Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 5 as we look at what tribulation, what trouble does in our life, besides causing us pain.  As you are turning there listen to this example from the Soviet Space Program.  We are told:

            On December, 29, 1987, a Soviet cosmonaut returned to the earth after 326 days in orbit. He was in good health, which hasn’t always been the case in those record-breaking voyages.  Five years earlier, touching down after 211 days in space, two cosmonauts suffered from dizziness, high pulse rates, and heart palpitations.  They couldn’t walk for a week, and after 30 days, they were still undergoing therapy for atrophied muscles and weakened hearts.  At zero gravity, the muscles of the body begin to waste away because there is no resistance.  To counteract this, the Soviets prescribed a vigorous exercise program for the cosmonauts.  They invented the “penguin suit,” a running suit laced with elastic bands.  It resists every move the cosmonauts make, forcing them to exert their strength.  Apparently the regimen is working.

            We often long dreamily for days without difficulty, but God knows better.  The easier our life, the weaker our spiritual fiber, for strength of any kind grows only by exertion.

                                                            - Craig Brian Larson

            My prayer for this study is that you would see that the trials in our lives, tribulations that come our way are not there to destroy us but to build us up in the faith, to produce something in our lives, to grow us in the Lord.  With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 3 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.

            Paul tells us that we “glory” or “rejoice” we shout about the tribulation we find ourselves in!  Do we really do that?  Think about it for a minute, when was the last time you were going through a tough time, a tribulation that was pressing heavy down upon you and you said, “Praise the Lord!”  Now you may have said something else, but I tend to doubt it being “Praise the Lord!”

            The word “tribulation” is the Greek word THLIPSIS (Thlip’-sis) and it speaks of being under pressure, being squeezed you might say.  It wasn’t that you woke up and had a bad hair day or something like that; it was a heavy problem, a serious issue.  The word “tribulation” carries with it the idea of squeezing an olive to produce olive oil or crushing grapes to produce grape juice.

            Why would Paul say we need to glory in tribulation, rejoice in it, shout for joy as we are going through it?  Because these tribulations that come upon our lives are there for a reason, they are producing something in our lives.  Think about a diamond, it is produced from common coal that is under extreme pressure and heat, and then over time that coal becomes a diamond!  Not many of you would wear a coal ring, or a coal necklace, if your husband bought you one for Christmas, it would be a very cold Christmas for him and he could probably use that coal to keep warm.  But if he bought you a diamond, that is different, it would be a very warm Christmas for him!  The difference between the two is one has had pressure and heat applied to it and the end result is a thing of beauty!

            Think of us as lumps of coal and as the pressure of tribulations come upon our lives, as the heat of tribulation comes upon our lives, over time God is making us into a beautiful diamond, He is transforming us into His image!  It is as John said “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  I John 3:2.  Thus, our desire should be like David’s as he said “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”  Psalm 17:15.  That is or should be our desire, to be like Him!

            Instead of fighting against tribulations, instead of running away from tribulations, instead of getting mad and bitter over the tribulations that you find yourself in, rejoice in them not for the situation but knowing that God is working in us and He is producing in us “perseverance” or “patience.”  The word “produces” or “worketh” in the Greek is the word KATERGAZOMAI (kat-er-gad’-zom-ahee) and it speaks of completing a work, to accomplish something.  Thus, God will complete the work He has started in us, He will accomplish His plan and purpose in our lives if we allow Him to.

            Thus, as tribulations come our way, and they will, as pressures come upon us, we see that “perseverance” or “patience” is produced in our lives. The Greek word HUPOMONE (hop-om-on-ay’) carries with it the idea of cheerful or hopeful endurance; it speaks of consistency in our lives.

            Interestingly enough, this word comes from a group of words that were used of refining precious metals like silver or gold, as they were heated in the fire, they were tested in the fire for their purity and the heat of the fire caused any impurities to rise to the surface and they would be removed, making the metals pure.

