Coronavirus and Christ (Audiobook)

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - APJ listeners, hello, this is Tony.

00:00:07.440 | Today's episode is very different

00:00:08.880 | than anything we've done on the podcast.

00:00:11.240 | This episode is actually an audio book,

00:00:13.960 | two hours long, the full thing.

00:00:16.920 | John Piper just wrote this urgent and timely book.

00:00:19.780 | It's titled "Coronavirus and Christ."

00:00:22.940 | The e-book is available online right now

00:00:24.600 | at DesiringGod.org, and the paperback edition

00:00:27.200 | can be ordered online right now as well.

00:00:30.520 | This book is made possible because of our incredibly

00:00:33.080 | generous financial partners here at Desiring God.

00:00:35.520 | Thank you for making our work possible,

00:00:37.760 | especially so in this challenging season.

00:00:40.880 | It's also made possible because Crossway Books,

00:00:43.040 | our publishing partner, is getting behind this book

00:00:45.160 | in a big way to enable us to fast track it

00:00:47.940 | into multiple channels and to get a print version

00:00:50.280 | published quickly.

00:00:52.200 | Pastor John recorded the audio book from his home,

00:00:54.520 | and we wanted you APJ listeners to get this

00:00:56.920 | as soon as possible.

00:00:57.840 | We hope it ministers to you as you find ways

00:01:00.320 | to share this episode with your friends,

00:01:02.600 | your family, and your church.

00:01:05.040 | Here now is Pastor John.

00:01:06.720 | - Desiring God presents the audio edition

00:01:11.320 | of "Coronavirus and Christ" by John Piper,

00:01:16.040 | narrated by John Piper.

00:01:18.520 | For additional resources, visit DesiringGod.org.

00:01:24.880 | The occasion, coronavirus.

00:01:28.960 | I am writing this little book in the last days

00:01:33.520 | of March 2020 on the front end of the global pandemic

00:01:38.040 | known as the coronavirus, or technically

00:01:41.680 | Coronavirus Disease 2019, abbreviated COVID-19.

00:01:46.680 | The virus affects the lungs, and in the worst cases,

00:01:51.920 | kills by suffocation.

00:01:54.540 | The first death by the virus was reported in China

00:01:58.300 | on January 11, 2020.

00:02:01.580 | Today, as I write, there are hundreds of thousands

00:02:04.940 | of cases of infection worldwide,

00:02:07.560 | with tens of thousands of deaths.

00:02:09.820 | There is no known cure, yet.

00:02:12.780 | By the time you read this, you will know far better

00:02:16.900 | than I how things will develop,

00:02:19.240 | so I need not detail the measures being taken

00:02:21.920 | to slow the spread of the virus,

00:02:24.420 | or the economic toll being exacted.

00:02:27.340 | Social mingling, travel, conferences,

00:02:30.580 | church gatherings, theaters, restaurants,

00:02:33.260 | sporting events, and businesses are nearing a standstill.

00:02:38.260 | This is not unprecedented, either globally or in America.

00:02:43.460 | In the global influenza epidemic of 1918,

00:02:47.540 | to use the estimates of the Centers for Disease Control,

00:02:50.740 | 50 million people around the world died.

00:02:54.880 | Over 500,000 of those were in the United States.

00:02:59.520 | People felt symptoms in the morning,

00:03:01.760 | and were dead by nightfall.

00:03:04.320 | Bodies were picked up from front porches

00:03:06.960 | to be carted away to graves dug by bulldozers.

00:03:11.340 | A man was shot for not wearing a mask.

00:03:14.560 | Schools were closed.

00:03:16.240 | Ministers spoke of Armageddon.

00:03:19.520 | Of course, precedents prove nothing.

00:03:22.880 | The past is warning, not fate.

00:03:26.160 | Nevertheless, this is a time when the fragile form

00:03:31.120 | of this world is felt.

00:03:33.520 | The seeming solid foundations are shaking.

00:03:37.200 | The question we should be asking is,

00:03:39.620 | do we have a rock under our feet?

00:03:42.400 | A rock that cannot be shaken, ever.

00:03:46.460 | Part One, The God Who Reigns Over the Coronavirus

00:03:55.740 | Chapter One, Come to the Rock

00:04:00.140 | I am moved to write because playing the odds

00:04:03.740 | is a fragile place to put your hope.

00:04:06.700 | Odds like 3% versus 10%,

00:04:10.300 | youth versus old age,

00:04:12.700 | compromised health versus no history of disease,

00:04:16.380 | rural versus urban,

00:04:18.620 | self-isolated versus meeting with friends.

00:04:21.820 | Playing the odds provides little hope.

00:04:26.060 | It's not a firm place to stand.

00:04:28.860 | There is a better way.

00:04:31.020 | There is a better place to stand,

00:04:33.580 | a rock of certainty rather than the sand of probabilities.

00:04:39.580 | When Cancer Came

00:04:42.060 | I recall being told on December 21, 2005,

00:04:46.380 | that I had prostate cancer.

00:04:48.380 | For the next several weeks,

00:04:49.980 | all the talk was about odds,

00:04:52.700 | odds with waiting to see,

00:04:54.540 | odds with medications,

00:04:56.940 | odds with homeopathic procedures,

00:04:59.340 | odds with radical surgery.

00:05:01.980 | My wife, Noelle, and I took these numbers seriously.

00:05:05.260 | But in the evening, we would smile at each other and think,

00:05:08.620 | "Our hope is not in odds.

00:05:11.340 | Our hope is in God."

00:05:13.340 | We did not mean,

00:05:14.780 | "It is 100% certain God will heal me,

00:05:18.140 | while doctors can only give me odds."

00:05:21.580 | The rock we are talking about is better than that.

00:05:25.580 | Yes, better than healing.

00:05:29.020 | Even before the phone call from the doctor telling me I had cancer,

00:05:33.660 | God had already reminded me in a remarkable way

00:05:37.820 | about the rock under my feet.

00:05:40.380 | After my usual annual exam,

00:05:42.460 | the urologist had looked at me and said,

00:05:45.580 | "I'd like to do a biopsy."

00:05:48.300 | "Really?" I thought.

00:05:50.140 | "When?"

00:05:51.660 | "Right now, if you have time."

00:05:53.980 | "I'll make time."

00:05:55.900 | While he was going to get the machine

00:05:57.980 | and while I was changing into the typical unflattering blue gown,

00:06:03.340 | there was time for me to ponder what was happening.

00:06:07.340 | So, he thinks I may have cancer.

00:06:11.900 | As my future in this world began to change before my eyes,

00:06:17.100 | God brought to my mind something I had read recently in the Bible.

00:06:22.780 | God spoke.

00:06:25.580 | Now, let's be clear.

00:06:27.180 | I don't hear voices.

00:06:28.940 | At least I never have.

00:06:30.620 | My confidence that God speaks is rooted in the fact

00:06:34.060 | that the Bible is the Word of God.

00:06:37.180 | More on that in the next chapter.

00:06:39.420 | He has spoken once for all,

00:06:41.820 | and he still speaks in his Word.

00:06:44.620 | The Bible, rightly understood, is the voice of God.

00:06:49.420 | Here's what he said to me in that urologist's office

00:06:52.060 | as I waited for the biopsy that would confirm that I had cancer.

00:06:56.620 | "John Piper, this is not wrath.

00:07:00.140 | Live or die, you will be with me."

00:07:03.580 | That's my paraphrase.

00:07:04.940 | Here's what he actually said.

00:07:07.340 | "God has not destined us for wrath,

00:07:10.140 | but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

00:07:13.900 | who died for us,

00:07:15.820 | so that whether we are awake or asleep,

00:07:18.940 | we might live with him."

00:07:20.780 | 1 Thessalonians 5, 9-10.

00:07:24.540 | Wake or sleep.

00:07:26.060 | That is, live or die, I will be alive with God.

00:07:31.260 | How can that be?

00:07:32.700 | I am a sinner.

00:07:33.820 | I have never lived a day of my life,

00:07:36.700 | not one, without falling short of God's standards of love and holiness.

00:07:41.660 | So how can this be?

00:07:43.100 | How can God say, "You, John Piper, will be with me.

00:07:47.020 | Live or die."

00:07:48.700 | God didn't even wait for the question before he answered.

00:07:53.900 | It's because of Jesus.

00:07:55.180 | Jesus alone.

00:07:58.060 | Because of his death, there will be no wrath toward me.

00:08:02.380 | Not because of my perfection.

00:08:04.060 | My sins, my guilt, and my punishment fell on my Savior, Jesus Christ.

00:08:11.820 | He died for us.

00:08:15.020 | That's what his Word says.

00:08:18.300 | Therefore, I am free from guilt, free from punishment,

00:08:22.700 | secure in God's merciful favor.

00:08:25.820 | Live or die, God said, you will be with me.

00:08:31.100 | That is very different from playing the odds with cancer or with the coronavirus.

00:08:38.140 | This is a firm rock under my feet.

00:08:41.820 | It is not fragile.

00:08:43.180 | It is not sand.

00:08:45.500 | I would like it to be a rock under your feet.

00:08:49.180 | That is why I am writing.

00:08:51.420 | Is the rock solid only in the by and by?

00:08:55.980 | But that's not all.

00:08:59.340 | Someone might read that and say, "Religious people like you can find hope only in the by and by.

00:09:07.900 | If they are safe beyond the grave, they have what they want."

00:09:11.500 | But this voice of God they talk about offers little involvement right now.

00:09:17.820 | God got everything started in creation, I suppose, and makes happily ever after endings.

00:09:23.820 | But what about in between?

00:09:26.060 | Where is he now?

00:09:28.300 | Right now, during this coronavirus outbreak?

00:09:31.580 | Well, I guess I do put a really high value on joy in the presence of God after death

00:09:42.060 | for unending billions of years, as opposed to, say, endless suffering.

00:09:47.580 | That seems reasonable to me.

00:09:50.060 | But the rock under my feet, the one I would like you to share,

00:09:55.900 | really is under my feet now.

00:09:58.940 | Now.

00:10:00.160 | The coronavirus pandemic is where I live, where we all live.

00:10:05.900 | And if it weren't the coronavirus, it would be the cancer just waiting to recur,

00:10:10.940 | or the unprovoked pulmonary embolism of 2014 just waiting to break off and go to my brain

00:10:17.820 | and turn me into a mindless man who will never write another sentence,

00:10:21.500 | or a hundred other unforeseen calamities that could take me and you down at any moment.

00:10:27.900 | The rock I'm talking about is under my feet now.

00:10:32.860 | I could say that the rock is under my feet now just because hope beyond the grave is present hope.

00:10:41.260 | The object of hope is future.

00:10:44.380 | The experience of hope is present.

00:10:46.780 | And that present experience is powerful.

00:10:50.620 | Hope is power.

00:10:51.740 | Present power.

00:10:53.740 | Hope keeps people from killing themselves.

00:10:56.380 | Now.

00:10:57.440 | It helps people get out of bed and go to work.

00:11:01.500 | Now.

00:11:02.000 | It gives meaning to daily life, even locked down, quarantined, stay-at-home life.

00:11:09.820 | Now.

00:11:10.880 | It liberates from selfishness and fear and greed.

00:11:15.020 | Now.

00:11:15.740 | It empowers love and risk-taking and sacrifice.

00:11:20.140 | Now.

00:11:20.640 | So be careful before you belittle the by and by.

00:11:25.820 | It just may be that when your by and by is beautiful and sure,

00:11:31.340 | your here and now will be sweet and fruitful.

00:11:34.940 | His finger in viruses.

00:11:39.180 | That's what I could say in defense of God's sweet word to me in the urologist's office.

00:11:47.740 | Live or die, you will be with me.

00:11:49.820 | Such hope through the death and resurrection of Jesus makes me want to pour out my life

00:11:55.660 | for the good of others now, especially their eternal good.

00:11:59.980 | It makes me passionate not to waste my life.

00:12:03.740 | It takes away dithering.

00:12:05.660 | It fills me with a zeal to make the greatness of Jesus Christ known.

00:12:10.460 | It makes me want to spend and be spent to bring as many people with me as I can into everlasting joy.

00:12:18.460 | But even though that's what I could say,

00:12:21.340 | when someone objects that Piper's God specializes in the by and by, not the here and now,

00:12:27.340 | it's not the only thing that needs to be said.

00:12:29.980 | In fact, what I'm about to say will probably make someone object,

00:12:35.020 | "Whoa, that's way too much involvement for God in the here and now.

00:12:39.900 | Now you've gone from a God who only fixes the future to a God with his fingers in viruses."

00:12:48.220 | Not, "I'm fine," but, "I feel fine."

00:12:51.420 | Let's put it this way.

00:12:54.460 | People would often ask me before my cancer diagnosis,

00:12:58.460 | "How's your health?"

00:13:00.060 | And I would answer, "Fine."

00:13:03.740 | I don't answer that way anymore.

00:13:07.100 | I say, "I feel fine.

00:13:08.780 | There's a difference."

00:13:10.700 | The day before I went for that annual prostate exam, I felt fine.

00:13:18.140 | The day after, I was told I had cancer.

00:13:21.180 | In other words, I was not fine.

00:13:23.900 | So even as I write these words, I do not know if I am fine.

00:13:29.500 | I feel fine, way better than I deserve.

00:13:33.100 | For all I know, I have cancer right now, or perhaps a blood clot, or the coronavirus.

00:13:40.060 | What's the point?

00:13:42.460 | The point is this.

00:13:43.420 | The ultimate reason we ought not to say, "I am fine," is that God alone knows and decides

00:13:52.780 | if you are fine.

00:13:55.020 | Now, to say, "I am fine," when you don't know if you are fine and you don't control if you

00:14:04.540 | are fine, is like saying, "Tomorrow I will go to Chicago and do business there," when you

00:14:09.740 | have no idea if you will even be alive tomorrow, let alone doing business in Chicago.

00:14:15.260 | Here's what the Bible says about a sentence like that.

00:14:19.580 | "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend

00:14:26.780 | a year there and trade and make a profit,' yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

00:14:31.820 | What is your life?

00:14:34.460 | For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

00:14:39.500 | Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'"

00:14:47.820 | James 4, 13-15.

00:14:50.780 | So the God who is involved only in the by and by just evaporated.

00:14:58.380 | That's the effect of the bright sunlight of biblical truth on the ephemeral mists of our

00:15:04.620 | opinions.

00:15:05.260 | If he decides, we do this or that.

00:15:11.260 | The rock I stand on and want you to stand on is the rock of God's action in the world now

00:15:20.940 | and forever.

00:15:23.420 | "If the Lord wills," the Bible says, "we will live."

00:15:28.300 | That's about as involved now as you can get.

00:15:33.020 | Not just whether you live or die, you will be with God, but also God will decide if you

00:15:40.060 | live or die now.

00:15:41.500 | And not just live or die.

00:15:44.700 | He's even more involved than that.

00:15:49.420 | "If the Lord wills, we will do this or that."

00:15:53.500 | Nothing is excluded from this or that.

00:15:59.020 | He is totally involved.

00:16:02.380 | Totally.

00:16:03.740 | This health or that sickness, this economic collapse or that recovery, this breath or not.

00:16:15.740 | Which means that while I waited in the doctor's office for the biopsy machine to arrive,

00:16:21.900 | God could have said, which he did later, "Fear not.

00:16:27.580 | Whether you live or die, you will be with me.

00:16:31.660 | And in the meantime, while you live, nothing will happen to you.

00:16:35.660 | Nothing that I do not appoint.

00:16:38.460 | If I decide, you will live.

00:16:42.140 | If I decide, you will die.

00:16:45.180 | And until you die at my decision, I will decide if you do this or that.

00:16:51.820 | Get to work.

00:16:53.660 | This is my rock for today, tomorrow, and eternity."

