Longsuffering

The book of Job is one of the most mysterious books in the Bible. We don't know exactly when it was written. The Bible doesn't tell us who wrote it. So we could take some internal information from it and try to build sort of theories about when it was written. There is no good theory on who wrote it. And yet God inspired this book, and He had it put in the Bible. Even historians who aren't religious and don't believe the Bible is necessarily inspired, you'll find the book of Job listed as one of the greatest pieces of literature of the ancient times. It's usually listed above the Odyssey or Homer's writings or other great writings from the past because this book deals with the core questions of humanity. Why is there suffering? Why am I here? Who is God? How does this work?

And the whole book is about a discussion about these basic core questions that all human beings ask. When you look at the story, it's a fascinating story in its first two chapters because it gives us just a glimpse into the relationship between God and Satan and humanity. When you look at the first two chapters, you discover some very important points here because there's nothing else in the Bible. There's no other place in the Bible where we get this kind of just glimpse into conversations between God and Satan. Satan goes to God's throne. Understand, he goes to God's throne to give a report. There is a misconception sometimes, even in the Church of God, that we say, well, when Jesus Christ comes back, He will create God's Kingdom. God's Kingdom already exists. It has always existed. When God allowed Satan to have the earth for a short period of time, God didn't give up the fact that He's the sovereign of the universe. He didn't give up the fact that it's all under His control. And He did give up the fact that He's still going to interact with humanity, right? He's interacting with us. He just said, okay, you can have some power for a while. God's Kingdom didn't go anyplace. When Christ comes back, it's just to re-establish that rule over humanity and remove Satan. Satan now goes before the throne of God. And if you look at those first two chapters, he can't do anything unless God says, okay, you can do that. In other words, the evil we see in the world isn't because Satan's beating God. It's because God has said to humanity, basically, you wanted Him, you got Him. Right? When he kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, he put them in the Satan's world. But Satan is still limited in what he can do. He goes before the throne of God, and God says to him, have you noticed Job? Now, I want you to really think about this because God's the one who brings up the subject. Now, Satan wants to destroy anybody that follows God. So Satan uses the opportunity to say, well, yeah, he follows you. You give him a perfect life. Take away what you give to him. Take away all his blessings, and he'll curse you in an instant. And God says, okay. Now, God didn't do it. This was Satan's idea. This was his plan. And God said, well, that's what you want to do. Go ahead, but that's not what will happen. This gives us a little insight, though, into Satan. This is real important. Satan can't tell the future. He thought he could win this. Just like he thinks he's going to win this battle he's having now with God. He doesn't seem to understand that what the Scripture says, Christ is coming back to bind him. He doesn't seem to understand that that's actually what's going to happen. Of course, when you're insane. So Satan says, oh, good. I get to mess this up. And he goes through, and he takes away everything Job has. His children die. His possessions are destroyed. He has nothing. And it says in Job—you can read the first two chapters—he was a righteous man. It does not say he was an evil man. It says he was a righteous man.

Anyone would meet Job. They would say this man was the most righteous man they ever met. He obeyed God, not just in the letter, but he obeyed God in his spirit and his attitudes. And Satan goes back to God, and God says, didn't work, did it? And he says, but let me have his health. If you let me have his health, he'll curse you. And God said, okay, but you cannot kill him. Now that's an interesting statement. God was doing something, and he was allowing Satan to bring him to his purpose.

This isn't how God would plan something, but it's how Satan would plan something. You're the God of this world. You go and do that, and then my purpose will be fulfilled. And so he destroys his health. He's covered with these boils, these boils all over his body that are seeping. He's in such pain, such agony, he has no place to go, that he goes out to a garbage dump where he takes off pieces of broken pottery and he scrapes these sores. And the only person left in his life is his wife, and she's so supportive.

Why don't you just die?

And it's like Satan said, if that doesn't do him, I'll get him with the wife. That'll be the last straw. Just die, and he won't... just curse God. Now, that's the first two chapters of a very long book. Chapters 3 through 37 is his three friends show up, and chapters 3 through 37 is his three friends abusing him, telling him he's a rotten guy, telling him God is cursing him because he's so bad, and basically making him feel horrendous. That's the first 37 chapters of Job. One of the greatest cases of suffering in the Bible. Now, we've been going through the fruits of the Spirit, and we've gotten to the one which I like the least. I like all the other fruits. This one bothers me. I just, you know, might as well tell you. The fruit of long suffering.

I mean, my approach is, God, look, I've handled this trial for five minutes. Time to cough.