            We may not like it, but let’s face it; we grow in the Lord not on the mountain top but in the valley as the heat of situations brings to the surface the impurities in our lives and we can give them to the Lord, ask Him to remove them. Again, the idea is that God is molding and shaping us into His image so that one day, as we go to be with Him, we will awake in His likeness and not ours!cution of Rome as Nero was putting Christians to death, persecuting them, torturing them for their faith in Jesus.  In I Peter 1:6-9 we are told, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.”  You see, these things that came upon their lives were like the fires upon gold or silver, purging out the dross and leaving the gold or silver pure.  They rejoiced not for them but in them you might say!

            I think this is an area Christians miss today. Things get tough, someone says something they don’t like, someone rubs us the wrong way, Jupiter is not aligned with Mars or whatever crazy thing it might be, whatever the excuse is, and they drop out, they move on, they don’t press on. Now some of you may feel that I am not being fair, that I am too critical because I don’t know what was done to them, but listen carefully to a man named Paul and what he went through and didn’t drop out, he endured without stopping, without quitting.

            In II Corinthians 11:23-28 we are told, “Are they ministers of Christ? — I speak as a fool — I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness —  besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”

            What was Paul’s concern?  Not for his own life or the things that he was going through, and let’s face it, none of us have even come close to what Paul went through, but his concern was for the churches, for the saints, for people to see them grow in the Lord, to come to a maturity in the Lord and not remain babes in Christ!  It was an others-centered life and not a self-centered life that caused him to press on, to persevere in the work, he didn’t give up and thus he was able to say “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  II Corinthians 4:16-18.  When you look at these things being heavenly minded you will not be moved!

            Some of you may remember that great running back of the Chicago Bears, Walter Payton.  During a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers made a comment about Walter Payton, that he had accumulated over nine miles of rushing yardage in his career!  The other announcer jumped in and made a very interesting point. He said, “Yeah, and that’s with somebody knocking him down every 4.6 yards!”  The key folk’s is not to give up but to keep on running, keep your eyes on the finish line, on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith!

            Now as tribulations come upon our lives and are working in us perseverance, patience, endurance, know that those things are also working, they also are producing in us approved character, we are trustful!  It is a character that has been tried and stayed true, it is strong, it is honoring to God!  It has been said, “Sow a thought, reap an act, sow an act, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character, reap a destiny.”  What is manifested in your life?  Is your character good or bad before people? Can you be trusted?  Or as D. L. Moody said, “Character is what you are in the dark.”  How true that is, when no one is looking what are you doing, what are you saying because what you do in the dark will be seen by all!

            How is character built in our lives?  Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”  You see, it isn’t only hearing what Jesus is saying, but then applying those things to our lives, being obedient to Him.  Thus, as the pressure comes on, as things heat up, you keep going forward, you keep following Jesus, you are obedient to Him instead of doing your own thing and as you are, God is building in you a godly character, one that is tried and true!

            Think about that for a minute as you listen to this story:

            When Oscar Wilde arrived for a visit to the U.S. in 1882, he was asked by customs officials if he had anything to declare. He replied: “Only my genius.”  Fifteen years later, alone and broken in prison, he reflected on his life of waste and excess.  “I have been a spendthrift of my genius . . . I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.”

                                                            - Imprimis, Volume 20, Number 9

            God wants to build His character in you but that means you must surrender to Him and allow Him to mold you and shape you into the person He wants you to be, not what you want to be!  Paul, in Colossians 3:1-11 tells us, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. . .

. . . But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”  You see, what you are focused on will be manifested in your life.  What you fill yourself with will overflow in your life.

