Trials: Depth of Attachment to Christ Tested

Introduction: The Timeliness of God's Word in Trials

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, April 26, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to 1 Peter, chapter 1, 1 Peter, chapter 1, and follow, please, in your Bibles as I read verses 3 through 9. 1 Peter, chapter 1, beginning in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith.

1:06 Unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, not having seen, you love, on whom, though you now see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now let us again ask God's help and blessing upon our own hearts and minds as we were reminded in the previous hour, as we were reminded by the great principle resurrected under the ministry of Luther and the other great reformers, that the Spirit of God, who gave the word alone, can teach us, inwardly and accurately, that truth which he himself has given. Let us look then to God to grant us that present aid of the Spirit.

2:27 Again, our Father, we delight to come to you as the Father who is pleased to give good gifts to those who ask him, and that good gifts will be given to those who ask him. The great gift for which we now ask is the present, powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, taking the dullness from our minds, undressing our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things out of your law. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself, that we may understand your ways, that we may be given the grace to be honest with the state of our own hearts, that we may accurately know you, know ourselves, and know the way of blessing marked out in the Scriptures. Meet with us then, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now I'm confident that there are many Christians here this morning, who, over the years of your Christian experience, have committed yourselves to some course of regular, systematic reading through the Scriptures.

3:42 You may not read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation every year, but over the course of two, three years, you find yourself going through the entirety of the Word of God in some kind of systematic order. And if that's true of you, then you have found, as I have found, many times in that regular, programmed, scheduled reading of the Word of God, some portion in that particular day's reading, that is, some portion in that particular day's reading, was tailor-made for the need of that day. Had you been searching for a passage somewhere between Genesis 1-1 and the last verse in Revelation 22, you know you could not have found a more appropriate passage than that which came up in your regular, systematic reading through the Scriptures. And what is true of the individual believer is true in the life of this congregation. Ever since we began in 1967, we committed ourselves to the consecutive reading through the New Testament in our morning worship services. Some years later, we began to do that with the Old Testament.

4:52 And we have found, as a congregation, time after time, the regular, consecutive, public reading of the Word has brought forward a passage, an incident, a principle, a precept, that was tailor-made to our congregational life. And that's also been true of the systematic preaching. Preaching through books or large sections of the Bible or the systematic unfolding of certain themes in the Scriptures. And unknown to the one who began that series, God, who knew the end from the beginning, tailor-made something in that consecutive exposition that was specifically addressed to a critical concern in the congregation that no one could ever have anticipated. And surely that has been our experience in recent weeks. It was six Lord's Days ago, March the 8th, to be precise, that in the consecutive expositions of Peter's first epistle, it was my privilege, in this pulpit, to attempt to open up in your hearing verses 6 and 7. Having laid out before these elect sojourners of the dispersion in Asia Minor their great and glorious salvation, Peter says in verse 6 that,

6:12 In this salvation you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I expounded the text six Lord's Days ago, under the heading, Abounding Joy and Crushing Grief, a paradox of genuine Christian experience. And little did I know, and little did you know, as a congregation, just how relevant these words would be in the following days and weeks between then and now. I can say without fearing that I'm embellishing, facts with rhetorical devices, these verses were nothing short of exquisitely timely in the life of our congregation. In the course of opening up the text, we had occasion to note that the trials which occasion the crushing grief are purposeful.

The Purpose of Trials: Proving and Purifying Faith

7:33 We looked at that little phrase, though now for a little while, if need be. And that need is rooted in the fact that, the need is rooted in the inscrutable wisdom and the sovereign purpose of God. And we noted the immediate purpose of that trial, and that is that our faith may be put to the test and validated as real. This manifold trial is to the end in order that there may be a proving of our faith.