Just cut this thing off. I've shown what I can do. We don't need to do any more here. I've handled it for five minutes. But it doesn't say short suffering. It says long, and it's suffering. One of the fruits of God's Spirit is the ability to suffer for a long time. Why? If God loves us, why doesn't he just take away all of our suffering? I mean, let's face it. Human suffering can be unbearable, right? There are times we just can't handle. And I don't mean just physical suffering. When we look at suffering, we have physical suffering, we have mental suffering, we have emotional suffering, we have spiritual suffering. We suffer on all different levels. Why would God allow us to suffer? I mean, he could stop it, right? But we have to understand that long suffering, as we'll look at, just like all the other fruits of the Spirit is an aspect of God's character. For us to learn it, he has to dwell in us, his Spirit has to be in us, and then we have to do it. Just like meekness and kindness and gentleness, all the things we've gone through. We have to do it the way he does it. So we have to look at what does exactly it mean? I mean, long suffering means to go through suffering without being overwhelmed with anger or with bitterness or with hopelessness. Now, long suffering is not fatalism. You know, fatalism is the belief that it's sort of hopeless. Everything's predetermined, and that's it. You know, everything's predetermined, and it's the way it's going to be. So what it is is what it is, and we just have to live with that. Well, that's... you know, Islam is sort of like that. Everything's predetermined. So if it's your time to go die and kill 50 other people, it's your time to die and kill 50 other people. Now, there are times when God says it is time to suffer. But you also see in the Scripture where God alleviated people's suffering. Think of the King of Israel who said to God, I don't want to die. God had sent a prophet to him to say, you're going to die. The King said, wept and prayed. God came to the prophet, the prophet came back and said, well, God said, you've got 15 more years. God took away that stress and healed him so he could live a lot longer time. We see where God has alleviated and dealt with suffering. We see other times where God has let people suffer for a long, long time.

Long suffering develops something in us. And this is where we begin to understand why God has said this is the fruit of the Spirit. The ability to bear under suffering, different kinds of suffering, for an extended period of time. It develops it as patience and perseverance.

This is how we learn patience and perseverance. We will stick through this. We will keep going. Eventually we'll see that it actually has to do with faith. Long suffering has to do with faith. Let's look at James 5. James 5.

James 5. Verse 7.

James says to the churches there at that time, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Be patient. Boy, patience is hard. Remember being put on a time out as a kid? You knew you were sitting there for three days. Okay, your five minutes are up. Five minutes? I've almost died at first! It's been so long.

I, you know, this is this is just cruel, unusual punishment. You may be sitting for five minutes. Patience is not natural in human beings. We have to learn it. Be patient. Then notice the last part of this verse because it has to do with fruit. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rains.

Remember we talked about how bearing fruit takes, we went through different of the parables. Where bearing fruit takes both being pruned and basically having manure dumped on you, right? And how that is what it's like to bear the fruits of God's Spirit. We have to be pruned. And there are times when manure has to be dumped on us. We can't bear fruit without that. We have to be watered.

These are all parables. We've been going through numerous of those in every one of these sermons to show that it is a process. So here James makes the same point. He says, you wait for Christ's return. You are preparing for Christ's return. You're waiting for this fruit.

And remember, a farmer waits for fruit. He doesn't plant his corn and then go out the next day and say, well, where's my corn? You know, a good farmer knows when to plant. He knows the rain seasons. He knows how to take care of his farm, to raise his crops. I look back as a child. I hated working in my mom's garden. And now I look back and realize that I learned a lot from it. One thing, though, I can still remember this.

I can't remember how old I was. I was very old. Ten years old or so. And she had rows and rows of green beans. Now the plants were out. There were no green beans on it yet. And we got this bugs gut all over them. And they were eating the green beans. I mean, eating the plants. And she said, I don't want to spray them with insecticide. So here's what you're going to do. So all that summer, I would have to go out with a mason jar full of water and go through every plant, pull off the bugs.

Which was sort of fun, watching hundreds of bugs crawl and trying not to drown. But anyways, you know, and pull all the bugs off and put them in a jar. And I would crawl along the rows of green. I mean, this is a big garden. And I would pull all that. Now, over time, what I saw as I did this was green beans show up.

These were just plants. There were green beans. And later, in the middle of winter, when it was cold and there was lots of snow on the ground, it was really nice to sit down at dinner and have a big pot of green beans. And she'd remind me that I worked for those green beans. I drowned thousands of bugs. Farmers understand the fruit doesn't come just because you plant it. There has to be former rings. There has to be latter rings. So he says, learning patience is like a farmer realizing, okay, this fruit takes time.

