I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. See if we can make our way to
the closing out of our consideration of the church at Philadelphia.
The title of our message today is The Hour of Testing. The Hour
of Testing. And of course, it's taken from
that portion of Scripture where our Lord is saying to the church
at Philadelphia, These words in verse 10, because you have
kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the
hour of trial. Because you have kept the word
of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation,
which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell
upon the earth. And we opened up our series looking
at the church at Philadelphia initially addressing as was given
to us in verse seven, this door that Christ said was opened by
him of which no man can shut. And we contemplated how that
God has opened a door for the church of the living God with
one primary objective in view, and that is the preaching of
the gospel. And we learned that if God hadn't
opened the door of the gospel to humanity, you and I wouldn't
be saved. God opened the door to the kingdom
of God. He opened the door of utterance.
He opened the door of proclamation. He even opened the door of faith
in our heart, did he not? I mean, as he opened Lydia's
heart to attend unto the things that Paul preached, he opened
the door of faith in my heart. There was a day when I did not
believe the gospel, you too. And then one day God had opened
the door of our heart. And the gospel made all sorts
of sense to us, did it not? And from that day on, you and
I have been experiencing what we call the kingdom of God. In
the preaching of the gospel, in the opening of our hearts,
the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us as a sufficient Savior
every day of our life, is he not? And as a consequence, we
are able to take up his proposal to us in John 10, I am the door. If any man enter in by me, he
shall go in and out and find pastor for his soul. And so the
church at Philadelphia were privileged to have this door open to them.
But our master said in verse eight, it was because they had
little strength. And we talked about that. Why
does God open the door to the people of God for the ministry
of the gospel when all they have is little strength? And do you
remember how I entitled that particular point? Little strength
is all you need when you've got God. Little strength, in fact,
is the way God would design it. Because if you had great strength,
You'd boast in your own abilities But see God is see, you know,
this is true child of God, you know at best all you have experienced
in your life is a little strength Is that true just a little strength
you have not experienced mountain moving strength You know about
all the strength that you and I have experienced in all the
days we've served Christ is just enough strength to trust it Just
enough strength to trust him. Somebody deal with the AC back
there. I don't want any of my sisters falling out today. I
see way too many fans fanning in here. It's starting to cause
me to get dizzy. So when God saves you, we learn
that strength is a gift, right? It's not intrinsic to us. You
and I don't intrinsically possess strength. In fact, by nature,
we're what? Weak, very weak. Without strength Christ died
for us when we had no strength at all And then he imparted to
us strength and you and I have to be strengthened every day.
Do we not? I think it's Ephesians chapter
3 verse 16 if you can pull that up I want to remind you of what
the Apostle prayed about with regards to the church of the
Living God that she would continually be Strengthened listen to the
language here And I need this. I don't know about you, but I
need to be strengthened every day of my life. Listen to the
words. He says over in verse 14, for
this cause, I bow my knee unto the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and in earth is named.
And I watch what he says here. I pray. That's what it means
to bow before the father. I pray that he would grant you. You know what that means? Whatever
he's about to ask for is a gift. I pray that He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, here it is, to be strengthened. I am praying that God would grant
you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might by the Spirit, where? In the inner man. Now that's
a study for you. That's a study for you. Because
Paul's prayer is that internally you would discover strength from
God by his spirit. And the strength that he would
have you and I to have is the strength necessary. Now watch
this now to continue to trust Jesus. I need strength to trust
God. You need strength to trust God.
You and I don't trust God naturally. We distrust God. We try to work
these issues out in our own strength. See, when strength doesn't come
to us from God, we do our own thing. We go our own way. We
work it out ourselves. But listen to what the apostle
says. He says, I'm praying that the Spirit of God would strengthen
you in the what kind of man? Inner man. See, because our outer
man is filled with schemes and machinations. We'll work it out
in our outer man. But where you and I need to be
strengthened is in our spirit. in our soul, in our understanding. What's the objective? Look at
verse 17. Watch verse 17. Here's why you and I need to
be strengthened. Are you there? Look at it. Here's what he says,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. I need strength
in order that Christ may be a continual reality to me. It's not an assumption
or presumption that I'm going to be walking daily in the grace
of knowing God in Christ as my Savior without the Spirit of
God constantly supplying me with the strength to keep my eyes
on Christ. Can I get a witness? Somebody tell the truth today.
Now watch this. Remember the menorah in Zechariah
chapter 4 where on the outside of the menorah there were two
olive trees? And the two olive trees, bunch
of y'all don't know because y'all don't read your Bibles. But there was two
olive trees that from the olive trees, the olive trees were connected
to the manure, the candlestick. And the olive trees were the
source by which the manure stayed lit. The olive trees represent
the spirit of the living God. The oil represents the spirit
of God. And the oil had to be poured
into the lamps in order for the lamps to remain lit. Now the
olive tree is an agricultural metaphor. The lampstands are
a material metaphor, an article in the building, and yet what
we see in that vision is that the olive tree and the lampstands
are inseparable. Do you know what that means?
The lampstands cannot of themselves produce light. without the Spirit
of God constantly pouring into the lamp oil. You and I can't
walk by faith with Christ. You and I can't keep our eyes
on Christ. Our hearts are as dark as sin
unless the Spirit of the Living God continues to supply us with
grace to just look to Christ. Am I making some sense? To just
look to Christ. So you and I don't look to Christ
by nature. So Paul is praying that we would be strengthened.
