I want to ask the question, I
said this morning that I was going to preach over, why does
pain exist? And here in Job, let's read this
whole chapter. It says, Job 14, man that is
born of a woman is a few days. Just a few days, that's all it
will ever be. And those few days are full of
trouble. Full of. He comes forth like a flower,
beautiful flower, and then you cut it down, and He flees as
a shadow and continueth not. A shadow has no substance. And
the only way you see a shadow is for the sun to be behind you. And when the sun gets straight
over you, you don't have no shadow. And the shadow has no substance.
And that's what He says about us, we're just like a shadow.
And doest thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bringest
me into judgment with thee? Oh, Lord, don't bring me into
judgment with you. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? If something's unclean, how can
you get something clean out of something that's unclean? No
one can do that. If it's unclean, you can't bring
something clean out of it. And he says, seeing his days
are determined, the number of his months are with thee. Thou
hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. God set our days,
set our bounds, set our moments. Turn from him that he may rest,
he shall accomplish his days, till he shall accomplish as a
hireling his day. And that's what it is. He gets
up and he works all his life and then the day comes to the
end. For there's hope of a tree, If it be cut down, that it will
sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Oh, how many times you cut a tree and then all of a sudden it starts
sprouting up, you know. That's what he's saying here.
And though the wood thereof wax old in the earth, and the stalk
thereof die in the ground, yet just a little water gets the
scent of a water, it'll bud, it'll bring forth bulbs like
a plant. But that's not the way man is. But man dieth, and wasteth
away. Yea, man giveth up the ghost,
and where is he? As the waters fell from the sea,
and the flood decayeth, and dryeth up, so man lieth down, and rises
not. Till the heavens be no more,
they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Until
God makes that new heaven, new earth, O thou that thou wouldst
hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret, until
thy wrath be past, and thou wouldst point me a set time, and do me
like ye did that thief on the cross, remember me, remember
me. What a question! If a man die,
shall he live again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait till my change cometh. Thou shalt call and I'll
answer. Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of thy hands. For now thou number'st my steps.
I've got a little old thing on my wrist here telling me how
many steps I take a day. God knew how many steps I was
going to take every day before I ever got something counting. He said, you know, he said, for
now God numbers my steps. One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven. God counted all the steps you'd
ever take before you took your first one. We get so excited
when a baby takes his first step. We just, oh, just get beside
ourselves. From the day they take their
first step, every step from that day on is numbered. Dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgressions filled up in
a bag, and thou sourced up mine iniquity. And surely the mountain
falling cometh to nothing, and the rock is removed out of its
place. The water wear away the stones, thou washest away the
thrones, things which groweth out of the dust of the earth.
and thou destroyest the hope of man, everything that he had
in the earth shall be torn down. Thou prevailest forever against
him, and he passes. Thou changest his countenance,
and send him away. His son comes to honor, and he
knoweth not it. They are brought low, but he
perceiveth none of them. But his flesh upon him shall
have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. Well, this is one of the most I think one of the best chapters
in the Bible because it tells us the truth. Things that we all know and we
all have to face. And there's a book that was published
several years ago, a really popular book. And people ask this question
all the time, they say, why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen to good
people? Well, If they were good people,
I'd understand. And there's support groups, you
can look in the newspaper, there's support groups for everything
that ails you. And while they do, they get in
these support groups convincing one another that it's really
not their fault. And today's preaching, today's
religion doesn't want to confront and deal with this problem of
pain. The most popular preacher in the United States, he's just
a cheerleader. Just a cheerleader is all he
is. What do they call those guys that, like Norman Vincent Peale,
positive power of thinking, and yeah, power of positive thinking
and all that. And that's what it does. They
don't want to confront and deal with this problem of pain. And
if you're sick and in pain, it's either because of three things.
And I remember Jimmy Swagger said it's not God's will for
you to ever be in pain or be in the hospital. A preacher that I used to, he
used to be my pastor years and years ago, he said it's not God's
will. God's will's never for you to
be sick. There's something wrong with you if you're sick. Now
you got problems. But there's one or three things
that they'll tell you about why you have pain. First of all,
because you sinned. They'll say, well, you sinned,
you've done something wrong. Well, let me ask you something. Did anybody ever suffer pain
like our Lord Jesus Christ? Did He sin? And what about the Apostle Paul?
