Christ is the Mystery no. 97

Attributes of a Son of God no 19

They will be tried by God

July 7, 2013

Brian Kocourek

 

 

James 1:2-8 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.

 

Now “all joy’ means you can’t add anything to it, the whole thing is joy, period. Therefore it is pure 100% joy. And we see that James is saying count it a 100% total pure joy experience when you fall into divers testings. Now, who in the world would accept this statement as sensible in man’s way of thinking. But we are not asked to see things with man’s perspective but with God’s perspective. And James is saying that when we are put to the test, the many various tests that God places us under, we are to consider it nothing less than pure joy. Why?


3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But then he adds, 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.


So we are talking about a perfect work of God here that patience is to produce in us.

 

The Apostle Paul said in Romans  5:1:  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience worketh experience; and experience worketh hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.


The Weymouth Translation is a little more plain here. It says: 2 We exult in hope of some day sharing in God’s glory, 3. And not only so, we exult in such afflictions as is ours; knowing as we do, afflictions produce endurance; 4 Endurance produces ripeness of character, and ripeness of character produces hope: 5 And this hope never disappoints because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

 

The Moffatt” translation: 1 Through him we have access into this grace wherein we have our standing, 2 And we triumph in the hope of the glory of God; 3 Not only so but we triumph even in our troubles, knowing that troubles produce endurance, 4 And endurance character That’s the second time you notice that is mentioned.) and character produces hope, 5 A hope which never disappoints, since God’s love floods our hearts through the Holy Ghost given to us.

“The Way Translation” which is a “Moody Bible Press Publication”, not linked to the group who calls themselves the way, because they are the wrong way, but This Moody translation says, 2 We exult in the hope of something higher yet, the glory of God’s presence. 3 I will further say that we actually exult in such afflictions 4 Knowing as we do that afflictions develop unflinching endurance, and endurance develops tested strength, and tested strength the habit of hope. 5 This hope is no delusive one, as proved by the fact that the brimming river of God’s love has already over-flowed into our hearts, on-driven by the Holy Ghost.


Notice that although some words may differ, the main focus is “that hope which never disappoints” because of God’s love overflowing in our hearts.

 

Notice that this part of Scripture starts with hope. It says, “We exult in the hope of seeing God’s Glory.” And we know that the Glory of God is His Doxa which is His Opinion, assessment, and judgment.

Therefore, we hope in having the very mind of God is what we are seeing in this Scripture. Now, It begins with faith, then moves into Hope and becomes fulfilled in Love because God is Love.

 

Notice again it says, “We stand in grace, and we hope for the glory of God.” Now, what does that mean? The word ‘hope’ means ‘earnest expectation’. And we know that the Glory of God is the Doxa of God which is His very thoughts, opinion, assessment or the way He values things, and the judgments He expresses when expressing His opinion.


You see, the fact that we must go through severe testing should not even matter considering the payload that you will have once you have passed through those trials.


Now, the facts are that we look at the character of William Branham or Jesus and we say, “That’s wonderful character. I want that.” And you can have it, but you have to go through the same process that William Branham and Jesus went through to get it.

 

Hebrews 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation (or comfort), who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope (earnest expectation) set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the our soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.

 

The Bible says, a trial will take place, and in spite of our prayer of faith, God will not answer our prayers immediately; but, instead of things getting better, they will seem to remain at best the same or at worst they may seem to get worse for us. That’s exactly what Scripture says.

But what are we told in God’s Word? “We exult in such trials and afflictions that are ours.” The Bible says that is what this man did. When the afflictions come he got all shouting happy about them, too. That is one thing I’ve never been able to figure out. People, get excited when things are going the way they want them to go and they shout, and get all emotional you know, and stuff like that. And they will come to church and run the isles and shout and scream and say they are having a good ole time, but when the trials come, why then are they so quiet? And why does their countenance fall so flat and become so grumpy?

 

What happened to God? The Scripture tells us we are to exult! We are to exult in the trials no differently than we are to exult in the promises. We are supposed to be filled with “PURE JOY, ALL Joy!!! “Whoopee!” hallelujah!!! Just as happy and full of joy as when the blessing fall on you.

 

Now, look! No man can add to or take away from this Book without a consequence. So don’t mess with it. Then how are you going to take this out of here when it says that you are to be filled with pure 100% joy when you are facing the trial of your faith.

 

So, If you can shout, “Glory to God!” over being  healed; or when God answers your needs as your provider, then you are duty-bound to shout, “Glory to God!” when you are tested and tried, because that is exactly what the Scripture is telling us to do here in James chapter 5.

 

 

In Hebrews 11:17-19, we read, “By faith, when Abraham faith was tried when he was told to offer up Isaac: 18 and he knew the promise Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.


Let me ask you this question. When was Abraham tried by God? Before God gave him the promise or after God gave him the promise? Abraham was tried ‘after’ God gave him the promise. If you think the promise of God will keep away the trial, you have missed the boat. The promise of God will bring the trial; it says so right here in the Book.


