Trials as a Means of Grace (5)

Introduction: The Means of Grace and the Purpose of Trials

0:02 ...was delivered on Sunday morning, May 30th, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now will you follow with me, please, as I read a portion of the Word of God, though not the text or even the major text, for the ministry of the Word does indeed set the framework and the tone for that ministry, and I refer to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 7. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 7.

0:57 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforteth us, in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. For whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort. Now let us again pray, and ask God to bless our meditation in his holy word this morning.

2:20 Our Father, we would acknowledge again that we stand in present need of the present and powerful aid of the Holy Spirit, the one who speaks that he may speak not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, that those who listen, may listen with ears that have been opened by the Spirit, with hearts prepared to receive the word in faith and obedience, by the illuminating and effectual work of the Spirit upon those hearts. O Lord, we remind you of your promise, that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will you give the Holy Spirit, the Spirit to those who ask. We ask that you would grant him not to give us new revelation, not to give us feelings, but to give us light, to give us grace, both to understand, to believe, and to obey your holy word. Hear us and give us the thing we ask of you in this hour. Through our Lord Jesus Christ we plead.

3:44 Amen. Now for those who attend regularly upon the ministry of the word of God in this place, it is not surprising for me to tell you that our study in the word of God this morning is really the last heading of a message which began several Lord's days ago. At that time we were continuing to examine a major strand of scriptural truth with respect to our detachment, which is that of the doctrine and practice of the Christian life. And the particular strand of truth to which I make reference is the one embodied in the principle that there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. And in the course of identifying those means of grace, we have considered prayer, secondly, the assimilation of the scriptures, and thirdly, the effectual working of trials,

5:05 afflictions, tribulations, and divine chastisement. And it is in this area of this third means of grace to the individual believer that we have, we have established from the scriptures that these things, trials, afflictions, tribulation, and divine chastisement are an inevitable aspect of all true Christian experience. In Acts 14.22, the apostle and his companions, speaking to relatively new converts, underscored the fact that through many tribulations they must enter into the kingdom of God. Secondly, we have seen from the scriptures that these things are intended by God as a means of grace. And among the many pivotal passages, perhaps at the head of them stands James 1 and verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into manifold trials knowing that the truth of the gospel is the truth of the gospel.

6:17 And when you fall into manifold trials, knowing that the truth of the gospel is the truth of the gospel, that the trial of your faith works. Patience. Trials are intended by God as a means of grace. But then thirdly, we have seen from the scriptures that these things do not automatically operate as a means of grace, but only when we respond to them as we ought.

6:42 We learn from such passages as the parable of the sower that when tribulations come, tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, those who do not have the root of the matter in them, they fall away. There is no magical or automatic power in trials, tribulation, affliction, opposition, divine chastisement to work as a means of grace. But rather under the blessing of God they become that only as the truth of the gospel. The child of God responds to them as he ought.

Review of Biblical Responses to Trials

7:22 And so we have turned to the word of God with this question, how are we to respond to our personal trials, tribulations, afflictions, and divine chastisements so that we shall indeed find them instruments of increasing our likeness to Christ. And thus far we have looked at four points, four parts of the biblical answer to that question. If our trials are to be a means of grace, we must, number one, view these things with a well-informed biblical realism. We must be able to look them in the eye and interpret them with a mind that is enlightened by the scriptures. This is why James says, count it all joy when you fall in love, when you fall into manifold trials, knowing, knowing. And we can only count it all joy in a biblical manner if we have a well-informed, biblical, realistic view of the purpose of God in those trials. Secondly, we must submit afresh to our sovereign God and our loving Father in the midst of them.

8:47 In Hebrews 12, 9, we are told that we should be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live. And that word is spoken in the context of a proper response to divine chastisement. There is to be a fresh act of submission to our sovereign God who is our loving Father. And then thirdly, we must plead, we must plead with God that His specific purposes in these things will be accomplished.

