Romans chapter 5. Looking back, it's been about
three years since I spoke on this subject. I might speak on it this morning.
Romans chapter 5. And we're going to be looking
down at Uh, the first five verses. Let's
bow and have a word of prayer. Ask the Lord to bless this moment.
Our gracious heavenly father, we come to you this morning and
we thank you so much for the day that you've given us. We
thank you for the time of, uh, uh, the church being able to
gather together this morning. We thank you for those that are
here that you brought. Lord, we thank you for, uh, the freedom
that we still have in this country to meet and together. Father
Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity that we have
together around the word of God. We pray Lord that our worship
and our time together in fellowship Lord today will be pleasing to
you. Lord, we just pray that you'd
be with us now in this time, the spirit might come and help
us to worship you rightly, to prepare our minds and our hearts
to Give us understanding of His word. I pray for help in preaching.
And Father, we're a needy people. We truly are. And Lord, we often
fail and we often have times of struggle where we doubt and
Lord, we need your help. We need your grace. Your grace
truly is sufficient, but oftentimes Lord, we don't find our dependency
in it. And we look to ourselves and
to the arm of flesh and So often when we look to the arm of flesh,
we fall and we go by the wayside and we forget your graciousness
and love towards us. And we forget about your sustaining
mercy and grace that you've given us. And so Lord, we just pray
that you would help us this morning to remember the promises that
you've given to us to keep us, even as we spoke of last week.
about abiding in you and how many promises that we read throughout
scripture of how you would keep us and you would sustain us and
that it was for your purposes that we'd be glorified with you. Lord, may we understand these
things today as we come around these passages of scripture.
And Lord, I just pray that those that are here, those that are
watching and listening, Lord, I pray that you just might minister
to their hearts with these Words of encouragement, these exhortations
of scripture. Lord, I pray that it might be
a blessing to them, that it might truly bring joy to their heart
to know these things. But most importantly, Father,
I pray that it might cause them to look to you, to exalt you
and honor you, to glorify Christ in all things. And we ask you
in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I probably don't have to
ask for a show of hands to know the answer to this question,
but how many of us has ever gone through some kind of suffering?
Whether it's mental, some mental suffering, whether it's physical
suffering or emotional suffering. I think we've all been through
all three of those, right? At some point in time. Maybe it's
been the loss of a loved one. I think all of us here has probably
experienced that. loss of a loved one. Maybe it's
a prodigal child going wayward, not doing what you would like
them to do. Maybe even turning from the Lord, raise them to
church and raise them to nurture and admonition of the Lord. But
yet whenever they get old enough to be on their own, they forsake
those things and turn from them and not be living the way that you
would like to see them live. Maybe it's a cheating spouse
or maybe even a divorcing spouse. Maybe it's more physical like
an incurable disease or sickness or an injury or something. Maybe dealing with mental things
like Alzheimer's, dementia. Maybe it could be corporate. Felt like broken fellowship in
a church, maybe a lost acquaintances, you know, because of some things, you know, we all lose our jobs
here and there experience that. We all go through suffering in
our life. And these are examples just of
how suffering can affect our lives on a daily basis. And it
does. Suffering is something that we have with us every day.
Jesus said in this life, you will have much tribulation, much
trials, much adversity, much suffering. And brethren, suffering
is not a respecter of persons. Okay. It's just not poor people
that suffer. You know, even though we look
at the wealthy, the rich, And we think, man, they couldn't
have any problem in the world. They can just buy whatever they
want. Well, we know the old adage, money doesn't buy happiness.
And it doesn't. That is true. It's cheesy as
it is to say it, but it is true. But one thing that we all will
experience, whether rich or poor, whether smart or whether not
so smart, whether successful or unsuccessful, Whether mature
or immature, whether young or whether old, all of us at some
time will experience or have experienced outer and inner pain.
We're going to experience those things. That's the lot that we
have in this life as God has chosen it to be. But just because
all that takes place, doesn't mean that we shouldn't
handle suffering in a different way than other people. You know,
the Bible talks about, you know, whenever someone dies, the Bible
says for the Christian, that we are not to sorrow as those
who have no hope. There's a different way that
we sorrow over a dying loved one than someone that doesn't
have hope in Christ. See, we sorrow missing the person
that's gonna be here, but knowing that one of these days, they're
gonna be with us again. We're gonna be with them. Uh,
if we're children of God, however, the person that doesn't have
a hope in Christ to them, their sorrow is, uh, it's, it's final. It's a, it's finality. You know,
it's all over. We'll never see him again. There
isn't any hope. It's all over with. Um, and so
the same with suffering, we suffer different than other people suffer
as a Christian. And the reason being is because
we have a different mindset given to us. We know that God is sovereign
over all things, right? Do we really believe that? Preached
a message several months ago on that, you know, does God's
sovereignty matter? Does it matter? Does it matter
to you that God is sovereign, even when things don't go your
way, you know? The way we handle these sufferings
is greatly reflected in how we view them. And I'm not trying to get into, you
know, psychology here, you know, worldly psychology, but the way
that we view what scripture says about our sufferings. See, it
isn't about our feelings and our emotions. Whenever we're
going through our sufferings and trials, we're going to be
full of emotions, right? But we're not led by our emotions.
