(Suffering in the Christian Life) 1. Tribulation Worketh Patience — Roy Hession

At one time, earlier in the year, we didn't know whether we'd be fit enough to do so, but God has been gracious to us in a wonderful degree and raised us up and given us this great privilege of sharing the things that we have learnt, not only directly from the Word but in the school of experience.

Suffering as an Inescapable Part of Christian Life

Now, our subject for these morning studies is going to be something that's close to the experience of all of us. It has been, or if it hasn't yet, it will be. We are not able, I'm afraid, to escape the theme of our study, suffering in the life of the Christian.

Maybe you have not had too much, thank God for it, but that's not likely to continue. Sooner or later, in one way or another, God's dear people will have to go, possibly, through that school of suffering.

When it's over, you don't think, and it's water under the bridge, one's soul has been so wonderfully restored as a result that you can hardly call it suffering, but you did call it suffering at the time, and maybe you will when it comes to you.

And so I do trust that this, looking into the Word together, is going to be tremendously profitable. There's much more in the scripture about suffering than I realised until I began to look into it and wanting to find an answer for my own need.

A variety of words is used in the Bible, not merely suffering, but in even more places, tribulation. Maybe that's a rather old-fashioned word, but it means something, tribulation, how often that comes.

And then affliction. David said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. And then you've got other words too, distresses, Paul refers to. No one went through the school of suffering more than Paul.

You know, we don't realise what it meant to spend a night and a day in the deep. We don't realise what it meant to have to escape for his life and be let down by a basket over the wall, a whole heap of things.

And when he speaks about these things, he knows what he's talking about. And in one list of the things he susses, he uses the word distresses. So there are a variety of words used because the experience differs in every case.

Tribulation and Entry into the Kingdom

Now the first thing to make clear, I think, is this, that suffering, tribulation, affliction, whatever you like to call it, is an essential part of the Christian life. So said Paul in Acts 14, 22. He went round to the churches to which he'd been, in which there were new converts gathered, and he went round, verse 22, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.

He didn't expect, and he told them not to expect, to enter into the kingdom of God without tribulation. This vile world is no friend to grace. And they found it right away. The mere fact they listened to Paul and received his word meant that they were in for trouble.

And he told them ahead of time that through much tribulation they were going to enter into the kingdom of God. And then there is that other verse in 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 12. 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 12, verse 11 rather.

I'm sorry, I've got even that wrong. It's 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 11. Oh no, bless my soul. No, I mean, same side, it is chapter 4, verse 12, I'm sorry. Beloved, think it not strange, concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.

This is no strange thing. This is all part of the package deal. That God's dear people will from time to time experience fiery trials, which is to try them. And they're not to think it a queer thing, something's gone wrong somewhere.

But they're to rejoice in as much as they are partakers of Christ's sufferings. That when his glory shall be revealed, they may be glad also with exceeding joy. And so we are told this ahead of time. John Newton has a wonderful hymn that I've been living in a lot.

One verse of which says, Why should I complain of want or distress, temptation or pain? He told me no less. The heirs of salvation I know from his word. Through much tribulation must follow their word.

So don't think it strange. And it is part of the package deal. And God's going to be with you in it. And he's going to be at his best in your darkest hours. He's a peer, is Jesus, in the realm of suffering of whatever kind.

Suffering Common to Humanity and Suffering for Christ

Now there are two kinds of suffering, I would suggest, that come our way. First are those sufferings which are common to our mortality. And our human circumstances. And we share these sufferings along with everybody else.

The Christian is not immune from the sufferings that come to every other life. On the other hand, this realm of suffering don't come necessarily more to him than to others. He shares them with the rest of the human race.

But in the case of the child of God, they've got a special sweet connotation. And he must take them in the light in which we have them described in God's word. But then there's another realm of sufferings.

And these are spoken of a lot in the New Testament. And those sufferings which come to us because we are Christians. Jesus said, if they've persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And there's going to be a whole realm of suffering that only the Christian will know.

Maybe we haven't had too much of it. But you know there's more martyrdom for Christ in this century than in any former century. We used to think an earlier century was the century of martyrdom, but not today.

Who can compute the vast quantity of suffering that the saints suffer in Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain, and in many other places? And even in this country, this world is no friend to grace. If you're going to be the friend of the world, you're the enemy of God.

But if you're the friend of God, you're going to be, in one way or another, the enemy of the world. Or rather, they're going to be your enemy. And so we have those two kinds. And again and again, this is referred to.

Peter's epistle is written to the suffering saints, and much of Paul's ministry was for them. It's all built in. And you mustn't get the idea that you're going to be singing on your way to heaven with no problems, no sufferings, perhaps no tears.

