Trials as a Means of Grace (1)

Introduction: The Inevitability of Trials as a Means of Grace

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, May 2, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now may I urge you to follow with me in your own Bibles as I read what to some of you is a very familiar portion of the Word of God, perhaps to others not so familiar, but one that we will be consulting several times throughout the message this morning. And the passage to which I make reference is Hebrews chapter 12, the epistle to the Hebrews chapter 12, and follow please as I read verses 1 through 11. Having set forth what is often called the hall of fame of the heroes and heroines of faith. Those who persevered in their attachment in faith to the Lord and to his ways, no matter what the cost. The writer to the Hebrews goes on in this chapter stating, therefore, let us also, seeing

1:26 that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that you, wax not weary, fainting in your souls, you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons, my son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved of him, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. It is for chastening that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father chastens not?

2:52 But if you are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate sons, and not true sons. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

3:29 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous, but grievous, yet afterward it yields peace. peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness. Now let us again bow in the presence of our God and pray as we have prayed in the language of the hymn we have just sung, that God would grant us spiritual light, illumination, and a heart prepared to receive the light of God's truth. Let us pray together.

4:10 Our Father, we thank you for the joy and the privilege that has already been ours to pour out our hearts in worship to you. From the opening summons of the psalm read in our hearing, in which we were called to bow down before you, the living God, and acknowledge you to be what you are, to the pouring out of our hearts in praise and supplication and intercession, and now, O God, as your word is about to be opened, we pray that the Spirit who gave us this word would himself be present, powerfully working in the heart and mind of the one who seeks to preach it, and in the hearts and minds of each one who sit before that word. May it indeed come not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. May it come with light. May it come, O Lord, with warmth.

5:19 May the Spirit himself take the things of Christ and reveal them to our hearts. Hear our cry and meet us in the ministry of the word we plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. I am confident that I speak for all of the members of this assembly when I say that we are thankful to God that hardly a Lord's Prayer is heard, and that the Lord's Day passes without our gathering in this place being enhanced by the presence of visitors.

5:58 And as we receive and treat guests in our homes with special courtesies, so here in the house of God I desire to extend the courtesy of taking just a few minutes at the outset of our study in the Scriptures to explain precisely where we are in our present series of sermons. And I do this...

6:20 I do this primarily as a courtesy to our visitors that it would not take them great measures of mental concentration to try to figure out where in the world the preacher is coming from and find themselves relatively lost and meandering in confusion for the first 15 or 20 minutes until they catch on to precisely what we are doing. Now as we approached and reached and now have passed the significant milestone of 25 years of life together as a congregation, we have been examining the foundational biblical principles which have supported and given shape to our life together. And we have been examining those principles in a series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And in this series of studies, we have been considering affirmations which embody those foundational biblical principles which have shaped and given the contours to our life together. Some of the earlier affirmations were as follows, that we are determined that all of our doctrine and life

7:45 shall be molded by the Scriptures. If you want to understand this church, you must understand that with all of our failures, with all of our shortcomings, nonetheless, for the past 25 years, we have been determined that all of our doctrine and life shall be molded by the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. Another of those earlier affirmations was this, that we are determined to maintain a God-centered, God-centered climate in the totality of our life and our ministry. God has constituted the church not to be a place of entertainment, not to be a user-friendly religious club, but to be the place of His own special dwelling, to be the place where He is central in all that transpires. And it has been our determination, and it has been our commitment, to maintain this God-centered climate in the totality of our life and ministry. Well, we are now presently considering the ninth such affirmation

9:03 in this manifesto or statement in succinct form of our foundational tenets and beliefs, and that ninth affirmation is this, we are determined to maintain a balanced, New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. Having spent a number of months focusing our attention on our determination to maintain a balanced New Testament doctrine of conversion, we have for another several months or more been considering together our determination to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective and teaching with reference to the Christian life. And it is this issue of a balanced perspective on the Christian life which is the precise point of our study again this morning. Having demonstrated from the scriptures that a balanced view of the Christian life is a form of활uan referrals, is a form ofο estate, is a self of life, is a form of Korean life, will involve the realization that there is no one master key to living the Christian life,

