My hope in this time together right now
is to give you some thoughts specifically from
verse 13 on God's faithfulness to the Christian
in the midst of their trials and their
times of testing that you and I face.
So, 1 Corinthians 9.
Can you shut that door, David, right there
by chance?
Thanks, brother.
1 Corinthians 9, verse 26.
So, I do not run aimlessly.
I do not beat box as one beats
air, but in contrast to that, I discipline
my body.
I keep my body under control lest after
preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
And then again, you have a chapter break
that is not necessary because he starts with
a connecting word, for.
For I do not want you to be
unaware, brothers.
So, we think of this whole topic of
people being disqualified, people not making it, people
being apostate and abandoning the Lord.
For I do not want you to be
unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under
the cloud and all passed through the sea.
So, there's these things they all had in
common.
All were baptized, immersed into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, and all ate
the same spiritual food and all drank the
same spiritual drink.
So, they have a whole lot in common.
That's what, five, six things they all were
a part of.
They all partook in that, yet we're going
to see something.
Nevertheless, with most of them, these people who
partook of all these things, God was not
pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
And as you know, first Corinthians 10 is
a massive church history chapter, you could say.
It's giving history, biblical history, for our own
hearts application right now in 2023.
Verse six, now these things took place as
an example for us, that we might not
desire evil as they did.
Do not be idolaters as some of them
were.
As it is written, the people sat down
to eat and drink and rose up to
play.
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as
some of them did.
And 23,000 fell in a single day.
And note here, that falling in a single
day, what is that fall that they had
happen?
They were destroyed.
All right, death.
We must not put Christ to the test.
And that's going to be something to think
about this morning.
Putting Christ to the test.
Are you enduring in the test faithfully?
Are you testing God?
And the way they test God, it's right
there.
How did they put Christ to the test?
And they were destroyed.
Same thing, not just the sexually immoral people
who were destroyed, but those who put Christ
to the test.
And how did they put Christ to the
test?
Nor grumble, as some of them did, and
they were destroyed.
So amazingly, grumbling and sexual morality both led
to destruction.
That's somewhat shocking for people.
But these sins are both significant offenses against
God.
Verse 11, Now these things happened to them
as an example, but they were written down
for our instruction, on whom the end of
the ages has come.
So this is for us.
Verse 12, Therefore, in view of this, let
anyone who thinks that he stands take heed,
lest he fall.
We need to think about how to define
that word fall in view of how it
was just used, how the idea used above.
And then we've got this verse interjected, verse
13, which is really what I want to
focus on in the second half of the
message.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not
common to man.
God is faithful, and he will not let
you be tempted beyond your ability, but with
the temptation he will also provide the way
of escape that you may be able to
endure it.
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
And then he goes on, but we'll stop
right there.
So let me pray, and then we're going
to consider some thoughts from God's Word right
here.
Father, Lord, I think about the biographies we've
read.
We think about the Old Testament that we've
read again and again, and we think about
these examples that are given to us, and
even how Paul pulls them in right here,
and he applies them for us.
And so, Lord, I pray that we would
learn from you, that we would learn from
history.
Lord, we don't want history to repeat itself
in any way.
We want to be those who really take
heed to what has happened, and that we
wouldn't live in ignorance, but we'd live in
your wisdom.
And, Lord, I just pray you would encourage
the brethren today.
I don't know what trials and tests that
different brethren here are facing or have faced
this week, but, Lord, I pray that if
any are being even tempted to grumble in
the midst of that trial, Lord, that you'd
use this very sermon that highlights your faithfulness,
as Paul highlights it here.
Lord, that you'd use that to strengthen that
dear brother or sister.
And so, Lord, would you be with us
right now at this time.
Lord, help my stammering tongue and exhausted spirit.
Lord, I ask for your grace, your power,
your spirit.
In Christ's name.
Amen.
Well, Paul's encouragement to the believers, I really
believe, is verse 13.
It highlights God's faithfulness for a believer in
a time of testing and trials and temptation.
So, I want to get there, but first
let's consider the context, because verse 13 tends
to be quoted a significant amount of time.
In verse 12, but often maybe the context
has not been considered as much as it
should be.
Now, according to chapter 9, which is where
we started, because all this is connected, we
must exercise self-control or we will be
disqualified.
And I think, Craig, or I forget who,
someone dealt with that passage not too long
ago, or referred to it, and that disqualified
is not a ministry disqualification, because the very
things he goes on to talk about make
you realize this is really with apostasy, people
abandoning the Lord completely.
And so, right after stating what he does
in verse 27, Paul decides to give an
exhibit of those who failed to obtain the
prize.
He basically takes us into a museum, and
he shows what all got dug up.
And he says, look at this and hear
what happened.
And under one of those labels, you know,
you've got these people right here who were
bitten by serpents, and these people who perished
over here, and it says they grumbled and
tested Christ, right?
And Paul's putting that before us.
He's taking us on this tour to see
these deceased people that have been uncovered who
didn't cross the finish line, right?
They were in the race, they didn't finish.
That's pretty important for you and I, because
that's kind of where we're at, right?
We're in the midst of the race right
now.
And then we get to this point in
verse 12, and I want to think about
verse 12 for a moment.
Paul reiterates his point by again referring to
this category of professing believers who, to me,
he's saying they thought they were above falling.
They thought they were above falling.
And it's important, I think, to realize here
the falling in verse 12, let anyone who
thinks that he stands take heed lest he
fall.
