The Trial of Your Faith

One day our Lord said to a centurion
who had requested the Master's help, he said, Do you believe all things are possible to them
that believe? Do you believe And this sincere,
earnest man answered, not like a 20th century fundamentalist,
of course I believe. So he said, Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. Now for those of that attitude
and of that persuasion, the message tonight can be of great help.
If you have a refuge with which you're satisfied, nothing can
be done for you. If you have a hiding place that
you feel is comfortable and secure, and Satan can give those, nothing
can be accomplished. But if you have that broken heart
and that seeking spirit, that willing heart, if you can say
with John Newton, Lord, if I've never loved you before, let me
begin today. But it may be God will do something
for us. I am more afraid of, and you
take this like I'm saying it, I'm more afraid of idle religion, careless religion,
lukewarm religion, than I am of open infidelity. Because in
atheism and agnosticism and open infidelity, there's no security,
but there's security in religion. And our Lord Jesus Christ stooped
down, stooped down on the level with the sinners, like He did
the woman found in the act of adultery. He stooped down. Did
you ever realize what that scripture is saying? Our Lord stooped down.
Came right down there on her level, right down there with
her, with her in her condemnation, with her in her humiliation,
with her in her shame. And he dealt with it with all
the scathing rebuke that he had for those who were so secure
in their so-called religion. Do you have faith? Do you have
faith in Christ? Living faith, saving faith, dying
faith. There's no greater gift than
faith. I can't think of anything I'd rather have. this side of
heaven and save and take. I can't think of anything I'd
rather have. Old Brother Barnard told a meeting
out in Texas with R.J. Cooke. Brother Cooke reminded
me of it again this week. This past week we were together
in Mexico. Some dear lady called one night
about 11 o'clock. Barnard was an early retiree. He went to bed early. And this
lady called. She was so anxious and troubled. He said, Brother Coot, I got
to talk to Brother Barnard. You Barnard fans will appreciate
this. Well, he said, Brother Barnard's in bed. He said, well,
get him up. I got to talk to him. I'm coming
over. So Brother Coot woke him up. He came in the living room
and sat down, you know. And after a while, this lady
came in. He was sitting there in the chair,
you know. He came in, sat down. It was quiet for a moment. Well,
he said, what's your problem? He said, Brother Barnett, I don't
have any assurance. I just don't have any assurance.
He got up and said, my soul, my soul. He said, if you ever
get any, you tell me how you got it. I've been without it
23 years. Say, that's awful. No, that's
not so awful either. That's not so awful. I'm telling you, this thing is
saving the faith. You don't ever examine your faith.
You don't ever examine whether you be in the faith. Have you
got your little religion that you got in a bottle sitting on
the shelf? When you need God, you go open it and take a dose?
How do you know you'll hold out? Some folks making an awful lot
more noise than you make hadn't held out. They've perished in
unbelief. How do you know that you'll be
walking with the Lord? How do you know you'll be walking
with the Lord? You have saving faith. All men
don't have faith. You know, Peter called it precious.
Precious faith. Precious faith. He ranks it right
along with the word and the blood. Precious and promises. Precious
blood and precious faith. We handle it so lightly. Of course
I believe, I've always believed. That's too long. That's too long. If a man has true faith, he knows
there's a time when he didn't have it. He knows that he was blind to
the gospel and now he sees the gospel. He may not know the exact
time when God quickened his heart, when God brought faith to his
soul, but he can say with that man whose eyes crashed open,
he can say this, I was blind and now I see. I was blind and
now I see. Now faith is precious for five
reasons. First of all, where you found
faith, where faith is found, where genuine, persevering, saving
faith is found, it's a mark of divine favor. The angel said,
Mary, you found favor with God. You found favor with God. You
know why faith indicates that you found favor with God? Because
faith is the operation of God. We studied that this morning
in Sunday school, you remember? Faith is the operation of God,
not by nature. Faith is a flower that blooms
not in a human garden by nature. It's planted by God. Faith's
the gift of God, not of work, lest any man should boast. Paul
wrote in Ephesians 2. So where you find this faith,
this saving faith, this persevering faith, this living faith, that person has found favor with
God. And then secondly, where faith
is found, it's a sure mark of election. You want to know whether
you want a God's elect? Do you have faith? Do you have
faith? In Titus 1, verse 1, Paul calls
it the faith of God's elect. That's what he calls it. The
faith of God's elect. It's an unusual faith. It's a
divine faith. It's a God-given faith. It's
a supernatural gift. It's something a man can't produce.