That's not how it's described. And we shall see in our study that these sufferings, or whatever sort they may be, are a very necessary part of our education, of our training. Now I want to turn, we haven't read properly the passage, to Romans, chapter 5, as our basic study for this morning.

Romans 5: Tribulation Within Salvation

Romans, chapter 5. I would say that this passage is one of the great charter passages of our salvation. And as you will see, this passage, in speaking of the great salvation which is ours, includes in it tribulation.

And it tells us this great salvation of ours takes tribulation in its stride. And you and I are to learn to do the same. So here then is this great foundational passage. We have the problem, as we read the word together, of the varying versions.

I don't know what the answer is, how we get round it. I would like to suggest that you might prefer if I'm going to read from the authorised version, and I'm going to expound the authorised version. And I may make a correction to a word here or there in the authorised version.

Your version probably has already made that correction. But you might find it good not to follow in an alternative version, but to listen and let the wonderful cadences flow over yourself. I find that when someone's reading one version and I'm another, I'm doing a bit of comparison, having a little argument perhaps.

Oh, I don't think I like that one. I think this is a better one. And it might be beneficial, if yours is not the authorised version, for you just to listen, have it open by all means, cast an odd eye down.

But on the other hand, don't get diverted by too much comparison between version and version. All right. Of course, with Paul, you have to break into the argument somewhere. He didn't do much with paragraphs, certainly not chapter headings.

But I think this is a good chapter heading. It's there very suitably. All right, breaking into his argument. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Now, not only so, you're going to have other experiences. That too is going to be taken in your stride. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation work is patience. And patience, experience.

And experience, hope. And hope, put us not to shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. And then he goes on to describe this love which has been shed.

God's love for us, the soul is given a great appreciation of the love of God for itself. Here it is. It's described, For when we were still without strength, quite helpless, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

This is the love of God, doing something for the ungodly that don't deserve it. And then he comments on that fact. For scarcely for a righteous man in ordinary affairs will one die. Yet, peradventure in an extreme case, for a good man some would even dare to die.

They're not sure the fact that the man's all that good would make you want to die for him. But it's conceivable, but certainly not for a sinner. But God's love is the opposite of that. Man could possibly die for a very, very good man.

God commends his love that's now shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit toward us, in that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. Now he's building up an argument. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we should be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He was the last person we joined in before, but not now. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only so, we glory, we rejoice in tribulation. And not only so, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the atonement or the reconciliation.

Righteousness and Justification in the Gospel

Now, as I've said, this breaks into an argument. When you have the word therefore, you always want to ask yourself, what is it therefore? And it obviously refers you way back to Paul's exposition of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And the basic blessing of the Gospel is righteousness. Now this is a special word. Really to understand Paul's epistles, you have to settle it, you've got to learn almost a new vocabulary. For he uses words in a very different sense in which we use them.

And not even the most modern translation can hide that fact. And he tells us that he's not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. This is in the first chapter, verse 16. For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For therein, here is the basic blessing, the righteousness of God is revealed for faith. Now in Paul's epistles, when you come across this word righteousness, you are, Guy King used to say, you can call it rightness with God.

What is revealed in the Gospel, the basic blessing, is a perfect, unassailable rightness with God, available to the man who in himself isn't right at all. Thus it is, we have revealed in this epistle, that God's delight is to justify the ungodly, to declare him to be right who confesses he's all wrong, and utterly right, unassailable right with the God of heaven.

And this extraordinary paradox is what the Gospel does, to declare him to be right. And by the way, to help you, righteousness and justify are the same Greek word. Really we haven't got the word in English, but if you wanted to keep it consistent, it should be not only justify but righteousify.

Being righteousified by faith, therein is a rightness with God, and it's the same word. And so this is the great thing. He of course begins by showing that man is without righteousness, without any right standing with God, he's a total sinner, and he's under God's judgment.

But then he tells us of this marvel of the grace of God, that God has provided a way whereby, in chapter 3 it tells us, we can be justified, righteousified, declared right with God, freely, gratuitously, by his grace, not according to works, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, there's Calvary's cross, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

Every phrase is pregnant with tremendous meaning. And this is the subject, up to chapter 5. Then he says, now, we've got to the place where we see God is prepared to declare him to be right, who confesses he's wrong because of the propitiation that Jesus effected for us on the cross.

And so he builds on that from chapter 5. And he says in chapter 5, being therefore justified or righteousified by faith, there are certain results, he says there are two basic results, being justified, declared right before God, forgiven, restored, ransomed, healed.

