HOUSE TOP GOSPEL
House Top Gospel is a Podcast dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, Preach on the HOUSE TOPS" Matthew 10:27.
HOUSE TOP GOSPEL
Supernatural Grace in an Upside-Down World
Send a friendly text to the show
Suffering and tribulation can produce supernatural growth and deeper faith when processed through the gospel of grace rather than self-reliance.
• Paul explains how Christians can "glory in tribulation" despite the seeming contradiction
• Suffering initiates a chain reaction: perseverance leads to character and character leads to hope
• Christ suffered so He could sympathize with our weaknesses as our High Priest
• Jesus never promised comfort but rather tribulation in this fallen world
• Our citizenship is in heaven—we're just passing through this world
• Trials help us focus on what truly matters and remove distractions
• Justified believers view suffering as refinement rather than punishment
• God's love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit during trials
• All God's wrath for believers was fully satisfied at the cross
• Freedom comes from seeing tribulation as a pathway to a deeper appreciation of God's grace
Remember that Jesus is our faithful high priest who lives forever to intercede for you. The work He started in you, He is faithful to complete, and no one can snatch you out of His hands.
Paul continues. And not only that, says Paul, but we also glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. The word tribulation is translated thalipsis, which means times of great suffering or difficulty. However, to glory in tribulation or to rejoice in suffering would be a contradiction in terms, or it would seem so. How does one rejoice in suffering or glory in tribulation? Well, according to Paul, I'll give you a hint. According to Paul, I'll give you a hint.
Speaker 1:Does peace with God or access to God and hope of future glory make a difference? Yeah, it does. It makes a supernatural difference. Okay, so Paul says we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God in verse 2, and joy. But these truths remain with us even in our suffering, even in our sorrow, even in our trials and tribulation, and no one can take that away from you. And here's why, if you are united with Christ, your faith is genuine and you can be certain that you possess peace, access and hope of future glory with God, because you are actually sharing in his suffering.
Speaker 1:When you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death and therefore buried with him. And if you were buried with him, then you have been risen with him. And if you have risen with Christ, then you live for God. At one time you were dead in trespasses and sins, but now you have been made alive, together with Christ, through baptism and the Holy Spirit. Remember Christ is not only with you, but he also lives in you. Very important, very, very important. And if he is in you, then your trials become his trials. Why do you suppose that Christ suffered as he did and we know that he suffered and agonized as you and I will never know, even to death on a cross, even lying in a tomb, in a lifeless body?
Speaker 1:Hebrews 4. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. That is why Jesus suffered as he did to be able to sympathize with our sufferings in this world. The writer of Hebrews continues, therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession of faith. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find help in times of need. That's Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 14 to 16. And you can rest assured, knowing that he will never leave you nor forsake you. How can he? He lives in you.
Speaker 1:Remember this is important that we live in a fractured, upside-down world that is dominated by self, by greed, by lust, by war, by sickness and disease and death. It is crucial to recognize that. Nowhere in the Bible does Christ promise that life in this world will be one of comfort and ease, not for the child of God, free from troubles, free from problems, yes, sickness and death. Nowhere did Jesus ever promise that. But on the contrary, he did say in this world you will have tribulation, john 16.33. A servant is not greater than his master. If this world hated Christ and to this day rejects God and hates Jesus, then it'll hate you too. If you are heaven bound and eternity beats within your bosom, then you no longer belong to this world. God has chosen you out of this world. You belong to God. Remember, you were bought with a price. You are no longer your own. You belong to God and to the family of God. Our citizenship is in eternity in heaven. We are just passing through, like a pilgrim, you know, just passing through.
Speaker 1:It is imperative to realize that as children of God, we will go through trials and tribulations, but our trials and tribulations are to be processed through the gospel of grace and not of self, not of works, not of your skills, your talents, your wealth, your name, your prestige or your title or your abilities or your talents, but of the gospel of grace. It is all his doing. Peace, access, hope of future glory, joy and love in faith are all gifts of God's amazing. In faith are all gifts of God's amazing supernatural grace. Christians who do not process their troubles, their trials, their tribulations, their sufferings through the gospel of God's grace and rely on themselves or their works or their talents or their abilities, rest assured they will fail and they will become disorientated. They will become bitter. Not better, but bitter. Trials and tribulations and heartaches and sufferings are not pleasant but painful. Hebrews says and if we try to process our troubles, our trials, our tribulations through our natural self and our own strength, we will fail and instead of becoming better, we become bitter. And that's because they don't have a proper understanding of this supernatural power of God's gospel and his grace. That's why it is so important to understand that justification by faith leads to peace, access, grace, hope of future glory in joy and in love. Hope of future, glory in joy and in love.
