It is when the fierce winds of trials and suffering come that people often ask themselves what they really believe. What do you believe about Jesus Christ? When you are being shaken, where do you run to? Is Christ a sure foundation for you even when the bottom is falling underneath you? Or do you have to run to other things for refuge?
Excerpt from the full sermon, “No Longer Children“.
Brethren, I would ask you this: Do you really know what you believe about the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, do you really know what you believe? When you've got a son with lymphoma, you begin to ask the question: what do I really believe? You know right here in this space where I stand there was a body yesterday. When you're a young woman with two young children and you're standing in front of an open casket with your husband in it, you start asking yourself what you really believe. Do we know what we really believe? See, this is what lifts us out of childishness. Because this idea of waves and this idea of wind - that's an idea of storms and they come. And what he says is they're doctrinal. We get hit with truth and error - lots of error, bad doctrine. You know what it does. It tests what we believe. It's constantly pulling us and we're confronted by waves and winds and storms of bad teaching and waves and winds and storms of what life brings upon us. And the issue is: what do we really believe? Do you really know where your hope is set? When things don't go your way; when the bottom begins to fall out; when the foundations are giving way, do you really know what you believe about the Son of God? And you don't want to leave that part off the end. This is not just "the faith" in some ambiguous way. What do you really believe about the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you really believe that He is to you? Who is He? You see, this is the issue with mature manhood. Yes, it's that we rightly handle the oracles of God. It's that we know them. It's that by practice our powers of discernment... but I'll tell you this, Paul is very specific here. Paul is specific about the Scripture, about what we believe, and it's got to do with the Son of God. That's the issue. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the sure, steadfast anchor of your soul when the devil rushes in? And he will. Because he's looking for opportunity and he's looking for people to devour. And we see what he did to Job. And we see what he did to Peter. We see that he came upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's looking for opportunity with each one of us when he rushes in. Have you so tried and proven the Lord Jesus Christ that you know exactly where to run? Have you so tried and proved the promises - all those promises - that we can stand back and on the good, sunny day we can say: Oh, all those promises are yes and amen in Christ. But I'll tell you when the storms come, you know where the children go? They go to the Internet. Where do the children go? They go to the TV. Where do the children go? They go to the distractions. They go somewhere else. They go to whatever sedative in this world. Have we tried and proven Christ that we know He's our only refuge? You see, this is what brings people up out of childishness, childhood. Do you have an arsenal of promises that you have tried and proven?