9:23 Though God reveals His intention in sending them, His purpose in surrounding us with them, we are to ask that the ends He has designed in them may be realized in us. We are to ask that we might receive we often have not because we are not we ask not. And then fourthly, we must constantly fix our gaze upon Christ as the perfect example of how to respond to these things. First John 2, 6 tells us that the Christian, he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. And in a pivotal passage such as 1 Peter chapter 2, we learn that Christ in his suffering has not only died for us but has left us an example of how we are to respond to those trials that may come to us in the way of obedience to the will of God. Now today we come to the fifth and final strand of that which constitutes a biblical response to trials, afflictions, sufferings, and divines. And the fifth directive

The Fifth Response: Discerning Trials as Signposts to Future Glory

10:52 that I have seen in the scriptures and there may be more but this is the measure of my present light is that we must discern in each of these things a signpost pointing us to the glory of the age to come. If our trials, if our afflictions, if our tribulations, and even our Father's chastisement of us are indeed to be a means of grace, we must discern in each of these things a signpost pointing us to the glory of the age to come. If we're to understand this aspect of biblical teaching, we must constantly remind ourselves of this fundamental fact. Whatever trials, afflictions, tribulations, or divine chastisement we may experience in whatever form, in whatever intensity, for whatever duration, they are all, without exception, realities attached to this present age.

12:14 There is no place whatsoever in the age to come for any child of God for trials, affliction, tribulation, and divine chastisement. Whatever the glorified state of the believer will be in the new heavens and the new earth after the return of Christ, this much we know of a certainty. There will be no trials, no affliction, no tribulation, in any form, and divine chastisement either to perfect graces in us or to be loving rebukes for sin done by us will no longer be needed. And this is why in that beautiful description of the new heavens and the new earth inhabited by all of God's redeemed, God can say of that, place and state and condition, Revelation 21, 4 and 5, He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore

13:40 for the first things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne saith, Behold, I make all things new and he saith right for these words are faithful and true. Now it is God's purpose to get the hearts of his people firmly fixed in heaven long before he takes their souls to heaven and long before they have glorified united bodies and souls in the new heavens and the new earth.

14:23 No one will ever have his soul taken to heaven at death or his body and soul reunited at the second coming and enter the new heavens and the new earth in the age to come. No one will enter heaven in either of those stages who has not first of all had his heart taken to heaven while here, on earth.

14:54 This is why the apostle writing to the Colossians says, Since then you were raised with Christ, assuming that reality of their spiritual union with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall be manifested then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.

15:37 Who will be manifested in glory at the return of Christ? Not those whose hearts have been wedded to this earth as the fundamental state of their inner life and suddenly they are surprised and taken up to heaven. Oh no! It is those whose hearts by grace have already been taken to heaven.

15:59 Whose affections have already been firmly fixed upon the things of heaven. It is such and such alone that will be glorified with Christ at his return. And one of the ways God gets our hearts in heaven keeps them in heaven and brings more and more of the energy and the thought and the passions and the desires and the affections of the heart into heaven is by means of trials, afflictions, persecutions, and divine chastisement. And you and I must learn the holy art of seeing in every trial, in every affliction, in every tribulation, in every chastisement from God. We must learn the holy art of finding the signpost that points us to the glory of the age to come. And then our trials indeed become a means of grace to make us more heavenly minded. And as we are more heavenly minded then we are of more truth, to use in our earthly pilgrimage.

17:26 Though you've heard the little ditty he is so heavenly minded he is no earthly good. I don't know that I've ever yet met such a person. The person I struggle with stands before you who is alas so cursedly earthly minded that he is of little heavenly good. The struggle of my heart is not to get too much of it out of heaven here on earth.

17:55 It's to get the horrible remnants that are still attached to this present world fixed where God says it ought. And if you're honest you'll acknowledge that that is your struggle as well. Therefore God to help you sends trials and afflictions and tribulations and chastises us to the end that we may look in each of those things for the signpost that points us to the glory of the age to come. Time permitting I want us to look at three texts of scripture and they are only specimen texts which establish this truth. The first is the one we'll spend our most time with and then less time with the second and even less with the third. Turn please to 2 Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter four.

