Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: Tested and Trained

Theme: Understanding God’s Purpose in Afflictions

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.”

(2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Biblical look at God’s purposes in allowing afflictions

The Apostle Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy and there is a pleasure found in this passage of Scripture for all pastors as well as for those who are good soldiers of Christ.

Paul did not fear death and neither should good ministers of the Word of God, nor Christians, because they have a sure hope of being with Christ when they part from this world.

There are three points for us to consider as we take a Biblical look at God’s purposes in allowing afflictions to come upon His chosen people.

It is time of 1.) Testing so that Christians may be proved to be genuine believers in Christ.

2.) Training so His children will be able to achieve God’s will for them.

3.) Revealing His deliverance in the minds of mankind and before their eyes.

I would propose to you that every one of us has the opportunity to speak in the same manner as the Apostle Paul who said, “…I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.”

(Acts 20:24)

Just what will enable us to have the testimony that the Apostle Paul had toward the end of the ministry that was entrusted to him?

Proved genuine

Every child of God gift given of the Holy Spirit has the opportunity to be effective in the “Great Commission.”

The heartbeat of every overseer of a church is that the children of God will be proven genuine in their Christian faith.

Therefore, in this life there will be trials for the proof of a believer’s faith in God, Christ and in his ability to surrender to the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Peter to write, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

(1 Peter 1:3-7)

Mankind places great worth on earthly things and considers the value of their lives by what they posses.

God’s Word tells us that genuine faith in Him is much greater than the things that mankind values.

The Lord knows what reveals genuine faith.

His stamp of approval will be on faith that has been tested by the refining fires of trials in this life.

These various trials of life put the professing Christian’s religion to the test, thus revealing the nature of their real faith.

“All kinds of” (poikilos) trials means temptations (The Complete Word Study Dictionary) of all kinds including disobedience, deceptions and lust.

Christians will face various colors of trials (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon; Dictionary of Bible Languages; New American Greek Dictionaries) including disease, demonic attack but not demonic possession.

They will face strange unbiblical doctrines, persecutions, and oppositions in service to the Lord.

“Proved genuine” (dokimiou) means “to test for the purpose of approving.”

(The Bible Knowledge Commentary; The Complete Word Study Dictionary) Here it means the results of a test proofing that a child of God is genuine.

Just as it is desirable to know whether that which appears to be gold is genuine, it should be desirable for those in the church to be tested to see if their faith is genuine.

To gold we apply intense heat so we may know whether it is what it appears to be.

So it is with Christianity.

Considering that our faith is far more important than gold, it is imperative that it be subjected to the right test.

A Christian that wants to make a real mark for His Lord in this world wants the alloy (that which lowers or takes from perfection from someone) to be taken from his heart.

The Christian’s heart cry is not just “Lord use me,” but first “Make me useable.”

He is in agreement with the psalmist who wrote, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

(Psalm 139:23-24)

There is much in the world that appears to be valuable like gold yet it has no value.

There is much that appears to be Christian today, yet when tried through God’s testing, it has no real value.

Genuine faith is not only the sign of a trusting child of God, but a source of praise, glory, and honor to God the Father, Jesus the Son and the wonderful sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

One of God’s greatest Apostles wrote, “…we …rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”

(Romans 5:3-5)

In the Sunday School Times we read, “A skilled physician who was about to perform a delicate operation upon a man’s ear said reassuringly, ‘I may hurt you, but I will not injure you.’

How often the great Physician speaks to us the same message if we would only listen!

He promises a richer life and a more abundant spiritual health if we will only surrender to His purposes in taking us through trials.

Why defeat that purpose?”

Let the Holy Spirit draw your attention to some of the great things that can happen in and through trials.

Paul’s sweetest epistles are from prison cells; John’s Revelation was written in exile; Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress came from the Bedford jail and Luther’s translation of the German Bible came as he was locked in Wartburg Castle.

I am sure at times all these Christians felt like giving up, convincing themselves while in their most difficult trials God was finished with them and they had only the worst to face.

