I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this evening. Let us come before the
Lord in prayer and ask His blessing. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
we thank Thee for Thine earthly courts. We thank Thee that we
can gather together as we do. And Lord in the cold of the evening,
Lord who warm our hearts, we do thank Thee for Thy word. Help
us to worship Thee in spirit, and in truth we ask through thy
name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Hymn, 758. Tune, Olivet 681. This evening I wish to read from
two portions of God's holy word. Firstly, the second epistle of
Paul to the Corinthians and chapter 12. We have one of our free Bibles,
that's page 1080. We'll read the first 10 verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 from
verse one. It is not expedient for me doubtless
to glory. I will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above
fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether
out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such an one caught
up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how
that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will
I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. Although I would desire to glory,
I shall not be a fool. For I will say the truth, but
now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should
be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me,
My grace is sufficient for thee, For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Now let us turn to the epistle
of James, the general epistle of James and chapter 1. And we'll
read the first 18 verses. Page 1121, if you have a Ruby
Bible. James chapter 1. James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven
with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man
is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted. but the rich in that he is made
low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that
love him. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil Neither
tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is
from above. and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Thus far the reading
of God's holy word. May he bless it to us and help
us now in prayer. Let us pray. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
Thou ever-merciful and long-suffering God, Thou who art the source
of all wisdom and all understanding, Thou in control in this world,
and Thou dost order all events, especially those that directly
affect Thy dear people, And O Lord, we do seek that wisdom from above
that we might rightly view our lives, what we go through, how
we go through them, how we view those trials and temptations
that we endure. O Lord, do be pleased to grant
us to see as thou dost see. Grant us to view life's journey
through thine eyes, through thy word. and not by that which we
see. O Lord, we confess our ignorance,
our short-sightedness, our proneness, Lord, to fall, to give up, to
cease to pray. O Lord, we confess our need of
the exhortations in thy word, the warnings of thy word, the
directions in thy word. And Lord, do be pleased to grant
that we might be strengthened and blessed as we gather together
and gather round thy word. And thy word might be a lamp
unto our feet, a light unto our path. Lord, do grant it to be
a help to thy tried and afflicted people, that there might be the
sustenance and strength given through thy word this evening.
O Lord, we do thank thee for thy word and for a faithful translation
in our own tongue and that we may have in our own homes and
that we may have in our hearts. We do thank thee for the gathering
together of thy people, for the preaching of the word, for the
ordinances of thy house. We thank thee for the freedoms
in our land, for being able to do this in a public way. We pray
for all that cannot gather, All in affliction, all that are homebound,
for our dear friends in the Pilgrim and Bethesda homes, be with them,
minister to this morning, and that thy presence might be with
thy people as they near their journey's end. May it even time
that it might be light upon their souls. Lord, we do pray for a
fresh view of what thou hast set before the people of God,
and may we feel it to be set before us, that inheritance that
is incorruptible, undefiled, and reserved in heaven for you. O Lord, do grant unto us that
keeping and that assurance that there is a place reserved for
us and that thou art making us a prepared people for a prepared
place. Do forgive the sins of this day
and Lord where we know there have been sins that have been
repeated day after day. Oh Lord wash and cleanse us renew
us unto repentance cleanse us from all unrighteousness, take
away the love of sinning, may we hate sin as much as we love
Thee, and do grant, Lord, that we might be consistent in all
of our ways. O Lord, we need Thy grace, we
need Thy power, we need Thy help, we feel our weakness, our sinfulness,
we feel our need of Thee to come in for us and help us and do
deliver us. leave us not as our sins deserve. Thou hast said, I am the Lord,
I change not, wherefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Thou hast said concerning thy
people that they are as oft as a brother turns and says, I repent
to forgive him, yea, till seventy times seven. And Lord, we thank