Paul was a just man, a righteous man, made by the grace of God
to believe in God. Look with me, and you keep Job,
but look with me in Philippians 2, just a moment. You sinned,
that's what they'll tell you, you sinned. And if you'll repent
of your sin, God will heal you, God will straighten you up, God
will get you better. And what about our Lord in the
Garden of Gethsemane? When He said, My soul is deceiving,
sorrowful, even unto death. And He prayed till His sweat
became as it were great drops of blood. And here's Job. Job. He lost everything that he had. and yet he bowed and worshipped
God and he said this though he slay me I'm going to trust him
he took my children the Lord gave the Lord take away he took
my wealth the Lord gave the Lord took away he took my health the
Lord gave the Lord took away and he never ever charged God
foolishness or charged him with sin And when he, beloved, got
down where they kept saying, Job, you've done something wrong,
Job, you've done something wrong, and he said, he told those fellows,
I've got something against you. He said, you have spoken evil
against my servant Job and against me, and now Job is going to have
to pray for you if you ever get anything from me ever again. But look what Paul said over
here in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 25, talking about, they
say you sin if you're sick and you have pain. This is because
you sinned. And look what Paul told them,
he said, Yet I suppose it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus,
my brother, and companion, and laborer, and fellow soldier,
but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he
longed after you, and he was full of heaviness." Now listen
to this, because you heard that he had been sick. Uh-oh, Epiphas
got off and got into some kind of sin, fell into some kind of
sin, got sick. That's what the preacher would
say. For he was indeed sick, nigh unto death, thought he was
going to die. But God had mercy on him, and
not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon
sorrow. I send him therefore the more
carefully that when you see him again you may rejoice that I
may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the
Lord with all gladness and hope such in reputation because for
the work of Christ he was nigh unto death not regarding his
life to supply your lack of service to him. So that's a falsehood. These fellas didn't sin. Christ
didn't sin. Job didn't sin. And then the
second thing they charge you with is if you have pain and
you have troubles and you have sickness, they say it's because
you don't have faith. Your faith's not strong enough.
If your faith was strong enough, if you believed enough, he said
nothing, whatever you do, why you're in trouble, why you have
this sickness, why you have this pain, is you don't have faith.
And what that does, that covers them. That covers them and their
false accusations. And oh, but they cause you to
be unbelieving. They exploit it. They exploit
it. He said, I'll do this for you,
and you do that for me, and I'll take care of this pain. And oh,
they'll exploit it, and they'll make you feel guilty of something
that you have no control over. But look what our Lord said in
Matthew 17. Matthew 17. Matthew 17 and verse 14. You don't have faith, they say,
you don't have faith. Every one of us in this building
tonight that knows Christ, we all have faith. And I don't care
if it's strong faith, weak faith, little faith, it don't make no
difference how big it is, little it is, as long as it's in Christ
and as long as it's in the right object. That's all that matters.
But look what our Master said in Matthew 7.14. And when they
were, Matthew 17.14, came to the multitude, there came to
him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have
mercy on my son, for he's a lunatic. And sore vexed, for oftentimes
he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought
him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus
answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how
long shall I be with you? How long shall I serve you? Bring
him here to me. And our Lord rebuked that devil,
and he departed out of him. The child was cured from that
very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said unto him, why couldn't we not cast him out?
And our Lord said, because of your unbelief. It wasn't the
person who was sick's unbelief. These apostles were the one who
had the power. Jesus said, because of your unbelief. And listen,
he said, this is how much faith it takes. Because for I say unto
you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you say unto
this mountain, And boy, I tell you what, you know, he's not
talking about literal mountains. He's talking about great obstacles. Obstacles that seem so big and
so great that there's no way in the world that you can face
it. I mean, it's a mountain. When you see a mountain, you
say, how in the world can I get around this? And they said, if
you had faith of a grain of mustard, you could say under this mountain,
remove hence to yonder place. Oh God, remove this mountain,
this trouble, this mountain, this obstacle, this thing that
I can't get over, I can't get around, I can't climb it, and
it's just impossible, but God, you can, and I say remove, and
it shall remove, and oh, nothing shall be impossible to you. So
you see, that's another thing. And let me tell you, beloved,
we know this. We know this without a shadow
of a doubt. Pain is a fact of life. It's a fact of life. Some have it more than others.
