April 28, 2025 • 24 mins
On the next Treasured Truth, as we continue to consider how to see purpose in our problems and pain, Pastor Ford will explain the various kinds of suffering we can encounter. One of those is remedial suffering, and God uses it much like a potter uses heat to cure his clay. So, it’s during those times when God uses suffering to burn character into us that cannot be changed, to burn compromise out of our life, and to burn off the carnality from our behavior—all of those adjustments help us resemble Christ and not the world. To learn more from Pastor Ford about how to see the purpose in your problems and pain, join us for the next Treasured Truth.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Remedial suffering is when God burns in character that cannot
be changed. When God burns out, compromise out of our
life and when God burns off carnality.
S2 (00:21):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Heller. Glad you're with us today as we
continue our look at James chapter one and a message
called Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain. And we
all go through seasons of suffering. In today's broadcast, we're
going to look at some of those reasons. Pastor Ford actually,
(00:43):
in this message pulls out five of those. And as
we just heard, at least one of those, we're going
to drill down a little bit deeper into today that
idea of remedial suffering and how often it's through the
suffering that we face in life that God molds us,
conforms us more into the image and likeness of His
(01:04):
Son Jesus. Because if we're a follower of Jesus, really,
that ought to be our goal. To be conformed more
into his image and likeness. But sometimes that's painful, and
sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes it feels like the suffering
you're in is never going to end. So having a
proper understanding of suffering, I think, can be so helpful.
So let's open our Bibles to James chapter one as
(01:26):
we continue this message. Seeing purpose in your problems and pain.
Here is Pastor Ford.
S1 (01:33):
Now notice something because he says something about these things.
He says, first of all, he says this. Aspects of
suffering that show we have the right perspective. He says
they are certain. Notice, he says, when you fall into
divers temptation. Not if I don't need to say anymore.
John 1633 in the world you shall have tribulation. Be
(01:55):
of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He said,
you're going to you're going to be hated on. You're
going to be despised and rejected. You're going to be
kicked to the curb. You ought to just. You. You
better be scared when. When there's nobody hating on you.
That generally mean you ain't doing nothing for Christ. Mhm. Yeah.
(02:17):
And so first Corinthians chapter ten, verse 13, there's no
temptation taken you but that which is common to man.
But God is faithful who will not allow you to
be tempted. Notice secondly, not just are they certain but
they're sudden. He says, when you fall. And have you
ever noticed that your trials, your tests, your temptations don't
consult your daytimer? They don't ask to be put on
(02:39):
your schedule. It just comes up and it just overwhelm you.
And so he says you have no control over your pain.
You just have control in your pain. Now, let me
ask you a question. Say ask it. Why is it
so important to have the right perspective about our problems
in pain, so that we see it from God's perspective?
(02:59):
And once we do, what will happen? I'll tell you
what will happen. And Scripture affirms it. What happened? Pastor,
for glad you asked. You ask intelligent questions because it'll
turn my fear into faith. It'll turn my sighing into singing.
It'll turn my pouting into praising. It'll turn my doubting
into dancing. It will turn my worrying into worship. It
(03:20):
will turn my trying into trusting, uh, the you know
what they meant for evil. God said. I mean it
for good. Uh, he'll say when I pass through the waters.
I will not fear because you're with me. In other words,
he said, you're going to get in some water and
you're going to get wet. But don't worry, the only
thing you need to worry about is this I ain't
going to let you drown. So you may go down once.
(03:42):
You may go down twice, but you ain't going down
three times. Because I will be with you. And so
and so. I'll never forget, uh, when we're in the
other church, we just got a new carpet. Green carpet. And,
you know, and I don't know why we got green,
I don't know. Uh, somebody said money. No, we didn't
have none over there. No, we ain't got much over here.
That's why it's red. Uh, but anyway. So, so so, uh,
(04:06):
they had a wedding, and I told them. Don't put
anything on our carpet. They put candles down the aisle
and let the candles burn, and it seeped into the carpet.
And Dennis Sanders, who was our, uh, custodian at the time,
I said, man, I'm upset. I'm calling them people. Hey,
they going to pay for this? If we got to
get a new carpet, they're going to pay us. I
told them, don't be. And he said, don't worry about it, pastor.
(04:26):
I said, what do you mean, don't worry about it?
He said, I got this. Don't worry. He said, it
won't have any damage. I said, come on, man, look
how deep that's in the carpet. You start scraping it,
you're going to scrape the piling. It's going to it's
going to look bad. He said, pastor, I got this.
I said, okay, I want to see how you going
to do this? He went and came back. I said,
what's that? He said, it's a heat gun. And then
he had this piece of paper with him or a
(04:47):
cloth or whatever it was. And so he put the
heat to it. And then he said, Now I'm going
to blot it. And he put the whatever it was
down there. And the wax soaked up in the blotter
paper or cloth, whatever it was, and you couldn't tell.
