Job and Suffering

I was listening to a John MacArthur sermon tonight about how believers who trust Christ for their salvation receive a salvation that is secure.  Being secure means that there is nothing that can take it away from us once we have it.  He stated that Christianity in the life of believers offends the world and there is nothing they would like to see better than our faith to fail.  Anyone who has lived long as a Christian knows that people treat you differently when you profess Christ and really want to follow Him.  They are a little less likely to invite you to the next party or the next movie with all the profanity and sexuality in it.  So the Christian gradually looses touch with his worldly friends but gains new friends that share his love for the things of God.  The Christian at that point becomes a missionary and goes back to try to save some of his former friends if possible by praying for them and loving them, even when they don't understand him.

MacArthur also mentioned the story of Job and how Satan tried his best to take away Job's salvation.  He mentioned Romans 8:35-36 where Paul asks,  "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"  Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."  The question here is written to Christians who were living in a hostile world.  We are living in a hostile world and will face many attacks on our faith.

I remember doing a study on Lazarus and reading several commentaries that all said that there were two main reasons for Jesus's actions.  The reasons are stated in the passage.  John 11:4 and 42 say that the main reason was that God would be glorified in it and the second is that we would believe that God sent Him.  So the result of God being glorified is that the believer's faith would be strengthened.  I need to clear up something here.  Jesus knew who the true believers were and who were not.  His signs were meant to act as proofs of His equality with God so that our faith would be fully strengthened in Him.  There were seven miracles that Jesus did in the Gospel of John.  This miracle was the apex.  The supreme miracle of miracles.  Lazarus had been dead for four days and had already started to putrefy.  The Jewish rabbis taught that the spirit of a person hung around for 3 days after a person died to see if the person would resuscitate.  If this did not happen the spirit would move on.  So Jesus waiting four days eliminated the possibility that Lazarus was merely resuscitated.  This miracle was given by Jesus as undeniable proof that He holds the power over the afterlife and that one must possess faith in Christ alone to live even if he dies. "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26.

Jesus wanted to give more and more proof to those who had already believed in Him so that their faith in Him would be rock solid even if they were faced with such a thing as death.  His signs confirmed his incomparable worth to the disciples and increased the hatred of his enemies.  There were two reverse effects going on here.  One going forward and one going backward.  The Pharisees, for the most part, were digressing from knowledge of God into darkness while the tax collectors and sinners were progressing toward holiness and godliness.  This miracle was the last nail in the spiritual coffin of the Pharisees.  Shortly after this they come to agreement as to what they will do with this Jesus.  They will kill him.


"Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they planned together to kill Him." John 11:45-53.

The aforementioned point is a side-note and not a part of the main thrust of this post but is an important fact.  But we now return to Job.  Why did he go through all that?  Some people would like to say that God has some explaining to do.  God didn't really have a good reason for putting Job through all that or for the countless innocents that suffer in this world today.  There are particular "scholars" in mind when I say this but I won't mention their names, to do so would give them publicity which they do not deserve.  They say things like "we shouldn't be thankful because we are more blessed than others" and such other absolute filth that they vomit from their putrid, festering cesspool of a mouth.

But enough about them.  I am rambling.  I think the reason for trials and tribulations for us is to strengthen our faith in God so that we would make it through this demonic world and make it safely into glory.  Now we go on to the good part of Paul's question in Romans 8.  Are you still awake?  Here it goes:

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39.

Did you read that?  There it is.  That is the reason God allowed Job to go through the things that he did.  That is the reason why God allowed Mary and Martha to mourn the death of their brother for four days.  That is the reason why countless Christians have had to endure personal tragedy.  They were having their faith strengthened that as each situation came, they would see their faith remain and grow in their Lord while their love for the world and the things of this life would diminish.  Does that surprise you that God isn't as interested in your feelings here and now as He is interested in your eternal salvation?  Was God interested in Moses' feelings?  How about Elijah?  Jeremiah?  Abraham?  Didn't he ask him to sacrifice his only son?  What kind of God would do that?  A loving One, that's who.  So take heart if you are going through a difficult situation.  It is not anything that any other godly person hasn't had to go through.  Take as encouragement the lives of the people in Hebrews 11 and let that be an anchor for you in the midst of the storm.

Remember Paul's exhortation in Philippians 4: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:4-9.

This is what we must do.  We must remember and meditate on the daily blessings we receive and give thanks.  We must not let difficulties in our lives shake our faith in our Lord.  We must be like Martha in John 11 who said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." She did not let the fact that Jesus had allowed her brother to die to shake her faith in the Lord Jesus.  She RAN to Him and sought Him out when she heard He was near.  She did not stay in the tent like her sister Mary.  Here we can see the faith of Martha was strong.  This is how we should want our faith to be in the midst of tragedy.

