Let's turn over into your Bibles
to Ephesians chapter one. And as you're passing by Romans,
you might throw your fingers or something there in Romans
chapter eight. There's two scriptures that I want us to read here before
I get into talking about kind of what I want to talk about
today. But I wanted to ask a couple of questions of you guys. Ephesians chapter one. And we're really familiar with
the first chapter of Ephesians. That's kind of like our go-to verse around here,
it seems like. Everything ends up in Ephesians
chapter 1. And I guess when you're an absolute
predestinarian, that's kind of there in Romans as your two go-tos,
you know. Although it's all over the Scriptures.
But Ephesians chapter 1, We kind of know everything. For the sake
of time, I'm not going to read through the first 10 verses. I want us to go to verse 11 because
there's something there at the end of verse 11 that I want to
ask a question about. It says, In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him, and here it is, who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will." Okay? Now, the Him that we're
talking about here, we're talking about God. God worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Do we believe that? That's the
question I want to ask. Do we believe that? Or do we
believe that there is a doctrine about that? See, there's a difference
in that. So you can believe that there
is a doctrine of God's sovereign grace, God's sovereign providence. And I'm just going to pause for
a minute and I'm going to say, This message here is pointing
at me as much as it's pointing at anybody else, whether it's
in this room or over that Facebook or on this sermon audio or whatever.
It's to me, and my wife can attest to this, that I need to hear
this just as much as anybody else does. But do we believe
that God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will? It's more than just a doctrinal
stand that we take, although we take that doctrinal stand.
It's more than that. There is something in that. When
the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this portion of this
letter, he inspired him to write that for the purpose of giving
us information about God. Everything that's given to us
in the scripture is the revelation of who God is and what God does,
has done, will do. It's about God. And more specifically,
it's about his son, Jesus Christ. That is the central figure of
all the scriptures from Genesis all the way, and if you want
to include the maps, you can include the maps because most
of that is centered around where Jesus lived, okay? This Bible is a Christ-centered
Bible. This Christ-centered Bible speaks
of Jesus, points to Jesus, exalts Jesus. And whenever we come to
verse 11, and it says, He worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, we take that to mean that not only does God
do whatever He wants to do, and He's the only counsel that He
takes. He doesn't take counsel from the angels. He doesn't take
counsel from men. He doesn't take counsel from
another God, quote unquote. Because He is the only God. That
is the definition of being God. He is alone God and He only takes
counsel from Himself. He does what He wants to do,
when He wants to do it, as He wants to do it. Okay? He does
that. And it isn't a fatalistic thing.
It is a purposeful thing. That's what separates what we
believe that some call fatalism from what is the truth, which
is divine providence and sovereignty, predestination, those things
aren't fatalism. Those things are God's purposeful
activities. There is a difference in that.
People accuse us of being fatal. Whatever we'll be, we'll be.
No, whatever God has purposed, we'll be. That's the difference.
God has a purpose, and that purpose is set in stone, and nobody's
gonna change that. You might call that fatalism,
But that's not fatalism. Fatalism is it's just left up
to whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Whatever
is going to happen has been purposed though by our God. See even fatalism
is governed by God and it's according to His purpose. You remember
whenever we did the study several months ago and we talked about
the lot being cast in the lap. That was determined by God. That's
not fatalism. whenever they voted for the successor
to Judas, that was determined by God. Even though every individual
in there took a lot and cast that lot in and voted, that came
out to exactly who God had determined and that was Matthias and not
any of the others. Whenever they at the foot of
the cross cast lots for Jesus' a garment, that was already determined. The act was determined and who
got the garment was determined by God. Even though it seemed
to be a fatalistic thing, it's in fate's hands. Who gets this,
you know? I know it's a bad example. I'm
probably going to be ostracized for this, but everybody out there
at that big old giant casino that's pulling on those arms,
every little thing that bleeps up there, God has determined
every one of those. Every little scratcher that these people are
out there scratching, God has determined what's behind that
little silver dust. Why? Because God has worked all
things after the counsel of His own will. We believe that, don't we? Look,
if you would, at Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 28. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to His purpose. Now again, I'd make a side note,
we're not going to go heavily into this, but I'd make a side
note that the definite article thee is there. It wasn't in italics
supplied by the translators, okay? It's there, the called. The modern day translations that
we have out there today said to those who are called. Now
this makes it more specific, to the called. It's a specific
group of people. That we know that all things
work together for good to them who are the called. All things
don't work together for good to those who are not the called.
It's for the called. according to his what? Purpose. Now we just read that God by
his own counsel has determined all things and has purposed all
things and it's all been by his counsel. Who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. We know that all things work
together for the good. So all the things that God has
determined by his counsel, he worketh for our good, right? Well, let me ask, if we all believe
that, do we believe that's true whenever we're suffering and
in tribulation? It's been a while since we've
talked about that around here, but like the gospel, sometimes
we need to come back and remind ourselves about why we have to
go through tribulations and trials. How many of us have gone through
some kind of suffering, whether it's mental suffering, physical
suffering, whether it's emotional suffering? All of us have gone
through that at some point or another. You know, we've our
family has experienced in these last few months the loss of several
people, close friends and family. I think we've had. Four or five
people in the last three or four months have passed away that
we've been very close to, whether it's been a family member. We've
had a couple, two or three family members that has passed away.
And we've had a couple of very close friends that I've grew
up with, Lori's met and known since we've been married, that
we've lost. Those are times of suffering
that we experience. You know, people that's out there
may have experienced a cheating spouse. Some people may have
had prodigal children that's run off, abandoned what they've
been taught growing up, went away. There may be people out
there that's experiencing diseases that can't be cured, cancers.