10:25 there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life, there is no cancellation of any of our faculties in living the Christian life, nor is there any post-conversion crisis experience either commanded or promised in conjunction with living the Christian life, we are now focusing upon the fifth major principle of a balanced New Testament doctrine of the Christian life, and I have stated it this way, that there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. Now I have defined a means of grace as an activity, a discipline, or a relation or relationship ordained by God to be a means of nurturing and strengthening the spiritual life of the child of God, the very life imparted in His conversion by God Himself. So a means of grace is an activity, discipline, or relationship which God has ordained to strengthen the spiritual life which He Himself, has imparted.

11:49 And I have suggested that it is helpful in contemplating those God-appointed means of grace to think of them in two broad categories. First, the private or individual means of grace, and then the social or the corporate means of grace. And it is under this first division that we have considered as a God-appointed means of grace, for which there is no substitute if we would truly grow in grace, the habit and disposition of personal or secret prayer, and secondly, the practice of regular assimilation of the contents of the Bible. Now this morning we take up the third major individual or private means of grace, for which there is no effective substitute, in living the Christian life. And I am describing it this way. Added to the habit and disposition of secret prayer, and the practice of regular assimilation of the contents of the Bible,

13:04 God has ordained the effectual working of trials, tribulation, affliction, and paternal chastisement. God has ordained, ordained as a means of grace in the life of every individual Christian, the effectual working of trials, tribulation, affliction, and paternal chastisement. Now in opening up this theme this morning, and God willing again next Lord's Day morning, I want us to consider first of all the fact that trials, tribulation, affliction, and paternal chastisement are an inevitable part of all true Christian experience. I want to demonstrate from the scriptures that trials, tribulation, affliction, and paternal chastisement are an inevitable part of all Christian experience. And it's necessary. And it's necessary.

Trials are an Inevitable Part of Christian Experience

14:22 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 Charlotte, there sat next to me a man who's seeing a Bible in my briefcase and seeing, me read a Christian book, asked if my Bible were a King James version, and when I said no and explained it was a 1901, I asked why he inquired. He said, well, if it were a King James, I'd ask to borrow it to read it, but apparently my 1901 did not fit his definition of a kosher Bible, so he didn't read it. But in the course of conversation, it became very,

15:46 very evident that this man had bought into the notion that a good God who loves His children would never, never, never bring them into the crucible of trials, tribulation, affliction, or paternal chastisement. He said, now tell me, you're a father, aren't you? I said, yes. He said, would you kill your children? Would you inflict your children with disease? Of course not. Therefore, illusions. And I listened to him very, very patiently, because the Scripture says the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentler to him and to be close to Him. And I said to him, well, I'm just not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. but be gentle.

16:25 He was gentle toward all men, patient in meekness, instructing those that opposed themselves, until his theory was striking at the very cap roots of the memories that I was cherishing of our dear brother Dean Allen, who had gone to be with the Lord just two days before I was sitting on the plane. And finally I could stand it no more, and I had to break in and say, now, my friend, please, please, will you let me speak for a moment? And I had to proceed to begin to try to go after his spiritual arrogance, teaching of the word of God that not only would permit, but gullations, afflictions, and loving paternal chastisement as an inevitable and necessary part of my life.

17:26 And I want us to establish this fact this morning on three texts of scripture, and having done it, then I want us to consider, secondly, the evidence that trials, tribulation, afflictions, and paternal chastisement are intended as a means of grace. I want to demonstrate, first of all, they are an inevitable part of Christian experience. And then demonstrate. And then demonstrate from the word of God that they are intended as a means of grace.

18:07 Consider the three statements from the scriptures which clearly that these matters of trial, tribulation, affliction, and paternal chastisement are an inevitable part of true Christian experience. And the first comes from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself in John's Gospel. John's Gospel, chapter 16. John, chapter 16.

