We open our Bibles this evening to Acts
chapter 14.
Should we pray once again?
Our Father we ask thee that you would
glorify your name this evening and that you'd
help your people for your name's sake and
for your glory because you're alone, you alone
are worthy.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Acts chapter 14 and we'll start reading at
verse 19.
And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch
and Iconium who persuaded the people, and having
stoned Paul, drew him out of the city,
supposing he had been dead.
Having stoned Paul.
Read over that pretty lightly, don't we?
Howbeit as the disciples stood round about him,
he rose up and came into the city,
and the next day he departed with Barnabas
to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to
that city and had taught many, they returned
again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting
them to continue in the faith, and that
we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in
every church and had prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord on whom they
believed.
If you'll hold your place here in Acts,
we're going to read three other scriptures.
1 Peter chapter 1 and
verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptation, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perishes, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ.
And if you'll turn with me to John
15, we have here in Peter the trial
of your faith like gold, more precious than
gold, though tried with fire.
And John 15 verses 1 and 2, I
am the true vine, and my Father is
the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth
it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
And then Hebrews chapter 12.
You just need to hold your place in
Acts.
Hebrews chapter 12.
And we'll start reading at verse 3.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be worried and
faint in your mind.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving
against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you
as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all
are partakers, then are ye illegitimate and not
sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened
us after their own pleasure, but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of
his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to
be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
Back to Acts chapter 14.
I'd like to invite your attention this evening
to verse 22.
These apostles return, confirming the souls of the
disciples and exhorting them to continue in the
faith, and then particularly what we want to
look at tonight, and that we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
We see here these apostles, Barnabas and Paul,
anxious and concerned about these new converts, wanting
to help them, wanting to encourage them.
And so we read here in verse 21
that they return to Lystra and Iconium and
Antioch so that they could confirm and exhort
and strengthen and encourage them.
And part of their essential message to these
new converts was this phrase that we're going
to look at tonight.
We must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of God.
That was part of the standard apostolic message
to the new converts.
But it was more than their message to
new converts, wasn't it?
It was their message to the church over
and over again in their epistles.
Now, why do we need to be reminded
so often?
Well, you know why.
Because we forget so often.
We forget it real quick.
And so what I want to do this
evening, the Lord helping me, is to stir
up your pure mind by way of reminder.
And I won't be telling you anything you
don't know.
But if God could get it into our
hearts again, it could help us.
And we need it.
We need it again and again.
I want to begin then by calling your
attention to two little words in this sentence
that we have a very hard time believing.
And the first one is the word must.
We must.
Do you believe that, beloved?
We must.
It's one of those absolute certainties we've been
talking about.
We must.
In 1 Thessalonians 3.3, it says, We
have been appointed for affliction.
And that word appointed is the same word
that's translated in the word predestination.
It's the word destined.
Destiny.
Now, if I could tell you your destiny
tonight, or let's put it this way, God
has told you your destiny tonight.
And part of what He's told you as
your destiny, beloved, part of your destiny is
that you're going to have affliction.
That's part of your destiny.
And you know, whenever things slow down a
little bit and ease off a little bit,
we get to putting that out of our
minds pretty quick, because that's real.
But it's real.
We must.
We must pass through these tribulations.
We must.
It's part of our destiny.
And you know, there's a lot of different
kinds of tribulations.
We may live in a country where you
don't get tortured and put in prison.
But, beloved, you get down and give yourself
totally to the Lord.
And you get up and start seeking to
walk with Him.
You're going to run into some tribulations.
And God's going to see to it that
you do.
Now, that might not seem kind at first,
but there's a reason for it.
We must go through these things.
Have we settled down to this?
It takes a long time to get settled
down to this, doesn't it?
Every time one of them's over, we're ready
to start thinking there won't be another one.
And even if we say that there'll be
another one, we don't really accept that reality
until it gets upon us.
We must, in that second little word, through
much tribulation, inherit the kingdom.
We don't like that one either, do we?
Through much.
We must, through much tribulation, inherit the kingdom
of God.
We're talking here about tribulation of all shapes
and sizes and a good measure of it.
That's what much means.
It means little trials.
It means big trials.
It means trials on the outside.
It means trials on the inside.
It means trials that hit you from the
side just as hard as you can be
hit, just knock the wind out of you.
And it means trials that just slip in
like this, you know, insidious trials that deceive
you, deceitful trials.