Exposition of 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: Light Affliction vs. Eternal Weight of Glory

19:04 And our focus will be particularly upon verses 17 and 18. But before we take up with the words of those two verses let me say just a word about the more general context. Paul has spoken of his ministry as one verses one through six marked by certain dominant characteristics. He speaks of his own inner disposition.

19:35 Speaks of the reality that in ministering the gospel he recognizes the blinding work of the devil but then the greater work of God who spoke light out of darkness and shines in the darkness of men's hearts to give the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Those are some of the central issues relative to the substance of the Christian ministry as exercised by the apostle Paul. Paul then in verses 7 to 15 he points us to the fact that since this deposit of the gospel is placed in frail humanity he uses the imagery of a treasure in a clay pot that the exceeding greatness of the power may be manifestly that of God and not of men and then he focuses upon the various trials and sufferings that accompanied the exercise of the ministry described in its leading features in verses 1 to 6 Paul what is your perspective concerning the Christian ministry he says read what I wrote in second Corinthians 4 1 to 6 but if you asked him what did you

20:54 experience in pursuing such a ministry he'd say read verses 7 to 15 of the same chapter well a man then carrying on such a ministry in such a context of suffering and opposition for the sake of Christ why does he say at the beginning of the first segment verse 1 of chapter 4 seeing we have this ministry as we obtain mercy we faint not and after giving us that litany of his sufferings and opposition he repeats the thought in verse 16 where for we faint not well how can a man carry on a ministry with such weighty issues as are described in verses 1 to 6 in the midst of such continuous manifold opposition and suffering as described in verses 7 to 15 and yet faint not continue to press on with dogged determination so that when he comes to the end of that ministry he can say I am not a man I am not a man I am not a man I am not a man say as he does in second Timothy chapter 4 I have finished my course I have kept the faith I have

22:10 accomplished what was marked out for me in the will of God well no little part is explained for us in verses 16 through 18 wherefore we faint not but though our outward man is decaying yet our inward man is renewed to be man and yet we are not fainting but we are always fainting day by day he says that he is unable to press on because though he sees the outward man his physical frame being worn down with the passing of time and the labors of the ministry and the effects of the suffering the beatings the opposition he says there is a source of life to the inner man that causes me to undergo a renewal day by day so the more I'm opposed and the more men seek to pummel me into silence the divine strength imparted to the inner man makes me all the more vigorous in the work of the ministry but then he says there's a second reality and that's where our focus is now verses 17 and 18 for our light affliction which is for the moment works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight

23:37 of glory while we look not on the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal you see that we look to God despite the odds died to the opposition in spite of the endurance to the yes to be寂ownik to the supposed great public devotion ministry reason number are six to be z childcare silver betrayed FOR action MOVE THE KNOWLEDGE things of the age to come. The realization of the better things of the age to come. And notice what he does in a well-structured sentence that contrasts his afflictions and the glory that awaits him. He says two things about the affliction. For our light affliction, which is for the moment.

25:05 He says our affliction is light and it is momentary. Now think for a moment. Who's wrote these words? Not only the man who wrote the preceding paragraph, where he speaks of being pressed on every side, perplexed.

25:24 Pursued, always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus. But later on in this epistle, he will mention some more of the specifics of the things he underwent, simply because he was a minister of the gospel, walking and ministering with integrity. Beaten with stripes, a day and a night in the deep. Imprisoned, stoned.

25:55 The tremendous... The tremendous opposition. And he says all of this affliction, when you pile it all up and put it in the scales, it's feathery.

26:05 It's light. And in terms of its duration, though it followed him for decades, he says it is momentary. Affliction, light in weight, momentary in duration. But now how does he describe the glory that awaits him?

26:27 A glory that is even increased in proportion to the affliction. He says this light and momentary affliction works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. The word weight is the word translated several times in the New Testament, a burden. It is weight of...

26:57 A substance.

26:59 And so the contrast is between affliction that is light and glory that is weighty. Weighty with substance. A holy burden of glory. Bear ye one another's burdens. That's the word.

