Trials Are Faith’s Testing Ground

Transcript

GR 1640
5/13/2012
Trials Are Faith’s Testing Ground
James 1:2-4
Gil Rugh

We’re going back to the book of James this evening, the epistle of James, tucked in the back part of your bibles, just after the book of Hebrews and we’ve noted its part of what have been known over the years as the catholic epistles. The word catholic meaning general, nothing to do with Roman Catholic but the fact that they’re not addressed to a specific church or a specific individual. James gives very basic and concise information regarding himself and his readers in the first verse of this epistle. He says he is James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I noted that the testimony of the church down through the years and I think is supported as we look into scripture that this James is the half-brother of Christ. Would have been born to Mary and Joseph after the birth of Christ and he has a brother Jude who wrote another New Testament letter, the little epistle of Jude, just one chapter. He doesn’t identify himself in this letter by virtue of his physical relationship with Christ because he has become a believer by the grace of God in Christ. And now he sees himself simply as a slave of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He’s writing to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad. The twelve tribes dispersed abroad or the twelve tribes in the dispersion. The diaspora. Jews scattered outside the land of Palestine, the land of Israel. Canaan. Given to the Jews but because of their disobedience to God, they were removed from that under the Assyrians, then under the Babylonians, even though now there is a Jewish center there, it’s under Roman domination. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem, a Jewish church of course. Talked about him in the Jerusalem conference in Acts chapter 15. He’s writing to Jewish believers, scattered out among Gentile lands, not living in the land of Israel. They are in the dispersion, and he gives them greeting. Understand that these Jews living in Gentile areas are under great pressure, because they are not only Jews, they are believers. Now you’re a Jew living in Gentile places, there is an animosity that is there from the Gentiles because you’re a Jew. So the Jews had to deal with that. But at least the Jews had fellow Jews that supported them. But when you are a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ you not only are opposed by the Gentile because you’re Jewish, you’re opposed by the unbelieving Jews because you are a Christian. A follower of Christ. And that’s important to appreciate the emphasis in James letter because he’s going to talk about trials and afflictions that come to our lives and why God brings these trials into our lives, and how they are worked out.

As we move through the letter we’ll see some of the trials that come. Some have to do with money. Relate to poverty, relate to wealth. How you handle those kinds of pressures of various kinds that come into your life. How does that affect your tongue and what comes out of our mouths. James is concerned that these believing Jews manifest their faith in all of their actions and activities, that the life-changing faith of the believer is to be life-changing. So that will permeate the letter and it will remind them as we note in our previous study that faith without works is dead. Faith that hasn’t changed the life is not saving faith. So he’s concerned about consistency in their lives and faithfulness in their walk. It’s a sharp letter, if I can say that, because James gives 54 commands in 108 verses, as I noted in our last study. That means every other verse on average would contain a command. “You must do this, this is required of you, this is not optional.” So it is a firm letter. We would expect this from James. He’s a Godly person, he comes out of a Jewish background, but he is committed to Jesus Christ and faithfully serving Him.

The introduction is brief. Paul will talk about how he hopes to come see them, and sometimes has a rather extensive introduction, and the same with some of Paul’s conclusions. They are rather lengthy—the book of Romans perhaps being outstanding with both the beginning and ending of the letter. James is abrupt. I mean, after identifying himself and who he’s writing to, he says, “Greetings,” and then with verse 2 gives his first command. “Count it all joy brethren, when you encounter various trials.” Here’s the first thing you must do as those who have their faith in Jesus Christ. You must understand trials as a necessary part of God’s plan for the maturing process. So you count it all joy. Now there’s a connection here, James will do this several times through the letter. That word greeting, at the end of verse 2, is related to the word translated joy at the end of verse 1 is related to the word joy at the begins verse 2.

So they would sound alike; they’re related words. Basically chara and charis. So that greeting has the element of joy in it, a joyful greeting, and then he says count it all joy. So from that greeting, that would have a context of joy in it. He reminds them that they are to have joy in their trials. And that doesn’t mean you are glad to be suffering, but you are glad that you understand that this suffering is part of God’s plan for you, and has a good purpose. And so, you can have joy even in the pressure situations.