It means all shapes and all sizes, trials
that come one at a time, trials that
come in bunches, just bang, bang, bang like
that.
You know what that's like.
Much tribulation, many trials.
We must, through much tribulation, inherit the kingdom.
And notice what they did here then in
verse 22.
They confirmed the souls of the disciples and
they exhorted them.
In other words, they were concerned about them
and wanted to build them up.
They wanted to confirm them.
And that word confirm is just a word
sometimes translated strengthen.
Confirm and strengthen.
And this word exhorted is also translated comfort
and encourage.
And other places, you know, the very same
word translated comfort and encourage.
Now, how did they comfort and encourage and
strengthen and build up these new converts?
Well, we said the way they did it,
they told them, you got a hard time
coming.
Now, how does that comfort and encourage you?
That message to me doesn't sound very comforting
and encouraging, but it is.
It's comforting.
It's helpful.
Yeah.
First of all, it's encouraging because it's honest.
It's honest.
It fits reality.
Now, we saw last night that part of
spiritual reality is that we are going to
go through times where we have to persist.
Well, how much more helpful is it to
know this is reality?
This is what God has said.
This fits reality.
The mark of a cult and a false
teaching and a false religion in general is
that it lives in a dream world.
And we need to thank God that He's
honest with us and tells us the truth
about things.
And it fits.
It fits.
You know, if you become a Christian, everything
will be exciting.
That's not said in so many words, but
that word exciting comes up so many times
that that's what's being said.
And everything's going to go fine, you know.
And it's a dream world.
It's a lie.
And it deceives.
You know, you'll have financial prosperity and good
health and everything else.
You think of how utterly despairing you'd feel
tonight if the Bible actually taught that, beloved.
Think of that.
The Christian would.
I mean, these people that lie to themselves
all the time, they go around getting beaten
to face with reality and don't even realize
what's going on.
But the Christian has some spiritual discernment, and
he knows that's not the truth.
Things come.
Things hit us.
The trials fall upon us, and the Bible
is honest.
God's honest.
He says there in 1 Peter, he said,
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
that is to try, as though some strange
thing happened to you.
This is reality.
You know, about every fiery trial I've ever
got into, I think about every one, the
first thing I did was think it was
strange.
And if that happens whenever God's told you
reality, what kind of shape would we be
in?
But I'll tell you another reason why this
message is encouraging, and that is because to
be forewarned is to be forearmed, to be
told ahead of time.
It's a help.
If you turn with me, please, to 1
Thessalonians, chapter 3.
1 Thessalonians 3, and we'll just read what
Paul said here about this.
Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we
thought it good to be left at Athens
alone, and sent to Malthus, our brother and
minister of God, and our fellow laborer in
the gospel of Christ, to establish you.
That's the very same word, exactly, translated confirm,
or strengthen, confirm over there in Acts 14,
and to comfort you.
And that's the same word, exactly, translated exhort,
or encourage.
To establish and comfort you concerning your faith,
that no man be moved by these afflictions.
For you yourselves know that we are appointed,
destined thereunto.
Now, how do they know?
It tells us in the next verse.
For verily, when we were with you, we
told you before that we should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, and ye
know.
He told them ahead of time.
He said, We warned you ahead of time,
you were forewarned and forearmed, and so it
came to pass.
Well, these apostles here in Acts 14, then,
one way that they strengthened and encouraged these
Christians was just by telling them ahead of
time, warning them ahead of time, that through
many tribulations, through much tribulation, through all kinds
of tribulation, we must enter the kingdom.
But there's something else they did.
There's something else they did.
They taught these new Christians how to understand
and interpret those tribulations when they did come.
They taught them how to understand and interpret
them.
You realize that these verses in Acts are
just a summary of all that was said.
When Peter preached there on the day of
Pentecost, or a little later on, or when
Paul preached there on Mars Hill, he said
a lot more than just what it takes
us time to read in our Bible.
You know, that would be about a two
-minute sermon a lot of times.
And you can be sure that these apostles
said a lot more than just one time
telling these Christians, Now, you've got to pass
through many tribulations to inherit the kingdom.
They dwelt on it, beloved.
They spent some time on it.
And most important of all, they taught them
how to understand and interpret these things when
they came.
How do I know that they did that?
How do I know that they taught them
how to understand these things?
Well, I know it because they did it
over and over again in their epistles.
They taught Christians how to understand tribulation.
Beloved, this is extremely important, and I just
want to spend the remainder of our time
on it tonight.