8:07 Untested faith is worth little, and the immediate purpose, Peter says, for which manifold trials come, is to put our faith to the test and to validate it as real. But then there's an ultimate purpose, that your faith may be purified and vindicated in the last day. The ultimate purpose is that this proven, tested faith may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation, of Jesus Christ. Now, given that aspect of the opening up of the text, one of my final observations and applications was couched in these words. True saving faith will always become a tried and tested faith, in order that it may be a praiseworthy faith in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And given the dispositions of divine promise, and the providence that have placed us in a six-week classroom to learn this lesson, or to change the imagery, a six-week laboratory, in which the Spirit of God has been testing our faith as a body of God's people, and for many of us as individuals,

9:32 we have faced what to some of us has been the most severe test of our faith, since we first professed, to lay hold of Christ as our Savior and our Lord. And as we ease back into our verse-by-verse study of 1 Peter, what I want to do this morning is taking what I've already done by way of review of the heart of our study in our last exposition, I want to speak to you on the subject, how our recent trials have been the smelting furnace of our faith. How our recent trials, have been the smelting furnace of our faith. It was one thing for me, as a teacher of the Word, to seek responsibly to open up the text. It was one thing for you to sit with a discerning, critical mind in the right sense, and to see if what was expounded was indeed true to the language and the connection of thought. It's quite another thing to have understood the principles of God's purpose in manifold trials with respect to the purifying of faith. It has been quite another to be in a six-week furnace.

10:52 It has been quite another thing to have been thrust into a six-week laboratory experience engineered by the God of heaven. And it would be tragic to come out of the laboratory and out of the classroom and wonder what it was all about. And so what I'm going to attempt to do this morning without any claim to direct revelation, no angel has come in the middle of the night and whispered in my ear, but by examining the scriptures, seeking to be true to my sense of what God has been doing with us, I want to speak to you very pastorally this morning on how our recent trials have been the smelting furnace of our faith. And I want you to consider with me three ways in which the recent trials have been calculated by God to put our faith into the smelting furnace and to test it and to purify it and to develop it not only with a view to proving its present validity, but with a view to it being praiseworthy in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I will give a disproportionate amount of time to the first heading, so when it takes me a good 25 minutes to get through, don't get nervous, you're not going to be here to 1.15. The first thing that I am convinced with all of my heart God has been teaching us

Trial 1: Testing the Depth of Believing Attachment to Christ's Person

12:21 through this present trial is this. Our present trials are testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. Our present trials are testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. Now please note that all of the words have to do with us.

12:48 I am saying nothing about those who have left us. I am thinking nothing about those who left us. My concern is with us, our, our life, our perception of God's dealings with us, and I am prepared to assert that our present trials are testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. Now if I am going to carry your judgment, you've got to think with me as I try to take several building blocks of Biblical truth and set them out in your hearing.

13:30 According to the Scriptures, saving faith has as its peculiar or special obligation, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's a simple statement. But failure to grasp it has created tremendous confusion among many professing Christians. Let me repeat it.

13:52 According to the Scriptures, saving faith has as its peculiar or special object, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Saving faith includes belief in many other things. But saving faith has as its peculiar object the person of Christ. Familiar texts clearly teach this.

14:16 John 1.12, He came unto His own, His own received Him not. But to as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name. Saving faith has as its peculiar object, the person of Christ, as many as received Him.

14:41 It doesn't say, as many as received His finished work, as many as received the atonement. No, it says, as many as received Him who finished the work and made the atonement. When the jailer, out of agony of conviction, cried out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What did Paul and Silas tell Him to do?

15:05 Believe in the finished work of Christ, and you will be saved. No, they didn't say that. Acts 16.31 does not say, believe in the finished work, any more than it says, believe in the resurrection, believe in the incarnation.

15:18 It says, believe on what? The Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Oh yes, it is the Christ who was incarnate. It is the Christ who died and rose and is ascended.

15:33 But the peculiar object of saving faith, saving faith is never a facet of the work of Christ. It is always Christ Himself who accomplished redemption for sinners. Right here in our text, 1 Peter 1.8, having mentioned the revelation of Jesus Christ, the subject of the pronoun whom is Christ, whom not having seen you, love, on whom though you now see Him, not yet believing.