18:40 In what has commonly been called our Lord's farewell discourse or upper room discourse, chapters 13, 14, and 16, some of the richest, most intimate teaching of our Lord Jesus. It is in this section that he speaks of his own going away and the coming of the other coming. He speaks of the full disclosure of his heart unto his people, the greater privileges that they will have of communion with the Father, with himself, his departure, and all the blessings of the consummate manifestation of new covenant blessing. It's very interesting that that discourse then closes after opening up the richness of their experience. After opening up the richness of the privileges that will be theirs when he dies, when he's raised from the dead and the spirit is sent. He then says in verse 33,

19:52 These things have I spoken unto you, that in me have peace.

20:03 Things to you that in the virtue of your union with me, in the virtue of the truth I have disclosed from my heart, which, which you have now been made privy to, I have spoken these things unto you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, in the world's circumstances,

20:53 and people can do it and destroy you, for I, the world, therefore, whatever is in the world and operates through the world, even to bring, it is not pressure that will destroy united to me, I have overcome shall overcome in me and with me, but relation and there is no indication that our Lord intended to exempt those from that tribulation and they stand in this context as they do in many places in these chapters as representative of all believers in all ages until the glorious second coming of Christ and it is true of all. God's people. In every age in the world.

22:19 Tribulation as long present cosmos, a part of this present world system, they are not delivered out of it by death or by the return of the Lord, Jesus, to be in the world acquainted with tribulation. Then turn to the second text and see how central was this emphasis. in the apostles' ministry to young believers. In Acts chapter 14, Paul and his companions read the gospel, and they returned to cities where they had previously preached the gospel and made disciples. And we read in Acts 14.21, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. And as they returned to these cities where they had previously preached, and under the blessing of God, disciples had been made, churches had been established, this is a summary of their ministry.

23:37 They confirmed, or they were confirming, strengthening the souls of the disciples. The return visit did not have as its primary focus an evangelistic foray to the regions beyond those cities, but its primary focus was one of strengthening the souls of the disciples. And in that work of strengthening their souls, there were two focal points of ministerial emphasis. On the one hand, exhorting them to continue in ministry, the exhortation we had in the previous hour, to keep on as it is in Jesus. They strengthened the souls of the disciples, and one of the ways in which they did that was by variation, which had as their common denominator that these disciples should continue in the faith. Having come to embrace the faith of Jesus, having come to acknowledge themselves to be sinners,

25:02 and that Christ was the only Savior of sinners, having cast themselves upon Him in the death grip of true saving faith, they were exhorting them to continue posture. They knew that many would profess faith, but in the face of tribulation and persecution would believe only for a while, and then fall away. This is the teaching of our Lord in Luke chapter 8, in the parable of the sower and the soils. But then notice the second focal point of their preaching and teaching to strengthen the souls of the disciples.

25:43 Not only were they found exhorting them to continue in the faith, but we read, and to the kingdom.

26:09 Necessity is used.

26:13 I must go to Jerusalem, and I must be raised from the dead. They were to tribulations. If they only would be wonderfully insulated and kept by the goodness and love and favor of God. The apostles knew no doctrine,

27:06 and they told them in the kingdom of God consummate glory and realization. They would get their crucible of not just an occasional tribulation, but many tribulations. The apostolic doctrine was clear, and tribulation and affliction would be, an inevitable part of that Christian experience, which alone will bring a man safely at last. And then the third passage is the one that was read in your hearing. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I ask you to note particularly verses 6 through 8.

28:05 For whom the Lord sends and scourges whom he receives. He says it is for chastening that you endure with sons. For what son is there whom his father chastens not? You are chastening whereof.

28:45 Then are you legitimate children and not true sons. This teaches with unequivocally that an essential badge sonship is divine paternal chastisement. It is an essential badge. And the market. So they do.

