Why God's People Suffer – Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the worries of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. This is O'Sara Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. I encourage you to write us, let us know that you've listened, and if you'll request it, I'll be glad to send you a copy of our publication, The Baptist Witness.

I believe the articles will be a blessing to you. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Now today we bring you the second part of a message, why God's people suffer. Number four, the sufferings that come our way can teach us more about His Word and His workings in our life. More about His Word and His workings in our life. We look at Psalm 119, this beautiful portion of Scripture that speaks repeatedly about the value of God's Word. Verse 71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. What's the good that's going to come out of affliction here? That I might learn thy statutes.

Now, think about your own experience. When is it that you have learned the most about the statutes of God? You have learned the most about the Word of God.

God's children ought to be reading His Word every day, continually growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But it's in the day of suffering and trouble, when you're not just going to the Scripture casually to read it. You're not just saying, I'm reading it because I know I ought to do this. You're reading it because you're desperate to find help. And as you read it and the Spirit of God makes an application to the thing that you're experiencing at that time, you begin to learn some things. This is not just technical knowledge. This is something that I'm involved in. This is real to me.

This is happening to me. You're learning more of His Word. Oh, how rich is the Word of God. And one good thing about this is that you get excited when you see how effectively God's truth has been applied in your own life.

And then you're happy to tell other people about it. It's that which inspires you to be a good testimony and witness to others around you. So, as sufferings come, it's in the midst of those sufferings that we are going to learn more about God's Word, about His truth and how it applies to our life, even in the midst of our trials. Let's notice what Job said in the 23rd chapter of the book of Job, verse 8. Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him. Now, Job's initial reaction to his loss was right. It said in all this Job sinned not to charge God foolishly because he said the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. But there came those dark days when he was trying to figure it all out. He couldn't put it together and it seemed that as he tried to approach the Lord, God wasn't there. So he says, I go forward. He's not there.

I go backward. I cannot perceive Him. On the left hand where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him. He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him.

Have you ever been there? You've been at that place where you tried to read the Bible, but it didn't seem to get any light. No comfort, no understanding out of it. You tried to pray and you said, I might as well give up. I can't pray.

It seemed that the Lord had withdrawn Himself completely. But notice after Job talks about his struggle, talks about his perplexity, he says in verse 10, But He knoweth the way I take. When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Oh, what a lesson to learn. He knows the way I take. Although it seemed to me I couldn't find Him, He really wasn't gone. He knows the way I take. He knows all about me. He knows all about my life. He knows the details of my life. God knows. He knows your present. He knows your future. What a great God we have.

Ah, yes. The Lord teaches us about His word and His workings in our life. Let's look at one more in that connection. James chapter 1 verse 1, James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers' temptations. Can't you imagine some of the people who were suffering in that day being driven from their homes, fearing, not knowing what the next day was going to bring forth, and they get a letter from Brother James and he says, brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers' temptations. Somebody might say, boy, that guy is just full of good news. I'm glad he wrote that.

I feel better already. Somebody might say, that preacher, oh my. He just doesn't get it, you know, if he knew what we were encountering.

But remember, he's writing on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So he says, here's how you can count it joy. He didn't say you were going to feel it joy.

He didn't say you were going to say, this is great. I love being driven from my home. I love being deprived. I love all the struggles that I'm encountering. No, you can count it joy because you know this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience or endurance or perseverance. As you have this trial, you learn patience. You learn to endure. You learn to continue. You learn to persevere in the way. But let patience have her perfect work that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

What's the end in view? Spiritual maturity. Somebody may say, I can't see one good thing that could possibly come out of my suffering. Not one good thing that could come out of this trial. And too often, the problem is, they're looking only at some material benefit. If I could see that at the end of this trial, I was going to be enriched and prospered and everything was going to work out the way I wanted to, that's fine. But what about this? Is this valuable, that you should become spiritually mature, be complete, lacking nothing, therefore giving glory to Jesus Christ as a result of this work in your life, using the trials that you encounter to a positive end?

Number five. God uses our sufferings, our experience in the midst of our sufferings as an example to others. As an example to others. James chapter five, verse eleven.

Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now I'm confident that when Job was sitting out there on the ash heap and he was scraping his boils and was in absolute misery and his wife had come to say, curse God and die, that it didn't cross his mind, you know in years to come there's going to be a preacher there on a Sunday morning in Cincinnati, Ohio that's going to talk about my experience and my experience is going to be a great example and an inspiration to them. He didn't know a thing about that, but God did. God had plans already to put his experience in the book of James. And he says, you think about it.