So, gonna talk about that response to trials when he says in verse 2, “Consider it all joy my brethren,” that address, my brethren. I mentioned, this is a rather sharp letter, and then when you’re giving these kind of commands, and so many of them in a short letter, he softens it somewhat by repeated reference to them. You’re my brethren, you’re my beloved brethren. Some 15 or so times through this short letter he’ll refer to them that way: brethren or my beloved brethren. I’m speaking as one who has a family relationship with you, who loves you and desires only the best for you, God’s best for you. I’m writing to you as my brethren. Not only fellow Jews but fellow Jews who share a common faith in Jesus Christ.

Consider. Strong command, aorist imperative. The strongest way to basically give a command. You must consider it all joy, my brethren. Regard it in this way. That word carries the idea of a decision you come to with careful consideration. This is something you’ve thought out, not just an emotional response and reaction. Now this is your settled evaluation and determination, that we as God’s people must consider it all joy when we come into various trials. All joy. One commentator said pure joy. That’s the idea. All joy. It’s the idea of complete joy. What I see in my trials is a reason for rejoicing in my life. That doesn’t mean the trial won’t be painful. Doesn’t mean the trial might not cause sorrow, tears. But even in that, I have the joy of knowing God’s purpose in this.

So count it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials. Trials. A word that can be used in a couple of different ways, and it will be, even in James. It can refer to testing and trials that come to us from the outside. Variety of ways that can happen. You lose a job; that’s a trial. You’re under financial stress and pressure, something happens with your health; that’s a trial. Somebody opposes your testimony as a believer; that can be a trial. These are external things. The word can also be used of inner temptation to sin, and it’s used both ways, the context determines. Here James is talking about the trials that come to us, because they are trials we fall into, we encounter. He doesn’t limit the kind of trial. When you encounter various trials. I like that word translated various, it denotes the diversity of trials. So it’s not that they’re just a specific kind, persecution for your testimony is a trial. But that’s not it, when James talks about various trials, he’s talking about trials in the multitude of ways that the can come into our lives.

The multifaceted trials. Interestingly, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this is the word that’s used to refer to the multi-colored coat of Joseph that caused jealousy among his brothers, the multicolored. It’s, I like it in Peter. Turn over, just after James to Peter. Peter has some similarities to James as you might expect, because he’s writing to the same people: Jews in the dispersion. They might not be in the same particular area that James writes to, but the same people. When you come over to 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10, talking about spiritual gifts, “As each one has received a special gift,” talking about the grace gifts, that Paul elaborates in 1 Corinthians. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” That word translated manifold is our same word translated various. The multifaceted grace of God, the diversity of God’s grace that is demonstrated in the various ways He gifts us. With all the variety and all the diversity in His grace it’s manifested in each of our lives. So that’s what we’re talking about, the diversity of trials back in James. The multifaceted, multicolored if you will, trials that come into our lives. And you just fall into them. He’s not talking about sin here, these are things that we didn’t necessarily plan for or we’re not able to avoid.

We encounter them, and that word encounter, it’s a compound word. Means to fall in and be surrounded by. There’s a preposition on the front of a word, to be surrounded by or have around you. You’ve fallen in, and they’re around you. So here the picture is you’ve fallen in to situations that are trials, that are bringing difficulty to your life, distress, pressure. Let’s face it, by definition a trial is something unpleasant, not enjoyable. It creates pressure in my life, it is something by nature unpleasant. James doesn’t say, count it all joy, my brethren, IF you fall into various trials, encounter various trials, but WHEN you encounter various trials. One thing we can be sure of as God’s people—there will be trials. There will be testings, there will be difficulties that come to our lives, and they can come unexpectedly. They can come in ways we couldn’t foresee. Later on in James, turn over to chapter 5, verse 11. “We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job,” we’re gonna talk about endurance in a moment, that trials produce.

