Sufferings

Romans 5:3
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, December 11, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Gregory Broderick

If you have spent any time with Pastor Mathew, you will know that it is not singular—suffering.  It is plural—sufferings.

This is an intelligent and educated church, by God’s grace.  Much of the church world is driven by emotion: either playing up your emotions to get into your pocketbook, appealing to your “felt needs” to fill up the pews, or simply preaching their own feeling-based message instead of the whole word of God.  But we do differently in this church.  We are committed to the word of God, the Holy Scriptures.  And we have long been under the care and teaching of our pious and learned pastor-theologian.  As you may have heard, he has written eighteen books expounding the word of God, and the nineteenth is coming soon.  That nineteenth book is what I am going to preach about this morning.  It is what inspired this morning’s sermon on sufferings.  As I reviewed and edited a draft, I was blessed by the message in that book.  I was enriched by the message in that book. So I will share it with you this morning.

I. Sufferings Are Part of the Deal

God guarantees our sufferings.  He never promised us otherwise.  Despite what prosperity preachers and other frauds may tell you, God has never promised us an easy life.  In fact, He promises us just the opposite.  Second Corinthians 1:5 says that “the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives.”  Second Corinthians 1:4 says that Jesus comforts us “in all our troubles”—not that Jesus absolves us of all trouble; not that He takes away all trouble, but He comforts us in trouble.  John 16:33 says, “In this world you will have trouble.”  It does not get much more direct than that.  In John 15:20 our Lord tells us, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”  In John 15:19 he says, “The world hates you.”  First Timothy 3:12 says, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

With all that Scripture, and there is more, where did we ever get the idea that there will be a suffering-free life for the Christian?  It does not come from the Holy Scripture.  The great men of God have always suffered.  Look at the godly man Job.  He is described in the book of Job as “blameless and upright.”  It says, “He feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1).  God the Father Himself repeats that in verse 8, saying “There is no one on earth like him.”  Yet Job suffered immensely.  It is a book of suffering.  He suffered beyond anything we have experienced and beyond what we can really fathom.  His children are killed.  His vast wealth is taken away, burned, or stolen.  Painful sores come up on his body from his head to his feet (Job 2:7).  He is in utter misery early in the book.  He says in Job 3 that he was sorry that he was ever born.  He curses the day of his birth.  That is how great his suffering was.  In Job 3:20, Job says that he has no peace, no quiet, no rest, but only turmoil.  If such a great and godly man is allowed to suffer such misery, will we fare any better than Job?  The answer is “No.”

Look at the godly King David.  He suffered greatly during his life.  Now, to be sure, some of that suffering was a consequence of his own sin.  But he suffered all the same.  He suffered greatly, both because of his sin but also at other times when he had done nothing wrong.  He was hunted by the maniacal Saul out of jealousy.  He was betrayed by his own son and his close counselor Ahithophel.  He writes in Psalm 55, “My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught.”  Distraught!  Suffering!  “My heart is in anguish within me.”  Suffering!  In Psalm 41, David says his enemies revile and slander him.  This is a great and godly man, a man whose godliness far exceeds our own, and yet he suffered, suffered, suffered.

Joseph was despised, plotted against, sold as a slave, falsely accused, imprisoned, and then forgotten by those he had helped.  Great suffering.  Peter was jailed in Jerusalem, flogged by the Sanhedrin in Acts 5, and then, as an old man, arrested in Rome and executed by the excruciating method of crucifixion; upside down according to tradition.

There is strong evidence that most, perhaps all, of the apostles were executed: James with the sword; Stephen, the great man, was stoned to death.  It takes some time.  Imagine the pain of being pelted to death by rocks.  It is a painful way to go.  Great suffering.  Of course, the top theologian, Paul, was also top in suffering.  This is what he says in 2 Corinthians 11 beginning with verse 23:

Are they servants of Christ?  (I am out of my mind to talk like this.)  I am more.  I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.  I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.  I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.  Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.  Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?  Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?  (2 Cor.  11:23–29)

This is a life of suffering for a great and godly man.

Only Jesus Christ can top Paul in suffering, for He suffered the full wrath of God in our place.  He suffered the humiliation of becoming man.  He was flogged, He was beaten, He was crucified, He was mocked, and He died.