27:21 It is a weighty... It is a burden of glory.

27:26 And notice, in contrast to the... Momentary nature of the affliction, it is an eternal weight of glory.

27:37 So in the apostle's mind, he has this equation. On the one hand, there are his afflictions, described in their totality as light and momentary. On the other hand, there is the glory that awaits him, which he describes as weighty. And eternal.

28:02 And how... Get and keep and increase in that perspective.

28:09 So that his afflictions did not make him retreat from his duty, we think not. Did not allow him to be discouraged and dispirited in his duty, we think not. But to press on with zeal to finish his course. Well, the answer is given in verse 18.

28:32 While... While...

28:33 We look. While...

28:36 We look. And the verb to look is the verb from which we get our word scope. It is scopeo. It doesn't mean to give a passing glance.

28:49 When you look through a telescope or a scope, looking intently through that instrument upon something. And we could render the verb without stretching the sense of it at all to fix the gaze upon, to intently look upon. While...

29:15 Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. There are sets of things upon which we can intently gaze. Upon which we can fix the eyes of the soul. One set are things which are seen.

29:39 And surely among the things seen... Were...

29:43 The lictor's lash and was drawn and left its bloody furrows.

29:59 The lictor's lash.

30:02 He could see the... Left for dead.

30:09 He could see the lictor's lash. He could see the stones. He could see the heaving seas that resulted in shipwreck. He could see the stops that were placed upon his feet when he with Silas was there at Philippi.

30:27 He could see the things that are here called his affliction. But he said, It's not the things that are seen. The things that accompany and constitute my manifold afflictions, the tribulations that I undergo in the course of keeping up integrity in the gospel ministry. I do not focus the eyes of my soul and of memory and thought and reflection upon the things that are seen.

31:00 But I fix the eyes of my soul. The gaze of my heart. The things which are not seen.

31:12 Not seen. But because they're not seen doesn't mean they're not things. They are substantial realities. The things which are not seen.

31:23 Well, what are those things which are not seen? Well, he goes on to tell us, The things which are seen are temporal. They are the things bounded by this present age. The trial.

31:38 The affliction. The persecutions. The things that have come to me in my own experience and will yet come to me according to the revelation of my Lord who has told me that the one thing certain wherever I go is that bonds and missions will be my companions.

31:59 But those things that are seen and everything connected with them are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal. And we have every right to. Read into those words.

32:13 The things not seen which are eternal.

32:21 Face to face communion with the God whom he loved in his immediate presence. Seeing with his own glorified. The glorified from the physical form of the glorified body and person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

32:46 There in the presence of all. Of his. His redeemed ones in the midst of a glorified humanity in full communion with God and the lamb in the midst of the throne and with all of the saints of all ages the things not seen that promised new heavens and new earth wherein dwells nothing but righteousness when there will be deliverance from all the effects of sin not only in us but also in all of us. But in the world that was cursed for man's he says it is these upon which I fix the gaze of my soul.

33:32 There was no little discipline in his manifold trial to keep his eyeballs where they ought to be. There is nothing like a smarting trial to make this earth appear for what it really is. There is nothing like a baptism of grief and sorrow and triumph. There is nothing like a tribulation for God's loving but at times firm discipline to make us long for a place where the tears of repentance for our waywardness will no longer be needed and where the sting and the pain of trial and affliction will be a thing forever past. And Paul is able to give this evaluation to these realities because.

34:29 Our sins did we live as we see we live and consider as guiding word notions and apprehensions of the soul labor to have tensions of the soul that may guide as it should be. We live and opposition and persecution and discomfort bury what you call fiction and he says because my eye upon that which has true weight.

35:41 And that which will last for and as eternal he was able to say light momentary and learn the lesson of fight every and affliction and persecution. The signpost to the glory and in the state to which God would one day take him when it's coming when there will see of our be the signpost to the glory ending on this text he wrote.

