Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 822 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Thomas: I got a lot of things I want to share with you this morning. Our subject is, "Are You Being Tried?" But I want to pick up a verse or two of scripture here in Matthew 24 first. Verse 21 through 24, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Now here's what I believe. You know in studying the scriptures, it's obvious from many scriptures that most of the world won't know a thing in the world about what's happening.

( congregational amens ).

But God says this tribulation...I believe it's gonna be a worldwide thing. They visualize something that they'll never see...man in general has. But I wouldn't be surprised if we aren't in it now.

( congregational amens ).

But, it will be shortened for the elect's sake...with His coming, that's the way it's gonna be shortened. Alright, let's go to Psalm 105. This is where I intended to start. "O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.

"When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant." That word servant means slave, in case you don't know.

"Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom." Now, I call your attention back to this verse of scripture here where He said, "Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him." Any kind of a trial that Christians are going through, they don't know it, but it's ordered of the Lord.

( congregational amens ).

And that's a time when you need the Word to come. That's the only thing that'll give you a measure of deliverance and hope and blessing and strength and understanding.

( congregational amens ).

That's what we need. "...The word of the Lord tried him." Now over in John chapter 6, I believe it is. Verse 1, "After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased." Now, that always draws a crowd--even fake signs, for that matter. It interests people. But it don't necessarily have faith.

"And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do." And that's what's happening whenever you're being tried--you're being proven. Just remember that. It'll help you. All trials are designed to eliminate those that are not His and to perfect those who are.

( congregational amens ). It works both ways. It's kind of a two-edged sword. We have to continue to remember this--that we are in temples of clay and they're bodies of sin. There's no good thing in this flesh. That's what Paul's talking about in Romans chapter 7. He said, "...When I would do good, evil is present with me... For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Our great battle--your great battle is between you and yourself.

( congregational amens ).

That's your worst enemy--is what your flesh wants.

( congregational amens ).

That's your great enemy and will lead you astray, too. In Daniel chapter 12 and in verse 10, the scripture says, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." That's what we want is some understanding. You know, I believe the first thing after salvation is you begin learning. It's a process that's not in your hands. It's in the hands of God, not yours.

And, as I've already said, they're designed to perfect you, and eliminate those who are not His. So, we're seeing people go out now, here and there, for one reason or another. And, don't be surprised. The scripture says of Jesus, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect he became..."--That word perfect is complete--"...He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Now this work that God is doing is to help us so we can help others. That's the main reason.

( congregational amens ).

Help us look beyond the confines of our own habitation, our own self and see the need out there. That's the first thing after salvation. God then wants to get you where you can help others. He's concerned about that. Matthew chapter 3, verse 13. You realize that Jesus' life up until this point in time is almost silent, except for just one little video appearance when He was a boy. But, it's just almost silence. I see Jesus as a perfect man, but there was something lacking. How could He be perfected? That something had to happen.

I believe this is where it was completed, right here. Verse 13, "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness...And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

( congregational amens ).

Now, let's go down to the 4th chapter and notice here now. Jesus has just been baptized. The Spirit of God just possessed the vessel. "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Think about it. That was on purpose. He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. "And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Now let me say this, that is your life when you're tried. You won't get it from any other source. Right here, this Word--the Living Word. There's power in the Word.

( congregational amens ).

There's life in the Word.

( congregational praises ).

There's wisdom in the Word.

( congregational praises ).

There's love in the Word.

( congregational praises ).

Hallelujah. That song Tim and Sherell sung...well, it just blessed me. God has a way of blessing us.

( congregational amens ).

And if songs didn't have some lyrics that made some sense, they wouldn't be a blessing. Wouldn't be no more than this rap music.

( laughter ).

So, man lives by this Word. Satan don't give up the first time, though.

( congregational amens ).

"Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

Now in those three things there, you can just about trace every temptation that we are subject to in this life. That's not my purpose here, 'cause that's not really the message. Now, as I said there before, I'll repeat this once more. Trials have a way of eliminating those who don't understand, and they have a way of cleansing and perfecting those that God's working with. They serve two purposes. And the first thing after salvation is to be tried. That's why Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Hallelujah! Perhaps that's why our trials are more precious that gold, though it be tried by fire. God's doing something that we can't see, we can't sense. We attribute it to this or that, or this thing or that thing or this person, or something, but we need to realize that God is over all.

( congregational amens ).

Hallelujah! Now go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 8, please. We're gonna find out just a few things that God is doing during trials. "And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live."

That's a good purpose there...that you might know it. God suffered all these things to come upon them that they might know. He said, don't forget to remember this. But we have to realize this, too. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17. But the Lord said, "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." And so, God searches our heart. He knows what's there. And He orders our footsteps, our experiences and everything that happens to us according to what He sees we need.

( congregational amens ).

Hallelujah! He knows what's in your heart and it's during those trials that what's in your heart is being made manifest. We may hide it under a cloak of...well, a lot of things. Might hide it under a cloak of religion. Might hide it under a cloak of...well, common interests. Might hide it under a cloak of most anything. But when you're hurting, that yell is not faith that's coming out then.

( congregational amens ).

What's in your heart is made manifest. Now this is also true of what's happening in our midst today. I'm especially thinking about the young people. I'm concerned about the young people. But, they didn't just get that way. They didn't just run out there...just thought about it today and went tomorrow. That's been there--been there a long time. And Satan's been preparing 'em for that.

( congregational amens ).

Getting 'em ready. And you've been being prepared by the world, by those you associate with, and by what you watch on TV. All that's preparing you, getting you ready. You watch one slip out, shack up with somebody. It didn't just happen. It was here first.

( congregational amens ).

Hallelujah! But God's doing a work and He's gonna do a work in us. He's purposed to do that.

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We're living in that day. We're on the eve of this...the coming of Christ. I believe that.

( congregational amens ).

We have a very good example of this now in the life of Joseph. Joseph is a very beautiful type of what I'm talking about. I don't whether I can show you all these things, but I want to if I can. Joseph was a special boy--child. His father Jacob loved him very much. He bought him a coat of many colors. That only caused the others to envy him and be jealous of him, though. But that also was brought out. They resented him.

Then on top of that, he was one that had dreams. They were from God. He told them in their presence. The first thing I believe was there were sheaves out in the field gathering sheaves of wheat. Joseph had this dream. He saw all the other sheaves--the other brothers, and they come and bowed down before his sheave. It stood up straight. He told 'em that. 'Course they liked that.

( laughter ).

( laughing ).

And then he told them that the 11 stars, that was the 11 brothers, and the moon and the sun represented his father and mother...and that his star, they all had to pay obeisance to that--bow before it. Well now, 'course his father half-way rebuked him, but the Bible says he kept it in his heart. He thought maybe there might be something to it.

( laughing ).

But, they didn't like that either. And so what happened, they were out tending their flocks. They were nomadic type people. So, Jacob sent Joseph out to see about 'em and how they were doing, probably to take 'em some things. He went out. They saw him coming a good ways off. 'Course if you read the story of it, you know he had to find 'em first. And they said, here comes that dreamer. I'll tell you how much they loved him. They said, I'll tell you what let's do. Let's kill him, and we'll see what comes of his dreams. Nothing you, nor the devil nor hell can do can stop God and what He's purposed to do.

( congregational praises ).

It's gonna happen whether we want it to or not. No matter how much or how hard we work against it, what God has purposed to do He is doing and will do!

( congregational praises ).

Hallelujah! And so they said, let's just kill him and throw him in this hole...this ditch here...this cave. Well it was a pit really. He come on up there, but there was two of the boys--I believe it was Benjamin and maybe Judah later on. They said, let's don't do that. They didn't want to go that far--to kill him. Reuben and Judah is who it was. And so, they were off and they said let's put him in this pit. They put him in the pit. It was dry then. They took his coat of many colors off of him. Reuben wasn't present. 'Course Judah was.

