BY JAMES SMYDA
Hello to all of you again.
I think a lot of us met at the Feast either in
I also wanted to extend some greetings to several folks that I think that are watching on the internet today. One is to say “Hi” to the Wausau Wisconsin Congregation of Church of God Fellowship. I think they’re watching on the internet today or as they like to refer to themselves as the “Cheese Heads.” And I think that comes because they’re all big Green Bay Packers fans and if you’re not familiar with the Packers, they’re the team that got taken to school by a resounding defeat by the Dallas Cowboys this year. So, just to clarify that for you. I couldn’t resist that. [Laughter.]
Also just wanted to say “Greetings” to my brother John Smyda
and his wife Becky in
Several people have asked in regards to my wife and how
she’s doing. So I just wanted to give a
little bit of an update of her situation.
I think most all of you are familiar.
It was announced last week that she recently got diagnosed with
cancer. And we greatly appreciate the
prayers and also wanted to say thank you for the ton of cards and e-mails and
phone calls that we’ve gotten, probably well over a hundred by now, all
included. So we very much appreciate the
outpouring of love that we’ve received from all over the country. We got the card from the Brethren here in
Just as far as an update on her situation. As you all know she’s got colon cancer as has ultimately metastasized in other areas of her body, but she’s having surgery this next Wednesday to remove a section in her colon because it’s about to cause an obstruction. So we would definitely appreciate your prayers for her this week that that surgery could go very smoothly without any complications. The expectations they have given her is to be in the hospital approximately three to seven days depending upon how complicated the surgery is. So if everything goes very smoothly, she’ll probably be in and out in three or four days. But there’ll be a couple of week’s recovery from the surgery and at least from that perspective, we know life will go on as normal. But we greatly appreciate the prayers and the support that we’ve gotten from everyone.
To move on with the sermon, as I look around the
congregation today, I think it would probably be fair to say that most all of
you have been in the
But you probably also made some other observations through
the years. And, in fact, I think we’ve
all kind of coined some phrases around them.
And what I mean by that is there tends to be certain times of the year
where trials just tend to get more intense.
We all individually will have our different tests and trials at various
times. But kind of across the board, you
could probably say, that there are certain times of the year where things just
across the board in the
In fact, I have a close friend. I’ll just use his name. I think a lot of you are familiar with him, Mr. Rick Railston. He’s commented to me a number of times that he can kind of tell when the Holy Day Season is coming even without a calendar. And what he means by that is he can gauge it by how often the phone rings at his house because he’s a fulltime minister. And he says, “Typically about a month or two before Passover Season, the phone starts ringing off the hook.” He said, “Because there’s all manner of trials and tests and troubles and conflict and just other things that are happening.” And he said, “What tends to happen is that’ll peak up high right before the Passover Season and then typically when you get to the Holy Days, it’ll tend to kind of go back down to a roar. And then around the Fall Holy Days, it’ll spike up again. That tends to be kind of the normal ebb and flow of things.”
But he made an observation this past year and I think it’s not only himself but I myself have had similar feelings and I’ve heard this from a number of individuals that this past year seems to be a little different. And what I mean by that is he commented that, “A couple months before the Feast of Tabernacles this past year, the normal spike happened.” In other words, the phone started ringing off the hook, people started having a lot more trials and difficulties and hardships in their life. But when we got through the Fall Holy Days, it didn’t go back down to a roar. It seemed to stay at that intensity, if not just to continue at that or even tends to spike up.
Well my question for the sermon today is: Why is this?
Why have trials increased? And,
again this is—you might say—this is opinion.
I mean it’s the observations of a number of people. But it seems to be that there is an increase
in intensity of the trials that we of the
If you’d like a title for today’s sermon, it’s Why Have Trials Increased?
So what I’d like to do today is attempt to answer that question. Now, of course, the answer you’re going to get is going to be skewed by my opinion, my perspective of things, but we’re definitely going to try to base this on the Bible in coming to a conclusion as to why this might be and what we can learn from this.
So what I’d like to do first of all in taking a look at this
subject is let’s examine some common logic that you’ve probably heard many
times. In fact, you might have said a
number of times over the years in the
And the idea I’m talking about is oftentimes you may hear people say, “Well you know the reason we just get tried so much before the Passover Season, well that’s because Satan just hates these Holy Days. He hates what they stand for and he’s just really pushing extra effort in there because he’s angry and he’s working overtime to really try us and test us more and get us distracted and off course before the Holy Days.” Or you might have heard it through the years that maybe they look at the Church as an organization and they say, “Well, we’re having more success in this area or that area” or something, “and Satan’s really mad about that. He’s upset about that. He hates that so he’s trying us more as a result of that.”
Well, first of all, let’s take a look at this chain of logic and ask the question: Is that valid reasoning? Is that really a valid argument to say that these things spike up because Satan’s really in the driver’s seat? Because if you think about it, that’s really what that logic suggests is that Satan is in the driver’s seat and he’s pushing harder when he wants to and that’s why things spike up. So let’s take a look at the Bible and see what the Bible reveals to us about this particular subject.
