Testing Through Suffering
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 614 aired on June 14, 2017
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes I’d like to ask you to listen up, stay with me, pay attention. The next few minutes are
designed for some inspiration, some education, some motivation, and we do this without any
type of manipulation because we don’t try to manipulate people. We’re not trying to con anyone.
We’re just here to give you some accurate information, information that is designed to help you
verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If you can do this, you have the freedom and the
privacy to orient and adjust to the plan, that’s always up to you. Our radio show is predicated
upon teaching God’s Word. What we’re looking for are hungry people that want to learn God’s
Word, people that have what I call positive volition, not the nod to God crowd. They’re easy to
find, “Hello God. Goodbye God. See you next Sunday God.” But people that have a hunger, an
intense hunger, the Bible says,
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth,”
that’s what I’m looking for is this
sort of person. A person that’s willing to sit down under the authority of a well-qualified pastor, a
person who is willing to listen to that pastor teach God’s Word to them on a daily basis. That’s the
kind of person that will grow to be a mature believer and become part of what we call the pivot,
the core group of mature believers that will deliver a nation. If there’s ever a time we must have a
pivot in America, it’s today. There are many believers in America but I’m not saying that all
believers have positive volition. All believers are not hungry for God’s Word. There is a passage
in Hebrews 5 that says,
“There are a lot of things I’d like to teach you but I can’t because you’re
rather dull of hearing,”
and on more than one occasion I’ve seen people that are genuinely saved
and genuinely on their way to heaven, but genuinely not interested in doing too much studying.
They are comfortable with their life, they’re comfortable with the way things are, and they are
just not interested in any additional or extra time studying. I don’t know about you but I like to
grow. I like to be the best at what I can be. I don’t like to be second-place. I was an athlete, not
anymore, I’m older. I never liked to lose and never liked to come in second-place. As a believer I
do want to hear my Father say,
“Well done My good and My faithful servant.”
That’s why I think
it’s necessary for me to study, for me to sit under a pastor that teaches me God’s Word so I can
learn it and apply it into my life, so I can replicate the life of Christ and effectively re-present
Him to my generation. Today on The FLOT Line we’re going to study something that you may
or may not want to listen to. We’re going to study suffering.
In Psalm 119:71,
“It is good that I
have been afflicted in order that I may learn Thy statutes.”
So here we find a motivation to
learn God’s Word that you don’t find any other place.
This may be what it takes to motivate
you.
It may take suffering in your life to motivate you to seek answers.
You may be going
through a particular type of suffering this very moment and we will outline what some of these
are. If you’re going through suffering, if you’re having adversity in your life, you must ask
yourself the question, why is this happening to me? Remember, adversity is inevitable. Stress is
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optional.
Adversity is what circumstances do to you and stress is what you do yourself.
Remember this. The word to be afflicted, the psalmist wrote,
“It is good that I have been
afflicted,
[it’s good, not bad]
so that,
[in order that, purpose clause here]
I may learn Thy Word,”
Thy statutes. The word afflicted is the Hebrew word
ana
and it simply means to be oppressed, to
become low, to be humbled, and it’s suffering. Suffering is a form of teaching by God. This is
one of the ways that God teaches us. Now for the unbeliever who rejects any claim that God may
have on his life we find these words about suffering in Psalm 107:17,
“Fools because of their
transgressions and because of their iniquities are afflicted,”
they suffer. For the believer who
goes through suffering we find these words, Philippians 1:29,
“For unto you it is given on the
behalf of Jesus Christ, not only to believe in Him
[which you may have done, I pray that you
have]
but also to suffer for His sake.”
To suffer,
pascho,
like the paschal (Passover) lamb that
suffered, the lamb that was slain by the priest and the blood sprinkled upon the altar, typifying
Jesus Christ our Lord, the Paschal Lamb who suffered for us so we could be saved. Suffering is
given on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but to suffer for His sake.
The disciples
learned this lesson really early on. In Matthew 16:21,
“From that time forth, Jesus began to show
unto His disciples how He must go into Jerusalem and suffer
[
pascho
]
many things of the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes and even be killed and raised again the third day.”
Thank
God that happened. Without the death, burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ the anointed
Son of God we would have no hope after death. The Bible says death has no victory, it has no
sting.
