Trials & Suffering

We're going to take a look at trials and sufferings. What's your initial response? Then we're going to take a look at what's God's purpose. Does God have a purpose in trials and suffering? And then, knowing God's purpose, will our response change? So, looking in terms of what the sources are, As you go through Scripture, you see four groups or four categories of trials and sufferings.

The first one I just labeled trials, but usually the words that are used are tribulation and affliction. And if you're looking at the King James, it's translated tribulation or affliction depending upon which verse you're in, but usually it's the same Greek word, it's thlipsis, which is a word which means oppressing, that you feel this pressure, and normally it's by some external circumstances, something external in your life, but you feel it inwardly, and you feel this pressure, and the pressure gets greater and greater, It's like being in a vice. And that's the word that's used here for both tribulation and affliction.

Then there's testing and temptation. These words are sometimes used interchangeably. I'm going to break them in two for our study. And when we talk about testing, we're going to be looking at testing from God's point of view. But God tests us. And the word there that's used in the Greek is dokimos, or dokimato is the verb. It's a testing. And that kind of testing is a testing with a view towards approval. God never, ever wants us to fail.

Then there's another word that's that's used and sometimes translated testing or temptation. And the word temptation, I'm going to use temptation as a testing with a solicitation to sin, with a view towards failure. And scripture is filled with that word in terms of that there are temptations that come to us. Where do temptations come from? With a view towards failure.

Satan. Okay. The law. The flesh. And when we say the flesh, what do we mean? Sin nature. Okay. the world, those are all sources of solicitations to sin. Then there's the word suffering, which is normally external but has an internal impact that we feel burdened in our hearts due to something external going on. So these are what we're going to look at in some detail. Now, the the the big question is this.

I wish I had that projector. I want you to look at your notes, close your books, and I want you to think in your life, whether it's past or whether it's in the present, where whatever, some trial, some affliction, some tribulation, some testing has come to you, what is your initial response?

Despair. I mean, do you go immediately to despair? Usually there's a spiral, and the end of that spiral is despair. But we start out with something less than despair. Okay, and so that's the first thing that we do is say, Lord, and our prayer request is fix the problem, Lord, or get me out of this.

Okay, good. Frustration. Okay. And we're angry. And why do we get angry? Here comes a trial. Okay. We are not in control. Right? And when we're not in control, it frustrates us. The question is, who does it frustrate? The old man. The old man gets frustrated because he can't fix the problem, he can't solve the problem.

Okay, what other? Why me? Why me? Usually my first question, Lord, why me? When is it going to be over? Yes. How long, Lord? Okay. So, I've listed a few here. Why me? Like, Lord, what did I do now? And don't we feel like God is punishing you? And oftentimes, a lot of believers say, I don't know what I did. But God is punishing me because I'm going through this trial. And then there's all the prayer. And the problem isn't being fixed. It doesn't seem like God is doing anything. And He's not fixing the problem.

So, here's what we do. We say, the Lord wants me to do something. Right? The Lord wants me to do something. And I've got to help him. And so that's what we do. And let me tell you, this is so subtle. It is so subtle how we try to help the Lord, how we try to manipulate the circumstances, and we do all that, not realizing it. It's very subtle. So we say, yeah. It's a subtle thing, I'll help them fix the problem. And here's what happens. So we try, and we try to fix the problem. And guess what? The problem's still there.

And what's our response? Our response is, I need to try harder. I've got to redouble my efforts. So I'm really going to try harder. And so we do. And then what happens? Failure. Nothing changes. So nothing changes. And then we say, OK, God, please help me. Now, question.

Is God in the business of helping us? And Bob was talking about this here a couple of weeks ago. Or even Vern was talking about this a couple of weeks ago about, is God in the business of helping us now? What is God in the business of doing? Being, conforming. We utter out to the Lord, we pray, please help us. Nothing changes. So, here's our response. As one lady told me here some time ago, she didn't say he's out to lunch, but she says, in my life, God must be in Hawaii because he's not here. He's not with me.