And just to kind of give you some of the logic of where I’m going in methodology with this, we’re going to kind of look at this like a lot of you might say the top shows, the two detective shows on TV will talk about. You’ll often hear the phrase, “Motive, method, and opportunity.” When they’re looking at a criminal scene, “What are his motives? What’s his ability to carry that out and does he have the opportunity to act upon that?” We’re going to kind of look at it from that kind of a chain of logic.
So, let’s first of all look at “What are Satan’s motives? How does he think? How does he operate? What do we know about this individual from what the Bible tells us?” Well, let’s start with a very familiar Scripture I think everybody has read many times. We’re going to turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. We’re going to start reading in verse 8. Again, it’s 1 Peter chapter 5 and we’ll start in verse 8. It says
1 Peter 5:8. Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour.
So you think from an analogy standpoint, Satan is very much like a lion, like a hungry beast walking through the jungle seeking who he can kill and devour. And it’s interesting that it uses the term “devour” here. If you’ve ever researched how well lions will do with their prey, they will literally devour it. Given the opportunity, they will consume everything. They even eat the hide. They’ll absolutely leave nothing but bones left when they’re done consuming it. They literally consume. They devour every part of it.
And he’s saying that that’s what Satan’s like. He walks around like a roaring lion in the jungle, seeking who he can catch and just completely kill and devour. Now notice it doesn’t say, “Well certain times of the year he gets really fired up and he’s like this.” No, this is it all day long. He’s like this all the time. He walks around thinking who he can find, who can he get and destroy and completely devour. This is his motives, you might say. This is how he thinks, how he operates. This is just him on a regular basis. It’s not just certain times of the year. He’s like this all the time.
Let’s look at another Scripture that kind of validates this same idea here. Turn with me over to John chapter 8. Another very familiar Scripture I think we all have read many times. We’re going to read John chapter 8 and verse 44. Again, John 8 and verse 44. It says
John 8:44. “You are of your father the devil, and the desires
of your father you want to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not
stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
Again, it’s saying, “He is a homicidal murderer.” He’s like a lion walking around seeing who
can he kill, who can he devour. This is
what he wants to do. This is his motive
and what he would love to carry out. And
he would specifically love to destroy every one of us in the
What about his method? What about his ability to act upon these motives, to carry out these desires? Let’s take a look at that. Turn with me to Job chapter 41. Job chapter 41 and we’re going to actually break into verse 8. Now we’re breaking into a context and later we’re going to go back and read the beginning of this chapter. But what’s being addressed here is Leviathan which, as I think we are all familiar, is a picture of Satan. So Satan the devil is who’s being talked about here. We’re going to start in Job chapter 41 verse 8. It says
Job 41:8. Lay your hand on
him; remember the battle—never do it again!
9) Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is [vain]; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?
10) No one is so fierce that
he would dare stir him up.
In other words, we’re extremely outgunned by him. He’s overwhelmingly more powerful than us.
Jump over to verse 25. It says
Job 41:25. When he raises
himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside
themselves. 26) Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail, nor does spear,
dart, or javelin. 27) He regards iron as
straw, and bronze as rotten
wood. 28) The arrow cannot make him
flee; slingstones become like stubble to him.
29) Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins.
Now what it’s describing is the armaments of war that were popular at the time that this was written. Anyway I think it would be just as accurate to say, “Forty-four magnums don’t scare him. Machine guns do nothing to him.” You could throw grenades at him and he would laugh at it. You could shoot him with F-16 fighter jets after him, launch ICBM missiles at him—you know all the more powerful weapons of war of our time—and it still would mean nothing to him. He’s so much more powerful that that doesn’t faze him at all.
So as far as his ability to carry that out, he’s certainly powerful enough to do that. He incredibly outguns us and that’s an important lesson for all of us to remember. If we ever try to take him on, on our own, we’ve brought a knife to a gunfight and we should expect to lose because we’re up against somebody who is so more incredibly powerful than us we don’t stand a chance. We absolutely have to rely on God to protect us and on His power to overcome Satan because to try to it independently on our own, forget it! We brought a knife to a gunfight. We should expect to lose because we’re absolutely outgunned by him. See this is not an individual who has any trouble in terms of a power and his ability to carry out his desires to absolutely destroy us. He is certainly way more powerful than we are. Again, by ourselves we don’t stand a chance.
So what keeps him from doing that? What keeps him from being able to carry out exactly what he would like to do which is to destroy all of us? Let’s turn over to Job chapter 1 and we’ll see the answer to that question. It’s Job chapter 1 and we’ll start reading in verse 6. It says
Job 1:6. Now there was a day
when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among
them. 7) And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from
walking back and forth on it.” 8) And
the Lord said to Satan, “Have you
considered My servant Job, that there is
none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and
shuns evil?”
Wouldn’t you love God to give you a rating like that? For that to be how God summarized your life? This is an upright man and righteous.