Peace with God Through the Blood of Christ

Two things. First, we have peace with God. We can look God in the eye. We were once at war with God, though he was never at war with us. We thought he was against us. Our beauty consciences made us feel it so.

But when we saw the cross, on that old rugged hill, we realized he wasn't against us, but for us. Which of all our friends to save us could or would have shed his blood. And when we accept Jesus, and when we embrace that cross, we have complete peace with God.

You can look God in the eye. Peace with God. And because we are justified, we know he's imputing no iniquity against us now. There's nothing he holds against us. He's been imputed to his beloved son. And because you know your affairs are right and solid with God, even though you're not much of a good specimen as a Christian, your righteousness doesn't depend on that.

It depends on Jesus. Because of that, you can have peace with God. You can lose your guilty conscience. You don't need to feel for a moment that God doesn't quite approve of you. It's the devil who tells you that.

God looks upon the sprinkled blood. It is our only plea. And you cannot be more favorably positioned before God than what the blood of his son puts you. And thus it is being justified, knowing that that's clear, you and I can have peace with God.

It's possible for that peace on the surface to be disturbed by current failures. But the spirit convicts you of that, only that you might quickly repent and have the blood of Jesus cleanse you, and you have an ongoing experience of that peace with God.

Your standing before God does not vary with your state. Your experience may vary, but that basic fact that I'm a child of God, justified by grace, stands solid. And so there's the basis. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Assurance of the Glory of God

That's the first result. And the second, I believe verse 2 can be regarded as a parenthesis, or the first half of verse 2. The second result is, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Two things then.

Because I'm justified, because I've been to the cross, because I've confessed my sin, I'm declared right with God, and that in turn gives me peace with God, and also I now rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Now this word hope is a difficult word, because in common parlance there's always a certain uncertainty about hope. We hope so. Not in the New Testament. I don't know quite what word we can use to get it over.

You've got to look up a concordance or take it from a preacher. It means assured expectation, certainty. And we rejoice in the certainty. That's the New Testament word hope. It's a great word. It's a word of assurance.

I rejoice in the certainty of the glory of God. And the glory of God, of course, is heaven. And those are the two basic blessings the new convert enters into, if he's truly illuminated. He's justified by faith, and as a result he has peace with God, and he rejoices.

He's sure of the glory of God. I remember when I first began evangelistic work under the Young Life campaign, I went round England and I used to always introduce one special chorus. It almost became my trademark.

I'm on my way to the glory land. We haven't sung it here for many a year. I'm on my way to the glory land. I'm on my way to the glory land. Praise the Lord to the glory land. Then we had another verse.

If you get there, before I do, just wait for me. I'm coming too. I'm on my way to the glory land. That's it. Being justified, I have peace with God, and I know I'm on my way to the glory land. And these choruses and these hymns that speak in those terms are scripturally correct.

And that's the great offer of the gospel. And when a man knows his destination is secure, that makes all the difference. If I'm on a journey and I don't know if I'm on the right road or not, I'm not enjoying the scenery.

I'm not enjoying the journey. But when Pam has checked up on the map and we discover we are on the right journey, the right road, then we begin to enjoy the journey. And you don't know how much you lose because you are not yet able to say, I am on my way to the glory land.

I know it. But then there's a lot going to take place between now and glory for all of us. And so this verse then deals with that. And not only so, but we rejoice, or glory, it's the same word in the Greek, we rejoice, we glory, in tribulations also.

Tribulation Produces Endurance

Paul is a realist. He knows he's had to face them. He knows these Roman Christians are going to face them. And he said, I want to tell you, you can take them in your stride. God in his plan regards it that way and so can you.

You are to glory in tribulation also. We don't only put up with our troubles and our sicknesses and the nasty things that people do against us because we're Christians. We are here to glory in them. And we're given solid reasons why we should glory in them.

It's not we're sort of masochistic and rather enjoy having a bad time in life, not at all. But these tribulations, whatever they may be, either to do with my mortality or to do with my Christian profession, there's solid reason for counting them almost gains.

And he goes on to tell us why. Not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. You're going to learn something. You're going to gain something in the school of problems and difficulties and tears and persecution, which you can learn no other way.

Tribulation worketh patience. Now, this is a very important word, patience. The versions will give different ones. And of course, as it stands, patience, it does not give the right impression. I'm not always certain that the other versions do all that well either.

It's a difficult word. Whenever it occurs in the New Testament, in the authorised version, patience means patience, patient endurance. The thought is endurance. I think the new versions have perseverance, endurance, stickability.

