This passage is sobering. We need it. We come to this in
our studies about the fiery trial that is to try all of God's people. You remember verse 7, the end
of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. You remember that? Chapter 5,
verse 7. He says it again, verse 8, be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring
lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he
may draw away and pull away from Christ. It's a fiery trial. Look at verse 12, here's where
we begin, where we left off. We love it, make it not strange. Let's just read all these verses.
Make it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to
try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but
rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when
his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding
joy. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are you. for the Spirit of glory, the
Holy Spirit of God, and resteth upon you on their parts." Whose
part? The world. Even family. He's even evil spoken of. But
on your part, he's glorified. Let none of you suffer as a murderer,
as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's
matters. It's amazing he would put that
along with murder. Yet if any man suffer, or woman
suffers, a Christian, let him or her not be ashamed. Let them
glorify God on this behalf. For the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? Wherefore, let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Verse 5,
he says, talks about the fiery trial, and the fiery trial, not
trials, but this one great fiery trial is reproach, is suffering. It's a trial of faith for believing,
for following the Lord Jesus Christ, for the truth's sake.
It is the fiery trial, which 1 Corinthians 3 says, shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. That is, whether or not
it's God's work in us or just religion. This is the fiery trial. This is what this is talking
about. Now, it says fire, a fiery trial. Fire is a consuming thing. Fire is a destroying thing. Fire
is a purifying thing. Our God is a consuming fire. His word, he said, is not my
word as a fire and a hammer. Consuming, destroying, purifying,
God's Word, God Himself, Christ in you will consume you, burn
within you. Do you remember the disciples
on the road to Emmaus? Yeah, Emmaus. Our Lord appeared
to them in disguise as just a preacher, a preacher's gift. And they thought
he was just a preacher, but they said, did not our hearts burn
within us as he opened? And they begged him to stay with
them. Don't go. Don't leave. Please
stay here. The Word burns within us. God,
Christ in you, will burn within you. It will consume you. God's
Word, Christ, will consume you. become your life. You'd be consumed
with Him. It's just so. Your life, not
a part of your life. Anybody that says, God, Christ
is a part of my life, they don't have life. We, by God's grace,
we become a part of His. In Him we live. We finally realize
if He gives us life, in Him we live and move and have our being.
For me to live, Paul said, is Christ. So the Word, the truth,
Christ will consume you like a fire. And it will burn up. The Word of God, Christ in you,
will destroy everything else, self. All your false notions,
all your past professions, all your false religion, all your
thoughts, all your beliefs, all your pride, all your self-righteousness,
just consume it. Burn it away. We want to look
in the second message at Moses. He was born again when he came
to a burning bush. He wasn't the same man. The Word
of God is a fire, it's purified. 1 Peter 1 verse 22 says, you've
purified. See, you've purified your souls
in obeying the truth. So, fire is a consuming thing,
this fiery trial, destroying thing, a purifying thing. Fire is painful. Fire leaves scars. A lasting
impression. Marks that you will never get
over. Impressions. You know, we really don't learn
any lesson unless it's painful. Fire is painful. We don't really learn a lesson
unless it hurts. You know that? We just don't. We'll forget very quickly, but
if it's something painful, you just won't get over it. The pain, the hurt here, this
pain and hurt here that he's going to tell us about, we're
going to talk about, is rejection, betrayal, separation for the
truth's sake. And it's going to happen sooner
or later. You know that? That's what this
is talking about. Luke 12. Go to Luke 12 with me.
Luke 12. Luke chapter 12. And I remind
you, when our Lord... Our Lord had an earthly mother,
and He had brothers and sisters. Now, we believe that a few of
them were believers, but not necessarily all of them. Because
one time they came to him and said, he's beside himself. They
tried to draw him away and so forth. They tried to draw the
Lord away. His mother came one day. He was meeting with God's
people. Remember? He was preaching. And she sent
word, your mother wants to see you. You remember what he said?
