Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Questions of Suffering

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

When you suffer, it’s natural to ask the question, “Why?” Instinctively, it’s sometimes the very first thing out of our mouths when tragedy hits: “Why me? Why this? Why now?” There’s no other book of the Bible or piece of literature that addresses the great why question of suffering with the intellectual and philosophical integrity and deftness, the emotional and dramatic realism, and the spiritual wisdom of the book of Job. This text teaches us three things about the why question of suffering: 1) you have to avoid pat answers, 2) you need to embrace living without an answer, and 3) you need to anticipate the ultimate answer.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 6, 2008. Series: Job - A Path Through Suffering. Scripture: Job 1:8-22. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When we suffer, it's natural to ask the question, why? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller shows us what the Bible has to say about how to face pain and suffering. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com.

Tonight's scripture reading can be found on page 8 of your bulletin. It's taken from Job, chapter 1, verses 8 through 22. Then the lords said to Satan, "'Have you considered my servant Job? "'There is no one on earth like him. "'He is blameless and upright, "'a man who fears God and shuns evil.'" Does Job fear God for nothing?"

Satan replied, "'Have you not put a head around him and his household "'and everything he has? "' you have blessed the work of his hands so that his blocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face. The Lord said to Satan, very well then, everything he has is in your hands,

but on the man himself do not lay a finger. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the seabians attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who was escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, the fire of God fell from

the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who was escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, the Caldians formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who was escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking yet another messenger came and said, your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest

brother's house. When suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house, it collapsed on them and they are dead. And I am the only one who was escaped to tell you. At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worship and said, Naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

In all this, Job did not sin And the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. This is God's word. There's nothing more certain than that you're gonna suffer or at least that people around you are going to be suffering, disease, death, disaster, deep disappointment, all the deadly deeds. When you suffer, it's just so natural to ask the question,

why? In fact, instinctively. Sometimes the very first thing out of your mouth when tragedy hits. Why me, why this, why now, why them, why him, why her, but it's why, the question why. There is no book of the Bible, there's no piece of literature in the whole world that addresses the great question of suffering, the why question of suffering, with the intellectual and philosophical integrity and deafness, with the emotional and dramatic realism and with the spiritual wisdom of the book of Job. The book of Job is actually an epic poem, it's a lyrical epic poem. The only one really like it in the Bible.

And it consists of first of all a dialogue between God and Satan, and then a long dialogue between Job and his friends, and finally a climactic dialogue between God and Job. And we're going to look at this over a number of weeks. And right out of the gate, we get some major advice about how to suffer the inevitable burdens of human life. And it has to do with this question, why?

Right away we ask the question, why? And here's the advice we get from this text. We're going to learn here. Number one, you have to avoid pad answers to the why question of suffering. Secondly, you need to embrace living without an answer to the why question. And then thirdly, you need to anticipate the ultimate answer to the why question. Avoid pad answers to it. Embrace, actively embrace, and accept living without an answer to the questions of why you're suffering.

And then lastly, anticipate the final answer. Avoid the pad answer. Be willing to live without an answer. And anticipate the final answer. First, avoid pad answers. Basically when suffering hits, there are two basic ways people respond to them. The more religious person starts to say,

why is God punishing me? What am I doing wrong? Maybe I need to go to church more, maybe need to pray more. I'm afraid there's a lot of folks, not just in religions in general, but in the church itself That say well, you know if you if you're sick, you don't have enough faith If you're having financial problems you need to have believe you need to have enough faith

So one of the responses is what I'll call moralism Start pushing those buttons start and doing all the things and then be God will bless you if I'm more if I'm more diligent if I pray more etc. The other approach is not moralism, but cynicism. And whereas religious people tend to see suffering as a punishment, secular people tend to see suffering as just the randomness of life, a random thing. Life is a crapshoot. Religious people have a tendency to believe, well, if you live good life, then good

things will happen to you. And if bad things are happen to you, maybe you're not praying enough, maybe you're not living good enough. But secular people have a tendency when they see suffering, they see this proves that there is no God or if there is a God, he's incompetent or indifferent. This shows that life's a crapshoot. This shows that there is a God, you know, you can, the heck with him because he allows this sort of evil and suffering.