Let us run with patience. The race that is said before is the same word. Let us run with stickability, no turning back. And tribulation and trouble worketh this wonderful quality. I remember how this came very forcibly to my heart.

Pam and I, years ago, were taking meetings in an American city, great Bible -believing city, and they were reputed to have had, the previous year, among the churches, times of revival. And we were invited, hopefully, that we might perhaps follow up that work, that awakening.

But when we got there, it was to find there had been a great reaction against anything to do with revival, even on the part of the Bible -believing churches, that had rather a rough experience. I've never understood quite what did happen.

But I was told by the pastor of one church, before I went into the pulpit, I don't use the word revival. It put our people off. And instead of having eager people gathering in good numbers, we had diminished crowds.

And we had set aside no less than five or six weeks. And twice a day, we were ministering the word in a very depressing circumstance. And I tell you, I wanted to quit. I would have given anything, had it been possible, which it wasn't, to change my program, even to have flown home.

I was wanting to run away from what was not easy, wasn't encouraging. And it was at that time that the word was given us in our reading, Ye have need of patience. That's Hebrews 10, 36. Ye have need of patience.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast-wind it in either direction. That's Hebrews 10, 36. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. And I looked it up in my concordance.

And it's the Greek word, hypomene. Ye have need of hypomene. And I thought it was all over the place. Let us run with hypomene, the race that is set before us. Again and again. And it's best translated perhaps, endurance.

And of course, Jesus himself, he endured the cross. The same word, only the verb rather than the noun. Hypomene. He stuck it out. No turning back. He gave his back to the smiters. His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

He hid not his face from shame and spitting. But he went on, on. Now you do the same. You run with that sort of hypomene, that endurance. It's an obstacle race, not an easy race. Going to be all sorts of difficulties.

No turning back. Because that was a great problem with the Hebrew Christians to whom that epistle was written. They were having a hard time from their compatriots because of their faith in Christ. Their fellow Jews didn't appreciate people converting to Jesus as the Messiah.

And they had a hard time. And their peril was that they who had begun might turn back. And cast away their confidence which bred great recompense of reward. And Paul wrote that letter to stiffen them.

You have need of hypomene. And I'll tell you what produces it in our hearts, trouble. Tribulation, suffering. Oh, how you'd like to be able to escape it. Oh, how you'd like the hand of God to be lifted from you.

Oh, how you'd like the situation to be different. You'd like to quit. And if in your mind you want to quit, God regards you as a quitter. Maybe there's no chance to quit. You can't get out of the situation, but you'd like to.

God regards you as one who is a quitter if only in the realm of your desire. And it's there you've got to handle things. It's there we've got to come back. What does it mean? It means, I think, submission.

That I accept this situation, not congenial to me, painful, whatever it may be, as something God's allowed. And I'm going to bend my stiff neck to this yoke, and Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. It's the yoke that I've allowed.

Other people have done things, but by the time it reaches you, it's come from me. And in seeking to escape that, you're trying to escape what I've allowed. And what I purpose is going to be a great blessing.

And I want to tell you, oh, I bent my neck as I prepared each day in that city of Grand Rapids. I bent my neck. I gave up. I confessed I was going to run away. I wished we'd never come. And I confessed it as soon.

And I took his yoke upon me. And I began to repent every time I wished to turn back. And there's also, along with who permanently, not only submission, and not only no turning back, but the faith that God knows what he's doing, he's going to get great good out of it.

And he did in that particular case. And so it is. We not only rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but not only so, we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation is going to work this rare thing in you, endurance.

Stickability. None of it comes easy. And I believe there have to be many repentances on our part. But God gives grace to get that old neck bowed to the yoke that God's allowed. In the center of the circle, someone has written, of the will of God I stand, there can be no second causes, all must come from thy dear hand.

And you have just got to learn it in that school. After all, as John Newton says, his love in time past, forbids me to think, he'll leave me at last in trouble to sink. His sweet Ebenezer, I have in review, confirms his good pleasure to see me right through.

Oh, dear ones, you and I in these times of need of patience. And I'm sure there's a great, great catalogue of troubles and sorrows and pains and sicknesses and persecutions and domestic difficulties represented here.

You can not only rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but you can glory in tribulations, knowing that this very situation is designed for my good, designed to teach me a lesson. God's faithfulness. And he knows what he's doing, and he hasn't taken his hand off the tiller.

Tested Experience and Growing Assurance

And then he goes on to say, not only does tribulation work patience or endurance, but that in turn works, as it says in the authorised version, experience. Now this too is a difficult word. Whatever the version you have, they all have difficulty in finding the exact word.