So then the result is, as we talked, frustration, anxiety, disappointment, worry, discouragement, fear, and there's this spiral which ends in despair. And oftentimes when you get down to despair, you know what the next step is? Could it be suicide? Suicide. Suicide looks very attractive. When you get down into that spiral, and that funnel gets narrower and narrower, and you're in this despair, suicide looks very, very attractive.

Now, we're not talking about just two unbelievers. We're talking about believers. Hopefully. in this class, that as we go through this study, you'll be able to help others who are in a situation, in trouble. If you've gone through some trials and suffering in your life, God has comforted you, and He's going to use you to be able to comfort others who are in the same problem. So trials are wonderful. Now, you may not believe this when I tell you this, but one of my sons called me probably every week Dad, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. And I'd say, you know, that's wonderful.

No, no, Dad, you didn't hear me. I mean, things are really bad. I said, no, I heard you. And I said, that's wonderful, that's great. He got so frustrated with me. But about two years later, the phone rang at about 2.30 in the morning. And he said, Dad, I understand. I know exactly what you were saying. You're right. And the Lord has put me through this trial for a reason. I understand it. And it was wonderful to hear.

But see, there was no way that I could change the circumstances. And there was no way that God was going to change the circumstances because He wanted him right there. He wanted him right there. And so in every trial, every trial that comes into your life and my life, every suffering that comes into your life, look at it this way. God has you exactly where He wants you and for a purpose and a reason. And it's a wonderful purpose and a wonderful reason. But when we come at trials with self, self can't resolve the trial, can't resolve the suffering, until we wind up in this state of unrest.

And we'll always be there. And the only rest that we're ever going to get is when we put our burdens and cast our burdens on Him and rest in Him. Because what does He say? His burdens are what? Easy, light, and if we cast them upon Him, He's going to give us what? Rest. Okay. So, here's the next question.

Why are we at unrest? Why are our hearts in the state of unrest? And as we've seen from the previous chart, we are always looking, normally, we are always looking at our problems from whose perspective? Our perspective. And we never are looking at it from God's perspective. So there's two perspectives in trials and suffering. Ours and the Lord's. And so when we are looking at it from our perspective, Here comes all the questions. Why me? Why is God doing this? He's punishing me from our perspective. I've got two fellows I'm working with, and we're having Bible study together.

And their response goes something like this. They're engineers, and you know that. I've been an engineer. And you can appreciate an engineer having a problem or coming into trials and suffering. They would say, that's not the way I would engineer my life. That's not the way I would system engineer my life. The cross is not the way I would system engineer things for a person to have eternal life. Not the cross. That's dumb. I mean, that is really dumb. And trials and suffering that God would allow. That is dumb.

I'm going to be going on a bike ride this spring with a fellow who I've been on a bike ride before. He's a former airline pilot. He flew for 30 years. He's retired. And here's his thing. He says, Hal, there is no way, there is no way that I could believe in God. Joe, why not? Because how could God ever allow this 747 to crash with 243 passengers on it and all die? That isn't a loving God.

So we're always looking at things from our perspective, our ways. And what does Scripture tell us? Our ways are not, our thoughts are not His thoughts. And as far as the heaven is above the earth, so are His ways and His thoughts above ours. So His ways are totally, totally different.

So here's the question. Does God have a purpose in all this? Does God have a purpose in bringing trials, afflictions, suffering into our life? Does He have a purpose? And maybe a more specific question would be this. Has God appointed us to those things?

Now I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Let me just start at verse 1 just to get things in context. Paul says this, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother and minister of God and our fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. Purpose. that no man should be moved by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we are appointed to these things."

These believers in Thessalonica were going through many trials and a lot of suffering. So look up in chapter 2. and starting at about verse 14 in terms of when Paul says that we're appointed to these things. In verse 14 it says, For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.

For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. So here they were under this suffering by their own countrymen. So suffering external by men. Verse 15, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men. So they were under severe persecution.

