The Trial of Faith

I spoke to you last week on the
subject, the touch of faith. I'm speaking today on the trial
of faith. Now, I have a text which will
be taken from the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 7. I'm not going
to try to preach to you so much today as just talk to you. And I wish you'd listen. I wish
you'd give me a few minutes and listen carefully to this message.
I believe it may be. that the Lord of Glory will bless
it to your heart, to your spiritual growth, maybe to the opening
of your eye of faith, to hear the Son of God and to believe
on Him. In 1 Peter 1.7, Peter writes
that the trial of your faith, the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether he comes for
you in death or whether he comes for you in glory, but that the
trial of your faith may be found unto the praise and honor and
glory at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you
a question. Do you have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have saving faith? Not
religion now. Not what we call a general faith
in the existence of God. James said this, you believe
in one God, you do well. The devils also believe in one
God and they tremble. I'm not asking if you have religion.
I'm not asking if you belong to the church. I'm not really
asking if you have a general faith in God. I want to know
if you have a living, vital, personal, saving faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe, do you have faith
in the incarnation of God? What do you mean, preacher? I
mean this, that God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He
made the world, He was in the world. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. You know, our Lord said to His
disciples one day, Whom do men say that I am? Well, some say
you're a great prophet, some say you're a great healer, some
even say you're John the Baptist or Elijah. But Christ said to
his disciples, whom do you say that I am? And they replied,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ is God Almighty? That he came down to this earth,
that the one who sits on heaven's throne once laid in Bethlehem's
manger, do you believe that? The ancient of days became the
infinite of days. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that God Almighty came down here in human flesh because he loved
us and took our place and died for us on the cross? Do you believe
that in the incarnation of God? Do you have faith in the identification
of Christ with sinners? Do you know what that means?
The identification of Christ with sinners. Here's what it
means. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. That he was
numbered, actually numbered, with the transgressors. That
he became one of us in order that he might redeem us. He became
a man, the God-man, the Son of God, Son of Man, the God-man,
in order that he might be tempted in all points as we are, yet
without sin. That he might obey the law in
our place and impute to us a righteousness which we couldn't produce. Do
you believe that? Do you have faith in the sacrifice
of Christ? Can you say He was wounded for
my transgressions? By His stripes I'm healed. He
died for my sins on the cross. Can you say with Peter, I'm redeemed,
not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ? Do you really believe that? Do
you have faith in the resurrection of Christ? It's no fairy tale. Our Lord actually came forth
from the tomb. The angel said to the women who
came to the tomb on that resurrection morning, why are you looking
for the living among the dead? He's not here. He's risen. Do
you believe he arose for our justification? When our Paul
said, if Christ be not risen, you're yet in your sins. He said,
if Christ be not risen, we're false prophets. We lied on God.
If Christ be not risen, you are of all men most miserable. You
have no hope. You'll never rise. Do you believe
he arose from the grave? Do you believe that he came forth
on that morning, on that Sunday morning, two thousand years ago,
and because he lives, we shall live? That's saving faith. Do
you believe that Christ is seated at the right hand of God? Do
you believe in the mediatorial work of Christ? There's one God,
and one mediator between God and me, and only one, and that's
Jesus Christ the Lord. You needn't pray to anybody.
A prayer is never to be addressed to anybody but God. Don't pray
to a dead saint. Don't pray to a dead martyr.
Don't pray to a dead disciple. Pray to God. Our Lord said, when
you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven. All prayer is
to be addressed to the Father through the Son. Christ said,
Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, not in the name of
anyone else, in my name, it'll be done. He maketh intercession
for us. He pleads our case. He pleads
our cause. He's our advocate. You know what
an advocate is? A lawyer. You people that have
been to court, you had an advocate. You didn't go up before the judge
and claim anything. Your lawyer pleaded your case.
And Christ pleads our case. He pleads not our merit. He pleads
our guilt, but His merit. He says, yes, they're guilty,
but I died for them. Yes, they've broken the law,
but I kept it. Accept them in me. I pray for them. Do you have faith in the coming
of Christ? He said, 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 you. I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for
you, I will come again. I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. Do you
believe that? That's saving faith. the incarnation
of God, the identification of God, the sacrifice of Christ,
the resurrection of Christ, the mediatorial work of Christ, the
coming of Christ, that's saving faith. It's particular faith. And my friends, there's no greater
gift. There is no greater gift than saving faith. Peter calls
it precious. Precious. You talk about precious. You know, he ranks faith right
along with the word and the blood. He calls in his writings, Peter
calls three things precious, the precious promises, the precious
blood, and precious faith. Precious faith, that's what it
is. All men don't have this faith. All men do not have this saving
faith. Most men don't have it. But I'll
tell you this, where you find this saving faith, in Jesus Christ,
not a general faith in God, not a general faith in religion,
not a general faith in things to come, but a particular personal
living faith in Christ Jesus. Where you find this faith, you
will find the favor of God. I like what the angel said to
Mary. The angel came and announced that she would bring forth the
Lord Jesus Christ, that she was the vessel God chose to bring
Christ into the world through her. And he said, Mary, you found
favor with God. Oh, think about it. You have
found favor with God. And I'll say this, where you
find this faith, this saving faith, Somebody has found favor
with God, because we don't produce that kind of faith. That kind
of faith doesn't grow. That flower of faith doesn't
grow in the garden of human depravity. God Almighty gives that faith.
