Trials and Suffering

Okay, open your Bibles please to James chapter 1. We're going through this study on temptations. We started out, see I told you the class would we started our study in temptations in James chapter 1 and verse 13 so let me read these first three verses starting at verse 13 let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempts he any man but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

And then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. So we've looked at these last verses 14 and 15 last week and saw that temptation is a process that occurs in in our life. And we start out abiding in Christ, and then there is this desire from our sin nature, and as we've seen that lust or desires are out from the sin nature. So there may be some external influence on us, and our reaction to that is the fact that there's some desire out from the sin nature.

And then we're being drawn away and enticed. We talked about these words and that entice is a fishing term. It's a lure. It's a bait and it draws you. And if we take the bait, then the passage is very descriptive it says we've become pregnant and pregnancy is irreversible and pregnancy then leads to birth and in this case it's sin and then sin results in death and we talked about death just being separation in terms of loss of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So we start out abiding in Christ and wind up in this whole process abiding in the flesh and in the loss of fellowship. Understanding temptation. is critical.

It's critical because every trial, every suffering that comes into our life, every circumstance that comes into our life, take any trial, any circumstance, any suffering that comes into your life that you have nothing to do with. I mean, somebody gets ill, you have nothing to do with that. Or the stock market crashes, or whatever. But there's a trial that comes into your life.

The sin nature's response is going to be, well let me ask it as a question. What is the normal response of the sin nature when some trial, some circumstance in life which is negative, occurs in your life? What's the normal response? Fix it? Okay. Why me?

And what happens is that the sin nature is very disturbed because the sin nature doesn't want any changes. It wants status quo. And what happens in the Christian life, it isn't status quo. There are changes and God comes at us with trials and suffering. And He has a purpose in every one of them.

And so our reaction to those kinds of circumstances is that here comes sin nature. And the sin nature comes at us, and this is just a short list. Whatever it is, we start casting blame on someone for causing this to happen. And maybe we even cast blame on God. We start blaming God.

The sin nature is angry because the status quo has been shaken. And the sin nature, there's instability. And the sin nature wants to reign and doesn't want any surprises. And when there's surprises, the sin nature reacts. And there's irritability, bitterness, the sin nature causes resentfulness, self-pity, there's discouragement. There's this whole list. There's three pages of this whole list. And the sin nature is very subtle, comes at us with these temptations. And these are temptations. So James talks about these temptations. So if I put it in a more practical sense, it goes something like this.

Well, I should have asked the question first. In your day-to-day life, in your 24-7, what is the greatest external source that would cause temptations in your life? You understand my question? There's an external source. In other words, if you were all alone, and not interacting with anybody, the world, whatever, the amount of temptations would be relatively small. It would be only those that are internal. But now you start reacting, and externally, there's forces that come at you. What is the greatest external source that would cause temptation in your life? Your home. Why is that? Because you're there all the time.

And you've got children. And the children are not exactly model kids the way you want them. And so there's a reaction, and there's a reaction of getting angry at them, and losing your patience with them. And in a marriage relationship, there's what? A spouse. And now you have two wills, you know? And sometimes the two wheels go like this. So here it is. You, as a husband, say, wow, you know, she's got problems. She really has problems. And financial. 85% of divorces that occur in a Christian marriage occur because of finances. It's the biggest problem. It's interesting.

I can remember when we got married and we came home from our honeymoon and we had decided that we would move into my apartment which I furnished, and Lindy was living down on the beach, unfurnished, so would love to have lived down on the beach, but since I had all the furniture and everything.

So we moved into my apartment. So we got home from our honeymoon, and I said, wow, I guess I've got to split the dressers with you. You've got to get half, and I've got to get half, and the closet, you know, I'm going to have to get half the closet. And she needed the whole dresser, you know. And so I'm cleaning out the dresser drawers. And she's cleaning that, and she says, what's this? I said, oh, that's a paycheck. And she's going through, and she says, what's this? I said, oh, that's another paycheck. So I found all these paychecks that I never cashed. So that was when I was single. Then I get married. And then I didn't have enough paychecks.