We're not governed by our emotions. We need to be governed by the
knowledge of what the word of God says. Let the word of God
tell us how we are to react in our sufferings. See, this is
what is true. Our feelings, what comes out
of our heart and emotion is desperately wicked and deceitful. We can't
even know, we can't trust our feelings and emotions. because
it comes from the heart of flesh. But the mind that is being renewed
by the word of God, and I'll just say this, it's just kind
of a side thing. I think a lot of reasons that people, and me
included, this sermon is a preach to me as much as it is to anybody
else. And my family can attest to this,
that whenever I'm faced with adversity, whatever it may be,
my arch nemesis, DIY, Uh, you know, how we understand
what the Bible says about our suffering turns out. And a lot
of this comes from not staying in the word of God, not reading
the word of God, not meditating upon the word of God, not knowing
what the word of God says. If we don't know what the word
of God says about our sufferings, then we are not going to be able
to respond. in the right fashion. We're going
to respond out of ignorance towards that suffering. And so we need to stay in the
word of God. And so that's why, that's what I mean by whenever
I say that the way that we handle these sufferings is greatly reflected
in how we view them. If we view them as something
that is a burden that has been put upon me that I don't deserve,
What is that? That's pride, isn't it? We are
now rising in pride and we are saying, you know, how dare God
do this to me? How dare him? Or even the fact
of thinking in our mind that, you know, I'm above this. I'm
above all this. Why would I need to learn these
things? You know, I, you know, Maybe
you look at yourself as a mature Christian and you think, well,
I'm a mature Christian. I passed all that stuff. Why
do I need to learn it now? Why do I have to learn this?
You know, I've been on the road long enough. I shouldn't have
to be put through these testings anymore. Oh, and this is pride,
right? And we're all full of pride,
aren't we? We're all full of pride. Pride is at the root of
just about everything that we do. We're proud people. We're proud. We don't want to
be shamed. Why? Because we're proud. We
don't want to suffer. Why? Because we're proud. Not
necessarily, surely, yeah, we don't want the physical hurt.
Yeah, we don't want that. We don't want the emotional pullings
and scars that might come. Yeah, we don't want that. But
above all, we think that we shouldn't deserve that. That's kind of
the root of where we're at. whenever tribulations come. But
also the way that we handle sufferings is greatly reflected in how we
view God as well. How you handle your sufferings,
how you handle your trials and tribulations is a view on how
you view God or is a testimony of how you view God. For a child of grace, if we know
what the Bible says about our sufferings, if we know what the
Bible says about God and His sovereignty and His predestination,
if we know what it says about His working all things after
the counsel of His own will, of Him doing all this for our
good, and for our ultimate, the glorification of God, the glorification
of His people, if we know those things, then our view of our
suffering should be different than that of the world. It should
be something different than that of the world. Now, again, I'm
not saying it's not hard and that we not struggle and that
we don't need to go before God in earnest prayer, Lord, help
me through all these. Sustain me in this. Give me grace
in these trials. Paul had that thorn in his side
that just was bothering him to death. Not an actual thorn, but
you know, the problem that God had given him, I think it was
the Judaizers, but something that was bothering Paul to the
point where he was begging God to remove it from him and God
wasn't doing that. But what did God say? He said,
my grace is sufficient for you. What does it mean in that? That
means that God will give you grace to endure through the trial,
not to escape the trial, okay? If we are removed from suffering,
if we are removed from trials, if we are removed from temptations,
then our faith will not be tested, okay? And whenever I mean testing
of our faith, it isn't to see how strong our faith has been
built, It's to prove that we have faith to others. See, the
testing of our faith isn't so that God might see how faithful
we are. God knows that because he's the
one who gives us the measure of faith. Our testing of faith
isn't so God can say, well, let me see how well they handle it
in this day. No, the testing of your faith is so that you,
first and foremost, and others might see who you are. To see that faith being exemplified,
seeing that trust in God, that person trusting God, no matter
what happens. Have you ever met one of those
persons that the Lord has given to be strong in the faith and
that even under adverse conditions, they're always joyous and happy
and praising the Lord? I mean, and even us as Christians,
maybe look at that person and say, well, that makes me irritated
to act that way. It can't even be solo for a little
bit. You know, we all met one of those persons that just is
joyous all the time to the point. But it really ought to encourage
us. It ought to really convict us that that's the case. So the way we handle these sufferings
reflects in how we view God. Do we really view him as sovereign?
Or is that just something we say with our mouth? Do we really
understand him as the sovereign and rejoice and worship Him as
sovereign. How do you feel during these
times of intense suffering? Is it with I don't deserve this
pain? Maybe you've asked this question. How could this happen
to me? Or where is God in all this?
You ever wondered that? Why me Lord? Where are you at? How could God let this tragic
event happen? Or maybe this one? I thought
God loved me. Why is he doing this? The God
of love wouldn't let this happen, would he? You ever thought that
or asked that? I heard somebody make say that.
Listen, brethren, many of these thoughts surface in our mind
whenever we go through these tumultuous times and listen,
don't feel alone. We've all felt that. Every one
of us in here has been there. We've asked one of these questions
or something similar to it, if we're all honest. So don't feel
bad. Don't feel guilty. Don't feel
like you're all alone. We all go through these times. And feel comforted to know that
every child of grace is going to go through much temptation
and trials. And that we're there and we should
be there for each other. That's why whenever someone is
going through these, that we shouldn't just look at on the
outside and say, well, I don't need to get involved in that
or I probably shouldn't say nothing or, you know, well, let them,
you know, let them learn their lesson or something like that.