Job 1:9. So Satan answered
the Lord and said, “Does Job fear
God for nothing? 10) “Have You not made
a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every
side? You have blessed the work of his
hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11) “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch
all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 12) And the Lord
said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is
in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Now notice what happened here. Satan had to get permission. God had to allow him the opportunity to do this. Yeah, he was fully powerful enough to do it. He had the motives to want to destroy him, but God had to allow it to take place. And what you also see here, see God said, “Yes. You can go do this, but here’s the stop sign.” In other words, “You can do everything, but you can’t touch his body. You can’t go after his health.”
So what does Satan do? He immediately goes out and goes as far as he’s allowed to go. We’ll summarize over the next Scriptures rather than read them. But I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. Soon all his possessions are wiped out. All his flocks are wiped out. His children are killed. All the servants are killed. And suddenly this life that all that he had—doesn’t touch his body because again God has placed a stop sign and God said that, ‘You can go this far and no further,” because God’s controlling him.
Now skip over to Job chapter 2 and see another event very similar to this. It’s Job chapter 2 and we’ll start in verse 1.
Job 2:1. Again there was a
day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to
present himself before the Lord, 2) And the Lord
said to Satan, “From where do you come?”
So Satan answered the Lord
and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth
on it.” 3) Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you
considered My servant Job, that there is
none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one that fears God and
shuns evil?
Here it is again. Wouldn’t you love this rating?
Job 2:3b. And still he holds
fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him
without cause.” 4) So Satan answered the
Lord and said, “Skin for
skin! Yes, all that a man has he will
give for his life.
I’d just like to make a comment about that particular Scripture. I’ve often commented about this in reading the Scripture that Satan is really evil. He’s not stupid. He realizes that a health trial will get to a person more intimately and more personally than most any other thing that you can do. That’s why he says, “A man will give everything that he has to protect his skin,” because that affects you more personally than anything else that can really come after you. If it’s a financial trial, you can get money somewhere else, theoretically. And if it’s a job trial, you can always try to get another job. There’s always options. Not that those are always easy. But I’m saying that those options exist. If it’s your person, that’s much more intimate and personal. That’s why Satan is going down this route.
Pick up in verse 5.
Job 2:5. “But stretch out
Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You
to Your face!” 6) And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his
life.” 7) Then Satan went out from the
presence of the Lord, and struck
Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
And this is also what happened here. Once again, Satan had to get permission to do this. God had to grant him the opportunity. He has the motive and the method all the time. He has to be granted the opportunity. So, but as soon as God moved this outside and said, “Okay, now you can go after his health,” what did Satan do? He immediately go and go as far as he could. He immediately go after and give him boils and immediately attacks his health because now God moved the stop sign and says, “You’re allowed to go further.”
And let’s also look at a New Testament example that will kind of speak to the same thing. You’re going to see a theme here that Satan always has to have permission. And God has to allow him the opportunity to try. Turn with me over to Luke chapter 22 and we’re going to start reading in verse 31. Now this is Jesus Christ speaking to Peter. And He says
Luke 22:31. And the Lord
said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has
asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
32) “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and
when you have returned to Me,
strengthen your brethren.”
And notice again, once again we have a picture here of Satan asking permission to be able to go and create trials for someone because that’s how this works. God is the restrainer and Satan has to have the permission to be able to go forward. Satan is never in the driver’s seat. It’s never about how angry Satan is. It’s always about what God allows. And to get a clear picture of this, turn back over to Job chapter 41. I mentioned earlier that we were going to come back and read the first few verses of this chapter. Again Job chapter 41 and this time we’ll start in verse 1. It said
Job 41:1. “Can you draw out
Leviathan with a hook,
Again, Leviathan is Satan.
Job 41:1b. or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? 2) Can you put a reed through his nose, or
pierce his jaw with a hook? 3) Will he
make many supplications to you?
In other words, will he come and ask permission from you because this is what he does to God.
Job 41:3b. Will he speak
softly to you? 4) Will he make a
covenant with you? Will you take him as
a servant forever? 5) Will you play with
him as with a bird, or will you leash
him for your maidens?
And I’m sure we’re all familiar with what a leash is. A leash is what you walk your dog with. This is literally how God handles Satan. He’s an evil maniacal being, don’t get me wrong, but God has a leash on him. And at times He can let more links of the chain out and allow him more slack, allow him more ability to carry out what he wants, or He can pull the chain tight and not allow him the opportunity. This means that God has taken him as a servant. Again, he’s an evil maniacal being that God will deal with ultimately, but He’s using him at this time to carry out His purposes by limiting his actions.
So if you think about it like this, now why is it that we have trials right before the Passover Season? Why is it that things always get so much more difficult and so much more intense during that time frame? Yes, Satan hates what the Passover Season stands for. He hates what the Unleavened Bread Holy Days stand for. He’s totally against all of that, but it’s not a matter of Satan getting extra angry that time of year and lashing out at us as a result of it because as we can see, he can’t do anything that God doesn’t allow. So it has to be the issue of God allowing more links for the chain and allowing Satan the opportunity to be able to have the opportunity to strike at us like that.
