Enduring Suffering

Thank you for joining the Be A Berean Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Coughlin. A couple of personal updates. Number one, I had a great evening tonight. I took my little sons with me to Target. The goal was to buy a couple things.

I always buy more than I planned to buy when I go to Target but that's a different story but we got to Target and we were getting out of the car and I saw a couple of ladies standing directly across from where my car was parked and they were just each standing in the door of their car talking to one another and I just said to the boys I said do you boys want to give those ladies some tracks and I grabbed a stack of tracks and my younger son like reached in the front seat and I was I was kind of kind of doing the dad thing. I'm like, come on, get back here, quit messing around. And he was actually grabbing tracks because he knows where I keep tracks.

And he grabbed tracks. And I said, well, I already have some. And he said, well, I want to get some too. And I said, well, that's fine. There's no reason for me to oppose that. And so my boys walked over and they gave these ladies tracks.

And it was sweet. And I thought, well, that was really, it was a good thing. I'm glad we did that. And we smiled at him and said hello. And then every single person that we walked near, my older son Wesley decided to give a track to. And it was just beautiful.

And it is so pleasurable to me to think about my son's learning to be friendly to people, learning to give people gospel tracts at a young age. It convicts me of my apathy in that area when my children are so intent on giving every person a tract. We walked in and there was a line of people and my son just went up the whole line and gave everyone a tract.

And then when I showed him that I had more tracts in my pocket that I gave him, he just gave everyone we walked by a tract. and if somebody was down an aisle and we were walking by the aisle, he would run down the aisle to give them a tract. And I just know myself, well, I don't even have to hypothesize. I don't go out of my way like that to give people tracts like he did tonight.

And so it was just very pleasurable to me to think about my son being used by God in that way to possibly even to the salvation of souls. And it was also, it just felt very neighborly. We were able to, we just smiled at people and said hello. And I guess I try to be friendly, but I don't, I mean, I'm an old man now. People don't look at me and think, oh, how sweet that that guy just came and talked to me.

But my little boys are cute, and so people smiled, and it just seemed to cheer up people's lives tonight. And I thought about Psalm 127, where it says, Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. I felt very blessed tonight by my son's enthusiasm, and I even regretted that I didn't have more tracks with me.

I don't take my little sons out much lately because of the coronavirus so we just don't even go to the store much together and I haven't taken them out evangelizing a whole lot at all and I am I'm convinced after tonight that this could be a much more regular thing so if you're a Christian listening to me pray for my sons I have two little boys who have not professed Christ, Wesley and Michael, and I would love if you pray that the Holy Spirit would regenerate their hearts, cause them to believe the gospel, and that they may one day hand out gospel tracts as redeemed saints, which I really hope to see one day. But when they get to that point, Lord willing, they will already have several years of doing evangelism under their belt and hopefully some of the discomfort that people have with evangelism will already be relieved for them. Today I want to talk to you about suffering, not exactly suffering.

I want to talk about God's judgment and how God's judgment relates to our suffering. I'm going to look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and I have a number of cross-references there's too many cross-references if I open my ESV Bible app on my phone there are so many cross-references that it's too many to try to read to you but I will trust that if you want to dig deeper that there is plenty for you to dig into So I want to begin in 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 5. Paul writes to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father.

He says, well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Continuing in verse 9 he says they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. The Apostle Paul, in verse 5, says, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. And my question I would ask the text is, well, what is evidence?

Well, let's go back to verse 4. Paul says about the Thessalonians, he says, Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. So they boast about the Thessalonians. And why? Why do they boast about him? He says, because of your steadfastness and their faith in all their persecutions and in the afflictions that they are enduring.

So Paul actually boasts about the Thessalonians because of the afflictions they endure and the persecutions they endure. Now, the first point of interest to me is that the consistent theme of the Bible, of the affliction of the righteous, just blows out of the water the health and prosperity gospel. It is not enough to say Christians may suffer. The Bible is clear Christians will suffer.

And we'll see a little more of that with some of the other references I have for tonight as well. So Paul writes to them, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. So what he's saying is their persecutions that they're under, the afflictions that they are enduring, are evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Now how? That to me is the question we have to ask.

How is Christian suffering affliction evidence of the righteous judgment of God? Well, let's see. Paul says that they may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. Since, verse 6, indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. So, one of the reasons why Christians suffer in this world is so that God can inflict punishment upon those who persecute his people.

