WHY DO CHRISTIANS SUFFER?
Message # 4
THE CRITICS IN YOUR SUFFERING
Job 2:11-13
Introduction: I am going to repeat a statement I have made in each of the messages thus far. Suffering is a universal fact. Many people suffer throughout the world. If I were to deal with this subject from that point of view, I would probably be making a political statement instead of a Bible message. I am dealing with Christians and thus preaching to help them.
I hate to see someone or something suffer. We had to put our dog asleep a couple years ago because she was suffering. It was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life. But we could not allow her to continue to suffer.
There are times we can help the ones who are suffering. As a nurse in the nursing home, I try to help the residents that are suffering from pain to be eased of their pain. I try to make their last days as comfortable as possible.
I don’t think I have mentioned the fact that some people enjoy suffering. Or rather I should say, that they enjoy the attention that they get from others because they are suffering.
Suffering in the Christian’s life may be God working in that life. When we love God, keep His word and do His will and are still suffering, then the situation in His control and plan. I am glad that I have a God that relate to my suffering because He suffered. Hebrews 4:15
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
As Carl’s dad preached so well in that message “The Sympathetic Saviour, our Saviour knows our pain and suffering because of His pain and suffering.
Too many Christian people have pat answers for situations. They may or may not use the Bible as their answers. I was reading a sermon on this subject and ran across some interesting observations. Let me include them in this introduction.
· “God knows best!” Well, yes, He does. But at the moment, it sure doesn’t seem that way. Tell a 5-year-old child that God knows best when her mommy has just died of inoperable cancer. It seems like God just made a huge mistake.
· “God only gives you as much pain as you can handle.” That may be theologically correct. But it makes you wish you were a weaker person. Maybe God wouldn’t give you so much pain to bear.
· “She is in heaven now.” Yes, if she was a believer that is true. But couldn’t heaven have waited a while? What was their hurry up there? We needed her so much down here.
· “God will take care of those children.” When a young mother died, leaving three small children behind, I remember my expressing great concern for those children. A Christian believer simply said, “Those kids are just as much in God’s hands now as they were when their mother was alive.” Yes! I know, I prayed for them. But oh, how they suffered!
Some people come up with responses that aren’t very theological at all:
· “Well, God must have needed him up there in heaven to help him out.” Why? Did God run out of angels? Of all the people in the world, why my mother? Why my little brother? What’s God’s problem?
· “Your Mother is up there in heaven smiling down on you, right now.” Well, it might be a nice idea, but it has absolutely no Biblical support. We have support for God smiling upon those who love Him, but the Bible says nothing about dead people smiling down upon us from heaven.
· “When a person dies, God put a special star in the sky. When you go out at night and look up and see the stars, one of those is Uncle Harry just twinkling away at us.” Where on earth did we get an idea like that? Let’s not get into strange, extra-Biblical notions that end up being more of a problem than help.
Job had three friends. They had heard the rumors of all that had occurred with Job. I sometimes wonder if it was compassion or curiosity that brought these men to Job. I will say this. They used good reasoning when they first showed up. Our text tells us that they did not say a word for a whole week. You can tell that they were not Baptist preachers. Most Baptist preachers see the need to comment almost immediately on every subject.
Then they started up on Job. I will be looking them in the message today. One person said this about Job’s friends. With friends like this, you don’t need any enemies.
Spurgeon reminds us of a few truths in regards to suffering Job and his friends. Job 19:25
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”
1. Job had only one true friend and several mistaken friends. These men were miserable comforters. He had a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. That friend is no less than our Lord Jesus.
2. Job had real property amid his absolute poverty. It is true that he lost his fortune, family and fame on that day. However, he had not lost his redeemer. That is true riches. For a man or woman to have the Lord means that they are never really poor because they are children of the KING of kings and LORD of lords. We are joint heirs with Christ. All that He owns is ours by the virtue of His free salvation that is available for all those who ask for it.
3. Job had a living kinsman amid a dying family. No one can really appreciate the death of a child who has never lost a child in death. Job saw ten caskets going to the cemetery that day. There is no way I can stand here and say, “I understand.” To do so is nothing less than a bold face lie. I have never lost a child in death like Job did. But Job did not focus on the children he lost. He focused on the Lord. The main emphasis of Job chapter nineteen and verse twenty-five is the word “liveth”. He knew that He had a living kinsman and that was what counted.
4. Job had absolute certainty amid uncertain affairs. What words showed this absolute certainty? They are these two simple words that we learned quickly in school. “I know.” Those words sounds a lot like Romans 8:28 to me. (“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.”) We serve a real living God who knows all that is coming and has come upon us.
I realize that this introduction is a little longer than normal but I want to bless your heart today in your Lord and Saviour. There are some critics of suffering. They try to rationalize suffering to something that it may not be. If you put three Baptist preachers in a room, you will probably have four or five opinions. So let look at these three friends of Job and what they represent to Job’s suffering.
I. THEY ASSUMED THAT JOB HAD SINNED TO DESERVE THIS SUFFERING.
Even though Galatians chapter six and verse seven had not been written, these three friends knew the principle.
