Trials and Suffering

Okay. I thought I'd have a little object lesson this morning. So here's my question. What is it? It's a little gold box, a little thicker than a package of cigarettes. It has four wires coming out of it. And what is it? A bomb. All right. Well, that's one. That's my question. That's that's that's my question. What? What? What's in it? What's its function? A doorbell. OK. OK. So we get to we get to do a bell doorbell. Then we know it's not a sewing machine. A weight. A spiritual analogy. And it certainly can be used as a paper weight, but the wires get in the way.

So the question is, how can we find out what the function is and what is inside the box? But if I open it up, if I open it up, how can I tell its function? How do I know its function? Where do I have to go? Where do I have to go to find out what's in it, what's its function, and what's its purpose?

Read the directions? But I've got no directions. See if the manufacturer's got his name on it. There is no nameplate, no name, no manufacturer. In fact, I'll tell you the truth. I'm the manufacturer. I built it. OK. When did I build it? Back in 1492, when I was young, when I decided when I thought I'd go into business for myself.

So so the thing is, In order to understand this, you have to go to the designer, right? And the designer has to tell you what's in it, what's its function. Now, I want you to think about suffering and trials. What's in here is 121 components, 11 of which do nothing. And the reason why the 11 is because I knew that someone would try to copy this, and if they try to copy it, they've taken it apart. First of all, I've constructed it so that there's foam in here, and in trying to pick through that foam, the wires are so delicate you'd break wires. And then with 11 extra components, you'd have no clue as to what those were. Now, that's what's inside of here.

Now, what does it do? Well, it's a transmitter. And it goes into a missile. And it operates at a frequency of about 330 megahertz. And what it does is it takes the information from the missile, its speed, its attitude, and it sends it back to the aircraft that launched the missile. So the aircraft then computes what its attitude is, what its course is, what its velocity is, and guides it into the target, which is another aircraft. So that's what this does.

It can stand a shock of 200 Gs. Now, when you launch this from a missile, it goes into a missile, when you launch it, there's a lot of G factors. 200 G's. Can you imagine what 200 G's are? It's a horrendous force. Acceleration. Acceleration. My son, Matt, who flies an F-15, he pulls 9 to 10 G's. And when you pull 9 to 10 G's, your face is pulled back like that. So now think of 200 G's.

Okay, so you'd have no clue, right, unless you go to the designer. So I want you to think, when you have a trial, or you're going through some circumstances in life, or some suffering, or some inflection, or whatever it is, and it may be lifelong, I want you to think of this. that you had no clue what the purpose was. And the same thing is true, often with trials and sufferings, that you don't have a clue, except that Scripture does tell us, in general, the purpose of trials and suffering.

And that's what we're doing. So we're looking at why trials, why suffering, why afflictions. All right. Remember this now. What we've been doing is taking a look at trials and suffering from God's eternal purpose. I'm just looking to see if there's anybody new here, but what we've been focusing on for the last couple of weeks is this, is what's God's purpose in trials and sufferings and afflictions that come to us? And just to bring us all up to speed, God has an eternal purpose.

And I think you can summarize it by these four points in terms of Him declaring His glory, revealing it, sharing it, and then in turn to be glorified. So we can look at trials and sufferings from that point of view, and that's what we've done for the last couple of weeks. We looked at trials and sufferings and how God declares His glory through your trial, through your suffering and mine, and He reveals His glory, shares it, and then in turn He's glorified.

Now I want you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 5, and by the way, I'm mad at you guys. You were supposed to remind me at the end of last week's lesson to give you a homework assignment. And you didn't. And I wanted you to come back with observations on 1 Peter chapter 5. What was the assignment? Think of the worst crisis you've ever had in your life or one that you dread most.

Okay. Yeah, well, that was one. Okay. Was everybody here last week? As we go through this series on trials and sufferings, that's one thing I'd like you to do. is think of the worst trial that's ever happened to you, that is happening to you, or something that you, in the back of your mind, dread that will never happen in your life. And as I told you last week, it may happen. Been there, done that. And the thing is this.

If God brought you back to a point in the fork of the road to where that trial, where that suffering started, and brought you back in time and said, okay, Hal, you have a choice. You can go down the road that you've been down, or you can go down this road with no trial, no suffering. Which one would you take? That's the question, which one would you take? And as we go through God's purpose for trials and suffering, I'm hoping and I'm praying that your answer to that question would be, Lord, I'd have it no other way. I'd go down the path that you had me on no other way.