Some live constantly with pain. Live with pain constantly. And
then some know very little about it. I know two men that never
knew what it was to have a headache. But I've had some that I do,
and I know some of you have, that you have to get in a room
and cover your head up. But some know very little about
pain. And those who talk about pain
the most, those who complain about it the most, generally
have the least of it and suffer the least. If you've got to be
talking about how tough it is on you all the time, it's probably
because you've got it so easy. But pain is a fact of our everyday
lives. We have pain in our bodies, physical
pain. Pain in our backs, Bruce talking
about the pain in his back. He's had two shoulder surgeries. We have physical pain. Shoulders,
elbows, arms, backs, hearts, all physical sufferings. Pain,
you have to take pain pills. And then there's pain of soul
and pain of heart. This is some of the awfulest
pain you'll ever suffer. When your soul's in pain. When
your soul is heavy. Our Lord said, my soul is exceeding
heavy. It's even sorrowful under death. When your soul is heavy, and
your heart is heavy, and your heart hurts, and your heart's
in pain, and there ain't nothing that nothing can do for your
heart. You have loneliness, you have grief, you have sorrow. You have anguish, you have worry,
and you have these things that affect your heart and your soul.
And then there's the pains about your mind. Mind, mental pain,
mental anguish, depression, anxiety, and fear. Mary, we've been going
through a lot of pictures, and there's a lot of pictures. You
look at us and you can tell that I'm one of the miserablest creatures
that ever lived. For almost four years, I didn't want to live and I didn't
want to die. I felt like I was going to lose my mind every day
that I lived. I don't know how many times I'd
leave the house and I'd say, I'm not coming back. I said,
I'll do away with myself today. I know what mental suffering
is like. And God had mercy on me, restored
me, and had pity upon me, and has kept me all these years.
And Mary stayed with me through those years, through the thick
and the thin. And I mean, it was a horrible experience. And
I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Depression, anxiety, fear,
it's a horrible thing. And here's the problem that people
face. And here's the thing that God
is accused of. If God is all powerful and all
loving, Why does pain exist? Why does He allow suffering in
this world? But I want you to remember this.
The world is not in the condition God made it in when He put Adam
in it. There was something happened in that garden that caused all
the pain and all the suffering that we're ever going to go through
in this world. And I tell you, men and angels,
what they did, they abused their free will, which resulted in
their rebellion. Let's see if we can find some
answers to why this pain exists, using the Word of God. That's
why Job said back over here, says, man that's born of a woman, man that's born of a woman is
of a few days, and those few days are full of trouble. Full
of trouble. Then he comes forth like a flower.
Oh, a beautiful flower. Got his strength, got his ability,
got his glory. And then something comes along
and cuts him down. And he's like a shadow. He's gone. Look down at verse
7. For there's hope of a tree if
it be cut down, that it'll sprout again. The tender branch thereof
will not cease. But in verse 10, but man dieth
and wasteth away, he, a man, giveth up the ghost, and we're
easy. And I'm going to tell you how this happened. Look with
me over in Genesis. I'll tell you what happened.
In Genesis chapter 2, pain exists because God the Father, our Father
Adam, fell and was cursed. And curse and death started at
work on us, and that's the reason why. I remember I used to fight
this all the time. Oh, I was so mad at God and I
was so bitter at God. I was so angry at God for the
things that I went through and the things that I felt and the
things that I suffered. I was mad at Him. I was angry at Him.
I was bitter. And then I found out that the
reason there was suffering in this world and why I suffered
was because of my sin. Not what somebody else did, because
of my sin. It wasn't my sin. It wasn't what
God called me to do, it was my rebellion against Him. I was
following the effects of the girth and my rebellion made it
even worse. But he said here in Genesis 2.17
The Lord God commanded the man of the tree, the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden you eat just as freely as you want
to, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die. And you know what it says in
the Lord Jesus? Dying thou shalt die. Dying thou shalt die. Now look over here in verse 17
of chapter 3. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou sparkest under the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it. Listen to what he said, Cursed is the ground for
thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. And oh, and he says there, it's
going to bring forth thorns and thistles, and in the sweat of
thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it was dust, and to dust you're going to go. It's
going to go back where you come from. Why does pain exist? Because we dying are dying. Because we're under the curse.
Because God, man rebelled against God, and when Adam fell, the
curse came on all of us. All of us start in time. And
then let me tell you something. Let me give you this. Pain comes
often times from specific judgments. Specific judgments. Now Herod
was one day, they had him come and he gave a great oracle. You
can read about it in Acts chapter 12. He began to give a great
speech and all that. And everybody jumped up and started
hollering, it's the voice of a God! It's the voice of a God!
