Why Does A Loving God Allow Suffering?

This is a true story. A dad who is a theist but not a Christian wrote a letter to his Christian son asking this question. He said, if God created this world and he cares about it, why is there so much suffering in it? I thought about this when I read about this lunatic down here in Florida who was released from jail after some seven or eight years of raping a teenage girl and then leaving her for dead. Why did your God allow this to happen at all? It would appear that you’re loving, protecting God for God, all about her. The point in this world doesn’t look, the point is in this world, it doesn’t look at all like the kind of world we’d have if there was an all-powerful, all-loving God behind it. Lots of love, Dad.

So this question has been asked over and over again, perhaps even this morning, by someone. With different characters, different names in the story, different circumstances surrounding us. Some of us have suffered loss to a level in our own life. We can’t forget about it. We try, but we can’t. We’ve had counseling, we’ve people have prayed over us. We’ve heard more than a dozen sermons on the subject, but we just can’t seem to turn loose of it. And the real point that just sort of keeps us there, anchors us there is we don’t understand why God let this thing happen. Was God involved in it? Did he allow it for a spiritual purpose? We’re taught that a lot. It’s the no it’s number one way that people look at God. Most theologians look at God, a controlling God, one who is in every detail of life, so nothing happens without his permission. So that means he’s somehow complicit in what is happening. And that is honestly the common way that many people Christians think about God.

I beg to differ. I have a comp I don’t know that it’s a completely different view, but I have a real differing view of God, his nature, and all the suffering and what’s happening. And we can’t go into all the detail of that today, but I can touch on a few things I think that might turn you to study and to have some good foundation in your study. Is that okay with you? I don’t, I just don’t know people that know Jesus, how they can say things about Jesus that they say, that really know God that they can accuse him of doing some of the things that they accuse him of. It’s very hard on me. Now, God doesn’t need me to stand on a platform today and defend him, but I like doing it. That’s right. And if he doesn’t want me to do it, you know, we’ll have a talk about it. And I’ll obey him, I will. But there’s just too much said about God that paints a really poor picture of God.

And yet, if we just stay in the word and we stop trying to interpret circumstance and we stop trying to, you know, help people with you know from an emotional place instead of from a biblical place, a scriptural place. Well, God is, you know, God has a purpose in this. You know, and we try and we end up, even preachers, we end up making stuff up to help someone, but in the long term, it really doesn’t help them again because it skews the character and nature of God Himself. Jesus went about doing good. My Bible teaches me. He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, and people who came to him for help got it. He didn’t turn to one leper when a leper came to him and said, I need help. He didn’t turn to the leper, about to lay hands on the leopard, pause and say, You know what? We can’t do this because God might be trying to teach you something through this leprosy. He never hesitated. Faith put a demand on the virtue on the inside of him that brought the goodness of God into the lives of people who ask for help from him. He hasn’t changed.

You know, we waste our time. It’s almost like people who don’t know God, who are depending on like the stars to guide them in life. They spend so much time, you know, with astrology and studying the stars and trying to figure out how does that apply to someone’s future. Christians do the same thing, not maybe with the stars, but with their circumstances. You spend too much time trying to figure out what’s happening in your circumstances. When James, Pastor James said, you can go directly to God, and if you lack wisdom, that is you don’t know or you don’t know what to do, he will give it to you. Satan wants you to waste time. And he wants you in your circumstances trying to figure it out to come to the wrong conclusions about who God is and how God operates. And you need to throw up the shield of faith and say, That’s enough. I shall not want. Surely, not surely, but surely. Goodness and mercy shall follow me. Come on, say it out loud. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Six verses in Psalm 23 that’ll change your life. And give you a really good picture of who Jesus is in nature. Amen.

So I’m gonna, I’m just gonna lay out for you again. I’m swiftly going to do this. You never do it swiftly. Well, I’m gonna do it swiftly today. Okay. But I and it’s probably too much for you to write down. But I want to mention to you, I’ve studied this for many years, five categories of suffering. They’re not all the same, they don’t all have the same source, and each one requires a faith response in order to handle it the way we should handle it. Can I say that again? Five categories of suffering. They’re not all the same, they don’t all have the same source, so to speak. They show up different in your life from different places, and each one has a proper faith response that we should exercise when we’re faced with them.

