Qualities Required In God's Servants - The Trial of Faith

[00:00:00] I want to read this morning a very well known passage indeed in the first letter of Peter and chapter one. [00:00:10] In the first letter of Peter and chapter one from verse three, the third verse of the first chapter of the first letter of Peter. [00:00:26] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect, who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you, and peace be multiplied. [00:00:53] Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God, are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, that perisheth, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. [00:02:04] At the revelation of Jesus Christ. [00:02:08] The phrase I want just to take out this morning is this phrase here in verse seven, translated in the standard version and in the revised version, the proof of your faith, and in the authorized version, the trial of your faith. The trial of your faith. Now, first of all, note to whom this is being addressed. Who are these who are knowing the trial of their faith? They are those who, through the great mercy of God, have been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. [00:03:01] That is, every man or woman who has proved in their experience that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead and is able to save. [00:03:15] That is the folk that Peter is speaking to. I want you to notice that it begins with the great mercy of God. And I think that the more we go on with the Lord, the more we discover how great the mercy of God is. I must say that for myself and I suppose for many others. When we first came to the Lord, we talked about the mercy of the Lord, but it didn't really mean such a lot to us. Of course, we knew our sins were forgiven. We knew the Lord had shown love to us. But it seems to me that it's as we go on with the Lord that we discover how really great the mercy of the Lord is not only that he ever saved us at the beginning, but that he has ever continued with us. [00:04:05] And then again, I want you to notice that it was through this great mercy. And remember, God knows everything about you long before you were saved. No, he knew everything about you before you were born. [00:04:22] God knows everything about you. So it really was great mercy. It's not as if God saved you. And then as time's gone on, he's discovered all kinds of things about you which could give him second thoughts. [00:04:36] It was great mercy that he saved you because he knew the worst about you. [00:04:42] He knew the potential for evil in your life. He knew the potential for duplicity in your life. He knew all this when he saved you. [00:04:52] It was through his great mercy he begat us again that has brought us to a spiritual birth, to a living hope. [00:05:03] By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we are born again. Because Jesus is alive. [00:05:10] Legally, we could be saved by the death of Jesus Christ. His blood would still cancel out our sin, but then we would be left in the unenviable position of having our sins forgiven, cleansed away, without a knowledge of the life and power of God within us. It is because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, is alive from the dead, that we are born of God's spirit. For it says in John, chapter one and verse twelve and 13, that to as many as received him, that is, the one risen from the dead to those gave he the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [00:05:58] But what is this living hope? [00:06:01] It's a living hope, a vital hope. That is. It is a hope that is not just a dead hope, an abstract hope, but a hope that is alive, alive in us. What is this living hope? Isn't it Christ in you, the hope of glory? [00:06:21] That's the living hope. We've not just been saved from our sin. We've not even just been born of the spirit of God. We have been given this living hope, Christ in us, the hope of glory, as someone said from one of those renderings, because we are part of Christ. [00:06:42] God in his great grace has made us part of Christ, of Christ and Christ part of us. A union has taken place. [00:06:54] Christ in you, the hope of glory. [00:06:57] Glory. What is glory? [00:07:01] How marvelous it is that one day, what there is of Christ in each one of us, whoever we are, however insignificant we are, however weak we are, however small we are, however unworthy we have been in the past, if whatever there is of Christ that is going to be glorified. So if there's a lot of Christ, there'll be a lot of glory. And if there is little of Christ in my life, there will be little of glory. But whatever there is of Christ in me is going to be glorified because he is the hope, the certain hope of glory. [00:07:34] No matter who you are or what you are, if you have received Christ, if there is something of Christ's life and nature in you thats going to be glorified. [00:07:50] But you will see that he says to an inheritance, this living hope. An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. What is this inheritance? Our so great salvation introduces us into this inheritance. But what is the inheritance? Surely this inheritance again is this living hope? It is Christ the bridegroom. We aren't going to come to him. We're going to be joined to him one day. We're going to the marriage supper of the lamb is going to take place. We