And so all of a sudden, there was problems in finance. And as time went on, she's talking about getting a house. And I'm saying, a house? That costs a lot of money. And I'm used to having these paychecks floating around. But, you know, I'm from New York City, a tenement house, an apartment is good enough for me. And I was raised in a tenement house, lived there for 24 years. And if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for my kids. But Wendy comes from a farm, in a single dwelling house. And so she would like a house.

So here comes the problems and here comes the sources of temptation. And then often times you think your spouse may be demanding. That's from your perspective. She doesn't think so, or he doesn't think so, but you think so. And then there's the attitude problem. As I said, you fill in the blank, okay, in terms of your relationship. But, so here's the external source. Now the thing is, it doesn't become temptation until you react to this. And when you react, Then, there's the feeling of being upset, impatient, angry, discouraged, whatever.

That's a temptation. Now, the question is, what's your response? That would bring me back to the other curve. Do you know this line? And when you have that, I thought it would be somewhat appropriate if you don't give room to the temptation. But then the steps are to work up again, shouldn't it? Yes. So if you're down here, and if you respond to that temptation, and the question is, now how do you respond to that temptation? Okay? Because it can be either negative or positive. Right? And then there's the third thought I had. He's an engineer. He's figuring all the permutations and combinations.

Let's assume somebody never knew Christ and they just live like the prodigal son. They just live it up and then just after a while they start to hate themselves and then somebody gives them the Bible and they read it. This is unbelievable. Who is that God? And they search for it.

They don't have to be an upram too, in a way. Because from then on, they don't smoke dope, and they don't, they throw away the drugs, and maybe alcohol and so on, and they think, boy, and then they really are totally changed. I mean, this is this amazing, this is kind of negative.

Another ram going up, right? Wouldn't you say so? In terms of temptation, to sin, there it is. Now, in terms of spiritual growth of a new believer, now growing, yes, there's an up-ramp in terms of maturity, but that's a whole different subject. I'd also like to add, if you don't, don't keep sliding like the label says. Alright, we'll talk about it. Alright, we'll talk about it. Okay, so here's a question.

What should our response to temptations be? So you've led me right into it. just turn back to James chapter 1 and verse 1 says James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting my brethren count it all joy when you fall into mine says various trials but it's various Pirasmas, various temptations. Okay? Various temptations. And it's Pirasmas, solicitations to sin. Now hold it. I mean, are we reading this right? Count it all joy when you fall into various temptations.

Isn't there a difference, or certainly there's a difference between our falling into God's temptations and our yielding or our accepting the fate? And the answer, should we take the fate, is always no. Even though there is joy in falling into it and being We recognize, I suppose, the danger. But then the answer, don't take the bait. No, no, no. Okay, so what Art is saying is there's a difference between falling into temptation and taking the bait.

And true. So here's the fall. There's the first step in the fall. When you fall, whether it's this fall or this fall, but it's a fall. But count it all joy. I mean, think about it. In your life, when, if you don't slide down the ramp, okay, but there's a temptation, you recognize that this is a temptation, and this is a thing that's going to get me angry, and make me angry, and blow my top. And you recognize it's a temptation. Do you ever count it all joy? The question is, why should we count it all joy?

Let me give you two reasons. The number one reason, at least in my life, when I recognize temptations, I am thrilled that I recognize it. Because, you know, normally it's... Right? But I'm thrilled that I recognize it. Because I know that if I recognize a temptation, then I realize this is not something of the Lord. And then I also then realize that the more I know about the Lord, the more I know Him, the more I recognize these temptations. And if I really don't know Him, I don't recognize selfishness. I don't recognize bitterness. You don't recognize. But the more you come to know Him, the more you come to know sin or these temptations.

So that to me is wonderful. The other thing is this. Think of Romans 8.28.

Romans 8.28 says what? is working how many things? All things. All things.

Together for what? For the good. For the good. To them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Now, God says He's working all things together for the good. Does that mean He's going to work temptations together for the good? It says all things. Panta means every single thing in your life. Every single thing. How in the world is he going to take these temptations and work it for the good?

Well, it tells us. Look at verse 3. It says, knowing that the testing of your faith works patience. We have to look at this word knowing. It says, knowingness, that the testing of your faith works patience. The word knowing is the word gnosko. And gnosko just signifies to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, to recognize, to understand, and to understand totally or completely. And it stresses the importance of this knowing.

