God Answers Man's Suffering: Life — Warren Wiersbe

Humanity's Glory and Christ's Exaltation

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, who hath set Thy glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak? But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.

But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

The Questions of Life: Who Is Christ and What Is Man?

Now we bow our hearts to pray. A little poem several years ago that so impressed me I wrote it in the margin of my Bible next to Psalm 8. The title of the poem is An Epitaph Found Somewhere in Space. As you know, an epitaph is a statement that's put on a tombstone.

And here's the poem. In desolation here a lost world lies. All wisdom was its aim with noble plan. It sounded ocean deeps. It measured the skies and fathomed every mystery but man. What is man? That's life's second most important question.

Life's most important question is who is Christ? What think ye of Jesus Christ is life's most important question. And if you sit here today and say, well, Jesus Christ is a good man or a teacher or an example or a prophet, but he's not the Savior, he's not the Son of God, then you're lost.

And I would implore you with all of the love of my heart to bow down before Jesus Christ and say from your heart, my Lord and my God. Life's most important question, who is Christ? Life's second most important question, what is man?

Now you can't really separate these two because Jesus Christ became man, the God man. And man must have been mighty important for God to leave the throne of glory and come down and die on a cross for man.

What is man? It would be rather interesting for us to go down to the library and start picking books off the shelf to find the answer to the question. Mr. Darwin has written a book and he tells us that man is an evolving animal.

And Mr. Freud has written a lot of books and he tells us that man is a frustrated child. Mr. Marx has written a few books and he tells us man is simply an economic factor caught in the wave of history.

But here in Psalm 8, God surpasses anything any man would ever say. Would you believe, friends, that in Psalm 8, God says, what is man? Man is a king. Did you get that? Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor.

Thou hast put all things under his feet. Thou hast given him dominion. In Psalm 8, God is saying to you and me, I don't know what you are living like, but I want you to live like a king. And of course, at this point, somebody comes along and says, that's rather interesting because we certainly don't see man living like a king today.

Man is living like a slave, and that's right. Man's living like a slave. Instead of having all things under his feet, man is under the feet of all things. And up and down the busy streets of Chicago and the narrow little lanes of Chicago, people are frustrated and broken and discouraged.

And because life is so meaningless and life is so empty, they're sitting at bars and they're using narcotics and they're getting involved in all sorts of things. And God says, you're not supposed to live like that.

I've made you a king. Now I want us to understand this morning the kingship of man. You and I are supposed to live like kings. And if one person here this morning says, Pastor Worsby, I'm not living like a king, then I'm talking to you.

But I imagine most of us have to confess that in some area of our lives, there's anything but dominion and glory and honor. Now in order to understand the kingship of man, we have to be introduced to three kings.

In Psalm 8, there are three kings. And I'm going to invite these three kings to come in this morning. These are not the three kings of Orient R. These are the three kings of Psalm 8. And I want you to listen to these three kings.

I want you to hear what they have to say, because if we understand what these three kings have to say, we'll understand how we can live as kings. We don't have to go back to the same frustrations and the same defeats.

God knows how many of those we've had. Three kings, and each of these kings has a message. King number one, would you please come in and sit down. What is your name? I am King Adam. I once asked a class, who was the first king in the Bible?

They said Saul. That's wrong. The first king in the Bible was Adam. You see, Psalm 8 is based upon Genesis chapter 1. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis chapter 1, God made and crowned the first king.

Adam, Creation, and the Image of God

Verse 26, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, fill up the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Now, King Adam says this to us today. God the Father created us to be kings. Now lay hold of that. We aren't the product of evolution. God created us. We aren't animals. We are created in the image of God.

Now, it doesn't mean God looks like me. It means that reflected in my personality is the personality of God. God has a mind to think with, and he gave King Adam a mind. And God has a heart to feel with, and he gave King Adam a heart.

And God has a will to decide with, and he gave to King Adam a will. He made a person out of him. Made in the image of God. And so Adam says to us, God the Father created us to be kings. Created, not evolved.

Created in the image of God. Not just an animal. Created for God's glory. Not for his own selfish purposes. Created to be God's representative ruler on the earth. God took a crown as it were, and he put the crown on Adam's head, and he said, I'm crowning you as my representative on the earth.

And then God blessed him. Now, when you and I walk down the streets, or read the newspapers, or watch the television, we shake our head and say, I don't see too many kings. You mean God created man. Man is not an animal.

He sure acts like an animal. The fact of the matter is, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the earth are better behaved than man is. What happened? Well, Adam, you've got the story, you better tell it to us.

Well, the story is over in Romans chapter 5. Would you turn there? Romans chapter 5. You see, Adam was created by God. Adam was created in God's image. Adam was created for God's glory, and Adam was created as God's ruler.