So God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. So God declares us innocent and blameless in his son, Jesus Christ, upon our conversion. And for the world to come against us, to punish us in any way, although we deserve those things outside of Christ, and although we can't complain about the suffering, for the world to come and try to inflict persecution upon us is actually the world inflicting persecution upon Christ himself.

This is how Christ identifies himself when he meets the Apostle Paul on the road to Emmaus. And he says in Acts 9.5, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. So there is no doubt that it is Jesus who's persecuted when the saints suffer. And so God, who loves Jesus Christ with a perfect, abiding, eternal love, considers it just or right to repay with affliction those who afflict his people.

So how is this being worthy of the kingdom of God and the righteous judgment of God? Well, let's look at Philippians 1. the end of Philippians 1 Paul writes let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel their manner of life is going to be worthy of the gospel whether Paul comes or doesn't and then Paul writes in verse 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. So your walking worthy of the gospel includes not being frightened by those who oppose you.

And Paul adds, this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. So your steadfastness and faith amidst persecution is a sign to the unregenerate of their destruction. The fact that you cannot be shaken by their affliction that they inflict upon you is evidence. It's a sign of their destruction. The nations will rage and the heathens will plot in vain against the Lord.

And they will try to destroy his people. The history of the church is one of martyrdom. How many times have you seen the enemies of God for the past thousands of years try to really end the people of God? We see it before Jesus came in the Old Testament. We see like in the book of Esther and Haman plot to eradicate the Jews which is really Satan plot to eradicate the people of God and to prevent the Messiah from coming And now Satan still trying to thwart God plans by destroying the people of God But our steadfastness and hope in the midst of that suffering is a sign of the destruction that our enemies actually will endure one day.

And it's a sign of our salvation. those who have only heaven to look forward to ought to be able to suffer anything in this world and those who only have hell to await them ought to eat, drink, and be merry in verse 29 of Philippians 1 Paul says it has been granted to you granted to you a gift it's charismatic right it's it's it's the charismatic gift it's been granted to you what what's been granted to us that for the sake of christ you should not only believe in him that's so that's a gift that we believe in him it says but also suffer for his sake. So we are gifted by God with suffering that we may identify with our master who we will not be treated better than so that we would have the hope of eternal life that comes through suffering and the faithfulness God grants us during our suffering to have a steadfastness of our hope. That is the hope that we have, is that the affliction is what draws us near to God.

And the psalmist writes, it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. In Psalm 119, 71, in verse 67, he says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. In 75, this is Psalm 119, he says, I know, O Yahweh, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. He follows it up with, let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.

So even in the Old Testament, the psalmist knew that it's God's affliction towards him that is evidence of God's faithfulness. The prevailing religion of our day would tell you the opposite. Your suffering is evidence of the fact that karma hates you, or your God is angry with you. But the God of the Bible, the only true God, when we suffer as Christians, we actually show his favor toward us.

Let's look at 2 Thessalonians again. God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted, as well as to us. So he's going to grant relief to us, and he's going to repay those who are afflicted when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. So on the last day, when Jesus returns, all these things will become obvious. right now we take them by faith we believe them but even the wicked prosper and they don't they don't realize that this is coming but on that last day when Jesus appears and people see him they will know that what they did to his people they are about to pay for I think they'll have an amazing amount of knowledge it will be the knowledge of demons knowledge to cause them to tremble before the Lord but not in repentance what a terrible day that will be let's look at this affliction more from Psalm 34 I'm just kind of looking at a smattering of verses here for you In Psalm 34, verse 19, God says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

So again, we affirm the affliction of the righteous. We are not health, wealth, and prosperity preachers. It says, But Yahweh, or we'll say Jesus Christ, delivers him out of them all. So we are going to be delivered from all our afflictions. I am not convinced that these afflictions that we are to be delivered out of are in this world. The affliction that Jesus Christ endured actually brought about his death.

Jesus Christ was never delivered from affliction when he was incarnate until he died and rose again and was ascended into heaven. so the fact that God's going to deliver us from all our afflictions is true but it's not necessarily in this life in 2nd Thessalonians 1 6 again it says or in 1 7 it says God's going to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us so Paul's referring to the people of God he says when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and so Paul and the psalmist in Psalm 34 are in agreement with one another and they in agreement Now I trying to switch things on my computer and it got mad at me They in agreement that we will be delivered from our afflictions, and I think that Paul gives us more detail to let us know that it may not happen in this lifetime. I praise the Lord that he does grant a lot of temporary joy, and by temporary I mean when we can actually kind of experience the freedom from some persecution but there's some people that may never experience that it's not a promise and we do have a lasting and abiding joy so I didn't mean to call the joy of the Lord temporary what I mean is that sometimes we are persecuted and afflicted and God very often grants us rest from those things while we're still on this earth in psalm 34 21 we see a contrast affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned well there we have it again affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned this is exactly what second thessalonians is teaching us since god in verse six since indeed God considers it just or right to repay with affliction those who afflict you. God is going to have vengeance on his enemies.

