Well, good evening again to you from Beacon Baptist Church. Thank you for tuning in and joining us at this Wednesday night live stream service. I trust that it is well with your soul to night. that these days of uncertainty and unrest have provoked you to To pray perhaps more earnestly than you have in the past, to seek God with a fervency. To be asking God what it is that He would want you to learn from.
this season of COVID-19. I don't want to assume that everybody knows. We throw terms around, we've heard. The coronavirus, we've heard the COVID-19. What in the world does COVID-19 stand for?
Well, the It's it's shorthand for the coronavirus of 2019. A co means the corona. V stands for virus and D stands for disease slash 19. 2000. I know one thing, I have been praying earnestly for you.
For our church family, for those that are in my acquaintance, my family. that during this season That our hearts would be grounded and rooted in the love of God. That would be a stabilizing force in our life. that we would re rejoice in the fact that God has set His affections on us, that we are the objects of His love, that He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, The argument Paul makes there in Romans chapter 8 is, how then? In light of God giving the greatest, how would How would He not also freely with Him give us all things?
So we can trust him for lesser things because he gave us. The greatest thing.
So again, praying that Christ may dwell in our hearts. through faith and that being rooted and grounded in love. And praying that You, with all the saints, would be able to comprehend what is the width. and the lengths and the depth and the height. Of the love of Christ, which surpasses Knowledge.
A friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube. video that I didn't have time to listen or watch the whole thing, but it was. It was a man Uh playing the piano and singing a hymn. This hymn was written by William Rees. lived from 1803 to 1883.
So he's been He's been dead for a hundred and Nearly forty years. But as I listen to this, This morning It just caused my heart to soar as I thought and reflected on the love of God.
So listen to these wonderful words. Here is love. Vast as the ocean. Loving kindness. as the flood, When the Prince of Life Our ransom.
Shed for us His precious blood Who his love will not be remembered? who can cease to sing his praise? He can never be forgotten. throughout heavens Eternal Days. And then the second stanza on the mount.
of crucifixion. Fountains opened Deep and wide. Through the floodgates of God's mercy flowed a vast. and gracious tide. Grace and love like mighty rivers.
poured incessant from above And heaven's peace and perfect Justice. k kissed a guilty Murray. in love. And then there's two more stanzas that speak of what our response ought to be. to this love of God.
revealed in Christ Jesus. Let me all thy love accepting, Love thee ever all my days. Let me seek thy kingdom only. and my life. Be to thy praise.
Thou alone shalt be my glory, nothing in the world I see. Thou hast cleansed and sanctified. me, Thou thyself hast set me free. In thy truth, thou dost direct me. By thy Spirit through Thy Word.
And thy grace my need is meeting as I trust in Thee, my Lord. Of thy fullness Thou art pouring. Thy great love and power on me Without measure. Full and boundless. drawing out my heart.
to thee. I trust that's your experience as you think about and dwell upon the love of God, that it would draw out your heart to God. That you would be one who wants to reciprocate that love to God and live a life that pleases Him. One of the means that helps us in that regard is coming together as the people of God. I find it interesting in these days.
The subject of sovereignty, God's sovereign rule. and how people Um Soften it. Dismiss it. Cardin and I Have been walking a couple of days a week at Cedar Rock Park, which is just five minutes from our house. And a week or so ago, we were walking on a very familiar path, and as I was walking, we came across a bird.
laying there in on the path, dead. Didn't appear to be anything wrong with it other than it was lifeless. And it came to my mind Not that God knew that that bird was laying there, that's omniscience. But the Bible tells us that God willed it. God purposed it.
that that bird would fall from the sky. Listen to Matthew chapter 10. Jesus says, Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach. on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him.
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And get this, and not one of them falls to the ground apart from. Your Father's will. The following of a sparrow to the ground.
is explained as The Father's will. He willed it. It's not that he just knew about it, but he willed it. And then here's the argument. What are we to learn as we think about this?
And as I saw this bird laying on the path? The next verse says, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore. You Are more of you are of more value than many sparrows.
So, if God's mindful of the sparrow and God Orders and decrees and wills, the life of a sparrow, how much more important are you and I? You see, God is not passively in control. Which Is a contradiction in terms as if he merely knows and allows. God does not stand off. As a passive observer, disconnected and indifferent, to what is happening in Your life and my life in this world.
No, God is actively in control, He is the orchestrator, He is superintending. the events of even your life. Right down to the very details. He's intimately involved in our life. He's very connected.
to what we are experiencing.
So, God is orchestrating, He's presiding and providentially ruling over. all the affairs of men. That's our comfort. That's our confidence in these. Strange days in which We are living.
Well I have a verse of scripture that's printed at the top of the prayer sheet. It says, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm seventy three, verses twenty five and verse twenty six.
