Understanding Suffering: A Biblical Perspective

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

All right, let's go ahead and read.

Get ready to start a new answer to a question tonight.

And this is actually a really broad question, but we're going to

narrow it down for the next few weeks.

So if you have not been with us, what we've been doing for, I

would say, the last month or so, as we've been studying different

questions that have been posed to the.

The church here and posed from you guys, you guys have asked some

questions, and though we haven't answered them specifically

exactly word for word, and we've tried to address the.

The thought behind it.

And the last three weeks we were talking about who is Satan.

And again, that's kind of a strange thing to talk about within

church.

But we do need to know who our enemy is.

We need to know where he's come from, what he's about, what

he's doing, and how we can fight against him.

And so if you were not here for those, you can refer back to

either our YouTube page or our Facebook or our podcast, and you

can look at those three things.

And I think it was a very helpful study, at least for me, and

I hope that it could be a helpful study for you.

So what we're going to address here for the next so many weeks,

I don't know how many weeks, depending on how much we get accomplished

here tonight and next week, is the idea of why does God do.

And then fill in the blank, or why does God allow.

And a lot of times people will ask questions like this, why does

God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Okay, that's a common question.

It's called theologically, the question of suffering.

There's a lot of people that say I can't come to God or I can't

believe in him if he allows an innocent child to die of cancer.

That's a tough one, right?

Why did God allow my family member to die?

Why did God allow this to happen in my life?

Real questions.

And so a lot of times at church, we try to stray away from

those questions.

Well, let's just not talk about it.

The truth is, is that those questions do come up in our minds

and they might even plague our minds with doubt.

And we might not know how to answer that question to someone who

asked that.

Okay, so another question that could be asked is this, why does

God allow good things to happen to bad people?

Right.

That's another question that we could ask them.

I, I look at the people around me, and they're bad people, but they

seem to be the ones making the money.

They seem to be the ones holding the power.

Why does God allow that to happen to bad people?

Well, we're going to talk about that, and we're going to see

what the Bible has to say about that.

And so I, I think that some of us might have even heard in the past,

you're not allowed to question God.

I don't think that that's theologically true.

And we're going to talk a lot about that.

We're going to talk about how there's a proper way to ask God a

question.

Now, God is not responsible for giving us an answer.

He doesn't have to give us an answer.

And we're going to talk about that.

God has the full freedom and the power and the right to basically

tell us.

I'm not going to give you an answer.

And we're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about how we as Christians can dive deeper

into knowing God and knowing his character so that we can get

to a place in our life where there's peace and comfort in getting

an answer of basically, you're not allowed to know.

And some of you might say, that's not fair.

I'm supposed to know everything.

No, we are not owed anything.

And, and Job actually is going to talk a little bit about that.

We're going to dive deep into some of the things that Job asked

God about.

And if you don't know the story of Job, we'll get there.

So I would say for the next three to four weeks, we're going

to talk about how we can properly and biblically ask questions

to God with the right spirit and the right heart.

Now, now it is wrong to question God in his character.

It is wrong to question God in his goodness, in his holiness.

And so he.

You, you might have heard people say, well, I don't believe

in God because I think he's evil, because he allowed this to

happen.

They're already coming in with that question with a preconceived

notion.

They're coming in with a statement basically saying that God

is not good.

And so I believe that is wrong because that's basically saying something

about God that is not true.

And so tonight, what I would like us to do is kind of frame the

context to the idea of asking questions to God and doing it in

a biblical manner.

And so it might be just that you have a question, you might say,

God, why did you allow this to happen to me 10 years ago, 20 years

ago?

Why are you allowing this to happen to me right now?

Why did you let this action happen?

How, how did this play out in your grand plan?

And we might find in Scripture that there, there will be an answer.

Maybe you went through this pain or you went through this difficulty,

or someone else went through that so that God would be glorified

by the gospel being presented.

But for some of us through this study, there's going to be this

very difficult answer.

And.

But I believe it's biblical that we have to give.

And it's this.

I don't know.

I don't know why God did this.

But I know that he is good.

I know that he is perfect.

I know that he loves me.

And so I think a good place to start when it comes to asking questions

to God is what do we already know about Him?

What do we already know about Him?

