I want to study with you this morning about the testing time. Tests are not popular. I suppose tests are one of the main reasons that many people quit school. But tests are necessary. Would you like to have a surgeon do surgery on you who had never taken a test? Would you like to have a dentist work on your teeth that had never taken a test? Or would you like an accountant to make out your tax report who had never taken a test?

So tests are important because tests show who is competent to do certain things and we are facing tests every day and we are facing also a final test. You know, do you not, that when you go to school, the final test actually determines the outcome? In almost all classes the final test is at least one-fourth of your grade or sometimes one-third or sometimes one-half.

So the final test determines the outcome. That is the way it is in the world in which we are living because we are approaching a final test. When you take the test, you have to take it for yourself. Somebody else cannot take the test for you. The Bible talks about this. Maybe you would like to read it. The Lord told Ezekiel this. We all have to pass the test for ourselves. Somebody else cannot pass it for us.

Notice what it says in Ezekiel 14:14, 20. "'Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,' says the Lord God." Verse 20. "'Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,' says the Lord God, 'they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.'"

So we are individually going to be tested. We are individually going to be tested. Now what is the issue of the final test? What is the issue? Well, we read about the issue in our Scripture reading in Revelation 14:9-12 and the issue is very simply this: The issue is whether you are going to obey the commandments of men or whether you are going to obey the commandments of God.

Now we obey all commandments of men as long as they do not violate the law of God. But if the commandments or laws of men require us to violate the law of God, then we cannot obey. That is what Peter said, do you remember? When they commanded the apostles and they said, You are not to preach in the name of Jesus anymore. What did Peter say in Acts 5:29?

He said, Well, whether it seems right to you, whether we should obey you or God, you decide that. But we have to obey God rather than men. So when the commandments of men violate the laws of God--and is that what is pictured in Revelation 14:9-12? That is exactly what is pictured. That is what the worship of the beast and the receiving of the mark of the beast and worshipping the image of the beast is all about; whether you keep God's commandments or not.

In fact, the people that do not worship the beast and do not receive the mark of the beast and do not worship the image of the beast, these people are described in Revelation 14:12 as those that keep what? The commandments of God. So that is the issue, whether you are going to keep the commandments of God or not. That is the issue all the way through the book of Revelation.

God's people are described in the book of Revelation over and over again s those that keep the commandments of God. That is the issue. When that issue comes, we are going to notice in the book of Revelation in just a moment when it is going to come. But when that issue comes, you are going to be tested individually and you may be tested all alone.

If you are tested all alone, your wife or your husband or your father or mother will not be able to pass the test for you. You will have to make a decision; you will have to pass the test yourself. We know this from the words of Jesus. Jesus said that in the last days it would be like it was in the days of Noah. Remember that? In Matthew 24:37-39 Jesus said that it will be like it was in the days of Noah.

In the days of Noah were there many, many people or just a few people who were on God's side of the question? Which was it? Just a few. So it is going to be that way again. Noah was called a fanatic. People said, You are deceived. You see, in those days it had never rained. You are a deluded enthusiast. You cannot be right and the whole world be wrong. That is what they told Noah.

Let me tell you, that was a powerful argument because Noah was standing almost alone. Now he had a few people. The only people standing with Noah were his own family. They said to Noah, You cannot be right and the whole world wrong. Well, who was right and who was wrong? Was the whole world wrong? The whole world was wrong and got drowned for being wrong. This is serious.

And Noah was right. When we study religious history, we find out that over and over again the great majority in religious things have been wrong. One time Martin Luther said to his opponents, he said, The very reason that I am standing alone should make you scared. Because if you look at religious history, the majority have always been wrong. So Martin Luther said, The very reason that I am standing alone for what I am standing for should make you afraid.

I hope you remember that sometime when you are standing all alone. Numbers mean nothing in religious controversies. Ellen White described it this way in Testimonies, vol. 5, 136. She said, "To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us; to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few--this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice and loyalty from their treason. The nation will be on the side of the great rebel leader."

When will this happen? Well, turn to Revelation 13 and you will read when it is going to happen. We are approaching this very, very rapidly. In the past in the United States, the founders of our country wrote a Constitution in which they stated that Congress was to make no law concerning the establishment of religion. But according to the prophecy here in Revelation 13, the time is going to come when we are going to have a religious law.

