Tribulation

Romans chapter 5 verses 3 to 5. Not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. There are some painful and difficult things in our lives, which if we'd only get down to business and pray about them, would go away.

The widow pestered the unjust judge and kept at him until the judge understood that she wasn't going to let him have any peace, and then he took care of her need. Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord over this problem he had with his brother Esau, like his brother was on his way to kill him probably. And Jacob did not let go of the angel until he got his request, and finally the angel grants it.

See, and there are some obstacles that clutter our path, and sap our strength, and slow us down, and confuse our minds, which really have no right to be there, and we have no business to let them be there. You're moaning and groaning in your heart about your husband's thoughtlessness, but when's the last time you really got down on your knees, I mean, and really prayed for that man? And perhaps you may have some reason, you know, to lament your wife's attitude. See, but how much have you really put into your prayers for this woman? You're worried about your child, you're troubled about that disintegrating friendship, you're frustrated by the emptiness inside your soul, but the prayers that you pray about these serious things can hardly be called prayers.

They're an insult to God. Then one day after months, perhaps after years, you know, of misery, you finally pull yourself together and really pray, and to your amazement, the earth begins to quake, wind blows, and all kinds of changes begin to take place. And you say to yourself, why didn't I start sooner? Why don't I always draw near to God and pray to him the way he tells me to? Why does it always take some kind of catastrophe to bring me to come near to my Lord the way I should be near to him all the time? But there are other things in our lives which all the prayer in the world won't move.

There are obstacles in our path which are not meant to go away, and there are doors that are closed that are not meant to open, because the God who knows our need and who loves us with a love so deep that it will even inflict pain where it's necessary, put those obstacles there, shut those doors for a very good reason. Paul had this thorn in the flesh, and he prayed about it. Three times he besought the Lord that it would leave him, but that thorn did not go.

My grace is sufficient for you, Paul. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And after Paul gets that answer, he no longer bothers God about that thing that keeps him weak, you know, that inflicts all kinds of pain and trouble in his life, but rather, instead of it, he glories in this very thing that makes him weak, because he considers it to be the fountainhead of the life of Christ in him.

Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And our Lord himself, as he approached the goal of his life on this earth and sees a cross looming up in front of him in all its agony, and God-forsakenness, prays, Father, if there's some way for this cup to be taken from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. See, and the cup does not pass.

He has to drink it, and when Jesus gets up from those three agonizing prayers, he knows what he has to do, and he does it with joy. He walks into the agony without wincing. Now, there's not a book of the New Testament, or really the Old, for that matter, too, that doesn't tell us about these troubles and these pains, these tribulations, these flames, you know, that inflict pain and that sear us, which, if we want to turn away from God, might be avoided, but if we really want to follow Jesus, can't even be prayed away.

They're necessary. They are the very thing that enables the love of God shed abroad in our hearts to flow out of us and do us some good, and do some good to those around us, and bless them. See, but not too much is said about tribulation.

In most of what is going forth as Christian teaching these days, the only time it's mentioned normally these days is in terms of something the world is going to have to go through. I really feel sorry for them. They're going to have to go through the great tribulation.

Oh, well, maybe we're going to have to face some of it, see, but maybe then again we'll be raptured out in the nick of time. All too often it's presented like this, you know, and how few writers and how few teachers are telling us, as our Lord tells us, and as his Spirit tells us on every page of Scripture, that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God. And that tribulation is not off in the future, but it's right now.

You know, people are, everybody's getting excited, the ones who believe that they might face the tribulation, about the great tribulation or the great persecution which is coming, and what are we going to do when they start putting us in jail, and how are we going to go underground, and you know, do you have water stored in your basement, you have crackers there just in case, all this junk, and they're not even looking at the tribulation which God has put right in front of their noses now, and they're doing nothing about it. We're talking about a tribulation, a pain, a difficulty, something that makes you weak, something that is causing you problems, right now, if you'll face it. Right now, in every one of our lives, there's something that's causing pain, if we'll face it.

And this tribulation, whatever it may be in your life, is presented to you by God as a thing of joy. In the world, says Jesus, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the pressing of your faith produces endurance. But and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

Now, were those saints tougher than we are? No, their flesh was just as weak as ours, and they hated pain and loneliness and danger just as much as we do, but these saints had learned, as we need to learn, that tribulation is necessary, yea, helpful, in the life of every saint. It's an ingredient that must be there, and they took the tribulations that came their way and made them pay off for the glory of God in their lives. When they came up against hard things, when they had a thorn in their flesh that kept pressing in and causing pain, when they were battered from every side by storms, when they were seared by flames and they didn't know what was happening, they also knew that God was by these very tribulations making them into vessels of life for the world.

God was working death in them that life might flow out of them and bless somebody else. God was, by means of these tribulations, tearing holes, openings, in their lives through which the love that he had given them through the Holy Spirit might flow out and shine forth. Not only so, but we learn the glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

Tribulation worketh patience, in other translations, perseverance. See, until we come to the place where we accept the tribulation and by God's grace learn the glory in that tribulation and roll with it and move in it, we don't have it in us to persevere. Every little setback and we want to quit.