29:50 They make paternity to anyone who is not constantly under the gracious influence of my chastening rod. All children by heavenly burden by the grace of adoption I receive. And if you claim to be his child, and you're exempt from paternal chastisement, then that claim, according to the writer to the Hebrews, is a false claim. Surely, then, no teaching on the Christian life is either biblical or balanced which does not assert that tribulation, affliction, trial, and chastisement are an inevitable part of true Christian experience. But now, secondly, I want to demonstrate from the Scripture the evidence, or set forth the evidence,

Trials as a Means of Grace: Developing Christian Character (James 1)

31:18 that trials, tribulations, trials, and chastisements, tribulation, afflictions, and divine chastisement are intended as a means of grace. It's one thing to establish that they are an inevitable part of true Christian experience. But then some might say, well, just as the sun rises on the just and the unjust, and man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, it's just something that God has not chosen to deal with now. But there is no real rationale for it.

31:49 There is no real purpose. Yes, there is a rationale, and there is a purpose. And so I want to set forth the evidence that trials, tribulation, afflictions, and divine chastisement are intended as a means of grace. That is, they are intended to develop within us the life of God imparted to us in our conversion.

32:16 Take first of all trials that are sent as a means of grace. Turn to James chapter 1. Trials of all kinds that come in all shapes and forms and are sent as a means of grace. James 1 and verse 2.

32:39 Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials. The word for manifold is the word used when the Gospel writers tell us that Jesus healed all manner of diseases and sicknesses. When Paul speaks of people being given over to all manner, all kinds of lusts, it's a term which speaks of a broad spectrum of a thing. Count it all joy when you fall into manifold, many kinds and diverse trials.

33:20 No. Knowing that the proving of your faith works patience, and let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. Now what I want you to see is this. Without attempting to unpack the specifics, we'll be coming back to this text, God willing, next week when we address the question of how does a child of God so relate to his trials, tribulations, afflictions, and chastisement, that it does indeed become a means of grace.

33:59 But what I want you to notice in the text this morning is the direct relationship between manifold trials in verse 2. The child of God has fallen into manifold trials. In seeking to walk with God, in the providence of God, he finds himself surrounded by many trials. The child of God has fallen into manifold trials.

34:20 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.

34:50 But notice, When James is done dealing with why he exhorts the people of God, the brethren, to count it joy when they find themselves in the crucible of manifold trials, notice the connection between manifold trials in the last part of verse 4, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. He moves from manifold trials to the maturation and to the completion of the character of the Christian. And what he is saying is that there is a direct relationship between manifold trials and the development of Christian character described as perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. That isn't demonstrating that...

35:50 ...that are intended as a means...

35:56 ...don't know what works mean.

35:59 ...produce this, there's something we must know, there must be something at work in us, and there must be this cooperation of intelligent submission and faith.

36:21 That's all in the passage, I know it's there, but I bypass it for our purposes today to show this direct relationship between manifold trials and... ...the maturation of Christian character.

36:38 He did not say, from the devil to be resisted with heroic faith when you fall into manifold trials. He said, count it all joy and recognize that trials are sent by God as a means of grace. But then secondly, tribulations are sent as a means of grace. Romans chapter 5.

Tribulations as a Means of Grace: Working Steadfastness and Hope (Romans 5)

37:08 Romans chapter 5.

37:12 Having opened up the amazing truth of justification, the fact that God credits to the believing sinner the perfect righteousness of Christ, pardons all of his sins, accepts him as righteous in his sight on the basis of what Christ has done by faith alone. Having opened that marvelous truth of justification...

37:40 ...of justification by faith, Paul goes on in chapter 5 to say, being therefore justified by faith, we have as a present possession peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

37:58 One of the accompaniments of being justified is that God's controversy with us is over. We have peace with God. No lawlessness. No lawlessness.

38:15 ...no lawlessness.

38:15 ...no lawlessness.

38:15 ...no lawlessness.

38:15 ...no lawlessness.

38:15 ...no lawlessness.

38:15 We have peace with God. We have been reconciled in the language of 2 Corinthians 5. And furthermore, he says, through whom also, that is, through the Lord Jesus, we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We not only have this present realization that we are at peace with God.