16:05 Peter says these Christians are those who believe on Jesus Christ. Now it is never Christ apart from His work, but He is not His work apart from His person. Therefore the most helpful description of saving faith I have ever found is given by Professor Murray in his lovely little book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, in which he states, saving faith is self-commitment to Christ in all things, in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He is so freely and fully offered to us in the Gospel. What does it mean to believe unto salvation? It is to commit yourself to this person, the person of the sinner, committing himself to the person of the Savior in all the glory of His person and in all the perfection of His work. This is building block number one. Building block number two, and you have got to keep your thinking cap on, is this.

Christ as the Object of Supreme Devotion and Unrivaled Love

17:13 The same scriptures that teach that the person of Christ is the unique object of faith also teach us that whenever the Lord Jesus becomes the object of saving faith, He becomes the object of supreme devotion and unrivaled love. Whenever He becomes the object of faith, He becomes at the same time the object of supreme devotion and unrivaled love. Look right here at verse eight. Peter assumes that not only is Christ the object of their faith, but he says, whom not having seen, you love. And God willing next week we are going to preach on that. Christ, the object of the faith, and the love of all true believers. Peter cannot conceive of someone believing upon Christ who does not love Christ.

18:17 Because Peter understands that it is morally and spiritually impossible to be brought by the Spirit of God to saving faith in Christ and not to embrace Him as the object of supreme devotion and unrivaled love. Therefore, whenever Christ was calling people to Himself, He made this abundantly clear. If you are not coming to Me and you do not see in Me that which is worthy of your unrivaled devotion and love, you cannot be My disciple. Luke 14, 25 and following.

18:51 He saw great multitudes coming to Him and He turned and said, If any man come to Me and hate not father, mother, brother, sister, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Let's play. Matthew 10, 34 and following. Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth.

19:08 I came not to send peace but a sword. I came to set a man against his father, the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. You say, that's not my Jesus. Then you better get the Jesus of the Bible.

19:26 He said, I came not to bring peace but a sword. I thought He was the Prince of Peace. He is. But He's the Prince of the sword.

19:38 Why? Because when He calls people into a saving relationship with Himself, He always does so in such a way that He becomes the object of their supreme devotion and unrivaled love. And if the dearest human relationships, father, mother, brother, sister, and the attachment to My own life stands in the way of the demands of attachment to Him, He says He must take precedent. Oh, we are not worthy to be His disciples.

20:07 Now, if you doubt that, look at it in your own Bible, Matthew 10, 34 and following. I've not read something in. I've quoted the text. Now, do you see where we're going?

20:18 Building block number two in place. This being true, that in all saving faith the person of Christ is the unique object of faith, and wherever Christ is believed on unto salvation, He is embraced in a disposition of unrivaled love. Unrivaled love and supreme affection. In the devil's effort to keep people from getting saved, what does he focus upon more than anything else?

20:46 He focuses upon putting something between the sinner and Christ as the object of faith, and something between the sinner and Christ as the supreme object of devotion. So you have people thinking they can bring their brownie points to God, like the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18. I do this, I do that, I don't do this, I don't do that. God is not interested in your brownie points.

21:12 He's only interested when the sinner in the nakedness of his need lays hold of Christ himself. But what did we read about in Matthew 19? We found someone that wanted to go to heaven by Jesus. And Jesus said, you won't go to heaven by me until I become your biggest, most precious treasure.

21:32 Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven, the treasure I'm going to purchase as I continue to make my way up to Jerusalem, there to die upon the cross. But Mr. Rich Young Ruler, listen to me, you will never believe on me unto eternal life until you see in me the one worthy of your unrivaled devotion. Mark 10 says, Jesus looking on him loved him, but he let him go.

22:02 He would not deceive him to think he could have eternal life by faith where Jesus Christ was not to be embraced as the supreme object of devotion and unrivaled love. Now follow closely. Just as the devil does everything to keep the sinner from coming to Christ in the naked grasp of faith and in the abandonment of unrivaled commitment to love him supremely when he's lost his ground and the Spirit of God has overcome those things and we have embraced Christ, as our only hope of life and salvation, and he has taken the place of unrivaled affection and love, the devil spends the rest of his time until we go to heaven trying to beat us off that ground. And he gets us to put something else between us and Christ as we live the Christian life, and he attempts to bring something or someone else between us and Christ in the realm of our affection. Now, you see where we're going. What's God been teaching us?