Suffering that we experience from living in a fallen world

So the first is just simply this suffering that we experience from living in a fallen world are simply put natural suffering. Say it natural suffering. And suffering, you know, didn’t enter into the world until Adam and Eve made a really bad choice and a bad decision in the garden. They didn’t have suffering, their world was really different than the one we’re living in today. But what they did resulted in the world that we’re living in today, and the suffering we’re having to handle and manage and try to, you know, deal, deal with. And remember that, because it’s important to know that Adam and Eve were given authority in the earth. And God chose them to be managers, his co-representation in the earth, managers in the earth, and to again exercise what God had given them in the way of power and authority and knowledge and wisdom.

God’s will was that the earth would be filled with his glory. Instead of God filled with Satan’s glory. Just take time sometime to read Psalms 115, 16, especially from the amplified. It says, The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he is given to the children of men. So there was no suffering in the earth until Adam and Eve disobeyed God and relinquished their responsibilities to steward the earth. That’s when suffering came in. It came in on the wings of that sin. Alright, in that sense, all suffering has one source. But you’ll see as we study these that what I mean when I say they have a different source or coming from a different place. Number one, suffering that we experience from living in a fallen world or natural suffering.

For against its will, the universe itself has had to endure the empty futility resulting from the consequence of human sin. But now, with eager expectation, all creation longs for freedom from its slavery to God’s children.

To this day we are aware of the universal agony and groaning of creation, as if it were in the contractions of labor or childbirth.

God didn’t design the world to include suffering, but creation was subjected to futility. We live in a broken world, not because God wills it that way forever, but because of sin’s cosmic effect. The death that was released because of Adam and Eve’s sin found its way into our natural world. Much of what we see in the way of earthquakes and floods and trauma, especially major trauma in our earth today, is not the judgment of God. I’ll show you why if we have time. But it is the earth groaning. We live just in a broken world. That’s just the way it is. All right. How do we respond to that? Well, number one, accept that. That’s the way it is. We’re going to have to respond to it in faith, believing that even in the midst of it, God will keep his covenant to us as children of God, because we have a covenant with God. That God will take care of us, that God will cover our families, etc. Amen.

Suffering from personal sin or just self-inflicted suffering

Number two, suffering from personal sin or just self-inflicted suffering. We’re going to have to, again, remember that we have responsibility for our choices. We can’t continue to blame other people or blame God or even blame the devil for everything. A lot of what you and I would say, the majority of what you and I experience in the way of suffering is the result of our own dumb choices. And if you’ll accept that, you have to, because it’s your will, it’s not my will. You know, it’s your will. God knows that. And God protects your right even to this day to go to hell if you want to. He doesn’t want you to go there. He paid a great price for you not to go there. He wants relationship with you for all eternity. But you can still say no to what Jesus did on the cross, and God will protect your right to do it.

But let me tell you this if you say no to the devil and no to yourself in that situation, surrender to the will of God, God will protect your right to do it. And no demon horde can stop you from doing it. All of hell can’t keep you from doing the right thing. If you choose Jesus, Jesus steps right into your life. He changes your very nature. He says no to Satan. Take your hands off. He says yes to you and yes to eternal life. Nobody can stop that. Your mom can’t, your daddy can’t. Your brothers, your sisters, your boss at work. Go ahead. Let him threaten to take your job away from you if you say yes to Jesus. Jesus will take you to higher places. He’ll give you a better boss than that. God’s got better bosses. Can I have an amen?

Suffering from the sins of others, victim based suffering

Number three suffering from the sins of others, victim based suffering. And natural suffering. We have self-inflicted suffering, and we have victim-based suffering. The source of this suffering is the result of other people’s choices and their sin. A lot of abuse, betrayal, violence, oppression, a lot of what we’re watching on television, hatred, injustice, all of that. And it affects you because we are one big world community in one way or another. And God, by his design, it was a good design, not a bad design. He didn’t need, he wouldn’t need to change it. He wouldn’t change. If he had to do it over again, he wouldn’t change it. Okay? Because God made everything in us to appropriately touch something else. Every bone in your body is made to be an appropriate relationship with the next one.