If we think about the trials of Job, they’re multifaceted. Turn back to chapter 1 of Job. We won’t go through lots of Job but we can look in just the beginning of Job. And he becomes proverbial for trials, because of the many trials, and the trials that Job fell into if you will, and was surrounded by, were things he could do nothing about. It was out of his hands. In Job chapter 1 verse 1, he’s identified and then the end of verse one “that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil”. He had seven sons, three daughters, great wealth in verse 3. He was the greatest of all the men of the east. And then we have the conversation between God the Father and Satan, and then the tests that come to Job. Beginning in verse 13, and we know these tragedies that come into Job’s life. Verse 13, “ On the day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, ‘the oxen were plowing, the donkeys feeding beside them. The Sabeans attacked and took them. They slew the servants with the edge of the sword, I am the only one who escaped.’” While he is speaking, another came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven, burned up the sheep and the servants, consumed them. I alone have escaped.’ While he was speaking another came and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels, took them, slew the servants with the edge of the sword, I alone have escaped.’” That’s a trial.

All of a sudden you’ve got these people coming from all directions telling you what? Your wealth is wiped out. A variety of ways but… In the same time period, through different disasters, you’ve gone from being one of the wealthiest men to being a man of poverty. What a great trial. But then, while he is still speaking, verse 18, “another came and said, “your sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house, a great wind came, struck the house, it fell on the young people, they’re all dead.’” You know those precious children you had, those seven sons and three daughters, that’re so precious to you, that you prayed for, that you offered sacrifices for, that you were concerned that they be faithful to the God you serve? They’re all dead. Oh boy. Now, you know, losing loved ones, those precious to you, that’s a trial. It’s a test in our life, it brings pressure to life. But as you’re aware, it’s not done. Because when you go into chapter 2 there’s more. Because Job not only lost his wealth, and lost those children so precious to him, now he’s going to lose his health. And the sufferings that he would endure physically because Satan was permitted to afflict him with everything short of death. So you can be sure that the misery of Job physically was great. And then he’s going to endure, he’ll say, those former friends, as you go through the book of Job, turn against him. People that he had helped now despised him and on it goes. They say, that’s an extreme, and indeed it is, but there’s testing. What could Job do? He was living righteously before the Lord. The Lord’s testimony of Job was, he’s a righteous man, a Godly man. But he fell in and surrounded by trials and testing. Come over, just before James, to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, before we get back to James just stop at Hebrews 11. We have the heroes of the faith here. And we’re going to be talking about faith, because trials are a proving ground and a testing ground of faith. But I want you to note, we won’t go through all the heroes of the faith here and all that they endured, but they’re going by faith, they’re going by faith. Pick up verse 17, I just want to pick it up because they have the word we’re talking about there. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested.” That’s what we have translated trials in James. When you fall into various trials, into various tests. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested,”

What was the test of Abraham? God finally had given him the son to be the heir of everything. Now God says, “Take your son and sacrifice him to Me. The only son of promise. He is to be a sacrifice to Me.” That’s a test. Abraham wasn’t expecting that, the last thing he would expect after God, after so many years, finally gives him the son of promise. Now you tell me to offer him as a sacrifice to You? Abraham was tested. Then you get toward the end of the book, verse 32 and following, What shall I tell man, and all these, what they went through, the testing they endured, if you will. Various testing. So when you come over to James, a few chapters over back into James. See James is talking about our lives, whatever testings, we all share in them, but we don’t all share in the same testings or the same kinds of testing. I will say, nobody knows what I’m going through. There’s an element of truth in that. Because no one may be going through that, they may have had similar situations, but none of them are exactly the same because no one is you. No one is me. So our trials in many ways are unique to us. And sometimes we look around and say, nobody is having the kind of trials that I’m having. Nobody is having to deal with what I’m having to deal with. Sometimes we look around and say, you know, seems like most people, most of the believers I know, their lives are trial free. But that’s not so. By the grace of God sometimes we go through periods of our lives where it seems there are less trials, less difficulty. So it’s not that, well boy I expect that tomorrow’s going to be bad because today was good. No, God is a good God, and he only brings the trials necessary for accomplishing His purpose in our lives. But we shouldn’t be caught off guard by them. So that’s why we are prepared to consider them all joy when they do come.