            It’s been some 24 years or so since I was an LPN, but when I was an LPN I worked on a Cardiac floor at the hospital and at that time garlic was suppose to be this cure all for heart disease and some patients were taking it religiously, maybe to religiously.  You see, at that time the garlic pills still had the smell of garlic!  As I was taking care of this one man with heart disease, he was a believer in these garlic pills and took them religiously.  Now he didn’t have to tell me he took them, I knew, for he smelled like garlic, his sweat was the smell of garlic.  He didn’t have to worry about vampires getting him or anyone else!  It was at that point I decided I would rather die of heart disease than smell like that, but that is another story.  The point is this, if you fill yourself up with Jesus then His nature, His character will come flowing from your life.  But if you fill yourself up with other things then what will flow from your life will be as bad as the garlic smell to people!  If you hang around a skunk for any time, you will smell like a skunk, but if you hang around Jesus the fragrance of Jesus will come flowing from your life and touch the lives of others.  What smell are you giving off?

            Now we have seen that tribulation produces perseverance or patience in our lives, which then produces character, tried character, approved character in our lives.  It is a maturing process. And out of all of this we see that our hope grows, our confidence in God grows as we learn to trust in Him more and more no matter what we are going through.  Paul is speaking of our faith in the Lord.

            Paul, in Romans 10:17 tells us, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Faith grows as we read the Word of God, trust in the Word of God, and apply the Word of God to our lives!  It is putting into practice that which we believe!  Instead of running away from the pressure, we stay under it and as we do it produces in us patience, character and hope!

            R. Kent Hughes said this regarding this portion of Romans:

            As believers, we see our sufferings as potential for positive growth.  Vance Havner in his book It Is Toward Evening tells the story about a small town that made its living entirely from growing cotton. It was not a great living, but it was a living.  But calamity struck when the boll weevil invaded the community and threatened to ruin everyone.  As it turns out, the farmers were forced to switch to peanuts and other crops that eventually brought them greater return than they would have made with cotton.  Ultimately that which had seemed a disaster became the basis for undreamed prosperity.  To register their appreciation, they erected a monument – to the boll weevil.  To this very day in that little Southern town that monument stands.  We all have boll-weevil experiences: financial reversals, professional failure, relational disappointments, psychological or physical hurts.  But these trials can bump us out of our old ways and force us to find new ways to live.  Many tragedies can turn to triumphs through the Lord.

                                                            - R. Kent Hughes, Romans, p. 108

            You see, hope is just trusting in God, not the boll weevil or whatever else you may look to or thank for getting your through, that no matter what happens, He will see you through because He is working in you something great.  Now, on the other end of the spectrum is the Devil who is trying to destroy your faith, cause you to drop out, cause you to be hopeless!

            Let me show you what I mean.  In James 1:2-4 we are told, and this is from the KJV Bible, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”  Now that is interesting for in James 1:13 we are told, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”  One seems to say that temptations are good in our lives and the other that they don’t come from God, what is going on?

            The word “trials” which the new translations have in James 1:2, is PEIRASMOS (pi-raspmos’) in the Greek and it comes from the Greek word PEIRAZO (pi-rad’-zo) which speaks of tempting! You see, what God does is He sends trials into our lives to strengthen us, to strengthen our faith, to build us up, to draw us to Him. On the other end is Satan who will send to us temptations to destroy our faith, to tear us down, to draw us away from God.  You see, the same situation can produce two different outcomes; it all depends on how we respond to those situations!

            A great example of this is from the book of Job. In one day the Sabeans came and stole his livestock and killed his servants, fire came from heaven and killed his sheep and more of his servants, the Chaldeans came and stole his camels and killed more of his servants, and then a great wind came upon the home where his children had gathered for a meal and as they ate and drank the walls came crashing down upon them and killed them all!  Talk about your bad day, it couldn’t get any worse than this, could it?

            Well, it could for on that same day not only was his physical possessions taken away, not only were his children taken away, not only were his servants taken away, but now his health was also taken away and he developed these painful boils from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, and they were unbelievably itchy also.  And in Job 2:8-9 we are told, “And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.  Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’”  Obviously she was not involved in the ministry of encouragement!