And the scripture says God smote him with worms because he gave
not God the glory. And he fell sick and he died. And that's what happened to him,
you see, because of specific judgments. And let me show you
what happens over here in 1 Corinthians 11. Even to church members. Even to church members. 1 Corinthians
11. In the Lord's Supper, you know, pain sometimes comes
from specific judgments. And there's sickness of church
members. You remember that when they first started taking the
Lord's Supper to Corinth, more people came there and they brought
their wine and they brought all their food and they started getting
drunk and turning it into a big party. And they got to where
they were just having a great big time at it and all that,
and they didn't discern the Lord's body. They didn't understand
that He was there to show the Lord's death until He come. They
didn't discern what our Lord Jesus Christ's body did and what
He suffered on the cross. And that's what He said here,
verse 29, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh judgment to himself. He didn't discern the Lord's
body. He don't understand what took place at the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And look what Paul said here,
For this cause many are weak among you, many are sickly among
you, and many have already died because of this. That's why I say if this is taking
the Lord's supper, that's what he's telling about. They were
so irreverent about it. They were so careless about it.
They didn't discern it. They didn't care. They were just
there to have a big time and to drink and show everybody how
much food they had, how wealthy they were, and the poor sit over
in the corner over here, and they couldn't take of it. And
Paul said, I'm going to straighten this out. You're going to find
out what it means for my son to bear your sins on his body
on the tree. And you're going to find out
if you ever take the Lord's table. He said, I'm going to teach you
what it means. And there's a lot of folks, they wouldn't put up
with it. One thing you can mess with,
and you can mess with a lot of things, but don't mess with the
body and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ and his blood. And I know this, what Galatians
says this, that whatever a man sows, that's what he reaps. Whatever you sow, you sow to
the flesh, you reap to the flesh. You sow to the spirit, you reap
to the spirit. And that's one reason why we
have pain. The third reason why there's
pain in this world, why it exists. People can neglect their bodies
and have bad stewardship over their own body. Do you know that
God gave us our bodies? He gave us our bodies. And He
told us how to not abuse our bodies. You abuse your body and
pain and sickness will be the result of it. You abuse it, all
you got to do is just, and you know this from yourself, you
know that if you do certain things, it's going to cause your body
to react a certain way. That's just the way it is. And
that's that a person can eat too much or eat too little. God
says this, it would be better for a man to put a knife through
his throat than to be a glutton. You get what he's saying? And
if Paul said this, he said bodily exercise profiteth little. And
what he means there is using your body in the exercise of
religion. But I tell you, sleeping, man
can sleep too much or sleep too little. If you lose sleep, it
affects your body. Abuse the things that God has
given us, our minds, our hearts, our bodies. If we abuse our bodies,
our bodies is going to rebel against Him and we're going to
have pain with it. You work it too hard and don't rest it enough,
you get yourself in conditions and do things that absolutely
affects your body. And that's why we have pain in
our body, because we abuse it. We abuse it. And that's a fact. That's just one of those facts.
People have diabetes because they abuse their bodies a lot
of times. There's people that starve themselves to death because
they won't eat enough. There's people who'll drink too
much and then they'll get sick and their head will hurt them
and their body will hurt them and they'll throw up. They abuse
their body. There's people that'll eat until they get sick. There's
people that'll do things to their own body. And that's why God gave us our
bodies. Let's use it to His glory. And
then look with me at Psalm 119. This is something here. Psalm 119 and verse 71. You know, my brother, I told
you all about him dying when he's 57. My dad had his first heart attack
when he was 58. He was in the hospital after he had his heart
attack. He was not supposed to smoke in the hospital. He had
a pack of cigarettes hidden every time somebody opened the window
and hit him with a heart attack. Smoking didn't help him. He was
not supposed to drink. He would turn that bottle My brother Jimmy drunk every
day, gambled his life away. He owed so much money that there's
no way anybody, nobody could have hurt his house or nothing
because he wafted it away. Drunk every day and smoked and
he stayed and gambled and he gambled $40,000 away on credit
cards. That's what I'm talking about.
