Trials and Suffering
Hal Molloy · Jan 11, 2004
Trials & Suffering (2004), No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/482623292487

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Last week, we were looking at just an overview with respect to trials and sufferings, talking about what are the sources of our trials and sufferings, what is our typical response, and what's God's purpose. And after understanding God's purpose, would we change what our typical response is? We got as far as God's purpose last week, and we're looking at that. went through that, I broke it down into four categories with respect to God's purpose in our trials. To declare His glory, to reveal His glory, to share, and then in turn to be glorified. I had several questions last week with respect to God's eternal purpose about declaring, revealing, sharing His glory. And does this apply just to trials? So let me give you the big picture. And the answer is, it applies to everything. If you would consider for a moment, if you can think back in eternity past, before creation, okay?

God had a purpose. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit had a purpose. They, in their purpose, in their counsel together, they were going to create you and me. And in that purpose, I think as you go from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, you see this purpose throughout all of Scripture. God declaring His glory, revealing it, sharing it, and then in turn to be glorified.

This is a tremendous way to study a book in the Bible. This is a tremendous way to study a doctrine in the Bible. When was it? Two, three years ago, we went through the book of Genesis, and the only outline we used was this. Chapter by chapter, how God declares His glory, reveals it, shares it, and in turn is glorified. If you take a look at a doctrinal study, if you're looking at the covenants, if you're looking at dispensations, whatever study you take, you can look at God's eternal purpose and use that as an outline for your study. So, let me ask you a question.

Looking at the big picture now, God did create the heavens and the earth and created man. How does God declare His glory? What are some of the ways that God declares His glory? Through creation. And Psalm 19 says what? The heavens declare the glory of God. They announce the glory of God. What aspects of His glory can we know from creation?

Think of Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, that which may be, like in verse 18, that which may be known of God is manifest unto them. And what happens then in verse 19? That the things which may be known of God are His eternal power and Godhead, His deity and His Godhead. So those aspects of His glory can be known from creation. Now, can we know all of God's glory from creation? What can't we know? What don't we know from creation? Okay, what the Word of God says. What aspects of His glory does creation not reveal?

The Heavenly Kingdom. His Righteousness. The Heavenly Kingdom. His Grace. His Love. His Mercy. It's there but we don't know what. The only thing we do know about the Creator is that there is a God, His deity, and that He is powerful. Could we say that the things that we can't know about God from looking at creation are the things that are in relation to us, that are our relationship with Him? Part of it, but like Bob said, His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, But I'm thinking that those are things that we can have a relationship with. We don't when we're in our fallen state, but we can have a relationship with his character in those things when we're in Christ.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But isn't the word really a reason for spelling this out, for his preservation of the word? Without the word, we wouldn't have a clue. From the creation alone, we would be absolutely in awe and amazed, but all the other aspects... We wouldn't have a clue without the Word.

Absolutely. Okay. Any other ways you can think of how God declares His glory? Through us? Through us, okay. Before, well, let's see. I'm thinking of the Incarnation, God sending His Son, and He says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He declares His glory through His Son. He declares His glory through the cross, through the resurrection. The cross is probably the greatest manifestation of God's glory. Between the cross and the resurrection, it is the greatest manifestation of God's glory. It shows His power, it shows His love, it shows His grace. I mean, every aspect of God's glory is in the cross and in the resurrection. Also, the humility of his servants, like John the Baptist, how he didn't want to shine more than Christ. Those aspects, they revealed to me the God's glory tremendously. Also, the way David behaved in all that. I mean, when Mary was pregnant, Joseph wanted to get rid of her. I mean, the whole attitude, she was the Lord's servant.

Absolutely. Okay. How about God revealing His glory? How does He do that? Helmut just said it a while ago. And Bob held the word. This is one of the revelations. This is how God reveals His glory. And someone else just said, through us. God reveals His glory through us? And we're in Christ. Okay, we're in Christ.

Think about that for a moment, okay? We're going to see that in a moment, so let me skip that. Yes? I have some experience with a declare or a doer, and maybe you can look at a share and explain what those are for me. Okay. A declare is more of an announcement, some wave-shaped form or another, and maybe it's without a word.

Without a word, it's just an announcement in terms of His glory. Like the heavens declare the glory of God. The heavens shout out the glory of God. And as someone just said, without the word of God, the heavens still declare the glory of God. but we only know limited aspects of His glory from the creation, right? So, there's a declaration of His glory.