Thee that we read there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be
feared. You grant us the fear of the
Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. May that not depart
from our eyes, but may we truly know that Thou, God, seest me
and that Thou dost see and know our thoughts and the intents
of our hearts. Lord, who deliver us from our
deceitful, wicked, evil heart, that which will go round thy
word if it could, that which will find an excuse to sin, that
which will mask our sin, that will leave it unconfessed and
unrepented of. O Lord, save us from our deceitful,
evil heart. Make us transparent and open
and honest before thee and before men. O Lord, do save us out of
temptation and deliver us from deliberately walking into those
ways or continuing in thought patterns that indulge and strengthen
our sinful hearts. O Lord, do grant that we might
walk in the Spirit, that we might be filled with Thy Spirit, that
we might be spiritually minded, which is life and peace. that
we might not be kindly minded, which is death, but that thou
hast dwelt in our hearts by faith, and that thy spirit might not
be grieved, but might be with us, and that we might have thy
spirit's witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. We thank thee for every blessing,
both temporal and spiritual. We do pray, Lord, for thankful
hearts daily and hourly. We do seek for wisdom in all
that we do and plan in our lives. We pray thy blessing upon us
as a church and people to bless us, make us a blessing and build
us up. To bless the ministries of this
church, to the elderly, to our flock here, to those online.
And Lord, we pray for the young people as well. We seek, Lord,
thy blessing to be upon that rising generation. to be each
of thy servants, we pray for them. Do bless each gathering
of thy people this evening. Do be with our dear friends in
Australia, America and Canada, and our dear friends in Holland.
We do commit them unto thee, who gather with us, who join
with the ministries of this church from other lands. And we do pray,
Lord, that each one that does not have a place of worship near
them, with thy word is faithfully set forth. that those make provision
for them and that in thy time away they might be granted that
blessing. O Lord, we do pray that those
be with us in the remainder of this week, hear prayer for thy
day and thy blessing to be upon it. O Lord, do grant unto us
that it might truly be one of those days of the Son of Man
upon earth. We thank thee for these midweek
gatherings and that they might be a strength unto our souls
and to refresh us as we go on. Now, Lord, shine upon thy word. We thank thee for our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ. We thank thee, Lord, that thou
art central in thy word. Thy death, thy sufferings, thy
sin-atoning sacrifice set before us in every type and every shadow
and in the fulfilment that which was accomplished by thee on Calvary,
and that which then is declared throughout the New Testament.
We thank thee for this record, and we thank thee above all for
that witness in our own souls, where we have seen thee by faith,
where we have believed, where we have had joy and peace in
believing. We do seek to make intercession
for many, that attend our gatherings, that as yet have not made profession,
that do not know Thee. O Lord, do be pleased to work
in their hearts those that seek Thee, to bring about that time
when they find Thee. Give liberties to those that
abound, and do bless the seekers with being finders. O Lord, we
do pray for them to hear our prayers, and may we yet see thine
offspring come. O Lord, do comfort those in bereavement,
help them and support them. And Lord, do be with each in
trial and tribulation and sickness, to grant thy kind healing hand,
where it is thy will to do so. Be with thy servants laid aside
at this time, and do raise them up to once more stand upon the
walls of Zion. We ask thee now these things
through thy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Hymn, 1113. Tune, King's College 716. Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the general epistle of James,
chapter 1, and reading from our text, verse 2. My brethren, Count
it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. James 1 and verse 2. What is upon my spirit this evening
is a counting that joy which is not in itself. Dr. Gill, in his commentary,
feels that the temptations that are spoken of here are not the
temptations of Satan or temptations to evil because they are not
joyous. That is the reason what he gives. But the context, I believe, and
especially in the whole verse, it doesn't say that these temptations
are joy, but rather count them to be joy. The word count in
the original, we could change it to consider it, or deem it,
or esteem it so, or think it to be that way. It is to evaluate what we really
think of our trials. And so it's not saying that those
trials in themselves are joyous, are pleasant, they are not. They are trials. They're great
trials. They're bitter trials. They're
hard to the flesh. The flesh dislikes them. The
spirit groans under them. They are trials that in themselves
we could not stand and we would faint under them. He goes on
in the context here as to reasons, knowing this, that the trying
of your faiths are these diverse, these different, manifold, many