So why would God do that? Think about it. What is it that we’re all told to do leading up to the Passover Season? That we’re all commanded to do every year? Examine ourselves. Take an honest inventory of where we’re at. See where we’re at spiritually, what we need to work on. Doesn’t it tend to happen when we have trials oftentimes they poke at some of our weakest points? What does that tend to do if we’re paying attention? Bring them to our attention. Because think of it like this: I mean the Bible often uses the analogy of gold refined in a fire. In other words, the way you purify it is you get it really hot. And what happens? All the impurities and the junk floats to the top. So it can be scraped off and dealt with. That’s what trials tend to do for us. They tend to put us under pressure and oftentimes what will happen is Satan’s going to go after our weak points. And he pokes at those areas, but oftentimes when that’s poked at, I mean like “Wow! I didn’t realize I had that problem. I didn’t realize I had that shortcoming.” And all of a sudden we have to take a look at it and deal with it. So that’s the real reason why it all increases around this time of year because realize that trials can do one of two things. It all depends upon how we choose to respond to it. Trials can destroy us and get us off track and off in a ditch. If we ignore God and try to handle it on our own, that’s what happens. Or they can strengthen us. Through the trial by fire we can be drawn closer to God. We can start seeing our weaknesses and go, “Wow! I didn’t realize I had those problems. That’s kind of a wake-up call for me.” And start dealing with that and, again, honestly examining ourselves for the time here.
We’ll often think about it prior to the Passover, I mean to the Fall Holy Days. Again, it’s not so much commanded to examine ourselves as it is for these Spring Holy Days, but again, if we respond appropriately to a trial, what happens? We draw closer to God because we’re trying to have His strength, His power to help us get through it. And sometimes they’re really hard to bear. And we need that extra help. We need that extra power to help us get through it and to cope with it. And again, if we respond to it appropriately, what does it do? It tends to strengthen us spiritually and bring us closer to God. If we don’t respond to it appropriately, we push God away and we wind up off in a ditch. But again, that’s an issue of how we choose to deal with it.
So again, when we look at our own trials and how things happen in this regard, we have to look at it from the standpoint not of Satan being in the driver’s seat, the question is more, “Why is God allowing this? What might I need to learn from this?” Because the correct way for us to look at our trials is asking God, “What might I need to learn from this? What might be the lessons I need to get from this?” And don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting for a moment that everybody who has a difficult trial that they have to go through is a horrible sinner or I think God is chastising. I’m not suggesting that. There’s always lessons involved in it.
And sometimes those lessons are bigger than the individual that’s being tried with. And I guess, let me just share some examples with you. As I mentioned earlier today that my wife recently got diagnosed with cancer and as you can imagine that’s been a very difficult trial for both of us. We’ve been tried by fire recently. But I quickly realized as the situation began unfolding, it’s having an impact on a lot more people than just us, than just the two of us.
My wife and I host a congregation for
This lady also wrote in this letter—there’s a couple
families. We’re the host of the
congregation but in just handling the duties, there’s several families that
kind of help us out a great deal and just step up like that with duties and
such. In the letter the person commented
how they wanted to help and off load and be of assistance to us in any way they
could. She actually stated in the
letter; she said, “As the children of
And again, we’ve gotten cards. We’ve gotten calls. We’ve gotten letters from people all over the
country. This is transcending numerous organizations
that have all reached out to us regardless of affiliation because what’s so
common today? “Can’t talk to you,
because you’re not in my group.” Kind of
a silly attitude, but it happens a great deal in the
Again, trials can have a much larger impact than just the person being affected. So please understand, in line with what I’m talking about today, I’m not suggesting at all that every time someone has a difficult trial that they’ve been a horrible sinner who is being chastised. Sometimes there’s much greater effects that may be taking place.
But the way for us to look at situations like that is, again, to be asking ourselves, “What might I need to learn from this? What might I need to learn and to grow from the situation I’m going to be facing?” And not just look at it from the standpoint, “Oh, Satan’s striking out against me.” Oh, he very well may be. And absolutely his desire is to destroy you, to get you off in the ditch, to get you distracted, and have a bad attitude. That’s exactly what he’s trying to accomplish.
But the real question is: Why is God allowing that to happen? And what does God want me to learn as a result of what I’m going through? Because realize we tend to look at trials from the subject—from the standpoint, I should say—of pain. Now we are very physical human beings and being physical beings, we look at things physically. It’s just natural. And we don’t tend to like pain. I tend to jokingly refer to it as I like to think of myself as allergic to pain. I don’t enjoy pain. I break out in a rash when I have pain. [Laughter.] I don’t like it at all, but that’s how we look at it physically.
God looks at it from a totally different perspective. And before we kind of look at some Scriptures, I just want to share a personal story with you. As was obvious when I walked up here, I have a disability. I was born with spinal bifida. It’s something I’ve had all of my life. Now when you cope with something like that across your life time, you have your ups and downs. You have your times where you’re totally fine with it. You accept it and it’s just life. And you have your times where it’s, “Why me? Why was I chosen to go through this? Why am I having to deal with this? What’s God doing to me?” That type of thing.