In John chapter 1, where it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God. And then you get down to verse 14, and it says what? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of what? Grace and truth.

That was in a way a declaration, without Christ saying a word, it was also So there are some there are there is there is some overlapping here, Marla. But reveal. is a revelation where He exposes and He tells us about His glory. And that is primarily through His Word that He reveals it. To share His glory. How does He share His glory? How did He share His glory and how does He share His glory? He allowed us to be heirs and He allowed us to be partakers. And go back, way back, before that.

Start at creation. Start at creation. How did God share His glory at creation? Yes. He created man, how? In His own image and likeness, or the likeness of His image. And so God shared His glory with man. So you see the difference now, say, between sharing and revealing, that He actually shared, He actually gave man His glory. How about today? Now, the thing is, Adam fell, and man is in a fallen state of that glory. But does he still share his glory with man today? Through trials and suffering. Through trials and suffering. Okay, we're going to see that also in a moment.

And here's the thing, when we understand who God is and who Jesus Christ is through Him declaring His glory and revealing His glory and sharing His glory with us, when we, in the Spirit of God, give us that understanding, there is no other response, no other response but to glorify Him. because we know that none of it is in and of ourselves, that we cannot take any of the glory. Our only response to see the greatness of God and how wonderful the Lord Jesus Christ is, is to glorify Him. There's no other response.

Okay, now, that's the big picture. Now we're going to take this into the smaller picture of trials and suffering to see how God does all of this throughout trials and suffering. We have to go one step at a time. Last week we looked at how God does this in declaring His glory.

And maybe, Marla, an answer to your question is a declaration of His glory. how he declares it to principalities and powers in the heavenlies, and we don't have a clue, unless we read that from Scripture, we would never have known that as we abide in Christ, and as we trust and rest in Him in our trials, we would never have a clue that God is declaring His glory through us. and specifically, as we looked in Ephesians 3.10, His wisdom, that principalities and powers can see the wisdom of God through the church, through the body of believers. Then we went on to look at how God reveals His glory. Now, you know, I looked at that this week and I said, I forgot to put in the key verse.

If you want to put a key verse in your notes, it's 2 Corinthians 3.18. But we looked at Romans 5, verses 3-5 in a broad sense. And we said this, that in Romans 5, verses 3-5, we saw how God reveals His glory to us in terms of his patience, in terms of his tried character, in terms of hope, his hope, not our hope, but his hope. We're going to go through that in detail. But we're just doing kind of an overview right now.

But if you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, what does it say?

For we, all, with unveiled face, beholding, as in the mirror, what do we behold? The glory of the Lord. And we are then being, what? Changed into the very same image, right? being changed into the very same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit. So, when it says that we behold in the mirror the glory of the Lord, what's the mirror? When we behold, that word behold means to scrutinize There's another word, behold, as we behold the Lord.

We theater Him, like we're in a theater, and we sit back and we relax, and you've got the Dolby 3D surround sound, and you're beholding, in a theater, actors, actresses, and you start identifying with them, right? And there's an identification between you and them. And if they're sad, what happens? You're sad. Tears run down your eyes, right? There's that intimacy that you develop with the character.

Well, the same thing is true as we behold the Lord Jesus Christ in the mirror. What's the mirror? How do we behold Him? His Word. So the mirror is the Word. It's the Word of God that reflects the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the more we read, the more we understand the Word, the more we see Him, who He is. And what a wonderful process that goes on. He changes us into that very same image from glory to glory, from ever increasing steps of glory. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Because our next point is this, that God reveals his glory via the Holy Spirit. So we want to look at that. I want to start off with a question.

Did Paul experience trials and sufferings? I mean, it was a resounding yes, right? And when Paul writes, let me just read some of the trials and sufferings that Paul went through. It was suffering of his heart, his body, his mind. He talks about that he went through afflictions. anguish, beatings, distresses, fastings, fightings, labors, perils, persecutions, sorrows, stripes, sufferings, tears, tumults, weakness, weaknesses. Is that enough? There's more. Take a look at the life of Paul. It's like he's been in trials and sufferings 24-7. I mean, I think you can say, Paul, 24-7, and then we go through a little trial, and we think it's a big thing, right? And here he is 24-7. How does God then reveal to us His glory by the Holy Spirit?