different types or different Ways have been tempted, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. This
is a trial of faith, and it works patience or endurance. Let patience
have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. And then he says, if any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God. We do need wisdom to view our
trials to view our temptations in a right way, to have God's
perspective on them, how He views it, what it is seen from His
view. We all know what it is to view
something from a specific perspective. Often think of it if we are at
the edge of the sea, we're looking out over the sea, and you can
see on the horizon two ships. And they're heading towards each
other. And from where we are looking, it looks like they're
going to hit. But they don't hit. And they
pass. And they go on their ways away
from each other. If we were to see it from the
air, there was probably several miles between them. They weren't
on a collision course at all. But from our perspective, they
were. In many things, the way we view
something is going to bring a wrong assessment, a wrong result. You say, how can we then view
it from God's view? We cannot ascend up to heaven,
we cannot see in God's eyes, but in a way we can, because
we view them through the Word of God. The Word of God tells
us how he is viewing our trials, how he is viewing what is happening
here below. He tells us what he is doing
with those, and so gives us that, that we can rightly assess, evaluate,
and to think differently than that we would if we were just
viewing it superficially. So my desire is this evening,
especially, where we have those temptations and trials that wear
us down. They are a real trial to us,
a discouragement to us. They can assail our faith, our
assurance. We can wonder what God is doing
with these things. And it is to view it in the way
that is set before us here. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into diverse temptations. What is the opposite? He would
say, well, you're counting the Lord is against you. Your life
is miserable. You've got these trials that
bring you so low and so down. You might say, it'd be like Jacob. All these things are against
me. If it is not counted all joy,
and it doesn't say just joy, counted all joy, then if it's
not that, something else will be replacing it. And we can be
sure it'll be something that instead of helping through that
trial, it will be dragging us further down. So I want to look
with the Lord's help, firstly, at temptations and trials that
are not joy in themselves. And then secondly, how trials
are to be viewed when we look at them from God's perspective. And lastly, I want to look at
other scriptures that point us to the same evaluation, that
come to the same conclusion. Some of those will be real testimonies
of the Lord's dear people. One of those, of course, that
we read together with the Apostle Paul and the Thorn in the Flesh. But I want to look firstly at
those temptations and trials that are not joy in themselves. And I feel it is very important
to be very realistic in this. We do not go through trials as
if they didn't touch us, as if we were stoics, and whatever
way we might view the word before us, it doesn't take away the
pain, it doesn't take away that it is actually a trial. And when we have here diverse
temptations, it's not just coming from one way. is not just arising
from one source. There are many, many different
ways that these trials come. Our Lord was very clear that
in the world you shall have tribulation or great troubles. Our Lord doesn't
give, when he says that, a specific direction where those troubles
and trials come from, where they arise, how they arise, but that
we are to expect trouble, great troubles. We have at the end
of Psalm 25, redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. We are told that many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them
out of them all. and that I have chosen thee in
the furnace of affliction." A furnace is a very painful place, a place
of great heat, a place where many things will be consumed. We think of the trials that come
through providence, just through the things that happen in our
lives. We think of sickness. We think
of afflictions. We think of those things that
come because of sin, because our bodies are mortal. They are failing, they're heading
to the grave. There are those things that are
joined with that, and often those things are long-running trials. Then there are those trials at
the hand of others. Many will blame God. They'll
say, if he's a good God, if he's an all-powerful God, why does
all of these terrible things happen in the world? But one
after the other, you could look at them, and apart from what
we might call natural disasters, earthquakes, tornadoes, or things
like that, we have man being the one that orchestrates it,
and brings such misery upon his fellow sinners. And so, like
David, in the chastening hand of God, especially at the time
of Shimei, cast stones and dust and curse, let him curse, for
the Lord hath bidden him. May be he requite me good for
his cursing this day. And David suffered much, even
from his own son, Ablam, by other men. So did Solomon, his son. And so did the apostles. The persecutions are things that
come because of what people say and do. And we have then that
which comes from our own evil heart. We have a fallen nature.