can say, the Lord is my portion. [00:08:26] That's my inheritance. [00:08:30] Incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away. It's not a thing, it's a person. [00:08:39] Of course, there'll be a lot of things there also because we are heirs of God and joint heirs with him. But how marvelous it is that as his bride, we're going to enter into all that God has laid up for his son. Everything God has conceived and thought of for his son. All that he's going to do through his son. All that he's planned for his son. You and I in the bride, as part of the bride, are going to enter into that an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away. I always get a picture of someone dying and leaving certain things in the loft or the attic. You know, sort of beautiful drapes, if you like, curtains and so on. They fade. [00:09:36] Or other things that get defiled, they get dirted when they're stored or other things that corrupt. But here is an inheritance that cannot corrupt an inheritance that cannot be defiled an inheritance that doesn't fade. No, not when we are with him for a million, million, million years will one little bit of the glory faded have faded. We human beings, we get so familiar with things, don't we? We get so utterly familiar. We say, familiarity breeds contempt, but there'll be nothing like that with God. It'll never fade, never fade. [00:10:23] The Lord has said of our way down here that the path of the justice is a shining light. It shineth more and more to the perfect day or to noonday. And surely if it's going to be or should be like that down here, it ought to be in eternity like that, so that it will be more glory and more glory and more glory. We don't know what God has got in store for us. We just have no idea what God has got in. We are. We are sort of somehow imprisoned in our concept by all that we know by time, by all that's transient, by the things around us. It's only natural. We are finite, and therefore this is all we have ever known. Everything we know really has a beginning and an end. [00:11:09] We cannot conceive what is in the mind of God for eternity. We cannot conceive what it was in the mind of God to do from the start in mankind. All we know is this, that when this sinful era of human history, with all its glorious revelation of the grace of God and the love of God, the mercy of God, the loving kindness of God, when that is over and done with, God's going to go on with the real job. He's going to get on with the real job. And no one really knows what the real job is except that God is going to go on with that real job. [00:11:52] Well, as weve often said to you, a marriage is either an end or a beginning, whichever way you care to look at it. [00:12:01] And the Bible ends with a marriage. [00:12:05] And surely the whole point of it is that its an end of one phase and the beginning of another. [00:12:11] And in the one whole era in which God revealed his glorious grace to sinful and fallen man and the opening of a new era where there is no more sin, no more death, no more corruption, no more mourning and no more crying. We can't conceive of such a time. Some people have actually dared to say it'll be boring. Well, now, I know that causes some evangelicals to get terribly upset, but I have great sympathy with people who think like that because, you see, naturally that's how we ought to think. Well, how utterly boring. There'll be no ups and downs, no crises, no dangers, no sort of just imagine a life where everything is perfect, where everything is right, all very well for a holiday. [00:13:00] You go away and think about it. You go away and really think about it. [00:13:04] You think that you long for that time, but after a few years of it you might think, oh, just like we used to in Egypt when there was those brazen blue skies day after day in the second year, it rained for ten minutes, and the boys went wild. They ran out and stood in these few little drops of water. And again and again I heard the lads say to one another, I'd do it. I'd give anything to have a foggy day. The most popular picture was the picture that was in my office, which was a picture of Richmond park in the fog. [00:13:44] It was a rather lovely picture, I must say, because it had some deer looming out of the mist. [00:13:50] Some of the boys used to come in and look at that because it reminded them of England. Yet now when we're back here, we long for those brazen skies, the sunshine and the settled climate. Do you understand? Now, I have sympathy with people who think like that. It's because we cannot somehow adjust ourselves to exactly what God is going to do. And it comes from a misconception of God. God can't be boring. [00:14:21] If I may put it rather crudely and tritely, God is the most exciting person in the universe. [00:14:29] He's always doing something. He's always got plans afoot. Always. Oh, well, we mustn't stop. They always be there the whole morning. The fact is this. We've got a glorious future. A glorious future. And it's summed up in the word glory. [00:14:45] That's it. It's summed up in the word we've got the most. Don't you think, you dear little Christian, that all you are is someone who's just sort of at the mercy of Satan now and again and of an unbelieving world? And that you've got to go through it all with a few tears and a few sorrows, sing a few hymns, say a few