David Brainerd found that out. He said, I couldn't produce faith.
No way I could produce faith. You can't either. It's the gift
of God. It's called in Titus 1.1, the faith of God's elect. According to the faith whom he
predestinated, he called. Christ said, my sheep hear my
voice. They follow me. The man who hears
his voice and follows him is his sheep. Why believe in God? The devil believes in God. That's
what James said. And he trembled. That's something
most of you haven't done, and I haven't done, is much trembling.
Where you find faith, it's the mark of election. Thirdly, where
faith is found, saving faith not, now not this belief in the
depravity of man, belief in the sovereignty of God, belief in
divine election, belief in particular addiction, belief in effectual
call, and belief in perseverance, and belief in premillennial return,
and belief in the blood, the book, and the blessed hope. That's
nothing but a recitation of what you've heard. I'm talking about
living, saving faith, persevering faith, faith that walks with
God and talks with God and lives with God, saving faith. And where
you find that, it's the evidence of spiritual life. For faith is the eye of the regenerated
soul that seeth the sun. I see it. I see it. Faith is the hand of the renewed
spirit that embraces it. Faith is the foot of the born-again
child that walks in his steps. He that believeth, he that believeth
hath life. That's what it says. Faith in
Christ is the heart of holiness. It's not, the law is absolutely
not the heart of holiness. It's faith in Christ. The motivating
force of holiness is faith in Christ. It is not a law, it is
not a rule, it is not a fear, it is a love. That which motivates a man to
walk in honesty and holiness is not fear, it's faith. You can make a man do what you
want him to do if you can scare him bad enough. You can make
a man do what you want to do if you promise him enough. Isn't
that right? God doesn't operate that way.
You can make your wife and your children obey you if you scare
them enough. You can make them obey you if
you buy them a new car, ever Christian. Either way, I wouldn't
have it. And God won't have it either.
That's not God's method of operation. That's not the heart of holiness.
Faith in Christ is a hope of glory. Faith in Christ is the foundation
of obedience. That's where it all is. Faith
in Christ is the evidence of spiritual life. And then fourthly,
where faith is found, it's the assurance of sonship. The Bible
says to as many as receive him, not his doctrine, not his commandment,
not his law, not his ordinances, not his church, not even his
people, him. To them gave he the right, and
only to them the right, to become sons of God. Those who received
him, who believed on him, to them gave he the right. Nobody
else has that right. Nobody else has that privilege.
To them gave he the right to become sons of God. Sons of God
are those who are in Christ. He that believeth in Christ is
born of God." Fifthly, where faith is found, oh, this precious
faith, this living faith, this persevering faith, this faith
in a living Lord, where it's found, it produces obedience. That's right. By faith, Abel
offered a more excellent sacrifice than By faith, Abraham, when
he was tried, offered up Isaac. 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, Rahab dropped the scarlet
lion out of the wind. By faith, Noah believed God and
prepared an ark for the salvation of his people. That's what produces
obedience. I tell preachers all the time,
quit preaching on tithing. Quit preaching on church attendance.