And this is what our Lord is saying in the book of Revelation,
going back to our text. I have given you an open door
because you have a little strength. Because you have a little strength.
And you know God can do a lot with people who have a little.
Is that true? In fact, that's the pattern with
God. The pattern with God is give me what you got. and I can
work with it. Is that not true? Two fishes
and five loaves of bread. Isn't that right? The little
oil that the widow had before, or the woman had before, and
her and her son died, God multiplied that over and over and over and
over to demonstrate that He is the source of eternal, inexhaustible
blessing to those who would trust Him. So see, I don't need a lot
of strength, but I do need to be strengthened in my inner man
I want you to get this again. I want you to get this just to
believe God Just to believe in Just to believe him and this
is this is the objective of God In the life of the believer that
you and I would believe on him whom he has sinned And so he
encourages the Saints along these lines. So we talked about the
open door We talked about little strength and then last week we
dealt with the fact that Christ made it plain to the church at
Philadelphia that he loved them and He loved them. Look at the
latter part of verse 9. Behold, I will make them of the
synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but
do lie. Behold, I will make them to come
and worship before your feet and to know what? That I have
loved you. Past tense. Not that I do love
you. He does. But that I have loved
you. And I've told you more times
than I can count. that your hope and mine is built
not on the present feeling and experience of God's love, but
the past fact and reality of the love of God in Christ by
virtue of his death on Calvary Street and the finishing of the
work of redemption by which he secured my eternity forever. What do I do when I question
the fact or raise the question? Does God love me? Are you ready? Watch this now. Did Christ die
for you? If in fact you can say yes, then
you know He loves you. And if He died for you, He has
secured you for all eternity. That means no matter what you
are going through in this life, this one thing will never change. Watch this. For those that are
in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And for those that
are in Christ Jesus, there is no separation. No condemnation
in Christ. No separation in Christ. Because
He loved us and gave Himself for us. Revelation chapter 1
verse 5. Now unto Him that loved us and
washed us in His own blood. Listen to it, the latter part.
Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our what? in his own
blood. Is that love? Yeah, he loves
us. But what he was saying to the
philadelphians was this. Now you got a bunch of people
going around that called themselves true jews, but they're lying. Is that what we learned last
week? See, the emphasis of our message last week was this. There
were faithful believers in Philadelphia preaching the gospel of the glory
of God in Christ and making Christ everything. And there were the
Judaizers, the legalists, the workmongers, false religion,
telling them, unless you were circumcised and keep the law,
obey Sabbath rules and things of that nature, you are not a
believer in Christ. And therefore, God does not love
you. What did Christ say? I will make them come and bow
before you. And know that I have loved you. Covenant terminology. We learned
that long ago. It's covenant terminology. And
what we dealt with last week, which will move us and advance
us into our next point, was this. And I want to make sure you get
this. We clearly established the fact, and I hope that you
were persuaded, that to be a true Jew is to be a believer in Jesus
Christ. Were you persuaded of that? Or
are you still under the notion that Judaism fundamentally is
a genealogical connection to Abraham? Have you come to understand
that if you are in Christ, you are Abraham's seed? And if you
are Abraham's seed, you are heirs of the promises of God? Do you
believe that doctrine? I am more than most Jews when
it comes to the promises of God because I believe on Christ.
And so we worked through thoroughly, didn't we? The New Testament
language, the apostolic affirmation that we are the true Jew whose
praises of God, not of men. We are the true Jew who worship
God in the spirit. We have no confidence in the
flesh and we rejoice in Christ, do we not? We rejoice in Christ,
we are the Israel of God. And I'm gonna make that more
plain as we deal with our final church, the church at Laodicea.
But the children of God need to know That you and I are as
beloved of the Father as the Son. It's critical because this
defense that Christ sets forward for the Philadelphians is over
against something that we have to deal with today. See, and
I talked about this in the Friday study. I'm just going to tap
on this because this is relevant to our proposition that God loves
you. See, I have taught for the longest
that if you say that God loves every single individual in the
world, you've got huge theological problems. Huge theological problems. Now, I won't investigate them
today, but here's what I will plainly say. If God loves you,
he's going to save you. And if he saves you, you are
one of God's elect. And if you're one of God's elect,
you are a true Jew. Now watch this, didn't we talk
about this on Friday? If you boast in your election
as if election means that God lifts you up above the troubles
of this life, you have no idea what election is. Can I help
you a little bit? When Christ chooses to bring
you into the number and make you one of his soldiers, all
hell breaks loose. As soon as the master calls you,
and he must call you, he went into a high mountain and he called
whom he would. Watch this. And they came to
him. See, if the master calls you, he's calling you to identify
with him. Now, are you ready? Did the world
love him? Did they laud him? Did they boast
in him? Did they say, oh, how wonderful
Jesus is? No, they hated him. They ridiculed him. They mocked
him. They scorned him. They lied on
him. And ultimately, they did what? You know what that means?
He was elect. He was the elect one of the Father.
Remember what they said when he was on Calvary? If he be the
chosen one of God, let him come down off that cross. Here's what
I'm saying to you, child of God. When God sets his love on you,
it's because he chose you. You're his elect. And when he
calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light, it's time
for you to suffer. And see, this is the context
of the church at Philadelphia, for which he is now saying to
the Philadelphians, I want you to understand, I know your works.
