Structural Steel

Structural Steel
2 Cor. 4:6-10

I’d like you to turn to 2 Cor. 4 this morning, and I want to speak to you about structural steel. Structural steel is what large buildings and skyscrapers are constructed of. It is the skeleton that holds the entire structure together and erect. For thousands of years mankind was limited in the size and height of what he could build, but with the advent of steel, everything changed. Steel is easily and quickly manufactured whereas wood takes years to be replenished. Steel is stronger than wood, it doesn’t burn, and it’s more flexible and easier to use than stone. So when the steel smelting process was perfected by Bessemer in the late 1800’s, its easy to see why steel became such a huge industry and why architecture was changed forever.

What does structural steel have to do with you and me? Well, in the same way that steel gives strength and stability to buildings, we need something to give us strength and stability in our lives. Steel is what allows a skyscraper to flex and sway during a hurricane (sometimes as much as 3 – 5 feet) without collapsing. Steel is what keeps a submarine from imploding when it is under 1.25 metric tons of pressure per square centimeter on a deep dive.

I don’t know about you, but those ideas appeal to me, because you don’t have to be alive for very many years before you figure out that life can be hard. This is why we sing the song, “It’s not an easy road I am called on to travel, for many are the troubles we bear.” We struggle with our spouse, we struggle with our children, we are under pressure from our bosses, we deal with debilitating physical problems, we have too much month left at the end of the paycheck, we suffer from the decline of our culture and nation, we are faced with tragedy in the lives of those around us, and the list could go on and on. I heard recently about a young mother who swerved to avoid hitting a dear and had a terrible wreck. She will probably be in a coma for months, if not years, and then face extensive rehabilitation, if she ever revives. How is her husband and five children supposed to cope with that?

As Job puts it, “ . . . evil does not spring from the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the earth. People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.” His point is that difficulty and trouble and suffering and hardship and pressure is inextricably entwined with the human experience. No one is exempt. So as followers of Christ, how are we supposed to handle the pressures and stresses of life that we don’t have any control over?

This is where structural steel comes into play, and the Apostle Paul refers to it in 2 Cor. 4:6-10.

6 For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Even though Paul doesn’t use the phrase “structural steel” in these verses, he makes reference in verses six and seven to something on the inside that keeps us from collapsing or imploding when life hits us hard. So even though I can’t explain to you the “why” of difficulty, I can give you three truths that will add some steel to your life. The first piece of structural steel I want you to see is found in Jer. 31:3, and it is the truth that God’s love for me is everlasting.

I. God’s Love For Me is Everlasting - Jer. 31:3

When life hits us hard, we are often tempted to wonder whether or not God really does love us. Maybe you don’t personally struggle at this level, but I assure you that many, many other people do. The Bible teaches unequivocally that “God is love,” and it is impossible for many people to reconcile a loving God with suffering and difficulty. If God really is a loving God, why does He let little girls be sexually abused by their uncle? The reason we think this way is because from a purely human perspective, love is most often demonstrated by acts of kindness and generosity and self-sacrifice. From a human perspective, acts of malice or evil or ill will are indicative of a lack of love. Because of this kind of thinking, when something tragic happens to us, our first inclination many times is to interpret that event through a purely human lens. And if we make that mistake, we will draw some very dangerous conclusions about God.

So the first piece of steel I want to share with you today is found in Jer. 31:3, which says, "The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness." The point Jeremiah is making in this verse is that as he reflects on the history of Israel, he can see that God has a history of loving actions toward His people. It was an “everlasting love.” They were chosen out of all the nations of the earth to be God's special people. They were delivered from Egypt. They were sustained in the wilderness. They were miraculously installed in the Promised Land, they were providentially protected in their early years as a nation. So as far as Jeremiah could recall, God had a history of loving actions toward the nation of Israel.

And what is of great importance to us is that at the time Jeremiah wrote this, the nation of Israel was going through some very distressing times. These were not the glory days of Israel's history. Israel was not some wealthy, strong, unified, world power. They were weak and harassed and the rulers were corrupt and the economy was bad. Injustice was prevalent. And in that context, God comes to Jeremiah and says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." God’s message to Jeremiah in this passage is that the presence of suffering / difficulty /the existence of injustice / hardship does not indicate a lack of God's love.

