God’s Only Provided Place of
Worship # 46
Brian Kocourek May 7, 1995
End-time
Testing
Psalm 26: 2
Psalm 139: 23
Prayer
Wednesday night we spoke from PP's 154 - 162 & 168
where brother Branham said, " The
Lamb was tested"....
"He was tested to see where He was
standing, see, tested in every manner, tested like we are tested. But there was
no giving in to him at all. No, sir! That was the Son of God. James 1: 2 - 4 Joy?
We showed how God has through every age tested man. He
tested and examined His own Son to see how He would handle the Word test and we
know that every son that cometh to God must first be tried and tested. But we also found that the test is to prove
us. Not to disapprove, but to approve. To show us off.
Not that we have anything within our own selves that merits anything, but the
fact is that We are a chip off the old block so to speak and God just loves to
show off His Kids. 1 Peter 4: 12 - 13 Rejoice
Tha's
exactly what He did in Job's day. He put Job through the test because He knew
what Job would do. You don't test your kids for Algebra if they haven't even learned their
ABC's yet. You teach them their ABC's and then you progress onto higher things.
And so when you are tested you should know this one thing. God has found favour in you, or you have found favor in His eyes and He
is just bragging on His kids.
I.PETER.1: 3
- 7 Read ( especially verse 7)
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ:
Wuest :
In which last season you are to be constantly rejoicing with a joy that
expresses itself in a triumphant exuberance, although for a little while at the
present time if perchance there is a need of it, you have been made sorrowful
in the midst of many different kinds of testings in
order that the approval of your faith, which faith was examined for the purpose
of being approved, that the approval being much more precious than the approval
of gold which perishes, eve though the gold be tried with fire-testing, may be
discovered after scrutiny to result in praise, honor and Glory at the time of
the Revelation of Jesus Christ;
So we see then that God only tests us or puts us to
the test with the Purpose in mind of Approval.
I.CORINTHIANS.10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man: ( In other words, there are certain kinds of trials and
temptations we receive just because of our human nature, but the key is the
next thing he says here... but God [is] faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that ye may be able to bear
[it].
This word tempted here is a Greek word, PEIRAZO which means
to : To try, or to make a trial or test
for the purpose of ascertaining the
persons quality, or what he thinks or
how he reacts during the trial.
So we see here, that God purposely has a means or method whereby He
assures Himself of the progress He is making in our behalf. To put it in better
words, God has
everything under control. He uses tests to give Himself feedback and to give us
feedback as to our Spiritual growth. Just like we do with our
Kids. We hold up a tape measure to see how tall our kids get, and we
have them hop skip and jump to measure their physical growth. We teach them subjects and we
test them in those subjects to see how well they are coming along. Well, God is our Father and why should we be
surprised when we ourselves are being put to the test. 1 Peter tells us we
should consider it great joy when we are being examined because we know that we
can not fail the test, and besides, the test is given because our Teacher and
Tutor, the Holy Spirit of God believes we are ready to move up a little higher.
Just like your final school exams each year.
Now let's go to the Scripture this morning to see just
exactly what I am talking about. Because you must remember, this series is from
brother Branham's Message "God's Only Provided Place of Worship" and
we are trying to help you come to that place of Worship and to feel comfortable
in that only provided place of Worship. Now let's just see whether or not what
we are telling you this morning is correct or not. So let's go to our Absolute,
the Word of God and The Vindicated Word of God as well.
Job 1:
1 => 12 Notice how God is
bragging on His Kid Job. He says to satan, Have you considered my
servant Job... Have you considered Him... Now the word
consider means this, Have you made a careful mental note to yourself, Have you
taken notice of so that you might understand him better? And of course satan doesn't give in to God's
bragging about His kid Job, so he says, "Aw, yeah, but He doesn't serve you for nothing. You give to Him and you
protect him and watch over him and you've even put a protective hedge all
around him, so who wouldn't reverently fear you with that kind of payback." Then we see that Job is subjected to many
trials all at once that
satan does, but that God allows . And again we see God bragging on His Kid Job
in chapter 2.
Job 2: 1 => 10 So now the trials become even more personal
but yet Job continues to fear God. Satan even uses his wife to throw
criticism's his way but he even hold his head above that. And so we see Jobs
friends come along and they also throw criticism's his way. Have you ever been
through a trial when you felt that everything that could go wrong was going
wrong, and then to put salt on your wounds, your husband or your wife
criticizes you too. And then on top of that your friends join in the criticism.
That's when you feel like you are all alone in this world with noone who understands you. But rest assured. God
understands you and the very purpose of these kind of trials is to let you know
that He does understand and He is just using the test or trial to tell you to
come on up higher.
Let's look at another of His Son's. His
only begotten Son, Jesus. Hebrews
5: 8 - 9 Chastizement = to train Educate,
instruct Ephesians 6: 4 Nurture
= Discipline
Hebrews 12: 1 - 6 (read) God sent forth His own Son into this
world and tried Him and tested Him. But notice the Trials did not come when He
was in His younger years. You hear nothing about Him from age twelve to thirty.
But When He learned obedience it came though suffering. We do not hear of a
Suffering Jesus from ages twelve to thirty. But as He learned and Grew in Grace God
tested Him just as He tests you and I.
We find Jesus receiving the Holy Ghost in the water when John was baptizing
Him. The heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit of God came down like a dove and
entered into Jesus. Then He went forth in a mighty ministry showing the people
just Wh it was that had come
down to earth and was in this man. But if you will notice,
when God was through with this ministry. When His Message had been
rejected, and the Messenger seemed to be defeated, That's
when God stepped in to finish the exam for Him.
In the Garden, God left Jesus there to suffer alone.
He asked His only close friends to come with Him to pray knowing full well what
fate awaited Him the next day, and yet His Friends could not even comfort Him,
they could not stay awake with Him. They kept drifting off to sleep. So He
knelt there alone as any man could be.
Matthew 26: 36 => 50 ( read) Surrounded by friends and yet so alone. Facing
His testing alone. And you know what. The trials came hard and furious
for a couple days and then when it seemed like it was all over, God said, My
Son, you have passed your test, come up higher, and He raised Him from the
grave and this morning He sits in heavenly places "ever living to make
intercession for our confession."
And he says to you " Come Up higher, You've passed your
examine. You've passed your test" Let's Pray