00:16:58.700 | Come to the rock.

00:17:01.580 | This book is my invitation for you to join me on the solid rock, Jesus Christ.

00:17:09.900 | What that means, will, I hope, become clear.

00:17:14.940 | My aim is to show why God in Christ is the rock at this moment in history,

00:17:21.500 | in this pandemic of the coronavirus, and what it is like to stand on his mighty love.

00:17:30.620 | Chapter 2, A Solid Foundation

00:17:36.060 | It matters little what I think about the coronavirus, or anything else for that matter.

00:17:44.700 | But it matters forever what God thinks.

00:17:47.900 | He is not silent about what he thinks.

00:17:50.940 | Scarcely a page in the Bible is irrelevant for this crisis.

00:17:55.980 | Solid and Sweet

00:17:59.340 | My voice is grass.

00:18:02.540 | God's voice is granite.

00:18:05.180 | The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

00:18:11.260 | 1 Peter 1 24-25

00:18:14.940 | Jesus said that God's words in Scripture cannot be broken.

00:18:19.500 | John 10 35

00:18:21.340 | What God says is true and righteous, altogether.

00:18:25.820 | Psalm 19 9

00:18:27.180 | His word is, therefore, a firm foundation for life.

00:18:32.060 | You have founded your testimonies forever.

00:18:35.820 | Psalm 119 152

00:18:39.020 | Listening to God and believing him is like building your house on a rock,

00:18:43.820 | not on sand.

00:18:45.100 | Matthew 7 24

00:18:46.780 | His word is the kind of counsel you want to heed.

00:18:51.820 | He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

00:18:56.140 | Isaiah 28 29

00:18:58.460 | His understanding is beyond measure.

00:19:01.420 | Psalm 147 5

00:19:03.420 | When he gives counsel about the coronavirus, it is firm, unshakable, lasting.

00:19:10.300 | The counsel of the Lord stands forever.

00:19:13.500 | Psalm 33 11

00:19:15.660 | His way is perfect.

00:19:17.660 | 2 Samuel 22 31

00:19:20.380 | Therefore, his words are sweet and precious.

00:19:25.180 | More to be desired are they than gold, sweeter also than honey,

00:19:29.420 | and drippings from the honeycomb.

00:19:31.740 | Psalm 19 10

00:19:33.580 | Indeed, they are the sweetness of everlasting life.

00:19:38.220 | Lord, to whom shall we go?

00:19:40.140 | You have the words of eternal life.

00:19:44.140 | John 6 68

00:19:45.740 | Therefore, in the best and worst of times, God's words bring unshakable peace and joy.

00:19:55.820 | Surely it must be so.

00:19:58.380 | My prayer is that all who read this book would share the experience of the prophet Jeremiah.

00:20:05.820 | Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.

00:20:10.300 | Jeremiah 15 16

00:20:12.860 | And mark this, the sweetness of God's Word is not lost in this historic moment of bitter providence,

00:20:22.220 | not if we have learned the secret of sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

00:20:27.820 | 2 Corinthians 6 10

00:20:29.500 | We will see more fully later what this secret is,

00:20:33.580 | but here it is now in a single sentence.

00:20:36.540 | The secret of sorrowful yet always rejoicing is this,

00:20:41.500 | knowing that the same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus yet doesn't

00:20:48.620 | is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.

00:20:53.740 | Indeed, more than sustains, sweetens.

00:20:59.660 | Sweetens with hope that God's purposes are kind, even in death, for those who trust him.

00:21:06.940 | How do you know?

00:21:09.580 | All the more urgent, therefore, is the question,

00:21:14.300 | how do you know that the Bible is the Word of God?

00:21:16.940 | My short answer is that there is a divine glory that shines through it,

00:21:23.500 | which fits perfectly with the God-shaped template in your heart.

00:21:29.900 | Like sprocket and gear, hand and glove, fish and water, wings and air,

00:21:38.300 | the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

00:21:42.140 | To which I can imagine someone saying, "That sounds sort of mystical and subjective."

00:21:48.700 | Why do you answer like that?

00:21:51.020 | Because 50 years ago, when I was struggling to know what I should build my life on,

00:21:58.700 | I realized that the scholarly, historical arguments for the Bible

00:22:03.900 | would not work for most people of the world.

00:22:07.340 | Why?

00:22:08.540 | Because while true and helpful to a point, they cannot be followed by an eight-year-old child,

00:22:16.620 | a newly encountered preliterate villager in a remote South Pacific jungle,

00:22:22.540 | or an ordinary person in the West with little formal education,

00:22:27.180 | and yet it seemed obvious to me that God intended for such people

00:22:31.820 | to hear the Word of God and believe without leaping into the dark.

00:22:36.300 | Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark.

00:22:40.460 | The biblical view of faith is not a leap in the dark.

00:22:45.500 | It is warranted and well-grounded.

00:22:47.980 | It's called faith not because it has no foundation.

00:22:53.500 | It's called faith because it involves trust.

00:22:56.700 | Jesus didn't call the believers blind.

00:23:00.780 | He called the unbelievers blind.

00:23:03.740 | "Seeing they do not see," Matthew 13:13.

00:23:07.980 | Saving faith in God's Word is based on seeing—real seeing.

00:23:15.180 | Seeing what?

00:23:17.100 | The Bible answers like this.

00:23:21.020 | "Satan does all he can to blind the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light

00:23:29.980 | of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God," 2 Corinthians 4:4.

00:23:36.380 | In other words, there is a kind of spiritual light that shines through the gospel,

00:23:44.780 | the biblical story of salvation.

00:23:47.420 | What kind of light?

00:23:50.780 | It's the light of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

00:23:55.660 | This is not magical.

00:23:57.660 | It's not mystical in the sense of something appearing that is not really there.

00:24:02.300 | Jesus Christ is the kind of divine human person whose moral and spiritual and supernatural

00:24:10.860 | glory—his beauty and worth and greatness—shines through God's Word.

00:24:17.500 | It authenticates Scripture as true, God-shaped template in your soul.

00:24:24.860 | This is why I say there is a divine glory that shines through the Scriptures that fits perfectly

00:24:34.060 | with the God-shaped template in your heart.

00:24:37.100 | In that way, it authenticates the truth and value of the Bible.

00:24:43.340 | Yes, I do believe that there is a God-shaped template, a kind of indirect knowledge of God

00:24:52.300 | in every human soul.

00:24:54.300 | The Bible puts it like this.

00:24:55.580 | Speaking of all humanity, it says, "What can be known about God is plain to them.

00:25:02.540 | Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God," Romans 1, 19 and 21.

00:25:12.380 | The Bible teaches that this knowing in every soul makes us all responsible to see the glory

00:25:20.140 | of God in nature.

00:25:21.660 | In the same way, we are all responsible to see the glory of God in Jesus through the Word.

00:25:26.940 | The heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm 19.1.

00:25:31.580 | We are obliged to see it and give thanks.

00:25:34.300 | So also the Son of God displays the glory of God, and we are responsible to see it and

00:25:41.260 | worship it.

00:25:42.780 | The Apostle John says, "We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,"

00:25:49.260 | John 1, 14.

00:25:50.540 | This is the self-authenticating glory that shines from God's Word and gives us a warranted,

00:25:59.420 | well-grounded foundation for believing that the Christian Scriptures are from God.

00:26:07.100 | Technology vs. Taste The way we come to know the glory of God

00:26:13.420 | in Scripture is similar to the way we know that honey is honey.

00:26:19.820 | Science and technology may say that this jar contains honey because of chemical experiments,

00:26:27.500 | just like biblical scholars can argue compellingly that the Bible is historically reliable.

00:26:33.580 | But most people are not scientists or scholars.

00:26:37.020 | We know that this is honey because we taste it.

00:26:41.580 | Similarly, there is a divine sweetness in the glory of God in the message of the Bible.

00:26:50.780 | It touches a part of us that we know was put there by God.

00:26:55.980 | How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

00:27:01.820 | Psalm 119, 103.

00:27:04.380 | Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

00:27:08.220 | Psalm 34, 8.

00:27:09.580 | This is a real seeing and tasting.

00:27:13.580 | It is not make-believe.

00:27:15.340 | It sees and tastes what is really there.

00:27:19.740 | Yes to the rock of our comfort.

00:27:24.860 | So when Jesus says, "Scripture cannot be broken," John 10, 35,

00:27:30.380 | and when the Apostle Paul says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God," 2 Timothy 3, 16,

00:27:38.620 | and when the Apostle Peter says, "The authors of Scripture were carried along by the Holy Spirit,"

00:27:45.420 | 2 Peter 1, 21, our heart says, "Yes, we have tasted and seen.

00:27:52.220 | We know, and the knowing is well founded.

00:27:56.460 | We are not leaping in the dark."

00:27:58.860 | Our whole soul resonates with the biblical shout, "The sum of your word is truth."

00:28:07.020 | Psalm 119, 160.

00:28:09.100 | Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

00:28:12.460 | Psalm 119, 89.

00:28:14.540 | Every word of God proves true.

00:28:16.940 | Psalm 30, verse 5.

00:28:19.340 | When this happens, the whole truth of God washes over us, even in the face of the coronavirus.

00:28:27.500 | It comes with incomparable comfort.

00:28:30.300 | When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

00:28:35.980 | Psalm 94, 19.

00:28:37.900 | The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

00:28:43.580 | Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

00:28:46.860 | but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

00:28:49.260 | Psalm 34, 18 to 19.

00:28:51.500 | No man can comfort our souls in this pandemic the way God can.

00:28:56.540 | His comfort is unshakable.

00:28:59.660 | It is the comfort of a great high rock on the stormy sea.

00:29:05.180 | It comes from his word, the Bible.

00:29:08.460 | Chapter 3.

00:29:11.260 | The rock is righteous.

00:29:15.900 | If God is going to be our rock, he must be righteous.

00:29:19.660 | An unrighteous rock is a mirage.

00:29:23.660 | The very thing that a global pandemic shakes is our confidence that God is righteous, holy, good.

00:29:31.740 | If God is not righteous in the midst of it, we have no rock.

00:29:36.700 | So we need to ask, what is the holiness and righteousness of God?

00:29:46.140 | What is the righteousness and goodness of God?

00:29:49.980 | Because if we don't know what they are,

00:29:54.060 | how will we know if this coronavirus outbreak has made them crumble?

00:29:58.780 | Or how will we know if instead they are the eternal foundations of the rock that saves us?

00:30:07.740 | The Bible portrays the holiness, righteousness, and goodness of God not as identical,

00:30:15.100 | but as interlocking.

00:30:17.340 | We start with God's holiness.

00:30:20.380 | What is it?

00:30:21.820 | Transcendent, infinite worth.

00:30:26.460 | The root meaning of the Old Testament word for holiness is the idea of being separate,

00:30:36.300 | different, separated from the ordinary.

00:30:39.500 | And when applied to God, this separateness implies that he is in a class by himself.

00:30:46.380 | He is like a one-of-a-kind diamond, supremely valuable.

00:30:52.540 | We can use the word transcendent for this kind of divine separateness.

00:30:58.220 | He is so uniquely separate that he transcends all other reality.

00:31:05.340 | He is above it and more valuable than all of it.

00:31:08.620 | When Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it the way God said, God rebuked him.

00:31:15.900 | "You did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel."

00:31:24.940 | Numbers 20, verse 12.

00:31:26.780 | In other words, Moses treated God not as exceptional and supremely trustworthy,

00:31:34.220 | but as just another human authority along with the others that could be ignored.

00:31:38.700 | Or in Isaiah 8, 12 to 13, God said to Isaiah, "Do not fear what this people fears,

00:31:46.860 | nor be in dread, but the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.

00:31:54.220 | Let him be your fear.

00:31:56.540 | Let him be your dread."

00:31:58.540 | In other words, don't lump God into the same group as all your ordinary fears and dreads.

00:32:05.180 | Treat him as an utterly separate and unique, a transcendent fear and dread.

00:32:13.820 | Therefore, God's holiness is his infinite transcendence and worth above all else.

00:32:23.740 | He is in a class by himself, which means he doesn't depend on anything else for his existence.

00:32:30.700 | He is self-existent, so he needs nothing and depends on nothing.

00:32:36.940 | He is complete, perfect.

00:32:38.940 | Therefore, he possesses the greatest value as the source of all reality and all value.

00:32:47.260 | Above all, but not solitary.

00:32:53.580 | God's infinite height above all other reality does not mean that he is a loveless, solitary mind.

00:33:02.780 | The historic doctrine of the Trinity is biblical through and through.

00:33:09.100 | God exists as three divine persons, but these three are one, one divine essence.

00:33:18.940 | There is one God, not three, but this one God exists in a mysterious and true unity

00:33:28.700 | of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of them eternal and without beginning, each of them truly God.

00:33:38.380 | So the holiness, the transcendent worth and greatness of God does not mean he is solitary

00:33:48.460 | and loveless in his infinite height.

00:33:50.860 | God the Father knows and loves the Son perfectly, completely.

00:33:57.500 | Mark 1.11, Mark 9.7, Colossians 1.13, God the Son knows and loves the Father perfectly,

00:34:07.820 | completely, infinitely, John 14.31.

00:34:12.300 | The Holy Spirit is the perfect, complete, infinite expression of the Father's and the Son's

00:34:20.780 | knowledge and love of each other.

00:34:22.700 | Why does this matter?

00:34:24.940 | Because this perfect Trinitarian fellowship is essential to the fullness and perfection

00:34:33.820 | and completeness of God.

00:34:36.540 | It is essential to his transcendent worth and beauty and greatness.

00:34:42.140 | That is, it is essential to his holiness.

00:34:46.140 | Holiness is interlocking with righteousness.

00:34:52.060 | There is a missing dimension in that description of God's holiness.

00:34:57.900 | The Bible speaks of God's holiness not only in terms of transcendence, but also in terms

00:35:05.020 | of morality.

00:35:06.620 | To be holy is not just to be separate and transcendent, but also to be righteous.

00:35:14.860 | This forces a question that will have great implications for how we view the coronavirus

00:35:21.500 | in relation to God.

00:35:22.540 | Since righteousness implies doing what is right, and doing what is right implies compliance

00:35:30.860 | with some standard of rightness, what standard does God's righteousness comply with?

00:35:36.700 | Before creation, there were no standards outside God.

00:35:42.220 | There was nothing outside of him for him to comply with.

00:35:45.580 | Before creation, God was the only reality.

00:35:50.780 | So when there is only God, how do you define what is right for God to do?

00:35:59.340 | That is, how can God's holiness encompass not only his transcendence, but also his righteousness?

00:36:06.540 | The answer is that the standard of God's righteousness is God.

00:36:12.540 | The foundational biblical principle is this.

00:36:15.900 | He cannot deny himself, 2 Timothy 2.13.

00:36:21.340 | He cannot act in a way that would deny his own infinite worth and beauty and greatness.

00:36:29.660 | This is the standard of what is right for God.

00:36:33.020 | This means that the moral dimension of God's holiness, his righteousness, is his unwavering

00:36:40.780 | commitment to act in accord with his worth and beauty and greatness.

00:36:46.700 | Every affection, every thought, every word, every act of God will always be consistent

00:36:54.460 | with the infinite worth and beauty of his transcendent fullness.

00:36:58.620 | If God were to deny his worth or beauty or greatness, it would not be right.

00:37:05.980 | The ultimate standard would be broken.

00:37:09.020 | He would be unrighteous.

00:37:11.900 | Righteousness is interlocking with goodness.

00:37:16.540 | The goodness of God is not identical with his holiness or his righteousness.

00:37:24.620 | But it is interlocking in that his holiness overflows in goodness, and his righteousness

00:37:31.500 | guides its bestowal.

00:37:33.100 | They never contradict each other.

00:37:35.820 | God's goodness is his disposition to be generous, to do what blesses human beings.