The Holy Art of Seeing Signposts to Glory

37:23 Note well what it is. That will make all the miseries of this world easy to endure it is eternity of the kingdom of heaven if we can seem a law but when we live heavenward. How's in years begin to be like a moment relation of the child of God who have your truck exempt from those things turning which joke when he said I upward young converted friend all use for your discomforts and troubles all you.

38:32 The so way they have no would way all over you and his here today so

39:49 well in this place hardly really in those of us to read you in prayer in that he can see I and that his ought to preview all the all but weakness that will take you down, Dave. Oh, that you might realize I'm not ready to die. I'm not prepared judgment. And look at my trial. I'm temporary. In fact, my trials are pointing to that which will have fury. It won't be temporal. It will be forever and ever. Of what so-called

41:01 modern, some of them called evangelical theologians are doing to stand the Bible doctrine of conscious eternal torment on it. The words of God laying in your own conscience tells you they are true. May God grant that you would turn from your sin and flee to Christ to die and ask him to take your heartable cesspool, the juices of this present world and empty it and scour it and fill it with the water of life and with the spirit and with Christ and so on. Set it upon heaven and the aged. Well, I say this text in Corinthians is a wonderful example of how and our afflictions, all of these things that Paul described, he says are but a light because he had learned to discern signpost in every affliction that pointed to the glory of the age. Much more briefly, a text that was expounded some weeks ago from this pulpit,

Exposition of Romans 8:18: Sufferings Not Worthy of Comparison

42:23 by Dr. Bob, Romans chapter 8 and verse 18. It was read here in this place last Tuesday on the solemn occasion of the memorial service for little Lee Hamilton. Romans 8 and verse 18. In the context, the emphasis is upon the reality of sonship, sonship and adoption attested by three things, verses 12 and 13. I'm sorry, verses 13 and 14. A life being led by the spirit, which in the context is a life of ongoing mortification of sin. That's an attestation that indeed we are the sons of God. As many as are led by the spirit of God,

43:15 these are the sons of God. And then secondly, there is the witness of the spirit enabling us to address God as our father with felt spiritual experience of filial and acceptance. Verses 15 and 16. But then a third attestation of our sonship in verse 17 is suffering. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if suffer with him, that we may also glorify with him. Suffering is one of the attestations of true sonship and therefore one of the companions of all sons and daughters of God. You've got to do something with suffering. You can't ignore it.

44:06 Suffering has a very effective way of getting your attention. Whether the suffering is emotional, resulting in sleepless nights and open tear ducts, whether it's physical, resulting in nerve endings,

44:27 whatever the form of suffering may be. Suffering is a parcel of sonship in the present age, especially suffering in connection with our union with Christ and our obedience to Christ. But what are we going to do with it? Well, this is what Paul did with it. Verse 18.

44:51 Sufferings of this present time.

44:58 With the glory that shall be revealed to us. He came judgment in his mind. And he said flexion that the sufferings of this present time, the sufferings that are part and part this present time, will be with the glory that shall be revealed to us. And he said flexion for what we will do with it. And he said flexion for what we will do with it. And he said flexion for our children, present age, not even worthy, revealed, made up an object lesson to bring it into the pulpit, but I think I can construct it with my hands. Imagine that we have one of the old turd two weeks ago. There's the base of the scale, there's the center standard, there's the crossbar with the pivot, and then we have the three pieces of chain coming down in the two pans. There it's

46:09 empty, perfectly balanced. Now what would you think if I held in my left one of the, now what would you think of me if I held in this hand the 10-pound plate and the toothpick and said, I'm really not sure if these things are close or proximate in weight. Well, let me put them on the scale to see. You'd sit there and shake your head and say, Pastor, why waste your time? The two thought worthy to be compared, and I said, I wonder which is heavier. Is there worth of a valid

47:31 comparison? Now remember what that meant. What he calls here, the glory which shall be revealed, our spirits, that glory which in the tumbling to the mission of the bombation at the second coming, when spirits made perfect will be joined from the dust of the earth and enter the new heaven. As it is called passage, he said the two are on and the 10 pounds. Don't waste your time putting them in the scale. Not worthy to be

48:46 compared. Now you see, we fix it from the toothpick, that it begins to grow in weight, in substance, a little of the glory of the age, that it shrinks in our practical day, so that we are and brought suffering, signpost, that is to the glory age to come. For when we do, then we don't act so eclectically as don't feel our

49:51 sufferings. Paul was no stone, that unashamed humanity. God didn't send an angel. God didn't remind him of a promise. God sent a friend.