I suppose when I read that passage from Hebrews and from Psalm 8, some of you didn't like it. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. It would probably shock you if we told you what it says in the Hebrew.

Thou hast made him a little lower than God. The word that David writes down there is Elohim, God. And so I get up in the morning with the few hairs I have all tousled on my head, and I'm tired, and I look in the mirror and I say, you know, you were made a little lower than God.

Oh. Well, what happened? Romans 5 tells us what happened. You see, folks, when God put a crown on Adam's head, He said, I'm giving you authority. But you don't have the right to rule others unless you can rule yourself.

I'm going to give you a test to see if you can rule yourself. Nobody has a right to have authority unless he's under authority. And God the Father said, I have made you, I have created you to be a king.

If you're under my authority, you will reign with glory and honor. But, boy, if you're not under my authority, it's going to be trouble. And so He gave him a very simple test. Romans chapter 5. Well, let's begin in verse 17.

For as by one man's offense, that's King Adam, death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, they shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. What's he saying here?

He's saying, King Adam, what happened to your dominion? I lost it. What happened to your crown? I lost it. What happened to your glory? I lost it. What happened to God's image? I marred it. How did you do this?

I sinned. God the Father created us to be kings. But the first man abdicated his throne because he wanted to be God. Satan came along and said to Adam and to Eve, Oh, ye shall be as gods. Eve listened to it and told Adam, and they sinned.

And so the first man, created to be a king, became a slave. And now today, that precious little baby born into that family is born in the bondage of sin. And all across this world are some three billions of people whom God the Father created to be kings, and yet they have inherited from the first King Adam the bondage and the slavery of sin.

God the Father created us to be kings. It's sad to say we're not kings today. We're slaves. And the image of God has been marred by sin. The mind doesn't think God's thoughts, and the heart doesn't love what God loves, and the will is stubborn against God.

Christ the Redeemer and the Restored Kingship

Which leads us to the second king. Thank you Adam, you can leave now. King number two, King Jesus. King Jesus. The first question in the New Testament, where is He that is born to be king? Genesis chapter 5 says, this is the book of the generations of Adam.

And you read the Old Testament and find out that Adam's generations are sinners and slaves. Tragedy. And you flip over to Matthew chapter 1, this is the book of the generations of Jesus Christ. Brand new king, brand new family.

Now we turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 quotes from Psalm 8 to tell us that He's talking about Jesus. You see, God the Father created me to be a king. Sin made a slave out of me. God the Son redeemed me to be a king.

Look at it now in Hebrews chapter 2. Verse 6, but one in a certain place testified saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.

Thou crownest him with glory and honor, that set him over the work of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. Close quotation. He stops. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.

But now we see not yet all things put under him. Man is not controlling the beasts and the birds and the fish. Man can't even control his own children. And so the writer stops and says, Wait a minute, is the Bible true?

Yes, the Bible's true. You've put all things under man's feet. That's what it says. But we don't see all things under man's feet. Well, what do we see? Verse 9, we see Jesus. You see, the second Adam came.

The last Adam came, I should say. The last Adam came, and in his act of obedience on the cross, undid all of the tragic damage the first Adam had done. God the Father created me to be a king, and God the Son redeemed me to be a king.

That's rather interesting. He says here that Jesus Christ has dominion. It's rather interesting, dominion. He has dominion over the beasts. Now, you don't. I can't even tell my cat what to do. It would be interesting if one of us would try to exercise dominion over the beasts.

Jesus did. In Mark chapter 1, when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, it says he was with the wild beasts and not a one touched him. When he rode into Jerusalem, he rode on an animal that had not yet been ridden.

I wouldn't do that. He had dominion over the beasts. He had dominion over the fish. Fishing season is about upon us now, and some of you men will be out and some of you women will be out this summer drowning worms and casting lures and getting sunburned.

I suggest at the end of the summer calculate how much per pound it costs you to get that fish. It might be cheaper to go down to Fulton Street Market and buy it. You don't have dominion over the fish.

Jesus did. Peter had been fishing all night and he'd caught nothing, and Jesus says, cast the net over here. He caught so many fish he had to get his partners to help him. He sent Peter down to the sea one day to catch one fish, and in that fish's mouth, money.

And Jesus just controlled the fish. He had dominion over the fish. He had dominion over the fowls. I wonder how many birds there were in Jerusalem when Peter denied the Lord three times. They all kept quiet.

Every one of them kept quiet. And then Jesus gave the signal and one cock began to crow when Peter had denied him. You see, when Jesus was here on earth, he exercised the dominion that Adam had lost. And so the writer says, we don't see man exercising this dominion yet.