Think about Job. Think about how he endured. Think about the end that the Lord yet was merciful and gracious to him. In the Hebrew letter, chapter eleven, verse four says, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. Abel did the right thing but suffered, even his life was taken because he honored God and did what was right. But even in his death, he being dead, yet speaks. His testimony is alive today. Time will not allow it, but you can go down to the 32nd verse and read the rest of that chapter and it talks about those who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness remained strong.

All of these are examples, testimonies for us. They didn't know anything about us. They didn't know anything about what was going to happen in this year. They didn't know that their experience was going to be recorded in the inspired Bible. But God was using their sufferings as an example to others.

What kind of an example have you been in your day of trouble, in your hour of suffering? I think not only about these who are described in Scripture, but about John Bunyan, who spent twelve years in the Bedford jail. He could have gotten out any day that he would have said, I will never preach again. But he preached out the window of the jail. He wanted to be at home with his little blind daughter, but he suffered, suffered imprisonment.

He didn't compromise. But it was while he was a prisoner that he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, a book that's had greater circulation than any English writing other than the Bible itself. We think about Corrie Tyn Boon, who in a concentration camp, in her faith, leaves on record a beautiful testimony that inspires multitudes.

Think about Johnny Erickson Tada, who was injured when diving into the water in 1967, has been in a wheelchair ever since. She now has a worldwide ministry, providing wheelchairs for disabled people around the world. And when you read her beautiful writings, and read how this woman, who had such loss and suffered so greatly, now has such a beautiful spirit, so honors God by her testimony, has been so remarkably used, you come to understand that God sometimes uses the sufferings of his people as an example to others. Is that not worthwhile?

Is that not good? Number six, he uses our sufferings to prepare us to comfort others, to comfort others. Now God is the God of comfort. All true comfort must come from Him by His mercy and His grace. In Isaiah chapter 51 verse 12, he says, I, even I, am He that comforteth you.

Who art thou that thou shaltest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the Son of Man that shall be made as grass? God is the one who comforts us. Matthew chapter 5 verse 4 says, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The Lord comforts those that have a mourning spirit, those who are convicted of sin, those who mourn because they see themselves as unworthy, wretched before God.

They're comforted as they look away from themselves, and by faith view Jesus Christ as the bleeding lamb of Calvary, as the only hope for fallen and ruined sinners. Paul speaks to this in more specific detail. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 5, he says, For when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side.

Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. Notice he points out that God is the source of the comfort, but on this occasion the channel of it was Titus. God used this young minister who was very dear to the apostle to be a great comfort to him, but he said God is the source of it.

Now we make a terrible mistake if we begin to look at the channel and assume that our comfort is going to be in the channel itself. Understand, God is the source of it, and God may use one channel today and another tomorrow, but God is the God of all comfort. Back in the first chapter of the book of 2 Corinthians verse 3, Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

I love that expression. Isn't that wonderful to know? He's the God of all comfort. You say, I'm cast down, I'm in great trouble, I'm in great need, I've got suffering, I've got physical affliction, I've got difficulties. God is the God of comfort. I was so deeply touched in one of the visits we had with Brother Martin Bates as he neared the end of his journey, and he sat there one day and wept. He said, Brother Bradley, I need comfort. There was a man at 101 years old that displayed great faith, but he knew he needed comfort. I said, Brother, God is the God of comfort, and He can give you exactly what you need.

How good to know. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. We're able to comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted. Now that means when you try to comfort somebody, you don't give them the fluff that is out there in the world around us. You know, people that don't know God or haven't had any deep experiences in the midst of their sufferings and learned that God is the God of comfort, they'll say to somebody who's kind of down and out, Well, you know, you've got to hang in there. Oh, doesn't that help? If you're down in the pit, you know, and you don't know if you're going to make it the next day, Oh, hang in there.

Oh, boy. It's just empty. Nothing that's meaningful. Nothing that really would edify or give you courage. But if you've been down in that pit, and you found out how weak you were and how strong God is, how poor you were and how rich He is, He sustained you and He blessed you, and you're able to say, I want to point you to the God of comfort. And no matter how dark the night is, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And God has promised not to leave us nor forsake us. And although you may feel like Job did for a moment that God is not near, He's still there. He still knows your circumstances.

He still knows your trials. Be able to comfort others. Such a joy when I've counseled with people in the midst of their struggles. And after a time, they would say, do you think someday that God might use me to help somebody else with this same trouble? I know we've made great strides.

I know there's been significant growth. When that person knows I've been helped by God's Word, I've been comforted in my hour of trouble, and I've been blessed to such a degree that I pray for the opportunity that I can comfort others. You see, this is not a selfish thing, just so we can be comforted in our trouble and feel better about the situation, but He comforts us that we may be able to comfort others by the same comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted. Now, if we haven't found that comfort, if all we're doing is complaining about our situation, or raising the question as to whether or not anything good can come from our suffering, we're not going to be able to comfort anybody else.

