Well my text this week is in
Luke's Gospel chapter 22 and verses 31 and 32 and the title
of the message is The Pain and Gain of Sifting. And in these two verses, it's
our Lord Jesus Christ, it's the Last Supper, they're having the
Last Supper together before the crucifixion. Verse 31, and the
Lord said, Simon, Simon, this is Simon Peter. Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. That's our text. You know, thinking
about a gardening analogy, and I love this time of year because
it's when everything in the garden is getting going, but how do
you make your plants grow? We want them to grow. And Peter,
Simon, who was being addressed, the very last verse of scripture
he wrote in 2 Peter 3.18, he exhorted disciples to grow in grace. He didn't say
be progressively sanctified, and there's an article about
the error of progressive sanctification by JC Philpott from well over
150 years ago now. what Peter did say was grow in
grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
that's what we're not to stand still we're to grow but how do
you make things grow how at this time of year do you make plants
grow well you would say give them good conditions give them
nutrients feed them give them shelter yes all those things
are good but do you know what works so often? pruning in fact
for many plants hardship works better than being kind to them. We have a laburnum tree in our
garden, and laburnum trees produce beautiful yellow dangling flowers,
covered in yellow flowers in the spring. But often, ours gets
next to no flowers on it, and do you know the reason why? It
gets some of the food that we're giving to the other plants in
the border. And being mollycoddled with food, it doesn't bother.
You walk down the road outside our house, down to the shops,
and there are several laburnum trees in the roadside verge,
in the bit of grass between the road and the pavement. and they
produce fabulous flowers every single year. Does anybody ever
feed them? They never get a solitary thing.
Hardship is what makes them produce best. Pruning some plants, if
you prune your roses, you get better roses. If you prune your
buddleia, it comes stronger and healthier the next year. It's
a picture of God's dealings with his people. What might most stimulate
believers to grow in grace? You know, many have had theories
about this. The Catholic Church, down the ages, has had its theory
that the best way to make believers grow in grace, whatever they
understand by those words, is this. you isolate them from the
world. You put them in a place where
there'll be no temptations that there are in the world. It's
called nunneries and convents and monasteries. You put them
out of the way of the world, away from fleshly trials and
temptations. And oh, they become such godly
people because they're not tempted by the things of the world. What
do we keep hearing in the news? They're the biggest dens of iniquity
that mankind has ever invented. You cannot, you cannot hide the
evil human heart away from the temptations of the world. No,
the thing, as John Newton's hymn's been telling us, the thing that
God uses most of all to make us grow and to make us closer
to him are worldly chastisements. Chastisements in the flesh, in
this world. That's our text. Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat." And this is what God uses. God uses this. The context
of this text that we're looking at is the Last Supper. They've
gone there, they've done everything that our Lord has told them to
do, they've found the man with the upper room, they've furnished
it, they've eaten the last supper, they've all been together. And
here in Luke's account in verse 24, look back at verse 24, there
was, can you imagine? This is the night before the
crucifixion. The next morning Christ would
be crucified. The Passover. He was going to
be the Passover lamb for his people. of which all other Passover
lambs were but pictures, but he was the reality. He was the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of a world of his elect.
But there was a strife among them. There they are. He's shown
them, this is my body. In breaking of bread and sharing
the wine, he instituted the Lord's Supper. He's shown them, this
is what it's all about. This is the foundation of your
relationship with God and with eternity and rightness with God
and a place in heaven is based on him and his death that he
was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. They're seeing the most amazing
things of the whole of creation, the pivotal point of creation.
And what do they do? Verse 24, there was a strife
among them. Which of them should be accounted
the greatest? There was a strife among them.
Strife over trivia. Can you imagine? Yes, of course
you can, because you and I are exactly the same in our flesh,
as we are. The crucifixion is imminent.
