From His Heart

Speaker 1

If you watch the news, you know already there has been so much suffering in the world. Is God allowing that to happen? Let's discover the answer today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shireve.

Speaker 2

You say, "Why the suffering?" I mean, I just wish God would take it away. Why do we have to go through all this?

Don't ever get the idea that Jesus doesn't feel for your suffering. He's impervious to your suffering. He doesn't know anything about your suffering. He knows everything about your suffering. He suffered more than any man because he suffered all the wrath of God in addition to all the pain that man could inflict upon the cross.

He suffered. He knows about pain. He experienced the worst of suffering so he could redeem us from sin. There is treasure, there is love. There is hope that you always dream of love. He can heal every scar of every true love.

Speaker 1

How could a good and loving God allow so much suffering? That's the question of questions today, isn't it? But there's a logical, reasonable, provable answer from God to us that'll bring understanding and peace to our hearts. Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Thank you for joining us for part two of the lesson "How Could a Good God Allow So Much Suffering?" It's from Pastor Jeff's six-lesson series, Life's Big Questions, and we've been in this series all this month. This series is also our thank you gift for your support today of any amount to From His Heart. You can go online to fromhisheart.org to find out more.

Other lessons include "Is True Happiness Really Possible?" as well as "Does God Really Exist?" "Why Am I Here?" "Why Should I Believe the Bible?" and "What Lies Beyond the Grave?" You can find out more about each message or the series when you go online to fromhisheart.org.

First though, open your Bible to John 16 as Pastor Jeff continues to explore the answers to one of life's biggest questions: How could a good God allow so much suffering?

Speaker 2

Did you know that when you think of the issue of pain and suffering and evil in the world, some people come to the conclusion there must not be a God because they see so much pain and suffering and evil? Now, how can we answer the question of evil, pain, and suffering? The question does not consider key facets of God's nature. It just looks at mainly the historical question and focuses on two facets of God's nature: God is all-loving and God is all-powerful. So, if we say that God is all-loving and God is all-powerful, yet evil exists, we struggle with that because we say, "Well, wouldn't a loving, powerful God intervene?"

God knows what he's doing. The wisdom of God is like the Pacific Ocean, while the wisdom of you, the wisdom of me, and even the wisdom of Solomon is like a teacup. Solomon may have had a big teacup, but compared to God, it's nothing. God's wisdom and understanding are unfathomable. So we say, "Well, God is all-loving, God is all-powerful, and God is all-wise." But then evil still exists. That still doesn't help me. I don't understand this. But how about if we add this characteristic of God? God is eternal, and evil exists in time.

You might say, "Well, I want him to do away with evil." Now, God is patient, and that's why he doesn't come and judge sin and take it out of the way. But he will. Just because he hasn't yet doesn't mean he won't. We don't know the ways of God, and his ways are not our ways. We can't figure it out. But we can know that God is all-loving, all-powerful, all-wise, sovereign, and eternal. And listen, just because we may not have the full answer to a situation as big and as thorny as this question, that doesn't mean there isn't an answer.

In my studies, I ran across this illustration, and I thought it was really good. Suppose I were to say to you, "You're over at my house, and in my house, I have a pup tent. I need you to go back in my backyard and look in the pup tent and tell me if there's a Great Dane in there." So you go back in the backyard, you look in the pup tent. Pup tents aren't very big. You don't see a Great Dane. You come back and say, "Jeff, there's no Great Dane in the pup tent." We can be about 99.9999% agreed that there's probably not a Great Dane in there because if you didn't see it, he's not there. Great Danes can't hide in a pup tent.

But what if I said to you, "Hey, I want you to go in there and see if there are any little no-see-ums in there." You know, what a no-see-um is? I didn't know what a no-see-um was. A no-see-um is a little gnat. It's a gnat that's so small it climbs through the screen and gets into your house, especially if you live up north. And it'll bite you. You don't see them, but you feel them. So I say, "Go see if you see any no-see-ums in there." You look in there, and you're like, "I don't see any no-see-ums." You come back, "I don't see any no-see-ums." But that doesn't mean there aren't any no-see-ums in there. The reason they're called no-see-ums is because you don't see them.

So here's the thing. When we come to God with this question, we come and we expect there to be a Great Dane answer that we can all see. And because we don't see a Great Dane, we say, "Well, there must not be an answer. Therefore, I reject the whole concept of God." But how about if there are answers that you can't see? Strange are the ways of God. His ways are not our ways.

You know, when Job had the big problem with God because of all the suffering that came on him, he began to ask questions of God. He never sinned with his mouth. He didn't ascribe unseemliness to God. He didn't curse God as the devil said he would do. The devil said, "God, you do this to him, he'll curse you to your face." Well, Job never did that. But he wanted to know why all this was happening. He came to God with all these questions, and the Lord didn't answer him for many, many chapters. But when God does answer him in chapter 38 of Job, this is what he says:

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you will instruct me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who has stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Where were you, Mr. Job, thinking you are entitled to so many things?'"