Well From The pastor's perspective, things are going well in terms of. this m mean this medium of Preaching and connecting with our congregation and others who are joining us on live stream. We'll continue to do that until restrictions are lifted and we're able to come together as a church body and meet together in corporate worship. And uh So we'll be doing that again on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. on Sunday morning at nine thirty.
and Sunday evening at six o'clock.
So, thank you for supporting the ministry in this way. Thank you for the way you're ministering to one another. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your faithful giving. Is the expense of the church go on?
We are very encouraged by a how you are responding in these days.
So thank the Lord and praise the Lord. The um Really don't have any uh other announcements to uh to give to you. And I'll go over prayer requests here in a moment. But let me um Machines. Good news that we've we've gotten from some of our missionaries.
Pastor Barkman got this email from Stuart Waugh. The came at uh around two o'clock this afternoon. And this is the latest correspondence from Stuart concerning his. a health situation there in Johannesburg. He writes, Laverne and I greet you from Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Lord is always doing us good and not harm. We are so thankful for the prayerful support of the saints at Beacon. We think of you often and are always challenged and comforted by your faithfulness to the Lord and to us, your Zimbabwean servants and friends. Here's the big news. We have today been accepted to the official liver transplant listing for urgent.
transplantation.
Well, that's a huge praise. That's a significant answer to prayer, something we have. been earnest in seeking the Lord concerning He says The thing which we have asked of the Lord has been granted. Please pray with us in our. COVID-19 transplant situation that our God would supply all our need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
Laverne is handling our affairs here in my absence and recovery from the surgery. I will be allowed no visitors for my stay in the hospital. This will be hard for her. Please lift her up in your contemplations. She will need strength and calm and strong trust in the Lord's doings.
We look forward to a renewal that will bring wonderful family togetherness and strong, compassionate ministry of the word in Zimbabwe. Please know that we love you and are deeply thankful for your past encouragement in word and deed. Your servant friends. for the glory of God, Stewart and Laverne.
So that's Huge. Very, very significant. Tim and Ruth Bixby are missionaries out under. EMU International. And um They are Making good progress in church planning efforts.
In France The director of the mission had asked him to fill out some forms and some of the things that. I want to pull a few things off of this report just to encourage you. It says list at least three major goals you have set for your ministry. He says, number one, we're praying that God will help us. will help us obtain the needed funding to be able to purchase our building.
And if you recall, they were Raising money to purchase this building. They've renovated it. and they have raised about a quarter of what they need.
So we need to be undergirding that need in prayer. The second goal he has, he says, I want to focus on training two of our men to take on more leadership. And number three, we want to help attenders grow in their doctrinal knowledge and practical Christian. Living.
So he says, list two or three prayer requests you would like to share. Number one, for provision for the purchase of our church building. Number two, for a national man/slash family called of God to the ministry who could join the work to partner with us. and eventually take on Leadership. And then three, for God to create a thirst to know him and draw more people into the local church.
So just a couple of things concerning the big speech to keep them before you and the needs of their ministry. You remember they have uh five children. Macca Miriam Zachary Zachary, Gabriel, And the last one, Simeon, born April 9, 2019.
So he's just. a little over a year old.
Well, the Websters are also in France ministering there. And they too have been affected by the coronavirus and. Restrictions that have been placed on them, but they're finding ways and means to carry on ministry. But I thought it was interesting. He says, um We're both 61 years old, but in overall good health.
However, since Melanie has epilepsy. We have tried to be extra careful. We are allowed. one hour a day to exercise within one kilometer of our house. And since we are blessed to live in a beautiful, spacious housing development with many walkways through gorgeous greenery, we've taken full advantage.
Pray for our young families who are confined in small Apartments He says, Believe it or not, Mike is still among the most tech-savvy in our church, so we had to take Christmas. Crash course online and through web seminars to learn or relearn in order to choose the best options for our context and how to implement them and how to teach others to use them.
So, again, they're Making use of the technology of our day. to an to carry on ministry. Here's a prayer request. He says: Pray for decisions directly affecting the future of the church. and that are an important step towards full autonomy.
Um They had an annual business meeting in March, and things have been placed on hold there.
So, um We need to remember the Websters and that matter. We Are involved in TAP ministries, ministry that collects used resources and distributes them. to third world countries. A lot of things go to the Philippines and India. And this is just a short update concerning TAP Ministry, and again, TAP stands for Teachers Assistance Program.
He says, For all of us, our worlds have changed completely in the last month over COVID-19. Tapa is no different. Things have been very quiet this last month. Our shipping partners have added international surcharges, which has increased our shipping costs considerably during this time. We've seen practically no materials dropped off as people are adhering to the stay-at-home order.