Look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. I'll just read this to get it into context. He says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. I love this. Because as I stand up here, I say, that's me. That's me. Declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that wonderful? That Paul says that that's the only thing I know. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it was with you in what? What does yours say?

Weaknesses? Weakness? Okay. Fears? Yours says fears? Is that a New American Standard? School feel? Now hold it. I've got a school feel. Oh, okay. Okay. It goes on to say fear. But I was with you in weakness. And when it talks about weakness, it's talking about usually weakness of the body, bodily weakness. Did Paul have a bodily weakness? What was it? His eyes? A thorn? He had a thorn in his eye. We're not certain. what that thorn in the side was, but most likely, as Roger said, it had to do with his eyes. Okay. Was that 24-7? 24-7.

And then he goes on to say, and in fear and in much trembling. So here's the question. Was Paul really in fear? He says it, and in fear and in much trembling, What was he fearful of? Did he have fear in his trials and his sufferings? Was that what the fear was? Was the fear in the weakness that he had, in the weakness of his body? Could that fear be like that respect for the Lord? Did you hear what was said? Can that fear be like fear for the respect or the reverence of the Lord? And then, how about much trembling?

I mean, how does it all point to verse 5? It means that the concerns of Paul related to their faith did not stand in the wisdom of man. Okay, and Bob says in the point of verse 5, this is, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Okay. Paul experienced God's grace through his trials and tribulations that in fact he could be concerned about their faith. Okay, true.

And you know, I think one of the things that Paul was fearful of and trembling of is the same thing that I am fearful of and I tremble when I come and I teach. Paul is saying that he is not coming, in verse 4, with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And I think Paul had a responsibility of being true to the Word, of being accurate to the Word.

And so there was a good fear, a good trembling. We always think of fear as negative. Fear in trials, as we're going to see, is a negative thing. This kind of fear that Paul had is a positive fear. I don't care what word you take in scripture, there's always a positive side to it, there's always a negative, usually, a negative side to it. So, for example, take agape love. We always think of that, we always think of it as what? Positive or negative? Positive. What kind of love are we talking about? God's unconditional love. Okay, is there a negative agape love? Agape of the world. Okay, agape of the world, as it says that men loved agape darkness rather than light.

So, whatever word you see, don't automatically think that it's either positive or negative, because usually when we come to scripture, When we say a word, that's what we think. But you have to understand it in its context. So in the context, this was a proper fear that Paul had. Okay. Go on. Look at verse 9 in chapter 2, 1 Corinthians.

It says, But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love Him." Another answer to Marla's question, as we go back here, in terms of declaring His glory, revealing His glory, that how do we see the heavens? Now, I don't want to answer that question. We see with our eyes, right?

The heavens declare the glory of God. They're a voice in itself. There's no sound to it, as Psalm 19 says. There's no sound, but there's a voice. There's speech. The heavens have a speech and it's a universal language that every man knows that there is a God.

Every man knows there's a God because also God has manifested that knowledge in them. But the way that the heavens declare the glory of God is through empirical means, through our senses, right? But what 1 Corinthians chapter 2 is saying is that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us how?

By his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. I love that. It searches the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us. And that word freely there, that are grace given to us.

The things of God. When you see this phrase, the things of God, when you see, yea, the deep things of God, what comes to your mind? His glory? Okay. His purposes? The mystery? Okay, His righteousness. His grace. So, aspects of His glory. His truth. There's one passage in Scripture, for me, encapsulates, yea, the deep things of God. Keep your finger here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And turn over to Ephesians chapter 3. And look at verse 8. Here's Paul again. He says, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, Notice how Paul views himself, the last, who had less than the least of all sins.

Is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles what? The unsearchable riches of Christ. And so, when I see the things of God, the deep things of God, what comes to my mind is these unsearchable riches of Christ. Okay. So, the one thing, as we saw in verse 3, that Paul is going through suffering, but yet he comes at us with, yea, the deep things of God, if you will, the unsearchable riches of Christ. So the first question that we need to ask is, why trials and sufferings to know the deep things of God? Why does God use suffering for us to understand the deep things of God? To understand the unsearchable riches of Christ?