I really used to take that as a
new Christian, this idea that, oh, if you're
proud and self-confident, then you might go
fall into sin.
That's a true reality.
But in the context, is that really what
he's getting at here?
Because he's already described people earlier on in
the chapter who've had all these blessings, right?
And what ends up happening?
They have these blessings, they're testing Christ, and
Christ destroys them.
So their type of fall was being destroyed,
right?
This wasn't just a Christian who was proud
and self-confident, and oh, you know, he
fell in the lust because he was too
self-confident in himself.
I don't think that's what verse 12 is
aiming at here in his context.
I don't think this is about some fall
into sin.
I think it's about those who are currently
in sin, and they think they're okay.
And he says, you think you stand?
You think you're okay, currently living in sin,
practicing pagan idolatry?
You better take heed, lest you be destroyed.
I think is really what Paul is hitting
at right there.
And he connects it, you know, verse 12,
therefore, so he's connecting it with what is
previously stated in the chapter.
And people often quote the fall here just
being an individual fall into sin.
Well, these people, they're already in they think
they're okay.
And Paul's, you know, conclusion to them in
verse 14 is flee from idolatry, right?
And you had a problem at Corinth where
individuals were partaking of idolatry and of Christianity,
and they think it's okay.
They think they're okay in this type of
situation.
And we have a similar idea in the
book of Jude, in Jude 1-5.
Now, I want you to remind you, although
you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who
saved the people out of the land of
Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe.
And so there, Jude kind of describes 1
Corinthians 10, those who got destroyed, the real
issue was they weren't really believing.
They didn't really believe and continue on with
the Lord, and the Lord destroyed them.
Now, what would lead someone to think they're
above falling, right?
What would lead someone to think that?
And if you look a little further, you
kind of get a good definition in verse
21.
He says, right before verse 21, I do
not want you to be participants of demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord
and the cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the table of the
Lord and the table of demons.
Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he?
You can see right there, Paul sees this
is a mindset of those in the church,
right?
They've got this idea that we can partake
of the Lord's supper here on a Sunday,
and then we can go over there to
a temple, and we can partake of some
manifestation of demon worship.
But because we partook of the supper, because
we were, as he says right at the
start of the chapter, all baptized into Moses,
all ate the same spiritual food, verse 4,
all drank the same spiritual rock.
It's like the Corinthians had this idea, because
we've partaken in these rituals, because we've partaken
in these ordinances, we're okay, even though we're
over here engaged in idolatry.
I was baptized.
I partake of the Lord's supper, right?
I've done these activities.
I've done these ordinances, thereby people wrongly reason
that their attendance at an idle temple cannot
affect or is not an indicator of their
true standing with God.
And Paul's whole point is, no, no, no,
it's not it at all.
If you say you're one of the people
of gods, and you think that you're standing,
look at these other people who had the
same idea.
They thought they could stand.
They could go and make this golden calf.
They could go do all of these things.
But because they partook, because they were baptized
into Moses, they're okay.
And Paul is adamantly saying, you're not okay.
So Paul's trying to tear down this wrong
idea of security in sin and idolatry that
these people were finding based upon the fact
that they were part of the church, right?
And so that's, is that some new idea?
Or do we find that same thing happens
in 2023?
Right?
The same idea happens all the time in
this very year we live in right now.
People will try to serve two masters and
embrace some form of Christianity while at the
same time embracing some form of paganism.
And you know, it gets to the point
where what's pagan is now actually being called
Christian, right?
Things, views on sexuality and all of this.
It's like now it actually ends up being
under the banner of Christian.
They don't even call it pagan anymore.
And so in the midst of this, Paul's
reminding the Corinthians that they too are susceptible
to falling away under the divine judgment of
God, just like those Israelites did.
He's showing them, you guys got something in
common, right?
Yeah, they were baptized into Moses.
Yeah, you were baptized, not by Paul, but
you were baptized by Cephas and these other
people.
Great.
What happened to those people who were baptized?
They didn't make it.
What's going to happen to you all if
you continue partaking of the demons and the
fellowship and all of this and you're trying
to serve two masters?
Paul's telling them, if you think you stand,
you're not.
You're going to fall.
The same thing is going to happen to
you.
You're basically putting Christ to the test.
You're testing God.
And he says that in verse 9, we
must not put Christ to the test.
And I think if someone says, what does
it mean to put Christ to the test?
I think verse 22 that we already read
kind of helps you.
When you put Christ to the test, what
happens?
Verse 22, you provoke the Lord to jealousy.
And then look at Paul, he puts a
question, are we stronger than he?
I mean, what's the answer?
No, you're not.
And Paul's point is, why would you test
him who you're not stronger than, and you
can wipe 23,000 people out just like
that, or you can send serpents and wipe
all these individuals out.
So this is almost a description of what
it means to test the Lord.
You conduct yourselves in a way that prompts
and arouses God to jealousy.
And remember, if you're new, new Christian, you
might hear the word jealousy and always associated
with some sinful response.
That's not how the Bible uses the word.
Often the Bible talks about a jealousy as
a righteous response.
And so clearly that's the type of response
from God right here.
It is righteous.
God does not sin.
And by doing so, provoking him, defying the
one who is stronger than they are.
Paul says, you know, are we stronger than
he?
In other words, is this a fight you
really want to pick?
And he's saying, look at the history of
it.
If you guys want to pick a fight
at Corinth and say, it's okay to take
the Lord's supper and be baptized.