Our donations in the month of March were about half of our normal income. We're not complaining. We're dealing with the fallout. like every other ministry. This past month we were not able to ship anything So we spent extra time organizing, cleaning and packing boxes for shoe per for future shipments.
All of our missionary partners, That we would normally be shipping to are also dealing with this pandemic in their own countries at various degrees, so we are in a holding pattern. We are ready and waiting for this to pass so that we can resume our normal activities. Thank you for. your continued prayers and support.
So there's just few Updates concerning our missionaries.
Well, at this time we normally would take a Wednesday night project offering, and we haven't been able to do that now for six or seven weeks.
So that is another opportunity that's not being afforded to you. But um Again. We believe that things will return to normal. and we're trusting sooner as opposed to later. As I thought about tonight and what to do, Uh I came across a book written by John Piper.
He wrote a book In early March, entitled Christ and the Coronavirus.
Now I was made aware of that. You could listen to it by e-book. Crossway Publishing had not made the book available yet. When I first learned of the book, This week, I was able to download a PDF file from Desiring God's. ministry's website and Basically, I have a copy of the book.
I was able to read it quickly and then read it again. And because of the timing of it, and because it's a time-sensitive matter. I don't think I've ever done this before in terms of give a book report and read extensively from a book, but I want to do that tonight because of. Piper's skill of addressing the subject, and he has some. Wonderful things to say.
Uh wonderful insights.
So that's what I want to do with the time we have tonight. And again, you can go to Desiring God Ministries website. If you have uh uh a printer hooked up to your computer. You can download this PDF file and It will produce a hundred page book. I'm not going to read obviously the hundred-page book, but I want to just walk through.
this book and some of the salient points. And I trust that this will be a blessing to you. This is on everybody's mind. The pastors feel a responsibility to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. We can't be where you are.
We don't have the contacts you have. People are on social media, people are having interaction. by phone and other means, And we want you to have at your disposal. Truth. that you can speak into the situation.
A timely word that will edify and point people to Christ and make sense of what is going on.
So This is what is printed on the back of that book. On January 11, 2020, a novel Coronavirus reportedly claimed its first victim in the Wuhan province of China. By march 11, 2020, the World Health Organization had declared a global pandemic. In the midst of this fear and uncertainty, it is natural to wonder. what God is doing.
In Coronavirus and Christ, John Piper invites readers around the world to stand on the solid rock, Who is Christ Jesus? In whom our souls can be sustained by the sovereign God who ordains, governs, and reigns over all things to accomplish His wise and good purposes for those who trust in Him. What is God doing? through coronavirus. Piper offers six biblical answers to that question, showing us.
that God is at work in this moment in history. And I'm only going to draw your attention to three of those answers that he raises Again, what is God doing? Through the coronavirus. He gives six. And I'm going to draw your attention to three of those six.
But the book. is divided up into two sections. Section number one, the God who reigns over the coronavirus. And that takes you through page 55. And then, part number two: what is God doing through the coronavirus?
And that is. takes you through the end of the book. I think it's helpful to be reminded that although this is unprecedented in our personal history, it is not. Unprecedented in terms of human history. There have been other pandemics.
In 1918, there was an an influenza pan pandemic. That The um Center for Disease Control. Claims that fifty million people around the world. Died. A half a million people died in the United States from that Virus.
We're told that People would begin to manifest symptoms in the morning and by evening they would be dead. They would go around and pick up dead bodies off of porches. and bury them in mass graves that have been um produced by a bulldozer. And again, that's just in 1918. This is what he says in the opening.
chapter of the book. He says, I am moved to write because playing the odds is a fragile place to put your hope. Odds like three percent versus ten percent, youth versus old age, compromise health versus no history of disease, rural versus urban, self isolated versus home meeting with friends. playing the odds provides little hope. It is not a firm place to stand.
There is a better way. There is a better place to stand. and there is a rock of certainty rather than the sand of probabilities. And then he Uses by personal illustration a diagnosis that he received in 2005 of cancer. He says, um When that first diagnosis came, all the talk was about odds.
Odds with waiting to see, odds with medications, odds with homophopathic procedures, odds with radical surgery. He says, my wife Noelle and I took these numbers seriously. But in the evening, we would smile at each other and think: our hope is not in odds. Our hope is in God. We did not mean It is 100% certain God will heal me while doctors can only give me odds.
The rock we are talking about is better than that. Yes, better than healing. Even before the phone call, From the doctor telling me I took Telling me I had cancer, got it already, reminded me in a remarkable way about the rock under my feet. After my usual annual exam, the urologist had looked at me and said, I'd like to do a biopsy. Really?
I thought. When? Right now if you have time. I'll make time. And while he was going to get the machine, and while I was changing into the typical unflattering blue gown, there was time for me to ponder what was happening.