They're the best placed people in flesh to have ever seen. Here
is the Lord of glory, clothed in human flesh, and he's told
them what he's going to do, that he's going to go to the cross
to pay the penalty for his people's sins. And all they can think
about is who's going to be above whom in this kingdom that he's
creating. Who's going to be the best? Who's
going to be the greatest among them? Who's going to serve whom?
That's all that bothered them. Just the hierarchy of management
in this new kingdom. Amazing. How Satan desires to
drag disciples away from Christ. As our Lord said to Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you
as wheat. And there they are at this most
momentous occasion vying with one another for the best place. Satan hath desired you Jesus
addresses the spokesman of the disciples, because it was always
Peter, more often than not, when a spokesman was required. Who
do men say that I am? And some said, you're a prophet,
and some... But he said, but who do you say that I am? And
who was it that replied? It was Peter. Peter said, you
are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he said, Simon,
Simon, blessed are you for flesh and blood hasn't revealed this
to you, but my father in heaven, by his spirit, has shown you
things that the flesh cannot work out." So he addresses the
spokesman of the disciples, the one who'd been, no doubt, the
match referee, the one to step forward, always the one to step
forward when something needed saying on behalf of the disciples.
He addresses Simon. How you, he says to him, you
know, because this incident about who's going to be the best has
just happened and Jesus basically says to him how you are demonstrating
at this very crucial hour the fact that Satan is intent on
dragging you and the other disciples down to hell notice, look, look
at the words Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift
you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail
not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Did
you notice a change of grammar in that verse? Did you notice?
This is why we use the King... You say, why do we have to use
the King James Version? It's such old language. It's
because it's accurate language. Modern language is not accurate.
Modern language has been dumbed down. This is... Do you know,
people think that thee is a holier word than you. That's sanctimonious
rubbish. People think, I mean I don't
mind if you've been taught it and you've got into the habit
of saying these and thys and thous in your prayers, well that's
fine, I'm not going to fall out with you about it in the slightest.
But don't for one minute, please, any of you, think that you're
any more holy or that your prayer is any more heard because you
say thee, thou, thy, rather than you. It's just a change of grammar. And in our day, what's happened
is grammar's been dumbed down. So the distinction has been lost
between you, which is here in the King James Version, and thee,
which is there in the King James. And the difference is this. You
is plural. If I'm talking to you, and I
mean all of you, I use you. If I'm talking to you individually,
I say thou, or thee. They used to be a tongue twister,
didn't they? that they used to say up north. You know, in France,
to and vous, you only say to to people that you're very friendly
with, or children, or relatives, or things like that. And there
are two verbs, toutoyer, which is to be able to use to with
close friends. Are we close enough that we can
toutoyer now, or do we still have to vousvoyer, which is what
everybody else has to do? There used to be a saying in
the North, it was, don't thee thou me, thee thou them as thou's
thee, and it was making that distinction between the singular
and the plural, or the familiar and the unfamiliar. Up in the
North of England, in a place where we live for several years,
Barrow-in-Furness, they make that distinction to this day.
If anybody in Barrow-in-Furness is talking to a group of people,
he'll say, I use lot, did you notice, I use lot, going to U
with an S on the end, plural, like the French, V-O-U-S, I use
lot going to do it, and that's how they speak. Many of them
speak that way. That's all it is. What our Lord
is saying is, Simon, Simon, I'm speaking to you as the spokesman.
Satan has desired to have all of you, all of you disciples,
that are currently, pettily, arguing about who's going to
be the most prominent in the kingdom. Because you think the
kingdom's coming. You think there's going to be a coronation. There
isn't going to be a coronation. There's going to be a crucifixion.
What have we come to this point for? Not for a coronation. where
you're going to be the First Minister and you're going to
be the Chancellor of the Exchequer and you're going to have this...