00:37:43.900 | The transcendent fullness and perfection of God, his holiness, is like a fountain that

00:37:51.820 | overflows.

00:37:53.500 | This is why he is disposed to be generous.

00:37:55.900 | God is not needy.

00:37:58.220 | Therefore, he never exploits others to make up for some deficiency in himself.

00:38:03.260 | Instead, the impulse of his nature is to give, not get.

00:38:07.820 | He is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives

00:38:13.740 | to all mankind life and breath and everything (Acts 17.25).

00:38:19.660 | But his goodness is not disconnected from his righteousness.

00:38:24.460 | It is not bestowed in a way that would deny his infinite value and beauty and greatness.

00:38:30.860 | This is why God's righteousness involves final punishment as well as goodness.

00:38:36.780 | When God punishes the unrepentant in hell, he is not bestowing his goodness on them,

00:38:44.700 | but he does not cease to be good.

00:38:49.180 | His holiness and righteousness govern the bestowal of his goodness.

00:38:54.220 | This is why his goodness flows especially toward those who fear him and take refuge in him.

00:39:01.820 | "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you,

00:39:09.020 | and worked for those who take refuge in you" (Psalm 31.19).

00:39:14.620 | This reverence and faith do not earn God's goodness.

00:39:19.660 | Finite, totally dependent sinners can't earn anything from God.

00:39:25.500 | God's goodness to sinners is always free and undeserved.

00:39:29.500 | Why, then, is God prone to show his abundant goodness to those who fear him and take refuge

00:39:36.780 | in him?

00:39:37.820 | It's because such reverence and faith display God's worth and beauty and greatness (Romans 4.20)

00:39:46.460 | and therefore God's righteousness inclines him to affirm such God-honoring attitudes.

00:39:54.300 | What, then, of the coronavirus?

00:40:01.020 | We turn in the next chapter to God's all-knowing, all-governing sovereignty over all things.

00:40:08.460 | But what we have seen here will keep us from jumping to the conclusion that God's fingers

00:40:16.220 | in the coronavirus discredit his holiness or righteousness or goodness.

00:40:21.100 | We will not be so naive as to equate human suffering with divine unrighteousness,

00:40:29.420 | or to conclude that God has ceased to be holy or good when he governs his world.

00:40:34.860 | All of us are sinners, no exceptions.

00:40:38.620 | We all have exchanged the glory of God's worth and beauty and greatness for things we enjoy

00:40:47.420 | more (Romans 1.23, 3.23).

00:40:51.420 | This is a shameful dishonor to God, whether we feel it or not.

00:40:58.060 | We, therefore, are deserving of punishment.

00:41:00.460 | Our dishonoring of God's glory makes us worthy objects of holy wrath.

00:41:06.540 | The Bible says we are "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2.3),

00:41:13.500 | which means that God would be holy and righteous to withhold his goodness from us.

00:41:21.420 | The coronavirus, therefore, does not point to God's unholiness or unrighteousness or lack of

00:41:29.420 | goodness.

00:41:29.900 | Our rock in these troubled days is not unrighteous.

00:41:35.820 | He is not unholy.

00:41:38.140 | There is none holy like the Lord.

00:41:41.340 | There is no rock like our God (1 Samuel 2.2).

00:41:47.180 | Our rock is not a mirage.

00:41:51.340 | 4.

00:41:51.840 | Sovereign over all

00:41:55.980 | In chapter 2, I use the phrase "bitter providence."

00:42:02.060 | That's what the coronavirus is.

00:42:05.020 | To describe some of God's works as "bitter" is not blasphemy.

00:42:11.740 | Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law who lost her husband, her two sons, and one daughter-in-law

00:42:18.700 | through famine and exile, said, "The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

00:42:24.700 | I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.

00:42:29.500 | The Almighty has brought calamity upon me."

00:42:33.420 | (Ruth 1.20-21)

00:42:36.780 | She was not lying, overstating, or accusing.

00:42:41.100 | It was a simple and terrible fact.

00:42:44.540 | Bitter providence is not a disparagement of God's ways.

00:42:48.700 | It's a description.

00:42:50.380 | I also said in chapter 2 that the sweetness of God's Word is not diminished in the midst

00:42:58.700 | of this bitter providence.

00:43:00.700 | Not if we have learned the secret of sorrowful yet always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6.10).

00:43:07.340 | I said we would come back to this secret.

00:43:10.700 | Then I summed it up in a sentence.

00:43:13.740 | The same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus yet doesn't is the very sovereignty

00:43:21.980 | that sustains the soul in it.

00:43:24.300 | Knowing this makes all the difference.

00:43:28.700 | So, is it true?

00:43:31.020 | What God wills, He does.

00:43:34.780 | My aim in this chapter and the next is to show that God is all-governing and all-wise.

00:43:43.340 | He is sovereign over the coronavirus.

00:43:45.820 | I want to show that this is good news.

00:43:49.260 | Indeed, it is the secret of experiencing the sweetness of God in His bitter providences.

00:43:57.820 | Saying that God is all-governing means He is sovereign.

00:44:03.100 | His sovereignty means that He can do, and in fact does do, all that He decisively wills

00:44:11.500 | to do.

00:44:12.860 | I say decisively because God, in a sense, wills things He does not carry through.

00:44:20.380 | He can express desires that He Himself chooses not to act on.

00:44:25.500 | In that sense, they are not decisive.

00:44:29.420 | He Himself does not let such willing or desiring rise to the level of performance.

00:44:37.740 | For example, consider Lamentations 3, 32 to 33.

00:44:42.780 | "Though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love,

00:44:49.900 | for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men."

00:44:56.540 | He does grieve us, but not from His heart.

00:45:01.980 | I take that to mean that while there are aspects of His character, His heart, that incline

00:45:08.540 | away from grieving us, nevertheless other aspects of His character dictate the holiness

00:45:16.380 | and righteousness of grieving us.

00:45:18.380 | He is not double-minded.

00:45:20.940 | There is a perfect beauty and coherence in how all of His attributes cooperate.

00:45:28.060 | But neither is He without complexity.

00:45:32.300 | His character is more like a symphony than a solo performance.

00:45:37.340 | So when I say that God's sovereignty means that He can do and, in fact, does do all that

00:45:46.060 | He decisively wills to do, I mean there is no force outside Himself that can thwart or

00:45:55.020 | frustrate His will.

00:45:57.740 | When He decides for a thing to happen, it happens.

00:46:01.740 | Or, to put it another way, everything happens because God wills it to happen.

00:46:09.100 | All-pervasive sovereignty.

00:46:12.780 | Isaiah teaches that this is part of the very essence of what it means to be God.

00:46:21.180 | "I am God, and there is no other.

00:46:25.260 | I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient

00:46:31.660 | times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my

00:46:40.460 | purpose.'"

00:46:41.420 | Isaiah 46, 9-10.

00:46:43.980 | To be God is to cause His own counsel to stand, always.

00:46:52.700 | God does not just declare what future events will happen.

00:46:57.660 | He makes them happen.

00:46:58.940 | He speaks His Word, and then He adds, "I am watching over My Word to perform it,"

00:47:06.700 | Jeremiah 1, 12.

00:47:08.940 | Which means, "As Job learned from hard experience, 'I know that you can do all things, and

00:47:16.140 | that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.'"

00:47:18.780 | Job 42, 2.

00:47:21.740 | Or, "As Nebuchadnezzar learned from his merciful humiliation, 'All the inhabitants of the

00:47:27.340 | earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

00:47:32.780 | and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What

00:47:39.740 | have you done?'"

00:47:40.380 | Daniel 4, 35.

00:47:44.220 | Or, "As the psalmist says, 'Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on earth,

00:47:51.980 | in the seas and all deeps.'"

00:47:53.580 | Psalm 135, 6.

00:47:56.060 | Or, as the apostle Paul sums up, "He works all things according to the counsel of His

00:48:03.580 | will."

00:48:04.220 | Ephesians 1, 11.

00:48:06.780 | All things, not some things, and according to the counsel of His will, not according

00:48:15.660 | to wills or forces outside Himself.

00:48:18.780 | In other words, the sovereignty of God is all-encompassing and all-pervasive.

00:48:25.820 | He holds absolute sway over this world.

00:48:30.540 | He governs wind, lightning, snow, frogs, gnats, flies, locusts, quail, worms, fish, sparrows,

00:48:43.340 | grass, plants, famine, the sun, prison doors, blindness, deafness, paralysis, fever, every

00:48:54.700 | disease, travel plans, the hearts of kings, nations, murderers, and spiritual deadness,

00:49:02.780 | and all of them do His sovereign will.

00:49:05.740 | Not a season for sentimental views of God.

00:49:10.620 | The coronavirus was sent, therefore, by God.

00:49:17.980 | This is not a season for sentimental views of God.

00:49:22.460 | It is a bitter season.

00:49:24.620 | And God ordained it.

00:49:26.700 | God governs it.

00:49:28.220 | He will end it.

00:49:29.260 | No part of it is outside His sway.

00:49:32.780 | Life and death are in His hand.

00:49:35.100 | Job did not sin with his lips when he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and

00:49:42.300 | naked shall I return.

00:49:43.660 | The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.

00:49:48.220 | Blessed be the name of the Lord."

00:49:50.940 | Job 1:21.

00:49:53.420 | The Lord gave, and the Lord took.

00:49:56.460 | The Lord took Job's ten children.

00:50:00.060 | In the presence of God, no one has a right to life.

00:50:06.300 | Every breath we take is a gift of grace.

00:50:10.060 | Every heartbeat undeserved.

00:50:13.420 | Life and death are finally in the hands of God.

00:50:18.860 | "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides me.

00:50:24.220 | I kill and I make alive.

00:50:26.620 | I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."

00:50:31.500 | Deuteronomy 32, 39.

00:50:34.140 | Therefore, as we ponder our future with the coronavirus or any other life-threatening

00:50:41.500 | situation, James tells us how to think and speak.

00:50:47.340 | "You ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live,' and do this or that."

00:50:54.540 | James 4:15.

00:50:55.820 | If He wills, we will live.

00:50:58.860 | If not, we won't.

00:51:01.340 | For all I know, I will not live to see this book published.

00:51:06.460 | I have at least one relative infected with the coronavirus.

00:51:11.500 | I am 74 years old, and my lungs are compromised with a blood clot and seasonal bronchitis.

00:51:17.660 | But these factors do not ultimately decide.

00:51:20.380 | God decides.

00:51:22.140 | Is that good news?

00:51:23.900 | Yes.

00:51:25.200 | I'll try to show why in the next chapter.

00:51:28.780 | Chapter 5.

00:51:31.740 | The Sweetness of His Reign.

00:51:34.140 | Why should I receive the news of God's sovereignty over the coronavirus and over my life

00:51:42.940 | as a sweet teaching?

00:51:46.140 | The secret, I said, is knowing that the same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus

00:51:53.660 | yet doesn't is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.

00:51:58.860 | In other words, if we try to rescue God from His sovereignty over suffering,

00:52:05.660 | we sacrifice His sovereignty to turn all things for good.

00:52:09.420 | God's dethronement is not good news.

00:52:14.300 | The very sovereignty that rules in sickness is the sovereignty that sustains in loss.

00:52:20.700 | The very sovereignty that takes life is the sovereignty that conquered death and brings

00:52:27.100 | believers home to heaven and Christ.

00:52:29.420 | It is not sweet to think that Satan, sickness, sabotage, fate, or chance has the last say in my life.

00:52:39.420 | That is not good news.

00:52:42.940 | Not good news.

00:52:44.140 | That God reigns is good news.

00:52:48.140 | Why?

00:52:49.200 | Because God is holy and righteous and good, and He is infinitely wise.

00:52:55.820 | With God are wisdom and might.

00:52:58.540 | He has counsel and understanding, Job 12:13.

00:53:02.620 | His understanding is beyond measure, Psalm 147:5.

00:53:07.420 | Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, Romans 11:33.

00:53:13.900 | His great aim is that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers

00:53:22.220 | and authorities in the heavenly places, Ephesians 3:10.

00:53:25.980 | Nothing surprises Him, confuses Him, or baffles Him.

00:53:31.820 | His infinite power rests in the hands of infinite holiness and righteousness and goodness and wisdom.

00:53:41.420 | And all of that stands in the service of those who trust His Son, Jesus Christ.

00:53:49.100 | What God did in sending Jesus to die for sinners has everything to do with the coronavirus.

00:53:59.980 | How God secured all things for sinners.

00:54:03.900 | Here's the connection.

00:54:07.260 | It's Romans 8, 32.

00:54:10.460 | "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all,

00:54:15.020 | how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

00:54:21.820 | This means that God's willingness to send His Son to be crucified in our place

00:54:30.060 | is His declaration and validation that He will use all His sovereignty to give us all things.

00:54:39.260 | How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

00:54:46.780 | Meaning, He most certainly will.

00:54:49.980 | It is guaranteed by the blood of His Son.

00:54:52.220 | And what are these "all things"?

00:54:56.460 | They are the things we need to do His will, glorify His name,

00:55:01.900 | and make it safely into His joyful presence.

00:55:04.780 | Three verses later, Paul explains how it works in real life, in the coronavirus.

00:55:12.540 | What does it look like when God's infinite, blood-certified commitment to give us all things

00:55:20.780 | meets the coronavirus?

00:55:22.300 | Here's what he says.

00:55:25.260 | "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

00:55:27.660 | Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword,

00:55:35.500 | or coronavirus?

00:55:37.420 | As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long,

00:55:43.260 | we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'

00:55:45.820 | No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

00:55:50.940 | Romans 8, 35-37.

00:55:54.380 | Don't miss these painful and amazing words.

00:55:58.620 | "We are being killed all day long."

00:56:02.220 | That means that the "all things" God will give to us, because He did not spare His own Son,

00:56:11.900 | includes bringing us safely through death.

00:56:17.500 | Or as He says in Romans 8, 38-39,

00:56:21.900 | "I am sure that neither death nor life will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

00:56:31.580 | What Satan means for evil.

00:56:35.500 | Even if Satan, on his divine leash, has a hand in our suffering and death,

00:56:44.940 | he is not ultimate.

00:56:46.860 | He cannot hurt us without God's permission and limitation.

00:56:52.220 | Job 1.12, Luke 22.31, 2 Corinthians 12.7

00:56:57.020 | And in the end, it is right for us to say to Satan what Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery,

00:57:05.900 | "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."

00:57:12.700 | Genesis 50.20

00:57:14.700 | Be careful not to water this down.

00:57:18.780 | It does not say, "God used it for good," or "God turned it for good."

00:57:26.620 | It says, "God meant it for good."

00:57:31.500 | They had an evil purpose.

00:57:34.620 | God had a good purpose.

00:57:36.300 | God didn't start cleaning up halfway through this sinful affair.

00:57:42.140 | He had a purpose, a meaning, from the beginning.

00:57:45.580 | From the start, he meant it for good.

00:57:48.860 | This is the key to comfort when the evil of men and the evil of Satan compound our suffering.

00:57:58.540 | In Christ, we have every right to say to Satan or to evil men, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

00:58:08.460 | Neither Satan nor sickness nor sinful man is sovereign.

00:58:13.980 | Only God is, and he is good and wise and sovereign.

00:58:20.700 | Not a sparrow, every hair.

00:58:25.260 | Jesus expresses the sweetness of God's sovereignty for his disciples as beautifully as anyone.

00:58:33.820 | Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

00:58:37.340 | And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

00:58:41.100 | But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

00:58:44.220 | Fear not, therefore.

00:58:45.820 | You are of more value than many sparrows.

00:58:49.580 | Matthew 10, 29 to 31.

00:58:52.860 | Not one sparrow falls but by God's plan.

00:58:58.380 | Not one virus moves but by God's plan.