I said, wow, I gotta write that down. He said,
I knew you was going to use it as a
(05:08):
sermon illustration. Yes, I am, because that's what God wants
to do with us. Uh, that there's something in my
character that just ain't right. And God says, oh, man,
he's stubborn and hard. It's in the warp and the
fiber of his soul. And so I need some heat.
And he puts the heat of the conviction of the
Holy Ghost on me. And then he blots it out
(05:30):
with the Scripture, because I'm clean through the word that
he's spoken unto me, and it blots out. And I
look and I say, wow, I'm new in that area too.
And so what you need to be crying out, say,
what do we need to be crying out for? Boom
boom boom. Mhm. Fire. Boom boom boom. Oh when it's hot.
(06:00):
And God makes it hot because we've got a toxic personality.
Give me some heat. We've got a fornication. Adultery. Give
me some heat. Gossiping. Backbiting. Jealousy. Lying. Give me some heat.
Turn up the heat. Give me some fire. In other words,
it's Romans 828. All. All things work together for good
(06:22):
to those who love the Lord. And so we have
to have a right perspective. Regal prerogative. Let me finish
this real quick. We have to. The third way. A
mature believer sees purpose in their problem plan. Is, are
y'all tired of the word? Okay, okay. Can I can
I do one more? Thank you very much. Amen. Amen.
You have to understand the refining process that takes place.
(06:49):
He says in verse three, listen to this. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith works. Patience. Wow. That's powerful.
That's that's. Now, look, some of you won't come to
Bible study, so I got to bring Bible study to you. Okay.
There are five kinds of suffering in the Bible that
I find. Let me. Let me give you the five.
If you take notes, you you may want these first
kind of suffering is religious suffering. It's religious suffering. You
(07:11):
say what? What what is that? It's when you suffer
because your religion puts a stipulation on you that God
does not. So every religion is false. Yeah. And and
here's what first Corinthians 1022 says. They are not worshiping God.
They are worshiping demons. Did you hear what I said?
(07:33):
They're worshiping demons. I didn't say that. Don't shoot the mailman.
It says it in first Corinthians 1022 that all religion
other than Christianity is the worship of demons. They think
they're worshiping God, but they're. Okay, let me give you
an example. In India, people were starving. But it's not
caused by a food shortage or by overpopulation. It's the
(07:55):
result of religious belief because they are Hindus and Buddhists
and they believe that that roach that you killed this
morning was probably your Uncle Willie, who died ten years
ago and came back as a roach. And so you're
not allowed to kill rats, mice and cows. And so
get this now. Why is there a hunger problem? Because
(08:16):
of its religious suffering. Because you can't kill a cow.
Every cow is sacred. So then one cow could feed
seven people. Which means then, since they have 200 million
sacred cows, they could feed. If they just chopped them
boys up into Big Macs and Whoppers, they'd be able
(08:39):
to feed 1,400,000,000 people. But their religion prohibits it. And
the mice and the rats consume 50% of the stored
grain in India. See? Religious suffering. Then secondly, and I
gotta hasten on, there's rapacious suffering. Say Replaces what is rapacious.
(09:02):
Rapacious is demonic suffering like the man in Mark five. Uh,
he was touched not by an angel, but touched by
a demon. And there were how many demons in him?
How many thousand? 6000 demons. Now, that shouldn't surprise you,
because some of y'all got more than that. I done
(09:22):
dealt with some of y'all, and here's what I love
about it. I have to I have to make this
comment because it says. And they said, Jesus said, what
is your name? And they said, now get this, they
is plural because there's 6000 said is singular because only
one spoke for all. Alright, well I said the church
had that kind of unity. What is your name? Everybody
(09:44):
would be saying her name. My name, my name. Joe Keisha.
My name. Laquisha. My God, no, we're Christ Bible Church anyway.
And so, uh, there's rapacious suffering. Then thirdly, there's retributive suffering.
You say, what is that? That's that suffering for our sin.
John 514. Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
uh John 513 through 17. That is some some of
(10:08):
us are suffering on our own. It's kind of like
I tell you all the time, you say, God, why
am I in this financial trouble? Why you let this happen?
And God says, my name ain't on. None of them
slips on any of them credit cards. Yeah. Amen. Then
there's redemptive suffering. What's redemptive suffering? Write down second Corinthians
one three through 11 if you're doing that, uh, because
(10:31):
redemptive suffering is when you don't suffer for yourself, that
your suffering is so God can connect to somebody else.
There was one year my wife was in the hospital
five times for two weeks at a time. Three of
those two sets of weeks, she led a nurse to Christ.