No! No, no. There's going to be a crucifixion,
not a coronation. And Satan is getting at your
fleshly, weak desires and making you argue about who's going to
be better than the other. Don't you see how Satan has desired
to have all of you, and cause you to miss the very point. Cause
you not to discern the Lord's body. I've just told you, this
is my body which is broken for you, this bread. This is my blood
which is shed for you. You must discern that your standing
in eternity is on the basis of Christ coming and satisfying
the law for his people. How did he do it? By dying on
the cross, by shedding his precious blood. He's come for all of you
to do that. But all you can think of now
is what Satan is tempting you to think of. Who's going to be
the best in the kingdom of God? But I have prayed for thee, I
have prayed for you, individually. I've prayed for each. He's desired
to have all of you, but I've prayed for each one of you individually. That's what he's saying in these
verses. Satan's desire is to destroy
disciples. It is, you know, it's the great
thing of the universe, you know, the battle of good and evil that
is depicted in so much literature, Lord of the Rings and all this
sort of thing, fiction, but this is real. This is spiritual reality. 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and
9, be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may
devour. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith? In Revelation 11, we see the
church giving birth to Christ, who comes to be its savior. And
the beast is there waiting to devour that child, waiting to
devour that woman. That's Satan's desire, is to
drag the people of God down to hell. And in Ephesians chapter
6, Paul tells us clearly what the struggle is. He says we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And he tells us what
to do. Therefore take to yourselves the whole armor of God, the helmet
of salvation. the shield of faith, the sword
of the Spirit, your feet shod with the gospel of peace, and
all those other elements of the armor of God. If you think back
to the first book of the Bible, I don't mean Genesis, I mean
Job. We think that's the first one that was written. Satan desired
Job. Just as Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you all, that he may sift you as
wheat, he desired to have Job, Job who was head and shoulders
above his fellows in terms of fleshly righteousness, in terms
of being a good upright man, which so many people like to
be in religion today. And that was God's testimony
of him. As men count righteousness, there is none more righteous
than Job. He's head and shoulders above
his brethren. And God says to Satan, have you considered Job? You know, it isn't that God's
saying, come on Job, look, look over there. You know, there's
one that you haven't thought of before now. No, what God is
actually saying is, I know you, you've set your heart on him,
because that considered really means set your heart on. Have
you set your heart upon Job? You know what he's like. Satan
knew what he was like. Satan says, I've not been allowed
to touch him. You've put a hedge around him.
I can't get near him. Oh, if you let me near him, I'll
go and do to him and then he'll curse you to your face. But you've
put a hedge around him and I can't get near him. And God says, okay,
you can have his possessions, take all that off him. And he
did, but don't touch his life. And then he inflicted him with
boils and with terrible sores, but don't take his life. and
he kept his life. Satan could only, note, throughout
everything that Satan venomously did to Job, he could only go
as far as God allowed. But what God is saying to Satan
is, have you set your heart on him? Yes, I know you have, I
know you have, because he's head and shoulders above his brethren.
You know how a lion Well, you see the wildlife films of the
lions hunting in the Masai Mara in Kenya, and they see the herd
of wildebeest, and there's thousands of them. And you know what the
lion do? They're looking. Where's the most vulnerable one?
Where's the one that we're going to pick out? And they set their
heart on one animal out of thousands. And they chase it, and they hunt
it down, and they kill it, and that's their meal. They set their
heart on it. It's like, have you as the predator,
Satan, set your heart on Job as your prey, to bring him down
to hell? Because that's what his objective
is. Singled out for a fall. Singled out, that's what it means.
