God’s Faithfulness in Affliction (Part 1 of 2)

Perhaps one of the most straightforward points to acknowledge about suffering is that it's real, and it hurts.

That sometimes leads to bitterness and resentment. But today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains how God's faithfulness and affliction can produce deep growth if we're willing to be trained in the midst of a trial. We live in a framework in which somehow or another we have been tempted to believe in a triumphalistic approach to everything we do, and that if all is not well, if trouble is in our way, if we are facing difficulty and illness and despair, then we're tempted to find ourselves far more akin to the counselors of Job, who gave some pretty poor advice to the servant of God in the midst of an experience of genuine trial. There is, I think, a pressing need at this time for someone somewhere to write a decent theology of suffering, so that Christian people may be able to face life, live life, deal with bereavement, children that are impaired both mentally and physically, circumstances of deteriorating health and diminishing powers, and yet at the same time bless God for his faithfulness in and through it all.

And our time this morning hopefully will at least be a step in the direction towards biblical sanity. It is very possible for us to try and deal with the whole question of suffering by trying to talk it out of existence, as it were. And there is a great deal of that going on. Others, by searching for an instant cure, and others by living in the realm of illusion and mythology, by pretending that in some measure at least suffering doesn't exist. The great danger in speaking about affliction, especially if one is not in an immediate afflicted condition oneself, is that one may be very theoretical and quite unhelpful to those who are going through deep days.

And I trust this morning that I will not fall foul of that, because there are a number of pitfalls to avoid in addressing this issue. One is philosophical rambling that is devoid of any kind of theological foundation. Another pitfall is that of adopting a simplistic approach which hurts people rather than heals in any sense at all. And I'm referring there without turning to it to the kind of offerings of help that were given by Eliphaz and by Bildad and by Zophar.

These characters were quick on the draw, they were ready with an answer, and most of it was distinctly unhelpful. Some of us somehow think, in seeking to be of help to others, in affirming the faithfulness of God in the experience of suffering, that if we can bang out one or two proof texts—a quick burst on the Romans 8.28 scenario—then surely people will take that to heart, and they will get on with their lives. It's probably that we've never truly been broken ourselves enough to realize the importance of eloquent silence. In the experience of suffering, silence in the offerings of those who are concerned to give counsel is often far greater in its help than a lot of talk. Job, and from the second chapter, and from verse 13, When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. That's good.

You go to chapter 13 and to verse 5, still in Job, and Job is now speaking. He says, You, however, smear me with lies. You're worthless physicians, all of you. Obviously not impressed with their counsel. They did far better with seven days and seven nights of silence, would that we might learn.

You're all worthless physicians, all of you. If only you would be altogether silent. For you, that would be wisdom. One of the missing dimensions in many of our lives is silence—contemplation, meditation. Take the earphones out of our ears, turn the tape off, turn the radio off, sit down, and shut up. And we may make far more progress in that silent, contemplative dimension than any of us ever realize. Job certainly had that to say.

But since we're not going to opt for the silent option, let me proceed. What, then, is the perspective that we are to adopt in relationship to this matter of God's faithfulness displayed in suffering? Because his faithfulness is displayed even in the suffering of his servants. Scripture is replete with that. Well, first of all, we need to live in the realm of reality rather than the realm of illusion. And the first thing that we can say, quite straightforwardly, is this—that suffering does exist, and it does hurt. Affliction is a reality in everyone's life at one time or another. That's why Peter writes to his friends, and he says, Dear friends, Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as if something strange were happening to you. Isn't that the most interesting thing, that even as Christians, as soon as when you tell somebody about another believer, you say, Oh, you won't believe what happened, you know, they were diagnosed with such-and-such.

So what's surprising about that? God does not suspend the laws of human nature and physical existence simply because we are redeemed. If you're not looking where you're going when you're walking along the road and you bang into a pole, you just banged into a pole, you silly thing. Why didn't you look where you were going? Don't be praying when you should be looking.

Don't be surprised. Suffering does exist, and it is real. First Peter is full of it. Life is full of it.

No one has pastored for any length of time without understanding that. And I don't want to tell you a lot of stories this morning, but I've lived through the reality of that truth, that suffering is there, it does exist, and it is jolly painful. Secondly, that suffering comes in all kinds of different ways. First Peter chapter 1 and verse 6, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Manifold trials—I think the King James Version has it.

