Gracious Consolations

God's Infallible Prediction of the Future and the Certainty of Christ's Return

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 11, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those of you who frequent this place of worship, whether as a member or a friend, you know that at the conclusion of most of the ordinary services of the Lord's Day that I make my way to the back of this auditorium and stand by the glass doors on the right entrance or exit. It's an exit when you're moving that way. Now, suppose one of you coming out that door and greeting me were to ask me this morning,

0:44 Pastor Martin, I understand that you consider Monday your day off. Yes, I do. What are you going to do tomorrow? And I might respond and say, well, these are the things that are on my list.

0:56 They're on my to-do list in my desk calendar. As little things come up throughout the week that I know should be done on my day off, I've put them into the little block on my desk calendar on the Monday. These are the things that I hope to do. These are the things I may purpose and plan to do.

1:18 But I do not know whether or not I will be able to do them. And why do I say that? For the simple reason that when I say these are the things I purpose to do, these are the things I plan to do, these are the things I hope to do, I'm assuming that a lot of factors will be in place, factors over which I have absolutely no control.

1:49 And so all I can say is that God willing, I will do this and this, or I purpose and plan to do this or that, and though I may not use the term God willing, for I don't believe God wants us to use it every time we speak of the future, but certainly we must speak of the future, even the future that we call tomorrow, Monday, the day after Sunday, with a disposition that recognizes that in reality we have no certain assurance that we shall even live to see the light of tomorrow.

2:30 And therefore when men who cannot even predict with certainty the mundane activities one day ahead of where they presently are, surely men cannot with certainty speak of great epochal events in the future. And it is at precisely this point that we as the people of God ought to rejoice that God is so unlike us. He can declare with infallible accuracy what will happen in every day that constitutes the future to us.

3:12 And He can do that because He governs and He controls all things with absolute sovereignty that will determine what the future is for you, for me, for our families, for our colleagues, for our county, for our state, and for the world. And God fully understands that only He can predict futurity with absolute confidence because He alone controls the future. And we see a clear statement of this in Isaiah 46, verses 9 to 11. Remember the former things of old.

3:57 For I am God and there is none. Else, I am God and there is none like me. And then God's going to isolate one of those areas in which He is utterly distinct from us. None share with Him this capacity, this ability.

4:17 And what is it? Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.

4:41 Yea, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will also do it.

4:51 And God never needs to put a parenthesis with a capital D period, V period. God. God can say, I've purposed. I will do.

5:03 And it is because He is such a God that prophecy in Scripture concerning the future can be relied upon with absolute certainty. And for a number of weeks we have been considering that which is a prophetic announcement of God. Namely, that Jesus Christ the Lord shall in the future, come forth from the place where He now is in His glorified person at the right hand of the Father. He will come upon clouds of glory.

5:42 He will come at the end of the age to glorify all of the saints dead and alive and to bring judgment upon all who are not His own and then usher in the new heavens and the new earth. However, the prophetic future, is not pre-written history in all of its details and necessarily in a sequence that history will simply validate. God does not give prophecy in order to satisfy the itch of the human heart to know the future beyond what He needs to know.

The Purpose of Prophecy: Consolation and Instruction, Not Detailed Foreknowledge

6:24 And most frequently, God's prophetic announcements are given to announce events that are absolutely certain because God is committed to bring them to pass and He generally announces them for the comfort and for the instruction of His people. And it is only when the events come to pass in all of their specific details that we gain the perspective that enables us to see, Yes, when God promised this in the coming of Messiah, that He will overcome His transgressions. would open the prison to those that are bound. He would preach the gospel to the poor. He would

7:06 usher in the day of the vengeance of the Lord. The prophet sees them all as though they were plastered on a flat screen. That's why John the Baptist had trouble when he's in prison and the crowds are no longer flocking to Jesus. And he says, are you he who should come or do we look for another? Because he had the certainty of the coming of Messiah. Messiah who would bring mercy.

7:32 Messiah who would open the eyes of the blind. Messiah who would release prisoners from captivity. Messiah who would vent the vengeance of God upon sinners. And it is only when Messiah comes that we now understand those things that were flattened in the prophetic utterances of the gospel.