Quit preaching on studying the Bible. You're wasting your time. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. And I guarantee you, if anybody
ever comes to know him, If they ever come to know him, if he
ever becomes the object of their lives, of their beat of their
hearts, of their thoughts of their minds, of their essence
of their soul, when he becomes Christ in you, the hope of glory,
I tell you, faith produces obedience. We don't have the time to tell
about the power of faith and the privileges of faith and the
prospects of faith and the possessions of faith, but he that has faith
is blessed above all people, he that has faith. For the man
who has faith in Christ, that's all, just faith in Christ, the
man that has this kind of faith That man is justified before
the throne of God's holiness. Now you think about that. Not
if I have, not if I have knowledge, but if I have faith. Not if I
have a name that men, that on the, on the lips of men everywhere,
distinguish for this, that, or the other, but if I have faith.
I am justified before the throne of God's holiness. That's all
I need, faith in Christ. I need this saving faith. If
I have this faith, I'm justified, totally justified, totally without
sin, totally perfect before the throne of God's holiness, if
I have this faith. If I have this faith, I have
access, right now, I have access. to the throne of grace. I don't
have access to the mayor's office down here. I have to get an appointment.
I don't have access to the governor's office in Franklin. I don't have
access to Mr. Carter's office, Oval Office
in Washington. But I, if I have this faith,
I can come boldly before the throne of God's grace. You can't
if you don't have it. preach, everybody can call on
God. No, sir, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
you're not right about that. Without faith, he that cometh
to God must believe that he is. Without faith, it's impossible
to preach God. He that cometh to God must believe
Seeing we have such a high priest, let us come boldly before the
throne of grace." You better not come any other way. If I have this faith, I have
access to the throne of grace. I can, in any circumstances,
cry, My Father, My Father. If I have this faith, I will
one day reign with Christ on the throne of glory, joint heir
with the Son of God, if I have this faith. Not if I have works,
but if I have faith. If I have faith. Now, that's
how important this is. If I have this saving faith,
I have justification before the throne of holiness, access to
the throne of grace, and I am an heir to the throne of glory. That's the reason I'm interested
in it. But our subject tonight is not the blessings of faith,
but the trial of faith. In 1 Peter 1, verse 7, the trial
of your faith, the trial of your faith. And in James, you'll turn
over to the book of James, chapter 1, verse 2 and 3. James writes, My brethren, count
it all joy, and this is what I was trying to talk about a
while ago, count it joy when you fall into different trials
and temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith,
the trying of your faith, Peter talks about the trial of faith
and James talks about the trying of faith. God Almighty wouldn't have given
you a lantern called faith if he didn't know you were going
to need it in the darkness. There's going to be some darkness.
There's going to be some darkness. God Almighty outfits his ships
not to sit in dry dock and rust, he outfits them for the deep
billows. But God's going to try your faith. First of all, it's your faith
that's going to be tried. Your faith. We're not talking
tonight about the trial of faith, we're talking about the trial
of your faith. My faith. The trial of your faith. James says the trying of your
faith. You may feel very obscure tonight.
There you are, hiding behind somebody. You may feel that you're
least in the kingdom of God. Who me? I'm nobody, yeah. But
you're somebody, if you have this faith, you're a son of God. And you may feel that you have
few gifts and fewer talents, but I'll guarantee you this,
if you've got faith, God's going to try it again and again and
again and again. And James says, count
it joy. Hurry up, Lord, try me. I want
to know. I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be deceived. Why do we get mad at second causes?
Why do we find fault with second causes? God is the first cause
of all things in the lives of His children. And we get angry
at second causes. God Almighty tries men's faith,
the trying of your faith. He tried Abraham again and again
and again, never did let him along. called him out of his father's
house and from his kingdom. Then he led him out in the wilderness,
dwelling in tents all those years. He had no certain dwelling place. Then he tried him with his nephew
Lot. Lot was a contrary fellow, you know. And there's a dispute
arose between Lot and Abraham. God tried Abraham. He tried And
then he tried him with the wealth of kings. You remember he gave
him that big victory, and these fellas wanted to make him rich.
He tried him with riches. He tried him with loneliness.
He was childless. He had no child. All those years
without a child. Ninety years old, no child. Never
had a child. And God left him childless until
he was an old, old man. And then God gave him a child
called Ishmael. You see, he got that by himself.