Manifold grace for manifold trials in all different kinds of ways. And the grief which is referred to here in 1 Peter 1.6 is that which is expressive of the mental impact of enduring hardship. The trials that were coming were buffeting their minds and were crushing their spirits, and he says, In a little while, or for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief. You see, the little while for us needs to be understood in the light of eternity, so that even a lifetime is a little while in light of eternity. To suffer over a protracted period of time with whatever it is, matter of years in our lives, is still in the economy of God and in the framework of God's plan and purpose for his children—a little while.

That's not to say that it feels like a little while. Especially those who suffer mental anguish. Those who suffer mental anguish, a minute can seem like a day, and a day can seem like a year, and a year can seem like it's never coming to an end.

The trials that come are manifold trials. Suffering is real, and it hurts. Suffering comes in manifold ways. Thirdly, suffering is inevitably limited in its timeframe.

You go to the doctor, and you have to have some kind of local anesthetic, and he comes at you with that big needle. I remember on one occasion he said to me, If you can make it through the next forty seconds, we'll be fine. Sounded very ominous, and it was ominous, and it was jolly painful. And I'm glad it only lasted forty seconds.

Four separate injections, ten seconds each. You've been there. Some of you do that to people. You think of it in relationship to Paul's life in 2 Corinthians, and in chapter 4, verse 15, all this, he says, is for your benefit so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Now notice, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

J. B. Phillips paraphrases that, This is the reason why we never collapse. Also, we're able to say with confidence that in the pain of suffering there is the presence of God. Not exclusively, but certainly, that God is there in the reality of suffering. For example, in the book of Exodus and in chapter 2 and in verse 24, we read as follows, The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

That's what people say to us all the time, is it not? So where is God in the midst of all of this? Did your God leave you? Did your God desert?

The answer is no. He's here all along. He heard their groaning, he remembered his covenant, and he was concerned about them. In the book of Isaiah and in chapter 63 and in verse 9, you find a similar expression. In the day of God's vengeance and redemption, it says, In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. And in his love and mercy he redeemed them, and he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Surely they are my sons, who will not be false to me. In all their distress he too was distressed. What does Jesus say when he meets the arrogant Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

How could he say that? Because of his solidarity with his church. It is one thing that we might share the fellowship of his sufferings.

It is quite another that he would share the fellowship of ours. Isn't that the wonder of what we find in Hebrews that we have in the Lord Jesus, a great high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities? That as the songwriter says, there's no throb nor thrall that our hearts can know, but he feels it above? That when we're tempted to believe that somehow or another nobody knows the trouble I've seen? That there's not another living soul who understands where we've been or what we're going through?

As well, there may not be. We may be confident in this—that in the pain of our suffering is the presence of a faithful God. John Stodd in The Cross of Christ says, We are not to envisage God on a deck chair but on a cross.

And surely that is part of the significance of the fact of the incarnation itself, that his name is Immanuel, which will be interpreted, which means God with us. Fifthly, suffering in and of itself does not lead a person into a deeper relationship with God. Suffering in and of itself does not lead a person into a deeper relationship with God. Hebrews 12 and verse 11, No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace by those who have been trained by it.

By those who have been trained by it. It's similar to what he says earlier in Hebrews, when he talks about the Word of God being of no value to those who heard it, because they did not combine it with faith. So they listened to the Word of God, but it was like rain falling on a hardened surface. It was impervious. They were impervious to the truth. They did not take it to themselves.

It was not combined with faith. And in the same way, just the experience of suffering need not draw a person closer to God. It may embitter us. It may make us useless. It may sideline us for a period of time, because our hearts become antagonistic towards God rather than sympathetic and open.

We need to ask ourselves the question when we go through it all. In the midst of heartache, is this making me brittle, or is this making me gentle? One lady loses a son, and she becomes hardened and cold and cynical. Another lady, you meet her at the market, and you're struck by the tenderness of her eyes. She's got crow's feet, you know, but she just has kind eyes. You see her on a subsequent day, and of all the things you're struck by, you're struck by her eyes.

And you ask someone, Where did Mrs. So-and-so get those tender eyes? The answer is, when she lost her boy in whatever year it was, God broke her heart and gave her a spirit of dependence upon him that is quite unique. And she has become, says the person, one of the best and most careful, helpful, biblical counselors in our church. Because in the experience of suffering, she drew close, rather than stood at a distance.