50:16 The rejection. Things that we feel. Difference with Paul. And while he's upon it, he said I won't insult God by putting toothpicks in the scale. Of glory. And then I ended it to be humorous. Found it humorous.

51:03 Next verse is to say, look, even the brute creation has enough to know the best is yet to come. For the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Best is yet to come. It's a groan. To be born. Second come. God is a rational, enlightened believer. At least equal the perspective of the brute creation around you. Verse 22, we know we should groan. We ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we groan, waiting for our adoption. That is the full inheritance of our adoption. That is the redemption of our body. For in hope we were saved.

Exposition of Matthew 5:11-12: Rejoicing in Persecution

52:18 In other words, what is to come and is promised is so large a dimension of our salvation that he makes the part for the whole and says in hope we were saved. The problem with us again is that we so seldom even think upon the glory of the angel in our most devout moments, let alone in our moments of conscious trial, affliction, tribulation, and God's paternal. Discipline. Child of God, I believe with you as I preach to my own through the events of recent days in my own life that I may with renewed determination seek to perceive in air suffering inwardly, emotionally, physically, a signpost pointing to the glory of the age to come. And as you'll say with Paul, unworthy of comparison. And then, and even more briefly, turn please to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 verses 11 and 12. Remember now what we're

53:39 attempting to show is that the fifth dimension or strand of a biblical response to our sufferings is that of finding that signpost that points us to the glory of God. Here in Beatitudes, it's blessed, it's familiar to many of us. Our Lord is giving a beautiful, description of the character of all the sons and daughters of the kingdom. And the final verse in verses 10 and following, blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He assumes that in a wicked world, those who are truly his will be so identified with him and committed to him that in the outworking of their attachment to Christ, they will be so identified with him that in the outworking of their attachment to Christ, their practical life of righteousness will provoke the hostility of an unrighteous world. For men love darkness rather than light. And sometimes they stay away from light and

54:56 sometimes they try to put the light out. One degree or disposes the intensity of these things, but who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you're a stranger to anything that can be legitimately called from a biblical standpoint persecution, and you've professed to be in Christ for any length of time, I fear, my friend, you're deceived. Christ pronounces no blessing on your head if it's an unpersecuted head. Blessed, blessed are they, and only they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Then this, very interestingly, is the only Beatitude that he amplifies. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. You're blessed? He says, yes, you are blessed. The benediction, the shalom of God is upon you.

56:07 Covenant blessing rests over you like a canopy. Though men reproach you and persecute you and say all against you falsely for my sake, regard your... But don't stop there. That's a matter of self evaluation. Now he says there's something you're to do. Verse 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. Wait a minute, Lord. If you'd said, hold your tongue and don't fight back. But he says rejoice, not just... He says be exceeding glad. I mean, that's a pretty... Isn't it? It's an irritant to their... And when

57:21 we become conscious of that, complex looking for people to be the wrong way and assuming we're... No, no, no. Jesus said when it comes, Rejoice and not only be glad, but exceeding glad. In Luke, it says you're to leap for joy.

57:56 Expect of us? Well, it would be if we didn't have the last part of the verse. Look at it. Forcing in your feet, madness in your spirit, is your reward. To the rewards, then you get their status of a prophet's reward. Rejoice in the midst of that trial and tribulate of men's opposition and persecution and reproach and slander. See the...