And it's okay to also have my hand
over here.
Paul's just saying, look guys, look at history.
I mean, look at the fight you're picking.
You're going to be destroyed.
You guys have lost your minds if you
continue on like this.
And so then he calls them flee from
idolatry in verse 14.
Right?
So that's, that's what's happening here around this
verse, verse 13 that I really want to
really want to look at.
Um, but some, some here might need to
take heed to verse 12 that we just
considered.
And in Psalm 78, it says they provoked
him to anger with their high places.
They moved him to jealousy with their idols.
When God heard he was full of wrath
and he utterly rejected Israel.
Right?
Paul is also showing here that God right
there in Psalm 78, he's the same God
today.
If you're going to, you know, you hear
people say, don't take God's name in vain.
When we, how do you even define not
taking God's name in vain?
People tend to think it's don't say his
name like verbally, you know, you can take
God's name in vain by saying you're a
Christian and then going and living in a
contrary way.
You're, you're bearing his name in vain.
It's useless.
It means absolutely nothing.
And that's clearly what was happening here at
this church.
And Paul is strongly admonishing them.
They think they're okay.
Serving two masters.
Paul says, no, you're going to fall just
like those in Israel.
Doesn't matter if you've been baptized, doesn't matter
if you partook of the Lord's supper.
So this is a really a strong warning
from the apostle Paul.
And, and again, you and I might say,
well, I would never provoke the Lord to
anger, but remember you might not do it
with idolatry, but what was another way they
provoke the Lord to anger grumbling, right?
I think that could be more of a
place you and I could fall nor grumble
as some of them did.
And what ultimately is grumbling?
When you grumble against God, what are you
saying to the Lord?
You're challenging the Lord's authority, like a child
who rejects the parent's command.
And then they kind of look at the
parent out of the corner of their eye.
They're challenging, not only did they disobey the
parent, but then give the parent the eye.
And they're basically saying to the parent, I
don't have to obey you anymore.
And that's basically what those at Corinth are
doing.
They're expressing dissatisfaction, unhappiness towards God.
And that rightly provokes God to jealousy based
on their response because God has not failed
them, right?
And if God was not moved in righteous
anger at their sinful response, that would be
wrong of the Lord.
The Lord has to respond in this way
to be consistent with His divine character.
So, if you look back at this grumbling
and impatience in Numbers 21, don't turn there,
but it says they became patient along the
way.
All right, you notice that phrase along the
way?
Not at the beginning, right?
We tend to not fall into impatience and
grumbling at the beginning of the trial.
It says we're getting further along, that's when
it enters in.
And that's really going to matter because the
verse we're going to look at in verse
13, if you notice the end of verse
13, he says the way of escape that
you may be able to, to what?
Endure, right?
So, this really, verse 13 is not some
promise that the trial vanishes in a moment.
It's promise for grace in the midst of
enduring in the trial.
And if you notice in Numbers 21, that's
where they started to mess up along the
way.
They weren't initially impatient, they became impatient in
the midst of their present trial.
When is it going to end?
Let's go back to Egypt, the food, you
know, all of that.
And it led to them making this statement,
which is evidence of grumbling at God.
They said, why have you brought us out
of Egypt to die?
Right?
Unbelief, we're going to die, questioning God, saying
why.
So, when it comes to you and the
Lord, we're kind of transitioning here.
Are you, there's a helpful way to think
about it.
With whatever trial you're in, or burden you're
bearing, are you testing the Lord or trusting
the Lord?
Are you trusting the Lord, or in the
midst of the trust, is it transitioning into
testing and challenging God through your grumbling?
Or even in a greater way, and maybe
it's wrong to say greater way, because those
who grumbled got the same judgment in 1
Corinthians 10.
But you get to the point where you've
been adding in some false religion to your
Christianity and maintaining it's okay to group them
both together.
Because we saw there in the chapter, Paul's
saying you can't do that, you can't partake
of the demons and you can't partake of
the Lord.
You think you're going to stand while embracing
that?
And Paul's like, no, you think you're going
to stand, you're going to fall, flee from
that idolatry.
But am I testing or trusting?
Paul's really warning us against this deliberate acts
that a professing believer does.
Deliberate, willful acts that happen because there's a
false security from chapter 10 verses 1 to
4 of all the things you could say
that they partook in, and they're putting God
to the test.
They dare to judge God.
It's not going to do anything, and they're
okay because they were baptized and partake of
the Lord's Supper.
That's the idea.
And so that's a strong warning.
We want to take heed to that, but
that's not the main thing I want to
look at in this message.
So you and I don't want to be
that person.
Because you know what it implies if you're
that person?
Is Paul promising divine aid?
This is really important here.
Paul puts verse 13 that we're going to
look at.
He interjects it here.
But is there a promise of divine aid
for those who are partaking of the temple
of demons and partaking of the Lord's Supper
and saying that it's okay?
Was there divine aid for Israel who he
pulls in for this example when they were
partaking of all of these things?
No, there was judgment that came.
We don't want to approach verse 13 in
a wrong way, right?
The judgment is very firm and strong that
Paul's asserting is going to come upon people
who are at this point.
These people are beyond being tested and tempted.
They're fully indulging willfully in rebellion against God,
and there are pronouncements of judgment upon them
for this treatment of the Lord.
So then we have verse 13, which I
love this verse.
I've loved this verse for 15 years.