Every time somebody comes along and hurts your feelings or gives you a criticism, you're in a depression for three weeks. Constantly we're losing our joy. But when we learn to see tribulation as a thing sent by God, not bad luck, not a mistake, not a tragedy, not a sign that God has turned away from me, but rather this very tribulation as a God-sent thing, when I accept that and when we learn by God's grace the glory in that, then the very tribulation which by rights should have crushed us, rather produces in us a power to keep going, a stamina that we did not have before.

And perseverance produces experience, makes them into people who have been through it and have kept going, teaches them, see, to learn how to go keep going through storms and going through storms until going through storms and keeping going is as natural to them as walking down the street. No big deal. You know, they're not even, you know, they don't think of it as an amazing thing that insults don't throw them into a panic anymore, you know, and that when people turn away from them and their friends leave them and their loved ones misunderstand them and they have to experience pain and danger and loneliness and all these things, you know, that this is not unusual.

They don't take this as big tragedy. They accept it as part of the Course and they keep right on going on an even keel because now they're experienced. Now this is precisely what happened to the disciples.

When they started out, they were as flaky as we are, you know, they were constantly either in a panic or in a rage. They didn't have any proven character, but then you take the book of 1st Peter and 2nd Peter, you know, and look at the spirit of this unstable man that you saw in the Gospels, and now you're looking at the spirit of one who is experienced, you know, who's been through it, who's seasoned, who's solid, who's stable in God, and you say, how did he get that way? How else did he get that way but by going through tribulation, going through suffering and trial which cannot be prayed away, and letting that develop him into what God wants him to be and experience produces hope. Now how can a person who is emotionally forever flapping around in the wind like a leaf produce hope in anybody? You look at this person and you say, well, you know, his words are beautiful and his insight into Scripture is tremendous, but how come it isn't doing him any good? How come his life keeps wobbling and flopping around like a bowl of jelly? But when you see a person who is built on the rock and who survives storm after storm, who doesn't fly into a panic in every crisis, and doesn't go off the handle with everything that goes wrong, and this person says Jesus never fails, when he says Jesus never fails or she says it, then you have some hope.

You have hope because this person is living in that hope. This man knows that Jesus never fails because he has found him never to fail in his own life by going through tribulations and that every time, even at the point where it looked like there was nothing left, Jesus was right there. And this woman knows that the heavens and the earth are indeed falling apart, but the Word of God abides forever.

She knows that because she lives that. She's lived it time and time again. And hope, make it not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Love. Now Jesus loves his disciples from the very beginning, but the love that flowed from Jesus after his tribulation, his cross, was far beyond anything the disciples had ever experienced from him before. After the cross, Jesus comes into their midst and says, peace be unto you, and it just hits them.

Receive ye the Holy Spirit, and up shoots a flame in their hearts. Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? You know, and a whole bunch of them just trembling with a sense of that love. Just to be near him just warms your heart.

Now so it is with us. We talk much about love, but who of us can love with the love of Jesus? Who of us can love enemies? Who of us can return good for evil, but those who have followed Jesus through the fire, again and again. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit only begins to flow and only begins to bear fruit as we follow him through tribulation as men and women of God.

Now if we're really serious, as we were saying Monday night and at all the Bible studies and every time we get together almost, if we're really serious about coming into unity with each other, and if we're serious about opening up our lives to each other, and if we're serious about ministering God's life to the lost, then we need to face the fact that there is but one ingredient, one, one agent which can cause these things to become reality in our lives. And it's an agent which is already present in each of our lives in some way, and that's tribulation. Tribulation is not something in the future for any one of us.

It's here right now. Somewhere you're going to find it. If you haven't already, just look around, you'll find it before the day is over.

The question is, are we willing to let that tribulation do its work? Are we willing to allow it to transform us into the men and women of God He wants us to be? Are we willing to allow the tribulation to work in us so that we become the saints who can really get the job done? May God really give us insight to what this means. Read it once more from one who knows. He talks about, you know, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but that's not the only thing we rejoice in.

We also rejoice in tribulation. Knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience, experience hope, and hope make us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, praise God, who is given to us. We ask, O God, that you'll make it clear to us, clear, very clear, what we're asking for when we say we want to go all the way, and what we mean when we say we want to function as a body, and what it involves when we say we're willing to take up our cross.

And we pray, Father, that today, especially today, you'd help us, and every day from now on, to keep our eyes, these critical eyes, off the people for whom we think we have all the answers, and start with where we are, and to take up the cross that you've given us to carry. How easy it is, Lord God, to tell everybody else how to carry His cross, and leave our own lying in the dust. Heavenly Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken our own personal tribulation into the thing you'd have it be, and save us and spare us from kicking against it.

We ask it in Jesus' name.