The Realistic Paradox of Christian Suffering

So I recently posted this clip of Kathy DeGraw, whose delusions have been featured on the Holy Nope a few times.

She seems to be indirectly responding to me with all the noping, and her point is that we are wrong for teaching that affliction and suffering come from God for the good of his people.

And I have more to say about it, so watch this. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, don't you do it.

Don't you believe those naysayers who say that you're never ever going to get healed? Who says that God's making you do this, making you go through this, so that you can learn something to make you stronger, so he can use it?

No, no, don't believe it. Do not believe those naysayers.

Stop it. Stop now. Don't believe them. Kathy believes that it is always

God's will for his people to be healed because physical healing for this life was purchased in the atonement.

She believes that she has the authority to command healing and deliverance, which is what most of her videos involve.

If you follow my channel, you likely agree that her teaching is false and dangerous, especially to those who are really suffering because one's own healing ultimately depends upon the level of a person's faith in believing that it is indeed

God's will for them to be healed. Therefore, if they are not healed, the fault is in their faith, and because she has the authority even to command healing in Jesus' name, the one being healed is the only one who could then hinder the healing.

Well, I'd like to break down the issue of Christian suffering in a three -part video series as you take a close look with me at 1

Peter 1, verses 6 and 7, and my hope is that we may come to understand suffering better and that we may be encouraged to suffer well.

Look with me into God's word at 1 Peter 1, verses 6 and 7. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

On October 16, 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake.

Hugh Latimer was a powerful preacher and Ridley was a poignant writer, both engaged in the work of Reformation and both are part of the reason why you hold an

English Bible in your hands today. They were arrested for treason under Queen Mary and then tried for their denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation and of the

Pope's supremacy. After experiencing long imprisonments with starvings and freezings and trials at which they were unable to give a public defense of their faith, the church council submitted the charge.

First, we do object to thee, Nicholas Ridley, and to thee, Hugh Latimer, jointly and severally, that thou hast affirmed and openly defended and maintained that the true and natural body of Christ, after the consecration of the priest, is not really present in the sacrament of the altar.

Second, that thou hast publicly affirmed and defended that in the sacrament of the altar remaineth still the substance of bread and wine.

Third, that thou hast openly affirmed and obstinately maintained that in the Mass is no propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead.

When mourned for the final time that if he did not recant he would surely die, Ridley responded, Do therein as it shall please you,

I am well contented with that. And more than that, the servant is not above his master.

If they dealt so cruelly with our Savior Christ, as the Scripture maketh mention, and he suffered the same patiently, how much more doth it become us his servants?

As the two men were being tied to the stake and the fire was being kindled beneath them, Hugh Latimer called out to his dear friend,

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England that I trust shall never be put out.

We will return to their story as we consider our text, but understand this, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley suffered well.

Even to the point of death, what does it mean to suffer well? We need to ask this question because suffering is regular and unavoidable and, as we will see in our text, necessary.

We need to ask this question because your tendency when you pray for someone who is suffering is to pray that their suffering be ended, and of course we ought to pray for that, but we ought also to pray that God would grant them the grace to suffer well.

Have you suffered well? When I look back upon my own experiences of suffering, I can see where I have not, and I am sure that you can too, but in suffering there is great opportunity for growth, opportunity that we may squander because we don't understand how or what it means to suffer well.

Suffering well involves joy and endurance and testing and a heavenly perspective, so we can look to Christ who endured suffering for the joy that was set before him.

He endured the cross, we can look to him and we must so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.

We must look to Christ who suffered well so that we might suffer well after him and for him.

Peter calls us to be mindful of the joy set before us in the midst of our suffering as we endure our crosses.

Because Jesus suffered well, we must embrace the suffering to which he has called us. This text is

Peter's pastoral encouragement to continue to suffer well. So in this three -part series, we're going to unpack three primary truths from our text which

I have labeled first, the realistic paradox, second, the refining purification, and third, the revelatory purpose, that is, of Christian suffering.

Here in part one, we want to tackle the realistic paradox, and we will find this paradox in verse six.

In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.

The first question that comes to your mind when we talk about suffering well is likely, how do I do that? And that's the question we want to answer here.

How do we suffer well? There are two ditches into which we are prone to fall when we experience suffering.

One ditch is to succumb to despair when we experience trials, that is, to refuse any comfort, to even isolate ourselves from those who would minister to us, or to so radically embrace our melancholy that we wear a frown in order to tempt others to pity us.

The other ditch, I think, is more common, that when we experience severe trials, we deceive ourselves into believing that we are not allowed to show our pain or to reveal our distress to others, that instead we must wear a plastic smile before our friends so as not to burden them, and we would rather pretend that everything is fine, that the trial under which you suffer is having little to no effect upon you at all.

And we may do this because of pride or for man's approval or for whatever reason, but it is a mistake which we ought to beware.

Perhaps some of you wear a plastic smile, perhaps you wore one at church this week, who need rather to disclose your trial to a brother or a sister or a pastor so that you can bear one another's burdens and weep with those who weep.

Now, looking at our text, I want you to see first, under the realistic paradox, is the sufferer's perspective.

Let's look at these various trials. The word various literally means diversified. It speaks to the diversity of the trial rather than to the number of them.

The word is used to describe the skin of a leopard on which no two spots are the same, or perhaps it can be likened to snowflakes of which no two are exactly alike.

We all experience, every one of us, a diversity of trials, and no two are exactly alike.

