Joy and Trials: The Paradox of Christian Faith

Peter describes these persons as showing these two characteristics at one and the same time, the great rejoicing and yet the being grieved. Now you will find that I say so commonly in the scriptures. Take for instance a perfect example of it all. There's a series of paradoxes which the Apostle Paul has in describing himself in The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. [00:06:44]

The problem, of course, lies here that we fail to maintain the balance and that we tend to allow this heaviness, this grieving, to overwhelm us and rarely to get us down. Cast down, says the Apostle, but not destroyed. Well, the danger is that it may destroy us, that it may, as it were, keep us down. [00:07:44]

The Christian is not one who has become immune to what is happening round and about him. Now, I say that that's a great principle in the New Testament because we need to emphasize it because there are certain Christian people, again I say, who really have got a notion and a conception of the Christian Life which makes the Christian quite unnatural. [00:08:40]

These people were like this because they were passing through manifold trials. Now, that's an interesting word, that word manifold, isn't it? It's obviously a favorite word with the Apostle Peter because he uses it later on concerning the grace of God. It means, of course, many-colored. It means that kind of variegated condition. [00:10:57]

The Christian, because he's a Christian, is subject to this kind of thing in this world because he's a new man, because he's born again, he's inevitably bound to be misunderstood. He's a stranger, he's a pilgrim, and he is like a Stranger in a Strange Land. He's got a different type of Life, he's got different ideas and customs. [00:12:46]

These things happen, says the Apostle, because they're good for us, because they're a part of our discipline in this life and in this world because, let me put it quite plainly and bluntly, because God has appointed us to them. That's the apostles' Doctrine as it is the doctrine of the whole of the New Testament. [00:21:27]

The precious character of faith that he says in the seventh verse, these things happen to you, these many trials, that in order that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found into praise and honor and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. [00:28:37]

Faith is something that is everlasting and eternal in its very nature and in its very Constitution, and the thing by which you live, says the Apostle, and the thing that accounts for your being in the Christian Life is that you are in this Faith position and this Faith condition. [00:29:49]

The trial of your faith, the genuineness of your faith, the approved character of your faith may be made manifest. That's why these things, he says, happen to you. And again, this is quite obvious, isn't it? It's the way that we endure trials that rarely certifies our faith. [00:36:24]

These things happen to us, I say, yes, but thank God they only happen for a season. Wherein he greatly Rejoice, though now for a season if need be. Don't go away with the impression that I'm here to teach that that's the Perpetual condition of the Christian. It isn't. These things come and go as God deems fit. [00:40:17]

There is no temptation or trial taken you but such as is common to men, but God is kind who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which we are able to Bear, but will always also with a Temptation provide a way to escape. He's your loving father. He knows how much you can take. [00:40:54]

Am I preaching, I wonder, at this moment to any downcast, heavy-laden Christian? Does all seem Blackness and darkness? Are you not having the Liberty you once had in prayer? Haven't you the feeling within you that you once had? My dear friend, don't be trouble. Go on. You're in the hands of your father. [00:41:48]