We are guaranteed a resurrection just like Jesus Christ Himself was resurrected. In
Philippians 1:29,
“For unto you
[believers, church at Philippi Paul wrote]
it is given on behalf of
Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”
Now what causes us to suffer?
That’s the first question. If you are enduring suffering today, what causes this?
The number one
thing that causes suffering in our life is our bad decisions.
You may have heard me say, “Bad
decisions limit future options.”
Bad decisions limit future options.
Most of our suffering that
we go through is sourced from our own negative volition and it brings divine discipline into our
life. Or we can suffer just from wasting time and the bad effects from getting out of God’s plan
for our life. Sometimes we suffer not because of sin, but simply because of some stupidity,
simply because we do a right thing in a wrong way or we get out of line or get out of step with
God. We’re not necessarily committing a sin of the tongue or an overt sin but we’ve run ahead of
God or we’ve gotten behind God and we’re not in the best shape or the best situation. Through
suffering God allows us to wake up and see what’s going on.
This is suffering from divine
discipline and is God’s mercy to wake us up.
When you and I suffer because of sin, it is God’s
mercy to wake us up from our error. Most believers who completely destroy their lives never
even realize what is going on. Unfortunately, I have seen it. I have seen born-again believers who
no doubt about it were saved and they were suffering and they died. They never recognized what
it was. They never recognized it was the grace of God calling them to repent, to change their
mind, to get back into fellowship with Him. They continued on down the My Way Highway until
eventually they died. Suffering is designed to wake you up.
Suffering is a teaching aid.
God
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does not take pleasure in making you suffer. He takes pleasure in seeing you glorify Him. The
Bible says in Hebrews 12:6,
“Those whom the Lord loves He chastens
[or He disciplines]
and He
scourges
[that’s to discipline severely]
every son that He receives.”
If you endure chastening then
God deals with you as with a son. “
For what son is he whom the father does not discipline? But
if you do not have any discipline where of all others partake, then you are a bastard and not a
son.
[that’s from the Bible, not me]
Furthermore, we’ve had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits
and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our
profit that we might be partakers of His holiness.”
Warning discipline, stage one of God’s
discipline, God will warn you. He will warn you when you’re out of fellowship and fail to
confess your sin.
He will warn you when you make a wrong turn and decide to go down the My
Way Highway, when you get distracted and go off in the direction you don’t need to go. This
happens all the time with Christians in business and Christians in some sort of a hobby. I’ve seen
this happen many times. People that genuinely have a spiritual gift and don’t use it, they wind up
chasing their dream. That’s the biggest lie that’s ever come down the pipe, chasing your dream as
if your dream is going to make you happy, when the Bible says God has so much more for you
than any dream you could ever imagine. You cannot even imagine the happiness you could have
if you would fulfill God’s plan for your life rather than chasing some silly dream where you think
that fame or money is going to make you happy and you’re dead wrong.
You will be warned by
God, He will warn you and this doesn’t always hurt. Sometimes this is Scripture.
S
ometimes this is listening to a preacher.
It may be reading a book or seeing a sign on the side
of the road but God will get your attention. Like maybe this radio show, maybe this is designed
to get your attention so you will know why you suffer. The second type of suffering is intense
discipline. This is stage two of God’s discipline.
In intense discipline God scourges us.
He
takes us out behind the woodshed and gives us an attitude adjustment. This has pain.
This
is how God gets your attention. There is a time in your life when God will put you on your back
under divine discipline in order to wake you up, in order to save you before you destroy yourself
and other people along with you. There are some of you listening to me right now incarcerated
and you know this. You heard it a long time ago and yet you wouldn’t respond. You continued a
lifestyle of sin and corruption and look where you are. If you had just listened to God when He
tried to warn you many years ago, but in your negative volition and in your own arrogance you
justified why it was okay to do what you’re doing and look what happened. That’s not God’s plan
for you, never was God’s plan for you and yet that’s where we wind up sometimes. The Bible
warns us about intense discipline, pain and suffering. Then there’s dying discipline.
Dying
discipline is when God actually physically removes someone and takes them on to heaven.
In 1 Corinthians 5:1-5,
“It is reported that commonly there is fornication among you and such
fornication
[Paul writes to the church at Corinth]
as is not even named among the Gentiles, that
one should have his father’s wife.”
