Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Suffering That Advances the Gospel | John Piper

Transcript

The Suffering That Advances the Gospel | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
0:03
We are genuinely thrilled that you were pulling up a chair and
0:08
just sitting in with us today. Absolutely.
0:10
So we are all on the same page right out of the gate.
0:12
You should know that we do not look at this as just another
0:16
standard audio file for you to, you know, play in the background
0:19
while you do the dishes. Right.
0:21
Definitely not. We consider this a complete deep
0:24
dive into the source material. You are the third person in the
0:27
room with us right now, and we are talking directly to you.
0:31
We want you to feel the weight and the hope of what we are
0:34
unpacking today. So let's lay out the mission.
0:37
For our discussion. We have an incredible stack of
0:39
notes and excerpts drawn from John Piper's book, The Hidden
0:42
Smile of God. It is quite a stack.
0:44
It really is. And specifically, we're looking
0:47
at the intense affliction of three historical figures, John
0:50
Bunyan, William Calber and David Brainard. 3 heavy hitters.
0:55
Very heavy. Our goal is to uncover how their
0:58
massive, agonizing hardships actually produced a harvest of
1:02
grace that aggressively challenges our modern our modern
1:06
Western views on comfort, on worship, and on the Christian
1:10
mission. We have a whole lot of ground to
1:12
cover, so let's get right into it.
1:13
It is great to be here, and before we start pulling apart
1:17
the specific lives of these three men, we really need to set
1:20
a solid theological baseline. That is a good idea.
1:23
Since we are adhering to Reformed theology in the
1:26
Westminster Confession, our entire discussion today rests
1:29
heavily on the understanding of God's total sovereignty over all
1:32
of history, right. We believe that God ordains
1:35
whatsoever comes to pass. But looking closely at the
1:38
material, what captures our attention is how God uses
1:40
secondary causes to accomplish His massive sovereignty.
1:44
Yeah, that is the key. Specifically, we are looking at
1:46
the suffering of His Saints. Their pain is not random.
1:49
It is not an accident of nature. It is a purposeful instrument in
1:53
the hands of a sovereign God who overseas all things.
1:56
We are going to look at how He orchestrates these events across
1:59
centuries. Let me pause you there for just
2:01
a second, because that is a massive theological concept.
2:04
It is when we talk about secondary causes in the context
2:08
of the Westminster Confession. Can we break that down into
2:12
plain language? Sure, because sometimes that
2:14
phrasing can sound a bit like a seminary lecture.
2:17
I want to make sure we are all tracking.
2:19
Are we basically talking about the everyday Domino's falling in
2:22
our lives? That is a brilliant way to frame
2:25
it, yes. Think of it like an unfathomably
2:28
large room filled with Domino's. OK, God is the primary 'cause He
2:32
is the one who designed the room, set up every single
2:35
dominar, and initiated the entire sequence.
2:37
He is sovereign over the whole design, but the secondary causes
2:41
are the actual dominoes hitting each other.
2:44
When a domino falls and strikes the one next to it, that
2:47
physical strike is a real event. It causes a real impact.
2:50
It is not a fake collision. Precisely so when we talk about
2:53
human suffering, the pain a person feels is a real secondary
2:57
'cause God uses that specific painful domino falling to knock
3:02
over another domino which might lead to a massive blessing
3:05
centuries later. The pain is real.
3:07
The human choices are real, but they are all operating under the
3:11
overarching primary sovereignty of God.
3:14
That makes perfect sense, and that leads right into the very
3:16
first concept from Piper's book that we need to unpack.
3:20
The source material begins with this absolutely striking phrase.
3:24
Oh, I know the one. Quote 10,000 Effects follow from
3:27
every motion of your hand. Yeah, when I read that line, I
3:31
literally caught myself looking down at my own hands just
3:34
thinking about the thousands of invisible ripple effects
3:37
happening every time I make a simple choice.
3:40
It is staggering to think about. The author brings up an analogy
3:43
from Clyde Kilby, who taught English literature at Wheaton
3:46
College. He paints the picture of a
3:48
Pebble falling into a pond. We have all seen this happen.
3:51
The Pebble hits the water, and it sends waves onward.
3:54
Right, basic physics. Kilby points out that in the
3:57
physical world, those waves eventually become invisible to
4:00
the naked eye, yet they never actually end.