So three people came to Christ while she was in
the hospital. And we rejoiced because we said that suffering
(10:54):
wasn't for you. That's suffering because you can go in
there and witness. When Pastor Betts was in the hospital.
He led people to Christ. And so here God allows
us sometimes to suffer so that other people can be blessed.
But here it is in this text. Uh, it's called
remedial suffering. Let me give you the definition of a
very handsome preacher on the South Side of Chicago. Uh,
(11:17):
Pastor James Ford junior. Here's what he said. And I quote.
Remedial suffering is a special course of study for helping
students in the University of the Holy Spirit to overcome
deficiencies in specific character, skills, ability, knowledge, or wisdom. Go ahead.
(11:47):
Say wow. Now make it plain, pastor. Okay. It's simply remedial.
Suffering is when God burns in, when God burns out
and when God burns off, you say, what's he burning when?
God burns in character. That cannot be changed when God
(12:07):
burns out. Compromise out of our life. And when God
burns off carnality.
S2 (12:17):
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. And really,
I think a helpful look today at why God allows
us to suffer in the midst of that pain and
in the midst of that suffering, it can be very
tempting to get angry with God and to doubt that
he has our good in mind, but good to be
reminded that he does indeed use that suffering for his purposes,
(12:40):
his good purposes. Well, we're going to get back to this.
Look at James chapter one. In just one moment. I
want to let you know if you ever miss a broadcast,
you can always order these programs on CD. You can
also stream the broadcast or download MP3's. You'll find the
links to do that when you come to our website.
It's Treasure Truth radio.org. While you're there. Hope you'll spend
(13:00):
a little extra time and check out the different links.
You can see the books that Pastor Ford has written,
find out more information about him and more. Just come
to treasure Truth radio.org. Again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (13:12):
Someone that said a brook would lose its song if
God removed the rocks. Yeah, that's true, that's true, that's true. Listen, listen, listen,
let me tell you this real quick and I'm almost
ready to let you go. See, there's some things you
think are working against you are actually working for you. Okay.
If you ask Wallace Johnson, uh, he understood the refining process.
If you ask, uh, Wallace Johnson. Wallace Johnson. What's the
(13:35):
worst day of your life? You know what Wallace Johnson
would say? Say what would he say? Wallace Johnson would
say it was when I got fired from the sawmill
of which I worked for 20 years. You say, uh,
Wallace Johnson, what's the worst day of your life? I mean,
the best day of your life. Wallace Johnson would say
the best day of my life is when I got
fired from the sawmill that I worked for for 20 years.
(13:57):
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I mean,
I'd be looking at Wallace like you're looking at me
right now. Wait a minute. How can it be the
best day and the worst day at the same time?
And here's what Wallace Johnson would say. He would say, yeah,
it was the worst day. Uh, because my boss fired
me out. Uh, but it was the best day because
God wanted to lead me to my destiny. But I
(14:17):
was too wrapped up in my history. So God then
had to have my boss fire me out so he
could take me up. Alright, so I began to realize
that since I wouldn't leave the job, God had the
job leave me. See, that's why I tell you that
all the time. All the time I tell you that
(14:39):
there's some people, uh. That you were my friend. I
thought it was my friend. No, they were good for
you where you were. They were not for you where
you're going. Come on. You can say something. You can
say something. Look at somebody say, hey, neighbor, quit giving
penthouse access.
S3 (14:59):
We forgive him.
S1 (15:01):
To lobby level people. That's right. That's right. Because every
hotel I stayed in to get to the penthouse, you
need a key card. Mm. So, Wallace Johnson, how could
it be? Well, yeah. See, because five years later, I
became a millionaire. And before I died, I became a billionaire.
Because once I got fired from the sawmill, I began
(15:23):
to think. What did I dream about? I dreamed about
as a Christian. Since I'm a pilgrim and stranger, I
dreamed about the fact that maybe I could have help
strangers who are coming from different places and coming to
a foreign place that maybe they've never been to before.
And I can roll out a welcome mat, and I
can give them accommodations, and they can have food and
(15:43):
meet other people coming from all over the place that
they may never meet again. And so Wallace Johnson became
the co-founder of Holiday Inn. Now explain refining, uh, look, look, look,
here's what God is doing, this refining process. What about it?
Here it is right here in a nutshell. Here it is.
Here's the refining process okay, so everybody know what a
(16:05):
concept car is okay. A concept car is a car
that the manufacturer, uh, tests in private. They run them
into the wall. You ever see them commercials? Yeah, those
are concept cars. Here's what they want to do. They
want to make sure that they're good enough for the public.
So they crash them in private to approve them because
(16:27):
the word trying is to approve. So they try it
so they can approve it to make sure that when
it goes public, it'll be able to withstand what it's
up against. Me go on this side. Maybe you understand it.
And so we are God's concept cars. What he's doing
(16:48):
right now is he's crashing you on the little stage
to make sure that he's preparing you for the big stage.