Don’t ever think, brothers and sisters, that God came to make our brief lives pleasant and free of suffering.  No, no, no.  God had a much greater purpose than to give us an easy life.  He came to pay the full price for our sins.  He came to save His elect who, by His regeneration, confessed “Jesus Lord” and put their faith in Him alone for their salvation.  He came to walk in obedience to the word, and He came to help us to walk in obedience to the word until we go to glory.

II. Sources of Suffering

Let’s look at the sources of suffering.

1. Suffering Because of Our Own Sin

The first source of suffering is sin.  In fact, sin is ultimately the source of all suffering.  In the Garden and before the Fall, there was no suffering.  It is such a different way of living that we can’t really contemplate it or even imagine it.  Everything was very good in the Garden before the Fall.  God said so in Genesis 1:31.  There was order.  There was peace.  There was work.  There were rules, but it was not subject to trouble, to pain, and to frustration, the kind of pain and frustration that we experience daily.

After Adam and Eve chose to sin, and believed the devil’s lie, however, suffering abounded and multiplied throughout the world.  Pains in childbearing were greatly increased (Gen. 3:16).  Relations between man and wife, previously joyful and unified, are now contentious (Gen. 3:16).  There was no more domestic tranquility like they experienced before.  Work continued, of course, by necessity, but now instead of joyful, instead of fruitful, instead of productive, it was achieved by painful toil and the sweat of man’s brow (Gen. 3:19).  Man became subject to death for the first time (Gen. 3:19).  These were the wages of sin.  And soon, of course, Adam and Eve would get to know this intimately, for they suffered the death of one son at the hand of another.

Because of their sin, we are now born sinners who practice sin daily, so we also suffer due to sin.  Thus, suffering is common to all people in the world everywhere, for we are all born of Adam and so we all sin and we all experience the sin of others around us.  In other words, it is common to man (1 Cor. 10:13).

Sometimes the suffering that we experience is a result of our own sin.  First Corinthians 11:30 says that the people in the church were weak, sick, and even dying due to their sin, their lack of love, their discrimination.  In Acts 5, we see that Ananias and Sapphira died because they lied to God’s Holy Spirit.  They died because of their sin.  The Exodus generation died in the desert due to their refusal to obey God, due to their unbelief.

This is a reminder that, as Christians, we are not exempt from suffering, nor are we exempt from the consequences of our own sin.  It is true that the ultimate consequence has been taken away.  It has been satisfied.  We are no longer required to pay the infinite penalty for sin in eternal hell because Jesus Christ paid it on our behalf on the cross.  He finished the full payment for our sins and so we neither need to, nor can, add to that payment.  But that does not mean that there are no earthly consequences for our sins.  Praise God, the ultimate consequence is taken away.

But we have interim consequences in this life.  Second Thessalonians 3:10 says, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”  Relatedly, suffering may be discipline from God for our sins.  As our Father, God properly disciplines us because He loves us (Heb. 12:5–11).  We see this all over the Bible.  In Psalm 119:71 the psalmist writes, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”  Or Psalm 119:67: “Before I was afflicted”—in other words, before I suffered—“I went astray.”  So you get the understanding: He sinned, and God brings discipline to bring him back to the right way, to the narrow way, to the way of blessing.

Consider King David, who I mentioned before.  For his sin, he had one son die and another rebel against him, due to his adultery with Bathsheba and his murderous cover-up.  This is covered in 2 Samuel chapter 11.  Verse 27, a chilling verse in the Bible, says, “The thing David had done displeased the Lord.”  So there would be all kinds of consequences for his sin, but God is also going to bring additional discipline to David to show him, “Don’t do that again.”  Look at King Asa.  He became proud and independent.  He rejected and imprisoned the prophets that God sent to warn him and to turn him back to God.  He refused to seek God despite this discipline.  He received a terrible foot disease, and even then he refused to seek God, so God brought the ultimate discipline to him: death (2 Chron. 16).

I point this out to say that any time we are suffering, we must stop and examine ourselves: Am I sinning?  Is my suffering a consequence of my sin?  Is my suffering a discipline from God to turn me away from my sin?  Examine yourself.  Fast and pray, if you are suffering.  And if you discover that you are sinning, repent and then heed the Lord’s discipline.