Tonight, the Lord Jesus himself and his apostles
have told us not only that the trials
are coming, but they've told us how to
understand and interpret them.
And to do that, they've given us three
major pictures, and we read those at the
start.
They said, Do you want to understand what's
happening to you?
Well, one way to think about it is
to think about the refining of a metal.
Now, what we read in 1 Peter 1,
think about the refining of a metal, your
faith being purified in the fire.
And another way to think about it, think
about the pruning of a vine.
And another way to think about it, think
about the chastening of a son.
Okay, three major ways that they taught us
to understand these things.
Now, the remarkable thing about it is that
these three pictures are all saying exactly the
same thing in three different ways.
God's kind to do that, isn't he?
And we're so thick-headed.
I mean, we have to have it a
hundred different ways before it gets through.
But he said the same thing three different
ways in these three pictures.
And what he's saying to us is extremely
helpful and precious for any child of God
that's in the midst of that trial and
tribulation.
Extremely helpful.
Christian, this is for you tonight if you're
in that fire, that tribulation.
It's for you.
What's God saying to you about your trial
by means of these three pictures?
First of all, he's telling you your preciousness
in his sight, the preciousness of the believer.
In the sight of God.
What's the first thing you're tempted to have
come into your mind when you do get
into that fire?
Well, it's something along this line.
Where's God?
What's happened?
I've failed him so much.
I've been such a mess.
I've done so bad that finally he's just
cast me off.
Where is he?
What have I done?
Where is his love?
Where is God?
And usually it takes the form, not that
even necessarily that God is messing up somehow
or another.
Maybe the devil can't trick you on that.
But it gets you to the point of
looking at how bad off you've been and
how much you've messed up.
And he'll convince you that that's the problem.
Really, that's the problem.
And God has just pulled away back from
you because you've messed up and you're so
worthless, utterly worthless in his sight.
Beloved, look what God's saying to you.
He says, I'm refining you.
I'm refining you.
I want to ask you a question.
Do men go out and gather up some
dirt and refine it?
You don't do that.
You see what he's saying?
You go out and you refine.
It's a big process to refine.
And it costs money.
There's a lot of things not worth refining.
It costs you more to refine them than
what you got when you get done.
You refine gold, beloved.
You refine gold.
And the Lord Jesus and the Father in
heaven telling us here how precious we are
to him.
That's what he's telling us.
I'm refining you.
You're precious to me.
You're so precious to me that I'm refining
you like a man refines gold or silver.
Oh, he says, I'm pruning you.
I'm pruning you.
And I'm pruning you not because you're worthless,
but because you're bearing fruit.
I'm pruning you because you may not have
too much, but you've got a little bit.
That's an encouragement right there, isn't it?
Preciousness in his sight.
And he says, I love you.
And you're precious to me and you're bearing
some fruit.
That's why I'm doing this.
Every branch of bean that bears fruit, he
purges it.
And beloved, it's the branch that bears the
fruit that gets the knife.
It's the branch that bears the fruit.
It's a sign that you're fruitful in some
measure.
And the very time that it seems like
he doesn't love you is the time that
he's the nearest.
I have a little quote.
It says, the gardener is never so near
as when he's pruning.
At the time he seems the farthest away,
but he's never so near.
He gets right down in there, you know,
and prunes.
Oh, he says, I'm chasing you.
Who does the Father chase him?
A father doesn't chase those illegitimate ones.
He'd like to just as soon not even
see them at all.
He chases the ones that are so special
to him, that he loves so much, that
he wants one day to be worthy to
be an heir of his property and his
inheritance.
In other words, this chastening is a sign
of the Lord's special love and special care
for us.
Whom the Lord loves, he chastens.
Now, do you see he's saying this every
which way and angle?
You know, he takes it one time from
the field of horticulture or gardening or whatever
you want to call it.
He takes it another time from human experience,
takes it another time from the refining of
metal.
Every other way he's saying it.
He's saying it over and over to you.
The one thing the devil's going to attack
you on first, and that is that you're
important to him and you're precious to him,
and he hasn't left you.
That's the first thing he says.
That's the underlying reality in every one of
those three pictures.
You see that?
That's the foundation for the picture, for the
parable.
The foundation is, this thing is valuable to
me.
What else is he saying?
The painfulness of the process.
He says, first of all, he says, it's
like a fire.
It's like a fire, like a blast furnace,
what it's like.
We're not talking about a campfire.