The 'So What' of Christ's Return: Gracious Consolations and Manifold Motivations

7:56 The Old Testament prophets had great gaps in between the specifics when God would fulfill what was absolutely certain in the prophecy, but was not clear in terms of the sequence and the three-dimensional nature of those prophetic utterances. Now, why have I said all of that? Well, for the simple reason that we come this morning to consider our second message, in the area of the so what of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. For 19 sermons, I sought to open

8:36 up from the scriptures the major biblical materials telling us of the certainty of the return of the Lord Jesus in power and in glory. The certainty of what he will do with his own, all who are in him. The certainty of what he will do with his own, all who are in him. The certainty of what he will do with his own, all who are in him.

8:55 The certainty of what he will do with those who are not his own. The certainty of what he will do with the devil and his angels. And the certainty of what he will do in renovating the created order, making it what the scripture calls the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. So we spent a number of weeks wrestling with the what of the second coming of Christ. Last Lord's day I told

9:25 you there would now be several messages concentrating on the so what. And that true biblical preaching is never content simply to answer the question, what has God said? We must have an answer from the scriptures to the second question, so what? And because God reveals the future with a view of answering the question, so what?

9:56 He reveals the future for the consolation, for the comfort, for the direction of his people. We looked last Lord's day at the so what of the coming of Christ with respect to those who do not know God nor obey the gospel. And we spent the majority of our time in second Thessalonians 1, 7 to 10, in which the spirit of God through the apostle Paul tells us that when Christ returns, those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

10:34 So when Jesus says, as it is recorded in Matthew 24, 44, be ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man cometh. The most fundamental readiness is the readiness of coming to know God in the context of obeying the gospel. There is no readiness. Apart from a saving knowledge of God in terms of obedience to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

11:05 Now, assuming, though I don't presume that all who hear me this morning are in Christ, but assuming that many of you are in Christ, you have the question as well. Yes, my understanding of what will happen when Christ returns has been enlarged. Yes, my understanding of what will happen when Christ returns has been enlarged. Yes, my understanding of what will happen when Christ returns has been enlarged.

11:25 It's been corrected. It's been modified. I'm no longer in the place where I want to have everything all laid out and all of its sequential details and everything fit nicely together. I'm content to know that everything in that pie is going to come to pass.

11:41 Christ will come. He will glorify his saints, punish the wicked, deal with the devil and his angels, and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. That's what God has revealed. Now the question is, So what?

11:56 With the certain conviction that the God who speaks in Isaiah 46 is our God, the God who says my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure, what impact should that make upon us as the people of God, those of us who have come to know God and Jesus Christ in a saving way? We have obeyed the gospel. The Holy Spirit has shown us our need of that which the gospel announces, a way of righteous forgiveness and just pardon through the vicarious curse-bearing of the second person of the Godhead.

12:40 And we are confident that in Christ we have a full forgiveness, that in union with Christ all of the blessings promised to the people of God are ours. And they are as certain in Christ as they are in God. And they are as certain in Christ as they are in God. And they are as certain in Christ as they are in God.

12:54 As soon as we are comforted by his fury as soon as we are comforted by his fury as soon as we are comforted by his smoothly and entertainingly rocket from the Lord hisson, as soon as we are comforted by Jesus Christ, as soon as we will be of praise to God the Jesus Christ, and at this time we will be of God's grace,

13:23 too. Well, a' many weeks and kept some of my study sheets at my elbow when pondering the many passages in which I was answering the question, what will be involved in the second coming? I'm presently persuaded that the so what can be gathered in two basic categories of biblical revelation. With reference to God's people, the truth of the Lord's return holds out what I'm calling the gracious consolations of the Lord's

13:58 return. And the second category, the manifold motivations drawn from the Lord's return. So this morning we'll take up the gracious consolations of the Lord's return. And God willing, tonight, and probably for one final message, the manifold motivations.

14:19 The motivations of the Lord's return. And there will be a bit of disproportion only because the Bible is disproportionate. It has more to say about the motivations derived from the certainty of the Lord's return than it does give us gracious consolations. So we'll take up, this morning, the so what. Christ is coming. He's

14:47 going to do all that we have seen in the Gospels. Christ is coming to bring us the blessed rua. Christ is going thing to wear all that we have seen in the Gospels. So this morning, what will we see and what are we going to the opening up of the many passages that have been before us, I'm asserting that that is to act upon your soul, my soul, as a child of God, in a way of a gracious consolation.

Defining Consolation and Its Source in Christ's Return

15:05 Now, I trust we all know what it means to console.

15:10 To console is to comfort. It's to make someone less sad than they would otherwise be, generally in the light of what we would call a dark providence that has come upon them. This is what a mother does when she sits down with her four-year-old daughter who just discovered that her pet hamster died, and her world is shattered. She's not known life without her pet hamster, and now the hamster's dead.

