Christlike Faith Series — E.A. Johnston

Faith Tested and Commended by Jesus

We are in our faith series and studying the life of faith, how God tries our faith, tests our faith, builds our faith, strengthens and stretches our faith. When Jesus was here in His earthly ministry, He was continually looking for faith among His followers.

He was always challenging His disciples' faith by putting them in humanly impossible predicaments and seeing how they would react. Then He would say something like, O you of little faith, or He would ask them, Where is your faith?

He commended faith in a Gentile woman and then He healed the woman with an issue of blood because of her faith. He would say, Your faith has made you whole. Our message today, friends, is entitled Christlike and we will look at how God builds faith in us to make us more Christlike, to make us more like Jesus.

Fellowship in Christ's Sufferings

We read in Philippians 3 .10, That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. I am reminded about a story of Dr. W. Graham Scroggie who told about the time the missionary Helen Rosevere was a member of his church.

She came down front in response to a call to missions. Graham Scroggie wrote in her Bible flyleaf the verse Philippians 3 .10 and then he handed her Bible to her, looked her in the eye and commented, That I may know Him.

You are here. Perhaps one day you will be privileged to know the fellowship of His sufferings. Well years later, Helen Rosevere was a missionary in Africa in the Congo during the great uprising of the 1960s and she was cruelly attacked by four men.

She was physically abused by them and as they were kicking her and beating her, the one thing that got her through that horrible ordeal was the memory of Graham Scroggie saying to her, Perhaps one day you will be privileged to know the fellowship of His sufferings.

She said that's the only thing that got her through. It was Jesus and her suffering while she was being attacked. It was that fellowship. The faith life is the most exciting adventure in the world, friend.

Many say they want to go deep with God. They say they want to know His power, but let me say this, friend. If you want to know the power of His resurrection, you must be deeply familiar with the fellowship of His sufferings.

Suffering and Spiritual Power

I was talking to Adrian Rogers one day and I asked him if he knew the time that God touched his life with power and anointing. He looked far away and then he looked back at me and he said it happened right after the death of his baby boy.

He said during that time he was seeking God in a deep way and it was then he got a touch from heaven for service. Every man I've known who's been used of God in a deep way was familiar with suffering.

God's Work of Making Believers Christlike

God wants to build faith in us so we can be more like Jesus. God wants us to be Christ-like and He will place us in circumstances to press us to see what comes out, the flesh or Jesus. Every time I was with Adrian Rogers I felt like I was with Jesus.

He was one of the most Christ-like men I've ever known. Just being in his presence made you feel like you were hanging out with Jesus. But God doesn't restrict this just to super saints. God's desire is for every follower of His to be made more and more like Christ, to become Christ-like.

God will prune us with His divine pruning knife to strip back self so Christ can be revealed. God will purge us in His refiner's fire to get the dross out of our life that's blocking the view so Christ can be more clearly seen in us.

Faith Revealed Under Difficult Circumstances

I believe, friend, that if you are a man of God others should be able to see that. I went to work once for an ungodly man who every time he opened his mouth he cussed God and cursed Jesus. It was hard just to be around this beast of a man.

Every terrible situation he purposely put me in. I responded to it as a Christian until one day in his office he confessed to me that it was apparent I was a man of faith. God will place us in difficult situations to see what spills out.

A lot of Christians are just surface Christians who have no spiritual depth in their life. When I was a young man I attended a weekly prayer meeting of other believers and the man leading the prayer meeting was a big man, a big heavy set man.

He always used such heavenly words when he led us in prayer. I was a practical joker back in those days. One night before we got started in prayer I played a practical joke on him. I snuck my hand up behind his neck and scratched his neck with my fingernail.

When I did I yelled, Spider! Well, the first thing out of his mouth was he damned God and it shocked all of us there that this man who led us in prayer could so easily cuss and damn God. That's what spilled out of him because he was a surface Christian.

Authentic Christianity and Consistent Example

You know friend, Christianity is not just a profession of faith. It's a way of living that reveals the nature of Jesus in us to others. Too many today name the name of Christ without having any reality of God in their lives.

That's why other teenagers rebel because they lead their kids with a do as I say mentality rather than lead them with a do as I do godly example. Our kids, especially our teenagers, are seeking realness.

They're looking for reality. They're watching us parents to see if our so-called religion is really real in our lives or do we just behave one way at church in front of our church friends and behave an entirely different way at home when we're with our family.

Do we have a life of consistency or can it be said we're just plain old hypocrites? If we are really Christians, shouldn't our lives stand out in a sin-loving society or do we just blend in with our lost neighbors?

Christlikeness as Visible Sanctification

I'll never forget the story told about Dr. Stephen F. Oldford. He was invited to preach at a big Dallas church and the pastor asked one of his interns to go pick up Stephen Oldford at the airport. Well, the young man asked to see a photograph of Dr. Oldford so he would recognize him.

No need for that, said the pastor. Just go to the airport terminal and when the passengers get off the plane, look for a man who has God all over him. Well the young intern did just that and as soon as he saw Dr. Oldford with his coat over his arm carrying his briefcase, he knew he was the man of God.

Christ-likeness is what God is doing in us in our sanctification process where we get to the place in our Christian walk that Jesus is prevalent in us because we have made him preeminent in our daily living.

The next time God places you, friend, in a difficult circumstance, pay close attention to how you react to it and in it. Can others see Jesus in you or do they just see a Christian behaving badly? I'll close this message with a story I heard J. Vernon McGee tell.

Daily Conduct as a Gospel Witness

He said he was in a park one day handing out gospel tracts and a man took one of his tracts and as he took it, he pointed at J. Vernon McGee and told him to go on about his business for he was going to keep his eyes on him and see what kind of tracts he made.

Often, our daily behavior is more of a gospel witness than we realize as the world is watching the church to see what kind of tracts we make. Let me ask you, friend, when you were squeezed like a lemon, what comes out, sour juice or is it lemonade?

Let us pray.