So he thinks I have cancer. As my future And this world began to change before my eyes, God brought to my mind something I had read recently in the Bible. God spoke.
Now, he says, let's be clear: I don't hear voices, at least I never have. My confidence that God speaks is rooted in the fact that the Bible is His Word. He has spoken once for all, and he still speaks in his word. The Bible, rightly understood, is the voice of God. Here is what he said to me in that urologist's office as I waited for.
the biopsy that would confirm that I had cancer. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 9 and 10. God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. Piper says, awake or asleep, that is, live or die, I will be alive with God. How can that be?
I'm a sinner. I've never lived a day of my life, not one, without falling short of God's standards of love and holiness.
So, how can this be? How can God say, you, John Piper, will be with me, live or die? God didn't even wait for the question before he answered. It's because of Jesus. Jesus alone.
because of his death there will be no wrath toward me. Not because of my perfection. My sins, my guilt, and my punishment fell on my Savior, Jesus Christ. He died for us. That's what his word says.
Therefore, I am free from guilt, free from punishment, secure. In God's merciful favor. Live or die, God said, you will be with me. Then he says, that is very different from playing the odds with cancer or with the coronavirus. This is a firm rock under my feet.
It is not fragile. It is not sand. I would like it to be a rock under your feet. And that's why I am writing. He says, People would often ask me before my cancer diagnosis, How's your health?
And I would say, Fine. He says, I don't answer that way anymore. I say, I feel fine. There's a difference. The day before I went for the annual prostate exam, I felt fine.
The day after I was told I had cancer. In other words, I was not fine.
So, even as I write these words, I do not know if I am fine, I feel fine, way better than I deserve. For all I know, I have cancer right now, or perhaps a blood clot, or the coronavirus. What's the point? The point is this. The ultimate reason we ought not to say, I am fine, is that God alone knows and decides if you are fine now.
To say, I am fine when you don't know if you are fine and you don't control if you are fine is like saying, Tomorrow, I am. I will go to Chicago and do business there when you have no idea if you will even be alive tomorrow, let alone doing business in Chicago. Here's what the Bible says about a sentence like that. James chapter 4 verses 13 to 15. Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life? For you are a midst that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
So, the God who was involved only in the buy and buy. Just evaporated. That's the effect of the bright sunlight of biblical truth. On The shaky ground and mist of our opinions. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Psalm thirty four, verses eighteen and nineteen. He says, no man can comfort our souls in this pandemic the way God can. His comfort is unshakable. It is the comfort of a great high rock in the stormy sea. It comes from his Word, the Bible.
Now he's going to talk about. God's sovereignty, that it is all-pervasive. He says Isaiah teaches that this part of the very essence, this is the very essence of what it means to be God. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10. I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish what All my purpose. To be God is to cause his own counsel to stand always. God does not just declare which future events will happen, He makes them happen. He speaks his word and then he adds, In Jeremiah 1 through 12, I am watching over my word to perform it.
That's powerful. He says the coronavirus was sent by God. This is not a season for sentimental views of God. It is a bitter season. And God ordained it.
God governs it. He will end it. No part of it is outside his sway. Life and death are in his hand. Therefore, as we ponder our future with the coronavirus or any other life-threatening situation.
James tells us how to think and speak. You ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this. Or that. If he wills. we will live.
If not, we won't. He says, For all I know, I will not live to see this book published. I have at least one relative infected with the coronavirus. I am seventy four years old, and my lungs are compromised with a blood clot, and seasonal bronchitis. But these factors do not ultimately decide.
God decides. He says, is that good news? Yes. It's good news. It's the best news.
And we're moving along quite well here. We're in chapter five of his book. Again, I'm just touching on salient points, trying to maintain the flow and. Help you. And I know by doing it this way that I am Um I'm losing eye contact with you because I'm reading so much, and it's a trade-off.
But I think the content is worth that trade-off.
So This is chapter five. Why should I receive the news of God's sovereignty over the coronavirus and over my life as a sweet teaching. This is what he says. The secret is knowing that the same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus yet doesn't. is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.
The very sovereignty that rules in sickness. Is the sovereignty that sustains in loss. The very sovereignty that takes life is the sovereignty that conquered death and brings believers home to heaven. and Christ. It is not sweet to think that Satan, sickness, and sabotage, fate or chance has the last say in my life.
That is not good news. That God reigns is good news. Why? Because God is holy and righteous and good, and He is infinitely wise. With God are wisdom and might.
He has counsel and understanding. Job 12, verse 13. His understanding is beyond measure. Psalm 147, verse 13. Five.
He says nothing surprises him, confuses him, or baffles him. His infinite power rests in the hands. of infinite holiness and righteousness and goodness and wisdom. And all of that stands in the service of those who trust his Son, Jesus Christ. What God did in sending Jesus to die for sinners has everything to do with the coronavirus.