Man, I know a lot of people who've got cancer. I mean, it seems
like it's getting worse and worse every year, cancer, especially
from the town that we grew up in. I mean, that's like a hotbed
for cancer out there. You know, there's a lot of people
living with broken homes, people with physical states, Alzheimer's,
dementia. There's people that's experiencing
divided churches all over the place. Broken fellowships, lost
acquaintances. These are just some examples
of some of the suffering that we experience in everyday life.
Now, there's a lot more than that. I mean, we experience suffering
because of our faith, what we believe. I mean, there's a lot
of things that we can say, but brethren, one thing's for sure.
We know that suffering is not a respecter of persons. I mean, I have experienced suffering
and I'm sure everyone in here has experienced suffering. All
of us at some time has experienced outer or inner sufferings, tribulations,
trials. And brethren, it's the way that
we handle these sufferings that is greatly reflected in how we
view them and how we view God. We can't ever talk about sufferings
without talking about how we view God, and how our view of
God determines how we view our sufferings. I mean, it's a reciprocal
thing. You know, how we view God depends
on how we view our sufferings, and how we view our sufferings
depends, I mean, shows how we view God. It's kind of a two-way
coin, two-way street, double-sided coin. Think back to some of the sufferings
that you might have had. How did you feel during those
sufferings? What are some of the things that
you experienced there? I know in my life, a lot of the
times, just to be open with how I have handled sufferings in
the past, and again, my wife can attest to a lot of these
things, is I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. How could
this happen to me? Have you ever said that? Man,
how could this happen to me? A few other ones that I've wrote
down here of things that I've said to my shame. Where's God
in all this? Where's God in all this? How
could God let this tragic event happen? Or even this one, and I'm ashamed
to say that I've said this, but I have. I thought God loved me. Why is he letting this happen?
I think if we're all truthful, we probably all, at least in
some way or another, have mentioned those, and maybe not those exact
words, but something close to that. Many of these thoughts,
they surface in our minds whenever we go through tumultuous times.
But probably the most common one is, why is this happening
to me? Why, God? Why now? Why this? Why then? Why that? See, this is the basic reaction
that we tend to have whenever we come under suffering, tribulation,
trials, is this reaction of, why me? Why me? Why this? And it usually reveals that we
acknowledge the fact that there is a purpose in it. Whenever
you say, why me? Or why this? Or why that? It reveals the fact
that you at least acknowledge that the suffering has a cause
and effect. Whenever I say, Lord, why me? Then that means, God, you've
done this for a reason, and I would like to know the reason. And so we have this cause and
effect already in our mind knowing that suffering didn't come just
for no reason. That there was a purpose in this
suffering. Now, whenever we say why me,
it's usually in a prideful, arrogant way because we, like the other
question, is I don't deserve this, right? God, I don't deserve
this. Why me? That's usually the way
we say it. But whenever we do say it, it
does imply that there is a cause and effect. There is a reason
for suffering and an effect from suffering. And even with an understanding,
even as inadequate as we might usually be in our understanding
of that, there is a purpose for everything, but yet we sometimes
feel abandoned by God. We feel abandoned by Him. Sometimes
God doesn't speak right away. He doesn't give you the answer
of why. And He's really not bound to
give you the answer why. But yet, God always gives us
the answer, right? Even though He may not give us
the specifics, He always gives us the answer. Matter of fact,
we just read the two answers. The two answers is, if we are
His, if we are the called, that it was in the counsel of his
will to determine to do that and the reason he did it was
for your good. And all of us agree, we believe
that, we believe that. But yet whenever it comes down
to the circumstance, we forget that and we begin to question
why. So sometimes those thoughts are
thoughts of abandonment from God. Sometimes the thoughts are
devastating. Sometimes they are actual sufferings
so intense that, you know, they're just devastating to us. Our life
has been affected and it seems that God doesn't care. There's been some times early
on, well it still is, but early on that I have vividly in my
mind of things that I struggled with. and calling out for the
Lord audibly, not just mentally in my prayers, audibly. Why,
Lord, I need the answer for this. I want to do what you want me
to do. I want to be right in what I
do and the decisions that I make, things like that. And God doesn't
seem to give the answer to it. And you find yourself feeling,
I'm abandoned. By God, I remember I preached
a message several years ago about God gives us a song in the night. And that message come through
some of that time of suffering that I went through, of decisions
and things that was happening in our lives and how God wasn't
giving us the answer right away. But during these times of anguish
and everything, We all the time think about why, why, why, but
have you ever kind of retro looked at it, in retrospect looked at
it, and looked how was your life affected by that? See, I look
back at those times and specifically, you know, whenever that time
when Kaylin was in the hospital for a week or so and we didn't
know what was going on with her, didn't know what was going to
happen, you know. You look back on that and during
that time you're like, why? But then you look back and you
find out God taught me things through that. We learned dependence
upon God. We learned trust upon God. We
learned that we are nothing and that He is everything. We learned
that He does all things according to the counsel of His will. We
learned these things. So, sometimes we need to look
through our times of anguish and see how is our life affected?
Is our life affected by these? Sometimes suffering brings in
radical life changes. for us. The Lord brings that
to our lives and it creates a radical life change and it thrusts us
into areas that we've not been aware of. Maybe takes us to places
where we've been apprehensive to go and yet He changes our
heart and our mind through those times. If you're like me, lifestyle
changes, I hate lifestyle changes. My wife changed our furniture
in our house a couple weeks ago. I came home and our whole living
room was turned around. A couple of days, I was a little
anxious about that. I get used to where the furniture
is. Not that I don't like it, it's
just I'm kind of a creature of habit. Change is not well with me a
lot of times. But I look at life, and I've
coached it along, and things are just wonderful and great.
