A Greater Sickness II: Benefits from Sickness | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Teddy James, content producer for Media Grazie, with Dr. John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church New Albany and author and host of the Behold Your God study series.

Looking to J.C. Ryle on Sickness

John, we're doing a series right now that's kind of inspired by the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, the pandemic as it is now. But we're wanting to take a little different spin because we often, you know, just day by day and even when this comes out, probably the numbers will be even higher and the fear will be even higher in a lot of people.

And so last week we wanted to take a little bit of time and look at some help from William Bridge, read some quotes from him about walking with the Lord. So today, John, who are we looking to and what's our focus?

Today we're looking again at sickness, but with some help from J .C. Ryle. J .C. Ryle, 19th century, contemporary of Spurgeon. Ryle is actually an Anglican bishop. And this is a book that we that we stole some from.

So Practical Religion is the name of the book. And the subtitle is Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers and Privileges of Professing Christians. So we're going to borrow from one of those that's entitled On Sickness.

Now, there's a lot of men that we could look to in the past, particularly even in Ryle's era. Two that come to mind immediately are Rutherford, who was a Puritan, and then John Newton. Now, both of these men we've talked about on podcasts before.

We'll link to some of those episodes. You can find the links to those at mediagratia .org. But particularly Newton is really helpful here. And we want to encourage you to go read the letters of Newton.

So today we are going to borrow from J .C. Ryle. He uses John 11, verse 3, as his overarching verse for this chapter. And the verse says this,. So the sisters, that's Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus, who is very ill, the sisters sent word to him, to Christ, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.

So, Lord, he whom you love is sick. Now, the sisters are very different in temperament. We know that from, you know, countless sermons. Are you a Martha? Are you a Mary? But they are united in this. They know the right person to go to.

So they take this to Christ himself. And Ryle immediately starts off by saying, do not lose sight of this privilege that you have, that every believer has access to God through the Son. And so we come to God through the finished work of the Son, and we're able to lay before him the smallest or the greatest needs that we have.

The second thing Ryle points out is that immediately they describe Lazarus in the best of ways. They could have said so many things about Lazarus. Lord, he who loves you is sick, and that would have been true.

Lazarus did love Christ. He who follows you is sick, and that would have been true. But instead they say, the one whom you love is sick. And Ryle makes a big point of this in the early part of the sermon because he says this.

Always with the Christian, the greater foundation of our hope is not our response to God, that we do love you, God, that we do trust you, that we do follow you, but rather even a greater foundation, you know, the bedrock is that God has chosen to love us, you know, and he draws all the reasons from within himself.

But Ryle says that especially in times of sickness, when the enemy would whisper to us, you know, that God has forgotten us or that maybe God is angry, particularly angry at the Christian, and that's why my life is so miserable right now, that it is a pretty despairing thing to look within yourself and say, God, I'm about to pour out my heart to you about this need, my need, or, you know, a loved one that's sick, and I want to do it based on the foundation of how well I've loved you.

Well, Ryle says that that's a pretty poor foundation. So we start with the description that they started with, Lord, the one that you've loved amazingly, unexpectedly, is sick. And so, you know, we start there with the bedrock of God's love for his people.

And one thing to point out, and by the way, we highly encourage you to go read this sermon. It really is a very helpful sermon, and again, we'll put a link to that mediagratia .org. But in the sermon, Ryle points out that Lazarus is a godly man, and the reason we want to bring that up is because there really, there's no reason to think that Lazarus's sickness is a sign of God's displeasure, that his illness is a discipline.

But John, we hear that a lot today, that this virus is a discipline from God. Yeah, it's something we have to be really careful of,.

Avoiding Two Extremes About Suffering and Providence

And we wanted to mention this in the podcast today, but we can only say a little bit. So maybe we can just kind of, you know, point down a better path than what is being offered to us. So there are two paths that we want to avoid with all of this, and they're very extreme answers to this.

And the first path, let's say, is the path that says that the virus has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do with the way that we've lived as a nation, or that we live as individuals. And so in that group, there's more than one voice in that group.

