Sermon Central
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Issues Of Suffering, Death, And Evil
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 12, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. Job The Righteous Sufferer
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
All of us will experience suffering, but few if any will have to go the route of Job. His severe experience can help all of us make our less severe journey smoother.
One of the first impressions I gained at the Baptist General Conference annual meeting in Green Bay was that Christians are perpetually suffering. Every day we were reminded of leaders in our conference who are fighting with cancer. Just in our small denomination there are hundreds who have ...read more
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2. Suffering Is Not Good
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Suffering is not good, but thank God He will work with us, even in that which is not good, to bring forth what is good.
We have special seats as we watch the drama of Job unfold. God has, by this opening chapter, invited us into the balcony to watch the whole thing from a heavenly perspective. We get to see from the view of God and Satan, and who knows how many millions of celestial spectators. It is a sort of ...read more
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3. Why Tragedy?
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Job is a comedy, for in spite of all the tragedy, it has a happy ending. So life is a comedy. No matter how tragic life becomes because of freedom, God will make sure that evil will be overcome.
Elie Wiesel, who survived Hitler's blood bath for the Jews, as devoted his life to telling the world of this tragedy that he feels surpasses hell in its horrors. His books have motivated others to write so that there now exists a holocaust literature. There are books, plays, articles, and ...read more
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4. Good And Evil
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Evil we say is dependent upon the good for its very existence. Good can exist alone, but evil must have the presence of good to exist,
When Victor Hugo was at what seemed to be the height of his fame he came into disfavor with Napoleon III and was exiled for 19 years. It was only natural that Hugo would consider this as pure tragedy, but his immediate judgment was wrong. During those years he wrote far superior books, and he ...read more
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5. Good And Evil Ii
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Satan will use the truth and nothing but the truth, and he will offer you the very best if he can persuade you to get it by disobeying God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children." This does not mean, however, that their truth telling is always pleasant. Especially if you have guests, or if you are like the Sunday School teacher who asked too many ...read more
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6. A Simple Solution To Suffering
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Paul was a great sufferer of all kinds of unjust pain, and it was not because of sin, but because he was a servant of Christ.
One of the good things to come out of suffering is this: It forces those who cannot see any sense in it to grapple with the mystery, and strive to squeeze some meaning out of it. Almost everyone who writes on suffering does so out of their own personal encounter with this mysterious monster. In ...read more
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7. Accidental Suffering
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Let's look at this accidental death of a New Testament teenager and see what we can learn about the cause and cure of suffering.
The Cherynoble nuclear accident in Russia was one of the most headline grabbing events of the 20th century. But what we do not realize is that many accidents are not spectacular explosions, fiery crashes, or powerful events of violence. There are also very silent accidents which are equally ...read more
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8. The Seven Causes Of Suffering
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
We need to look at suffering from the point of view of the great Christian thinkers of the centuries, and not lock ourselves into any one simple theory that ends up making God the culprit.
Someone has said that half truths are whole lies. One of the greatest causes for conflicts and misunderstanding among Christians through the ages has been over enthusiasm for a half truth. People will take an idea that has a portion of the truth and wrap it up in a box and say it is The Truth. ...read more
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9. Death And The Will Of God
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
A Christian can die by natural causes or by accidents, or by the violent forces of evil. Seldom to never do they die because God says, now is the best time.
The Cruel Sea is the title of a World War II story about a German U-Boat loose in an American convoy. It had already sunk several ships, but a destroyer escort had finally picked it up on the sonar. As the destroyer prepared to launch its depth bombs, the captain saw that the U-Boat was taking a ...read more
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10. Part Ii Death And The Sovereignty Of God
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
The Bible puts the responsibility for sin and evil, and all of its consequences upon those who choose to defy God, and not upon God, who gave them their choices.
PART II DEATH AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD On December 7, 1941 bombs fell on many sons in Pearl Harbor, and hundreds of families had their hopes and dream shattered. On December 8, a man who had been up sobbing all night because he lost his son confronted his pastor in anger and said, "What ...read more
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11. The Mystery Of Death
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
If you study death through the Old Testament you will discover that much death is not God's will and that His laws are often designed to prevent death when it would be certain without these laws.
A librarian commented concerning a woman just leaving her desk that she could get more out of a mystery novel than anyone she knew. "How is that?" asked her co-worker. She replied, "She starts in the middle so that she not only wonders how it comes out, but also how ...read more
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12. Successful Suffering
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
The lesson on how to suffer successfully involves the whole of one's spiritual life and relationship to God. In learning this lesson we will learn that which is necessary to be a complete and entire Christian.
Imagine the testing of the body in such a sport as football. To be on your feet and seconds later brought to the ground hard and fast. Then to get up and do it again, and again, and again, but constantly moving forward. All of that falling is not what wins the game, but whether or not you win ...read more
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13. Good Out Of Evil
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
What Paul learned by his experience is that the bad stuff of life can be a way for God to use your life in a way that good things could not be used.
Luther Burbank, the world famous scientist, worked for years to try and develop a black-petaled lily. He had several thousand experimental lily plants in his laboratory. A sudden cloudburst let loose a flood of rain that they were all washed away. William Stidger tells of sympathizing with him over ...read more
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14. Good Out Of Evil Part2
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
We cannot know the value of any experience at the time of experiencing it. There is no way to know if that which makes us cry now will be one of our most precious blessings in the future.
A tornado came sweeping across the prairie of Minnesota destroying everything in its path. When it struck Rochester, Minnesota, hundreds of people were injured, and 23 were killed. It was a tragedy, yet millions of people have been thankful for what God did to bring much good out of that tragic ...read more
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15. A Believer's Response To Death
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
David's misfortune, because of his God honoring response, has resulted in much comfort in getting the flowers of faith to bloom in the hearts of the bereaved.
A young Harvard professor sat in a room once occupied by George Washington. He was exceedingly lonely and dejected. He wondered if that great man ever felt as he did then. He had lost his wife 3 years before, and had not yet been able to escape from the grip of grief. His life seemed to be an ...read more
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16. Delivered From Death
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
Psalm 116 is about being a survivor, and being alive when, except for the grace of God, the author would be dead. He was delivered from death, and this is his song of thanksgiving.
Memorial Day began as a day to honor and remember those who died in the Civil War. The very first soldier to die in that war was Colonel Ellsworth, a personal friend of President Lincoln. Lincoln gave his regiment the honor of being the first to cross the Potomac into Virginia and pull down the ...read more
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17. The Value Of Death
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
By rough estimate I counted 750 references to death and dying in my concordance of the Bible. If we are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, then no Christian can be honest with God's word and ignore the subject of death.
There are two subjects that men have tended to be shy about all through history. These two subjects have been considered off limits as topics of public conversation. It was taboo to speak of them openly. The two subjects are, sex and death. The paradox of this is, there are no two more ...read more
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18. The Right To Question God
Contributed on Mar 12, 2021
It is normal and natural to be angry when we suffer evil, and often we will be angry at God for not preventing it. This is valid and God gives us the right to question Him.
The right to question God is a right that God Himself has given to His children. He inspired men of God to write about their own questioning of God’s ways of dealing with the evils of life and all of its suffering and injustice. None is more bold than the prophet Habakkuk. He begins his book ...read more