Word of Salvation – Vol.14 No.37 – September 1968

 

The Problem of Suffering

 

Sermon by Rev. R.O. Zorn, B.A., B.D., M.Th. on 2Corinthians 12:7.

Scripture Readings: 1Corinthians 12:1-10

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal (New): 121; 428:1,4; 129; 447; 488

 

Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

The experience of suffering is the common lot of all.

Some people seem to have more of it; others less.  But everyone has a certain share of it.

A happy few may be comparatively free from it.  They never seem to have a sick day in their lives.  They never get unduly upset from anxieties or tensions of one sort or another in life.

But there are others who are oppressed with these burdens, and their weight is like a millstone about their neck.  It seems as though it’s just one thing after another in their lives.  Or perhaps it’s the same thing over and over again!

Why do some – perhaps you – have more than a fair share of suffering?  Is it just an unfortunate accident?  Just one of those things for which there seems to be no explanation?  To have a view like this would be neither helpful nor comforting.  Let us, rather, turn to the testimony of God’s Word and see what light it sheds upon the problem.

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering.  In fact, he seems to have had more than his share.  He enumerates some of them for us in 2Corinthians 11:23–29, and what a shocking list it makes!  He speaks of having suffered beatings, shipwrecks, stonings – not to mention hurt and heartache of all sorts.

But beside all this, he was, in addition, forced to suffer from a thorn in the flesh, as our text points out.  What this thorn in the flesh was we do not know.  Many have offered suggestions of one sort or another.  But at best that is all that they remain – suggestions or guesses.  As a matter of fact, we do not need to know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was.  For the inspired Word of God purposely leaves it indefinite, so that we may gather the fruit of divine instruction from it and apply it to our own particular needs or “thorns in the flesh”.

There are at least three things our text should teach us about the problem of suffering.

First, a “thorn” should display the power and sufficiency of God’s grace to give us the victory over the devices of the devil.

Secondly, it should manifest the purpose of suffering as a ministry.

And thirdly (and perhaps indirectly) it should stir up within the body of Christ the flow of mutual sympathy and compassion.

Let us consider each of these points in order.

Suffering as a Test of the All-Sufficiency of God’s Grace:

In our text, Paul refers to his thorn of affliction as a messenger of Satan.  We must not overlook the fact that the Devil is the cause of much human misery and woe.  It all began already in the Garden of Eden, when our first parents chose to follow the Devil’s advice to eat of the forbidden fruit rather than heed the command of God.  Instead of being the servants of God, they together with their posterity became sinners, witting or unwitting pawns of the Evil One.  And humanity ever since has learned by bitter experience what a hard taskmaster Satan really is!  He is the author of strife, the disturber of peace, the bringer of grief – and the fellowship of the Church is his chief target!

Satan is also the author of much personal affliction.  Just how much, we do not know.  But far more than we would ordinarily think.  He was, for example, the agent of Job’s affliction, not to mention his other misfortunes as well.  He was the agent of the woman’s distress for eighteen years – that woman whom the Lord Jesus healed, as we read in Luke 13:16.  Think of having to endure the Devil’s personal affliction and oppression for eighteen long years, as was true for this woman!  Most of us would find even two weeks more than we could endure.

So Paul tells us that Satan was his oppressor also.  Hundreds, yes even thousands, in Athens and Corinth, for example, had health and strength to burn in the immoderate pursuits and revelries of sin.  As is still true today in our own pleasure-mad, happiness-seeking society in desperate search of satisfaction from the empty cisterns of sin.

But here, on the other hand, was Paul, the great apostle of the Lord, going about his missionary labours which covered most of the civilized world of that day, with an affliction imposed upon him by the Devil!  Most ironic!  Indeed unfortunate?

But this was not an accidental occurrence, nor inexplicable affliction, though that’s the way we too often tend to think of such things.  We may perhaps think it a failure in heredity somewhere.  Or perhaps it’s due to a lack in proper environment.  Now, to be sure, a faulty heredity or an improper environment may be a contributing or aggravating cause of the evils present in this world, for the ramifications of sin, together with its evil effects, go very deep indeed!

But Paul had not been born with this thorn in the flesh.  So it could not be blamed upon a faulty heredity.  Nor had he reaped it as the fruit of wild oats sown at some earlier time in his youth.  So the cause of the thorn could not be traced to a social deficiency of any sort.