I know what you're going through. I want you to know I care. I
want you to know I'm with you. And I want you to know you're
going to prevail over all the trials that are coming in your
life. And child of God, do understand this. There will be no trial
in your life that won't ultimately be used by God to bring you where
Christ wants you to be. There's no trial that you're
going through right now. where God won't use it to bring
you to where he wants you to be. Even though those trials
hurt, don't they hurt? Cut your cell phones off, quit
texting, quit doing all that, you young people right now. It
just came to me to just say it. Stop all the texting. Stop all
the talking and start listening. Suffering is part of God's conforming
you to his image. It's affirming the relationship
that we have with God. And it's really designed to make
you yearn for heaven more than you do. Now, you know we don't
think about heaven much. We think about what we gonna
eat, what we gonna wear, how much money we can make, who we
can rip off, right? But what trials do is strip us
of all these carnal passions. and remind us that God has a
far more exceeding weight of glory waiting for us on the other
side. And that's why suffering is critical
to us. And so our text is going to now
help us to understand that verse 10 will be where we start. Look
at verse 10. Because you have kept the word
of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation.
Do you see that? So now, this here is what we
call a rate of exchange. The promise that he's gonna keep
them from the hour of temptation is the consequent of them having
already kept the word of his patience, right? Because you
have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the
hour of temptation. And what I said to you last week
was this, there are some promises in the word of God that are unconditional,
right? But there are other promises
that are definitely conditioned upon our obedience There are
promises that god pours out upon his people that are a net result
of our obedience to christ Now get this child of god. God is
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Are you hearing me? I told you this before it's in
his nature. It's in god's nature to bless
It's in God's nature to reward. It's in God's nature to pay.
It's in God's nature to return those acts of love towards Him
that we yield. And you need to know that. You
need to know that God invariably returns on the dividends of those
that sacrifice for Him. Imagine now Philadelphia going
through the trials that they're going through. Told you, up the
road, the Sardis Church, they had already compromised the gospel.
Everybody in Sardis loved the church in Sardis. Why? Because
they didn't say anything. They didn't preach anything.
They didn't oppose this world. They didn't challenge the culture
of their day. They learned how to get along
for getting along's sake. And so everybody loved the church
at Sardis, 25 miles north. But the church at Philadelphia,
they were trying to destroy that church. Why? Because they preached
Christ. as the only way, truth, and life.
And they were taking hits for it, and the master's coming and
saying, I know what you're going through. I know what you're going
through. And because you have kept the word of my patience,
isn't that the first line? I want you to grasp it now. We
won't get into the technicalities of the language. But when he
says, because you have kept the word of my patience, what he
means is you have actually believed the gospel and all of the intended
consequences that comes with it. See, Christ said this. If any man follow me, he's going
to have to deny himself and take up his cross. See, he said, if
you follow me, you're going to have to suffer for my name sake.
Be sure that if they did these things to me, they're going to
do them to you. But more than that, when we talk about the
word of his patience, what we are talking about is a vivid
understanding of what Jesus went through in order to obtain eternal
redemption for us. In our English translation, the
word patience can evade us. Because patience, from our vantage
point, almost means to acquiesce and kind of give up and give
in. But the word literally means to endure. And it's a word that means to
stand over against opposition, or to bear up under the weight.
It doesn't mean to be passive in the sense where, well, you
know, I've got time. I'll just wait for it to come
and go. No, the idea of the word of his patience is the word of
his endurance of those things that came against him because
he was the son of God. And in fact, it's the word of
him enduring the cross, despising the shame and sitting down at
the right hand of God. We keep that message and we preach
it to sinners that that's the only hope of glory for them. Are you following what I'm saying?
So the church at Philadelphia was preaching the gospel, preaching
the cross of Christ, preaching the message of redemption, and
preaching it under the stress and duress of persecution. And
our master is now saying, I also will keep you from the hour of
temptation. I want to talk about that for a minute. So now in
our present evangelical church, we often find ourselves swayed
by common parlance, swayed by popular teachings. And many of
you now will latch on to this particular statement of our Lord
and run to the end of the world and think that this passage is
talking about the great tribulation. which hopefully we'll be able
to escape before that diabolical entity called the Antichrist
shows up. Lord, deliver us out of the world.
Right? Some of y'all want to be delivered out of the world
so that you don't go through that tribulation. I want to help
you understand something. Nowhere in your Bible does it
ever exhibit believers being delivered from tribulation. It
always demonstrates and exhibits Believers being delivered in
their tribulation Are you hearing in their tribulation? Tribulation
becomes a door for them to go through by which they glorify
God and they come out on the other side triumphant first and
foremost, however, technically when it says I will deliver you
or keep you from the Hour of temptation which shall come upon
all the what world to try them that dwell upon the earth. This
term coming upon all the world does not mean every place in
the world. That is the cosmos, the whole
of this globe. The world here is a Greek word
that simply means that region of the world in which they live.
Very important in this context. In Luke's gospel chapter one,
there was a taxation that went out. And that taxation was as
described by Luke as going into all the world to tax everyone.
Well, in that day, the word world then was only referring to the
Roman Empire. The Greek word is genet. It is
not the term cosmos. And what it means is the inhabited
world or the known world of their day. And you and I would then
understand then that what Christ is saying in this context is
there's a time of trouble coming that he knew about. And that
time of trouble that was shortly to come, he says, now when that
trouble comes, I'm going to keep you in the midst of that trouble.
