Grace & Suffering. Does He Listen?

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you.

Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.ProjectTruthMatters.com. Let's join this week's extended edition as Dr. Davis teaches on God's grace and why God allows us to suffer from time to time. Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis and thank you for listening to Truth Matters. Recently, we've celebrated the Mother's Day season and I know many of you may be mothers or you may have a mother in which you celebrated recently, so I want to thank God for being a mother, also for having the gift of motherhood.

As many of you know, I have four children. I recently gave this message to a Mother's Day brunch at Pine Ridge Holiness Church in Hartsville, South Carolina. I think the message in which we shared for Mother's Day would be great for everyone to hear. So I want to share with you the theme of their Mother's Day brunch was to give them beauty for ashes out of Isaiah 61 3. And in talking about ashes, you know, we really can't talk about ashes without talking about God's grace. We can't talk about beauty without talking about God's glory. The famous preacher Jonathan Edwards once said, Grace is but glory begun and glory is but grace perfected. Grace is the beginning of glory and glory is the perfect end of grace. So if I were to give you a title for this, I would title this begin with grace and end with glory. Begin with graced, but end with glory. So let's look in first Peter chapter five verses 10 through 11. I thought this would be very fitting for talking about motherhood and actually talking about our service to Jesus Christ and sanctification. It says, But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. I like to begin with the end in mind. You know, oftentimes I give my main point from the beginning. So if you do not remember anything that I say today, please remember this one thing. Whatever begins with God's grace will lead to God's glory. Let's start out with the beginning of the verse. May the God of all grace Ephesians chapter two verse eight tells us that by grace we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves. It is a gift from God. By grace, we are plucked off the ash pile of humanity and clothed in a robe of righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Our sins are forgiven and we will never experience spiritual death and we will live eternally. Do we fully understand the depth of God's grace? The Holy Spirit has been dealing with me recently on this matter. For the past few weeks, he really has opened my eyes to my own self as to what God's grace means for me. Talk about an ash pile.

Sister Georgiana at my church sings a song. He had to reach way down for me. I was lost and undone without God or his son when he reached way down for me. We are going to have to choose between suffering and sin. I am not here to speak doom.

I am just here to state the facts. Your decision, my decision, the decision of our children will be will I choose suffering or will I choose sin? The sad state of affairs today is that the church has already failed this test.

The church chose to stay home rather than assemble themselves together because assembling ourselves together caused suffering. The reason the church is more apt to choose sin rather than suffering because they don't discern what is actually sin. The Bible tells us that anything that is not of faith is a sin.

If fear of taking the risk keeps you from obeying the Word of God, it is still sin. Our pulpits are not calling sin for what it actually is. We are presenting grace and grace alone. We are preaching Christ as a suffering servant and not a returning and reigning king. We are not presenting Christ as revelation presents Christ. And behold I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. Blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idol orchards and whoever loves and practices a lie. Revelation chapter 22 verses 12 14 through 15. To choose sin over suffering is to love and practice a lie.

Point number two. It is time to break up with the world. Remember suffering is to be chosen rather than sin. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 26.

Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he looked to the reward. This may be a news flash to the church down the road as I'm sure that all of you know this already. Christianity is not the prosperity gospel that is preached in a lot of churches in modern day America today. The true gospel is that by grace you are saved through faith and it is a gift of God not based on works. The modern church today focuses on salvation and prosperity based upon my position as a believer. Because I am saved therefore I am entitled to all that God has to offer.

I declare it and it is done. The message stops there. What is left out is that Christ suffered reproach. The people of God have always been a reproach people therefore the church and the Christian will suffer reproach. Reproach is a disgrace a struggle or some type of suffering. Reproach is God's method to make us more like Christ and to develop and strengthen our faith.

We don't get our faith out of the ATM when we need more of it. Our faith in God is cultivated in the reproach. The Bible says Moses by faith valued the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures in Egypt. If you remember Egypt was a wealthy nation and Moses grew up having the best of everything.

He had the potential to be Pharaoh in the future. He could have been the ruler of the modern day world at the time but instead he chose the reproach of Christ. Instead he chose the reproach of Christ.