The dialog between Jesus and Martha continues: Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."  Wow!  What faith!  Can we genuinely say that our faith is even as strong as Mary's in a tragedy such as this.  I don't know how many of us could tough Martha's!  Now with any faith however, we must realize that it is a growing faith, a faltering faith.  There are many occasions where people who loved and believed in Jesus had their faith in Him falter. At the sepulture we see that Martha's faith did falter a little. "So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" John 11:38-40.

This, my friend, is your and my faith.  It is not perfect.  Not yet.  We will have a perfect faith in glory because what is now faith will then turn into sight.  We are hoping for what we do not see and wait for it eagerly as the Word of God says.  But God preserves the faith of his elect.  He doesn't allow it to lapse into unbelief.  You may be thinking that it would be greatly strengthened if God would do the same thing for you in your tragedy that He did for Mary and Martha in theirs.  But it is God who sets the times for these things.  What God does is he gives us His word with all the examples in it for us to look at and trust.  That is how God works.

God knows that "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead." Luke 16:31.  That is to say, you have the example of Mary and Martha in your tragedy.  You have the example of Job.  Is that going to be enough for you or are you going to be like the unbelieving Jews who ended up crucifying our Lord who said, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." Matthew 12:38 and when Jesus told the Jews in John chp 6 that the work that God approves is to believe in Jesus who has been sent from God.  "So they said to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.'" John 6:30-31.  So the Jews wanted some miracle from Him to prove to them that He had been sent from God.  But the same thing remains for us, do we demand that God do our bidding to be worthy of our belief or do we trust His word?

Repentance - A.W. Pink

Arthur Walkington Pink lived from 1886-1952.  He was an evangelist and a Biblical scholar.  Born in England, he became a Christian in his early twenties.  He attended Moody Bible Institute in 1916 and pastored several churches throughout the United States and also lived in Australia, pastoring two churches from 1925-1928.  He returned to England in 1934 and began writing books and pamphlets for the remainder of his life and died in Scotland in 1952.

Among other things, Pink taught on repentance. 

Audio: "Repentance:  What Saith the Scriptures?" Part 1 | Part 2. Click Here to go to the webpage.

Pamphlet: Repent or Perish.  Click Here.

Book: Repentance. Click Here.

Other Sermons/Books/Pamphlets by A.W. Pink, Click Here.

Mom's Blog: Progressive Thinking Without Jesus?

I think my mom is the funniest person in the world. I was reading her blog and came across this paragraph:

"Before you read this blog, I think that I should remind my readers of a little problem that I have with writing, I can't spell! I usually remember to use my dear friend Webster, because spellcheck just doesn't work, especially, if you come close to correctly spelling the word. I, for some strangeand unknowing reason, have what I term a sleep spellcheck. It seems that a little part of my mind reels at night and when I wake up the day after I have written my blog, and think about what I may have spelled incorrectly, then some word will come to my mind. Yesterday it was effort, which I first spelled effect. Today it is interruptions, which should have been spelled interpretations. Yeah! I agree with you, it is something from thetwilight zone, but it works. Makes me wonder if I am the one really writing this blog!"

But for all the humor, she can say some things that truly highlight the problem with the world today.  We are all out there thinking that if we were only in charge, the world would be a better place.  But read the following quote, taking special note of the last sentence: "I hate the injustices, but I know that no matter how hard we work at making them right, there are always going to be new ones springing up. You might say well we will just keep fixing them! This is all good and well, and deserves true effort to right any injustice we see which needs attention; however, I believe that our world has always been on an endless treadmill of injustices that have never been fixed, nor will ever be fixed without God and His Son Jesus Christ. Injustices come from within our own souls."

She said, "Injustices come from within our own souls."  This is the idea that James had when he said, "Where do wars and where do fights among you come from? Isn't it from your pleasures that are warring in your bodily members?  You desire something and don't have it. You murder and envy and still can't obtain it. You fight and you war. You don't have because you don't ask! You don't receive when you do ask, since you ask wrongly—to waste it on your pleasures." James 4:1-3 (CCNT)

Wars and fights in this world come from wicked people with selfish hearts that want what they want and don't care what it takes to get it.  If someone gets in the way, they will step on them to get it.  It doesn't matter how vile the desire is, they will make sure that eventually they may obtain it.

Another quote says, "Man centered thinking became disguised as God centered thinking, which then took hold and has never let go throughout man's life on earth. Because of this, there have always been and are still today many people, like Dr. Zinn, who are constantly trying to right the injustices that are in our world."  I have no idea who Dr. Zinn is but it sounds like he is one of those people preaching against injustices in this world.  This is not the Christian message.  The Christian message tells people suffering injustice to endure it while we remember Jesus who endured but did not lash out.  He continued doing the will of God no matter what others around him were doing.  What they did made no difference to Him.  He went on anyway in obedience to His Father all the way to the cross.