00:59:04.060 | This is meticulous sovereignty.

00:59:08.220 | And what does Jesus say next?

00:59:10.620 | Three things.

00:59:11.340 | You are of more value than many sparrows.

00:59:15.020 | The hairs of your head are all numbered.

00:59:17.820 | Fear not.

00:59:19.340 | Why not?

00:59:21.180 | Because God's meticulous sovereignty, whether we live or die, serves his holiness and righteousness

00:59:30.540 | and goodness and wisdom in Christ.

00:59:34.060 | In Christ, we are not his dispensable pawns.

00:59:39.580 | We are his valued children.

00:59:41.980 | You are of more value than many sparrows.

00:59:46.700 | This is the secret mentioned earlier.

00:59:49.500 | Knowing that the same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus yet doesn't

00:59:56.220 | is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.

01:00:00.620 | And not only sustains, but sees to it that everything bitter and sweet

01:00:08.380 | works together for our good, the good of those who love God and are called in Christ.

01:00:14.780 | Romans 8, 28 to 30.

01:00:16.780 | Immortal till my work is done.

01:00:21.100 | That kind of rock-solid confidence in the face of death has emboldened Christ's people for

01:00:29.660 | 2,000 years.

01:00:30.700 | The truth of God's wise and good sovereignty has been the stabilizing power for thousands

01:00:36.860 | of Christians in the sacrifices of love.

01:00:39.740 | For example, Henry Martin, missionary to India and Persia, who died of the plague like the

01:00:46.380 | coronavirus when he was 31, October 16, 1812, wrote in his journal in January 1812, "To

01:00:56.140 | all appearance, the present year will be more perilous than any I have seen.

01:01:01.100 | But if I live to complete the Persian New Testament, my life after that will be of less

01:01:07.180 | importance.

01:01:07.740 | But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me.

01:01:14.620 | If he has work for me to do, I cannot die."

01:01:20.060 | This has often been paraphrased as, "I am immortal till Christ's work for me to do is

01:01:27.820 | done."

01:01:28.320 | This is profoundly true.

01:01:31.100 | And it rests squarely on the reality that life and death are in the hands of our sovereign

01:01:37.820 | God.

01:01:38.620 | Indeed, the entire cause of Christ is in his hand.

01:01:42.780 | Seven years earlier, Martin, at the age of 24, had written, "Were God not the sovereign

01:01:48.780 | of the universe, how miserable I should be!

01:01:51.580 | But the Lord reigneth.

01:01:53.740 | Let the earth be glad, and Christ's cause shall prevail.

01:01:58.940 | O my soul, be happy in the prospect."

01:02:02.620 | Part 2.

01:02:05.740 | What is God doing through the coronavirus?

01:02:09.820 | Preliminary thoughts, seeing and pointing.

01:02:15.500 | If God has not been dethroned, if indeed he governs all things according to the counsel

01:02:24.140 | of his will, Ephesians 1.11, and if this coronavirus outbreak, with all its devastation, is in

01:02:31.420 | his holy, righteous, good, and wise hands, then what is he doing?

01:02:38.140 | What are his purposes?

01:02:40.380 | Stop regarding man.

01:02:44.700 | The first thing to say before trying to answer this question is that, compared to the wisdom

01:02:52.700 | of God, my opinion counts for nothing.

01:02:55.500 | So does yours.

01:02:57.180 | What we think out of our own heads is of little significance.

01:03:02.700 | The Bible says that whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, Proverbs 28.26.

01:03:10.300 | Instead, we are told, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your

01:03:17.660 | own understanding," Proverbs 3.5.

01:03:21.740 | We humans are finite, sinful, culturally conditioned, and shaped and misshaped by our

01:03:30.620 | genes and personal history.

01:03:32.300 | Out of our hearts and minds and mouths come every manner of self-justifying rationalization

01:03:38.780 | of our own preferences.

01:03:40.060 | So we would be wise to pay attention to the prophet Isaiah when he says, "Stop regarding

01:03:48.300 | man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?"

01:03:53.500 | Isaiah 2.22.

01:03:55.980 | Is it then not presumption for me to write this book, let alone a section titled, "What

01:04:04.460 | is God doing through the coronavirus?"

01:04:07.180 | No, it is not presumption, not if God has spoken in the Christian scriptures, not if

01:04:16.380 | God has stooped to speak in human words so that we might truly, though partially, know

01:04:24.620 | him and his ways.

01:04:26.380 | Not if Paul's words are true, "God lavished his grace upon us in all wisdom and insight,

01:04:34.940 | making known to us the mystery of his will," Ephesians 1.8-9.

01:04:40.780 | Not if, as Paul says, "By reading you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,"

01:04:47.340 | Ephesians 3.4.

01:04:49.100 | God is not silent about what he is doing in this world.

01:04:53.660 | He has given us the scriptures.

01:04:56.060 | In chapter 2, I pointed to some of the reasons why we may trust the Bible as God's Word.

01:05:02.700 | So my aim is not to dream up ideas about what God might be doing.

01:05:07.740 | My aim is to listen to his Word in scripture and commend to you what I hear.

01:05:13.020 | How inscrutable his ways.

01:05:17.260 | Another thing I should say before I try to answer the question, "What is God doing?"

01:05:23.660 | is that he is always doing a billion things we do not know.

01:05:29.340 | You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us.

01:05:34.620 | None can compare with you.

01:05:37.340 | I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

01:05:41.900 | Psalm 40.5.

01:05:43.500 | Not only are his designs in the coronavirus beyond counting,

01:05:49.420 | they are in many ways inscrutable.

01:05:53.260 | "O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

01:05:57.900 | How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways!" Romans 11.33.

01:06:05.980 | But when Paul wrote that, he was not saying, "So close your Bible and make up your own reality."

01:06:11.740 | On the contrary, those words about God's inscrutable ways were written as a climax

01:06:19.660 | to eleven chapters of the greatest news in the world, all of which are written to be understood.

01:06:27.260 | For example, when Paul touches on the inevitability of suffering, he says,

01:06:33.180 | "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

01:06:39.020 | and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame

01:06:45.180 | because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." Romans 5.3-5.

01:06:52.540 | Knowing the scriptures are written that we might know the things God has revealed,

01:07:00.540 | especially about suffering, including this coronavirus outbreak.

01:07:04.700 | So "inscrutable" means that God is always doing more than we can see,

01:07:11.980 | and even what we can see, we would not have seen if he had not revealed it.

01:07:17.980 | Pointing to reality.

01:07:21.260 | So my job here is not to imagine, as in John Lennon's famous song.

01:07:28.620 | He tells us to imagine that there's no heaven, no hell, but only sky,

01:07:33.100 | and then he says that such imagining is easy. Just try.

01:07:37.900 | Right! It is easy. Way too easy. The coronavirus demands hard reality, not easy imaginings.

01:07:48.220 | God and his word are the reality we need, the rock under our feet.

01:07:54.780 | So my aim here is to point to reality, not create reality.

01:07:59.820 | My aim is to hear what God has said and affirm rather than imagine.

01:08:05.980 | I will point to what the Bible teaches and then make the connections with the coronavirus.

01:08:13.900 | Yours is to judge what is right.

01:08:16.620 | I say that because it's what Jesus said about interpreting the present time.

01:08:22.860 | He was indignant that people could use their reason to make sense out of weather patterns,

01:08:27.340 | but not the divine working of God in history.

01:08:30.540 | You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky,

01:08:36.940 | but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

01:08:40.140 | And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

01:08:43.740 | Luke 12, 56-57.

01:08:48.140 | So my hope is that you will ask for God's help, look to God's word,

01:08:53.900 | and judge for yourselves what is right.

01:08:55.980 | I hope you will test what I say by the scriptures and hold fast to what is good.

01:09:04.140 | Six Paths to Follow

01:09:08.300 | Many pages could be written about each of the six answers I am going to give to the question,

01:09:17.340 | "What is God doing through the coronavirus?"

01:09:19.660 | But with the urgency of the hour, I won't take time for that.

01:09:24.540 | I will only point to paths of biblical truth that I hope you will pursue after you close this book.

01:09:31.980 | I wish we could walk far down those paths together, but I must leave that with you.

01:09:37.980 | May God guide you.

01:09:39.980 | What is God doing through the coronavirus?

01:09:45.420 | Chapter 6, Picturing Moral Horror

01:09:48.540 | Answer 1.

01:09:51.340 | God is giving the world, in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities,

01:09:58.140 | a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin.

01:10:05.740 | Sin, in fact, is why all physical misery is so terrible.

01:10:15.020 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:17.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:19.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:21.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:23.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:25.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:27.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:29.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:31.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:33.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:35.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:37.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:39.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:41.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:43.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:45.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:47.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:49.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:51.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:53.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:55.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:57.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:10:59.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:01.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:03.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:05.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:07.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:09.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:11.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:13.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:15.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:17.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:19.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:21.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:23.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:25.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:27.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:29.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:31.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:33.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:35.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:37.100 | Sin is the cause of all misery.

01:11:39.100 | Creation was subjected to futility,

01:11:41.100 | Creation was subjected to futility,

01:11:43.100 | not willingly,

01:11:45.100 | but because of Him who subjected it

01:11:47.100 | in hope that the creation

01:11:49.100 | itself will be set free

01:11:51.100 | from its bondage to corruption

01:11:53.100 | and obtain the freedom of the glory

01:11:55.100 | of the children of God.

01:11:57.100 | For we know that the whole creation

01:11:59.100 | has been groaning together in the pains

01:12:01.100 | of childbirth until now.

01:12:03.100 | Romans 8, 20-22

01:12:05.100 | Futility,

01:12:07.100 | bondage to corruption,

01:12:09.100 | groaning, these are

01:12:11.100 | the images of global

01:12:13.100 | devastation and misery

01:12:15.100 | since sin entered the world.

01:12:17.100 | And Paul says this devastation

01:12:19.100 | is owing to God's judgment.

01:12:21.100 | The creation

01:12:23.100 | was subjected to

01:12:25.100 | futility because of Him who

01:12:27.100 | subjected it in hope.

01:12:29.100 | Romans 8, 20

01:12:31.100 | Satan did not subject

01:12:33.100 | it in hope.

01:12:35.100 | Adam did not subject it

01:12:37.100 | in hope. God did.

01:12:39.100 | As Paul said in Romans 5, 16

01:12:41.100 | The judgment

01:12:43.100 | following one trespass

01:12:45.100 | brought condemnation.

01:12:47.100 | Even His children

01:12:51.100 | under judgment.

01:12:53.100 | To be sure,

01:12:55.100 | this passage is full

01:12:57.100 | of hope.

01:12:59.100 | The freedom of the glory of the children of God.

01:13:01.100 | Romans 8, 21

01:13:03.100 | God has a stunning

01:13:05.100 | plan for a new creation

01:13:07.100 | where He will wipe away every

01:13:09.100 | tear from their eyes. Revelation

01:13:11.100 | 21, 4

01:13:13.100 | But for now,

01:13:15.100 | we are all under His

01:13:17.100 | judgment. He has

01:13:19.100 | subjected the world to death,

01:13:21.100 | disaster, and misery.

01:13:23.100 | Yes,

01:13:25.100 | even His own children.

01:13:27.100 | Those whom He

01:13:29.100 | predestined for adoption.

01:13:31.100 | Ephesians 1, 5

01:13:33.100 | Redeemed by the blood of His Son.

01:13:35.100 | Ephesians 1, 7

01:13:37.100 | And appointed for eternal life. Ephesians 1,

01:13:39.100 | 18

01:13:41.100 | Even we suffer

01:13:43.100 | and die because of

01:13:45.100 | God's judgment in the

01:13:47.100 | fall.

01:13:49.100 | We ourselves, who have

01:13:51.100 | the firstfruits of the Spirit grown

01:13:53.100 | inwardly as we wait eagerly

01:13:55.100 | for adoption as sons,

01:13:57.100 | the redemption of our bodies.

01:13:59.100 | Romans 8, 23

01:14:01.100 | Christians get

01:14:03.100 | swept away in tsunamis.

01:14:05.100 | Christians are killed

01:14:07.100 | in terrorist attacks.

01:14:09.100 | Christians get the coronavirus.

01:14:11.100 | Purification,

01:14:15.100 | not punishment.

01:14:17.100 | The difference

01:14:19.100 | for Christians, those

01:14:21.100 | who embrace Christ as their

01:14:23.100 | supreme treasure, is that

01:14:25.100 | our experience of this corruption

01:14:27.100 | is not condemnation.

01:14:29.100 | There is, therefore, now no

01:14:31.100 | condemnation for those

01:14:33.100 | who are in Christ.

01:14:35.100 | Romans 8, 1

01:14:37.100 | The pain for us

01:14:39.100 | is purifying, not

01:14:41.100 | punitive.

01:14:43.100 | God has not destined us for wrath.

01:14:45.100 | 1 Thessalonians

01:14:47.100 | 5, 9

01:14:49.100 | We die of disease

01:14:51.100 | and disaster like all humans.

01:14:53.100 | But for those who

01:14:55.100 | are in Christ, the sting

01:14:57.100 | of death has been removed.

01:14:59.100 | 1 Corinthians 15, 55

01:15:01.100 | To die is gain.

01:15:03.100 | Philippians 1, 21

01:15:05.100 | To depart is to be with

01:15:07.100 | Christ. Philippians 1,

01:15:09.100 | 23

01:15:11.100 | Satan is

01:15:13.100 | real and restricted.

01:15:15.100 | When I trace the miseries of this

01:15:19.100 | world back to God's judgment, I am

01:15:21.100 | not shutting my eyes to the fact

01:15:23.100 | that Satan is very involved

01:15:25.100 | in our global misery.

01:15:27.100 | The Bible calls him

01:15:29.100 | the God of this world.

01:15:31.100 | 2 Corinthians 4, 4

01:15:33.100 | And the ruler of this world.

01:15:35.100 | John 12, 31

01:15:37.100 | And the prince of the power of the air.

01:15:39.100 | Ephesians 2, 2

01:15:41.100 | He has been a murderer from the beginning.

01:15:43.100 | John 8, 44

01:15:45.100 | He binds and oppresses

01:15:47.100 | with many

01:15:49.100 | diseases. Luke 13,

01:15:51.100 | 16 Acts 10, 38

01:15:53.100 | But Satan is on

01:15:55.100 | a leash. The

01:15:57.100 | leash is in God's hands.

01:15:59.100 | He does not act

01:16:01.100 | without God's leave.

01:16:03.100 | He acts only with permission

01:16:05.100 | and limitation.

01:16:07.100 | God decides finally the

01:16:09.100 | extent of Satan's damage. He is

01:16:11.100 | not separate from God's judgment.

01:16:13.100 | He serves it unwittingly.

01:16:15.100 | Key question.

01:16:19.100 | Now here's the

01:16:21.100 | question that brings the meaning

01:16:23.100 | of the coronavirus into sharper

01:16:25.100 | focus. Why did

01:16:27.100 | God bring a physical

01:16:29.100 | judgment on the

01:16:31.100 | world for a moral evil?

01:16:33.100 | Adam and Eve

01:16:35.100 | defied God. Their hearts

01:16:37.100 | turned against God.

01:16:39.100 | They preferred their own wisdom

01:16:41.100 | to His. They chose independence

01:16:43.100 | over trust.

01:16:45.100 | This defying and

01:16:47.100 | preferring and choosing

01:16:49.100 | was a spiritual and

01:16:51.100 | moral evil. It was

01:16:53.100 | sin in the soul

01:16:55.100 | first, not in the body.

01:16:57.100 | It was first Godward,

01:16:59.100 | not manward.

01:17:01.100 | But in response to

01:17:03.100 | moral and spiritual rebellion,

01:17:05.100 | God subjected

01:17:07.100 | the physical world

01:17:09.100 | to disaster and misery.

01:17:11.100 | Why?

01:17:13.100 | Why not leave the physical world

01:17:15.100 | in good order and bring misery

01:17:17.100 | on the human soul, since that's

01:17:19.100 | where it all started?

01:17:21.100 | An answer.

01:17:23.100 | Here's

01:17:25.100 | my suggestion.

01:17:27.100 | God put the physical world

01:17:29.100 | under a curse so

01:17:31.100 | that the physical horrors

01:17:33.100 | we see around us in diseases

01:17:35.100 | and calamities would

01:17:37.100 | become a vivid

01:17:39.100 | picture of how horrible

01:17:41.100 | sin is.

01:17:43.100 | In other words, physical evil

01:17:45.100 | is a parable,

01:17:47.100 | a drama, a signpost

01:17:49.100 | pointing to the moral

01:17:51.100 | outrage of rebellion

01:17:53.100 | against God.

01:17:55.100 | Why might that be fitting?

01:17:57.100 | Because in

01:17:59.100 | our present condition, after

01:18:01.100 | the fall, blinded by

01:18:03.100 | sin, we cannot

01:18:05.100 | see or feel

01:18:07.100 | how repugnant sin

01:18:09.100 | against God is. Hardly anyone

01:18:11.100 | in the world feels

01:18:13.100 | the horror of preferring

01:18:15.100 | other things over God.

01:18:17.100 | Who loses any sleep

01:18:19.100 | over our daily

01:18:21.100 | belittling of God by neglect

01:18:23.100 | and defiance?

01:18:25.100 | But oh, how we

01:18:27.100 | feel our physical pain!

01:18:29.100 | How indignant we

01:18:31.100 | can become if God touches our

01:18:33.100 | bodies! We may not

01:18:35.100 | grieve over the way we demean

01:18:37.100 | God every day in our hearts,

01:18:39.100 | but let the coronavirus

01:18:41.100 | come and threaten our bodies,

01:18:43.100 | and he has our attention.

01:18:45.100 | Or does he?

01:18:47.100 | Physical pain is God's

01:18:49.100 | trumpet blast to tell us

01:18:51.100 | that something is dreadfully

01:18:53.100 | wrong in the world.

01:18:55.100 | Disease and deformity are

01:18:57.100 | God's pictures in the physical

01:18:59.100 | realm of what sin is

01:19:01.100 | like in the spiritual realm.

01:19:03.100 | And that is true,

01:19:05.100 | even though some

01:19:07.100 | of the most godly people

01:19:09.100 | in the world

01:19:11.100 | bear those diseases and

01:19:13.100 | deformities.

01:19:15.100 | Calamities are God's previews

01:19:17.100 | of what sin deserves

01:19:19.100 | and will one day receive in

01:19:21.100 | judgment a thousand times worse.

01:19:23.100 | They are warnings.

01:19:25.100 | They are wake-up calls

01:19:27.100 | to see the moral

01:19:29.100 | horror and spiritual ugliness

01:19:31.100 | of sin against God.

01:19:33.100 | Would that we could all

01:19:35.100 | see and feel

01:19:37.100 | how repugnant, how offensive,

01:19:39.100 | how abominable it is

01:19:41.100 | to treat our Maker

01:19:43.100 | with contempt,

01:19:45.100 | to ignore Him and

01:19:47.100 | distrust Him and demean Him

01:19:49.100 | and give Him less attention

01:19:51.100 | in our hearts than we

01:19:53.100 | give the style of our hair.

01:19:55.100 | We need to see

01:19:57.100 | this and feel this,

01:19:59.100 | or we will not turn to

01:20:01.100 | Christ for salvation from the ugliness

01:20:03.100 | of sin.

01:20:05.100 | We may cry out to escape from the penalty

01:20:07.100 | of sin, but will we see

01:20:09.100 | and hate the God-demeaning

01:20:11.100 | moral ugliness of sin?

01:20:13.100 | If we don't,

01:20:15.100 | it will not be because

01:20:17.100 | God has not provided vivid portrayals

01:20:19.100 | of it in physical misery,

01:20:21.100 | like the coronavirus.

01:20:23.100 | Therefore, God is

01:20:25.100 | mercifully shouting to us in these days,

01:20:27.100 | "Wake up!

01:20:29.100 | Sin against God is like this.

01:20:31.100 | It is horrible

01:20:33.100 | and ugly

01:20:35.100 | and far more dangerous than the

01:20:37.100 | coronavirus."

01:20:39.100 | Chapter 7

01:20:41.100 | Sending Specific Divine Judgments

01:20:43.100 | Sending Specific Divine Judgments

01:20:45.100 | Answer 2

01:20:47.100 | Some people will be

01:20:49.100 | infected with the coronavirus as

01:20:51.100 | a specific judgment from God

01:20:53.100 | because of their sinful attitudes and actions.

01:20:55.100 | The fact that

01:20:57.100 | all misery is a

01:20:59.100 | result of the Fall,

01:21:01.100 | a result of the

01:21:03.100 | entrance of God-diminishing

01:21:05.100 | sin into the world,

01:21:07.100 | does not mean that

01:21:09.100 | all individual suffering

01:21:11.100 | is a specific judgment for

01:21:13.100 | personal sins.

01:21:15.100 | For example, Job's

01:21:17.100 | suffering was not owing to his

01:21:19.100 | particular sins.

01:21:21.100 | The very first sentence of that book

01:21:23.100 | makes this clear. Job

01:21:25.100 | was blameless and upright,

01:21:27.100 | one who feared God and

01:21:29.100 | turned away from evil. Job

01:21:31.100 | won.

01:21:33.100 | And as we saw earlier,

01:21:35.100 | God's own people experience

01:21:37.100 | many of the physical effects of His

01:21:39.100 | judgment. The Apostle Peter

01:21:41.100 | put it like this, "It is

01:21:43.100 | time for judgment to begin

01:21:45.100 | at the household of God.

01:21:47.100 | And if it begins with us,

01:21:49.100 | what will be the outcome

01:21:51.100 | of those who do not obey the

01:21:53.100 | gospel of God?

01:21:55.100 | And if the righteous is scarcely

01:21:57.100 | saved, what will become

01:21:59.100 | of the ungodly and sinner?"

01:22:01.100 | 1 Peter 4, 17-18.

01:22:03.100 | For the household of God,

01:22:07.100 | this judgment from God is

01:22:09.100 | purifying, not punitive,

01:22:11.100 | not punishment.

01:22:13.100 | So not all suffering

01:22:15.100 | is owing to the specific judgments

01:22:17.100 | of God on specific sins.

01:22:19.100 | Nevertheless, God

01:22:21.100 | sometimes uses

01:22:23.100 | His ease to bring

01:22:25.100 | particular judgments upon those

01:22:27.100 | who reject Him and give

01:22:29.100 | themselves over to sin.

01:22:31.100 | Examples

01:22:33.100 | of specific judgments on specific sins.

01:22:35.100 | I'll give two examples

01:22:39.100 | of specific judgments on

01:22:41.100 | specific sins. In

01:22:43.100 | Acts 12, Herod

01:22:45.100 | the king exalted himself

01:22:47.100 | by allowing himself to be called

01:22:49.100 | a god. Immediately,

01:22:51.100 | the angel of the Lord struck him down

01:22:53.100 | because he did not

01:22:55.100 | give God the glory, and he

01:22:57.100 | was eaten by worms

01:22:59.100 | and breathed his last.

01:23:01.100 | Acts 12, 23.

01:23:03.100 | God can do that

01:23:05.100 | with all who exalt themselves,

01:23:07.100 | which means we should

01:23:09.100 | be amazed

01:23:11.100 | that more of our rulers

01:23:13.100 | do not drop dead

01:23:15.100 | every day because of their

01:23:17.100 | arrogance before God and man.

01:23:19.100 | God's restraint

01:23:21.100 | is a great mercy.

01:23:23.100 | Another example

01:23:25.100 | is the sin of homosexual

01:23:27.100 | intercourse. In Romans

01:23:29.100 | 1, 27, the apostle Paul

01:23:31.100 | says, "Men likewise

01:23:33.100 | gave up natural affections

01:23:35.100 | with women and were consumed

01:23:37.100 | with passion for one another,

01:23:39.100 | men committing shameless acts

01:23:41.100 | with men and receiving

01:23:43.100 | in themselves the due

01:23:45.100 | penalty for their error."

01:23:47.100 | That due penalty

01:23:49.100 | is the painful effect

01:23:51.100 | in themselves

01:23:53.100 | of their sin.

01:23:55.100 | This due penalty

01:23:57.100 | is just one example

01:23:59.100 | of the judgment of God that we see

01:24:01.100 | in Romans 1, 18, where it says,

01:24:03.100 | "The wrath of God is

01:24:05.100 | revealed from heaven against all

01:24:07.100 | ungodliness and unrighteousness

01:24:09.100 | of men who by their unrighteousness

01:24:11.100 | suppress the truth."

01:24:13.100 | Therefore, while

01:24:15.100 | not all suffering is a specific

01:24:17.100 | judgment for specific sins,

01:24:19.100 | some is.

01:24:21.100 | Let

01:24:23.100 | every soul be searched.

01:24:25.100 | The coronavirus

01:24:27.100 | is, therefore,

01:24:29.100 | never a clear

01:24:31.100 | and simple punishment

01:24:33.100 | on any person.

01:24:35.100 | The most loving, spirit-

01:24:37.100 | filled Christian, whose

01:24:39.100 | sins are forgiven through Christ

01:24:41.100 | may die of the

01:24:43.100 | coronavirus disease.

01:24:45.100 | But it is fitting

01:24:47.100 | that every one of us

01:24:49.100 | search our own heart

01:24:51.100 | to discern if our suffering

01:24:53.100 | is God's judgment on the way we live.

01:24:55.100 | If we come to Christ,

01:24:57.100 | we can know

01:24:59.100 | that our suffering

01:25:01.100 | is not the punitive

01:25:03.100 | judgment of God.

01:25:05.100 | We can know this

01:25:07.100 | because Jesus said,

01:25:09.100 | "Whoever hears my word and

01:25:11.100 | believes him who sent me

01:25:13.100 | has eternal life. He does

01:25:15.100 | not come into judgment

01:25:17.100 | but has passed from

01:25:19.100 | death to life." John 5

01:25:21.100 | 24. There is no

01:25:23.100 | condemnation for those who are in Christ

01:25:25.100 | Jesus. Romans 8 1.

01:25:27.100 | It is discipline

01:25:29.100 | not destruction.

01:25:31.100 | For the Lord disciplines

01:25:33.100 | the one he loves

01:25:35.100 | and chastises every

01:25:37.100 | son whom he receives.

01:25:39.100 | Hebrews 12 6.

01:25:41.100 | Chapter 8

01:25:45.100 | Awakening Us for the Second

01:25:47.100 | Coming.

01:25:49.100 | Answer 3.

01:25:51.100 | The coronavirus

01:25:53.100 | is a God-given wake-up call

01:25:55.100 | to be ready for

01:25:57.100 | the second coming of Christ.

01:25:59.100 | Even though

01:26:01.100 | the history of the Christian church

01:26:03.100 | is littered with

01:26:05.100 | failed predictions of the end of the world,

01:26:07.100 | it remains true

01:26:09.100 | that Jesus Christ

01:26:11.100 | is coming back.

01:26:13.100 | "Men of Galilee," the angel said

01:26:15.100 | at Jesus' departure,

01:26:17.100 | "why do you stand looking into heaven?

01:26:19.100 | This Jesus who was taken up

01:26:21.100 | from you into heaven will come

01:26:23.100 | in the same way as you saw him

01:26:25.100 | go into heaven." Acts 1

01:26:27.100 | 11. At his

01:26:29.100 | coming, he will judge

01:26:31.100 | the world. When the Son

01:26:33.100 | of Man comes in his glory

01:26:35.100 | and all the angels with him,

01:26:37.100 | then he will sit on his glorious

01:26:39.100 | throne. Before him will be

01:26:41.100 | gathered all the nations, and he

01:26:43.100 | will separate people one from another

01:26:45.100 | as a shepherd separates

01:26:47.100 | the sheep from the goats.

01:26:49.100 | Matthew 25 31-32.

01:26:51.100 | For those who are not ready to meet

01:26:55.100 | Christ, that day

01:26:57.100 | will come suddenly like a

01:26:59.100 | trap. Watch yourselves,

01:27:01.100 | lest your hearts be weighed

01:27:03.100 | down with dissipation and

01:27:05.100 | drunkenness and cares of this

01:27:07.100 | life, and that day come

01:27:09.100 | upon you suddenly like a trap.

01:27:11.100 | Luke 21

01:27:13.100 | 34.

01:27:15.100 | Birth Pains.

01:27:17.100 | Jesus

01:27:19.100 | said there would be

01:27:21.100 | pointers to his coming,

01:27:23.100 | like wars, famines,

01:27:25.100 | and earthquakes.

01:27:27.100 | Matthew 24 7.

01:27:29.100 | He called these signs

01:27:31.100 | "birth pains." Matthew

01:27:33.100 | 24 8.

01:27:35.100 | The image is of the earth

01:27:37.100 | as a woman in labor

01:27:39.100 | trying to give birth to the new

01:27:41.100 | world which Jesus would bring

01:27:43.100 | into being at his coming.

01:27:45.100 | Paul picked up this imagery

01:27:47.100 | in Romans 8 22

01:27:49.100 | and referred the birth

01:27:51.100 | pains to all

01:27:53.100 | the groanings of this age,

01:27:55.100 | all the miseries of disaster

01:27:57.100 | and disease, like

01:27:59.100 | the coronavirus.

01:28:01.100 | He pictured us

01:28:03.100 | in our diseases as part

01:28:05.100 | of the labor pains of the

01:28:07.100 | world. We groan

01:28:09.100 | as we wait for the redemption

01:28:11.100 | of our bodies at the coming of Jesus,

01:28:13.100 | when he will raise the dead

01:28:15.100 | and give us new

01:28:17.100 | glorious bodies.

01:28:19.100 | Philippians 3 21.

01:28:21.100 | The creation itself

01:28:23.100 | will be set free from its bondage

01:28:25.100 | to corruption and obtain

01:28:27.100 | the freedom of the glory of

01:28:29.100 | the children of God. For

01:28:31.100 | we know that the whole creation

01:28:33.100 | has been groaning together in the pains

01:28:35.100 | of childbirth

01:28:37.100 | until now. And not

01:28:39.100 | only the creation, but we

01:28:41.100 | ourselves, who have the first

01:28:43.100 | fruits of the Spirit, groan

01:28:45.100 | inwardly as we wait

01:28:47.100 | eagerly for adoption as sons,

01:28:49.100 | the redemption of our bodies.

01:28:51.100 | Romans 8 21 to 23.

01:28:55.100 | Stay awake.

01:28:57.100 | My point is this.

01:28:59.100 | Jesus wants

01:29:01.100 | us to see the birth

01:29:03.100 | pains, including the

01:29:05.100 | coronavirus, as

01:29:07.100 | reminders and alerts

01:29:09.100 | that he is coming

01:29:11.100 | and that we need to be

01:29:13.100 | ready. You must be

01:29:15.100 | ready, for the Son of Man

01:29:17.100 | is coming at an hour you do not expect.

01:29:19.100 | Matthew 24 44.

01:29:21.100 | You don't have to be a

01:29:23.100 | fate setter in order

01:29:25.100 | to take seriously what Jesus says.

01:29:27.100 | And what he says is unmistakable.

01:29:29.100 | Be on guard.

01:29:31.100 | Keep awake,

01:29:33.100 | for you do not know when the time

01:29:35.100 | will come. Stay awake,

01:29:37.100 | for you do not know when

01:29:39.100 | the Master of the House will come.