Suffering does not necessarily bring us close to God, but it may. I remember in the seventies in Scotland, as we sent out one of the young missionaries from our church, Colleen. We sent her off as a missionary to Senegal. She'd been out there a couple of years. She had written back to say that she'd been feeling unwell. She came home with abdominal pains that they were unable to tackle in Senegal, and within a matter of days, they had diagnosed her with a large carcinoma in the very central area of her lower abdomen.

And within a matter of weeks rather than months, she had gone home to glory. And some people came over to her mother and father's home on the evening that we had conducted the funeral, and they let them know that their daughter need not have died, because it was apparent to them, at least, that we simply did not have enough faith when we were praying for her healing. Now, let's assume that these were well-meaning souls and just dreadfully misguided, and they felt somehow or another that God was only glorified if Colleen was raised up from her bed in which she was stuck with cancer. They didn't have a theology which said, God is also glorified in taking to himself Colleen and leaving behind a legacy of those who will revere her memory and recollect on her faithfulness and tell others of the way she faced death with fortitude and with faith and with anticipation.

Not a triumphal story about how she got up and danced around her bed, but a sad story of how a twenty-four-year-old girl was removed from apparent usefulness in a realm of missionary endeavor. And in it all, and through it all, God never violated his faithfulness. You see, God is glorified in the death of his saints. His faithfulness is so vast, it is so comprehensive, that it embraces not only our successes but also our disappointments, that his providence orders all things—the good days and the bad days.

We don't somehow or another need to dress up the deity and make him acceptable to the minds of pagan men and women who only have a notion of some triumphal God. Our God is a God who manifested the essence of his faithfulness with a cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Was that an expression of faithlessness? It was a very apex of his faithfulness. Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

And in that, declare his faithfulness. When you go back into the Puritan writers, you have these wonderful illustrations of the same. One of the great stories that comes out of the covenanting period in Scotland is that of Richard Cameron, and if you've read Men of the Covenant, then you'll know this story. But Richard Cameron, one of the leaders of the Covenanters, was known as the Lion of the Covenant. And he was killed in a battle when he was just thirty-two years old. His enemies cut off his head and his hands, and on their way to the nether bow in Edinburgh, which is where the prison was, where they were going to display these trophies of war—namely, to take his head and his hands and impale them on the railings outside—they took them to Richard's father, who was being held prisoner in the tollbooth jail. Displaying the head and hands, they asked him, Do you know them? He said, Well, we live in a very brutal generation, you know. The heart of man is desperately wicked in every generation.

Can you imagine these characters walking in, holding a head, severed from its body, holding the hands of a man's son, and holding them before his gaze, and saying, Do you recognize this? Languishing in a jail, on trumped-up charges, confronted by the bloodied head of his son, he takes the opportunity to declare the faithfulness of God in the midst of suffering. The hymn writer says, All that is ill that he blesses is our good, and unblessed good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong, if it be his sweet will. Declaring God's Faithfulness and Affliction. That's a challenging thought for us from today's message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

Appreciating God's faithfulness in times of trial is not a natural response to suffering. But through the teaching of God's Word, God's Spirit gives us knowledge and understanding, and that's the reason we teach directly from Scripture on Truth for Life. In fact, our purpose in teaching the Bible with clarity and relevance is so that God will open the hearts of those who are unbelievers, deeply root believers in their faith, and strengthen local churches through His Word. This is the heart of our mission.

As Alistair often says, we have only one string in our bow. But it takes an essential partnership with you for this to happen. Your financial support is necessary to cover the expenses associated with this ministry. And as we close in on the end of the year, we're asking listeners to consider making a one-time, year-end donation to Truth for Life so that we can end 2020 fully funded. Please go online or call today to give your end-of-the-year gift to support the Bible teaching you here on this daily program. When you do, we would love to send you Christopher Ash's new devotional titled, Repeat the Sounding Joy. This book will help you begin the Christmas season by immersing you in the Christmas story with daily readings that are centered in Luke's Gospel.

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Hope you have a relaxing and refreshing weekend. If you're looking to supplement the teaching you receive from your local church, keep in mind Alistair Begg's teaching at Parkside Church is streamed live most weekends. You can find out if Alistair will be teaching this weekend. Simply go to truthforlife.org slash live. Then join us Monday as we continue studying God's faithfulness in affliction. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.