Embracing God's Sovereignty in Suffering and Growth

Conferences can serve us, they can help us, they can inform us, they can challenge us, but ultimately what God has ordained is the church. And we understand that, and we understand that we, of course, as believers are the church. But it is the local church, it is our local church pastors, it is the elders and the deacons, and the moms and dads, and grandmas and grandpas and kids that we worship with each and every week, that is what God has ordained as the primary regular means for our growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:45:55]

And so, the idea here is of the Lord looking very particularly, not just seeing in general, not just sort of seeing as He sees all things, but actually looking in a penetrating way at all that goes on. You see, when we talk about the omniscience of God, I think too often we think of God's all-knowingness and all-seeing as just some sort of general way of looking upon everything. I think that is the way the world thinks of God. [00:06:48]

When you first came to study theology and you first came to grasp different words, theological terms, and you heard the term "omniscience," that God knows all, that God sees all, I am sure it didn't make you wrestle with it all that much. Most people I have found in my ministry believe that. It is not something you have to convince them of. It is not something that they have to be, you know, argued about, over and over again. [00:10:24]

What I came to realize is that the question I was asking, if God is this, if God is on His throne, if God is in control, how is it that all these bad things can happen? How is it that all this evil can exist? When I really came to grips with the reality of the fall of man, of the reality of our sin, as I came to grips with the reality of who God is, I actually began to ask an entirely different question. [00:16:19]

As I began to understand who our God is from His revealed Word, I came to realize that we could be far worse off than we are, but because God is merciful and slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness to His people, because God is God, He keeps things from becoming completely out of control. He is the One who restrains. He is the One who by His mercy withholds. He is the One who in His sovereignty keeps us from killing each other off the face of the earth. [00:17:21]

Romans chapter 9 is an important chapter in this epistle and really an extremely important chapter in the entirety of the Word of God because of what Paul does, not only in chapter 9, but really leading up to chapter 9 from chapter 1 through 8, of course. And Paul is laying the groundwork throughout and building such a beautiful, blossoming...it is almost like an ever-blossoming flower. It just keeps blooming. [00:23:23]

What Paul is doing in Romans 9 is explaining how this is and even, he even answers in part the question of why. Now, the Bible doesn't always do that. The Bible doesn't always give us the particular answers to our questions as to why this and why that, but the Bible does give us an overarching ultimate answer to that question and we see it in part in this passage. [00:28:42]

You see, what we read in Exodus, what we read here in Romans 9 is not just that God allowed Pharaoh to be himself. The language is that God actually raised him up, that God appointed him. He appointed this exact man with his exact personality, this exact hardness of heart, to be the exact Pharaoh in the exact time in world history to do exactly what he would do. [00:33:53]

And there is a mystery there. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the actions of our infinite God. We can't grasp how these things are in the end. All we have to deal with are the facts, the truths that God gives us. And for those who want to say, "Well, this is all just mystery. We really can't understand any of this," well, why does God tell us about it? Why does God reveal these things to us? [00:35:29]

You see, even in our own suffering God's power is made perfect. Your suffering, God uses as a testimony to those watching. The misery that He has permitted in your life as you come through it trusting Him, depending upon Him and still praising Him, God uses your suffering so that others in your lives and throughout the world might know and proclaim His name. It is not just through Pharaoh; it is through our own suffering. [00:40:52]

And while we don't understand always why God allows it, we know ultimately that God is using it, that as He is conforming us to the image of His Son, that as we are sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings, as we are enduring the miseries of this life in this fallen world, God is using it all for His name and His glory. You see, your suffering is not for nothing. [00:42:03]

And whenever we are tempted to disbelieve, whenever we are tempted to doubt, whenever we are tempted to question God, we need to remember Paul's response, "Who are you, O man, to respond to God?" Who do you think you are? Because the reality of it is it could be a whole lot worse, but because of God's mercy and because of God's grace He is the One who wounds, but His hands heal. [00:43:29]