You know, I found that when I got my knee replaced, I thought, wow, this is wonderful. Well, I gained an inch in this leg. Hang on, you think I’m old, I’m getting leaner and stronger and taller. I’m getting taller. Listen to me, young people. Not all old people shrink. Some of us are getting taller. But it created issues in my hip, in my hips until I have this one done later this year. So I, you know, I realized, oh my gosh, you know, everything really truly is connected. Right? And so we have to know that that’s a good design. God made it that way. It’s he meant us to have community. But he also meant for us not to suffer in community. We have to accept that we will because we don’t control everybody’s choices. You know what? Let me tell you this. God doesn’t control your choices. And I’m going to tell you again why. Because the real question behind these, these the suffering that we’re talking about has to do with why God permits it. So we’ll touch on that as we finish. Okay. But again, people make choices.

Evil originates from inside a person, coming out of a human heart or evil schemes, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, jealousy, slander, arrogance, and recklessness. All these corrupt things emerge from within and constantly pollute a person.

Of course, God never endorses this kind of suffering. It’s unjust. And by the way, God’s going to make everything right one day. Now that needs to bring hope for you. Say, well, what about right now? God’s taking care of things. If we will trust him, he will take care of things concerning our life. Alright? You would have thought that if God was just going to step in and exercise his will and stop things, he would have stopped Adam and Eve from what they did. He wouldn’t have just shut up the serpent. The Satan who took control of the vocal cords of that serpent to lie and deceive. He would have just stopped sin. If God were going to, if God were going to stop, just overrule everybody’s will today, he would make everybody get saved. There would not be anybody going to hell if they reject him. There would be no such thing. Because God’s will is clear in the scripture. It says He doesn’t will that any man perish. Any man. You might want to send somebody to hell, but God doesn’t want to send them there. You might say, go to hell, but God never says go to hell. God opens his mouth through himself or through you. He’s telling people about his son Jesus. And how they can escape a horrible eternity that awaits them if they say no. But again, we can’t control other people.

Suffering for righteousness’ sake

Number four, they’re suffering for righteousness’ sake. It’s redemptive or persecutory suffering. We’re taught in the scripture that when we live godly in Christ Jesus, that we will suffer persecution.

For all who choose to live passionately and faithfully as worshippers of Jesus, the anointed one will also experience persecution.

Our response to this, the Bible tells us our response to this should be leaping for joy. Really, Pastor? Yeah. Yeah, that’s one of the things I am praying is that I’ll have my ability restored to leap. If it takes new knees, I’m going there. Amen. Leap for joy. Get excited. I see some of you in worship. You’re all over the map. Dear Lord Jesus, I saw I think Noah jump off this platform one day. Jump off of it. And when he landed, he landed upright. If I tried something like that. No, never mind, we won’t go there. I mean, I yeah, ambulance. That’s not a good confession, Pastor. Okay, let’s just leave it alone then.

But when we live right, when we shine the light, when we bring God’s life into a dark place, it’s not always welcome there. Satan is at work in this dark earth in this broken world. But so is God by His Spirit in you and in me. And God really is counting on us. When we’re struck on the cheek to turn the cheek. When we’re abused and made to go the extra mile, we go it and we go it more than what we’re asked to do. We do more than we’re expected to do. We don’t meet evil with evil. We meet evil with good. We overcome evil with the goodness of the Almighty God. Amen.

Suffering that accompanies God’s judgment

The last one is suffering that accompanies God’s judgment. Now listen to me on this one. Because God has throughout history made judgments that were accompanied by his wrath. It shows that God does not tolerate unchecked behavior forever. The result, biblically, it was also great suffering and sometimes complete devastation. Two examples the flood in Noah’s day, and then also Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis. And he hates sin and does not tolerate it. And he, as judge, will have final word in the events and activities of men and men themselves. But we need to know that every devastating natural event in the earth, for example, is not the judgment of God.

I shake my head at this again. I shake my head at some theologians when I hear them talk or I read their material, it’s like they don’t really, they don’t really study. It’s like they have a point of view and they go to the Bible to prove their point of view. Instead of, listen to me, Bible students, in this house. That’s not how you study. You don’t come up with an idea that God is for or against something, and then go to the Bible and pick a bunch of scriptures out to prove your point. That’s dishonest. It’s really an abuse, not only of the scripture, but you’re using God’s name in vain because you’re saying God said something when he didn’t really say it.