Building patience takes time. Building patience takes suffering. You can't build patience without suffering because it's uncomfortable to be patient. It's uncomfortable to be patient. He says, verse 8, you also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Now do not grumble against one another, brother, unless you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brother, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.

Suffering and patience are tied together. You learn patience through dealing with impatience. And that's not comfortable. Indeed, we count them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job in seeing the end intended by the Lord. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Now we talked about Job. In a little bit we're going to look at the end that was intended by God. There was an end intended by God. There was a purpose for all the suffering it was going through. We need to find out what the intent was, what God was teaching him, and how he responded to that. Let's go to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1.

As we've gone through all of these roots of the Spirit, we're looking at the character of God. Now look at what Paul says here. Let's start in verse 15. 1 Timothy 1. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. So Paul said, yeah, God sent Christ here to save us. He says, I needed saving more than anybody. However, for this reason, I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe in Him for everlasting life. How does God suffer long?

Where does suffering come from for God? God's perfect. He doesn't suffer. No, we suffer all kinds of things internally. I mean, God doesn't suffer internal issues. God doesn't suffer from depression. God doesn't suffer from sickness, physical problems. As long as there was the one we know as the Father and the word, there was no suffering because they were both perfect. Where does God's suffering come from? It comes from us. Why would He suffer? Could He suffer because a hurricane hit? Because He suffer... I mean, what would make Him suffer? Could you frighten God? You know, cause anxiety? We cause God to suffer. And now you start to realize why we should be very, very happy that God suffers a long time. God has the ability to suffer for a long time. Jesus Christ is a pattern, according to what Paul told Timothy, of how we are to suffer a long time. A long time. You know, when Jesus Christ came to this earth, His suffering wasn't just His, you know, the fact that He was tortured and died and was resurrected. This whole experience was suffering. We have to realize what He gave up to come and become like us. He suffered when He hit His thumb with a mallet. That was a new experience. He suffered as a child when maybe other kids would make fun of Him, or the rumors about His mother being pregnant before they got married. He suffered His whole life in what it is to be a human being. The other thing He didn't suffer was from the results of His own sins. You and I suffered the results of our own sins. He didn't suffer that way, but you know how He did suffer? He suffered all of our sins.

All of them had to be put upon Him. That's long suffering. And God said, you want to know my long suffering? Look at His life, because He was God and He came. And He shows you how to suffer long. Oh, He had the power to stop His suffering. And He didn't. So He's our pattern. He's our pattern. Now at times God's going to intervene to alleviate your suffering. Once again, what I'm talking about suffering here, I'm not just talking about physical suffering, pain or sickness or whatever, getting older. That's one kind of suffering, but there's also spiritual suffering. There's also mental suffering. And there's emotional suffering, the things that we suffer emotionally. And they're all real, and they're all part of our suffering as being human beings. Let's look at five ways that suffering comes into our lives. Five different ways suffering comes into our lives, and look at how we need to approach that so we can have long suffering, not being hopeless, not being overcome by it, overwhelmed by it. Now remember, to have this fruit of the Spirit, you have to have God's Spirit working. You and I can't do this on our own. I can't give you a sort of, you know, let me give you one of these work-you-up-feel-good-type messages where you all go, yeah, I'm going to learn to suffer badly, and I mean, take it and be good. No, this is, suffering is unbearable at times. It is God who helps us bear it. So we have to ask for this. We have to pray for it. We must seek it. But first of all, we have to understand because understanding where our suffering is coming from, when you're suffering, stopping and understanding where it came from, tells us how to deal with it. The first way that we suffer is that we suffer because of our own sins. You see, God forgives us of our sins, and the eternal penalty is erased. And so the Scripture says that we can be encouraged and excited because we're going to be in the resurrection. And we're going to be changed when Christ comes back. We'll have spirit bodies that don't get sick, that don't wear out. We're going to have healthy, healed minds with God's spirit in us forever. I mean, wow! This is exciting. This is great. But He doesn't take away the temporary results of sin. Every one of us is carrying around suffering because of sins we've committed. Maybe overt acts of sin, maybe sins in the way that we think. And we've programmed ourselves to think wrong. We've programmed ourselves to have wrong emotions to the point where we suffer all the time, every day, because of the way we think or the way that we feel. You know, if you're 19 years old and you get drunk and drive a car into a telephone pole at 100 miles an hour, and later you repent and God forgives you and you're part of God's family, and He's taken away the entire spiritual penalty of that, but you may not get your leg back until the resurrection. You see what I mean? The temporary penalty doesn't get healed. Now sometimes He does. Many times He does not. You may not get your eyes back. You may not get your health back. You may not get your liver back. You know, you see what I mean? We damage ourselves. And at times we have to stop and say, no, I'm suffering because I damaged myself through my sin. I damaged myself through my sin, and I have to thank God for the grace that He gave me, or I would have just continued sinning, and I would be suffering more. I would actually be suffering more. Think about what your life would be like if God did not come into your life.

