Trials and Calamities (5)
Notes
Transcript
Sermon on the Mount-41
James 5:7-11 (NIV84)
7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.
8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
We’ve been given the farmer and the prophets as examples of patience in the face of suffering.
Job and how he persevered in the face of suffering is our next example of how we are to endure suffering.
Job 1:1–3 (NIV84)
1In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
2He had seven sons and three daughters,
3and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
The first thing you must see is that Job was blameless, upright, feared God, and shunned evil.
None of Job’s suffering occurs because of any specific sin on his part.
Job 1:12 (NIV84)
12The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
To prove that Job’s piety was not a result of his prosperity, it had to be tested to the utmost extent.
Was there a connection between Job’s piety and his God-given prosperity?
“I love the Lord, because of His many blessings.”
Job 1:20–22 (NIV84)
20At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship
21and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Satan asks, “Does Job serve God for nothing?”
God responds by allowing Satan to test Job, though limits are set. Satan hungers to attack Job, but just as evidently the Lord does not stop the testing of the faithful. God has confidence in Job’s commitment.
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
George Arthur Buttrick: There is a faith that stands: stands in the peace of remembered good, in the confidence that back of all life’s riddles there is meaning, that over all its evil there is God.
Charging God with wrongdoing. Questioning God’s justice or actions during times of hardship is not uncommon.
Any one of those events might have caused lesser men to lose faith, abandon hope, or even charge God with neglect or deliberate evil.
Job 2:4–8 (NIV84)
4“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life.
5But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
7So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
8Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
Some Christians believe that God is taken by surprise or is helpless to intervene when Satan is working his evil schemes.
That view is not from the Bible.
God is completely in charge of Job’s calamity.
God was the one who pointed Job out to Satan, initiating the whole affair.
Satan could not lay a finger on Job’s possessions until he had God’s permission to act.
God strictly limited Satan, forbidding him to attack Job’s health at this point.
Lamentations 3:37–39 (NIV84)
37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
39Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?
Human words—positive or negative confession—do not magically control good and bad outcomes.
Neither Satan nor positive or negative confessions control calamity. God does.
That is exactly what we find in Job.
Until God gave his permission, Satan could touch neither Job nor his possessions.
Although we know Satan had a personal hand in Job’s calamities, Job was never encouraged to handle his situation by binding Satan, casting off curses, speaking positive confessions, or by employing any of the other occult-like techniques so popular in some parts of the church today.
In the end, God restores and doubles Job’s fortunes.
What was the secret?
He focused on God; Satan and demons are not even mentioned.
If God is in control, why did God allow Satan to pillage Job’s possessions, pulverize his family, and afflict Job’s health?
If God is in control, why does he allow bad things to happen at all?
Is this Calamity the Result of
God’s Judgment?
One reason God causes calamity is to discipline someone for specific sin. But be careful! It was their misapplication of this principle that led Job’s friends off track. Many make the same mistake today.
There are times when God causes calamity as a result of one’s sin.
David and Bathsheba: death of their child.
Gehazi’s lie to Elisha: leprosy of Naaman.
King Uzziah’s attempt to offer an unauthorized sacrifice: leprosy for the rest of his life.
Job’s friends were right in saying that God causes calamity to discipline specific sin. They were wrong in assuming that sin is the only reason that God uses calamity, when they accused Job of sin.
Eliphaz
Job 4:7–9 (NIV84)
7“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
9At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish.
Eliphaz’s theology of calamity: If you live right, things will go well; if you sin, then calamity will befall you. Therefore, Job must be living wrongly.
Bildad
Job 18:5, 12-13 (NIV84)
5“The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning.
12Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls.
13It eats away parts of his skin; death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
Zophar
Job 11:14–15 (NIV84)
14if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
15then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.
Just like Job’s three “friends,” people today can wrongly assume that the calamity is a result of God’s judgment on their or another person’s sin.
“If you had enough faith, you would be healed” or “You must have secret sin in your life. That’s why this is happening to you.”
To face calamity, you must embrace this lesson from the book of Job:
A catastrophe in health, finances, or family doesn’t necessarily mean that God is angry at you.
Occasionally God does use calamity to discipline a specific sin; however, Job’s terrible losses and ravaged body had nothing to do with a lack of faith or hidden iniquity.
John 9:1–3 (NIV84)
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
The disciples came to the same conclusion as Job’s three friends. They assumed that calamity came for one reason: sin.
If there is no obvious cause-and-effect relationship between your calamity and a specific sin, you don’t have to torture yourself trying to find what the sin is for which God is disciplining you.
If you are harboring sin you need to repent from, then do so!
Don’t fall into the trap of Job’s friends, accusing others (or yourself) of being out of God’s favor because they or you have experienced a tragedy.
Cancer, crime, or car accidents aren’t proof that God is angry at you.
Is this Calamity a Result of the
Fallen State of Humanity?
Romans 8:18–22 (NIV84)
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Frustration = ματαιότης mataiotēs = state of being without use or value, emptiness, futility, purposelessness.
Have you ever felt like you (and life) had no purpose? This is because creation was subjected to (brought under the dominion or authority of) the frustration (state of being without use or value).
Who subjected creation to a state of emptiness? God.
God cursed (curse: divine consequence as a result of disobedience) creation, which resulted in it being subjected to frustration.
This bondage to decay is called the law of entropy.