One voice would be just the irreligious. So, you know, we go on to our televisions, and the news broadcasters give us statements about, well, this is where it started, and this is how it spreads. And of course, we don't expect the secular news station to say, guys, have you ever considered that the way we live as a nation could be behind any of that?

Because they don't really believe a God exists. So it's an irreligious point of view. But also, strangely, in the same camp, saying the same thing, but from a different motive, would be what we would consider a very liberal, what I consider a very man-centered and unbiblical version of Christianity that's really not Christianity, that says this, God exists to make you happy, to give you your best life now.

Now, if that's the only category I have for God in mind, if that's the only description I really kind of accept of God, that God exists to give me what I want for happiness and to help me through hard times, then there is no way to have that match the virus and say that God has anything to do with the virus.

That's just not compatible. My God exists to get me through hard times, not to bring hard times. My God exists to give me happiness, not to give me sorrow. So, the liberal version of religion says this, it's not God.

It's just a chemical thing. It's just an abnormality in your cells. It's just a virus. And there's no spiritual connection between how we live and what's happening here, because our God only brings good things.

Therefore, this is not of God, and God kind of has no control over this. So, this is a physical ailment that God can't control. So, that's one side. The other side, though, often heard among conservatives, is that this virus is directly attached to certain national sins.

So, it'd kind of be like this. I watched the news a month ago, and we see some decisions our country is making, which are clearly against the Scripture. And then now we have a virus, and my workplace is shut down, and now I'm afraid of being contaminated.

And I draw this conclusion. What happened a month ago on television is why this is happening. And that God has used sickness in times past to get people's attention, and we ought to give Him our attention.

But we don't have a right to point to every sickness and say, well, because you're sick, it's because you must have done something really bad. Because there's a national virus, it's because of what the Supreme Court did, you know.

So, we want to avoid those two extremes. So, the Scripture guides us through the middle, and Ryle will be a good help here. And that is, God does control all things. There is a sovereign King. And God does use hard times to get our attention.

So, we don't want to waste this. We want to give God our attention. But it is not necessarily because of any one sin, but because of the reality that sin itself exists. And sin, in the universe, not just as an abstract principle, but as a daily active choice of humanity that, look, we would rather live for ourselves than live for our God.

Because of that existing, all sorrows that we encounter are ultimately connected to that.

Romans 8:28 and the Christian Meaning of Good

Yeah. Now, one of the other things that Ryle points out in the sermon, and in fact, every one of his points comes from this particular word. Now, John, I love studying words. Being a guy, words, they have great power.

And I love when someone selects a very particular word with a full understanding of the connotations of that word. And that's exactly what Ryle does in the sermon. He says that sickness can benefit us.

Benefit is a very, it's a very decisive word for him to use. So, what does he mean by that? Why does he use that particular word?

Well, Ryle calls attention to a verse in the Bible that we're all pretty familiar with. But let's make sure that we have the exact wording, Romans 8, 28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good.

Now, not all things are good, but God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So, Ryle says this, if we believe that God can use even bad things, even hard times for our good, then a truly happy Christian is a Christian who, even during a time of illness, is brought to say this, this is my father's doing.

Therefore, it must be well. It must be good. So, now, that's a great statement. But I mean, it's not effortless. It's not easy to be sick. It's not easy to see people we love. I think it would be harder, you know, to see people that we love that are sick and say, well, ultimately, God has allowed this.

Therefore, there is good here. And God will bring good out of this for his people. So, he gives us some help with that. And the first thing he says is this. His first point in the sermon is, there is a universal prevalence of sickness.

That is, look, sickness is everywhere. It's in every nation. It's at every level of society, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, doesn't matter. Every part of your humanity is impacted by sickness. There's physical sickness.

There's mental sickness. And when we're physically ill or mentally ill, that affects us spiritually. And this happens to Christians as well as to non-Christians. And with that fact in mind, Ryle says, life can be pretty, it can be pretty frightening to think how frail I really am, that this invisible microorganism called a virus can attach itself to the cells in my body and then reproduce.