Well, there was a point in my senior year at Ambassador in Big Sandy that I was going through a “Why me?” period. I was kind of down in the mouth about it, but I didn’t tell anybody about this. I hadn’t shared this with any close friends or nobody else really knew because I hadn’t expressed it to anybody. So I knew the story I am about to tell you, God had to have orchestrated and pulled this off because nobody knew.
Well it wound up I was at services one day. And my roommate in college happens to come to me and say, ‘Hey, I want to introduce you to somebody.” And he pulls me over and he introduces me to an elderly gentleman there in the Big Sandy Congregation. And to fully appreciate the story, you need to understand it. As this played out, I was probably in my early to mid-twenties. This gentleman was probably in his early to mid-seventies. He’s old enough to be my grandfather, easily. And this gentleman is actually kind of, you might say hunched over his walker. And he’s holding the walker and he’s standing up, but he’s a real lively individual. He just had a real spitfire personality.
And we get up and I’m talking to him. Within a minute or two my roommate happens to get distracted and walks away. I don’t remember why, but he kind of disappears from the conversation. And then out of the blue—now I’ve just met this gentleman. He just barely knows my name at this point. He stops and looks at me and he goes, “Sonny, you know I’m getting older these days and I don’t get around as well as I used to. And sometimes you know that gets me down, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. But it dawned on me the other day that God is not in the fix-it business. That God’s in the character building business.” He goes, “And if we just be patient with Him and do things His way, like He’s going to make us God beings and we get to live forever without problems anyway, so what’s it all matter?” And I kind of stood there stunned. And I was like, “Okay, You’re sending me a message because there’s no way this guy could have known how bad I needed to hear that.” God also understood me pretty well that I would listen to a seventy-five year old man hunched over his walker where if my roommate had tried to say that, I’d say, “What do you know?” and would have blown him off.
But realize—and also, let me clarify one other thing. In saying that God is not in the fix-it business, I’m not in any way taking away from God’s role as a Healer. What it is I was telling Mr. Buchanan before services today, I’m not supposed to be alive up here having this conversation with you. It’s very rare for someone with my diagnosis to have the life that I have. And that’s directly attributed. I can tell you stories. I won’t take the time to do it today, without God’s intervened and healed numerous times to get me to this point. I’m not talking away from that role or saying He doesn’t heal.
What I’m saying is He is far more interested in our character development and how we are being developed like Him to serve in His Kingdom than He always is with our physical comfort because, again, we tend to look at things from physical eyes from a physical perspective, from a perspective of pain. And we don’t like it. We want it to go away. Where He looks at it from the perspective of a spiritual development and how He wants to use us for eternity and says, “Well, maybe this is necessary to prepare this person for the role I want them to fulfill. Even if they don’t like it and they think it’s a horrible thing to go through right now, later they’ll understand.” That’s how He looks at things.
That’s why He inspired a Scripture that’s oftentimes very poignant for us to read or think about when we are going through a difficult trial. And you’re probably ahead of me. So let’s turn to James chapter 1 verse 2. James chapter 1 and verse 2, it says
James 1:2. My brethren,
count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3) Knowing that the testing of your faith
produces patience. 4) But let patience
have its perfect work, that you may
be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Now I’m willing to bet if you’ve been in the Church for many years and have been through a number of trials, there were times you looked at this Scripture and “Count this for joy? What I’m going through now, count this for joy?” Because, again, we’re looking from the perspective of pain. Well see God, again, is looking from the perspective of a character building business, of what He’s trying to accomplish in our lives and that can be painful and unpleasant for us, but it’s a blessing because He’s looking at the ultimate result of where we’re going to go. We tend to look at it from the perspective of how it feels right now and I don’t like it and I want it to go away. But we have to try to look at things from His perspective because that’s the purpose of this life is to become like Him, to be molded in His image.
God tends to look at things as a loving parent. And I’m sure some of you have raised children. If you have children or grandchildren, there have been times you had to discipline the child. You had to spank them. You had to give them some type of discipline that they didn’t like. And they may have squealed and said, “I hate you Mommy. I hate you Daddy. I don’t love you anymore.” And you know that they’ll forget that. That that’ll change tomorrow. But you realize at the time, they didn’t understand why they were having to go through it. They didn’t realize why this was happening. They didn’t like it. But as a loving parent, you knew it was necessary because you wanted them to grow up to be loving, good functional adults. You wanted their lives to be successful and you realized there were things they had to learn to make that happen. So, as a parent, you did things that they didn’t always understand. They didn’t always appreciate. But you did it out of love. You see that’s exactly how God looks at things.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. I mean it’s just like one page over in my Bible. Hebrews chapter 12 and we’ll start in verse 5.
Hebrews 12:5. And you have
forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the
Lord, nor be discouraged when you
are rebuked by Him; 6) For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges
every son whom He receives.”