The Furnace of Fractured Relationships: Testing Attachment to Christ

23:11 In this six-week classroom? What has God been doing in this six-week laboratory when some of the deepest ties of human affection have been fractured and broken and ripped apart? I'll tell you what he's doing. He is testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of his own dear Son.

23:37 And he's doing it because he wants to. That's what he's been doing. Because all true faith is a faith that is not only attached to Christ as the only hope of salvation, but is attached to Christ as the object of supreme devotion and unrivaled love. And God has thrown us into this furnace, put us into this laboratory to do what?

24:08 Test the depth of our believing attachment of Christ. Precisely how has this been true in this present trial? Well, let me try to outline it for you. Christ, by his grace, has brought many of you to himself by the mighty work of the Spirit.

24:28 John 10, 16, Other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. There shall be one fold, one shepherd. God has said in his word that it's Christ himself who has brought you to himself and brought you to his own life. He comes, Paul says in Ephesians 2, he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and those who were near.

24:54 Christ, through his servants, speaks his word and his word lays hold of his sheep for whom he died. And it is Christ who brought you to himself in the bonds of spirit, faith and love. Now listen carefully. It is the same Christ in the body of his people.

25:18 It was not some accident or mere personal preference that you became a part of this body. Not this religious club. This body. This family of God.

25:31 This living temple with living stones. You remember in Acts chapter 2. It says, And the Lord added to them daily such as should be saved. You found yourself in the Jerusalem church.

25:41 You were to regard your presence as a revelation of the activity of the risen Lord. He added to them. And when you read in chapter 5, believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes of men and women.

25:55 What do they mean added to the Lord? They were added to the church in Jerusalem. So the same Christ whose word found you and drew you to himself, securing in your heart that place of the sole trust for your salvation and the supreme object of your love and devotion. That same Christ brought you into this assembly.

26:17 This family. This living temple. Now, some have chosen to leave this body. I say nothing about them.

26:27 That some have chosen. That's a statement of fact. For anyone to go out and say, Pastor Martin spoke negative. That's a lie.

26:37 I'm saying nothing negative. I'm stating a fact. Some have chosen to leave this assembly. None have been excommunicated.

26:46 None have been disciplined out. This is a family. They have chosen to extricate their place as a living stone in this living temple. For whatever reason, to his own master or servant, stands or falls, that's a fact.

27:02 But now you sit here, still a part of this body into which Christ has placed you by his spirit. Still a part of this family. Still a part of this living temple. And as you sit here today, no compelling reason from Christ speaking in his word or through inescapable providence to believe that God wants you to leave this body to cut yourself off from this family or to extricate yourself as a living stone in this living temple.

27:41 That's true of many of us here today, right? We have no compelling reason from the word of Christ or from the providence of Christ The only way to provide for your family is to take a job transfer and you must transfer to another church somewhere else. That's what I'm talking about. The providence of Christ. You're convinced that had no one left us in the last six weeks your leaving us would never cross your mind. Okay? There's been nothing from the word in terms of the ministry, in terms of the providence of God that would have caused you to even begin to think, shall I cut myself off from this body? Shall I take myself out of this family?

28:24 Shall I extricate myself as a living stone from this living temple of Christ? But what's happened? While others have cut themselves off from the body, taken themselves out of the family, extricated themselves from the living temple, you now feel tensions that are very uncomfortable. You now have interaction with people the mark of which is awkwardness and unnaturalness.

28:58 That's very real. Anybody say amen to that? Am I in la la land or am I in the real world, folks? I think I'm in the real world.

29:09 Where once you greeted people and never thought about how you're going to greet them. You just greeted them. Whether it was a hi, a hug, or whatever. And now you see them thirty yards away and you're all tense and you break out in a cold sweat.