I've been a Christian, and I hope if
you haven't had a relationship with this verse
where it's one that you run to that
maybe after this message you'll kind of be
put in that repertoire for you to have
as a friend, right?
That's what Proverbs 7 says.
Call wisdom your intimate friend.
And we want to have certain verses that
are like close friends that we go to
when we're in the midst of a trial,
and we remember those truths, and that encourages
our faith to not quit in the midst
of the trial.
So verse 13.
And I was surprised by this, and I
guess it kind of showed how much I
didn't understand the verse in this context.
But many commentators, they start off by saying
they don't know why Paul even put the
verse here.
They don't know why Paul even put it
here.
Because if you, it's true, if you remove
verse 13, verse 12 to 14 flows perfectly,
right?
Therefore let anyone thinks he stands take heed
lest he fall, therefore my beloved flee from
my valetry.
Right?
That makes total sense in the context, right?
And so many would say, commentators would make
this statement.
They say in typical fashion, Paul cannot bring
himself to the end of all of this
on such a strong word of threat.
And I appreciate that thought there.
If you do actually survey the apostle Paul,
I mean, he makes really strong threats, right?
Rightly so.
But it's amazing how he will bring in
their encouragement.
And he's bringing in even this encouragement here
about the faithfulness of God to these Christians
in the midst of the church at Corinth.
And so that, I think that is, if
that assertion is right, there's definitely encouragement there.
That'd be something to think about.
All the places Paul gives a warning and
what does he follow it up with?
That could be something we could learn, right?
In your counseling, do you just warn people
all day?
Or do you follow it up with some
sort of encouragement in the midst of it?
I'd also think there's something to consider, commentators
who say that Paul here in verse 13
speaks to a different category of people than
he's thinking about above.
He's now speaking to those who are in
the midst of true testing, not those who
have tested God.
He's already made it clear what's going to
happen to them and that they've got to
flee from idolatry.
And so some would say he's actually interjecting
verse 13 as an encouragement for those at
Corinth who are in the midst of true
testing.
They've not given in.
And he's encouraging them in the midst of
all this giving in that people are doing.
He's wanted to encourage those brethren, don't quit.
Don't quit.
God is able.
God is faithful to you in the midst
of what you're going through.
Now either way, however you might take that,
clearly it's a verse of encouragement to the
believer.
So let's consider verse 13.
You know, if you think of it this
way, if the test is from God, right,
which he speaks about in verse 13, and
it's not you testing God, what's verse 13,
let's read it again, make you come away
with no temptation has overtaken you that is
not common to man.
God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond
your ability, but with the temptation, the test,
He will provide the way of escape that
you may be able to endure it.
I mean, if you're right now in your
life, you're not out there willfully testing God,
trying to partake of the demons in the
Lord's Supper on Sunday, guess what?
As you leave this building today, it doesn't
matter whatever trial you face, because you're not
trying to keep two feet one foot here
and one foot over there.
You can live this week with a sense
of security that whatever you face is going
to be okay.
God will give you the grace for what
you're going to face compared to the person
who thinks they're okay while they're partaking of
the table of demons and coming and being
baptized and partaking of the Lord's Supper.
And they think this is okay.
You know, I've done these rituals.
I'm now safe.
That person, they're not going to have a
promise of divine aid.
They've actually got a promise of judgment from
Numbers 21, hovering over them.
And so we want to be in this
camp, the people who are facing ordinary trials
and temptations.
And we're finding that the Lord is helping
us to endure through those one by one.
You can really say, if that's you, you're
not in danger of falling away.
If you're not testing God, if you're not
willfully rebelling against Him, and in that stage
of moving in a negative direction, and you're
just facing trials, there's a sense of security
there.
This verse should leave you with that type
of confidence in the Lord.
All right.
So first, we need to consider a specific
word in this verse.
And it's the word temptation.
No temptation has overtaken you.
Does anyone have a version that doesn't have
the word temptation?
Just shout out what word it has there.
Maybe everyone has an ESV here, right?
What's the NESB say?
Okay.
Yeah.
If you search that word in the Greek,
and when we say Greek from the pulpit,
the majority of the New Testament is written
in that language.
The original language is what we're referring to.
The Greek word, it's the same word as
trial.
And all these other places it's rendered, you've
got the word trial, test.
And so you find temptation, trial, test.
So multiple versions don't even use the word
temptation in verse 13.
They use the word no trial has overtaken
you that is not common to man.
And so it can depend on the context
of where it's used, on how it should
be rendered.
And obviously those in the ESV committee in
this chapter felt like the word temptation would
convey it more.
And there's, you could do a whole sermon
on this, but we do need to remember
a few things about temptation.
Temptation is a test in that you might,
you know how we say, I felt tempted.
Well, if you're actually using that language appropriately,
is that you admitting to sin?
No.
If you're saying you felt tempted, it meant
that there was a, is temptation sin?
In and of itself.
And we could, we could go to what
Hebrews four, where it talks about the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And it says he was tempted in every
way as we are yet without sin.
So clearly you can be tempted and it
not be sin.
It says in Matthew four, that Jesus was
led into the wilderness by the Holy spirit
to be tempted by the devil.
Well, I think a better word there is
tried, but in the midst of trials, there
are temptations, which we read in first Corinthians
10, you could describe the temptation.
Something is coming upon you that your desire
is wanting to, to give in and go
and do something or believe something about God
that is not right.
That is a sinful response in the midst
of your trial.
And so there's different nuances.
