Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Text: Romans 8:18; Romans 5:1-5

Theme: The problem of suffering.

I would like to share with you this morning a few thoughts on the problem of suffering. Every once in a while, events transpire that force us to consider the question: Why do people— sometimes very Godly people suffer—in the words of Shakespeare, ". . . the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?"

In light of the events of the last few weeks, I thought it appropriate this morning that we lay aside our study of the Book of Numbers to touch on a mystifying dilemma: The problem of suffering.

Every once in a while we witness an event so devastating, that we are virtually at a loss for words, let alone an explanation. The world is experiencing one of those moments. At those times the very first thing we must do is weep with those who weep. We sit with them and pray for them and acknowledge that their feelings are real, and understandable, and that their tears are unspeakably true. We pray, and look for openings to share the grace and the hope of the gospel. We do our best to speak words of truth, love, grace, and comfort.

Later, as begin to grasp for answers to why such evil, and suffering occurs we often come to one of two conclusions: Both a product of worldly skepticism and non Biblical truth.

1st, some are tempted to assume that the recipients of a tragedy were not as good or righteous or as innocent as they appeared and that their sufferings were God's ‘pay-back’ for some secret and terrible sin that they had kept hidden from everyone else.

2nd, some may draw the conclusion that God is not the kind, Heavenly Father we assumed Him to be. That He's not really in control. That He is unkind and not terribly concerned about the plight of His creation. That He doesn’t listen to the ardent cries of believers who pray for the healing of a loved one or friend.

By drawing either of these two conclusions Satan lures us to loose faith. There is a better—a Biblical—answer.

I submit to you that in the midst of tragedy, hardship, suffering, and loss a Sovereign God has a plan to bring about good for many and glory to Himself.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers concerning his persecution and torment at the hands of those who opposed the Gospel: "If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." (2 Cor. 1:6, NIV)

I will be straight-forward with you this morning ... as a minister of the Gospel of the Grace of Jesus Christ, I probably do not have a totally satisfying answer to the question of evil and suffering. I would however, like to make some observations about suffering and then end by reminding us of the hope that is ours in Christ despite the suffering that many of his saints have endured.

I. OBSERVATION #1: SUFFERING IS A PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

1. the author of the Old Testament book of Lamentations speaks to this condition of life that engulfs all of us at some time or another:

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me . . . “ (Lamentations 1:12, NIV)

a. in other words, there is no suffering like our own suffering when we are going through it

b. and there is no suffering like that of a loved one when they are suffering and we know there is nothing we can do to alleviate their suffering

2. simple observation confirms that good, righteous people are not immune to the suffering that comes part-and-parcel with human existence

a. the Bible tells us many stories of men and women of great faith who struggled with the presence of pain and suffering in their lives

b. they also sought to understand it and cope with it

ILLUS. Philip Yancy, in his book The Gift of Physical Pain, writes; “Nothing in the Scripture hints that we Christians should expect life to be easier, more antiseptic, or safer. We need a mature awareness of the contributions of pain, and we need the courage to cling to God despite the world of pain and sometimes because of it.”

3 preachers are often asked to respond to the question: "If God is a loving God, how can He allow evil to flourish in this world?"

a. the earth is full of natural disaster, political upheavals, catastrophes, economic hardships, accidents, illness, untimely death and abundant wickedness

b. my answer? — it ain't God's fault!

4. man is responsible for every bit of pain and sorrow, evil and difficulty we experience

a. we live in what theologians call a post-Genesis-3 world”

1) in Genesis, chapter 3, we see the entrance of sin into the world because of disobedience

2) ever since that moment everyone who has ever lived is a recipient of Adam’s fallen nature, and guilt

b. sin is real, deeply seated in our lives, and pernicious ... it is a subtle poison

A. PAIN AND SUFFERING ARE A PERSISTENT HUMAN PROBLEM BECAUSE SIN IS A PERSISTENT HUMAN PROBLEM

1. some men suffer because of their own sinful behavior, disobedience to God, or evil choices

a. man is a sin-soaked creature ... every part of our personality and character being affected by it

1) we are willful beings endowed with the freedom to choose between right and wrong, between good and evil

2) the problem is we frequently choose wrong!

b. the result?

1) men—all men—chose to live for themselves rather than God

2) the Apostle Paul says that men would rather walk after the flesh than in the Spirit

c. when that happens, eternal spiritual principles which God has put in place take over

"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Galatians 6:8-9, KJV)

d. much of our pain and suffering come as a consequence of our own sin

ILLUS. I was in my first pastorate right out of college. I had been there for a couple of years. One day I got a phone call from a church member. A member of our church was in the hospital with cancer. When they gave me the name I did not recognize it. It turned out that this man was in his 50s. He had made a profession of faith as a child during Vacation Bible School, and had been baptized into the church. At some point he dropped out and, to anyone's knowledge, had not been to church anywhere ever again. When I visited him in the hospital, I discovered that he was full of cancer and was going to die. The cancer had begun in his lungs, and metastasized to other areas of his body. As I talked with him it became obvious that he was bitter. He was mad at God! I'll never forget as he looked at me, anger was flashing in his eyes, and said, "Preacher, I've always been a good person. Why is God punishing me like this?" In my youth and inexperience I really did not know how to answer him and so just kept quiet. I later learned from family members that he had been a heavy smoker since he was a teenager. For the last ten years of his life he had smoked 4 and 5 packs a day.