15:38 And mommy takes her daughter on her knee and seeks to speak words, and with her very bodily touching and embracing, and reassuring, what is she doing? She is consoling her daughter. It's what the teammates of Mariano Rivera tried to do when he gave up that bloop single in the last of the night, and the proud Yankees went down in defeat. His teammates gathered around him, and they were seeking to do what?

16:11 To console him. That is to ease the pain and the disappointment that was his, that from the...

16:18 From the human standpoint, his poor placement of some pitches caused the Yankees to lose the World Series. That's what consoling is. Now, I'm affirming, asserting, I'm sorry, that when we turn to our Bibles with the question, Lord, what practical effects should the certainty of the return of Christ have upon me as a Christian? The answer of Scripture is, it is to act in a way of imparting gracious consolation.

Consolation in the Midst of Ordinary Afflictions

16:51 And I want us to examine that consolation in three categories as time permits this morning. First of all, we see that the return of Christ is meant to console us in what I'm calling in the midst of the ordinary afflictions of this life. The truth of the Lord's return is meant to console us in the midst of the ordinary afflictions of this life. If the Bible makes anything clear, it is that those who by grace obey the Gospel, who come to know God in Christ and become the children of God by faith in Christ,

17:33 the Bible makes plain that such people are not divinely insulated from the afflictions which are part of life lived out in the overlapping of the ages. Life lived out in the light of the fact that this earth is still under a curse and that ultimate reality of our own demise and the demise of our loved ones, trouble, sickness, disappointment, frustration. Job said in Job 5-7 that man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. And the Bible makes it clear that man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.

18:18 And the Bible makes it clear that man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. That resolving our greatest problem, namely the problem of our sin and the record of that sin which in the court of heaven demands our damnation. When that greatest of all problems is resolved, when we embrace the Lord Jesus, the divinely appointed substitute for sinners, and we enter into the benefits of the forgiving mercy of God in Christ, we who were alienated sons now become adopted sons and daughters in the family of God and are given the spirit of adoption who is the down payment of the complete redemption that awaits us in the future.

19:00 God nowhere says that that amazing work that He has done for us in the here and now automatically becomes a cocoon around us protecting us from the ordinary common afflictions of this life. The Bible nowhere promises that. Some, let me put the best motive, some sincere but ill-taught preachers seek to set forth a doctrine that if you are in Christ, you are insulated from the common afflictions of this life. No, that is not true.

19:40 You remember that in John chapters 14, 15, and 16, Jesus is giving what has commonly been called His farewell discourse. His final concentrated teaching ministry to His own disciples before He goes out to die upon a cross.

20:00 And in those chapters He is describing many of the wonderful things that are going to happen to the people of God after He dies, is risen from the dead, and goes back to the right hand of the Father. He describes the coming of the Holy Spirit. And He says this will bring you into a level of communion, and fellowship with Me that you never had as long as I was with you in the flesh. It's necessary that I go away.

20:29 If I go not away, the Comforter will not come. But when He comes, I come to take up My dwelling in you. The Father comes to take up His dwelling in you. He opens up marvelous privileges that are given by grace to all true believers.

20:47 And then in chapter 17, we have the record of what may well be the basic framework of how our Lord intercedes for us even now at the right hand of the Father. All of the blessings that His intercession secures for His people. But it's in that context, when He has finished the teaching, before John records his praying, listen to the last words of Jesus. It is as though the Lord Himself anticipates that in the light of all of these marvelous, wonderful things that are going to be done, surely we will be lifted above the common afflictions of this life and of our fellow mortals.

21:29 But Jesus' last words in that discourse, John 16, 33, These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me, in your union with Me, you have peace. In the world, you have tribulation. But be of good cheer, for here, I'm going to remove. No, be of good cheer.

21:53 I have overcome the world. In the world, you shall have tribulation. The word is flipsis. Hard to go from...

22:01 It's flipsis. And it speaks of pressures. The verb is the verb you would use to describe what happens in a milling mob in which bodies all around you are pressing in upon you. That's the verbal sense.

22:16 And here our Lord says, In this world, you have pressured circumstances, frustrating circumstances, threatening circumstances. That is part of life in this world. That we need not go down in a heap under them into a kind of spiritual and emotional paralysis is not necessary because, He says, Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.

22:43 But in this world, as long as you're in it, in union with Me, you have peace. You have tribulation.