And so knowing that the trying or the testing of your faith, now it's interesting. that it uses the word, the word test here, is the word dakimasu. Remember we said at the beginning when we started the study on trials and temptations and we wanted to distinguish between a temptation which is a solicitation to sin and a trial, a dakimasu. A temptation was a pirasmas, say it, pirasmas, Test was a dakimasu, say it dakimasu, and the two are different. Paraspas is a temptation with a view to fail. A dakimasu is a test with a view towards approval. So that a dakimasu, just like enticement was a fishing term, Dakimasu is a mining term. So when you mine gold ore, and you take gold ore, how do you test it? In order to know what the percentage of gold is in the ore, how do you know that? How do you know? You melt it out, you try it, And you test it, right? You prove it.

Now, when a miner goes to, and he mines all this gold ore, and he takes it to the assayer, whoever he takes it to, and now, is his frame of reference that, oh, I hope it's about 2% gold. What's his frame of reference? That it's pure gold, right? It's 100% gold. It's a view towards approval, that it be approved worthy. So, that's the term.

The thing is this. Look what happens. God takes the temptation, the solicitation to sin, He works it together for the good, he turns it around, and he makes it a trial. He makes it a test. A test to our faith. He uses it as a test, with a view towards approval. He wants us to pass the test, if you will. He wants us to be approved. So we can say that the testing The meaning probably is that which is approved, that is genuine. He wants to see the genuineness of our faith. Does he know what it is? He knows what it is, but he wants us to know what it is. Right? And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.

You have no clue in terms of your faith until it's tested. I told you about the story about, did I really have faith? Am I going to be with the Lord if I should die? The Lord put me through a test. And I knew that if I should crash in this airplane, I knew where I'd be.

There's no question about it. So the test comes. Could we make the connection here where Joseph, when his brothers came to Egypt and he finally disclosed who he was and he said, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. Is that the same concept that we're looking at? That's an excellent example. In fact, that's my favorite story to illustrate these things, to illustrate a trial. Because here Joseph was, I mean, he's going out to bring food to his brothers, right? And his brothers are jealous of Joseph. And Joseph doesn't have a clue. And so they want to kill him, right? And they say, well, maybe we just better kill him. Let's just sell him off as a slave.

And just think, of all the years that Joseph was down in Egypt, and you never, ever see any indication of resentment, of bitterness, of anything with Joseph. And when you read the account of him confronting his brothers, with love and grace, and the love that he loved his brothers. And then when his brothers find out, what's the reaction of the brothers?

They are frightened to death that they're going to be killed. Why? Because they know that that's what they really deserve, and that's what they would have done If the shoe was on the other foot, that's exactly what they would have done, right? So here's Joseph, and the final statement, as Nancy said, you know, what you meant for evil, God meant for the good. Wow. Incredible. So that's an excellent example. For the good. Now, you're saying here it's for the individual. What about the good of the Lord? As far as glorifying the Lord, through that? The end result of this is exactly that. Who's going to be glorified? Self or the Lord?

So we'll go through it. If we look at it, This is the way it turns out now. So, you think she has a problem, right? And you react, right? And there's temptation. And God takes that temptation and he makes it a test, a document, with a view to approval of your faith. And now the question is, your response. What's your response going to be? It's going to be one or two. Either you're going to take the bait, or you're going to rest in faith in the truth.

Alright? And now the question is, what's the truth? As we carry on here, in terms of what good is this, taking a look at the good, Well, I wish I had a projector that you could click on so I wouldn't have to mess with these papers here. So, what is the good?

It says in verse 3 or 4, knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience. And look what happens. This test, this docimas, which is a view towards approval, works, patience. And the word work there is interesting. It's a passive voice, which means that you're being acted upon.

God is doing this. God is taking the temptation and He's working it in your life. to produce patience, and he's the one that's doing it. And you're not sitting there, gluting your teeth, and saying, I need some more patience, and I'm just going to be patient about this, right? No. God is doing the working. You don't have to. God is doing it. He's working patience.

And he's taken the temptation, turned it into a test, to fully work out or produce in you His patience or His endurance. Now, think about this. Every temptation that you go through, God cares about. And do you ever think that oftentimes that God doesn't care about the temptations that you're going through? He cares. He cares about everyone.