Listen to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them." Yes, faith is the gift of God. You've found favor with God.
If you have this faith, grandmother or grandfather, mom or dad or
young person, if you have this saving faith, you've found favor
with God. I'll tell you something else,
where you find this saving faith, it's a mark of election. Somebody's
always writing me and saying, how can I know if I'm one of
the elect? This is the faith of God's elect.
Titus chapter 1, verse 1, Paul calls it the faith of God's elect. That's right. All that my Father
giveth me, Christ said, shall come to me. And the way you know
that you were given to the Son is when you come to the Son.
Whom He predestinated, He called. And everybody whom he calls,
he calls them because he ordained them to have eternal life. He
said, my sheep, they'll hear my voice and they'll follow me.
How do I know I'm one of the sheep? Are you following the
Lord? Has the Lord branded you? The sheep of Christ have two
brands. You know where they are? One's
on their ear and the other's on their foot. They hear his
voice and they follow him. Now you look for the brand. If
you're not hearing his voice, you're not one of the sheep.
If you're not following him, you're not one of his sheep.
There's a bunch of people came to him there in John chapter
10, read it, verse 23, 24, and 25. And they said, now, if you
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you. But you didn't believe me. You
didn't believe me because you're not one of my sheep. My sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me. Oh yes, where you find this
faith, it's an evidence of spiritual life. That's right. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. Yes, sir, this faith is the eye
of the regenerate soul that sees the Lord. I've seen the Lord. You say, Preacher, what does
he look like? No, I haven't seen him. Well, he looks like what
God says he is in his Word. I haven't seen him in a vision
or in a dream. I see him in his Word. I've been to Calvary. I've seen the Lord. Some of you
can say the same thing. Not with natural eyes. But I've
seen him in his revealed character and attributes. I know who he
is. I know who he is. Faith is the hand of the renewed
spirit that reaches out, like that woman I was talking about
last week that touched the Lord. That's faith. Faith is the tongue
of the born again that confesses Christ. Where you find this saving
faith, you will find evidence of spiritual life. And then fourthly,
where this saving faith is found, It's the assurance of sonship.
To as many as received him, to them gave he the power, the privilege,
the right to become sons of God. Sons of God are men who have
received Christ. Now, all men are not sons of
God. I wouldn't offend you, if I could help it. But Christ said
to those people in his day, they said, we're God's children. He
said, no you're not. If you were God's children, you'd
hear me, you'd believe me. You're of your father, the devil.
He was a liar from the beginning, and his works you do. My sheep
hear my voice. My people, my sons, follow me. God's children know Christ. And
if they don't know Christ, they're not God's children. As many as
received him, to them gave he the right, the privilege, to
become sons of God. Whosoever is born of God, John
said, believeth in Christ. And whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Beloved, now are we the
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall see him and be
like him. And he that hath this hope in him purifies himself.
And that brings me to the next point, where you find this saving
faith. You will find obedience. Faith
produces obedience. James says, show me your faith
without your works. It can't be done. I'll show you
my faith by my works. By faith, Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen, built an ark, saved his whole household.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac, believing
that God was able to raise him even from the dead. By faith,
Moses, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing
rather to suffer the afflictions of God's people by faith. By
faith, Rahab dropped the scarlet lion out of the window, and God
was pleased to deliver her. Yes, sir, my friend, time would
fail me to speak of the power of faith, or the privilege of
faith, or the prospects of faith, or the possessions of faith,
except to say this, that he that hath saving faith is blessed
above all people. Happy and holy and blessed is
the man to whom God will not charge sin. Listen to me, three
things. Remember this. He that hath saving
faith hath justification before the throne of holiness. He that
hath saving faith hath access to the throne of grace. He that
hath saving faith is already seated, having passed from death
unto life, on the throne of glory. That's how important is saving
faith. All of those things come not
by works, not by law, but by faith. It's by grace and grace
alone. We're justified not by works,
but by faith. We have access to the throne
of grace by faith. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. That's the only, that's the only requirement for coming
before God, is faith. Why couldn't Israel enter the
promised land? Because of unbelief. That's the
reason. You can't come up with any other
reason. They could not enter in because of unbelief. Take
Hebrew brethren. Paul said, lest there be found
in you an evil heart of unbelief. But my subject today, believe
it or not, is not saving faith, but the trial of this faith.