And that which that nature wants to indulge and wants to do, for
a child of God that does not want to go that way, that will
then be a trial and a trouble to him. We read later on in this
chapter, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, when he
is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him. But then there's a caution,
lest we should think, The Lord is the one that is doing the
tempting, or that he is the author of evil. No, let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. We would remember that
in the book of Job, it was Satan that had to ask permission of
the Lord and was restrained at the Lord what he could do. to
Job. The Lord had a purpose in allowing
that great tribulation, great trial to come upon Job. But you
might say, well, the Lord could have prevented it. Yes, he could.
You might say, well, because the Lord didn't prevent it, he
was the author of it. No, Satan was. He was the author
of that. You think of the death, the sufferings
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was taken and by wicked
hands crucified and slain. But the apostles were very clear
also that it was still under the control of God. He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. And in
our Lord's words, of course, he laid down his life. No man
taketh my life from me. I lay it down to myself. Yet
Peter very clearly chanced those who had crucified the Lord with
doing so and with their wickedness in it." Just because God does
not restrain the evil, just because He lets man go on with it, doesn't
make Him the author of it. He says of Pharaoh that, for
this cause, I have I raised thee up to show my might and my power
in thee. Well, what Pharaoh was doing,
It hurt the children of Israel. They were under their bondage.
And later on with the tribulations, the first few, they partook just
the same as the Egyptians. But the Lord was doing things
there. It was Pharaoh that said, who
is the Lord that I should obey him? So we need to be very clear,
those trials that come, and especially those temptations that come upon
us, While they remain as temptations of the devil, while they remain
as temptations from our old nature, there is no sin in that. But
when we enter into it, and follow it, and go along with it, then
it becomes sin, and then it is our sin. But the very resisting
of it, we're very clear from Hebrews 12, where we are told,
you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. So it very clearly points that
sin that is working within is a temptation, is a trial to the
people of God, something that they strive against, something
that they fight against, something that wears them down, something
of which many times they may fall and need to be recovered
again in confession and repentance. So those temptations and trials. They are real trials, they belong
to the life of the people of God in a very particular way,
because they are the people of God, because of their following
of the Lord, because of their serving Him. The Lord says clearly
in John 17, I have given them thy word and the world hath hated
them. If you and I follow the Word
of God and walk according to it, the world does not like it. It hates those that walk in the
light because they do not want to come to the light. They hate
the light. And so that again is a persecution
for the people of God. So dear friends, the Word of
God is very clear. God's children will have Temptation. They will have these things that
are not pleasant in themselves at all. They are grievous, they
are hurtful. They're those things that in
themselves would wear us down, discourage us. But there is set
before us here that way that we are to look at them in a scripture
light, as God looks at them, and to look at them in a way
that change how we view them to count it all joy. I say, as I said at the beginning,
it is not making it joy, but it's esteeming it, or thinking
it, counting it, evaluating it, as being joy because of the profit,
because of the good that comes forth from it. So on to then,
look, secondly, that how these trials are to be viewed when
we do so from God's perspective. It is to evaluate the way we
look at the trial, to look at the temptation, to really consider
how are we viewing, are we viewing it in a right way, Are we weighing
things up in the balances of the sanctuary? Are we even doing
and taking on board what is in the two verses following our
text? Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. There are several things then
I want to point us to. Firstly, appointed tribulation. Nothing happens by chance. The way that is ours to walk
and the things that come into our path are those things that
are appointed. When Paul was converted on the
Damascus Road, Then God said to Ananias when he sent him to
Paul to lay his hands on him, I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my name's sake. It was an appointed path
of suffering. And as we've said of our Lord's
words, in me shall have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation. So whatever your trial, whatever
mine is, we know that it is a path that is appointed. The next thing
I'd say, it is something that is not needless. We read in the
Lamentations of Jeremiah that God does not crush underfoot
the children of men. He doesn't just delight to do
it. He doesn't do it for no purpose
at all. He doesn't just think, oh, there's
one of my children, I'll give them this trial, and they should
go through that, without there being a purpose and a reason. If we viewed a builder building
a house, he might do many things that we, as not a builder, might
be find very strange things that he was doing in the process of
building. But if you were to go and ask
him, why are you doing that? Why have you dug that trench?