Some, some right when they hear temptation, they
don't, it's this point before you've been seduced
to sin, right?
You're being tested to be seduced into sin,
but it hasn't, hasn't actually yet, um, happened.
And so the point of trial, I'm in
a trial and then temptations are coming in
the trial.
And if I give into the temptation, I'm
being seduced to sin and to not bear
up under it.
And, and I think I mentioned this years
ago, but you could almost look at it
in this way.
When you're being tested, it's like being given
the test by a teacher.
And if you, if you give into temptation,
you're basically cheating on the test, right?
You're no longer trusting the Lord to help
you to pass the test.
You're going outside of those given means and
you're cheating.
Well, that's a sin.
You're sinning against God right there.
And so when you, when you look at
this verse, don't just think, oh, temptation, you
know, and have some narrow view about, oh,
I was tempted to be impatient or I
was tempted with fill in the blank.
No, no.
This is just trials and tests in the
Christian life.
It's not just something that fits with one
specific test or trial as a Christian.
Uh, yes.
It's one of those that you're in the
wilderness as a Jew and you're, you're being
tempted to grumble and complain about the treatment
that you feel like God has failed.
You feel like God's failed.
If you gratify that you're sinning by giving
into that thought, right?
So, but here's a promise to not, to
be in a trial and not ever be
seduced into any type of sin, which will
keep you from being in the place they
were at in the earlier part of first
Corinthians 10, where they're now willfully in rebellion
against the Lord, justifying it because they have
religion, right?
That's, we don't want to get to that
point.
And so here is an encouragement to us
as we face ordinary tests and trials and
temptations, uh, that there is the grace from
a faithful God for you and I to
endure and you and I do not have
to give in to whatever it might be
that is trying us to grumble, to self
pity, to sin, to be unfaithful in some
way.
So let me give a few observations from
verse 13 for your encouragement.
And this is, this is really under the
heading, God is faithful.
If you look at verse 13, right after
he says, no temptation is overtaking you, there's
not common demand, meaning there's nothing out of
the ordinary, which is incredible.
That's an incredible statement in and of itself
because how many of us you're in a
trial and you feel like this is really
unique.
You know, no one, no one can relate
to me.
This is so such a unique situation.
Paul's just like, you know, can't think that
way.
Right.
Well, it's interesting if you don't agree with
Paul here and you do paint yourself in
a unique situation, guess what that could now
make you more vulnerable to do to question
God's love for you.
Why would he put me in this situation?
No, I mean, no one else is in
that situation.
Right.
And so same thing with appealing to the
Lord Jesus in Hebrews four, we get this
sense of God's able to relate with us
in our trial and we don't have to
be discouraged.
We don't have to think that this, you
know, this is such an uncommon thing.
Um, but that statement, God is faithful.
What does it mean to be faithful?
It's to be completely dependable.
It's to be true to their word, right?
That God swears to his own word and
you better believe it.
He doesn't change.
He doesn't change his word.
Uh, he's not a shifting shadow.
He remains constant in his love.
Uh, you know, we see his, his exemplified
faithfulness and the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he's done on the cross.
He's faithful to his promises.
Isn't it?
Well, who is it?
Joshua, who said in the old Testament, not
one word of all of the Lord's promises
fell to the ground in return void.
I mean, that's, that's incredible about the Lord.
And this goes hand in hand with you
and me enduring as Christians.
Um, listen to these verses.
First Corinthians one, he says, the Lord will
sustain you to the end, guiltless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful by whom you were called.
First Thessalonians five, you'll be kept blameless at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful.
He will surely do it.
Second Thessalonians three, but the Lord is faithful.
He will establish you and guard you against
the evil one.
Hebrews 10, let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering for he who
promised is faithful.
What, what did almost all of those verses
deal with when thinking about the faithfulness of
God, say again, promises, not just, but promises
of enduring to the end, to the returning
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, Paul knew we needed that as
Christians.
We needed encouragement and hope to get from
here to the end, especially as you see
others not getting from here to the end.
Paul recognized that reality.
And so, so many of these places where
Paul appeals to the faithfulness of God, it's
in the end of, it's in the context
of being sustained to the end and enduring.
So we see from verse 13, God is
faithful in our trials.
And that first, I already made a comment
on that first part of the verse, but
listen to the NET.
I like the NET has some good ways
of translating it that helped the English reader
comprehend in a clearer way some of what's
being communicated.
No trial has overtaken you that is not
faced by others.
Right?
That's the idea of the first statement Paul
is making there.
He tears down this idea that I mentioned
that we're in some unique situation.
Well, let's think God is faithful.
Number, I think I have three reasons here,
not 20.
Someone mentioned I had like some sermon where
I had 20 points and they said, don't
even say the number, James.
I just kind of discouraged me at the
outset.
I think I have three, 30 or three.
I don't know.
Um, time is okay.
God is faithful.
Now get this.
You know what hit me with this passage?
God is faithful and yet a trial has
overtaken you.
Look at the verse.
No is overtaken you.
That is not common.
Wait, what?
You're saying God's faithful and yet a trial
has come upon me.
Isn't that a contradiction?
No, it's not.
I mean, I know we know that as
Christian, but here another reminder is this morning
when something comes upon you, it overtakes you.
It's there at your front door, a test,
a trial, a temptation.
Uh, the faithful God knew that was going
to happen.
You see, God can be truly faithful and
let you be tried.
I mean, that's incredible.