29:25 Anybody like that? I cast my vote. I don't like it. Grief and pain and emotional distance. And the only way you see to get rid of the pain, the grief, the tension, the awkwardness, is to cut yourself off from this body, to take yourself out of this family, and to extricate yourself from this living temple. And in your present judgment you say, that would ease the tension, that would relieve me of the awkwardness. But now you've got a problem. Who put you here?

Christ's Will and Your Loyalty: 'What is That to You?'

30:06 You say, Christ joined me to this assembly. And if Christ does not remove you, and he only works by his word and his providence, not by subjective feelings, then for you this is a test of what? Of the depth of your believing attachment to the person of Jesus Christ. Now notice I've chosen my words carefully. I didn't not say that any who left us, their attachment to Christ is suspect. I said no such thing that is for God to judge. But if I can't minister to my own sheep, may God have mercy on me. That's what I'm supposed to do.

30:59 I'm talking to you, my dear people. And I am saying, unless the clear word of Christ in which he judges false shepherds on facts, not rumors, and false teachers by what they teach contrary to the word of God, and a church that is no longer a true church, because it won't discipline, it won't order its worship, that's how Christ delineates when you ought to leave a church. When by his providence he extricates you, and it's unavoidable as he did at the Jerusalem church. They had an exodus that makes ours look like kids play overnight.

31:42 Read Acts chapter 8. They that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that was let loose by Saul and came to its focal point in the death of Stephen. That church was more than decimated. Technically that means a tenth.

31:58 They were blasted. Went to the four winds. That was divine providence. So you see, folks, and I speak especially to you women who've been peculiarly vulnerable at the emotional level. Cut through the smoke of your emotions and look into the face of your Savior and say, Lord Jesus, can I say based on your word and your unavoidable providence that you, Lord Jesus, who called me to yourself, you who by the Spirit placed me in this body, in this family, in this living temple, you, Lord Jesus, are taking me out of the body, away from the family, and out of the living temple. If not, then what our Lord is doing is putting to the test the depth of your believing attack not to the church

32:54 but to his own person. You see it? I hope you see it. For some of us that's helped us to keep a very steady course. I never entered the ministry or assumed the pastoral office in this church because I thought it was going to be easy. Nor did I do it with fine print that said I'll hang in there until the going gets hot and the rumors get vicious and murderous. No. I said in principle, till death do us part or until God the head of the church through the Spirit and his word puts me somewhere else and these people know it. I'm here till I die. See? It's a matter of who you're attached to. You remember what happened in that incident in John chapter 6? And I want us to

33:51 turn there now. I've quoted all the other verses to you. I've not misquoted them. But I want you to see this.

33:58 You remember the incident in the ministry of our Lord? One of the high points of his popularity, multitudes following him, pressing even to make him a king. Then the Lord begins to unfold certain truths that are offensive. And then we read in verse 66 of John 6, upon this many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

34:23 Jesus said, therefore unto the twelve would you also go away? Do you will to go away? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

34:40 Now, the principle that I want us to see in the passage. I am not saying that those who have left us, or if you should leave this church, it's a proof you're leaving Christ. I say no such thing, I think no such thing. But think of this situation. It says many of his disciples, these are people who had attached themselves to Jesus, were following him when he went from place to place to teach, so much so that he had to perform the miracle of multiplying the loaves and the fishes. They had gone three days without eating. Now, when you're with people day and night, day after day, attached to the same ministry, do you develop some sense of comradery and interaction at the human level? Of course you do. So when it says

35:27 many went back and walked with him no more, there was a fracturing not only of their relationship to this rabbi, to Jesus, but the relationship to those who were still attached to him. And these are not a bunch of plastic wooden men. No doubt they felt some of this. But when Jesus turns to question them, he does not say, what do you think of those who have gone away?

35:54 What is your assessment of the rationale for their going away? In a sense, Jesus forgets those who went away. And that's not my concern this morning. I keep repeating it.

36:04 Because as often as I do, if someone sits here, like the Pharisees did, waiting to catch Jesus in his words, they'll go out and report and say, Pastor Martin lambasted those who left and I'll just have to live with the lie. But I hope you won't believe it. You were here and you heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Saying nothing about those who go away.