But God's desire was to use Satan to sift self-righteousness, which
Job undoubtedly had, sift self-righteousness from Job, and confirm his faith. And what was his faith in? By
the end of the book we know he'd seen Christ. Now I've seen everything. Christ and its object, the object
of his faith. Christ was the object of his
faith. Well how was Christ the object? Christ was the means
by which Job would be right with God. How shall a man be just
with God? Christ is how a man shall be
just with God. There is no other way, for there
is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved. Christ was the object of his
faith, and God's desire was to use Satan to sift all of that
self-righteousness from Job, to confirm his faith. Judas was
one of the twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot. He was like all
the other disciples. He was in Satan's sights as well. Satan had desired to have him
as one of the all of them, but God permitted him to take him,
for he, Judas, was the son of perdition. Satan desires all
of you disciples to shake you down to hell. But I have prayed
for each one of you personally, is what he says. Verse 32, I
have prayed for you that your faith fail not, for when thou
art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Satan desires to have
all of you disciples. to shake you down to hell, but
I've prayed for each one of you." What is this sifting that he
talks about? That he may sift you as wheat. Sifting, I mean you ladies are
probably thinking about when you're baking and you sift the
flour to put air into the flour. Well, Really, it's thinking more
about garden sifting. One thing that, I mean, it's
hard work, but I love riddling, sifting garden soil. If you want
some really nice, crumbly, friable, soft, spongy, springy garden
soil, you riddle it, you sift it with a garden sieve. You shovel
all the rubbish with the soil into it, and you sift it. And
the good soil falls through the holes, and the stones and the
other rubbish stays behind. And you separate it. You separate
the one from the other. There's a sifting which is separating
the wheat which you want from the chaff that you don't want
from the rubbish. There's a separation, there's
a sifting. Those that go panning for gold
in rivers where they know that there's gold and they take up
a shovel full of the sand from the riverbed. and they put it
in their pan and they swirl it round with the water so the water
washes away the lighter sand and it leaves any little nuggets
of gold because they're very heavy and they always sink to
the bottom and the water never washes it away. It's a sifting,
it's a separating of that which is precious from that which is
just common, that which is just vile. And this is what Jeremiah
says talking about the Word of God and the Gospel. In Jeremiah
15, 19, if thou take forth the precious from the vial, thou
shalt be as my mouth. He's speaking about the gospel.
In religion, there's an awful lot of rubbish. We saw it last
week, referring to Nehemiah and the building of the temple, and
what had to be cleared first was all the rubbish. Get the
rubbish out of the way before you can build walls of salvation.
Clear out all of that religious rubbish that's everywhere. If
you take forth the precious, which is the gospel, the gold
nuggets, the pearl of great price of the gospel, from the vile
religious rubbish, the fleshly religious rubbish that's all
around, then, says God, you'll speak as my mouth. Satan is used
by God to sieve his people, to sift them, to put them through
the mesh. Amos 9 verse 9. You see I'm not making this up,
the Word of God says it. Listen to Amos chapter 9 and
verse 9. For lo, I will command, and this
is what God says, I will sift the house of Israel among the
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the
least grain fall upon the earth. You, if you're a child of God,
if you're loved by God in sovereign grace from all eternity. He'll
sift you. He'll let Satan sift you, but
you won't be lost. Not a grain, not the least grain
shall fall to the earth. How? How does he do it? He uses
circumstances. Our God in sifting us uses circumstances. He uses relationships. He uses
events to try and to refine his people's faith. What does he
want to do? He wants us evermore to cling
to Christ, for our faith to be stronger, for all the other things
that we rely upon in the flesh and that we look to in the flesh
to fade away. Have you experienced such sifting? All his true children are subject
to his sifting discipline. Don't despise it when you experience
it. The book of Job says this, Job
5, 17. Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore, despise
not thou the chastening of the Almighty. And not only is it
said there, it's said in Proverbs, it's said again in Hebrews, chapter
12. Don't despise it. It's God, as a loving Father,
correcting and disciplining his children. What things does he
use? Here are some things that he
might use. you know, life is going along happily and something
happens, something suddenly, some event comes along, some
tragic sickness is diagnosed or you suffer a tragic loss. All of a sudden, you imagine
the families of the people that were on that aeroplane that was
crashed into a mountain on Tuesday morning. You imagine if it was
one of your relatives that was on that plane. Just imagine how
you'd be feeling. Just imagine the sense of absolute
tragic loss that you would feel. They're coming home, students
that have been away. They're coming home, the ones
that you love, that they've done. And they've been crashed into
a man, a tragic loss. God uses such things. Sickness,
adversity, tragic loss, strife in the family. How often strife
in the family is used. How often bereavement is used.