We need to come up beside them and comfort them, strengthen
them as best as we can physically, you know, outwardly. The most common thought, though,
is probably why is this happening to me? That's the basic thought
reaction and it reveals that we actually acknowledge, whenever
we ask, you know, why is this happening to me? The very question
in itself reveals the fact that we, somewhere in us, understand
that there is a purpose behind it. Otherwise, we wouldn't be
asking why. Why is this happening? Because
there's a purpose. So the fact that we're asking
why, reveals that we know inwardly that there is a purpose and a
reason for this suffering and that it has a cause and that
there is supposed to be an effect. If there is a purpose in something,
there is a cause for the purpose and there is an effect of that
purpose. When God, before the foundation
of the world, decreed all things that was to be because of his
purpose and will, There was a cause in that God desired something. God wanted something to take
place. Well, we know that he wanted
creation and all that would take place in that creation to take
place and ultimately for his glory, because the Bible tells
us over and over and over and over again that he has made all
things for himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of the Lord." That He has done all these things, that He
has predestined all things after the counsel of His own will,
according to His purpose, because of His glory. So we know ultimately
it's for His glory. And same for us, it's for our
growth and maturity in Christ, our conforming to Christ. But
even with an understanding Even as inadequate as we might have
it, there is a purpose for everything. We sometimes feel abandoned by
God, but there's a purpose in that. Even God has ordained that
we feel that way for a reason. Sometimes those thoughts are
as devastating as the actual suffering even. I mean, I can
remember times where I, I looked away from God and it just seemed
like God didn't answer any prayers. God wasn't removing me out of
the situation. And I really felt that, well,
God's abandoned me. God just left me to myself. He
just left me to get out of this on my own. Well, that's not a
right thought to have, but even God ordained that to happen for
a reason. Now I look back on it and I say,
God never did leave me, but he left me there to learn that I
can have dependency on him and that In myself, I will always
go away and look away and try to do it in my own flesh instead
of trusting Him and trusting His promises and waiting patiently
to see what the outcome is going to be. So sometimes the very thought
of God abandoning us is worse than the suffering we're actually
going through. ourselves and it's devastating
because our life has been affected and it seems that God doesn't
care about us. And during these times of anguish,
how is your life affected? You know, sometimes suffering
ushers in radical life changes. Sometimes when God takes us through
a temptation or a trial or some sort of an affliction, it causes
a radical life change. And it takes us, maybe takes
our life into an area that we've never been before. And now we're unaware of what's
going to happen, unaware of what's taking place. We're apprehensive
about what the future might hold because it's not going according
to our plan, right? My life has been uprooted and
changed. It's not the same. Well, Brendan, if you're like
me, you don't like lifestyle change as much. I kind of get
used to my comfort zone. You can ask my family, you know,
I don't, I become very complacent and you know, it is what it is
that we're here and we're fine and I don't like to, you know,
I don't like a lot of change. You know, things are good. My
house, the furniture can stay the same all the time. I don't
care. It can stay just the way that it is from now until I die. And it doesn't matter to me,
you know? But whenever suffering and things
come, we are rocked out of our comfort zone. We're taken into
a place that we're not comfortable with. And so it's at those times,
brethren, that we must be given to learn to trust on the Lord
in these times more than ever. even if there's no evident word
from God on our circumstances. We're to trust in the Lord, even
though there's no evident word from God on our circumstances. I have a pastor friend that's
since passed away. His name's Forrest Keener. In
fact, that book we carry out on our book table, Grace Not
Calvinism, that was written by Brother Keener. And Brother Keener
said something in a message that I heard him preach one time,
and I wrote that down. And he said this, he said, faith
in what's revealed, that's child's play. But faith when there is
no sure word and things look grim and God doesn't seem to
be leading, although he is. Well, that is for the mature. Faith whenever it doesn't seem
like God is there, That's for the mature. Now, with that being
said, we should trust God and his character no matter what
the circumstances seem to be. And it takes God's grace for
us to do that. We lean on God's grace because
we can't do that in the flesh. But trusting in something other
than ourself is often difficult for us, especially when we're
hurting. In Ephesians chapter one and verse 11, Paul says this,
that God accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His
will. Now, He accomplishes all things
after the counsel of His own will. So that means everything
that's being accomplished in His creation, you, me, our lives,
everything in our lives, is being accomplished according to the
counsel of His will. By the way, His will is the only
thing that He takes counsel in. The Bible says that there is
no one who could be God's counselor. Who had counseled God? Who had
given him knowledge? Nobody. God doesn't look and
take counsel after nobody. God doesn't make his decisions
based on anything that he foresees or knows. God makes his decisions
based upon his will, his good pleasure, the Bible says, right?
So if God is accomplishing all things according to the counsel
of His good will, why? Well, what's the rest of that
verse? To the praise of His glory. So everything that God is doing,
and as it pertains as we're talking about here today, our sufferings,
it is for the glory of God, right? For the glory of God. Romans
8, 28 says, All things work together for good to them who love the
Lord, to them who are the called according to His purpose. All things work together for
good. So here we see, number one, that God has counseled within
Himself and by His will has predestinated your sufferings for His glory
and for your good. Now, brethren, take that to the
bank. That's something you can stand
on. That is a principle of Scripture. That is a truth of God. Now,
I'm not laying my spin on it. You read it for yourself and
listen, there's gonna be several verses that's gonna show you
this, but there is lots of evidence in Scripture that support that
very doctrine, that very thing, that God has predestinated even
your sufferings for His glory. Now to the person who is not
saved, that sounds like foolishness. To the person that's not saved,
that may even sound morbid. You mean God is bringing, making
people suffer so that He might be glorified? Well, the blunt
short answer is yes, he does do that. But see again, God never
does anything without purpose. God never does anything willy
nilly or in chaos or, you know, just a cavalier. God always does
everything that he does with purpose. And in your sufferings,
he does it for his glory. You're good. You say, well, what
is that? Well, we're gonna see here in
a minute. So with those questions in mind
and those verses of course, I want you to see some hope in your
suffering, some joy in your suffering. I know that sounds fun. Sounds
weird, almost antithetical. Joy in my suffering. Didn't the
apostle Paul say that? He said, I rejoice in my sufferings. See, all of us who are saved
is gonna go through this suffering, but whenever we sin, we're gonna
be chastised, right? He's going to discipline us.