It means, dokimi, which means someone who's been proved, something that's been tested. And as this is a noun, perhaps it could be translated testedness. And I really like the word experience. A man of experience, who's proved from experience that God is faithful, that all things work together for God, to them that love God, who's proved it.

He questioned it. He rebelled against it, but he came back again and again. He began to learn this beautiful thing, huperbine, endurance. And that in turn has made him a tested man. A man of experience.

It isn't, yes, I suppose it's his faith, of course, that's been tested, not his courage or his loyalty, but could he believe? And at first he didn't at all. The devil told me I'd never preach again. I began to think that perhaps I might never get well.

But Lord, I said, I was in the book of Psalms, I said, look, David had all these things. Do you know the many Psalms where David speaks of sickness? He nearly died on his bed. He said, oh Lord, what profit is there in my blood if I go to the grave?

And again, again, his plea was mercy. He didn't ask for justice, he asked for mercy. And he got it. He said, I love the Lord, but it hurt my Christ, it's merciless to me. And I used to hang on to that.

I said, Lord, if you gave David good cause to praise thee, sure you'd do the same for me. And I knew he would. Why should he be good to David and not to me or to anybody else? Not that I was asking for immunity from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but I just knew that I got God's ear, experience.

This is worth something. If you have a pastor, is he a man of experience? Has he been through it? Has he proved God faithful? Has he proved that mercy is mercy and grace is grace? That if he's there in that state and confesses it, he becomes a candidate?

It's a great thing, experience. Well, that's what the authorised version, the others thought, well, I suppose the most accurate might be testedness. But that's not a very easy word. It's a strange thing that this passage has a number of words which aren't all that easy translated into English.

That's why it needs to be looked at as we're trying to. And not only does patience work experience, but experience works hope. And once again, it's the same word. Constant assurance, absolute assurance.

Not a hope, but absolute certainty, certain assurance. You see, this is what the argument is. It's quite subtle. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and then he says, not only so, you rejoice in other things, and that in turn leads you back to hope, but at a deeper level and with greater assurance.

This man is more sure of his salvation and of God and of the eternal verities because of what he's been through than ever before. He's proved God's faithfulness. He's proved that everything's under control.

Grace has done so much for him. And if grace will do the least things, these things on earth, surely God is absolutely bound to do the eternal thing, the salvation of his soul. Now, this may sound a little strange to us because for some reason assurance of salvation isn't so hardly come by as it was in the days of our fathers.

Have we elucidated the gospel more these days? But somehow we don't seem to have the depth that our fathers had. Maybe because they had such a struggle to get assurance that when they got it, it was more highly prized.

Some of the great saints that were there, they had their battles. And I'm amazed how in Spurgeon's day, when Spurgeon was under conviction of sin at the age of sixteen, what battles he went through. From a godly home that he was, and a godly outward boy, what battles he had with doubts.

And when he preached to the people, he had to take hold of people and pour in assurance. They will always find some reason to doubt, something in themselves that would surely alienate God. Well, that's how it is.

It's not for us to question, it's just an interesting fact. But I want to tell you, it's something to be prized. And my friend, I believe you could do with an excess of assurance. On paper you know you're saved.

On paper you know you're going to heaven. On paper you know you've got eternal life. But is it a great overpowering, rejoicing thing? It will become so, more and more, as we go through this school. Tribulation works, patience, patience, experience.

And experience ends up with a greater assurance that you're his, that heaven's your home. And then he goes on to say, expands this, it's all part of a very closely reasoned argument. Four, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

God's Love Demonstrated in Christ's Death

Yes, this assurance becomes so bright and so tinglingly joyful, because the love of God is shed abroad in your heart. And then the verses go on to say, the sort of love it is. And therefore, if that's the sort of love, is it possible that I should ever perish?

It's sweet Ebenezer, I have in review, confirms his good pleasure to see me right through. And the sort of love is this, is that word for when we were yet without strength, yet helpless, in due time Christ died for the ungodly, for a righteous man one could possibly die, but God commends his love toward us that we weren't righteous at all, but sinners.

He loved us in our sin, when we were far from him, and emptied heaven of his darling, and gave his son to die for us. And the argument is this, if he will do that for me when I was far away, when I was still an enemy, how much more, now that I'm reconciled to God, will he take care of my eternal destiny, will I be saved from wrath through him?

This is the theme. And this is the end result of the tribulations that he permits to come upon us. What an extraordinary love it is, when we were yet without strength, helpless, that was our condition.

And then when we were yet sinners, that was our character. And then when we were yet enemies, that was our attitude. And all of redemption was accomplished for us while we were still that. And now that we've responded, how much more certain can we be.