God promises he will. Look at Romans 12, verse 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. He says, to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. You, dear Christian, do not need to take vengeance in this life for yourself. I am not saying you cannot have self-defense. I'm not saying that we don't have a justice system. what I'm saying is you can follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who when he suffered, he did not threaten. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

That's 1 Peter 2. In 1 Peter 3, Peter writes, do not repay evil for evil. So he's saying the same thing Paul said in Romans 12. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. if your enemy's thirsty give him something to drink if he's hungry give him food so he says on the contrary bless why for to this you were called so you were called to this that you may obtain a blessing you were called to bless your enemies to bless those who persecute you and not curse them you were called to that well let's see why first peter 3 10 which is a quote from psalm 34 peter says whoever desires to love life and see good days let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit okay so it's talking about how should christian live you shouldn't you shouldn't speak evil shouldn't lie let him turn away from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it so we're to be peace peaceable if possible seek peace with all men romans 12 again why why do we do these things why in the face of affliction why in the face of evil and reviling are we to bless 1 Peter 3.12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

He's watching you at all times and his ear is open to your prayer. He hears your prayer. The reason why you do these things is because he's watching and he's commanded it and he told you vengeance is mine. And it says, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And if we look at Psalm 34 to find out what he says there. It says to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

So I'll submit to you that if you look at Psalm 34, 1 Peter 3, Romans 12, you just come back to 2 Thessalonians 1. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. You are shown to be a Christian. You're being tested by fire and you're going to come out as gold. If you can live the holy life that God has commanded you to live, it's going to show in your steadfastness and your love for even your enemy and your desire to actually love your enemy from your heart that God sees. so that when God comes in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know him and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction.

This is what we just read in Psalm 34, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. So God will judge. His judgment is righteous. And one of the ways we know the righteous judgment of God will come is the affliction of his saints is endured like good soldiers. And so what we do is we look at verse 11 now of 2 Thessalonians 1. Paul says, to this end, we always pray for you.

So to the end, what, that we would not suffer of eternal destruction, but he would be glorified in us and marveled at among all who have believed. And he says, Paul says, we pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling. Well, Paul said, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel so that you'll suffer in Philippians 1. But it says, and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So here we are. It's the end. It's the eschaton. Jesus is coming. Everything. Everything's going to be made right.

He's going to punish all evildoers. He's going to eradicate evil. He's going to take his people with him. And what we pray for each other. what Paul prayed for the Thessalonians who he could not be with was that God would make them worthy of his calling not salvation by works but that God would work in their hearts in such a way that they would have the practical holiness that exhibits the evidence that they are truly born again that the fruit of the Spirit would pour out of their lives and that in the midst of suffering, they would not recant the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Paul says that he prays that they would fulfill every resolve for good. That they would be resolved for good and they'd fulfill it. Oh, how many of you are listening to me right now and you're saying to yourself, yeah, if I'm ever persecuted, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do good. And when that moment happens, we need God, the Holy Spirit, to give us the power to do that.

So we pray for one another and we prepare one another to endure affliction in a way that was modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. There is a it seems to me there's a point that Christians may face in the midst of persecution where you've said all you can say I'm not saying you wouldn't argue back about things it seems like there's a point where we would just realize we've said all we can say they're going to do with us what they must we're just going to do good we're going to remain faithful so that Jesus Christ will be glorified in us so that his grace and power will be seen in us there's some more cross references here I want to look up Romans 8 In Romans 8, Paul is proclaiming to us the glorious truth that although we live in sin as redeemed saints of God who are still encumbered by our corrupt flesh, Paul's argument in Romans 8 is basically, but don't worry, you will be glorified.

There's a long, drawn-out argument, and by drawn-out, I'm not criticizing the scripture. I'm saying it's long, but I summarized it. You will be glorified And Paul at the end of Romans 8 says Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? He's asking the question, can all these things separate us from God's love?

