Okay, so I thought we would talk a little bit about the topic of suffering now that we finished our look at the book of Job. Because this is something that every Christian, I mean really every human has to deal with, but specifically that Christians have to wrestle with. How do we address a topic in which God is supposed to be good, but yet we find things are happening terribly wrong in the world? And we know that suffering proves that there is something terribly wrong in the world. More pointedly, it's the primary symptom of living under the curse of sin. Now, in our study of Job, we have dealt with the topic, but I wanted to look at it more holistically as the topic from a scriptural perspective. particularly looking at some of the poetic books and their views on the subject. But specifically over the next two weeks, we're going to look at one, the causes of suffering. We're also gonna look at the responses to suffering, God's relationship to suffering, and then finally, the resolution of suffering. And a lot of this material that I've taken actually comes from a class that I took, and I added some of my own thoughts into it as well, so I'm able to utilize my seminary education a little bit, I guess you'd say. So we're going to begin this evening by looking at the causes of suffering. Now first we know suffering is something that was never a part of God's original design for humanity. God had created mankind, as the first question of the Westminster Shore Catechism states, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Now, that is, Adam was created by God to worship God. And he was to be always in a state of doxology with his creator. And then, from that continual countenance of praise, he would be granted the glorious opportunity to enjoy the God that had created him. Now this is the true biblical definition of contentment. That is to function in the way that God made you. But when Adam sinned in the garden, he went against God's design for him. And consequently, the curse was placed upon him by God for his disobedience. He no longer would be able to enjoy and fulfill the function which he was called and created to do. He would no longer be able to worship God continually as what was man's original design. But it wasn't just merely the consequence that he wasn't able to worship God as he was intended, but this also meant that the eternal joy that was his was taken because mankind would no longer have eternal access to the God of life and blessing. So if you cannot glorify God, you cannot enjoy anything. That's what it really comes down to. Therefore, death and suffering entered into the picture. No longer would man enjoy true bliss and peace, but he would constantly endure strife and suffering. So at the outset, when we talk about suffering, we have to remind ourselves that suffering and death is what we deserve, right? It's what we deserve. It's the penalty and wages for our sin. But beyond the curse of Adam being the primary cause of suffering, there are other more direct causes of suffering in our lives that are consequent from the original sin. Now, sometimes our suffering is brought about by something that we've done. Perhaps one of the most famous and certainly heartbreaking examples of this is found in Psalm 51. Many of you know this created me a clean heart, right? That's one of the most famous Psalms in all the Bible. Now the context for this psalm is when David committed a grave sin. Now if you recall the story, David was supposed to be leading his military into battle. There were several military campaigns going on at the time, but instead of leaving his army, he stayed at home where he was idle. And of course we know what happens when idleness, right? We tend to get in trouble, and that's what David did. He had these nightly walks that he would take on the city walls, and he would look down and see what the people were doing. Well, one particular night, he looked down and saw Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah, bathing. Now, after seeing her, he lusted after her and then called for her to join him in his bed chambers. Of course, because of that action, she became pregnant. Of course, he didn't expect this. And once he found out that she was with child, he tried to cover up his sin by first recalling Uriah back from the battlefield. And he was trying to get him to be with her for a while in order to cover it up that this was his pregnancy rather than David's. But again, as you know the story, Uriah refused. He could not be with his wife while his brothers were in battle. And so that did not work. So David became desperate, he panicked, and he tried to think up of a plan. And the only thing that he could essentially think of was to send Uriah into the battlefield. Of course, that was a death sentence. He was sent into the front lines specifically, knowing that Uriah would die in battle. And then when Uriah was killed in battle, David knew, like he would be, he took Bathsheba as his own wife. Now this was a very grievous sin in the eyes of the Lord, says the scriptures. And so God sent Nathan the prophet to tell David a story. Nathan told him of a story of a rich man who had many sheep, but he wasn't content in what he had. And he took a poor man who only had one lamb. He took it for his own, stole it from him. So Nathan, after telling him the story, asked David, what should be done to that man who had stolen the sheep? Well, David said, he should be a dead man. He should die for what he's done. And on top of that, he should restore fourfold to what has been stolen from him. And of course, Nathan after hearing this outrage from David says, you are the man. You are the one who took this poor lamb when you sent Uriah into battle and took Bathsheba for your own. He had taken the only treasure that Uriah had had. But the consequence for this, would be severe for David, as strife would continually be into his household till the day that he died. He would lose four sons over the process, including the one with Bathsheba that he had impregnated her with. Now this is the context of Psalm 51, where David knew that his suffering was brought about by what he had done as he declared in Psalm 51, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. It's always in front of his mind. That is something that he had to live with until the day that he died. But despite acknowledging that he was at fault and had this tremendous weight of God's displeasure, it seemed to be too great for him. He started to wonder, would God abandon him forever? so you can appreciate his desperation when he pleaded with the Lord. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. David knew that his sin was so heinous and rightfully deserved God's wrathful hand, but he was praying that despite this, that the Lord would not remove the presence of his Holy Spirit from him. For David knew if the spear of the Lord was lifted from him, that he would suffer the same dreadful fate as King Saul had suffered. Do you remember what happened whenever he sinned against God? And again, Samuel told me it's to obey, it's better to sacrifice, right? And it said, the Spirit of the Lord left him. And David knew what that meant. He knew he was utterly cursed by God if the Spirit of God left him. And so he was pleading with God not to take his spirit from him, not to keep him as his anointed, even though he did not deserve it, right? I know this isn't a point, but that is amazing. That never hit me that as David pronounced to Nathan the judgment of all this person, God made it so fourfold on him. Yes. And you see that in scripture often, where someone who has sinned, they pronounce out of their own mouth the judgment that God passed down to them. Absolutely. And that is amazing. Absolutely. We talk about David being a man after God's own heart, and yet David did some of the most heinous things in scripture. But again, why is David considered a man after God's own heart? It's because he was quick to repent, right? He was quick to repent. He didn't stay in his sin, he didn't revel in his sin, but he quickly repented and turned away from it. That is the very heart that we all need to have when we sin is that we turn away from that. that while we don't incur the wrath of God and we're in His grace and Christ's atonement of sins, there's still restitution of some sort and consequences, like you're saying, of our sins. That's right. And thank God the consequences are eternal because we know that's what our sins deserve. We know that it deserves eternal condemnation for all of us whenever we do these sins. All of our sins are heinous in the sight of God. Remember what Jesus said, talking about, oh, you Pharisees, you think you've never, you're sexually perverse, but yet if you looked at a woman and you've lusted after in your heart, you have sinned, you have committed adultery, right? This is something, again, Jesus is not raising the bar here. He's reestablishing what God has always determined, to be the case, that sin starts here. And David knew that more than anyone, right? He knew that more than anyone. He knew that his sin with Bathsheba started here. When he looked at her, it started there. And from that, all kinds of evil came about. because of the sin that started in the heart. Lonnie? You know, it's a sharp contrast between the joke and the... That doesn't tell us the sin that he committed. The joke, we have no idea if it's sin or not. But that God determined. Right, and I was bringing up this example first because obviously this is something tangible that we can attribute our suffering to, right? Obviously, if you are someone who is in the habit of drinking while driving, you shouldn't be surprised if you're in an accident, you kill somebody, and then you have to spend the rest of your life in jail. That is a necessary consequence of that. Now, if you're a Christian, you know, there is redemption, there is grace as you ask God for forgiveness. But yet, at the same time, that doesn't mean we escape physical and natural consequences of those things. Right, David? The sins that I commit, the things that I may commit, I have to be responsible for those, no matter what. And that even if I receive mercy from God for those things, by repenting, whatever it is, I can't stop that. That's not going to be stopped. Right. Right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. That's right. And you know, that's why David, you know, looking back in Psalm 51 verse 3, for my, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. I always know that I sinned and transgressed against God. And sometimes those consequences are so dire, so dire that they're lifelong. And that's what David had to live with. He lived a fairly long life in those days. You know, 70 years, he lived a long, long life. Life expectancy was much shorter, but yet he had to live with that. He had to live with that, and God didn't let him escape from that. I just was going to say something because it's really striking me is that, you know, so many, I should, I mean, I can say of us or so many people, Christians, you know, go through divorce. Yes. And, you know, obviously that's a sin. And I, the thing I think about as far as the consequence, you know, you know, obviously I'm, I feel very blessed. I have my husband, you know, But I look at that consequence of my child, my Chelsea, who was the child of that divorce. And it's like I didn't, I never realized when I was making those decisions, the consequences. And of course, she suffers. But I mean, I suffered too watching because the consequence of mine and my ex-husband's