So, “consider it all joy my brethren when you fall into and are surrounded by various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” So, here we are in a trial, or a set of trials, a combination of trials, and I’m to consider it joy because of the knowledge I have. So you know, after careful consideration and deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that it is all joy. Where’d this come from? From the proper knowledge I have of God’s working, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So, that’s what enables me to respond to trials properly, to consider them so. It comes from my knowledge of what the testing of my faith is doing. The testing of your faith. That word “the testing” has to do with, often, the refining of metals. So, gold refined by the fire is often the illustration we use. Why? What is it doing? It’s burning away the dross, bringing out the purity of the gold. That word here, it has it in a good result. So, this is not a test to make you fail. This is a test for our good, to bring about a good result.

It’s good for the gold or the metal to be refined in the furnace. I’ve shared with you before, one of the first jobs I had out of high school was working at US Steel since my father worked there. And part of my job was to check furnace temperatures, because the steel had to be heated up so it could be rolled, and in this process they burn away the dross, the impurities and so on. So you have a more refined product. And that’s what we’re talking about here. Knowing that the testing of your faith, the putting your faith through the fire. You know, he’s talking about believers here, because it’s their faith is being put to the test. They are fellow believing Jews. We say, I’m being tested, it’s my faith that is being put through the fire. What is this going to do? It burns away the impurities as it strengthens and matures me. My faith becomes more pure, if I can put it that way. I become more settled, more solid in my faith. It produces endurance. That’s another compound word. A word to live and a word to be under. You’re living under, that’s what endurance is. You are able to live under the pressure, to keep with it, to have endurance. That takes work.

Athletes train. Why? To build up endurance. We had a marathon recently. There would be no hope that I could have gone and run the marathon. Half block in, I’d be laying on the ground, waiting for rescue. Why? No training. No endurance developed. How do we develop endurance as God’s people? It’s a stick-to-it-ness, the stay with it, testing. Our faith, put in the fire of trials and as we learn to stay with it, under the trials, our faith is strengthened, purified if you will. And we develop endurance, stay with it. Should be characteristic of us as believers. What does that mean? Well, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 4, we are not like children, tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine. There is a stability. Trials come, you know, they’re difficult. Trials come into believers lives, we look and see, will they make it? How will they do? Some people haven’t developed it, if a child physically grows up but has no adversity in his life, how does he handle it when he becomes an adult? Bouncing here, bouncing there, every time there’s difficulties he’s off to something else. A sign of immaturity. Never developed endurance, staying with it, that consistency. For us as believers, pressures come, testings come.

What happens? Some people are out, in and out, gone, here and there. Why? Well I couldn’t take it any more. Now wait a minute! This is life. So what God is doing is developing us, developing endurance. This is an active word. I mean, this is not just a passive resignation, “there’s nothing I can do about it”. This word endurance has that resolution about it, that determination, that yes, I stay with it. I stay the course. I remain faithful. The faith I have in my God is not shaken. I don’t necessarily know why, Job didn’t know why the trials came. But he had to what? Have endurance. Read in James 5:11, “You have heard of the endurance of Job”. You stay with it, you continue to trust God. Well, why, why? That’s our first question. “Why Lord, why did this happen? I was trying to be faithful. I was trying to be a good testimony. Lord, why would you do this? I can’t see any purpose in this.” That’s what makes a trial right? The greatest trials are when I can’t see any good in it. “Why would this happen?” I can only see negative things, bad things happening. I don’t see how this can be good. How could it be good, Lord, that my wealth is gone? And if you wanted me to learn and live in poverty. But how could it be good that all ten of my children would die in one tragic event? Can any good come of that? I was doing all that I could as a faithful child of yours to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. One day they’re gone. What good can that be? And on it goes. My health is gone. What good is it that I can’t do anything but sit here in ashes and scrape the sores of my body with a piece of broken pottery? My own wife says I’m not good for anything, that God must be done with me.

What do you do? You stay the course. Stay the course. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. That said, we say, “Well, it came out good for Job.” It’s going to come out good for us too! I’m going to sit in the glory of God’s presence. I’m going to inherit all that He has prepared for those who love Him. I’ve read the last chapter about me, so that’s no different. We sometimes think, “Oh, what’s going to happen?” You know what’s going to happen. So I count it all joy, God’s strengthening my faith. It’s my faith that is being tested, and it’s developing endurance. That word produces endurance. It’s another compound word. It’s the word work, with a preposition on the front. It’s a verb, it’s used in the present tense. This is an ongoing process, it’s an intensified form of working, It produces, it is working to develop endurance. This is a process. What makes a trial a trial is not because something goes wrong, but it’s cleared up in the next fifteen or twenty minutes, just a misunderstanding.