These are all things that God allows Satan to bring upon his
people to sift us as wheat, but not one grain shall fall to the
ground. Here's another one that is unexpected. Prosperity. Oh, you'd say, oh,
I can cope with some prosperity. I don't mind prosperity. You
know, there was that wise man in Proverbs said, give me neither
poverty nor riches. Give me neither poverty that
I'm tempted to steal, nor riches that I become totally covetous
with the things of this world. First Timothy chapter six, verse
10, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith. Sometimes
God is permitted to sift people who express, who profess religion. He sifts them with prosperity. The sower went forth to sow,
and he sowed, and some grain landed on the stony ground, and
it was eaten up straight away. Others fell amongst thorns, and
it began to grow, and it sprang up and looked healthy, but then
the thorns and the thistles wrapped round it. And what are they?
They're picturing the enticements of the world, the riches of the
world, the pleasures of the world, which take that one who showed
such promise away. Psalm 73. David was envious at the wicked. His feet had well nigh slipped.
His feet had well nigh gone from the faith. Because he looked
and he said, look, I'm trying to be faithful to God. I'm living
a life that gives me all sorts of difficulty because I'm faithful
to God. And look at these people around
who don't care anything for this. And look how they prosper. And
look what an easy time they have. And there are no bans in their
death. And it goes on and it's a real complaint. Read Psalm
73. And then, he goes into the temple. And when he goes into
the temple, not because it's some spooky place that's full
of, you know, things that you don't get elsewhere, it's a picture
of the gospel. For a child of God today, then
I went back to the gospel. Then I reminded myself of the
basis of the gospel. And what does he say? Then knew
I their end. Then I know what the end of them
was. You've put their feet in slippery
places. They're heading for a fall. They're
heading for a downfall. They think that they're covered
with riches and everything that they want. They're heading for
a downfall. Riches are deceitful. And even
the most faithful-looking saints, if they're not true saints, they
can be deceived by them. One of the saddest verses in
Scripture is 2 Timothy 4, verse 10, which is the last epistle
that Paul wrote when he was in prison at Rome, and he was waiting
to be brought before Caesar, and he knew what would happen,
he knew he'd be put to death for his faith. He had those two
years of writing epistles and of ministering to the people
of God, And he had one or two people around him to help him,
of whom one well-loved was a man called Demas. And he writes in
2 Timothy 4.10, Demas hath forsaken me. Why? Having loved this present
world. Demas, the glitter of the world, the
attraction, the lure of riches, the lure of a pleasant life.
had drawn Demas away, Demas hath forsaken thee. John says to disciples,
my children, love not the world. Often riches, prosperity, are
used to sift God's people. To sift. You know, it's... Godliness with contentment is
great gain, but beware of the snares of riches when you're
sifted by prosperity. It can ruin your soul. It's ruined
so many souls. And then there are spiritual
attacks. There are temptations that afflict God's people. You
know, God's people in the flesh, we're tempted. We're tempted
and we're encouraged often. Don't give in to temptation.
Christ was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Resist
temptation, resist the devil. But we have temptations in all
ages. What are the temptations? Fear
of men. How often? People who look godly, yet they
have a fear of men. People who are godly, yet they
are drawn into envy, the temptation to envy others. People who are
godly, and yet they have a quick temper, and they lose that temper,
as Moses did. People who are honest and faithful
in their relationships, and yet they're tempted by lust, or they're
tempted by idolatry, or they're tempted by pride, or they're
tempted by that most evil thing of unbelief. Resist the devil. stand steadfast in the faith. And there are other soul troubles
as well. Peter, on this occasion, he was so full of confidence
that he would stand, whatever else happened, he would go with
the Lord Jesus Christ and he would stand there and never deny
him. And Jesus says, this night before the cock crows, which
will just be in a few hours, you will deny me. Clearly, three
times. You'll think yourself a complete
hypocrite. You, Peter, will think yourself
absolutely worthless as my disciple. You think you're fit to be the
leader among the disciples? The spokesman of the disciples?