You abuse your body, look what's going to happen to you. I may
drop dead before I walk out of this building tonight, but it
won't be because I've abused myself. God gave me this body,
and by His blessed grace, I will take care of it. It's all I want
of God. It's wearing out too fast to
suit me now. Ain't sure? Oh, that's what I'm
talking about. That's why you go to doctors. It's because we won't stay as
healthy as we can. But look what the psalmist said
here. God often, we have pain because
God disciplines us. Pain exists because God often
disciplines us. Look what David said here in
Psalm 119 verse 71. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted. What? What? It's good for me that I've been
afflicted? Wait a minute. David, surely,
surely, surely you can't mean that. That it's good for me that
God afflicted me? That God troubled me? That God
caused pain in my life? That God caused darkness in my
life? That God caused trouble in my
life? You mean it's good for me that
God afflicted me? He said yes. And here's what
he said, that I might learn thy statutes. Oh God, this is one
thing that's sure about us. If God does not keep us down
and keep us believing, you know where we'd be. That's just us and human nature. Our human nature, if God does
not keep us in a condition where we'll trust Him and cast ourselves
on Him constantly, we would get so high minded. But all this
and what else, he said, look back up in verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray. Where did you go astray to, David?
Well, I wandered over here, and I wandered over there, and I
forgot God for three or four days. I never opened a Bible.
I never said a prayer. I talked about this and talked
about that when I've done this thing, I've done that other thing.
He says, you know, before I was afflicted, I was strong. But
he said, you know what? Since you afflicted me, now I've
kept your word. Now I believe what you're saying.
Now I believe what you're saying. Oh my, and he goes on down there
and look what he says in verse 75. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments
are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Hast afflicted
me. Oh my. Good for me to be afflicted. I think it is. I think if it's
good, anything that makes you turn to the Lord is good. Anything
that makes you look to His Word is good. Anything that makes
you call on Him is good. It's good. Ain't that right?
And let me show you another reason. Look with me over in 2 Corinthians.
Not only to discipline us, but so we can comfort others. And
I tell you what, this is such a blessing. We have experienced
this and I have experienced it. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3 God afflicts
us and causes us pain and causes us to suffer so we can comfort others. Blessed
be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father
of mercies and the God of all comfort. Now watch this This
God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulations. When
you're in trouble, when you're being tried, when you're being
afflicted, God is such a come and comforts us, and He comforts
us in our troubles, He comforts us, that's why David said, it's
good for me to be afflicted. In all of our trials, in all
of our tribulations, God Himself comes and says, I'll comfort
you. He comforts us. He gives us comfort just like
a father that pities his child. And He says He remembers that
we're but dust. And you know He takes our tears
and He takes our troubles and He takes our trials and we take
them to Him and He gives us such comfort. He gives us such rest
about Him. And listen to this. So that we,
because He comforts us so that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble. If God comforted us when we were
in trouble, He done it so when we see somebody else in trouble.
We can go and we can comfort them. We can give them some comfort. We can give them some comfort.
And my soul, I'm telling you, all the Lord's people, there's
nobody like them in this business of comforting one another. That's
what Martha and Mary, they said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, He whom
thou lovest is sick. And look what he goes on to say
here. And all that we have troubled them, comfort them that are in
trouble by the comfort we with ourselves are comforted of God.
I know this without a shadow of a doubt. No man can weep with
others who haven't wept himself. God make you weep, then you can
weep with somebody else. Nobody can know what troubles
and heartaches are unless they have troubles in heart. People
who've lost somebody and know what it is to lose somebody.
People that have been in pain know what it is to suffer pain.
People who know what it is to have heartaches know what it
is to comfort them who have heartaches. And oh beloved, and nobody can
show mercy unless they've shown mercy. And God prepares His vessels
to minister to others. And you know how He does it?
He does it by actual experience. And when you hear, and now we,
God is so good to us in this way, oh bless His name. When
we hear of people that's in trouble and having heartaches and having
trials and having things they're going through, the first thing
we think of is how can I comfort them? What can I say to them? What can I do for them? What
can I, what can I, what word can I give them? What have I
heard a preacher say? What verses of scripture can
I give them? What word can I send them in
a car? That's what we always automatically think. What can
we do to make them feel better and comfort them in their...
That's the first thing you think of. Don't you? When you hear somebody that's
just... You just automatically think,
oh Lord, have mercy on them. Oh God, give them strength. Give
them comfort. Be with them. Uphold them. And I couldn't count
the cards. I couldn't count the tears. I
couldn't count the meals. I couldn't count the kind words. I couldn't count the prayers.
