Trials and Suffering

Let me just kind of review what we're doing and where we have been. We started this session a couple of weeks ago on trials and sufferings. Basically, for the last couple of weeks, what we've looked at is what are the sources of trials and sufferings. And we've seen that they're both internal and external to us. And there are trials that come to us, there are afflictions that come to us, there are sufferings that come to us, there are temptations that come to us, be it external, be it internal. So these are all the sources. We looked at some of our responses. And one of our responses when we come to a trial, we come into suffering, Why me?

And now we're taking a look at God's purpose. God has a purpose in every one of our trials and every one of our sufferings. Last week, I introduced to you the fact that God has an eternal purpose. prior to the foundation of the world, to eternity, future. God has eternal purpose. Basically, I think as you go through all of Scripture, you can look at God's eternal purpose this way, to declare His glory, to reveal His glory, to share His glory, and then in turn to be glorified. As we went through this last week, there was a question.

What is the What is the difference between declaring His glory and revealing His glory and sharing His glory? They kind of all look the same. I tried to describe this last week and said, well, declaring His glory is some of the things that He's done in terms of the heavens declare the glory of God. They announce it. They shout it out. without a word being said.

So, if I can make the distinction between these, as I was driving home last Sunday, saying, OK, what words can I use to summarize this? So, when we talk about declaring His glory, maybe the thing that declares His glory is the acts, the things that He has done. without revelation, say, through His Word. So that if you take a look at creation, you know, creation declares, it announces the very glory of God. Can you think of anything else that kind of just announces who God is, His glory?

We have God's providential acts throughout history. Okay, and all of His acts. So that if you say come to the flood, right? And the flood is a declaration of His glory, declaration of His righteousness, and His judgment, His justice. You get to Mount Sinai where He gave the law. And you remember that the law came with thunderings and lightning and Mount Sinai was just ablaze and people stood far in wonder and looking at the manifestation of the glory of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ coming in the flesh is a declaration of the glory of God. What did God say? God said about the Lord Jesus Christ, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Think about this now. Are we in the Son? Is He pleased with His Son? Is He pleased with you? totally pleased with you.

So, at any rate, you can look at the declaration of His glory through the acts in history in terms of what He's done. The revelation of His glory are things that He reveals through Scripture. And the Holy Spirit makes those things real to us. So, basically, He reveals His glory through Scripture. And we'll see another way that He reveals His glory. We looked at it last week. And then, sharing His glory. Now he does reveal his glory, but in order for this to be shared with a person, what must a person do?

Be in Christ? Believe. Right? Just by simple trust and faith, believe. So if it's an unbeliever, an unbeliever has to believe the revelation about the person of Christ and the work of Christ, who Christ is, the eternal Son of God, and His work on the cross in terms of what He did for them, that He died on the cross, that He paid the penalty for every one of their sins. But now, let's say we believe.

God still is revealing His glory, and guess what? We still have to rest and trust and faith in what He's revealing for that to be shared with us. I think one of the struggles in understanding the difference between revealing and sharing is that we often think of sharing as saying something verbally to someone. This is like sharing my cookie with you. Isn't it? Yeah. This is God sharing His glory with us. We get a part of it. Yes.

And so the difference between here and here is that the sharing comes upon us resting in what is revealed, faith. So that's the difference. Then, as we come to know His glory in terms of what He shared with us, there is only one response on our part, and that's to glorify God. When we see all that He has done, our only response is to glorify Him. Okay, so hopefully that clears up the question from last week. So we're going to be completing now this morning what's got purpose in my trial.

And I indicated to you last week that you can take God's eternal purpose and apply it to any study that you're doing. If you're studying a book, you can take God's eternal purpose and you can find God's eternal purpose in every single book in Scripture. You can see God's eternal purpose from Genesis through Revelation. We're not going to get to it this week.

We're going to take, next week, we're going to take one verse of Scripture, just one verse of Scripture on suffering. And we're going to see, through that one verse, actually it's two verses of Scripture, and we're going to see God's eternal purpose in terms of revealing His glory, sharing it, and being glorified in suffering. So we've been doing an overview of this now, in terms of God's eternal purpose in your trial, in your suffering, how He declares His glory, how He reveals His glory through the suffering, how He shares His glory, and then, in turn, is glorified. We completed the first two points on the And we're getting ready to see how God shares His glory.