We're talking about a blast furnace.
Not too long ago, I saw a blast
furnace in operation, and you talk about a
frightening thing.
I mean, have you ever looked into the
mouth of a blast furnace?
My, oh my, that's not fire.
I don't know what you call that.
That's terrible.
And he says, it's going to hurt.
He's telling us this.
He says, I'm going to put you in
there and blast you.
I'm not going to heat you up.
I'm going to blast you, and then I'm
going to skim.
I'm going to let you cool down, and
then I'm going to blast you again.
I'm going to skim you again.
I'm going to let you cool down, and
then I'm going to blast you again.
How many times, Lord?
Seven times.
Like silver refined in a furnace of earth.
Seven times.
It's going to hurt.
He says, it's like a knife slicing away.
I want to tell you, he says, I
want to tell you what it's going to
be like.
It's going to be like being put in
a blast furnace.
It's going to be like having the living
tissue sliced away, cut with a knife.
And the Lord Jesus says, every branch in
me that bears fruit, He purges it.
He prunes it.
Have you ever felt a knife?
You haven't.
You're not one of His.
He says, it's like a scourge.
Like a scourge.
Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourges
every son.
Scourges.
That is a hard word, isn't it?
Scourge.
I know you preachers know all about scourging
as far as reading about it.
I've had to discipline my son, my little
boy, pretty severely sometimes.
But the idea of scourging him, I never
think of using that word.
I mean, the Jews, when they scourged a
man, they took him out there and strapped
him on a post and whipped him around
with that three-quartered whip they had.
The Romans, after they got done doing it,
you just about were dead already.
And yet this is the word that God
uses.
When He's talking about disciplining His children, He
says He scourges it.
What's He saying to us?
He's saying the painfulness of the process.
That's what He's saying.
He's not only saying you're going to have
tribulations, He's saying it's going to hurt you
something terrible.
It's going to hurt, beloved.
You're going to be in the breath furnace.
You're going to have a knife cutting into
you.
You're going to have a scourge applied to
you.
That's what those tribulations are going to be
like.
I'm thankful He didn't say all tribulations.
I mean, that it's all the time.
It's much tribulation.
It's not all the time.
We couldn't take it, could we?
But there's going to be much.
Do you know anything about being scourged?
If you don't, you're not a son, because
it says He scourges every son.
That's an encouragement, see?
You're getting scourged while you say it couldn't
be this bad for a child of God.
It couldn't possibly be this hard.
That's what He's telling you.
It is going to be this hard.
And you don't think anybody else has ever
felt like this.
How could you be a like this?
He says, I told you it was going
to hurt, and hurt bad.
What's the third thing He's telling us?
The goal in view.
You think of this medal.
What's the goal in view?
Purity.
Freedom from dross.
Isn't that a precious thought?
Freedom from dross.
And you know, we can get to realizing
and dwelling on our sinfulness so much that
we get to missing some of what God
is saying to us.
He's saying that He's going to purify us.
And you're actually going to make some progress
in the Christian life.
I mean, what you are in yourself is
never going to change, but God's going to
move you on in grace, and purify you,
and cause you to actually become more and
more pure.
That's encouraging, isn't it, brother?
That's encouraging.
He's going to move us on and change
us.
He doesn't put you in that fire so
you can come out the same way you
were.
Put you in that fire so He can
skim a little of that stuff off of
you, that scum, that you've been praying that
He would skim off.
You know how He does it?
He does it by putting you in the
fire.
And the scum begins to rise to the
top when you're in the fire.
And you don't feel like you're getting holier.
I'll tell you that much.
You feel like you're getting more unholy, don't
you?
You say, if this is the way to
progress, I'm not making any progress.
You say, oh Lord, I'm going backwards in
my Christian life.
I'm more unholy than I was.
But little by little, He starts skimming it
off whenever He's got everything hot enough.
It cools you down.
He does it again later.
Why?
Well, it's been said, you know, so we
can see His reflection.
I think that's it.
So we can see His reflection.
I always said it's like a vine.
We're talking about the goal in view.
What's the goal in view?
That it might bear more fruit.
Bear fruit already a little bit.
That it might bear more fruit.
You want to be fruitful?
You've prayed that.
And God is answering that prayer.
And the precious thing about it is, is
that it's effectual.
He's not a foolhardy gardener.
He knows what He's doing to get more
fruit.
And He'll actually get more fruit.
If you felt like you never were going
to make any progress through all this, it'd
be pretty disheartening.
