1. The Two Great Tests Proverbs

2. Today we will answer the following questions:  What Are the Two Tests?  How Do They Work?  How Can We Pass Them?

3.  In a section of Proverbs written by Agur, he asks the Lord: Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise,  I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the LORD?”  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. (30:8b-9 NIV)  In making this request, Agur wisely recognizes that there are two kinds of situations that bring great spiritual danger into our life:  Abundance, Prosperity, and Success  Deprivation, Adversity, and Suffering

4.  These two kinds of situations (prosperity and adversity) emerge a number of times in the book of Proverbs.  Where Agur’s request recognizes the dangers that come with these two situations, Proverbs 3:9-12 show us the positive side of prosperity and suffering:

5.  In verses 9-10, we are told if we are generous and honor the Lord with our abundance and prosperity, and we will be blessed even further:  Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (3:9-10 NIV)  And in verses 11-12 we are told not to despise or resent the difficulty and suffering that the Lord brings into our life through discipline (or perhaps trials), because in it he demonstrates his fatherly love for us:  My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (3:11-12 NIV)

6.  This is why in the New Testament, the apostle Paul can say:  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Phillipians 4:12 NIV)  So no matter who you are, even if you are as close to God as the apostle Paul, you will experience prosperity and adversity, success and suffering, everything going your way and nothing going your way.  Most of the time, we won’t experience a great deal of either. There’s a kind of balance going on – like what Agur requested.  But then we’ll have times of great success and times of great suffering. And those are the two great tests!

7.  The wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment. (10:16 NIV)  When prosperity comes to the righteous, they use it for good and are blessed.  When prosperity comes to the wicked, they use it for evil and it confirms them in their wickedness.

8.  In fact, one of the worst things that God can do for a wicked person is to give them more of what they sinfully desire. We see an example of this in the New Testament in Romans 1:  Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. (Rom 1:28-29 NIV)

9.  When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever. (10:25 NIV)  The storms of life will reveal who you really are:  When faced with adversity, the wicked will become more fully entrenched in their wickedness and will ultimately be destroyed.  The righteous take suffering in stride and stand firm in their convictions.

10.  What about for the believer? Keller makes the following observations about the two great tests:  There is nothing more spiritually dangerous than to be succeeding.  There is nothing more spiritually dangerous than to be suffering.  Because those two experiences bring out stuff in your heart that you didn’t know was there. There’s bad stuff in your heart that you don’t believe to be there, that you don’t expect to be there, you deny that it’s there. But those two situations bring them out.  And then you can either accept what you see, embrace what you see, build your life on this new insight, repent and change, transform your life and become wiser and wiser or you can deny it, you can repress it, you can blame it on other people and become more and more of a fool – but you will not stay where you were!

11.  C.S. Lewis puts it this way:  When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against [love]; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated.

12.  C.S. Lewis puts it this way:  On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.” (Mere Christianity, pp. 164-165)

13.  So the two great tests reveal the sinful tendencies of our heart in ways we might not otherwise notice.  Adversity reveals ours lack of love for others and our lack of trust and confidence in God:  If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? (24:10-12 NIV)

14.  Prosperity tends to bring out our pride, selfishness, and sinful self-reliance:  Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands… otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God... You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… (Deut 8:11-14; 17-18 NIV)

15.  Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. (James 1:9-10)  James is telling you what you need to do in response to adversity on one hand or prosperity on the other:  You need to affirm yourself out of the spiritual danger of adversity with the gospel  You need to humble yourself out of the spiritual danger of success with the gospel  The gospel is that I am wicked and yet loved.  When I am in adversity I can remind myself of the affirmation of the gospel  When I succeed I can remind myself of the humility of the gospel

16.  When you find yourself coming into a time of prosperity and success – watch out! You are in danger of becoming:  Proud  Greedy  Implacable  You need to remind yourself what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:  For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1Cor. 4:7 NIV)

17.  When you find yourself coming into a time of adversity and suffering – watch out! You are in danger of:  Despairing  Thinking that God has forgotten you  Sinning in order to escape the trial

18.  When you find yourself coming into a time of adversity and suffering – you need to remind yourself of what it says in Hebrews 12:  And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

19.  When you find yourself coming into a time of adversity and suffering – you need to remind yourself of what it says in Hebrews 12:  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Heb 12:5-13)

20.  How do I know God really loves me that this is only discipline and not punishment? I’ll tell you why, because Jesus Christ came into this world and passed these tests for us. He was the most successful person who ever lived but he didn’t let it go to his head. And he suffered horribly, but he trusted his father in it. Jesus is the one son who didn’t need punishment or discipline. But he took the punishment for us so that you can know that what comes into your life is only loving fatherly discipline because he delights in you. That’s how you can pass the test – by trusting in the one who passed the test for you so that you can begin to let these things turn you into someone who is wise. (Tim Keller)