The way we study the scripture is to go and bathe ourselves in the scripture. It begins by humbling yourself, emptying out yourself, surrendering what’s in your mind, your preconceived thoughts and your preconceived ideas, and say, God, I just want to know the truth, and I know you’re the one speaking the truth. This is the only truth we have in the universe today, right now. So, God, I’m going to you, and the Holy Spirit is my helper in this to hear your voice. Become a lover of God’s voice if you’re not already. And then, as Jesus said, you continue in the word, you’ll know the truth, and the truth will liberate you and lead you into real freedom. Amen. You go to God’s word and you let that, you let what he’s saying form your opinion. It’s not the reverse. You don’t come up with something, ask God to bless it. You go to the word, the blessing’s already on it, and you let that form the opinions that you have about yourself, about your relationships, about the world we’re living in, about life, about what you should do next, etc. Amen.

There’s a pattern concerning God’s wrath. Multiple warnings by God through angels or prophets, an anointed messenger for a time, to warn. Number two, a period to repent before judgment falls. God was generous, He really was working to save the world before the flood came. But people wouldn’t repent. The same with Sodom and Gomorrah. People wouldn’t repent. And so the third thing we look for in God’s pattern of judgment is then the supernatural. Say it out loud, supernatural. Not just not natural. It’s in a natural world, but it source is supernatural. The supernatural demonstration of God’s power in his wrath. His wrath always accompanied his judgment.

Now, here’s what I want to say to you before we close is that I believe this that God has dealt with the earth, nations and people, his own people, with times of judgment. I believe that we are in, it began on the day of Pentecost and the birthing of the church. We are in a dispensation of mercy and grace. Now we can disagree on this and still both go to heaven, but hear me out. Okay. That grace period will end when the church is raptured. All right. Now you say, well, there is judgment. Well, there is. Jesus said this. I didn’t come. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, I didn’t come to judge you. I didn’t come to condemn you, but there is one that does judge you. He said, It’s the word that’s been spoken. So God’s word is judging the world right now. The correct speaking of it, the correct understanding of it, the correct declaration of it, that the correct revelation of it is going out into all the earth, and men are being judged by it now in this age.

And then God will take the pause thumb off the pause button, and he will begin, he’ll turn his attention again to Israel. He has some things to finish with Israel that he has not yet finished. He will again turn to judge the nations. There are goat nations, there are sheep nations. The book of Revelation talks about that. And then there is the final great white throne of judgment that the Bible speaks of also in the book of Revelation. You say, Well, Pastor, we’re not, we’re not feeling the wrath of God. No, as a believer, your sins have already been judged. Now get this. You’re not Israel. That’s right. You you’re not just another nation on the planet. You are the nation called the church. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians calls you the church a nation. But your sins as a nation have already been judged in Christ Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Romans the fifth chapter tells Christians, only Christians, that they are saved from the wrath of God to come. Judgment, suffering by God’s judgment. Alright.

Why does God allow or permit it?

So now let’s let’s finish. You ready? I’ve got two minutes God allow or permit it? It’s been called for ages the permissive will of God. It’s embraced again by the majority of believers that God has this permissive will. But again, I think it’s it’s not explained well. It’s not, I think, I think people have gotten lazy in their study concerning issues like this. They just say, well, God is sovereign. Again, God is all-powerful, he is sovereign, which means again, he controls everything. So whatever he permits is for a purpose. That is a true statement, but again, it is misunderstood. Here’s if we say God permits something for a purpose, here’s the purpose. He didn’t tear down your business to then come and be your savior and help you rebuild it. He didn’t make you sick just now, just to become your healer or to help you. In other words, God doesn’t dig a ditch just to fill it. Politicians do. But God doesn’t do that. He doesn’t come along and hurt you just then to help you.