decisions, and I can only say my decisions really, I mean, they have hurt her forever, for the rest of her life. That's right. And I can't help it. visited a lot. Yes. So those are consequences. Yeah, they are. And for those who, especially young people, who have examples like that, young people, take note. Take note. Don't tread down those same paths. You know, God often, in fact, you'll be more responsible if you tread down that path and you've had examples. as opposed to someone else who perhaps hadn't gone through that, hadn't seen that before. You're going to have a greater condemnation, greater consequence for that yourself. May I? Sure. Let me ask you on sin. When I was a teenager, in the early 20s, I think back at some of the things I did, and No, well, I believe you. I believe you, yes. Well, no, and again, once you ask God's forgiveness for those things, then it should be forgotten. God forgets our sins. He separates us from our sins as far as the east is from the west. So the guilt should not carry with us. However, that doesn't mean the consequence of those sins doesn't stay with us. Those are the things that we're talking about that you continually may creep up in your life. But as far as the guilt is concerned, God says you are forgiven. I mean, it is done. Jesus died and spilled his blood for that sin. Every sin, it doesn't matter how heinous you think it is. He died for every one of his people's sins. Therefore, that is why you can look past it, and not to say that It was okay because it never was okay, but you know that God forgave you and therefore you have joy and hope in that fact that he has forgiven you. I'm so glad I asked you this. Absolutely. But in the end, David knew, despite all this, the fact that all the sins were before him and he was grieving over the fact that he had done this and he was pleading with God not to send his Holy Spirit away from him. He knew in the end that God was not pleased by just mere outward show, right? As he says, as he continues, for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You would not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. So David's assurance was that a repentant heart given in faith is the only way a man can be brought back into God's good graces. The fact that he repents, he's offering this sacrifice of faith instead of an outward sacrifice. Believe me, you cannot buy God off. You cannot buy God, people have tried it, have tried to buy God off thinking if I just give to this charity or do this or do that, God is going to let me off the hook. I guarantee he will not. He will not. The only thing that will get you off the hook is that if you trust in the work of Jesus Christ alone, who gets us off the hook, right? He's the one, and we are clothed in his righteousness, and we are declared not guilty before the Father. But also we know in the book of Proverbs, that in addition to our own sin, that a person's own foolishness can also cause suffering. Part of the purpose of the Proverbs is to demonstrate the negative consequences of foolishness so that people will walk in the way of wisdom and righteousness in order to experience the benefits that come from wisdom. Now, a rejection of wisdom may lead to calamity, terror, distress, and anguish, as it says in Proverbs 1. 24 through 26, because I have called and you have refused, I've stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and you would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your terror comes. Really this is the reap what you sow aspect of suffering. If you're gonna act like a fool, expect to have a fool's end, right? If you pursue your own way as opposed to God's way, it means that you will suffer often the consequence. Now, we know this is not universal. We know this isn't all the time. It's not a guarantee. However, this is the way of the fool. This is often the way of the fool. And we have seen it play out over and over again, that people who live foolishly will suffer the consequence from it. And you shouldn't be surprised when people mock you and scoff you for it, right? That's something that should be expected. But then sometimes our suffering is due not to our own sin or foolishness, but to those of others, right? Now the enemy, and I'm not talking about the enemy Big E, like Satan, but any enemy that we have can be personal, and it can be like such a close companion becomes a traitor. Many of you might be familiar with this psalm. It says, even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Now it's unknown as to the identity of David's friend, he's talking about who betrayed him, but this would properly signify Christ's betrayal by Judas, doesn't it? one of his disciples, one of his friends, who would eat bread with him just a few hours before he would betray him, right? Think about Judas. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Judas is the, probably he, this psalm was probably prophetic, fulfilling, it was fulfilled in Judas' betrayal. But also, too, enemies cannot not just be personal, but they also can take the form of national enemies, right? One of the most famous national enemies in the Bible is Babylon, who conquered Israel and destroyed Jerusalem in the temple. Such nations were instruments of God's judgment against the sinfulness of Israel. We read this in the book of Lamentations as Jeremiah writes, her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prospered, for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone to captivity before the enemy. We know that God over and over and over in scripture, whenever Israel would sin, how would he often, what means would he use to bring them to an end of themselves? He would raise up nations and they would take them over. They would oppress them. They would cry out to God. They would