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*1. "Life has purpose now": Beforehand it didn't have a purpose - we just lived for the pleasures of this world and our own hearts. We just lived our lives the way we wanted. We had no goal, no aim - our life was purposeless.
*2. "For a joy and peace I can't explain, is mine": My life has a purpose, a goal, and my life has meaning today.
*3. "O it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven", to all of a sudden know that when I came to Christ and confessed my sins, the Lord took my sins away.

When you would hear hundreds of young people singing this song with all their heart, your heart rejoices and you say, "Is it possible that young people can sing this song with all their hearts?" That is something special if you hear people singing that with all their heart, and meaning it. That is why we find people getting engaged the way we saw Bernice and Cobus getting engaged, that they say, "We want to be clean, pure. We want to be able to wear that white garment on the wedding day without spot or wrinkle". That is why every time when I experience something like that, I ask myself, "Are all my sins forgiven? Have I come to the Cross and ask Jesus to come into my heart?" Where I say, "Jesus, I want to follow You, serve You and cleanse my life thoroughly."
That is the question to you, dear friends: Have you come to the Cross already? Has the Lord been able to wash away your sins? If not, then do it today. Then come to the Cross and experience, "O how wonderful to be a Christian! Wonderful to be God's child. Wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Wonderful to be redeemed, justified and reconciled."
What a privilege we Christians have. Nobody else on this earth has that privilege which we Christians have, where God has forgiven our sins, where Jesus has made everything new. There is no other God that can forgive us our sins except for Jesus Christ. There is nobody else in this whole universe who can give us peace and joy. Have you got that? Have I got that? Then come to the Cross where Jesus died for us, shed His Blood for us, for the remission of our sins.

POINT 1: Victory over trials
It is a wonderful word of encouragement to each one of us. It is so easy that when we Christians face difficulties and are attacked or if temptations come our way, we get despondent. We so easy get disheartened, discouraged, and we say, "What is wrong with us? What have we done wrong? Where have I sinned that this thing comes upon me? Why is it that I am attacked this way?" and we get downhearted, we lose our faith, we feel we are God-forsaken. If we face difficulties, financial difficulties, spiritual difficulties - we tend to lose heart and say everything goes against us. "What is the good of me being a Christian?" and we give up. And we forget that God's Word says that we should rejoice when these sufferings come our way.

I always was of the impression that if I have to suffer for Christ, I will have to be thrown in jail, killed etc. etc. I always thought that that is when I am suffering with Christ. That is how I interpreted to suffer for Christ. So often when you walk and live among Christians, when you hear the word persecution or suffering, one thinks you will have to be tortured, my tongue will be cut out and one wonders what will all happen. That is why so many Christians are afraid to suffer for Christ and say, "No, I will rather not! I will rather go the easy way."

12. In our text we read: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you", and think something strange is happening to you. It is not that but the Lord Jesus sends these trials to us to purify and sanctify us. We Christians forget that in Rom 8:28 we read, "Everything works together for good to them that love the Lord". That is so important that we don't forget that, that no matter what we face up to or what comes our way, that we always remember that everything works together for good to us who love the Lord. If people mock us, despise us, laugh about us, that that is one way to suffer for Christ. When things are difficult, when we wander around in the desert, where there is no rain and we suffer hunger (I am speaking spiritually), where we don't have a place of abode, we are reminded of the Lord Jesus and John the Baptist there in the desert, in the scorching sun, where there was no rain and things were difficult, where they didn't have anything to eat, where they felt, "God isn't speaking to me", to such an extent that the Lord Jesus Himself said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That is how the Lord Jesus suffered, that He also felt that the Father had forsaken Him. He suffered.

How often do we get to the point where we say, "Things are too difficult, we will never make it, God has forsaken me. What is the good? I am hungry and thirsty and have nothing to eat or drink. I read His Word but get nothing - no water" (because His Word is the water of life). "Everyone mocks me and laughs at me, 'He calls himself a Christian but just see how he fails!'" You are mocked by people and can't stand it and lose your faith and forsake the Lord, instead of waiting upon the Lord, that you tell yourself, "Be quiet, be still, wait upon the Lord", and say, "Lord, You cleanse and sanctify and purify me and get me to that place where You will be pleased with me. I am not losing hope, because You, Lord Jesus, said, 'If the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will come, He will lead you into all the truth'."

Do you believe that, that the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into all the truth, that we trust Him as Bernice trusts Cobus? When she accepted the ring, she said, "I know he will be faithful to me", and by accepting it she said, "I will be faithful to him". Why can't you do it with the Lord Jesus? Because if she wouldn't trust him, she would not have accepted that ring. When the Lord Jesus died on that Cross, He promised us eternal life. "If you stand true to Me, I will stay true to you", the Lord Jesus said. "I am only testing you whether you are going to be faithful to Me or not, that is why I allow these things to come your way. That is why I send these fiery situations your way."