And he's making this connection in Romans 8:32 that I made earlier. He who did not spare his own son, but give him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? This means that God's willingness To send his son to be crucified in our place. Is his declaration and validation that he will use all his sovereignty? To give us all things.
How will He not also with Him graciously give us All things, meaning he most certainly will. It is guaranteed by the blood of his Son. And what are these all things? They are the things we need, to do his will, to glorify His name. and make it safely into His joyful presence.
Amen on that.
Now, he says. Even if Satan On his divine leash as a hand in our suffering and death, he is not ultimate. He cannot hurt us without God's permission and limitation, and in the end he cannot. It is right for us to say to Satan what Joseph said to his brothers, who had sold him into slavery. As for you, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
He says, Be careful not to water this down. It does not say God used it for good or God turned it for good. It says God meant it for good. They had an evil purpose. God had a good purpose.
God didn't start cleaning up halfway through this sinful mess. He had a purpose, a meaning from the beginning, from the start. He meant it for good.
So now the section: What is God doing through the coronavirus? And I'm Encouraged by these preliminary thoughts before he begins to speak to these six issues, and again, we'll only look at three of them. He says, If God has not been dethroned, if indeed He governs all things according to the counsel of His will, and if this coronavirus outbreak, with all its devastation, is in His holy, righteous, good, and wise hands, then what is He doing? What are His purposes? He says the first thing to say before trying to answer this question is that.
Compared to the wisdom of God, my opinion counts for nothing.
So does yours. What we think out of our own heads is of little significance. The Bible says that whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool. Instead, we are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean upon our own understanding. We humans are finite, sinful, culturally conditioned and shaped.
By our genes and personal history. Out of our hearts and minds and miles come every manner of self-justifying rationalization for our preferences.
So we would be wise to pay attention to the prophet Isaiah when he says, Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? It is then not presumption for me to write this book, let alone. Is it then not presumption for me to write this book, let alone a section titled, What is God Doing Through the Coronavirus? He says, No, it is not presumptuous. Not if God has spoken.
In the scriptures Not if God has stooped to speak in human words so that we might truly know Him and His ways. Not if Paul's words are true. That God lavished His grace upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery. of his will.
So he says, My aim is not to dream up ideas about what God might be doing. My aim is to listen to his word in Scripture and commend to you what I hear. He says, Another thing I would say before I try to answer the question, what is God doing, is that He is always doing a billion things we do not know. Psalm forty verse five. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us.
None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told Not only are his designs in the coronavirus beyond counting, they are in many ways inscrutable. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his waist But when Paul wrote that, he was not saying, so close your Bible and make up your own reality. On the contrary, those words about God's inscrutable ways were written as a climax 11 chapters of the greatest news in the world, all of which are written to be understood.
For example, when Paul touches on the inevitability of suffering, he says We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing That suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope. Does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5, verses 3 and 5. No way. The Scriptures are written that we might know the things God has revealed.
Especially about suffering, including this. coronavirus outbreak.
So inscrutable means that God is always doing more than we can see, and even if what we can see, We would not have seen if He had not revealed it. All right. What is God doing? Answer number one. God is giving the world In the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror.
And spiritual ugliness of God belittling sin. Sin, in fact, is why all physical misery exists. The third chapter of the Bible describes the entrance of sin into the world. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 says, Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all Sand. He says, when I trace the miseries of this world back to God's judgment, I am not shutting my eyes to the fact that Satan is very involved in our global misery.
The Bible calls him the God of this world and the ruler of this world and the prince of the power of the air. He has been a murderer from the beginning. He binds and oppresses with many diseases. But SATAN is on a leash. The leash is in God's hands.
He does not act without God's leave. He acts only with permission and limitation. God decides, finally, the extent of Satan's damage. He is not separate from God's judgment. He serves it unwittingly.
Well, I better not. Skip this. He says key question. Here's the question that brings the meaning of the coronavirus into sharper focus. Why did God bring a physical judgment on the world for a moral evil.
Adam and Eve defied God. Their hearts turned against God. They preferred their own wisdom to His. They chose independence over trust. This defying and preferring and choosing was a spiritual and moral evil.
It was sin in the soul first, not in the body. It was first godward, not manward. But in response to moral and spiritual rebellion, God subjected the physical world to disaster and misery. Why? Why not leave the physical world in good order and bring misery on the human soul since that's where it all started?
He says, here's my suggestion. God put the physical world under a curse so that the physical horrors we see around us, in diseases and calamities, would become a vivid picture of how horrible sin is. In other words, Physical evil is a parable, a drama, a signpost pointing to the moral outrage of rebellion against God. Why might that be fitting? Because in our present condition, after the fall, blinded by sin, we cannot see or feel how repugnant sin against God is.