38:46 We not only have this present realization that we are at peace with God. We not only have this present realization that we are at peace with God. Having been justified on the grounds of what Christ has done, but through this same Christ, we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we now stand, but that's not the end of the story. Justification and its accompaniments is a marvelous thing.

39:08 But there is something glorious yet to come. We rejoice in hope, confident expectation of the glory of God. That is, we rejoice in our confident expectation that we shall one day be glorified. We shall actually reflect in the totality of our humanity the glory of God as it is seen in Christ.

39:32 We shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is. The best is yet to come. We know that the time is coming when we shall be glorified.

39:43 Now he says, ...and not only...

39:47 ...not only so, but we rejoice in something else.

39:50 We not only rejoice in the hope of what we shall face in the future, we rejoice in our tribulations.

40:06 The true Christian who rejoices in what he will be when God is through with him, rejoices in what God is presently doing with him that is not pleasant in itself. The true Christian who rejoices in what he will be when God is through with him that is not pleasant in itself. Tribulations, plural stances and situations and relationships that bring pressure to...

40:34 This is our word. ...this again.

40:37 And here he says we rejoice in our... ...and why do we do this?

40:46 ...knowing that tribulation works steadfastness and steadfastness of provedness and of provedness hope and hope puts not to shame.

40:57 The point is this. ...that we are unable to rejoice in our tribulations because we've come to the understanding that in the purpose and plan of God they are sent as a means of grace.

41:14 They are sent to work.

41:20 This is upon testness.

41:27 It gives birth to another Christian grace, a provedness. And a provedness brings us back again to hope. But the point is...

41:38 ...so negative, so unpleasant, so naturally unsought for in itself is ordained of God as a means of grace.

41:51 Tribulations work... ...critically.

41:59 That will be the theme of our study next week. ...how we respond to trials, to tribulations, to afflictions and paternal chastisement so that indeed God's purpose in them is realized.

42:13 We must be cooperative. And intelligently and spiritually active. Or they can do just the opposite. They can be a means of apostasy.

42:24 When tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, they fall away.

42:30 There is nothing automatic in them. But we must recognize that in themselves as they come to us from the hand of a sovereign loving God. ...whom God has marked out for glory.

42:47 ...whom He has accepted as righteous.

42:49 ...and on the grounds of the life and death of Christ are those for whom He abdicates tribulations.

42:58 And we are not to stoically accept them and say, well, you can't fight City Hall much less Heaven's orders. But He says we are to rejoice in our tribulations. We are to understand and perceive them in such a light...

43:22 ...that the same...

43:23 ...that the same emotion that is raised in my breast when I think of what I'll be when He comes again, I rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

43:34 I am to experience that emotion when I see myself in the crucible of tribulation. I am to rejoice. Why? Because it is a means of grace.

43:53 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.

44:23 And in that set of circumstances, God grows us up to maturity. In Christ. And oh, how our flesh would love the greenhouse treatment. With one-inch plexiglass, off which all hail up to twelve inches in diameter would simply bounce.

44:45 And where the watering was controlled, mechanical devices that meant we were never too wet and never too dry. And the humidity was just right. And the air was filtered and germ-free. How our flesh would love it.

45:02 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.

Afflictions as a Means of Grace: Learning God's Word and Obedience (Psalm 119)

45:22 It is a means of grace. But then thirdly, is there anything that tells us that afflictions are sent as a means of grace? Turn please to Psalm 119. That afflictions are sent as a means of grace.

45:40 In Psalm 119 and verse 71, we hear the Psalmist reflecting upon his afflictions. And this is what he says. Psalm 119 and verse 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy strength.

46:08 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy strength. The psalmist confesses that affliction was his great exegetical teacher. That there were portions of the word of God that were opened up to him in the classroom of affliction that he did not understand in any other classroom. And therefore he can say, it is good for me that I have been afflicted.