repent. and then God would deliver them, right? This is a continuous cycle, starting in the Judges, but going all throughout the history of the kingdom, the northern and southern kingdoms. You have this continual pattern where they would go astray, God would raise up an enemy, a nation, and afflict them, and then God would deliver them. It's obvious to say this, but that is the That is the result of being in covenant with God. Yes, absolutely. By covenant, he establishes the blessings and curses. And it is and will come to pass. That's right. And so it's not like you can get off the hook without, like we're saying, consequences. But it is an act of being in covenant with God. Right, right. That's it. That's it. That's exactly right. And while Israel's suffering in this case is not directly caused by their sin. It is indirectly caused by their sin. God is, instead of using more general means for suffering, in other words, you paint like David, he paid the consequence, he lost his son, and all that came upon because of his sin. Because of Israel's continual bent and propensity towards idolatry, God would raise up a vessel. in order to bring them down, for them to suffer the consequence of that. And there is a federal headship or representation, like when the king would sit. Yes, absolutely. Right. Yeah, particularly what you see is that enemies, probably the worst enemies that the nation of Israel had was their kings. They were considered, they were supposed to be their leaders. They were supposed to be the ones who loved them, who actually would lead them into godliness. Do you remember in Deuteronomy, one of the things that the king was supposed to do is he was supposed to write the Torah himself, a handwritten copy in which he would keep it. So it means he would know the law so well that he would be able to lead the people in all righteousness and godliness. But there was long periods of time where the Torah was lost. That's what Josiah was mournful about. They had his grandfather, Manasseh, had shut it up, had gotten rid of the Torah. The kings of those generations did not know what God's law said. But when Josiah read it, he started weeping. You remember that? He saw what the curses were in the covenant. And he knew that even though he was ignorant up to that point, he wasn't off the hook. He wasn't off the hook. He would still have to suffer that consequence for that. As I was thinking, as the nation, as the people were suffering through their generational sin, and generations of generations, right? But even though the absence of God's word was not there, once it returned through the prophet, to share that word again, to bring the people back up, I mean, it's like a relief of grace for the people to know that He was still there. Yes. And their eyes were open. Yes. And so as individuals, ourselves, today, the Holy Spirit is within us. And it shares the revelation to us of who we are and who we are. Right. Who do we belong to. Right. And that raises up hope in our lives to know, okay, I still sin. Like Pastor says, we still sin, but we ask for forgiveness and repent. Yes. And relieve that sin away. And Christ gives us His righteousness. Yes, He does. He gives us fulfillment. That's right. And it really is the key to, as we're going to consider the rest of this through suffering, is always considering what Christ has done for us. Now, suffering also can be due to our frustration with God. If this sounds familiar, obviously, we just looked at an entire book about that, about Job's vindication, right? He was frustrated with God's dealings with him. There wasn't, again, as was mentioned, there was no specific sin mentioned that caused Job's suffering. That probably wasn't God's intent. God's intent was to make Job more into the image of Jesus Christ, right? Even though Jesus Christ hadn't come yet, that was, that is the goal of every saint, is to be in his image, right? So we know that to be the case. But we often express frustration with God due to the fact that life just doesn't turn out the way we think it's going to, right? Oftentimes we struggle. In fact, the righteous struggle more, it seems, right? struggle more and more than the unbeliever. And often this can result in inner turmoil and despair. And we struggle with the meaning of life. And I brought this example up, but Psalm 73 is probably one of my favorite psalms. And I keep coming back to it because of the reality of how much it resonates with the Christian life. Again, The psalmist was struggling in Psalm 73 about this plight. He struggled with the prosperity of the wicked, that a struggle that almost led to the conclusion that he was living in vain for God. He said, surely I've cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence. So he wrestled with the question so much, as it said, it became a wearisome task for him. And he almost fell utterly and completely, fell away from the faith. But we know what happened, right? We know how he was restored, is when he went into the assembly. He went to the presence of God and was restored. But this still is a problem for God's people. Kohelet in the book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher, had the same struggle with the apparent unfulfilled expectations of a life lived in wisdom. Not only does wisdom, he's saying, not deliver on its promises, but the righteous experience have that the wicked deserve, and the wicked experience is what the righteous deserve. He says everything's turned on its head. He says, there is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this is also vanity. So what do you do with the fact that it seems that sometimes the righteous live a great life and yet all they have is suffering? They can't seem to catch a break. And then on the other hand, you have the unholy, you have the