And these are the two approaches. Moralism and cynicism. And moralism is based on this idea that God is up there doing tit for tat. And if you live a good life, you'll have a good life. And if you're not having a good life, it must be you're not living right.

And cynicism is based on the idea that nobody's in charge. That life is random, it's just a matter of chance. There is no good, one good, powerful God in charge of everything. And the book of Job starts right out to tell us that both of those approaches are absolutely wrong and spiritual that ends. And it tells us through this amazing dialogue between God and Satan. In verse 8, God says, have you seen my servant, Job?

There is none like him in all the earth. The man who fears God and shuns evil. And Satan says, oh, you think he's so great? Heard him. Let bad things happen to him. And you'll see he's no good. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man.

He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man.

He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man.

He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. He's not a good man. What in the world is God and Satan playing games with this poor job, and that's totally missed the brilliance of this. This is narratively and dramatically getting across a profound philosophical point. And that is the asymmetrical relationship of God to suffering. No other philosophy, no other religion has this particular belief. God's asymmetrical relationship to evil and suffering. What do I mean? On the one hand notice, it's Satan's idea that all these bad things should happen to Joe. God doesn't come up with the idea. Satan's idea, Satan is the one who doesn't

does it. God does not actually, actively, directly, generate the suffering. Satan does it and he goes and does it. And this is a way of getting across a very important fact. And that is that when God made the world, He didn't make disease in it. He didn't make natural disaster. That's not the world God made. It wasn't a world in which windstorms came and knocked over houses

and killed everybody in them. It wasn't a place of death. Disease and disaster and death are not things God actually made. They're in this world, but he didn't directly make them. They are forces of darkness that were unleashed when we turned away from God. And when we rebelled against God, the fabric of this world began to unravel. And we unleashed those forces. So on the one hand, we see God is not actively desiring, deliberately, intentionally, creating the suffering that goes into Job's life. Satan is doing it, but! And it's very important, yet, yet.

However, God is an absolute control. We don't have Satan and God, you know, it's two opposite forces fighting against each other. Not at all. What we have here is God in total charge. But what he's doing is he's overruling the evil. Do you understand this? He permits it. Notice he says very well. But then he limits it. He says, you can do this, but you can't do that. You can't touch him. You can't do this. You can do that. He's in total charge. Why does God allow this? And here's the answer. God only allows Satan to accomplish the very opposite of what he wanted to accomplish. He only gives Satan enough rope to hang

himself. Satan is bringing evil into Job's life, right? Suffering in Job's life, right? But he has a result he's trying to get it, right? What is Satan want? What is the result that Satan wants in Job's life from all this suffering? He wants him discredited, right? He wants him exposed as a fraud, right? And yet, you don't even need to have read the whole book to know something. And that is, Job is one of the most great and famous figures in the history of the human race.

Thousands of years later, here we have thousands of people in New York City meeting together to study his life. Millions of people have had their lives changed by his example of bravery and courage and of pathos and humanity. Satan was allowed by God to bring evil into Job's life. God hates evil. He's against it. You see, he didn't create a world in which evil evil. He's against it.

He didn't create a world in which evil existed, but He permits it. Why? He permits Satan only to bring evil into Job's life in such a way and in such an amount that it actually completely defeats Satan's real intention. Satan is only allowed by God to actually defeat himself and achieve the very opposite of what he wanted. And what this is telling us is two things. And boy, this is important, everybody.

Number one, we're told here, we're being told this is probably the way God works with us. God hates if suffering an evil, see? But on the other hand, he's in control. It's awesome, it's not God can't help it. Sure, he's permitting it. He's in charge. But you can't say God just loves to see people suffer. He doesn't. He hates it, but he permits it. But why does he permit it? He permits evil and suffering to come into your life only to the degree that it defeats the actual intention of Satan for you. Only to the degree it makes you come into your life only to the degree that it defeats the actual intention of Satan for you. Only to the degree it makes you a great person, only to the degree it actually defeats itself.