prayers, come along to this meeting, if you can bear it, and put up with the saints here. And then one day you're going to go to heaven, and that's that. And then you will sort of sit around doing nothing for all eternity. Never. [00:15:20] There's a most tremendous future. We have no idea if this world is so beautiful, so glorious in its design, in its fallen condition. Whatever was in the mind of God originally, and when it's all over, what have we got? We've got a marriage supper, a marvelous marriage supper. And so glorious is the prospect. So enthralling is the future that the Lord says, blessed are those that are even invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. [00:15:54] Just to get a look in on this, let alone be the bride. Just to get a look in. Oh, it'll be such a blessing. Why? Because there's a tremendous future ahead that we have absolutely no idea. Do you honestly think that God is less clever and less ingenious than the american space program? [00:16:19] That if man in his fallen state can do these amazing things that are making the whole world marvel, how much more will God one day be doing? Things that will make us all marvel and they will really be marvels. [00:16:37] Well, we mustn't stop there. But this inherits this unto a living hope, to an inheritance in corruption. But listen to this, and this is the thing we all need. Who by the power of God are guarded? Don't we need to know it? How few christians know anything about the pattern prayer that the Lord Jesus taught us to pray? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. There's far too much of this crass idea that you can just somehow or other walk into temptation and God will keep you? Jesus taught us to pray, deliver us from temptation, temptation. [00:17:15] Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [00:17:20] It's the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. [00:17:25] But here we've got it. Who by the power of God are kept or guarded, guarded or kept by the power of God to this salvation which is ready to be revealed one day. You've already saved, so how come you've got a salvation ready to be? Well, that's it. One day, one day, and maybe we shall see it with these eyes, all of us. One day the Trump's going to sound, the trumpet of God is going to sound and the Lord is going to come and the salvation which he talks about here will be revealed, ready to be revealed at the last time. Arent we in the last time waiting for that revelation of the salvation into which we have been brought by the grace of God? The final consummation of the salvation which by his grace and great mercy has brought us to kept by the power of God. Do we know anything about that? The ability of God to keep someone well, it's all there. [00:18:38] If you and I want to know something about the inheritance, if we want to be prepared and trained for the inheritance, if we would be those who have much of Christ, that he might increase as we decrease. [00:18:53] We've got to know the power of God keeping us. God has to chisel such a lot away. [00:19:00] God has to break us in so many unbreakable places. [00:19:05] God has to shape us in a way that we don't want to be shaped. [00:19:10] If only it could all just be left to ourselves, so that we could be just spontaneous and free and happy. [00:19:21] But if we want that living hope. [00:19:25] If the self has got to decrease, my word, that's a painful business. And if God starts to bring us into conditions and circumstances through which he will break the unbreakable, through which he will shape the unshakable, and through which he will really do this work, we've got to know the power of God. Only the power of God will keep us when God himself has led us into trial. [00:19:59] Don't you see that we need to be kept by the power of God when we are in this situation? [00:20:07] God doesn't want to save us from lions. [00:20:11] He wants to put us amongst the lions. [00:20:14] And then we find they can't bite us. [00:20:17] That's God's way. Doesnt want to save us from the furnace of fire. He wants to let us go into it and find the one who is like unto the son of God in the midst of the fire. [00:20:31] Thats the way that we are, to know what is to be guarded or kept by the power of God. Well, you see, that brings me really to this phrase. [00:20:45] All that is the explanation for these trials of your faith, the trial of your faith. Now, in the authorized version, you've got the word trial, and in the revised version, you have the word proof. And in a way, it's very hard, I think, to really give this word its proper meaning, because if you say proof, I think you lose something. [00:21:12] You lose something of the testing, the sense of testing and trying. If you say trial, you lose something of the feeling of proof that's in it. For the word means this, God only tries what is there. [00:21:32] In other words, God never allows a person to come into temptation above that they are able. [00:21:39] If you're in a situation which you find very difficult, you can be absolutely certain unless it is through your own foolishness. And I have to say this, your own foolishness. For we can uncover ourselves. And this is what it means when we say, lead us not into temptation. We can make big claims like Peter made I'll die. [00:22:01] Satan went into the presence of the Lord, said, can I have him? [00:22:08] And