Entropy. The measure of the disorder of a system. The second law of thermodynamics asserts that in an isolated system (insulated from external influence) entropy can never decrease (things tend to become more disorderly). Order → Disorder
Genesis 3:17 (NIV84)
17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Adam’s sin brought death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin].
Sickness, pain, & infection on our physical bodies.
Weeds in our gardens.
Strife among people.
Is this Calamity intended to
Mature Believers in Jesus Christ?
James 1:2–4 (NIV84)
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
God disciplines, trains, and matures us through suffering and calamity.
Just as a weightlifter doesn’t become stronger unless he exhausts his muscles moving chunks of iron, so spiritual progress comes only when God the Coach increases the intensity for us through painful trials.
When he does so, the result is stronger faith, greater compassion, and enduring patience—firmer spiritual muscles in every way.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4, 7–10 (NIV84)
2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.
3And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—
4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Unlike modern charlatans, who claim trips to heaven and visions of God, Paul gave no sensational, detailed description of what he saw or experienced in heaven but mentioned only what he heard. And even that consisted of inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV84)
29The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
What God wants known about heaven is revealed in the Bible; as for the rest, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deut. 29:29).
A thorn is a constant source of annoyance or pain.
This thorn in Paul’s flesh was given to him to keep him from being prideful due to what he saw in the third heaven or paradise.
Have you heard of the expression, “thorn in my side”?
Messenger = ἄγγελος angelos = one sent, a messenger, angel.
evil spirits which cause physical pain.
My grace is sufficient. “My grace is enough, more than enough, for you” (God’s New Covenant Translation).
Grace = χάρις charis = exceptional effect produced by generosity, favor.
The resulting activity that is a necessary consequence of genuine, beneficent goodwill; especially used of the outworking of God’s goodwill.
Disposition, attitude toward another, favor, goodwill, benevolence. Every kind of favor, blessing, good, as proceeding from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The exceptional effect the Lord’s favor has upon us is more than enough. You need nothing else.
Is sufficient = ἀρκέω arkeō = be enough, sufficient, adequate; you need nothing more than my grace.
to suffice: to be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity.
My power is made perfect in weakness. The Lord’s power is made perfect when we are weak.
Power = δύναμις dynamis = possession of controlling influence; often understood as manifesting influence over reality in a supernatural manner.
Is made perfect = τελέω teleō = To make an end or to accomplish, to complete something, not merely to end it, but to bring it to perfection or its destined goal, to carry it through.
Weakness = ἀσθένεια astheneia = the result of illness which deprives us of the strength that we would enjoy if it were not for sickness.
The Lord on the cross took upon himself not only the consequences of sickness (astheneías), but sicknesses (nósous) themselves, both being basically the result of man’s disobedience to God (Gen. 2:17).
The state of being ill and thus incapacitated in some manner.
Incapacity: lack of physical, natural, or preternatural (beyond what is normal or natural) qualifications.
The Lord’s power (controlling influence) is brought to its destined goal when we are rendered incapable of handling it on our own..
Is this Calamity there to Prove
the Genuineness of My Faith?
1 Peter 1:6–7 (NIV84)
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
God brings calamity into the lives of believers to prove our faith, both to ourselves and to others. How did God prove that Satan’s accusations against Job were slanderous? God tested Job, and Job’s endurance proved Satan to be wrong.
Is this Calamity intended to
Bring about Unanticipated Good?
Genesis 45:5–8 (NIV84)
5And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
6For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping.
7But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Genesis 50:20 (NIV84)
20You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Many times, when going through a trial, we do not see the good that is to be accomplished until we understand God’s purpose and plan in the matter.
There may be times when we will never see God’s purpose and plan on this side of the grave.
Romans 8:23–25 (NIV84)
23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Creation was subjected to frustration, but that is not the end of the story.
Romans 8:18-25 depict God’s plan of salvation for all of creation.
For in this hope we are saved.
Hope in what? Our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies; i.e., our salvation!
Hope is not wishful thinking; biblical hope is the present assurance of God’s plan and promises being fully realized in the future.
Job 2:9–10 (NIV84)
9His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
What was Job’s response? In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Adrian Rogers: You had better not get your theology from circumstances. If you get your theology from circumstances, then you’ll come to this conclusion: God doesn’t love you, ’cause, sooner or later, a bad thing is going to happen to you. And, if you just have your eyes on circumstances, then you’re going to say, “If God is with us, then why is all this happening to us?”
Ecclesiastes 7:13–14 (NIV84)
13Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?
14When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.
God is on the throne, and His providence prevails in the history of man.
Samuel Cox (1826-1893): “God interlaces his providences, and veils his providences, in order that, unable to see the future, we may learn to put our trust in Him rather than in any earthly good.… It therefore behoves a man … to take both crooked and straight, both evil and good from the hand of God, and to trust in Him whatever may befall.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11, 14 (NIV84)
11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
14I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
In every man’s heart, there is a sense that there’s more to life than what we see. That is because God has set eternity in the hearts of men.
God’s plan cannot be changed, and He has a specific purpose for His plan and even the frustration we feel.
Believing in the sovereignty of God is to believe that whatever comes to you comes as part of his wise purposes for you. It’s being convinced that God intends our good and his glory through all (see Rom 8:28).
Romans 8:28 (NIV84)
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
We didn’t get to the question, Why do bad things happen to good people?
We’ll cover this next week, the Lord willing.