Why have you taken that down? Why have you marred that in the
way you seem to have done? And he would explain them as
steps in doing the work that he was doing that it needed to
be done. He wouldn't turn around and say,
I don't know why I did that. I just thought I just decided
to do it. There's no real purpose, no reason. You'll always have a purpose.
And so the Lord has a purpose as well. And we need to keep
that in mind. Remember, he is speaking here
to brethren. And so we are assured in Romans
8, verse 28, We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them that are the called, according
to his purpose. And we are to take that on board
in evaluating and counting what we are actually walking through. We are walking through what God
has appointed for us. It is not needless. And we know
that it shall work together for good if we are the called according
to God's purpose. Already we have some things to
count it all joy, because the Lord is in control, it is working
for good, and it's not needless. There's a point, there's a reason
for it, that there's some things already. And then, especially
when we view these trials, that we might say, if we were not
called, they wouldn't be trials. If I was not following the word
of God, then the anger of the world wouldn't come upon me.
If I was not wanting to walk a pure and holy life, then my
sinful inclinations and corrupt, vile and evil heart wouldn't
trouble me. I just go on in that way, that
would not be a trial to me. But it is a trial to me because
I am cool, because the Lord has given me a new nature, given
me that which is pure, therefore there is a conflict with the
old. Paul says, the good that I would I do not, the evil that
I would not, that I do. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? So if your trial, if
my trial, if my temptation, if my grief, if my struggles with
my old nature and struggle with the allurements and ways of the
world is arising because of the change God has wrought in me,
is not that also a reason to count it joy that we are not
still in our old nature? One of the hymns says, how we
were by nature, heated, not a heart, unclean. But if the Lord's given
us a tender conscience, a teachable spirit, then we begin to heed
what goes on within. And we need that tender conscience. We need that opposition. It is
sad when there's not, when we just give way when we follow
on with every one of Satan's temptations. But the desire,
and what I desire this evening, is to strengthen us, to resist
evil, to hate our old nature, to not give up, to strive against
sin, to count that joy as part that's bound up with being a
Christian. You cannot be a Christian and
live at peace with your old nature. You cannot be a follower of the
Lord and yet also follow mammon and want to go in the ways of
our old nature. We are called to fight, called
to resist, called to mortification. If ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live, abstain, from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul. And all of that is hard. It's
hard for a poor sinner to abstain from that which his old nature
likes. It's hard for him to mortify those things that the old nature
wants to do. It is a fight, it's a wrestling. It's not joy in itself. But when
we think, why do I want to resist? Has not the Lord given me a new
nature? Has not He given me to know that
He is preparing me for glory? He'll have me sanctified. He'll
have me chastened, corrected, and to be brought above. The
reason why we're going through these things is bound up with
the Lord's work. Take away the Lord's work. Bring
us back to unregeneracy and some of these temptation tribulations
are just vanished. They wouldn't be there at all.