And it could be really deadly. It could spread to people I love. So, that's a pretty frightening thing, Ryle says. And it's not just frightening, it's pretty humiliating. We feel so self-sufficient. And I mean, we can all understand what he's saying.

You feel self-sufficient until you get the stomach virus. And the women in my house are quick to point out that the men in the house, meaning mostly me, are really big babies when we get sick. And I totally, I accept that accusation.

It's the man flu. There's a difference.

Yeah. I mean, I have the stomach virus. My wife gave birth. They're equal in my mind, but I didn't get an epidural. So, I don't know why she's complaining. So, I get the stomach virus and I, oh man, I milk it for all it's worth.

It's like a plague. And we feel so weak. Yesterday, I was doing fine. Today, I can't get out of bed. Today, I have to crawl to the bathroom. Today, I can't, you know, whatever. And so, sickness is not just frightening, it's humiliating.

That does bring us back to, you know, what I talked about briefly before where Ryle talks about the word benefit. And we really want to get into that. Now, you had read Romans 8 .28 earlier. We really need the context for that.

So, Romans 8 .28 through 30, and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

And these whom He predestined, He also called. And these whom He called, He also justified. And these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Yeah. And so, that only makes sense if we have the same definition of good that God has in that passage. All things work together. God causes all things to work together for good. Okay. So, what's the good?

We use good in a lot of ways. We can think of lesser goods in life, like, I had a good day. That means it was pleasant. I feel good. That's, I'm happy. I'm content. Or, I have a good marriage. You know, there's no strife.

But there is a greater good that Paul's talking about. And that's the only one that makes sense here. And that is the ultimate good for the Christian, is that God, in the process of rescuing us, doesn't just remove the stain and guilt of our sin, giving us a perfect and full pardon, so that we can never know what it is to be condemned by Him.

But He also is working in us so there's a transformation of our character, and we are being molded into the image of His Son. And that's what that passage talks about, that we are predestined, predetermined, not just to be forgiven in Christ, but to be transformed in Christ, progressively, stage by stage, into that indescribably beautiful, moral image of His Son, perfection.

And when we stand before God on that final day, and we see the Son in all of His glory, and the work is complete, we will be made complete, or glorified, Paul says. So, the process will be finished, and we will be morally perfect, and prepared to live forever in a new creation with our morally perfect King.

And that's the ultimate good. Therefore, Paul says, you can understand that God is using all things, pleasant things, unpleasant things, good things, wrong things, and He uses them like an artisan, and He is using those to shape you into the image of His Son.

That's how we can say that everything is working for good to those that love God. So, again, it's as if events are like a scalpel in the hand of a perfect surgeon, and God is using those to do us good, even the bitter impact of sin, the sickness that we experience, which ultimately comes from the rebellion of humanity as a whole, all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Sickness as a Schoolmaster and Its Benefits

J .C. Ryle says that sickness is a schoolmaster that God sends to teach us things. And now, Ryle knows what sickness is. He's not writing like an armchair theologian, separate from it. So, he writes and says this, now it is a rough schoolmaster, I grant you, but it is a real friend to man's soul.

And then he lists a number of ways that sin can be a benefit to us. So, we'll run through those. Let me give you the first one. He says sickness reminds us of death's inevitability. Now, we tend to live as if life will go on forever.

We tend to live as if we're indestructible. And so, you know, you just kind of go through the mundane cycle of life. I do the same thing every day. A man might say, I go to work, I come home. A lady, a mom, a wife may have a certain cycle.

I just do these things every day. And, you know, year after year starts to fly by more quickly. And we don't stop and think, you know, I am inevitably going to face death. But when we're really sick, it shakes us, you know, it kind of unnerves us because we realize I'm not going to live forever.

So, Ryle says this, it awakens men from their daydreams of just lasting forever and reminds them that they have to die as well as to live. And this, I say emphatically,.