22:52 God willing, in a couple of weeks, we'll come to Acts chapter 14. And very interestingly, the great Apostle Paul, having planted a church in these areas, he and his companions go back to establish young believers in Acts 14 and verse 21. And when they had preached the gospel in that city, that is, in Derbe, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and, here was the third point in their oft-repeated three-point sermon, here's a distillation of the emphases

23:36 of this apostolic ministry to young believers, confirming their souls by exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many, same word as Jesus used, flixus, through many tribulations, we must, and the little particle of imperative, transliterated, D-E-I, we must, it is absolutely certain and necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. Rather than hold out some silly notion that now that they are in Christ, they are cocooned from the afflictions and tribulations that come to all,

24:21 and in general, not to speak of those that come to us, particularly because we are Christ and belong to Christ, we'll touch those under the second heading, the apostles did not in any way leave any silly notion in the minds of these young believers that being in Christ meant being cocooned from the common afflictions of life. Now then, in what way does the fact of the Lord's return become conclusive, consolatory, in what way does it console the child of God who views it as he ought in relationship to his present afflictions? Well, if you turn with me to Romans 5,

Rejoicing in Tribulations Through Hope in God's Glory (Romans 5)

25:04 we'll look for a few moments at this passage and then more briefly at two or three others.

25:12 In the book of Romans, Paul has opened up the universal need for God's justifying grace. All men are sinners, all men are condemned, men cannot save themselves, Christ has come, borne the wrath of God, God can righteously and justly forgive and accept the sinner who believes into Christ. It's that great watershed truth of justification in Christ alone, by faith alone, that Paul has been opening up in these opening chapters. Now he comes in chapter 5 and writes, being therefore justified by faith, assuming that those who read this epistle have embraced Christ

25:55 and a justifying righteousness in Christ, being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not speaking of the peace inwardly, the subjective disposition of peace, but he's talking about the enmity, the quarrel, the controversy, a holy God had with us, righteously had with us, our sins, were an offense to him. They provoked his wrath. We should forever perish under that wrath.

26:29 But in his grace and kindness he has sent his Son. And we have heard the message and the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes and we've seen the perfect suitability of Christ to our need as sinners. And by faith we've embraced him. We now have peace with God.

26:46 God has no controversy with us now. The great controversy has been resolved in the world. We've entered into the work of Christ. And by faith we've entered into it.

26:56 We have peace with God. But Paul says, look, don't stop there. That's not only the only fruit of justifying grace. Notice what else he says.

27:05 Through whom, that is through Jesus, we also have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Not only is God's controversy with us ended, we have peace with God. We know freedom, we have free access to God within the orbit of his grace and saving mercy in Jesus Christ. God is now our Father and he will open that up more fully in chapter 8.

27:37 So we have peace with God. We have free access to God in the context of his grace. And then he says, we have confident expectation of the glory of God. And we rejoice in hope in the glory of God.

27:55 And as I've said many times in this pulpit, the word hope in the Bible is not a synonym for our word strong wish. I hope I will be able to do this or this. Hope in the Bible is a certain confidence of a divinely promised blessing. That's what hope is.

28:13 Biblical hope is the certain confidence in the divinely promised blessing. It must come to me because God has promised. And the apostle says being justified by faith we not only have free access to God in the context of grace but we have a confident expectation of the glory of God. What's he talking about?

28:39 Well, from the other passages we've studied. He's talking about what will happen to us at the second coming. Colossians 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall be manifested we shall be manifested with him in the context of glory.

28:55 We saw last week when Christ comes, 2 Thessalonians 1 he comes not only to be admired by believers but he comes to be glorified in his saints. It is at his return that we will enter into the experience of complete conformity to Jesus Christ. Sinless souls joined to deathless bodies are the words of J.I. Packer. And now

29:23 Paul says justified people not only should live in the consciousness that God no longer has a controversy with them and enjoy the reality of free and continued access within the orbit of grace but they should also be marked by hope confident expectation of the glory of God. That is of God's glory manifested to them in the returning Christ and manifested in them when they are perfectly conformed to Christ. You say, Pastor where is the tribulation stuff? Well hang in there. The Apostle Paul

30:05 uses a closely knit series of thoughts. Read on with me. And not only so I haven't completed all the blessings that are ours if we are in Christ and justified by grace through faith. There is more to come. And not only so

30:24 but we also rejoice in our tribulations our flipsis our pressured circumstances our squeezing tormenting circumstances. We rejoice in our tribulations. Now what kind of a wingnut gets shouting happy when the pressure increases when the disappointments multiply. What kind of wacko finds his joy intensified in the midst of the things that cause other people sorrow and despair. Paul says

31:05 we rejoice in our tribulations in the circumstances in the people, in the events that become pressure points upon our souls pressure to despondency, to discouragement to fear. He says we rejoice in tribulations. How do you do it Paul? He says because of what I know.