In 1 Corinthians 10.13 it says, There has no temptation that has come to you, but such as is common to men. All these temptations we talked about are common to each and every one of us. Why? Because we are all of the same Father? We are all what? We are all of the same Father? We are all of the same source?

Okay, but listen. There has no temptation come to you, Temptation. Now, solicitations to sin come to you, but such as is common to man. Why are they common to man? Everybody gets it. Why? Because we have the same sin nature. Right? But such as is common to men. But look what it says. But God is what? Faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will, with the temptation, what will he do?

Provide a way of escape, right? Provide a way of escape that you may be able to what? Bear it or endure it. And this word, endure, is this word, patience, or hupo mané, that you may be able to abide under it. We really like to think that that way of escape means that God will take Exactly right. Exactly right. That he would just take it away. But if there's this external, whatever external thing is acting upon us, the sin nature, 24-7, There's that temptation. May be, may not be. I don't want to say that it's a hundred percent. May or may not be.

So he produces this hupo mone. It's a wonderful word. Hupo means under. Mone means to abide. To abide under. And it's a... hanging out term. I like to use hanging out term. It's where we're at home. Mone is where we're at home. So it's abiding under, or being at home, if you will, under the test, under the temptation that the Lord now has turned into a test. And, as indicated, it's not are patience, but it is, and He is forming His patience in us through the temptation slash test. The temptation coming out from the sin nature, which he turns into a test of our faith. He's forming his patience in us. It's his patience. It's the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, hupo-menem. Patience.

So he's forming his patience in us. And the thing is this, patience in us cannot grow. In other words, we cannot grow into his patience except there be trials. There's no other way. When we become believers, he doesn't say, I'm going to give you 75% patience, and the other 25% you're going to have to work on."

We start out at zero, and he then forms that in us as a function of time, as a function of testing trials. He goes on to say, but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So here's part of what God is doing. Here's part of the good work that God is doing in a temptation which he turns into a trial. In perfect, that you may be perfect. And the word there, perfect, means mature. Conditionally, you are maturing. That you are entire. You are complete. Conditionally. Now, let me ask you a question. Aren't we already complete?

In Colossians 2.6, what does it say?

That we are complete in Him. Our position is that we're totally complete in Him. There's nothing lacking, nothing more that ever has to be added in our position. We are totally complete in Him. Positionally. But conditionally, we're... and what the Lord is doing Positionally, we're all of that. But in condition, he's forming that in us so that we see who we are positionally. And so he's forming that in us conditionally. And in this life, we're never going to get there. But he wants us to grow. And it says, wanting nothing, that all of our needs are supplied in Christ. There's every single need, every spiritual need is supplied. We are not wanting people.

Okay, if we take a look, and we're trying to answer the question, is the possible good of temptation. Well, as we take a look at this, here's the good that occurs. That as we rest in faith, he says, his desire for you is to count it all with joy. To count it all with joy because he has a purpose. That you fall into a temptation, your immediate reaction is, Lord, thank you. because I know you have a purpose." Now, is that our real response? We don't even think of thanking the Lord or counting it for joy. We can count it for joy.

He wants you to know, completely understand, His purpose. He will use the temptation, which is a view towards failure, as a test, with a view towards approval. It's a view towards approval of your faith, and his expectation and desire is for you to abide by faith in his truth. That's his expectation, to walk by faith.

And as he says in Colossians 2.6, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so what? Walk ye in him. You received him how? by faith, you walk the same way by faith. He then produces his patience in you. His patience matures you spiritually. His patience stabilizes you and supplies all your needs and temptations. Isn't that good? That's good.

And this is God's wonderful, matchless, marvelous grace in Romans 8.28, that He is working all things together for the good. So now, we said this, what's our responsibility in all this? I'm not going to say another word to the answer. Abide under. Abide under. Okay. Rest. Rejoice. Okay. Rest. Rejoice.

He's testing our what? Our faith. And so we're to believe what he says, right? And the question is, what does he say? See, what does he say about the sin nature going through this whole process of drawing us away and enticing us? What does he say about that? What does he say about the sin nature and all its effectivities? It's been rendered powerless. It's been rendered powerless.

