Sunday Morning, November 13, 2016

Why Trials Come

Hebrews 12:5–13

I. All Your Trials Come in God’s Plan, So There Is a Purpose

A. That’s the Way to View Trials: Believe Nothing Comes into Our Lives by Chance
Heb. 12:1, 2, 6, 7; Eph. 1:11; 1 Thess. 3:3; Amos 3:6; Eccl. 7:13–14; Lam. 3:37

B. That’s the Way to Respond to Trials: Trust There’s a Reason to Your Trial
Heb. 12:5

II. All Your Trials Come for God’s Glory, So There Is Value
A. That’s the Way to View Trials: Believe God Will Receive Glory by This
Heb. 12:2; Isa. 53:10; Jn. 12:27, 28

B. That’s the Way to Respond to Trials: Trust Your Trial Be for His Glory
Jn. 9:3; Isa. 48:10; Ps. 23:3b; Gen. 50:20

III. All Your Trials Come in Fatherly Love, So Through this I Will Come to Know Better His Love for Me
A. That’s the Way to View Trials: Believe this Trial Comes with God’s Love, Not His Punishment
I Jn. 4:18; Eph. 2:1; Rev. 3:19

B. That’s the Way to Respond to Trials: Trust That I Am to Learn Something from My Trial
Heb. 12:5

IV. All Your Trials Come for Your Good, So There Is Growth and Benefit to Come from This
A. That’s the Way to View Trials: Believe Good Will Come from This
Heb. 12:10, 11; Ps. 119:67, 71; Jer. 29:11; Rom. 8:28

B. That’s the Way to Respond to Trials: Trust that Good Will Come from This
1. Feelings Are Not Trustworthy in Trials

2. Feelings, Not Guided by Scripture, Will Lead Away from Faith

Heb. 12:15; Heb. 12:9; Job 1:21; 1 Sam. 3:18

3. Trials Are God’s Opportunity for You to Respond, Not by Feelings, But in Faith to His Word
QUOTES:

“The Lord has willed it, therefore it must be borne, not only because one may not contend against it, but also because he wills nothing
but what is just and expedient.” John Calvin

“Everything is necessary that He sends, nothing can be necessary that He withholds.” John Newton

“There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the
most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty
will sanctify them all.” Charles Spurgeon

“It was in his power, if he willed, not to suffer at all. If he who was under no necessity of being crucified was crucified for our sake,
how much more is it right that we should endure all things courageously!” Chrysostem

“Let this truth be accepted, in every trial, small or great: first of all and at once recognize God’s hand in it. Say at once, `My Father has
allowed this to come; I welcome it from Him; my first care is to glorify Him in it; He will make it a blessing.” Andrew Murray

“God’s discipline of his children never involves his wrath. Every reference in the New Testament on the subject indicates that God’s
wrath rests upon and is reserved for the unbelieving. God has no such thoughts toward his own.” Kent Hughes

“By affliction He teaches us many precious lessons, which, without it we should never learn. By affliction he shows us our emptiness
and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven. In the
resurrection morning we shall all say, ‘It is good for me that I was afflicted.’ We shall thank God for every storm.” J C Ryle

“When the believer is smarting under the rod let him not say, God is punishing me for my sins. That can never be. That is most
dishonoring to the blood of Christ. God is correcting you in love, not smiting you in wrath.” A. W. Pink

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to arouse a deaf world.”
C S Lewis

“This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort or another— it is to
ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast. . . . God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may
learn thankfully to lean on Him. Therefore He takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in Himself.” J I Packer

“God humbles us that He might exalt, He kills that He might make alive, He confounds that He might glorify.” Martin Luther

“He will make whatever evils He sends upon me in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage, for He is able to do it, being Almighty
God and willing, being a faithful Father.” Heidelberg Cat. Q 26

The Good Shepherd is not drowning His sheep when He washes them, nor killing them when he shears them. Rather His washings are
needed cleansings, His shearings are necessary strippings, His corrections are essential lessons.” Richard Baxter

“Every trial small or great, I will look upon it at once as a messenger of God’s love. If you thus meet it, whether it comes through men
or yourself, or more directly from above, as God’s appointment, you are in the right attitude for bearing and being blessed by it.
Andrew Murray

“If God brings us into the trial he will be with us in the trial, and at length bring us out, more refined. We shall lose nothing but dross
(Zech 13:9). From our own strength we cannot bear the least trouble, but by the Spirit’s assistance we can bear the greatest.”
Richard Sibbes

“Chastisement cannot be estimated aright if judged according to what the flesh feels under them, and therefore we must fix our eyes on
the end.” John Calvin

“The man who accepts discipline at the hand of God as something designed by His Heavenly Father for his good will cease to feel
resentful and rebellious; he has stilled and quieted his soul. . . F. F. Bruce

“Not one detail works ultimately for evil to the people of God; in the end, only good will be their lot. John Murray

“A merciful God always puts thorns in our beds so we don’t go to sleep.” George Whitefield