Tested Men

An email newsletter ministry of Richard D. Swift, publishing the sermons of Rev. Reed A. Swift (1899-1973), a holiness preacher

January 2013

The following sermon was preached in the Free Methodist Churches of Yale, Ball, Buel,(circuit), Michigan and Caro, Michigan (1929-1935) and W. Hollywood, California (1935-1938). The sermon is handwritten on the back of a letter from the Port Huron, Michigan Ministerial Alliance with a Declaration of Prohibition. My grandfather's mother was a member of the Prohibition Party, and the Free Methodist Church provided many candidates for the Prohibition Party.

Tested Men

Psalm 30:5 "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Introduction: In the natural, sickness, financial distress, loss of loved ones, untrue friends, unkind and unjust treatment maybe by those considered as friends or brothers [may bring weeping]. Oh how welcome is that morning light that breaks in from the eastern horizon to dispel the darkness with all its haunting thoughts.

So it is with the Lord's chastening. He remembers that we are but weakness and dust so He will not permit one trial too much. If we give way in the chastening we are not good material. Joy waits us in the morning of our eternal advent if we are loyal and true through the night vigil. Praise God!

Your mourning will be turned to dancing. Then you will rejoice forever and never get hoarse or get a sore throat doing it! Oh Glory!

Sorrow and weeping is for a purpose. One thing is that we may better appreciate the morning or blessings He gives us when they come. Many of us forget God's blessings unless He chastens us. You know children get dissatisfied many times by having everything they want, so must be denied for a time to appreciate things or blessings. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He has to sometimes cause us weeping that we may rejoice in our daily blessings. He may take money, etc.

I. Money. Many are weeping today because of loss of money. Many people are just as well off without it though, for i don't believe God gives us money to hoard. As a rule, those who hold influential positions in the world are those who have had to work their way up. They didnot start with a fortune at their command. Most people are more liable to be Christians if they have to labor for a living. So, if God prospers you, and you have a tendency to hoard it up instead of promoting the cause of Christ, don't weep too bitterly if someday you lose the hoarded surplus.

Though many may weep at financial reverses, yet if sincere, God will get glory and the Lord will bring joy to that soul right out of what seemed to be chaos. "For all things work together for good to them that love God."

Many in the world are caused to weep in financial loss with no consolation of this scripture, "All things". Many lose in their struggle for worldly honor and go down in defeat and disgrace, but no matter how disappointing somethings in life may be, yet the Christian is bound to have reason for rejoicing sooner or later.

2. Men Tested and Tempted:

We are tested and tempted and tested and weep over things that would utterly destroy us. Why take on so and be so unhappy?

Men know that the use of tobacco gradually undermines the physical constitution and that many are killed in the prime of life by its poison. Yet men come to the altar and weep because God asks them to give up the filthy stuff. There is no filthiness in Heaven. Christ can give men freedom from that filthy bondage and sin.

3. Tried Men

Now God is going to have tried men, but God knows better than we how much we can stand. Many men could not stand much success without being lifted up in their own eyes, and right here is the point where they fall into scandalous sins.

Men should not be or allow themselves to be needlessly exposed to temptation. For many stronger than we have fallen. Psalm 30:6-10. Do as Isaiah says in Isaiah 51:1.

Now God don't wind us up and start us going toward heaven with no more trials or temptations until we strike that glorious shore. No sir! You and i will have to plod along day by day and decide with the Spirit's aid what is right and act right in each particular case that comes into our life. Our grace will be tested. But be sure God is permitting it and not we bringing it upon ourselves. Stay as far away from temptation as possible. Be sure you have done your part. Then when in trouble call upon God, and He will deliver you with a pure heart just as He did Joseph. What a contrast between Joseph fleeing temptation and David placing himself in its path. Yet, even David in his trouble cried and God heard and had mercy on him. Psalm 34:6, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." He didn't pose as king or read a prayer. He cried!

If we are in trouble, it would do us well to consider how we got there and confess it out to God as David did, and if it is possible to get out, God will help us out, and if we have done some foolish thing that can never be cured, then He will give grace that it can be endured. Praise God! When paul prayed fro the thorn to be removed from his flesh, God answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

4. Not Pleasure Excursion to Glory

Don't get the idea that if you are really converted you are going to have a pleasure excursion from earth to glory. No sir! Pleasure seeking and piety don't mix. That is one of the weaknesses of the church today. Pleasure crazy card playing, tobacco using, church festivals, etc. are damning more souls than infidels. "Lovers of it more than God" is a sign of the last days.

Persecutions will come to the man that is out and out for Christ and righteousness and glory. If you are God's child, don't weep because you are evil spoken of, but rejoice because your name is written in heaven. "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you." Persecution will come.

"The greatest uninspired religious book was written in jail. No other book except the Bible has been published in as many langauges as has the 'Pilgrim's Progress'. The crime for which John Bunyan was sent to jail by professed Christians was preaching Christ." They tried to limit his influence by putting him in jail, but God made it unlimited in time and space. "They offered him his liberty if he would promise not to preach. His noble answer was, 'I am resolved to stay here til the moss shall grow upon my eyebrows before I promise not to declare what God has done for my soul.' His tongue was silenced for a season, but the pen was unfettered and his words of wisdom have gone out to the ends of the world."

Let us venture out for Christ. Persecutions, if unmerited, may open to us a wider field of usefulness than prosperity ever could. and though we suffer through life, yet eternal joy awaits us in the morning in glory if we maintain our integrity.

5. Perseverence

We must persevere until death. No matter how valiantly a soldier fights, he will not be honored if he runs away before the war is ended. There was no braver man in the Revolutionary army than Benedict Arnold. But his turning traitor spoiled it all. So you and I will not recieve the crown of life unless we endure until the war is ended. Many souls are lost because professors are to easily discouraged perhpas right in the midst of a revival. A little privation and hardship defeats them. They don't like the cold and they can't be up nights, but if seving the devil they'll be working overtime.

Say, you and I will have to have a backbone and determination to please God rather than ourselves if we ever make it through to glory. "A living dog is better than a dead lion" (Ecclesiastes 9:4) anyday. But there is joy unspeakable and full of glory reigning in the New Jerusalem. "Fire begets fire." Lord send us an old time revival on this circuit is my prayer. Psalm 34:6,7,19.

This concludes my grandfather's sermon. I trust it is a blessing and encouragement to your soul.

Yours for Radical Holiness,

Richard D. Swift

505 Hickory Hills Dr.

Dexter, MO 63841

573-625-9535

swiftyone2002@yahoo.com

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