My greatest trials are the ones that don’t go away, and tomorrow’s no better than today, which was no better than yesterday. And I can’t see light at the end of the tunnel. Now there’s a trial. I can’t even console myself with saying, “I can see what the Lord is doing. I can see why He would be doing this.” The trial is when I can’t see anything lie that. I could see a lot of good coming out of it if He would remove the trial. And then we get into the, you know, “Lord, do you really love me? Are You really in control of this?” I begin to complain, I’m unhappy with my situation.

Nobody has to deal with what I have to deal with, and no one is going through what I’m going through, and it’s just not fair. We act like all of a sudden God’s no longer in control. And what has been shaken? My faith. And the longer the trial goes on, the more my faith is strengthened because I don’t know. I’m trusting Him today like I trusted Him yesterday, like I trusted Him last week, like I was trusting Him last month, like I was trusting Him last year. Fully expecting that by this time I’d be through it. But I’m not. What do I do? I trust Him. Trust Him till I don’t have any breath left, that’s what Hebrews talks about. Cause it talks about those heroes of the faith that what? Never received the things on earth that were promised. Abraham never inherited the land promised to him and his seed. Didn’t ever own any of it. Then he ends up buying a burial plot. I mean, what’s—but he walked by faith, trusting the Lord.

That’s why the book of Hebrews chapter 11 goes on to talk about those who were sawn in two. Well, that’s not much to look forward to. But what? They resolutely kept on, believing God would do and give what He promised. They will inherit a city prepared for them in the heavenly Jerusalem. God’s promises don’t fail. We get the idea, “If I don’t get to the end of the tunnel, my life is being wasted, I’m not going to get to enjoy things.” The trial goes on, my faith gets stronger. Some of the strongest saints are those who endured the greatest trials. I shared with you, many years ago when I was in China, believers who had lost everything, family members, their children taken away from them to be raised by the government, they’re put in prison, health—what do you do? Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Sit there, spend twenty, twenty-five years in prison, they sit there laughing, talking about the Lord. Then we gave them material, are you afraid to receive this material? “What are they going to do? I’ve already been to prison. They’ll put me back and they’ll have to feed me.” Woah, that’s not my attitude. I’m not as worried about him going back to prison as I might get arrested for helping him. You know, but you see a strength, a solidness in character, an unshakeable faith. I look and say, “Oh, wouldn’t they like to have the physical blessings that we have?” Their concerns that they shared with me is that some of the things that we hear that are going on in countries like yours and the weakness in them would become true of us. So trials have a good thing. The Lord knows what He’s doing.

Count it all joy, knowing that the testing of your faith is continued to work endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result. Another imperative, another command. Let have. You must let endurance have its perfect result. Endurance must have its perfect result. Its work of what? So that you may be perfect. Its perfect work is a work of perfecting us, making us perfect. Gonna stress this in three ways. Its perfect work, so that we might be perfect. That’s the first thing it says about that. Complete, everything that God intends us to be. Doesn’t mean we never sin, but it does mean we are more and more conformed to the character of God. We have developed maturity, we have been conformed more clearly and fully to the character of Christ. We may be perfect, all that we should be as spiritual adults. There ought to be a stability in us as God’s people, should there not? Some of us have been believers for many years, and God in His grace has brought us through a variety of trials. Different kinds of trials, we’ve not all experienced the same kind of trials, but the trials have served to strengthen us, and give us stability. Visited with a pastor who has a new ministry, a month or so ago. We were talking about this, talking about leaders for the church and how important it is to have those who have developed a stability. They give stability to the work. Trials will come, but there is stability, and they model trusting the Lord, and can encourage the less mature believers to continue to grow and let God do His work.