So you don't understand. You don't understand, uh, what he
does is he doesn't want to make himself look bad,
so he has to build us up. And so he
crashed that fender don't work. He puts this fender on us. Okay.
And so let me make it plain. Here it is.
(17:10):
God says, I want to deal with you in private
so I can get you ready for public so that
you don't embarrass me or yourself. So what God is
saying is, listen, I want to get on your last
black nerve, your last white nerve, your your last yellow
nerve in this small place. And whenever you have victory there,
I know I can put you in a big place.
That is, if I can get you to have patience
(17:30):
at home, you'll have patience on the job. If I
can keep you from cussing somebody out in church, I
can keep you from cussing somebody out at the job. Uh,
I can make sure that whenever somebody cuts you off
on the Dan Ryan, that you give them the whole hand,
praise the Lord and not just tell them that they
are number one. And so there it is. What does
it do? The refiners processing. What are you talking about?
(17:54):
Here's what the metallurgist does. He puts the gold in
the fire and he turns up the crucible to make
it hot. Why? So it can melt. Because when it melts,
the dross comes to the top. Then he takes a
scooper and scoops off the dross. And he's got gold
that's purer. And he does two things. Come on, somebody
knows it. Holler out. What does he keep his hand on? Thermostat.
Because he controls the temperature with the thermostat. If it's
(18:16):
not on long enough, then the impurities won't be burned up. Uh,
but if it's too long, the metal will be burnished
and it will be destroyed. So he knows exactly how
high to make the fire. He knows exactly how long
to keep you in it. Just stay in the fire
because you need to understand whatever in you ain't out
(18:37):
of you yet, or that thing wouldn't be bothering you
like it is. How do I know God is done
when it ain't bothering you like it's bothering you now then,
you know. God has worked it out of you. And.
And I'm done. You've been so, so kind to me.
Let me just tell you. What is God doing? He's purifying.
(18:59):
He's transforming. Think what God did. God transformed Moses from
a murderer into a liberator. He transformed Joseph from a
prisoner to a president. He didn't have to show his
birth certificate. He took David from a kid to a king.
He took Paul from a persecutor to a preacher. He
took Rahab from a woman of the night into a
(19:20):
woman of the light. He took the woman in John
chapter four, from where she was shacking to she start sharing. Yeah,
that's our God. He's into the transformation business. We ought
to know it. Because he did what? He gets treasure
out of trash. He gets jewels out of junk. He
gets glory out of garbage. He gets riches out of rubbish.
He gets diamonds out of debris. He gets righteousness out
(19:44):
of riff raff. He gets majesty out of a mess.
He gets worship out of waste. He gets deliverance from
a drug addict. He can get praise out of a prostitute.
And hallelujah, out of a homosexual. He can turn a
pole dancer into a praise dancer. He can turn a
drunk into a deacon and he can turn somebody illicit
(20:05):
into an elder. That's our God. He has conformed us
into his image. So remember, the next time your back
is against the wall, remember that his back was against
the cross. Yeah. Who suffered like Jesus? Who was God
in the flesh? Foxes have holes. Birds of the air
(20:26):
have nests. And the Son of man hath nowhere to
lay his head. Think about it. Born in another man's manger.
Preach in another man's town. Ate at another man's table.
Wore another man's crown. Suffered another man's beating. Took another
man's disgrace, bore another man's sin, and died in another
(20:46):
man's place. The Bible says in Hebrews five eight, even
though he were the son, he learned obedience by the
things that he suffered. Jesus died in agony need so
we could live life abundantly. And you ought to give
him praise because of the refining process where he's turning
(21:08):
you into who you are now, to who you are
to be, where he's taking you from, where you are now,
to where you are to be. And that is part
of the process of your getting there. So I came
to tell somebody, and I'm done, that your setback is
a setup for your comeback. God is taking you somewhere.
(21:31):
Go with God.
S2 (21:35):
That is pastor and author James Ford Jr. A message
called seeing Purpose in your Problems and Pain. And if
God has been using Pastor Ford's teaching in your life,
we'd love to know about that. You can always drop
us a note through the website. Just come to Treasure
Truth Radio and fill out the contact form. You can
also put a letter in the mail. Our address is
(21:57):
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(22:20):
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(22:43):
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A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Remedial suffering is when God burns in character that cannot
be changed. When God burns out, compromise out of our
life and when God burns off carnality.