They are there because the Lord has given grace. And then to consider what is
joined here. God tells us that it is a working
of patience, endurance. Later on in this epistle, he
says, you've heard of the patience or endurance of Job. Often these trials, they're not
just a few hours, but they're days, they're weeks, they're
months, they're years. They continue, they go on. These things, he that endureth
unto the end shall be saved. It's not just part of the way,
it's all the way through to the end. Kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. The Lord using the Word of God,
as often as we have it read, as it's preached, as it's set
before us, it is used to keep us, to make us tender, to renew
us again to what God's will is, to bring us into this spiritual
realm, away from the temporal and away from our old nature. And many times we can think,
those trials bring us to prayer. They bring us to cry to the Lord. They bring us to times when we
can look back and say, the Lord has appeared. He's helped me. He's given me deliverance. He
set me free. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. These trials then, as we begin
to see what the Lord does with them, He humbles with them. Dear
Peter, Satan hath desired to have thee, to sift thee as wheat. What a trial in Satan's sieve!
But I prayed for thee, that thy faith thou not, when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren. In other words, Peter, thy trials
are going to be a help to you in your ministry. You're going
to have to feed my sheep and feed my lambs. And as you go
through these things, and you can see it in Peter's epistles,
The Lord gives him that to help the people of God that are also
in those trials, also in Satan's sieve, that are also in trouble,
that need the bread that comes down from heaven. So it's viewing
in God's perspective. God hasn't said to his people,
I'll call you by grace and I'll eradicate your old nature. I'll
so insulate you from the world I'll put you in a monastery,
I'll separate you. The Lord says if you have to
be separate from sinners, yes, separate from them as for church
fellowship, but otherwise you'd have to go out to the world because
we have to do business with the world and with those of it. It's all the way around us. You think of our Lord who endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, all the way
around him, speaking things, seeing and hearing all of their
evil, wicked works. What a trial, what a path our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ walked. And yet we read with
him who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand. of the
throne of God on high. And so we are to look at these
trials and evaluate them to really consider, in the light of the
word of God, what God is doing, why we are going through them,
what we are called to do as we go through them, not in any way
minimizing the trial, all the trouble, the sorrows, and our
felt weakness in them. But when we realize what God
is doing, and realize the benefits and blessings, then we may count
it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations." And notice
how the text says, when you fall, almost from our perspective,
It seems to just happen. There's no rhyme, there's no
reason, there's no cause. We just fall into it. It might
be something that we ourselves have done or have said, and we're
suddenly into this situation. But we are to know that these
things don't happen by chance, and the Lord is in control. and we are to view it then in
a way that we count it joy when actually it is not joy. And may we think then, when something
is not a joy to us, may we be given grace to count it a joy. Well, let's look at some of the
other scriptures that are set before us in the Word and see
how this really holds up to not just in this passage, but right
through the Scriptures. So I want to go back to the portion
that we've read Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, the second
epistle and chapter 12, where Paul speaks of the great vision
he had caught up into the third heavens. And we're told that,
lest he should be exalted above measure, there was given him
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. We are not told specifically
what his thorn in the flesh was. We can gather from Things that
are said, things that he said of the Corinthians, that they
would verily have plucked out their eyes and given to him.
The fact that he didn't recognize the high priest, you could see
it is something to do with his sight. And of course, when he
was on the Damascus Road, he was without sight for three days. But I said once to a dear friend
suffering from arthritis that I thought perhaps this affliction,
it could not be something just as an affliction, like arthritis
or like eyesight problems, because it was a messenger of Satan.