And if you heard the, if you heard
what I quoted earlier from Matthew four about
Jesus, Jesus is led into the wilderness by
who, by the Holy spirit for what happened
to be tempted by the devil.
The spirit of God was not doing the
tempting, but just like in the book of
Joe, the permissions for the event to take
place and allowing it to be happen is
under the umbrella of the sovereignty of God.
And so when you view that about your
trials, like in Job, where God is giving
the devil permission without which Job can affect
or the devil can affect Job.
See, so this is big theology about who
God is.
And we, we need to get it because
it's really going to help us when something
overtakes you and comes upon you in your
own life.
God lets you get tried and he controls
the permissions of those trials, right?
There's, there's not one thing of this.
There's not, there's not a trial where if
you're, if you're walking with the Lord and
a trial comes, God had some involvement in
allowing this to be brought about.
That's where you can say all things work
together for good.
If you're, if you're trying to partake of
the demons and you're trying to partake of
the Lord, like we looked at earlier, you're
not going to find comfort here.
You're finding judgment.
You need to flee from that.
But for you and I, if we're not
testing God and we're just facing the ordinary
test and the trials as severe as they
might be as Christians, we've got great confidence
here.
And so if God will not let me
be tried beyond what I'm able, well then
that implies he has control over what trials
that I get.
And we're called to endure trials of various
kinds.
And so trials coming into your life should
not make you question God's faithfulness.
It should encourage you to be faithful to
God because God in some way you might
not see at the moment is being faithful
to you and to me by allowing that
trial into our life.
That's the first thought here.
The second one, God is faithful.
He will not let you be tried or
tempted beyond your ability, tried beyond what you're
able to bear.
So how do we take encouragement from this?
I mean, it's basically the Lord is telling
you and me that there is a cap,
there is a cap on your trials that
it won't go beyond a certain point.
Now, if anyone knows where that meter is
at in the Bible for you to look
at, where I can see what that cap
is, let me know.
I think it just tells us, number one,
for the Lord to not give you beyond
what you can bear means he knows what
you can bear.
You hear that?
The Lord knows what you can bear.
Who knows what you can bear more?
You or the Lord?
The Lord, right?
The Lord knows more what you can bear
than you know what you can bear.
I mean, if you sit around thinking, well,
what can I bear?
That's a really, you don't want to, you
don't even want to go there.
Right?
If he, if he allows it, you're going
to find his grace is sufficient.
So, and, you know, in a way you
could think of it this way, the Lord's
not giving my 10-year-old's math test
to my one-year-old because my one
-year-old doesn't have the ability to bear
that math test.
The Lord isn't going to give that trial
to that one-year-old.
And so God is faithful to have designed
you to have a bearing limit, and he
knows what that limit is, and that should
make you trust him.
As it says in Psalm 90, you know,
remember our frame, we are but dust.
I mean, if anyone knows the, the, you
know, if anyone is the engineer and the
designer of you and how you are as
a Christian and where you're at and however
long you've been saved, and they're trying to
judge, well, if we put this much weight
on, on James, is that going to crush
and destroy his faith?
You know what it is?
We actually need to put some lesser weights
on at first to get him to a
better point where he can take that later
on.
I mean, the Lord's, he's the designer.
He knows what he's doing.
Secondly, under this second thought of God is
faithfully not let you be tempted beyond your
ability, it also speaks to me that there
are certain trials some do not have the
ability to bear up under, at least not
yet.
And therefore, the Lord does not put them
through that.
Now, this is really important for you to
get, Christian, because you, you know, you know
what one of the dangers Christians fall into?
They fall into thinking about the what-ifs.
Well, what if that happened to me?
How would I handle it?
That often does not prove to be beneficial.
If you sit there looking at the trial,
you think I would never make it through,
well, guess what?
You might actually be right.
At this point in your life, you might
not make it through that, and that's why
the Lord hasn't put that test and trial
in your life, because it's beyond what you
can bear.
And so either way, you gotta, you gotta
trust the Lord rather than think about what's
off in the horizon.
What am I going to face?
Is this going to happen?
If you face it, God's allowing it, and
He's promised to give the grace to bear
you up in the midst of it.
You've got to trust the Lord.
A third point under the second heading, uh,
thirdly, this means whatever trial it is that
I'm about to face, the Lord is allowing
it to come about.
He's giving permission because He knows I can
bear it.
He knows by His power I can bear
under it, and it's not beyond my ability,
and so that should give me great confidence
with whatever trial that I face.
If it's at my door because God's allowed
it to be there, and this God has
allowed it to be there, He knows that
He, what I can bear, and He's promised
to not give me more than I can
bear, then this thing that's right before me,
oh, you know what?
I can actually have confidence in God that
I'm going to endure.
I mean, He's already going to help me
in this because of these other truths.
So imagine that.
Imagine going into your trial at the beginning
already believing that God will give you the
grace to endure in it because He's brought
the trial about.
Wouldn't that, I mean, doesn't that all the
more stir your faith up if you start
out with the trial like that?
That, oh, this is from my Father, and
He's given me this trial, and He said
He won't give me anything more than I
can bear.
Therefore, He knows that I can bear this
even though I don't know that myself, so
I'm going to look to Him by faith,
and He's going to help me, and I'm
going to endure in the midst of this.
I mean, remarkable.
Your faith is now stirred.