Think about what your life would be like if God had not come into your life. Do you think things are bad now?

So sometimes we have to step back and say, why am I blaming God for this? This is my doing. This is my doing. Now we could go ask God to relieve the pain, relieve the suffering. We can ask God to take away the temporary penalties, and sometimes He does. Many times He'll give us comfort and relief, even if He doesn't take it away. Even if He doesn't take it away, He gives us comfort. Next time when we get into peace, we'll start to understand how this works. See how they're all connected together. I can't talk about one of the fruits without talking about others. Because next time we have to talk about peace. How do we suffer long? I've had people sit and cry. Yes, I was immoral in my younger years, and I'm interested in this woman. I have to go tell her I have herpes. How do I do that? I've had those conversations. She may not love me. She may not marry me. And God hasn't healed me. First thing we talk about is God has forgiven you. So you're going to have to accept that forgiveness from God, and you're going to have to go then tell her. Say, maybe you don't want to marry me after this. But you have to go tell her. But you first have to go deal with God has forgiven you. But there are just penalties we carry. And we suffer. That's part of what it is to be a corrupted human being. So we have to accept that. Now a second way that we suffer, and this is a whole other sermon in itself. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one. We suffer because of other people's sins or the way other people mistreat us. We suffer because other people mistreat us, or we see other people sinning. I can remember a man many, many years ago came to me and he said he was all upset. I go, maybe not. Maybe I should just leave it in his church. He said, I saw this minister yelling at his wife in public. And he explained it to me. I said, well, yeah, I would say that's not proper for a man to yell at his wife like that. He said, so I'm just, I don't think I can be part of this church. Okay. Or we should put him out of the church. Okay. Have you ever yelled at your wife? He just stared, you know, see, I have to. I said, so if we put him out, you and I have to go too.

Our conversation changed after that. Come on, let's step back here. We can't allow somebody else's sin or somebody else's mistreatment of us, because we're going to be mistreated. And we can allow that to cause us such suffering that we turn on God. It's a very dangerous thing. It's very dangerous to be for us when we're not treated fairly. All of us have stories where we were not treated fairly. All of us have stories where someone we loved or respected mistreated us. All of us have stories in which someone sinned. Of course, you might be in somebody else's story talking about you. I think about that whenever I think about when that person mistreated me, I just have to stop and think, yeah, there's somebody someplace saying that Gary Petty mistreated me. I remember when I was in Ambassador College, one day I called my dad. I was all upset. Dad, do you know that this minister is doing this and this money was misappropriated for this? This was... and I saw all kinds of... I mean, you know, anytime you're around where decisions are being made, you see mistakes. And you find out that there are people who sin. And I'm going on and on and on. Do you know, this minister is doing this, Dad? If he was a local congregation, if he put out the church, and I had my list, and I thought all my dad would say, good, I'm glad you're seeing this evil. And all he said was, I just pack up and come home.

I said, why? You wanted me to come here? He said, either that or man up and grow up and realize the world's not perfect, the church is not perfect, and it has nothing to do with you.

Well, instead of being a big support for me, my dad shoot me out for a while about growing up and being a mature man. Fortunately, because of that, I stayed in a master college. You can't let other people's sins change who you are. You can't let other people's mistreating of you change who you are. The other reason I bring up that conversation is, that conversation has changed my life, and that conversation has come to my mind many, many times. I can't let other people mistreating me change who I am, or I can't let other people's sins change who I am. It's a hard thing to do. So we suffer because of that. I mean, when someone mistreats you, especially someone you love, doesn't it hurt? We suffer, and sometimes there are people in this room, I know you could come up with someone that hurt you 15 years ago. And if that person's name was brought up, you would immediately feel bad, because your brain would access the memory, and you would feel bad. You're suffering. How do we deal with that? That's another subject. 3. We suffer because we make bad judgments. Now, I don't mean sins. You go buy a car without proper research. Oh, it's a good deal. The guy down the street says, it's a good deal. Man, that car looks great. And your wife says, yeah, but take it to a mechanic first. No, no, no. The guy says he's checked it out, and it's okay. And you buy the car, and six days later, the transmission falls out. And you go to the guy, and the guy says, hey, I sold it to you as is. Right? And now you're suffering, because you don't have a car, and you don't have any money left. Those are bad judgments. We have to face the fact you and I make enough bad judgments to bring enough suffering into our lives that has nothing to do with God. And it's just we make some bad choices. You know, you sit around, and you eat lots of potato chips, and drink Coke, and have desserts. And then about a month later, you say, look at me, I put on 10 pounds. What happened to me? I don't feel so good. Yeah, maybe you haven't crossed the line into sin, but it's a bad judgment. Right? And we pay penalties for bad judgments. So bad judgments are an issue, too. So we have to take responsibility. See, suffering isn't just, oh, look what's bad happening to me. We have to analyze, why is it happening to me? Why is it happening to me? Now, the next two reasons get more complicated. The fourth reason we suffer is because we live in Satan's world.