Now, if you have this saving faith, you're going to be tried.
The trial of faith. You cannot have faith without
trial. You cannot have a crown without a cross. Just as you
cannot have a rose without a thorn, they go together. God only had
one son without sin. God has never had a son without
trial. That's right, listen to James.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different
trials, knowing that the trial of your faith, work with patience. The trial of your faith. 1 Peter
1.7, that the trial of your faith might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the coming of Christ. Now, if you have saving
faith, your faith will be tried. Now, I know you may feel very
obscure, you may be sitting there all alone in your room, nobody
but you, and you feel like you're the least in the kingdom of God.
You have few gifts and few talents, and you are just an obscure person
that nobody knows anything about. But if you are God's child, He
knows you, and He knows about you, and He's going to try your
faith. Yes, He will. And God didn't let up trying
Abraham, did He? Somebody said there were nine
trials of faith for Abraham. And you know something? Listen
to me. God reserved for Abraham the most severe trial. for his
old age. The last one was the toughest
one of all. Let me show you just some of
them. God Almighty called him out of his father's house, said,
Leave home. Go to land, I'll show you. And he left, not knowing
where he was going. He believed God. That was a trial.
And then he led him through the wilderness. And Abraham, who
was used to having the best of everything, lived in tents and
looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. And then he
was tried by his nephew Lot. They went out there, and their
herdsmen were in conflict, and they both had so many cattle,
they didn't have room for all of them. Abraham told Lot, said,
well, take the land you want, and I'll take what's left. Well,
Lot selfishly took the best. Abraham headed for the hills,
but he believed God. And then he was tried with the
wealth of the kings. The king of Sodom tried to make
him rich, you know. And he said, God's my inheritance. He'll give me what I need. And
then God left him childless. He never had an heir until he
was an old, old man, a hundred years old. Never had a son. Never
had a child. God left him without a child.
And finally God gave him a child. But you know that first one born,
Ishmael, one day he loved that boy. It was his son. And one
day God told him, said, you've got to send that boy away with
his mother, Hagar. You see, the son of the bondwoman
can't live in the same house with the son of the free woman.
Works and grace can't go together. They can't live together. What
you do and what God does can't live together. You've got to
have one or the other. Either works are great. Get rid of Ishmael.
And Abraham had to send that boy away. And then God reserved
for those last days the most severe trial of all. He came
to him and said, take that son whom you love up on a mountain
and sacrifice him to me on an altar. Oh yeah, my friend. God
tried Abraham again, and again, and again, and God'll try you. Your faith will be tried, and
I promise you, if it's saving faith. Now, if you be without
chastisement, if you be without trial, if you be without God
Almighty's affliction, then you have every reason to put a question
mark on your faith. It may not be saving faith, because
God's going to try the reality of your faith. Actually, we can't
be sure that we have saving faith unless it's tried. How can you
be sure? Those men built their houses.
Christ said, one on the sand, one on the rock. What revealed
the true foundation? The trial. It had to come. The rain from heaven, the flood
from earth, the wind. It had to come. And when the
trial came, we found out who was built on the rock and who
wasn't. And faith has got to have trial to prove the reality
of it. And then God will try the purity of your faith. That's
right. He'll take away from you the
arms of flesh to see if you're really leaning on Him. How do
you know what you're leaning on? Till God starts moving some
of the props. He did Job. You know what old
Satan said? God said, have you considered
my servant Job? There's none like him. A man
that hates evil and loves righteousness. And you know what Satan said?
He said, God, I'll tell you why Job fears you. He doesn't fear
you for nothing. Why, you blessed him. You hedged
him about. You prospered him. He has everything. He wants nothing. All right,
the Lord said, take it all away. Let's see who he believes. Let's
see who he trusts. Let's see where his faith is.
And everyone bit up was taken away. And it revealed what it
revealed. When God let Satan take everything
Job had away, he still had God. He said, though he slay me, I'll
trust him. His wife said, why don't you curse God and die?
Oh, no. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let me ask you this.