            Now, as you read through this story, is it a trial or a temptation for Job?  YES!  Yes it is a trial as God was trying to draw out Job’s faith, to get Job to trust in the Lord with all of his life no matter what may come his way.  He was trying to build Job up, not destroy him!  Yes it is a temptation because Satan was there to use this to try and destroy Job’s faith, to bring him down. You see, the outcome was based on what Job would do as he was going through these devastating situations.  Would he allow it to strengthen him, make him more into a diamond, or weaken him destroying his faith and keeping him that lump of coal?

            Now listen to how Job responded to this situation, and you don’t have to turn to these verses but just listen to what he was about, where his faith was at.  In Job 2:10 we are told, “But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”  Then in Job 19:25-27 we are told, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!”  And in Job 23:10-12 we are told, “But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.  My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.  I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.” 

            Job didn’t understand the how’s and why’s of God but he did trust in the Lord and the Lord did use this to stretch his faith, as we are told in Job chapter 42, “And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. . . Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.  He also had seven sons and three daughters. . . . After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.  So Job died, old and full of days.”  Job 42:10, 12, 16-17.

            How are you going to respond to situations you find yourself in?  Are you going to allow them to grow you, mature your faith or keep you where you are at? You see, the choice is really yours and you truly don’t know the good that can come out of the situation you are presently in, and the reality is, you may never know, but that is where faith comes, trusting in God that He loves you more than you will ever know and He wants only what is good for you!

            Remember the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis.  Jacob’s son’s had sold their brother Joseph into slavery because they were jealous of him and they told their dad, Jacob that Joseph was killed by wild animals.  Then, through a series of circumstances, Joseph went from being a slave to being second in command over all of Egypt and Pharaoh put him in charge of distributing the food during a time of severe famine.

            Jacob, living in the land of Canaan was also experiencing this famine and he sent his sons, all except for Benjamin to Egypt to bring back some food for them to live off of.  As they arrived in Egypt they did not recognize their brother, it had been some 20 years, but Joseph did recognize them.  Benjamin was his brother from their mom Rachel, and Joseph longed to see his brother, so through another set of circumstances, he has Simeon placed in prison until they return with Benjamin.  Jacob, upon hearing this, said, “. . . ‘You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.’”  Genesis 42:36.

            The problem for Jacob is that he didn’t know all things and he was allowing this situation to bring him down.  All things were not against him and God was going to use this to save His people not to destroy them!  He was going to see his son Joseph again and out of his descendants a great nation was to be born down in Egypt and they will be set free one day and return to the land of Canaan!

            So God sends a trial your way in the form of a tribulation to produce in you good, to work in you perseverance, character and hope. The Devil comes along and uses that trial as a temptation to produce evil in you, to cause you to give up, to destroy your character, to keep you hopeless.  Where are you at this morning – in a trial or temptation?

            Let’s read on through these verses in Romans once again and let me show you where it ends, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  Romans 5:3-5.  Do you see where it ends?  It ends with God’s love filling our heart as the Holy Spirit shows us the richness of God’s love towards us!

            Let me leave you this morning with this to think about:

            I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contented condition, when suddenly a stab of pain threatens serious disease, or a newspaper headline threatens us all with destruction.

            At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happiness look like broken toys.  And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources.   But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys.

            Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear.  God has had me for but 48 hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe the sword for a minute, and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness in the nearest flower bed.

            And that is why tribulation cannot cease until God sees us remade.

                        - From The Problem of Pain; used by permission of William Collins Sons
                        and Co., Ltd. Quoted in Daily Walk, May 16/17, 1992

            God is building us into men and women of faith, thus, don’t resist but submit to the master potter as He molds and shapes us into the men and women He wants us to be, He is shaping our lives!  Allow the trials in our life to keep us joyful knowing that God is working in us, don’t allow them to be our temptations that draw us away from God, make us bitter, angry people.

            Remember what Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Praise the Lord for that, He loves us and doesn’t give up on us but is making us into His image and that will be completed; it will be finished when we go to be with Him!  Remember what we read in our opening story, “We often long dreamily for days without difficulty, but God knows better.  The easier our life, the weaker our spiritual fiber, for strength of any kind grows only by exertion.”  Let the work begin!