I couldn't count the visits of people that's come to be comforting
to us. And I know what it is to have
children that give you heartaches. I can comfort you. I know something
about children. And you know something about
children. Y'all listen, I'll tell you why. That's why because
so many people knew what I went through when I was a young man.
I don't know how many people called me and asked me, how did
God get you through that? And I've been able to help I
don't know how many people over the years with depression and
anxieties and fears. Because God put me through that. And let me give you another reason
to humble us. Look over here in 2 Corinthians
12. Oh, He does this so that we can
comfort others. And oh Lord, if I can be a blessing
to somebody else, You just go right ahead and do what's necessary.
And then I know You'll comfort me so I can comfort somebody
else. And look what He said here in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse
7. Sometimes He does it to humble
us. Look what Paul said here in verses 5,6,7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations. Now Paul
was old. God taught him the gospel. Wrote
13 books of the New Testament. He had been caught up in the
heaven. He had seen the Lord Jesus Christ several times. Christ
revealed himself to him, talked to him. conversed with him and
taught him and oh my gave him such revelations he said that
lest I get up exalted above measure because of these abundance of
revelations that God's given me there was given me a thorn
in the flesh lest I should be exalted above
measure Satan was sent to buffet me same thing that happened to
Job. Satan was right there with Paul
and I mean he was wearing him out. I mean he was hurting him,
he was just making, just beating on him like unmerciful. And on
he said, on he said, I asked the Lord three times. Now I tell you, when Paul prayed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, often times the Lord Jesus Christ himself
would appear to him and give him an answer. He was getting
ready to leave Corinth one time, the Lord Jesus came to him and
said, Paul, you stay right here. When he was on that ship, on
that shipwreck, the Lord came to him on that ship. He said,
you're not going to die, nobody on this ship is going to die. And then when he was in prison,
he said, God, he appeared to him in prison and said, you know,
you're going to stand before a gripper, you're going to go
before a king, and you're going to be a witness of me up there.
But here he asked the Lord three times. Christ never came to him. Christ didn't do anything. He
said, for this I'll besought the Lord three times that it
might depart from me. And you know what he said to
me? He said, Paul, I'm going to take that thorn out of your
flesh. Oh my, you're just going to be a psychic. I'm going to
use you. No, no. He said, you know, I'm not going
to take out the thorn. I'm not going to hold Satan back.
I'm not going to do anything. You know what I'm going to do
for you? I'm going to give you grace. That's what I'm going
to do for you. I'm going to give you grace.
That's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to give you grace.
I ain't going to give you no more
than that. I'm going to give you grace. And it'll be sufficient for you
first time you pray, the second time you pray, the third time
you pray. Every time Satan buffets you, I'll be grace sufficient
for you. Every time you get up to preach, I'll be grace sufficient
for you. Every time you're in jail, I'll be grace sufficient
for you. When you come time to die, I'll be grace sufficient
for you. Whatever you go through, He said, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do. You ask me, but whatever you go through, I don't
care what it is, I'm going to give you grace. Wait a minute, Lord, I'm going
to give you grace. But I need... I'm going to give
you grace. Lord, I don't think I can do... I'm going to give
you grace. I can't hear it, Lord, I'm going to give you grace.
It's too much, Lord, I'm going to give you grace. Has He done it? Has He done it? Grace is underneath me. Grace
got under my arms. Grace got the arms around me
and holds me up. Grace puts me to sleep at night.
Grace gets me up in the day. And for every one of you, and
every one of you is going through some things right now. Remember
this, I give you grace. You say, I won't resist this
too much. No, I'll give you grace. That's what he'll do. Bless his
holy name. Oh, and you know what he said?
Because my strength is made perfect and you haven't none whatsoever.
When you ain't got no strength, he said, that's when I get all
the glory. Oh, bless his name. Man at his
best is still a man. And God taught Paul two things
here. He was still a frail, frail man. And God's grace is sufficient
for anything that happens in this world. And can I tell you
another reason why we have pain and why it exists? Is to help
us realize that we truly are strangers and pilgrims in this
world. We really truly are strangers and pilgrims in this world seeking
a better country. That's what he said, he said,
Job, he said about Abraham, he said, Abraham was, he said he
was a soldier, he was a stranger and a pilgrim in a far country
and he said here he was looking for a city whose builder and
maker was God. And I tell you what, we're strangers
and pilgrims here and we're just traveling through this place
and we're looking for a new city, a new heaven and a new earth.
