WHY DO CHRISTIANS SUFFER?
Message # 3
THE CONSTRUCTION BY SUFFERING
Jeremiah 18:1-6
Introduction: There is very little of value that has not had pressure or suffering. A diamond is a piece of coal that underwent lots of pressure. You cannot imagine a young man putting a piece of coal on a young lady’s finger and ask her to marry him. We are like that. We are diamonds in the rough. Some of us go through trials, temptations, pressure and suffering and it makes us a diamond. I remember an old song that was sung in the 1980s and 1990. It said that I was an old piece of coal but I’m going to be a diamond some day.
There is a universal fact that I have mentioned in the other two messages. There is suffering in this world. Also, as Christians we are not immune to suffering. Some suffer greatly. They are suffering for physical reasons. I am not going to be critical of those who are suffering because I suffer also at times. I don’t say that in order to invocate sympathy but to show you that I can empathize with you at some level of your suffering.
As I working on this introduction, a thought hit me. Our salvation is precious and priceless yet it cost our Saviour a great deal of suffering. He suffered under the sarcasm. He suffered the slaps and spitting. He suffered the scourging. He suffered the severe heat and swarming flies. He suffered the securing of the nails on the cross. He suffered the shock to His body when they dropped the cross into the hole making it upright. He suffered by being the sacrifice for our sins. He suffered the separation from His Father. Do you think that He thought it was worth it? Hebrews 12:2
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We like things that are easy. We live in a time when many things are easy. It is easier for me to study for a message to preach today than it was ten or so years ago. I have one CD that has more than twelve commentaries on it. I can pop it in my computer, use the search engine and am able to find what I am studying with little or no effort. It has made sermon preparation easier.
When all the boys were at home, many times on Sunday nights we would have popcorn. They would get the air popcorn popper down and it would take able ten to twenty minutes and we would have a very large bowl of popcorn. Now we pop a bag in the microwave and in a few minutes, we have popcorn.
I read this quote this week. It fits this series of messages. Any circumstance out of my control is in the will of God. Unless you are suffering because of sin in your life, then the suffering must be in the middle of God’s will.
Many times God uses parables to spark our understanding. The passage that I selected for the scripture text is one of the Old Testament parables. The Lord sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house. God wants him to see some things that will encourage him. In the first seventeen chapters, he becomes deeply distressed. His beloved nation is on a suicidal course to self-destruction in spite of his tears and teachings. He cannot get them to turn around and repent. At this time of deep distress, God sends him to the potter’s house. That does not seem to make sense. Some times we go through things that don’t make sense. But in the big picture it does. God knows. I know that I hit this note much in the previous message. But God knows. Not only does God know, we can know.
Romans 8:28-29
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
I have avoided overusing that verse in this series because it is quoted or should I say, misquoted it to death. Some people use it to explain all the things that are going on in a person’s life. If it had been written down when Job’s friends showed up, they would have misquoted it too.
Those first three words should give us hope. They should give us assurance. If God knows and He does, then He wants us to know. It does not say, “And we hope”. It says “And we know.” Albert Barnes says this about those first three words. “This verse introduces another source of consolation and support, drawn from the fact that all things are under the direction or an infinitely wise Being, who has purposed the salvation of the Christian, and who has so appointed all things that they shall contribute to it.”
Then those next three words, “that all things” should calm your heart regardless of what comes. I know that there are some of us that are suffering more than we ever could think. The problem is this that we are allowing this suffering to make us biting or bitter instead of better Christians.
Let me you an illustration that should encourage you as much as I was. There was a train years ago traveling through the night during a very violent storm. The lightning was flashing and the rain was splattering hard on the winds. On the sides of the train there was a lot of water. This caused the passengers to be seized with fear and terror. In the midst of the confusion, one little girl seemed to be at perfect peace. Her very unusual calm amazed many of the passengers. Finally one man asked, “How is it that you can be so calm when all of the rest of us are so worried?” She smiled sweetly and said, “My father is the engineer.” I don’t care how much you are suffering; child of God, your Heavenly Father is in control.
When your suffering seems to be like a fiery trial, there are three timeless principles that should help calm you.
· First, the fire cannot harm you. Can you honestly tell me whenever you were harmed by God’s chastening? Oh, this doesn’t mean that it does not hurt, but always the hurt is for our good.