wicked out there living it up, high on the hog. They can't make a mistake, it seems like, right? Everything is going right for them. So what are you supposed to do? So this is an age-old struggle. This is not something new, something that we just struggle with, it's unique to our age. This is something that has been a problem since the beginning. With that, that's spiritual growth, because with suffering, we're going to trust more and lean more on Jesus Christ and have faith, wherefore we're being tested every single day. Even though we're suffering, it seems like on the outside, Manic, like you said, I can't catch a break. You know, why? We're a witness to non-believers. All right. And that's something that non-believers can't understand. So why would I even want to rely on Jesus Christ if I'm suffering for his name? But when us Christians look at it, we suffer because our end goal is to be in heaven. Right. But again, what happens, as you can see, and then we're not immune from this either. is that what the problem that Kohelet had was that he was looking at everything under the sun. He was looking at everything from a horizontal perspective. Because if you, if we're all honest, if you just look at everything in the material aspect, it's pretty hopeless, isn't it? It's pretty hopeless. And again, that's why the Apostle Paul continues to tell the church, as he told the Corinthians, that if there is no resurrection, there is no hope, right? There's might as well eat and drink and be married because this is something is a hope. In other words, you can't hypothesize, you can't conclude the reality of Jesus's work on the cross without having a vertical aspect of things. Because if you look at everything, it looks like he failed. He died. and his body just seems to be missing. That's it for a lot of unbelievers, right? But for us, we know, we have that aspect of suffering because we do have a vertical aspect. We have a view of eternity in which Kohelet is actually inconsistent because he actually says in another place that eternity is written onto man's hearts. So there is this aspect which we would desire to look vertically But without the enlightenment of the Spirit, we just don't know how. Right? David? Yes. Yes, absolutely. That's right. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But for those who have not been given this vertical aspect, there seems to be a reward to labor on one aspect. And yet, there is no profit either. He says, despite all that toil, that I consider that all my hands had done to the toil that I expended in doing it, behold, all was vanity, and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. So because this is all vanity, then he concludes, Then I saw there's no more gain in wisdom than in folly, and there's no more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes on his head, but the fool walks in darkness, and yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them. So what benefit is there in wisdom? What benefit is there in pleasing God? So this is the view that you have, and you have no aspect of eternity. He wonders why he was so wise and asserts Therefore, because of this, I hated my life, and I hated my toil. I hated everything about my life. The benefits of wisdom fall short for the righteous and the wise, which is the source of his struggle with the meaninglessness of life. For example, my wife's dad was murdered. And we found out later he lived to the age of 102 in a rest home, which possibly we have no explanation of that. In the cave, yeah, living in the cave, he was mindless and heartless. But anyway, we've, in different ways, have experienced that. If you would comment briefly on the last verse in John 16, what the Lord had to say about our afflictions. said these things to you, the Christian, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Yes, absolutely. Again, that's what the Christian should expect. And I think we know that to be true, but yet at the same time, living that out, and when we're in the midst of something, remembering the fact, remembering Jesus' words, It's one thing to hear it audibly, it's one thing to actually believe it. Because if you believe it, then when trial and tribulation comes, then you'll have something to hold on to, to lean into. Otherwise, if you're trying to find meaning to why something is happening, you're not going to find it. Jesus gives us that promise for a reason, knowing that there is a more vertical aspect, a more eternal aspect to our suffering than what we can see. Well, we're going to go ahead and have to close this evening, and this may stretch into three weeks, but that's okay. I don't want to rush this, and so next time we'll look at responses to suffering. as we will continue. So if I could, yes, Lonnie? You know, last Sunday, you and I talked before class started, and we talked about Job's suffering. You know, we didn't understand why it started like that, and at the end of it, we saw it was for the benefit of his three friends. Yes. God told them that he'd take seven bulls, sacrifice them, and have Job pray for them. Well, it's the same in Jesus Christ. He suffered the benefits from all of us. That's right. And his suffering, he didn't do anything to deserve it, but he went through it anyway for our benefit. That's exactly right. And so our suffering, for the, suffering, if you think about it, is never pointless, even for the unbeliever. Because suffering, for the believer, we know, as we are told over and over, as Paul says, It's working out something greater, a greater weight of glory. But for the believer, it's not pointless either, because that is just, and what they're receiving is just, and it is due them, right? So it's not, no suffering is pointless. Suffering has an end, because God has an end for suffering.