e. even among believers, many of our difficulties are a result of our own behavior that follows our old sinful nature

2. some men suffer because of the sinful behavior or evil choices of others

ILLUS. On September 11, 2001, thousands of people go about their normal routine of going to work. They step into an elevator and take it to the upper floors of the World Trade Center. Hundreds of miles away, passengers are boarding plains for routine business trips not realizing that those plains are going to be turned into deadly missiles. Hundreds of NYC police and fireman answer the call to a disaster, not knowing that two of the world’s tallest buildings are going to come crashing down on their heads.

b. it's so tempting for good Christians to say, "God, it's so unfair." "God it's not right." "God, why did you let this happen?" "Lord, what did they do to deserve this fate?"

c. the point is, they didn't do anything to deserve that fate

1) the sinful behavior of evil men bent on evil actions brought pain and suffering to the families of the victims and a nation

ILLUS. The classic biblical example of this situation is found in David's sin of adultery with Bath-Shebe. David and Bath-Shebe were in the wrong, but who paid for it? It was Bath-Shebe’s husband, Uriah, who was killed upon King David’s orders.

2) I have no doubt that Uriah had some comrades in arms who asked each other around the campfire that evening, the question, “What must Uriah have done to deserve his fate?”

3) the answer? Uriah was innocent, but another was not, and it was his sin that caused evil, suffering, and in Uriah’s life, and ultimately his death

3. some men suffer because all of creation was affected by sin and is fallen

a. we must remember that the world's situation today is not the result of God's original plan

1) this world is not the way God wanted it to be

2) God did not build illness, or disaster, or upheaval, or catastrophe, or hardship or even death into His original creation

b. in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome, he wrote that creation was subjected to frustration and that it is in bondage to decay because of man’s original sin

c. because we live in a fallen creation, tainted by sin and evil, even good Christian people are affected by pain and suffering even though they have done nothing to deserve it

B. GOD IS NOT TO BLAME FOR OUR PAIN AND SUFFERING

1. in the Old Testament, we have the story about a man named Job

a. Job suffered more than any man ought to

b. at one point Job’s friends were convinced that a good God who works in the world would never allow such horrible things to happen to Job if Job had not done something to deserve it

c. though Job seemed to be innocent, he must have had some secret sin of which he needed to repent before his good fortunes would return

2. it is human nature to seek an explanation for suffering in cause and affect

a. we always want to look backward for a connection between some prior behavior, or sin that would explain present suffering

b. the problem arises when we don’t find any connection between sin and suffering

c. but, like Job’s friends we believe that there must be a reason for evil and suffering and so we reach one of two conclusions

1) we conclude that there must be some deep, dark hidden sin in the suffer’s life that even they are not aware of ... or

2) we conclude that God is unjust and that He capriciously inflicts suffering upon His children for no apparent reason

3. the book of Job shows that his friend are wrong

a. Job maintains that he was an innocent sufferer, and he was

b. in the Gospels, Jesus points out the mistake of interpreting each example of suffering as if it is the consequence of someone’s sin

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind.2 His followers asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind—his own sin or his parents’ sin?” Jesus answered, “It is not this man’s sin or his parents’ sin that made him be blind. This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.” (John 9:1-3, NCV)

4. ultimately, human efforts to explain with satisfaction all experiences of suffering are doomed to frustration

a. answers may be found that are partially satisfying, and that provide some help for the need to find meaning

b. but no matter how hard one tries, however, unanswered questions remain

II. OBSERVATION #2: GOD WILL USE THE PAIN AND SUFFERING OF THE RIGHTEOUS TO GIVE US UNFORGETTABLE EXAMPLES OF GRACE UNDER FIRE

1. at some point, we are confronted with the necessity of giving up the intellectual search for why the righteous suffer and, instead, to turn to God who is our recourse and strength in the midst of our suffering

a. that is what so many Bible characters do

b. they continued to have faith in spite of hardship and suffering

“the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:38–40, NIV84)

ILLUS. Faith of the Three Hebrew Children. King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded that everyone in his kingdom — including all Jews — should worship an idol that he had erected. Three young Jewish men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decided that their faith in the true God would not allow them to worship the king’s idol and so they refused to bow down and worship it. For defying him, the king decided to have them burned alive. But just before their deaths the king gave them one last chance. He said, “In a moment you will again hear the sound of the horns, flutes, lyres, zithers, harps, pipes, and all the other musical instruments. If you bow down and worship the statue I made, that will be good. But if you do not worship it, you will immediately be thrown into the blazing furnace. What god will be able to save you from my power then?” Now listen to their response: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, saying, “Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves to you. If you throw us into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from the furnace. He will save us from your power, O king. But even if God does not save us, we want you, O king, to know this: We will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