Moses took the worst of religion and waited against the best of the world and discerned that the worst of his faith is the most valuable. I can't say what the worst of the religion or the worst of your faith is for you but what I do know is that some of us listening today have suffered a reproach for the sake of Christ. I would go further to say that some of us are suffering a reproach right now for the sake of Christ. You are in a God-ordained period of suffering and it is not over until he says it's over. Although you have prayed to the point of begging God for deliverance. I suffered a reproach for 15 long years and today I'm here to say the reproach will not last forever. The reproach will not last forever. Romans 8 18 tells us for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God we are suffering reproach some of you are exhausted to the point of giving in you have asked the Lord and you have grown impatient to the point of anger God's grace is sufficient for your reproach today some of you are missing the value in your reproach that is the part that I struggled with the most how could God allow me to go through something so difficult and there be value and such a heart-wrenching experience the worst of your reproach is still better than the best the world has to offer how can you say that you say God has subjected you in hope the world has no hope God has subjected you in hope the world has no hope let me share this with you God is going to turn your reproaches into riches some physical riches but more importantly eternal riches our suffering and reproach will not be in vain God loves us too much to not reward our obedience notice I said obedience not sacrifice the Bible says that obedience is better than sacrifice Moses reward was that God spoke to him face to face Moses saw his glory no one else in the Bible had that type of relationship with God Jesus Christ was rewarded for his death on the cross so we will be rewarded for suffering reproach for Christ point number three value the reproach of Christ more than the riches of this world no matter how hard it is Christ will turn your reproaches into riches let's move on to Hebrews 11 27 by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible Moses through an eye of faith saw the invisible God he was fully assured of his existence and of his gracious and powerful presence within us but with God what you see is what you get Moses saw God who is alpha omega the first and the last God almighty he who was and who is and who is to come Moses saw a God who is sovereign and who is eternally good he saw God who was the ruler over the kings of the earth he saw a God who was worth leaving the world for and he got a God that appeared to him in the burning bush he got a God who parted the red sea and provided manna from heaven and water from the rock malachi 3 6 tells us for i am the Lord and i changeth not i am the same yesterday today and forever what i am to moses so i can be to you is the i am worth breaking up with the world for is the questions that i have for you point number four in order to break up with the world you have to see the invisible God and the invisible God that you see is the God that you get he saw an invisible God that was all the more powerful than any God that Egypt could offer i want to thank God for his word his word is clear in the fact that time is drawing near who is the object of your faith God or the world are you in the middle of a reproach and you feel like giving up you're not suffering well because you don't have the right perspective if you knew that the suffering had an eternal reward far greater than you could imagine would you go out it differently do you feel that you are unworthy to be used by God because of your lack of abilities and talents or the mistakes that you've made in your suffering your faith in God justifies you God wants to meet you in your situation and clothe you in his righteousness and his love and his mercy and his grace it is time to break up with the world the Bible shows us a perfect picture of God's grace in the story of Saul whom we know as Paul in Acts chapters 8 and 9 we learn about Saul he was a student of the law and by our standards he was extremely religious he was so zealous that chapter 8 tells us that Saul consented to the death of Stephen the first martyr in chapter 9 verse 1 Saul is still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord and he went to the high priest to get letters to bind men and women who followed the way and bring them to Jerusalem but in verse 15 the Lord is calling Saul a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles kings and the children of Israel in the same short time frame that he was binding Christians and consenting to their death God is calling him a chosen vessel of his this is a perfect picture of God's grace Saul was chosen even though he was committing persecution and murder against his own calling no one was more unworthy than Saul Paul called himself the chief of sinners you may think that you are unworthy today but really none of us are worthy enough to earn the love of Jesus Christ that is why it is a gift a free gift that is given to those who believe on the name of Jesus Christ only you know what God's grace means for you we must understand this concept when we understand what God's grace means for you you will see how your brother needs that grace as well you know and you'll begin to love like Jesus loves whenever we see ourselves in other people or whenever we see our needs in other people as when we can allow grace to flow and we can love like Jesus we've got to begin with grace 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 10 tells us when we begin with grace by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior he calls us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus we all are called to God's glory some of you listening may say I don't know what my calling is you know I'm just walking around in the dark today I want to let you know you are called to God's glory let's get back to verse 10 he calls us then the verse says after we have suffered a while so when you're reading this you're probably like wait a minute he gives me grace then he calls me then this suffering comes so how does that happen and even to go a little bit deeper why does that even have to happen I'm gonna let you in on a little secret that not probably every Christian is aware of but God will suffer us for a while because we are called to his glory God will lead us into a period of suffering you've been listening to the weekend edition of truth matters with dr cheryl davis truth matters is a ministry of the truth project a north carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church if you'd like to listen to these messages on demand go to project truthmatters.com and click on the podcast link dr davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function she can be reached by email at cheryl davis at project truthmatters.com or if you'd like to send a letter the address is project truth matters post office box 159 st paul's north carolina 28384 you can hear truth matters devotionals on weekdays at 8 20 a.m and 5 20 p.m until next time let's all work together to teach of biblical truth to assist equip edify and encourage one another and bring the gospel to the world because truth matters this is the truth network