Hardly anyone. in the world feels the horror of preferring other things over good. Who loses any sleep over our daily belittling of God by neglect and defiance? But oh, how we feel our physical pain. How indignant we become if God touches our bodies.
We may not grieve over the way we demean God every day in our hearts, but let the coronavirus come and threaten our bodies and. He has our attention. Or does he? Physical pain is God's trumpet blast to tell us that something is dreadfully wrong in the world. Disease and deformity are God's pictures in the physical realm of what sin is like.
In the spiritual realm. And that is true, even though some of the most godly people in the world bear those diseases and deformities. Calamities are God's Previews of what sin deserves and will one day receive in judgment a thousand times worse. They are warnings. They are wake-up calls to see the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of sin against God.
Would that we could all see and feel how repugnant, how offensive, how abominable it is to treat our Maker with contempt, to ignore him, and distrust him, and demean him, and give him less attention in our hearts than we give the style of our hair. We need to see this and feel this, or we will not turn to Christ for salvation from the ugliness of sin. We may cry out to escape the penalty of sin, but will we see and hate the God demeaning moral ugliness of sin? If we don't, it will not be because God has not provided vivid portrayals of it in physical misery, like the coronavirus. Therefore, God is mercifully shouting to us in these days: wake up!
Sin against God is like this. It is horrible and ugly and far more dangerous. than the coronavirus. Another Answer that he gives. What is God doing in the coronavirus?
He said, Number, this is another point. The coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming. of Christ. Jesus said that there would be pointers to his coming, like wars, famines, and earthquakes. He called these signs birth pains.
The image is of the earth as a woman in labor trying to give birth to the new world which Jesus would bring into being at his coming. Paul picked up this imagery in Romans 8:22 and referred to the birth pains. To all the groanings of this age, all the miseries of disaster and disease, like the coronavirus. He pictured us and our diseases as part of the labor pains of the world. We groan as we wait for the redemption of our bodies at the coming of Jesus.
when He will raise the dead and give us new glorious bodies. He says, My point is this. Jesus wants us to see birth pains. including the coronavirus, as reminders and alerts that he is coming. And that we need to be ready.
You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24, verse 44. You don't have to be a datesetter in order to take seriously what Jesus says, and what he says is unmistakable. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know When the time will come.
Stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come. And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake. Mark 13, verse 33 to 37. He says, the way to be ready is to come to Jesus Christ and receive forgiveness for sins and walk in his light.
Then you will be. Ready. What God is doing in the coronavirus is showing us graphically, painfully, that nothing in this world gives the security and satisfaction that we find. In the infinite greatness and worth of Jesus. This global pandemic takes away our freedom of movement, our business activity.
And our face-to-face relations. It takes away our security and our comfort, and in the end, it may take our lives. The reason God exposes us to such losses is to rouse us to rely on Christ, or to put it another way. The reason he makes calamity the occasion for offering Christ to the world is that the supreme, all-satisfying greatness of Christ shines more brightly. when Christ sustained joy and suffering.
Consider, for example, why God brought Paul to the point where he despaired of life. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 8 and 9, Paul writes, We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. Paul does not view this experience of desperation as satanic or random, it is purposeful.
God is the one whose purpose is mentioned. This life-threatening experience was to make us. Rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. This is the message of the coronavirus. Stop relying on yourselves and turn to God.
You cannot even stop. Deaf. God can raise the dead. And of course, relying on God does not mean that Christians become do nothings. Christians have never been do nothings.
It means that the ground, the pattern and the goal of all our doings is God. As Paul said, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was in me. The coronavirus calls us to make God the all-important, pervasive reality in our lives. Our lives depend on Him more than they depend on breath, and sometimes God takes our breath in order to throw us unto Himself. The last thing he mentions.
is the effect that this coronavirus has on World Missions, World Evangelization. He says, we may think the corona outbreak is a setback for world missions. He says, I doubt it. God's ways often include apparent setbacks that result in great advances. On January 9, 1985, Pastor Ritso Kulichev, a congregational pastor in Bulgaria, was arrested and put in prison.
His crime was that he preached in his church, even though the state had appointed another man as pastor whom the congregation did not elect. His trial was a mockery of justice. He was sentenced to eight months in prison. and during his time in prison he made Christ known in every way he could. When he got out, he wrote Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church.
God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free. And Piper says, This is often God's way. The global scope and seriousness of the coronavirus is too great for God to waste. It will serve his invincible global purpose of world evangelization. Christ has not shed his blood in vain.
And Revelation 5:9 says that by that blood he ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. He will have the reward of his suffering. and even pandemics will serve to complete. The Great Commission.