But if we've been comforted, we are to comfort others. Number seven, sufferings come to reveal to us the value of the promises of God. It's wonderful to memorize scripture. The promises of God that you commit to memory may be brought back to mind at a time you need them desperately by the Holy Spirit.

But when do these promises mean the most? Not just when you're reading them and memorizing them and thinking about them, but when you are in suffering. For an example, Isaiah chapter 43 verse 2, When thou passest through the waters.

He doesn't say, if you pass through the waters, it's when. It's a fact with God's people. They're going to suffer.

They're going to have trials. In the world ye shall have tribulation, Jesus said, I will be with thee. It's a promise. You say, I've got so much pain, I don't know how I can get through the day. God says, I will be with thee. You say, my heart's broken. I've suffered losses. I've suffered hardships.

I don't know how I can make it. God says, I will be with thee. You say, I'm confused.

I don't know what to do next. God says, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

What a promise. Chapter 49, Isaiah 49 verse 13, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people. That's time to sing. No matter how dark the way has been, no matter how great the trouble has been, when the Lord comforts you, that's time to sing. Sing, O heavens, be joyful, O earth, the Lord has comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me.

That was the response to how can we sing? The Lord's forgotten all about me. I've been praying for weeks. I've been begging God to change my situation. I've been begging God to remove the thorn in the flesh.

I've been begging God to chase the clouds away, but nothing's happened. The Lord hath forsaken me. Then he asked the question, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me.

Even though a mother might forsake her nursing child, which seems preposterous, how could she possibly do it? But sometimes it happens. But he says, Even if that happens, I will not forget you, because your name is engraven on the palms of my hand. That's an expression that God uses just so we can get a visual picture of what it would mean that our name is always before the Lord. I will be with thee. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5 and 6, The Lord once again promises, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee, that we may boldly say, The Lord is our Helper.

Oh, what a promise! You say, I need help? The Lord's your Helper? What greater help could you ask for?

I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. First Peter chapter 5, verse 7, Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Have you ever been to the point where you said, I just don't think anybody cares? Well, that conclusion was incorrect, because it says He cares. If nobody else does, He cares. He cares about your situation. He cares about your present. He cares about your future. He cares about your burdens, your heartaches, your difficulties, your challenges. He cares about your spiritual development.

He cares for you. Finally, number 8, Sufferings come to increase our desire for heaven. You know, as long as everything's going rather smoothly, we've pretty well settled down with the idea that this isn't such a bad place after all.

Just kind of settle in to stay here as though this was the final destination. Now, I'm not saying that we ought to become ungrateful for the blessings of life, but I am saying that the Lord reminds us we're to seek those things that are above. We're to be looking for and anticipating the second coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Romans chapter 8, verse 16, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Look at how much the Bible says about suffering. I'm giving you a lot of scripture this morning, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Bible is full of truth on this vital subject, and yet many fail to grasp it at all. 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.

There's glory coming. And whatever the suffering is for the moment, it's not worthy to be compared. The glory on the other side, the joy, the blessing, the bliss of heaven is so far above.

Whatever suffering, whatever loss we have here, there's no way to compare it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 14, Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you, for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal and the things which are not seen are eternal.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is for heaven. Oh, you see, you get all settled in here, you get attached to worldly things, material things, but sufferings come, trials come, and you say all these things that I thought were so important really don't amount to much.

Earthly wealth, fame, prestige, recognition, all these things really don't mean much. In my hour of suffering, in my hour of great trouble, I'm thinking about what a day that will be when I go home to be with the Lord. But if this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, this body is laid in the grave, I have another house which is in heaven above. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

You suffer because of the evil in the world in which we live. You begin to pray, even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. Wouldn't it be a great day if our Lord should come back before the day is over? What eternal joy all sufferings ended, all heartaches behind us, joy with Him.

I like these words by Thomas Brooks. As he says, Christians do not mutter nor murmur under your long afflictions. For you do not know that by these long afflictions God may prepare and fit you for such favors and blessings that may never end. By long afflictions God many times prepares His people for temporal, spiritual, and eternal mercies. If God by long afflictions makes more room in thy soul for Himself, His Son, His Spirit, His Word, if by long afflictions He shall crucify thy heart more to the world and to thy relations, and frame and fashion thy soul more for celestial enjoyments, hast thou any cause to murmur?

Surely no. So if God and His goodness is teaching us in our trials and preparing us for another world, those whom He loved and predestinated a purpose to be conformed to the image of His Son, and that's in process and it'll be completed when we're brought out of the grave, fashioned to His image. Today we have brought you the concluding part of a message, Why God's People Suffer. I hope that it's been helpful and answered some of your questions. If you would like to get the complete message on CD, request it when writing us. The address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. And until we greet you next time, this is LaSara Bradley, Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.