Now a religious law is a law that says something about how you worship God. That is what a religious law is. Now just read here in Revelation 13 and you will see that it is talking about a religious law. Revelation 13, it says, verse 15: "He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship . . . " Does worship have to do with religion?

Worship has to do with religion. This is a religious law and are there going to be some teeth in it? What is going to happen if you do not worship? There is going to be a death decree. So this is the final test and what is the issue? The issue is the law of God versus the laws of men. That is the issue. Maybe we should be more specific than this.

When we say the issue is the law of God versus the law of men, we are not even talking about all the ten commandments. James 2: 10 says that if you keep the whole law but you offend in one point, you are guilty of all. Do you suppose the devil knows that? Do you suppose the devil knows that he can send you to hell fire if he can get you to just break one? Do you suppose he knows that?

Of course, he knows that. The devil has studied the ten commandments for thousands of years and he has been fighting them for thousands of years and he has studied all through the ten commandments, he is the archfiend, to find out which ones of the ten commandments that would be the easiest to persuade the human race to break. He knows that if he just came to people and said, or told us to break it, we would realize something was dreadfully wrong to break the law of God.

So he does not even do that. He comes to people and he says, We are going to adjust it. You are going to keep it, but we are going to make some adjustments in it. Now let me ask you this question. Does anything that God has said need adjustments? When God has written something in tables of stone and He says I will not change what has gone out of my mouth. God says in Malachi 3:6 that He does not change. What God has said in His law does not need adjusting.

But the devil says, We are going to adjust it. And that is what the Christian world today is deceived about. You talk to the average person and they say, Oh, yes, I keep the law of God. So you open the Bible and say, Do you really? Let us read the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God."

Immediately a person says, Well, how do we know which day is the Sabbath? Maybe we cannot even figure it out. Think that through. Did God give a law and you cannot even figure out how to keep it? Do you realize what an accusation that is against the God of heaven? But just the same the accusation is made all over the world. I do not know how many times I have run into it. People say, Well, I-I-I-I am not even sure I can figure out which day it is!

Well, you say, do you know which day Jesus rose from the dead? Oh, yes, I know. Well, what day was that? We keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection. O.K., well, you know what the first day of the week is then, because Sunday is the first day of the week. Jesus was raised the first day of the week, according to Luke 24, Matthew 28, John 20. So you know which day is the first day of the week, so if you can figure out which day is the first day of the week, can you figure out which day the seventh day of the week is?

Matthew 23, you ask people, Do you know what day Jesus was crucified on? Well, of course, I know which day Jesus was crucified on. That was Good Friday. So you read Luke 23:54 through Luke 24:1, and you will notice there in that passage of Scripture that the Sabbath, according to the commandment, is the day in between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. It is the day in between. You cannot make a mistake if you just read the Bible.

But people say that we have adjusted it. But God says, I am not going to change. So the Lord has a controversy with the Christian world today. The controversy is over who should change. It is the identical same controversy that God had with the devil in the beginning. The devil wanted God to change His law. He wanted to be a member of the Godhead. You can read about that in Isaiah 14.

But the first commandment says, "You shall not have any other gods before Me." The devil wanted that commandment changed so that he could be part of the Godhead. The Lord said, No! And the devil has been fighting God and His government and His law ever since and he has become a skillful general in deceiving men to think that they are keeping God's law when they are actually breaking it.

That is the issue in the final contest, the final struggle, the final test that will come upon the people of this world. It is over the law of God. Is there something wrong with it that needs to be adjusted? Well, if there is not something wrong with it so that it does not need to be adjusted, well, then, are we keeping it or are we breaking it--the way God gave it? That is the issue.

That is what the mark of the beast is all about. That is what the image to the beast is about, is making religious laws and requiring people to worship in the way other men tell them to. The founding fathers of the United States determined that they were going to fight against all of that. That is why we have a Constitution that says you are not to make any law concerning the establishment of religion.

When is this going to happen? It is going to happen, Revelation 13:15, when a religious law is made, specifically in the United States that tells you when and how to worship. But we do not want to spend all of our time just looking at what the final test is. We want to look at things that will help us to pass the final test.