The people to whom Peter is writing are not under, at this point, an empire -wide decree to persecute all

Christians. The persecution they faced was more localized and spasmatic and occurred in outbursts.

There were seasons of persecution, but we see in 1 Peter that he applies principles of suffering to a broader scope than just persecution.

Nevertheless, Christianity, obviously in the first century, frowned upon in the Roman Empire, and it would not be strange for Christians to suffer verbal or even physical abuse.

Certainly, there are some of us who have suffered verbal abuse, and some of us even physical mistreatment because we are

Christians. These kinds of trials may, for us, only increase in the coming days, but no matter how bad it becomes, no matter what trials we face, whether it be persecution or suffering of another kind, of a much more common kind to us, notice the perspective that Peter encourages you to have for a little while if necessary.

I don't know about you, but I do not enjoy waiting. You don't enjoy waiting for your test results.

You don't enjoy waiting for the verdict of the court case you're involved in. You do not enjoy waiting to see your spouse or child again who have died.

You don't enjoy waiting to hear back from the college about whether or not you were accepted or rejected.

You do not enjoy waiting when you are in physical pain because when you are in pain, every minute feels like an hour, and when you are in distress of soul, every hour feels like a year, but the perspective of faith is a little while.

A little while. Though the sun seems to stand still and time seems to be frozen, the hands on the clock seem to be broken,

I know that my trials are but for a little while. Can you say that?

And we cannot help but wonder if Peter was recalling the very words of his Lord which he heard from Christ's own mouth when he spoke of his own and infinitely greater trial upon the cross.

A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while and you will see me. What does he mean, a little while?

We don't know what he is talking about. You will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.

Notice also about the perspective that Peter encourages you to have. He says, if necessary.

And the sense of his words here is that if trials come your way, you are right to conclude that they are necessary.

And not only that they are necessary, but they are necessary in that they come to you from his own hand.

You ought to recognize and cheerfully embrace that there is a necessary purpose in the sovereign wisdom of God for which you suffer.

As Nicholas Ridley was being chained to the stake, he said to the man, secure it well, for the flesh will have its way, meaning he did not want the intense pain to make him attempt to flee the stake.

And then the execution party brought out a bag of gunpowder to be hung about his neck. Ridley asked, what is that?

And the man said, gunpowder. And Ridley responded, then I take it to be sent of God, therefore

I will receive it as sent of him. And have you any for my brother? Burning at the stake probably does not feel like a little while.

The reality is that we cannot make ourselves feel like our suffering is only lasting for a little while.

But even as the stench of his melting flesh overwhelmed his nostrils, Nicholas Ridley was strengthened by God to play the man and to know that his necessary suffering would soon be complete.

Now, secondly, under the realistic paradox, I want you to see not only the sufferer's perspective but also the sufferer's disposition.

Peter writes, in this you greatly rejoice, though you are distressed. Well, in what do they greatly rejoice?

Everything that Peter has said up to this point. The triune God has accomplished salvation for his elect.

He has showed us great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. To obtain a promised inheritance.

In this you rejoice. Rejoicing shows itself in our countenance, when the light of our face expresses a still confidence in the goodness and power of God.

You can see how that's different from a plastic smile. Rejoicing shows itself in our praise and thanksgiving, when we can bless the name of the

Lord not only when he gives but also when he takes away. But rejoicing also shows itself in our conduct, how we conduct ourselves in the midst of suffering.

Suffering is no excuse for sinning. The stress you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your gluttony.

The anxiety you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your sloth. The frustration you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your anger.

The loneliness you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your lust. The betrayal you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your gossip.

The pain you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your self -pity. The poverty you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your covetousness.

The rejection you experience is no excuse for you to indulge your vanity. The trials you face are no excuse for you to indulge your doubt in the good character of God.

Suffering is no excuse for sinning. Distress is real, and in your trial, it's okay to feel the full weight of it, but it does not give us license to sin against God.

I think the Christian will learn that he would rather suffer pain of body than the distress of soul that results from sin.

That's what Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley knew. Approaching his execution, one tormentor sought to persuade

Hugh Latimer to sin, saying to him, What should stay you to confess what all the realm confesseth?

To forsake that which the king and queen have renounced and all the realm recanted, that is that Christ is the head of the church who made it once for all sacrifice of himself.

It was a common error, said the tormentor, and it is now of all confessed. It shall be no more shame to you than it was to us all.

Therefore, Master Latimer, for God's love, remember, you are an old man. Spare your body, accelerate not your death, and specially remember your soul's health.

If you shall die in this state, you shall be a stinking sacrifice to God. For it is the cause that maketh the martyr and not the death.

Consider that if you die in this state, you die without grace, for without the church there can be no salvation.

Latimer's response to these temptations? I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged me to this end, that I may, in this case, glorify

God by that kind of death. And so we have the realistic paradox. Distress is real.

We are not supposed to act like our trials have no effect upon us or pretend that our distress doesn't exist, but rather it is that we have a deeper joy in the midst of suffering.

That's how we suffer well, a joy that is deeper than our circumstances, an eternal joy for temporal trials.

The realistic paradox is, as Paul describes it elsewhere, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, which

I think is a very fine summary of the Christian life. This joy that transcends trials is found in Christ alone.

That concludes part one of our time with 1 Peter 1, verses 6 and 7. I hope this encourages you in your suffering and that it equips you to bless others who suffer because this unbiblical nonsense is a holy nonsense.

Is everybody in the world blind? Please, Lord, give me a sign, a sign.