http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/test.html
The Lord your God is testing you
“The LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul”
(Deuteronomy 13:3).
Our life is a testing-ground for eternity. “For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the
things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether
good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
We need to examine ourselves.
In preparation for a test, students review their work and check
their knowledge. We must examine ourselves to see whether we are
meeting God’s expectations. “Let us search out and examine our
ways, and turn back to the LORD” (Lamentations 3:40). “Let each
one examine his own work” (Galatians 6:4). “Let a man examine
himself” (1 Corinthians 11:28). “Examine yourselves as to whether
you are in the faith.1 Test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
To effectively examine ourselves, it is helpful to know how God
has tested mankind through the ages so we can understand how He
is testing us now.
God tests everyone, including the righteous.
“His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD
tests the righteous” (Psalm 11:4, 5).
Belshazzar, king of Babylon, was terrified when he saw the
handwriting on the wall: “Mene, mene, tekel, uphasin.” Daniel
explained that “tekel” meant, “You have been weighed in the
balances, and found wanting” (see Daniel 5:25-28).
The most severe tests in the Bible were experienced by men of
faith. Abraham was asked to offer his son;2 Job lost his children, lost
his possessions, and his body was covered “with painful boils from the
sole of his foot to the crown of his head”;3 Joseph4 was sold into
slavery by his own brothers and was imprisoned unjustly because of
his integrity; Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den for faithfully praying
to God.
These servants of God were strengthened by the trials they
endured, and became examples of faith for others to follow down
through the ages.
God tests our hearts and minds.
“The righteous God tests the hearts and minds” (Psalm 7:9).
“The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD
tests the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3).5
God explains: “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind,
even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit
of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
God tests our faith and love.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various
trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance”
(James 1:2, 3 NASB). When we remain faithful in spite of “various
trials” it proves “the genuineness” of our faith (1 Peter 1:6, 7).
“The LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul”
(Deuteronomy 13:3).
Faith and love are tested by obedience.
Abraham was tested to know whether he feared God. “Now it
came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham” (Genesis
22:1). After Abraham showed his willingness to offer Isaac, God said:
“Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your
son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12).
God gave the Sabbath command to test Israel. They were to
gather manna on six days, but not on the seventh, “that I may test
them, whether they will walk in My law or not” (Exodus 16:4).
Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John
14:15).
Faith and love are tested by hardship.
Israel was tested in the wilderness: “You shall remember that
the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your
heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He
humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which
you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:2,
3).6
Going through the Red Sea prefigured our baptism (1
Corinthians 10:1, 2). Entering the promised land prefigured our final
rest (Hebrews 4:8-11). God tests us during our wanderings through
the wilderness of this life.
God sometimes withdraws to test us.
Hezekiah, one of the most faithful kings of Judah, was tested in
this way: “God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He
might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31).
Do you sometimes feel that God has forsaken you? He may be
testing your faith and love. Remember that Jesus also felt forsaken by
God when He was hanging on the cross for you (Matthew 27:46).
The Messiah refines His people by fire.
Referring to the promised Christ, God warned: “But who can
endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.7 He will sit as a
refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and
purge them as gold and silver” (Malachi 3:2, 3).8
Metals are purged and refined by fire to remove impurities.
Silver melts at 962°C. Gold melts at 1064°C.
When I was thirteen our class visited the Kaiser Steel Mill at
Fontana, California. I vividly remember the white-hot liquid metal
flowing from the bottom of the blast furnace into moulds. Huge
hammers pounded large, red-hot ingots into glowing flat slabs of steel
that were then rolled under great pressure into sheets. Heat and
pressure are required to produce steel sheeting from iron ore.
Heat and pressure of a different kind refine the people of God.
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in
the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10).
Jesus himself “learned obedience by the things which He
suffered” (Hebrews 5:8) and His followers share in His suffering. “Yes,
and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”
(2 Timothy 3:12).
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but
rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when
His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1
Peter 4:12, 13).
Jesus comforted the believers at Smyrna: “Do not fear any of
those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about
to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you
will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give
you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
The fruitfulness of our faith is tested.
Jesus said: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the
vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear
more fruit” (John 15:1, 2).
Notice that all branches are cut. The fruitless are chopped off,
the fruitful are pruned.
Our work will be tested by fire.
Paul writes: “I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.
But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other
foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become
clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire;
and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians
3:10-13).
This does not refer to our own salvation9 but to God’s testing
those we teach. How we preach and worship can influence the type of
people we attract and whether we build with straw or with precious
stones.
