Trials Of Faith

I PETER 1:7

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

NORMAL PART OF YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE

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Persecution and trials are a natural, normal part of the Christian life. There is only one thing you can do about them. Commit them all to God, judge not, and leave their outworking and final judgment to Him.

BELIEVERS WILL BE PUT TO TEST EVERY TIME!

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100      Sometimes, believers put to the test. Not sometimes; every time! “For every son that cometh to God must be chastened, tried, child-trained.” Remember, the trials, the dusty roads, the hot sun of persecution, but the loyalty of your heart beats that material till she is ready to go into the mold. God’s children is made up correctly on His Word, for they are living examples, and the Word of God living through them. See? The trial comes to shake you, to put you to the very bottom, to see where you’ll stand. They tested, try every son that cometh to God.

101    Job went through the trials and the tests. His children taken; everything else taken. The church members come, accused him of being a secret sinner, and tried to say everything against him, but yet he wouldn’t listen to any of it. He knowed he had met God’s requirements. He knowed there’s no need of Satan trying to tempt him. He knowed it was the devil. And as long as Satan can make him believe that his sickness was his God doing it, he had Job whipped. But when Job once struck that revelation, that it was not God! He was only going through his trials to make him something. It wasn’t God doing it. It was Satan doing it.

WITHOUT CHASTISEMENT YOU ARE NOT A SON

HEBREWS 12:8

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

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E-22    God doesn’t make any difference between His children. Every son that cometh to God must first be tried or chastised. You get it? First be tried, or chastened, corrected, child trained, schooled, everyone not one exception, every son… Have you went through trials? Have you went through tribulation? Have you suffered persecution? Then you’re endure these things, you are real children of God.

But when you can’t bear chastisement, when the rod comes down heavy, and you run off and back into the world, the Bible said you’re illegitimate children and not the children of God. For when a man’s born of the Spirit of God, he expects those things, and he loves those things.

And the Bible said that the trials that come upon us, fiery trials, is more precious than gold to us. Think of it.

SATAN WILL MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD IS PUNISHING YOU!

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102      And same thing today. He’ll try to tell you these trials and thing is your God trying to put punishment upon you. It isn’t so. No, sir. It’s Satan doing that, and God permitting it, to temper you; to make you see if you’re–you are tied to this earth, by the earth cares, or whether your treasures is in Heaven. “For wherever your treasures is, there you are also.” That’s right. Your heart is where your treasures are.

103    Job, tried, yet he said, “I know my Redeemer liveth; at the last days He’ll stand upon the earth. Though after my skin worms destroys my body…”

104    Did you notice? The skin worms was already in him. Your skin worms is in you. You’re in a sealed-up casket without any air in it, or any how, but the skin worms are already there. They’re right in you, and they’re ready to be called to duty at any time. Remember Caesar, he cankered right in the street. The skin worms eat him up, right in the street, his own skin worms. They’re right there, ready.

105    “Though after my skin worms destroys this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Amen! You cannot annihilate it. Though the skin worms eat it up, it still will come back again. “Whom I shall see for myself. Mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” He said it, Job. Why? He was a believer. In trials he was a believer. In persecution, he was a believer. He was a genuine believer.




TRIALS OF FAITH WORKETH PATIENCE

JAMES 1:3

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

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“I know your faith.” Now he does not say here as He did to the church in Pergamos, “you hold MY faith”. He is not talking about His faith now, but He is commending them for their faithfulness. And as He does He also mentions their ‘patience.‘ Now faithfulness and patience go together.

In fact patience is the outcome of faithfulness, for it says in James 1:3,

“The trying of your faith worketh patience.”

There is absolutely no other way in which to gain patience. It has to come by the trial of our faith.

Romans 5:3,

“Tribulation worketh patience.”

How highly God regards this outworking of our patience is seen in James 1:4,

“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire lacking nothing.”

God’s will for us is Perfection. And that perfection is patience–waiting on God and waiting for God. This is the process of character development. How highly God has commended these saints of the Dark Ages. Patient as lambs led to the slaughter, lovingly, faithfully they served God. That is all they wanted out of life, just service to their Lord. How great was to be their reward.

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THE EULOGY AND THE PROMISE

Revelation 3:10,

“Because thou has kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”

What does He mean by the “word of His patience?” Hebrews 6:13-15. “For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” You see the Spirit is speaking about the Word of God which is given to us. To wait for the fulfillment of that Word required patience even as it did in the case of Abraham. He endured as seeing Him Who is invisible. He was patient and then the Word finally was fulfilled. This is the way God teaches His people patience. Why, if He fulfilled His Word in physical manifestations the very instant you prayed, you would never learn patience, but would become even more impatient with life. Let me show you this truth even more fully set forth.

TRIALS ARE NOT TEMPTATION (GOD DOES NOT TEMPT YOU)

JAMES 1:12

12    Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

JAMES 1:13

13     ¶  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

JAMES 1:14

14    But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

JAMES 1:15

15    Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Satan is the master tempter; he will tempt you to sin against God. He even tempted the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:7). He will tempt you to disobey the word of God. Remember….God will not tempt you to disobey his word, but He will try you to prove where you stand in the faith!