S2 (00:21):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Heller. Glad you're with us today as we
continue our look at James chapter one and a message
called Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain. And we
all go through seasons of suffering. In today's broadcast, we're
going to look at some of those reasons. Pastor Ford actually,
(00:43):
in this message pulls out five of those. And as
we just heard, at least one of those, we're going
to drill down a little bit deeper into today that
idea of remedial suffering and how often it's through the
suffering that we face in life that God molds us,
conforms us more into the image and likeness of His
(01:04):
Son Jesus. Because if we're a follower of Jesus, really,
that ought to be our goal. To be conformed more
into his image and likeness. But sometimes that's painful, and
sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes it feels like the suffering
you're in is never going to end. So having a
proper understanding of suffering, I think, can be so helpful.
So let's open our Bibles to James chapter one as
(01:26):
we continue this message. Seeing purpose in your problems and pain.
Here is Pastor Ford.
S1 (01:33):
Now notice something because he says something about these things.
He says, first of all, he says this. Aspects of
suffering that show we have the right perspective. He says
they are certain. Notice, he says, when you fall into
divers temptation. Not if I don't need to say anymore.
John 1633 in the world you shall have tribulation. Be
(01:55):
of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He said,
you're going to you're going to be hated on. You're
going to be despised and rejected. You're going to be
kicked to the curb. You ought to just. You. You
better be scared when. When there's nobody hating on you.
That generally mean you ain't doing nothing for Christ. Mhm. Yeah.
(02:17):
And so first Corinthians chapter ten, verse 13, there's no
temptation taken you but that which is common to man.
But God is faithful who will not allow you to
be tempted. Notice secondly, not just are they certain but
they're sudden. He says, when you fall. And have you
ever noticed that your trials, your tests, your temptations don't
consult your daytimer? They don't ask to be put on
(02:39):
your schedule. It just comes up and it just overwhelm you.
And so he says you have no control over your pain.
You just have control in your pain. Now, let me
ask you a question. Say ask it. Why is it
so important to have the right perspective about our problems
in pain, so that we see it from God's perspective?
(02:59):
And once we do, what will happen? I'll tell you
what will happen. And Scripture affirms it. What happened? Pastor,
for glad you asked. You ask intelligent questions because it'll
turn my fear into faith. It'll turn my sighing into singing.
It'll turn my pouting into praising. It'll turn my doubting
into dancing. It will turn my worrying into worship. It
(03:20):
will turn my trying into trusting, uh, the you know
what they meant for evil. God said. I mean it
for good. Uh, he'll say when I pass through the waters.
I will not fear because you're with me. In other words,
he said, you're going to get in some water and
you're going to get wet. But don't worry, the only
thing you need to worry about is this I ain't
going to let you drown. So you may go down once.
(03:42):
You may go down twice, but you ain't going down
three times. Because I will be with you. And so
and so. I'll never forget, uh, when we're in the
other church, we just got a new carpet. Green carpet. And,
you know, and I don't know why we got green,
I don't know. Uh, somebody said money. No, we didn't
have none over there. No, we ain't got much over here.
That's why it's red. Uh, but anyway. So, so so, uh,
(04:06):
they had a wedding, and I told them. Don't put
anything on our carpet. They put candles down the aisle
and let the candles burn, and it seeped into the carpet.
And Dennis Sanders, who was our, uh, custodian at the time,
I said, man, I'm upset. I'm calling them people. Hey,
they going to pay for this? If we got to
get a new carpet, they're going to pay us. I
told them, don't be. And he said, don't worry about it, pastor.
(04:26):
I said, what do you mean, don't worry about it?
He said, I got this. Don't worry. He said, it
won't have any damage. I said, come on, man, look
how deep that's in the carpet. You start scraping it,
you're going to scrape the piling. It's going to it's
going to look bad. He said, pastor, I got this.
I said, okay, I want to see how you going
to do this? He went and came back. I said,
what's that? He said, it's a heat gun. And then
he had this piece of paper with him or a
(04:47):
cloth or whatever it was. And so he put the
heat to it. And then he said, Now I'm going
to blot it. And he put the whatever it was
down there. And the wax soaked up in the blotter
paper or cloth, whatever it was, and you couldn't tell.
I said, wow, I gotta write that down. He said,
I knew you was going to use it as a
(05:08):
sermon illustration. Yes, I am, because that's what God wants
to do with us. Uh, that there's something in my
character that just ain't right. And God says, oh, man,
he's stubborn and hard. It's in the warp and the
fiber of his soul. And so I need some heat.
And he puts the heat of the conviction of the
Holy Ghost on me. And then he blots it out
(05:30):
with the Scripture, because I'm clean through the word that
he's spoken unto me, and it blots out. And I
look and I say, wow, I'm new in that area too.
And so what you need to be crying out, say,
what do we need to be crying out for? Boom
boom boom. Mhm. Fire. Boom boom boom. Oh when it's hot.
(06:00):
And God makes it hot because we've got a toxic personality.
Give me some heat. We've got a fornication. Adultery. Give
me some heat. Gossiping. Backbiting. Jealousy. Lying. Give me some heat.
