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  BEING TESTED： GOD IS FAITHFUL!
  by James Jennings
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Summary: This sermon focuses on 1 Corinthians 10:13, highlighting God's
faithfulness in allowing trials in the lives of believers, ensuring they
are not beyond what they can bear. The speaker emphasizes the importance
of trusting God in trials, avoiding rebellion, and finding strength to
endure through God's grace. Various examples and insights are shared to
encourage believers to rely on God's faithfulness in facing trials.

Topics: "God's Faithfulness", "Endurance in Trials"
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 1:8, Psalms 90:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Hebrews 10:23, Job 23:10, 1 Peter 1:6, James 1:2, Job 1:21

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on 1 Corinthians 10:13, highlighting God's
faithfulness in allowing trials in the lives of believers, ensuring they
are not beyond what they can bear. The speaker emphasizes the importance
of trusting God in trials, avoiding rebellion, and finding strength to
endure through God's grace. Various examples and insights are shared to
encourage believers to rely on God's faithfulness in facing trials.

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CONTENT
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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. 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? 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.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/2MwPkPIPm8U.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/james-jennings/being-tested-god-is-faithful/
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