So I want you to turn to John chapter 17. John chapter 17 has got to be one of the Every time I read John chapter 17, tears come to my eyes. This is the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to understand the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, you read John chapter 17.

This is truly the Lord's prayer. This is His prayer to the Father. Now, we're not going to read the whole thing. We're going to start at verse 20. But just to give you a little background, the Lord Jesus Christ is praying and thanking God for the apostles that he has given him. And he's praying for them. And then when you get to verse 20, look at verse 20. He says, neither pray I for these alone, that is talking about the disciples, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word. Question, who is that? That's all of us. Now, listen to this. This is His prayer for you and for me. This is personal.

In verse 21, and here's His purpose. He says, That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. another purpose that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Tell me what the Lord's desire is in verse 21. What observations can you make in terms of the Lord's desire in verse 21?

Mike? was looking here and I noticed that verse 21, etc., has to be founded upon fact. And he states that fact in verse 4. Okay. And that's true. And so the question is, what's his desire? What's he asking for in verse 21? OK. That we all be one, OK, is his first request. That we all be one. That we all be unified. That we be one. What is his other desire, or desires, in verse 21? Say again? Believe. In verse 21. Okay. That the world may believe. Okay. Alright. Okay. Good.

The world may believe that we would be in Him. That we would be one in Him. So, individually, that we would be in unity with one in Him. Now look at the last part of verse 22. I just want you to look at the last part. He says that they may be one even as we are one. Here's the question. How is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one? His request is that we may be one, and that we individually would be one in Him. How are they one? How is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit one? You want a word picture? Like an apple. An apple has three parts. The peel, the flesh, and the seed.

Okay, but what unifies them? Okay, they have the same essence. They are three persons, like if you want to take an apple and use an apple, there's three persons in one Godhead, but the thing that unifies them, that makes them one, is that they have the same essence. And when we talk about essence, what are we talking about? Who and what they are, their attributes, their very nature, the fact that they share the same righteousness and holiness and love and grace and mercy, and you can go down the list. They are one. They are one in glory, right? They have the same glory, the same essential essence.

His prayer is that we may be one, and that we may be one in Him. So in order for that to happen, how can that happen? They share the same life. Christ has come that we might have life, that we have their very life. Okay. That very life in us. Okay, so we have to have the exact same life, the same glory. That glory has to be shared, right, with us. It's the only way. Now the question is, how does that happen? Do we wake up one morning and say, boy, Lord, I want that glory, or I'm going to work hard to attain that glory, so that I can be one with you." How does that happen? Mike? You must be born again. Okay. Okay. And now let's say we're born again.

We believe. Because back up in verse 20, it says that they might believe, that we might believe on the Apostle's Word, which we have. Now we believe. Now how do we get that glory? Faith. Our identification with Him and with the Lord Jesus in His death. Okay, our identification with Him. Somebody said something over here. But faith, okay. Yeah, by faith because of the fact that you're already there. Okay. Okay, so, no question about it. We have to respond by faith.

Being born again, as you said, and I. But look at verse 22. And here's what the Lord Jesus Christ tells the Father. He tells the Father, and He says, And the glory which you gave Me, I have given them. Isn't that incredible? I mean, think about this. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ praying to the Father.

Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. Every one of us in this room have trusted Christ. It had to be given to us. His glory had to be given to us. It's a gift. He gives it to us. And the interesting thing about this whole thing is this. That word, give, means to give as a gift. And to understand the depth of that giving and what He's given us.

You need to understand just a little bit about the Greek. And we have some of the Greek students in the class here. But every Greek verb has three aspects to it. It has a tense, and it has a voice, and it has a mood. Now, the tense in a Greek verb, the emphasis on tense in a Greek verb is not so much on time as it is on the kind of action. It stresses the kind of action. And the kind of action here is a perfect tense. Perfect tense simply means that it's an action that has been completed and it has abiding results up into the present and into the future.

Now, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. When? By faith, when we were born again. At that very point in time, when we believe, Christ gave us his very glory and its abiding results in your life and my life. from now to all eternity. We have the very glory of Christ.

Present tense. It's active voice. The voice says, it talks about the relationship of the subject to the verb. The subject is Christ. I have given them. Subject Christ. It's a relationship of the subject to the verb. He does the giving. He's the source of the giving. He's the one that acted. We are just the recipients. That's grace.