See, we come with our little teacup mind to the Pacific Ocean and say, "I demand answers." And God says, "You can't understand. I can't put my mind into your little teacup." So you're never going to get the answer. So when answers aren't enough, just trust him. And listen, when you don't know, trust the things you do know. And what do we know? God is all-loving, God is all-powerful, God is all-wise, God is sovereign, and God is eternal. I just trust the things I do know because those other things I don't know.

The question does not consider key facets of God's nature. Thirdly, the question must be understood in the light of love. In the light of love. First Corinthians 13:13 says, "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love." The supreme ethic in the world is love. The greatest ethic is love. The greatest value is love. That's why when Jesus was asked the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" he said, "It's to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets." Everything hangs on love—loving God and loving people, those two things. Love is the supreme ethic.

Now, in order to have love, God has to give us free will. Love requires free will. Because without free will, there cannot be true love. See, for us to freely love God, we have to have a choice. We have to be able to not love God. If you don't have a choice, then God just makes you a robot. You can't choose; you just have to love God. Why? Because there is no other option. That's how he made me. I just have to do this because that's how I'm made. I can't do anything different. But God didn't make us like that. Why? Because God wants us to love him freely. He wants us to love him truly. He wants us to love him, not because we have to, but because we want to, because we choose to.

It says in Proverbs 23:26, "The Lord says, 'Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways.'" That's what God wants from you. That's what he wants from me. He wants our heart. He wants our love. He wants our devotion. And he doesn't make us do it. He invites us to do it. He asks us, "Give me your heart, my son." So if God made Adam and Eve with no free will, then they wouldn't have sinned because they couldn't have sinned. But then they wouldn't have been able to love God truly, genuinely, from the heart. Because in order to love him, I have to be allowed to not love him. In order to obey him, I have to be allowed to not obey him. Because anything less than that is a robotic mechanical response.

Well, we know that in the Garden of Eden, God gave one commandment: "Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it, you will surely die." All these fruit trees, they could eat of any that they wanted because God is a good God, but there's one that they couldn't eat from. But we know the story. In Genesis chapter three, the devil came and deceived Eve. She ate and gave to her husband with her, and he ate. The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves from their nakedness. When God came down, they hid from the presence of the Lord because they were afraid. Their eyes were opened, and now they knew things they wished they had never learned.

You know, they did know good and evil. But here's the thing: this is why God says that they were to obey him. The devil played on the fact that if you eat of that fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as God, knowing good and evil. They did know good and evil, but they couldn't know it like God knows it. God is holy. Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. How does God know the difference between good and evil? Everything is compared to his holiness. If something comes that doesn't match up with his holiness, that is evil. That's what determines what is evil or not.

When God says, "Don't lie," he's not being capricious. In the Ten Commandments, God is truth. Lies are an abomination to God because they go against his nature. God evaluates everything based on who he is. A human being can't do that. Why? Because we're not holy. Holy, holy. Adam and Eve were innocent in the garden. They had never sinned, but they could sin. When they did sin, then everything—the knowledge of good and evil—they're comparing it to their sinful self, and they're not able to distinguish in and of themselves what is good and what is evil.

It says in Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned." It didn't take them very long to see the effects of sin as their son Cain kills their son Abel, and they cry great big salty tears at the grave of Abel. Why did this happen? They knew why it happened because they sinned, and sin brought death into the world. We now live as children of Adam and Eve in the loins of Adam and Eve. We live in a fallen world with terrible things that happen in this world. God had to make it like that, with man having free will, even though man could use that free will for evil. Because without free will, there is no true love.

Aspect number four: the question must be understood not only in the light of love but in the light of God's plan. God has a plan. Through one man, sin entered the world, and death and suffering through sin. But through the God-man, redemption and life and salvation entered the world. And Jesus is not immune to suffering—a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When he was in the garden, sweating blood, praying, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," the cup that was coming to him was the cup of all the sin of all the world, past, present, and future, right there, boiled down, concentrated in that cup. He knew if he drank that cup, he was going to take on the sin of the world.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus went to the cross and suffered the wrath of man and suffered the wrath of God as God's fire fell on his own Son, who became sin for us. That wasn't an afterthought with God. It says in Revelation 13:8 that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world. The Lord knew before he ever created this world that this world would sin against him. God knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning. He knew that was going to happen, and he knew that he was going to have to send his Son, that his Son, the second person of the Trinity, would become a man and would have to die on a cruel Roman cross in order to redeem man.