Galatians 6:7
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
They had a small knowledge of God. Yes, the Lord replays evil. But that is His strange work. He loves to bless. Many men and women are playing because they sinned. How many have been afflicted with AIDS because of sinful behavior? How many have lung cancer because of cigarette smoking? It is sinful to assume that a person has sinful behavior in their life because they have a disease. Not every one who has AIDS got it from a sexual encounter. How about the babies that are afflicted with the disease because their mothers had the disease? Was there sin on their part so that the Lord is judging them? The simple answer is no. Let’s look once again at what the Bible has to say on the subject.
John 9:1-3
“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
Look carefully what the passage says. Here is a man who was blind from his birth. But Jesus’ disciples assumed that there was sin involved for this man to have this affliction. Jesus sets the record straight. This man was born blind that the works of God would be shown in the healing of this man.
So the first lesson that I want to point out is don’t assume that there is sin in the person’s life that is suffering.
II. THEIR ASSUMPTION WAS BASED ON INCOMPLETE EVIDENCE.
You have to go back to the first chapter of Job to really understand the real Job.
A. He was a man of faith. He believed God. He hated evil and love good and God. Job 1:1
“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
When you see the word “perfect” in this passage, it does not mean that Job was without sin. If you read the book of Job, at no time do you find him calling himself sinless. Part of the problem that we have with the book of Job is that we know about chapter one and two and chapter forty-two but little in between. Every man is a sinner. If you really fear God, you will eschew or avoid evil. Let me illustrate with a simple truth that we see in medicine today. Years ago, diseases ran amuck. It seemed that everybody who went to the hospital died. Why? One of the reasons was that doctors did not wash their hands between patients. So they carried the disease and germs of one patient to the next. A doctor noted this and recommended hand washing between patients. Many thought him to be a fool but some tried it and the death rate dropped greatly. It is a normal practice to wash your hands between patients today. (It is interesting to note that the doctor who started this practice died because his doctor did not wash his hands before working on him and infected him with the disease that killed him.)
B. He was a man of family. He loved his children so much that he prayed for them and offered sacrifices to the Lord in case they sinned. Our passage in that first chapter does not say that they had sinned with their feast. He offered the sacrifice in case they did.
C. He was a man of fortune. This was not a slick businessman. He was a man that made God’s business his business. In turn, God blessed him. I don’t know what all these animals were worth but I am sure it would be a good sum of money. He probably had land that would make some Texans envious.
So they were not correct in their assumption. They did not know what God knew. They did not even know what the devil knew.
III. THEY ALSO ASSUMED THAT HE HAD LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE LORD.
Here was a man of true faith and fortitude. You will not find that coming from the lips of this man of God. Let me illustrate with some choice nuggets from the book of Job. Job 13:15
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”
Adam Clarke had these thoughts on that verse. “I have no dependence but God; I trust in him alone. Should he even destroy my life by this affliction, yet will I hope that when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 19:25
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”
He knew that God was alive. He knew his only hope was in the Lord. He basically could stand like Paul in the midst of a storm. Acts 27:25
“Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
You can believe God in the midst of the suffering that you find yourself. God has not move. He is unchangeable. His love and care for you has not diminished not one inch.
The lesson we can learn here is this. Never question or doubt in the storm what God promised in the calm. You ought to store up the promises of God in the calm so when the storm comes and it will come, you can lean on the everlasting Word of God.
Conclusion: It is better to thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. A fish is rarely caught unless he opens his mouth. Here we found three friends of Job. As I said in the introduction, with friends like this, you don’t need any enemies. They just said what came to mind. By their discussions, you can conclude that they did not know the Lord in the same way that Job did. For one reason, they did not have the correct view of God. They were really looking at the Lord like He was a bully giving retribution. As I said earlier, judgment is God’s strange work; He loves to bless.
They were miserable comforters. I am going to end this series next week, Lord willing, with the idea of how to comfort those who are suffering. These three are good examples of how not to do so.
Those who are critical of those who are suffering think that the person has lost confidence in the Lord. It is hard to understand when you really have not suffered yourself. If you have never lost all that you had, it would be hard to understand what that person is going through.
Always have the entire story before making judgments. These three critics did not have the entire picture. All they saw was their friend Job. Proverbs has a great warning about this. Proverbs 18:13
“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
I hear a police officer say one time that he did not believe anything he heard and only half what he saw. The reason he said this was many times he was given either incomplete information or wrong information. These three did not have the picture of the Lord and the devil’s conversation. They did not see that God allowed this occur in Job’s life.
Be very careful who you criticize especially when you see suffering on their part. You are responsible for the words that come out of your mouth.
I don’t know by what is written in our text in Job chapter two. I am fairly sure these were not the most spiritual men available nor did they use the seven days of silence in prayerful request for wisdom. When confront with a situation like what Job faced, you better be asking for wisdom from God to help you help that person. James 1:5
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
Let me give the rest of the story as Paul Harvey said for so many years. When all was said and done, the Lord answered the questions. Job was a bigger friend than they were. If they were true friends they would have done what Job did in the end of the book. Job 42:8
“Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.”
All these critics are seen but no real friends except for the Lord. Be a companion to those who hurt and God will bless your life and ministry.
Freedom Baptist Church Sunday Morning
6/12/04