Sin that is sown is going to be reaped. There's going to be
consequences. We're never going to be condemned
for our sin. But brethren, don't don't think that we're not going
to experience consequences of our sins, right? There's going
to be consequences for our sins in this lifetime. So we see that
there is, so to speak, a negative side to our suffering. You know,
we're suffering or going through trials because we have sinned
against the Lord, and He is chastening us and disciplining us, and we're
receiving the consequences for those sins. But is there a positive
reason for suffering? Is there a greater good found
in our suffering? Does, matter of fact, a loving
and sovereign God ordain that we experience suffering apart
from our sinning? See, every time we sin, we always
think it's something that we did. I mean, whenever we suffer,
not sin, whenever we sin, it is something we did or didn't
do. But whenever we suffer, we always
immediately think someone has sinned. Remember the blind man
that Jesus went to and healed? And what was the first thing
that all these people think? Well, this man has obviously done some sin
that's caused this blindness or his mom and dad has done some
sin that's caused this blindness. And Jesus said it wasn't because
of his sin that this blindness came, this blindness came so
that the glory of God might be seen. You mean, wait a minute, you
mean this guy was born from birth blind just so that God could
be glorified? Well, that's what the Bible says. You mean to tell me that God
is going to make me go through suffering so that he might be
glorified? That's what the Bible says. So does a loving and sovereign
God ordain that we experience suffering apart from our sin?
Yes. Look at Romans five, if you would,
with me. Starting verse one. Therefore being justified by
faith, We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul here has been talking about
justification and the fact of how God has worked in justification,
in justifying sinners. And he's done that through the
faith of Christ, the work and righteousness of Christ, and
that we have been given that justification, that three grace
of God, You know, it is not of works lest any man should boast,
but it was given to us freely. So Paul is talking here about
the peace that we have through our Lord Jesus Christ. And look
what it says, it says, by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Isn't it wonderful, brethren,
whenever we come together as a church and we talk about what
the Lord has done in our salvation from sin, our salvation from
damnation, and we talk and rejoice about how that's been freely
given to us, and we rejoice and we glory in God. At least we
should, right? I don't know about you, but whenever
I start hearing the gospel being preached of the utter depths
of my sinfulness and how even in the depths of sin, Christ
died for me. He loved me when he didn't have
no reason to love me. He died for me so that I wouldn't
have to die. He experienced God's wrath so
I wouldn't have to experience God's wrath. We have been justified
before God. That means no sin. And for anybody
who's been given to know their sin, that's a joyful thing to
know that sin has been removed. And so we glory in God and we
give glory to God for that free salvation. We have no problem
with that, right? But look, pay close attention.
And not only so, Not just the joys of being saved should we
be giving God glory. But look at this, and not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also. Wow. Do you glory in your tribulations
like you glory in your salvation? Ouch, hurts don't it? Hurt me. heard me when I was studying
it, heard me when I seen what this was saying. And not only
so, what does that mean? We don't do this free salvation
that we are glorying in, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. Not like that, not just like
that, but like this too. We should be, we should be joy
rejoicing. in hope of the glory in tribulations. Also, to me, that sounds like
that is connecting the two together, that as much as we rejoice in
this salvation, we should be rejoicing through our tribulations,
rejoicing in the tribulations that God has brought. And why? Well, God doesn't leave us without
knowledge, brethren. Knowing that, that's why I said
a while ago that our view of God and our view of what the
scriptures teach about our sufferings is paramount to how we react
to them. That's why I was encouraging
you to stay in the Word of God, reading the Word of God, reading
what the Bible says about your sufferings. reading what the
Bible says about God and his predestinated and sovereign work
within this creation. Because knowing these things,
having your mind renewed, renewed in all things of what God has
said, knowing, knowing, you need to
know this, brethren, that tribulation, now that word tribulation, The
Greek word behind that, it means pressure. It means affliction. It means anguish, burdens, persecution,
trouble. There are all ways that that
word is translated in our King James Bible. So whenever we get
the definition from God about what tribulation means, it's
not a seven year period at the end of the world, okay? Tribulation
is now. We go through tribulations now.
It is pressure, affliction, anguish, burden, persecution, trouble. Knowing that tribulation worketh
patience. So is there a positive side to
our suffering? Absolutely. One of the things
that it does is it worketh patience. You work with patience. Now that
word patience there, it means continuance. Long suffering. That word patience
there, it means to wait. Doesn't the Bible say those who
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength? Do you need strength
in your tribulations? Well, we need to wait upon the
Lord. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Well, the only way that we get.
To a place where we can wait upon
the Lord is to go through these tribulations. We would never
know where we need it and how we need it and what it's like
if we don't go through it, right? How do we know that we have patience
on and wait to wait on the Lord? Well, you just gotta be put to
the test. There has to be a tribulation
and a trial. There has to be some kind of
a suffering or an affliction that is there so that we might
see, have you matured in patience? Has the Lord taught you patience? Has he brought you to faith and
trusting him through all these things? It says, and patience,
work of experience. Whenever we wait upon the Lord
and we continue under these tribulations, then we have gained now that
experience, right? We've gained experience. And what happens whenever that
experience is done? What does it say here? An experience
hope. An earnest expectation. Right? And earnest expectation is what
hope means. So what does he mean in here?