4:03
The motion just keeps pushing outward, displacing water
4:06
infinitely. Piper uses this physical reality
4:09
to make a point about the historical chains of cause and
4:11
effect. The physical physics of a pond
4:14
is such a necessary visual for understanding what we call the
4:17
God wrought sovereign sequences of history.
4:20
When we see a physical Pebble hitting the water, we grasp the
4:23
basic mechanics. Water is displaced, energy
4:26
transfers. But Piper asks us to consider
4:30
the much greater mystery of the Rickle effect in the realm of
4:33
persons and spirits. That is where it gets heavy.
4:36
If the hidden mechanics of a physical wave hold us in
4:39
amazement, how much more should we be stunned by the spiritual
4:43
chain of causation? We cannot see spiritual energy
4:46
transferring, but it happens every single day.
4:49
This connects directly to the Apostle Paul's words in Romans
4:52
Chapter 11, verse 33, which the book quotes.
4:55
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable
4:58
his ways? Unsearchable.
5:00
In Reformed thought, when we say God's judgments are
5:02
unsearchable, we mean the sheer scale of his plotting and
5:05
planning is too vast for the human mind to track.
5:08
We just cannot see it all. We cannot trace the beginning of
5:12
the wave, and we certainly cannot see where the wave
5:14
finally stops. We are dealing with the tension
5:17
of the physical mystery of causation versus the much
5:20
greater invisible mystery of spiritual influence that
5:24
cascades down through generations.
5:26
And the book gives us these incredible, unbroken chains of
5:29
influence to prove the point. They are amazing.
5:32
Let's look at the David Brainerd chain first.
5:35
Brainerd was a man who suffered immensely both physically and
5:38
emotionally, which we will get into later, but his suffering
5:41
acts as a Pebble dropped into the pond.
5:44
The book details how Brainerd's life ends up stirring the heart
5:47
of a man named William Carey. Carey reads about Brainerd and
5:51
is entirely moved to action. He is compelled.
5:54
He becomes the father of modern missions heading to India.
5:56
And then Carrie goes on to inspire John Newton.
5:59
You might know John Newton is the man who wrote the hymn
6:01
Amazing Grace. Yes, but the text points out
6:04
that Newton looked at Carrie and said he was more to him than a
6:07
Bishop or Archbishop. He called Carrie an apostle.
6:11
High praise. And the ripples do not stop
6:14
there. The material shows us that
6:16
Carrie also inspired the donor, Ram Judson, who took up
6:20
missionary laborers in Burma facing unspeakable hardships
6:24
himself. Right.
6:25
It is an unbroken chain of influence spanning continents
6:29
and decades, all starting with one sick man in the wilderness.
6:33
It is a staggering sequence, and to add another layer, consider
6:37
the John Bunyan chain that the author highlights.
6:39
Oh, that one is so good. Bunyan was a Puritan preacher in
6:42
the 17th century who refused to stop preaching the gospel when
6:46
the state demanded it. He would not back down.
6:48
The book describes this agonizing moment where John
6:51
Bunyan bends down, kisses his blind daughter Mary, whom he
6:54
loved dearly, and then walks straight back to a damp,
6:57
freezing prison cell in Bedford. That breaks my heart.
7:00
He makes the agonizing choice to endorse suffering rather than
7:03
compromise his convictions. He is locked up for over a
7:06
decade. He is suffering.
7:08
But in that cell, he writes a story called The Pilgrims
7:11
Progress. The Pebble drops.
7:12
The Pebble drops. Then, three centuries later,
7:16
that specific story is translated into Chinese.
7:19
The book notes that this translation gives immense
7:21
courage to an underground house church pastor who is facing his
7:25
own persecution under a hostile regime.
7:27
The waves from a cold English jail cell crash onto the shores
7:31
of 20th century China. Or consider the William Cowper
7:35
chain. The book describes how William
7:37
Cowper, on some dark day 200 years ago, sitting in the grip
7:41
of what we would now recognize as severe clinical depression,
7:45
creates A cadence and a rhyme. He forces himself to write a
7:48
poem called God Moves in a Mysterious Way.
7:51
And today, right now, a broken hearted church sings those exact
7:55
words and hope awakens in the room.
7:57
The waves go on. The waves go on.
7:59
So what does this all mean for us?
8:01
We have to discuss the concept that these men's afflictions
8:04
were, as Piper states, not for not.