So I told you last week that our Lord is graciously speaking
to the church at Philadelphia, not only commending them for
enduring the test that they had already gone through, but letting
them know another one is coming. And this next wave of persecution
and trials that are coming, I'm going to see to it that you overcome
that one too. You guys got that? That's a word
of comfort to the church, letting them know that they are on point. And so when it uses this phraseology,
I will also keep you from the hour of temptation. I want us to now work with that
under our first point. A test passed and a promise given. A test passed. What test? Because
you have kept the word of my patience. A promise given, what
promise? I also will keep you from the
hour of temptation. You got that? So under that particular
proposition, I want to share with you one, two, just a couple
points here. First and foremost, are you ready?
God tries our faith. So you need to hurry up and suck
that up and get that into your system. God tries our faith. The man or the woman that says,
I am going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust him
as my savior and walk with God, If that individual does not accept
the premise that your faith must be tried, they don't understand
biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity has always
demonstrated that people who walk with God are going to be
tried by God to discover the authenticity of their faith,
to strengthen their faith, and to also glorify God by virtue
of the relationship between them and the believer. Did God try
Adam and Eve? Yes, he did. This tree, don't
mess with it. Did he try Abraham? Yes, he did. Abraham, offer up your only begotten
son. And the text literally said, and God tested him, right? Now,
for those of you who may not be as acute as you ought to be,
there's a difference between God trying you and the devil
tempting you. Just in case you don't know, when the devil tempts
you, his objective is to get you to sin. When God tries you,
his objective is to get you to trust him and to discover what
level or nature of faith you possess so that it can be corrected
if you are not thinking right. Am I making some sense? So stay
with me now, because most of us think that we are all right
with God. I shared with the brethren last
night an absolutely ludicrous verse In Proverbs 21, you know
what it says? Are you ready? Every way of man
is right in his own eyes. Now, isn't that a crazy verse?
So stay with me for a moment. Every way, right? How can that possibly be? But
you see how you and I think about ourselves? Very seldom do you
guard your thoughts. You let them run into the gate
with open arms, and you accept those ideas and notions as if
they were friends. But sometimes, saints, whether
you want to admit it or not, you don't think right. Whether
you want to admit it or not, you don't think God's thoughts
after him. Sometimes the enemy lodges in the branches of your
mind and hatches all kind of concentrized eggs. And when you
look up, you are in so much trouble because you hatched a scheme
thinking that God was going to endorse it. And it was as wrong
as wrong could be. And then when God tested your
faith, you came to discover, whereas you were telling people
how strong you were in the Lord, you ain't got no strength. None. You were toppled by that trial.
The boss talked about laying you off. You start falling out,
whining and crying. Strong in the Lord. See what
I'm getting at? Do you see what I'm getting at?
And you see why God has to try you? See, because God's going
to keep you honest with him. If you're going to walk with
him, you've got to be honest with God. God desires truth from the
inward man. And from the inner man, he'll
help you to see Jesus. But you've got to be honest with God. And
that's why God tries our faith, because we will lie to people.
Isn't that what David said? Lord, deliver me from the way
of lying. We will tell people we are all
that and we're none of that. That's why God has to try your
faith. That's why when actually coming
to know the Lord Jesus Christ, things very often get more difficult
and not less. I wish one of you would raise
your hand and tell me right now that since you have come to know
the Lord Jesus Christ, everything has been wonderful. Everything
has been wonderful. It's not true. See, because the
lights have been cut on. And God is working a work in
your life. that amounts to humbling you. And humility for proud people
is hard. And again, as I said, because
you're one of God's elect, you have to go through what Jesus
went through, because this world hates God. It does. And then
you still have a fallen nature, whether you want to admit it
or not. Like we learned last night, there are two I's running
around in you. Did you get that? The I that
love God's word and the I that loves sin. Did you get that? Those are two eagles that you're
struggling with all the time. See, you didn't even have that
when you were unsaved. In your unsaved story, one ego. The I that did whatever he or
she wanted to do. When once you became born again,
you have an ego that wars against another ego. And unless you are
constantly suing for mercy, the ego of the flesh dominates the
ego of the spirit. And you find yourself doing what
you would not do. I'm telling the truth. And so,
so, so, so now watch this now. God tries our faith. Psalm 7,
verse 9, the Lord tried the righteous. Proverbs 17, verse 3, the Lord
tried every man. First Thessalonians 2, 4, Paul
said, but God who tries our hearts. I just want you to know God tries
you, OK? So sometimes you want to blame the devil. Stop. Stop
blaming the devil. So like so for many of you, you
aren't sharp enough for the devil to even waste any time with you. I just want to let you know.
See the devil high rolling. You too weak. He wouldn't even
send one of his emissaries at you. Most of your trials are
the weakness of your flesh, the lust of your flesh. If he sent
the demon after you, you would be a mess because you're not
girded. That's going to be my message
in the conference. See, my message in the conference is We must
preach Christ in order for us to win this battle. The preaching
of Christ is aimed at you and I successfully navigating this
world because a war is on and that war is against your soul.
And the average Christian I meet is not even armored up. And so
I want to talk about the armor and how necessary it is for you
to be armored up for this war. because the warfare is furious. God tries the hearts. He tries
the hearts. Point B, we all have an hour. Do you remember what he said
in verse 9? He says, I will deliver you from
the hour of temptation. I want to talk about that a little
bit, the hour. It's a term in the scriptures that means a concentrated
period of time, a punctiliar moment wherein a major event
occurs. Like in a 24-hour day, we got
24 hours. One of those hours becomes a
concentrated hour where some event becomes very specific and
poignant and relevant in your life. Are you following me? The
hour. So I want to talk to you about a few hours that occur.