01:29:41.100 | And what I say to you, I say to all,

01:29:43.100 | stay awake.

01:29:45.100 | Mark 13 33

01:29:47.100 | to 37.

01:29:49.100 | The message is clear.

01:29:51.100 | Stay awake. Stay awake.

01:29:53.100 | Stay awake.

01:29:55.100 | And the birth pains of the natural

01:29:57.100 | world are meant for this

01:29:59.100 | message. But oh,

01:30:01.100 | how many people are

01:30:03.100 | not awake.

01:30:05.100 | For all their frenzied

01:30:07.100 | activity, they are sound

01:30:09.100 | sleep in regard to the

01:30:11.100 | coming of Jesus Christ. The peril

01:30:13.100 | is great.

01:30:15.100 | And the coronavirus

01:30:17.100 | is a merciful wake-up

01:30:19.100 | call to be ready.

01:30:21.100 | The way to be ready

01:30:23.100 | is to come to

01:30:25.100 | Jesus Christ.

01:30:27.100 | Receive forgiveness of sins

01:30:29.100 | and walk in his light.

01:30:31.100 | Then you will be among those

01:30:33.100 | who are not in

01:30:35.100 | darkness for that day to surprise

01:30:37.100 | you like a thief. For you are

01:30:39.100 | all children of light.

01:30:41.100 | So then let us keep awake,

01:30:43.100 | for God has not destined us for wrath,

01:30:45.100 | but to obtain salvation

01:30:47.100 | through our Lord Jesus Christ,

01:30:49.100 | who died for us, so that whether

01:30:51.100 | we wake or sleep, we might

01:30:53.100 | live with him.

01:30:55.100 | 1 Thessalonians 5

01:30:57.100 | 4-10

01:30:59.100 | Chapter 9

01:31:03.100 | Realigning Us with the

01:31:05.100 | Infinite Worth of Christ

01:31:07.100 | Answer 4

01:31:11.100 | The coronavirus is God's

01:31:13.100 | thunderclap call

01:31:15.100 | for all of us to repent

01:31:17.100 | and realign our lives

01:31:19.100 | with the infinite worth

01:31:21.100 | of Christ.

01:31:23.100 | The coronavirus

01:31:25.100 | is not unique

01:31:27.100 | as a call to repentance.

01:31:29.100 | In fact, all natural

01:31:31.100 | disasters, whether floods,

01:31:33.100 | famines, locusts,

01:31:35.100 | tsunamis,

01:31:37.100 | or diseases,

01:31:39.100 | are God's painful and

01:31:41.100 | merciful summons

01:31:43.100 | to repent. We see this

01:31:45.100 | from the way Jesus responds

01:31:47.100 | to disaster

01:31:49.100 | in Luke 13 1-5.

01:31:51.100 | There were some present

01:31:53.100 | at that very time who told him

01:31:55.100 | about the Galileans

01:31:57.100 | whose blood Pilate had mingled

01:31:59.100 | with their sacrifices.

01:32:01.100 | And he answered them,

01:32:03.100 | "Do you think that these

01:32:05.100 | Galileans were worse

01:32:07.100 | sinners than all

01:32:09.100 | the other Galileans

01:32:11.100 | because they suffered in this way?

01:32:13.100 | No, I tell you,

01:32:15.100 | but unless you repent,

01:32:17.100 | you will all likewise perish.

01:32:19.100 | Or those eighteen

01:32:21.100 | on whom the tower in Siloam

01:32:23.100 | fell and killed them,

01:32:25.100 | do you think that they were worse

01:32:27.100 | offenders than all the others

01:32:29.100 | who lived in Jerusalem?

01:32:31.100 | No, I tell you,

01:32:33.100 | but unless you repent,

01:32:35.100 | you will all likewise

01:32:37.100 | perish."

01:32:39.100 | Pilate had slaughtered

01:32:41.100 | worshippers in the temple.

01:32:43.100 | The tower in Siloam

01:32:45.100 | had collapsed and killed eighteen

01:32:47.100 | bystanders. One

01:32:49.100 | disaster was the fruit of human wickedness,

01:32:51.100 | the other was apparently

01:32:53.100 | an accident.

01:32:55.100 | The meaning of calamity

01:32:57.100 | for you.

01:32:59.100 | The crowds

01:33:01.100 | want to know from Jesus,

01:33:03.100 | "What's the meaning of this?

01:33:05.100 | Was it an act of God's specific

01:33:07.100 | judgment on specific sins?"

01:33:09.100 | Jesus' answer

01:33:11.100 | is amazing.

01:33:13.100 | He draws a meaning from these

01:33:15.100 | disasters that relates

01:33:17.100 | to everyone,

01:33:19.100 | not just the ones who died.

01:33:21.100 | In both cases, he says,

01:33:23.100 | "No,

01:33:25.100 | those who were murdered by Pilate

01:33:27.100 | and those who were crushed

01:33:29.100 | under the tower were not

01:33:31.100 | worse sinners than

01:33:33.100 | you."

01:33:35.100 | Why

01:33:37.100 | does he bring up their sin?

01:33:39.100 | They weren't asking

01:33:41.100 | for his opinion about their

01:33:43.100 | own sin. They were curious

01:33:45.100 | about the others.

01:33:47.100 | They wanted to know what the

01:33:49.100 | disasters meant for the victims,

01:33:51.100 | not for the rest of us.

01:33:53.100 | That's what makes Jesus'

01:33:55.100 | answer amazing.

01:33:57.100 | In essence, he said

01:33:59.100 | that the meaning of these

01:34:01.100 | disasters is for everyone,

01:34:03.100 | and the

01:34:05.100 | message is, "Repent

01:34:07.100 | or perish."

01:34:09.100 | He says it twice.

01:34:11.100 | "Unless you repent,

01:34:13.100 | you will all likewise perish."

01:34:15.100 | Luke 13.3

01:34:17.100 | "Unless you repent, you will

01:34:19.100 | all likewise perish."

01:34:21.100 | Luke 13.5

01:34:23.100 | Merciful

01:34:25.100 | call while there's time.

01:34:27.100 | What was Jesus doing?

01:34:31.100 | He was redirecting

01:34:33.100 | the people's astonishment.

01:34:35.100 | The astonishment that prompted

01:34:37.100 | these folks to query Jesus is

01:34:39.100 | misplaced. They were

01:34:41.100 | astonished that people were murdered

01:34:43.100 | so cruelly and crushed

01:34:45.100 | so meaninglessly.

01:34:47.100 | But Jesus says

01:34:49.100 | what you ought to be astonished

01:34:51.100 | at is that you were

01:34:53.100 | not the ones murdered and

01:34:55.100 | crushed. In fact,

01:34:57.100 | if you don't repent, you

01:34:59.100 | yourselves will meet a

01:35:01.100 | judgment like that someday.

01:35:03.100 | From this,

01:35:05.100 | I infer that God

01:35:07.100 | has a merciful message

01:35:09.100 | in all

01:35:11.100 | such disasters.

01:35:13.100 | The message is

01:35:15.100 | that we are all sinners

01:35:17.100 | bound for destruction,

01:35:19.100 | and disasters

01:35:21.100 | are a gracious

01:35:23.100 | summons from God

01:35:25.100 | to repent and

01:35:27.100 | be saved while there

01:35:29.100 | is still time.

01:35:31.100 | Jesus turned from the dead

01:35:33.100 | to the living

01:35:35.100 | and essentially said,

01:35:37.100 | "Let's not talk

01:35:39.100 | about the dead. Let's talk about you.

01:35:41.100 | This is more

01:35:43.100 | urgent. What happened to them

01:35:45.100 | is about you.

01:35:47.100 | Your biggest issue is not

01:35:49.100 | their sin, but your sin."

01:35:51.100 | I think that's God's

01:35:53.100 | message for the world in the coronavirus

01:35:55.100 | outbreak. He is

01:35:57.100 | calling the world to repentance

01:35:59.100 | while there is still time.

01:36:01.100 | What does repentance

01:36:05.100 | mean?

01:36:07.100 | Let's be more specific.

01:36:09.100 | What does repentance mean?

01:36:11.100 | The word in the New Testament

01:36:13.100 | means a change of heart and mind,

01:36:15.100 | not a superficial change

01:36:17.100 | of opinion, but a deep

01:36:19.100 | transformation so that we perceive

01:36:21.100 | and prize God

01:36:23.100 | and Christ for who they really are.

01:36:25.100 | Jesus described

01:36:27.100 | the change like this,

01:36:29.100 | "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

01:36:31.100 | and with all your soul and with all

01:36:33.100 | your mind." Matthew 22

01:36:35.100 | 37. "Whoever loves

01:36:37.100 | father or mother more than me

01:36:39.100 | is not worthy of me, and

01:36:41.100 | whoever loves son or daughter more than me

01:36:43.100 | is not worthy of me." Matthew

01:36:45.100 | 10 37.

01:36:47.100 | In other words, the most fundamental

01:36:49.100 | change of heart

01:36:51.100 | and mind that

01:36:53.100 | repentance calls for

01:36:55.100 | is to treasure

01:36:57.100 | God with all that

01:36:59.100 | you are and to

01:37:01.100 | treasure Jesus

01:37:03.100 | more than all other relations.

01:37:05.100 | Why would Jesus threaten

01:37:09.100 | us with perishing?

01:37:11.100 | The reason Jesus

01:37:13.100 | said that we

01:37:15.100 | all likewise would perish

01:37:17.100 | if we don't repent

01:37:19.100 | is that

01:37:21.100 | we all have exchanged

01:37:23.100 | the treasure that God is

01:37:25.100 | for lesser things we

01:37:27.100 | love more. Romans

01:37:29.100 | 1 22 to 23.

01:37:31.100 | And we all have

01:37:33.100 | treated Jesus as less

01:37:35.100 | desirable than money and

01:37:37.100 | entertainment and friends

01:37:39.100 | and family. The reason

01:37:41.100 | all of us deserve to perish

01:37:43.100 | is not a list

01:37:45.100 | of rules we have broken,

01:37:47.100 | but an infinite value

01:37:49.100 | we have scorned—

01:37:51.100 | the infinite value

01:37:53.100 | of all that God is for us

01:37:55.100 | in Jesus Christ.

01:37:57.100 | Waking up

01:37:59.100 | to our suicidal preferences.

01:38:01.100 | Repentance means

01:38:05.100 | waking up from

01:38:07.100 | the suicidal preference

01:38:09.100 | of tin over

01:38:11.100 | gold, foundations

01:38:13.100 | of sand over

01:38:15.100 | solid rock,

01:38:17.100 | games in the gutter

01:38:19.100 | over a holiday at the sea.

01:38:21.100 | As C.S. Lewis writes,

01:38:23.100 | "We are half-hearted creatures,

01:38:25.100 | fooling about with

01:38:27.100 | drink and sex and ambition.

01:38:29.100 | When infinite joy is offered

01:38:31.100 | us, like an ignorant child

01:38:33.100 | who wants to go on making mud pies

01:38:35.100 | in the slum because he

01:38:37.100 | cannot imagine what is meant

01:38:39.100 | by the offer of a holiday at

01:38:41.100 | the sea, we are far

01:38:43.100 | too easily pleased."

01:38:45.100 | The infinite

01:38:47.100 | joy Lewis mentions

01:38:49.100 | is the experience

01:38:51.100 | of seeing and savoring

01:38:53.100 | and sharing the worth

01:38:55.100 | and beauty and greatness

01:38:57.100 | of Christ.

01:38:59.100 | Roused

01:39:01.100 | to rely on Christ.

01:39:03.100 | What God is doing in the coronavirus

01:39:07.100 | is showing us,

01:39:09.100 | graphically, painfully,

01:39:11.100 | that nothing in this world

01:39:13.100 | gives the security

01:39:15.100 | and satisfaction that we find

01:39:17.100 | in the infinite greatness and worth

01:39:19.100 | of Jesus. This

01:39:21.100 | global pandemic takes away

01:39:23.100 | our freedom of movement, our

01:39:25.100 | business activity, and our

01:39:27.100 | face-to-face relations. It takes

01:39:29.100 | away our security and our comfort,

01:39:31.100 | and in the end,

01:39:33.100 | it may take away our lives.

01:39:35.100 | The reason God

01:39:37.100 | exposes us to such losses

01:39:39.100 | is to rouse us

01:39:41.100 | to rely on Christ.

01:39:43.100 | Or to put it another way,

01:39:45.100 | the reason he makes calamity

01:39:47.100 | the occasion for offering

01:39:49.100 | Christ to the world is

01:39:51.100 | that the supreme, all-satisfying

01:39:53.100 | greatness of Christ shines

01:39:55.100 | more brightly when Christ sustains

01:39:57.100 | us in suffering.

01:39:59.100 | Gift

01:40:01.100 | of desperation.

01:40:03.100 | Consider, for example,

01:40:05.100 | why God brought

01:40:07.100 | Paul to the point where he

01:40:09.100 | despaired of life.

01:40:11.100 | We do not want you to be unaware, brothers,

01:40:13.100 | of the affliction we experienced

01:40:15.100 | in Asia, for we were so

01:40:17.100 | utterly burdened beyond our strength

01:40:19.100 | that we despaired of

01:40:21.100 | life itself. Indeed,

01:40:23.100 | we felt that we had

01:40:25.100 | received the sentence of death,

01:40:27.100 | but that was to make us rely

01:40:29.100 | not on ourselves

01:40:31.100 | but on God who

01:40:33.100 | raises the dead.

01:40:35.100 | 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

01:40:37.100 | Paul does not view

01:40:39.100 | this experience of desperation as

01:40:41.100 | satanic

01:40:43.100 | or random.

01:40:45.100 | It is purposeful.

01:40:47.100 | And God is the one

01:40:49.100 | whose purpose is mentioned.

01:40:51.100 | This life-threatening experience

01:40:53.100 | was to make

01:40:55.100 | us rely not on ourselves

01:40:57.100 | but on God who raises

01:40:59.100 | the dead.

01:41:01.100 | 2 Corinthians 1:9

01:41:03.100 | This is the message of the coronavirus.

01:41:05.100 | Stop

01:41:07.100 | relying on yourselves

01:41:09.100 | and turn to God.

01:41:11.100 | You cannot even stop

01:41:13.100 | death. God

01:41:15.100 | can raise the dead.

01:41:17.100 | And, of course, relying

01:41:19.100 | on God does not mean that Christians

01:41:21.100 | become do-nothings.

01:41:23.100 | Christians have never been

01:41:25.100 | do-nothings.

01:41:27.100 | It means that the ground,

01:41:29.100 | the pattern, and the goal

01:41:31.100 | of all our doings

01:41:33.100 | is God. As Paul said,

01:41:35.100 | "I worked harder than any of them,

01:41:37.100 | though it was not I

01:41:39.100 | but the grace of God that was with

01:41:41.100 | me." 1 Corinthians 15:10

01:41:43.100 | The coronavirus

01:41:45.100 | calls us

01:41:47.100 | to make God

01:41:49.100 | the all-important, pervasive

01:41:51.100 | reality of our lives.

01:41:53.100 | Our lives depend

01:41:55.100 | on Him more than they depend

01:41:57.100 | on breath.

01:41:59.100 | And sometimes

01:42:01.100 | God takes our breath

01:42:03.100 | in order to throw us onto

01:42:05.100 | Himself.

01:42:07.100 | The meaning of thorns.

01:42:09.100 | Or consider God's purpose in Paul's

01:42:13.100 | painful thorn in the flesh.

01:42:15.100 | "To keep me from becoming conceited

01:42:17.100 | because of the surpassing

01:42:19.100 | greatness of the revelations,

01:42:21.100 | a thorn was given to

01:42:23.100 | me in the flesh, a messenger

01:42:25.100 | of Satan to harass me,

01:42:27.100 | to keep me from becoming conceited.