But the other thing we learn here is Job never finds out about this. Do you know that? Through that the entire book, Job never hears about this. He has no idea that's why he's suffering. In fact, when Job, when you get to the end of the book and God shows up and begins to say, speak to Job, he never brings it up. He never tells him about it. He never says, well, listen, Job, I just want you to realize, this has been really hard, I know. But do you realize for the rest of the rest of time, for the rest of history, you will be the object to one of the great works of literature, your model and your example is going to change

people's lives for millions and millions and millions of years. So you see, it's all going to be for the good. God never says that. All He says is, who darkens counsel through words without knowledge? Who do you think you are, Job? I'm God, I know what I'm doing. See what? The moralist says, oh, the reason you're suffering is

you're not living right, you need more faith. And the cynic says, oh, the reason you're suffering is life is a crapshoot and God's out the lunch. Those are Pat answers. How do they know? They don't know that. And they're answers that keep them in control, huh? Because the sinic says, oh, you see, look at how life is so bad.

Look at all these evil and suffering God is allowing. You can live any way you want. You owe God nothing. And the moralist says, oh, no, you do this and this and this and then God has to bless you. But the Bible says, both of, you do this and this and this and this and then God has to bless you. But the Bible says both of those are Pat answers, both of those are trying to answer the question for why and both of those are ways for people to give Pat answers to the question why they keep them in control. But what the Bible calls you to do is to serve God even though you'll never know, you will

never know, just like Job never knew, the actual reasons for the suffering. You therefore hold onto mystery. You do not try to get an answer, and you stay in a relationship with a God that you can't control. But not only that, that's just the first thing we're being told. Avoid those bad answers. The second thing we're being told is, don't just resign yourself that you're never gonna learn

why you suffer. Embrace it. See that you need not to know. Now listen to me carefully. You need not to know. You say, why is that? Well, look, in verse eight, Job says, pardon me, God says, been doing this all day. God Job Satan, you know, they kind of look alike in my mind, you know.

All right. God says, Job loves me. See, he says, Job is my servant, but he fears me, and in the Old Testament the word fear is a much more positive term than what you, it comes across in English. The word fear means inward awe and wonder. And therefore God is saying, Job serves me but out of love. Job loves me. And you know what Satan says? No, he doesn't. He doesn't serve you for nothing. What does that mean? He doesn't love you. He loves the things you're getting. He's getting from you. It's the things that he loves It's the money. It's the prosperity. It's the health. It's the status

He doesn't love you. He loves the things he's getting from you. He doesn't love you for yourself He doesn't love you for you yourself alone If any of those things go away, he'll be out of there Now let's get the devil his due. I believe he's put his finger smack on one of the big problems with the whole human race. Absolutely. Look, there's no place more like this than New York, by the way. No coincidence. Have you ever been having somebody coming after you, being real friendly to you, and when

they find out that you're not going to do what they want you to do, they're gone? You know, if you're a little higher up in business or the media or the art world and you meet somebody a little further down and they're really friendly to you until they find out you're not really going to open doors for them and then they're gone. You weren't being befriended. You weren't being loved for you yourself, you're being networked. Or let me be a little more serious, even, you know, a lot of women know this.

A guy comes on very friendly, very, you know, affirming, really seems to be interested in you. And when he finds you won't sleep with him, he's gone. Why? He didn't love you for yourself alone. He loved you for it. He loved you for what he was going to get and Satan is smiling. See? That's how human beings are. Oh, and that's not how men are. That's how human beings are. Because, listen, if you've ever been the object of one of these things where you feel like the person really liked you, but when they found out that you weren't getting what they wanted from you, they dropped you.

How do you feel? You feel like you're treated as an object. You feel depersonalized, dehumanized, right. But guess what? When you treat somebody like that, you don't just dehumanize them, you dehumanize yourself. You become an exploiter. You become a manipulator. You become hard, you become a cynical Satan.