When I went to school, I wanted to know what would be on the test. And it is interesting in the great final test, the Lord has told the whole world, This is what the final test is about. We do need to know what it is about so have covered that. You know what the final test in this world is about. It is over the law of God and whether or not you are going to keep the Sabbath. That is what the final test is about.

We want to look at something more important than that. My freshman year in college I took a class and before we took the final test, the teacher gave us a couple pages of questions and he said, Your final test will all come from these questions. If you can answer these questions, you have nothing to worry about. I thought, Well, that sounds good. I went home and I found out that it took about twenty to thirty hours to answer those questions.

But the Lord has told us what the final test is. He has told us in advance, This is what it is going to be. What we want to know most is, How are we going to pass it? Is that not what you wanted to know when you were going to school? How am I going to get through this? How am I going to get the right answer on the paper?

So we are going to look at two things. First we are going to look at what is the prerequisite for success in the final test. Then we are going to look at what is it that will cause some people--many people--to fail the final test?

First of all we want to look at what we need if we are going to have success. What do we need? Turn to the gospel of Mark 9. It is interesting that both Mark 9 and Mark 11:23, 24 teach the same thing but we will read it from Mark 9:22 and onward. This father is described with his son who has been possessed of a demon. He says, "'Often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him, but if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.'"

This man came to Jesus and he was being tested. He said, Lord, if You can help us, please help us. Jesus looked at him and He let him know, It is not whether I can help you or not, it is whether you can believe or not. The man came to Jesus and said, If. Jesus turned right around to him and said, If. The man said to Jesus, If You can, Jesus said to him, If you can believe.

Well, if you can believe, what? If you can believe, EVERYTHING is possible--if . . . . What is the If? If you can believe. What would have happened if that man had said, Well, I am not sure whether I can believe that You can do this or not? What would have happened? His child would not have been healed.

Are there instances written in the Bible where people were not healed, and the miracles did not happen, because they did not believe? Yes, there are. Read Matthew 13. At the end of the chapter it talks about when Jesus was in his own hometown. He told them, A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house. And it says He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

But this man was struggling. Maybe there is somebody here struggling and you are scared because you say, Lord, I have to believe and yet I do not believe. What do I do? So he made a decision. He knew that he was having a problem with unbelief and doubt. But he made a decision. He said. I am going to choose to believe. So he told the Lord what his decision was. He said, I believe--but he knew the Lord could read his heart. He said, Help my unbelief.

I am choosing to believe but help my unbelief. Ellen White makes an interesting comment on that verse. She says, If you say that, you can never perish. Is that not wonderful? Now faith is the only thing. Trust in the Lord is the only thing that is going to get you through the test. But, friend, remember, faith is a decision. Faith is not just somebody, well, the elder has it, the pastor has it, the deacon has it and I do not have it.

No, that is not the way it is. The Bible says God has given to every man a measure of faith. Romans 12. Faith is a decision and you can choose to exercise all the faith you have and you can say, Lord, I choose to believe that You can get me through this. We did not read verse 16 in Revelation 13. It says the time is going to come when you will not be able to buy or sell unless you get the mark of the beast.

How are you going to eat? I do not know. But I know when I read my Bible that God fed over a million people out in the wilderness over there for forty years. There were no stores there and they did not have to buy any food even once! So can God supply food for you if you cannot buy or sell? If it is not time for you to die, can the Lord supply food for you? He can.

But you are going to have to make a decision and say, Lord, I am on Your side of the question and I am going to obey You, no matter what happens. That involves a decision. Nothing short of genuine faith will get you through the testing time that is coming. Faith comes as a result of hearing, Paul says, the Word of God. Romans 10.

Are you studying your Bible and memorizing the promises every day? If you have not been, maybe this would be a good time to make yourself a resolution. Do not wait until New Years. Maybe this would be a good time to make a resolution and say, Lord, help me to memorize at least one verse a day. Oh, somebody says, Pastor John, my mind is not that strong. I am feeble minded. I cannot memorize one verse a day.