8:06
But let me push back a little bit here, or at least play
8:08
devil's advocate. What happens when a person is
8:11
sitting in the absolute middle of suffering right now?
8:14
It is hard to see the waves. They cannot see centuries into
8:17
the future. They feel like their pain is
8:19
utterly pointless. How does this concept of unseen
8:23
ripples actually help someone who is currently drowning in
8:26
despair? That is the most human question
8:28
we can ask, and it gets to the very core of why Piper wrote
8:31
this material. OK, when a person is in the
8:33
middle of severe affliction, the most crushing aspect is often
8:38
the sense of meaninglessness. Yes, the lack of a reason.
8:41
The idea that this pain is happening for absolutely no the
8:44
reason is what drives people to total despair.
8:46
Yeah, it is the feeling of being abandoned and avoid.
8:49
Right. But the argument here is that
8:51
the pebbles dropped by Bunion, Cowper and Brainerd did not drop
8:55
in vain. They did not drop in vain in
8:57
their own lifetimes, nor in the centuries to follow.
8:59
That mattered. What is happening is that God is
9:02
actively breathing on the waters.
9:04
Because of His sovereign oversight, those parched places
9:08
in our modern lives are now being watered with the memories
9:11
of their sustaining grace. Their affliction produced a
9:14
yield that they could not possibly have foreseen from
9:17
their prison cells or their sick beds.
9:19
It forces us to completely reevaluate how we view our own
9:23
seasons of darkness. It really does.
9:26
We tend to demand immediate answers for our suffering, but
9:29
God operates on a timeline that spans centuries.
9:33
He does not waste a single tier. That brings it right down to the
9:36
ground level. When I was reading this section,
9:39
I found myself thinking about the quiet, seemingly
9:42
insignificant acts of faithfulness we all do.
9:44
Yes, they everyday things. Think about your silent
9:47
endurance of pain on a random Tuesday when nobody is watching
9:50
you get up, you care for a sick spouse, or you go to a job that
9:53
drains you and you honor God in the midst of a silent
9:56
depression. According to this book, those
9:59
moments are pebbles hitting the pond.
10:01
You might feel totally invisible, but your faithfulness
10:04
in the dark is creating waves that God will use in sequences
10:07
of history you cannot even fathom.
10:09
It is a stunning realization that strips away the lie of
10:12
meaninglessness. It entirely alters our
10:14
perspective on daily life. To understand this fully, we
10:17
need to move into the specific life of John Bunyan and look at
10:20
his defining work, The Pilgrims Progress.
10:23
Let's do it. The author makes a point to
10:25
highlight the full title of the book, which is incredibly
10:28
telling. The full title is The Pilgrims
10:31
Progress from this World to That which is to Come, delivered
10:35
under the similitude of a dream, where in is discovered the
10:39
manner of his setting out his dangerous progression and safe
10:42
arrival at the desired country. It is a mouthful.
10:46
It is, but I want you to notice that phrasing carefully.
10:49
It is a dangerous progression. It is not a safe stroll.
10:52
It is not a casual walk in the park.
10:55
For Bunyan, both in his actual life and in his fiction, the
10:58
Christian life is fraught with peril.
11:01
The book points out that the narrow way leads straight from
11:03
the Wicket Gate to what Bunyan calls the hill difficulty.
11:06
Yes, the hill difficulty. The book actually provides a
11:09
brilliant poem from Bunyan about this exact spot on the path.
11:12
I love this part. Christian, the main character of
11:15
the story, goes to a spring at the bottom of the hill.
11:18
He drinks from it to refresh himself, which Piperna is a
11:20
reference to Isaiah 49, and then he starts heading straight up
11:23
the steep incline. Listen to these words, Bunyan
11:27
wrote. The hill though high, I covet to
11:30
ascend. The difficulty will not me
11:33
offend, For I perceive the way to life lies here.
11:37
Come pluck up heart that's neither faint nor fear.
11:41
Better, though difficult, the right way to go than wrong,
11:45
though easy, where the end is woe.
11:47
So good. I love that phrasing.
11:48
So much better, though difficult, the right way to go
11:51
than wrong, though easy where the end is woe.
11:54
It sets up a stark contrast. Piper draws a massive line
11:57
between the persecuted Christianity of Bunion's day and
11:59
the modern Western Christianity of our day.