Many people say, "Well, if God knew all that, then why did he ever create this world in the first place?" Because he saw down the road when it's all over, when we're into the eternal state in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. He sees a family of people who have chosen to love him, and he said, "It's worth it. It's worth it." That's why he did it. The Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world because he knew that it would be worth it. Jesus experienced suffering in order to redeem us from sin.

It says in Hebrews 13:12, "Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate." He suffered outside the city, on a hill called Calvary. Don't ever get the idea that Jesus is impervious to your suffering. He doesn't know anything about your suffering. He knows everything about your suffering. He suffered more than any man because he suffered all the wrath of God, in addition to all the pain that man could inflict upon the cross. He suffered as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Listen, when Peter three times denied that he even knew Jesus, the Bible says the Lord turned and looked at Peter. There was a look of wounded love. He was betrayed by one of the twelve, betrayed with a kiss. Don't you know that hurt? He knows about pain. He experienced the worst of suffering so he could redeem us from sin. We have to think about this issue in the light of God's plan. See, God uses suffering to teach us and to grow us.

You say, "Why the suffering? I mean, I just wish God would take it away. Why do we have to go through all this?" Because, as Andre Crouch used to sing, "Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. If I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that he could solve them. I wouldn't know what faith in God could do." You know, there's a girl I read about who has a rare disease where she doesn't feel any pain. Her mother prays for her that she would be able to feel pain. You say, "Well, wouldn't it be great if you had a body where you didn't feel pain?" No, it would be very, very dangerous if you had a body that didn't feel any pain. You could put your hand on a stove and you wouldn't know it, and your flesh could be burning. You wouldn't know it. You could step on a nail and never know it and end up with a terrible, horrible infection.

God uses pain in our body, not to cripple us, but to reveal situations and dangers and problems within us. We wouldn't like to live in a world where our body didn't feel pain. We would have a problem with that. And so God uses sufferings and problems and pains and evil things that happen externally to us and people doing things to us. He uses all that to teach us and to grow us. The Bible says in First Peter chapter five, Peter writing to believers who are going through a lot of suffering and difficulty and persecution, said, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

How does God do that? He does it through suffering. How does the refiner of silver purify the silver? He does it by turning up the heat and scraping off the dross. God does that in your life, and he does that in my life. He does that through this thing called suffering. We don't like it, but we need it. The greatest testimony that you can possibly give for Jesus Christ is to go through the fire, and you're still praising him. Anybody can praise God when everything's going well. Nobody takes notice of that. But when the bottom drops out and you're still loving the Lord, and you're still praising the Lord, and you're still serving the Lord, everyone takes notice of that.

When Paul and Silas were beaten and put into the stocks, about midnight, they were singing praises to God. They were praying and singing praises to God, and the prisoners were listening because you get everybody's attention when you're hurting and you're still trusting God. Paul said to the Lord, "I have this thorn in the flesh. Please take it from me." The Lord wouldn't take it from him. He prayed three times, "Take this thorn from me." The Lord said, "Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness."

Speaker 1

Wow.

Speaker 2

Most gladly. Therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me. God uses suffering to teach us and to grow us and to use us as a witness for him.

And then lastly, our suffering will one day be swallowed up in glory. It says in Romans, chapter 8, verse 18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed to us. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison."

He says in Second Corinthians, chapter five, how awesome is that, man? You know, we need to start living with eternity in mind, because if we get caught up in the snapshot of I'm suffering and we're not thinking about what lies ahead in the world.

You have tribulation, Jesus said, but be of good courage. I have overcome the world.

Speaker 1

We hope these have been thought-provoking insights for you today as Pastor Jeff has answered that question: How could a good God allow so much suffering? It's from his series, Life's Big Questions. People who don't know Christ in a personal way are searching for real truth with fresh curiosity, and believers want to experience a faith that goes deeper than Sunday services.

You see, the Enemy often does a masterful job of using these questions to sow doubt, confusion, and worry. But God's Word has clear, compelling answers—answers that change lives and impact eternities in a big way. This month, Pastor Jeff Shreve is airing his six-message series, Life's Big Questions, and it's available to you this month for a gift of any amount from his heart.

When you support From His Heart, you are helping us reach the world for Christ. And when you make that gift, we'll send you the series in the format you prefer, and we'll also send you a bonus booklet, the ABCs of the Christian Life. This is an opportunity for you to join this ministry mission to share the truth, the whole truth, to a lost and hurting world.

To make that gift, simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Well, time has slipped away for today's broadcast. I'm Larry Nobles, asking you to be with us next time as Pastor Jeff concludes this Life's Big Questions series with a message that answers the final big question. It's called "What Lies Beyond the Grave?" That's when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.

Speaker 2

There is truth, there is hope that you always dreaming of he can heal every scars of Real truth, Real love, Real hope From his heart.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to fromisheart.org.