You and I live in an asylum in which all the doctors and the head of the asylum are insane. They're evil.

I went into a prison one time and if I told you, I think Kim, she's got to tell me when I told stories before because I tell some stories and then I tell them over. I went into a story, if I if I told you this, wave at me or something, I went into a prison one time. And it was a, they had to take me to the wing for the criminally insane. And they told me, we're going to put you in this room and, you know, check, make sure I had no weapons, couldn't even take keys in, everything. So I go in and then I realize I'm in a room with about 30 criminally insane people. Even the guards were behind glass and they had guns. So I went and I sat on a couch, I'm going some praying here, you know, I'm sitting on a couch waiting for the guy to be ushered in. They ushered him in and then the guard left the room. And I realized they had an ink pen on me, which in that situation was a weapon.

So I tried to hide my ink pen, you know, I just kept shoving it farther down into my pocket. Why did I bring that up? Oh, you and I live in an asylum, okay? And it's run by the criminally insane. And here we are, and it's uncomfortable to be in the room with the... especially since you and I are a little bit insane, too. Right? The other reason we're not as good as God's spirit, God's spirit, He's leading, He's out of the insanity. So here is God, God's bringing us out of the insanity, and we live in the insane asylum. He hasn't brought us out of the asylum. We're getting well, and we're looking around at everybody else, and they're not getting well. So you know what they decide? We're the sick people. There's a lot more sick people than well people, so the well people must be sick. So you're always going to be out of step as a Christian. You're never going to be comfortable in this world. If we become comfortable, then we end up in trouble. I mean, just... you turn on the news, and if you're not careful, it will drive you crazy. There's no solution to anything. There's no solving the problems of the world because they're spiritual. And I'm sorry. If you think Mr. Trump's going to solve them, you're wrong.

Because he's not leading this... he's not going to lead this nation to Christ. I can tell you that. So whatever solutions he may come up with for some things, they're just temporary.

Just temporary. Because the real problem is in human nature. And until Christ comes back to change human nature, we will only put band-aids on the problems. Now, it's nice to have some band-aids once in a while. You know, slow down the bleeding, right? So if someone comes up with a few solutions here and there, that's nice. But in the end, only God can make the changes we all want. Because the changes have to take place inside each human being. And this is the world we live in. That stress can make us sick. Understand, the stress of living in this evil world can make us sick. This week, a name came up in the news, and I said, Kim, I know that name. Who is that? And she said, well, that was that man who was arrested, I think it was two years ago, for committing illegal abortions. I said, oh yeah, I remember him. So I looked it up on the Internet because I couldn't remember the details. I started to read it. The man killed babies after they were born. He did hundreds of botched abortions. After all, I couldn't read anymore. I was becoming physically ill. I could not read what this man was doing and what he had done. That's the world we live in. We either become so callous to it that it doesn't bother us anymore, or we have to be careful it'll bother us too much. We can't get obsessed with the evil that we live in. We have to be aware of that. We have to be able to stand up against it. We have to stand up against it. We have to stand up against it. We have to know it's there. We can't become obsessed with it. We suffer because we live in an evil world. And we're trying to come out of that. Look at what it says in 2 Peter. We're breaking in the middle of a sentence here, but the point is well made by Peter. 2 Peter 6.

2 Peter 2. I'm sorry. 2 Peter 2, verse 6. 2 Peter 2, verse 6. He's talking about God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, "...and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds." Here was a man who was the only righteous man in an entire city. And we know that he was a prominent man in that city. If you go back and you read the account in Genesis. And it says he was tormented. He was tortured by what he saw every day, what he went through every day. Remember, they confronted him because they said, who made you to be some moral authority over us?

Lot was so tormented. And in that torment, locked into a society, he was beginning to be affected by it and didn't even know it. Right? He wanted to give the angry, perverted mob his daughters. Because he couldn't think of another way out. Not because he didn't love his daughters.

I think, how could he do that? Because he was tormented by this. He lived... And so what did God do? God didn't leave him there. God got him out.