We will one of these days. One of these days when Jesus and his church reign in glory, we'll exercise dominion. But he said, we see Jesus. Adam says, God the Father created us to be kings. Jesus says, God the Son redeemed us to be kings.

Now, my friend, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Have you come to Jesus Christ with your sin and your disappointment and your failure and said, I've made a mess of my life, but I believe you've died for me, and I believe that I can give my heart to you, O Lord, and you can change me from being a slave to being a king.

John says this over in the book of Revelation. John wrote something like this. Unto him who loves us and freed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God. Revelation 1, verses 6 and 7.

You see, if you're saved today by faith in Jesus Christ, you are a king. You say, how do I live like it? That leads us to the third king. Go back now to Psalm 8. We've learned that God the Father created us to be kings.

The Holy Spirit and Reigning in Life

We've learned that God the Son redeemed us to be kings. God the Holy Spirit anointed us to be kings. When you were saved, God gave you the Holy Spirit of God, and when the Holy Spirit of God is in control of our lives, we are obeying Romans 5 .17.

Romans 5 .17 says we reign in life. Some of our dear Bible students are waiting for the kingdom to start reigning. I can hardly wait for the millennium so I can reign. Don't wait. Start now. Romans 5 .17 says that you and I as Christians today can reign in life through Jesus Christ.

How do you do this? By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God enables us to reign over sin. Romans 6 says sin shall not have dominion over you. You shall have dominion over sin. The Holy Spirit of God enables us to take the scepter of faith and the promises of God and reign in life.

Now some of you looked at me very skeptically and you say, I don't believe it. Well, let's take king number three. Adam was king number one. God the Father created us to be kings. Jesus was king number two.

God the Son redeemed us that we might be kings. David is king number three. David wrote Psalm 8 and David says, God the Holy Spirit, the anointing power of God, anointed us to be kings. Now go back to Psalm 8, I'm going to give you a lesson on the Hebrew hymn book.

You see, our hymnal, you've noticed as we've used it, has hymn tunes to it. Come thou almighty king, the Italian hymn. Rejoice ye pure in heart, which is the tune Marian. All people that on earth do dwell, which is the old hundred.

Come Holy Ghost, creator blessed, which is the Mendon tune. Here's the St. Agnes tune. There are different tunes in the book. There are different tunes in the Hebrew hymn book. Would you notice at the beginning of chapter 9, Psalm 9, To the chief musician, upon Muth Laben.

Now that little Hebrew statement there, Muth Laben, means the death of the son. Or in many of the manuscripts, the death of the champion. Now please don't drift as I tell you, this is very important. The Psalms have two kinds of inscriptions.

At the beginning of the Psalm, a Psalm of David. At the end of the Psalm, to the chief musician upon something or other. The musical direction is at the end of the Psalm. Now the tragedy is our English translators shoved all these musical directions from the end of the previous Psalm to the beginning of the next Psalm and that's not where they belong.

This little statement at the beginning of Psalm 9 to the chief musician upon the death of the champion belongs at the end of Psalm 8. You say, what difference does it make? Well, Psalm 8 was written to commemorate the death of the champion.

Now who was the champion that was killed by David? Goliath. Turn, if you will, now keep a finger in Psalm 8 and turn back to 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17 is the description of the slaying of Goliath. Now, you say, the preacher is sure running around Robin Hood's barn today.

You stay with me. Before you walk out, I want you to know how to reign as a king. 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines are on one side and the Jews are on the other side and Goliath is in the middle. Verse 4, there went out a champion, there's the word, out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath.

We have his dimensions given here and the huge spear that he had and so forth. And for 40 days, this loud mouth came out and shook his fists at the army of Israel and said, if you've got somebody over there, send them to fight me.

Now keep your place in 1 Samuel 17, go back to Psalm 8. Verse 2, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength. Here comes little David, 16-year-old boy, not with a spear or a sword, he comes out with a slingshot and five stones.

And Goliath looked at him and thought, boy, who's writing your material? You're sending out to me some little kid. That's an insult. Ah, but out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God ordained strength.

Because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. For 40 days, this giant shot off his mouth, accusing the people of God. Finally, David comes out and says, I'm going to shut that guy's mouth.

Well, back to 1 Samuel 17, verse 33. They said to David, thou art but a youth. Look at verse 44. The Philistine says to David, come to me, and I will give thy flesh, notice now, unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.

What did David write in Psalm 8? Thou hast given him dominion over the fowl of the air and the beasts of the field. David says to him, well, I'm coming to thee, verse 45, in the name of the Lord of hosts.

The end of verse 46, that all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. You see the point? David comes out and he faces Goliath, and he takes a stone and he throws the stone and he stuns the giant.