59:01 Pointing to the glory that what men are doing is increasing your own weight in that age. I tell you, this has been one of the most liberating texts to me. Some of you know the particulars and it would not be unto edification to go into them. But there was a time years ago when I having a day of self-examination. I do that periodically, not morbidly, introspectively in a wrong time of self-examination. And I find reading the Beatitudes, most helpful. And I can remember sweating through with judgment day honest, saying, Lord, do I know what poverty of spirit is? Can I truly say that I believe in my heart of hearts, in my spiritual gut, that I am nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing apart from your grace? That I

60:07 have nothing to commend myself to you? Can I really take the place of a publican and say,

60:19 blessed are they that mourn? Do I know anything of that mourning attendant upon true repentance? Do I know anything of true meekness, the absence of self-will to God and ill-will to men, hunger and thirst for righteousness? And I had persuaded myself before God that at least in some seedling, incipient form, these character traits were present by grace. But I came to verses 10 through 12. And I was greatly troubled. And I said, Lord, I know what it is to be persecuted verbally from the time I was saved in high school and began to carry my Bible and stop telling filthy jokes and hand out tracts to my buddies that I used to play football with. They mocked me verbally. They cut

61:10 me off socially. Lord, I do know what a little bit of persecution is there. But when I came to this, blessed are you when men reproach you, persecute and say all nicely. I said, Lord, is the edge gone? I don't know that all manner of evil is being set against me falsely. Lord, search me. What is there? Am I being sinfully silent where I ought to be rebuking sin? Has the edge of my ministry personally and in my neighborhood and in my pulpit? And I remember pleading with God that he would have dealings with me in that area. Well, it wasn't long before the Lord answered my prayer in ways. I never would have anticipated. Now I get more comfort from this beatitude, I think, than any other. When it has come back into my ears and before my eyes, things of which I am supposed

62:09 to be guilty. And I'll never forget the first time I took this literally, that every slander, every reproach that is not grounded in fact, and that is the fruit of attachment to Christ and obedience. To his word is putting capital into the bank of heaven in my name. And it's there to gain from any desire, any desire, bitter. I said, Lord, they don't know what to do. They're increasing

62:58 my reward in heaven. Lord, let them do their work and yourself to rejoice, to expand some little measure. I can say by the grace of God is not an excessive connected with word reward. Then you will find instead of these things. Dispiriting and discouraging you and making you morose and fearful and withdraw,

Conclusion: Fixing Thoughts on Heaven

64:02 sullen, you will rejoice and be exceeding with these three texts of scripture. They are specimen texts and surely lesson that if we would know what it is to have our trials and afflictions be a means of grace, we must learn the art of discerning. In each of them, the sign post that points us to the glory of the age was with that reminder of that little incident that Bunyan captured. You remember when Christian lodging at the house beautiful was discussing all of the ups and downs of his pilgrimage in the narrow way. It's one of the hostesses in the house. Ask him, can you remember by what means you found the signpost that points us

65:10 to find your annoyances at times as if they were vanquished? Can you tell us by what means of your Christian life? And Christian replied, yes, when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it. Also, when I look upon my that will do it. And then he said, when I look into the role that I carry in my bosom, that will do it. When I contemplate what Christ has done upon the cross. When I contemplate what it is to be justified to have the robe of righteousness placed upon me. When I contemplate that I have assurance granted by God. I am a child. The fourth thing was this, and when my thoughts wax warm about wither, I that

66:16 will do it. Oh, my brother or sister been since your thoughts waxed warm about whether you are going. Oh, that day lacks war and become hot as we seek to fix our actions upon things above where Christ is and where we're going.

Call to Unbelievers: Join the Blessed Company

66:43 That our trials may be sanctified to our prophet in this present life. And for you who have no saving union with Christ, I can only again plead with you. Join us in such a blessed company whom the trials of this world cannot make sour and disillusioned and bitter. Join those whom you've seen even this week.

67:15 Bless the God whose hand wrenched away a four-year-old and they weren't playing games and having a stiff upper lip and showing personal moral courage.

67:31 It is their confidence. It's the glory of the age to come that's enabled them to say, even so, Father, it seemed good and nice.

67:44 Don't pity us, Christian. We pity you with no support but your own.