Is that a good thing to believe and to rest in? As you go through scripture and you You see this word obedience and the word that is used is hupo-akuo. This is like hupo-mone. Hupo means under. Akuo means to listen. We get our word acoustics, hupa akua, to listen under. Obedience is a listening under. As opposed to, what do we normally think of obedience? doing is this set of rules that we give to our kids, right? Okay. Give me some rules that you give to your kids. It's been too long. Okay, don't run in the street. I mean, you give your kids all the rules and you expect them to obey.

And hupo akuo, or obedience in scripture, is just a listening under the Lord, listening to what He says in scripture, as opposed to, do this, do that, you know, an obedience in that sense. Okay? So, to Art's question then, is there a test to that obedience of listening under? There is, but it's not doing, it's listening.

Exactly, exactly. Okay, so the question is, what truth are you to rest in? And look at some of the truths. The reason why we covered our identification with Christ was critical. It was part of the foundation that we need to rest on in trials, in temptations, in whatever.

And when we went through there and looked at Romans 6, like Ann Marie said, that we're rendered, in Romans 6.6, that the old man is rendered inoperative. It's taken off line. And we're to believe that.

That we can reckon ourselves dead unto sin. Definite article, the sin nature. Death means what? Separation. That we have been separated from the sin nature. We don't need to be a slave to it anymore. So let not sin or the sin nature therefore reign. It doesn't have to rule in our life, in your mortal body, that you should obey. it in its, look, epithemia, its lusts, its desires, its solicitations to sin. We're dead. We are dead to it. We have been cut loose.

So, in Galatians 5.24, just some other passages, It says, now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires, the epithemias, the solicitations to sin. We're to consider that sin nature on the cross. That's where God put it. He's nailed it to the cross. Now wait a minute. We're crucified, we're separated. Yet we're to count it joy that we have it.

Okay? We're to count joy when we fall into divers or various temptations. Okay? Yeah? But isn't this part of the joy? That we're dead? That we're dead to it? Yeah? Right? Isn't that joy? That, Lord, I don't have to go down the slippery slope. Right? I don't have to because I'm dead to this in nature.

In Colossians 3.5, therefore consider the members of the earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, this epiphemia, the desires that come out from the sin nature. So, if I were to kind of summarize this, two ways.

Number one, going back to our slippery slope here, It's really a step process, but normally in our life it's a slippery slope. So here comes the temptation. God takes that temptation and makes it a test, a test to our faith. And He's testing our faith as to whether or not we reckon ourselves dead indeed, unto the sin nature that is the source of the temptation or the solicitation to sin. We are to reckon. We are to count it true that we're dead. And so, when Helmut asked the question, well, if we get down to here, can we go back? Answer is, absolutely.

If we reckon ourselves dead into sin, that's temptation we put out of our mind and we go on and we're still abiding in Christ. If we don't and we take the bait, then the Lord comes at us and the Holy Spirit comes at us and convicts us. He does the convicting that we've sinned. Then our response is not to reckon, but to confess. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from what? All unrighteousness, every single one, and we're back to abiding in Christ. But the thing is, He doesn't want us from here to here, here to here, by confession, here to here. He wants us to be abiding in Christ. 24-7, and when temptations come, we're to reckon."

Ah, okay. Brian left, but I didn't hear the bell. It rang. The second bell? Alright. So, summary. Here's what God does. He takes the temptation as a test. He tests our faith, and here comes our response. Our response is going to be one or the other. We're going to either take the bait, or we're going to faith rest in the truth. And if we take the bait, the result is sin, loss of fellowship, and there's going to be unrest in our life. And God's work then is to convict us of the sin or sins. If we faith rest in that test, and we walk by faith in the truth, that we reckon ourselves dead and deed unto the sin nature that's producing the temptation Then, look what the result is.

We can count it all joy, right? And because we know His purpose, we know that He's going to be faithful in the trial, in the test, and we can rest. We can have rest of heart, rest of soul. And then His work is that as we do that, He imparts His patience to us, He matures you, and He supplies every single need in that temptation.

Would you call this grace? Amen. Let's close. Our Father, we do thank you for your matchless and marvelous grace, how you work all things together for good in our lives, whether they be solicitations to sin, whether it be suffering, circumstances in life. Father, you take each and every one of them and work it together for the good. And we thank you, Father, for the good. And knowing that, it's to conform us to the very image of our loving Savior and Lord. And we give you thanks in His name. Amen.