Is a mighty good. Yeah, which leads us directly to the second benefit that it leads people to think more seriously about God, their own souls, and the world that will come after this. You know, we, like you were just saying, we get so caught up in our rhythm that we really don't take one minute to think about things that are more important than what is right in front of me right now.

We often, you know, particularly when you're preaching, John, there's a phrase that you use, the tyranny of the urgent. When we're sick, it forces us to really look at our priorities. I think that we're seeing that now in our culture.

I didn't realize just how serious this virus was until they canceled baseball season. John, that hurt me. It hurt me deeply.

Yeah, my wife was convinced it was serious when March Madness was canceled.

Yeah, but I think when we say as a culture, as a nation, okay, this sickness, we really enjoy our sports, and we really enjoy our entertainment, but we're going to turn those off. We're going to cancel those for the sake of fighting this virus, fighting the spread of this virus.

When it comes to sickness, that's really what happens because we have to say, I really have to turn all of my attention on to fighting this disease and to fighting this illness, and so it makes us, one, it makes us put a new priority on things, but it also helps us to see the things that we were prioritizing that are utterly empty when it comes to life and it comes.

To eternity. Yeah, that leads to the third, and that sickness can soften a person's heart and teach them wisdom, and let me give one application of that. Sickness teaches us the emptiness of our idols.

You mentioned sports and entertainment and other things. There are so many things, my job, my paycheck, my ability to buy what I want if I really want it, do what I want if I really want to do what I want.

All of that gets kind of exposed in a time of real fear for physical health, and we realize, you know, none of this was as helpful as I was hoping it was going to be, and so the complete powerlessness of our favorite idols to give us any solid hope or to fill up our empty lives is exposed when they have to be laid down in front of a great problem, and that ought to lead us to see that, you know, I've been devoting myself to things that aren't really that valuable, and so it's a good time to stop.

Like Ryle says, one of the benefits is that we would learn wisdom to stop and say, God, why do I feel so empty when I have to turn my television off or when I can't go do what I want to do or see my friends?

You know, why am I such an empty person, and is there any cure for that, and hopefully sickness would lead us to ask.

God those questions. Yeah, you know, and it also shows us just how proud we are as well, right? When we think that we are self-sufficient, that we can provide anything and everything that we want and we need, and sickness really reveals to us that we are much more needy than we realized, and it humbles us, and if the Christian, particularly the believer, can allow that sickness to point us to Christ and to make us more humble, that is a great benefit as well.

Yeah, so humility, fourth benefit. Fifth benefit, Ryle says, sickness tests our religion. Now, very few people have no religion. I mean, there are some, you know, but most of us have a type of religion, and Ryle says it needs to be tested, and few things test our religion like sickness.

So, you may be okay, you know, when things are going pretty well in life, you've got, let's say, that your religion is a Christian-ish sounding religion, whether it's the real thing or not, it's kind of coded in Jesus stuff.

So, you've got cliches that you've grown up with, you've got certain traditions that have been handed down to you. You know, well, I show up at a building on Sunday with the wife and kids, and, you know, I go through the motions, and I give a little money, but it's vague.

It's, you know, it's just kind of plastic, and then sickness comes, and everything we think is important is stripped away from us, and we're face-to-face with our mortality, and we're humbled, and we feel that we're not self-sufficient, and my idols have failed me, and then the real test, you know, what about my religion?

Is it the thing that God describes as the real thing, or is it just, you know, cultural? Rutherford gave this illustration about hardships and how they prove us. He said, imagine a group of ships. Now, this is the 1600s, so imagine a group of ships that are leaving a harbor.

These are sailing ships, and it's a beautiful day, all right? The sea is still, and the wind is in the sails, so they put out all the sails, and every ship just, you know, just crosses the water, and you look, and you think, you know, those are all well-built ships, but if things get stormy, then those ships that aren't well-built, those that had some leaks here and there, that had some problems, that weren't visible in the pleasant circumstances, favorable circumstances, now they're quite obvious.