So, 1 Peter chapter 5. Now, what we're going to do... is take a look at 1 Peter 5, verses 10 and 11, and this is a summary of what Peter has presented in his epistle concerning trials and sufferings. Like in 1 Peter, he says this, concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened. So we're not to consider trials or suffering as some foreign thing, as some strange thing has happened, because it isn't.

It's God-ordained, and it's for purpose. Verse 10, But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now, what I want to do is this passage of Scripture reveals three aspects of God's eternal purpose. It reveals the aspect of revealing His glory, when it talks about the God of all grace. It speaks about God sharing His glory, the One having called you where? unto his eternal glory in Christ." And notice what it says, after you have suffered, and I know in the New American Standard it says, a little while. The question, what's a little while? We'll talk about that. And then, here's what he'll do. He himself will perfect you. He'll establish or confirm you. King James is established. New American Standards confirm you. He'll strengthen you. He'll settle and establish you. Settle King James. Establish New American Standard.

And then when you get to verse 11, you see that God is glorified. And it says, through all of this, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So, let's go down this. Let's take a look at how God reveals His glory. Take that first phrase there, but the God of all grace. Now, when you think of God's grace, What comes to your mind in terms of His grace?

Undeserved. Okay. That His grace is undeserved, it's unmerited. You can't earn it. Okay. Change is mercy. Okay. Silence. Okay, he's the source. And the interesting thing, notice what it says. It says the God of all grace. The little word of is genitive. It's a genitive case, and for all you Greek students, which it's a genitive of source, okay? He is the source of grace, whatever grace is.

But grace includes everything that He gives. And God gives His all. How do we know that? How do we know He gives His all? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He gives His all. He gave His Son. So, grace is all that He has to give, and He gives it all. You can interpret grace as His divine favor. It's His favor that He pours out upon man, and as was said, undeserved, unmerited. Okay, and He's the source. Now, He shares His glory, and it says, the One having called us. So when it says, the One having called us, What comes to your mind in terms of God's calling? The one having called us. What does call engender in your mind?

What does it... Carry. Say again? Carry. Carried? Carrying. Oh, carrying. Okay. It's your... No. Okay, carrying. Okay. All right, Karen? The idea that he pursued us. Okay. Okay, so he pursued us. Good. I mean, when you call up somebody, invite them over, oh, I just gave it away, and ask them over for dinner, it's an invite, right? You call somebody, it's an invite. The word call, kaleo, is kind of an invite. And calling is a divine invitation. And he sends out a divine invitation to the world. And that divine invitation is to share his very glory. And so he's the one that calls it.

And as Nancy says, he's the one that initiates it. He's the first cause. Out of his love, because God is love, and his love is active, it's never, never passive. As you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13, love is kind and gentle, etc., etc., and you go down through all of 1 Corinthians 13 about love, every one of those, I don't want to call it descriptions, Every one of those aspects of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is a verbal, and a verbal has action involved. It's a participle, but it's a verbal. It's not an adjective. It doesn't describe God's love.

It shows how His love is active. Grace comes out of His love. It's active. He's the first cause so that when you get to something like Romans 5a, God demonstrates His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, what happened? Christ died for us. He was the first cause. He took the action. He didn't wait for us. He doesn't wait for us in anything. He's the one that is the first cause. He takes the first step, the first action.

So, He sent each of us a divine call, and we respond by faith. The divine call is, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. and he died for you and he paid the penalty for each and every one of your sins and he was buried and he was resurrected again so that believing in him you'll have eternal life the issue no longer is our sins but the issue is the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ so there's the divine call and so We responded by faith, and now we are the cult. We're the cult. That's our position. We'll never ever change. So that's our position. Okay. Then, so here's the question. Here's this divine call. What did He call us to? And look at the passage of Scripture.

Look at Romans Excuse me, 1 Peter 5.10. What did He call us to?

Okay, He called us unto His eternal glory. Isn't that incredible? Can we even begin to comprehend the depth and the splendor of His eternal glory? Can't. I mean, we're talking about His infinite glory in terms of who He is. It's infinite. And here we are, finite. And trying to understand His infinite glory is overwhelming, it's incredible, but nevertheless it's true that we're called and we're invited into His eternal glory in Christ.

And He shares that very glory with us. Last week in John 17, 22, when Christ was praying to the Lord, he said, Father, the glory that you have given me, what? I have given them, each one here in this room. So he shares that glory with us. Now, the question is, how?