No, Paul himself says that he had been given this thorn, this messenger of Satan, by none other than the Lord.  And this at the height of his apostolic career!  For he says, “Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations (from the Lord), there was given to me (by the Lord) a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”

This affliction was so great that Paul describes it in terms of being pummelled by the Devil.  For that is literally what buffeting means.  To be beaten up, as it were, by a merciless bully!  And though he had asked the Lord for relief, the Lord refused to comply with his request!

It wasn’t that Paul hadn’t prayed or taken his distress to the Lord.  Too often we’re guilty of this – fainting rather than praying.  This of course is a device of Satan which Paul by bitter experience learned to be well aware of.  We can almost imagine what the Apostle must have gone through.  There is the unremitting oppression of the affliction to endure.  An affliction that one can never get used to.  Each morning – if one is allowed a night’s rest – there it is again to begin the day’s agony anew.  Before long one concludes that he’s just not made for this kind of suffering.  It’s neither natural nor right!

Then Satan comes with the whisper, “If you’re a child of God, where is your heavenly Father, who should help you in answer to this great need of yours?”  “Yes”, you agree, “That’s right!”.  And so you go to the Lord with your trouble, as the Apostle must have done, and you pray, “O Lord, deliver me as you’ve delivered so many others before, for I believe that Thou art able!”  But no seeming answer comes.  If anything, the affliction gets worse!

Then Satan begins to mock you and to jeer at your prayer.  “Where now is your God whom you say you love, and who is supposed to love you?”  Yes, an experience.  like this can be most unnerving.  And Satan’s nefarious aim, of course, in all this is to bring about a collapse of our faith – that is for us to faint in despair rather than to persevere in prayer.  For Satan knows that if he can get us so unsettled that we give up, then he’s won a victory in his warfare against us.

Paul, however, was not ignorant of Satan’s devices (cf. 2Corinthians 2:11).  Nor did he fall into Satan’s trap.  He prayed and kept on praying as he tells us in verse 8.  And after the third time his faith won through to accept the Lord’s answer and be resigned to it.

And what was the Lord’s answer?  For the Lord did answer Paul’s prayer, as He always answers His children’s prayers.  It was not what Paul had asked for, nor what he necessarily wanted.  But it was what was good for Paul.  The Lord said, “No Paul, I won’t take that thorn away as you desire me to.  Instead of doing that, I’ll give you something better: my all-sufficient grace to see you through.”

You see, Paul was being taught as a result of this weakness to rely upon the all-sufficiency of God’s grace and thus to be perfected by it.  For as he tells us in verse 9, “The Lord said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  And that his resignation to the Lord’s will had won through, so that he could willingly accept it as that which was best for him, is seen from what he says further, ”Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  In his need, Paul was promised sufficient grace.  But God’s grace alone must be sufficient!

Is not this the answer to much of our suffering too?  Our gracious heavenly Father does not remove the affliction, not because He cannot.  But often He leaves it there for the very same reason He left it with the Apostle Paul – to prove the power and sufficiency of His grace in giving us the victory over every evil device of the Devil.

Like Paul, the child of God may be a deliberately chosen vessel of God to endure satanic buffeting.  For suffering, too, may be a ministry for which the Lord sets us apart.

Which brings us to the consideration of our next point:

The Purpose of Suffering as a Ministry:

How many of us really look at suffering as a possible ministry?  Don’t we tend to see it as just the opposite – as something that detracts from the effectiveness of our ministry for the Lord?

Suffering is nerve-wracking, incapacitating, awful.  It drains your strength, leaves you exhausted, unable to carry out your tasks.  You lie there upon the bed of misery and are tempted to feel, “What a waste of time this is!”

This of course is exactly the way the Apostle Paul could have looked at it, too.  The Lord had called him to be the apostle to the Gentiles.  He had admirably equipped him with the necessary gifts for his task, for Paul had received a fine education, had been given an abundance of revelations, etc.

Why then should he have to suffer from this enervating roadblock to the accomplishment of his labours?  Wasn’t this the Lord’s permitting the Devil to have his way?  The answer to this, however, is “No”, even though we may not always see it as clearly as we should, God also uses those to serve Him who may have been laid aside in order to fulfil a ministry of suffering.

The poet, John Milton, in writing, “On His Blindness”, put it this way:

“God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts; Who best bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state is Kingly.  Thousands at His bidding speed and post o’er land and ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.”