You will think you're fit only to go back to fishing. And isn't
that what he did? Peter said, when the Lord was
crucified and he hadn't seen him for a while, and I go fishing,
and of course then the Lord appeared to them, and they had that great
catch of fish. But he thought he was only fit
to go back to fishing. He thought he was strong enough
to stand with Christ, but he was about to fall. Let him that
thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall. His evil heart
of flesh was about to be revealed graphically to his inner soul.
He denied three times, and Jesus looked at him, and he wept bitterly. This strong man, this strong
man in the flesh, the spokesman, he wept bitterly. Have you known
such sifting? Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat and drag you down
to hell. and he will drag Judas down to
hell, but you're one of my grains from all eternity, and I won't
lose one of my grains of wheat from all eternity." Have you
known such sifting? Have you known unbelief? Infidelity
to Christ? Base fleshly thoughts? Desires
welling up within you? All of these things. In John's
account of this, in the Last Supper, you know, he says, Peter
says, I will never, never deny you. And Jesus says, oh yes,
you will. Before the cock crows, you will
deny me three times. But what's the very next thing
Jesus says to him? Start of chapter 13 of John.
Let not your heart be troubled. Wouldn't your heart be troubled?
If you'd just been told that you're about to do the most treacherous
thing, to deny the Lord of glory, whom you've had revealed to you
as the Christ of God, you're going to deny him? Wouldn't your
heart be troubled? And Jesus says, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told. This is where
you're going. Let not your heart be troubled. Why? He says, I
have prayed for you. I have prayed for you each individually,
that your faith fail not. And when you are converted, strengthen
your brethren. Jesus says this, Satan will be
used of God to refine you, but he won't achieve his objective.
His objective is to drag you down, each one of you, down to
hell. But he says, I've prayed for you, that your faith fail
not, that you'll be kept, that you'll persevere to the end,
Turn with me to John chapter 17. Let's see this prayer of
our Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 17, where he prays
that God will restore, his Father will restore the glory to him
that he had with him before the beginning of time. He says, I've
prayed for you. And he does pray. This is the
high priestly prayer that John records. And in verses 6 to 8,
look, he says, I've manifested thy name. Jesus, the Son, praying
to the Father, I've manifested thy name unto the men, thy saving
name, thy name of salvation and of grace to the men which you
gave me out of the world. The election of God is there,
isn't it? Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they
have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me. He's blessed these disciples
with the revelation of gospel truth. They know the truth. But
now look, he says this, I pray for them. Luke chapter 22, I've
prayed for you. I've prayed for you, and I pray
for them. Jesus, our God, clothed in flesh, prays to our God, who
is the Father in glory, the Father of love. I pray for them. I pray
not for the world. You know, I often listen to the
service on the radio on a Sunday morning. I listen to that service,
and I hear, how often do I hear them pray for the world? And
I think, yes, it's alright to pray for situations, but you
know, they pray for the world as if God is there impotently
wanting things to happen that he can't make happen. Of course
he's not. You saw those words of Scott
Richardson, long departed this world, now he's got several years,
he's been gone, but his words ring true, you know, he doesn't
know what's worst. The person that says, there is
no God, I'm an atheist, I don't believe in any God, or the person
that says, oh yes, I believe in God, but he's trying so hard
to make things happen, and he just can't do it because you
won't let him do it. What sort of a God is that? That's
no God at all. If God is true, God is sovereign. Must be. Well, here's Jesus.