36:22 But Jesus turns to those who remain and says, are you going to join them? That's the question he asks. Would you also go away? For whatever reason, have you seen that in me?

36:35 Jesus says. Have you heard that from my lips which will cause you to defect and go away? And Peter's answer is, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. What is the principle?

36:49 The principle is not that we are Christ. The principle is that Christ has called you into attachment to himself. And in that attachment he has attached you to this assembly of his people. And it is in this assembly that Christ speaks by his word and through his servants. He has given to this assembly specific pastors and teachers. To do what? To help perfect the saints unto the work of service. To the building up of the body of Christ.

37:20 Oh, but you say I hear Christ in my devotions. I hope you do. But the voice of Christ is to be heard in the assemblies of his people in a way that is distinct and unique. I didn't say necessarily better.

37:34 I said distinct and unique. And if you love the voice of Christ in the secret place in your own devotions and family worship, you will love those aspects of the voice of Christ in which he utters that voice in the assemblies of his people and in those whom he has given as pastors and teachers. You're prepared to say, unless the Christ who speaks in Scripture gives me compelling scriptural reasons to leave this assembly, I will not leave the voice of Christ that I hear in this place. The presence of Christ that I see in those to whom he has joined me as members in a body.

38:14 Not signees of a club. Members of a body. Members one of another with a common nerve system and a common life. Members of the same family. Living stones in the same temple where God by the Spirit comes and draws us out to worship him and praise him when his name is called. We bring our sacrifice of praise and adoration and of worship. And when the Lord Jesus says to us, will you go away? You must answer the question not looking at the human relationships but looking your Savior in the eye. That's the point I'm making. This present set of trials is a testing of the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. And you remember the incident in John 21. Very similar principles are underscored.

Peter's Example: Following Christ Despite Martyrdom and Distractions

39:16 The Lord Jesus is tenderly restoring Peter. The same mouth that denied him three times took oaths and maledictions saying I don't know the man. The Lord is drawing out of that same mouth the confessions of love and allegiance. You remember the sequel. He says if you love me, feed Bosco. Give food to my lambs. Shepherd my sheep. Give food to my sheep. And then he tells Peter in the course of doing that you're going to face some very unpleasant things Peter. After Peter affirms his love and the Lord Jesus said here's the path in which your love will be evidence to me doing my will in feeding and caring for my sheep and my lambs. Verse 18 Truly, truly I say to you when you were young you girded yourself and walked where you would. When you were young Peter you were a carefree kid.

40:11 But when you shall be old you'll stretch forth your hands and another shall gird you and carry you where you would not. This he spoke signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God. Peter in the course of following me things are going to get hot. You're going to be martyred. Anyone like the idea of being dragged off against your will and being martyred? But Christ's will for Peter was clear. And when he had spoken this he said unto him follow me. Now Peter I've told you what you to do in generic terms.

40:46 You're to feed my lambs. You're to shepherd my sheep. You're to feed my sheep. And in the course of obeying me things are going to get hot and rough and are going to end up in martyrdom. Now Peter fall in line behind me. You profess to be attached to me in faith and love. You said earlier lo we've left all to follow you. We read it this morning. I'll go with you even to death. Now the Lord says well you dropped the ball the first time the going got rough. And now Peter the time is coming when you will pursue your attachment to me even to martyrdom. Follow me. Now at that point there was only one thing for Peter to do. Say Lord Jesus out of love to you and confidence in your grace by your strength I will follow. But what did Peter do? Look at the passage. Peter

41:36 turns about sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following. That's John who also leaned back on his breast at the supper and said Lord who is he that betrays you? Peter therefore seeing him said to Jesus Lord what shall this man do? Right at the point when the Lord was saying there's only one thing that matters Peter that's my will for you and I want from you Peter a fresh open unqualified affirmation.

42:00 You're attached to me for good. No bailing out Peter. What's Peter do? He turns around and says what shall this man do? What about John? What did the Lord say to him? Well that's a good question Peter and since he's been your buddy for a long time no no. Jesus said unto him if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to you?