God's in that somewhere. And then God came to him, and
that boy was about 16, 18, told him to send him away. Send him
away. Get rid of him. Get him out of
here. The son of the bondwoman cannot be heir with the son of
the free woman. Get him out of here! Him and
his mother. Then God told him, take that
boy whom he loved and take him up on a mountain and kill him!
God never left that old man alone. I wonder where we'd have got
off this train. I wonder where we'd have quit,
God. I wonder where in all of these
trials we'd have resigned. I wonder where through all of
these difficulties we'd have said, enough! It's enough. I
can't take any more. I quit. I quit. Abraham never
did, he died in faith. Read the life of the Apostle
Paul, how God tried him, tried him with his enemies and tried
him with his friends, tried him in churches and tried him in
prison, tried him everywhere. He said when he came to the end
of his life, I've kept the faith. Somebody said one time, if every
earthly prop were knocked away, Could you stand on the strength
of faith alone? Abraham did every earthly part. I just know when God came to
him and told him to leave his father's house. I know when God
came to him and told him that he had to get rid of Ishmael.
I just know when God came to him and told him Isaac had to
die. Every earthly part. But he stood on faith alone.
And I'll tell you this, God may not send you through this trial
or that trial, but God will send a sufficient amount of trial
to reveal the reality of your faith. It may not take a whole
lot for you. See, a big ship goes in deep
water. It takes deep water to prove
a big ship. You know, a little old boat,
you just have to put it down there in a rippling stream, and
it'll come apart. You don't need to take it out
there. God Almighty doesn't have to take me or you and expose
us to some great trial. We can't stand the little one.
He just sends the little one, and we fold up. We can't do that. carelessness and indifference,
but God will send a sufficient trial. It may not take a whole
lot, but God will send a sufficient trial to expose what we are. You know, somebody said one time,
the trial of faith is necessary to remove the shame and the hypocrisy
and the dross, because trial, severe, however severe it might
be, trial leaves only the real thing. That's all it needs. It needs the real thing. It needs
the real thing. We have to claim more than we
have. Most of us do. I do. You do. We claim more than
we have. We're prone to mistake quantity for quality in this
matter of faith. We're prone to mistake quantity
for quality. And God doesn't like that. He
won't put up with that. That's shame. That's hypocrisy.
So he sends a trial and he just cuts away all that dross, all
that fleshly foolishness and fleshly religion and just leaves
the real thing. That's all. Just the real thing. He'll send a sufficient amount
of trial in order to leave the real thing. And it just, Abraham,
Abraham just, God kept on hammering, and kept on hammering. The more valuable the gold, the
hotter the fire. It takes a hotter fire. Now God's going to test the reality
of your faith, my faith, not talking to you, I'm talking to
me too. God's going to test the reality of it, that's what trial
will do, it'll test the reality of it. He said two men built
the housing. Both had houses. I imagine they
both looked a lot alike. But then the rain fell. And then
the flood came. And the wind blew. And it tested
the house. When I'm stood, I'm getting it.
And it proved that this one had no foundation. It was built on
the sand. And this one had a foundation.
Now those trials, the rain represents trials from heaven. And the flood
represents trials from earth, and the wind represents the mysterious
trials from within. You can't account for whence
it cometh or whither it goeth, you just see the result. And
then God will test the purity of your faith, the purity of
it. One day Satan came before the
Lord and God said, Have you considered my servant Job? None like him. And Satan said, off Job. He said,
does Job fear you for nothing? Why, Lord, God, you've hedged
him about. Nobody can touch him. You've
blessed everything he has. He has health. He has a family. He has clothes. He has shelter. He has all these things. Put
forth your hand and touch what he has, and he'll curse you.