Instead of going about this in the concept of at this time in my

life when I've got this question, this is how I'm feeling.

So therefore, that's where I'm going to be based in.

If we're based in our feelings, it's going to lead us down

a really bad path.

If I'm based in my confusion, or I'm based in my sadness, or I'm

based in my anger, then I'm going to allow myself to get to a

place that's not healthy when I ask these questions to God.

But what I must do is I must go back to what I know about Him.

So I don't allow this pain, this confusion to dictate my truth.

My truth comes from what I know about God.

How do we know about God?

Through His Word.

And so we're going to start there.

So what does the Word of God say about this topic?

One thing I do think we should go to is Isaiah, chapter 55.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

This is a good place to start when it comes to asking questions

about why God does what he does.

Now, sometimes in Scripture, God very clearly explains why he

does things.

So.

So why did God send Jesus to this earth to die for our sins?

There's a very famous verse.

They sometimes at football games, they even hold it up.

There was a guy who played football that wore it on his eye.

Black John 3:16.

John 3:16

Why did God send Jesus to this world to die for us?

For God so loved the world.

So God told us why.

He sent Jesus because He loves us.

Okay, so that's a very clear explanation of why God did what he

did.

He sent Jesus.

He sent his only begotten Son because He loves us.

Okay, why did we need a Savior?

For the wages of sin is death.

So if God loves us, he doesn't want us to be in our sin.

He doesn't want us to go to hell.

He doesn't want us to be separated from Him.

So therefore he extended a path for us to know him and to love

him and to serve him and to ultimately be with him one day.

And so we know the reason why God sent His Son.

He loves us and he cares for us.

We need a Savior because of our sin.

The Bible says that sin separates us from God.

So I want you to see Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9.

Isaiah 55:8

So though sometimes God does explain things to us and give us

very clear direction, he says this in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9,

Isaiah 55:8

it says this, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are

your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

God says, I don't think the way that you think, the way that

you work.

I don't work that way.

And so it's important for us to understand that we are not God.

We do not think like God.

We cannot think like God.

Ultimately, God is above us.

He's with us.

And I'm going to teach you a couple different big words here this

evening.

God is what we would call transcendent, meaning he transcends

our world.

Okay?

He's beyond us.

He's beyond time.

He's beyond space.

He.

He is.

He is beyond our limitations.

We are all limited, but God is not limited.

But also God is what we would call imminent or personal.

He's a personal God and He wants to know us and he wants to

love us.

And so in some ways God is personal and he identifies with us

in, in the idea that we, we can love and we can.

We can have pain.

And we know that God has all of those things and seen in Jesus

Christ.

We know that Jesus went through all the struggles that we

went through, but yet without sin.

That's the difference.

But he says, I don't think the way that you think.

Verse 8.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Then he goes on to say verse 9.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher

than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And so clearly here we see that God's infinite thoughts are

greater than our limited ability to comprehend them.

Okay, so what is he basically saying there?

He's saying there in a very fancy way.

You cannot comprehend the way that I think.

You cannot in many ways understand why I'm doing what I'm

doing.

Some of you that have had children can to a limited degree

understand that concept, right?

I, I, I would have my 2 year old child there sitting there.

And how many of you ever tried to reason with a two year old when

they're not in a good mood?

Okay, some of you said, I try to reason with a teenager and it's

still a hard thing to do.

Right?

So it's the idea that sometimes my thoughts, my reasoning

is not going to be able to be comprehended by my child because

he or she does not understand at that very moment why dad is not

allowing them to do that.

All they can know is that I'm not getting, I want right now, therefore

dad must be mad at me.

No, but dad understands a bigger picture and that's a very

small and limited way to think about it.

But think about it in an infinite level.

God loves us enough to know what's best for us.

Therefore he's going to allow things to happen to us or not happen

to us that are for our good and ultimately for his good.

And so we think about Isaiah 55 and we got to go back to that

because there's going to be some things that as believers we

cannot understand.

We will never understand.

Why?

Because God's thoughts are above our thoughts.

But I also want you to see something else.

And some of you maybe even have this verse memorized.

But Psalm 100, verse 5, I want you to see another thing that we

Psalms 100:5

need to know about God.

Because yes, God's ways are above our ways.

But God will always make the right decision.