Turn up the heat. Give me some fire. In other words,
it's Romans 828. All. All things work together for good
(06:22):
to those who love the Lord. And so we have
to have a right perspective. Regal prerogative. Let me finish
this real quick. We have to. The third way. A
mature believer sees purpose in their problem plan. Is, are
y'all tired of the word? Okay, okay. Can I can
I do one more? Thank you very much. Amen. Amen.
You have to understand the refining process that takes place.
(06:49):
He says in verse three, listen to this. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith works. Patience. Wow. That's powerful.
That's that's. Now, look, some of you won't come to
Bible study, so I got to bring Bible study to you. Okay.
There are five kinds of suffering in the Bible that
I find. Let me. Let me give you the five.
If you take notes, you you may want these first
kind of suffering is religious suffering. It's religious suffering. You
(07:11):
say what? What what is that? It's when you suffer
because your religion puts a stipulation on you that God
does not. So every religion is false. Yeah. And and
here's what first Corinthians 1022 says. They are not worshiping God.
They are worshiping demons. Did you hear what I said?
(07:33):
They're worshiping demons. I didn't say that. Don't shoot the mailman.
It says it in first Corinthians 1022 that all religion
other than Christianity is the worship of demons. They think
they're worshiping God, but they're. Okay, let me give you
an example. In India, people were starving. But it's not
caused by a food shortage or by overpopulation. It's the
(07:55):
result of religious belief because they are Hindus and Buddhists
and they believe that that roach that you killed this
morning was probably your Uncle Willie, who died ten years
ago and came back as a roach. And so you're
not allowed to kill rats, mice and cows. And so
get this now. Why is there a hunger problem? Because
(08:16):
of its religious suffering. Because you can't kill a cow.
Every cow is sacred. So then one cow could feed
seven people. Which means then, since they have 200 million
sacred cows, they could feed. If they just chopped them
boys up into Big Macs and Whoppers, they'd be able
(08:39):
to feed 1,400,000,000 people. But their religion prohibits it. And
the mice and the rats consume 50% of the stored
grain in India. See? Religious suffering. Then secondly, and I
gotta hasten on, there's rapacious suffering. Say Replaces what is rapacious.
(09:02):
Rapacious is demonic suffering like the man in Mark five. Uh,
he was touched not by an angel, but touched by
a demon. And there were how many demons in him?
How many thousand? 6000 demons. Now, that shouldn't surprise you,
because some of y'all got more than that. I done
(09:22):
dealt with some of y'all, and here's what I love
about it. I have to I have to make this
comment because it says. And they said, Jesus said, what
is your name? And they said, now get this, they
is plural because there's 6000 said is singular because only
one spoke for all. Alright, well I said the church
had that kind of unity. What is your name? Everybody
(09:44):
would be saying her name. My name, my name. Joe Keisha.
My name. Laquisha. My God, no, we're Christ Bible Church anyway.
And so, uh, there's rapacious suffering. Then thirdly, there's retributive suffering.
You say, what is that? That's that suffering for our sin.
John 514. Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
uh John 513 through 17. That is some some of
(10:08):
us are suffering on our own. It's kind of like
I tell you all the time, you say, God, why
am I in this financial trouble? Why you let this happen?
And God says, my name ain't on. None of them
slips on any of them credit cards. Yeah. Amen. Then
there's redemptive suffering. What's redemptive suffering? Write down second Corinthians
one three through 11 if you're doing that, uh, because
(10:31):
redemptive suffering is when you don't suffer for yourself, that
your suffering is so God can connect to somebody else.
There was one year my wife was in the hospital
five times for two weeks at a time. Three of
those two sets of weeks, she led a nurse to Christ.
So three people came to Christ while she was in
the hospital. And we rejoiced because we said that suffering
(10:54):
wasn't for you. That's suffering because you can go in
there and witness. When Pastor Betts was in the hospital.
He led people to Christ. And so here God allows
us sometimes to suffer so that other people can be blessed.
But here it is in this text. Uh, it's called
remedial suffering. Let me give you the definition of a
very handsome preacher on the South Side of Chicago. Uh,
(11:17):
Pastor James Ford junior. Here's what he said. And I quote.
Remedial suffering is a special course of study for helping
students in the University of the Holy Spirit to overcome
deficiencies in specific character, skills, ability, knowledge, or wisdom. Go ahead.
(11:47):
Say wow. Now make it plain, pastor. Okay. It's simply remedial.
Suffering is when God burns in, when God burns out
and when God burns off, you say, what's he burning when?
God burns in character. That cannot be changed when God
(12:07):
burns out. Compromise out of our life. And when God
burns off carnality.