Bit by bit by bit, you're getting more and more like him. Because you see, when Satan looks at people loving, saying they love God, people saying they love each other, you know what he says? You're all in it for yourself. You're not loving that person. You're loving yourself and Getting things from the person. You don't love the person for who they are themselves But if you want to be a real human being Not a manipulator if you want to be a really compassionate person if you want to be a really compassionate person, if you want to be a person of integrity, a person of principle, you've got to learn how to love God for who He is Himself alone,

and love people for who they are in themselves. And guess what? The only way that's going to happen almost always, the only way you're ever going to learn to love God for who He is Himself is through suffering. Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? And how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger and wiser?

Those are the questions Tim Keller explores in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. The book doesn't provide easy answers, but is instead both a deeply theological and incredibly personal look at how we can face pain and suffering. Walking with God through pain and suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel on life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world.

So request your copy today at GospelOnLife.com slash give. That's GospelOnLife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Was Satan right about Job? Yes and no. Because at the end of chapter one, after Job loses a lot of things, he hasn't lost his health yet.

He's lost his money and he's lost his family. He bows and continues to worship God. See, he lost his things, and we'll get back to this in a minute. He said, these things aren't really important, God's important. And as a result, at the end of the first quarter, it is Job 1, Satan 0. You see, in other words, round one goes to Satan, it goes to Job, not to Satan. But we're going to see as we get into things, as we get deeper into the book,

that there is self-centeredness, a lot of self-centeredness, clinging to Job. He's not a self-centered person all the way down. He doesn't love God just for the things, but he doesn't yet love God for himself alone. And the only way for God to make Job into a man of greatness is to have him suffer and not know why.

He knew why. See, I've had people say to me, I could handle this suffering. If God would just show me exactly why. See, if you could just come and say, oh, you're suffering now, this is terrible, but five years from now this will happen and 10 years from now that will happen. Then I'd be able to handle it. In other words, you're suffering now, this is terrible, but five years from now, this will happen, and 10 years from now, that will happen.

Then I'd be able to handle it. In other words, you'd be suffering, you'd be serving God for the things you were gonna get. The only way to be sure you're serving God for He Himself alone, rather than for what you're getting out of it, is you've got to be in a condition where serving God gives you nothing, where you're getting nothing out of serving God.

In fact, you're getting the opposite. In fact, by serving God, bad things are happening to you because you're serving God. You're getting nothing out of it at all. That's the reason why you can't know the reason for your suffering. There can't be a reason why an answer to the question why given to you, or you will never become the kind of person that suffering can make you. So, if you really want to learn how to love God for Himself alone, become not a manipulator, not an exploiter, not exactly the person that Satan says you really are, even though it's not completely true, but it's partly true.

Then you've got to be willing to let God put you through the ringer. So point one, you have to avoid padd answers to the question, why am I suffering? But secondly, you need to actively be willing to embrace living life without knowing why you're suffering. That's the only way to become a person who loves. That's the only way to... See, Satan is cynical about love. You know, it's almost... When God says, have you seen my servant Job?

He loves me. You can almost hear Satan's beginning singing, what's love got to do with it? Got to do with it. You're almost hear Satan's saying, oh yes, true love. See Satan is the cynic that says, you people don't love each other. You're using each other.

And God says, I can create free lovers. You know, it's intriguing that by the way, read the book, read Screwtap letter sometime. I was just going to read you a section, but the time is running by. There's a screw tape. The screwtap letters are based on the book of Job from what I can tell. Because the devils are always saying, there's no such thing as love. There's no such thing as love. There's no such thing as love.

Yet they know that the reason why their enemy Jesus Christ often puts his disciples through the ringer is because he says he wants to turn them, screw tapes as he wants to turn them into free lovers. And it's the only way to become a free lover, someone who loves Christ, loves God for himself alone. Now look, finally, what are you being called to? You're being called to stay in a relationship with a God that you can't control and accept, embrace the mystery.

But not knowing why you're suffering and not expecting you ever will know and realize that that is a way for you to learn to love God for Himself alone. And it's the only way to become a truly human being. Otherwise you're just a demon, otherwise you're just a manipulator, otherwise you're just a tyrant, you're a dictator. So how do we walk this path?

