Trials as a Means of Grace (2)

Driving home: Any Christian who is always going around happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time, is either bluffing it, has somehow come up with the notion he must never manifest grief, or he is not a true Christian.

Martin uses the analogy of some congregants becoming 'giant oak trees' under the ministry while others remain 'little bent over, half brown, stripling of a tree' to illustrate that the preached word does not automatically profit without faith.

The older I get, the more I marvel that some of you can sit under the same ministry that is making giant oak trees out of others and you are still a little bent over, half brown, stripling of a tree that I wonder if it's even alive. And you've been under the same ministry for the same amount of time. In one case, the word is mixed with faith and finds fruition in obedience. It is attended to in concentration while with others of you, you sit here, your mind wanders from Dan to Sheba, you go home on your TV, you sweep out before 2 o'clock this afternoon. That's reality. Likewise, as surely as t...

15:22 - 16:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Any Christian who is always going around happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time, is either bluffing it, has somehow come up with the notion he must never manifest grief, or he is not a true Christian.

The word 'exercised' (gumazo) in Hebrews 12:11 is explained as coming from 'gymnasium,' illustrating that trials are God's training ground where believers must actively engage to gain spiritual fitness.

And I rest the whole case on Hebrews 12 and verse 11, the watershed passage on divine paternal chastisement. We could look at many other passages, but surely this underscores it to convince I trust the judgment of all reasonable people. Verse 11, All chastening seemeth for the present not to be joyous, but grievous. Any Christian who is always going around happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time, is either bluffing it, has somehow come up with the notion he must never manifest grief, or he is not a true Christian. Because God chastens all his children, and when his rod, of chastening is u...

16:46 - 18:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The beautiful graces of resignation, and sympathy cannot grow, but in a soil through which has passed the ploughshare of affliction, and which has been watered by the rain of tears.

Martin contrasts a 'fair-weather faith' that receives the gospel with joy only when things are good, with true faith that holds to duty even when God brings 'tumultuous and threatening' storms of trial, like a rootless plant withering under the sun.

As long as the gospel holds out things that bring joy, they receive a message with joy. But it says when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, then like the sun that causes the rootless plants to wither and die, they wither and they die. Their faith is put to the test by tribulation and affliction. But in the heart of one who has truly been converted, when God brings clouds over His sky and the birds retreat wherever they retreat in a vicious storm and we no longer hear the chirping of the birds and see the brightness of the sun, feel its warmth upon our head and a cool breeze...

27:05 - 28:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Call God's purpose in trials to remembrance again and again and again.

Quoting Johnstone, Martin uses the metaphor that graces like resignation and sympathy 'cannot grow, but in a soil through which has passed the ploughshare of affliction, and which has been watered by the rain of tears,' emphasizing that certain virtues are cultivated only through suffering.

Now there are some elements of holy character which can be acquired only in trouble. The beautiful graces of resignation, and sympathy cannot grow, but in a soil through which has passed the ploughshare of affliction, and which has been watered by the rain of tears. Beautiful imagery. The graces of resignation and sympathy cannot grow in any other soil but that which has felt the ploughshare of affliction and been watered by the rain of tears.

30:48 - 31:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Call God's purpose in trials to remembrance again and again and again.

Jacob's statement in Genesis 42:36, 'all these things are against me,' is used as an example of a foolish, uninformed response to trials, contrasting it with biblical realism that understands God's ultimate good purpose.

Surely then, when God brings us into a crucible, that we may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. Surely then, when God brings us into a crucible of an intense trial, what Peter calls in 1 Peter 4, 12, a fiery trial, or a cauldron of many lesser trials, we must learn to resist the temptation to say with old Jacob, as recorded in Genesis 42, 36, all these things are against me. Here he was surrounded with a veritable crucible of manifold trials, and he says, this has happened, this has happened, this has happened, all of the negative providences, all these things are against me. How fooli...

31:58 - 33:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If being happy is more important to you than being holy, you're on your way to hell.