In your Bible it talks about the hour. The hour of trial. The hour of trial. It talks about
the hour of deliverance. It talks about the hour of judgment. It talks about the hour of redemption. What do I mean by that? When
you think about this term, the hour, we find Jesus using it
frequently in the scriptures. In John chapter 2 verse 4, you
know what Jesus said? He says, My hour is not yet come.
Remember that? He says, My hour is not yet come.
But you know what he said about you and me? Your hour is always
at hand. He was talking about the hour
of his death the hour of his judgment In fact when he was
ultimately crucified in John chapter 12, you know what he
said to his father now is my soul trouble And what shall I say father deliver
me from this hour See he knew the hour of judgment was come
and then when it actually seized him You know what? He said to
the powers that took him he says but this is your hour. I and
your power of darkness. See, in the Bible, the hour becomes
this crystallized event of activity. In fact, what's fascinating,
nowhere in the scriptures is the hour used in the Old Testament
except in the book of Daniel. Daniel becomes that concentrated
period where the term hour is used. Why? Because the Babylonian
captivity for Israel was a model of the church being in the world
constantly going through these hours. So Christ is hearkening
back to Daniel's time. Remember in the book of Daniel
where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were challenged with
a trial that if they do not bow down and worship the golden idol,
they would be cast into a lake of fire. You know what the text
says in Daniel chapter 3 around verse 5? In that same hour, they
were cast into the fiery furnace. At that time, when you hear da-da-da-da-da-da-da,
fall down and worship the beast, verse 15, notice what verse 15
says. Because they heard it and they didn't obey the command.
Now if you be ready that at one time you hear the sound of the
corn, you fall down and worship the image which I have made.
But if you worship not, you shall be cast the same what? Hour into the mist of a burning
flame. And who is that God that shall
deliver you out of my hand? That little peon king called
Nebuchadnezzar, under the inspiration of the devil, challenged God's
servants. So that there was an hour of
trial that came into their life, right? Put your feet in their
shoes. That's a test, isn't it? It's a major test. Now, I'm gonna
tell you right now, I don't want that test. In fact, I was thinking
about this. This is what I was thinking about
last week. I'm gonna share something with you. I was thinking that if I
can go to the Lord and say, Lord, all the tests that you plan on
testing me with, is it possible that I can just skip the test
and get to the final? Because I really don't want to
go through no trials. I just don't, because I know
myself. I don't do well in tests. If
I could pass by, circumvent, if I could cheat, if you could
just let me, give me the cheat sheet so that I can pass by the
test, right? I mean, I'm just being honest
with my God. See, I'm learning how to be honest with him. Lord,
I don't want the test. But see, people like Peter, they
were saying, Lord, give it to me. Bring it on. You know, I'm
your dude. I can handle it. The little servant
girl came up and said, you sound like those Galileans. Peter said,
I don't know the man. I don't know him. I don't know
him. Don't sound like he was ready for the test, right? Didn't
sound like he was ready. See, what I'm getting at to you
is the trial is always something that's going to expose our weakness
so that we might quickly sue for mercy before it comes. You don't have the ability in
yourself to handle one test without the grace of God. Now, I'll tell
you what those boys did. They prayed before that hour
came. They sought God before that hour came. Because, see,
the spirit of faith that was in them had them to open their
mouth when Neb said, if you don't bow down, you got to go. Because
they said, listen, Neb, we're not even anxious. Whatever you're
going to do, you're going to do. This is what we know. Our
God is able to deliver us. Remember that? Wonderful words,
right? Wonderful words. You and I haven't
said those words even in the smallest tests. But God delivered
them, didn't he? Did he deliver them saints, but
did he deliver them from the test or in the test? That's what
I mean. See that's what I mean what I
mean And so when we talk about this hour of testing you must
understand that god is going to try us To prove to us not
only our weakness, but his faithfulness So there are times in the gospel
where people were sick And the lord jesus healed them and the
text said in that same hour they were healed God tried Adam and
Eve. He tried Abraham. Did he try
Joseph? Oh, he tried Joseph, didn't he? He tried Joseph. He tried Judas Iscariot, too.
Yes, he did. See, Judas was among the 12.
And as the 12 were tried, he was tried. But Judas did not
pass the test. Do you know why? Because he didn't
believe God. Without faith. It's impossible
to believe God. And God took his hand off of
Judas and showed Judas to be what he was. The hour of testing
is in order for you and I to understand our weakness and to
sue for mercy from God, even before the trial comes. Like
there are a lot of things that are invariably coming your way
in mind. Like some of you young people,
you do not know this and you certainly do not believe this.
You gon' get old. Am I telling the truth? Are they
gon' get old? You gon' get old, young people.
But see, you don't believe this. And so what I want you to do
right now while you listen to this message is start praying
when that hour of old age starts dawning in your life so God can
keep you and keep you from avoiding something that's unavoidable.
Because with older age comes all kinds of challenges. And
I remember when I was doing a convalescent ministry years ago, what some
of the old folk would say when we would come in, we would come
in, we'd say, how are you doing today, sister? How are you doing
today? They were so glad to see us.
