If we live long enough on this Earth, we will know sorrow, disappointment, and pain in a personal way. Suffering is inevitable, and if we aren’t careful, it can consume us.

If we want to make sense of our suffering, there are three words to consider from Romans 8:18-23: bondage, liberty, and hope.

We must first consider the bondage of yesterday’s curse. Sin entered the perfect world God created because, in His love for us, God gave us free will to choose. Because mankind chose to sin, we are condemned according to the law of the Bible. God could not destroy evil without destroying freedom. Because there is evil, there is suffering. Though our suffering cannot be destroyed, God has defeated evil.

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Liberty is tomorrow’s conquest. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are liberated from the curse of sin. There is no more condemnation for our sin; and when Jesus comes again, He will restore everything. However, though we have been freed from the curse of sin, we can still feel the hurt of it.

Our hope is our comfort for today. Romans 8:18 says, “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.”

Adrian Rogers says, “The groans we endure are temporary, but the glory we expect is eternal.”

All of creation groans as a symptom that there is something wrong with this fallen world.

Christians groan, for we are not immune to suffering, and there is a lot of it in our world today. We live in a cursed world with other sinners, in bodies that have not yet been redeemed.

But there is comfort in knowing the Comforter groans, too. God sees our pain, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we hurt so badly we don’t know what to pray for.

Finally, we must remember that we’ve been prepared, predestined, and preserved for glory— that is the Gospel.

Apply it to your life
Are you facing suffering that doesn’t make sense to you? Remember: the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our pain. Spend time with God and ask for His victory over your life.