This is the kind of perspective we need to have, and when you think about it, it is a mature perspective, isn’t it? Think with me for a moment about a 6 year old who doesn’t want to go to school on a beautiful fall day. It is warm and sunny outside, he has been building a fort in the woods, and he has a new puppy he wants to spend the day with; and from his six year old perspective there is nothing worse, nothing more unfair, than being forced to sit still in a hot school room, with Mrs. McGregor, and memorize multiplication tables. In fact, in his six year old mind, he is going to perceive his father’s adamancy that he go to school as being unloving. And he may even tell his father, “When I’m a Daddy, I’m not going to make my children go to school.” This is typical of six year olds – they perceive enforced hardship as being unloving. Of course from our mature perspective as adults, we know that the unloving thing to do is to give in to the child’s desires.

We need to learn how to apply this perspective to God and His actions toward us. We need to grow up in our understanding of what love looks like. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:11, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child. When I became a man [when I matured, when I grew up], I put childish ways behind me.” A mature perspective of love understands that trial and difficulty is not indicative of a lack of love.

If we think about it, regardless of our current difficult circumstances, we can recall the same kind of actions on God's part toward us, that Jeremiah could recall. God chose us for salvation. He delivered us from the power and penalty of sin. He has providentially protected and provided for us. In fact, as far back as we can see God had demonstrated his love for us. And we need to be careful to remember that the presence of tribulation in our lives does not indicate a lack of God's love (see also Rom. 8:31-39).

So our first piece of steel is that God’s love for me is everlasting. Look with me now at Romans 8 where we are going to see our second piece of steel. In verses 28 and 29 we see that God has an objective for my life, and that is that I become more and more like His Son, Jesus.

II. God’s Purpose For Me is Christlikeness

In verses 28 and 29 we read, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. [Please don’t ever stop right here! The “good” of verse 28 is found in verse 29] For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren; 30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

God has an objective for your life, and that objective is that you become more and more like His Son, Jesus. God is not content with you the way you are right now! Let that sink in. Let me make this real personal. God is not content with Murray in his present condition. He wants Murray to become more and more like His Son, Jesus. I don’t care how long you have been saved, I don’t care how mature you think you are, you have areas in your life where you need to grow to be more like Christ.

Because of this truth, because of God’s objective for us, God is constantly working in our lives to “conform us to the image of His Son,” to use Paul’s language. God wants Billy to look less like Billy and more like Jesus. God wants Loretta to look less like Loretta and more like Jesus. He has a variety of tools He can use to accomplish this – parents, spouse, pastor, obnoxious co-worker, children, in-laws, boss, the economy, your neighbor, the list is practically endless – one of them being difficulty. God often uses difficulty to conform us to the image of His Son.

Think with me about the significance of the words “all things work together for good.” “All things” is somewhat comprehensive, isn’t it? Does it include things like rape and unwanted pregnancy? Is that one of those “all things” that “work together for good?” I heard about a godly 18 year old young lady who was raped and impregnated. And now she is bearing in her body a constant reminder of the horror of that incident. And when this child is born, and she is not putting it up for adoption, she will daily be reminded of the trauma every time she looks at her baby. Does Rom. 8:28-29 apply to situations like this? Absolutely! Here is a truth worth writing down. “God will take you where you do not want to go, in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own.” Paul Tripp.

So what does this have to do with having reinforcing steel in our lives when going through difficult times. Here is the connection. Purpose in life is what makes the difference between living and simply existing. Having a sense of purpose takes us from simply weathering the storm to actually battling our way through it and coming out on the other side. Having a clear cut sense of purpose is what gives sense and rationality to the difficulty. And we need to remember that God has a purpose in mind for us when difficult times come – He is using this difficulty to make me more like His Son Jesus. This truth is another piece of steel in your life. There is purpose behind the difficulty – it is not random. There is purpose behind the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. There is purpose behind the child drowning. There is purpose behind the hunting accident that takes a young man’s life. All things work together for good because they conform us to the image of Christ.

I read a very interesting illustration of how this works in a prisoner’s account of life in a Nazi death camp. Every day the Jews of this particular camp were forced to do backbreaking, disgusting labor by combining a large city’s raw sewage and garbage. They would distill this to make a fuel additive. And even worse than the nauseating smell was the realization that they were fueling the Nazi war machine. And the man who was telling about this said that even though it was inhumane beyond our ability to comprehend, the men of the prison camp did their work every day. One night the Allies bombed the plant where this fuel was made, so the next morning the camp commandant had them spend the day simply loading carts with sand, carting it to the other side of the compound, and unloading it. And that was it for the day. The next morning, he had the men move the sand back to its original place, and that was it for the day. The next morning, he had them move it back to the other side of the compound - and they were through for the day.