If every earthly prop you have, and upon which you depend, if
every earthly prop were knocked away, could you stand? Could
you stand on the strength of faith in Christ alone? Job did. Now, God may not send you Job's
trial, but I'll guarantee you this, on the authority of God's
Word, that God will send you sufficient trial to prove the
reality and the purity of your faith. I guarantee it. If your
faith is saving faith, God is not going to let it alone until
he proves the reality of it, and the purity of it, and the
sincerity of it. Now this is important. God came
to Abraham. He said, Abraham, you take that
son, and listen how he words it, you take your son, your only
son, your only son whom you love, and sacrifice him to me." And
Abraham took that boy to the top of that mountain and raised
the knife to slay him, and God said, Abraham, that's not your
son. I know that you love me. Now, that's what God's going
to prove. He's going to prove the sincerity
of your faith, the trial of faith. Now, listen to me. If you don't
hear anything else, hear The trial of saving faith is necessary. You can't have faith without
trial. And it's necessary to prove,
to reveal to you the reality of your faith, the purity of
your faith, the sincerity of your faith, and to remove the
shame and the hypocrisy and the dross. Now, my friends, trial
leaves only the real thing. When the wind of trial blows,
it destroys all the hypocrisy, and all the sham, and all the
religious show, and all the veneer, and all of this sham and dross,
and just leaves one thing standing. Have you ever driven out in the
country, and fire has struck a farmhouse, and nothing standing
but what? The stone. The chimney, made
out of rock or brick. The rest of the wood, hay, and
stubble has been consumed by the fire. And that's what trial
does. It leaves faith standing. Faith
in God, faith in Christ, faith in the cross, faith in the blood.
It leaves that standing and destroys everything else. And it's got
to be. You and I are apt to claim a whole lot more than we actually
have. That's right. We mistake quantity for quality. We mistake a whole lot of religious
talk for faith. We must take a whole lot of zeal
and enthusiasm and activity for faith. But boy, when the trial
comes, when God reaches into your home and takes the dearest
object of your love, the only thing going to be left standing
is your faith in God. Everything else is gone. When
God takes your health, when God takes your happiness, worldly
happiness, when God is pleased to remove everything, every earthly
problem, and that old chimney of faith is standing, pointing
toward God. Though He slay me, I'll trust Him." God has to do
that, and He's going to do it. He's going to do it to save in
faith. Count it not strange, my brethren, when fiery trials
come upon you, they are sent to try your faith, that it may
prove to be to the praise and the honor and glory of Jesus
Christ at His coming. You're not going to get in the
glory. I'm not. Christ is. Now, how does God try faith? Let me give you this now. The
trial of faith does not come to all persons in the same way.
God's sovereign. God will deal with his sons and
his daughters as it pleases him, in the way it pleases him, when
it pleases him. That's right. God may not try
you till you get old. He'll try you in his own time. But there's some common ways
in which faith is tried. Let me give you a few of them.
First of all, faith will be tried by the Word of God. That's right. If your faith cannot endure the
trial of the Word of God, you can be sure it's not saving faith.
I'm talking about from creation's story to the coming of Christ.
All of the Word of God is given by inspiration of God. All of
it's infallible, inerrant, unbroken. It's God-bred. Not one jot or
tittle shall pass till it all be fulfilled. The Word of God.
Do you believe the Word of God? His Word cannot fail. And then
faith will be tried by the so-called wisdom of men. Human wisdom and
human philosophy never lets up its attack on God's Word. Oh,
they appear to be smart, but God says it's foolishness. My
thoughts are not your thoughts. There's a way that seemeth right
unto men. Can you by searching find out, God? Your faith is
going to be tried by the philosophers, and the psychologists, and the
so-called liberals, and modernists, and people who deny the miracles,
and who deny the stories of God's Word, who deny the cross, who
deny the virgin birth, who deny God's Word. Watch out. Why, he
said, they're so subtle, they'll deceive the elect if it were
possible. Antichrist. And then your faith will be tried
by persecution. Christ said, I didn't come to
bring peace, but a sword. And a man's enemy shall be in
his own household. But if you love father, mother,
brother, sister more than me, you're not worthy of me. Faith
will be tried by affliction. That's right, faith will be tried
by prosperity. Oh my, yes sir, this is the fact
people miss. Spurgeon said, for every one
man that I know who has fallen because of poverty, I've known
fifty to fall because of riches. Faith will be tried by years.
He that endureth to the end shall be saved. Faith will be tried
by disappointment. by disagreements, and then faith
will be tried last of all by death. Paul said, I've kept the
faith. I'm ready to depart, I've kept
the faith. Let me die the death of the righteous.
Let my latter end be like his, dying in faith amid all the trials. Now this message, the trial of
faith and the touch of faith, on one cassette recording, if
you'd like to have it, it costs three dollars, write to me, I'll
send it. Until next week, at the same
time, I bid you a pleasant good day.

The Trial of Faith

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The Trial of Faith

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