O.K. Memorize three verses a week. That would be one hundred fifty a year. If you had made that decision last year, you would know one hundred fifty verses right now. If you are going to get through the testing time that is coming, friend, you are going to have to do more than come to church or even come to Prayer Meeting. You are going to have to actually memorize some things in the Word of God, memorize the promises.

I want to read you an interesting statement that Ellen White wrote about that very thing. I have pondered this over and over again. "None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test: shall I obey God rather than men." Great Controversy, 593, 594.

Who is going to stand? Those that have done what? They have fortified the mind. You know what a fortress is. A fortress is a building that is fortified. The mind that is fortified, how do you fortify your mind? By the truths of the Bible. Are you memorizing the promises? Are you memorizing your Bible?

Now the bad news is that if you have not started yet, you have lost all the past and there is nothing you can do about the past. But praise the Lord; if you decide today, the Lord could do something better with your future than you have done with your past. Your future does not need to be like your past. If you are going to stand through the last great conflict and you have not been memorizing the Bible, your future cannot be like your past. You are going to have to get on a study program.

What could be accomplished? Oh, somebody says, Pastor John, I am such a great sinner; I do not know what I will do. Do you know one of the reasons people fall into sin is because they are not memorizing Bible promises? When people memorize Bible promises and then the devil comes to them with temptation, they have spiritual weapons. Do you know that the Word of God is powerful? When you memorize it, divine power comes into your life.

When the devil comes to you with temptations and you can quote what the Word of the Lord says, you will find out that the devil will flee from you. Well, are you memorizing the promises? Are you choosing to exercise faith? That is what will determine your outcome.

Now let us look at a few things that will cause failure in the last final crisis and this will open up to us a very interesting theme to study. I want to read to you a statement from Ministry of Healing, 490. It says, "It is through our failure to endure tests that come to us in little things, that the habits are molded, the character misshaped; and when the greater tests come, they find us unready."

Now let us think that through for a moment. She says if we fail in little tests that come to us along the way, then when the bigger tests come, we will not be ready. Now do not hold up your hand; do not even change the expression on your face. But have any of you ever taken a class and you were not doing too well on your daily work. You thought to yourself, I am going to study real hard and I am going to make up for this when I get the final test. Have you ever had that experience?

There are a lot of students that do that, by the way. They do not even understand what is going on with the daily work. They have to go get their mom or their dad or a companion or tutor or somebody to help them even get their paper ready to turn in. But they say, I am going to study and I am going to make up for it on the final test. That is the way to get ready for a big disappointment.

So when the final test comes, that tutor, your mother, your father or whoever is helping you do all your home work, they are not going to be there to help you take the final test. So if you are going to make it on the final test, you need to make it on the daily work, on the little tests that are coming along the way. Does that make sense?

So that opens up a whole new area for study. Instead of just looking at the end and saying, Well, I am going to have to be ready. I am going to have to be ready some day for a big final test when they will tell me that I cannot buy or sell, that I am going to be killed if I keep the commandments of God. The bigger question is, If I am going to be ready then, I have to be getting ready now and whatever tests I am having now.

Whether I am passing the tests that I am having now is going to determine someday whether I am going to pass the big one. Now we have introduced something that really gets scary, does it not? We are all being tested and are we always passing all the tests that we are having? No, we are not.

Well, what are we going to do if we are having tests from day to day and we are not passing them all? Well, we are going to look at that right now. What do we do if we are having daily tests and we are not passing them? Well, we are not going to just look at what we do, but what does God do? God is interested in this situation that you and I are in.

Day by day God is looking at you and He is making a decision. Pastor John is right here and if I am going to move him over here, he needs to have this test. So I am going to send this test to him today. Now I have simplified it, but that is really what happens. God is looking at me. He is looking at you. He sees where we are at. He sees where He needs to get us to in our spiritual experience. The only way that He can get us there quickly is to send us some tests that we do not like.

We have a tendency to not like tests. We have a tendency not to like tests. Here is the way Ellen White described it in the book The Desire of Ages, 382. She said, "Day by day God instructs His children. By the circumstances of the daily life He is preparing them to act their part upon that wider stage to which His providence has appointed them. It is the issue of the daily test that determines their victory or defeat in life's great crises."