Job starts off awfully well, you know why? He says, naked I came out of the womb and naked I'm going to die. He says the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord or this translation, the name of the Lord be praised. There's two things you gotta see here. First of all, there's emotional realism.

One of the things I find fascinating, as it says, listen, it says, Job tore his robes, fell to the ground, cried out. And yet it also says, in all these things, Job sinned not. We people, especially we Western people here in the West, we church people. If you see somebody who tears their robe, you know, tears their clothes and jumps, falls to the ground and screams, we say, kind of lost it, haven't they? At the Bible says, and all these things jopes in not.

You know, crying out, grieving in the midst of pain. There is Christianity as not stoicism, sorry. This text proves that. But in his emotional pain and in his emotional authenticity and in his being totally in touch and free in his expression of his emotions, he holds on to the theology of grace. Because what does he say? He does not say these things that you've taken from me. They're mine. I earn them. I worked hard for them.

These homes, these children, this money, these things are mine. How dare you take them away? What does he say? I came naked. Naked means vulnerable and helpless. And I'm leaving naked. And everything I have was on loan from God.

There's just God gave them to me. They're gifts of grace. Now let me tell you why. It is absolutely crucial to grab hold on the theology of grace when you're suffering. If you build your life on your things. If you say the thing that makes me who I am is I've worked so hard and I've got this money,

I've got this position, I've got this name. I've got this achievement Suffering see if the utter most foundations of your heart and happiness are your things Suffering will be pulling you away from the utter most foundation of your happiness because that's what suffering is Suffering is always taking away something important to you some earthly thing thing. And so if you build your life on things, suffering will make you sadder and sadder, matter and matter, worse and worse. But if, as Job, you build your life on God. And though you certainly like having money and you certainly like having your health, and you certainly like having friends and loved ones,

the ultimate love is God's love, the ultimate wealth is God's love. You like having money and you certainly like having your health and you certainly like having friends and loved ones. The ultimate love is God's love, the ultimate wealth is God's love, the ultimate status is God's love. Then what suffering is doing is it's driving you deeper into the source of your joy. So if you build your life on things, suffering pulls you away from the source of your joy and you're just going to get matter and matter and satir and satir and worse and worse But if you build your life on God then what happens is suffering drives you into him It drives you deeper into the source of your joy and that's the reason why Job

became Job And that's the right that's the reason why everybody's heard of Job. That's the reason why we're talking about Job now That's the reason why Satan was defeated He's heard of Job. That's the reason why we're talking about Job now. That's the reason why Satan was defeated. That's why Satan actually accomplished the opposite of what he expected and wanted. Wow! So go home and be like Job. We're going to see Job isn't even being like Job in the rest of the book, but I want you to see one thing. When Job got ahold of grace, he didn't have a whole lot to go with. All he knew was, hey, these things came from God

and I should look at them as alone. And if God wants to take them away, he brought them to me to start with, so he has the right to do that. That's rational, that's theological, and that's right. But boy, he does not have the resource to understand grace that we do. And let me tell you what the resources that we have,

that he didn't have. And therefore, we have a really very little excuse not to be able to become great under suffering. Here's what it is. Satan comes to God and says, Job doesn't really love you. He's just using you. You know he did that before? Do you know where he does that?

In the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden Satan comes to us and says, God doesn't really love you. See Adam and he said, we're not allowed to eat the tree because God says we shouldn't eat the tree because he loves us and what does Satan say? You must be kidding. What's love got to do with it? He's using you. That tree is perfectly good to eat. He's just trying to use you. He's trying to keep you down.

He's trying to exploit you. Now listen, when Satan said bad things to God about us, even though there was some truth in them, God didn't accept it. But when Satan said bad things to us about God, and there was no truth in it, we believed it. The lie of Satan is, if you give yourself to God utterly and wholly, if you totally trust him, he'll crush you.

You won't be happy. You can't trust God. God doesn't really love you. That's the life Satan. It's sank into the hearts of our parents. It's Adam and Eve. It has sunk into the heart of every human being. And you know the reason why we can't handle bad news?