Think about it for a moment. It gets our attention. It gets our attention. Okay. And that's true. It gets our attention. It's a matter of citizenship. In a sense, the Lord Jesus Christ was tried in much of tribulations because of his earthly stature, right? His home is in heaven like ours. So we're displaced here. This is not our citizenship. So this reminds us from whence we've come. Okay. So it's a reminder as to who we are and our identification, okay, where we come from. And our humanness, we don't seem to turn to him unless we're in great need.

Is that true in your life? Like it is? She's the only one in this class. Nobody's in Carol's boat here. Carol, I'm with you. I am with you. You know, think about it. How can you know me better? When things are going swimmingly in my life or when I'm going through severe trials and suffering? How would you know the real how?

How would you know where I'm resting and trusting? unless there was a trial, unless there was a suffering. And so, I think God wants us to know where we're resting, and where our faith is, and where our trust is, in allowing trials to come to us. Because it's like the book of James, someone can say, oh yeah, I've got faith, I understand it. identification careers, I understand dispensation, I understand covenants, and we can go down the whole list. And I went through major Bible themes, all 52 chapters, and I understand all the doctrine. Are you going to know me any better as to where I'm resting or trusting by that?

No way. And real love actually manifests itself only when there is a need, because how do you express love if there is no need on the other side? Okay, in terms of whose love? God's love? Okay. But even all of them, if we are not compassionate and loving, why would we then care for somebody who is not for us?

There are two hearts that we need to learn of. We need to learn of our sinful heart, and we need to learn of the loving and compassionate heart of the Lord. Those two hearts we need to know. And we come to know them in trials, as some of you have expressed. We come to know them through trials and suffering. Without the trial, without the test, we wouldn't know.

And so, anyway, one of the purposes. The other purpose is where's our sufficiency? Because, you see, we do pretty good. If you're a wife and a mother, You know, you are pretty self-sufficient. You know how to run the house and raise the kids and do those kinds of things. And if you're a guy and you have a job and you've learned your trade or whatever you're in and you understand everything about software or space systems or whatever you're doing, there's a lot of self-sufficiency there, isn't it?

But one of the things that trials and sufferings does, it shows us where our sufficiency is, whether it's in self or whether it's in God, whether it's in the Lord. And the Spirit reveals that to us. Okay, let's press on here. In terms of revealing to us His glory through trials via the Holy Spirit, then as you look at John 16, we won't turn there, but here the Lord says to His disciples, you know, it's better that I go, because if I go, I'm going to send another comforter, a lost comforter, another of the same kind like me, and when he's come, you know, he's going to teach you all things, and he's going to reveal to you, you know, things, the Spirit of God is going to reveal things out from me, and he's going to take of mine, and show you all things. And the other thing is, someone said, has He revealed His glory? He reveals it through you as a believer. So turn to 2 Corinthians now, chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Look at verse 3. It says this, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.

Without drawing a sentence diagram up here, The subject of the sentence is you. The verb is you are. It's an essence verb and it's the state in which you continuously exist. It says you are and then the direct object or the predicate nominative in the Greek is you are an epistle of Christ. And so it identifies, that predicate nominative identifies the subject, you.

And God identifies you as an epistle of Christ. You are a message of Christ. And then modifying the verb is you're being manifested, you're being made known to others. Do you ever think of yourself as an epistle of Christ during a trial, during your suffering?

That's what we are. We are epistles of Christ. Being manifested is a passive voice. Well, let me ask this question first. When it says that we're an epistle of Christ, that you are an epistle of Christ, what's the message? Because an epistle or a letter has a message. What's the message? So people look at you. You reflect his character. You reflect his character. Okay. Okay. His very life. His very life?

Well, how about the contrast in the verses between the ink on the table of stones versus in our heart, and so it kind of gets to Galatians 6, 14, God forbid I would glory in anything but the cross of Jesus Christ, right? The idea of the law was there to convict, but the epistle there is to be lived out, not by law, not by power of the flesh. Okay, the epistle is to be lived out, not by the power of the flesh, and when it says being manifested, it's a passive voice that you're being acted upon, you aren't doing it, okay? And so I think if we just summarize it in a larger sense, that the message is the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His unsearchable riches, the thing, the person who you are resting in, the very life that you have. His very life, as Margaret said. Hal, would you comment just a little bit more on what is the fleshly tables of the heart? Would that be, could that be thought of as the human heart? Yes. Our human heart versus spiritual, but it is the fleshly or our human heart. So the comparison there is that he's written something, and what he writes is not on tables of stone like the law, and Bob was pointing to, but he writes in our fleshly hearts the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we looked at 2 Corinthians 3.18, that we're we're being transformed from glory to glory, and as that happens, that's being written in our hearts. Why does he use fleshly and just not omit fleshly and just say in our heart or in our hearts? Why does he have to emphasize apparently the fleshly aspect? because I think he's talking about the bodily, you know, the fact that we are human, that we are a body, that we are flesh, and without going into too much detail, when he talks about flesh in Scripture, you know, flesh in Scripture oftentimes means just more than the body.