He said, well, the Lord says rejoice in your tribulation because
through tribulation, you're going to learn to wait upon God. Why? Well, because you certainly
aren't going to get ahead of God. You're not going to control
God. You're not going to change your
circumstances God is in control of all things. Your suffering
is going to last as long as God intends for it to last. It's
going to be as short as God wants it to be, or as long as God wants
it to be. You're not going to change the
course of God's predestination. How you think on things, again,
reveals your knowledge of what the Bible says about these. If
we know, hey, I'm not going to change my circumstances. The
Lord has me here. So while he has me here, I'll
just wait on him. What is he teaching me in this?
What is it for me to know? Maybe it's for someone else's
benefit. Maybe my going through this and
giving glory to God through this tribulation is something that
others will see and rejoice in the Lord about. Remember whenever
in Acts they wrote about those churches that was under persecution,
and even though they were under persecution, they were rejoicing
in the Lord. And that became a rejoicing in
other Christians, seeing that despite their persecution, these
people continue to rejoice in the Lord and glorify God. And all the rejoicing, what did
it do? It caused other people to rejoice in the Lord. Maybe
that's why the Lord has you doing that. And so once you experience
that, Now that experience gives you hope that the next time this
comes through, the Lord is going to bring me through just like
he did this time. The Lord can bring me through just like he
did the last time. So now I have an earnest expectation
that every time this trial comes or a trial comes, that God will
be sufficient for me, that he is enough, that what he is doing
is good for my good. And so that experience gives
us hope for the next trial. But it also gives us hope for
the future in the fact that we see how frail we are and how
we experience this in our flesh. But one day we will put away
this flesh and we will be glorified with Christ. And all of this
will be put away. All sorrow and pain and separation,
all the things that cause us grief and especially sin that
causes us the things that we are in tribulation will be gone. So we are given a hope in Christ
for what's at the end as well. Not only for just the next trial,
but for the end. Look at verse five, it says,
and hope maketh not ashamed. Whenever we begin to hope in
the Lord, then we no longer feel ashamed in our trials. Sometimes
we'll feel ashamed whenever we're going through trials. Sometimes we may show shame on
Christ. The way that we act in trials,
we bring shame upon the Lord because of our lack of trust
in Him. You guys are Christians. I thought Christ was your all
in all. I thought, and here you are acting as if there's no hope.
See, that's why we have, This tribulations gives us hope so
that whenever we're under these other people as well as ourselves
will know there is hope. Christ is our hope. Our hope
isn't us getting ourselves out of our situation. Our hope isn't
in, you know, necessarily being just removed from the trial.
Our hope is in Christ. It says that hope maketh not
ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." See, we're not ashamed
because the love of God is shed abroad on the heart. Our attitude
is love towards God. That's how we can rejoice in
hope. That's how we can rejoice in
our tribulations, because the love of God is shed abroad. We
love God and know that love that He has for us is not doing this
for no reason. He's not doing this to harm us,
but to help us. So we can see by these verses
that suffering is to be sent to bring about a positive change
in our life. But why would God use suffering
to bring this about? Well, again, turn with me, if
you would, to Romans chapter eight. You guys know these verses,
but let's look at them together. Romans 8. Look with me at verse 13. It says, For if we live after
the flesh, ye shall die. But if we through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many are
as led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, But
ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so
be that we suffer with him, that we may also, excuse me, that
we be also glorified together. See what it says there? So be
that we suffer with him. We are joint heirs with Christ.
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified
together with him. To be glorified with Christ means
we're going to go through some sufferings first. Christ had
to go through suffering that he might be glorified, right?
Christ was glorified in his death and his accomplishment of redemption.
but he surely had to go through suffering to get there. For I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
I say that often here, brethren. Listen, at the end of the day,
your sufferings in this lifetime is gonna be nothing compared
to the eternal glory that you're gonna live in. If I have to live the rest of
my life as an invalid, as a dummy or anything, whatever it is,
without, poor, in persecution, in prison, whatever the case
might be, whatever the affliction, whatever the suffering, whatever
the tribulation might be, listen, every bit of that that I experience,
no matter how long it lasts, is worth it for the glory that
we're going to have in eternity. Verse 19, for the earnest expectation,
that's the hope right there. Brethren, that's the hope. Earnest
expectation is hope for the hope or the earnest expectation of
the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God for the creature
was made subject to vanity, that word vanity there speaks of corruption. The creature was made subject
to that, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected
the same in hope. So see, we have been subjected
to vanity. We've been subjected to corruption
and to sin and to the, consequences of sin and suffering. You know,
all this came because of sin. And he says, and we've been subjected
to this in hope. See, there's a hope for all of
it. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the
spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption to with the redemption of our body. One of these days,
this body is going to be laid down in an incorruptible, perfect,
glorified body will be taken up. And listen, brethren, there
will be no more suffering, no more affliction, no more tribulation. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeeth, why doth
he yet hope for?" Brother Keener was right, wasn't he? Hope that's,
you know, if we have faith in what's seen, that's child's play. But if we hope for that We see
not, then do we with patience, there it is again, the word patience,
wait for it. Wait a minute. How do we have
hope and patience? We have to have tribulation.
We must go through tribulation because that's the way the Lord
has ordained that we learn it. How do we gain a hope? An earnest
expectation of the glorification of our bodies. Well, you got
to understand the frailty of your bodies, right? Oftentimes you'll look online
and you'll see something that looks really neat that you want
to buy on Amazon or something like that. And, uh, it looks
pretty good. I just recently, I bought, um,
um, There was a thing, matter of fact, I've been following
this for quite a while. It's a little CPAP device that was
being developed that is a cordless, wireless, hoseless CPAP device
that just goes in your nose. And it's called Aaron. And I
was following it through all of its development and the fundraising
for it and all that kind of stuff, following it and the technology
behind it. Well, I happened to see it and had not checked on
it quite a while and I hadn't seen an ad for it online not
too long ago. And it even had the name of that
company, the brand, and all that stuff on there. And it was only
$21. And I thought, man, that's not
a bad deal. I thought it was going to be
a lot more than that for this device. So I went ahead and ordered
one. And it finally came in. And to
my surprise, it wasn't from that brand. It wasn't from that company.