And then the Lord throws something, a trial, a tribulation there
for whatever reason he has in his own mind to do. And that
interrupts my lifestyle. It interrupts my flow of the
way things go. And so sometimes the Lord does
that. He does that to, if you allow my modern lingo, to rock
us out of our comfort zone. We get comfortable. Even in quote
unquote Christianity, we become comfortable in our little setting. And sometimes the Lord brings
trials and tribulations and sufferings to rock us out of our comfort
zones. He does that so that we won't
become complacent, I believe. I think He does that so that
it leaves us exposed to our dependency upon Him. Sometimes we get so dependent
upon other things that we forget that our dependency is in Him.
I can think it's about how I provide for my family through my job.
I can think that it's about my ingenuity, my wisdom, my whatever,
and then all of a sudden God rocks the boat to remind me,
hello, this isn't about you, it's about Him. So, brother,
I think we must learn to trust the Lord in these times more
than ever, even when there isn't an evident word from the Lord.
Even whenever God doesn't seem to just outwardly show us. Again,
we can always go back to those two verses that we read, and
that should be enough comfort for us as the children of God,
that His will is being done for our good, even though it don't
seem like good to us at the time. He's done that for our good,
and it's Him doing it. As I've mentioned, if we believe
that God is most wise, and I would believe the scriptures bear out
that He is the most wise God, then that means that every decision
that He makes is done with the utmost wisdom. And if He decides
to do whatever with you, then that was the wisest decision
for you to accomplish the purpose that He has for you. See, that's
why that verse, those two verses go together. He does what He
wills according to the counsel of His will, and it's for your
good. All things work together for
the good of Him who are the called. God has a end purpose for His
people. And those people are going to
reach that. And as I've mentioned before,
matter of fact, if I remember last time we spoke about this,
I drew a deal up on the board up there. You know, your road
may be like this to get to that point. God may choose to take
you on a nice, windy, curvy hill like that. Other of us, it may
be like this, you know. God's direction might be like
that for us. It may be like this for some. all the way down low
in the valley most of our life. But brethren, as the most wise
God, he's chosen those things for your good in the purpose
that he has for you. Which means that there is no
other way that you can arrive at this purpose except through
that way. And with that knowledge now,
how should we look at that? Well, this is how God's getting
me to here. And if that's the most wise way, and if that's
the finished goal, and we're gonna read that here in just
a minute, and we're gonna see, this is a, everything I'm saying this
morning, I hope that I have biblical backing for, and I hope to get
to that. That we look at that goal and we see that's the finished
product. What's the finished product?
Do we know? To be conformed to the image of Christ. To be glorified. And so if in his most wise purpose
and counsel within himself has said for Mike Smith to be conformed
to the image of Christ and to be glorified, here's the path
that he has to take. And he has declared the end from
the beginning and all things that have yet to happen, my path. I devise the plans, but God directs
the steps. Why? Because those direct steps
is what's bringing me to there. God has absolutely predestined
my end from the beginning and everything in between to get
to that end, how that end happens. And that includes good times
and bad times. especially the bad times, even
more than the good times. If you go through the tenor of
scripture, you will find that more is learned from the bad
things than there are from the good things. Because in the good
things, that's when we become complacent again, as I said.
And we need those bad times. So even whenever God doesn't
seem to speak to us and give us the answers for that, we still
trust that He is doing what's right for us, what's good for
us. I remember Brother Forrest Keener in a message he preached
one time, I wrote it down what he had said in one of my Bibles. And 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, and he kind of put a parenthesis there when
he said that, although He is, well, that is for the mature.
And that's true. If faith is in what we see all
the time, and everything, that's really not faith at all. If I
trust God and all I see is good things my whole entire life,
well, that's really not faith. But whenever God shuts the door
on communication with me and lets me feel, as John Newton
wrote in his song, the hidden evils of my heart, crushes me
like a worm, casts out all my thoughts, lays
me low, and leaves me like that for a period of time, and then
I cry out, you know, will thou pursue thy worm to death? And
he says, it's in this way that I answer prayers for faith and
grace. See, if we want this, we want
to be glorified. We want to be conformed. Lord,
conform me to your image. We want to be conformed. All
right, well, if it's most wise choice of mine to take you down
here low in this tribulation and suffering, is that what you
want? Because that's what it takes
to get you to here. So our whole mindset in suffering
and tribulation is there may be times when God does and takes
us places and we don't hear from him. He shuts us out. Not that he doesn't love us,
not that there's broken fellowship or relationship, but he shuts
us out. He doesn't speak to us for a
time. He lets us wallow in our own mire, so to speak. We need to trust God in his character
no matter what the circumstances seem to be. But trusting in something
other than our self, though, is often difficult for hurting
people. Whenever we're in those situations, trusting in God and
not looking to our own self, poor old me, is kind of hard. So, you know, with all those
things that we looked at in those verses before and those questions
that I've just asked, I think that we can have some hope in
our sufferings. The Apostle Paul said, I rejoice
in my sufferings. That's a strange thing. That
guy's a strange cat, right? I rejoice in my sufferings. I
count it all great whenever I am put into divers temptations.
What's he been drinking? Or smoking? For all those out
in Colorado. Paul had some knowledge from
Christ, right? Remember, he was taught by Christ.