God said, yes. [00:22:11] The Lord Jesus said to Peter, I prayed for you that your faith will not fail. [00:22:19] We can make sometimes big claims which are heard. [00:22:23] Then we can uncover ourselves. [00:22:27] Nevertheless, if we have committed to God and we want the Lord to do this work, there will be these times of trial. Now, here's a great comfort to us. God never tries what isn't there. You see, we can get the idea from this trial of our faith that God is sort of negative. He's just trying to break up everything. He's trying to sort of get rid of everything. But that's not the point at all. The point is this. There's something there so precious, much more precious than gold which perishes, if you can think of such a baby, much more precious than of gold which perishes, something so precious that God says, I'm going to try this to prove it. [00:23:12] In other words, the trial of your faith is to prove that the faith is there, not to prove that it's not there, but to prove it is there. So rejoice. [00:23:22] That's why he said, James, I think, says, rejoice. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into manifold trials. What on earth does he mean? Well, he means this. Look at it this way. There's something very precious there that God is allowing to be tried. [00:23:39] Now, of course, it's all very well for us to stand up here talking like this, but when we're in it, it's quite different, isn't it? [00:23:47] But the trial of your faith is so important. Have you ever noticed how in the temple and in the different visions of the city in Ezekiel and in revelation, you have this man measuring everything all the time? Everything is being measured. Now, why do we need an angelic person or someone like the son of man measuring everything which God is revealing anyway, and giving us the measurements? God is actually giving us the measurements. He says, you know, ezekiel, some people avoid the book because it's so filled with measurements. This should be so many cubits. That will be so many cubits. Every little thing, even wash bowls are mentioned. Everything's according to measurement. Then you've got this man going around measuring, measuring, measuring. He even measures the river. [00:24:32] And then in the book of Revelation, you've got this man going around with this golden measuring rod, measuring, measuring, measuring, measuring. Yet you're told the measurements. So why does he measure? Well, it's a marvelous picture of this trial of your faith. God is absolutely, put it this way, God is very, very careful that nothing goes through but the pure life and nature of Jesus Christ in us. So it's all being measured, every bit. [00:25:10] So that's why we know the trial of your faith. Why that it may be, as it says in verse seven, to praise and glory and honor. There it is. So don't look upon the negative side of it every time you're in a trial of your faith. It's that the, that it may be to praise, to glory and to honour. Now, what does that mean? First of all to his praise one day in heaven, one day in the kingdom, people will know your story and they'll praise the Lord. They'll say, did you see the amazing way the Lord took hold so and so through life? Isn't it amazing? Do you hear about it? [00:25:58] The Lord just put the pressure right on, then brought in this and then brought in that and the faith that came out. [00:26:07] It'll be to praise. [00:26:10] What a story it'll be. We all love the story, the stories in the Old Testament, and we all love the stories in the book of acts. [00:26:19] And we throw that. That's nothing. As dear old broadbent once said to the story which has been written ever since, up there, the whole thing is being recorded. It says, so the Lord hearkened and wrote a book of remembrance. It says in Malachi, God's got it all. One day, when the pages are opened, the whole thing will be there, the inner story. [00:26:41] Pray we won't be saying, hudson Taylor, oh, marvellous man. We shall be saying, what a marvellous lord. [00:26:51] What a marvellous c t stud. [00:26:55] Oh, of course. Mind you, he's been done a lot of harm by some of the things said about him. [00:27:02] But still, when they're up there, I said, my, my, what a lord. [00:27:12] Praise, glory. Well, we've spoken about that. [00:27:17] Glory and honour. What is honour? Honour is that you're going to be put into a position. You're going to be honoured because of it. In other words, you'll be given a place in the administration of heaven, in the government of heaven. You'll be honoured. [00:27:37] Not empty honours, but honours that mean something because they're based in spiritual history and experience. Well, can't we thank the Lord for all of that? We look all the way through the Bible and we find this principle, the trial of your faith. You take Abraham, send out what happened with him. God tried everything. It says in psalm 105 and verse 19. [00:28:11] Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him. That's how it puts. The word of the Lord tried. It was Joseph, not Abraham. Joseph. But that can be true of every one of them. God said to Abraham, get thee out into a land that I will show thee. And then what did God do? He never actually gave Abraham the land in the whole of his life. He even had to buy the burial plot which is there today for his wife Sarah and for the family. God never gave it. If the word