God is like a loving parent. And what does a loving parent do? They correct their children when they get out of line because they love their children. Even though the child may think this is an unpleasant thing and totally hate it when it’s happening, they want that child to grow up to be a successful adult. They want them to have good character. That’s exactly what God wants of us. He’s trying to mold us in His image to be successful in His Kingdom and sometimes that means painful experiences that we don’t enjoy. That’s one of the reasons why He tries and tests us so much. Yes, sometimes from our perspective it gets old. We get tired of it, but we have to realize that’s when He’s trying to accomplish and try to get ourselves in line with that.
So let’s go back and look at, since we kind of have a
context to place this in, our original question was: Why have trials seemed to increase? Why does it seem to get more intense over the
last year than maybe it’s been in previous years? Again, that’s a speculative opinion of a number
of people, but why might that be? Well,
if you think about it, let’s look at the context of where the
Turn with me over to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3 and, as you might guess,
we’re going to the letter to
Revelation 3:14. “And to the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the
Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15) “I know your works, that you are neither
cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold
or hot. 16) “So then, because you are
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will [spew] you out of My mouth.
Which I think it’s a little more accurately translated by some other translations of the Bible, “I am about to vomit you out of My mouth.” Now, this is graphic, but I mean this is the idea of what this is getting at. Think about this. When you vomit, what do you do? You’re taking the contents of your stomach and you’re ejecting them outside your body. Now if you think about it from that context, this is Christ who’s talking, “I’m about to spit you—I’m about to eject you out of My body.” Now what’s the body of Christ? That’s the Church, right? That’s those who have been called to be His firstfruits. And He is about to eject us out of His body. That’s really bad. He’s about to say, “I’ve had enough and I’m going to eject you out of My firstfruits.” So it’s something we very much need to take seriously.
Let’s pick up then in verse 17.
Revelation 3:17. “Because
you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not
know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18) “I counsel you to buy from Me gold
refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be
clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint
your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19) “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20) “Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Now before I comment on this further, let’s take a little
bit of a look at just the whole idea of Church Eras. What I mean by that is, as you know, we’ve
long held in the
And I think we would all firmly agree that we are solidly in
the Laodicean Era. Now for that to be
true, what that has to mean is that the overwhelming number of the
But think of this from God’s perspective. If He’s up in heaven, He’s looking down at His people and He’s seeing a group of people that He says are in a horrible condition that He can’t use, but He’s not willing that any should perish. He wants to do everything He can to save everyone, because He wants everyone to be in His Kingdom. Now He’ll certainly allow us the opportunity to behave ourselves out of the group, for us to be able to show with our behavior that He can’t use us. And He’ll eventually pull the plug on that. But it’s His desire to have all of us in His Kingdom. That’s what He’s wants to take place.
So if you’re looking down at a group of people who are really “lukewarm,” as He describes them—in other words, they got one foot in the Church and they got one foot in the world—and they’re totally blind to this and delusional about it and really kind of standing on the fence not totally committed either way. And if you know time is running out, and you know there’s a point here where you got to make two difficult decisions. One, as the tribulation starts, you’ve got to decide who you’re going to protect and who you’re not. And more importantly than that, before it’s all done, you’ve got to decide who’s going to be in the Bride and who isn’t. And you have to try to get folks to get—because you said this middle condition just isn’t going to work. So we’ve got to get them to go one way or the other, one of two buckets. Either they’ll make it or be disqualified and stop straddling the fence.
What’s a very common way to do that, if you think about it? You turn the heat up. You start basically turning the heat up to try them more, to try to get them to see the condition they’re in, to do something about it. See my answer and you can say that this is my opinion and speculation and I’ll certainly couch it like that. The reason I think the trials have increased: I think the clock’s running out. I think we’re getting close enough to the end that God’s having to make some decisions. And He says, “Okay, I can’t take them the way they are. So let Me turn the heat up and try to get people to commit and be zealous and go the right direction and start dealing with the issues inside themselves and overcoming because I want them to be protected. I want them to be in My Kingdom.” He’s a loving parent trying to correct and to deal with us. I think it’s one of the reasons why that’s happening.
Now if this reasoning is valid—and, again, speculation, opinion; I’ll certainly say it is that—but if this is valid, what this would mean is, what we should expect from here on out is this intensity is to stay if not continue to increase because, again, if the clock is running out and God is definitely trying to get as many to straighten out as He can, what’s He logically going to do? Continue to turn the heat up, because He wants us to pick the right way. He wants to make it uncomfortable standing there in the middle. In other words: Pick a side! Go one way or the other and stop straddling the fence is what He’s trying to get us to do.
So the question that we should all be asking God is if there is anything in my life that I need to overcome that would keep me out of Your Kingdom if I don’t, please show it to me. Please show me what I need to change, what I need to overcome so I can successfully be in Your Kingdom so that my life will turn out to be a success and I won’t lose or give up the greatest opportunity that ever has been and ever will be offered to anyone who will ever live. It doesn’t get any better than being a part of the Bride of Christ and we all have that opportunity. It’s ours to win or lose. In other words, we’ve been invited. We’ve been given the chance and we determine how it turns out by our behavior. It’s ours to win or lose, to obtain or to give up. That’s how we need to look at this.