This is a very insightful comment about Karl Marx:

"I just read a piece about Karl Marx's life, and although his rhetoric may make sense to the working class now, it will not satisfy their needs for a better future. Should socialist and communist succeed in progression toward trying to equalize world economics and somewhat giving all people a chance for economic equality, I think people will dry up like prunes. Marx had everything growing up. His family was wealthy and could afford to send him to a great college. He had a lot of leisure time to drink, socialize, and form his opinions about the human condition. What I think he might have considered is that the system that made his life possible was the system he was trying to crush. He may not have wanted material things anymore, but he still wanted something-- to create an ideal society."

If you would like to read her blog, please click below:
http://mariechasteen.blogspot.com/2011/12/progressive-thinking-without-jesus.html

Justifying Ourselves Before People

So He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before people; but God knows your hearts. That which is highly valued by people is an abomination before God. Luke 16:15 (CCNT)

We justify ourselves in every action that we do because we want to appear like everything is going alright.  We don't want it to appear that we don't have it all together or that there is some shameful sin in our life.  We want it to appear that we are very generous and that we are so full spiritually of the Holy Spirit that we are just overflowing with love toward others.  We want to be thought of as spiritually mature but there is sin in our lives that no one knows about that, if they knew, we would never show our faces again there in church.  If the women knew what we were thinking; if our wives knew what we thought about other women, we would be ashamed to say the least.  How would we face them?

21   "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the empire from the heavens, but only the one who does the will of My Father Who is in the heavens. 22   Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your Name, and didn't we cast out demons in Your Name, and didn't we do many miracles in Your Name?' 23   And I will declare publicly, 'I never knew you; get out of here, you workers of lawlessness!' Matt 7:21-23 (CCNT)

When we say 'Lord, Lord' it is because we have no idea that we aren't saved and we think that we are.  We have this idea that all our external good works actually had power to justify us before God.  It is like they are thinking, "Didn't everyone else think that we were righteous, God?  If we succeed in leaving this earth as being thought of as a great Christian, doesn't that mean that You have to accept us?"

In Luke 16:15, the focus is on the justifing ourselves before men.  This is the inner machinations of the heart in that we think that what we desire is what God should desire too.  What we desire is our happiness and we think that that is God's purpose to fulfill.  All we need to do is make sure we don't hurt too many people and we are philanthropic to those who we view as humble and kind.  That is how we justify ourselves before men.  That is the hearts motivation that produces the self-righteous deeds in Matthew 7:22.

The test for the self-jusifyer is when things don't go his way.  This means that God is not consenting in giving them what they think makes them happy.  "When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy".  They make the whole world suffer with them and of course, like Cain their brother, they step on anyone who makes them look bad or who gets the accolades they feel they should have received.

A Plea for Moral Purity - Carter Conlon

Prospects for the Future - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

What matters most to you?  Have you thought about what exists beyond this life and are you ready for it?  If you are, do you know what you are supposed to be living for in your time here?  This is a clip from a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  A link to two full sermons are located below:

http://www.mlj-usa.com/pages/hebrews

The Gospel and Why We Are Supposed to Live Different From the World

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures," 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

I was thinking about what this means.  I have been thinking about it a lot here lately. I even posted on someone's blog about it.  Some things I say should have better remained unsaid.  But I know about my own conversion and the life I was living before I came to know Christ.  I know that I was walking on the edge of a cliff (metaphorically speaking), and knew that it was life or death for me as to what I did with the next moments of my life.  I made that irreversible decision to jump into the arms of Jesus because the only other option was to jump off the cliff to eternal perdition.  I think that this may happen with everyone.  I don't know if it is as clear as that but, I know that our conversion has to do with our death, burial and resurrection.  

The new birth is only the beginning of that.  There will be a full fulfillment of that at the resurrection of the just when Jesus returns. What does living by faith mean? We all have faith in God that he will give us a good marriage if we live by his word and that we will be able to give good testimonies to those around us by loving them. But is that primarily where we should be looking? To the relationships of this life? I know that we will be spending eternity with our fellow believers but is that all there is?  

Christian counsel and instruction seems to be too much "this life" focused instead of being focused on our "living hope", the Lord Jesus Christ.  We read a passage such as 1 Peter 3:10, "For, "The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit."  It tells us that if we want to have a good life, then we must say things that build up and are true.  Doesn't it?  Is it really speaking of how we can have a good life here on this earth?  I don't believe that it is talking about this life because the context of 1 Peter is of giving encouragement to suffering Christians.  He encourages them in the following manner:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

1 Peter 1:3-5

So what is the life, to love and see good days referring to?  In the above context it is referring to eternal life with Christ.  So he is saying, (my paraphrase) "If you have placed your faith in Christ, if you are longing for heaven and the resurrection from the dead, then you should control your tounge because that will be the norm of eternity."  Isn't that the way we should view all those passages that we look at as self-help tips?  This life is to be viewed as preparation for eternity and for meeting the Lord as a chaste virgin prepares herself for the day of her wedding.  This is when Jesus will return "from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-8.  