But not all suffering is a result of our sin.  It can also be a result of the sin of others.  Take, for example, a child who suffers from hunger.  It is likely that that suffering is not the child’s fault.  It could be, if the child is on a hunger strike and refusing to eat, as occasionally happens.  But most of the time it is not going to be that child’s fault.  Perhaps it is because her father is a bum and will not work.  Perhaps it is because her mother spent all the money on something else.  It is not her fault.  The father sinned or the mother sinned, but the child suffered.  Or take a child caught in the middle of a divorce, or who is the product of adultery or some kind of fornication.  One or both parents sinned, but that child is the one who suffers.  As I will explain later, even this is for God’s good purposes.  So don’t despair or rebel in your suffering, even if you are the innocent party.  God can and in fact will use that suffering for your good if you are His.  But it doesn’t make the suffering any easier to endure when it is unjust or when it feels unjust.

2. Suffering Because of the Sin of Others

The paradigmatic case for innocent suffering is persecution for the name of the Lord.  You suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.  You did not do anything wrong, but someone hates you or attacks you because you speak the name of Christ.  The Bible warns us—I already read the verse—that all Christians will suffer persecution on one level or another.  The world in its madness, in its confusion of mind, in its enmity toward God, wants to throw a grenade in God’s face.  But He is not accessible to them, so they throw the grenade at you instead, as a way of getting at God.

Look again at our godly apostles.  Acts 5:41: They were flogged and ordered not to speak in Jesus’ name.  Especially Peter is mentioned as one of the people flogged there, but it makes clear that multiple of them were being flogged and persecuted.  That is rough stuff, if you think about what flogging is—beating on your back with whips and little chips of bone and things in there.  In Acts 6, Stephen is stoned to death for testifying to the martyrdom of Jesus and proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ.  Pelted to death with rocks is a tough way to go.  Acts 9 describes Saul as a professional persecutor, breathing out slaughter and threats against the Lord’s disciples, going from city to city to arrest those who followed Jesus and dared to proclaim His name.

Persecution was by no means limited to that time and place.  You see it from start to finish in the Bible.  You see it all throughout Christian history.  You see it even in our time.  Persecution of Christians was a state-sponsored activity in the Roman empire from Nero all the way to the time of Constantine: several hundred years.  It seems like a really long time ago.  Maybe several hundred years is hard for us to contemplate.  But it would have been a hard time for those people century after century after century, suffering persecution for the name of Christ.

Mohammed, the so-called prophet of Islam, expelled all Christians from his territory.  Throughout time, Christians have been thrown to the wild beasts and executed for refusing to renounce Jesus.  The great man Jan Hus was burned at the stake for Christ, and there is a monument to him.  Christian missionaries were slaughtered all over the world—in China and South America, by the evil Communists in the former Soviet Union and its satellites, by Africans and Nazis, by ancient empires and by young Turks.  From the first century through today, those who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, those who call themselves Christians, have been the most persecuted group in all of history.

In our time and in our place, we do not see it as much.  But you would be shocked to learn that at least 100,000 people per year are killed across the world for proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ.  One hundred thousand people per year.  Persecution is alive and well.

Why all this persecution?  It is a result of enmity; hatred for God; devil-inspired attempts to strike at God through His people.  Remember Haman the Agagite?  He hated a certain person of God, but what did he do when it came time to get even?  He struck against all the people of God.  God intervened and Haman’s plan did not succeed, but he wanted to wipe out all the people who claimed the name of God.  That is deep, deep enmity, hatred, for God.

All of this is an attempt by those unregenerate to suppress the truth and to sear their consciences even further (Rom. 1:18).  Their problem is that deep down they know the reality of God and they hate it.  Romans 1:19–20 covers this.  It drives them crazy (Rom. 1:20).  They have depraved minds.  It is too much conscience accusing them, so they strike out.  They strike out at God.  They strike out at His people in an attempt to justify themselves, to silence the inner voice, to prove themselves right, to just make it go away.  This is what they did to Jesus Christ.  He never sinned, but they plotted against Him and they killed Him.  His light was just too bright to tolerate.  It was too tangible a reminder of their own unrighteousness, their own unworthiness.  They wanted to earn and prove their righteousness by their law-keeping, and here was this bright light of Jesus Christ saying, “It will never work.  It will never justify you.  We have to put out that light and make it go away.”