Another thing, some people have a problem with
verse 13 because they think it's a contradiction
in 2 Corinthians 1.8, and since we
are just a couple pages away, you could
look at that verse if you want, 2
Corinthians 1.8. Some versions render it, well,
let me read the ESVs.
We'll see this isn't, this doesn't undo our,
this promise here.
For we want you not to be unaware,
brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia,
for we were so utterly burdened beyond our
strength that we despaired of life itself.
And other versions render it this way, and
this creates questions.
We were under great pressure far beyond our
ability to endure.
You hear, so you're reading your Bible, you're
not going to put anything beyond your ability
to endure, to bear, and then another verse,
Paul's saying he faced something where he couldn't
endure, right?
So people say, well, that's a contradiction there.
I mean, it's not really true because look
at, look at what happened to Paul.
They think it really contradicts.
Well, the problem with that is, what happened
to Paul in the midst of his trial?
Did he endure?
Yeah, here.
So 1 Corinthians 10.13 is true, and
how did he endure?
What happened to Paul?
What was the next verse?
What did it say?
This happened to make us rely not on
ourselves but on God.
Ah, that's interesting.
You know what?
This creates another category in all of this,
okay?
You might go into a trial and you
can't bear it at the beginning, right?
And God grows you in the midst of
it to allow you to bear it.
So then you do get to the end
of it.
You do endure through it, but he brings
you into it knowing that that isn't something
you can take initially, but I'm going to
help you in the midst of it so
you will make it through and you won't
abandon me.
And this is what happened to Paul.
Paul doesn't abandon the Lord.
He makes it through and he gets to
the very end of his life, 2 Timothy
3, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to
me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions
I endured.
So he did endure, he didn't quit, yet
from them all the Lord rescued me.
And so no, that's, this does not contradict
what we have in 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
It just makes it more human in the
way you express yourself because you and I
might be in a trial and we feel
like we can't bear it any longer, and
the Lord's allowed the trial and allowed us
to feel that.
So we go to him, we get his
strength, we don't rely on ourselves, and then
we do make it through.
You see, so that might happen in the
midst of it, and that you could, you
could subjectively feel I can't bear it any
longer, and the devil makes you doubt 1
Corinthians 10, 13.
See, it's not real.
Look, you feel like you can't bear it.
1 Corinthians 10, 13 is not real.
No, no, don't, don't give into that, that
lie.
Well, a third thing here about God's faithfulness
that we get from 1 Corinthians 10, 13,
God is faithful to you while in the
trial to provide help for you to endure
in the trial.
If you look at the text, God is
faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond
your ability, but with the temptation, with the
trial, with the test, he will also provide.
I mean, we love people who provide for
us and help, and here our God does.
He provides the way of escape, and you
know, you almost get your heart all set,
like, oh, yes, escape, I can get out
of it, and then Paul says something that's
kind of like, I don't know, why'd you
have to say that, Paul?
Provide the way of escape that you may
be able to endure it.
Wait, I thought I was going to escape,
and you're saying I got to endure.
Don't think of this promise as some idea
that the trial dissolves in a moment.
No, rather grace is given, and you escape
from grumbling, and you endure in the trial,
and at some point, the trial might come
to a close.
It might never.
I mean, do I have a promise that
every trial I face as a Christian, and
in my Christian life, by the time I
get to eternity, is going to have been
resolved?
No, there might be trials you've got to
endure for 50 years, but God will give
you the grace in the midst of that
to do so, and so I tend to
like, I think, I tend to think it's
right to think about when he says providing
the way of escape, he's talking about you
don't enter into testing the Lord, you don't
enter into grumbling, you don't enter into what
all those people earlier did.
He's trying to keep people out of being
categorized with those in the first half of
1 Corinthians 10.
He doesn't want you to get to that
place, but as far as when the trial
ends, Paul doesn't say, and we can't see
it, only the divine perspective, only God, only
God knows, and so you and I might
need to endure more before the end is
realized.
So whatever test God allowed, he will pull
the curtains to a close at the right
time.
He'll write the end of the chapter when
enough has happened to move on from that
volume in your life.
So what this means is that as a
believer, the nature of trials are such that
you must not give in to them, and
you don't have to.
Believe that whatever temptation, whatever trial, whatever test
you face this week, if you already go
into the week believing, I don't have to
give in.
I don't have to.
The Lord will give me the grace to
endure facing this.
Did he not do that for Joseph?
Potiphar's wife came to him every day, so
she came to him day after day, and
then bam, when the temptation is all the
more fierce, he says, how can I do
this great wickedness and sin against God?
But God gave him the grace.
God it, the commentator, God it, I think
I'm saying his name right, he wisely said
this, the Corinthians must be made to understand
that they run no risk of sinning and
falling away from the faith if they have
only to encounter the temptations God allots to
them, but that they have no pledge of
victory whatever in the case of temptations into
which they throw themselves with lightheartedness.
You understand, again, that's an important distinction we
can miss.
The first, let's just restate it again, the
first part of this chapter, you've got people
who are willfully sinning and rebelling against the
Lord, and they're holding on to their, the
fact that they've been baptized and taken to
the Lord's supper, and a church member, that's
basically the idea.
They said the sinner's prayer, whatever, fill in
the blank, whatever people rely on, and they're
able to partake of demons, and it's okay.
You find threats of judgment for them, but
then you got another group who they're facing
ordinary trials allotted to by God.
They're not in willful rebellion of the Lord.
Those people live life with a sense of
confidence and expectation that whatever I face, whatever
comes, God's grace is sufficient for me to
endure.
If that's not where you're at, and you're
in the other place where there's all manner
of compromises, Paul's words to you is flee
immorality, or his words to those in numbers
who are bitten by the serpents is that
a serpent was being raised, right?
And you look to the serpent, and you
will live.
Well, that was looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
No doubt, many of these people Paul just
said in chapter 6 are deceived, and so
clearly their hope, what they need is not
self-reformation.
They need transformation that is only found in
Christ.
So if you think, wait, I thought what
I'm facing in my life, God has no
involvement in it.
Change your mind.
If you see the hand of God, it's
going to give you great confidence whatever you
face.
Do you rejoice in your trials?
In the way you're being tested?
Listen, Paul might not say rejoice right here,
but listen to Peter chapter 1.
In this you rejoice, though now for a
little while.
A little while, right?
Oh good, it's a little while.
Well, what does that mean, Peter?
If necessary, you have been grieved by various
trials.
It's the same Greek word as it is
right there in chapter 1.
That's the idea.
You've been grieved by various trials.
They grieve you.
It's not like we're creatures with no emotion.
So that the tested genuineness of your faith.
You see that?
God has a purpose.
I mean, I don't want to make the
Lord like an engineer, but just for the
sake of the illustration, kind of like I
mentioned earlier, the Lord is building you up,
Christian, and He knows how much you can
bear, and it's different than what others can
bear, and the Lord is careful to not
put too much weight to make the whole
thing fall down, but He's also careful to
give enough weight to keep the building process
going, and He's using various trials in your
life, in my life, to get us to
that point, and so if you realize that,
it should help you as you approach these
trials.
I was reading some of the original Robert
Chapman biography the other day, and if some
don't know, Robert Chapman lived to be, I
think, 98.
Spurgeon said he was the most saintliest man
he ever met.
He never got married.
He open-air preached into his 90s, Papa.
I think he was like 95.
He'd be street preaching.
I'm not trying to burden you that you
need to do that, though, but listen to
this.
He said, those are my best circumstances that
best serve to try faith, help humility, and
check my self-will.
He goes on to say, it's the greatest
misfortune that can happen to a child of
God to have no trials.
Oh, yes, I don't want to say that.
I mean, how many are sitting here, that's
the greatest misfortune.
I'm just so misfortunate this week.
I'm a child of God, and I have
no trials.
Who's the, you know, is that saying people
say you're either in a trial, going out
of a trial, or about to enter into
a trial, or well, that tends to be
true when you look back in the big
perspective, but Chapman goes on to say trials
are sent to lead to the Word of
God, an entire dependence upon Him.
That's what 2 Corinthians 1 did to Paul.
If you have no trials, how can you
comfort others with the comfort wherein you yourself
are comforted by God?
And another time in regards to trials, he
said, which do you most think of, getting
out of the furnace or pleasing God in
the furnace?
I mean, that's a good question.
Whatever trial you're in, look, there's been trials
in my life.
I know it.
I just went out.
I went out, and I'm looking for an
easy way out.
And the way out isn't like you go
and do some grievous sin, but it's sin
of unbelief, right?
You remove yourself from some trying responsibility, for
example.
So yeah, what, you know, are you thinking
about pleasing God in the trial, or just
getting out of the furnace?
Chapman said, in any trial, I always cut
matters short if I only say, thou didst
it.
If after being provoked a little, we're ready
to say, Lord, you did it, we'll never
be ruffled.
I mean, what a thought.
Maybe that's all I'll share, but brethren, I
hope you can look at 1 Corinthians 10,
13.
Christian, if you're here today, and you're walking
with the Lord, no, not in perfection, but
you're following the Lord, you're going to face
temptations, you're going to face trials, you're going
to face tests.
Guess what you should also recognize?
You're facing that which your Father has allowed
and given permission to happen.
No, He's not the one tempting you, but
He will allow trials in your life.
He'll give permission, even like we read in
Job, for things to be brought about.
It's for your good, and there is a
sufficient grace there.
And be worried about pleasing God in the
midst of the trial.
Ada Lee, 1936, 37 years after six children
died while on the mission field, she said
the furnace of trials has been, and this
is 37 years after six of her kids
died, you know, you think, where does someone
end up like that?
The furnace of trials has been necessary many
times, heated often seven times more than it
was intended to heat, but the form of
the fourth like the Son of God was
always present.
Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, as often sounded
in my ear.
Once when the life companion, her husband, went
for his coronation, all too soon we thought,
but the refiner has been the one present
in every furnace of affliction.
So I come forth as pure gold, that
he may see his likeness in me here
and now, and at last that he may
be able to present me faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy that
will be glory for me.
And then Evan sent me a quote from
Prem Pradhan, a Nepali evangelist who kept getting
put in prison.
There's a mini biography written on him, but
he referred to this verse, Prem did, in
the book.
He said, the Word of God would show
me that God would not put me in
situations beyond what I could bear.
This is an evangelist in Nepal, 60 years
ago, being put in prison again and again.
So when discouragements came to me, my heart,
I simply prayed, Lord, you know my mind,
you know the discouraging thoughts that come, but
your Word says that you will not put
me in a situation beyond what I can
bear.
I thank you that you know I can
bear it.
If God knows you can bear it because
God's put you in it, why don't you
believe so too?
That sounds like a good idea.
If God's saying this is true, I'm going
to believe it, no matter what I feel.
Amen?
Well, let's pray.