Here comes some Midianites going over to Egypt to sell their spices or whatever it was they had. They come by and these brothers said let's sell him to them for a slave. They knew what it was. And so they sold him into slavery for 30 pieces of silver, I believe it was. They took him over into Egypt. And they sold him to Potiphar. Now, he was an officer of Pharaoh. So they sold him to Pharaoh...I mean to Potiphar. So, Potiphar just made him...first of all God blessed Joseph. Everything that God touched, He blessed him. I'll bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee.

( congregational amens ).

That covenant is right on now. So he had charge of everything in Potiphar's house. Everything...he said he didn't know where his money was or anything. He trusted Joseph. That's the kind of person he was. And he realized God was with Joseph. But you know, Potiphar had a wife. Now, she was probably a beautiful wife, 'cause he was an officer of Pharaoh, see. So I imagine she was a beautiful woman. He would have been a kind of prominent man, being an officer of Pharaoh. So he was probably off a lot--gone.

And she got to eyeing him real close and she liked his looks. She began to talk to him, day in and day out. Come lie with me. He said no. My master put everything in my hand. Only you is withheld. He says, I'm not going to betray that trust. And so one day, whenever everybody was away he was in there and she grabbed him. Tried to put him in the bed with her. So, he slipped out of his cloak and left it in her hands. That made her mad as Hades. A woman spurned, you know, is bad business.

( laughter ).

( laughing ).

So, she hollered, screamed. And she said that Hebrew you brought in here, he's mocking me. He tried to force me. She just lied on him. 'Course whenever Potiphar came in he believed her. A man likes to believe his wife. So he believed her and they put Joseph in prison. So he ended up in prison. That's why it says over there in Psalms 105, He was laid in irons. You see, it brings out things that's not brought in other places. That's the way the scriptures are. God did this, too. He's the one that sent that famine that caused Jacob and his sons to have to go down there.

( congregational amens ).

But let's...I'm getting ahead of myself here. The scripture says, "...He called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron." Now at that point in time Joseph didn't know what was happening. I imagine Joseph thought everything in the world was against him. He said, I was doing very good there at Potiphar's house. His brother's sold him for a slave. He ended up in Potiphar's house. But he had freedom and he could go and come as he wanted to and then Potiphar's wife, she began to eye him.

And of course you know what happened there. Next thing you know, they slapped him in prison. He was in stocks. He was in irons, according to Psalm 105. I can imagine what he thought there being in those irons...what he did think. Can you? I can't visualize what actually took place, except he would have thought the worst, wouldn't he? But the Bible says, the word of the Lord tried him until what?

-- Congregation: 'Til the word came.

-- Brother Thomas: 'Til the word came. So God revealed it to him. That's the wonderful part about it. So there in the prison, they made him a trustee. He had charge of everything in the prison. Everywhere he went God blessed him.

( congregational amens ).

While he was there, there were two prisoners in there. One was a baker and one was a butler. They had dreams. In these dreams they saw themselves...one with breadfruit on his head, and birds coming down and eating that. The other with his three grapes, I believe...he squeezed it in a cup. So Joseph said, do not dreams belong to God...or interpretations? He realized that. It belonged to God.

And he told those two fellows. He said to the one--butler, he says after three days they're gonna let you out. You're gonna go back to your duties as a butler. And you'll be giving Pharaoh his cup again. Well that sounded pretty good. And then the other one, he said after three days they're gonna take your head off. And that happened to both of 'em, exactly like he said. So that's what happened. Now here's another thing. Joseph said, when you get back there to Pharaoh's house, you tell him about me in here. But you know he completely forgot that.

( laughter ).

Now, why did he forget it? It wasn't time.

( laughing ).

I thought about the scripture over here in the book of Job. This is Job chapter 23. Job is lamenting here. You know he was tried severely and he was having a time at this time. Even today, chapter 23 and verse 1....

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