2. this was the kind of defiant faith that God calls us to have—to believe that God can deliver us by His might and strength

a. but even if He does not, we will not bow down and worship the idol of despair or self-pity

“My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” (Psa. 119:50, NIV)

A. GOD HAS ALWAYS USED SUFFERING TO PERFECT AND PURIFY HIS PEOPLE AND TO DEMONSTRATE THE SUFFICIENCY OF HIS GRACE

1. God began with His own Son

2. our own Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, was not immune to unjust suffering

Hebrews 2:10 “God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory, so he made the One who leads people to salvation perfect through suffering.” NCV

a. if the King of kings and Lord of lords was made perfect through suffering, we should not be surprised that the grace of God can also lead us to a higher level of spiritual maturity through the difficulties of life

B. OUR PATIENT ENDURANCE IN SUFFERING VERIFIES OUR FAITH

1. the Apostle Peter used the analogy of refining gold to illustrate this aspect of suffering

a. just as a goldsmith uses fire to purify gold by burning away the dross, so God uses trials to test and to purify our faith

1 Peter 1:6-7 “. . . even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold, which can be proved to be pure by fire but will ruin. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you.” NCV

b. but suffering cannot only burn out the dross, but it can also burn in the promises and lead us to a closer dependence on God

ILLUS. King David never did say in the Psalms that if you have faith, “God will take you around the Valley of the Shadow of Death.” David said He goes through it with us.

c. Jesus Himself taught us, with His hands nailed to that stark tree, that it is in the midst of our suffering that we learn the most about the presence of the Living God

2. King David’s faith was a proven faith and a proven faith is a precious faith because it assured him that his faith was genuine

C. OUR PATIENT ENDURANCE IN SUFFERING AMPLIFIES OUR SPIRITUAL VIRTUES

1. in his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote that believers can also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope

2. notice the progression

a. suffering produces perseverance

1) perseverance is a word that refers to cheerful endurance which leads to a consistent way of life

2) this is not a passive take-whatever-comes-your-way kind of attitude, but an active overcoming through faith

b. perseverance leads to character

1) the word “character” applied to metal whose impurities had been purged by fire

2) in the Christian experience Paul is referring to a tested and approved life

3) it results in a trustworthiness gained through tempering

c. character leads to hope

1) the word hope means to happily anticipate

3. what are we to happily anticipate?

a. it is in the reconciliation received by faith in Christ and all that goes with it ... our justification, and our sanctification, and our ultimate glorification

D. OUR PATIENT ENDURANCE IN SUFFERING ENCOURAGES OTHER BELIEVERS

1. God often uses the suffering of one believer to encourage and strengthen others

2. Paul wrote that his first imprisonment resulted in greater progress for the gospel because it gave other believers far more courage to speak the word of God without fear

3. some of us have been encouraged in our Christian life because of how we saw others handle hardship, suffering, and even death

E. OUR PATIENT ENDURANCE IN SUFFERING IS A WITNESS TO UNBELIEVERS

1. only eternity may reveal the positive affect our triumph in our suffering provides others

ILLUS. One of my favorite old Hollywood Biblical epics is a move entitled Quo Vadis. It's about a Roman General named Quo Vadis who falls in love with a beautiful slave girl who is a Christian. Through her life and the testimony of other Christians Quo Vatus becomes a Christian himself. For his faith he earns the wrath of Nero. Nero is played by Peter Ustinov who gives a wonderful over-the-top performance of an evil, maniacal emperor. Nero has burned Rome, placed the blame on the Christians and is busily entertaining the masses by delighting them with mass execution of believers in the Roman arena. After one episode where dozens of Christians have been thrown to hungry lions, Nero goes down into the arena to examine the corpses that are left. To his amazement, many of them are smiling! They suffered and died with joy. Nero doesn’t understand.

2. I’m sure there are many who do not understand how we can continue to smile throughout our ordeals

a. only those who have the same Jesus in their heart can truly understand

One of the great saints of the 20th century was a woman named Corrie ten Boom. She was a Dutch citizen whose family helped hide Jewish refugees from the Nazis during WWII. Ultimately found out, Corrie and her sister are sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.

There, along with ten thousand other women, Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsy, find themselves in horrible, degrading, hideous conditions.

One day, they are gathered with some of the women in the barracks in the midst of the beds, cold and hungry and lice-ridden, and Betsy is leading a Bible class. One of the other women calls out derisively from her bunk and mocks their worship of God. They fall into conversation, and this woman says what so frequently is flung at Christians: “If your God is such a good God, why does he allow this kind of suffering.” She tears off the bandages and old rags that bind her hands, displaying her broken, mangled fingers and says, “I’m the first violinist of the symphony orchestra. Did your God will this?”

For a moment no one answers. Then Corrie ten Boom steps to the side of her sister and says, “We can’t answer that question. All we know is that our God came to this earth, and became one of us, and he suffered with us and was crucified and died. And that he did it for love.”

This is my closing statement to you. I do not have all the answers as to why men, even good righteous men, suffer. But I know that the God who loves us and died for us wants to be a part of your life and give you peace beyond all understanding.