Why?

Because in his character he is good.

Not, not just He's a good person.

Okay, if I, if I was to walk around tonight and go up to each

one of you and get to know you better, I would probably say, unless,

you know, there's another reason not to say this.

I would say, well, that person's a good person.

They're nice, they're kind, they're patient.

God is not just a good person.

He's not just good in things that he does.

The Bible says that his character, his essence, he is good,

he is holy, he is just, he is perfect.

And so Psalm 100, obviously, you know, Psalm 100 is, is a praise

of Thanksgiving to God for his character.

And at the very end he says this.

For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth

endureth to all generations.

So, so what can we learn about that?

God is good, perfectly good.

That word good means complete, holy, set aside, sanctified.

He is good, his mercy is everlasting.

So therefore he's merciful to us.

But that mercy is never ending.

So, so God is an eternal being.

He's eternal forever.

His goodness is forever, his character is forever.

Then it says his truth endure through all generations.

And so his truth, the Bible says that he is truth, he is love,

he is goodness, he is holiness.

And that endures to all generations.

And so what do we know so far?

God is above us and God is good.

I will say another thing though that we've already talked

about John 3, but there are many other passages of scripture

I could point to so many here.

I could speak of John 3:16.

John 3:16

I could talk about Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

For God commendeth His love towards us and that while we are

yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We could talk about first John, chapter two.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that

we should be called the sons of God.

So one of the things we have to understand is that God is good.

So he's above us, he's perfectly holy and he loves us.

That's that imminence, that's that personal nature of God.

Because sometimes what we think about God is that, that he

is sitting up in his throne and he's separated from us.

Yes, he's all powerful, but he's disconnected.

And there's actually a lot of people throughout history, even today,

that believe in a very, very belief system called deism.

Okay, Deism means that there is an existence of God, but He's

separate from us.

He basically put the world into motion and stepped away and

doesn't really want to be personal with his creation.

And there are a lot of people that believe that.

And so a lot of people think that God is a God that's similar

to the Greek God Zeus and all these different gods that you see

maybe on a movie or you've read in a book that are separate

and immoral and all about themselves.

No, the Bible says that God is above us, but he's perfectly good

and he loves us and he wants a relationship with us.

Okay, now I say all that to go a little bit further, right?

So he loves us.

So what has he done?

He sent his only begotten Son, so That we could have everlasting

life.

And then I want to read a verse for you in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Some of you have heard this verse before.

And, and I want you to understand the context of Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8 is a passage of scripture that is speaking to

Romans 8 · chapter mention

the believer's confidence in having a relationship with God.

So, so the promises that are in Romans chapter eight are not for

everybody.

You say, what does that mean?

Well, it means that if there, if you are not a believer in Jesus

Christ, you are not a child of God.

This promise that we're about to hear is not for you say, well,

that's kind of exclusive.

The gospel is exclusive.

The gospel is narrow.

Okay, so some people, how many of you don't raise your hand because

I don't want to embarrass you, but how many of you have been told

that you are narrow minded?

I've been told very, a lot of times I'm narrow minded in many ways.

Some people are.

Right.

Okay, and, and so I gotta work on that narrow mindedness when it

comes to things outside of scripture.

But when it comes to scripture, I want to be narrow minded.

Okay, I will take that moniker.

Okay.

Narrow minded means this.

Jesus is the way.

Okay?

There's no other way.

And so when we look at Romans chapter 8, to look at Romans chapter

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8 · chapter mention

8 from the perspective of all, all of the world is receiving these

promises.

Well, only if they come to Christ in faith.

Okay.

Why do we know that?

Because Romans chapter 8, verse 1.

Romans 8:1

Remember, context is key.

Context is key.

And so it says here, there is therefore now no condemnation.

We've talked about this before when we were talking about guilt

and sin.

Condemnation means judgment or punishment.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in

Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So we know through context that this passage of scripture is

speaking to those that are in Christ Jesus.

These are the promises of God.

And we get to Romans chapter 8, verse 28, and we hear a lot of

Romans 8:28

people quote this verse when people are going through struggles.

And I would say when, when someone is going through a struggle.

This verse is a good verse to quote.

But understand in context that it might be without other passages

of scripture.

A very hard verse for someone to hear.

Okay, so for example, and I'm just going to be real here tonight,

let's say you have a family member that passes away and that

breaks your heart.

Maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a loved one.

You know, unfortunately, you know, we have people that, that are

Going to pass on.

And, and the Bible speaks of the fact that as a believer, we don't

have to sorrow like other people sorrow because we have the

hope of everlasting life.

But I would be careful to walk up to somebody who has just lost

a loved one and say, well, hey, look, I'm going to quote Romans

Romans 8:28

chapter 8, verse 28 for you because everything's going to work

together for good because of this.

Well, one, that, that, that is a, a, I would say, not speaking the

truth in love for that very moment.

Now, do we need to get there?

Yes, we need to get there, but we need to talk about the whole picture

of this also.

Another misapplication of Romans chapter 8, verse 28 would

Romans 8:28

be, you go to a non believer, okay?

Someone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ and they're going through

pain and suffering.

Hey, look, everything.

God's working everything for your good.

No, he's not.

He's not.

He's not working everything for the good of the unbeliever, right?

He's.

He's.

He's working out judgment upon them until they come to Christ.

And so there's the offer of the gift of grace.

But that is not a child of God.

If someone is outside of Jesus Christ, that is not a child of God.

Therefore they cannot claim this promise.

But let's go to Romans chapter 8, verse 28.

Romans 8:28

It says, and we know that word no means confidence.

Okay?

We can be sure about this.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love

God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

Now, I've heard some people quote this, and I want to be careful

here because I don't want to read into the passage here, but I've

heard some people quote this and they say it this way, and we

know that all things work together for good.

And they stop there and they go, actually, it's for his good and

not our good.

I don't believe that that's what this verse is talking about.

Okay?

It doesn't say that.

It says work together for good.

The good of who?

Well, it could be the good of God, but in the context of what we're

talking about, we're talking about the believer, we're talking

about their life.

And so it is for the good.

It is for the good of the believer.

Now you would say, why would it be good that I'm going through

this pain and suffering?

Because we have to think about it from the eternal perspective,

okay?

Now is it right that God is working out all Things for his good.

I believe that is the case.

But I also do believe that God is working all things for our good

as well.

Because if we're believers, he cares about our future.

He cares about our life.

I, I don't, I don't look at my children go, I love my children so

much that I want them to suffer so that, that, that I can

look good.

Now you would say, well, does God?

I thought that's what God does.

No.

God allows the individual to go through difficulty so that they

can be strengthened, so that ultimately they can give him glory.

Ultimately, they can give him glory.

But God doesn't torture his children.

I don't believe that.

I, I, I don't see in Scripture where God on purpose tortures his

children.

He does allow his children to go through struggles.

He does allow his children to go through difficulties in times

of, of questioning, in times of doubt.

But yet the Bible teaches us that is for, for teaching, that is

for growing.

And I don't think God is, is, is the author of evil.

I know that he's not the author of evil.

We know that he's the author of good.

Therefore, we know that God allows difficulties to happen, but

he is not the causer of evil in this world.

And so we have to go back and we have to think about that when

we talk about Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But, but the point I'm trying to make here is this.

God is working all things together for good.

Now you would say, maybe how is this problem that I'm facing or

this loss that I've had work together for good?

Well, I want you to see a couple things about why God allows

difficulty and in the fact that that difficulty is going to

work for our Blessing.

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

You were in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Go back a little bit.

I, I think that these are difficult things because a lot of

times this is not the message that is being preached.

Because a lot of times the, the problem of suffering is the problem

that we want to avoid.

But why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?

Well, let's look at it here.

In Romans chapter five, he says, therefore, being justified

by faith.

Again, disclaimer, you have to be saved.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he goes on to talk about the access that we have in faith

into this grace where we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory

of God.

And then it says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations.

Also knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

Tribulation will be a trial or a test.

Worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope.

And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad

in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

So ultimately, what is the good that we have as a Christian?

Well, if everything is good in my life, when it comes to my work,

my.

My body, my family, then that's proof that God loves me.

But what happens when you're not healthy?

What happens when work isn't good?

Well, then God must not love me.

No.

Go back to what we know.

What do we know?

God loves me.

But, but again, what does the Bible say about his love for God

so loved the world that he made all of His Christians rich?

I didn't hear that in Scripture.

It didn't say that.

What does it say?

For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.

Right.

So the way that we know God's love and the way that we know God's

good and the way that we know God's hope is through salvation and

knowing that we have everlasting life.

So that if in this world I go through struggles, that's okay, because

I'm living for something more.

I'm living for the eternal.

I'm living for my destination.

And my destination is an eternal life with him in heaven.

And so it's that picture of knowing that there's something greater.

And that's how we can escape the pain of this world.

Now, it doesn't remove pain when we lose someone, or it doesn't

remove pain when we.

When we go through a trial.

But what it does teach us is that this pain is only temporary.

That, that, that this.

That this hopelessness is not eternal.

And, and I would encourage you to think about the idea of what hope

really is.

Hope is not just guessing and, and wishing that God is going to

take care of me through this.

Hope is saying, God, I know what yout've said, and I know youw're

going to keep your word.

So I have confidence that you will do that.

I have confidence that you are going to give me my eternal destination.

Therefore, I'm going to trust in youn through this difficult thing.

So I want you to go to a passage of scripture.

It's actually Psalm 13.

And I want you to go to a passage of Scripture here that I

believe teaches us how to ask God why, Biblically speaking.

Okay.

Now, I've given you that preference that, that preface there,

that context to go back to know, like the basics of the theology

of suffering.

Okay.

That we're going through pain, but ultimately it's for eternal focus

and not the temporary focus.

God is good.

And the moment that we start, we start to question God's goodness

is the moment that we've fallen into the place of sin.

Because the trial is not necessarily a bad thing.

A trial is a test on whether or not we're going to trust God or

we're going to turn away from what we know about Him.

And so these are the things that I want to think about.

But let's go to Psalm 13.

We could have looked at so many different passages of scripture.

This is actually considered a psalm of lament.

Lament.

I, I, I've heard it said this way.

Lament is the language of pain.

God doesn't in scripture, I don't believe God says that we should

not feel pain.

Okay.

We know that Jesus felt pain, does so, so how can we express our

pain?

Well, some people express their pain through anger.

Some people express their pain through hurting somebody else.

You ever heard someone say hurt people, hurt people?

It's a true statement.

When people are hurt and in pain, they want other people to be

in pain.

Maybe they don't even know that they're doing that.

But that's a natural response, is I'm going to bring someone else

down with me.

So, so there's that.

And what's another response to pain?

Well, it could be rejection or rebellion or, or bitterness or hard

heartedness.

It could be a lot of different things.

Or pain could drive us to faith, pain can drive us to reliance.

Pain can drive us to, dare I say, as we will see here, worship.

And we're going to see here in Psalm 13, the, I would think one

of the many examples of scripture how we can biblically come

to God and say, lord, I don't understand you.

I don't get it.

I actually don't agree with what you did, but I will come back

to you.

And so let's, let's see where it starts.

It starts with a question, an authentic question, a real question.

Okay.

Ever had someone ask you a question but you know that they didn't

really want an answer?

It was a question to basically lead their statement.

Or maybe it was a leading question and they were basically

stating something in their question.

Well, this is a question, I believe that's authentic.

How long?

Verse 1.

How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord?

This is the psalmist David and he's basically telling God, I feel

like you have forgotten me?

How long will you forget me?

Now we know that God has not forgotten him.

And by the way, I want to tell you that there are passages of scripture,

Hebrews chapter 13, for example, that says that God's never

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

going to leave us nor forsake us.

And so does David know that God has forgotten about him?

No, because we know that God has not forgotten about David.

But does David feel like God has forgotten about him?

Yes.

And maybe some of us at some points in our life feel like God

has forgotten about us.

I'm going to tell you that you might feel that, but he has not forgotten

you.

Biblically speaking, he has not forgotten you, even though it

might feel that way.

So, so.

So David here, the psalmist, is expressing his feelings, so to

speak.

He says, how long wilt thou forget me, oh Lord?

Forever?

It's like, really, is this going to be forever?

Is this.

Is this how I'm going to have to live my life forever?

Feeling neglected, feeling alone, feeling hopeless?

How long will thou hide thy face from me?

So he's stating his circumstance, his circumstances.

I feel alone.

And.

And David.

How could David feel alone?

He was the king.

Okay, well, in this case, we know that David went through ups

and downs in his life.

There were times where David was being chased by.

By Saul.

There was times when David was away from the Lord.

There was times when David was in his throne, when he was doing

the right thing.

David was, at different points of his life, obviously powerful.

But we know that we can be in a group of thousands of people but

still feel alone because of our struggle that we're facing.

So David feels alone.

Verse 2.

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart

daily?

So we see that this is something that David's dealing with

daily.

He says, man, this is.

This is happening to me all the time.

How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

David's question is this.

Why does it seem like my enemy is the one winning?

Why does it seem like everybody else around me is getting

what they want and I'm not getting anything?

It's a good question to ask.

I think it's a question that we've all probably asked at some

point in our life.

There's an answer to that later on in Scripture.

We do deal with that question, which we're going to get to later

on in the study.

Verse 3.

He says, Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God.

So what is he doing here?

What is.

What is David doing?

David is praying.

He's asking God to consider him.

He's asking God to hear him.

Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.

We would say, man, David's really in a dark place right here.

And he is.

But he's asking God to open his eyes.

He's asking God to.

For a renewal of his spirit.

He's asking God for renewal of his mind.

He says, lord, bring me back to that place.

Bring me back to revival.

Bring me back to joy.

Verse 4.

Let mine enemies say I have prevailed against him.

Or says, excuse me, Verse four, Less mine enemy.

So he's saying basically this.

Don't allow my enemy to think that he has the victory over my God,

over.

Over me, and ultimately the testimony of the power of God in

my life.

And he says, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But then we see him shift.

This is.

This is interesting.

This is the right way to go because we.

We share with God our problems.

And then we recognize that only God is the one who can fix that

problem.

And then what does he do?

He worships.

But I have trusted in thy mercy.

He goes back to what he knows.

Remember, God is merciful.

His mercy is everlasting.

His mercies are new every morning.

His.

He goes back to what he knows about God.

It's God's mercy.

It's God's grace.

So what does that look like for me?

Practically, it looks like this.

When I'm going through a struggle and I don't feel like God

cares or I don't feel like God has done the right thing, I have

to go back to what I know and proclaim that truth and believe that

truth.

I don't think there's power in just saying a word like I've heard

people say, you know, even if you don't believe, just say the word

and it'll eventually catch on.

God knows our heart.

Okay.

You can say what you want before God.

He.

He.

He's not interested in what you say.

He's interested in what your heart is saying.

And so if you're saying out loud, lord, I know you're good, but

in your heart you're going, I don't think that you're good.

Then he knows that it's.

You know, I always go back to my kids.

You know, my kids can obey me outwardly, but inwardly they could

be upset with me, you know, and, and, and we want our children

to obey us on the outside and on the inside.

And it's the same thing with God.

God wants our heart.

He always wants our heart.

And so David's heart turns to mercy.

He turns to God's goodness.

He says, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

So what does David do here?

It's very simple.

He goes back to the core of his relationship with God, his salvation.

Instead of looking at, well, my enemies have lost, or I don't

feel alone anymore, he goes back to what he knows about his relationship

with God.

He goes back to the beginning.

There was a.

There's a psalm that David's talking to God in, in repentance

of his sin with Bathsheba.

And he says.

He basically says, renew the joy of my salvation.

Give me back the joy of my salvation.

Some of us have, at periods of our life, because of a struggle or

because of a doubt or because of a question, have been challenged

in the joy of our salvation.

Well, I'm going to heaven.

But you know what?

I just have lost my joy in that.

David is saying here, I want that revival.

I want to rejoice in my salvation.

I want to rejoice in my relationship with you.

Take it all away from me as long as I have my relationship with

you.

That is understanding the goodness of God.

That is understanding his love for us.

And then he says, Verse 6, I will sing unto the Lord.

So he rejoices.

He goes from the beginning of.

Of crying and in darkness and feeling lost to the place where he's

going to worship God.

He's going to praise him.

I will sing unto the Lord because he had dealt bountifully

with me in a good way.

He goes back to what does he do?

Here we singing a song.

Count your many blessings and see what God has done.

He says, I'm going to go back to see what God has done in my life.

I'm going to go back to knowing that he is good.

I'm not going to be tempted to believe that he has not dealt with

me.

Well, I'm going to go back and look at all the times he has been

faithful and know that he's going to continue to stay faithful.

And that's what David does in the midst of that question.

And his question was this.

How long will thou forget me, oh Lord?

So.

So your question might be, lord, why do I feel alone?

Why do I feel neglected?

And if you truly ask God for wisdom in these areas, he will reveal

to you why.

And it might just be that it's an issue even in my own life, that

I have caused division with him.

Because God does.

If he.

If we are his children, he does not turn his back against Us.

What happens is that in our sin we have turned our backs against

him, and therefore we have broken that relationship, not in

the sense that we've lost our salvation, but we've broken that

fellowship with him.

And therefore we need to have that restored so we can go back to

that.

And so.

So here in Psalm 13, we see a psalm of lament.

It's a basic psalm, but it.

But it takes essentially a structure of.

Of going through the point of understanding the hope of God.

So there's a questioning phase, okay, So I want you to think

about it this way.

There's a questioning phase.

It is okay to question God with the right heart, with the right

spirit, with the right context, with the right foundation.

Okay?

We're going to talk more about that.

We're going to talk about Job's questions.

We're going to talk about a couple of other prophets in the Old

Testament and their.

And their questions that they had for.

For God.

But they're.

But they're big questions with authenticity.

What do I mean by that?

Big questions meaning questions that matter.

You know, like, here's something trivial like, why did you

make me late today, God?

Why'd you give me a bunch of red lights on the way to work?

Okay, that's trivial.

Like in the grand scheme of eternity, that's.

I would say it's disrespectful to question God in that way.

What I would say is that if they're big questions with an authentic

heart, God is not going to reject you on those questions.

I would say that there is.

There must be a place, though, that the questioning phase goes to

an asking phase.

So, God, why did you do this?

And then asking God for guidance and help in that.

Okay, so that's exactly what happened in Psalm 13.

He was asking questions, and then he asked God, verse three, consider

and hear me.

So it changed from questioning to asking God for something, praying,

right?

And so it would be one thing to question God and keep questioning

God.

It's another thing to eventually transition from questioning

to asking God for that help.

That's what we have to do.

And then it goes from.

It transitions from the asking phase to the praising phase, the

worship phase, okay?

Knowing God is good, I'm going to praise him, I'm going to worship

him.

And I would.

I would.

In my life, I would put it this way.

And this is hard for many people to wrap their minds around,

but I hope that you can understand what I mean by this.

It goes like this in my brain.

I might not feel it right now.

But I believe it.

I might not feel like you're here, but I believe that you're here.

And I'm going to sit there.

I'm going to trust in you in this.

And for each of us, we might have questions for some tonight,

it might be, why did God allow this person to be taken away from

me?

That's a common one.

Why did God allow this to happen to me when I was a child?

That's a common one.

You could even go in a broader sense of like, why did God allow

this thing to happen in the world?

Like, okay, I was just listening to a video today.

Why did God allow World War II to happen in the Holocaust and all

that?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Okay, there might be a point in our life where we say, I don't

know, but I have to go back to, to who God is and what he has

done and what we know about his character.

And so, so what we're going to do in this series, this was just

basically the starting place.

Okay, we got to know these things before we go any further,

because when, when we get to the next questions, we're going to

get to a place in our life where we have to say, I'm okay with

not knowing the answer to this, but I have to go back to what

I know about God.

So, so next week we're going to talk about why.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Okay, common question, question of suffering.

And then we're going to look at why does God allow good things

to happen to bad people?

These are two questions that are asked in Scripture.

David asked, why does.

Why do you allow good things to happen to bad people?

Okay, that's a good question.

I think, I think we all have thought about that.

I've, I've thought about that.

And actually that's a question that I, I pose when people do ask

me, like, say, for example, someone comes into me and they say,

you know, I'm a good person.

Why.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to me?

And, and, and in, in love?

My question I want them to think about is this.

And, and I think about this a lot.

Instead of asking, why does God allow bad things to happen to

a good person?

Knowing that, theologically speaking, biblically speaking, there

is none good.

No, not one that I am not.

I don't deserve anything good in my life at all.