That's our position, right? And our position is eternal. It's immutable. Immutable means it will never change. So that's our position. Done deal. We'll never change. Now here we are in our condition. What the Lord is trying to do is, here's our position, called into the eternal glory of Christ, and here we are in our condition. trying to do is to show us in our condition as to who we are in our position. And so he's forming that very glory in us as we behold Christ through the Word and we're growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So our position is set, but in our condition we don't have a clue what that in our condition, we don't have a clue what that position is all about. And so He is showing us, in our condition, who we are in our position.

And now, in this passage, how does He do that? So look at the next phrase. How does He, in our condition, how does He share and reveal to us His eternal glory. I want you to look at 510. We're not going on unless you answer the question. He's going to do it all. Perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish. Okay. But what's the means? What's the means that he uses?

Suffering. And what does it say? After you have suffered a while. After you have suffered a while. Okay. So, the means that he uses is suffering. Now... It almost looks like you have to... There's only one way. It's almost like going through a tunnel.

And you might look at the comment by Hamlet was that it's almost one way. It looks like the only way God's going to use is through suffering. And certainly, certainly he uses suffering for that very purpose. The people who are most responsive to your problems are the ones who have essentially gone through it. who can have empathy with you. Yes.

I was just thinking about how those mountain top experiences when everything is kind of going well and we learn how high God's love is, but we never learn how deep God's love is. We only learn one aspect of it in those times where things are going well. We only learn that one aspect. It's through suffering that we learn the depth of His love. Very good. Hear what Peggy said? That when you're going through a trial or some suffering, you really come to know the depth of His love. Does He ever forsake us? Right? Because, like in Hebrews, he says, I will never, never, never leave you. Right? It's a triple negative in the Greek. It's the strongest way you can say something.

He finds no pleasure in the suffering of others. What he finds is that through our responding to his grace, We are glorifying Him. That is where He finds the pleasure. Okay. That's an excellent point. Norm says that God finds no pleasure in our suffering, but He finds pleasure in our responding to Him by faith. True? Yeah. He takes great pleasure in our prayers during these times of suffering. Absolutely.

But, you know, as you look at, let me just make one comment first. In both the King James and the New American Standard, it says, after you have suffered. Okay? So the interpreters interpreted that participle as a participle of time, its relationship to time. But I don't think that if you look at the context, I think it's a participle of means so that you can translate this the one having called us unto his eternal glory in Christ, by having suffered, and then he goes on, by having suffered a little while, he himself will, all of the rest, perfect you, it's by having suffered, the means, But having suffered a little while, he himself will do all of this.

So anyhow, just a technicality here. But let's talk about suffering for a minute. Is that the way you would do it to cause someone to grow? One little example with our kids, because homework is always kind of an issue, and they look at that as such a pain to have to do it, but yet they do learn through that. It's not our first choice, but it does work. I have a similar situation.

One of my sons used to call me all the time. The world is falling. Dad, everything is crashing in. Dad." And my answer, and I say, well, son, and I won't say which son, son, that's wonderful. He says, Dad, you didn't hear what I said. The world is crashing in. I'm going through a lot of trouble. No, my answer is right. That's wonderful.

Now, in regard to suffering, the suffering, it seems to me, being an older person... How old? No. The degree of suffering among older people may be different certainly in kind and maybe even in intensity than in younger people. As we were younger, as the lady and her children learned through suffering, but that kind of suffering isn't the kind of health issue. So it seems to me that the age of this suffering at least differs.

The thing is this. The circumstances may be different. Homework versus health. So the circumstances may be different, but the effect is usually the same. We feel burdened down. It's something that we don't want to go through. So it has a similar effect, it's just that the circumstances are different. Okay, so is this the way we would system engineer it, so to speak, is through suffering?

And so after two and a half years, periodically with my son on the phone, he calls me up at about 2.30 in the morning. And he says, Dad, Dad, I understand. I understand exactly what you're saying in terms of why I'm going through the trial. And I understand how the Lord has revealed to me how I've been just energized by the old man and focused on him and not focused on Christ. So it was great.

Anyhow, suffering would never be the way that we would do it in order to cause us to grow. Think of the reason why. Why would we never use suffering? We like the good stuff. And the thing is this, that's true, we begin with ourselves, right? We begin with ourselves and we don't begin with God. See, if we begin with God, then we say, God, Lord, you know, I'm resting in this trial, this suffering, whatever it is. If we begin with God, it's a totally different perspective. So, as Isaiah says, His ways are not our ways, and so our ways would never be suffering, but His ways to use this, to grow us up in Christ, is suffering.