Job's declarations ('though he slay me, yet will I trust him,' 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' 'when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold') are used as a powerful example of clinging to God with well-informed biblical realism amidst profound suffering, even without knowing the full cosmic context.

have become bitter and cynical until finally they've turned away, saying, I trusted in Christ, I served God, and look what he's done to me. They had a mercenary spirit that never knew the grace of God. For when I've come to know the grace of God, then I will say to Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him, because anything other than hell is all of grace. And though Job had lost his family and all of his possessions and his health, he knew he hadn't lost his God. That amazing statement made in the midst of his dejection and confusion, he could say, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and thoug...

48:24 - 49:42 Read in full sermon

The point: While we should not invite manifold trials, when we fall into them, let us know what they are and, by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought.

Martin quotes Thomas Brooks, 'There cannot be a greater evidence of God's hatred and wrath than his refusing to correct men for their sinful courses and vanities. Where God refuses to correct, there God resolves to destroy,' to warn the unconverted about the danger of not experiencing God's corrective rod.

and I don't to sin and self and the world. You're under the wrath of God. And God's goodness is intended to show you how beneficent and kind he is even to his enemies. But that won't go on forever. The time will come when God's fury will be unleashed upon you. And you'll wish you'd had afflictions and trials that showed you that there was a God to whom you were accountable. One of the old writers, I went back to Brooks, the mute Christian under the smarting rod in preparation for these messages. And this is what Brooks says. There cannot be a greater evidence of God's hatred and wrath than his...

64:04 - 65:13 Read in full sermon

The point: While we should not invite manifold trials, when we fall into them, let us know what they are and, by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought.

Martin quotes Jerome, 'I accounted a part of unhappiness not to know adversity. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserable,' reinforcing the idea that the absence of trials can be a sign of spiritual danger.

destroy. There is no man so near the axe, so near the flame, so near to hell as he who God will not so much as spend a rod upon. None so near hell as the one upon whom God will not spend his rod. God is most angry where he apparently shows no anger. Jerome writing to a sick friend hath this expression, I accounted a part of unhappiness not to know adversity. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserable. Nothing said another seems more unhappiness than you. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserable. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserab...

65:13 - 66:18 Read in full sermon

The point: While we should not invite manifold trials, when we fall into them, let us know what they are and, by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought.

Martin quotes Luther, 'Strike, Lord! Strike, Lord, and spare not,' as an example of a believer embracing God's chastening hand, understanding its loving purpose.

destroy. There is no man so near the axe, so near the flame, so near to hell as he who God will not so much as spend a rod upon. None so near hell as the one upon whom God will not spend his rod. God is most angry where he apparently shows no anger. Jerome writing to a sick friend hath this expression, I accounted a part of unhappiness not to know adversity. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserable. Nothing said another seems more unhappiness than you. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserable. I judge you to be miserable because you've not been miserab...

65:13 - 66:18 Read in full sermon

The point: While we should not invite manifold trials, when we fall into them, let us know what they are and, by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought.

In prayer, Martin uses the metaphor 'behind a frowning providence you were hiding a smiling face' to confess the congregation's failure to trust God's good intentions behind difficult circumstances.

what they are. And by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought. Let us pray. We confess with shame that all too often we have judged you by feeble sense, failing to remember that behind a frowning providence you were hiding a smiling face. We're ashamed that we've been like little babies, wanting to be kitchikooed, wanting to have our comforters and our security blankets. Father, forgive us. We've been so quick to chafe when you've brought your rod upon us. We've been so quick to murmur as the children of Israel when you put them to the test. Forgive us, O forgive us. And

66:18 - 67:22 Read in full sermon

The point: While we should not invite manifold trials, when we fall into them, let us know what they are and, by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought.

In prayer, Martin confesses the congregation's childishness, 'wanting to be kitchikooed, wanting to have our comforters and our security blankets,' when God brings His rod, illustrating their resistance to discipline.

what they are. And by the grace of God, respond to them as we ought. Let us pray. We confess with shame that all too often we have judged you by feeble sense, failing to remember that behind a frowning providence you were hiding a smiling face. We're ashamed that we've been like little babies, wanting to be kitchikooed, wanting to have our comforters and our security blankets. Father, forgive us. We've been so quick to chafe when you've brought your rod upon us. We've been so quick to murmur as the children of Israel when you put them to the test. Forgive us, O forgive us. And

66:18 - 67:22 Read in full sermon