42:23 You notice the is that in the old 1901 is in italics. It's not in the original. What to you? Very cursed language. In other words Peter M-Y-O-B Peter mind your own business. If I want him to live until I return what in the world does that have to do with you? You're going to live if you maintain your attachment of faith and love in me. You're going to live long enough to feed my sheep.

42:50 The shepherd must feed my land. Shepherd my sheep and feed my sheep and in the course of it you're going to die the death of a martyr. Now Peter fall in line behind me. Forget John.

43:00 What is that to you? If this is my will for him what in the world is that to you? Is there any ambiguity in my will for you Peter? If not fall in line Peter. Forget John. You follow me. What is that to you? Follow me.

43:17 Dear people you could have a thousand questions. What about this friend who's left? What about that one who left with? What is that to you?

43:25 What does that have to do with the will of Christ for you? Does the loss of a few friends have anything to do with the revelation of Christ's will in this book? Is he coming down to rewrite the book because you've had a few fractured human relationships? I don't want to be unkind but may I say please grow up spiritually dear people. Which of these friends went through Gethsemane for you? Which of these friends sweat great drops of blood for you? Which of these friends was crushed to the ground and cried out oh my father if it be possible? Which of these friends let his hands be stretched out? Which of these friends

44:14 had a crown of thorns pressed upon his brow? Which of these friends went under the blackness of the darkness of being plunged into the abyss of abandonment and cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me? Frankly I'm grieved that anyone professing to be saved by Christ would totter for a moment of forsaking the clear will of Christ for you because of a few friends. Is the pain real?

44:47 Yes. Is the grief deep? Yes. Some of us know far more than you.

44:55 But it is to pour your life into someone and have them walk away. But does it cause us to think for a moment we'll leave the post of Christ appointment? Never. By the grace of God.

45:10 So you see it comes back to a trial of faith. The faith that is attached to Christ as the sole object of trust for life and salvation but at the same time the faith that is always attached to Christ as the supreme object of love and devotion. If that attachment is a saving one then you love Christ more than father, mother, brother, sister in your own life. And there sit here this day some who have learned this in the last six weeks.

Personal Testimonies and the Call to Spiritual Maturity

45:46 There sits a young man who had held before him this carrot. Leave this church and you will have the woman on whose ring you put a, on finger you put a ring and with whom you set a marriage date. Refuse to leave this church and she'll be taken from you. And she has been taken and he sits in this place today.

46:15 Not out of blind loyalty to a church but out of principled loyalty to his savior. There sit parents and relatives in this place who have felt the tear in the wrench of the deepest tides but they have not contemplated for a minute that they would in any way abandon what they know to be the will of Christ for them because they love him more than son, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law. I stand here only because of that commitment. When I've had to leave my wife weeping for fear of my life. When she has been made privy to things you know nothing of. Of the murderous, vicious things. And that's not true of all who have left.

47:14 I make it play. It is not true of all but it is true of some. I don't imagine the phone calls and the letters dripping with hate and the spirit of murder. Touch me is one thing.

47:28 Touch my beloved wife and leave her weeping in a paroxysm of fear for my life. How stubborn that I stay now. There's a savior captured my heart 46 years ago. And he has been nothing and done nothing to be worthy of less than my full allegiance. If people will say it is the will of Christ for me to leave, should we be embarrassed to say it is the will of my Christ for me to stay? I marvel how the playing field doesn't get leveled. It's alright to say after praying and searching the scriptures Christ has bid me leave. But for you to say Christ bids me stay, that's an idolatrous attachment to the church and to people.

48:20 My friends, look through and see through that dribble and don't be bullied into a false sense of guilt. But say no, God has thrown my believing attachment to my savior into the crucible of trial. He's thrown it into the smelting furnace of testing. And I bless him that he has let me see coming from my own heart a devotion to him that makes me say with Peter and the others to whom else can we call?

48:55 Lord Jesus, you tell me forget John and follow you. By your grace I will follow you. I told you I'd take a disproportionate amount on the first head. Now you're comforted.

Preparation for Greater Trials and the Seriousness of Christian Commitment

49:09 I wonder. I've already preached long enough. I'll save heads two and three for tonight, God willing. This stuff is too crucial.