12:01
He really does. Bunion was agonizing over
12:04
whether to gather for corporate worship at the cost of
12:06
imprisonment and death. Meanwhile, the book notes that
12:09
we in the West are agonizing over whether the kids should
12:11
play soccer on Sunday morning. It is a heavy critique of our
12:14
current cultural. Moment.
12:15
It stings a bit. Let's thoroughly examine the
12:17
biblical normal versus the Western normal, because the
12:21
argument presented is that we have come to see safety and ease
12:26
as a literal right. We really do.
12:29
We assume that if we are following God, things should be
12:31
smooth. Yeah, if things get harder, we
12:33
assume something has gone terribly wrong.
12:35
Right? But the book walks us through a
12:37
vast array of specific scriptures to prove that
12:40
suffering is actually the normal state of affairs for the
12:43
believer. Look at the words of Jesus
12:45
himself. OK?
12:47
In Luke chapter 10 verse 3, Jesus says He is sending us as
12:51
lambs in the midst of wolves. That is not a safe picture.
12:54
In Matthew chapter 10 verse 25, he warns about the maligning of
12:58
the household, saying that if they called the head of the
13:00
house Beelzebel, how much more will they malign the members of
13:04
the household, right? In John chapter 12 verse 25,
13:07
Jesus speaks of hating one's life in this world in order to
13:10
keep it to life eternal, and in Luke chapter 14 verse 33 he says
13:16
that whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be his
13:19
disciple. These are not comfortable
13:21
suggestions. No, they are core descriptions
13:24
of the Christian reality. I have to say, when I read the
13:26
part about modern believers being soft, I bristled a bit at
13:30
first. That is a natural.
13:31
Reaction. It feels harsh.
13:33
Nobody wants to be told they are thin skinned, but then you look
13:37
at the scripture Piper lays out and it is impossible to argue
13:41
with. You cannot argue with the text.
13:43
He does not stop with the Gospels.
13:45
He carries this straight through to Paul and Peter.
13:48
Look at what Paul says in Acts chapter 14 verse 22.
13:52
Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.
13:55
Many tribulations not. A few inconveniences, but many
13:58
tribulations. In Romans chapter 8 verse 17,
14:02
Paul says we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if
14:05
indeed we suffer with Him. Conditioned on suffering and.
14:07
Then Peter jumps in. In first Peter chapter 4 verse
14:10
12, he tells the believers not to be surprised at the fiery
14:14
ordeal among them, as though some strange thing were
14:16
happening to them. The book literally states it
14:19
isn't strange, it's normal. That is the message of the
14:22
pilgrims progress. The hill difficulty is the only
14:25
path to heaven. There is no other.
14:27
That realization alone should completely reframe how we view
14:31
our daily frustrations and our major tragedies.
14:34
It changes everything. The author zeroes in on the
14:37
symptoms of our modern culture, labeling us a soft and thin
14:40
skinned society. He lists up the.
14:43
Evidence. He's very specific.
14:44
He says we move away from bad neighborhoods at the first sign
14:47
of trouble. We leave hard relationships
14:49
because they require too much of us.
14:51
We do not go to dangerous unreached people groups because
14:54
we prioritize physical safety over gospel advancement.
14:58
We fit far too well into what he calls a God ignoring culture.
15:03
That phrase God ignoring culture really stopped me in my tracks.
15:06
It is a strong phrase. What does it actually mean to be
15:09
God ignoring in this context? Because I think a lot of people
15:12
sitting in church on a Sunday morning would say I am not
15:14
ignoring God. I am singing the songs.
15:17
I am reading the Bible. Right, they feel they are
15:19
engaged. How does avoiding the hard path
15:22
equate to ignoring God? It comes down to how we view
15:25
God's Providence. When we avoid the hill
15:27
difficulty at all costs, when our primary goal in life is
15:31
simply to be comfortable and safe, we are essentially
15:34
ignoring the mechanisms of Providence that God uses to
15:37
shape us. I see the book brings in Hebrews
15:41
chapter 12 verses 7 and 8 to tie this all together.
15:44
Theologically. It says that suffering is as
15:46
normal as a father disciplining a son.
15:49
The writer of Hebrews asks what son is there whom his father
15:53
does not discipline? If we are without discipline, we
15:56
are illegitimate children and not sons.
15:58
That is a core Reformed understanding of God's fatherly
16:01
Providence. Absolutely.
16:02
The afflictions we face are not signs of God's absence.
16:05
They are evidence of His parental involvement.