I have prayed for them. They are his. They are his. And
his father's. And all of them are in them together. Verse 11. Now I am no more in
the world. Because he's leaving. But these
are in the world, and I come to thee." And this is what he
prays for each one of his disciples individually. Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. He prays
that we'll be kept, that we'll be kept in the unity of faith,
believing the same things, that your faith will fail not. What
faith in what? Faith in Christ and what he was
doing. the spiritual sight to see that
when he comes to the judgment seat of Christ, that which has
put the record straight for all of his people is the blood of
Christ, which has satisfied the law of God. That's why, bold
shall I stand in that great day, says the hymn. Yeah? There is
therefore now no fear, no condemnation. Bold shall I stand in that great
day. Why? Because Christ has answered
the law's demands. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Keep them in the unity of that
faith. Verse 15, give them an easy time and take them out of
the world. No, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of
the world. Oh, wouldn't that be good, to be taken now straight
to heaven? But that thou shouldst keep them
from evil. They're not of this world, even
as I'm not of this world. Sanctify them through your truth.
Keep them. Keep them, while they're in the
world, while they're in the wilderness. The woman, in Revelation 11,
after the beast tries to devour the Christ child, the woman is
taken into the wilderness. A wilderness doesn't sound like
a very comfortable place, but it's a place there prepared by
God for her to feed her there. God keeps his people in this
wilderness of the earth, all of them. Verse 20, neither pray
I for these alone, the ones immediately around him, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word. Who's that? It's
you and me if we believe in him today. It's believers in all
ages, all of them, now and those to come, us today who believe. Verse 24, and what's his ultimate
goal? Father, verse 24, I will Christ
wills. He's God. I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me in sovereign grace and particular redeeming
election, that they be with me where I am. This is it. Bring
them to heaven, to those mansions in the sky. Bring them there
that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. This
is what he prays. Satan seeks destruction, but
all he accomplishes as God's devil, because don't forget,
Satan is God's devil, is to separate true faith in Christ from the
dirt from the chaff, from the rubbish of corrupted religion
and self-reliance all around. It's to bring us low, just as
that hymn of John Newton said. The purpose was to strip us of
all confidence in the flesh. We are the circumcision, the
true circumcision of God, who worship God in the spirit, who
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and who have no confidence in the
flesh. That's it, to bring us low, that
we may be exalted in due season. You know, all the chaff, all
the rubbish falls through the sieve, or is separated by the
sieve. But true faith grips tight. Not one grain is lost, as Amos
9.9 says. Peter, do you love me? This is after the crucifixion,
after the resurrection. After Peter says, I'm not fit
for anything, I'm going back to be a fisherman. Whatever that
was, I don't know what it was, but I'm no use, I'm going back
to be a fisherman. All his confidence in the flesh
had been sieved out of him, hadn't it? All of his confidence in
the flesh sieved out of him. And he sees Jesus, it's the Lord. And they fish and they have breakfast
on the beach by the lake. And Jesus says to him, Peter,
Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. You know that I love
you. John 21, 15 to 17. Feed my sheep. And he does it three times. Feed
my lambs, feed my sheep. Strengthen. Look at that last
verse of Luke. 22 and verse 32 when you are
converted when you are restored Strengthen your brethren strengthen
your brethren Peter. Do you love me feed my sheep
feed my sheep? Strengthen your brethren with
what with the ministry of the word with the declaration of
salvation account strengthen your brethren with that We read
it first Peter chapter 1 verses 1 to 9 look at that particularly
and you'll see Strengthen it doesn't it strengthen us. He
strengthens his brethren today because he was sifted. He had all of that fleshly self-confidence
sifted out of him. All of that fleshly self-righteousness,
if that's what it was, sifted out of him. And he strengthened
his brethren with the Word of God. This is what we experience
as believers and it's what we can expect. Sifting. But let
not your heart be troubled, said Jesus. I have prayed for you
that your faith fail not. And once refined and restored,
strengthen your brethren. This is what we hope to do by
hosting this upcoming conference towards the end of May. We hope
for people to get together, people who love the gospel of God's
grace to get together and together to be strengthened in their faith.
We've had sifting. Everyone has different types
of sifting and sieving, but to be brought together and to be
strengthened together under the sound of the Gospel of Grace,
by God's mercy. Amen.