How are you doing today? You know what they say? I'm not
doing real good. Some of them that were a little
bit more intellectually astute would say things like, it's hell
getting old, son. And some of them that had a little
kind of humor to it, they would say, if you can, avoid it. If
you can avoid getting old, avoid it. Because I want you to think
about what's happening when your body starts to shut down. And
the pride has to give way to somebody else cleaning your butt. See, so I know you young people
don't think it's coming, but you need to be praying now that
God gives you grace to walk in the dignity of your humanity
as a child of God when somebody else got to wipe the slob out
of the side of your mouth. Those are difficult times. And then
coming up on Jordan is a difficult time. We have to face death and
that can be difficult. So what you do before that hour
comes and it's coming by all intents and purposes Unless the
Lord breaks the heavens and comes you're not gonna die So you get
prepared for that by asking God to prepare you for that hour
In the hour of trial Jesus plead for me lest by base denial I
depart from thee I noticed that most of my brothers and sisters
couldn't even sing that song. This is why we keep singing hymns
in this church, because of the deep, profound, rich theological
content in them. Most of our younger sort of frivolous
Christians who are always singing happy songs don't know anything
about penitentiary psalms or penitent psalms, psalms where
you cry out to God, psalms where you plead. That's a supplicatory
psalm. You're supplicating to God. You're saying, Jesus, keep
me in the hour of trial, lest by base denial. Does anybody
know what base denial means? your own inclination to leave
God on the spot just like Peter did and just like the rest of
the disciples did apart from the grace of God. You'll do it.
You'll do it. You'll do it. You'll leave him.
You will not endure the trial. So we all have an hour and then
endurance of that hour leads to what? I want you to see it
again. James chapter 12. James chapter
12. I want you to see this. Endurance
of that hour leads to blessing and so our master is encouraging
the church in Revelation chapter 3 the church at Philadelphia
and I say this what a gracious Savior we have To to to give
us warning before the test comes What a gracious Savior is he
not? see see see now in some cases he does not warn us and
But we have a Bible, and if we would read our Bibles, we would
know that many are the afflictions of the righteous. We would know
that, right? And here, there goes a brother
quoting, and the Lord will deliver us from them all. The Lord will
deliver us from them all. Jump and shout and holler. But
make sure you interpret that right. Because most people holding
to a triumphant type of theology Would believe that that passage
means that he'll make sure you escape that trouble before it
gets a hold of you But nothing could be further from the truth In fact, that's a wild text That
Psalms many of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
will deliver them from them all Is that true? Absolutely Absolutely,
but never in the way in which you think never in the way in which you
think. So the Bible doesn't contradict itself. We are to endure trouble
as good soldiers, knowing that God will keep us in the trouble
and bring us through the trouble on the other side intact. Am I making some sense? Yeah.
Otherwise, you're going to tear your Bible apart, strip it into
multiple pieces, disjoin its coherency, of letting you know
troubles are just the way of life for the believer man is
born to trouble like the sparks that fly up well you know that
it's just the nature of the beast and trouble won't end until we
see him face to face but i want to show you something about endurance
remember what i said endurance Which has been translated in
many of your bibles patience means to bear under the weight
of the trial Trusting that god is with you and will bring you
out on the other side. Here it is. Here's the blessing.
Are you ready? Listen to what it says over in verse 12 here
it is Blessed is the man that endures temptations See that
that's the word. That's the generic word anthropos
and it means male or female human beings blessed is the person
that endures temptation What's the objective? Enduring it. Not
running from it. Not collapsing under it. But
enduring it. For when he is what? Stay right there. See? Not if,
when. You know what Job said in the
book of Job? He says, God knows the way that I take. We'll be
talking about that in our Friday study. And when I am tried, I
shall come forth as gold. God knows the way I take. And
when I am tried, now did Job go through trials, saints? The
trials that Job went through will cause most human beings'
trials to pale in comparison. And yet in the 23rd chapter,
you know what he says? He says, when I am tried, I shall come
forth as gold. You know what that means? He
was confident that God would see him through the trial and
that on the other side, he would be better for it. Now my brothers
and sisters, I'm just here to tell you, that's huge. That's
huge when you lose your job. That's huge when you lose your
house. That's huge when you lose your
business. That's huge when you lose your
family, like Job did. He was reduced to nothing. He
still said when God is done trying me. I'm gonna come out as gold
Do you know how deeply anchored his theology was in Jesus Christ? It was so fully anchored in Christ
that he knew that the trial that he went through he went through
as a semblance of the trial that Christ went through Watch this
now no trial that you go through as a child of God is ever Separate
from the trial that Christ went through for you Every trial you
go through as a child of God, as a child of God, is attached
to the trial that Christ went through. Which means this, your
trial is guaranteed to be a success for you. It's impossible for
your trial not to result in an advancement of God's purpose
in your life and ultimately the glory of God. Now look at the
text again, work with me on this. Watch this now. It's true that
for every believer that the man that endures temptation When
he is tried when he is tried he shall receive the what crown
of life Which the Lord shall which the Lord Which the Lord
hath promised to them that what? And this is the promise in Revelation
3 9, isn't it 3 10? I will keep you in the hour of
trial, right? Let's stay at verse 12 for a moment. If you look
at verse 12 with bifocals Verse 12 is describing our Lord Jesus
Christ He is the blessed man that endured temptation. He was
the one that was tried, was he not? Like no man in the world
was Christ tried. Like no human being in the world
was he confronted with all of the host of hell. Like no human
being in the world was the son of God laden with the temptations
and the trials of our weaknesses, of our humanity, of our sinfulness.