And one of the things that Christ taught him was that there is
some rejoicing that can be done in sufferings. All of us who
are saved is going to go through suffering. That's no doubt. Whenever
we sin, we're going to be chastised. We're going to be disciplined.
But brethren, Is that not true? I mean, there is consequences
to our sin. Even though we're children of grace, the Bible
says, you know, you reap what you sow. There's gonna be some
consequences. Be sure that your sin will find
you out. Now, we're never gonna be condemned for that. Christ
has taken that condemnation. But brethren, don't... Don't
think that there isn't going to be some chastisement that
happens in our lifetime. There's going to be some consequences. So we see that there is, so to
speak, a negative side to suffering. Whenever we experience suffering,
one of the things that we need to always question ourselves
is, hey, is there anything on my part? Am I running from God? Am I disobeying the Lord? Is
there anything that I ought to make sure? Is there a broken
fellowship between me and a brother? Is there a broken fellowship
between Me and my wife, you know, what is there? Is there something
there that maybe the Lord is chastening me because of sin? That's a negative. And that's
usually what most people look at and think of in suffering
is, oh, you did something bad. And so you, you know, you need
to find out what it is you did bad and get things right with
God. OK, I remember hearing that from men growing up a lot, you
know, whenever it seemed like their life was just going to
pot, everything was like, well, you need to figure out what it
is and get right with God. If you get right with God, you
know, all this will go away. That's not true either, brothers,
because there's also a positive side to suffering. That's kind
of really what I want to look at more than anything today is
the positive reasoning for suffering. Is there a greater good found
in our suffering? See, to me, I'd rather look at it that way
than look at it the negative way, although I'm prone to look
at it the other way instead of looking at it this way. I had a conversation with a gentleman
a few weeks ago, a dear brother that I've been Facebook friends
with for many years. And I believe that this brother
is a true brother in Christ and that he believes the gospel.
And we pretty much believe a lot of things the same and everything.
But we just kind of had a difference in this, that he didn't believe
that God puts things on people and makes them suffer for no
particular reason. That it's all hinges on sin. It all hinges on us doing things
bad. that God wouldn't cause any kind
of calamity or evil to come upon one of God's children. And so
we had some differences in our understanding of that, and we
discussed it at length. But again, I think the Bible overwhelmingly
teaches us it's more of this positive aspect of suffering
than it is the negative aspect of suffering. Because God isn't,
for the child of grace, into punishment, because he punished
his son already. These things he's done for our
understanding, as we will soon see in the passages that we're
going to be looking at. If there is a greater good in
our suffering, does a loving God ordain that we experience
suffering apart from our sinning? Well, I think so. I think so. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 5. Everybody said I wondered if
he was ever going to open the Bible. Romans chapter 5. Start with me at verse 3. It
says, And not only so, but we glory in tribulations. There's
that Paul again. The weirdo. We glory in tribulations. But look what he says. He says,
but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation
worketh patience. How many of us can use a good
dose of patience? I know I could. Well, especially
when I'm at work, I could use a lot of patience. Well, especially
when I'm doing home improvement work at home. DIY is my downfall. Glory and tribulations, knowing
that tribulation worketh patience. If you ever pray to God, Lord,
give me more patience. Well, hello. How's he going to
bring it to you? One of the ways is he's going
to bring it to you through tribulations. You're never going to learn patience
without tribulations. Why? Because the very definition
of patience is someone who can be sustained through trying and
tribulation times. Having to wait. Brother Larry,
I'm gonna use him for example, hope you don't get mad at me
here. But he mentioned a few weeks ago that one of his trying
times is drive-thrus. Having patience in the drive-thru.
Well, you're never gonna have patience in the drive-thru unless
you have hold-ups in the drive-thru. Because you'll never know patience
unless you have to wait. That's how it is with all of
us. If we pray for patience, don't be surprised when the Lord
sends tribulation to teach us that patience. He goes on, he
says, knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience
experience See, we can get all the book
knowledge in the world, and there's a lot of men out there, especially
preachers, that have a lot of book knowledge about stuff, but
they don't have a lot of experiential knowledge. See, that's one of
the things, you know, I talk about it, Brother Larry talks
about it all the time. You can go to a seminary and you can
get all this education about stuff, But it ain't going to
teach you how to pastor a church. It ain't going to teach you how
to preach the gospel. It ain't going to teach you how to understand
the Word of God. It ain't going to give you the
interpretation of God's Word. It might teach you how to formulate
a well-prepared message of, you know, oratory prowess. You know, it may teach you some
other things, but brother, it ain't gonna teach you how to
be a preacher of God's Word. It ain't gonna tell you how God's
Word is. The Holy Spirit does that. That's
the Holy Spirit's job. And so here, it says patience,
tribulation work of patience and patience experience. There's
a lot of people that they don't go through the experience, they
just want the title. But once they, I remember, it's
been many years ago, so I'm sure the numbers are different, but
I remember whenever I was preaching in Southern Baptist Church, I
did a, I was doing some research on how many preachers that come
out of seminary and how long it is before they leave the ministry.
And it was actually mind boggling that, you know, that certain
year, whatever year it was, I mean, there were hundreds of men who
would come out of seminary and went to pastor their first pastor.