Keep those three words in your mind, bondage, liberty and hope. Then you’re going to understand about suffering and you’re going to learn to make sense out of suffering and you’re going to find out that there is a God and that this God is a good God. Adrian Rogers had two great passions to introduce people to jesus christ and to encourage believers in their faith this month on love worth finding, pastor Rogers will be sharing messages designed to help you have a closer walk with God, have your bibles ready and stay with us for today’s message. And if you’re encouraged by today’s message, remember you can stream this message again. Listen to other messages from Adrian Rogers and download Pastor Rogers outline and notes all at L WF dot org. Now let’s join Adrian Rogers Find Romans chapter eight And in just a moment we’re going to read verses 18 and 19 romans Chapter eight. And when you found it, look up here, let me ask you this question. Do you know, sorrow, suffering, pain, disappointment, fear, frustration, confusion. If you don’t just wait a while, you will, you will not escape the age in which we live is filled with sickness, war. Hey riots, sorrow and confusion and man doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about it. He longs for a better day and it gets worse. Man’s golden dreams turns to rust, man’s millennium turns to pandemonium, what does the bible have to say about all of this. Well look if you will now in verse 18, the apostle paul has been doing some figuring the word reckon here’s a book keeping term, and he 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 for the earnest expectation of the creature. Wait us for the manifestation of the Sons of God. Now there’s some things you’d better get in perspective, because if you don’t get them into perspective, you’re going to get into trouble. You may get into doubt, or you may get into rebellion when tragedy hits you and things don’t work out the way you think that they ought to work out when that person who is dearest on earth to you is being consumed by some greedy malady. You may lift a clenched fist in the face of God in defiant rebellion and accuse God of unfairness or lack of love or rather than being filled with rebellion, you just may be filled with doubt. And you say, where is God? I mean, if God cares, doesn’t he have any power to do anything about it? Or could it be that he has the power and he really doesn’t care? Or could it be that there is no God at all? Now we might as well be honest, a lot of people are facing these kind of questions and let me ask ourselves, how are we going to deal with this? Well, the apostle paul has already dealt with it for us by divine inspiration. And paul has been doing some divine calculation. And so he says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory with the glory which shall be revealed in us. It’s a bookkeeping term over here is the suffering over here is the glory. And paul says, I’m not in the red, I am in the black. Now take your bibles and I want you if you don’t mind writing your bible done to score or circle three words. Look in verse 21 and find the word bondage. He says, for the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Circle the word. If you don’t mind, I’ve circled it and read in my bible the word bondage, and then go down a little further and circle the word liberty, because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God, And then go over if you will uh diverse 24 and circle the word hope for. We are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sits. Why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that, which we see not, then do we with patience. Wait for it. Now let’s think first of all about the word bondage and bondage deals with yesterday’s curse. Have you got that? Yesterday’s curse folks, look around, there is something desperately wrong in our world. And what is it? There is a curse on our world, begin in verse 20 for the creature. And that literally means the creation. Everything God made was made subject to vanity. The word vanity means senselessness, futility of that, which does not seem to add up. For the creation was made subject to vanity. Not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Now that’s speaking of God, who who made it all? Where it seems to be filled with confusion because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Now, what is the bondage of corruption? And how did it come? What? What causes all of this confusion, this disease, this war, this strife, this this suffering, Why is it here? Well, because of a curse that’s on mankind, It’s here because of sin. Because of sin. Now let me back up and tell you that God is the author of everything that God did make everything. And when God made everything, God made it absolutely perfect. And he made a man and a woman. Put that man and woman in a perfect environment. Now listen carefully, listen and the perfect God gave to man and woman perfect freedom. Now, why did he make man perfectly free? Because what is the highest good love? God is a God of love? Now, what good is love? If there’s nobody to love no love to give and no love to receive? A song is not a song until you sing it. A bell is not a bell until you ring it. Love is not love until you give it and receive it. So God wants love. So God created two creatures Adam and Eve that he could love and so they could love him. Now, why did God make them free? Because forced love is not wow, forced love is a contradiction in terms God has to give us freedom so that we can love in order to choose good, we have to have the freedom to choose evil or else the choice to choose good is not a choice at all. God could not destroy evil without destroying freedom. He could not destroy freedom without destroying love. And if God destroyed love, God would destroy the, the highest good. Now listen to me, for God to destroy evil would be evil. God is not going to destroy it. God is going to defeat it to defeat it. You see, there were two gardens, there was the garden of Eden and there was the first atom and there is the Garden of Gethsemane and the second act and the Lord jesus, the very son of God took that sin upon himself and carried that sin two across and on that cross died for it. And therefore ultimately God through christ will triumph over it all. Now we’re thinking about the word bondage yesterday’s curse. When Adam Sinned, I said, he drug all of creation down with him. What is this bondage that we talked about in verses 21 and 22. Let me tell you what happened to creation. You want to know why today’s newspaper reads like it does. There’s a curse. Yesterday’s curses upon everything. For example, there’s a curse on the animal kingdom. Now, right, these scriptures down genesis three verse 14 and the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this cursed art, thou art thou art cursed above all cattle. Now, the idea is that not only was the serpent curse, but the cattle, the animal kingdom is cursed. You look at the animal kingdom, and what some call the survival of the fittest is really just creation groaning under the curse. When God made creation. When God put the animals in the garden of Eden, he did not put them in there with the law of tooth and fang and claw, that’s the result of the curse of sin. The animal kingdom was cursed. There’s a curse on the mineral kingdom. Listen to Genesis chapter 3: verse 17. And under Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground. What I say in sorrow, shalt thou eat of it all the days of my life, the desert the waste places, the barren land, All of this is because God says curse is the animal kingdom, cursed is the mineral kingdom cursed is the vegetable kingdom Genesis three verse 18 thorns also. And thistles shall it bring forth under the and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. This world that was meant to be like. The garden of Eden has become a garden of weeds. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to grow weeds than vegetables? Not only that, but there is a curse upon the human kingdom. Mankind, man was meant to have Dominion upon this earth. Why did God make adam and Eve? And how did he make them genesis? Chapter one verse 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have Dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. But man doesn’t have Dominion today. Why because of sin. Man is morally depraved. His mind like the earth has become a garden of weeds. His imagination is evil. Look at the newsstand, Not since Manhattan Island was sold for $24. Has so much dirt been sold so cheaply. Man is emotionally disturbed psychosis and neurosis are there because uh his sin in his life. He is morally depraved, emotionally disturbed, physically disease. Why do our bodies wear out romans Five verse 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. You have a polluted gene pool, You have the seeds of death in you. You are dying. I am dying. We all have a terminal disease. His death caused by sin and none of us is immune. Look, if you will in verse 23 and not only they he’s talking about, he’s talking about the creatures now and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waking for the adoption to wit the redemption of the body folks. My spirit is saved, but my body is not yet saved. It is not yet redeemed. Not yet. Neither is yours. We’re waiting for that. Now I have the first fruit of the spirit in my heart when I received jesus christ as my personal savior Lord the holy Spirit came into me. But I live in a body that groans and so do you. There is a curse on the animal kingdom. There’s a curse on the vegetable kingdom. There’s a curse on the mineral kingdom. There’s a curse on the human kingdom. And the bible calls this curse the bondage of corruption. Now do you have that, that is yesterday’s curse. It happened in the garden of Eden. And what we’re doing is just reaping the bitter fruit of it. Today. Yesterday’s curse bondage. Now, here’s the second thing I want you to see. First of all, the first word was bondage. What’s the next word? Liberty? All right that my friend is tomorrow’s conquest. When jesus comes the trees of the field will clap their hands, the hills will skip like little lambs and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as waters that cover the sea. When jesus comes, the animal kingdom will be changed. Listen to the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 11, verses six and following the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young Lion and the fat link together, and a little child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall feed and the young ones shall lie down together, and the Lion shall eat straw like an ox, and the suckling child shall play on the whole of the ass, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocker thrice den, and they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters that cover the sea. We sing about it. When the beast of the wild shall be led by child. There should be peace in the valley for me. The animal kingdom is going to be changed. The mineral kingdom will be changed, Isaiah 35 verse one. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. The vegetable kingdom will be changed. Isaiah 55: verses 12 through 13. For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off And the human kingdom is going to be changed. Our bodies are going to be redeemed. Look in verse 23, we’re waiting for the redemption of the body. Old dr Vance Havner used to say, you’re not going to be towed into heaven by a wrecking crew, you are going to have a body like unto his glorious body. And that’s why romans. Chapter eight verse 18 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 because we’re going to be like jesus, That’s the reason the psalmist said, I should be satisfied when I awaken in thy likeness and this deer, Great God who has redeemed us is going to turn every hurt to a hallelujah in every tier to a pearl in every calvary, to an easter and every sunset to a sunrise when jesus comes, when jesus comes, yesterday’s curse tomorrow’s conquest. That’s why, my friend, we ought to be praying, longing for looking for waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. But now, what’s our third word? First word, bondage, Second word, Liberty, third word What? Okay, now watch it. Yesterday’s curse tomorrow’s conquest. Today’s come, today’s that’s the hope. Today’s come. You see remember this, that the groans that we endure are temporary. The glory we expect is eternal. You’re making notes, write that down. The groans we endure are temporary. The glory we expect is eternal. That’s the reason, he says. And he said, I reckon I’ve been figuring that that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. Now, there are three groening’s that are mentioned here. Look, if you will in verse 19 Verse 20 and you have the groaning of creation. Look, look for we know that the whole creation groans and privilege and pain. Everything God made is full of pain now because of sin. There’s the groaning of creation. Then look, if you will down in verse 23, there’s the groaning of the believer and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves, The groaning of the creation, the groaning of the Christian. And now look if you will down to verse 26 and you have the groaning of the comforter. Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities. Three Groening’s the groaning of creation. All of Creation has a curse on it, moan and groan and pain and pain. Whoa! And the believer who saved cannot escape Being saved does not make you immune from suffering. Our bodies are not yet redeemed even we ourselves which have the first fruits of the Spirit we grown. Ah the groaning of the Creation, the groaning of the christian, but all the groaning of the comforter, The Holy Spirit, he is there with us, jesus said. He is one called alongside of us, just like an attending physician beside the bedside of a patient, jesus calls the Holy Spirit the comforter that means one who is called alongside to help. Yes, we know suffering. Yes, we know sorrow, but that’s not the end of the story. Well, 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 listen, the groans, we endure our temporary notice what he says. The groening’s of what this present time. This present time Creation has a curse on it. The christians, bodies are not yet redeemed and so Creation groans, the christian grown. But the Holy Spirit of God knows our infirmity and he groans with intercessions and prayers that cannot be uttered. Now listen, listen to me now. The groans we endure are temporary. The glory we expect is eternal. Now look, if you will now in verse 28 look at it and we no n O W know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to his purpose for whom he did know. He also did predestination to be conformed to the image of his son. That he, God’s son might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now look, if you will Verse 30, whom he did predestination them. He also called past tense and whom he called them. He also justified past tense and whom he justified them. He also glorified. Now, wait a minute. I thought you said the glory that will be revealed. Yes. But God says it’s as good as done. It’s as good as done in my mind. In my heart. I don’t speak of it as something going to happen. It’s done, It is done, it is finished. God has predestined it. And what has been decreed in heaven cannot be annulled by hell. It’s done. It’s done. We’re predestined for glory and therefore we are preserved for glory. Look, if you will nine verses 31 in following, what shall we say to these things. What things is he talking about suffering. Hey moan, groan. What shall we say to these things? I’ll tell you what we’ll say to them. If God before us who can be against us and he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him? Also freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect. It is God that justifies who is he that condemned? It is christ that died. Yea rather that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also along with the Spirit Maketh intercession for us. Hey folks, he doesn’t say that you will not suffer, but he says you are predestined for glory. You are preserved for glory and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. First word is what as yesterday’s curse. Next word is what? That’s tomorrow’s conquest. 3rd word is what that’s today’s comfort. We know we know that we know that we know that window that we, that nothing can separate us from his great love. Aren’t you glad you’re safe? Hallelujah, let me have another moment of your time. We often hear the word saved. Believe on the Lord, jesus christ and thou shalt be saved. What does it mean to be saved? Well, number one, it means that every sin is forgiven and buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Number two, it means that God through the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. That’s not an emotional feeling, it is an awareness that God is there number three. It means that when we die or when jesus comes again, he takes us home to heaven to be with him now, how are we saved? The bible says clearly plainly sweetly sublimely believe on the Lord jesus christ and you will be saved and that word believe goes beyond intellectual belief. It’s a bible word that means trust, trust, do it now. Say Lord jesus like a child, I trust you to save me, pray it and mean it and if you do write to us and let us know and we’ll send you some literature to help you get started in your christian. Mhm We hope that today’s message has been an encouragement to you. You can stream this message again. Listen to other messages from Adrian Rogers download pastor Rogers outlining notes or purchase bible studies on this and other topics all at L WF dot org at L WF dot org. You can also sign up to receive our daily heartbeat email. 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