01:42:29.100 | Three times

01:42:31.100 | I pleaded with the Lord about this,

01:42:33.100 | that it should leave me.

01:42:35.100 | But He said to me,

01:42:37.100 | 'My grace is sufficient for you.

01:42:39.100 | My power is made perfect

01:42:41.100 | in weakness. Therefore

01:42:43.100 | I will boast all the more

01:42:45.100 | gladly of my weaknesses, so

01:42:47.100 | that the power of Christ

01:42:49.100 | may rest upon me.'"

01:42:51.100 | 2 Corinthians 12:7-9

01:42:55.100 | Paul was blessed

01:42:57.100 | with great revelations.

01:42:59.100 | God saw the danger of

01:43:01.100 | pride. Satan saw the danger of

01:43:03.100 | truth and joy.

01:43:05.100 | God governs

01:43:07.100 | Satan's strategy

01:43:09.100 | so that what Satan thinks will

01:43:11.100 | ruin Paul's witness

01:43:13.100 | actually serves

01:43:15.100 | Paul's humility and

01:43:17.100 | gladness. Paul gets

01:43:19.100 | a thorn

01:43:21.100 | in the flesh.

01:43:23.100 | A messenger of Satan

01:43:25.100 | and a messenger

01:43:27.100 | of God.

01:43:29.100 | We don't know what the thorn is,

01:43:31.100 | but we know that thorns are

01:43:33.100 | painful. And we know

01:43:35.100 | that Paul asked three times

01:43:37.100 | that Christ would take it

01:43:39.100 | away, but Christ

01:43:41.100 | will not. He has

01:43:43.100 | a purpose for this pain,

01:43:45.100 | namely, "My power

01:43:47.100 | is made perfect in

01:43:49.100 | weakness." 2 Corinthians

01:43:51.100 | 12:9. His purpose

01:43:53.100 | is that through Paul's

01:43:55.100 | unwavering faith

01:43:57.100 | and joy, Christ

01:43:59.100 | would shine as more

01:44:01.100 | valuable than health.

01:44:03.100 | Paul's response to this

01:44:05.100 | purpose? "I will boast

01:44:07.100 | all the more gladly

01:44:09.100 | of my weaknesses."

01:44:11.100 | 2 Corinthians

01:44:13.100 | 12:9.

01:44:15.100 | Gladly? How can this be?

01:44:17.100 | Why is Paul willing to

01:44:19.100 | embrace his thorn with

01:44:21.100 | gladness? Because his

01:44:23.100 | greatest goal in life is that

01:44:25.100 | Christ be magnified in his body,

01:44:27.100 | whether by life or by death.

01:44:29.100 | Philippians 1:20.

01:44:31.100 | To see the beauty of Christ,

01:44:33.100 | to cherish Christ as the

01:44:35.100 | supreme treasure, to show

01:44:37.100 | Christ to the world as better

01:44:39.100 | than health and life,

01:44:41.100 | that was Paul's joy.

01:44:43.100 | A beautiful

01:44:45.100 | poem called "The Thorn"

01:44:47.100 | by Martha Snell Nicholson

01:44:49.100 | 1898-1953

01:44:51.100 | ends like this.

01:44:53.100 | "I learned he never

01:44:55.100 | gives a thorn without this added

01:44:57.100 | grace. He takes

01:44:59.100 | the thorn to pin aside the

01:45:01.100 | veil which hides his face."

01:45:03.100 | In loss, gain.

01:45:07.100 | Paul embraced loss

01:45:11.100 | in part because

01:45:13.100 | in the loss, Christ

01:45:15.100 | was more fully

01:45:17.100 | gained. "Indeed,

01:45:19.100 | I count everything as loss because

01:45:21.100 | of the surpassing worth of

01:45:23.100 | knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

01:45:25.100 | For his sake I have suffered

01:45:27.100 | the loss of all things and count them as

01:45:29.100 | rubbish in order that I may

01:45:31.100 | gain Christ."

01:45:33.100 | Philippians 3:8.

01:45:35.100 | This

01:45:37.100 | is what it means to repent,

01:45:39.100 | to experience

01:45:41.100 | a change of heart

01:45:43.100 | and mind that

01:45:45.100 | treasures God in Christ

01:45:47.100 | more than life.

01:45:49.100 | "Because your steadfast

01:45:51.100 | love is better than life,

01:45:53.100 | my lips will

01:45:55.100 | praise you." Psalm 63.

01:45:57.100 | This was Paul's

01:45:59.100 | faith. It was true in

01:46:01.100 | life and death. In life

01:46:03.100 | because Christ is the sweetness

01:46:05.100 | of every pleasure and better than

01:46:07.100 | them all. And in death

01:46:09.100 | because in God's presence there is

01:46:11.100 | a fullness of joy.

01:46:13.100 | At his right hand are pleasures

01:46:15.100 | forevermore.

01:46:17.100 | Psalm 16.11.

01:46:19.100 | The coronavirus

01:46:21.100 | pandemic is the experience

01:46:23.100 | of loss.

01:46:25.100 | From the smallest loss

01:46:27.100 | of convenience to the

01:46:29.100 | greatest loss of

01:46:31.100 | life. And if we

01:46:33.100 | know the secret of Paul's joy,

01:46:35.100 | we may experience the

01:46:37.100 | loss as gain.

01:46:39.100 | That is what

01:46:41.100 | God is saying to the world.

01:46:43.100 | Repent and

01:46:45.100 | realign your life with

01:46:47.100 | the infinite worth

01:46:49.100 | of Christ.

01:46:51.100 | Chapter 10.

01:46:53.100 | Creating Good Works

01:46:55.100 | in Danger.

01:46:57.100 | Answer

01:46:59.100 | 5. The

01:47:01.100 | coronavirus is God's call

01:47:03.100 | to his people to overcome

01:47:05.100 | self-pity and fear and

01:47:07.100 | with courageous joy

01:47:09.100 | to do the good works of love

01:47:11.100 | that glorify God.

01:47:13.100 | Jesus taught

01:47:15.100 | his followers to let

01:47:17.100 | your light shine before others

01:47:19.100 | so that they may see your good

01:47:21.100 | works and give glory

01:47:23.100 | to your Father who is in heaven.

01:47:25.100 | Matthew 5.16.

01:47:27.100 | What is often not

01:47:29.100 | noticed is that

01:47:31.100 | being the salt of the earth and

01:47:33.100 | the light of the world in this way

01:47:35.100 | was the more salty

01:47:37.100 | and the more bright

01:47:39.100 | because the good deeds were to be

01:47:41.100 | done even in the midst of suffering.

01:47:43.100 | Brightness in the darkness of danger.

01:47:47.100 | Jesus has just said,

01:47:51.100 | "Blessed are you when

01:47:53.100 | others revile you and

01:47:55.100 | persecute you and utter all kinds of

01:47:57.100 | evil against you falsely on my account.

01:47:59.100 | Rejoice

01:48:01.100 | and be glad, for your

01:48:03.100 | reward is great in heaven."

01:48:05.100 | Matthew 5.11.12.

01:48:07.100 | Then, without a break,

01:48:09.100 | he says, "You are

01:48:11.100 | the salt of the earth. You are the

01:48:13.100 | light of the world."

01:48:15.100 | Matthew 5.13-16.

01:48:17.100 | It is not mere

01:48:19.100 | good deeds

01:48:21.100 | that give Christianity

01:48:23.100 | its tang and luster.

01:48:25.100 | It is good deeds in spite

01:48:27.100 | of danger.

01:48:29.100 | Many non-Christians do

01:48:31.100 | good deeds, but

01:48:33.100 | seldom do people give glory

01:48:35.100 | to God because of them.

01:48:37.100 | Yes, the danger

01:48:39.100 | in Matthew 5 was persecution,

01:48:41.100 | not disease.

01:48:43.100 | But the principle holds

01:48:45.100 | deeds of love

01:48:47.100 | in the context of danger,

01:48:49.100 | whether disease

01:48:51.100 | or persecution,

01:48:53.100 | point more clearly

01:48:55.100 | to the fact that these deeds

01:48:57.100 | are sustained by hope

01:48:59.100 | in God. For example,

01:49:01.100 | Jesus says, "When you

01:49:03.100 | give a feast, invite the

01:49:05.100 | poor, the crippled,

01:49:07.100 | the lame, the blind,

01:49:09.100 | and you will be blessed,

01:49:11.100 | because they cannot repay you.

01:49:13.100 | You will be repaid

01:49:15.100 | at the resurrection of the just."

01:49:17.100 | Luke 14.13-14.

01:49:19.100 | Luke 14.13-14.

01:49:21.100 | Hope in God, beyond death,

01:49:23.100 | you will be repaid at the

01:49:25.100 | resurrection, sustains

01:49:27.100 | and empowers good

01:49:29.100 | deeds that hold

01:49:31.100 | no prospect for reward in this

01:49:33.100 | life. The same would hold

01:49:35.100 | true for good deeds that put

01:49:37.100 | us in danger, especially

01:49:39.100 | the danger of death.

01:49:41.100 | How Peter

01:49:43.100 | Applied Jesus' Teaching

01:49:45.100 | The Apostle Peter,

01:49:49.100 | more than any other New Testament

01:49:51.100 | writer, picks up the

01:49:53.100 | explicit teaching of Jesus about

01:49:55.100 | good deeds. "Keep your

01:49:57.100 | conduct among the Gentiles honorable,

01:49:59.100 | so that when they speak against

01:50:01.100 | you as evildoers, they may see

01:50:03.100 | your good deeds and glorify God on the

01:50:05.100 | day of visitation." 1 Peter

01:50:07.100 | 2.12. And Peter

01:50:09.100 | makes the same point about

01:50:11.100 | good deeds in the face of danger.

01:50:13.100 | He says, "Let those who suffer

01:50:15.100 | according to God's will

01:50:17.100 | entrust their souls

01:50:19.100 | to a faithful Creator

01:50:21.100 | while doing good."

01:50:23.100 | 1 Peter 4.19.

01:50:25.100 | In other words, don't

01:50:27.100 | let the possibility or

01:50:29.100 | the reality of suffering

01:50:31.100 | stop you from doing good deeds.

01:50:33.100 | Christ died

01:50:37.100 | to create good deeds

01:50:39.100 | in danger.

01:50:41.100 | Peter links this

01:50:43.100 | new kind of life with

01:50:45.100 | the death of Jesus

01:50:47.100 | for our sins.

01:50:49.100 | Christ himself

01:50:51.100 | bore our sins in

01:50:53.100 | his body on the tree

01:50:55.100 | that we might die to

01:50:57.100 | sin and live

01:50:59.100 | to righteousness.

01:51:01.100 | 1 Peter 2.24.

01:51:03.100 | Because of Christ,

01:51:05.100 | Christians put

01:51:07.100 | sin to death

01:51:09.100 | and pour themselves out

01:51:11.100 | into the good deeds

01:51:13.100 | of righteousness.

01:51:15.100 | Paul makes the same connection between

01:51:17.100 | the death of Jesus and the zeal

01:51:19.100 | of Christians for good works.

01:51:21.100 | Christ gave himself for us

01:51:23.100 | to redeem us from

01:51:25.100 | all lawlessness and to

01:51:27.100 | purify for himself a people

01:51:29.100 | for his own possession who are

01:51:31.100 | zealous for good works.

01:51:33.100 | Titus 2.14.

01:51:35.100 | Paul also makes

01:51:37.100 | it plain that these good works

01:51:39.100 | are aimed at both

01:51:41.100 | Christians and non-Christians.

01:51:43.100 | As we have

01:51:45.100 | opportunity, let us do

01:51:47.100 | good to everyone

01:51:49.100 | and especially to those

01:51:51.100 | who are of the household of faith.

01:51:53.100 | Galatians 6.10.

01:51:55.100 | See that no one repays

01:51:57.100 | anyone evil for evil,

01:51:59.100 | but always seek to do good to

01:52:01.100 | one another and to everyone.

01:52:03.100 | 1 Thessalonians

01:52:05.100 | 5.15.

01:52:07.100 | Christ magnified

01:52:09.100 | in risky

01:52:11.100 | kindness.

01:52:13.100 | The ultimate aim of

01:52:15.100 | God for his people is that

01:52:17.100 | we glorify his

01:52:19.100 | greatness and magnify

01:52:21.100 | the worth of his Son, Jesus Christ.

01:52:23.100 | Whether you eat

01:52:25.100 | or drink or whatever you do,

01:52:27.100 | do all to the glory of God.

01:52:29.100 | 1 Corinthians 10.31.

01:52:31.100 | It is my eager expectation

01:52:33.100 | and hope that Christ will be

01:52:35.100 | magnified in my body

01:52:37.100 | whether by life or by death.

01:52:39.100 | Philippians 1.20.

01:52:41.100 | God glorified in everything.

01:52:43.100 | Christ magnified

01:52:45.100 | in life and death.

01:52:47.100 | This is the

01:52:49.100 | great God-given goal

01:52:51.100 | of human life.

01:52:53.100 | Therefore, one of

01:52:55.100 | God's purposes in the coronavirus

01:52:57.100 | is that his people

01:52:59.100 | put to death

01:53:01.100 | self-pity and fear

01:53:03.100 | and give

01:53:05.100 | themselves to good deeds

01:53:07.100 | in the presence of danger.

01:53:09.100 | Christians lean toward

01:53:11.100 | need, not comfort.

01:53:13.100 | Toward love, not safety.

01:53:15.100 | That's what our Savior is like.

01:53:17.100 | That is

01:53:19.100 | what he died for.

01:53:21.100 | Example of the

01:53:23.100 | early church.

01:53:25.100 | Rodney Stark

01:53:27.100 | in his book, The Triumph

01:53:29.100 | of Christianity, points out

01:53:31.100 | that in the first

01:53:33.100 | centuries of the Christian church,

01:53:35.100 | the truly

01:53:37.100 | revolutionary principle

01:53:39.100 | was that Christian love

01:53:41.100 | and charity must

01:53:43.100 | extend beyond the

01:53:45.100 | boundaries of family and even

01:53:47.100 | those of faith to all

01:53:49.100 | in need. Two great

01:53:51.100 | plagues struck the Roman

01:53:53.100 | Empire in A.D. 165

01:53:55.100 | and 251.

01:53:57.100 | Outside of the Christian church,

01:53:59.100 | there was no cultural

01:54:01.100 | or religious foundation for

01:54:03.100 | mercy and sacrifice.

01:54:05.100 | There was no belief

01:54:07.100 | that the gods cared about

01:54:09.100 | human affairs, and

01:54:11.100 | mercy was regarded

01:54:13.100 | as a character defect and pity

01:54:15.100 | as a pathological emotion.

01:54:17.100 | Because mercy involves

01:54:19.100 | providing unearned help

01:54:21.100 | or relief, it is contrary

01:54:23.100 | to justice.

01:54:25.100 | Therefore, while a third of the

01:54:27.100 | empire was perishing from disease,

01:54:29.100 | physicians fled to

01:54:31.100 | their country estates.

01:54:33.100 | Those with symptoms were cast

01:54:35.100 | out of homes.

01:54:37.100 | Priests forsook the temples.

01:54:39.100 | But Stark observes,

01:54:41.100 | "Christians

01:54:43.100 | claimed to have answers

01:54:45.100 | and most of all

01:54:47.100 | they took appropriate

01:54:49.100 | actions.

01:54:51.100 | The answers included

01:54:53.100 | the forgiveness of sins

01:54:55.100 | through Christ and the hope of eternal

01:54:57.100 | life beyond death. This was a

01:54:59.100 | precious message in a season

01:55:01.100 | of medical helplessness and utter

01:55:03.100 | hopelessness. As for the

01:55:05.100 | actions, large

01:55:07.100 | numbers of Christians cared for the

01:55:09.100 | sick and dying. Toward

01:55:11.100 | the end of the second plague, Bishop

01:55:13.100 | Dionysius of Alexandria wrote

01:55:15.100 | a letter extolling the

01:55:17.100 | members of his church.