They start to sink. So, our religion gets tested, not in those easygoing times of life, but when everything seems to go against us, and it's just you and God, and you can't get to sleep, and you have to ask some real questions, and you feel empty, and you ask yourself, do I really know the God of the Bible or not?

Ryle warns here, and there is something that we need to make note, and it's that sickness itself doesn't benefit. It doesn't teach lessons. It's not about how you get sick, or, you know, and we see this so often, because we see people who get sick, and they say, okay, I get better.

I'm going to make changes, and I'm going to do better, and I'm going to be better, but then they do recover. They do get better, and then they go right back to the old way of living. There's no real difference there.

So, be aware sickness itself is not a benefit.

Right. God can cause all things to work together for good. The thing itself doesn't make you, I mean, a person that goes through sickness doesn't come out of sickness loving Christ, apart from the work of God.

Living Prepared to Meet God and Bear Sickness Without Complaint

Well, that brings us to the final part of the sermon, and that is, what are the special duties which this prevalence of sickness entails on everyone? In other words, if sickness is universal, and we all will get sick at times, and sickness has the potential to do us good spiritually, then what should we be doing?

And Ryle gives a few directions. First, we should live perpetually prepared to meet God. If sin reminds me I'm mortal, then make use of benefit from that by living in a perpetual preparedness to meet God.

And he gives two main categories. He says, you are not ready to meet God unless, number one, your sins have been covered by the death of Christ. That there has been a transaction between you and this person, this God-man that walked the earth 2 ,000 years ago, and you have so turned from every other hope and placed all hope in Him, that in that union of faith where you have grabbed hold of Him with both hands, that He is the one.

What He did on the cross has removed the stain and the shame of your sin. But second, Ryle says it's easy to say, well, Jesus died for sinners, so I'm okay. But Ryle says, if Jesus has forgiven you, there's another thing that Christ does, and He never only does half the job.

The other thing He does is He gives you a new heart. He changes you within. So what God does for us at the cross, and then what God does in us in the new birth. So in the new birth, everything's new. I have new desires.

I have a new understanding of God. I think differently about these things. I have a new love for God and for Christians, and I have a new allegiance. I have a new obedience. And so Ryle says, you are not ready to meet God if all you have is the statement, well, Jesus died for sinners.

But you have the death of Christ that covers our sin, that removes the offense of our sin, but you also have the new life that He puts within us. And together when we see those, and we live in the reality of those, we are perpetually prepared to meet Him.

Now that leads us to a second direction. He says, be prepared perpetually to bear sickness without complaint, if sickness is universally prevalent. Don't be surprised when a Christian gets sick. And if it's you or someone you love or care for, don't be shocked.

Be prepared for that. That will happen. But go through that without complaint. You know, turn the heart toward God. Look to Him to cause this to be something that brings benefit. And, you know, one way we can do that is we walk with the Lord daily now during good days.

And when the hard days come, there is, in a sense, a well-worn path in our life between me and Christ. There's a pattern of sweet, intimate, cultivated friendship between me and my King. And I am depending on Him, yielding to Him day by day.

And when the.

Hard days come, I just keep doing the same thing. Yeah. Ryle says that during the hard times, particularly sickness, is when the virtues of humility, meekness, gentleness, patience, and trust, they really come out in a way that honors the Lord.

And so what we really have to do in part of this preparation is be prepared to not complain. It's a simple thing, but it's so often overlooked, particularly in the lives of Christians. I have heard some of the sweetest saints, when they come down with something, it is complain, and it's a lot.

And then I've heard others who, when they come down with sickness, it's, you know, God has been really kind to me. And the difference there is shocking. So there's an opportunity. There's a way in which we can waste an illness, and there's an opportunity where we can really use it to the glory of God, and even to the encouragement of those around us.

So the third thing that Ryle says is to be perpetually ready to sympathize and to help your fellow man when he is sick. So taking what Ryle.

Says as true, that sin can be a benefit, shouldn't lead us to be hard-hearted, where we look at a person that's sick and we just quote Romans 8, 28 at them. All things work together. You know, you'll get through it.