46:39 Why? Why? Because by means of affliction I've come to a fuller, richer, more accurate understanding of certain portions of the Word of God. And anything that takes me deeper into this book is my friend, not my enemy.

46:55 Why? It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn by statutes. Furthermore, in verse 67 he says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I observe thy word. Affliction was not only his classroom to open up new dimensions of understanding of the Word of God. Affliction was the means of healing.

47:26 Hedging him up to the ways and will of God as revealed in the Word of God. Affliction not only sorted out his head, but sorted out his feet. There were new dimensions of obedience. Afflicted I went astray. Affliction became God's law to pull me back into the way of more strict adherence to His Word and to His precepts.

Paternal Chastisement as a Means of Grace: Partaking in God's Holiness (Hebrews 12)

48:00 Afflictions are sent as a means of grace to give us new dimensions of obedience, new experimental understanding of the Word of God. And then, divine or paternal chastisements are intended as a means of grace as well. We turn to Hebrews chapter 12 again, this time looking at verses 9 through 11. Divine paternal chastisements.

48:32 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.

48:55 If you've got dads and moms that are concerned enough with the molding of your character, to give you reasonable, proper application of the rod of correction, you better reverence them and thank God for them. Because the Scripture said if they didn't do it, it's because they hate you. The Scripture says that if they don't chastise you, it's because they hate you. They don't have their heart set on your well-being, for folly and foolishness is bound up in your heart.

49:30 And the rod of correction is intended to drive it far. So the writer to the Hebrews says, We had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence. We gave them due respect and expressed our appreciation that they had our well-being at heart, and were willing to undergo the self-denial and personal pain of inflicting chastisement upon us. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?

50:01 For they indeed... For a few days chastened us, as seemed good to them, with their fallible judgment, but with a heart set upon our well-being.

50:14 They made judgments as to how best to mold our character by means not only of instruction, but by means of chastisement. But He, the infinitely wise, eternal God, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He, with unfailing wisdom, with perfect insight of who we are and what we're made of and where we're at and where we shall be, He in all makes Him the God that He is. He, for our profit, now notice, that we may be partakers of His holiness. You see, just as a godly parent is willing to forego the pain of seeing the tears of his child in order to mold his character, by the rod as well as instruction, so God has something in view far more noble than keeping all the king's kids happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time. For in the next verse He says, No chastening seemeth for the present to be joyous but grievous, but afterward it yields peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.

51:36 Divine chastisements are intended as a means of grace, particularly in the language of this passage, that we may be partakers of His holiness, that we may bear more of the fruit of righteousness. 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. And though He were a son by the things which He suffered.

52:18 Do you think you're going to learn it without suffering?

52:22 Though He were a son, the sinless Son of God, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. That's why earlier in this chapter He said, You Hebrew Christians who feel this combination of afflictive circumstances called in this passage chastisement, you've not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and you have forgotten your Savior, and you have forgotten what your Father is committed to do. Now in this context for these Hebrew Christians, divine chastisement was suffering, troubles, opposition, losses and persecution for the sake of the gospel. That's how it's described in chapter 10. Don't take my word for it. Listen to the explanation.

53:14 Exposition that the writer gives. Verse 32. Call to remembrance. Hebrews 10.32.

53:19 Call to remembrance the former days in which after you were enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly being made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly becoming partakers with them that were so used. For you both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully, the spoiling of your possessions. They endured conflict of sufferings, gazing stock by reproaches, afflictions. They were dispossessed of their earthly possessions.

54:00 Here in chapter 12, we read in verse 3, For consider him that endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that you wax not weary, fainting in your souls. What was coming to these Hebrew Christians in the form of suffering, troubles, opposition, losses, the gainsaying of evil men, persecution for the gospel, that's what was coming to them from the human side. But all of that, the writer to Hebrews says, is but God's rod to scourge his children with a view that they might be partakers, partakers of his holiness, that they might be manifesting the fruits of righteousness. You see, it wasn't a different set of circumstances that composed God's rod of chastisement. It was the very things that God was allowing men to bring upon his people in the way of unrighteous opposition and persecution that he says you must understand. And God on his, the throne could speak a word and all those people opposing you would go back into the oblivion of nothingness.