The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Now watch this now. He took the dump truck of all
of God's people from the beginning of time to the end of time. One
big, massive, humongous, infinitely large dump truck of sin. See now, if it was just mine,
it would be an infinitely large dump truck. Because my sins are
infinite. Didn't just get me with one more
brother in the house. That's a double infancy. The infinitude
of my sin and yours would have been laid on him. You know what
that would have made him? A man of sorrows acquainted with
grief. Burdened with my iniquity and my transgression. And I can't
even begin to describe what that feels like to bear my fallen
nature and sinful nature in his holy being. It's like contaminating
him. who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners with my vile, putrid, sinful disease
nature. That's a trial. Think about it
now. It's a trial for a holy man who
is impeccably righteous to now have to come up under the weight
and exposure and impartation of the sinfulness of his people. Are you following? So in the
moment of his authentic humanity, in the hour of his authentic
humanity, you know what he said? If it's possible, that's how
sinful you are. Are you hearing me? That's how
sinful we are. That he said, if it's possible,
because he understood the consequence of now bearing in his body all
of our diseases, all of our sin, all of our evil thoughts, our
evil machinations, our evil imaginations, and the hard, hard consequences
of it all on him. See, if you don't understand
what I'm getting at, what I am talking about is our mediator,
our substitute, our high priest, the one of whom we are going
to observe the table here in a few minutes. I'm talking about
the man who alone bore all our sin. He endured it. He endured it. And he came out
on the other side victorious. Do you understand that? Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. I
want you to see it briefly, Hebrews 12. This is the idea of enduring
enduring enduring temptation persevering making it all the
way through hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 through 3 listen to this.
This is you in christ Triumphant because he endured This is the
promise of blessed is the man that endures temptation for when
he is tried He shall receive a crown of gold i'm talking about
that here in the promise quickly as we close out listen to it
hebrews chapter 12 Are we there? Verse 3, for consider him that
did what? Endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself. Who were the contradiction of
sinners against him? Us! You! He had to endure us. You got that? He had to endure
us. This is why our sinning against
him ought to be taken a little more seriously than we do. Because
you are, when you sin, sinning against your master. He died
for that. He died for that sin. He endured
the contradiction of sinners against himself. Notice what
it says. Lest you be wearied and faint
in your mind, you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin,
but he did. He resisted unto blood, striving
against sin, and he won. Did he not? Go back to our text
so I can get to my last point. I'm going to quickly rush through
this. Endurance leads to blessing, does it not? Endurance leads
to blessing. Endurance leads to blessing.
So you and I want to learn to endure our trials knowing that
God has promised that on the other side of that trial there
will be a blessing. Listen to what he says as we
move to our next point now. I also will keep you from the
hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try
them that dwell upon the earth. Ultimately, there will be a day
where there will be a final tribulation, a final culmination of all things,
and God will have to deliver us then. Verse 11, behold, I
come quickly, hold fast that which you have, that no man do
what? Yeah, see now you get those warnings
in the Bible all the time whether you want to accept it or not.
The Bible always warns about those things which He gives you
in promise according to the gospel being taken from us if we are
not careful to guard those things and treasure those things. And
like Mary did when the word came to her, hide it in your heart.
Remember when the angel spoke to Mary? You know what she did?
She hid it in her heart. So now stay with me for a minute
because I'm going to quickly run through this Finish this gospel
race and keep your crown. Is that a legitimate proposition?
Finish the race. Don't boast in your running.
Finish the race, because only the one that finishes receives
the crown. So four simple propositions.
He's on his way. You got that? And see, again,
the language is technical. But when he says, I am coming,
that means I'm on my way. Secondly don't what give up Now
that's the word for somebody today Because some of you are
on the brink of giving up That's true. Some of you on the brink
of giving up. Here's the word for you. Don't
give up endure Hang in there Get the CD and listen to it ten
times lots of points in there to help you with what do you
do in the hour of trial? plead for mercy Plead for mercy
get others to pray with you for you, but make sure you pray for
yourself Because god desires to hear from you child of god
Do you understand that if you're on the brink of quitting on the
brink of giving up ask god the grace you to endure All you have
is today tomorrow's not promised. There's not even a reality We
build so much stock in tomorrow and tomorrow is a figment of
our imagination All you and I got is today. In fact, to be honest
with you, all we got is right now. We don't know what the next
hour is going to bring. And we're sinking under the possibility
of things that don't even have a reality yet. Am I telling the
truth? Now, I hope we get to have the
next hour because I'm looking forward to my lunch. But just
in case, you know, It's not guaranteed. Don't give up. Keep the gospel. Do you see that? Second Timothy
1.9. The Apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, nor
the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you be, Timothy,
either. Don't you be ashamed of the gospel. Don't you be ashamed
of the gospel. Be a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel, because it's the gospel that saves. See, in our
generation, I'm a little worried about people being ashamed of
the gospel too. Scared to tell men and women
that they're sinners and headed to hell and that the remedy is
Christ. That's what he saves you to tell
people about. Now, you ain't got to say it as mean as your
pastor says it. You don't have to be that mean.
You don't have to be that. You can do it nice. But use the words. Use the words. Tell people they
need Christ and tell people that the only remedy for your real
problem is Jesus. That's what he saved you to do.