It'll be for your good. We want to use these times, especially in this, the present situation with the coronavirus. There are so many opportunities just to be thoughtful and not just to have good intentions.

That's the danger I feel. I have a lot of good intentions. Don't let your thoughtfulness die in the dead end of good intentions. You know, don't let it just be sentimental. Let your love for others move you to make some concrete efforts to help people at a time like this when so many people are really needy.

Yeah, and real quick, there is a, one of the things that we have to remember is that there are very few short windows of opportunity for us to serve people, and part of that is because people may not be aware of their need for long, or you know, once they know of a need, it's not long before they have to have it filled.

So we have very small windows of opportunity to serve others, and yet it's during times like this, the windows don't necessarily last longer, although some do, but the fact is there are many, many more windows revealed.

And so, you know, people do let their guards down, and so when you see the opportunity, jump on it. Serve the people that.

Are around you. Yeah, Ryle kind of brings his whole paper to an end with a test. We could call it a pre-test. We, you know, we can take a pre-test now to kind of prepare us for the real test, and the pre-test is couched in a question.

He asks this question. He says, now ponder this. Answer this honestly. What will you do when you are next sick? How will you live now so as to benefit.

From it then? How would you answer the question, who is God? Would you focus on what he offers? Would you focus on what he promises? In Behold Your God, The Weight of Majesty, Dr. John Snyder answers the question by focusing on God's attributes.

The heart of this study is its daily devotional workbook that participants complete at home in preparation of a small group study. Each small group session is led by a video that has three segments. First, a biographical sketch of an individual from Christian history who was gripped by the reality of God you are studying that week.

Second is a sermon from Dr. John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church, New Albany. Lastly are interviews from contemporary Christian pastors and authors who help apply the lessons from the week. To learn more or to see what others say about Behold Your God, The Weight of Majesty, visit Mediagratia .org or click the link in the description below.

So we know that sickness is going to come. Sickness, death is inevitable for us all, whether it's the coronavirus or whether it's some unknown thing.

You're trying to cheer us up.

I am. How am I doing? But John, it does raise the question, and we've already, Ryle mentions it, but how do you prepare? What are you doing differently for your soul in preparation for sickness?

Well, there are a lot of things that I do differently as we're trying to pastor, trying to think of other people in this strange situation. But for my own soul, really the strange answer to that is actually I don't know that I'm doing anything fundamentally different.

There are different degrees. So I have a little more time on my hands. Not being able to be at everyone's house or not preaching twice a week, just preaching once a week. Some of our Bible studies at our church have been cut out temporarily, so I'm not teaching everything I was teaching.

So I have tried to give more time to, you know, Scripture memory. I've picked up a new biography that I want to read. I've been reading. Yesterday I started reading a new one on John Newton that I haven't read before, new to me.

So there are things like that. But really, as we mentioned earlier in the podcast, I really want to keep cultivating that path that I walk with Christ on, a path of constantly expressing to Him, God, I need you.

I am depending on you. And God, I yield to you. And there ought to be, in a sense, these familiar meeting places with Christ in our own life over and over. And now I do that now so that if the day comes that I'm sick or, you know, someone in my family is sick, people in the church are sick, you know, that really I already have a well-beaten path that I continue walking on.

So I don't just, I do wash my hands a lot more. The girls in my house say, who are more germ conscious than the boys in my house, they say, well, now like men will have to act right now, like now we have to wash our hands before we eat.

But really, fundamentally, spiritually, I just want to keep on walking with the Lord, you know, keep reading through Exodus, which is where I'm at in my quiet time right now. And, you know, and press on.

Ryle gives a final statement we want to read to close it all. This is what he says. I exhort you to keep up a habit of close communion with Christ and never to be afraid of going too far in your religion.

In other words, follow the Lord fully, daily, and you will be prepared to follow him closely if sickness comes to your house.

Real quick, one last time I want to encourage you. We're going to have a link and the text to this sermon at Mediagratia .org. Let me encourage you, go read this sermon for the benefit of your soul.