49:19 We don't want the trial to be lost without learning the lesson. And I want to add to this in the light of what was preached. I caught a little of my own sermon on the radio this morning. You see, dear people, unless God visits this country with a mighty outpouring of the Spirit, the increasing tide of wickedness, coupled with the increasing shallowness of the brand of Christianity that is in vogue in our day, these two things are not going to exist side by side much longer. The time is going to come if the Lord doesn't visit this nation with a powerful revival when to claim attachment to Christ and His church is going to cost us something dear. And Jesus said, if your faith in Him is real, you've already settled that you're willing to pay the ultimate price, even martyrdom. For He said, if any man comes to Me and hates not father, mother, brother, sister, yes, and what? His own life also.

50:18 He cannot be My disciple. Whosoever confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father. He that denies Me before men, and he goes on to say, don't be afraid of those that kill the body. Or He previously said in verse 28 of Matthew 10, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What's the context? He said, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. It's not going to be easy. And if we allow the pressure of a few fractured human relationships to make us tremble and hesitate on what our course of action will be, what will we do if it means being thrown in the hot box and tortured and starved for confessing Christ? God said to the prophet Jeremiah, if you've run with the footmen and you've grown weary, how will you contend with the horsemen in the swelling of Jordan?

51:08 If you're pooped out and ready to quit, jogging along with the footmen, what are you going to do to keep up with horses? The question is clear. Could it be, and here I claim no prophetic insight, could it be that the God who tenderly deals with His children, does not suffer them to be tempted above that we are able, has brought this trial, the most severe trial some of you have faced, in order to strengthen your spiritual muscles for yet greater trials, to get you a little bit accustomed to the heat of a match before it puts you in a furnace seven times hotter than it had ever been made before? Could it be, I look at some of you young men and women, God has worked faith in your heart and you're claiming to be identified with Christ, could it be that this is God's classroom for greater suffering in the way of attachment to Christ? I plead with you, weigh the issues, not in the light of this relationship and that, but in the light of your professed attachment to the person of the Lord Jesus. For the present trials are testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. God willing tonight we'll take up the other two heads.

52:28 They are testing the believing submission to the ways of Christ and our believing comprehension of the promises of Christ. And let us pray that God will teach us all that we may learn vital lessons and we may look back upon the language of Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1 and never forget what God taught us from his word and validated in our own experience that if need be we are in heaviness through manifold trials that the trial of our faith being more precious than gold that perishes may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And for you who profess no attachment to Christ, I hope if you've gotten nothing else you understand being a Christian is serious business. We're not in the business of getting people psychologically conditioned to crank up a hand and pray a little prayer and tell them they're all fixed up. You give yourself to Christ you're a suicide bummer.

53:33 You're like those 16 year old kids in the Second World War that were strapped in their fighter planes dive bombers back there in Tokyo and took off with only enough gas to get them out to the US fleet. The bomb was there in the nose of the plane and when they dived on the deck they'd had it. They weren't coming back. When they left the decks of the carriers to the shouts and praise of their comrades, they were one-way pilots. That's what a Christian is. No gas for the return trip. When you dive on the deck sink or swim, live or die I belong to Christ and he belongs to me. Let us pray. Our Father

54:22 how we thank you for your holy word. Oh how we bless you for our dear savior who loved us with the ultimate love that he laid down his life for us and now calls us to so give ourselves to him that if we must forfeit life itself we would count it a privilege by his grace and to his praise to lay down the very life that he sustains. Oh Lord do help us to be honest in your presence and where you have exposed the meager measure of our believing attachment to the Lord Jesus may it not discourage and dispirit us but may it drive us to your face in repentance and in earnest prayer that we would have such fresh discoveries of the loveliness and the preciousness of Christ that to be bound to him in unquestionable bonds of allegiance would be the very breath that we breathe. Oh Lord seal your word to our hearts have mercy upon any who are even tempted to look over their shoulder because of the few tensions of fractured human relations. Gracious God deal with us in truth and in mercy as we plead these mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ.

55:50 Amen.