So, for example, Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.

Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Flesh. So what's the flesh there? I think oftentimes in scripture, Flesh encompasses the totality of the person. His body, his mind, his soul. It's all-encompassing. His new nature. Bob?

You know, Hal, the Scofield reference here is to Ezekiel and Jeremiah, where he fucking had God writing the law within the body. I don't think that that's true at all here. Oh, no. Because now Schofield is going back to what God is going to do in the Millennial Kingdom to the Jew, and he's going to write the law in their hearts. And God does not write his law in our hearts. He writes the person of Christ in our hearts. He writes the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts.

And so therefore the fleshly table is the fact that we walk around in a human condition, we have a flesh. This is not the fleshly nature. It's the fact that this is the physical body of the flesh. It's the physical body, and I think it includes the heart, mind, soul, the new nature. And just like if you were to go to Galatians chapter 3, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill what? The lust of the flesh. And when it says the lust of the flesh, what's the flesh there?

Now, that's diametrically opposed to Galatians 2.20 flesh. So, we talked about before, every time you have a word in Scripture, like here's one, flesh, there's a positive aspect to it, there's a negative aspect to it.

And so, in Galatians 3, it's the negative aspect to it, it's our body, mind, soul, and sin nature. and Galatians 2.20 are body, mind, soul, and new nature. So it probably has to do with function. Where it's coming from. The source. Yes. Where you are. Where you're resting. You're resting in the old man or you're resting in the new man.

But I think that's what really needs to be distinguished between the things that are spoken today, between the spirit and the soul. Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. The way it functions, either from heaven or from earth. And that's what Bob was saying before. In terms of the function, in terms of you function from your citizenship, we should be functioning from our citizenship, which is in heaven.

Next week we're going to be talking about God's eternal purpose and God sharing His glory with us in trials. But just to wrap up this, the rest of 2 Corinthians chapter 3 goes on to talk about you and I as an epistle of Christ being manifested, and the epistle or the message or the letter and what's being manifested is the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because in the ensuing verses, it talks about that glory, And it says that that glory is greater than the glory that came with the giving of the law, which was on tables of stone. And if you remember, the giving of the law came with God's glory.

And Moses was on top of Mount Sinai, and Mount Sinai what happened with Mount Sinai when they were giving the law. Do you remember? There was thunderings and lightning and the people saw the visible glory of God. And that mountain was so holy, they couldn't even touch it. And Moses came down, and his face shone, and the glory of God reflected from his face.

And the interesting thing is, in the rest of this passage, it says that the glory that is manifested through you excels, excels that glory. The glory in the giving of the law, the glory that was on Moses' face, it excels it because it's about the person of Christ, the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wow, that's who we are as an epistle through trials and tribulations and in the world. And let me tell you, as soon as you tell someone that you're a Christian, you are in a fishbowl. and they're going to be observing you day and night. You are in a fishbowl because they want to see the difference. And God wants to show them the difference. God wants to show them the glory of the Son through you. It excels any glory that Moses had on his face.

Questions? It's interesting. I'm working with a fellow now who's an unbeliever. And one of the things that he fears, okay, is that if he becomes a Christian and he tells all of his friends Now that he's a Christian, he's concerned. What are they going to think about me? And so we're, yes, and that's one of his reluctances in terms of trusting the Lord. When they see me drive, I shouldn't put a fish on my car. No fishes. Okay, let's close.

Our Father, we again are just so thankful. Thankful, Father, for who we are, that you see us as your epistle, your message to the world, and that you manifest the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through us, through these vessels that are weak and frail. But nevertheless, Father, the world can see Christ through us. We thank you, Father, for it. We pray, Father, that as we go through these truths, that each of us would grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.