16:07
The psalmist says in Psalm 34 verse 19 that many are the
16:10
afflictions of the righteous. The plea here is for us to
16:14
realize that avoiding suffering is avoiding the very tool God
16:17
uses to prepare us for the Celestial City.
16:19
We want the city, but not the preparation.
16:22
Precisely. We have become anxious, easily
16:25
discouraged and worldly because we prefer things that titillate
16:27
for a moment but shrink our capacities for great joy.
16:30
Shrink our capacities for great joy.
16:33
That is a staggering thought. It really is.
16:35
By avoiding the hard path, by always choosing the easy way
16:39
out, we are actually making our souls smaller.
16:43
We are stunting our own ability to experience the massive joy
16:47
that comes from trusting God in the dark.
16:49
That is spot on. Bunyan, seasonable counsel to us
16:52
is to take up our cross daily. He writes from a prison cell,
16:56
having lost his freedom and the ability to provide for his
16:59
family. And he says the Hill difficulty
17:01
is better than the easy Rd. He lived it.
17:05
And that leads us perfectly into the second figure in our
17:07
discussion today. Let's look at William Calper.
17:10
This section is so intense. This section of the book is
17:13
intensely fascinating. We move from a man suffering
17:15
physical imprisonment to a man suffering mental imprisonment,
17:18
right? The author introduces William
17:20
Calper as a man who was severely sick.
17:22
He wrestled with terrifying darkness, the book states.
17:26
He saw hell and terror, but he also saw heaven and ecstasy.
17:30
Calper's life is one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful
17:32
Testament well, one of the most beautiful evidences to
17:35
sustaining grace in the history of the church.
17:37
He suffered from severe, agonizing bouts of clinical
17:41
depression in melancholy. There were times when he
17:44
believed he was entirely reprobate, completely cast off
17:47
by God. Just total despair.
17:49
Yet in the midst of this overwhelming mental anguish, he
17:53
wrote some of the most resonant hymns we have.
17:56
The primary yield of Cowpers immense affliction is a call to
17:59
completely free ourselves from trite, chipper, entertaining
18:03
worship. Right.
18:04
Because Cowper knew the depths of despair, his poetry had to
18:08
have roots deep enough to reach a soul in the abyss.
18:12
The book provides few stanzas from his famous hymn.
18:14
God moves in a mysterious way, and when you read them, knowing
18:17
the agony he was in, they take on a whole new weight.
18:20
They really do. Listen to these words, ye
18:23
fearful Saints, Fresh courage take the clouds ye so much dread
18:26
are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.
18:29
Beautiful. Blind unbelief is sure to air
18:32
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and
18:35
he will make it plain. God is his own interpreter.
18:38
It takes an immense amount of faith to look at a terrifying
18:41
dark cloud of affliction and believe that it is about to
18:43
break in. Blessings on your head.
18:45
Let's thoroughly unpack the book's critique of modern
18:49
corporate worship here, because Piper uses a brilliant and heavy
18:53
analogy to explain why CalPERS sturdy theology is so necessary.
18:59
OK, weigh it out. He argues that if the Christian
19:01
life has become a path of ease and fun in the modern West, then
19:05
corporate worship simply becomes a place of increasing
19:08
entertainment. We see that all the time.
19:10
He writes that the real problem is not a battle between
19:13
contemporary music and traditional hymns.
19:16
People get so caught up in the style of the music.
19:18
But Piper says that entirely misses the point.
19:20
Right. The actual problem is that there
19:22
aren't enough martyrs during the week.
19:24
OK stop right there. Not enough martyrs during the
19:26
week. That is a massive statement
19:28
breakdown. The analogy he uses to explain
19:30
that. The analogy is this if no
19:33
soldiers are perishing during the week, what you want on
19:36
Sunday morning is Bob Hope and some pretty girls to entertain
19:39
you A. USO Show.
19:40
You want a USO show? You want to laugh, feel good and
19:43
be distracted. But if there is an actual war
19:46
going on and people are taking massive casualties, you do not
19:49
want entertainment, you want the Army chaplain and you want a
19:53
surgeon. Cowper understood that we are in
19:56
a war, and his hymns act as the surgeon's scalpel and the
19:59
chaplain's comfort. That is such a vivid picture.
20:03
When you are bleeding out on a spiritual battlefield, a light
20:06
hearted joke from the pulpit is offensive.