Who is my mother? Who are my brethren? This is
my mother and brethren. This is my eternal family. Did he love his mother? No son
has ever loved a mother like he did. No. Did he love his kin? Sure he did. Luke 12, verse 49. Our Lord said, I am come to send
fire on the earth. And what will I, if it be already
kindled? It's started. When Malachi talked about the
Lord suddenly coming to his temple, he said he's a refiner's fire. He's going to purify the sons
of Levi. He's going to take away the dross.
He's going to reveal who is a Levi. And we're going to turn to Exodus
14 in a minute, and we're going to see it. Look at verse 50. Our Lord said, I have a baptism
to be baptized with. What was that? Fire. He became,
John, he became the burnt offering, didn't he? Did he love God? Did he love his people? Did he
leave his Father for love to his people? What did he go through? Fire. For the joy set before
him. Think about it. And he says,
hey, but what of God's people up there? He says, verse 51,
suppose ye that I am come to give peace on the earth, nay,
rather, division. How many people in the world,
how many religious people have ever read that verse of Scripture?
This is the Lord Jesus Christ people. I have never, ever heard
that quoted in religion today. Have you? No, and it won't be,
because their Jesus is not a fire. He doesn't bring division. No,
no, no. He's wanting to save everybody. Loves everybody without
exception. Not the Christ description. Verse 52. From henceforth there
shall be five in one house, divided, three against two, two against
three. Five family members, born in the same house. Three against
two. Two against three. Father divided
against the son. The son against the father. The
mother against the daughter. The daughter against the mother.
The mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. But so in it. Some of you have
been through it. All will be tried. All will be
tried. Of what sort it is. Go to Exodus
14. I told you we were going to go
to Exodus 14. And this is a difficult thing
to deal with, to preach from, and it's even more difficult
to go through. Because we love our family. We do. And there's going to be a line
drawn in the sand. It is. There's going to come
a time where every child of God is going to take a stand. You don't have to. And even against, certainly against
the world, but against Hamlet. Exodus 14, look at verse 30. Thus saith the Lord, thus the
Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians.
This is after they passed through the Red Sea. And we're going
to look at that briefly this morning. I wanted to actually
preach on that, but I preached on it just a little over a year
ago. They all passed through the Red Sea, which the Egyptians
are saying to do, drown. But they saw, they all passed
through, they saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Who were
they? People they worked for. People they'd known all those
years. Maybe they liked him. They obtained favor in their
sight. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord. They all probably thought, that
could have been me. And it says they believed the
Lord. They believed the Lord. Did that. Did that. They said they did. And his servant
Moses. Thank God for Moses, they all
said. They did that. And trials started happening.
Right after this, they hadn't been out in the wilderness for
three days, and the trials started happening. They started longing
for leeks and onions and melons and cucumbers and all this and
that and the other, and they began to murmur in their tents
against who? Moses. I don't like this. I don't like
that. I don't like this. I don't like that. Oh, the grace and the mercy of
God, the miracle of God, that He chose them and brought them
out and slew the Egyptians right before their eyes and brought
them out. Yet, they forgot. They soon forgot and they began
to complain. You know, when it was all over,
Two adults went into Promised Land. Over 20. What overcame them? The world. People. Family. Thrown away. Don't go. Don't go. Stay here. There's nothing to this. Oh, a people chosen, elect, truth
revealed, true God, true way, the true life. God sent man,
Moses, a man sent from God to tell him the truth. And God kept
sending prophets. pastors, teachers, evangelists
to the people of God. They seemed to believe God. They believed that was His preacher.
They seemed to follow Him. But then the trials started,
the world, the things, the people especially of the world, pulling
at them, tempting them, luring them, lusting, lying to them,
lusting against them, lying to them, and even of their own selves,
people cropped up. Korah. Sons of Korah. They thought
they were brethren. And they began to murmur and
lure them away by innuendos and accusations and this and that
against Moses. Even Aaron and Miriam got caught
up in it. Look at chapter 32 of Exodus.
Chapter 32. This is the fiery tribe that
he's speaking about. And it begins at the house of
God. You see, all this was in history.
It was the house of God, the people of God. The winnowing
takes place first in the threshing floor. The separation of goats
and sheep takes place first in the church house. Exodus 32,
look at verse 26. Exodus 32. That's not long to look at. 32. That's
not it. I've done what I want. Oh, I've
been doing wrong, no wonder. All right, Exodus 32, yeah. Exodus
32, 26. Moses. He stood in the gate of the camp.
