Two Kinds of Tests

Today, I’m going to speak specifically about the kinds of tests that we must expect to face in the Christian life, the kinds of tests that are needed to cultivate endurance in us.

The tests we meet as Christians will take many different forms and come in many different ways. But essentially, they fall into two main categories, each the opposite of the other. And it’s these two categories we’re going to look at today.

The first category is when things are too hard. The second category is when things are too easy. Now, most people could understand that the first is a problem when things are too hard. But I think the Scripture reveals, and experience confirms, that a lot of people who stand when things are pretty hard cannot succeed when things become too easy.

I’m going to illustrate these two opposite kinds of tests from one of the most familiar parables of Jesus, the parable of the sower. This is found in Luke chapter 8, verses 4 through 8. I’ll read the parable, then a little further on, we come to Jesus’ own interpretation of this parable. First of all, the parable:

“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.’ ” And one of the other versions emphasizes, “‘The roots were not able to go down deep enough.’ ”

“‘Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.’ ”

Now, a little further on in the same chapter, verses 11 through 15, Jesus Himself gives us the interpretation of this parable.

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they cannot believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

I’m sure you noticed the word ‘persevering.’ We’ll come to that a little later.

Now, this parable depicts four kinds of people, different responses to hearing the Word of God. The first kind, that’s the seed that fell on the pathway, are those into whom the Word never enters, and we are not going to be concerned with them.

The second kind, those that were in rocky soil, represents those who receive but cannot endure testing. The third kind, those who fell among thorns, represent those who are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures. Then the fourth kind are the kind we all want to be, those who produce a crop by persevering.

Well, as I’ve said, we’re not going to spend time on the first group because the seed never entered. Nothing ever happened. The birds of the air came and caught it away before it gained entrance. We’re going to focus for a time on the second and the third groups. The second group were those who received but could not endure testing, the ones who were in the rocky soil. The third group were those among the thorns, where the plants grew up, but they were choked by the thorns, which were life’s worries, riches, and pleasures.

Now, concerning those on the rocky soil who could not endure testing, in a parallel passage in Matthew chapter 13, verse 21, as Jesus interprets the parable there, He says,

“When trouble or persecution comes, they cannot endure.”

There’s one word I want to emphasize there. It’s ‘when.’

“When trouble or persecution comes…”

Jesus did not say, “If trouble or persecution comes…” but “When.” In other words, we are all going to have to face trouble and persecution in some form or another.

Now, the problem with these people was that the seed, or the roots from the seed, could not go down to any real depth because the rocks stopped them. And so when the hot sun rose and beat upon those plants, although they’d grown up very quickly, they withered and died because their roots didn’t go down deep enough.

Now, I have to say with deep sorrow, over many years in Christian ministry, I’ve seen many people like that. I’ve seen people have a marvelous experience of conversion, get all excited about it, and you think, “Wonderful!” But I’ve come to ask myself, “Are they growing too fast? Are they growing up so high so quickly because they haven’t gone down deep enough?” They’re the kind of people who give superficial adherence, but there’s really no depth in their commitment. And when the testing comes, they just wither. A few years later, you wonder where they ever were. They’ve just dropped out of the picture.

Let’s look now at the third kind, those who fell among thorns. And their problem was that things were too easy. Notice the problems: life’s worries, riches, and pleasures. Now, riches and pleasures suggest a life, at least, of comparative ease. There’s not a lot of persecution, there’s not a lot of opposition, there’s not a lot of pressure. Pressure. Things are going too well.

I want you to compare the words of Jesus in Luke 17, where He speaks about what it will be like at the end of this age, and He compares the time of Noah and the time of Lot. And this is what He says:

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.”

That’s the close of this age.

“People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.”

What was the problem with these people, that who didn’t make it through? They were too occupied with temporal things. And I want to list the things that Jesus mentions: eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, buying, selling, planting, building. Now, what I want to point out is none of those things are sinful. The sin is not doing those things. The sin is becoming engrossed in those things, so that we lose sight of eternal values and our priorities are all out of line, and we give more thought, more attention to the things of time than we do to the things of eternity.