To be perfect means to be complete. That you may be perfect and complete. A word that means that you have all the parts necessary, and that they’re working correctly. It’s used in Acts 3:16 when Peter healed a man, and he was in perfect health. He was complete, complete health. In other words, he was all that he should be, health-wise. All the infirmity was gone. That’s what he’s getting at here, we’re perfect, we’re complete. God is developing us, as well rounded, if you will. When we’re raising our children, we want them to grow up, we talk about a well rounded adult. There’ll be diversity, there’ll be different strengths and different people, but we want them to be able to function in the adult world as they should. And we tell them, you’ll have to learn this, you’ll have to learn to put up with things you don’t like. You have to learn to stay with things you don’t find pleasant. And really, God’s developing us spiritually.

The negative side of that means to be lacking in nothing. Lacking in nothing. This is what God’s doing with us. We say, well, it’s good enough. I’m doing pretty well. I know there are areas of my life that still need some work. Well, we can’t take that in a cavalier way. We have to be serious about it because God’s serious about it. He doesn’t want us to be lacking in anything. All areas of our lives. He’s concerned that his children be well balanced, well rounded, not lacking in any area of their character development, the fruit of the spirit being produced in their lives. That’s part of the maturity, the functioning as God intends us to function. Back up to Romans chapter 5, the passage that parallels with what James is doing here. Romans chapter 5, Paul says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exalt in hope of the glory of God, and not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations,” the trials, the troubles that come into our lives. Why? “knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.”

That’s what we’re talking about, that endurance, that stick-to-it-ivness. You know, having pastored this church for many years, and I have been blessed with people that are solid and strong. I know other trials and testings will come, but they can have the confidence as we have, serve the Lord together, that people will stay faithful. They stay with it, they will endure, come through it. We deal with it, not because we are special in that sense, but we are God’s people, we grow together, we don’t expect it to be easy, we don’t expect our service to the Lord to be a bed of roses. We don’t expect to have our lives free from trials and testings and tribulations. And we know that that’s what God’s going to use for good. We want to be mature, godly people, and trials are part of that process. “Tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance proven character.” (Romans 5) And that’s what we’re doing. Getting character that has been developed by the test, put through the fire, refined, developed. “Proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts.”

You see what this all does? It refines us, sharpens our focus. You know, it’s like a child, a little infant, a 2 year old. We don’t have children in the auditorium. For one thing, they don’t have the endurance. It’s hard enough for the adults. Long sermons. But what is the characteristic of a 2 year old? They have a short attention span, they don’t sit down and concentrate for the next hour on this. They do it, and then they’re on to something else, something else, something else. What happens as God develops us to maturity and our character is developed? Our focus on our hope becomes more fixed. We live in light of what God has promised. We live in light of the coming of the Lord, we live in light of the promise of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, even as Abraham did. We’re not distracted as much by the things of the world. “Love not the world” we saw in our study earlier today, “nor the things in the world.” Doesn’t mean we don’t live in the world, and we use the things of the world, but they’re not our focus. I’ve known believers, oh, they’re drawn off over here, they’re drawn off over here—our focus gets fixed on our hope. That’s where I’m going. That’s what my life is about. I’m not going over here, I’m not going over here, I’m going here. It produces hope. The loss of a focus on what God has promised, our hope. Hope has to do with things not yet experienced, not yet seen, or it wouldn’t be hope. And the loss of a focus on hope and the future, we call eschatology in the church today, is a sign of the immaturity enveloping the church. And we get focused on the immediate, on the now, on the enjoying today, and then we fear not getting the most enjoyment out of this physical life, and having our plans for a good life frustrated. And what is that indicating? It’s a lack of the development of proven character, cause we’re a people focused on hope.

That’s the heroes of Hebrews 11. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. That’s the focus, that’s where I’m going. The others mentioned there, they could endure terrible physical suffering because that’s where I’m going. So the trials are good, they develop endurance and mature character that carries me to that point.

Come over to 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians. Paul speaks well of the Thessalonican church, verse 3, “We ought always to give thanks to God,” 2 Thessalonians 1:3, “for you brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged.” See their faith, it’s grown and developed, “The love of each one of you grows greater. Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance, steadfastness, endurance, and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.” What do they do? So they demonstrate a solid faith, a great love. They’re not distracted by their trials. Their trials don’t absorb their lives, although great. They’re encompassing their lives, but in the midst of their trials their focus and their faith is getting stronger and is being a greater testimony.