Oh, blessed are they that watch at the gates. Moses was a watchman. He stood in the gate of the camp
and said, Who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves. to Moses, the sons of Levi, priests. We say that God has made us kings
and priests. That's what everybody in glory
is going to say someday. Unto him who has made us kings
and priests, sons of Levi, to carry the ark, one thing. The Levites did one thing, Kelly.
They did one thing. Their life was consumed with
one thing, the ark of the covenant. They left families, everything.
Jobs, everything. This is our life. What a privilege. What glory. What honor. What
a calling. What a high, holy, heavenly calling
it is to just bear up this ark. Levi said, we're with you, Moses.
We're on the Lord's side with you. And he said, put on your
sword. This really happened. Didn't it? Aren't you glad we're
not under love? Ah, His tender mercies are over
all His work. We're not under love. This really
happened. And they got their swords on
and went out, and everybody that tried to draw them away, in Deuteronomy
13 as well as 6, everyone, their brothers and sisters, husbands,
wives, everyone that tried to draw them away from God and the
truth, they killed them. Did they believe God? Yes, they
did. Did they love God more than faith?
Yes, they did. They proved it. You don't take
me away from my Lord. Now, God doesn't slay innocent
people. He visits the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation,
it says, of them that hate Him. He knows. He knows. And if we'll stand for the truth,
it'll come out clearly. It really will. Man's hatred,
even in our family, hatred of this God. And it will be proven
who loves the Lord. Hebrews 3. Go to Hebrews 3 with
me. This is the fiery trial. It really
is. Fiery Trial, Hebrews chapter
3. Now Hebrews is the book of the
Hebrew children. Israel, the sons of Jacob, Jews. Now that's our claim. We claim
to be a Jew inwardly. I hope I am. I believe I am.
They were God's chosen. They were God's elect. That's
our claim. I believe I'm one of the elect. I believe you are.
They had to them revealed, they had the truth revealed to them,
the true God, truth of salvation, the true Christ. I believe he
has done that, doesn't he? As we say, oh how they forgot
God and provoked him in the wilderness. The trial was the wilderness.
And they became lean. All of them, it says, became
lean. Psalm 106. I wasn't going to preach on that.
It says, all of them lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. I'm guilty. And God sent leanness into their
souls. They had everything they could
eat and do and wear, but they were fat materially, but lean
spiritually. Guilty. And look, it says, so they were
supposed to be the house of God, and so are we. Verse 6, Christ
as a Son over His own house, whose house are we if we hold
fast the confidence? And what? Rejoice in Him. There came a time some of the
children of Israel said, we're loathe this light bread. We want
something else. Oh, my. Didn't they? If the gospel ever
ceases, I know you've got the same preacher and the same building
and the same pews and all that, just time has gone by, but if
the gospel ever, if a man stands up and says, God is merciful,
and if you ever lose the joy and the rejoicing of that, something's
wrong. Do you remember, look at Hebrews,
whose house are we? Hebrews 6, over here, Hebrews
6. You see this warning, it's all
the way through the book of Hebrews, 1 Corinthians 10, I was going
to read that, all the way through this book. He uses the apostles,
Stephen stood up that day, and preached the whole story of God
saving His people, bringing them through, and how they became
stiff-necked and hard-hearted. And the people took the stone
and bashed his brain. We don't like that. Hebrews 6, it says in verse 4,
it's impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted
of the heavenly gift and made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world
to come, if they shall leave, if they shall fall away. If they
shall leave, you're not going to bring them back. You see how serious this is?
Why? They've crucified the Son of
God all over again and put him to an open shame before the world.
The world says, see, there's nothing to that. And that's what David said when
he said, take away my reproach which I fear. That is, don't
let me bring reproach upon my Lord whom I love. I will if you
don't hold me up. Hebrews 10. This is why it says,
and this is the whole story. You know, maybe you're looking
forward, I hope you're looking forward to the meeting coming
up, but it might not come up. I don't want you to look forward
to that. I want you to listen right now. Today is the day of
salvation. Our children are here right now. There may not be a tomorrow.