20:09
You need the heavy, sturdy truth of God's sovereign mercy.
20:13
That analogy of Bob Hope versus the Army surgeon is just
20:16
devastatingly accurate, and Piper lists out the specific
20:21
heartbreaking realities of the people who are sitting in the
20:23
pews right now this Sunday. The real people.
20:27
He says there are William Cowpers in the congregation
20:29
right now. He lists them out and this part
20:31
just break my heart reading it. It is heavy.
20:34
He notes there are spouses sitting next to each other in
20:36
the pews who can barely talk to each other because the marriage
20:38
is so fractured. There are sullen teenagers
20:41
living complete double lives at home and at school, terrified of
20:44
being found out. There are widows who still feel
20:47
the amputation of a 50 year partner sitting alone.
20:50
There are single people who have not been hugged for 20 years.
20:53
There are men in the prime of their lives dealing with
20:56
aggressive cancer. It is everyone.
20:58
There are moms who have carried tiny caskets to a graveyard.
21:03
There are scarred soldiers of the cross.
21:05
And then the author asks the most crucial question of the
21:08
entire section. What is that?
21:10
Shall we come to them with a joke?
21:12
Ouch. It hits you like a ton of
21:14
bricks. They can read the comics every
21:15
day if they want a joke. They came to the sanctuary to
21:19
find out if God is still on the throne in the middle of their
21:21
agony. It demands a serious reflection
21:24
on what we are doing when we gather.
21:26
It really does. Theologically, the book connects
21:28
suffering directly to authentic worship.
21:31
Piper defines worship as the display of the surpassing worth
21:35
of God revealed in Jesus Christ. OK.
21:38
Therefore, being satisfied with God in the midst of suffering is
21:41
the clearest possible display of His worth.
21:44
He cites Psalm 63, verse 3, which declares that the
21:47
steadfast love of the Lord is better than life itself.
21:51
Better than life? When a believer is suffering
21:53
intensely yet still finds joy and satisfaction in God, they're
21:58
demonstrating to the entire universe that God is more
22:01
valuable than health, wealth, or even life itself.
22:05
That makes perfect sense. That is why the author contrasts
22:08
Cowpers sturdy Redwood like theology of suffering with her
22:12
modern sapling sermonettes. I love that visual.
22:16
A Redwood versus a sapling. Is very clear.
22:18
A sapling sermonette might make you smile on a sunny day.
22:21
It provides a little bit of shade, a little bit of green
22:23
leaves, but it will snap in half the moment a real storm hits.
22:27
Instantly. CalPERS Redwood, like theology,
22:29
can withstand a hurricane. It has roots that go down into
22:33
the bedrock of God's sovereignty.
22:35
Absolutely. And the stark reality is that
22:37
until we suffer, we might not be interested in this kind of
22:40
sturdy theology. We might prefer the sapling.
22:43
Because it is easy. But as the book states, that day
22:46
of suffering is coming for all of us.
22:48
We do well not to wait until the affliction arrives before we
22:51
learn the lessons of CalPERS. Great hymn.
22:53
We need to prepare. We need to learn how to suffer
22:55
well now so that when the time comes, we will know how to live
22:59
well and die well. The author even quotes Proverbs
23:03
31, verse 25, noting that the godly woman laughs at the time
23:07
to come. Laughs at the future.
23:09
This is not laughing at a trivial joke.
23:11
This is laughing at the future because of a deeply rooted
23:14
confidence in the sovereign Providence of God.
23:17
Faith filled suffering is essential in this world for the
23:20
most intense authentic worship. When I look at my own
23:24
expectations for a Sunday service, it really challenges
23:27
me. Same here.
23:28
Are we walking into a sanctuary looking for bouncy, frisky
23:32
smiles? Are we looking for light hearted
23:34
stories to make us feel comfortable and affirmed right?
23:37
Or are we looking for the joyful earnestness that actually helps
23:40
a broken heart feel hopeful? The book warns us that if we
23:44
want entertaining worship services with the aim of just
23:46
feeling lighthearted and friendly, it will never help a
23:49
person prepare to suffer, let alone prepare to die it.
23:52
Just will not work. CalPERS shows us how to sing in
23:54
the dark. It is a massive pivot from
23:56
seeking A distraction from pain to seeking God in the center of
24:00
the pain. And that requires A theology
24:03
that does not flinch at the sight of blood or depression.