And let me give you, well, I won't have to look at it, but another
reason he does that pain exists is to reveal God's power and
grace and deliver us from it. David, he said, David, he said,
call upon me in the day of trouble and I'll deliver thee. And you
go through Job. Job, he always spoke the right
thing about God. And you know what the end of
Job was? He lost 10 children, God gave him 10 more, that made
him 20. God doubled everything he had.
He lost, I don't know how many cattle he lost, but God doubled
that. I don't know how much money he had, but God doubled that.
God gave him double of everything he ever had. And you know what
he said, wonder what that amounts to? That means that when we have
Christ, we got God's portion, and then when we die, We've got
eternal fortune, we've got Christ forever. We get everything He's
got. Oh, He delivered him. And David,
oh how He delivered David time and time again. And Joseph in
that prison, He took Joseph and He called upon him in the day
of trouble, picked him up out of that prison and put him on
the throne. And Paul was in jail. And you
know, he was in the stocks and Ed beat him. And you know what
he began to do? He began to say, Oh my! He began to sing. I don't
have a clue what he sung. I'll say he probably sung Psalm
23. You know, amazing grace wasn't
known to him at that time, though he knew grace. He probably started
singing, you know, I don't know what tune he was singing to,
but he says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He leadeth me
beside the still waters. And oh, and I believe that's
probably what he started saying in the Lord's My Shepherd. They
said, oh, he's in that stocks and boy, he began to pray inside
us in there with him. And all of a sudden, the jail
began to shake. Oh, just opened up and things
fell off of him. God done all that to him so he
could preach the gospel to one man. That's Philippian Jailor. And they got a book now named
Book of Philippians. Started with one man. Oh, the
Lord is my shepherd. We need to learn a tune to that,
don't we? Oh, listen. And then let me tell
you another reason why He causes pain to exist in us. It's to
bring us to maturity. To bring us where we're strong
in faith. You know, children cry over a pinprick or a little
skin price. But grown-ups don't do that.
Grown-ups don't do that. And He's going to bring us till
we actually learn that all things, all things work together for
good to them who are the cause according to His purpose. We're going to learn that. He's
going to teach us that. And that's why I hope, and I
tell you that He's going to bring us to these blessed truths, these
things. And let me give you one thing
else, and let me show you this. Pain won't always exist for believers. Look with me in Revelations 21.
There's going to come a time when pain will never be. Pain will never happen again.
Revelations 21. Look what our Lord said here. I heard a great voice. John said,
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Revelation 21.3 I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And He will
dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them and be their God. And this is the first thing
He's going to do. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. How many of you all wipe tears
away from your baby's eyes? When they're growing up, they
start crying. Boy, Riley gets you, she has these biggest tears
and he'll run down her face and he'll take you and wipe her tears
away. A little old bit and he'll just
cry, you know, he'll... I'll get on to him, tell him,
no, no, no, and he'll just cry and he'll come running to me
and the tears will just flow. And I'll wipe the little old
tears from his eyes. God said, I'm going to wipe away the tears
from your eyes. I'm going to do it. And He said, He'll take
away the reason that we do cry. And look what else He says. And
there'll be no more death. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I cannot
grasp it. No more death. No more going
to the graveyard. No more going to the funeral.
No more going looking at somebody in a casket that you love. No
more! No more death. No more dying.
No more drowning. No more Feeling it. No more death. There will be no sorrow. There
will be no more crying. No more, listen to this, no more
pain. No more pain. Be no more for us. Be no more for us. Boy, what a day that'll be. No more pain. But until that day comes, remember this, I give you grace. I give you grace. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we don't resist you in
no way. Find no fault in your providence
in any way. Find no fault with your afflictions,
your trials, the pains that we feel in our
body. Find no fault with you. But oh, blessed be your name
for giving us such a hope, such a blessed hope, such an inheritance,
for such a future where there's no crying, no sorrow, no pain,
no death. And Lord, we long and look for
that day. And thank you that you give us
grace. In Christ's name, Amen. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's
just something about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus, like the
fragrance after the rain. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Let all heaven
and earth proclaim Kings and kingdoms will all pass away But
there's something about that name. Amen.