And Paul says, listen, you yourselves know, you know for a fact that you're appointed to these things. The word appoint there means to be placed or appointed. And we would use the word appoint as either our president or some head of a nation would appoint an ambassador. So we are appointed, like an ambassador, to trials and to suffering. And let me say this, it's a passive voice. We're acted upon. God is the one that appoints us, and it's a present tense, it's a continuous action. Let me ask the question, when you think of an ambassador, what do you think of? What's an ambassador's function, his or her function? OK, to represent. And what does an ambassador represent? Or who does an ambassador represent? The one who appointed him. The one who appointed him, his sovereign, right? And who else? What else does he represent, aside from the one who appointed him?

The nation. The nation. the country from where he comes from, right? Okay. Who is our sovereign? The Lord. What country do we represent? Don't we? We don't represent this place here, right? Our citizenship is where? This is Bob's favorite verse in Philippians chapter 3. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's the country we represent.

So we're appointed to these things. As I indicated, passive voice would be active. Indicative mood. Indicative mood. means it's a reality. It's a reality in your life, it's a reality in my life, that we have this appointment by God. And so we must think of it as a reality in our life. That's the Christian life, is that we are appointed to trials and to suffering. present tense, continuous action, as indicated here.

Don't expect it to end so that you're in a trial, right? And then, wow, it's over. Is it? No, it'll never end. Your Christian life, my Christian life, is going to be one of continuous trial, continuous suffering from the time until the Lord takes us home. You can count on it, scripture says it, and you can attest to it in your life. Because of our citizenship, what else could we expect in a foreign land? Exactly right. Yeah. Exactly. You hear what Bob said? Because of our citizenship is in heaven, what else could we expect in a foreign land? Okay. Now, key point. We need to understand this. that God is purposeful. We have a purposeful God.

He doesn't do anything without a purpose, right? He created the heavens and the earth for a purpose. And He created in six days and everything in it for a purpose. And He said it was good. When he says it was good, and sometimes he says it was very good, it was perfect. And it was purposeful. So he has a purpose.

So that every trial that comes into your life, every suffering that you ever go through, God has a purpose in it. And you and I have to understand that He's allowed it to happen, or maybe He has caused it to happen for a purpose. So here's my point. Every one of your appointments to trials is measured for fulfilling God's eternal purpose in Christ. It's measured out for that purpose, to fulfill God's eternal purpose in Christ. So now you say, what's God's eternal purpose in trials? But here's the other question. Knowing this to be true, Will that change our mindset? Will that change our frame of reference? Will that change our thinking concerning trials? Will that change our response to trials? Will we be saying, why me? What do I do now? Boy, how do I get out of this?

If we know that God has a purpose in it, for, to accomplish His eternal purpose. So, let's take a look at His... Can I ask you a quick question? Yes. When you say measured out, is that like before the crowd comes, measured of how big the crowd is going to be? Or afterward measuring of how much glory that brought God? What do you mean? It's metered out to us By His will, He allows it to occur in our life, and it's measured to accomplish His eternal purpose. It's maybe metered out to you, to me. So what's measured is what's given, not the effect of it. Right. You're like in a recipe, like one cup of sugar. To make the right cake, the perfect cake. Is that what you're saying? One little trial, two sufferings, three temptations.

But all of that, all of that is measured out for His eternal purpose. Let's go through it and we'll get a feel for it. So now the question is this. What's God's eternal purpose? And you know that I've summarized it in four points. Those who have been in my classes before, what are those four points? God will be glorified. Boy, I can tell that I don't come with Christ.

One of the first ones is, as you go through Scripture, as you go from Genesis to Revelation, I think you'll find this to be true, in terms of God's eternal purpose, is, number one, to declare His glory, to reveal His glory, to share His glory, and then in turn to be glorified, as you look at all of Scripture.

So now the question is, well, if God's eternal purpose has to do with His glory, what's His glory? So when we talk about the glory of God, what are we talking about? who He is, His very essence, His essential essence, His love, His grace, His mercy, the fact that He's sovereign, the fact that He's omniscient, omnipresent. We're talking about all of those aspects of who He is.