Does this sound like some soap opera in the church in
Corinth? There was fornicating going on, that someone in the church was fornicating with his
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father’s wife or his stepmother.
“And you’re puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he that
did this deed might be taken away from among you.
[Listen to what Paul does now, here is dying
discipline]
For I verily, as absent in body but present in spirit, have judged already as though I
were present concerning the one that did this deed.
[This is the authority that the apostle had, so
he said]
I have judged already concerning the one who has done this deed in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when you’re gathered together and in my spirit, with the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.”
Now you may think
that’s the end of it. You may think, “Well, he’s going to hell.” That’s not what it says. It says as I
continue the verse,
“So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
Yes, he’s going to die
but he’s going to go to heaven. His spirit will be saved. Christians can die the sin unto death.
They can completely destroy any opportunity they have to live a normal life and God has to take
them home. It could be happening even to you. You cannot afford to play games with God. We
cannot afford to trifle with God’s will in our life. Have you gotten out of the will of God? Have
you walked away from God’s plan for your life? Have you allowed sin to completely cover you
and have you not confessed this sin? Are you wondering why you’re going through difficulty and
problems and the adversity? Are you on your way out? You may be, it may be time to listen to
someone. Some of these folks that I’ve seen in this have never asked me, “Do you think God is
disciplining me Rick? Do you think that?” They never asked me this but in my soul I could see
it. I knew what was going on and it may be exactly what’s going on in your life too. You got
saved a long time ago. You believed in Jesus Christ but you haven’t grown. You haven’t pursued
God’s plan for your life. You’ve been out of fellowship so long you don’t get any answers to your
prayer. You don’t even feel close to God anymore. As a matter fact sometimes you even begin to
doubt that He really exists anymore. It is time for you to recover. It is time for you to wake up. It
is time for you to get back before you’re no longer here. I’m telling you,
there is a sin unto
death,
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you’re gathered together and with my spirit
to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of his flesh.”
Remember that verse back in
Hebrew that says don’t forget,
“Furthermore, we’ve had fathers of our flesh which disciplined us
and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits
and live.”
Proverbs 15:10 says,
“He that hates the reproof of God shall die.”
When God puts
you under misery, when God puts you under intense discipline, you can respond by
confessing your sin or you can react by getting angry at God.
You can be angry at the church.
You can be angry at the church members. You can be angry at the preacher. You react and when
you react Satan applauds because it just drives you further and further away from any hope of
you ever having a normal, productive, mature spiritual life.
To learn humility we’re often put
in circumstances that are unfair, that’s not unusual.
You’ll see this here in a minute and
it’s
designed to refine us.
It’s designed to purge us. It’s really the only way that God can do it. He
tests us under a heavy load. You know, I have friends that serve in the military, friends that are
Navy SEALs, friends that are Green Berets and have been Army Rangers, they all went through
severe testing in order to get the Ranger tab, the Seal Trident or some other designation. If you
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don’t go through that testing, if you don’t go that purging, because it’s designed to weed out those
that can’t handle it, this is what God is doing. God will weed out some people because they can’t
handle it, because they can’t leave their sin alone, because they can’t get over the fact that
happiness is not found in the details of life. You think you could be more happy if you were
comfortable or had more money or you could be more successful if you knew the right people.
See, these are all details of life and suffering is designed to weed this sort of thinking out, to get
you to a source of humility to where you now understand that only God can provide what you’re
looking for. You are indeed in a war, there’s no doubt about this spiritually speaking. Paul even
uses a military illustration in Ephesians 6:11-17 that compares us to a Roman soldier. It talks
about us putting on
“The armor of God so we can stand against the strategy of the devil.”
Yes,
we have to
“pick up the shield of faith,” “the helmet of salvation,” “the breastplate of
righteousness,” “the sword of the Spirit,” “feet shod with the gospel.”
This is all an analogy of a
Roman soldier. The shield of faith is essential for you. If you don’t pick up the shield of faith or
learn how to use the faith-rest drill, problem-solving device number three in your FLOT line, if
you don’t learn how to use it, you’re never going to be able to ward off the attacks of Satan. You
must learn how to use this. You must
“put on the helmet of salvation.”