· Second, the fire sets free from the shackles of carnality that hindered you. The most radiant Christians are the ones who have suffered the most.
· Third, God’s presence is very real and precious in the fiery trial of suffering you are going through.
Before getting into the message itself, I want to remind you that this passage we have chosen for our text has its primary interpretation the restoration of Israel. One day Israel will be restored to its glory as a God-fearing nation whose leader will be the Lord Jesus.
I. THE POTTER Isaiah 64:8
“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”
One of the greatest things about the Bible that there are many passages that are not dark and hard to understand when you compare scripture with scripture. The Lord is the master potter. We are the clay. Clay is a substance that can be made into a vessel. The Lord wants to make you into a vessel that brings honor to Him.
2nd Timothy 2:21
“If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
Romans 9:21
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
The clay is at the mercy of the potter. The hand that molds the clay is nail pierced. He knows the pain that we are going through. He knows. He has the image of what He wants to be in His mind. He has the purpose in mind that He wants us. Vs. 4
“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
II. THE PROCEDURE
The way the Lord makes us into the vessels is applying pressure. This is many times suffering. He allows the pressure of suffering to come into our lives. He knows what the vessel should look like. He knows what He must do make us the vessel unto honor.
In our text we saw that the vessel did not become what the potter wanted. It became marred. So He starts this procedure over again. The problem I have ran into these thirty-two years I have been saved, that it seems that the procedure has been done over and over again. Why does this happen? Let me give you four reasons for this?
A. Resisting the will of God is one reason.
The Lord has one way we need to go and our personal ambition is another way. God never forces His will upon us. Yet He knows the best. He applies the pressure to bring us into the will He desires. If you want to be a vessel of honor, then we need to lay our rebellion at His feet and not resist Him.
B. The secret toleration of sin is another part of the failure in our lives to be the vessel He wants. The vessel may look good to the normal person but the Master Potter knows the flaw in the vessel. He does His best to rid this flaw from the vessel. What can it be? It may be the concealing of a passion such as an untamed tongue or an uncontrolled temper.
C. The unwillingness to break with known sin can be the reason for the vessel to be marred. It may be the reason why you are suffering. This is the unwillingness to say a decided “NO!” to temptation or to make confession to a person we have wronged or to make restitution whether it is financial or otherwise. It make be not forgiving someone that we hold a grudge or abandon a sinful practice or even ceasing to rob God of the tithes that is His in the first place.
D. It make be the getting off the center of the wheel. The vessel becomes a problem when it moves. That is the place that vessel become what it needs to be is in the middle of the wheel.
Whatever the reason we become marred vessels, He wants to make you into a vessel of honor. So He applies the pressure of suffering to make us into that pleases Him.
III. THE PRODUCT
What does the Lord want? He wants a certain vessel. He wants to bring certain principles in our lives that construct us into the product that pleases Him. What are they?
A. He wants to ready us by teaching us in our suffering.
Psalm 119:71
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”
One person said that he doubts that God can greatly use a person unless he is ready to suffer. What can we learn from suffering?
1. Obedience Psalm 119:67, 75
“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”
Obedience does not usually come automatically. It is over and over again correction that brings obedience. Harold Vaughan said this that makes sense about obedience. “Do the right thing every time until it become the normal thing.” The Lord expects obedience from His children just like we expect it from our children. Suffering can teach you suffering.
2. Purity Proverbs 17:3
“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”
Malachi 3:3
“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”
1st Peter 1:6-7
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”
Suffering will not last forever but you will be more pure for the Lord and His work because you did suffer.
3. Patience James 1:2-4
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Knowing most of you, I am not the virtue of patience. I know I am not alone in this situation. So the Lord brings suffering into our lives to teach us patience.
4. Compassion 2nd Corinthians 1:3-5
“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”
The Lord has allowed this suffering to come into my life. I told you before that I did not have compassion on sick people, as I ought until diabetes came into my life. The Lord has readied me to help others.
B. He wants to refine us or produce fruit.
John 15:1-5
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
In order to produce a good crop of grapes every vineyard must be tended by an expert husbandman who knows how and when to fertilize, water, and prune (purge) it to produce the best crop. The spiritual vineyard is tended by our Heavenly Father, who knows best how to train and develop the personality of His children for their own good, and so that they might win others to Christ.