I ask you, if they did that to Jesus Christ, will we fare better than our Lord and our Master?  The answer is “No.”  Until He comes again with glory, we His people will always suffer a degree of persecution, caught in the crossfire of the devil and his followers as they attempt to hurl ordnance at God.

Of course, our experience in this country has been much milder than what I have laid out for you.  We are not killed.  We do not face death all day long like some of our Nigerian brothers or Chinese sisters.  Yet we suffer persecution all the same.  We suffer vile slander.  We have been betrayed by close brothers who turn around and stab us on the back.  There is social pressure not to preach, not to speak about sin.  Some of you have experienced deep rifts within your extended family or even disinheritance.

What are we to do with such unavoidable sufferings?  First, make sure that you are suffering persecution.  Make sure that it is, in fact, unavoidable and not simply a consequence of what you have chosen to do.  First Peter 4:15 reminds us to suffer not as a thief or even as a meddler but as a Christian.  So if you are fired from your job for not showing up on time or being a bad employee, please do not say, “I am being persecuted for the name of Christ.”  You are not.  As a godly person told me one time, that is not persecution; that is just a consequence.

But if you truly are suffering for the name of Christ because of your commitment to Him, or your actions in His behalf, then do not be ashamed of your suffering.  In fact, wear it as a badge of honor, and praise God that you bear His name and that you are counted worthy of suffering for the name of Christ (1 Pet. 3:17).

3. Suffering to Glorify God

There are yet other reasons for our suffering other than our sin or the sin of others.  One is to glorify Jesus Christ.  Remember the account of the blind man in John 9.  Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Lord, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  (John 9:2).  That was the idea.  If this man was suffering, it must be a consequence of his sin—probably his great sin or his parents’ great sin.  That was the thinking at the time.  And the surprising answer comes from Jesus:  “Neither,” he said, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”  This man’s blindness was not a result of sin.  God made him to be born blind so that God could glorify Himself through this man.

Think of the woman subject to bleeding for twelve long years.  Think of the man with the shriveled hand, healed in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  They suffered for many years, and yet Jesus was glorified in healing these people.  God can be glorified by relieving our suffering, and God can be glorified by carrying us through our suffering.  It is a great witness to the world when we suffer and endure it, not as they do, not in grumbling and complaining in misery, but rejoicing and giving glory to God even through great and difficult sufferings.

4. Suffering to Build and Shape Our Character

Suffering also builds and shapes our character.  So this is another reason for suffering.  Remember that God’s plan and purpose for us is not to make us comfortable or rich or famous in this short life.  Rather, it is to make us holy and blameless (Eph. 5:25; Col. 1:22).  God is conforming us to the likeness of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29).  We are not yet conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, so He has to work on us to conform us to the likeness of Christ, and one of the ways He does that is through suffering.

As in any process of refinement, sufferings are involved.  Pruning is very painful for the tree.  Its limbs are cut away.  Yet that tree is made more fruitful by that painful difficulty.  Polishing metal produces showers of sparks from the friction, but the chrome shines brighter as a result.  Silver and gold are made beautiful and valuable by refining, but they must be subjected to the heat to burn away the dross.  It is like that for those things.  It is like that for us.

I wish it were the case that we were made more fit for heaven by prosperity and rainbows all the time.  I really wish it.  But that is rarely if ever the case.  The reality is that prosperity and peace usually make us independent.  We grow fat and kick against the goads when all is good.  Our God loves us too much to let us do that.  So instead, he brings short-term trouble for our long-term gain.

5. Suffering Drives Us Closer to God

Another reason for suffering is that it drives us closer to God.  I noted that when all is good, we tend to wander and we tend to grow independent of God.  We think we have it all under control.  That is, of course, an illusion.  But we think we have it all under control so we say, “Well, I needed God’s help when I was young, when I was poor, but now I have arrived.  I have made it, and I don’t need God’s help as much anymore.”  We forget that we are to live by faith and not by sight.  We forget that we need Him every hour.  We forget that we depend on Jesus Christ for our very existence, breath by breath (Heb. 1:3).