55:21 God could speak a word and send angels to consume them. Why does he allow them to go on to dispossess you of your goods, to accuse you of evil when you've done good? Why does he allow them to bring this opposition and bring this pressure upon you? He said it's because as your father he loves you and all of these circumstances, all of these circumstances combined constitute God's paddle on the behind of his children, to chasten them that they might be partakers of his holiness.

Application: A Sober Warning to the Untroubled

55:56 So then I trust I've demonstrated from the scriptures that affliction and divine chastisement are an inevitable part of true Christian experience and that these things are intended by God as a means of grace. Next week, God willing, we'll look at the response to them which will make them effectual as a means of grace. How we respond to them determines whether indeed they become a means of grace or become an instrument to our harm and danger. But in seeking to apply what we've considered this morning, let me conclude with three very simple, straightforward words of application.

56:41 First of all, I want to issue a sober word of warning. If you sit here this morning and all is well, you know nothing of what could be called manifold trials, you know nothing of what could be called tribulation, you know nothing of what could be called affliction and divine chastisement, don't assume that all is well with you because in such passages as Psalm 73, that is often the mark of the Lord. The wicked, that they are without the trials and the afflictions of the child of God. This is what created the problem that led Asaph to pen Psalm 73. He says that when he looked out at the arrogant and the wicked, he saw them without trials and afflictions and chastisements. Psalm 73 and verse three, when I saw the prosperity, I saw the prosperity of the wicked, no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men.

57:50 They are not plagued like other men. Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.

58:00 They have more than heart could wish. They go on in their wicked ways and they seem to know nothing of anything that is disappointing, anything that is galling, anything that undermines the pursuit of their carnal ambitions, the indulgence of their carnal lusts. And he says this troubled me because verse 13 he said in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. He said my life is lived in a crucible of trial and opposition and affliction and chastisement.

58:44 And here I'm seeking to please God and walk with integrity and the wicked know nothing of these trials. My friend, listen to me, if you're sitting here this morning and you've been sitting and saying I don't know what in the world that preacher is talking about. My religion is nice, polite religion. I got the water on my head as an infant.

59:03 I got the hands of the bishop on my head at puberty. I was christened. I was confirmed. And when my friends die and are buried, I go to church.

59:12 When they're married, I go to church. The rest of them die. The rest of the time I live my life under the canopy of the goodness of some distant God who doesn't muck about with my life. I don't mess with Him.

59:23 He doesn't mess with me. What's all this talk about trials and afflictions? And my friend, if that's where you're at, you're on a slippery slide into hell. And that's exactly what the writer of this psalm said.

59:36 He said I went into the sanctuary of God and I considered their latter end. Verse 18. Surely you have set them free. Verse 18.

59:45 In slippery places. My friend, the most slippery place in all the world to be is in a life where divine realities are not getting your attention through the vanity of the things of this life. At least if some of your bubbles burst, you might ask. Maybe there's more to life than feeding my flesh and gratifying my natural lust and appetites and passions.

60:15 Maybe there's more to life than making money and having a home and a wife and kids. Could it be, my friend, that God has set you on the most slippery slide into hell, which is a life uninterrupted by trials, afflictions, tribulation, and chastisement? I beg you this morning not to go out of here and say, ah, that stuff has nothing to say to me. It may have everything in the world to say to you, my friend.

60:46 Remember the Lord. He's the Lord. Remember that man described by Jesus in Luke 12, 16. He had it all made.

60:54 His crops weren't blasted with hail. His barns weren't leveled with typhoon winds and with hurricanes and with tornadoes. And he came to retirement time and he had so much he didn't know what to do. So he pulled down his barns and stored his goods and he was tying up his business for a lengthy retirement.

61:17 He said, I say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. He even had physical health. And Jesus said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.