And look, he's saying tribulation. He's talking about persecution. distress, persecution, the words used, famine. So if God starves you to death, the sovereign God causes a famine, do you assume that he doesn't love you? How about nakedness? You go with no clothing. Shameful.

How many Christians have been made to be naked just to shame them? modest women who've certainly been abused and raped over the centuries because people know that that's so repulsive to them. So it's just danger, a sword, like just for Christians to suffer such affliction. To possibly think this is punishment for their sin rather than the truth that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

That's what Paul's trying to fight. He wants people to understand that despite their sin, the suffering they face as Christians is the result of our identification with Christ for whom we cannot be separated. And so Paul quotes the Psalms. He says, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. and it's a quote from Psalms 44.

Psalm 44 isn't a short one. It's 26 verses. I'm not going to try to read it. But what I want you to understand is in Psalm 44, 22, it says, Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. He says, Awake!

Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. why do you hide your face why do you forget our affliction and oppression the psalmist is ascribing to God that he's forgotten them he says our soul is bowed down to the dust our belly clings to the ground rise up come to our help redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love earlier he says you've sold your people for a trifle demanding no high price for them.

You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. The psalmist is hurting. All this has come upon us, though we have now forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. The psalmist is really crying out for justice. and what Paul lets us know in Romans 8 is that in Psalm 44 the very worst that can happen to the Christian is that his body on this earth can be destroyed but nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Romans 8 37-39 no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us what are all these things tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword these things we are more than conquerors but how are we more than conquerors if we killed all the day long because you can kill us If you already died with Christ they can kill you All they can do is bring you closer to Jesus Christ.

So we welcome the affliction. We don't intentionally do things to become martyrs. But we don't shy away from standing for the truth. because Paul says, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, which includes you, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is absolute hope in Jesus Christ. There is no doubt that there will be a resurrection, so we can trust that God will come. He will inflict affliction upon those who have afflicted us. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. they will not be in the light of God's countenance God is omnipresent we're not going to pretend the presence of the Lord here is somehow literally meaning there's a place he won't be but it's the idea that God's presence is a kindness there will not be any of God's kindness in hell they will suffer a punishment of eternal destruction when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed.

It is a glorious thing to remember that God is to be marveled at. When you see Jesus face to face and you realize that that means you've been made like him by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself, and you realize that means there's no more remaining sin in you, there will be no memory of any light momentary affliction. Paul tells us, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Even the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. That's you, dear Christian, that's me. The creation is literally waiting for us to be revealed. And so we have hope, we have strength from God to endure persecution, to endure affliction, to remain faithful and steadfast in those situations. And let me make one point about what I think is sometimes a bit of a misunderstood concept.

James says, counted all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness so James is telling us the same thing that we just read from Peter Paul the psalmist things we could read in the Gospels about not being better than our master But James says count it all joy And I don't think that what James is saying is never lament affliction. I don't think he's saying affliction is supposed to feel good. I think it's an accounting he says count it all joy we treat it as if it's joyful but if you are going to suffer and you're going to suffer bitterly I don't think you're wrong to hate some of that there are things people can do to other people that are so atrocious that I could not imagine telling someone to be literally joyful about the suffering itself.

You count it as joy because of the promise it's revealing to you. Because that's your only hope, is to remember that joy. but I do think there is plenty of room for Christians to be afflicted and have it hurt. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's okay if you're afflicted, if you're persecuted, it's okay if it hurts. It's okay if it makes you sad. I think that's like the whole point of it is it's meant to afflict you or hurt you.

It's meant to be something you desire to be delivered from. So although we count it joy, and although we are thankful for the suffering that draws us nearer to Christ, that helps us identify with Christ, the purpose of so much that we suffer is to cause us to long for the day that there will be no more suffering. suffering in and of itself is not a good thing suffering exists because of sin and one day it will be wiped away and so we see suffering from the perspective of Romans 8 all things work together for good for those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. So we're thankful for it, but at the same time, I want Christians to know you are 100% still Christian if you don't actually like the suffering.

It will be bitter. It will hurt. So be encouraged, dear Christian. Be encouraged that you are suffering for a reason, that God can enable you to endure it and that your suffering is evidence of God's righteous judgment. And in your case, it's evidence that God's righteous judgment has already been poured out on the sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. thank you for listening to be a burien with your host michael coglin i am a writer at things above dot us and i also have a personal website michaelcoglin.net you can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures.