Is Tragedy a Sign of God's Judgment?

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. This is your daily Bible study to accompany your morning coffee. I'm coming to you again from my truck. This week is camp week so it's busy busy busy full throttle all week long and so I didn't have an opportunity to get into the studio today so I thought I would do today's video from from my truck as I'm headed towards the church.

Tragedy, Sin, and the Call to Repentance

We are going to be in Luke chapter 13 and Luke 13 is significant in many ways and I want to focus on two particular parts and I just want to give you a few thoughts to think about as you're reading. The first part of Luke 13 Jesus is faced with the question of people who are going through a particularly difficult time.

Apparently a tower had fallen and people had died and and they came to Jesus and they said is this you know is this a judgment from God these people who were in the tower and Jesus says are they worse than all of you?

Are they worse sinners than all of you? I tell you no unless you repent you will all likewise perish and then he brings up another scenario where apparently Pilate had done an atrocity in the temple having killed some people and mixed their blood with sacrifices which was an act of sheer contempt and hatred and Jesus said you know were they worse than all of you?

I tell you no unless you repent you will all likewise perish. This has really been a key passage for me over the years because I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone suffering and other people assuming that the reason why that person is suffering is because they have done something to deserve it.

You know well is this person going through this mess or is this person going through this trial or is this person going through this this tragedy because they somehow are worse sinners and oftentimes the answer is that it's not that they are worse sinners but that this is a reminder of the ultimate judgment of God and that's what Jesus is saying he's saying when you see someone suffering when you see someone going through a tragedy this should remind us that unless we repent we're all going to have a tragic end unless we repent we're all going to go to hell and so if you see someone who experiences a tragedy in this life you can say you know this is a this is a reminder of the ultimate tragedy that will befall all who refuse to receive the Lord Jesus Christ who who go into eternity having to bear the weight of their own sin.

When Suffering May Be Tied to Personal Sin

Now having said that I do want to say there are times in the Bible where it seems as if and it's clearly shown that that certain certain misfortunes befall people because of sin and the Bible tells us you know some of those instances and so it's not as if that cannot happen you know if someone if someone is foolish in their behavior and something bad happens and you can say well well that's the Bible says we reap what we sow and and so if someone is you know there are times where where people have have brought misfortune upon themselves because of some incident or something that they have done but we can't assume that's always the case and in fact we shouldn't we shouldn't we shouldn't ever assume that's the case.

You know if someone loses a family member we shouldn't say well you know that was because you know you did thus and so that that would be that would be one that would be terribly harsh and two that would be something that would be unprovable.

It's not something you can say for certain and so and that's just one instance you know I'll give you an example and many of you've heard me talk about this in sermons back when Hurricane Katrina hit you know a lot of people said well this is Hurricane Katrina is is judgment against the people of Louisiana because of gambling.

And I said well if that's if that's the truth why why hasn't you know Nevada been wiped off the map with Las Vegas and and all the rest that you where they have tremendous amounts of gambling much more gambling you know Atlantic City still stands to this day why.

You know why Louisiana is the is the one receiving this this judgment. And at the same time I said and also consider this many churches were destroyed in Katrina and many Christians died in Katrina and so are they you know are they being punished along with the wicked by God.

Is this is a specific punishment reaching them as well. I I find it difficult to to reconcile the idea that Katrina was a direct judgment of God on Louisiana because of gambling. Now can I say that Katrina was sovereignly appointed and decreed by God for a purpose.

Yes but I don't know what that purpose was. I don't know I don't I don't know what all God's plans are in in these things but I do know this it's a reminder. Judgment is coming. We never know when death is coming but the Bible said is that it is appointed unto man once to die and after this is judgment.

Living in Light of the Final Judgment

So we have an appointment coming we will all be judged one day. And so therefore my encouragement to you is to remember that anytime we see someone facing a tragedy anytime we see someone facing a misfortune anytime we see someone facing something difficult we should not automatically say oh there you deserve that.

Like that like the friends of Job who pointed at him and said oh you must you must deserve this. Rather we should say God is sovereign and he's showing us a reminder of his ultimate sovereignty which will be displayed in the final judgment where he will separate the wheat from the chaff he will separate the sheep from the goats.

And may it be that we are go that we are sheep that we are believers that we are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ because outside of that we will be goats outside of that we will be lost and outside of that we will suffer eternal punishment.

And that would be the greatest tragedy of all. Well I hope this has been helpful for you today. Shorter video. There are some other things in this chapter I'd like for you to consider but again for time I'm just going to leave it with that let us never consider that that everything every every time a person faces a suffering or a misfortune or hardship or tragedy that they're under the immediate judgment of God.

The Groaning Creation and Christian Encouragement

But rather we live in a fallen world and the entire world around us is is always in the as the Bible says in the travails of childbirth awaiting for waiting for that great day when all things will be made right.

I hope today has been helpful to you. I hope that maybe this has been some kind of an encouragement to you especially if you yourself have have had a tragedy in your life. My prayer for you is that you would that you would be encouraged by this and in the days to come hopefully you'll continue to watching to continue to watch coffee with the Calvinist.

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Again thank you for watching coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. May God bless you.