Then he goes up and takes the giant's sword and chops off the giant's head. Then that night, David slips out of camp. He's a shepherd boy and he goes out on the hill and he looks up to the heavens and says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Here I am just a stripling, a babe, a suckling, and yet you gave me strength and I silenced the enemy and the avenger. He looked up at the stars and said, when I consider the heavens, all that's up there, who am I?

Who am I that you pay any attention to me? Why have you visited me? Ah, Lord, I know why. I know why. You made me to be a king. And you saved me to be a king. You crowned me to be a king. You see, sometime before this event, God had put His hand upon David.

God had anointed David with power. And when nobody was watching, David killed a bear. And when nobody was watching, David killed a lion. He didn't tell him about it. He didn't send a news release out to United Press.

He just kept it quiet. You see, David is saying to us, God anointed us to be kings. Now look, what makes a man a king today? Just take the city of Chicago. Who are the important people in Chicago? Well, size has a lot to do with it.

If you're big, you're important. David was just a little teenager. If you're strong, what did David have against a giant? Well, you may not have strength and you may not have size. How about status? Boy, if you've got status, you can do anything today.

He was the shepherd boy of a poor man named Jesse. David had everything against him. He didn't have size and didn't have strength and didn't have status. But you know what he did have? The power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Facing Personal Goliaths by Faith

You know, we make all kinds of excuses as to why we're failing. If only I had a better job. If only I had different friends. If only I didn't have this. If only I didn't... We make all kinds of excuses as to why we're failing.

Everybody here faces some kind of a Goliath. Tomorrow morning when the alarm clock goes off, some of you dear people go off to work and you're going to face in your office or in your school room or your factory or someplace a giant.

Some loud mouth oppressor. Maybe you go home and face that. What are you going to do about it? Most of us do what Saul and his army did. We sit there and say, nothing can be done. Nothing can be done.

And along comes a little old stripling, a little David. And the secret of David's strength is found in the first and last verses of Psalm 8. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.

When you and I are yielded to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit of God, we can face the giant by faith and slay him. Someday I'd like to go through the history of Moody Church and make a list of all the things they said couldn't be done that were done.

It would be interesting. It can't be done. My friend, whenever I say it can't be done, I'm not reigning in life. When I say this problem is too big for me, I'm not reigning in life. I'm giving in to Goliath.

And David looks at me and says, look, you were anointed to be a king when the Spirit of God came into you. That is the spirit of kingship. Now go back to that job and face that problem and get your hands in God's hand and by faith whip it.

Three kinds of people in every church, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who don't know anything is happening. You came to church this morning facing a real problem, a Goliath of a problem.

God the Father created you to be a king. God the Son redeemed you to be a king. God the Holy Spirit anointed you to be a king. Now go on out and face that Goliath by faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and win.

That's how the early church did it. That's how men and women down through the ages have done it. Oh Lord, my Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. Why did David defeat Goliath? To the glory of God.

Not for the glory of David. And so there's the secret. The Lordship of God, the glory of God, surrendered to His Lordship, allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us and to use us. And we face these problems, the lion, the bear, the giant, and by faith we whip them.

That's what Romans 5 .17 calls reigning in life. Oh, it's a great experience. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, turn yourself over to the Lord. He's the God of creation, but He's the God of salvation, and He's the God of your everyday problems.

Just give yourself to Him and say, Lord, I want Your name to be glorified through my body today. Pick up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Go out and face the enemy, and by faith we reign in life.

A Call to Live as Kings Through Christ

Now, we have to close at this point, but I could introduce you to dozens and dozens of people in this service this morning who could walk right past that microphone and tell you this works. It's worked for elderly people.

It's worked for young people. It's worked for middle-aged people. It's worked for office workers and for students and for missionaries. It works. It's not theory. And so you look into the mirror and say, I'm not an economic factor, Mr. Marks.

Sorry. I'm not a frustrated child, Mr. Freud. Sorry. Mr. Darwin, I'm not an evolving animal. Sorry. I'm a king! I'm a king! Because my Father created me to be a king, and my Savior died for me to be a king, and the Holy Spirit lives in me that I might reign in life through Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, I pray that we might live this truth day by day. Forgive us when we have allowed sin to have dominion. All around us, sin is reigning and death is reigning, and yet, thank God, grace is reigning through righteousness through Jesus Christ.

Oh Lord, I pray for that unsaved friend here today who needs to trust the Savior. May he come and yield. I pray, Heavenly Father, for that defeated Christian who is in bondage. May he find victory in Christ today.

Speak to all of our hearts that we might do Your will. For Jesus' sake we pray, Amen.