But they had to sort of drag him out. But he was tormented. He was unhappy. He was overwhelmed with the evil. I didn't say he participated in it. He was overwhelmed with it because he hated it so much. We have to hate evil. But if we're not careful, we'll become numb to all this. We suffer because we live in Satan's world. And I want you to understand, if we don't trust God to relieve that suffering by trusting in what he's doing... Because look what it says in verse 9. Then the Lord knows... Here's what we learn from Lot. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment. He knows how to get us out of that suffering. He was suffering! And God had to actually take him out of the city and take him someplace else to stop his suffering. Because his suffering was overwhelming when it destroyed him. We suffer because we live in Satan's world. And if you're not careful, it will make you sick. Physically sick. Living in this world will make us physically sick.

Because of the stresses of it. So there's a way in which we suffer. The fifth way we suffer...

And this is the one that's really interesting. It brings us back to Job. We suffer because sometimes spiritual growth is painful.

We can't grow spiritually without some pain. Now, spiritual growth is exciting. Spiritual growth can be very invigorating as we see it happening. We see God involved in our lives. We see our understanding change. We see ourselves be able to reason better. We see ourselves beginning to bear the fruits. We see ourselves beginning to want to obey God. We see God's Spirit working in us. We see God's Spirit leading us. That can be a very positive thing.

But growth becomes painful. Let's go back now to Job. Job 42. We talked about the whole story of Job here to introduce the sermon.

Job 42. Because from chapter 3 to chapter 37, is Job having an argument with his three friends? Who were basically telling him, it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault.

And then in chapter 38, God shows up. Let's go back to 38 verse 1. You keep your finger there.

This is a great fear of mine. I never want to be in this situation. Verse 1, Now the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Who's the one that's just talking here that has no idea what he's talking about? Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. When God shows up and says, Hey, man up because we're going to have a conversation. You're in real trouble.

Man up here, Job, because we're going to talk. And you will answer me. And all of his next chapters up to chapter 42 are God asking him questions. Okay, I want an answer. Now he just gives him question after question after question.

First one is, you know, Where were you when I made the earth? Explain that. Then he asks him some basic questions about physics that we can't even answer today with all of our science. He's asking all these questions about the universe. About animals. And about all the stuff he does. Explain this. Explain, how do you do that? How do I do this? Where were you when I did this? How does this work, Job? Basic mathematics. Well, no complicated mathematical questions. He asks him question after question after question. At the end, God stops us. Well, that's all the questions I have for you.

Now, Job does say, Wait a minute. I've been writing these down. Answer to question one. Okay, that's not what he says.

42 now, verse one. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, he goes back to the very first question, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said I will question you, and you shall answer me. He said, if you'll please just give me the honor of making a statement, I will answer you. But he first says, I have no answers to your questions. I don't know how you do what you do.

Verse five. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself a repent and dust and ash.

I've heard it said about Job this way. Job was a righteous man. It says at the beginning of Job he was a righteous man. That's not even a question. God calls him a righteous man. But Job's problem was, he knew he was a righteous man.

He had a lot of pride in his righteousness. He knew he was a good man.

He forgot that before God, he was a creature. He's a created creature. That unless God has evolved into our lives, now we're created in the image of God, but unless God comes into our lives, unless God works with us, unless God, we are no better than a cow.

Unless the Creator does something in us, how are we any better? If we live 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years and die, how are we better than an elephant? They live long.

It is only because we are designed to be the children of God, and God's involvement in our lives can give us any eternal value at all. Now that's a lot of value, but it comes from God. And he got it. His value came from God. He did get angry with God. Basically, he just said, I understand why I've suffered now. I really thought I was so good. You know, well, me and God, we're just like this. And now I've met God, and guess what? Wow. Yeah, we're not equals here. We're not equals.

He doesn't blame God for anything. That's what's amazing. It's like, yeah, you can give me anything you want, you can take anything away, and we're not equals. I'm a righteous man, but so what? And God said, good. And the rest of the story is how God blessed him the rest of his life.

He did get it, son. Now Satan's got to be really confused here. Oh, this isn't how I plan this at all. Look at him! They're getting along, this is not expected at all. God's blessed him more. I don't know what happened to the wife.

She's not mentioned, although he has lots more children.

But the point is, God blessed him.