We tend to wander to our own detriment and danger, and we risk becoming prey for the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  So God graciously reminds us from time to time, through suffering, that we are dependent upon Him.  A whack of the shepherd’s rod keeps us near our protector and provider.  There is nothing like a little trouble, or even a lot of trouble, to remind us of our own frailty, our own weakness, and our own dependence.

Paul reminds us of this in 2 Corinthians 1:9:  “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.”  “It was more than we could bear” (v. 8).  But then he gives the purpose: “This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”  Now, if Paul needs a reminder, how much more do we need a reminder.  Such a reminder that we depend on God and not ourselves also produces great hope.  Paul continues in verse 10: “On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us.”  If I am responsible for delivering us, we are in bad shape.  If you are responsible for delivering yourself, you don’t have much hope.  But we do have a hope, for God is the one who preserves us, God is the one who saves us, God is the one who will deliver us, and that is great hope.  Our sufferings remind us of that.

Romans 5:3 says, “Suffering produces perseverance,” and it goes on to say that perseverance produces character, and character produces hope—hope in God.  Hope in myself, in my money, or in any man is not much hope at all.  But hope in God is real.  Hope in God is sure.  Hope in God is certain.  Hope in God is glorious.  May we all keep that hope in the center of our lives, even at the cost of suffering.

III. Our Response to Suffering

Our response to sufferings matters.  God does not intend that we suffer for the sake of suffering.  Rather, His good purposes in us or through us are fulfilled and whether that happens depends on our response to sufferings.  All too often, our response to sufferings is to grumble about the suffering, to complain about the suffering, and to look for the nearest and quickest exit from that suffering.  That is the way to ensure that you will receive the minimum benefit from suffering or perhaps none at all.  There are better responses to suffering.

1. Examine Yourself

First, self-examination.  Before looking for the way out of suffering, stop and ask yourself, why is this happening to me?  Why am I am suffering?  Is it a result of my sin?  Is it just a consequence?  Or is God disciplining me for my sins?  We have those overt sins, like David’s adultery.  But we also have those more subtle or covert sins like our pride.  If you find that that is the answer, then before you take the exit from suffering, repent of that sin.  Real repentance.  Don’t repent of the suffering; repent of the sin.  Proverbs 28:13 says to confess and renounce your sins and find mercy.  Don’t engage in the fake repentance of the world that says, “Let’s just get this over with,” or “I am sorry,” or “I apologize.”  After you sin, it is too late to apologize.  You need to repent.  You need forgiveness.  And your forgiveness is a product of your repentance.  Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins.  So sometimes people will sin and then say, “Please forgive me.”  But ask yourself first the question: Did I repent of that sin?  “Please forgive me” is not repentance.  Go and repent.  “I am sorry,” you say.  For what?  For the consequences of your sin or for the sufferings caused by your sin?  Or are you sorry for sinning against God, for sorrowing God, for grieving the Holy Spirit?  Some go on sinning after being “sorry”.  They were not sorry enough to stop sinning.  Instead, we must first repent of our sin.  Confess and renounce.  In other words, stop it.  Stop it, and confess to God “I sinned.” Then stop sinning, and go on doing what is right.  Then you can apologize.  Then you can ask for forgiveness.  There is a basis for forgiveness when we repent.

Examine yourself, but also be examined by others.  You may not see your sin.  Someone else may see your sin, especially those shepherds that the Holy Spirit has appointed to oversee the flock (Acts 20:28).  This is primarily speaking of pastors and elders.  But there are also others: your parents, your husband or your wife, your fellow believers in Christ.  They may see the plank in your eye that you cannot.  Also, you might be wrong if you conclude, “I am suffering for my sin.”  Either way, your suffering may not be a result of your sin.  So go to someone else and examine.

As we already said, not all suffering is discipline, not all suffering is a consequence for your sin.  God may be preparing you for something that is to come, shaping and molding your character.  He may be glorifying Himself through you like He did through the man born blind.  So regardless of whether you conclude that your suffering is the consequence of your sin, or your suffering is discipline for your sin, or if you conclude that it is not, ask for help from those God has put around you: your pastors, your elders, your parents, your brothers and sisters in Christ, and so on.  Make sure you have correctly identified the reason for your suffering.