And within the first five years, like the overwhelming majority
of those had left the ministry, which is another proof that seminary
don't do nothing for you, OK? But whenever I seen that, I thought,
man, that is amazing that those men at some point or another
had said, you know, I'd like to go into the ministry. And
their choice of getting there was through a seminary, which
isn't the biblical way of doing it, that they would want to do
that. And that seemed to be to them
their calling. But whenever they got out there,
the title was good, but the experience wasn't. Whenever the hardships
came, whenever the trials came, whenever persecution came, whenever
conflicts came, they just couldn't stand the
heat. They left. Get out of the ministry. Either
they said, I can't handle this. or this was not my, I just, I
was wrong, this wasn't what God called me to do, or they conveniently
found another call that got, well, God just called me there
for a short amount of time, now he's got me over here. Now, whatever
the case might be, you know, well, why is that? Well, the
Bible says that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience. If you don't ever go through
experience, you're never going to get to this last point, which
is hope. Now I'd say first, primarily,
we're talking about the hope at the end. You know, we have
hope that God is going to finish what he began in us. We have
hope that Christ is coming again. We have hope that we are His
because He has given us eternal life. He's given us these great
and precious promises and we hope in those great and precious
promises He's given us His Spirit as a down payment of what is
to come in the inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus. That
kind of hope. But all of us want that hope,
right? You want to hope in all those things that are eternal
at the end. But the way you get there, it starts with tribulation.
Tribulation, patience, experience, there's where your hope comes
from. And God is telling us right here, if you don't go through
those other things, your hope is going to be fledgling at best,
fleeting, wavering. But whenever we go through tribulation,
tribulation work with patience. So now whenever tribulation comes,
we become patient through those, knowing that God is doing His
good work. And whenever we patiently wait through tribulations, we
gain the experience of seeing God at work bringing us through
these tribulations. And so whenever we experience
the work of patience and tribulation together, that solidifies our
hope that God is gonna do what He says He's gonna do. If God
is faithful, to keep me through all of this. Oh, that makes that
much sweeter whenever we get there. Let's see if we just throw
in the towel and just say, well, that's it, man. I can't trust
God. God's, you know, have you heard it? I've heard, I've heard
of men. I know a couple of guys on Facebook that used to be Christians
that have turned in the towel and just said, I don't want to talk about God
ever again. How could He have caused this in our life? How
could He have done that? Tribulations bring work of patience,
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. Brethren, if you want to have
hope in Christ, and hope in what's coming at the end, you're gonna
have to experience tribulation. You're gonna have to experience
tribulation. So we can see by these verses
that suffering is said to bring about a positive change in our
life. That suffering brought a, or tribulation brought a positive
thing to our life. But why would God cause or use
suffering to bring this about? While you're there in Romans,
look at Romans chapter eight, Look at verse 15. Romans 8.13 says, For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as
are 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. Now let's just
pause there. There's a whole issue of debate
between whether or not a child of grace can have assurance or
not. Right here, the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God is
given to us to bear witness with our spirit that we are His. Not
that we just hope that we are His in a hope that means maybe
so, maybe not, but that we are. 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, that we may be also glorified
together. 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. For if the earnest expectation
of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of
God, for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. 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. For not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the
redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Now, those last
three verses there are the verses used by people who are against
people having insurance, but all that is in the context of
what was just right before that, that says that the Spirit bear
witness with our spirit. See, we're given a hope that
is not seen. The hope that is not seen is
our glorification. The hope that is seen, we're
looking at something that we don't see now. What are we seeing
now? We're seeing this body of death. We are seeing this groaning. We're seeing this warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. We're seeing all of this take
place and what it looks like now is not that we are children
of God. Why? Because we sin. But we have a hope that this
is all going to change one of these days and the spirit bears
witness with ours that we are His and we are going to receive
that. So see, faith and hope and assurance
are all tied together. But what does it say here? It
says, verse 17, and if children then heirs with God and join
heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
also be glorified together. And then Paul makes the statement
that this suffering doesn't compare to what we're going to see in
glory. See, if we're a child of grace, we are going to have
sufferings. If we're going to be made like
Him, if we have this hope for what's going to be in the future,
that's what I was saying a while ago, I think I have some Bible
to back up what I've been saying, is if we want to get to this
end, God has determined the end from the beginning, the end being
our glorification, okay? And if He has determined that
from the beginning, He has determined the path that leads to that. And here it says the path that
leads to that hope that we're looking for is going to include
sufferings for Christ. See, there is a preserving element
in suffering. If you notice there, through
that suffering, it says, 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 for or because the earnest
expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the
sons of God. We're all waiting to see the
sons of God being manifested. We all don't know where they
are at and who they are. But one of these days, we're
all going to be before the throne of God, and it's going to be
made manifest who the sons of God are. He's going to separate
the sheep and the goats. He's going to separate His people,
the elect, from the reprobate, the wicked, and the righteous. It's going to be separated. And
we are eagerly awaiting that time. And it says, 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, which are the
firstfruits of the Spirit. So all of us who have already been
born of God and have been given understanding and hope in these
things, there are those who still have yet to have that happen,
but those who have been born of God and been given this thing,
We groan within ourselves waiting for the redemption of our bodies.
But until that time, we are going to suffer with Christ. So there
is a preserving that suffering that we experience as creatures
of God continues to give us a hopeful expectation of that time whenever
we're going to be glorified. Let me put that in more layman's
terms. Especially to all of us here that may have some ailments,
a bad hip, bad legs, arthritis, diabetes, bad back, bad eyes,
bad arms, whatever the case might be. The travail of the body,
doesn't that make you look forward to the day that you get a new
body? You ever thought your osteoporosis
was given to you to make you look forward to the hope that
you have in Christ? A new body. See, the more our
bodies undergo those dying effects, the more it makes us look to
the end. Keeps us looking to the end.