This dear friend, he looked at me, he said, it's not the actual
affliction, it's what Satan does with how it makes us fret, how
it makes us to reply against God, how it makes us to have
angry thoughts of God, fretful thoughts. It is what is stirred
up within that is the messenger of Satan. And often then, we
can look at someone's trial outside and think, oh no, that's not
too bad a trial they're going through, but you don't know what
trial is going on inside. Very often throughout the Book
of Psalms, and some of the Psalms we're told, over the top of them,
what was going on in the psalmist's life. But in the psalm, you find
out what is going on in his soul. We read with Psalm 51, it's when
Nathan came to David, David was convicted of murder and of adultery. And there in Psalm 51, you read
of his repentance. In the narrative of what happened,
you don't read it, not in that extent, but all that was going
on in his soul, you read in Psalm 51. And so with the apostle here,
he had this messenger of Satan. He had that which potentially
could have brought much evil working up within much replying
against God, much bitterness, much hardness, much unbelief,
much doubt, much fretting, and many cries to the Lord to change
that path, because He did. He says that He sought the Lord
three times, thrice, that it might depart from me. We might
be like that. Something in our lives, something
that The adversary stirs up all manner of evil within us because
of it, and our course up to this present time have been to cry,
Lord, depart from, make it depart from me, save me from it, don't
this trial anymore, take it away. But we read the apostle saying
that the Lord didn't take it away. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness. How many
of our trials would the Lord give that same answer to? I'm not taking it away, I'll
give you grace to bear it. You will feel weak, but I'll
give you strength in your weakness. My grace will be sufficient,
grace to help in time of need. Not a great stock of it to go
into the trial with, but in time of need. Now, we wanted this
scripture to reinforce what we had in James. Hear what Paul's
assessment is then. Verse nine, most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure She's
using different words than James, counted all joy, but he says,
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. When I am
weak, then am I strong. Diverse temptations, there are
here, aren't there? Infirmities, reproaches, necessities,
persecutions, How do they most come? Because of Christ's saying.
Because of His calling. Remember, He once was hailing
men and women to prison as the persecutor. And now when He's
converted, He is the one that's being persecuted. And He is in
these trials. And when He views it in a right
way, before He viewed it in a right way, all He can do is to ask
that you be taken away. when he views it in the right
way as what the Lord is doing, then he actually takes pleasure
in what once he was trying to get rid of. May we be helped
and encouraged with that. Whatever Satan is stirring up
and making to be such a trial to us, that we look to the Lord
for grace, for strength, for help, to endure that, to resist
the devil, to walk in the way that the Lord would have us to
walk and not walk in the ways of evil. So that is Paul, glory
in his infirmities. When he writes to the Romans,
see what he says to them in Romans chapter five. those first five
verses in that chapter. And he says, not only so, that
is, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but we glory in
tribulations also. So again, he's not using counted
or joy, he's saying we glory in tribulations, in great troubles. How can he do that? And he tells
how he can do that. Knowing, it is the knowledge,
it is the wisdom, it is understanding what that tribulation is doing.
It worketh patience and patience, experience and experience, hope
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. But when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The path that the people of God
walk in their tribulation, the Lord is making it work for good. What a solemn thought. Those
that are uncalled, they still have tribulations, they still
have losses and sicknesses and afflictions, but none of it seems
to work for good at all. Certainly doesn't work for any
good in turning them to the Lord. Many of them, it would turn them
away from the Lord. It wouldn't work for good. Tribulation
working right, says the hymn writer, produce a patient mind. So this is the apostles teaching
again of glory in tribulation. We're going back to Acts and
Acts chapter 5. We read of the apostles. And
the apostles, after they had worked miracles and they preached
the word, they were cast into prison by the Jews, Jewish leaders. The angel was sent and brought
them out of prison. They went to get them out, they
found the prison all shut up, and there they were standing
and preaching in the temple in the midst of the people. And
then they brought them before the council. They said to them,
did not we straightly charge you that you should not teach
in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine. intend to bring this man's blood
upon us? Peter's and the Apostles' answer
was, we ought to obey God rather than men. And he sets before
them the precious truths of our Lord, their beautiful words.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a saviour, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses
of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath
given to them that obey him." What a testimony before the Jews. What a testimony this evening
as we read these inspiring, infallible words. And then we read of the opposition
that they had and how they were exhorted to the Jews, refrain
from these men, let them alone. They thought if this council
or this work be of men, it will come to naught. If it be of God,
we cannot overthrow it. This was Gamaliel. I think it
was he that whom Paul sat at his feet and heard the word of
God, a doctor of the law. He gave them, the Jews, that
advice. So they let them go. They still
did command that they should not speak in the name of Jesus,
but they let them go. Let me read this in verse 41
and 42. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing. Rejoicing. that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. Daily in the temple, in
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. We're not yet coming to times
of persecution like that in our land. It may well soon come. But here they were rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame. If we are called
to suffer shame because of the name of Jesus, may we remember
this, our rejoicing apostles, rejoicing in this situation. We mentioned Peter before, and
if we were to go to his epistle, then we read in the first epistle
in chapter three, verse 14, He says, in verse 13, who is he
that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good?