So one of the purposes is to declare His glory. That word, declare, means to announce out His glory to whoever. So that if you take what God says about creation, in Psalm 19, the heavens what? Declare what? The glory of God. And so you can look at the heavens, and every man knows that the glory of God, with respect, and Romans 1 tells us, they know the aspects of His glory, two aspects of His glory. Number one, that He is God, Deity. Number two, that He's all-powerful, that He's omnipotent. Just by looking at His creation, the heavens declare it. in trials, in our trials, in our sufferings, they declare the glory of God.

Believe that? Let me ask a question. Let's take Job for a minute. What happened with Job? He had a wonderful family, right? I think it was 11 children. He had a beautiful home. He had all of the livestock. He had everything. And then all of a sudden, here comes his servants and saying, this child died. The next one died and all eleven were killed. And everything was taken away from Job. All his livestock, his animals, everything was taken away from Job. Except his wife. Except his wife. And what did his wife say? Why don't you curse God and die? Did Job go through some suffering? Job went through a lot of suffering that really impacted him. Did Job have any clue as to why? But what was God doing? He was declaring His glory through Job. How was He doing that?

In that case, to the angelic realm? In that case, to the angelic realm. Right? Because, you remember, here comes Satan, and talking to God, and God says to Satan, have you noticed my faithful servant, Job? And Satan says, well, yeah. But, the thing is, what you've done, is you've put a hedge around him. He's got everything. And the reason why he's faithful and he loves you is because you've given him everything. And God says, tell you what, I'll allow you to take it all away. But you can't touch his life.

Right? And so through Job's suffering, God was declaring His glory through Job. Now, the question is, does God use us to declare His glory? Does God give us trials to declare His glory to angelic beings? Like Job. Is God still in the business of doing that? Maybe that's another way of answering the question. Okay. I'm going to go off here in a little different tangent here.

Look at Ephesians 3.10.

Go over to Ephesians 3.10. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul is talking about the mystery.

The mystery, something that has been revealed from all the ages. The mystery, talking about the church. Talking about those who are called out in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. And he says in verse, look at verse 9, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, right now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, who's the church?

Every one of us here this morning, that might be known, the manifold wisdom of God. Now, right now, as we sit here this morning, God is making his manifold wisdom known to principalities and powers. in your trials and my trials. I want to tie wisdom in with our trials.

Go back to our responses here. When we talked about these responses, we said they were from where? Out from the old man. Okay. And so, frustration, anxiety, disappointment, worry, discouragement, out from the old man. Right? In our identification, what's to Christ? What are we to these things? We're dead. We've been cut loose. We've been separated from these things.

Right? Why? How? That's not Christ's character. If we're in Him, we have His character. Okay. It's not Christ's character. Okay. How is that death accomplished? Our identification with Him, how? Crucified on the cross, right? So death, our death to this on the cross. When He died, we died. When He died unto sin, unto the sin nature, we died We were cut loose, we were separated from it. So we're dead to that. But it was the cross, right? So let me ask you a question about the cross. What does the cross represent to the world? How does the world look at the cross?

Foolishness. It's dumb, it's foolishness. Actually, the word is literally translated moronic. I mean, that's what the cross is. So as you go to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness, but unto us is the power of God. And as you go down through that passage in scripture, what else does it say about the cross? It's the foolishness to man, but what? It's the wisdom of God. Right? The cross is the wisdom of God.

So, in our trials, as our trials and suffering comes to us, and here's our initial reaction to them, out from the old man, but we can say, Lord, thank you. I'm dead. I've been cut loose from this. I'm dead to this. and it's by the cross, which represents the wisdom of God. Now, when we do that, the principalities and powers are observing the wisdom of God through you and through me, because we're trusting in the cross. And we're trusting in our identification with Christ on the cross.