Let’s see what else the Book says. You know when It says, “It is written: in the Book, It doesn’t mean somewhere in the Bible. According as I understand it, (I have been told by scholars!) It means just exactly as It was written of the cross: “It is finished.”
“It is written” is identical in meaning; that is, not so much the meaning as a word for word translation, but the thought. “It is written”—“It is finished”—“I have spoken,” said God. That’s It! And It will stand, and It is the only thing that will stand. We had better stand with It.

In Ps 105:19. we read: Until the time that his Word came: the Word of the Lord tried him.
God said to Joseph: “Sun, moon, stars, bow down! Sheaves bow down!” He came and told his brothers and they said, “You really think so?” And Joseph said, “I’m just as sure that is what the dream showed as I am standing here talking to you.” They said, “We’ll find out.”  So, you need God for the trouble which comes from believing His Word? Joseph got hated. That’s a nice feeling. Joseph got sold into slavery. He got lied about…falsely accused...persecuted…put in prison. Until the Word that God gave him by promise personally came to pass, he was tried and tested by that same Word.


In Hebrews 6:15 concerning Abraham we read: And so, after he had (notice it was after he had) patiently endured, Then (and only then) he obtained the promise.

 

Notice, God’s Word tried him. Now, why is it that we can exult? Why is it that we can exult in the trials of our lives and take the trials in an exultant, rejoicing manner? In the first place, we have the measure of faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for this very thing and cannot operate without; it can move mountains and raise the dead. That ought to take care of it. Also, it puts things in the past tense, because God cannot fail, giving us the rest of faith while the trials go on. That’s assurance.


Now, that is not the all of it. There is another part of this promise that we have here. The scripture adds something else about this. It says, “we know something.” And that’s the problem with Christians today, they don’t seem to know anything, hardly, anymore. Now the old-timer’s did. The Puritans knew the Word of God, and it carried them through all there trials, and public rejection and mockery. But our modern people, they don’t know for anything hardly concerning the promises of God and how god operates. They have become just milk toast soft, and luke warm. 

 

Now, what is it that they knew? They knew that tribulation works patience. That’s what they knew. They understood why God tries our faith, and how He does it, and to what end results we should expect because of it. And they knew that we must go God’s way if we are to arrive at the joyful situation God promised us concerning them. They knew that the trial of their faith worked patience; they knew that the only way anybody can get patience is by being tried.

There’s no other way period, because that is God’s way. You don’t have to like it but you can’t change it. So you might as well get used to it.

 

Heb 10:32-39 says: But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated… What does illuminated mean? It means you have become more knowledgeable about something, which we call becoming enlightened.

 

 PSALM 119:130a says, “The entrance of thy word giveth light.” (Ps 119:130a). It is not the Holy Ghost that gives you light because He is a Person, but he brings you the Word of God and the word of God is what gives you light. which gives you the light; because, if you have the Holy Ghost and shut yourself away from the Word, you won’t get light, even though you’ve got the Holy Ghost. You say, “Can I do that?” You’re capable of shutting off the things of God. You are! The Word brings light. “The entrance of thy Word giveth (or bringeth) light.” And Psalm 110 tells us the word of God is a light unto our feet. So it I sGod’s Word that gives us light.


And It says in Hebrews 10: 32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated (After the Word of promise came to you.) ye endured a great fight of afflictions; 33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.

 

When you are a Christian they are going to go after you, for your own sake, because you love God; or they are going to fight someone else that you have conversation with, you are living with, or associated with, and they will fuss at you because of that. That is exactly what Paul told you. Now, he said, “Ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyful the spoiling of your goods, knowing…” Heb 10:34

 

Now the Bible says that you rejoice because you know something. You take joyful the fact you’re spoiled. Why? They knew something; they knew something. They knew that they had in heaven

 

Hebrews 10:35 A better and enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence (which is faith in the Word of God) which hath great recompense of reward.” 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. When do you get the promise? After you are tried and endure.


Now, for years we have been taught “you don’t need to suffer,” and they appeal to your greed. They take out a check and say, “Fill in this check for fifty or a hundred. God will give it back a hundred-fold.” And I’m not saying you can’t get healed. I’m not saying God’s not doing something for you. But I am saying that, just before you get the promises of God, you are going to suffer, because God said so. There aren’t any shortcuts. [There] never have and never will be. See? It says that ‘after’… You say, “I need healing.” God says, “You need patience.” “I have to have some money.” God says, “You need patience.”

 “I need to get my family in shape.”God says, “You need patience.” I’m going to tell you one thing: I’ve never seen God back up from His Word yet. He backs It up. He does not back off from It. And I never saw a man to beat Him yet, either. That’s why one day a lot of folks are going to stand in judgment and say, “I prophesied.” And He will say, “So did Balaam.” “We healed the sick,” they said. “You sure did, but so did Judas.” He’ll say, “I never knew you.” [Mt 7:33] God only has respect for those who preach the word. You stick to His Word, because that is what God says.


Over here in the book of James you have the very same thing. James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all (pure) joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.