Well, that's An oversight, a book review of Christ and the coronavirus from John Piper. I would highly recommend it to you. Obviously, it's time sensitive. That's why I chose to spend this time this evening. exposing you to this and bringing this truth to bear upon your hearts.
And again, you can find it on Desiring God's website. PDF file. And I think there's even a place there that's showing that it's available through Crossway for, I think, $9.
Now take advantage of this resource in this This season, it will help you. It will equip you. It'll be helpful for you, but it'll also. B, um Something that will give you things to say to people who are asking questions, who are fearful and anxious.
Well, let me um Go over some prayer requests with you, and then we'll close our time here with a season of prayer. We're praising the Lord that do we bodily who had surgery for a blood clot, that that surgery went well. Kim Orndorff. Wendy Lynch called to let us know that she is now cancer-free. Christian Kristen Red.
Is greatly improved from an auto accident she had a month or six weeks ago. and Terry Thornton. Marseille Councilman had asked us to be praying for this woman. She is cancer-free.
So, wow, praise the Lord. Two people on our prayer sheet under cancer are cancer-free. Continue to pray for Angela Boyd as she is making progress in her recovery from. transplant surgery. Uh Drew Guthrie.
Drew is still at Duke Hospital. She has not been released since her feeding tube was inserted last Monday. That was on the 20th. She's not tolerated the tube feeding very well, and they've had to change them to gradual. Instead So it's made her weaker.
The plan as of right now is to have her released. to a rehab facility. It's difficult with the COVID-19 and no visitors at hospital or rehab facilities. continue to uphold our sister in the Lord. Um Linda Spencer.
Linda has been having back pain for several weeks. She was able to see the doctor. Today was given some anti-inflammatory medication. and uh the doctor wants to see her again in three weeks, so That's uh good news that she got some help today. Under others.
David Crowder. This is a neighbor of Bruce and Marseille Councilman. He's been at Duke Hospital due to pancreatitis. He'll be there for at least a couple more weeks. He's having a really hard time, and he also has some heart issues, so they're asking us to pray for him.
A Scott Delaurie Um is still separated from His family, his wife Emmeline and Daniel. But he's hopeful that He's going to be able to Let's see, I've got uh something from him here. He says, um He says, I'm finding it particularly grievous to be faced with the possibility that I may not have an opportunity to see my family in Christ at Beacon Baptist before my departure. If lockdown procedures in Manila are not extended beyond April 30, I plan to depart sometime during the first week of May, Lord willing. He plans to travel to California, spend some time with his oldest son, and then fly out from San Francisco.
So continue to uphold him. He's making use of Skype these days and staying in daily contact. with his family in that way, but it's uh less than the best so Um uphold Scott and his family. Ronnie Fawcett had a fall. We're thankful that it wasn't serious.
He didn't break any bones. But uh Pray for him. He's now at home. Um Phyllis Holt. Is a sister of Hazel Garcia from Virginia.
She fell and broke both shoulders. Due to her age and being a diabetic, she'll not be able to have surgery. but will have to go through rehab, so please uphold her in prayer. Jack Petrie as well. Amanda Abernathy is asking us to pray.
For Uh sixteen-year-old stepson of her sisters. His birth mother, passed away. Her organs were shutting down and she passed away. um very recent the last day or so.
So there's a need. Warren Rogers, Pastor Barkman's asking us to pray for him. He fell and will have surgery on this Friday. We're um asking you to remember the family of Whelan Loftus. Who, um His family gathered for a graveside service on Tuesday and Carl Henshaw's mother, Mildred Henshaw.
uh passed away and there will be a private family graveside service on Saturday at Belmont. United Methodist Church. And let's see, I had one more request that was called in, Larry Norris. Ask us to pray for a grandson, Brandon Norris. He's thirty one years of age.
He's at ARMC. He's uh had to have a one of his um feet amputated below the knee.
So there's some real serious needs there. both physically and spiritually.
Well, the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
So, thank you for joining us again tonight. And would you join me as we look to the Lord and bring some of these needs to be? And close our season in prayer. Father, how thankful we are that we have audience with the God of heaven. How grateful we are that you have resources at your disposal to meet our needs.
and to do so in a an abundant way. Thank you, our God, that we can pray to you, and as we pray, you hear us. Thank you for the answers to prayer for these two who are now cancer-free, for Kristen Redd, who's made improvement from an auto accident. Lord, you have shown yourself mighty indeed, and we Pause to give you thanks for answered prayer. We're mindful tonight, our Father.
of those we know and love and We're mindful of Stuart Wall and his situation. We thank you for this progress. We pray that you would sustain him. We pray that you would. Minister to him in the inner man.
We pray that you would provide a suitable donor. And we know what that means. That means.
Someone's life will be taken, and we pray that it would be a believer in Jesus Christ.