Speaker 1:Christians who know the Lord and are close to Him through prayer, of course, and His Word, know what it is like to rejoice in tribulation and suffering, because they see it as sharing in the sufferings of Christ and therefore consider it as knowing what Jesus went through when he suffered for us. As Paul so masterfully said, I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and to somehow attain the resurrection from the dead, philippians 3.10. Let's be clear In and of themselves, there is no actual joy in pain and suffering and tribulation. God hates the pain and the suffering in this world, and so should we. But rather, a Christian comprehends, through a sound understanding of justification and the gospel of grace, that suffering can yield beneficial outcomes, and that not by a stiff upper lip or gritting your teeth or pulling up your bootstraps or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Christians should see tribulation and suffering through what I like to call the window or the glass of certainty. Certainty, the certainty of peace with God. You know, there's no hostility, there's no animosity, there's no more enmity. I love God. Christians love God, christians love God. There is peace with God and there is access to God, to his grace, to the very throne room of God and the grace in which we now stand.
Speaker 1:Paul says and then there is the hope of future glory with God, knowing that Jesus promised he will always be with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Now, you could never experience that if you're never praying, if you don't pray, if you don't read your Bible or go to church. You have to pray, you have to tap in, even if it's just to say hi or good morning or good evening or good night. Lord. Jesus never promised that we would go through this life carefree, without any trouble, without any hardship, without any great challenges.
Speaker 1:In this world, the path to eternity, to heaven, to God's glory, jesus said, is narrow and few there be that find it. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is through many tribulations, but the one thing we have is in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is seated at the highest place that any human being has ever ascended. Remember, jesus is in the same body that was crucified on that cross. He's a human being like you and me. He was born of a woman under the law of Moses, like all of us, and he has ascended far high, above every power, every authority, every principality and name, to the highest place, seated at the right hand of the Father, and he is our faithful high priest, appointed by God, who lives forever to intercede for you and for me.
Speaker 1:If you have been a Christian as long as I have, I encourage you. Be encouraged because my faith has not failed. Now that doesn't mean that I haven't been through some hard times or some questionable times, or even backslidden on occasion, but my faith has remained intact. Why? Because Jesus has been praying for me, as he says, all of this time, just as he prayed for Peter. Remember when Peter said I will never leave you, lord. And Jesus said, before the rooster crows, you will have denied me three times. And Jesus told him that the devil has demanded of you Peter. He wants to sift you like wheat, but don't worry, because I have prayed for you. So Jesus is our faithful high priest and he prays for you, and we have plenty to be grateful for. We have plenty to pray to him about you, and I should be so grateful to Jesus every single day that he is our faithful high priest interceding for you, praying for you from heaven. So be encouraged, knowing that, whatever your faith is, whether it is weak or whether it is strong, whether it is big or whether it is small, thank God for Jesus because he is on your side and he is praying for you and the work that he started in you. The Bible says, paul says in Philippians that he is faithful to complete it and no one can snatch you out of his hands.
Speaker 1:Remember that Paul, the apostle Paul, is telling us how suffering affects a person who knows that he or she is justified by the gospel of grace, the unmerited favor of God. God Paul said I want to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that is by the law, but a righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus. Paul demonstrated that suffering begins this chain reaction in verse 3, chapter 5, verse 3. He says that suffering leads to perseverance, and perseverance this is a word that what it means in the Greeks is single-mindedness. Suffering causes us, in other words, to focus. When you're going through a trial, a serious trial, a tribulation or heartache or suffering, it causes us to focus and God is with you and he helps you to focus. He helps you to focus on what is most important. He reminds us of what really really matters and helps us to realign our priorities and removes things that shouldn't be there, removes distractions. And then Paul says in verse 4 that perseverance.