It's active voice and the mood is the indicative mood. The mood in the Greek verb talks about the relationship of the verb with respect to reality. It could be real. It could be a probability. It could be a possibility. And all of those are expressed by the mood in the Greek tense. And there's a different tense for each one of those.

This is a mood of reality. It says that this is a reality. indicative move that Christ has given you and me His glory. It's reality. It's reality in your life. Whether you understand it, whether you know it or not, whether or not you feel it, it's reality in your life. You have the very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life if you trusted Him. Isn't that incredible? And you may not even know it. You know, I guess it really, for me, it has to make sense, reality-wise. And I was just led to Romans 5, Romans 4, 25, and then Romans 5, 1, and 2.

And we have to see how we got this position before God before we can even come down and live it. And all of this was done for us. We just, like you said, we abide where we've been placed. It's a continuous thing that the more that's revealed to us, the more we have constant peace here on earth, and it's not our peace. And certainly as we come to know the truth in Romans 4, 25, and Romans 5, verses 1 and 2, and by the way, we are going to go through that in detail, because it talks about the fact that in those verses, that God has justified us. and the fact that we rejoice in the wonderful hope and now we rejoice in the hope that trials come along and tribulations come along and we rejoice in them and God works patience in our life through that. We are going to go through that in detail. But I just know for years I suffered with this looking within myself until finally you get thoroughly with and start looking without. And that's what faith does. It looks outward rather than inward.

And the wonderful thing about trials is this, that it reveals two things. It reveals the Father and it reveals self. Trials will do that. And it's a wonderful revelation because just as much as we need to know the Lord, we need to know self. We need to know what self is like. But as we go through this, we're going to find this out as we go through details on trials. Okay, question.

Why do you think the Lord was so desirous to share His glory with us. I mean, He's praying for the Father, His Father. My prayer is that we may be one, that we may be one, that you may be one in Him. Why? Why was He so desirous That's just the tip of the iceberg of His love towards us. Okay, the tip of the iceberg of His love towards us. No question about that.

Look at verse 24. It says, Father, I will. And the word there is to will or to desire. It says, Father, I desire, I've got this strong desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me. for thou or you loved me before the foundation of the world." Let's go back and look at the first part of that verse. He says, my desire is that those who you've gave me, every one of us who have trusted Christ, be with me.

Question, when is that? Is that at the rapture? Or is that now? Now. Why is it now? Why do you think it's now? God with us. Okay? Okay? It's amazing that he envisioned us even before the foundation of the world. Absolutely true. So if you go to Ephesians, he's seen us who knew us before the foundation of the world. So look at this desire that they be with me where I am.

Where is he? In the heavenlies? Where are we? Are we here or are we there? But hold it. I see you sitting here, and this is planet Earth. So how can you say you're there? Mike? By the simple fact of the preceding, I think it's a participle, which is, whom thou hast given me. Okay.

That God has already given us to Christ. And that is true. And that is true. But the thing is, He wants us to be with Him where He is. And that's neat. Everybody said, yeah, we're with Him in the heavenlies. Just keep your finger here. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6. And somebody mentioned our identification with Christ. And here it's talking about our identification with Christ.

And He has raised us up. And the word there is, you could substitute, He co-raised us. When He raised Christ, He raised you. He co-raised us up together and made us sit together where? in the heavenlies, or heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. So, spiritually, the Lord sees you seated in Christ in the heavenlies, and sees me in the same place. Physically, we're here. But He looks at us spiritually. Why this desire for us to be with him? Why does he have this desire for us to be with him? Let me ask you another way, if you're married. Why do you have the desire for your wife to be with you? As opposed to your wife in Minnesota and you in Denver. What is lacking if your wife is in Minnesota and you're in Denver?

Fellowship? Intimacy? Closeness? Intimacy? You don't have that. There's not that intimacy. And he wants us, he wants that intimacy, and his desire is to have that intimacy with us, that moment-by-moment intimacy with him, this fellowship. And he wants to share all that he is with us, his love and his grace and his mercy, he wants to share that with us. And in order to do that, we have to have the same nature, right? So we have to have His glory. We have to have the same nature.