It wasn't Aerin. It was from another company.
And it came from China. And it looked like the original,
but it wasn't. The inside technology in it wasn't
the same. It was something different. And
whenever I tried it, it didn't do anything. It absolutely didn't
do anything. It was a waste of $21. Now what
did I learn in that? Well, I learned that you can't
trust what you buy in China. But I also learned that not everything
that's advertised is as it seems. But see, I never would have learned
that had I not experienced that. You see why now we have tribulations? And tribulations leads to patience.
Patience, experience. And then in experience, once
we've experienced that, we're given a hope or an earnest expectation
of deliverance from that. Whenever we go through these
trials, we're given an earnest expectation that one of these
days, these trials will be over. And so what do we do? We hope,
we wait on the Lord. But if we hope for that, we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it? Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
us in our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we are, but the Spirit itself make of intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be understand. Listen, brethren,
I would even say that there's a lot of people that don't even
pray. for their times of tribulation. Much less look to the spirit
with groanings that they can't utter. Listen, there is a preserving
element in our suffering that keeps the Christian longing and
hoping for total glorification of our bodies. Whenever we experience
suffering, it keeps us looking towards our future glory and
hope. But listen, there's another reason
God uses suffering. Not only is there a preserving
element to suffering, there is a perfecting element to suffering. Look, if you would, at Hebrews
chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. And I hope
by now you understand that whenever the Bible speaks of our perfecting,
it isn't talking about our sinlessness. It isn't talking about us becoming
holy as God is holy. OK, that's not what it's talking
about. Whenever the Bible talks about
perfecting, it's talking about maturing, being mature. Again, that's like what Brother
Keener was saying. Those who know how to trust in God through
trials and circumstances and things like that, especially
when God doesn't seem to be speaking to you, that's for the mature.
That's for those who the Lord has matured in the faith. They
know, they understand, they trust, But the word perfect means to
mature. Or to have fully complete. So look at you in Hebrews chapter
5. Start reading in verse 7 says who in the days of his flesh
talking about Christ here. Remember, this is a speaking
of Christ, who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek verse
6. Who in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was hurt in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. Now, I want to point some things
out here about this. Number one, Jesus didn't learn
anything in the fact that he didn't know. Because he's God, he's omniscient. Right? So, we know that by scripture
that he is, by God, omniscient. As God. Omniscient. So what does
it mean that he learned Obedience, learn the obedience by the things. That word learn there can also
mean experience. Whenever you learn something,
you're experiencing something, right? At work, I can read a manual
that will give me knowledge of how a machine works. And in the back of that book,
there is a troubleshooting guide. That tells me how to fix things
most of the time. But you know what? It's easier
for somebody to show me. I learned from doing it. All
right, instead of reading me off how to do it, just, you know,
let me do it. Okay, tell me where to put this.
Okay, I'll put it there. All right, tell me where to put this.
Okay, I'll put it there. All right, this is what it said.
This is what the reading was on my meter. All right, turn
this wrench. Okay, I'll turn that wrench.
Take this off. Okay, I'll take that off. Once I've done that,
guess what? I've experienced it. Now that I've experienced
it, I've learned. See, Jesus doesn't learn knowledge,
but he does experience. Jesus had never experienced that.
Why? Because he's God. It wasn't until
God prepared him a body and he became and dwelt in that body
and become the son of God where he took on a role to God. It's kind of weird to
think about God in submission to himself, but he was in submission
to himself as God, as the invisible God. The God man took on a subservient
role and he learned those things. He experienced what he had not
ever experienced before in all of eternal living. He had never
experienced what a body can go through. He'd never experienced
pain. He had never experienced heartbreak
from someone who had betrayed him. He'd never experienced someone
blaspheming him to his face. Rejection, being lied to, being scorned. He'd never experienced thirst
or hunger or sleep deprivation. He'd never experienced those
things. Why? Because he's been a spirit. He's
been God. But whenever he took on flesh, became a man, then
he began to learn or experience those things. And he began to
experience obedience to God. And again, that's what we're
told that, you know, he took on that role of a servant. In
Philippians, we're told that he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but he submitted himself and became a servant,
something that he had never been before. So he learned to obey. That's what a servant does, right?
A servant obeys. He learned to be obedient through the things that he suffered.
So see, brethren, we can learn to be obedient to God. And what
is the obedience that God calls us to under the new covenant?
The obedience of faith. See, we're called to the obedience
of faith, not the obedience to the law, but the obedience of
faith. The obedience of faith is trusting in Christ alone,
trusting in Christ alone. That's our obedience to love
God and to love the brethren. is the commands, but ultimately
it's the trust in Christ alone for all that we need, for all
that we are, whether it be for legal salvation or experiential
salvation, to trust in Christ alone. And so we see here that
Christ himself, our master, our servant, our example, learned
or experienced obedience by the things that he suffered. And
look at verse nine, and being made perfect or complete, that
word is meaning complete there, and being made complete, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
One of the ways that we're made complete, mature, is by the things
that we suffer. So see, there is a preserving
element to us Our tribulations keep us hoping in God. That's
the preserving. But there is a perfecting, a
maturing, an experiential thing that we go through so that we
are matured, are complete. See, we can have all the knowledge,
but if we don't understand it and know it, it's not made complete.