Not our ways, but they're His ways. So, you know, I think about this, how soon we forget that we were made for God, and not Him for us. Right? We were made for Him. And we think that He was made for us. So, all of life is about letting God use us for His eternal purpose, and starting with God, and not starting with ourselves. Because He's the designer, and He knows, right? He's the designer.

What always has surprised me so much is that the persecuted church in whatever country, whether it was communist countries or any other, the persecuted church is a substantially stronger church than the unpersecuted church. That's a result of the suffering. Very good example. And when you see a persecuted church, you see the intimacy developed between a believer under persecution and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't you? Yeah. Okay. Now, it says, after you have suffered or by having suffered. And King James says, a while, and New American Standard says, a little while. Now, the word is, a little while. Now the question is, what's a little while? And as you go through Scripture and you think about God's frame of reference with respect to time, like what does He say? A thousand years is like a what? A day. So if a thousand years is like a day, a lifetime to Him may be just a couple of seconds. So the thing is this. I guess the point is this. He determines the time. He determines what that little while is. And it's in his frame of reference of time and not our frame of reference. And what do we want? The duration of time through trials and suffering, what duration do we want? We want it to go down to here, right? And what do we do?

Lord, please take this trial away from me. Lord, you haven't heard me. Please take this trial. Lord, right? And we want this, we want it to go away. Okay. But it doesn't go away. He answers our prayer. He answers every prayer. And the answer to his prayer is no, not yet. The timing is mine, and the timing of the trial of the suffering may be a lifetime. You may be sitting here today with a lifetime trial which will never go away. But that's okay. That is really okay. Because God's going to use it.

Is the time of the length and the duration of suffering ever determined by how quickly or how slow we are to... I can use a homework illustration. How long does it take us to learn that? Or is it totally separate from that? Okay. This question is, is the length of time of a trial or suffering or affliction or whatever it is, determined by how we respond to that trial or suffering. So that if we respond by faith and rest in Him in that, then does the Lord say, okay, now it's this amount of time. I'm shortening the time. I don't know.

I would say no. And we know this, that there has no trial that has come to you but except is common to man. But God is faithful, right? Who will not suffer you to be trialed or tempted above that which you are able. but will, with that trial, provide a way out or way of escape purpose. What's the purpose? That you may be able to what? endure it, to go through it. So the thing is, what he wants us to do is to go through the trial, to endure it, for however long it is.

The wonderful part about it is this, that if we look at it from a human perspective, from self, the time seems to drag out. We're burdened down. But if we look at it from God's perspective, and we're resting in Him, guess what? Time, yes. And time is insignificant. Time is insignificant.

And I'm thinking of like 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Turn there. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And look at verse 17. And it says, For Our Light Affliction. Somebody want to read it? Nancy? For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Okay. Somebody read it from the King James. That was what? New American Standard. King James.

For Our Light Affliction. work is for us is far more exceeding than the eternal weight of glory. Okay, and notice what Paul says, he defines the affliction, it's light. This is from God's, this is from a believer's perspective who is resting and trusting in the Lord. He says, our light affliction is but for a, what? Moment. And it may be a lifetime affliction. And Paul had a lifetime affliction. And he suffered for his entire life. But what does he say?

It appears just like a moment, because he's really resting and trusting in the Lord. And the Lord didn't take that away from him, in the case of Paul, when he put that thorn in his flesh. Even though Paul prayed, Lord, take this away. Lord, you haven't heard me. I'm coming to you the second time. Lord, this is the third time I've come to you. Please take this away from me."

Right? And the Lord says, Paul, what? My grace is sufficient for you. And when Paul understood that, he understood that he was called into, that he had the foundation of God's grace, His whole attitude changed about the duration of that trial, it seemed like, just a moment. Okay.

And that's the glory that fadeth not away. That's absolutely true. And the more, as he rested in that trial, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was that vessel and he was that branch and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ just flowed through him and others saw. He was what we called an epistle of Christ.

What's the purpose in all of this? What's God's purpose? Well, He gives us His purpose. He says that the suffering is going to be a little while. He determines that time. And this is what He will do. And by the way, this is intensive in the Greek. It says, He Himself will. He will do this. And it's intensive. And this is what He'll do. He's going to perfect you. Now, what does that mean? It means you're going to be perfect. The word perfect there means to thoroughly equip, just thoroughly equip.

So like I was telling you about my son, Matt, who's an F-15 pilot, when he takes off the ground, And he goes into combat, and he was in Iraq, and he goes up against, before the war started, he was going up against the Iraqi pilots. But before he takes off the ground, he is thoroughly equipped. He has got everything that he needs to, if you will, destroy the enemy. Including the transmitter.