But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. Happy? Is it nice to suffer? Suffer for righteousness' sake?
I did good, Lord. I walked in thy ways and I've
had to suffer for it. He says, Happy are ye, and be
not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts. Be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you, with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience, or
as they speak, evil of you, As of evildoers, they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Happy are ye. It is these scriptures
that we need to keep in mind, count it, all joy. This is the same message. If we go back to Hebrews and
Hebrews 11, we read of Moses and the path that Moses himself
walked as he joined himself with the people of God, brought up
in Pharaoh's household in the palace. But we read this in verse
24 of Hebrews 11. By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. That's what he chose.
And then we read this. This is his assessment. This
is his equivalent to that it be with all joy, counting it
all joy. And we read, esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. You know, on one hand, naturally
speaking, you look at all the treasures in Egypt, then you
look at all the hardships of the desert, and all that they
went through there, and you say, well, wouldn't it have been better
in Pharaoh's household? No. As viewed in God's account,
imbued eternally, he esteemed those reproaches of Christ's
greater riches, choosing rather. On one hand, we have all the
things of this world. On the other hand, we have a
hope of heaven, a hope beyond the grave. And may those things
that are bound up with that, we esteem those better. I want to just close with that
which is the wonderful token of being a child of God. Clearly
is set before us as not joyous and that is chastening, the correction
of the Lord in Hebrews 12. He says that no chastening, verse
11, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. How can you say that that Can
we count that all joy? It's not, it's grievous. Nevertheless,
afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby. And what is the exhortation that
goes with that? Wherefore lift up the hands which
hang down, and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your
feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. It
is to encourage in that way. And that whole chapter is to
encourage. The Lord loveth whom he chasteneth,
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. God dealeth with you as sons
if you endure chastening. What son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? And so again, it is a viewing
in what really is happening, what God is doing with us, what
benefit, what blessing is it? May we be then exercised concerning
those things we go through, concerning the temptations, concerning the
afflictions, the things that have come. And our conscience
has said, that has come because I have not heeded the word of
the Lord. That has come because I have
not heeded the warning. And the Lord has laid on the
rod, the hymn writer says, the lash is steeped. He only lays
yet softened in his blood. And so we have this theme, this
message, that is rehearsed through the scripture. No doubt many
others that I have not brought before you, but there is a reason
why. It is not joyous in itself. It
is to be counted or esteemed joy by realizing what God is
doing with it, realizing that Very often these trials are only
coming because we are called, because the Lord has given us
a new nature. Maybe then embrace that path
that the Lord has brought us in and be helped to press on,
help to resist the devil, help to strive against sin, help to
continue that fight, don't listen to Satan that said, well, if
you were a child of God, you wouldn't have trouble like that.
You wouldn't have trouble with your sin. You wouldn't have to
continually strive against it or mourn over it. You'd be pure,
you'd be holy, you'd be perfect. Don't listen to him in that way.
Here below, we are called to fight the good fight of faith.
We are called to have the whole armor of God. We are called to
view things in God's light. not in what is viewed here. Here is tribulation. Here is
great trouble and sorrow. Remembering the revelation we
have, those in white robes and the answer given, whence did
they come? Where have these come from? These
are they that have come out of great tribulation and have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne. day and night, worshipping God. My brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall into diverse temptations. Amen. Hymn, 720. Tune, Newington 884. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.