31:29 Look at the text. We rejoice in tribulations knowing there's something I know my ability and your ability to rejoice in our pressured circumstances derives not from some trip, mental trip into la la land that says evil is not real it's only an imagination of my mind I'll get in tune with the universal spirit floating out there somewhere and when I do I'm above all the pressures no no. Paul says we rejoice knowing and what does he know? Knowing that tribulation pressures opposition distressful circumstances

32:14 works steadfastness. He said my tribulations are workers and what they're working is the grace of steadfastness. That is the ability to stand up under pressure is worked in us by the very pressures of affliction. So he says we rejoice in hope of the glory of God and not only so we rejoice in our tribulations knowing the tribulations are working a grace that otherwise would not be manifested. Stony

32:52 ground hearers Jesus says when persecution and afflictions the other way around same word when afflictions and persecution arise because of the word stony ground hearers wither and dry up and they say if embracing Christ means God doesn't insulate me from the common afflictions of life that I get cancer my wife gets cancer my friends lose their job I lose my forget the whole thing. Jesus said no true believers are shown to be what they are in the very context of affliction afflictions rise and what do they work in true believers they work steadfastness now

33:36 notice verse 4 and steadfastness it's working something else and what does it work? It works approvedness. Approvedness is the condition of something or someone when it's been put to the test and been proven to be the real thing. Now follow what the apostle says. They have peace

33:56 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Free access to God in the context of his grace and we rejoice in hope that God's only begun the work the best is yet to come and with that conviction we can rejoice in our tribulations. Why? Because we know that the tribulations are going to work approvedness every time we come through a tribulation and clinging to who we are in Christ and what we shall be in Christ. Our

34:31 afflictions do not budge us from Christ. We have a new level of what? Approvedness. We've been put to the test and shown to be the real thing. If you've got

34:41 suspicions that a certain coin is not a real sure enough gold coin, the more you bite it to make sure it is, the more you shave off a piece of it, the more confident you are. You took a piece off the top edge, you took a piece off the bottom edge, you took a piece off the front side, the back side, and every time you cut into it, it shows itself. The real thing. It gains what?

35:05 Approvedness. It gains approvedness. And then what does approvedness do? And approvedness, with the verb working understood for these two things, approvedness works hope. And what is hope?

35:19 Confident expectation of the promised blessings of God that will come to me at the second coming. So you see what he's done? He's gone from hope to tribulation to approvedness and back to hope again. And that's the circle of genuine Christian experience.

35:35 So when we ask the question, the Bible's revealed, what will happen at the return of Christ to me as a believer? What will happen to those who harass me? To the devil and his angels? We understand from the scriptures we've studied what Christ is going to do. That becomes

35:59 our hope. That confident expectation, the best is yet to come, and the God who's given me all that he's given me in the now, and committed himself to give me all that he's going to give me in the then, and therefore a God that I can love and serve and honor and praise no matter what happens to me in the realm of common afflictions. Each time the afflictions come and I get my bearings as who I am as a Christian, what I shall be when Christ comes, then I'll say with Paul, our light affliction, same word, which is but

36:43 for the moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not in the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal. But the things that are not seen are eternal. I've just quoted 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18. So now do you see why I've said the truth of the Lord's return is to act in the capacity of a consoling truth in the midst of the common afflictions of this life. And it

37:24 will do so if we know what the apostle says we are to know. We will rejoice in hope of the glory of God and in that context knowing that afflictions, pressured circumstances, frustrated plans, etc., etc., they are working because we know that God is ordering and controlling all of them and we know that all things are working together. There are no

37:54 stripped gears in the machinery of God's dealings with us. All meshes drawn out and manufactured by infinite love and wisdom governed by infinite power to the great end that we will be brought home at last totally conformed to our Lord Jesus. Knowing then that tribulation is working that steadfastness and that that steadfastness only increases my confidence that I am a child of God and all that God has promised will be mine so that steadfastness working approvedness the approvedness not only to others but in the theater of our own

38:38 consciousness strengthens our hope. I could not have stood in those afflictions if Christ were not in me, if Christ were not there for me at the right hand of the Father. If the Holy Spirit was not upholding me and supporting me I would have crumbled and God says alright we'll let some more weight come on you and bigger afflictions and more intense and longer and more worrisome and when we stand what happens? Our approvedness rating goes up and when the approvedness rating goes up hope goes up so hope eventually feeds hope and in between Paul says there's some tribulation that's all the time working endurance and the endurance is working approvedness. Am I making sense folks?