Apostate churches use worldly means to entice people, such as
imposing buildings, pageantry with colorful costumes, and
instrumental music.
Some congregations build with straw by using worldly attractions
to entice people, for example, with what they call a “contemporary
service” with loud instrumental music. One young woman, who had
attended such a service at what once had been a church of Christ,
said, “It was great! We were up dancing10 on the tables!”
Some use worldly allurements to attract people in the hope that
eventually their attention might be redirected to spiritual things. But
how spiritual is this approach? Can we picture Paul and Barnabas
playing “Christian rock” to draw a crowd?
Jesus said: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all
peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). Paul declared: “I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for
everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
They who resort to worldly attractions lack faith in the drawing
power of Christ and the gospel!
Entertainment attracts straw. Gold, silver and precious stones
are harder to find, but they can withstand the fire. Hearts of gold are
won when we exalt Christ and give them what they cannot find
elsewhere, the undiluted and unadulterated doctrine of Christ.
False religions test us.
God allowed the surrounding heathen nations to test Israel:
“Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I
commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, I also will no
longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left
when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they
will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept
them, or not” (Judges 2:20-22).
In our time God allows denominations with their confusing,
contradictory and unscriptural doctrines and practices to test our faith
and love. Will we serve God simply as Christians, members of the one
body, the church of Christ?11 Or do we prefer a denomination of
human origin?
Miracles of false teachers test us.
To test people, God sometimes allows false teachers to perform
wonders: “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the
wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go
after other gods’ - which you have not known - ‘and let us serve
them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that
dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know
whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and
keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and
hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4).
People are tested now the same way. Jesus warned: “For false
christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to
deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Mark 13:22).12
Certain denominations use apparitions, wonders and signs to
lead people astray. Two examples:
In 1858 a girl of 14 in Lourdes, France claimed that Mary had
appeared to her in a cave. Since then this has been used to
encourage people to worship an image, which is contrary to God’s
word (Exodus 20:4; 1 Corinthians 10:14).
There are people who claim to speak in tongues, yet women lead
in their assemblies, something forbidden by God (1 Corinthians
14:34, 37).
By signs and wonders people are tested to see whether they
want to obey God’s word or follow their own feelings and emotions.
We are tested by division.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “First of all, when you come
together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and
in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that
those who are approved may be recognized among you” (1
Corinthians 11:18, 19).
Jesus prayed for unity (John 17:20-23) but not for unity at the
expense of truth. He prayed for unity based on God’s word (John
17:14, 17). When division comes - caused by people who depart from
the truth - this “parting of the ways” purges and purifies the church.
The unfaithful are chopped off, the faithful are pruned, and those who
are approved can be recognized.
What have we learned?
“The LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul”
(Deuteronomy 13:3).
We need to examine ourselves. God tests the hearts and minds
of the righteous. He tests our faith and love by means of obedience
and hardship. He sometimes withdraws to test us. The Messiah
refines His people by fire. The fruitfulness of our faith and the quality
of our work are tested. False religions, lying wonders and division test
our respect for God’s word.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God” (2 Timothy
2:15). Amen.
Roy Davison
Endnotes
1 To be “in the faith” is much more than merely believing that God exists. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6, 7). We are “in the faith” if we serve God according to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 4).
2 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” (Hebrews 11:17-19).
3 Job 2:7.
4 Referring to the trials of Joseph it is said, “The word of the LORD tested him” (Psalm 105:19; see verses 16-21).
5 David prayed: “I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness” (1 Chronicles 29:17). “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my mind and my heart” (Psalm 26:2). Paul wrote: “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
6 Moses warned Israel not to forsake the Lord, “who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end” (Deuteronomy 8:15, 16).
7 Or “the lye soap of the fuller” referring to the cleansing and whitening of wool in preparation for cloth making.
8 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,” says the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; then I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it shall come to pass in all the land,” says the LORD, “that two- thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:7-9).
9 “If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:14, 15).
10 This was said several years ago. Recently, on February 27 & 28, 2015, this congregation held “Daddy Daughter” dances costing $25 per dad and $5 per daughter (ages 4 through 12). “Come for dancing, dinner, dessert, carriage ride, photo booth, and crafts!” (downloaded on February 28, 2015 from http://www.thehills.org).
11 The church is the body of Christ (Colossians 1:24) and there is only “one body” (Ephesians 4:4).
12 Paul explained: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10).
The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982,
Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers, unless indicated otherwise.
Permission for reference use has been granted.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
http://www.oldpaths.com
No comments:
Post a Comment