time and then renounce him. No, if they were of us, they would have remained with us, but the fact that they went out from us indicates that they were never really of us. That is, if you have salvation, you can't lose salvation.
If you lost salvation, quote unquote, you never had it to begin with. He who overcomes, and in the context he's underscoring, that's the testimony of a true believer, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne. as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. That's an incredible statement. Christ is inviting his church to reign with him in glory.
Now, if that doesn't excite you, your exciter must be broken this morning. I mean, that is a magnificent truth. The assumption in verse 17 is that if you really walk with God, though, you're going to suffer. But God in His grace has something way out there in the future. that is so magnificent.
And so he wants us to understand the actuality of suffering. That's the first point. Secondly, in verse 18, he spells out for us the axiom of suffering, the axiom of suffering. You know what an axiom is? It's a universally accepted truth.
Well, this is a scriptural axiom. That runs all the way through the Bible. And as you study the Bible, you learn in both the first half, the Old Covenant or the Old Testament, and the second half, the New Testament, that God's people suffer. And there is still suffering that you and I will know before this life is over.
So he says in verse 18: for I consider that the sufferings of this Present time. Again, he's emphasizing that this happens here and now. There's some moans and some groans and some sorrows. And some disappointments you're going to face in life. In fact, this word groan that expresses suffering is used in three ways in this chapter of Scripture.
I have them underlined. In verse 22, which we'll examine this morning, we're going to discover that creation groans. When we come to verse 23, we're going to learn that we groan within ourselves. And then next time, God willing, when we come to verse 26, we'll see how the Spirit groans. A misunderstood, misapplied verse, but an important verse.
But for right now, he's going to underscore the groaning of the creation, and he's going to use that to teach us some important lessons. Again, in verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. With the glory that is to be revealed within us. He's simply reminding us that there's no comparison. Between our present heartache and what God has for us in the future.
Now that's a remarkable statement, especially in light of what the Apostle Paul went through in his life. Hold your finger here, if you would. You're in Romans, turn to the right and go to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 for a moment, 2 Corinthians 11. I've taught in our series on Acts how you can remember when Paul wrote what book. And it's simply 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1.
And on the first missionary journey, he wrote Galatians. The second missionary journey, he wrote 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. And on the third missionary journey, he wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians in Romans, actually in that order, though ordered differently in our New Testaments. And so here in Second Corinthians chapter 11, Paul, if you remember, is dealing with these false teachers, These false apostles who'd come into the church, who said Paul was a Johnny come lately, not a real leader, that they were people that should be listened to and followed. And so let's pick up his remarks in verse 23 of chapter 11.
Are they servants of Christ, these false teachers? I speak as if insane. I'm more so. In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've stand in the deep.
I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I've been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is a daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
Now some those are some of the things that Paul experienced. for loving Jesus, for following Jesus. He knew persecution. He knew the kind of suffering that comes by virtue of living in a fallen world. And he knew, of course, three kinds of suffering that are delineated in Scripture.
There's what we call common suffering, and that's just by virtue of the fact that you live in a fallen world. There is carnal suffering, and carnal suffering is what we might call sinful suffering that people experience as believers, either because of someone else's sin or their own sin. And then what we would call Christian suffering or persecution. And he underscores all of them in that list. Like there's common suffering in verse 26.
He says that he experienced dangers in the wilderness. Dangers on the sea. In verse 27, he speaks of hunger and thirst, cold and exposure. That's what we call common suffering. And we should thank God for common suffering.
because it's a reminder to us that there's a problem in the world. God put man on notice. And so when you see hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes and wildfires and heart attacks and cancer and all these things, believers and unbelievers alike experience what we call common suffering.
Now this was never a part of God's original design. This came into the world, the biblical explanation, because of sin. And it's pictured for us what it originally was like in Genesis 1 and 2. And in the future, God reminds us of what it's going to be like in Revelation 21. Let me read it to you.
Revelation 21, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. If you were here last Wednesday, we highlighted the truth that this current planet that we're on. is going to be destroyed. God is going to melt it into oblivion. The current heavens and earth will be gone.
And then God, in a moment's time, will create a new heavens and a new earth. And the holy city, we call that heaven, the Father's house, the new Jerusalem, a number of names given in Scripture, Paradise. And when Paradise comes down, it will literally sit on a new earth.