Speaker 1:It leads to character, and this is so important Character. What that really means is tested or testedness. It is a quality that comes from having been through an experience like a trial or a heartache or a situation, a circumstance that came your way. In this world there's no shortage of trials and testings and tribulations, and testings and tribulations. It comes from following through on a trial and being tested. Despite the heartache and the pain, the result is growth that only comes from experience. A seasoned, experienced, mature child of God. Notice that without perseverance, character will never develop.
Speaker 1:Suffering it first leads you to focus on God and to put your priorities in order. It will make you greater in faith and hope as you go through it. All this leads to our growth in faith and hope. Hope, of course, is a stronger position. Stronger position, it is the assurance of our confidence because of the peace that we have with God and the access that we have become so accustomed to, and the hope of future glory, with him and the Holy Spirit in you, testifying and comforting you and reassuring you that these things are true. Therefore, these kinds of trials and heartaches remove any rival, false sources of confidence and false hope, like your talent or your money, or your name, or your prestige, or your education or your politics or who you know, and so forth, favors and whatnot. And instead of relying on God, suffering drives us to the one place where we find real, true, genuine hope and joy, real confidence and certainty, certainty with God. In verse 5, paul says now hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who he has given to us.
Speaker 1:Christians who focus through a trial, single-mindedly, through prayer and obedience, guidance, waiting on the Lord, through their tribulation and suffering, will experience growth and more of his love during that trial, an outpouring of his love into our hearts. Many Christians, giant Christians, big names when you read their books, they will testify that they felt more of God's presence and his love during their trials, during their suffering, just like Paul, just like Peter, just like James, and it made them focus on God and trust in Him. All the more they have become closer and closer to God. Some even consider trials and tribulations as a gift. James writes Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. That's James, chapter 1, verses 2 and 4. Anything that's James, chapter 1, verses 2 and 4. Peter also writes, and I just love this.
Speaker 1:Peter says Praise be the God and the Father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, in his great mercy, has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God's power, until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all of this, peter says, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while. While you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1, verses 3-7.
Speaker 1:The benefits of the gospel of grace, ie justification, are not diminished by our trials and our sufferings. No, on the contrary, the benefits are increased by our trials and heartaches. If you are facing with a clear grasp of the teaching or the doctrine of justification by grace alone, your joy in that grace will deepen, it'll grow. On the other hand, if you face suffering with a mindset of justification by your own works and your own abilities and your own talents or whatever perhaps your finance or whatever it is, suffering and tribulations will break you. They won't make you. They will break you. Instead of getting better, you will get bitter.
Speaker 1:When suffering comes to you, you'll think that God is punishing you. God is that you're being punished for God because of your sins, because you don't have confidence. You haven't been close to God. You don't have the confidence of his love. He hasn't been able to pour out his love into your heart by the Holy Spirit. Because we aren't relying on him, we're relying on. We're not relying on his grace, his gospel of grace, we're relying on ourselves and your belief system of God's love is based on yourself, your own works and your own righteousness. So suffering will shatter you. Heartaches will drive you away from God rather than toward Him.
Speaker 1:When we suffer or go through trials and tribulations. That's when we will discover what we are trusting and hoping in. Is it ourselves or is it God? So verse 5 also tells us that we know God's love because we experience his love. Hope does not disappoint us, paul says, because God has poured out his love into our hearts. This is Trinitarian love. Trinitarian love, this is love from the Father, god, the Father in Christ Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is omnipotence, it is supernatural, it is divine, it is from eternity, it is from heaven to you and me.
Speaker 1:Every Christian, every true, genuine Christian, has some inner experience of God's love through trials, through tribulations. The greater your inner experience of God's love through trials, through tribulations, the greater your inner experience of love, the greater your peace, your access, your grace, your hope, your assurance, your power will be in Christ. And if you are a Christian, god is not punishing you through your trials. God has sent all your punishment to Christ. All of his wrath for you and me was poured out onto Jesus and was swallowed up at Golgotha by his cross. It has disappeared forever. God has no wrath left for you. If you are a child of God, you are supernaturally made free to view your trials and tribulations. Made free to view your trials and tribulations not as God punishing you, but as God bringing you to a greater appreciation of the benefits you enjoy as his justified child of God. You are free to see trials and tribulations in such a way that only the gospel of grace can produce and that no one can ever take away from you.