You reason, the reason why when suffering comes, we immediately think the worst of God. You know why? Let me speak for myself. Please, I mean, obviously, let me speak for myself. My main problem in life is I don't really believe God loves me. You say, what are you talking about? You tell me every week.

What's about you? Some kind of hypocrite? No, no, I'm saying look. I know it up here. But I do not know. I am not as certain as this is my right hand that the Lord of the universe loves me unstoppable and infallibly unconditionally.

I don't know that in my heart of hearts. Deep down inside, when somebody criticizes me, when bad things happen, when it doesn't look like I'm succeeding, what do I get so upset? Because well, you know, I guess God loves me, but that's kind of on audio. But what people think of me is on video. See, what God thinks about me is kind of abstract,

but what people think of me and how things are going down here, that's important. I know that God loves me, but the important thing is I need my things, I need my status, I need my achievement, I need my friendships, I need my success, I need my people around me loving me. The reason I can't handle suffering is because I believe a lie of Satan. Satan said to God about us, they don't really love you, and he resisted.

But when Satan said to us about God, he doesn't love you, we absolutely believed it. And the biggest thing we need is proof that he loves us. And the thing we need to handle life is proof that he loves us. And the thing that we need to walk down this path of suffering without knowing exactly the reasons why it's happening, so that we can turn into people of greatness, is we need to believe that Satan's a liar and that God loves us. Well, how do we know that? I'll tell you how we know it. I tell you how. Job, I don't know how Job know it, but I can tell you how we know it. I tell you how we, Job, I don't know how Job know it, but I can tell you how we know it. Centuries later, Satan assaulted another innocent sufferer

who died naked and who died crying out, why, why am I suffering? And he got no answer. It was Jesus Christ, but keep this in mind. When Job suffered, he was only relatively innocent, but Jesus Christ was the true Job, the true, absolutely innocent sufferer. And when Job felt he was abandoned by God, that's he wasn't really, because we'll see that at the end of the book. But Jesus was truly abandoned

by God. In fact, Jesus is the only person in history that God said to, if you obey me fully, I'll crush you to powder and send you to hell. I'll turn my back on you and you will experience absolute separation from the glory and face of the Father. If you obey me fully, I will send you to hell. Nobody ever said that to anyone.

No, God never said that to any other human being, but Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only person who ever served God truly for nothing. And why did He do it? For us. And that's your proof. You jobes out there. You people who are suffering and you have no idea why.

And for what you can tell, it's not because of anything you did. That is what you need your jokes out there to see the ultimate joke, Jesus Christ, the ultimate innocent suffer, because when he died on the cross for you, that proves that Satan's a liar. That proves that his Satan is an absolute liar, because God in human form was willing to love us just

for who we were in ourselves, in ourselves. He didn't get anything out of it. Jesus already had all glory. He had all the angels worship. Why did he love us? Because he was going to get something out of it. He loved us for who we are in himself. So you go love him for who He is in Himself.

Jesus Christ suffered not that we would not suffer, but that when we suffer, we could become like Him. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us this good word. A terrible word, but a good word, and that is that there's a purpose when bad things happen to us and you hate evil and suffering, you hated so much you were willing to get involved with it and become an innocent sufferer yourself. And that's the result. As a result, when we suffer even though we have done nothing to bring it on ourselves, we can know you still

love us and we can walk the path of obedience and faithfulness to you. Without knowing why we're suffering and yet at the same time trust you and know that you love us because of what Jesus Christ did and that we know is going to make us, it's going to refine our faith and it's going to refine our souls so that we come out looking like gold and silver. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to understand that Jesus Christ came and did this for us so that we now can face our problems and our troubles with poise, and even with a certain amount of joy, certainly with grace, and we ask that you'd give us this through Jesus in His name.

We pray, Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller, We ask that you'd give us this through Jesus and His name. We pray, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on facing pain and suffering with the hope of Christ. We pray you were encouraged. To find more Gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, you can sign up for email updates at gospelandlife.com. That's gospelandlife.com.

This month's sermons were recorded in 2004 and 2008. The sermons and talks you here at www.redemerpresveterianchurch. you