This is it. This is the message. Hebrews
10, this is why it says in verse 23, let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. I mean, lay hold of and not for
anybody or anything, don't let go. Jacob, how do you know Jacob
believed the Lord? He said, I will not let you go
until you bless me. I believe everything you've said.
You've laid hold of me, Paul said. I've been apprehended.
But Paul said, I'm not there yet, but this is what I'm going
to do. I'm going to press by the grace of God. Oh, but Paul,
look here, look here. No, I'm determined and I know
nothing about you. Like the pilgrim in Pilgrim's
Progress. Life, life, eternal life. I'm
not listening to anybody or anything. Don't try me. I've got my mind
and eyes on them. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembly
of ourselves together as a matter of some of you. Does it hurt you? Some of you
have been through a divorce. Was it painful? Was it? It's a terrible trial. Leaves scars, doesn't it? Oh, exhort one another so much
more as you see the day approaching. If we send, we'll flip. If we leave, and you know why
we'll do it? We'll flip. Oh, may we give diligence to
make our calling and election sure, for it is God which worketh
in us, both to will and to pleasure. His good pleasure. May we come
to our Lord and say, Lord, have you done a work in me? Make me
willing and have your power to forsake all. Don't let me have
my will. Don't let me have what my flesh
wants. Don't do it. Lord, please overrule
my flesh. I want you, Lord. I want you. Oh, there's a certain fearful
looking for, verse 27, of judgment. Judgment, that's what we're talking
about. Judgment begins at the house of God. And a fiery indignation. You know what God holds the world
accountable for, what God is angry with the world over? They've
rejected His Son. Rejected His Son. He sent His
Son to this despicable place. for unworthy, undeserving, no-good
worms and vile creatures that shook their fists at God. But
God, rich in mercy, great in love, sent His blessed Son to
leave paradise to come to this hellhole. For who? People said,
we don't want Him. And nearly, yes, every single
person on earth says, go back. But God. And this is, so this
is what God holds everybody, you're not interested in my son. You don't care whether he lived
or died. And then you make a profession that you do, and then you turn
back. For what? For who? And God said,
I'm going to turn my back on you. And you're going to wish
you'd never been born. Right? That's what it says. Read on. How much sorer punishment,
verse 29, shall he be thought worthy of trodden underfoot,
the Son of God, counting to... You know, this is God's Word
to us. This is God's Word. And that's
all I want to do. This is to me. This is to me.
I'm a man of like passion, I call you. I have family that I love. I really do. I love them dearly.
But do I love the Lord, Lord? There's things in this world
that I enjoy. Pleasures of sin. I'm sorry. We've got to admit
it, don't we? But do I esteem this reproach
for Christ? Would I rather wander in the
wilderness than that? Would I rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than have everything in this world? We're
going to look at Moses in the next message. Choosing, rather,
to suffer. Oh, it says in verse 31, it's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Now listen, read on. But, listen, call to remember the former days
in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of
affliction when you heard the truth and took a stand for it. And your family and your friends
and the world and everybody says, he's gone mad, something's wrong
with him. You say, I don't care. These
are my people. This is my God. And you endured
this fight of affliction, didn't you? Everybody does. It happens. All my friends left me. In verse 34, Paul said, You had
compassion of me and my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods. Gave, gave, gave to support the
preacher. I love this man. He's told me
the truth. And something happens. Verse 35, cast not away
therefore your confidence. What would we cast away all this
for? Who would we give up this for? And you have need of patience,
verse 36, that after you've done the will of God and received
the promise, a little while, and He will come, He shall come,
and will not tarry. He will. He's coming. He really
is. Be sober at the end of all things
at hand. Now the just shall live by faith. If any man draw back,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. And I love that he ended
it this way. We're not of them who draw back
under perdition. but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. John, Earlene, I believe I'm going
to preach your funeral, and it's not going to be too long. And
there you sit, after all these years. I'm so thankful. So thankful. And there are others
still sitting right there. I'm so thankful. God hasn't changed. I really haven't changed. I'm
