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Providence Over Suffering (Part 3) · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We focused last time on the providence of God in
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  Speaker 1: nature in particular, the world that comes at us. Let
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  Speaker 1: me bore in a little more specifically on the difficult
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  Speaker 1: topic of sickness, disease, life, death, disability, and ask, how
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  Speaker 1: does the providence of God relate there? Now, let me admit,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed affirm the reality of Satan in this world
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  Speaker 1: as a real agent, a real causer of pain and evil.
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  Speaker 1: He's a murderer, he's a liar. Revelation 2.10, behold the
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  Speaker 1: devil is about to cast some of you Christians into
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  Speaker 1: prison so that you will be tested and you will
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  Speaker 1: have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful unto death. and
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  Speaker 1: I will give you the crown of life. So it
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  Speaker 1: seems to teach that not only can Satan throw Christians
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  Speaker 1: into prison, he can so orchestrate things that they die,
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  Speaker 1: and we should be faithful unto death. So I don't
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  Speaker 1: mean to minimize at all between the overarching providence of
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  Speaker 1: God and our experience, the reality of Satan in here
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  Speaker 1: doing his thing. However, Satan does not have absolute or
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  Speaker 1: final or decisive control in any of the things that
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  Speaker 1: he does. Deuteronomy 32, 39, God says, see now I,
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  Speaker 1: I am he. There is no God besides me. It
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  Speaker 1: is I who put to death and give life. I
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  Speaker 1: have wounded. It is I who heal. There is no
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  Speaker 1: one who can deliver out of my hand. Or for
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  Speaker 1: Samuel 2, 6, the Lord kills And the Lord makes alive.
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  Speaker 1: He brings down to Sheol. He raises up. And most
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  Speaker 1: obvious is Jesus, the Son of God, comes into the
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  Speaker 1: world and he is sovereign over all disease and over death.
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  Speaker 1: He heals all the diseases that come to him. He
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  Speaker 1: raises people from the dead. For example, Matthew 4, verse
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  Speaker 1: 23 says, He went throughout all Galilee, healing every disease
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  Speaker 1: and affliction among the people. Or Luke 7, 14, young man, arise,
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  Speaker 1: and the dead man wakes up. Or Mark 5, 41,
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  Speaker 1: talitha kum, little girl, rise from the dead. Or Revelation 1, 18,
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  Speaker 1: I am the first and the last, the living and
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  Speaker 1: the living one. I died yesterday. And behold, I am
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  Speaker 1: alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and Hades.
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  Speaker 1: Heals all diseases, raises the dead. In other words, the
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  Speaker 1: final decisive control over sickness and death is Jesus, not Satan.
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  Speaker 1: Even though Satan can make sick. Acts 10, 38. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: went about doing good and healing sickness. all who were
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  Speaker 1: oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to sickness or disability or the way
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  Speaker 1: children are born, it is not Satan who has the
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  Speaker 1: final say. Exodus chapter four, verse 11. The Lord said
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  Speaker 1: to Moses, who has made man's mouth or who makes
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  Speaker 1: him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it
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  Speaker 1: not I? The Lord. Or John 9, 1 to 3. Rabbi, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was
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  Speaker 1: born blind? That's their assumption. Somebody sinned. It's his fault
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  Speaker 1: or it's his parents' fault. Somebody's got to be blamed here.
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  Speaker 1: And Jesus said, it is not that this man sinned
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  Speaker 1: or his parents, but that the works of God might
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  Speaker 1: be displayed in him. God's at work here. He has
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  Speaker 1: a design here. Let's just close in at Job. Almost
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  Speaker 1: everybody thinks about Job when they think about disease or death.
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  Speaker 1: So you know the story. He was a good man.
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  Speaker 1: Better man than anybody in the land. Satan challenges God
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  Speaker 1: with respect to Job, right? And he says, stretch out
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  Speaker 1: your hand. This is chapter 1, verse 11. Stretch out
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  Speaker 1: your hand and touch all that he has. He will
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  Speaker 1: curse you to your face. That's Satan to God. And
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  Speaker 1: God says, behold, all that he has is in your hand,
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  Speaker 1: only Against him, don't stretch out your hand. So you
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  Speaker 1: can go this far, Satan, no further. God is sovereign
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  Speaker 1: over Satan. So without touching Job's skin, this is what happens.
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  Speaker 1: Sabaeans kill the servants and steal all the oxen and
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  Speaker 1: all the donkeys. Lightning strikes and kills all his sheep.
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  Speaker 1: and his shepherds, and worst of all, a great wind
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  Speaker 1: hits the house. This would be like a tornado. Hits
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  Speaker 1: the house where all 10 of his children are partying,
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  Speaker 1: and every last one of them dies, and the news
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  Speaker 1: comes to Job, and this is what happens. Then Job arose.
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  Speaker 1: This is chapter 1, verse 20 and 21. Job arose
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  Speaker 1: and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell
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  Speaker 1: on the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked I
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  Speaker 1: came from my mother's womb, naked I will return. The
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be
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  Speaker 1: the name of the Lord. He worshiped. He acknowledged the
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  Speaker 1: Lord has done this, even though Satan got permission to
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  Speaker 1: do it. Now, was he wrong? Some people say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: Job is wrong to say that. And the very next
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  Speaker 1: verse says, in all this, Job did not sin or
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  Speaker 1: charge God with wrong. It wasn't wrong. It wasn't sin
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  Speaker 1: for him to talk that way and to say, God
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  Speaker 1: has done this. I bow under it and worship my God.
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  Speaker 1: So Satan challenges God again, skin for skin. Let me
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  Speaker 1: touch his skin. He will curse you. Let me touch
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  Speaker 1: his skin. The Lord said to Satan, behold, he is
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  Speaker 1: in your hand. Only spare his life. So Satan went
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  Speaker 1: out from the presence of the Lord, and listen to this,
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  Speaker 1: and Satan struck Job. with loathsome sores from the sole
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  Speaker 1: of his foot to the crown of his head. The
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  Speaker 1: text says Satan did that. Satan did that. God's in control.
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  Speaker 1: You can go this far, no further. Here's what Job
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  Speaker 1: says when his wife says, you should just curse God
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  Speaker 1: and die. Chapter 2, verse 10. Shall we receive good things?
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  Speaker 1: at the hand of God or good from God and
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  Speaker 1: not receive evil? Job, the text says Satan did it.
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  Speaker 1: And you're saying, shouldn't we humble ourselves and be willing
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  Speaker 1: to receive both good and evil from the hand of God? Job,
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  Speaker 1: that's wrong. And the very next verse says, in all this,
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  Speaker 1: Job did not sin. with his lips. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: we know we're not misreading those verses that say Job
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  Speaker 1: was right to talk that way is because the end
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  Speaker 1: of the book, chapter 42, verse 11, goes like this.
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  Speaker 1: This is the inspired writer talking, all his brothers and
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  Speaker 1: sisters and all who had known him before comforted him
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  Speaker 1: for all the evil that the Lord had brought on.
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  Speaker 1: That's the summary statement of the book of Job. And James,
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  Speaker 1: in the New Testament, writes about it like this. This
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  Speaker 1: is James 5, 11. You have heard of the steadfastness
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  Speaker 1: of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So yes, God
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  Speaker 1: is in charge of all sickness, all disease, all life,
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  Speaker 1: all death, all disability. His providence is that pervasive. And
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  Speaker 1: when you trust him through Jesus Christ, his mercy, his wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: his power you will discover that it is merciful and
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  Speaker 1: compassionate