24:06
It requires a God who is big enough to ordain the storm and
24:10
loving enough to pilot the ship through it.
24:12
That brings us perfectly to our third and final figure, David
24:15
Brainerd. Let's talk about Brainerd.
24:17
We transition from Bunions Hill difficulty to Kelpers earnest
24:21
worship straight into Brainerd and the radical mission outside
24:25
the camp. The material tells us that David
24:27
Brainerd spent the last seven years of his life literally
24:31
spitting up blood. Just awful physical suffering.
24:34
He died at the incredibly young age of 29 from tuberculosis.
24:38
He spent his short adult life riding on horseback through the
24:41
freezing wilderness of colonial America, sleeping in the damp
24:45
cold, pouring himself out. Giving everything.
24:48
His single driving passion was the salvation of sinners for the
24:52
glory of God. Brainer's life is a master class
24:54
in the theological mandate found in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 12
24:58
through 14. The book focuses heavily on this
25:00
passage. What does it say?
25:02
It explains that Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to
25:06
sanctify the people through His own blood.
25:08
Therefore, the mandate for the believer is to go forth to him
25:12
outside the camp and to bear the abuse he endured.
25:15
Outside the camp? Why?
25:17
Because as the scripture says here, we have no lasting city,
25:21
but we seek the city which is to come Brainerd live that reality
25:25
to the absolute physical limit. He really did.
25:29
The author uses a highly visceral metaphor here.
25:32
He says that when you are 29 years old and you have spent the
25:34
last seven years spitting up blood, you do not just casually
25:38
recite the words here we have no lasting city.
25:41
You feel those words the way you feel the wind on a cliff's edge.
25:45
The way you feel the wind on a cliff's edge.
25:47
I can almost feel that cold breeze reading those words.
25:50
It is a chilling visual. And Piper points out human
25:53
nature so accurately. Notice how many people feel that
25:56
wind on the cliff's edge and immediately turn around and run
25:59
inland to safety. Most of us do.
26:01
We feel the vulnerability of life, we get a bad medical
26:04
diagnosis, or we see a tragedy on the news and our first
26:07
instinct is to build a fortress of comfort.
26:10
We try to insulate ourselves from the wind.
26:13
But the specific commands drawn from Brainerd's life are exactly
26:16
the opposite. The book commands us to stop
26:19
trying to make life lasting and luxurious.
26:22
It commands us to let go of whatever holds us back from full
26:26
and radical service. We are told to go outside the
26:29
safe place, outside the comfortable place, and join
26:32
Jesus outside the camp. This is where the intersection
26:36
of suffering and mission becomes crystal clear.
26:38
In Reformed thought, going outside the camp means leaving
26:42
behind the security of the known and stepping into the affliction
26:45
of the unknown for the sake of the gospel.
26:47
The book pulls no punches about the reality of this path.
26:51
It describes Golgotha as a bleak hill, a skull with a frown of
26:55
affliction on its face. A frown of affliction.
26:57
But it immediately ties this back to the lyrics we just
27:00
discussed from William Cowper. Behind a frowning Providence he
27:03
hides a smiling. Face.
27:04
I love that connection. The frown of Golgotha, the frown
27:07
of suffering outside the camp, masks the smiling face of a
27:11
sovereign God who is ordaining these events for His glory and
27:15
for the salvation of sinners. Look at the fruit of Brainerd's
27:19
specific affliction. He felt like a failure much of
27:22
his life. He struggled with severe
27:24
depression alongside his tuberculosis.
27:27
He was a very tortured soul. Yet the text points out that his
27:31
suffering resulted in the salvation of hundreds of Native
27:33
Americans during his brief ministry.
27:35
Incredible fruit. Not only that, but his journal,
27:38
which was published by Jonathan Edwards after his death, became
27:41
a trumpet blast over all the unreached peoples of the world.
27:45
It woke people. Up It awakened and inspired
27:47
thousands of missionaries who came after him.
27:50
The ribbles from his short, agonizing life are still hitting
27:53
the shores of eternity today. And this brings us to an
27:55
incredible paradox found in Psalm 16, verse 11.
27:59
What is the paradox? The verse says in your presence
28:02
is fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures
28:05
forever. But how does that intersect with
28:07
the hill difficulty and spitting up blood outside the camp?
