Suffering

Grace Baptist Church Peel, Isle of Man

Lord's Day Morning 29th October 2000

Preacher Phil Lo Bao

Reading Job 22 verses 1-5, ch. 23

There is a lot in the chapters from 22 to 31, but I am going to deal with them under the theme of suffering. In these chapters two of Job's friends say again that Job must be a great sinner to have received all these afflictions. As an example we see verse 5 of chapter 22 "Is not thy wickedness great and thy iniquities infinite?" Job seeks to defend himself see Job 27 vs 5 "God forbid that I should justify you: I will not remove mine integrity from me."

Now I want to look at this passage in two main sections. This is not an exhaustive study of suffering but a look at the main points of these chapters.

THREE GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

1. GOD USES SUFFERING FOR GOOD

Even Job, ch. 23 vs 10 comes to this conclusion "when he hath tried me I will come forth as gold." Perhaps Peter, in 1 Peter 1 vs 6, had this in mind when he spoke of being refined with fire. Real gold and fools gold may look similar but in a furnace one will shine and the other blacken. How can God use suffering for our good? The true believer is made stronger by suffering, brought to lean more on the Lord, to pray, and depend and grow in faith. It encourages mutual support. Meanwhile other people who claim to have faith, quite possibly are very regular at church, but are not true believers, say if this is Christianity I do not want it, or If God really loves me why does he allow all this to happen to me? The Lord spoke of the seed which fell on the stony ground. At first this grew strongly, it looked just the same as the seed in the good ground but when the sun came up, amidst the suffering it all shrivelled and died. Suffering is a means of assurance, when you come in faith, prayer and dependence you know that Christ Jesus our Lord is with you.

2. SUFFERING DOES NOT PROVE TERRIBLE SIN

This is one of mans most common mistakes, so many think that a persons suffering is always directly related to personal sin, but this is not so. Now it is true to say that God does discipline his people. We see this in Hebrews 12 vs.6 "for whome the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." and in 1 Corinthians 11 vs.30 we see those who abused the Lord's supper and we read "for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep"

There are two important points to note. Firstly, we must be very careful not to bring strong accusations against those who experience trouble in their lives. We do not Know why they are suffering and cannot accuse them of being guilty of terrible sin.

Secondly, if you are suffering you must not be too quick to rule out sin as being the cause. Carefully examine your own heart and repent of any sin you find there. It is always important to review your own life and see if there is some sin that you have even grown accustomed to. If you are truly repentant of your sin he will forgive.

3. GOD IS IN CONTROL

Job 23 vs.13&14 "But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing appointed for me: and many such things are with him." We also see this in Romans 8 vs. 28 and Jeremiah 29 vs. 11. God is always working for the good of his people, life is not out of control. When troubles come God is still in charge. Who better to be in control than God? With all his power Knowledge and total wisdom.

THREE ERRORS TO AVOID

1. TO FEEL THAT THE BELIEVER SUFFERS WHILE THE UNBELIEVER GETS AWAY WITH A LIFE OF EVIL PLEASURE

Many people ask why dos not God punish evil now? Job 24 contains Job's complaint. In verse 3 we read "They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take away the widows ox for a pledge" vs. 12 "Yet God layeth not folly to them". We also see this in Psalm 73 vs. 3 "for I was envious of the foolish the prosperity of the wicked. The prophet Jeremiah says 12 vs. 1 "wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper, wherefore are they very happy that deal treacherously."

But in Job 24 vs. 24 Job has a change, for he says "They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and are cut of as the tops of the ears of corn." Job has now come to see the way of the end of the wicked. They will be cut down, they will face God's judgement.

Now the Christians response in time of suffering should be to remember that God will reward faithful believers and secondly, rather than envying unbelievers and their current prosperity or gloating over their future judgement, it is your responsibility to challenge the unbeliever with the gospel message now.

2. THE POOR OLD ME - SELF PITY SYNDROME

By chapters 29 and 30 we see that Job is full of self pity. For example ch. 29 vs.2 "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;" Job here longs for the good old days and wallows in his self pity ch. 30 vs. 28 "I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation". Do you ever feel like that?

This is a sin, to feel self pity is to abandon the principle that God is in control. We say "God you have got it wrong". What should you do if you have self pity overtaking you? You must look to the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord. Remember how he suffered so much more than we can even begin to imagine, so much more than any one of us ever could possibly suffer, Yet there was not even one word of complaint about his suffering. Our Lord had no self pity.

3. SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Job 32 vs. 1 "so these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes." Now we see that in answering the criticisms of his so called friends Job became so concerned to justify himself that he forgot that he was a sinner. Job 9 vs. 20 "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." Nor can he have the audience with God until Elihu has come and spoken to him and dealt with his self righteous. 1 John 1 vs. 8-10 reminds us that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. You have no righteousness. You must always compare yourself with our Lord Jesus Christ, with God's word and not other people.

Learn the lesson, apply God's word to your soul. All of us do suffer. All of us do need the spiritual food of God's word to strengthen us in suffering.