He didn't save you to compromise with this world. Listen to it.
Stay on point. And finally, there is a crown
laid up for you. You know what I love about this
passage? This is really interesting if we were actually dealing with
like the rules of biblical interpretation. Now follow this. In our text,
Revelation chapter 3 verse 10, Christ is promising to give them
a crown, right? But you heard that in James chapter
1, didn't you? And Paul said that in 2 Timothy
chapter 4, didn't he? Remember what he said to Timothy?
Paul says, hey, I've fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I've
run my race. Henceforth is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness. And not only to me, but to everyone
that loves his appearance. You know what I love about that?
John and Paul knew things about what was going on in heaven before
the revelation was even given. And when once the revelation
was given, guess what the revelation does? Affirms the apostolic doctrine. Jesus is personally saying to
the church of Philadelphia, I have a crown for you. Don't let any
man take it. have a crown for you don't let
any man take it point number four point number four this is
where I'm gonna close I love this and I'm definitely not gonna
be at length with this but this is important for you to see in
verse 12 it says him that overcometh the one that overcomes will I
make a pillar in the temple of my God I want all of your attention
right now I want your attention Because this is my last word,
and we're going to go to the table. I want you to get this.
I want you to hear this text that I'm getting ready to express. I want you to hear it. I want
you to hear. I want you to hear the enormity
of this promise. I want you to hear it, okay?
And I want you to understand how absolutely crazy this promise
is. I want you to hear it. This comes
from the mouth of your Savior. I want you to hear this. This
makes no sense. Pull the verse back up. Verse,
just a verse. I want you to see this. Because see, some some
folk come to church, they don't bring Bibles. Pastor, why you
put the text up on the screen? You ready? For the folks that
think they slicker than God. See, they get hit with Bible
verses if they don't even own a Bible when you come in here.
See, because we know that faith comes by what? That's right,
and we put it way up in 45 50 font for you. So you can't miss
it See long ago. You used to have to share your
Bible with people who didn't bring that. Oh, I forgot my Bob
You're lying. You don't even have one. I Forgot my Bob, but
now you got to see it with your own eyes. Am I making some sense
with your own eyes now? Let me show you a crazy promise
which I will fully explain when we get the level just here because
it's so beautiful to me It's broken my heart This is amazing. Listen to what the Master says.
The one that overcomes, the one that believes his gospel till
they breathe their last breath. Will I make a pillar in the temple
of my God? Do words mean anything to you? This is huge. Think about what
he just stated, child of God. And you know to whom he's speaking?
The child that dies in faith. The single person whom most people
don't know who dies in faith. The believer that's fighting
battles in areas of the world that no one knows about and dies
in faith. He says, I will make you Pillar
Can you see the only thing I could do was go a crazy promise This
is too much for me because see I can read a little bit and I
can think through the implications of a statement and this is just
Mind-boggling see had he said for him that overcometh I will
make sure that you enjoy the delights of heaven forever great
This is the temple This is a temple in heaven. Symbolic language,
terminology that has to do with the New Jerusalem, I understand.
But even that, here's what I want you to get. If you run this gospel
race, if you serve God, if you live and die with the principles
of the kingdom of God being primary in your life, He's going to make
it so that everyone that enters in has to acknowledge you. every time they pass by the pillars.
See, he's taking this language from the temple of Solomon. Solomon built the temple for
God instead of his servant David. And there were two pillars that
Solomon built, and they were in the front of the temple. The
first pillar was called Joachim. It's called the Lord is our strength.
I mean, the Lord will establish us. The second pillar was called
Boaz. which means he is our strength.
Every time the people of God entered into the temple, they
had to remember two names, Boaz and Joaquin. Every time they
went in, they had to acknowledge these two men. Do you know what
God had done for Joaquin and Boaz? I want you to hear the
word. Here's what I want you to get. I want you to understand
that when you and I believe the gospel and die in faith, God
promises to honor us. Write the word down. The word
is honor. The word is honor. I want you
to get this before we partake of the table. The word is honor. This is stupendous. Stupendous. Put your name there. Every saint that ever lived will
have to recognize your part in the cause of the gospel. Because
your name is on the pillar. Do you hear what I just said?
It's on the pillar of the post of the temple in glory so that
when they come in, they've got to acknowledge Jesse Gistan.
I can't speak for you. I can only speak for myself.
I can only speak for myself. Listen to me. I can only I hope
you can speak for yourself that when you die, you won't be a
no name person in glory. And here's my point, please honor
Him in your life. Him who honors the Lord, Him
the Lord will honor. That's what all those promises
are about. All those promises are about
God honoring you for honoring Him. You know how in some of
our cultures, our cultures where they celebrate the dignitaries
and elders and they laden them with those reefs, reef after
reef, and just pile it up, fix the big old pig. You know what
they're doing? Honoring Him. Are you ready? Every believer, when they cross
over because they have honored God in this life, God is going
to honor them. The word is honor. I want that
to hit your head. I want it to hit your head. This
is why he's worthy to obey and serve and love and suffer for. There's an honor to be had by
the people of God that you don't get in this life. This is why
Jesus said to the Pharisees, it's impossible for you to believe
on me because you only seek the honor of men and not the honor
that comes from God. I hope you are understanding
now the absolute importance of a motive of service that says
it does not matter what people think. My service to God is because
I love him and I want to honor him. And I do want to be found
on that day honorable. Amen.