still the same sinner. The truth hasn't changed. The
world hasn't changed. Nothing's changed. Our little
building is still this little building, but oh, it's a tabernacle
in the wilderness. Is it a city of refuge? Is it
an oasis in the wilderness? Wouldn't you rather keep that
door than be anywhere else? Would you? The world is mine. Now go back to our text in 1
Peter. Let me end it. 1 Peter 4. He talks about suffering
and the great fight of affliction. And he said in verse 17, the
time has come, judgment must begin at the house of God. Judgment
must begin at the house of God. It first began with us. What
shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? What
about people that go by us nothing to do? Oh boy. Well, you know, God dealt harder
with the Israelites that rejected him, but he dealt harder
with them, because they had sinned against revelation, they'd sinned
against mercy, they'd sinned against love, they'd sinned against
truth. They did like Judas, they betrayed
their brethren, turned on their brethren, turned on God's man,
they turned on the Lord. Paul said they mocked, tempted
Christ himself, didn't they? Verse 17, what shall be the end
of them? Verse 18, I hear you. If the
righteous scarcely be saved, what's going to happen to the
ungodly and the sinners? What does that mean? Well, many
things. It means that there's such a
great fight of affliction within the child of God. It's great
difficulty that we go through. That's what 2 Corinthians 4 calls
it, a great fight. It says, listen to it, we're
troubled on every side. You must through much tribulation
enter the kingdom of heaven. This is how faith is known, these
troubles and trials and tribulations. We're trouble on every side.
We're not perplexed. We're not perplexed. God's doing
all that. We're perplexed. I mean, we're
not distressed. We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're
not without hope, not without help. We're saved by hope. What's
our hope? Christ is our hope. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. And all those people in Hebrews
11, it says that they were stoned and sauntered and so forth. It
says, God was not ashamed to call them their God, to call
them His children, His son. And they weren't ashamed that
He's their God. Ashamed of themselves. It says,
always bearing about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ,
delivered unto death for Christ's sake. And it goes on to talk
much about this fight, this fight of affliction. The righteous,
God's people, go through this world through trials, through
tribulations, through suffering, through rejection, through separations
and sorrow and sickness and death and all of these things. And by the grace of God, 100%
by the grace of God, if they endure to the end, these fiery
trials are going to be found under praise, honor, and glory
at the period of our Lord Jesus Christ. His praise. We're all
going to say, He kept me, like Peter. He did this. He did this. And yet the work
in them was so real, And we're going to see in Hebrews 11, it
was so real, it was actual, it was literal, it was such a work
in there that they said, like those Levites, I am my God's and nobody else's.
I belong to him. And though the whole world, though
my flesh and blood try to pull me away from Christ, I'm not
leaving. That's the real work of God in
a child of God. That's someone who's been born
of God, kept by the power of God, who really does have Christ
in them, and they're in Christ. Noah went into that ark, and
the door was wide open, and people were walking by, scoffing, laughing,
mocking at him. And he sat right there and said,
I'm not moving. And the whole world is scoffing.
There's nothing to that. The sun's shining. No way, you
fool. Righteousness. God's not that
holy. God's not that righteous. Man's
not that sinful. We're just as good as you, Noah.
I'm sitting right here, waiting. And then one day, the door shut. And it rained down. And Noah and all his family lifted
above the world, overcame the whole world. And one day he opened
the door and Noah walked out a new world. Why? He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. How do you know? He's in that
ark and he's not moving. I'm not going anywhere. Right? So he said, commit your souls,
like marriage. You know, marriage is a commitment.
We're married to Christ. Let him that suffer according
to the will of God, and he will, commit the keeping of your souls
to him in well-doing. What are we doing right now?
This is well-doing. This is a good work, right? This
is it. This is what God delights in.
Sacrifices of God. Well pleasing to Him. This is
what God delights in. To a faithful creator. Sobering, isn't it? It's supposed
to be. It should be. It's trying, isn't
it? It's supposed to be. It should be. And this fiery
trial. Oh, may He burn away the wood,
hay, and the stubble. burn away the dross, and our
gold to refine, which is faith more precious
than gold. Okay.