Come over to 1 Peter, just after James. 1 Peter 1. Peter is writing, as we noted previous study in verse 1, to the elect sojourners of the diaspora, so he’s also writing to Jews living outside of the land of Israel, in Gentile parts of the world, but they are believers. And come down to verse 6, he talks about, they have been prepared for an inheritance in verse 4, “which is imperishable and undefiled, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The ultimate fulfillment and realization of the completion of our salvation, glorification in the presence of God. Verse 6, “In this you greatly rejoice,” in what? In their hope, in their hope, and their hope has been refined and sharpened. The inheritance which is imperishable, that’s what my life is about. If I lose everything I have materially, my hope is not shaken, because my real inheritance is not here. If I lose my health, doesn’t mean there won’t be pain, doesn’t mean that won’t make it difficult, but it doesn’t change someday I will be glorified in his presence, in complete health of a glorified body, and so on. So, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” There’s our word we’re talking about in James, various testings. “So that the proof of your faith,” same thing James talked about, the testing of our faith, that demonstrating of the genuineness of our faith, as it is being strengthened and purified. “The proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable,” so you see, Peter uses that analogy of that proof, that testing, that refining process, and it’s valuable for gold, it’s more valuable, more precious when it’s our faith that’s being refined and proven. “Even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

That’s where we’re going. You see what’s happening, the trials come into our lives and they’re unpleasant, they’re difficult, they’re painful. Sometimes they seem like it may be more than we can endure. But we are reminded, there’s no trial, and that’s our same word in 1 Corinthians 10:13, no temptation, no trial, has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and the Lord is faithful with the testing, to provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure. It’s a refining process. We’ll all have to go through it. Some of you are going through it now. You sit here, and you know the trials pressing in on you. Others say, “My life seems relatively trial-free right now.” Thank the Lord for that. But I can be prepared, I know if trials come, and when they come, because they will, I can trust the Lord. I know that that trial is necessary, because He is strengthening my faith. Doesn’t mean I can see a purpose now for that trial, other than what God said, it’s necessary to strengthen your trust in Me. We walk by faith, not by sight. I can’t see any good that comes out of this. Sometimes I’ve talked to people and said, I can’t either, humanly speaking. I don’t know why God would do this. I’ve had to say, I don’t know either, except that He said He is strengthening your trust in Him. This is necessary for you to be prepared for the glory that He has prepared for us.

One more passage of scripture, Ephesians 4, which I have referred to earlier. Ephesians 4, what God is doing with us. Here in the exercise of spiritual gifts but you know it’s all going, all that God is doing converges here toward that ultimate end, our hope, the culmination of our salvation. So he talks about the saints being equipped, verse 12, “for the work of serving, to build up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the son of God. To a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. We are being brought more and more into conformity with the one who is our Lord and savior, the Head of the body.” That’s what God is doing, oh, what a gracious God, that He is working to bring me into conformity to Christ himself. “To a mature man,” verse 13, “Which is the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” I’ve got to understand, God’s not done with me, cause I have a ways to go to be fully conformed to the fullness of Christ and the wonder of His character. Verse 15, “But speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ.” So that’s what’s going on with our trials. God is maturing us. Knowing this prepares us to count it joy when we fall into and are surrounded by all kinds of trials. I can know, God is working in me His purposes for my good to conform me more to the character of His Son, preparation for the time when I will be presented in the glory of His presence as holy and blameless and without spot.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your gracious work in our lives. How blessed we are to belong to You, the sovereign God who rules over all, who controls all. To know that the most trying of trials, the most painful of trials, the most unpleasant of trials, are brought into our lives by a gracious and loving God who does not delight to hurt us but is delighting to prepare us for a glory beyond compare. We thank you for trials. Trials are unpleasant, because they are trials. Often we cannot understand what human good comes from it, but Lord our faith grows because we trust You, that You are doing what is right and good, that You are doing what is best, and we can trust You and grow in our trust, develop an endurance that enables us to walk faithfully in serving You with our eyes firmly fixed on the hope that You promised. May these truths be a blessing and encouragement to us as we serve You in the days and the week before us, and even as many of our fellowship have to endure special trials, may they have joy in knowing that Your hand is upon them. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.