It says here you will always want things all your life, until you get patience. Once you get patience you will never lack another thing. Whew! That’s tough preaching; I think we all had better go home. That’s the lesson that Job learned, isn’t it? We won’t read about Job. We read about Job the other night. We will read about him later on, maybe.


Dt 8:2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.


Now, don’t blame it on the devil. Hey! Who is your shepherd? Huh? God. Then, why blame the devil? Whose hand are you in? God’s. Then, why blame the devil? I’m not telling you to blame God. [I’m] just trying to show you something. “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord…” Notice It says ‘way’; not ‘ways’, but ‘way’. There is one way God leads: ‘way’ not ‘ways’; and there is only one end to it. Our way will bring many things which are various forms of death, but God’s way brings one thing. 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee (through) these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, [and] to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only…


What happened when they just wanted loaves and fishes from God? They backslid, didn’t they? They couldn’t take the teaching; couldn’t take the rest. You don’t live by bread alone. You don’t live just by these promises here. You’ve got to live by what goes with the promise. See?

You know what? That’s the way man always does things. He takes everything out of the promises of God, and he tries to put it right where he wants it. You can’t do that. [It] won’t work. Look at verse 15: “Who led thee through that great wilderness… Who? Who’s leading? God’s leading! Where is He leading them to? The Promised Land! Oh, isn’t it beautiful? What do you want? You want the promise? So did they.

 

How’re you going to get it? “Oh, I’m going to pray the prayer of faith. Hallelujah! And I’m going to go flying on in.” Oh, are you? I’ve got news (for you): Someone with a shotgun knows how to get those high-flying birds. You know the Bible? There’s not only the place where It says, “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” but it also says: “They walk.” It also says “They sit,” and they also “stand,” too. It also says “they get cast down.” Huh? Who? (That’s God.) “…Led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions.”

 

“Oh,” you say, “I can’t read it that way, because I don’t like It.” “Who led thee through a beautiful, lush valley, so quiet, so sweet, and there were birds and butterflies, and lots of water, and there was that money tree; and, of course, there was even a cigarette tree…(If you don’t think that is bad for you.) and a little wine for your stomach’s sake.”

 

Is that what It says? Why read It that way?  You say, “I don’t read It that way.”
Then, don’t get the connotations as though you read It that way; or don’t ignore It, because God does not change His ways.

 

The Bible warns us in  Eccl 3:14-15: 4 I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.


God does not change His ways. It says Dt 8:15-16: 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, [wherein were] fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where [there was] no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
(16) Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, (in order) that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good…


But you say, “God’s got a funny way about doing things good.” That’s why He said Isaiah 55]: 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


Now this process of developing faith is not actually a strange desire of God to put us through. See? Because a man with God in back of him, and a measure of faith, can be patient. He can’t lose, because he is “more than conqueror,” he’s invulnerable, he’s invincible, if he only knew it. For God to try us is not strange!

 

When God leads us His way, it is because we are equipped and well able to go God’s way, because God is not a ruthless tyrant. He is a good God Who does good things.


Now, what’s the next step? The next step is that this man endures; and by his endurance becomes patient. And, because he is patient, something else happens. And the Bible calls it ‘maturity’, or ‘ripeness of character’. And, how is it going to mature? We are going to be tried as we have never been tried in our lives, so get ready for it.

 

This is the most characterless age that God has ever allowed to be produced in this world. If you can find character today, brother/sister, you are finding the highest thing in this world. But you can’t find it today. The churches don’t have it, and the world doesn’t have it. The kids in school said they had a right to cheat, be prompted, and to make all that money, if he could get away with it. It was just too bad he got caught. They said, “The government is full of lying, gouging, chiseling, murdering, but you know what? The church hasn’t got character either. Why? Because the church has been taught, “You don’t need to suffer.” Now, come on, you know what I’m talking about. They’re taught a short cut. My brother/sister, character cannot come apart from suffering.

It says in Heb 5:7-9 concerning Jesus: 7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (He was not heard because he cried and sobbed and fasted—he feared); 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, (How? By suffering…to get patience…to get character…and only then) he became the author of eternal salvation…


Even Jesus Christ had to suffer to develop character.

 

I PETER 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (WUEST which faith was examined for the purpose of being approved): 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of [your] souls. 10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should come] unto you: 11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;


This speaks of an end-time trial of our Faith or revelation that is ordained to bring froth Glory, and a passing of the test.


1 Peter 4:12 Here we see that it should not surprise us when we face our trials, because these trials are made for the purpose of testing us. In fact we see in [1 Peter 1:7] that not only are we ordained to these test, but we are also ordained to pass them. WUEST TRANSLATION ....In which last season you are to be constantly rejoicing with a joy that expresses itself in a triumphant exuberance, although for a little while at the present time if perchance there is a need for it, you have been made sorrowful in the midst of many different kinds of testings in order that the approval of your faith, which faith was examined by testing for the purpose of being approved, that your approval being much more precious than the approval of gold which perishes, even though that gold be approved by fire-testing, may be discovered after scrutiny to result in Praise, Honor and Glory at the time of the Revelation of Jesus Christ;

 

Hebrews 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?