When I walk out my patio door to get wood for the wood-burning stove, oftentimes there's about a dozen, a dozen and a half deer grazing out there, and I come out and they all pop up their heads, the ears go up, and they stand there looking at me. And it's like, what are you doing here? This is our turf here. They don't know I have a deed to this property. And they eat my trees. They've killed 40 aspen trees, which took time to plant. And I'm saying, this is my place. But see, I can't communicate that to them. Why?

I don't have the same nature. and they don't have the same nature as me, and I'm thinking they're saying that this is their turf, you know, I'm only interpreting, but I don't know what they're thinking. You don't speak in Deer Tongue. I don't speak in Deer Tongue. Would you like Gunpowder? Gunpowder would work for a while, for one day, that's about it. So in order to share that intimacy, we have to be and have to have that very same nature.

The interesting thing to me is when the Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, the apostles said that we beheld his glory, they beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of what? grace and truth, that they could observe His grace and truth. The thing that blows my mind, and I think one of the greatest miracles that ever happened, is when the Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth in this pre-Cross ministry, is that His glory was not visible because of who He is. I mean, His glory, because of who He is, should have radiated out. But that was withheld.

That's the miracle. Because when we get to be with Him in the heavenly city, guess who's the light of it? You don't need any sun. You don't need any moon. Because God the Father and God the Son are the light of it. Because just of their radiance of their glory.

Would that figuration be an exception to that? And would that be one of the acts that declares the reveal? Okay, good point. Wouldn't the Transfiguration that you find in Matthew 17 be an example of that? And yeah, it is an example of that. And for just a brief moment, Peter, John, and James, Peter and John, was it, on the Mount of Transfiguration? saw for just a brief moment that glory, that His face shined as light, pure, pure light. And yes, that would be an example of God declaring His glory. Okay. Now, question.

What kind of truth is this in terms of God sharing His, the Lord sharing His glory with us? Is it positional or conditional? And do you know when I say positional, what do we mean when we say a positional truth? Okay, it's the standing we have, and what does standing mean?

Mike? I heard a little quote that establishes that. Say like, you have tickets to the Bronco game on Sunday. They're in your hand, whether you show up or not is up to whether you go there. There's a place there already made for you. Okay. So how can I express it then in terms of positional truth?

Eternal. Okay. It's eternal. Permanent. Immutable. Will never change. So when we talk about a positional truth, that's what we're talking about. The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has shared His glory with you and me is positional truth. It will never change. Nothing that you can do or will ever do can ever change that. You'll always possess His glory. Never change. Now, here comes the problem.

As you read in 2 Corinthians 3.18, which we love, where it says, All we with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, what? The glory of our Lord?

And it goes on to say that we are transformed into the very same image, from glory to glory, Here's 2 Corinthians 3.18 that says, only as we behold the Lord Jesus Christ and behold Him in the mirror, that which reflects Him, and the Word of God is the thing that reflects the Lord Jesus Christ, so as we behold Him in His Word, we are changed from glory to glory. ever increasing amounts of glory. So hold it. I thought we all had it all. So how do we resolve?

How do we resolve 2 Corinthians 3.18 with John 17.22? How do we resolve it? This was by faith that I knew that we would have overhead paper here.

Now, we used it yesterday in our Greek class. That's cheating, too, because you had time to think this through. Hey, I'll tell you what. Remind me at the end of the class to give you a homework assignment so that you can think something through for next week. So thank you, Mike. OK. Let me do it this way. Now, there's a problem with what I'm going to draw. And tell me what the problem is.

This is our position, or our position. John 17, 22. And then 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, All we with unveiled faces we behold Christ, that we are changed. And so here we are, and this is time, and this is T-0, and when I first became a believer, I put my trust and faith in the person, the work of Christ.

I had no clue who he was, but I did believe that he died for me, he died for my sins. That's all I knew. I had no other clue. For two years, and maybe it was three years, I did not grow, I did not know who he was until I went to a Bible study back in Los Angeles, Church of the Open Door, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, first Bible study I ever went to, and wow! Incredible.

But then, as I beheld the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word, it started growing. And this is what happens. We start growing in time. And that growing, guess what the Lord uses? Isn't it interesting? So when we come to know the Lord and He gives us His very glory, we have no idea, we have no clue as to what that is. when He ordains us, and that's the word, right? He ordains us to trials and suffering. Then we start leaning on Him, depending upon Him, and we start going to the Word. And He uses those trials and sufferings for us to grow.