Psalm 119 - Verses Dealing with the Heart

The arrogant have forged a lie against me; With all my heart I will observe Your precepts. 

- Psalms 119:69.  

Both Jesus and Paul had to endure hatred and evil plans from those who they had prayed for and had come to minister to.  Jesus healed the sick and taught repentance and the kingdom of God.  Because he was not what the Jews had expected, they in their pride put him to death (although that was in agreement with God's plan all along).  Paul could say, even though having already endured many years of attempts on his life by the Jews that, "my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation." Rom. 10:1.

The literal translation of the phrase "forged a lie against me" is, "they besmear me with lies".  Have you ever seen a piece of metal before it has been forged into a sword?  Normally it starts off as a harmless block of steel.  But after being pounded, folded and heated with great skill it becomes a sword with which you can do great damage.  This is like the plans of the evil doers.  He is saying that they have fashioned lies designed to ruin his reputation  but that he would keep on doing what God has appointed to be done anyway.  He says that he will do it with all that is within him.  He would employ all of his strength, will and mind in staying obedient to what God had appointed to be done.

That flies in the face of our fickle resolve nowadays.  When someone says something harsh to us, we just want to quit.  We think someone is lying about us or "besmearing us with lies" and we mentally shut down and may even drop out of life altogether.  But David says that he keeps pressing on doing, not his will, but God's will that he has appointed that we should do.  Here we see this personal prayer to God in what that he doesn't just hold it all in.  He shares his complaint with God, leaves it in his hands and presses on.  That is our part in the midst of adversity and backbiting when we are doing what is right.  Tell it to God and press on in spite of it.

Another application to this verse is that our eyes need adjustment.  If we could illustrate it in this way, we look at people through warped understanding.  Certain people become huge and God is very small and insignificant in relation to them. God really never had a place in our lives.  We have never seen him for the magnificence that he deserves.

When we make someone else big it is because we also esteem ourselves too highly.  We think that anything WE value is valuable.  The problem is that no matter how big we make ourselves in our eyes, there are going to be some people we make even bigger.  If you can picture a 10ft. tall person walking around your house demanding to be served and catered to, with a bad disposition and an enormous appetite, you can start to see what I am saying.  They are so big and terrible that you fear what may happen if they become displeased.  Maybe it is a son or daughter, coworker or boss, friend, relative or whatever.  All these people that become big in our eyes make God seem small and powerless.  To compare the two we could say that if they become angry, we care a lot but if God becomes angry we care not.  When they need something we are ready to serve, but when God needs something we are too busy.  Just a couple of examples here.  But that is how we do though.  Now what does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

What we do is skew our view of God in favor of someone else.  This is driven by an ignorance of God and a high view of ourselves.  When we are brought low, through humbling circumstances, it is not enough to make us break the image that we have of ourselves. (Ezekiel 20:43).  We were never truly broken (Isaiah 66:2).  That is the reason why a person like Ted Haggard or Jimmy Swaggart will appear broken and repentant but will return again to the same evil that he was doing before he fell.  Their will says, "Do what you wan't God!  You won't break me!" They all the while continue to profess allegiance to God outwardly and may be completely deceived as to their true spiritual state (Matthew 7:21-23, 25:41-46).  These are the arrogant that exalt themselves and despise those who are truly humble.

We need to break the high opinion that we have of ourselves and then we will break the high opinion of others.  This can only be accomplished by a right view of God.  We must fill our minds with a proper understanding of the character of God.  I suggest reading A.W. Pink's "The Attributes of God" to help put your mind in perspective.

Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law.

- Psalms 119:70.  

Now we have a good perspective for going into the next verse.  These very same people have not one ounce of compassion for others.  This is due to their high opinion of self.  They refuse to grind the image of their idol to dust or to see God for who he is and magnify him instead of other people.  People in their lives have become so big and terrible that all God's slaves have become small and wretched in their eyes.

A heart that is covered with fat is dull to the law of God.  It is interesting that the most pagan people can feel conviction of sin when presented with the gospel.  But contrast someone who has heard the word of God many times and has not repented.  His heart is now dull and insensitive to the strongest preaching of the word.  I remember Hebrews 6:8, "but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned."

David's joy is God's law.  Here law means instruction.  What David is saying that hearing God's instruction gives him joy.  This is the opposite of the hard-hearted people who are persecuting him.  They refuse to hear God's instruction.