Now that is an interesting statement. It is the issue of the daily test that determines what? Victory or defeat in life's great crisis. Now is the great crisis coming? It is coming. Are you going to pass it? The only way you can know whether or not you are going to pass the big one is if you are passing some daily tests.

Now what do you do if you are not passing the daily tests? What does God do? Have you ever had a teacher that said to you, Look, I want you to do that assignment over? Have you ever had that happen? I want you to do this assignment again. Did you say, Oh, no, I already did it once? You did not do a very good job the first time, so you need to do a better job. You need to do it over.

Does God do that? That is exactly what God does. Except that when He takes you over the road again, He adds a little more pressure, a few harder questions. Let me read that to you. It says, "The Lord brings His children over the same ground again and again." Now that should be encouraging. I go over the ground. I do not pass the test. The Lord says, Well, we have to go around this one again. You are going to have to have that test again.

"The Lord brings His children over the same ground again and again, increasing the pressure until perfect humility fills the mind, and the character is transformed; then they are victorious over self, and in harmony with Christ and the spirit of heaven." My Life Today, 92. And so, when we do not pass the test, the Lord has to bring us around. What test are you going through in your daily life, in your Christian experience, in your character development?

It is an amazing fact to me that there are people and they will tell you, they know that they are not passing the tests from day to day but they hope that some way when the big one comes, that they are going to pass it. Now let me ask you this question, Does that make sense? It does not make sense. You are not going to pass the big one at the end if you are not passing any tests now.

The Lord wants you to learn to pass every test now. So every one that you do not pass, He brings you around. So we will take that one again. We will put the pressure on a little more so you can learn. If I do not pass it that time, what? Well, the Lord can bring me around again, with more pressure.

What would happen if I would say, Lord, I just cannot stand this any more and I am not going to submit to this any more. What happens then? Well, of course, if I get so stubborn that the Lord cannot bring me around again, the Lord can say, All right, I will let you go your own way. Then you are lost! You see, this is not an either/or situation.

We either have to pass the test--if we are going to be saved--or we have to be lost. It is just that simple. And so, if we do not pass, the Lord says, Well, Pastor John, I do not want you to lose your soul so I am going to bring you around and give you the test again. And I should be encouraged because the Lord has given me another chance. If I do not pass it that time, the Lord says, Well, Pastor John, I am going to bring you around again. We are going to turn on the heat even more and you are going to have another chance.

I have to pass that test if I am going to pass the one up the line. So, it is the issue of the daily test that determines our victory or defeat in life's great crisis. If we fail the test, we should be so happy and so thankful that when we fail the daily test, the Lord does not say, Well, I guess you are just lost. The Lord says, No, I am going to give you another chance. I am going to let you take that assignment again so you can pass it.

She says, again and again. I want to tell you that I have lived long enough to see that again and again happen. The Lord does not stop. Thank the Lord that He does not stop with three chances. It is not like baseball. The Lord brings us around again and again and again. At some point if we are going to go to heaven, we have to say, Lord, by Your grace and power, help me to pass this test. Help me to get the victory on this point.

Now different ones of us here have different besetting sins. Whatever those besetting sins are, we have to get the victory over that. With many people it is appetite. With some people it is losing their temper. With some people it is being impatient. With some people it is being not strictly honest. With different people, it is different things. But the Lord cannot take me to heaven if something that I see I am not pleased with, I start to swear. Can the Lord take me to heaven if I do that? No. If swearing is my problem, I have to get over that.

So the Lord gives me opportunity to get over it. I have to look to the Lord and say, Lord, help me to stop swearing and start blessing people when I open my mouth. I had a friend. He was making his living repairing trucks and cars, automobiles. He worked in a very large shop. He was trying to get the victory and he was succeeding. Finally there was another mechanic that came over to him one day and said, I have been watching you.

I want to know this, have you ever seen …, this happens by the way to even professional mechanics. You put a wrench on something and you start to pull on it and some way it slips and you rap your knuckles. I think every mechanic has some scars on their knuckles. This man came to this friend of mine and he said, I want to know something about you. You are the one person in this garage that when you rap your knuckles, you do not swear. I want to know about this.