And as it says there, from glory to glory, ever-increasing amounts of glory. Now what's the problem with this chart so far? There's one problem. We've got a scale here. How much glory is the glory of Christ? Eternal. Infinite. See, I can't draw it on the chart. It's infinite. So here's the wonderful part. ever think that when a trial comes, a suffering comes, an affliction comes in your life, that God does not have a purpose for it. He does.

And His purpose for us to grow is to come to know who we already are. This is who we already are, but we don't have a clue. So we start to come to know who we are in Him. We start to come to know who He is, and therefore, who we are in Him. And it's progressive, and it takes time. And the more trials, and the more suffering, guess what? the more we're going to come to know Him. And as we started at the outset of the class, this is ongoing. This is for our life. But that's okay. That is okay. Mike?

I like how Miles Stanford puts it. about and how he gets the precious herring from the catfish in his tank. And the thing is this, that a catfish is going to chase the herring. And the more the herring is on the run, the more he's going to build up his muscles to swim away from the catfish. And so you have a much better herring because of the catfish. Okay. Now, here's the other thing.

The other thing is this, is that we've seen in just kind of a nutshell how the Lord shares His glory, how He has shared His glory with us, how He shares His glory with us in trials and in suffering. And He shares His glory through us. Did you ever think of that? how the Lord shares His glory through us.

So in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3-7, you don't need to turn there. What we're going to do, this is kind of an overview, we're going to go through these passages, but essentially it says, Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He's the Father, He's the Originator, He's the Source of all mercies, of all compassion and understanding. And it goes on to say, the Father of all mercies, the God of all mercies, who comforts us in every tribulation.

And he comforts us. And there's a purpose that's stated there, that we may comfort others who are in the same situation, who are going through the same kind of trial or suffering. So that the compassion and the understanding that the Lord has given us, because we've been to the Lord in our trial and our suffering, and someone's in the same kind of trial or suffering, that we can share that very compassion and love and grace with them.

So what a ministry this is. What a ministry. And when you see the Lord using you in your life this way, in comforting others, because you have been comforted and you have rested in Him in your trial and your suffering, and you see Him at work in your life and through you, there's only one response.

What's the only response that we could make? Okay, yeah. It's to glorify Him. There is no other response than to glorify Him, thank Him and praise Him. Because we get to see who He is and who we are in Him. That is true worship. So, here's the bottom line. You know, so what's our response?

Knowing God's purpose, that He's going to reveal His glory and share His glory with you through your trial and suffering, and knowing that, and trusting Him in it, and trusting Him in all that comes at us. Like Paul said, Lord, Your grace is sufficient for me. Isn't that a wonderful statement?

No matter what your suffering is, what your trial, Father, Your grace is sufficient for me, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So in my suffering, if it's physical suffering and weakness, that my strength is made perfect. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glorify in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Wow.

May that be our prayer. Let me tell you what my prayer is for the class as we go through trials and suffering, and that's this. I want you to think of the very worst trial, the very worst suffering, the very worst circumstance in your life, be it past, be it present, or something that sometimes you think about that you hope will never ever happen. And the reason I say that is because I have hoped that something never, never happened in my life.

And guess what? It did. Now, so I want you to think about that. What is the worst thing? If it has happened, or if it is happening, then here's my question. If the Lord would take you, and bring you back in time and say, okay, tell you what, you've been down this road of suffering and trial. Now you have a choice. You can go down this road, the easy way, or you can go down the road I put you on. Which one would you take? Truly, which one would you take?

Now, oftentimes our answer is, I don't want to go through that, right? I don't want to go through that. So, therefore, Lord, I'll take the easy way. Let me say this. If that's your answer, if that's your answer, I'm hoping that as we get through what the Lord has to say about trials and suffering, that you will change your answer to say, Lord, it was a very tough road, but you used that in my life for your purpose, and I see that. And I'd have it no other way. No other way. That's my prayer. Let's close.

Father, again, we do thank you. And we thank you, Father, for the trials and sufferings that you allow to come into our lives. Knowing, Father God, that it's for your purpose, and the ultimate purpose is to glorify you. And, Father, we thank you that as we go through these, that you never, never, ever leave us, nor will forsake us. and so that we can come to you, and that we can come and rest in you, in your wonderful provisions for us in each of our trials. And we give you thanks now, in Christ's name, Amen.