You must have eternal
security because this is the first thing that Satan is going to attack, your mind. He’s going to
cause you to doubt and even fear that you’re even saved. You’re never going to grow as long as
you doubt and fear you’re not even saved. People ask me this question all the time. “I think I
might not be saved,” and they’ve accepted Christ. They prayed and asked God to save them but
they don’t feel it and so they’ve fallen into this trap of emotionalism. Paul warns them
“put on
the helmet of salvation,” “pick up the shield of faith.” “put on the breastplate of righteousness,”
“stand firm.”
Be ready, you are at war with Satan, there is no doubt about it. Then Paul goes on
to say in
Romans 5:3,
“And not only so but that we glory in our tribulation, knowing that
tribulation produces patience.”
We glory in our testing, in our trials, in our tribulations. In other
words, Paul says he’s recognizing, “This was for my good. This was to teach me something.” Our
Lord Jesus Christ essentially tells you to enjoy the testing that you are going to endure, to just
enjoy it. Go ahead and enjoy this testing. He said these words,
“These things I have spoken unto
you that believe in Me. I’ve spoken unto you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world
you’re going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Here’s a
warning He gave the disciples, “I taught you this, that in Me you can have peace but in the
world, you’re going to have testing. You’re going to have trials. You’re going to have tribulation,
but shake it off. Be of good cheer. I overcame the world.” There are two ways to live. You can
live in fellowship with God and in Christ or you can live out of fellowship with God, under
control of your sin nature. Both of them are sources of fulfillment in your life. If you are looking
to be fulfilled from the world, you’re never going to have any peace, but if you are being fulfilled
from the force of Jesus Christ in you, you will have peace. You’ll have a phenomenal lifestyle
and the Bible is clear about this. As Jesus said, listen again,
“These things I spoke unto you, that
in Me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have
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overcome the world.”
This word tribulation is an original Greek word called
thlipsis.
It’s a
metaphor for oppression or distress or tough times. Any believer living in the devil’s world is
going to have a tough time because you’re not from this world. You don’t even belong here. Your
home is in heaven. Philippians 3:20,
“Our citizenship
[our
politeuma
the Greek word says]
our
citizenship is in
ouranos
[or heaven]
from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ.”
What do you expect you’re going to get in a world that you don’t belong in? This is not
your home and if you put all of your happiness and all of your security and all of your hope in
this world, you’re going to be let down.
Regardless of what you endure, there’s confidence in
our Savior’s love and our Savior’s support. He will not abandon you.
He will not bow out on
you. Listen to Romans 8:35.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Who’s going to separate
you from the love of Christ? Hardship, tribulation, this won’t do it. Distress, the Greek word
stenochoria
means to be in a very narrow passage with no way out. Persecution, that’s the other
word persecution,
diogmos,
it means to give chase or to pursue someone chasing you or pursuing
you. Famine, hunger, nakedness,
gymnotes,
means having no clothes.
“Who can separate us from
the love of Christ?”
Shall tribulation, hardships, shall distress, being in a narrow passage with no
way out? Shall persecution, people that chase us, shall famine, no food, shall nakedness or even
peril, and that’s the word dangers, can this separate us from the love of God? Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 11:26 about the perils he faced.
“In journeying often I was in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.”
Paul’s life was
full of tribulation, full of affliction, full of testing. Christ warned us,
“Don’t think I’ve come to
send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, I came to bring a sword.”
James tells us in
James 1:2-4 the reason for it.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into many trials,”
peirasmos,
temptations, testings.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into many testings
because you will know this, that the testing of your faith produces patience. And if you will let
patience have her perfect work, you will be mature and entire and want nothing.”
That’s a
promise from the Word of God. James 1:12,
“Blessed is the man
that endures testing, for when
he’s tried, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to give to them.”
You
say, “My testing is unique.” Not according to the Bible.
1 Corinthians 10:13,
“There is no
testing that has overtaken you that is not common to man, but God is faithful, who will not
allow you to be tested above that which you can stand and will with the testing give a way out
so that you can bear it.”
Paul learned this in 2 Corinthians when he talked about the thorn in the
flesh and you may have to learn this too. He loves you, He hasn’t abandoned you.
Suffering is
for your own good and there’s a reason for it, to produce patience in your life so you will
learn to trust Him.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for
listening to The FLOT Line.