01:55:19.100 | Most of our brothers showed

01:55:21.100 | unbounded love and loyalty,

01:55:23.100 | never sparing themselves

01:55:25.100 | and thinking only of one another.

01:55:27.100 | Heedless of danger,

01:55:29.100 | they took charge of the sick,

01:55:31.100 | attending to their every need

01:55:33.100 | and ministering to them in Christ.

01:55:35.100 | And with them

01:55:37.100 | departed this life

01:55:39.100 | serenely happy,

01:55:41.100 | putting to

01:55:43.100 | silence the ignorance of emperors.

01:55:45.100 | Over time,

01:55:49.100 | this counter-cultural, Christ

01:55:51.100 | sustained care for the sick

01:55:53.100 | and the poor had the effect

01:55:55.100 | of winning many people away

01:55:57.100 | from the surrounding paganism.

01:55:59.100 | Two centuries later,

01:56:01.100 | when the Roman Emperor Julian

01:56:03.100 | (AD 332-363)

01:56:05.100 | wanted to breathe new

01:56:07.100 | life back into the

01:56:09.100 | ancient Roman religion and saw

01:56:11.100 | Christianity as a growing threat,

01:56:13.100 | he wrote, in frustration

01:56:15.100 | to the Roman high priest of Galatia,

01:56:17.100 | "Atheism,

01:56:19.100 | that is, Christian faith,

01:56:21.100 | has been specially advanced

01:56:23.100 | through the loving service rendered

01:56:25.100 | to strangers and through

01:56:27.100 | relief for the burial of the dead.

01:56:29.100 | It is a scandal

01:56:31.100 | that there is not a single Jew

01:56:33.100 | who is a beggar and that

01:56:35.100 | the godless Galileans

01:56:37.100 | (that is, Christians) care not only

01:56:39.100 | for their own poor,

01:56:41.100 | but for ours as well,

01:56:43.100 | while those who belong to us

01:56:45.100 | look in vain for help

01:56:47.100 | that we should render them."

01:56:49.100 | Relieving

01:56:51.100 | God-sent suffering

01:56:53.100 | There is no

01:56:55.100 | contradiction between

01:56:57.100 | seeing the coronavirus as God's

01:56:59.100 | act and calling

01:57:01.100 | Christians to take risks to

01:57:03.100 | alleviate the suffering that it causes.

01:57:05.100 | Ever since God

01:57:07.100 | subjected the world to sin and misery

01:57:09.100 | at the Fall, He has ordained

01:57:11.100 | that His people seek

01:57:13.100 | to rescue the perishing,

01:57:15.100 | even though He is the one

01:57:17.100 | who has appointed the judgment of the perishing.

01:57:19.100 | God Himself

01:57:21.100 | came into the world in Jesus Christ

01:57:23.100 | to rescue people from His

01:57:25.100 | own just judgment

01:57:27.100 | (Romans 5:9).

01:57:29.100 | That is what the cross of Christ

01:57:31.100 | means.

01:57:33.100 | Therefore, the good deeds

01:57:35.100 | of God's people will

01:57:37.100 | include prayers for the healing

01:57:39.100 | of the sick and for God

01:57:41.100 | to stay His hand and turn back

01:57:43.100 | the pandemic and that He

01:57:45.100 | would provide a cure.

01:57:47.100 | We pray about the coronavirus

01:57:49.100 | and we work to alleviate its suffering

01:57:51.100 | the way Abraham Lincoln prayed

01:57:53.100 | for the end of the Civil War and

01:57:55.100 | worked to end it, even though

01:57:57.100 | he saw it as a

01:57:59.100 | judgment from God.

01:58:01.100 | Fondly do we hope,

01:58:03.100 | fervently do we pray,

01:58:05.100 | that this mighty scourge

01:58:07.100 | of war may speedily

01:58:09.100 | pass away.

01:58:11.100 | Yet, if God wills

01:58:13.100 | that it continue

01:58:15.100 | until all the wealth

01:58:17.100 | piled by the bondman's

01:58:19.100 | 250 years of unrequited

01:58:21.100 | toil shall be

01:58:23.100 | sunk, and until every

01:58:25.100 | drop of blood drawn with

01:58:27.100 | the last shall be paid by

01:58:29.100 | another drawn with

01:58:31.100 | the sword, as was

01:58:33.100 | said 3,000 years ago,

01:58:35.100 | so still it must

01:58:37.100 | be said, the judgments

01:58:39.100 | of the Lord are true and righteous

01:58:41.100 | altogether.

01:58:43.100 | God has His

01:58:45.100 | work to do, much of

01:58:47.100 | it secret.

01:58:49.100 | We have ours.

01:58:51.100 | If we trust Him and

01:58:53.100 | obey His word, He will

01:58:55.100 | cause His sovereignty and our

01:58:57.100 | service to accomplish

01:58:59.100 | His wise and good purposes.

01:59:01.100 | Chapter 11

01:59:05.100 | Loosening the

01:59:07.100 | Roots to Reach

01:59:09.100 | the Nations

01:59:11.100 | Answer 6

01:59:13.100 | In the

01:59:15.100 | coronavirus, God is

01:59:17.100 | loosening the roots of settled

01:59:19.100 | Christians all over the

01:59:21.100 | world to make them free

01:59:23.100 | for something new and radical

01:59:25.100 | and send them with the gospel

01:59:27.100 | of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.

01:59:29.100 | Connecting the coronavirus

01:59:33.100 | with missions may seem

01:59:35.100 | like a strange idea, because

01:59:37.100 | in the short run,

01:59:39.100 | the coronavirus is shutting

01:59:41.100 | down travel and migration

01:59:43.100 | and missionary advance.

01:59:45.100 | But I'm not thinking short-term.

01:59:49.100 | God has used the

01:59:51.100 | suffering and upheaval of history

01:59:53.100 | to move His church to

01:59:55.100 | places it needs to go.

01:59:57.100 | I am suggesting that

01:59:59.100 | He will do that again

02:00:01.100 | as part of the long-term

02:00:03.100 | impact of the coronavirus.

02:00:05.100 | Persecution

02:00:07.100 | as Missionary Strategy

02:00:09.100 | Consider, for example,

02:00:11.100 | how God moved

02:00:13.100 | His people out of

02:00:15.100 | Jerusalem on mission

02:00:17.100 | into Judea and Samaria.

02:00:19.100 | Jesus had

02:00:21.100 | instructed His disciples to

02:00:23.100 | take the gospel to all the world,

02:00:25.100 | including Jerusalem

02:00:27.100 | and all Judea and Samaria

02:00:29.100 | and to the end of the earth, Acts 1-8.

02:00:31.100 | But by the time of

02:00:33.100 | Acts 8, it seems

02:00:35.100 | the mission was stalled in Jerusalem.

02:00:37.100 | What would it take

02:00:39.100 | to move the church

02:00:41.100 | into mission?

02:00:43.100 | It took the death of Stephen

02:00:45.100 | and a consequent

02:00:47.100 | persecution. As soon as

02:00:49.100 | Stephen was martyred, Acts

02:00:51.100 | 7-60, a

02:00:53.100 | persecution broke out.

02:00:55.100 | There arose on that day a great

02:00:57.100 | persecution against the church in Jerusalem,

02:00:59.100 | and they were all

02:01:01.100 | scattered throughout

02:01:03.100 | the regions of Judea

02:01:05.100 | and Samaria,

02:01:07.100 | except the apostles. Now

02:01:09.100 | those who were scattered

02:01:11.100 | went about preaching

02:01:13.100 | the Word, Acts

02:01:15.100 | 8-4.

02:01:17.100 | That's how God got

02:01:19.100 | His people moving with

02:01:21.100 | martyrdom and persecution.

02:01:23.100 | At last,

02:01:25.100 | Judea and Samaria were

02:01:27.100 | hearing the gospel.

02:01:29.100 | God's ways

02:01:31.100 | are not our ways.

02:01:33.100 | But His mission

02:01:35.100 | is sure. Jesus

02:01:37.100 | said so.

02:01:39.100 | And His Word cannot fail.

02:01:41.100 | "I will build my church,

02:01:43.100 | and the gates of hell shall

02:01:45.100 | not prevail against it."

02:01:47.100 | Matthew 16-18.

02:01:49.100 | "This gospel of the kingdom

02:01:51.100 | will be proclaimed throughout the whole world

02:01:53.100 | as a testimony to all the nations."

02:01:55.100 | Matthew 24-14.

02:01:57.100 | "Not may be proclaimed,

02:01:59.100 | but will be

02:02:01.100 | proclaimed."

02:02:03.100 | Setbacks as

02:02:05.100 | strategic advance.

02:02:07.100 | We may think

02:02:09.100 | the coronavirus outbreak

02:02:11.100 | is a setback for world

02:02:13.100 | missions. I doubt it.

02:02:15.100 | God's ways

02:02:17.100 | often include

02:02:19.100 | apparent setbacks

02:02:21.100 | that result in great advances.

02:02:23.100 | On

02:02:25.100 | January 9, 1985,

02:02:27.100 | Pastor Hristo Kulicev,

02:02:29.100 | a congregational

02:02:31.100 | pastor in Bulgaria, was

02:02:33.100 | arrested and put in prison.

02:02:35.100 | His crime was that

02:02:37.100 | he preached in his church even though

02:02:39.100 | the state had appointed another

02:02:41.100 | man as pastor whom the congregation

02:02:43.100 | did not elect.

02:02:45.100 | His trial was a mockery of

02:02:47.100 | justice, and he was

02:02:49.100 | sentenced to eight months in prison.

02:02:51.100 | During his time in prison,

02:02:53.100 | he made Christ known in

02:02:55.100 | every way he could.

02:02:57.100 | When he got out, he wrote,

02:02:59.100 | "Both prisoners and

02:03:01.100 | jailers asked many

02:03:03.100 | questions, and it turned out

02:03:05.100 | that we had a more

02:03:07.100 | fruitful ministry there than

02:03:09.100 | we could have expected in

02:03:11.100 | church. God

02:03:13.100 | was better served

02:03:15.100 | by our presence in prison

02:03:17.100 | than if we had been free."

02:03:19.100 | This is often

02:03:21.100 | God's way. The

02:03:23.100 | global scope and seriousness

02:03:25.100 | of the coronavirus is

02:03:27.100 | great for God to waste.

02:03:29.100 | It will serve

02:03:31.100 | his invincible purpose of

02:03:33.100 | global evangelization.

02:03:35.100 | Christ has not shed his blood in

02:03:37.100 | vain, and Revelation 5:9

02:03:39.100 | says that by that blood

02:03:41.100 | he ransomed people

02:03:43.100 | for God from every tribe

02:03:45.100 | and tongue and language and people and

02:03:47.100 | nation. He

02:03:49.100 | will have the reward of his suffering,

02:03:51.100 | and even pandemics

02:03:53.100 | will serve

02:03:55.100 | to complete that great commission.

02:03:57.100 | A closing prayer.

02:04:01.100 | Father,

02:04:05.100 | at our best moments,

02:04:07.100 | by your grace,

02:04:09.100 | we are not sleeping in Gethsemane.

02:04:11.100 | We are awake and

02:04:13.100 | listening to your Son's prayer.

02:04:15.100 | He knows deep down

02:04:17.100 | that he must suffer,

02:04:19.100 | but in his perfect humanity,

02:04:21.100 | he cries out, "If it is possible,

02:04:23.100 | let this cup pass."

02:04:25.100 | In the same way,

02:04:27.100 | we sense deep down

02:04:29.100 | that this pandemic

02:04:31.100 | is appointed in your wisdom

02:04:33.100 | for good and

02:04:35.100 | necessary purposes.

02:04:37.100 | We too must suffer.

02:04:39.100 | Your Son was innocent.

02:04:41.100 | We are not.

02:04:43.100 | Yet, with

02:04:45.100 | him, in our less than perfect

02:04:47.100 | humanity, we too cry

02:04:49.100 | out, "If it

02:04:51.100 | is possible, let

02:04:53.100 | this cup pass."

02:04:55.100 | Do quickly, O Lord,

02:04:57.100 | the painful, just, and

02:04:59.100 | merciful work you have resolved to do.

02:05:01.100 | Do not linger in judgment.

02:05:03.100 | Do not delay

02:05:05.100 | your compassion. Remember the

02:05:07.100 | poor, O Lord, according to your

02:05:09.100 | mercy. Do not forget

02:05:11.100 | the cry of the afflicted.

02:05:13.100 | Grant recovery. Grant

02:05:15.100 | a cure. Deliver

02:05:17.100 | us, your poor, helpless creatures,

02:05:19.100 | from these sorrows,

02:05:21.100 | we pray.

02:05:23.100 | But do not waste our misery

02:05:25.100 | and grief, O Lord.

02:05:27.100 | Purify your people

02:05:29.100 | from powerless preoccupation

02:05:31.100 | with barren materialism

02:05:33.100 | and Christless entertainment.

02:05:35.100 | Put our mouths

02:05:37.100 | out of taste with the bait

02:05:39.100 | of Satan. Cut

02:05:41.100 | from us the roots and remnant

02:05:43.100 | of pride and hate

02:05:45.100 | and unjust ways.

02:05:47.100 | Grant us capacities

02:05:49.100 | of outrage at our

02:05:51.100 | own belittling of your glory.

02:05:53.100 | Open the eyes of our

02:05:55.100 | hearts to see and savor the beauty

02:05:57.100 | of Christ. Incline

02:05:59.100 | our hearts to your Word, your

02:06:01.100 | Son, and your way.

02:06:03.100 | Fill us with compassionate

02:06:05.100 | courage, and make a name

02:06:07.100 | for yourself in the way your people

02:06:09.100 | serve. Stretch

02:06:11.100 | forth your hand in

02:06:13.100 | great awakening for the

02:06:15.100 | sake of this perishing world.

02:06:17.100 | Let the terrible

02:06:19.100 | words of Revelation not be

02:06:21.100 | spoken over this generation,

02:06:23.100 | yet still they did

02:06:25.100 | not repent.

02:06:27.100 | As you have stricken bodies,

02:06:29.100 | strike now the slumbering

02:06:31.100 | souls. Forbid

02:06:33.100 | that they would remain asleep

02:06:35.100 | in the darkness of pride and

02:06:37.100 | unbelief. In your great

02:06:39.100 | mercy, say to these bones,

02:06:41.100 | "Live!"

02:06:43.100 | And bring the hearts and lives

02:06:45.100 | of millions

02:06:47.100 | into alignment with

02:06:49.100 | the infinite worth of

02:06:51.100 | Jesus. In

02:06:53.100 | Jesus' name, Amen.

02:06:55.100 | Thank you for listening

02:06:59.100 | to this audio recording

02:07:01.100 | of "Coronavirus and Christ" by

02:07:03.100 | John Piper. This book

02:07:05.100 | was narrated by John Piper and was

02:07:07.100 | produced by Desiring God in 2020.

02:07:09.100 | No portion of this recording

02:07:11.100 | may be reproduced for any reason

02:07:13.100 | without prior written permission from Desiring

02:07:15.100 | God. This audio

02:07:17.100 | edition is published under an agreement

02:07:19.100 | with Crossway. It was originally

02:07:21.100 | published in English by Crossway

02:07:23.100 | as "Coronavirus and

02:07:27.100 | the Desiring God Foundation.

02:07:29.100 | For additional resources,

02:07:31.100 | visit DesiringGod.org.

02:07:33.100 | [music]

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Coronavirus and Christ (Audiobook)

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