Yet in their trials they found the strength of God and when the test was over, they were proved to have genuine faith in Christ their Lord.

God is still bringing forth fruit from their labors today.

When man is faced with trials or temptations he draws closer to God.

Christians are more aware for the need to pray to the Lord.

Thus, God uses various methods in that cleansing process.

God uses adversity from outside and even from within the church to expose what is in a man’s heart.

King David was attacked from outsiders, from men within his own ranks and family members.

When these severe trails were over, King David was made into a better man of God by being purified and was proved genuine in his faith, unlike King Saul.

For application’s sake today, “Do those who observe your life as you walk through the hot fires of trials see a genuine faith in God, Christ and enablement from the Holy Spirit?”

Discover God’s will

Once the child of God has been proved to have genuine faith, afflictions can enable him to discover God’s will.

Moses was such a man and his afflictions enabled Him to be a man of deliverance with God.

Hebrews 11:24-26 says, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”

Our text says “…when [Moses] had grown up…” meaning he had “become great.”

Moses enjoyed all the benefits of living under royalty.

When Moses made his decision to be mistreated with God’s people it was not because he was a failure needing a change.

Stephen tells us that Moses was forty years old (Acts 7:23) when he chose to identify himself with God’s suffering people and get away from a life surrendered to the “pleasures of sin.”

The “pleasures of sin” in this passage of Scripture does not only refer to lust and other gross sins, but describes a way of life that is consumed with what the world calls success.

This love for success breeds a hunger for position, prestige, power, wealth, and freedom from problems.

True faith leads to a life of separation from that which intrigues the lost who are bound by this world’s system.

Therefore the child of God can live a life dedicated to the work of the Lord and to what God has called him to do, even if that means being mistreated by those who may despise God’s people.

Christians who choose to forsake the pleasures of sin, that which rejects God’s ordained purpose for them, will find their place in God’s work.

They will accomplished exactly what He has ordained for them and they will find themselves successful in fulfilling their part of the “Great Commission.”

Moses occupied a unique place as God’s friend.

The Bible says, “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”

(Exodus 33:11) Moses, as the fountainhead of the prophets of God was the first to receive, write down, and teach the revelation of the Lord.

This revelation extended to all facets of life, including the laws of holiness, purity, rituals, family life, work and society.

He identified with the Jewish slaves who were treated very badly and were looked at with contempt.

Slavery at the time Moses lived usually stripped an individual of legal and social status to the level of extreme poverty and was often a life style of forced labor.

Moses preferred to suffer ill-usage with God’s people rather than have a short-lived life of sin and living apart from the Lord.

Wuest’s Word Studies tell us that Moses believed that God would fulfill His promises to His people.

Therefore, he valued the Lord’s work more than earthly treasures.

Like Abraham, Moses rejected earthly comforts and security in order to serve the living and true God and he did not want to continue to sin by denying his place among God’s people.

Moses is a hero of the faith and his entire ministry with God was molded into character by opposition and affliction.

Christians who allow God to mold their character through opposition and affliction will overcome fear and temptation thus, living victorious Christian lives.

Moses’ parents’ lives are lighlighted as overcoming fear and doing what is right by ignoring Pharaoh’s edict of having every Hebrew boy born thrown into the Nile.

(Exodus 1:22) They hid Moses for three months.

(Exodus 2:2) After they could not hide him any longer Moses’ mother made a water tight basket, she put Moses inside and placed it in the Nile River.

Moses was delivered out of the river and then placed back into his mother’s hands to be nursed until weaned under the financial support of Pharaoh’s daughter.

(Exodus 2:6-7) The affliction of Pharaoh’s edict brought Moses’ parents to that place of making a moral decision, to choose the world’s view or God’s way.

Their choice in this affliction upon their lives enabled them to enjoy and be trained for God’s service, that of raising Moses until weaned and teaching him all they could about the One True God.

When Moses had grown to manhood his rashness in taking matters into his own hands caused him to kill an Egyptian for beating a fellow Hebrew.