Applying Hope to Afflictions and the Proof of Faith (1 Peter 1)

39:22 If you get hold of this it can be life transforming. You're not spending all of your life trying to look around the corner and see what might be a negative providence and running in the other direction. You live free as a bird. Not carelessly, not irresponsibly but like one of my preacher friends had a big sign hung on a filing cabinet in his study. The minute you came in

39:47 you'd see it. He said hallelujah anyhow. That has a lot of good theology in it. I'm not much for bumper sticker poster Christianity but I love that. Hallelujah anyhow.

40:00 Why? No reason! No reason! Knowing, knowing, knowing, knowing tribulation is working the grace of steadfastness steadfastness birthing the grace of approvedness and approvedness strengthening our hope. But we've got to start

40:16 somewhere and the starting point is to embrace from the heart the reality of the Lord's return and all that will be given to us and in that context we face our afflictions as men and women of faith. Isn't that what Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 1? And we'll just read these two supporting passages. 1 Peter 1 you'll remember Peter breaking out into eulogy blessing God for his great salvation in Christ and in verse 6 we read wherein you greatly rejoice that is in this great salvation the greater part of which is waiting till Christ is revealed

41:01 from heaven wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be you have been put to grief in manifold trials that the proof of your faith the trials are intended to test and show the reality of your faith being more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire may be found unto praise and glory and honor when at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter says you're in the midst of temptations trials a different word from the Flips family but he said in the midst of it you need to realize God is doing something what fire is to apparent gold

41:45 your trials are to your apparent saving faith and when you put the gold into the fire it will show itself to be the real thing if it is if not it will appear for what it is fools gold or dross likewise we test faith God puts us into furnace and what does the fire do it simply shows the genuineness of that faith that faith is not extinguished by the fire it's not consumed by the fire it's fed and strengthened by the fire remember the three Hebrew boys get thrown into the fiery furnace bound the scripture says when they

42:29 came out the only thing they lost was their ropes that's all not even the smell of fire was on not one hair was singed and that awful smell of singed hair sometimes you reach across the gas stove and you don't know the flames you know that it's horrible not even a twitch of it beautiful picture of what God does with us when he places his true children in the fire they profess faith I know I've implanted faith now it's going to be evident to them and all who behold them and most evident when I send my son to take all of my believing ones to me that tested tried and proven faith will be found unto praise

43:13 and honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ I am to view the afflictions that come as the common afflictions of life in the overlapping of the ages I am to view them constantly under the impress of the consolation of the second coming of the Lord Jesus well the many other passages could be brought to bear but I must hurry on now I'm going to make a further application each one of us sits here this morning with his or her custom made afflictions situations circumstances relationships people that cause unpleasant and distressing

43:57 pressures that's what these afflictions are the concept of being pressured and each of us sits here this morning and each of us has his own custom made afflictions a wise and a sovereign God is ordering directing orchestrating all of them and what are we to do well obviously we're to do what Philippians four six and seven says be anxious for no thing no thing means no thing anything that's a thing that would make you anxious God says be anxious for no thing no thing but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made no not to God and the peace of God

44:40 that passes all understanding shall act like a garrison of soldiers shall guard your hearts a military term shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus but is that all we're to do just commit these things to God by prayer and supplication and plead his promise no we are also to fasten the eyes of our souls upon the parted heavens we are by faith with the ears of the soul to hear the shout of our returning conquering king we are with the ears of the soul by faith

45:25 to hear not only his shout but the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and when we drive by a cemetery we need by faith to say many who lie beneath the sob shall be raised in glory when he comes we are to live by faith in the reality of what awaits us and what will the result be you will be able to say with Paul think of it everything that he bore just in what we would call the natural afflictions calls it light afflictions lasting from God that's what God calls us to

Consolation in Suffering for Christ's Sake

46:08 that's real vital biblical Christianity not going around claiming exemption from afflictions but responding to them in Christian hope but then I want to touch secondly on the fact that the return of Christ is meant to console us not only in the face of the common afflictions of life but in the face of the suffering that comes for the sake of Christ and I'm surprised that a lot of preachers and writers don't make this distinction that to me is very clear in the scriptures categories of affliction the common lot of life the troubles that attend life in the present