Keeps us looking. I may be with a cane today, or
a walker today, or a back brace today, or whatever it may be.
These glasses may be like that today, but I have hope that one
of these days I'm going to lay these old things down. Lay that
cane down. Lay that medicine down. I'm going
to lay all that stuff down. See, there's a preserving nature
to our suffering. But brethren, there's not just
a preserving element, there's also a maturing element to our
suffering. I want to use the word perfecting
because I just use the word preserving. And there ain't too many times
that I can get alliteration into my messages, because I'm not
that smart. But there's a preserving and a perfecting. The Bible uses
the word made perfect in a way that means mature. We grow in
the grace and knowledge of God. Not that we are without sin,
OK? Whenever the Bible speaks of us being perfect in this lifetime,
it isn't talking about being without sin. It's being mature.
We've been brought to maturity. There is a perfecting or a maturing
aspect. Turn with me, if you would, to
Hebrews. We're getting close to being
done, brethren. If you can hang in there with me just a little
bit longer. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Look with
me if you would at verse 7. It says, Who in the days of His
flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication with
strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him
from death, and was heard 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 this is a perplexing passage
of scripture and there's a lot of debate on this. A lot of people
believe that Jesus, whenever he was at Child wasn't necessarily
now. I've actually heard some say
that Jesus didn't actually Become God manifested in the flesh till
his baptism That was whenever he Was God in the flesh, but
all through his childhood. He was just like any other young
boy growing up Okay, and they always go to this verse that
Jesus had to learn Okay Now, learning something, there's two
aspects of learning something. You can learn something that
you did not know or do not have any cognitive knowledge of. Or
you can also learn something by experiencing something that
you know about but you've not experienced. Okay? I know about certain things in
my work, but I've not yet experienced them. I know how a certain machine
works, but until I go out and actually work on that machine,
I don't have that experience there. So I go out, even though
I know every iota detail about that machine, until I go out
and actually work on that machine, I have not learned that machine.
I've learned knowledge of that. So Jesus may have all the knowledge,
but yet this was a specific thing that he had not ever known, and
that was growing up as a child, learning things as a child, submitting
himself to the Father. These were things that Christ
had not yet experienced. And so, It says here, though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. And being made perfect. So does
that mean Jesus wasn't perfect? See, if we take that to being
without sin or without any accusation or like that, then we have a
spotted lamb. See, he didn't just become the
pure lamb at his baptism. He had to be a lamb born like
that. The lambs of the Old Testament
weren't ones that they shaved off the brown spots, okay? They weren't the ones that they
cleaned up themselves. No, they were the ones who were
born spotless. Now, Jesus was made perfect or
mature. See, he matured. Jesus matured as
he came into this world as a child, as a baby, and up until the time
of his public ministry, whenever it began, he was maturing in
his knowledge and experience of the things of this world,
things that he had never experienced, because in all the Old Testament
occurrences where Jesus was there, Jesus was fully God. Fully matured. So from that time, he had never
come under that being under authority, being under the learning process,
so to speak, of knowing what it was like to be a child and
to grow in stature and in maturity. And so he came. Because we see
whenever he was 12 and he spoke in the temple with those religious
leaders, They were perplexed. How does this kid know all this
stuff? Was it because Joseph was a seminary
grad and he transferred that debt to Jesus? No. No. It's because he was God. But yet we see here that even
in our example that there is sufferings produced maturity. In our life, sufferings bring
us to maturity. Now, do we have other scripture
that brings that to us? Well, if you look with me at
1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 starting in verse
6 says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. So here again, Peter now is telling
us to rejoice in temptations. that or so 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
honor 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
here we see that trials or manifold temptations causes a maturing aspect or a
cleansing aspect to us. And he used this trial or this
purifying of gold, precious gold, that our faith being tried. Now, this word temptation here,
the Bible says that we are tried or tempted. This word temptation
isn't mean seduce into evil actions, okay? This word temptations here
or this try is means to try, to test, to prove, something. Just like he uses in this illustration
of gold. Whenever you try the gold or
whenever you prove the gold, you're proving what's good and
what's not good. And so what do you do? You put
the heat to it, right? Whenever you put it into that
heat, what happens? The gold stays and the dross
floats up and is taken away. What's bad in that is taken out
to show what's only remaining. Well, that's what our trials
and temptations are doing. It's removing that dross. It's
bringing us into maturity in our faith. If you think back
whenever you first began to walk with Christ and begin your experience
in salvation, you know your faith was weak, little. You didn't,
haven't been on the road with the Lord long enough and you
didn't know certain things, but through trials and temptations
you've seen the faithfulness of God and it's caused your dependency
and trust in God to become more mature. of knowing. This is just
a trial. At once it was the poor old me's
and that's not to say it still don't happen but they probably
become few and far between. We now begin to see past that
and see the more spiritual aspects of that than just the physical
sufferings or the physical loss or whatever it might be. We see
the spiritual applications to that. Whether it be the spiritual
applications that gets us through it or the spiritual applications
of learning that we failed it. so that we might pray for that,
right? Remember the apostles prayed?