And we read Job, and we see one of the most righteous—he was righteous, but he wasn't complete. And that's the thing about suffering, because God's working with us. How many of you have ever seen a blacksmith at work? Okay, a few of you. If you've never seen a blacksmith, go someplace to see it. Remember, the first one I ever saw was in the John Deere Museum up in Illinois, where he invented the first steel plow and ate a blacksmith. And now, throughout the years, every time I see a blacksmith working, I have to go watch it. I've probably seen half a dozen over the years. They take a—say they're making a crowbar. It doesn't matter what they're making. They take some iron, and they stick it in an oven in which they've got bellows. I mean, it was like—they get this hot—I mean, it would kill you to go in the oven. They put it in the oven, and they wait till it's glowing red. It's not melted. You can't wait till it melts. It's almost transparent. They'll pull that piece of iron out, you know, with some tongs, because you can't grab it. They put it on an anvil, and they take a hammer, and they just beat it up. Then they stick it in cold water. Smoke comes off, steam. And they pull it out, and they stick the tongs, and they stick it back in a fire. And till it's glowing on again. And then they pull it out, and then they take a hammer, and they beat it up again. And they do this long enough, and after a while you say, well look, that's an amazing crowbar, or amazing whatever the tool is they're making. That's an amazing tool. And the last time they stick it in the water, they hold it up, you, wow, that tool is excellent. You can use that. That is the kind of suffering we go through as we grow spiritually. And God takes us and He sticks us in the fire. He doesn't leave us there. It feels like He's leaving us there. And then He takes us out of the fire, and we say, oh good, thank you, Lord. And then He beats us with a hammer.

And then He puts us in the cold water. Ah, He gives us comfort. He gives us times where He gives us relief. He gives us these times where He's presence, we feel His presence. He gives us times when, oh, I'm okay. When we get into peace and joy, which are all fruits of the Spirit, we have that. And then when we have enough strength build up, because you have to let the thing cool down, or you'll break it. When He's given us enough strength, He puts us back in the fire. That's what He does. It takes the fire, the hammer, and the water to create iron tools. Yeah, it takes all three. So you and I got to go into the fire. We have to be hammered, and we have to be put in water, cold water. And it happens to us over and over again. That's God. Well, you think about it, much of our suffering is God's, it's our doing. We're sitting, we're making bad judgments, or other people are mistreating us. But we get to the, it's Satan's world that causes suffering. But there are times when God says, and that's what we see in Job. He says, I'll stick him in the fire for a while. Satan comes along, he says, okay, I'll use you. You put him in the fire for a while. I'll hammer him. And you see, he hammered him through chapters 38 through 41 of Job. He just hammered him. And after he finished hammering, he said, I get this, it's all good. It's time for some cold water. And the rest of his life, that doesn't mean he never had a trial the rest of his life, but nothing like what he went through. You know, utter tool. That's what God's going to do with us. Because we have a purpose. We have an eternity. You and I aren't fit to go into eternity. We just mess it up. I mean, face it, would you want to go into eternity with all the faults you have right now? I wouldn't. I'd just be miserable for eternity. Oh, and I'd make other people miserable for eternity. I wouldn't want to go into eternity the way exactly I am now. I hope God's changed me enough I can go into eternity and be happy.

Where all the fruits of his spirit are just part of this.

Now, I want to end with something positive here. When we look through suffering, the Bible contains a lot of instructions about suffering. One that is very powerful is in Romans 8. Let's go to Romans 8. Romans 6, 7, and 8 is a pinnacle set of Scriptures in the entire Bible. Romans 8 is about God's Spirit in us.

Verse 18, Paul suffered a lot. And this is a personal statement. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Think about his suffering. Did he suffer because of his sins? You think about what it is to go into a church and someone walk up to you and say, you put my grandmother in prison and she died there. His sins carried with him. Or someone comes and says, you know, my brother, you had him beat and it disfigured him. And he's been lame the rest of his life. And you want to come to our church? It says the people were actually afraid to have him come to church. As he went from congregation to congregation around Judea at the very beginning, they didn't even want him there. Yeah, his sins stayed with him. Did he suffer physically? Yes. He had a number of illnesses he talks about. It looks like his eyesight went bad as he got older. Did he suffer living in Satan's world? Well, yeah, a little bit. He got beat up, stoned, had to fight wild animals in the arena. That's a pretty tough life. Shipwrecked. Did others mistreat him? Yes. Did he make bad judgments? Yes. Did God hammer him? Yes. But even if you read the writings of Paul, you see a man that's changing. You read the book of Acts, you see a man that's changing. That's changing. There's becoming more and more what God wants him to be as God uses him. And he says, verse 18, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. What did he learn through this? He learned God fixes this. It may not be today, but he fixes it. And he says, when I am in that resurrection, this is fixed. I don't suffer like this anymore. I don't suffer this mental stress. I don't suffer this emotional anguish. I don't suffer this physical pain. I don't suffer this anymore. It's a life worth living, and getting from here to there is worth living also.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and the glorious liberty of the children of God. Even creation doesn't work the way it's supposed to. God, as this world's messed it up, we've messed it up. And God is going to fix all this, but not this week, folks. He's not going to fix it this week. He'll help us this week. He'll get us through this week. He'll give us strength this week. That's what he tells us. And he'll fix it in the future. And we have to believe that. Long suffering can only be done when we believe it. When we believe there's a purpose, and then we believe that there's an end.