Until I've taken the knowledge that I've been given and put
it into action, it's not complete. Whenever Ozark Imaging sends
me to Canada or sends me to LA or sends me to New Jersey or
wherever, you know, North Carolina, to some of these trade schools
to learn these equipment, I could gain all that knowledge. But
until I get out in the field and come under that and work
that, then that knowledge really doesn't mean a whole lot to me.
But whenever I begin to experience that, and I come underneath that
in submission to that, then I gain knowledge and an understanding
of it, and I've worked through it, and now, as we see here,
it makes me complete. I not only know it, but I've
experienced it and I've worked my way through it. Well, whenever
we come under tribulations and trials and sufferings, God is
doing that not only to preserve us by giving us hope. for what's
to come in the end, but he's also doing that to mature us,
to make us complete in the faith, not just to know about it and
head knowledge, but to have actually experienced his hand of grace
in bringing us through each trial. In 1 Peter 1, we're just about done, brethren. 1
Peter 1, Look with me in verse 6. It says,
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Is that the word
temptations? Therein means trials. As a matter of fact, he uses the word
in verse 7. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold, that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ." The trial of your faith being much more precious than
gold. The Word of God is saying that these trials that God gives
to us are more precious than gold. There is a purpose behind
these sufferings, a positive thing behind our sufferings that
the Bible says is more precious than gold. Why do we not look
at it that way? Well, it's because our mind is
not into the word of God. Our knowledge is not to that
of what these trials are for. We're looking at them from the
fleshly side of why me in pride, instead of looking at them from
our sovereign, gracious, loving God who has given them and what
the Bible is telling us about these things. What are they doing
to us and for us? He says that it might be found
under the praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls." So we see here that the trial of our faith should
be considered to us more precious than gold. James chapter 1. Verse 2, it says, My brethren,
here it is again. We've heard Paul say it. We've
heard Peter say it. Now we've heard James say it.
By the way, all three of these were killed, martyred for Christ,
right? My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers or many temptations or trials. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. There it is again. The Bible
says in the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established.
This is the third time we've seen that tribulation trials
worketh what? Patience. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have her perfect
work or her maturing work, her completing work, that ye may
be complete or perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Listen, brother,
if you've learned from the Lord that He can get you through every
trial, then you're wanting of nothing, right? If you can rejoice
in the good times and in the bad times, guess what? Nobody
can take nothing from you. Satan can't take nothing from
you if you rejoice in the good and the bad. If you know that
God is sovereign over all the good stuff and over all the bad
stuff, and that He's working it for your good, and that He's
faithful to bring you through these things, and that ultimately
one day you're going to be rid of all these things, nobody can
touch you. You're going to be invincible,
so to speak. That's what He's saying here.
He says, you'll be wanting of nothing. You'll be lacking nothing. If you've learned and been matured
to this point, I'm not saying that we're gonna be sinless.
Now again, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that we're gonna
have doubts and not gonna have times of this. But what I'm saying
is whenever we get that knowledge and now we've got that experience
and the Lord brings us through, what he's doing in every one
of those is bringing us to a complete man. where we trust the Lord
in good and in bad, where we have rejoicing in what he has
done for us in the good, rejoicing in for what he is doing through
the bad. Assuming you say, well, I don't
understand that. We'll look at verse five. If
any of you lack wisdom about these things, he didn't just,
you know, James isn't just like here, just like spitting out
little one-liners, okay, that have no cohesion. What's he talking
about? If any of you lack wisdom, wisdom
for what? To be patient in tribulations, to be patient in trials, to wait
upon God's perfecting work or completing work and teaching
you through these trials. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask God that give it to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. The problem says you have not
because you ask not. But let him ask in faith, not
in pride. You don't go to the Lord asking
Him in pride, Lord take this away from me, I'm tired of being
underneath this, I know you can do it. Not in pride, ask in faith,
trust in Him. Lord, give me wisdom to be patient
through this trial. Several years ago in studying,
it may have been even whenever I was studying for whenever I first preached
on this, but several years ago, the Lord
impressed upon me that a lot of times whenever we pray, we're
always praying that the Lord will remove the burden, that
he'll heal me. Get me out from underneath this.
Get me out from underneath this. Take this away. Take that away.
Someone's sick, pray that they get well. If someone's, you know,
uh, uh, you know, in, in financial strait, Lord, give them money.
If they're in a health issue, give them health. If they're
in, you know, whatever. Always get them out. Get them
out from underneath that, Lord. But then he told me, wait a minute,
there's a purpose of being under that. There's a reason why God
has somebody underneath that. And so that we shouldn't necessarily
always be praying for that. Now we can surely pray for that,
but we always should pray if it be your will. And I remember
one time praying that God would heal somebody if that be your
will. And they turned around after
it was over and said, what do you mean if it be your will? Why are you
praying that if it's not his will? Well, the Lord might have
a purpose in you being that way. He may be chasing you for something
you've done and you need to learn that. You know, so I don't know. I don't know. So I don't know
how to pray. So I always need to pray, whether
it be in God's will. But the Lord taught me that,
you know, don't always pray to get out from underneath things,
but that God would get you through those things. And very well,
he might get you out of those things, but We don't know what
he's going to do. So with that being the case,
pray that whether he does or he doesn't, that he'll give you
grace to get through that. And so that's kind of what we
see here. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, they
give it to all men liberally and upbraid the non-men shall
be given him. Let him ask in faith, not wavering for he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed. You're trusting Him. You're praying,
oh Lord, I know You're sovereign in this and You're in control.