And God said, all right, he's in your hands. Do what you will,
only don't kill him. And Satan came, second causes,
and destroyed everything Job had. Even his wife stood there
and looked at him in his poverty, in his grief, in his sorrow,
and said, Why don't you curse God and die, old man? He said,
Though he slay me, I'll trust him. Every earthly prop was gone. And he had one thing, but that
one thing was the only thing to take. And God attests the
purity of it. That's what he was doing, the
purity of it. And God attests the sincerity
of it. Lord, I believe. All right, take
your son Isaac. Lord, I love you. Take your son
Isaac up on Mount Moriah and put a knife through his heart
and sacrifice him to me. Lord, I believe. Now then, all
the dross is gone, all the shame, all the hypocrisy, all the claims,
and the proof is revealed. Lord, I believe. I believe. God's going to test the sincerity
of your faith, and God will test the perseverance of your faith.
Two words that every believer needs to learn, and eventually
will learn if you are a believer, two words. Pray and wait. Pray and wait on God. Wait on
the Lord. Be of good courage and be of
strength in your heart. You better wait on God. We're always in
a hurdle. How long it takes us to learn
those two words, pray and wait. Wait. Well, how does God try
faith? Let me get into this before I
close. Now, the trial of faith does
not come for all persons in the same way. God didn't try Paul
like he did Abraham. He didn't try Moses like he did
the Apostle Peter, but he did try. And God doesn't try all
of his children the same way, but I can give you, I believe,
a few ways in which faith will be tried. Faith is going to be tried, and
what we're going to find out on the other side of the trial
is what kind of faith we have. Wise is the man or the woman
who will thank God for the trial and do something about what he
discovers. Instead of being unhappy with the second causes, instead
of being unhappy with everybody else, why don't we have a little
unhappiness with ourselves when we totally and utterly But we're
so busy justifying ourselves, explaining why we failed, that
we lose sight of the fact that we didn't fail. We're so busy explaining how
severe it was, and how difficult it was, and how weak we were,
and all that, and justify ourselves that we lose sight of the fact
that we failed, that we had no faith. The man standing there watching
his house built on the sand, it crumbles and falls, he said,
well, it's just too much for it, I'll build me another one.
Well, why don't you admit that you had the wrong foundation?
And get busy and find out where the foundation is that you need
to build upon. Something that house had that
you didn't have. It'd be wise to find out what
it is. So faith's going to be tried,
first of all, it'll be tried by the Word of God. If your faith
cannot endure the trial of the Word, it's not saving faith. I run into people, I try to do
a little preaching, I run into people and I preach a little
bit about sovereignty and they get all upset. Well, their faith
couldn't take the trial of the Word. I try to preach a little
election, it's God's Word, the Word's in God's Word over and
over and over and over and over again. And you go in, preach
this gospel of redeeming grace, this gospel of God's glory, and
people believe in Jesus, you know, and believe the same, believe
they're going to heaven and all that, but they can't take the
Word. Can't take the Word. Now, if your faith won't stand
the trial of God's Word, it's not saving faith. Because the
foundation of faith is the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. I don't have to understand it,
I must believe it. I don't have to be able to explain
it, I just must believe it. Then faith will not only be tried
by the word of God, but faith is going to be tried by the wisdom
of men, as a way that seemeth right unto men. Human wisdom
never lets up its attack on God's Word. They start with the creation
stotra, like it appeared in the Ashland Daily Independent a few
years ago, and I spoke to Jim Norris about it. I resented it. Nobody but a few uneducated fundamentalists
believe any longer in the creation stotra. Well, maybe we are uneducated
fundamentalists, but all who believe in God believe the creation
story. Human wisdom never lets up its
attack on God's Word. It begins at the creation story
and it goes to the fall, it goes to the miracles of God's Word,
it comes to Jonah and the fish, it comes on down to the virgin
birth, it comes on down to the cross of substitution, it comes
on down to the resurrection, it comes on down to the revelation.
And the attack is continuous on the Word of God. And people
say, well, I believe in God and believe human philosophy, too.
No, sir, you can't. No, sir, you can't. Men by wisdom know not God. The
only way I can know God is the two ways he reveals himself.
One is through his Word, and the other is through his Son.
One is through his word, and the other is through his son.