61:36 And whence shall those things be? Who shall those things be? This night thy soul is required. He was on that slippery slope.

61:48 And when he thought he was at the beginning of a night of suffering, he was on that slippery slope. And when he thought he was at the beginning of a night of suffering, he was on that slippery slope. And when he thought he was at the beginning of a night of suffering, he was on that slippery slope. And when he thought he was at the beginning of a night of suffering, he was on that slippery slope.

61:56 When he thought he was at the beginning of a night of suffering, he was on that slippery slope. He was at that psyche of a nice gentle slope leading to all the benefits of a multi-spread table of indulgence in a lengthy retirement. Little did he know, he was a half an inch from the end of the plank that led him to Hell. And that night, God said, you have had it.

62:12 My friend, if you know nothing of affliction and trial and chastisement, don't pride yourself. Humble yourself and cry to God if you're a stranger to the Word of God. to the forgiveness and to the knowledge of God that is found only in Christ. I issue a sober word of warning, and secondly I would issue a sincere word of encouragement.

Application: Encouragement to the Tested and Caution Against False Teaching

62:36 Am I speaking to some of God's children who have come into not just a few, but manifold trials?

62:46 May I say it? Not lightly, because I don't say it as one who doesn't know a little something of its reality.

62:56 Every new trial God brings is a further unfolding of the depth of His love for you. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.

63:09 Therefore, we have a right to reason, if we are not walking in a way of disobedience to His revealed will, that if we are seeking to walk with integrity, and God increases our trials, increases our afflictions, increases our tribulations, and our chastisements, they are tokens of His love to us and of His commitment to make us more like His Son. We have more badges of our sonship the more stripes of His chastisement.

63:50 Look upon your stripes as badges of His ownership. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens. As many as I love, Jesus said, I rebuke, and I chasten. And then I would, in closing, issue a pastoral word of caution.

64:10 Dear people of God, beware of any teaching which says that the Christian life, in its ideal outworking, is a life in which you can be immune from trial, affliction, tribulation, and chastisement. Such teaching flies into the face of the overarching teaching of the Word of God and will either lead to delusion or to skepticism.

64:48 It'll either lead to delusion or to skepticism. Because at the end of the day, all of your name-it-and-claim-it theology has to face the fact that some of the loudest, most aggressive, arrogant proponents of the health, wealth, prosperity doctrine have been the ones who have been the most aggressive. They have been the ones who have been the most aggressive. They have died before their threescore and ten, claiming their healing till they went to their grave.

65:20 And some of their deluded followers gathered around them, waiting for them to be raised from the dead. But no grave has yet been opened. It's a grievous thing to see people pouring their widow's mites and sitting glued to their television sets and reading the literature and laying their hands upon the soul, who called anointed cloths and sending in their seed money, a multi-million dollar racket, because people are not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. May the Lord preserve us and keep us by His people determined, determined, regardless of how many set-up shop all around us, determined to assert that by the grace of God we are committed to a view of the Christian life that says, along with prayer and the reading of our Bibles, the third major means of grace in the life of the individual Christian to make him grow up into Christ is this means of trial, affliction,

66:37 eternal chastisement. May God grant that we shall hold fast to His Word and walk in its light. Let us pray.

66:51 Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, which is indeed a Lamb, to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we thank You for its light on this subject of affliction, of trials, of tribulation, chastisement. And we pray that by Your grace we may lay to heart the teaching of Your Word. We think of those who at this time are in a peculiar season of intense trial.

67:21 O Lord, enable Your tested and trialed children to respond biblically to the trials that You have brought upon them, that we may indeed be partakers of Your holiness, that we may bear more of the fruit of righteousness. We pray for any who sit here in smug self-deception and complacency. May what they've heard shape them to the very roots of their being and give them no rest until they are saved. Amen.

67:55 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

67:55 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

67:55 Amen. Amen. Until they see themselves as You see them, sinners lost and undone and in need of Your grace and pardon in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seal Your Word to our hearts and dismiss us with Your blessing.

68:12 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.