But see this same philosophy, with what I think God is doing now, is exactly what He’s going to do for the tribulation period. As you know, one of the things that’s prophesied, there is the martyrdom of saints. In other words, those that are not protected will really have to go through some really hard times. Well, I think the objective there, as we’re about to look in the Bible, is to turn the heat up so hot that this middle category just doesn’t exist anymore. In other words, the straddling one foot in and one foot out and not totally committed either way just won’t even be an option. And let’s just take a look at this. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 and we’re going to pick up in verse 13.
Revelation 12:13. Now when
the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who
gave birth to the male Child. 14) But the woman was given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is
nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the
serpent.
(Sorry, I was getting a little dry there.)
Revelation 12:15. So the
serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he
might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16) But the earth helped the woman, and the
earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed
out of his mouth.
Now notice God put a stop sign there. Satan absolutely wanted to destroy the people fleeing, but God said, “No, I’m not going to allow you to do it.” He always has the motive and the method. He was denied the opportunity to be able to absolutely destroy. But what we’re talking about is this is a picture of those fleeing to the place of safety who are then protected from Satan’s wrath during this period. But notice the next verse in verse 17.
Revelation 12:17. And the
dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her
offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
So He’s saying he went out purposely to persecute all of those who were not protected who were left behind.
And notice it mentions he was enraged. He was very angry. But as we mentioned before, that’s never the real issue. He may be extremely angry, but that’s not really the most important issue, because, again, he can’t do anything without God’s permission.
Here’s the real issue. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 7. It’s Daniel chapter 7 and we’re going to read verse 25. And we’re breaking into a context here, but what’s being described in these verses is the beast. That’s the context of what’s being discussed. Again, Daniel 7 verse 25.
Daniel 7:25. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most
High, and shall intend to change times and law.
And here’s the issue.
Daniel 7:25b. Then the saints shall be given into his hand
for a time and times and half a time.
In other words, God will remove the restraints. So again, that’s always Satan’s intention is to destroy us, but God’s going to allow him the opportunity to bring about the martyrdom of saints, to bring about the persecution upon those that are left behind. But, again, we can absolutely guarantee that God is still going to have limits on that, because, again, what’s God’s perspective? He wants people to be in His Kingdom. But what He is doing is making this middle category of one foot in the Church, one foot in the world no longer an option, because think about it. If your life’s at stake for what you believe in, half-heartedly kind of going along with it is not really an option anymore, because you’re either going to be completely committed to it and wind up losing your life in the process—in other words, you’re very zealous for this because you’re willing to die for it—or you’re going to wind up being assimilated into the beast—in other words, walking away from everything that we believed in. So it basically takes this in-between category of one foot straddling the fence on each side and really does away with it. He basically winds up forcing, through increasing the heat, for us to go one way or the other. Then it makes it very clear for Him who’s going to make it into His Kingdom, who isn’t. And He forces us to go one way or the other.
And I think that’s what we’re seeing starting to play out is the increasing of the heat with trials to help us to go one way or the other. “Get hot or get cold. This lukewarm is just not going to work” is what He’s telling us.
Now what I’d like to do at this point is we all know from
what Paul tells us that the Old Testament, all its examples, were written for
all of us upon whom the ends of the ages have come to learn lessons from. What I’d like to do that we can kind of look
at some things that we might need to learn to improve our own lives is some
lessons from an Old Testament example that you may not have thought about like
this one in this context, but an individual that I think you could easily say
was a Laodicean or was in a Laodicean type of condition. And we’re going to see the parallels in this
as we look at this. Turn with me over to
Genesis chapter 19. We’re going to look
at the example of
Again, Genesis chapter 19 and before we read this, I just
want to give a little bit of background.
I think a lot of us are probably familiar with this already, but, as you
know,
But before we kind of go into some of Lot’s example, I’d
like to just kind of quickly rehearse some of the things we know about the
Laodicean condition, kind of character traits and attitudes that we oftentimes
associate with being a Laodicean. One is
again just the lukewarm attitude that we’ve talked a lot about. Another is notice it mentioned in the letter
to
Another thing we oftentimes will look at, as I mentioned before that the Church is prophesied in our time to be “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold,” in other words, how people treat one another will really wane as far as their actions, actually living what they believe.
I think a common thing that happens today that we would all
agree with is a very common pitfall in the
Another thing that’s oftentimes referred to in terms of a
Laodicean condition is what you might call the Parable of the Pharisee and the
Tax Collector in the
I won’t go into all the meaning of the word “
Now let’s start reading in Genesis chapter 19 and in verse 1.
Genesis 19:1. Now the two
angels came to
We’re going to come back to this, but notice he’s making them unleavened bread. There’s a significance to that. We’re going to come back to that.
Genesis 19:4. Now
[therefore] they lay down, the men of the city, the men of
In other words, they wanted to rape them.
Genesis 19:6. So
Now notice that as well.