46:52 age but then there are those troubles those afflictions those pressures that come because we belong to Christ because of what we are and do as the servants of Christ and these are the afflictions and the sufferings that must be brought into the theater of the realities of the Lord's return that we might know their consoling influence upon us Jesus identifies this kind of affliction and tribulation in the Beatitudes Matthew chapter 5 notice our Lord's words in verses 10 and 11

47:36 blessed are they that have been persecuted now notice for righteousness sake here is opposition of a negative nature from one's fellow men and women and it is for the sake of righteousness the persecution arises in the presence of a true son or daughter of the kingdom who is committed to live righteously in an unrighteous world and the unrighteous world that loves darkness rather than light cannot extinguish the God whose light is radiating through that true son or daughter of the kingdom so they turn their venom upon the human vessel

48:20 verse 11 blessed are you when men reproach you persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake you see our Lord is addressing the suffering that comes not as part of life in this present age but that which comes distinctively for his sake and for righteousness sake that's the suffering that comes to us in the way of radical biblical discipleship and the apostle Paul writes to Timothy and he wants Timothy and all who sit under Timothy's ministry to know just as surely as we are not exempt from the common afflictions we will not be exempt from

49:04 some kind of opposition because we are who we are and we do what we do as the people of God 2 Timothy 3 verse 10 you did follow my teaching conduct purpose faith long suffering love patience persecutions sufferings what things befell me at Antioch at Iconium at Lystra what persecutions I endured and out of them all the Lord delivered me yea and all and all and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and there's no parenthesis saying except in modern America

49:48 except in modern England no here is a universal principle anyone who is committed in faith in the faith union with Christ to live as Christ mandates we should live that man that woman that boy that girl will to some degree in some way or another experience persecution it may be a subtle form of persecution as it is presently in our country it may be a more overt form as it is in some of the lands where there is a commitment to live all of life civil as well as religious according to the Quran

50:32 the suffering may come in various ways but here is this universal principle all that will live godly in union with Christ shall suffer persecution Philippians 1 29 you saw that passage a couple of weeks ago for unto you Paul said it is given as the donation of grace it is given that you may what suffer that you will not only believe but it's given to you not only to believe on him but to suffer in his behalf here is the suffering that comes because of my union with Christ now in the midst of this kind of suffering what truth is to comfort us what truth is to be

51:16 medicine to the soul well look at Paul's answer now in Romans 8 what was medicine to his soul we've seen what was medicine to his soul and to the souls of believers with respect to the general afflictions of this life but here in Romans chapter 8 he's speaking of our status as sons and daughters verse 16 the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be

52:00 glorified with him here is a suffering with Christ that is suffering on account of that union with Christ and concerning those sufferings Paul says I reckon this is my sober judgment that the sufferings of the present time they are bounded by this overlapping of the ages the kingdom of God has come it is broken into space time human history in the person and work of Christ and in the sending of the spirit we live now in the kingdom we live now in the kingdom realities but there is much that is in the category of the not yet we live in the now and the not yet and Paul conscious

52:44 of that distinction says I reckon that the sufferings of this present time the now are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us and then he goes on to show what that glory is as it results not only in our glorification but in the renovation of the created order God is bringing something marvelous to birth and my present sufferings for the sake of Christ are to be viewed in the light of the future glory that will be ours in Christ and he says when we do attempt to put them on the scale they are not worthy to be placed on the same scale you don't even make comparisons

53:28 you don't make mathematical equations twenty to one fifty to one he said no they are not even worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the glories yet to come now here is a man who understood better than any of us all we have now but he is telling us here that our great consolation in the face of suffering does not come primarily from focusing upon all that we are and have in Christ now that's the baseline the fundamental understanding of who he is and how he lives but it's when the eyes are picked upward and outward and forward and we see and with fresh actings of faith believe we shall be

54:12 what God says we shall be at the return of Christ then we've placed our sufferings in their proper context as the people of God future glory is God's means of sustaining us in present persecution first Peter chapter four another very clear passage I read it and make just a very brief comment upon it beloved verse twelve don't think it strange concerning the fiery trial among you which comes upon you to prove you as though a strange thing happened to you but insomuch as you are partakers of Christ's suffering rejoice

54:56 and what is going to enable me to rejoice that at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy Peter says I call upon you to rejoice now in the midst of the impending intensification of your suffering and you're to rejoice because faith thus tried and tested and refined in the crucible of suffering will be found at the revelation of the glory of Christ to cause us exceeding joy so my dear brothers and sisters whatever we face whatever we may face in days to come whatever some of you young believers young in chronological age