What a blessing to see that our affliction or trial has come, not by chance or misfortune, but by God’s loving providential action.  Wasn’t this true in Paul’s case?  Paul might otherwise have become too heady or high-minded because of the abundance of his gifts.  But then he would have been of no further use to the Lord.  For being “up and out” is as bad as being “down and out”.  So God, in His wise providence, kept Paul “in line” by means of the ministry of suffering.  By means of it Paul learned to depend upon the Lord, to give him the credit for everything, to become strong in weakness, and to be perfected through suffering.

The same is still true today.  For the Lord continues to set apart certain chosen vessels through whom He reveals the all-sufficient measure of His grace’s balm, despite the longest and most painful of sufferings which they may be forced to endure.

Yes, the suffering may continue, the pain endure, the incapacity remain.  And after a while, people get used to seeing us that way.  For what more can they say or do?  But the afflicted one never gets used to it!  For he has to live with it!  But as he waits on the Lord as Paul did, he finds that each day brings with it the measure of its own new strength.  For he learns as God has promised, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be… (for) the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….!” (Deut.33:25, 27).

This daily all-sufficient measure of divine grace to the sufferer is the gift of the heavenly Father, who thereby reveals His tender loving care for His own.

Hence, such afflicted ones reveal for all to see that neither the sufferings of affliction, nor the buffetings of Satan, are able to dry up the springs of God’s grace in their lives.  For those heavenly springs of divine grace are too rich and abundant ever to be stopped up or choked by even the most terrible of suffering!

Paul demonstrated this.  The early Christian martyrs demonstrated this.  And so, too, your calling by which you may glorify God may be through this ministry of suffering.  If we see this as the Apostle did, will it not also cause us to glory in our infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon us?

We are prepared now to consider the third point:

The Flow of Mutual Sympathy and Compassion:

This point of our text flows from the context in which it is found.  Paul, in writing of his thorn in the flesh, communicates this fact to his readers who together with him were a part of the Church of Jesus Christ.  He who binds us together in one body so that we “may rejoice with them that rejoice,” and “weep with them that weep”, Himself first showed us His compassion by bearing our sicknesses and carrying our griefs in order to become our Redeemer.  And although He might well have left us to perish in our misery and woe, He willingly took upon Himself the burden and penalty of our sins, as He bore them in His body to the cross and died in our place – so great was his love and the show of His compassion for us!

And now, as the triumphant and exalted Saviour, He still continues to show us His great love and compassion.  For He is the great and good Shepherd who never leaves nor forsakes His own.  Moreover, He is still the great Physician and Healer of all our spiritual diseases as well as physical infirmities.  And He is the guarantee that the present wholeness of our soul’s salvation will ultimately lead to the fullness of our body’s redemption also, in the great day of His triumphal and glorious return upon the clouds of heaven.  For as Paul tells us, “Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our present body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil.3:20-21).

What the Lord Jesus now gives to us of His mercy, love and compassion, He wants us in turn to share with others.  For, as Christ’s royal priesthood, we are to administer to others the blessings of His Kingdom.

This begins and centres in the ministry of the Word, to be sure.  For the Word is the means the Holy Spirit uses by which to impart the wholeness of Christ’s salvation as He takes the things of Christ and effectually applies them to all who believe on Him.

But a further important aspect of being a blessing to others involves the bearing of one another’s burdens, thus to fulfil the law of Christ (Gal.6:2).  The natural man can’t be bothered with the burdens and needs of others, for his usual inclination is selfishly to preserve his own ego inviolate.  And therein the natural man betrays himself as yet being outside the Kingdom of Christ.

The child of God, however, recognizes himself as a part of a larger whole, and, as a fellow-member of the body of Christ, works for the well-being of the whole.  For if that one member suffers, all suffer.  If that one is benefited, all benefit.

Do we see the showing of mutual sympathy and compassion for one another in this light?  When last have we wept with those who weep?  We sing:

“We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows the sympathizing tear.”

But do we really mean it?  The Lord Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:13-14).

Love for Christ should bring this fruit of love for others to perfection in your heart and mine.  If this love is not yet present, then perhaps it may be necessary for the Lord first to break you and melt you in sickness and affliction, thereby to mould you and make you meet for His Kingdom and glory.  And if you’re one of his own, He will do it, too!

Let us then not despise the chastening of the Lord, for whom He loves He chastens and scourges – even every child of God whom He receives.  May we therefore with the Apostle Paul learn to say, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2Corinthians 12:10).

Amen.