And so the question would be then this.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Or you could say, why does God allow good things to happen to bad

People, the good.

The best thing that God has ever allowed for us to have in our

life is, is the gospel salvation.

Right?

And so I'm going to give you a little hint to all of these questions.

The answer is the gospel.

The answer to both is the gospel.

And.

And we're going to talk about that, and we're going to dig deeper.

And I want to give you some tools so that when you do come across

someone that asks that question of, well, why did God allow,

you know, the Holocaust?

Or why did God allow this to happen?

I think that what we need to do is we need to go deeper on the

why behind that person asking that question.

You know, well, what happened to you?

You know, what's going on in your life?

Because a lot of times it is.

A lot of times it is a real thing that people have in their questioning.

And that real question, God will give real answers to.

But sometimes people are just.

Just using that as an object to stop in their faith.

And a lot of times people wouldn't believe even if we gave

them an answer.

There's a lot of times people would not believe if Jesus came down

right now in person.

There's going to be some people that don't believe.

Why?

Because there's another level of pride and sin in their hearts

that they're not willing to give into.

And so we need to talk about those things.

And.

And so, you know, this was pre.

This.

This whole question that we're dealing with was predicated upon

a question that was asked, like, why did God.

I think it was, why did God not take.

Let me say, how was it worded?

Why did God not give Moses the gift of speech after he asked for

it?

Like he was, you know, he said, I can't speak.

And why.

Why did God not do that?

Why did God not just give.

Why did God not bring Stephen back to life?

That, you know, one of the questions that I really want to ask,

and I truly want to ask it, why did God not bring Stephen back

to life, but he brought Uticus back to life, the one that fell asleep

while he was, you know, in.

In the service.

And then Stephen, the great martyr, the great.

The great deacon that was seeing visions of God, why didn't

God not bring him back?

Those are questions that we will never have answers for.

You know, why did God allow certain people to come along in his

path?

You know, Judas.

The question of Judas, why did God allow that to happen?

Well, some people believe that they have a reason for that.

Other people believe that we don't.

Have a reason.

But all we can say is that we can sit there and analyze.

But ultimately, God's ways are above our ways, and his thoughts

are above our thoughts, and he's good.

And we have to keep going, replaying that in our minds over

and over and over again.

All right, well, I know that's a lot here this evening.

I know that maybe, maybe you're like, well, now, Pastor, you

just gave me more questions.

That's okay.

The truth is.

The truth is, is that I, I think that we have to come to a place

in our life as believers and just be comfortable with saying,

I don't know, I don't know now if it is this.

Okay, well, you know, what book of the Bible talks about this.

We, we need to have answers.

We need to have answers.

But there's another time where intellectually we don't need to be

prideful and say that we know what God was thinking.

Sometimes there's just like, I don't know, God's bigger than me.

I trust in Him.

That shows faith.

That shows trust.

If I can understand every element of what God is doing, that,

that, that's a scary thing.

Because if I can figure out every aspect of the mysterious ways

of God, that means that maybe God's not bigger than we are, but

we know that he's way bigger than we are.

So therefore, we cannot even scratch the surface to what God is

doing and why he is doing what he is doing.

So we'll talk more about it.

So we'll come back next week and answer those two questions, and

then we're going to talk about, um, really, some.

Some bigger things.

You know, why?

Why?

You know why.

Why does God allow Satan to continue on doing what he's doing?

Why doesn't God just save everybody?

Why doesn't God do this or do that?

We're going to talk all about that, and I hope that we leave with

some answers.

But I hope we can live.

I would say the, the biggest goal for me is not necessarily leave

with answers as much as we leave with faith and leave with trust

and leave with comfort and peace knowing that God is good.

And so if you're going through a difficulty right now, I'm not.

I want you to know God, I don't believe God is the author of

that evil.

I don't believe that God is the one who did that evil thing in

your life.

But I do know that God allows things to happen for our good and

for his good.

And I don't understand it.

I really.

I want to sit here and tell you it.

I really do.

My right now, my flesh is fighting against the spirit.

The flesh is telling me, give them an answer that makes sense to

them.

And the other side of it is the spirit.

Just saying, I don't know.

But we gotta just trust in Him.

So let's do that.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

Podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.