But you actually will.
You actually will be more like the Lord
Jesus.
Isn't that precious?
A few years ago, I bought a cherry
tree from a company that is the great
tree company in Missouri.
And their name is Starks Brothers.
I don't know if you have Starks Brothers
down here.
Well, that's from Louisiana, Missouri.
Not Louisiana, Missouri, but Louisiana, Missouri.
And Starks Brothers sent me a catalog with
this cherry tree that I bought.
I want to read you the gospel according
to Starks Brothers in this matter of pruning.
To get a new fruit tree off to
the right start, nothing is more important than
pruning at planting time.
Yet all too often, this initial pruning is
overlooked by the home grower.
Many beginners seem to balk at the basic
idea.
But if the bare root tree is left
unpruned, it may not grow well.
And in dry weather, it may not grow
at all.
It will take longer to bear the plentiful
crops it should.
You might fear it hurts the tree.
Or you might think it's wasteful to give
your tree a substantial setback in size.
You ever felt like that?
That's wasteful.
Oh my.
Why this waste?
You might even mistakenly feel this pruning will
delay the first crop of fruit.
That's the expert talking.
He said you might mistakenly feel that.
In all these cases, quite the opposite is
true.
Here's why you There are three basic reasons.
Survival, stimulation, and shaping.
That's the three reasons.
I don't know if this guy's a Christian
or not.
Survival, stimulation, and shaping.
That's why you prune.
Usually after a single growing season, the tree
you prune will be bigger than a matching
unpruned tree.
Most important, your tree needs to be shaped.
The husky young trees you get from Starks
Brothers have far too many branches.
Left unpruned, your tree would become a crowded
thicket, nearly impossible to correct in later years.
It's not really difficult.
Just grit your teeth and do it.
Even though you may be cutting off more
than seems right, it's far better to over
prune at planting time than to under prune.
You hear him, miss?
I can assure you, here's the master speaking.
He's come from a long line of fruit
growers, fruit tree growers.
I can assure you that this pruning will
result in a sturdier, healthier tree.
You'll be getting the right start toward a
strong framework.
And, now get this, you'll be rewarded with
bigger, better crops of fruit.
Bigger, better crops of fruit.
What kind of a gardener would God be
if he just left that crowded thicket there
that he was talking about?
The goal and view for the vine, more
fruit.
What about the son?
What's the goal and view for the son?
That we might be partakers of his holiness.
And we prayed and cried out to God
and said, Oh God, I long to be
more like Jesus.
I long to be more like thee.
Do you hear what he says?
He says he's doing this.
He's scourging that you might be a partaker
of his holiness.
His holiness.
The divine nature.
God in you and expressed through you.
It's worth any price to have that.
To have God.
We're not talking about some kind of moral
outward conformity that you work out on yourself.
We're talking about living communion with God.
Partakers of his holiness.
Well, beloved, that's how the apostles strengthened and
encouraged these new converts.
They taught them how to rightly understand.
They taught them they were coming, yeah.
And that's a big help.
But they taught them how to rightly understand.
And they did it in different ways.
And, of course, God was behind it all.
No man could think up these things.
God gave those pictures to us.
And he said the same thing in different
ways, you know, to bring it home to
us.
To confirm and strengthen us, too.
Hebrews 12 says, My son, my child, despise
not the chasing of the Lord, nor faint
when you are rebuked of him.
You know, the two things when we're in
the middle of it.
These are the two things where the test
comes.
Despising, first of all.
You just get mad about it.
You know, blow up against it.
And he said, don't do that.
Nor faint when you're rebuked by him.
You just wilt under the thing and say,
oh, God, this is too much.
I can't take it.
And he says, don't do that.
Get up and submit yourself.
Shall we not subject ourselves to the Father
of spirits and live?
May God help us when we get in
it to remember these things.
You know, a lot of our sin problems,
really, we're acting just like children.
I mean, childish, not like children of God,
but childish.
The things I spank my kids for are
the stuff I'm doing all the time toward
God.
Sorry to say.
And this is what we're talking about.
We're talking about in all these parables here,
we're talking about just being mature enough to
begin to comprehend that what God is doing
is for my good and that he's dealing
with me as with a son.
And that this is something that proves his
love for me.
Because he loves me.
We couldn't do it.
We couldn't face these realities, could we?
If it weren't for that, because he loves
us, that's the reason.
May the Lord help us as those much
tribulations that must come do come.