What happened? He was witnessing. He did not know it. By his behavior he was witnessing. He was getting the victory over the tongue. I do not know what it is that you have to get the victory over. The Bible says that we have to get the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. But what ever it is, if you are not getting the victory all the time, the Lord is going to bring you around again and again until you do get the victory.

If you have committed your life to the Lord, every one who is in Christ when they come up to the final test, not one single person will fail. We have been told that in inspiration. Not one single person who is in Christ will fail the final test. Why will they not fail it? Because the Lord has been testing them with the little ones over and over and over and the Lord does not let them get to the final test until He has tested them on the little ones so many times that He knows they will win every time.

God is a better teacher than we are. God does not flunk people out. If you are in it with all of your heart, He will see to it that you get the victory. He will give you the power to get the victory. The question is, Are we willing to stay in the fight and ask the Lord for help so that we can have victory in our lives?

I want to read this statement that explains in simple language what we have been talking about. It says, "God leads His people on step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point (They pass that test.) but fall off at the next. At every advanced point, the heart is tested and tried a little closer." Lift Him Up, 375.

In other words, as you go up the road, the tests get more difficult. "If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel, 'God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.' Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the true witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and over come their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge: 'They are joined to their idols, let them alone,' and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels." Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, 187.

Do you understand what that is talking about? If the Lord decides after He has taken you over a test over and over and over again that you are not ever going to pass it. You are not going to trust in Him and gain the grace from Him that He is willing to give you so that you can pass the test. He sees that you are not going to pass it, He says to the angels, That person is joined to his idols, just let him be. Let him have what he wants.

Then she says that the angels pass on to their work and they leave these individuals with their evil traits unsubdued and under whose control are they? They are under the control of evil angels. It says, "Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and over come, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation." Ibid.

Is that not exciting? If you are willing to stay with the process and say, Lord, by your grace I want to overcome. By the way, God does not ask you to overcome anything that is good. He wants you to overcome the evil and accept and be full of what is good. When you think it through, what God wants for you is what you really want for yourself. You do not want the evil. That will bring trouble, distress, misery and death. You really do not want it when you think it through.

God says, I want you to pass a test and leave that alone. The pride in your heart will cause desertion and it will cause strife. We cannot have that in heaven. It has to come out. I have to become humble.

By the way, if there is strife in your home, you are guaranteed from inspiration (read the book of Proverbs) that you have pride in the hearts of one or more people in the home. You do not have strife if there is not pride first. The symptom proves that the disease is there.

There is gong to be a group of people that are going to overcome and they are going to be taken to heaven and when they get there, there is not going to be anymore strife because there will not be anybody there that is proud. The Bible says that all the proud will burn up, Malachi 4:1. There is not going to be any trouble. There is not going to be any disappointment, You will never have to carry keys around because there are no thieves there, Jesus said.

You are going to live in a place where there is happiness and bliss and enjoyment all the time forever. Is that worth it? Let me tell you, it is worth going through the struggles to pass a test and overcome for a few years down in this world. It is worth it.

And every single one of us can be an overcomer, because God has made provision so that everybody can. This is one of the most wonderful things about the gospel. In fact, I do not know if I could preach the gospel if it were not for this. But God has made provision so that the most sinful person and the weakest person can be an overcomer and go to heaven. God has made full provision for that.

Let me read you an interesting statement about that very thing. It says, "Provision has been made whereby every soul that is struggling under sinful practices may be made free from sin. 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1:29). The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defects of character, but he is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind after the divine similitude. Whatever may be the nature of your defects (this is a wonderful promise), the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace will be given you whereby they may be overcome." Lift Him Up, 237.

Is that not wonderful? Somebody says, Well, Pastor John, I am the weakest person. That is no problem. That must mean that you are going to receive more grace, more help. God is gong to give you all the help that you need. If you are the weakest person, you are just going to get more help. But you are going to have to make a decision to be on God's side of the question and to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

James says that when we come to the place that our speech is perfect so that we are not offending people in our speech, that then we have arrived at character perfection. I want to read to you a few statements in closing about speech. Our speech reveals whether we are passing the tests or not. Especially our speech to members of our family when we think that nobody else is listening.

Here are a few statements about speech. "Now is our time of test and trial. Now is the time when the members of every believing family must close their lips against speaking words of accusation concerning their brethren. Let them speak words that impart courage and strength the faith which works by love and purifies the soul." Kress Collection, 5.