And he's got an aircraft that will fly 1,650 miles an hour. He's got an aircraft that can accelerate going straight up to maneuver. He's got an aircraft with a radar system in there that can lock onto targets 40 miles away. And he can lock on to targets 40 miles away and fire his missiles and just take off, go the other way, and the missiles will automatically guide themselves and shoot down up to six enemy aircraft. He is thoroughly equipped.

And that's the That's the meaning of this word, that you and I are thoroughly equipped. And I like it the way it says in Colossians that we are complete in Christ. Totally complete in Christ. Nothing has to be added. We're totally equipped. It is God that's furnishing Christ's glory, His patience, His love, His compassion while we're going through any trial or any suffering.

Alright, then it goes on to say that He Himself will establish you or confirm you. The word there means to fix someone, and usually it means to fix our hearts and fix our minds, to set our minds and our hearts. So trials are used to if you will, to stabilize our minds, that they will not be moved.

So think of a ship that is tied to its moorings at a dock. It's fixed. And the waves can come along and the storms can come along and not loose that ship from its moorings. And this word has the same meaning. Because if it's not fixed, the waves are going to come along, the storms are going to come along, and the ship is going to be loose from its moorings and go out to sea, and it's going to go to and fro out to sea.

This is what God does. He fixes our mind, stabilizes it, So that when all the trials and the sufferings and the waves of life and the storms of life come at us, we're fixed. That's the meaning. And then he goes on to say that he will strengthen you. and be it strengthen one in one's spiritual or physical weakness, and then it says to settle you or establish you. The word there literally means to lay a foundation.

And it's beautiful the way this word is used, is that He settles us and establishes us on a foundation. And the foundation was just mentioned in this passage of Scripture. The foundation is God's grace. The foundation is Christ's eternal glory. That's our foundation, and we get fixed and settled on that foundation.

Verse 11. And that is another translation of the word, to restore. And that's a good point, because as you go through trials, you feel beaten down, and then as you're resting in Him, you sense that restoration. Okay, great. So, here's the picture, and that's what it looks like. This whole process of God using trials and suffering in each and every one of our lives to grow us up in our condition to who we are in our position. And our position is the eternal glory in Christ. That's our position. It's fixed. It's immutable. It will never, never, ever change. And as we start the Christian life, then God will use trials and suffering for our growth.

So in our condition, we come to know more and more as to who we are in our position, and to know of His grace, His mercy, His peace, His compassion, His love, his gentleness, and as we come to know that, going through trials and sufferings. And there is no better way, no better way to understand who he is than to go through trials and suffering. And when we start coming to know, and understand His glory as to who He is, and we see His love going through a trial, and His compassion, and His restoration, if you will, whatever, there's only one response, right? There's only one response that we can say, and that's to glorify God. Lord, thank you. Right? We praise him, we thank him, is our only response. Okay. Questions?

It's like when everything is going really well, you can kind of feel like your spiritual growth is kind of on idle. It's not getting necessarily challenged So Ben's question is, often times we feel that our spiritual growth is on idle, like here, and the question is, is that because God hasn't given us any trials? Well, it's just, you kind of feel at ease, you know, when everything's going really well, and you know...

You're kind of worried. Yeah, you're kind of worried, you know, when the next thing is going to happen. Oh, okay, so you're waiting for the hammer to come down. You kind of feel that. I mean, I know that's not how it is. I guess I'm the red hot poker, but you're kind of prepared for whatever is coming. Yeah, okay.

And so Ben's comment is that we go through the Christian life, And there may not be any trials or suffering at the time, okay? And so let me ask the question, can we grow during those times? How? Isn't it really the same way that we keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Okay. We behold him. And that's the same way. That's exactly right. It's beholding him through the word. I think that part of what trials do, one of the Greek verbs you mentioned, is that, I forget which one it was, but it establishes or settles us so that in the future whether we're going through a trial or not going through a trial, we're not arrested in our circumstances, that is, the presence of a trial or lack of a trial, we're just occupied with him. Occupied with him.

Yeah, very good point. Okay, excellent. Father, we are just thankful. Thankful for your purpose and your plan. And when we think of the eternal glory in Christ, it's mind-boggling, Father. We can't comprehend it, but we know it's true, and we thank you for it. And our prayer, Father, is that we are focused and occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. independent of circumstances in our life, independent of whether there's trials or suffering, or whether there is a lack of. And we thank you, Father, that by doing that, we would be used by you as an epistle of Christ, manifesting the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, which far surpasses any other glory. And we just thank you, Father, for it. In Christ's name, Amen.