Sermon Notes 19 April 2026

Suffering Series Sermon 1: Why Does Suffering Exist?

Pastor Ryan Perry
Good Hope Baptist Church
19 April 2026

Big Idea: Suffering exists because creation is no longer aligned with God’s order—but it remains under His sovereign rule and is being moved toward His redemptive purposes.

Key Verses: 
Genesis 1:1–2; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 2:8–10; Genesis 2:15; Genesis 3:5; Genesis 3:17–19; Genesis 3:23–24; Genesis 6–9; Psalm 69:1–2; Isaiah 57:20; Romans 8:20–21; Genesis 4; Genesis 11; Exodus 1; Galatians 6:7; Job 1–2; Psalm 115:3; Deuteronomy 32:4; Ephesians 1:4–5; Luke 22:31; Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:22

Today, we are not starting with emotion; we are starting with Scripture.
Because, if we do not define suffering biblically, we will misdiagnose it completely.
 
I. God’s Design and the Fracture of Creation (Creation → Fall)
Genesis 1:1–2 — Creation begins תֹּהוּ (tohu) — formless, unstructured,  בֹּהוּ (bohu) — empty, unfilled
 
This is not evil, this is unordered potential. Genesis 1 shows us what God does with that: He separates, He names, and He fills. The repeated Hebrew word is: בָּדַל (badal) — to separate/divide.

Genesis 1:31 — מְאֹד (tov me’od) completely ordered, fully functioning, flourishing, literally very good.  

God did not create suffering. God created order, life, and flourishing.
 
Genesis 2:8–10 — A river flows out and divides.  This is not random; this is structured life flowing from God’s presence.

Genesis 2:15 — The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden… to work it (עָבַד ʿābad) and keep it (שָׁמַר šāmar). These are priestly terms (Numbers 3:7–8).

Genesis 3:5 — The serpents lie to humanity. Sin is rejecting God’s authority and redefining good and evil on your own terms.

Genesis 3:17–19 — Curse, toil, and death. Suffering begins where God’s life-giving presence is lost.

II. Disorder Spreads Through Creation
Genesis 6–9 — The Flood (de-creation, creation returning to disorder)

Psalm 69:1–2 & Isaiah 57:20 — Waters represent chaos (תֹּהוּ בֹּהוּ – Chaos)
and instability, lack of order.

Romans 8:20–21 — Creation subjected to futility. The world is not working correctly, creation is disordered, life is not functioning (ματαιότης mataiotēs) as it was intended.    

III. The Four Sources (Categories) of Suffering
Moral Evil — This is not just individual sin; it expands into systems.

• Genesis 4 — Cain kills Abel, representing the uprising of personal evil.

• Genesis 11 — Babel builds a system against God, the entire human system arranged around rebellion.

• Exodus 1 — Egypt enslaves Israel, creation of a structure of oppression.

Natural Evil

• Genesis 3:17–18 — Cursed is the ground because of you…Creation itself now resists life

Personal Consequence

• Galatians 6:7 — Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Some suffering is not mysterious it flows from our own choices

Spiritual Warfare

• Job 1–2 — There are realities you cannot see; forces at work beyond human understanding; heavenly beings opposed to God with their own agenda. Yet even here, we will notice there are limits.

Suffering is not one-dimensional. It is layered. It is complex. It is the result of a world no longer in alignment with God’s order.

We must understand something foundational: What does it actually mean that God is sovereign? Because if we misunderstand this, we will either blame God for evil or remove God from control.

Scripture does not illustrate either one of these approaches.

IV. God’s Sovereignty and His Work in Suffering
1. God is Fully Sovereign and Perfectly Good

• Psalm 115:3 — God does all He pleases.

Sovereignty means: God’s absolute right, authority, and power to rule over all creation, such that nothing exists, acts, or occurs outside of His ultimate governance, while His rule always remains perfectly consistent with His righteous character.

• Deuteronomy 32:4 — God is just and upright

God is not just powerful, He is perfectly good. God is fully sovereign, and God is fully righteous.

Nothing exists outside His rule, happens beyond His authority, or can ultimately overturn His purposes. And yet Scripture clearly shows evil exists, sin exists, and suffering exists.
How is this possible? God is sovereign over all things, but He is not the source of all things.

He rules over what He allows, and He works through what He hates to accomplish what He has purposed. This is not a contradiction; it is the complexity of a fallen world under a sovereign God.

2. God Relates to Suffering in Three Ways
a. God Wills (What He directly brings about)

• Creation — Genesis 1
• Salvation — Ephesians 1:4–5

b. God Permits (What He allows within His rule)

• Job’s testing (Satan acts, but only within limits) — Job 1–2
• Peter’s sifting (“Satan demanded… but I have prayed for you.”)— Luke 22:31

God is not absent in permission; He is governing even what He allows.

c. God Works Through (What He redeems for His purposes)

• Genesis 50:20 — You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

One event, two intentions: human intention is evil, and God’s intention is redemption. God does not call evil good. He overrules it for good.

This is the biblical picture of sovereignty: God is not the source of evil, God is never out of control, and God is always working toward His purposes.

God does not cause evil in the sense of producing it, but He does ordain a world in which it is temporarily allowed and ultimately overruled.

That means: Evil is real, suffering is real, but neither is ultimate.

Some situations feel chaotic, like it is outside of God’s control. Scripture says: No creation itself is fractured, but it is not outside of God’s rule.

V. Living in the Tension: A Groaning World with a Certain Future
Romans 8:22 — Creation groaning together

This is not random pain. This is a world under strain waiting for restoration.

If God is sovereign and God is good, why does He allow this to continue? Why not stop it now? Why allow suffering at all? These questions are not doubt; it is exactly where Scripture wants you to wrestle.

Forward Movement (Series Connection):

• Week 2: What is God doing in suffering?
• Week 3: How does God ultimately end suffering?

God is not out of control in your suffering and He is not absent from it.

He is ruling over it and moving it toward something you cannot yet see.