Trials as a Means of Grace (1)

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues against the popular notion that a loving God would not bring suffering into His children's lives, asserting that trials are an inevitable part of all true Christian…

Martin recounts a conversation with a man on an airplane who believed a good God would never bring trials or afflictions, illustrating a common misconception about suffering and God's love.

necessary to do this because there are many voices raised in our day who are asserting that a good and a gracious God would never do anything nasty to his children. He would neither personally afflict them or chastise them, nor would he be the one who would allow factors to come into their lives that would category tribulation and affliction. All such things come from the devil. A person on the airplane flying home from North Carolina just a couple of weeks ago in the providence of God, whoever punched out the seating assignments for my flight home from North Carolina, making my way through Ch...

14:22 - 15:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: That is, they are intended to develop within us the life of God imparted to us in our conversion.

Martin uses the imagery of falling into a pit of manifold trials and being pelted by hail to vividly describe the experience of being surrounded by many difficulties.

In seeking to walk with God, in the providence of God, he finds himself surrounded by many trials. To change the imagery, he has fallen into a pit of manifold trials. To change the imagery, the clouds are dark, and the rain clouds gather, and the thunder and lightning are above him, and the hail breaks out of the heaven and pelts upon him. The child of God has fallen into manifold trials.

34:20 - 34:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But people of God, it would be devastating to any true growth in grace. We rejoice in our tribulations knowing tribulation works. It works! And what it works is the development of Christian character.

Martin uses the analogy of growing plants in a protected greenhouse versus an exposed environment to illustrate how God matures His children through the 'rain, winds, hail, and blasting heat' of trials, rather than shielding them from all difficulty.

You see, God does not grow His children to maturity in the protected environment of a greenhouse. With one-inch plexiglass panels, germ-free filtered air, regular watering, controlled humidity. No, that isn't how God grows us to maturity. He leaves us out exposed to the rain, the winds, the hail, the bite of winter, the blasting heat of drought.

43:53 - 44:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God's far more concerned to make you like His Son than to have you go around with a 32-toothed grin 24 hours a day.

Martin uses the example of earthly fathers chastening their children for their profit, and the reverence children give them, to illustrate the greater need for subjection to the Father of spirits for spiritual profit.

Divine paternal chastisements are intended as a means of grace. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 9 through 11. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence. And may I pause and say, kids, you better do that.

48:32 - 48:54 Read in full sermon