A couple hours later, you forgot all about that. Strong today, not tomorrow. Well,
if you have wisdom in these matters, ask God. I'm wavering in my faith. Give
me faith. Increase my faith, Lord. For
let not 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 the burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the
flower that 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, you hear
that? Blessed. 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. Brethren, there is a perfecting
or a maturing in this. So God uses suffering for our
good and His glory. So knowing this, how should our
attitude be in suffering? Now you see why we should rejoice
in our sufferings? We should rejoice because God is doing
a perfecting work here. See, our attitude shouldn't be
like that of those in Romans 9 that says, you know, why have
you made me this way? That's not the potter made clay. You know. Now, brother, I'll
tell you this, and I'll be honest, it's not easy. Matter of fact,
it's not even natural to do this. But one who has been quickened.
By God. God can produce that in you.
We must trust in Him. Look to Him. If you claim to
be a Christian, yet get mad at God and everyone else when things
don't work out the way you want it, you might want to check and
see if you're really trusting in Christ or in yourself. Listen, you can trust in His
character. You don't have to turn here, but in Lamentations
3.32, the Bible says, but though He caused grief, yet will He
have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.
You can trust His character. that even though He's causing
this grief, He has compassion upon you. You can trust His promise. We
read in Romans 5. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
He's working this out in your life for a purpose. You can trust
His promises. Listen, whenever times are dark,
pray for faith. Remember what Job said, Job 13?
He said, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, but I will
maintain mine own ways before Him. Romans 8, 28. We know that all
things work together for good to them who love God, to them
who are of the call. Brethren, we can rejoice in our
sufferings because in those sufferings, the Lord is teaching us about
Him, about ourselves, He is maturing us. He is preparing us. But most importantly, he's going
to glorify himself. He gives us a hope for that glorification. The Bible says that we are going
to be glorified and be like him. I can't wait for that, you know.
And again, like I said, it's not easy and it's not natural
for us to think that way. But praise the Lord, we've been
given the mind of Christ that we can think that way. if He
so gives us to think that way. So I hope that whenever you come
under troubles and tribulations, you think of them from a different
perspective. Don't think of them on a selfish, prideful perspective,
like you don't deserve them. Because to tell you the truth,
every one of us deserves even worse than what we've ever experienced
because of our sinfulness against the Holy God. But think of them
in those things. Rejoice that you suffer these
things so that it work with patience, hope. And hope and patience has
its perfect work. Then you'll be mature in Christ,
not lacking anything, not wanting in anything. Amen. It's easy for you to say that,
Pastor. Well, he's faithful. even when we're not. So we just
look to Him, right? All right, anybody got any questions
or comments or testimony of God's goodness through troubles and
tribulations? All right, let's bow and have
Word prayer. That wasn't an easy message to
preach. It's not an easy message to hear. Even to the child of grace, Father,
sometimes whenever we hear these things, it seems odd and strange
to us to think that we should rejoice in sufferings. But Father,
we thank you for the word of God that tells us how to think,
what to think, what's right, what's true. that we don't get
our experience. We don't get our knowledge by
the things that we feel. So what the Bible says, and Father,
I pray that each one of us might learn from what we've read and
heard today. May we truly, by the Holy Spirit's
power in us, be able to experience the very thing that we read and
heard today. Lord, we know that we can't do
this in the flesh, that we will never hope in you. We'll never
trust in you. We'll never look to you and rejoice
in our sufferings because our pride will always rise up and
tell us that we don't deserve it. But Father, we know that your
ways are not our ways. Your thoughts are not our thoughts.
You're higher than we are. And we just truly look in a glass
darkly whenever we see these things. The Father, we pray that
you might help us to understand, help us to know these things.
Give us faith in these times of trial and tribulation. There's
so much heartache and hardships that we see in the lives of people
today, even now, people that we know, that we love. Lord,
going through much things, Lord, may they learn these things through
scripture. May their thoughts be upon you.
But so often our thoughts are upon ourselves more than it is
upon you. May your glory be seen, desire above all things. May
we as a church be a church that exemplifies these things to those
outside, especially whenever the times come when tribulation
and trial might come, that we might be an example and a testimony
and even an encouragement to others that may be around us
when we pray. We pray for each individual that
as we live our lives around other people, that they might see that
we not only rejoice in our salvations and all the uptimes that we might
have up on top of that mountain, But Lord, that we might rejoice
in the Lord, even whenever we're in the valley, knowing that the
Lord is our shepherd and we shall not want. We should not lack
anything as we look to Him. So Father, everything that we
have are given to understand and know, to experience in this
life, Lord, is given to us. because you have purposed it
for your glory and for our good. And may we live in the good of
that, live in the knowledge of that. So Father, we just ask that you'd
help us be with us now as we leave this place to keep us safe
this week. That you would use us as you
see fit to use us, speak, speaking to others, living before others
the way that you would have us to be Lord. We pray for those
that have been listening or watching, Lord. We pray that this message
has been a blessing, a conviction to them. Lord, we pray that it
might be glorifying to you in everything that we do and say,
Lord, we desire that. And we thank Christ for his blood. We sang about that this morning,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's the only thing that can
wash away my sin. It's the only thing that is our righteousness
before you. And so Father, we're thankful
for Christ and his substitutionary death. His efficacious work on
the cross that has given us faith and given us life that we might
experience these things, even in these mortal bodies, Lord,
we might know our salvation and we thank Christ for it. And so
we ask now Lord that you will be with us now and just keep
us, keep us in the faith here and may you bring others. to
join in worship and in service with us as you see fit and for
it's Christ's name that we pray. Amen.