We believe, help our unbelief, okay? There are a lot of times
where we are taken through and the temptations that we experience,
like it's talking about here, when the heat's put on, it reveals
something in us. And when it does, the Holy Spirit
will bring those things to our mind so that we now know what
to pray for, Lord. Hey, I thought I was trusting
you, but obviously in this area I'm not. Would you help increase
my faith here? So that we become dependent upon
Him knowing our inabilities and His ability. Knowing our inadequacies
and knowing His faithfulness to provide for us so that we
can go to Him. If I'm ever going to pass this
trial again, it's going to be if you give me that ability. Because obviously through this
trial I show I don't have that ability. Again, it always goes
back, brethren. It always goes back to the warfare
that the Christian received between the flesh and the spirit. Always
God showing us our inability and telling us of His ability. Showing us what we are in and
of ourselves and showing what is only in Christ and available
through Christ. And so it's always showing how
we, and that's that, you know, people say, well, you're always
talking about how sinful you are and you know, that you just
can't do this or can't do that and everything like that. Why
don't you always talk about the positive side, how righteous
you becoming and you know, how much you're sinning less and
all that kind of stuff. That's because the Holy Spirit continues
to knock us down with our sin. And that's why I teach and I
preach and I ain't got a problem saying the Lord uses our sin
to mature us, to grow us, to teach us. Is God involved in
the work of sin? Not as a sinner, he's not. He's
not a sinner. But has he purposed sin for his
reasonings? Absolutely he has. Absolutely
He has. And right here is an example
to see that whenever these temptations come, it's the trying of our
faith. Look just back a few pages into
the first chapter of James. Remember, we're talking about
our attitude in suffering, looking at it in a positive way. In James
chapter 1, Look at verse two, it says, my brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Oh, now James has
been drinking a Kool-Aid. Whatever Paul and Peter's been
drinking, now James has got a little bit of it. Count it all joy when
you fall into divers or many temptations. What are you talking
about? I thought we wanted to rid ourself
of temptations. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. Oh, wait a minute, he's obviously
read Paul, or Paul's read him, one or the other. They're quoting
from the same theologian. No, they're writing by the same
spirit. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask God that giveth to all men liberally and unbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, not
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 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 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. So here we see that even James
says there is a positive aspect to our sufferings. God uses sufferings
for our good and his glory. So again, knowing these things,
how should our attitudes towards sufferings be? Why should we
rejoice in our sufferings? Well, I know one thing, what
shouldn't be our attitude, and we can find that in Romans chapter
nine. If you want to turn there, you
can. If not, I'll read it here real
quickly. Romans chapter nine and verse 14, our attitude should
not be What shall we say there, then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. You know, whenever
I talk to a lot of these people about God using sin, purposing
sin, predestinating sin, and by providence bringing those
things to take place, whenever I talk about that, the first
thing I always want to run to, again, is, well, you're making
God to be the author of sin. Or they'll run to, well, that
can't be true. God's not a sinner. God tempted no man. Matter of
fact, that was the rest of that part in James. If I would've
kept reading it, it would've said, God tempts no man. They'll
always run to that. But yet, we find here that we
can't call God unrighteous for doing what he does. Because everything
God does is righteous. So if God purposes sin, God is
righteous in doing it. If man sins, he's not righteous
in doing it. See, we're not God. God is not
beholden to the laws that he's given to man. The laws were given
for men and why was the law given? so that the offense might increase,
right? The law was given to show, that was the whole purpose of
the law, was to show what was innate in the nature of man,
created of the earth earthy, was to show that he is not God. See, God is righteous and everything
he does is righteous. So he could never have a law
to himself. He could never have a law against himself because
God himself is righteous. There is no law against God. But yet as creatures, God could
say, don't do this. And if it's done, then that shows
that we have not the ability of God. See, we're enabled. From the
very inception of creation with Adam, God intended for us to
be told of our inability and his ability. of his ability to
take what's not able and to legally make it able and acceptable. See, that's God's purpose. Why
does sin exist? Why does transgression exist? Why does the law exist? Why do
men sin and continue to sin even after they're saved? Because
God had a purpose in it. And we can't cry to God and say
you're unrighteous. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Now remember what's
gone before this, right? God has made vessels of destruction,
fitted for destruction. Wicked men to do wicked things
for the wicked purposes that God intended to accomplish all
of his purposes to reach the final end that he had purposed
from the beginning. and He's made a separation, even
though we are in that mass of people by natural means, through
spiritual means, God has made us separated, has sanctified
us, made us pure and made us clean, even though we're guilty
of all this, He's made us clean by one man, Jesus Christ. And
so these people over here, although they are just as evil, just as
wicked, just as deserving of all of these people's end, have
been given something in Christ Jesus by mercy and by grace alone. Not by any works, not by any
conditions, by grace alone. And so God has used sin, even
though both parties are guilty of it, has used sin to make this
person to be what they are and they will be destroyed because
of it. But by grace has made these people be what they are.
And even though they are still sinful, it shows the righteousness
of God that overcomes any sin and all sin by the one man, Jesus
Christ. See, the people that believe
that, oh, you can't, you know, that's not fair that God did,
they don't understand sovereign grace. They don't understand
what grace actually is, what mercy is. Every one of us should
be in this category, but God made that distinction. And so
that's where we come to when we get here to verse 14, is we
can't say that it's unrighteous that God made people so that
they would sin and be wicked. That's not righteous. But yet,
there are many conditionalists and many even sovereign gracers
who say, you're making God to be the author of sin whenever
you say that he has purposed their sin, predestinated their
sin. Well, brethren, we can't say
that God's unrighteous in doing that. And whenever you say that
he's the author of sin, if he does that, you're right here
in verse 14, you're calling God unrighteous for doing what he
alone has the prerogative to do. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Isn't any act of obedience not
sinning? Only by mercy and grace? Otherwise it's all sin. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
the Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have I raised thee up,
For this purpose have I raised thee up to show my power in thee
that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." Wait
a minute, you mean God predestinated and by providence raised Pharaoh
to be born, to be raised up, to become the Pharaoh that he
became in all of his wickedness just to show his power in him?