God, who at sundry times in divers manners spake to our fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his
son. And if I don't listen to the
word, or listen to the son, I can't know God. I put a question mark
on this book, put a question mark on the deity of his son,
no way I can know God. Know what? So your faith is going
to be tried by the Word of God, and it's going to be tried by
the wisdom of me. And your faith is going to be
tried by persecution. Our Lord said, they'll cast you
out of the synagogue. There'll come a time when he
that killeth you will think he doeth God a favor. He said, I came not to send peace,
but a sword. I came to bring conflict. And
warfare between a man and his father, a daughter and her mother,
brothers and sisters, a man's enemies shall be those of his
own household, and that's hard to tell. But if you love, go
on, read the rest of that in Matthew chapter 10, if you love
your father and mother more than me, if your father and mother
can keep you from worshiping the God of the Bible as the Holy
Spirit leads you and where he leads you, If you don't have
saving faith, God will try. He will deliberately bring you
the trial of family disorder. He'll deliberately, you got a
rebellious son, God gave him to you. You got a rebellious
wife, God gave her to you. You got a rebellious brother
or sister, someone who hates what you believe, God gave them
to you. That's right. If you love that person more
than you love Christ, you don't love Christ. You're not fit to
be my disciple. He said, God will try you. And
I'll tell you, this thing of earthly relationships now, in regard to faith, we better
examine them. Faith is going to be tried. It
will be tried by affliction. Affliction. Turn to Psalm 119. I want you to read David's comments
here. Psalm 119, verse 67. Verse 67.
He says in Psalm 119, verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went
astray. Psalm 119, 67. But now have I
kept thy word. If you've got a physical affliction, If you're God's child, and I'm
saying this carefully, He gave it to you. And if that physical affliction
turns you away from Him, or destroys your confidence in Him, or brings
you to question His judgment, then that affliction did what
God sent it to do, it revealed false faith. Now, if that affliction
deepens you in patience, the trying of your faith works as
patience. If it deepens you in confidence and assurance and
brings you closer to Christ, it did what God sent it to do.
It revealed faith. Before I was afflicted, listen
to verse 71. It is good for me that I've been
afflicted. It's good for me. You say, Perch,
you can stand up there in your good health and talk about that.
Well, some of us got to say it. It's so, whether or not I can
stand it or not. I may fail, I may fall, but what
I'm saying is still so. My fall won't change this book. It'll reveal to me that I didn't
have faith in whatever God sends. Now, God's going to trial us,
and he trials us through afflictions, and David said it good for me,
that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Then, faith's going to be tried
by prosperity. When you hear a sermon on the
trial of faith, rarely do you ever hear this. This is a fact overlooked, but
let me tell you something. You listen to them, you don't
hear anything else, hear this. Did you know that this is one of
the most severe test areas for faith? I tried. You know what Spurgeon said about
this? He said, I've preached 30 some odd years, where I have
known one man to fail through poverty, I have known 50 to fail
through riches. You stop and think about that.
I've been preaching 30 odd years, and where I've known one man
to depart from the faith because of poverty, I've known 50 to
depart because of riches. God, keep me from poverty lest
I steal, and keep me from wealth lest I forget thee." You know, God can, you may not
believe this, but this is true. You may learn it someday when
you get in your luxury and all of these things are met and you're
no longer at the house of God praising his name and worshiping
with his people, loving his word here in the gospel. You know
what this preacher said. God blessed you clear out of the
kingdom. He revealed that you were a false prophet. You were
a false disciple. All he did was bless you, and
bless you, and bless you, and reveal that you didn't love him.
All right, I'll tell you how faith will be tried, too. It'll
be tried by the years. It'll be tried by the years.