of the Lord was tried, it was the trial of his faith. God said, in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Yet you know God waited and waited and waited until Abraham was 100 years of age and dear old Sarah was 99. Can you imagine it? [00:28:59] When they were 60 or 70, they must have had a little talk about it and said, it's going to be a miracle, you know. But when they were a hundred, it is incredible. Yet that's what it says in romans four. It says about them in Romans chapter four, these marvelous words. [00:29:22] Here is the promise, verse 17, as it is written. A father of many nations have I made thee before him, whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead and calleth the things that are not as though they were, who in hope believed against hope to the end that he might become a father of many nations. According to that which had been spoken, so shall thy seed be. And without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith. There are only two things that can happen when we are in the trial of our faith. One is that we collapse into unbelief. The other is that we wax strong in faith. Every time there's a trial of our faith, our faith comes through like gold refined in the fire. [00:30:20] It's deeper, fuller, purer, stronger. It doesn't matter where you turn. Look at the way the Lord dealt with Moses. [00:30:31] 40 years in the desert was enough to destroy any real hope that something would happen. You don't generally think of a man entering into his real ministry when he's 80 years of age. But there he was at 80 years of age, he started. Even he thought it was over. He said to God, just remember, I can't talk. I'm a stammerer. And the Lord said to him all, might you take Aaron? You know the story from then on. Moses did all the talking and Aaron did all the acting. It was the most extraordinary thing. God humoured him so deeply. Had Moses been dealt with by God in those 40 years? The word of the Lord tried him. [00:31:18] David is another picture of it. How the word of the Lord tried David. He knew he was to be king. Remember when Samuel anointed him, said, you shall be king? He knew it. And yet in all through those years, the word of the Lord tried him. I think of the apostle Paul when he says in two Corinthians, chapter twelve, I was caught up into the third heaven and heard things that is not lawful for a man even to utter and then he said, there was given to me a messenger of Satan at thorn in the flesh. Here was the trial of his faith. It got him down, the great apostle Paul. It got him down so much that he sought the Lord, and all he got was, my grace is sufficient for thee. In other words, my grace is enough for this. [00:32:05] Three times it happened when the letter was written. We don't know if after that many more occasions came, but we know at least three occasions when the Apostle Paul went back to the Lord and sought him about this terrible thing, whatever it was. [00:32:21] It was the trial of his faith. [00:32:27] I think we should always be thankful to God when we have any experience of being tried, because it is a sign that there is something there to be tried. [00:32:42] God never puts anyone into the fire in which he knows there is nothing but chaff. [00:32:53] He will only allow to go through what there is really of himself. God would have refused Satan's request to have Peter if he had known that there wasn't a little atom of faith that could come through. [00:33:10] Now, that's a very sobering thought. [00:33:15] A very sobering thought, because it means sometimes when we look at some people and we see what's happening in their lives, we can't understand, we say, how do they come through? [00:33:27] I'm sure I wouldn't. The fact is, you're quite right. That's why God doesn't put you through it. [00:33:38] God will only permit those to go through that where he knows there's something. And one day those will be the very people who vindicate the Lord. When we're in the kingdom and before his face. [00:33:52] It will be with praise and worship that we look back upon the whole of our lives and see what God has done in them. It will be with praise. [00:34:05] We shall vindicate the Lord. He won't vindicate himself. We will vindicate him and say, right and just are all thy judgments and all thy ways. [00:34:18] Shall we pray, beloved? Lord, we do pray together that we may know what it is to really walk with thee and to know that power of thine which is able to keep us to that salvation which in the end is going to be revealed. [00:34:50] Lord, thou knowest in every one of our lives what there is of thyself. Thou knowest how much thou canst prove it. Lord, we do praise thee every time we go through an experience in which we come out with a proof, a proof of divine faith. [00:35:13] Father, we do pray that thou wilt help every one of us. If there are any here this morning who are in the midst of a trial of their faith. Something in the home, something in the office, something in their personal life, something here in the church, in the company, something, Lord, that thou hast said, something which is being tried. We pray, beloved Lord, that thou wilt watch over them, that their faith fail not and bring them through with the proof of their faith. [00:35:45] And so, dear Lord, we commit ourselves now to thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:35:53] Amen.