Well that's not right. Back to verse 14, is there unrighteousness
in God? To raise up a man for the sheer
purpose of showing his power in him and making him an evil
Pharaoh who will not obey God just so he can show God's power
in that situation? Is that any different than salvation?
Is that any different than any man's sin? See, he could have
been just the opposite. He could have made Pharaoh be
obedient and not sin, just like he did with Abimelech, when Abimelech
took in Abraham's wife. Something in Abimelech just said,
I can't lay with her, I can't do it, I can't do it. And God
said, I caused you to not lay with that woman. It was me that
kept you from sinning. See, if Abimelech would have
been left to himself, he probably would have engaged in sin. So
God is controlling whether someone sins or whether someone doesn't
sin. Between Pharaoh and Abimelech,
we see that God is controlling obedience and disobedience. God
is controlling that. Okay, so now let's look at suffering.
How does this tie into suffering? Well, brethren, there are many
who say that God doesn't cause us to suffer. For His purposes. That's just the natural things
of man. That's the natural outflow of sin that was caused by man.
No, God controls those things. Look if you would at Romans chapter
11, verse 36. He says, For of Him, and through
Him, and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Does
that include sin? Does that include suffering?
Trials? Temptations? Tribulations? Every
bit of that. Absolutely. Brethren, if you
claim to be a Christian and you get mad at God and everyone else
when things don't work out your way or the way that you want
it, and again, this is a message to Mike, we might check to see
if we're really trusting in Christ or if we're trusting in ourself. Brethren, we can trust this character.
I want to read you a couple of verses here. If I can find this passage. In Lamentations. In Lamentations
chapter 3 and verse 32. We can trust the character of
God says, but though he caused grief. Wait a minute, God causes
grief. Someone says God doesn't cause
grief in the child of grace. But though he cause grief, yet
will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
See that right there is we can trust God's character that although
he causes grief, he does have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. We can trust his promises. Again
in Romans chapter five we see, And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience. We can trust in His promise that
this tribulation that you're going through is working patience
and experience and hope. And we know that we can come
in the darkest times when things seem bad and we can pray as Job
did Job 13. And then verse 15. Job said, Though He slay me,
yet will I trust in Him, but I will maintain my own ways before
Him. Though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him. Can we say that? Is that our
prayer? Though you slay me, Lord, I'm
still gonna trust in you, no matter how dark it seems. Then
back to the verse that we, one of the verses we started with
in Romans 8. Let me read it one more time to you. We can know
that it is all for our good. Romans 8, 28. We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purposes. Is there a positive
aspect to suffering? Amen. I believe there is brethren.
Do we have we all learned it? We're learning it, I'd say, at
least we're learning it. And I pray that the Lord would
teach us more about that. Anybody have any, any brothers
have any things you'd like to add to that or comment on that
or speak to that? Testify of God's goodness through
your temptations, trials? Just as I ask for people to be
honest, if you've ever said those things, I probably think that
if we're all honest, we've probably found out that God has been faithful
to us in all those trials and temptations. And so I just pray
that he would give us faith as we're going through those to
learn from him and to trust him and to glorify him and to rejoice
in our sufferings as we've read this morning. Well, if there's
not any comment or anything, then let's bow and have a word
of prayer and we'll be with you. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
again, we thank You for this day and this time that we have
together. We thank You for the beautiful weather that You've
given to us, Lord. We thank You for the safety that You've given
everybody and the ice and the snow over the last several days.
Father, we thank You for this opportunity to come and meet
together this morning. And thank You for each brother
and sister that's here this morning. And Father, we just are grateful
to the Word of God We're thankful that it is there to lead us and
to guide us, to reveal us the things that You have to reveal
to us. Especially in this situation
and this subject of this morning, Father, in sufferings, that if
we truly believe that God has absolutely predestined all things,
and we truly believe those verses that we read this morning in
Ephesians and Romans, and all through the Scriptures, Lord,
that we know that You are doing what You do and no one is giving
You counsel. And that You are doing it according
to Your love for us. You're doing it because of Your
good pleasure. You're doing it out of wisdom. And so, Father,
we couldn't ask for anything more than that. And so, Father,
we surely wouldn't want to ask anything less of that. And so,
Father, we just pray Your will be done in our lives whether
it be through the good times or the bad. But may You help
us in those bad times, Father, to be faithful to You. Faithful
in our thinking and in our speaking, our reactions, Lord, I know,
so how hard it is in our flesh to Go through those things without
murmuring and complaining. But Father Lord, we know that
you can give us that ability, that you can increase our faith.
May we learn these things. May we be given patience and
may we, through experience, be given hope for the end. And so
Father, again, I'm thankful for all that you've shown us in this
life and how you've led us to Christ in all of it. And I pray
for each one of these brothers and sisters that this message
this morning, Lord, has been edifying to them, has been encouraging
to them. I know in their lives that they
experience hardships and I know that they're going through rough
times and experiencing things, Lord. And so I pray that you
would strengthen them And we all need to hear these things
and to know these things, Father. So I just pray that you'll be,
above all things, honored and glorified and exalted in all
of our lives. We ask for you to bless this
time of fellowship around the table as we eat. Bless the food
that we're about to eat to the nourishment of our bodies. We
thank you for these ladies who serve us and prepare these things
for us. It's such a blessing. And Father, we just are so grateful
again for all that you are, for all that you've done for us in
Christ Jesus. And it's in his precious name
that we pray. Amen.