Years have a way of trying everything. I learned a long time ago, not
so awful long either, but some time ago, that most problems
can be solved if you just leave them alone, don't pay attention
to them. Time will take care of it. You
don't have to do anything bad at all, just leave it alone,
just ignore it, and time will take care of it. And that's what
so often happens to people who profess to know Christ. Just
watch, just leave them alone. And as the years go by, If they
know Christ, they've grown in Christ. If they don't know Christ,
they'll soon disappear. They'll just disappear, because
the years try their faith. And then faith will be tried
by disappointment. Disappointment. And that disappointment
takes two directions. Usually it's the other way around,
but it ought to be this way, but this way it ought to be,
but usually it's the other way. Disappointment in self, and then
disappointment in others. Now usually it's this way, we
get disappointed in others. Someone hurts our feelings, you
know, or we have some misunderstanding. And that's the problem. But really,
really, if we get disappointed in ourselves, that's where the
whole problem is. The problem is not the other
fellow. The problem is right here. And you know, let me tell
you something. God will give you a free man.
And then God will make that friend disappoint you. That's the cow
of God. So don't get mad at the friend.
He's just the second cause. God did that on purpose to reveal
whether or not you were worshiping the friend or worshiping Him.
Whether you were walking with a friend or walking with God.
Are you walking with 13th Street Baptist Church or are you walking
with Christ? What if everybody here tonight disagrees with you
totally and completely? Are you going to quit? Well,
it revealed one thing. You weren't walking with God,
you were walking with people. You weren't worshipping God,
you were worshipping people. You weren't worshipping the Lord,
you weren't fellowshiping with the Lord, you were fellowshiping
with a cause. A cause can't save. Christ saved. I'm saying something that's hard
to understand, I know. But Almighty God willed any idol
or any person even self, that we come to have any confidence
in, confidence in ourselves or anyone else. Now, God's not going
to permit that. He goes through Israel and tears
down their high places and tears down their groves and tears down
their idols, that they might love the living God, and he'll
do the same thing to you. Now, if you have another God,
it won't be so bad when he tears down your idols, but if that's
all you've got, you're out there by yourself. The sooner he tears
down these idols, the better. The sooner he destroys them,
the better, be it a loving wife or a husband or be it a dear
friend or be it a brother or sister, whoever it might be.
The sooner God shows us that we're fresh, the better off we'll
be. He's going to try you by disappointment
in yourself. God will make you disappointed
in yourself. Why did David sin? I've got a sermon on that. One
of them was for his own sake. Why did God send a thorn into
Paul's flesh? For his own sake. That's right. Disappointment in ourselves.
As soon as we put no confidence in the flesh, yours or mine or
anybody else's, and as soon as that confidence is shifted from
the flesh to Christ, The sooner you'll have no problem anymore
with misunderstandings and conflicts and petty differences and hurt
feelings of being offended. It's pretty hard for one worm
to offend another one. It's pretty hard to look down
on somebody when you're beneath them. And then last of all, faith
is going to be tried by death. It's a condom to men who want
to die. Now, brethren, you and I are going to die. The youngest person here is going
to die. You know what I pray? That my death, when it occurs
and however it occurs, in God's providence, that I might be enabled
of God to die the death of the righteous. That I might die as
a good witness to Christ Jesus. That I might spend my last days
of sickness or affliction or whatever it might be as a good
witness for the Son of God. That I might come to the end
of the road, as Paul said, I've finished my course, I've kept
the faith. I believe just as strong as I
ever did, God's grace, I believe Christ. Spend my last days walking
with Christ as a good witness for the Son of God. I want that very much. Was it
Balaam who said, Let me die the death of the righteous and let
my last end be like his? God, don't bring me down to the
end of life in a morbid, depressed, feeling sorry for myself attitude
and bring reproach on what I've believed and what I've preached
and what I've taught through the years. Let me wind this thing
up rejoicing in Christ. That may be the trial. It may
be God will reserve my trial to the last day. Oh, what an
awful time to come to that last day and find out it's all been
a vain, fleshless shame. I'm not ashamed to confess that
if I don't have saving faith, I want it, I'll tell you that.
I want saving faith in Christ the Lord. I believe if we want it badly
enough, we can also Thank God for the trials. Thank God for
the trials.

The Trial of Your Faith

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The Trial of Your Faith

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