S2 (12:17):
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. And really,
I think a helpful look today at why God allows
us to suffer in the midst of that pain and
in the midst of that suffering, it can be very
tempting to get angry with God and to doubt that
he has our good in mind, but good to be
reminded that he does indeed use that suffering for his purposes,
(12:40):
his good purposes. Well, we're going to get back to this.
Look at James chapter one. In just one moment. I
want to let you know if you ever miss a broadcast,
you can always order these programs on CD. You can
also stream the broadcast or download MP3's. You'll find the
links to do that when you come to our website.
It's Treasure Truth radio.org. While you're there. Hope you'll spend
(13:00):
a little extra time and check out the different links.
You can see the books that Pastor Ford has written,
find out more information about him and more. Just come
to treasure Truth radio.org. Again, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (13:12):
Someone that said a brook would lose its song if
God removed the rocks. Yeah, that's true, that's true, that's true. Listen, listen, listen,
let me tell you this real quick and I'm almost
ready to let you go. See, there's some things you
think are working against you are actually working for you. Okay.
If you ask Wallace Johnson, uh, he understood the refining process.
If you ask, uh, Wallace Johnson. Wallace Johnson. What's the
(13:35):
worst day of your life? You know what Wallace Johnson
would say? Say what would he say? Wallace Johnson would
say it was when I got fired from the sawmill
of which I worked for 20 years. You say, uh,
Wallace Johnson, what's the worst day of your life? I mean,
the best day of your life. Wallace Johnson would say
the best day of my life is when I got
fired from the sawmill that I worked for for 20 years.
(13:57):
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I mean,
I'd be looking at Wallace like you're looking at me
right now. Wait a minute. How can it be the
best day and the worst day at the same time?
And here's what Wallace Johnson would say. He would say, yeah,
it was the worst day. Uh, because my boss fired
me out. Uh, but it was the best day because
God wanted to lead me to my destiny. But I
(14:17):
was too wrapped up in my history. So God then
had to have my boss fire me out so he
could take me up. Alright, so I began to realize
that since I wouldn't leave the job, God had the
job leave me. See, that's why I tell you that
all the time. All the time I tell you that
(14:39):
there's some people, uh. That you were my friend. I
thought it was my friend. No, they were good for
you where you were. They were not for you where
you're going. Come on. You can say something. You can
say something. Look at somebody say, hey, neighbor, quit giving
penthouse access.
S3 (14:59):
We forgive him.
S1 (15:01):
To lobby level people. That's right. That's right. Because every
hotel I stayed in to get to the penthouse, you
need a key card. Mm. So, Wallace Johnson, how could
it be? Well, yeah. See, because five years later, I
became a millionaire. And before I died, I became a billionaire.
Because once I got fired from the sawmill, I began
(15:23):
to think. What did I dream about? I dreamed about
as a Christian. Since I'm a pilgrim and stranger, I
dreamed about the fact that maybe I could have help
strangers who are coming from different places and coming to
a foreign place that maybe they've never been to before.
And I can roll out a welcome mat, and I
can give them accommodations, and they can have food and
(15:43):
meet other people coming from all over the place that
they may never meet again. And so Wallace Johnson became
the co-founder of Holiday Inn. Now explain refining, uh, look, look, look,
here's what God is doing, this refining process. What about it?
Here it is right here in a nutshell. Here it is.
Here's the refining process okay, so everybody know what a
(16:05):
concept car is okay. A concept car is a car
that the manufacturer, uh, tests in private. They run them
into the wall. You ever see them commercials? Yeah, those
are concept cars. Here's what they want to do. They
want to make sure that they're good enough for the public.
So they crash them in private to approve them because
(16:27):
the word trying is to approve. So they try it
so they can approve it to make sure that when
it goes public, it'll be able to withstand what it's
up against. Me go on this side. Maybe you understand it.
And so we are God's concept cars. What he's doing
(16:48):
right now is he's crashing you on the little stage
to make sure that he's preparing you for the big stage.
So you don't understand. You don't understand, uh, what he
does is he doesn't want to make himself look bad,
so he has to build us up. And so he
crashed that fender don't work. He puts this fender on us. Okay.
And so let me make it plain. Here it is.
(17:10):
God says, I want to deal with you in private
so I can get you ready for public so that
you don't embarrass me or yourself. So what God is
saying is, listen, I want to get on your last
black nerve, your last white nerve, your your last yellow
nerve in this small place. And whenever you have victory there,
I know I can put you in a big place.
That is, if I can get you to have patience
(17:30):
at home, you'll have patience on the job. If I
can keep you from cussing somebody out in church, I
can keep you from cussing somebody out at the job. Uh,
I can make sure that whenever somebody cuts you off
on the Dan Ryan, that you give them the whole hand,
praise the Lord and not just tell them that they
are number one. And so there it is. What does
it do? The refiners processing. What are you talking about?