28:10
That is the big question. The argument made here is that
28:13
the path to everlasting joy actually leads right up the hill
28:17
difficulty. It involves deep, joyful worship
28:20
in the midst of suffering, and it pushes us out into an
28:23
unreached world of perishing sinners.
28:26
So the joy is in the hard path. Joy is found by taking this hard
28:30
path. When one soul repents, the
28:32
angels of God sing, and that produces a yield of affliction
28:36
that lasts forever and multiplies all your joys in
28:38
Christ. You do not find the fullness of
28:41
joy running inland away from the wind.
28:43
You find it standing on the cliff's edge outside the camp,
28:46
giving your life away. This requires a massive shift in
28:49
how we view our resources, our health and our time.
28:52
An entire paradigm shift. Brainer did not view his failing
28:56
health as an excuse to retreat into comfort.
28:58
He viewed his brief, afflicted life as a resource to be
29:01
entirely spent for the glory of Christ among unreached people.
29:05
He spent it all. He echoed the single minded
29:07
passion of the Apostle Paul in Acts 20 verse 24, where Paul
29:10
says he does not account his life of any value, nor is
29:13
precious to himself, if only he may accomplish his course in the
29:16
ministry he received from the Lord Jesus.
29:19
That is the heart of it. Brainerd's suffering extends the
29:22
shadow of the cross right into our modern, comfortable living
29:24
rooms and bids us ask if we can truly say I am crucified with
29:29
Christ. It is a radical call.
29:31
It asks us to look at our lives not as a collection of comforts
29:35
to be protected, but as an offering to be poured out.
29:38
Poured out completely. And when we pour it out, even in
29:41
the midst of immense pain and sorrow, we are trusting that the
29:45
sovereign God of the universe is catching every drop and using it
29:49
to water the seeds of grace in fields we may never see.
29:52
So what does this all mean for us as we synthesize these three
29:56
incredible lives? Let's.
29:57
Pull it together. We have looked at 3 distinct but
30:00
totally connected threads. John Bunyan shows us the
30:04
absolute reality of the hill difficulty.
30:05
Yes, he proves that the Christian path is a dangerous
30:08
progression, not a safe stroll, and that suffering is the normal
30:12
expectation for a child of God. That is step one.
30:15
Then William Kelper steps in and shows us how to actually sing
30:18
with a sturdy Redwood like faith in the middle of that very hill.
30:22
He gives us the song. He provides the vocabulary for
30:24
broken hearted Saints to worship God earnestly when the clouds of
30:28
affliction are dark and heavy. And finally, David Brainard
30:31
shows us that climbing this hill with the gospel is the only way
30:34
to reach perishing sinners for the glory of God.
30:37
He shows us the mission. He calls us out of our
30:39
luxurious, thin skinned safety and demands that we go outside
30:44
the camp to a world that desperately needs the truth.
30:46
If we connect all of this to the bigger picture, it leaves us
30:50
with a necessary and heavy consideration regarding the
30:53
hidden timeline of God's Providence in your own life.
30:56
Give it to us. We read about Bunion's ripple
30:58
effect touching a Chinese pastor centuries later.
31:01
We read about Brainerd inspiring Carrie and Carrie inspiring
31:05
Newton. Consider this for a moment.
31:07
What if the most agonizing, confusing trial you are walking
31:10
through right now is actually the specific Pebble God is
31:13
dropping into the water to sustain the faith of someone who
31:16
will not even be born for another 100 years?
31:19
That is a staggering thought. What if your current quiet
31:23
endurance, the pain you are holding silently today, is the
31:27
very thing that will eventually water the parched life of a
31:30
believer across the globe? You just do not know.
31:33
You may never see the shoreline where your way finally breaks,
31:36
but blind unbelief is sure to air.
31:39
God is His own interpreter, and in His unsearchable judgments
31:44
your affliction is actively working and eternal weight of
31:47
glory. I want you to really Mull over
31:49
that thought this week. Ponder these sovereign
31:52
sequences. Look at your hands and think
31:54
about the 10,000 effects of your faithfulness in the dark.
31:57
It changes everything we highly. Recommend picking up John
32:00
Piper's The Hidden Smile of God to read these accounts for
32:03
yourself. There's so much more in the
32:05
pages than we could cover. Today, definitely read the book.
32:08
Thank you for joining us as the third person in the room for
32:10
this deep dive into the source material.
32:13
Keep resting in the sovereign Providence of God and we will
32:16
catch you next time on Reformed Thinking.