Here is another one. "In the experience of God's people, there are always times of test and trial; and God does not design that men, women, or youth shall be shielded from the liabilities which test the character. Satan will reveal his workings, and will supply every soul he tempts with his evil-surmising, he is evil-speaking and accusing of the brethren." Youth's Instructor, November 10, 1898.

The devil is trying to get you involved in evil surmising which will result in evil speaking and accusing other people. It starts in the family and it goes into the church and everywhere else. "Those who are filled with envy, jealousy, and evil surmising, and who indulge in evil speaking, make it manifest that they are unfit for the kingdom of heaven because they are not peacemakers. Through trial and test it is proved that they are weighed in the balances and found wanting." Signs of the Times, October 10, 1895.

You see, God is testing you and me every day and one of the main tests is how we are speaking day by day. This is revealing whether we are passing the test. Here is one more. "Few are willing to follow the Saviour's example of meekness and humility. Many ask the Lord to humble them, but are unwilling to submit to the needful discipline. When the test comes, when trials or even annoyances occur, the heart rebels and the tongue utters words that are like poisoned arrows or blasting hail." Testimonies for the Church Vol. 5, 176.

Are you passing the test? Oh, you say, Pastor John, you do not know how my patience is tried. Well, let me tell you something. If you are going to go to heaven and you are not passing the test on patience now, the Lord is going to bring you around and your patience is going to get tried even more until you are in control of your tongue. When you go to heaven, you are not going to hear one impatient word throughout all eternity--not even from you!

So if you speak that way, you will not be able to go. So God is allowing us to have various experiences that try our patience. You see, in some ways it is truthful to say that the Christian's life in this world is an endurance test. When it gets this bad, can you not lose patience? When it gets this bad, can you not become angry? And you say, Oh, "bupht, uphff!" The Lord says, All right, we will take that one again.

As long as we are in this world, we are going to be having these tests. But if we are gong to go to heaven, we are going to learn by the grace of God to pass the test and that is one of the main reasons why we receive grace. It is so that we have help in time of need, as it says in Hebrews 4. That is why we pray so that we will have grace to help in time of need.

Here is the last one. It shows not only that there is a test, we are gong to have these tests but also it shows what we must do so that we will pass the test. Notice what it says: This is from Ministry of Healing, 487. "So long as we are in the world, we shall meet with adverse influences. There will be provocations to test the temper; and it is by meeting these in a right spirit that the Christian graces are developed. If Christ dwells in us, we shall be patient, kind, and forbearing, cheerful amid frets, and irritations. Day by day and year by year we shall conquer self, and grow into a noble heroism. This is our allotted task; but it cannot be accomplished without help from Jesus, resolute decision, unwavering purpose, continual watchfulness, and unceasing prayer. Each one has a personal battle to fight. Not even God can make our characters noble or our lives useful, unless we become co-workers with Him. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory."

I do not want to lose the strength and joy of victory, do you? It is the conqueror, the one that is victorious that is gong to be taken to heaven. That word that is translated in the book of Revelation you read over and over about the overcomer, it says the overcomer is going to be saved. It says in Revelation 2, Revelation 3, Revelation 21, it says it over and over again. That word overcomer, that word means to conquer.

It is the conqueror, the one that overcomes, the one that is victorious over these temptations that receives eternal life. The weakest, most sinful person can have this experience. Do not ever forget that. You could never tell the Lord, Well, I am too weak. The Lord says, I have all the strength you need.

Do you want to have this experience in your life? Do you want to be an overcomer so that no matter what test comes, you are in control of your tongue. You are in control of your tongue because you are in control of your spirit. You are in control of your thoughts and your feelings. You are in control of your appetite. You are in control of your passions. You are in control. That is what the gospel is for, to put you back in control.

You see, Adam and Eve lost that when they sinned. Would you like to be in control again? Do you want the Lord to give you victory so that you are in control of your tongue, your appetite, and your passions? You are in control of your life? If that is what you want, I want to invite you to kneel with me and let us pray and ask the Lord to help us each one to have this experience which we must have if we are going to go to heaven.