From the perception of the people there this guy was always judging them
from their perspective. Again, this
wasn’t a one time. They said, “He keeps
doing this.” So apparently this was
something
Genesis 19:9b. and he keeps
acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man
Now I won’t take the time to go into all the parallels
between our society today and what
And it’s something that’s kind of like a frog in a
pond. I should say not a pond but you
put the frog in like boiling water and like slowly turn the heat up and he
won’t jump out because they slowly adjust to it and it becomes considered
normal and no big deal. Well the same
thing can happen to us and this is exactly what happened to
But notice what happens in the story. Now the Bible doesn’t really tell us exactly
when
And he makes them unleavened bread. Now why is he making unleavened bread and not just making regular bread? You know in probability, this is probably during the Days of Unleavened Bread that this took place. That means he understands the Holy Days and he’s making some effort to observe them and to obey God. He has the knowledge of the truth. He understands a lot of the doctrine and he’s making at least some effort to abide by this.
But now he gets under pressure. The people of the city surround his
house. He’s also in a very difficult
situation. How does he handle it? There’s no mention whatsoever in this that
No, he’s got it all under control. He’s going to work it out himself. So he steps out to handle the situation. He’s going to negotiate his way through it. And what’s his solution? “Here, take my daughters. Rape them all night long if you want to. Just leave me and the angels—the important guys—alone.”
Okay, he has knowledge and you could say, “He understands the truth,” or whatever in that regard. But look at his behavior. It’s reprehensible. I mean would you want to be his daughters? I mean think about that.
Now I’ve often heard that at least over the years in growing
up in the
This is something that should have—honestly even if he didn’t have the ethics to care about his own children, it should have scared him to death the idea even of wanting to do. And here’s why I say that. As one of my instructors at Ambassador used to love to put it, ‘You’ll see it’s about the principles in the Bible that God has an ongoing track record of doing unto us as we have done to other people.” Or as Matthew 7 verse 2 puts it,
Matthew 7:2b. and with the
measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
The very idea of taking someone this vulnerable and throwing them out in that situation should have been frightening to him because you should have been thinking, “I don’t want this measured back to me. I don’t want God to do this unto me. So I don’t want to be doing this to other people.” But see here we have someone who is delusional and in his own condition. It was like, ‘Hey, I can do whatever I want to. I can get away with it.” Because, again, he’s not being realistic at all. He’s depending upon himself to be able to handle the situation and that’s creating this horrible mess.
But also look at just how this society affected him that he
got callous enough that he would do this.
And even more than that, look at his wife. Now you can definitely say that we have the
Reader’s Digest version of the story, you might say. We don’t have all the details that play out. But there’s no mention in here at all of—
But see remember Christ told us, “To always look at fruits.” The way you’ll sort things out is by looking at fruits. It’s not by knowledge. It’s not by how many Scriptures you can quote. It’s by how people act. He said, “You will know them by their fruits.” And the list of fruits are a list of character traits that are discerned in how we treat each other.
So you can tell a great deal about a person by how they will
treat someone who is vulnerable. In
other words, in this situation in the way the society was set up,
Turn to verse 30. What you’re going to see here is Matthew 7 verse 2 in action. With the same measure he used, it got measured back to him. Verse 30 says
Genesis 19:30. Then
Now think about what happened here. They basically participated in help getting him drunk. He’s drugged. He doesn’t know when they started or when they left. This is the Old Testament equivalent of what we call today “date rape.” They might as well have given him rohypnol, where they could have their way with him, and he would have no memory of it, and they could move on. He got raped himself. With the same measure he used, it got measured back to him by the hands of the very people that he was about to throw out there defenseless to the crowd. Again, understanding some of the truth, the very idea should have frightened him if he had had proper ethics, if he had had his life in order.
But also think about what this story says about how this
whole environment affected the entire family.
I mean, these girls—well, first of all, look at
Again, this is a man who was pointing out to the people in
But at the same time, here is a guy who had the knowledge of
the truth—at least a decent amount of it—and he’s acting like this. And, again, you could say this is my opinion,
but
But also what happened with his daughters growing up in this environment. The idea of “Hey, let’s get Dad drunk and have sex with him,” they had to have come from some pretty hard exposure to the carnal society around them that they were hardened enough to the point to be willing to do that and to have these thoughts.
Well see we today live in a very perverted, very severe
society around us. And it’s very easy,
if we’re not careful and not constantly striving to come out of it, to let it
affect us. It’s like
We can allow ourselves to fall into the same kind of
condition. In fact, the letter to
So what we need to be doing as Christians is looking at all of this and asking the question to God: “If there is anything in my life that I need to be overcoming that would keep me out of Your Kingdom, please show me what it is. Do with me what You have to to enable me to see that so that my life will be a success so that I can make it into Your Kingdom.” Because, Brethren, we have been given the greatest opportunity that ever has been and ever will be offered to anyone who will ever live. It doesn’t get any better than this. We need to be doing everything that we possibly can to make sure that we don’t blow it.
Transcribed by kb