Somebody who will be translated from this earthly domain into your Glorious presence.
So, Lord, we ask you to superintend our brother and his dear wife in this season of optimism. We pray for Drew Guthrie. She's knowing a great measure of difficulty in. these cancer treatments and dealing with a feeding tube and The strength that is draining away from her body, please sustain her, please uphold her. Please encourage her, Lord, we pray.
We thank you for The help that Linda Spencer got at the doctor today. We pray that she will know a greater measure of mobility without pain and discomfort. We want to pray for Bruce and Marseille's neighbor, David Crowder, and asks that you would. um meet this man's physical needs. We are mindful of our brother Scott and We would ask that you would go before him, and Lord, if it would please you, allow him to be able to make this trip to.
see his elder eldest son in California and fly out from San Francisco to be reunited with his family. Lord, thank you for the confidence we have that You ordain all things in your providence you have ordered this for he and Emmeline and Daniel. We uh Thank you for the technology that allows him to stay connected in the way he has. We pray for Phyllis Holt, who has broken both of her shoulders and cannot have surgery. We pray that the rehab would be successful.
We thank you for Jack Petrie. We pray that he would continue to do well with his dialysis treatments. For Warren Rogers, who's had a fall and will have surgery on Friday, we pray that that would go well. We pray for these families that have suffered loss in recent days and said goodbye to a loved one. For the home going of Mildred Henshaw, how we thank you for Her sweet testimony of love for Christ and devotion to Christ all these years.
Lord, we pray you'll minister to Her family. as they miss her already. And yet, they are rejoicing that her suffering is behind her, that she's Has declined over these last couple of years from a stroke that she's had. And uh So thank you, Lord, for calling her home to be with you. Refer Wayland Loftus.
We Ask you to draw near to Doris and encourage her and help her to renew her strength, and for Chad as well, minister to them. according to their needs as you know them to be. We pray for Larry Norris's grandson, who's is in serious condition at ARMC having had a leg amputated. young man of thirty one years of age, and uh most likely outside of Christ. Lord, use this to arrest him.
Lord, use this to open his blinded eyes, bring him to a place of desperation that he cries out. to you for mercy. Lord, have mercy upon his never dying soul, we pray. Lord, we thank you for Um Gifted men in our day. I thank you for Dr.
John Piper, for this man who took. took the occasion to write this book, Christ in the Coronavirus. what a tremendous resource available to the Church of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for a wide distribution of this book, that it would fall into the hands of millions upon millions upon millions of people. And people will be confronted With the God of heaven, who orders all things, who's using this for his own purposes, that men and women would come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Church of Jesus Christ would be awakened and would be prepared and be anticipating and longing and looking for his coming.
Lord, we know that You do all things well. And we don't need to understand all that you're doing. All we need to do is. Trust you. that you're good and wise and You're loving.
And you're faithful.
So, Lord, thank you for this time we've had together this evening. Use it, Lord, that it might bear fruit. in our hearts, that it might bear fruit, eternal fruit, in the lives of those we know and love and will have contact with. Lord, thank you for The Ministry of Your Word Thank you that your word is more relevant than Today's newspaper. It speaks to our life right now.
Lord, how grateful we are for a word from heaven. A word from our God. We pray that you would. Help us to remain steadfast and unmovable, abounding in the things of the Lord, that our footing would remain.
solid as we stand on the rock Christ Jesus. And as we look around us and see many people, who are finding that the footing under their lives is shifting and it is nothing but sand. that they would flee to the rock that is higher than they are. We're mindful of our missionaries that we've heard from from the BICS piece. We thank you for their ministry that's ongoing.
We pray that you would indeed. Hear the prayers of the Bixbies and others who are standing with them that you would raise up. A man, a suitable man, that could be trained for leadership. We thank you for Tim's desire to pour his life into a couple of men, and we ask that you'd grant that request. in the funds needed to purchase this building.
And as the time is ticking away a three-year commitment, we ask that you would In a way that would bring honor and glory to you, that would defy any human explanation. Provide for that church. We thank you for its growth and its development. We think of Mike Webster and his wife, and we ask that you would particularly with Melanie and her epilepsy, protect her lord from this coronavirus. Lord, thank you for the way they've been able to carry on ministry there.
We commit them to you. Lord, we're so grateful for the fact that we have audience with you and we have confidence that We can bring our needs before you, and you will meet our needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Strengthen us in the inner man. Galvanize us, fortify us in these days. Help us that we might gird up the loins of our minds and be ready.
Lord Make us good ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make us good citizens of your kingdom wherever you've put us. Help us to shine brightly. Help us to be salt in this decaying world in which we live. Hear us for Jesus' sake.
And for His glory alone we pray. in his name Amen. And amen.