See that? Isn't it amazing? Did you ever think that God has put you through a trial or suffering for the purpose of showing principalities and powers His wisdom? Did Job have a clue what was happening to him? Do you have a clue what's happening to you? Do I have a clue what's happening to me at times?

Let me say this. We don't have a clue. We don't have a clue. But what we do have is this truth. And we have this truth that we can rest on and saying, Lord, don't know why you have me in this trial. Don't know why I'm suffering. But I know one of your purposes is to show your wisdom, the principalities and powers, which is beyond me to understand. But I'm just going to trust you in it. Okay. Isn't that incredible? Okay. Part of the big picture. The other part of the four aspects of His eternal purpose is to declare His glory. So He declares His glory through trials and through sufferings. He also reveals His glory through trials and suffering.

Turn over to Romans chapter 5. This is a passage of scripture that we're going to go through in detail. And you know me, right, in terms of going through things in detail. But I just wanted you to get the flavor of this. Those stones will be untouched.

Starting at verse 1 in Romans chapter 5, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access, by faith, into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in what? Wow. I mean, we glory in tribulation? Why? Why would we ever glory in tribulation? We glory in tribulation because of the knowing. Here's the knowing. Also knowing that tribulation works as a goal of what?

Patience. And patience then also has a goal of what? experience or tried character, as it sometimes can be interpreted, and then tried character or experience has a goal of what? Hope. So in a trial, in a trial, here's a wonderful picture We shouldn't stop there.

And hope, in verse 5, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. And so, at the end of the trial, here comes our response, as we trust in Christ in that response, is that the love of God is just from our hearts, because we see his purpose in it, because there's this knowing, there's this knowing. And so, the knowing has to do with his patience, his hublomanie, his power, not ours, we ain't got it. It has to do with His character, not ours, but the very character of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's His hope not our hope. The source of hope is never from us. It's never our hope. It's His hope. It's His absolute certainty. It's His hope, not ours.

So in a trial, in a simple trial, those things are revealed to us. We're going to have to stop here. And this is a big picture in terms of what we're going through and what will be doing is, after we get through the big picture in terms of trials, then we're going to go through individual passages like Romans chapter 5 and 2 Corinthians. We're going to go through individual passages on trials because every one of them tells us something about trials. which are meted out to us, measured out to us for a purpose.

Questions? We've got two minutes. The first purpose is to declare God's glory. What happens in a situation where a trial or suffering is meted out and we don't respond in a way that declares God's glory? Okay. Dave's question is this. Okay. Trials and suffering is meted out for God's glory. And so what happens if our response is negative? His character doesn't change. Okay. His character doesn't change. But what happens?

You don't know how his purpose is still met in the situation because the whole weight of the whole ordeal isn't over yet. There's another stage in this possibly. But here comes a trial to us and here comes a suffering to us and God's purpose in it One of his purposes is to declare his glory to the angelic realm. Wow.

But now we don't respond by faith to that trial. So the frustration, the anxiety, and the worry, and the disappointment, and the discouragement that we had initially is still, in fact, it gets worse. So what happens now? So God's glorified in either our failure or not. He's glorified in everything. So what if He's glorified in the sense that it proves that we need more trials? Well, okay, but the point is this, I think, that if we don't respond by faith, then how can the angelic realm ever see the wisdom of God? through our trial.

Maybe we'll come back around. And maybe we'll come back around. And that is true. We're formed forever. I mean, our whole life. The trials that take place, certainly, our character as we grow through those trials, by the end of our life, I mean, who knows what that angelic realm sees. a minute to a second and it's our whole life. I mean, I think we're being transformed and conformed our whole life.

Very true. And we'll be talking about that next week. Okay, so that's a good place to end. Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we again just thank you for your Word. We thank you, Father, for the revelation that you've given to us with respect to trials and sufferings that you appoint us to. And Father, our Our prayer is that as we get appointed to these trials and sufferings that we would walk by faith and rest in you in them, that your purpose might be accomplished through our lives and that you may be glorified through us. And we give you thanks now in Christ's name. Amen.