Wrestling with Sorrow: It Is Well
Message Notes
Horatio Spafford
It Is Well
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Sorrow is a very real part of life
How do you make sense of the great sorrows in life?
It’s something you wrestle with.
There is no “why” that solves it
1) Wrestle with your sorrow but don’t let it drive you to dismiss God
2) Wrestle with your sorrow and keep a high view of God
Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
Romans 3:23
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
3) Wrestle with your sorrow by lamenting your sin
Terrible things happen because of sin:
- Other people’s sin
- Our own sin that got us there
- Sinful brokenness of the world around us
God doesn’t cause evil but He does allow suffering to happen.
Job 1:21
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
It Is Well, 3rd Verse:
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Colossians 2:13-14
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Three important theological terms
- Justification
- Sanctification
- Glorification
4) Wrestle with your sorrow by clinging to hope
It Is Well – Last Verse
And Lord haste the day
When the faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back
As a scroll
The trump shall resound
And the Lord shall descend
Even so it is well with my soul
1 Corinthians 15:50-57
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”