After several days of this purposeless work, men in the compound started breaking down mentally. Dozens actually committing suicide. Some would attempt to escape from the prison in broad daylight, only to be gunned down by the guards. Some men would throw themselves into the electrified fences only to be electrocuted in a terrible sizzling flash. And the man who was giving this account said the reason these men started committing suicide was because the camp commandant took away their sense of purpose. He said that as vile as the work was in the sewage plant, and as repulsive as it was to the men to actually be helping the enemy, at least there was a rationale and a purpose behind what they were doing, and they were able to live. They didn’t have that when they were moving sand. And when the sensibility of their labor and their purposefulness was removed, they lost their will to live.

As unpleasant as difficulty is, there is purpose behind it. There are some things you will never learn when life is good and everything is going the way you want it to. As Charles Stanley says, “In the valley, we discover the character of God in a way we never would on the mountain peak.” Those of you who have been through the valley know what he is talking about. Peter talks about this truth in 1 Peter 4:13 when he talks about “sharing in the sufferings of Christ” and how suffering creates a closeness with Jesus and an identification with Jesus that non-sufferers don’t have.

Difficulty has the potential to conform us to the image of Christ, or to change us from being so much like ourselves to being more like Jesus. We need to keep this in mind when we are going through difficult times. And we have a choice to make in the face of difficulty - we can resist God’s purpose and pay the serious consequences, or we can join ourselves to God’s purpose and make it our purpose with the result that we won’t simply exist but rather forge our way through the difficulty and come out on the other side a better person.

So the two pieces of steel I’ve shared with you so far are that God’s love for you is everlasting and God’s purpose for you is Christlikeness. The final piece of steel I want to share with you this morning is found in 2 Cor. 12, verses 7 - 10, and here we are going to see that God’s grace for me is sufficient.

III. God’s Grace For Me is Sufficient

The context of these verses is important. Apparently, the Apostle Paul had some kind of physical ailment that he felt was slowing him down in his service for the Lord. From various indicators in his other letters, this ailment had disfigured him in some way and probably had something to do with his eyes. But whatever it was, he felt like he could serve God better if he were healed of this problem. With that background, let’s start reading half way through verse seven, " . . . for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me-- to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Did you see God’s answer to Paul. He said, “Paul, I’m not going to deliver you from your distress.” That doesn’t sound very kind, does it? Would God really say to us, “I’m not going to heal you. I’m not going to give you a better job with a higher income. I’m not going to give you a sweet, loving, understanding, considerate spouse.”? The answer is “yes.” But he continues with, “I will give you the strength (“grace”) to bear it.” We see the same basic idea in Hebrews 4:15 - 16. In speaking about Jesus we read, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

There are two important points to remember here. First of all, Jesus understands what you are going through (v. 15). Secondly, because of His ability to understand our sufferings, we can go to Him with confidence and He will give us the grace we need to bear up under our difficulty.

Look with me at 1 Cor. 10:13. “No temptation [“test” or “trial” is probably a better translation] has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [tested, or tried] beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. By virtue of the fact that you are in the situation you are (whether it is chronic pain, or deep depression, or spiteful children, or some addiction, of financial pressure), you know you can handle it with God’s help. God will give you the grace you need to endure the hardship. I don’t know about you, but I find this verse to be one of the most comforting verses in the Bible, because it assures me that there are some things I’ll never have to face. God knows what I can and cannot handle, and the promise of 1 Cor. 10:13 is that God will not ever give me difficulty beyond my capacity to handle with His help.

So what are the three pieces of steel? 1) God’s love for me is everlasting. 2) God’s purpose for me is Christ-likeness, and 3) God’s grace for me is sufficient. Do you see how these truths can act as steel in your life? This is the kind of stuff that allows you to sway without collapsing when you are hit hard. These truths enable you to endure pressure without imploding. It is my prayer that if you are struggling for any reason this morning that you will find the truth of God’s Word to sustain you and comfort you and enable you to be faithful.

Note: I'd like to thank Dr. James Berg, faculty member of Bob Jones Seminary, for the headings I used in this message. He actually deals with four principles in his lecture on Four Stabilizing Truths, adding the point that God's Word is the final, right answer.