Pruning is the very important in tending the vineyard. In the early spring vineyards look like a collection of bleeding stumps; but in the fall they are filled with luxuriant grapes. There are two main reasons for pruning: 1) trim away the dead wood which harbors insects and disease, and can cause the branch to rot, 2) live wood must be cut back to prevent such heavy growth that the life of the vine goes into the branch and leaves, rather than into the fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ is the main vine, which supports the life of every branch. Believes are totally dependent on Christ for their eternal life, and their spiritual fruit and service.
Part of the fruit that He wants to refine in us is the fruit of the Spirit. I will not take the time today to go into that portion of the fruit. You and I know our deficiencies in these areas. So the Lord allows suffering to refine us.
C. The Lord wants to repair us. He does this through chastening. 1st Peter 4:17
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
Hebrews 12:8
“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
Revelation 3:19
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
When we allow sin to stay in our lives, the Lord will chasten us in order to bring us back to Him. What kind of chastening is there in store for the erring child of God?
1. It can be sickness and weakness.
1st Corinthians 11:30
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”
This does not mean that all sickness and weakness is chastening from the Lord. To say that means that every time you get a cold or the flu means the Lord is chastening you. But there is some sicknesses and weakness that is chastening from the Lord.
It is not for us to judge this though. You know if this if this is true in your life or not. So what should we do if it is true? James 5:14-16
“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
If we are ill because of sin in our lives then we ought to confess our wrongs to the ones we have sinned against (this always includes God). After we get right with them then we should ask our pastor and local church to pray for us.
2. It can be the premature death. The Lord will not tolerate the continuation of His children in gross willful sin. James 5:20
“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
We are not to pray for those who have come to this point. 1st John 5:16
“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
These are the two ways that God deals with His children. It involves suffering but these are to construct us into a vessel of honor.
D. The Lord wants to revive us. This revival is a revival of correction. Isaiah 26:16-17
“LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.”
When God uses suffering to help revive us it will help us do these functions that are help in reviving us.
1. Examine and judge ourselves.
1st Corinthians 11:28; 31
“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.” “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”
2. Confessing our sin. 1st John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Proverbs 28:13
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
When self-examination does not lead to confess, there is a serious problem. When self-examination leads to confess, there is a cleanness that is only described as revival.
3. Prayer Luke 11:13
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
Suffering has a great way to drive us to our knees and talk to our Father. It makes us see the value of relying on the Lord for everything.
Psalm 37:3-7
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”
4. Learning God Word Psalm 119:67, 71
“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”
Suffering will also make your Bible more real. This is especially true if you don’t blame God for your suffering as a curse but a blessing.
E. The Lord wants to reflect His glory.
Time does not permit me you show you each of the passages in First Peter that deal with this subject. People need see the glory of God. They don’t see it in creation. They certainly don’t see on the six o’clock news. They don’t hear it on radio. They are going through life and never see the glory of God reflected until they see it in the life of a Christian who is going through suffering and can still praise God anyhow.
Let give you five quick thoughts God’s glory in First Peter. I want to encourage you to go home and read this little book especially if you are suffering.
1. The trial of our faith through suffering will hopefully produce praise and honor and glory at the second coming of Christ. 1st Peter 1:7
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”
2. God has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, but first we must suffer for a short while in the here and now, 1st Peter 1:6
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations”
1st Peter 5:10
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
Always keep in mind that the suffering will pass!
3. There is no glory when we are buffeted for our faults. 1st Peter 2:20
“For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”
4. If anyone suffers as a Christian for righteousness’ sake or for giving an answer for reason of the hope that is in you, don’t be ashamed, but glorify God because of it. 1st Peter 3:14-15
“But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”
1st Peter 4:16
“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”
5. It is a blessing to be reproached for the name of Christ, because the Spirit of glory and of God is upon all such. 1st Peter 4:14
“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”
Conclusion: The Lord has an image of what He wants us to be. We usually want to go in a totally opposite direction. So He either allows or brings suffering into our lives to make us in the image that He desires.
Are you going to resist or rely upon the Lord for His help and work? The choice is yours.
Freedom Baptist Church Sunday Morning
6/6/04