So that's the context of what he's arguing. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down of heaven from God, made as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. And he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people. And God himself will be among them.
And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away.
So contrary to what Joel Olstein teaches, that this is your best life now. And I suppose it is if you're an unbeliever. If you're a false teacher, this is your best life. Because what's out there in the future, if you die lost, is eternally awful. But Scripture teaches our best life is out there in the future.
We've not even begun to see it yet. And in just a moment, when we come to Romans 8 and verse 20, he'll remind us that if you live in this world, you are going to suffer. And everyone in this room, Knows some level of suffering. Maybe you have a child and they're going through an earache this morning. You're live streaming.
By the way, the live stream. or for people who can come. Not for people who won't come. We have people who live stream, and we're grateful for this ministry, and many who. They go to church in another church, and that's where they should be.
You're not to forsake your assembling together. The live stream is no substitute for someone who is able to come. And if you're live streaming all the time, when you're able to come, just say, I'm in disobedience. Because that's what the scripture says. You're forsaking the assembly.
And that's why we have two services, so that no one has to work both services. Everyone can come and worship with the saints. And you ignore that long enough, you're going to suffer. It's not even close to being what it was like. But it's also the live stream for those who need vitamin supplements.
I always say, find the best church. The best church might not be the nearest church, but you find the best church you can. And if the best church is weak, there's many things that are accessible to you today to grow. But here's my point. Everyone is experiencing some kind of suffering.
Some lady is home with a sick child with an earache. Maybe you're here and you're elderly and you're suffering from arthritis. This is what we call common suffering. But not only is there common suffering, there's what we call carnal suffering. And again, this is due to our sin or someone else's.
1 Peter 4, he says this. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer. Or thief. or evildoer. or a troublesome meddler.
It's possible for a true believer in a fit of rage. to commit murder. Let him who thinks he stands be careful lest he fall. It's possible. This is what we call carnal suffering.
It's not common. But there are believers in prison. Who have paid an incredible price for their disobedience? He says, you can suffer as a thief. One of my first assignments, the first month I was here in 1990, is a lady came in to me telling me that she's been stealing money from the bank.
She was a thief. I said, well, you know, we're going to report this. There's no pastoral confidence here. Number one, you need to return what's been stolen. Number two, you're going to get caught.
It's not a matter of if, it's when. But she paid a price for it. A faith. Christians is stolen. And it's a terrible thing.
He adds in addition, evil doer. How many people have gone down the tubes because of evil that they've committed? Maybe evil with their bodies. They have violated some woman. They've broken their marriage vows.
Then he adds, make sure that none of you suffers as a troublesome meddler. It's a very interesting word. It's used only once in all the New Testament. And it's a challenging word to To translate, it's actually two words in our English text. It's one word in the English text.
In the Greek text, allotri Episkopos. You know the word episkopos. We get our word episcopalian. And in some older translations, it's translated beneath. Bishop.
And so he takes this word whose root meaning is bishop, and he's using it to describe someone who basically oversees someone else's business of which they have no right.
So, I like the King James here because it describes this person as a busybody. And that's sadly what some Christians are.
Now the suffering Can come through different ways, sometimes through the hand of the government, sometimes carnal suffering. Comes through someone else's sin, and you experience the consequence. Your husband's a drunk. is lost. He lives the life of an alcoholic, which is not a disease, it's a sin.
If it were a disease, you wouldn't be responsible for it. and you and your children have to deal with the fallout from it.
Sometimes a person Does something, they get behind the wheel of a car and they hurt themselves, or they hurt someone else. That's all carnal suffering.
Someone breaks their marriage vows and they devastate a wife's or a husband's heart. That's carnal suffering. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures. At 877. seven eight seven Mm-hmm.
and requesting program Our Identity in Christ 018. Don't forget tomorrow that Pastor Carl's wife Audrey is in this time slot with her program for women. Mothering from the heart. You can hear more of Arjery's messages on the Search of Scriptures app. found in the iTunes and Google Play Store.
Also, Check out Audrey's podcast, Rare But Real. on Apple Google, and Spotify podcast platforms. You can also listen to her podcast at searchthescriptures.org. We hope that you will join us next week. as we continue to search the scriptures.