Consolation in the Face of Death

55:40 young in spiritual age feed your soul upon the great realities of what God is committed to do with you when Jesus returns and you will be fit not only to suffer but by the grace of God to be a martyr and then I close just touching even more briefly on the return of Christ as it is meant to console us in the face of death both our own and that of our loved ones the doctrine of the return of Christ when it is indeed hope and confidence and expectation not in a detached

56:25 event but in the great reality that our Lord Jesus himself will come and take us to himself God intends that this should console us in the face of death ours and that of our loved ones and many of you have already thought of the passage to which I turn you in closing this morning 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that fall asleep that you sorrow not even as the rest who have no hope here's the pastoral burden Paul cannot tolerate the thought that there would be believers back there in Thessalonica in that church over which

57:09 he so yearned as we heard from Pastor Hoffmeier two Lord's days ago he does not want them to be moaning and filled with grief and sorrow of a worldly nature despairing uncertainty with regard to their departed loved ones he says no I don't want you to sorrow as those who have no hope and then in this prophetic word he tells us what Christ will do with those that are asleep in him this is not applying to any and all men it's very clear verse 14b they have fallen asleep in Jesus verse 16b they are the dead in Christ

57:54 they are our loved ones who came to saving with Christ in life and now their spirits have departed to be with Christ which is far better and their earthly remains are laid in the grave the apostle says in that context you are to know the consolation that the grave will not forever hold them they will be the objects of our Lord's special and prioritizing concern when he returns the dead in Christ shall be raised first there is sequence that we can be certain of that when Christ returns the dead in Christ shall rise first

58:38 verse 16c then we that are alive and remain etc same emphasis in 1 Corinthians 15 the body that is sown in dishonor will be raised in honor sown in weakness raised in power sown a natural body raised a body fit for life wholly dominated by the spirit it is called in that sense a spiritual body not that it will be non material but a body suitable to life in the spirit in the immediate presence of Christ and of God our Father God says

59:21 my people I want you to take the truth of what I am going to do when my son returns and find in it a revelation in the face of death both ours and that of our loved ones child of God keep alive in your heart the knowledge of the certainty of the return of Christ what he will do to your loved ones what he will do with you in the midst of those afflictions that are the common lot of life in this present age stop trying to wiggle out embrace them in the light of what you know

A Call to the Unprepared and a Final Warning

60:05 God purposes to do with them in strengthening your confident expectation of the return of Christ you sit here this morning and you are not in Christ you face the common afflictions of life with nothing more than your own native powers to cope God may even insulate you from them that was the great problem with Asaph in Psalm 73 he saw people who did not know God obey the gospel and they seemed to have no troubles in life they seemed to be God's pets insulating them when all the while they were ripening for judgment back when I was in

60:47 an itinerant ministry traveling around the country preaching often in small country churches I didn't know any better and I used to sing solos before I preached not always but sometimes and I was pondering closing the message this morning I used to sing I really could preach it the words are such that you can preach them in Psalm came to my own heart so forcefully and I want to quote them as my final word this morning the hymn writer the song writer composes what was his dream not that he literally dreamed but under the imagery of a dream

61:32 foreshadowing or seeing the events of the last day this is what he wrote I dreamed that a great judgment morning had come and the trumpet had blown I dreamed that the nations had gathered to judgment before the white throne from that throne came a bright shining angel who stood on the land and the sea and swore with his hand raised to heaven that time was no longer to be the moral man came to the judgment his self righteous rags would not do the man who had crucified Jesus had passed off as

62:15 moral man too the man that had put off salvation not today I'll get saved by and by no time now to think of repentance but alas he found time to die and oh what a weeping and wailing when the lost were told of their fate they cried for the rocks and the mountains they prayed but their prayer was too late

Prayer for the Lost and for Believers' Hope

62:59 let's pray holy father will you not by your grace and power deal with those who are not prepared to meet a returning Christ oh father track them down in relentless mercy give them no rest until they are in Christ that you have given us the light of your word that we do not need to simply chuck ourselves under the chin acquire the stiff upper lip and ride through our afflictions but we can glory in them knowing what your purpose is and viewing them

63:42 in the light of that glorious day when our blessed savior will come again oh father help us as your people that we may indeed manifest in the way we respond to affliction and persecution and death itself may our responses and attitudes reflect the power of the gospel and the glorious hope that is ours in Christ to that end seal your word to our hearts we plead in Jesus name Amen