God’s permissive will was an essential piece of having and enjoying relationship with man on the highest level. It was an essential piece of having and enjoying a relationship with man on the highest level. That level, God creating us in his image and his likeness, that level of relationship required free will. And listen, if God is going to give free will to people, he has to allow for the possibility of them misusing that freedom. Even if it means hurting themselves, hurting others, personal pain, or bringing, again, ruining some somebody else’s life. God creates free people who can do as they please, not determined instruments who always end up doing as he pleases. Not a race of robots who can’t genuinely love. Freedom is a great responsibility with great consequence, both pleasant and painful. We may not like it, but we have to accept it.

Again, God had this goal in mind, and it might surprise you that God’s permissive will was in place before sin was in happened. Read Genesis 1 and look at verse 26 and verse 27 and verse 28. There was something, God used two words there that really just jump off the page to me every time I read it dominion and subdue. Dominion and subdue. There was already something at work in God’s earth that would need dominion exercised over it and would need to be subdued. I don’t know all of that, but we do know that the devil found his way into the garden. So even before Adam and Eve blew it and sinned, there was already evil in the earth.

Now everything God did was good. Hello. Everything God does today is still good. That’s his nature. God doesn’t just have a good day. Now and then. And let’s just hope for the best. That’s the day to ask for whatever we need. No. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. And he’s still doing good. What he does is good. But in order for him to have a love relationship with you on the highest level. Part of that was giving you the right to choose him or not. And I’m going to tell you this when you suffer, God suffers with you. Because it hurts him. But God knew that. God accepted that there was the possibility in making the decision to give men true free will. That it could come back to bite them and come back to bite him. But you know what? He wanted to love you more than just give in to that possibility. That was a hard decision for God. Don’t make any mistake about it. It was hard for God to do that. Which means he thought it through thoroughly. Right? I don’t know about you, but I’m glad I have free will. I hate the suffering that I cause, that other people are causing, that the devil, of course, causes in the midst of all this. I hate it. Because it was never God’s intent. But we have to accept that God gave us free will and learn how to respond.

Never blame God

Would you stand to your feet with me, please? Number one, never blame God. Say it out loud. Don’t blame God. Say it again. Don’t blame God. God’s not your problem. God is not my problem. He never targets you for suffering. Again, the Christian is saved from even the wrath of God to come sometime in the future. Your sins have already been judged in Christ. He doesn’t assign suffering to be the classroom that you learn important lessons in. I’m going to say it again. He doesn’t assign suffering to be the classroom that you learn important lessons in. Somebody says, Well, God had to, you know, put me flat on my back before I learn to pray. Well, that says more about you than him. Hard headed, hard-hearted. Here’s what I believe. The Holy Spirit’s always teaching us. I said the Holy Ghost is teaching us. Didn’t Jesus say He’s the teacher? That’s right. Let’s honor Him. He’s the teacher. The Holy Spirit is always teaching. Be careful what classroom you choose to learn the lessons in. Don’t blame God. Be responsible. Amen.

Run for cover

Number two, run for cover. The Bible says, Psalm 91. I can’t stop without reading this. Psalm 91, verse 1, and then verse 3.

When you sit enthroned under the shadow of Shaddai, you are hidden in the strength of God most high.

He will rescue you. Watch this from every, say it, every hidden trap of the enemy. And He will protect you from false accusation and any deadly curse.

You will never worry. Say it, never worry. You will never worry about an attack of demonic forces at night, nor have to fear a spirit of darkness coming against you.

Come on, church. No weapon formed against us will prosper. But you got to run for cover.

Make better choices

Number three, you’ve got to make better choices. Again, go to God for wisdom. He’s not going to make fun of you. He’ll never make you feel dumb. For your asking, He’s so glad to see you. I wish I could just, I’d spend an hour just telling you how glad God is to see you and interact with you. He loves your trust. He loves the sound of your voice. And so run to him. We can all do better when it comes to choices.

Sow relief

And the last one, I think, is a real important factor in helping us in a world filled with suffering. And that’s to sow relief. SOW. So relief from suffering into the lives of other people. When you find someone who’s hurting, they’re weeping, they’re broken. Find your way, if God wills, into their life. And so God’s help into their life. Not only will God use you to bring perhaps a miracle to them, but God will come back to you. Only good measure. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Will relief come to your life? Amen. Always, always, always be generous with your life. Did you learn anything this morning? Amen and amen.