POINT 2: Reward in heaven
12. "Do not think it strange concerning these fiery trials." These are only there to test and try you. Don't think it is something strange that is happening. No, that belongs to us Christians. That is what we have got to go through. That is how we are being tested. If we look at our lives today, how easily we are influenced by circumstances and we lose heart. If somebody criticizes you and abuses you, how do you react? In Matth 5:11 we read, "Blessed are you when men shall revel against you, criticize you, speak ill about you because of your religious beliefs, when they worry and annoy you, talk lies about you, accuse you of things you haven't done, falsely accuse you". The Lord Jesus says, If that happens to you, if you suffer with Me, you are a blessed people. "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." If we then look at our lives, we stand ashamed and say, "Lord Jesus, wat 'n papbroek is ek!" (What a washout I am!) What type of Christians are we that get despondent even if a mosquito bites you. You have got no backbone whatsoever and we have all become Christians that melt like butter when the sun comes up. Where are the Christians today that can stand and are steadfast and won't be moved, as men of old? The Lord says that if we are prepared to suffer with Christ, "rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven". Why is it that we so easily get downhearted? Why is it that if we meet up with difficulties, if people speak badly about us, we want to give up and lose our faith? If somebody doesn't greet me, I am deeply offended. If people don't bow before and honour and respect me, I lose my faith. If I am in bed and I can't get up and am sick, I lose heart and lose my faith.

O may we become a people who will be steadfast and stand.

A man in Dundee in Scotland was bedridden for 40 years. When he was 15 years old, he had an accident and broke his neck. He was completely paralysed, but his mind was perfectly clear. Strangely his spirit didn't get hurt. He was always full of joy and peace. He even inspired others, the visitors, with a hope, that when they left they said, "I have been blessed by this man!"

One day a visitor came to him and said, "Tell me, doesn't the devil ever come to you and plant doubt in your heart? There where you have been lying in bed for 40 years, doesn't the devil come and tell you the Lord doesn't love you but has cast you away? Doesn't the devil come and tempt you that way?"

"O yes, the devil comes very often and tries his level best to take away my joy and peace."

"When you see your friends walking around, getting into their cars, enjoying lives, working, isn't there anything that comes into your heart where you say, 'Why? Why does the Lord allow you to lie in bed for 40 years? Why did He allow you to break your neck?' What do you do when the devil comes to you and speak like that?"

"That is no problem! When the devil comes to me and speaks to me in this way, I immediately take him to Golgotha. I say, 'Devil, come along with me to Golgotha!', and I show him Christ and the deep wound in His side and the nail-pierced Hands and I tell him, 'Do you see what the Lord Jesus has done for me? He has forgiven my sins. Do you see His love for me? And this is only temporary - I will spend eternity in heaven! Do you see how Jesus loves me?' The devil doesn't have an answer for that, and every time he has got to flee. That is why I am full of joy and peace in my heart. There is nothing that is going to separate me from Calvary, from Christ who died for me and shed His Blood for me to forgive my sins. And every time I come to Him and ask, 'Forgive me!', He forgives my sins. You know, then I forget that I have been bedridden for the last 40 years."

Tell me, friend, if you have a headache, are you still full of joy? Have you got your peace in your heart? Or are you depressed? Lose hope? If I am getting old (or if I am old, better said!), it is strange, you get a pain in your hand, your back, your knee and your foot, and then you melt, "Now I suffer! Now it is difficult! I am so old already, I can't climb the ladder anymore!" That man who was bedridden for forty years, he had joy and peace, and every time when the devil came with the sore throat, the sore finger, the doubt, "I take him to Calvary!"

If I am in financial trouble, everyone can see it on the face, "This man is really going through a tough time". We lose our joy, our faith, instead of being like this man from Scotland. Our finances play such an important part in our lives, and we lose our joy and peace. People watch us and read us and they say, "Is that Christianity?" O let us become Christians again who serve a living God! That we serve a Jesus Who is risen from the dead!

It reminds me of another story:

There was a Sunday school teacher. At Easter time she said, "You bring me an Easter egg to school. Take a plastic Easter egg and put something inside which symbolizes the resurrection of Christ".

The children each brought a plastic egg each, and she opened the first egg. She found a little flower inside. The teacher interpreted this little flower, "You see this beautiful little flower? That is what happened on Easter Sunday when Christ arose - He brought new life to us!"

The other child brought her egg and she had a picture of the Lord Jesus where Jesus arose from the dead. She spoke about the resurrection of Christ.

Then the next child came with her egg, and she opened that egg and there was a nail in that egg, and then she spoke about the nails that nailed the Lord Jesus onto the Cross.

The other one had small stone in her egg and she spoke about that stone which was moved from the door of the grave, when the angel came and pushed that stone aside when Jesus arose.

Then a 7 year old little boy came along and brought his egg. The teacher said, "Brian, what have you got in your egg?" This little boy was mentally retarded. He gave her the egg and she opened it and there was nothing in there. Before she could ask why, Brian said, "The grave was empty. My Jesus has risen!"

He believed in a risen Christ, a Christ that holds the whole world, the whole universe in His Hand, where the grave is empty and He was in his heart. That is why he brought her an egg which was empty, but he had Him in his heart. The Lord led and guided him and spoke to him, leading him into all the truth. The Lord kept him from sinning, saying, "My child, no, not that way but that way!" Brian knew Him as his Shepherd, that although he would walk into the valley of death, he knew He was with him in death.

Do you know that Christ? Do you know Him? Or are you just a Christian that is something which is written on paper? Or is He a Christ that is alive, that speaks to you, that walks with you, that talks with you, that keeps me from sinning? Even if I don't feel or see anything, I know He is with me.

I trust Him that He will bring me to the portals of heaven One Day. All I need to do, is obey Him, obey Jesus. I trust Him because He died for me, gave His life for me and will lead me into a glorious eternity.

Let me just read something beautiful to you again: "Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the whole world, but may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, may He perfect, establish you. To Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever! Amen."

Last edited on: Thursday April 03, 2008     E-mail us at: mail@ksb.org.za          Return to KSB Home page