2. Draw Near to God

Second response to suffering: Draw near to God.  Look at Psalm 51.  David had sinned terribly, and we have already discussed it to a degree.  But he did not run away from God, and he did not run away from God’s discipline.  Rather, he ran to God in repentance and faith.  Oh, the discipline was coming, and it came, and it was tough.  But he ran to God.  You see, God will discipline us in our sins but only for our good, if we are His people.  He wounds but He also binds up.  And He promises us in Isaiah 43, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa.  43:2–3).  In other words, you may suffer those waters.  You may suffer the deep rushing river or the burning flames, but God will be with you to help you even if you are the one who set the fire.

Draw near and nearest to God in suffering and follow Him closely during that time.  He is leading you on the narrow path, on the narrow way to glory.  He knows the way because He forged it, He built it, and Jesus Christ, our forerunner, has already gone the whole way on the path.  And He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us as our guide as we walk along the narrow path.  So in suffering, when that narrow path is darkest, is steepest, is rockiest, and is hardest, stick closest to the guide.  Stick closest to the guide, lest you stumble and fall from the cliffside instead of following Him out of that steep and rocky and difficult way into the shady green pastures that He has for us up ahead.

Drawing near to God in suffering also guarantees our comfort in that suffering.  God does not put a time limit on our suffering.  I listened to a sermon by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and he said, “God does not guarantee for you that things will get better in a month or in a year or two.  You may suffer your whole life. The duration of the suffering depends on what good thing God is doing in you.”  So you need God’s comfort through your suffering because you do not know how long it is going to last.  Second Corinthians 1:3–7 reminds us that God is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles, even if those troubles are self-inflicted.  Verse 5 reminds us that the sufferings of Christ flow into our lives, but it also tells us that through Christ our comfort overflows.  We can be full to the brim with the comfort of God if we will only receive it.  In fact, it overflows our capacity and it flows out to others.  As Psalm 119:50 tells us, “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.”  If all else fails you, if you suffer terrible slander, painful or chronic disease, persecution, disappointment, betrayal, apostasy, abandonment—if all else fails you, even if you suffer those things your whole life, you can remember this: You are destined for glory.  You are destined for glory with God in Christ if you are His and if you stand firm to the end.  Suffering and weeping may last for a night, or a week, or a month, or a year, or a decade, or your entire lifetime—that suffering may last for a short time, but joy comes in the morning.  Joy comes when we are ushered into the very presence of God.  Joy comes when we hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.  Enter into your Master’s rest and happiness.”

That is true lasting and unshakable comfort.  I may have a year’s worth of problems or twenty years’ worth of problems or a hundred years’ worth of problems.  But I am going to glory where I will have infinite years—ten thousand times ten thousand times ten thousand years of glory, of comfort—of no suffering, no mourning, no crying, no tears—just joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So receive God’s comfort.  Receive His comfort in your suffering by remembering His sure and certain promises.  Receive His comfort in suffering by going to Him in prayer.  Receive His comfort in suffering by experiencing it overflowing from His people, your brothers and sisters, all these people sitting here in the church.  God puts us all here together for His purposes, and one of those is to comfort one another in suffering.  Receive comfort in your suffering from the indwelling Holy Spirit.  That is God living within you.  And receive comfort from His Holy Scriptures, written down for our comfort and for our encouragement (Rom. 15:4; Ps. 119:52).  Don’t get lost in all the trouble.  We tend to look down and look around at all the trouble.  Instead, look up and fix your eyes on Jesus.  Draw close to God in your suffering.  Stick close to God in your suffering.  Receive His appointed comfort and then follow Him out of your suffering, whether in this life or through death to glory.

3. Rejoice in Your Sufferings

Next response to suffering: Rejoice in sufferings.  This is a tall order.  Rejoice in sufferings.  It sounds counter-intuitive or irrational in our feeling-based, pleasure-seeking culture. But it is not, and I will give you the reasons.