(17:54):
Here's what the metallurgist does. He puts the gold in
the fire and he turns up the crucible to make
it hot. Why? So it can melt. Because when it melts,
the dross comes to the top. Then he takes a
scooper and scoops off the dross. And he's got gold
that's purer. And he does two things. Come on, somebody
knows it. Holler out. What does he keep his hand on? Thermostat.
Because he controls the temperature with the thermostat. If it's
(18:16):
not on long enough, then the impurities won't be burned up. Uh,
but if it's too long, the metal will be burnished
and it will be destroyed. So he knows exactly how
high to make the fire. He knows exactly how long
to keep you in it. Just stay in the fire
because you need to understand whatever in you ain't out
(18:37):
of you yet, or that thing wouldn't be bothering you
like it is. How do I know God is done
when it ain't bothering you like it's bothering you now then,
you know. God has worked it out of you. And.
And I'm done. You've been so, so kind to me.
Let me just tell you. What is God doing? He's purifying.
(18:59):
He's transforming. Think what God did. God transformed Moses from
a murderer into a liberator. He transformed Joseph from a
prisoner to a president. He didn't have to show his
birth certificate. He took David from a kid to a king.
He took Paul from a persecutor to a preacher. He
took Rahab from a woman of the night into a
(19:20):
woman of the light. He took the woman in John
chapter four, from where she was shacking to she start sharing. Yeah,
that's our God. He's into the transformation business. We ought
to know it. Because he did what? He gets treasure
out of trash. He gets jewels out of junk. He
gets glory out of garbage. He gets riches out of rubbish.
He gets diamonds out of debris. He gets righteousness out
(19:44):
of riff raff. He gets majesty out of a mess.
He gets worship out of waste. He gets deliverance from
a drug addict. He can get praise out of a prostitute.
And hallelujah, out of a homosexual. He can turn a
pole dancer into a praise dancer. He can turn a
drunk into a deacon and he can turn somebody illicit
(20:05):
into an elder. That's our God. He has conformed us
into his image. So remember, the next time your back
is against the wall, remember that his back was against
the cross. Yeah. Who suffered like Jesus? Who was God
in the flesh? Foxes have holes. Birds of the air
(20:26):
have nests. And the Son of man hath nowhere to
lay his head. Think about it. Born in another man's manger.
Preach in another man's town. Ate at another man's table.
Wore another man's crown. Suffered another man's beating. Took another
man's disgrace, bore another man's sin, and died in another
(20:46):
man's place. The Bible says in Hebrews five eight, even
though he were the son, he learned obedience by the
things that he suffered. Jesus died in agony need so
we could live life abundantly. And you ought to give
him praise because of the refining process where he's turning
(21:08):
you into who you are now, to who you are
to be, where he's taking you from, where you are now,
to where you are to be. And that is part
of the process of your getting there. So I came
to tell somebody, and I'm done, that your setback is
a setup for your comeback. God is taking you somewhere.
(21:31):
Go with God.
S2 (21:35):
That is pastor and author James Ford Jr. A message
called seeing Purpose in your Problems and Pain. And if
God has been using Pastor Ford's teaching in your life,
we'd love to know about that. You can always drop
us a note through the website. Just come to Treasure
Truth Radio and fill out the contact form. You can
also put a letter in the mail. Our address is
(21:57):
Treasure Truth 820 North LaSalle Boulevard. Chicago, Illinois. 606 ten well,
Treasure Truth is a ministry that's based on the passionate
teaching of God's Word. But, you know, we live in
an era when God's Word is under attack. So maybe
you have some secret doubts that you just buried deep inside.
You've never admitted them to anyone, but you're longing to
(22:20):
have these doubts resolved. Well, we'd like you to have
a book by Doctor John MacArthur. It can help you
put your doubts to rest. The book is called why
I Believe the Bible, and it's a clear explanation of
the important truths about Scripture that really every Christian should know.
When you contact us with a gift of any amount,
we're going to send you a copy so you can
be confident that the Bible you believe is God's inerrant word.
(22:43):
Just ask for the book. Why Believe the Bible by
John MacArthur? When you call us at 888644 7660 or
go online to Treasure Truth Radio dot, you know your
one time gift to this ministry are hugely important, but
so are those who have become monthly partners. You know,
the expenses to keep this radio program on the air
(23:06):
come due each and every month. And so those of
you who stand with us on a monthly basis really
are such an encouragement in helping us meet the need
to keep this broadcast ministry on the air. Now, if
you are able to become a monthly partner by auto
gift at a level of $30 or more, we're also
going to say thank you with a special 50% discount
(23:26):
to everything in the Moody Publishers Store. You can find
out more about this when you call us at 888644
7660 or come to treasure Truth Radio. I'm Steve Hiller,
our producer is Amy Rios. Join us again tomorrow for
more Bible teaching here on Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford.
A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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