He says, for we know, verse 22, that the whole creation groans and labors with birthpangs together until now. Not only that, this is interesting, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit. We have been given the first fruits of God's Spirit so we can be the first fruits. The fruit of God's Spirit produces beings of fruit. The first fruits. Beings who bear fruit. This is what God's doing. The first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption and redemption of our body. We groan waiting for God to do this because we can't stand one more senseless killing. We can't stand reading about, you know, one more drive by killing in Detroit where some eight-year-old girl is jumping rope and dies. We can't stand it anymore. Verse 24, for we were saved in this hope, but hope that is not, hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? And if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. See, long suffering has to do with patience and perseverance. We keep going. We keep moving for our goal because stopping means nothing. It's meaningless. We keep going. Verse 26, likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession with us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When you are so despondent, when your suffering is so great that you can't even talk to God, you don't even know what to say. Because of God's Spirit, He says, God knows exactly what you're thinking. God knows exactly what you're feeling. And God understands because His Spirit is in you. God understands. He makes intercession. In other words, His fact that He's connected to us, that Spirit connection, God understands. God helps when we don't even know how to get help. And when we get into peace, we'll show how He does that. So we have to go through some long suffering. It'll be different with each other of us, as we have to learn the things we have to learn. Verse 31, then, Paul says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who could be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? His argument is, if he suffered so long with us, and one of the proofs of his suffering is he let his Son come and die, he experienced that grief, that pain of watching him be brutally killed and die. If he went through that kind of pain for us, what makes us believe he'll give up on us?

He says, verse 33, You shall bring a charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore has also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Christ died for us. We celebrate that every Passover, but through the days of the Love and Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, the last day. What are we doing? We're celebrating the work God's doing through Christ, the resurrected Christ. Who is making intercession for us? Understanding. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Verse 37, Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We succeed because He's in us. We bear because He's in us, and we submit to what He's doing. Now, remember, this is another I statement. This is where Paul was at this point in his life. He's a lot older here than he was in Acts when God called him. A lot older. And here's what he had come to the conclusion of. He said, none of this could separate us from God.

But at the time it seems that it does, doesn't it? There are times when suffering feels like it separates us from God. That's true. Jesus Christ said, why have you forsaken me? As a human being, He felt separated from His Father. At that moment of suffering. Yeah, we feel that way too. He knows exactly what that feels like. He knows exactly what that feels like. And He makes intercession for you and I all the time.

None of us like suffering. Physical, mental, spiritual, emotional. And I think the emotional suffering sometimes is what we ignore the most and we pay a terrible price for it. Especially in our physical health. There are reasons why we suffer. We suffer because of our own sins. We suffer because of the sins and the mistreatment of others. We suffer because of bad judgments. We suffer because we live in Satan's world. And we suffer because sometimes spiritual growth is just painful. To grow. Remember when I had trouble with algebra. It was painful. Creative writing wasn't. History wasn't. Geography wasn't. Algebra was A plus B equals X. What is A? Well it's just a letter. Well then I don't care.

It's apples. No, no, it's A. Well apples plus bananas equal X. Well what's X mean? Well no, it's not apples, bananas. It's A and B. Well who cares? A plus B doesn't equal X. Well you got to put numbers in here. Okay. Two plus two equal four. Okay, let's make it more complicated. Why? God wants us to learn patience. Why don't you think about something? If we are going to help Jesus Christ change the world after the Tribulation, how much patience is that going to take for you and I to have? Oh good, I got my rod of iron! I'm going to go pound at people. I'm just, I got some people I want to go pound. God send me to China. I'll pound Chinese people because they're Communists. God give me, you know, that's not the way this works. We're going to have to be patient. We're going to have to endure. We're going to have to persevere as spirit beings with power as we bring, help bring humanity to Christ and to God the Father. We forget that's what we're supposed to do at that time. All these fruits of the Spirit, is what God wants in us so we can do that job. He wants us to trust Him even in suffering. He wants us to understand that nothing can separate us from His love. And He wants us to understand His promise. He promises to take away all of our suffering. He promises to change us into His children so that we can live in His family forever.