First, God commands us to do so.  That should be a sufficient reason.  It is in our text this morning:  Rejoice also in sufferings.  But it is also all over the Bible.  Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  “Always” includes suffering.  James 1:2: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you suffer for God.”  In Matthew 5:12 Jesus said, “Rejoice and be glad in persecution.”  The parallel verse in Luke 6:23 says, “Rejoice and leap for joy.”  Now, I want to see that: someone in sufferings leaping for joy.  First Peter 4:13: “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.”  It is a great honor.

So first God commands us to do it.  The second reason we are to rejoice in sufferings is that it is possible to do so.  We look at it and say, “That is impossible.”  But all things are possible with God.  Jesus did it, even praying for those who crucified him.  That is difficult to do.  The early church did it.  Hebrews 10:34: They joyfully accepted the confiscation of their property.  Romans 5:3: “We rejoice in our sufferings also.”  Colossians 1:24: Paul, king of suffering, said, “I rejoice in my sufferings.”  It is not just Paul’s advice for you.  This is something Paul did throughout his life by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Acts 5:41: The flogged disciples left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had suffered for Christ.

And it is not just them.  Maybe you think, well, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them with great flames and tongues and all that.  But it is not just them.  It has happened throughout history.  The Puritans, the persecuted, even your Pastor.  So don’t say it is impossible to rejoice in suffering.  It is possible.  You can do it; God will help you.

We have reason to rejoice in suffering.  God is sovereign, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  And if He is sovereign and He is good, then we have nothing to worry about, even in our sufferings.  You can know for sure that God is using sufferings for your eternal good.  Romans 8:28: “All things work together for the good of those who love Him and who He has called according to His purpose.”

Listen to the Puritans who spoke about suffering.

• John Flavel: “Affliction is a furnace to separate dross from gold.” Are you suffering?  God may be burning away the dross and leaving you as gold.
• Stephen Charnock: “We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us than under the staff that comforts us.”
• Jeremiah Burroughs: “Name any affliction that is upon you; there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up.”
• Thomas Brooks: “Sufferings are but a dirty lane that takes us to God’s royal palace.” You may have to go down the dark lane, but at the end of that is God’s royal palace.

So I say, brothers and sisters in Christ, do not fear suffering.  It is God’s divine prescription for our spiritual health.  Do not look to truncate, to shorten, your sufferings but look to benefit from them as God does his work.  If you ever get antibiotics from your doctor, they tell you one thing: Take the whole dose, even after you already feel better.  It is true in sufferings also.  We have to take the whole dose for the whole time period.

Rejoice in your sufferings, brothers and sisters.  God is moving.  God is working.  God is being glorified.

Conclusion

Suffering is God-authored and of great value for each of us individually and for us as a church corporately.  Do not flee from suffering but embrace it so that God may completely do his work of burning away the dross and so that you may come forth as gold for his glory.  Do not be surprised by suffering when it strikes you.  I told you it was guaranteed, so don’t be surprised by the thing that is guaranteed.  Expect it, prepare for it, and trust God in it.

Oh, you may find in that suffering that you are hard-pressed, harder pressed than you imagine could happen to you.  You may be hard-pressed, but you will not be crushed, if God is with you.  Draw nearer and nearer to God in your suffering by prayer, by Scripture, by the Holy Spirit, and by God’s people, His church.  Draw near and receive his comfort in suffering, which is more than sufficient for us.  And receive the crown of glory from our God.  Romans 8:17: “We share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”  Second Corinthians 4:17 says that these sufferings are light and momentary troubles and are achieving for us an eternal glory that will far outweigh them all.  Is your suffering great?  No problem.  There is even greater glory awaiting you in heaven.

We look forward to the glory.  We are excited about the glory.  But as Pastor Mathew reminds us in his book on suffering, first the cross, then the crown.  So I will close as he closes the book:

The destiny of the unbeliever is death, but the destiny of the Christian is life eternal in the presence of God.  If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.  We are already seated with Christ, but we will come into the fullness of our inheritance when Jesus Christ comes again.  Oh, what blessedness!  Oh, what rejoicing!  Let us, therefore, fix our eyes on Jesus and endure suffering, knowing that, in the end, we will receive a crown of life.  And if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation, I urge you to repent of your sins and trust in Christ even this day, that you may not perish but live with him forever in joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Amen.