Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen and I’m podcasting from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. We just finished a week of training for our War of Special Forces team, and right now they’re in Alton, Illinois.

And evangelist Caleb Reed is pinch hitting for me as I have some responsibilities here at Falls Baptist Church. Next week, I’ll be joining the team in Martinsville, Indiana, and we are looking forward to a great fall of meetings all across the East.

You can certainly look at our itinerary on w w w dot w a r s f war sf dot org, and if you’re close, we’d love to have you on one of our Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday night evening rallies at the same time this very week at Clinton, Maine. The clash team with evangelist Bobby Bosler is finishing up their summer.

This doesn’t happen a lot, but it’s exciting when we have two ministry weeks that are running simultaneous, and we look forward to Wednesday and Thursday and Friday night. We’re literally in two locations. The gospel will be being preached, and we are looking forward to some great things happening at that time.

Certainly exciting days as God is working. And I hope you’re encouraged in the Lord. Even though we’re facing unusual circumstances in our country in these times, God is still at work.

And I hope you’re encouraged in that. But anyway, I want to just spend a few moments talking to you about passage of Scripture that occurs right before our Lord was taken and crucified. He was with his disciples, and he said something to Peter that is quite stunning.

In verses thirty one and thirty two of Luke twenty two and the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. Prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.

And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Now what does that verse mean? Well, I don’t know that we have time to fully address it.

But remember what Peter was, what was occurring in his heart. Peter believed that Jesus was the Christ. He said so.

And even when he did, Jesus said, flesh and blood didn’t reveal that. But my father which is in heaven. So very clearly God had worked in Peter’s heart.

He believed that Jesus was Messiah. But evidently Peter, perhaps as his study of the Old Testament, a thought that Jesus was going to first deliver the Jewish people from the Romans. You see, at this time the Jews lived in an occupied land.

I know as an American that would be a hard thing to think about. Living in a land where foreign soldiers walk your streets. There were foreign military installations on your soil, on American soil, a puppet government in Washington, D.C.

but we all know we’re being run by a foreign, foreign country. That’s exactly what was happening in Israel. The Jews weren’t occupied people.

Roman soldiers walked their streets. There were foreign military installations on Jewish soil. Puppet government in Jerusalem and all.

Everybody knew Rome ruled the show, and Peter wanted nothing more than to throw off the yoke of Roman rule and once again rule themselves. And he believed that Jesus Christ was going to do that. Now please understand, uh, he was really missing the fact that first Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and eventually he is going to rule the millennial rule.

And, and in his study of these things in the Old Testament, obviously he didn’t see the time sequence. So when the Lord uh, when the Bible says in Matthew sixteen, from this time forth began Jesus to say unto his disciples how that he must needs go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Uh.

Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, this shall not be unto thee, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. So this was a moment, obviously, where Satan was whispering and working in Peter’s heart.

And Peter wanted nothing to do with the Messiah being crucified and risen. He missed all that. And as a result, he was living in a paradox.

And Jesus knew that and said, now listen, Peter, Satan desires to have you and sift you as wheat. And that is exactly what happened in the coming hours. He was sifted as wheat.

Now, I don’t believe his faith ultimately failed, but it certainly there were moments where he caved in to the attack of the enemy. And that’s what we’re going to talk about. What does sift mean?

Well, I remember going through when I was studying for this passage, going through Strong’s Concordance and somehow coming across that definition of riddle, excuse me, of sift. And I gave it away. And they had two definitions, a literal definition and a figurative definition.

And the figurative was to riddle, to riddle. And it kind of hit me because that is clearly a figurative situation here. He says, sift you as wheat.

So clearly it’s figurative. So I began to think about that definition to riddle. Now, I know this may sound strange to you, but I remember back as a kid, probably nineteen sixty four, sixty five, somewhere in there watching the very first episode of Batman and Robin.

Of course, as a kid, I was intrigued and thought it was all pretty high tech. Uh. But anyway, I learned soon after watching that on a regular basis that there was always a different villain.

There was the Joker, and there was, uh, Mr. Freeze, and there was the Riddler. Now, as a kid, we had a black and white television and the Riddler, as far as I could tell, just simply had a gray outfit. But it was found out later it was actually green.

But all across the outfit was question marks. See, to riddle, I believe, is Satan what Satan does. He riddles us with question marks and that’s what sifting is.

Now, that certainly bears up under the context, because he says, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. So whatever sifting is, it’s an attack on our faith to attack on Peter’s faith.

And what can more attack our faith than question marks? Where God puts a period. Satan wants to put a question mark.

Now here’s the time. You and I are extremely vulnerable. Paradox.

You say, what is paradox? I could tease and say two medical doctors, but that’s not what we’re talking about. A paradox is a seeming contradiction.

It’s could have put it this way, when what you’re going through doesn’t seem to match up with the Word of God. Have you ever gone through a situation where you kind of felt like, uh, how does this reconcile with all things work together for good? How does this reconcile with God is good or God’s merciful or whatever?

Those are moments. You are vulnerable. And that’s when Satan throws his fiery darts, which I believe are these question marks, because the Bible says in the book of Ephesians that the shield of faith is what quenches the fiery darts.

So faith is clearly that which quenches the question marks. So, friends, maybe there’s a time where you’re going through some difficult times, Maybe a loved one dies, or there’s illness that comes to somebody you care about, or even in your own life. Or maybe there’s financial pressures in your family or in your own situation, I don’t know.

There could be spiritual darkness that comes into your life, and there’s spiritual battles you’re facing that you don’t seem to understand. There’s a lot of paradox that comes into our life as Christians, and that actually is the time God is trying to teach us something. He’s trying to teach us to trust him when we can’t figure it out.

That’s what the Bible says when says the trying of your faith works patience. And that when your faith is tried, when you can’t figure it out, and that’s when you trust God. That’s what patience is.

Uh, under pressure or in the frying pan. Sometimes the way I put it, I, uh, in the book of James there, but back to what Peter was going through, uh, he obviously allowed those question marks to get through. And he denied the Lord three times, and he wept bitterly about it.

Perhaps you’ve done that. Maybe you’ve gotten discouraged in your Christian life. Maybe you’ve walked away from the Lord for a short amount of time.

Maybe you’ve allowed a sin issue to take over where you were having some measure of defeat, and you allowed the question marks to get through. Now, friends, notice what Peter did. It’s not the end of Peter.

In acts chapter two, we see him standing. And don’t miss this proving the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament. There was no New Testament at the time proving it from the Old Testament.

The very thing he said, this shall not be unto thee, be it far from thee, Lord, is the very thing. Now he’s defending, which means the question marks had been dealt with. He had lifted the shield of faith.

What is the shield of faith, friends? It’s putting your confidence back in the Word of God, or the character of God that Satan has caused you to to to doubt or to question. And friends, you have some question marks.

Have you allowed some difficulties, some paradoxes, some seeming contradictions, some things you’re going through that don’t seem to reconcile with some thoughts that you have about God or the Word of God, and you’re not seeing it. Your faith is being tried. The answer always, is to put your confidence back in those principles and promises and trust God even when you can’t always see it right now or figure it out.

And when the shield of faith is lifted, it quenches the fiery darts and you actually are beginning to be patient. Patience is trusting God in the frying pan when you can’t figure it out, when you’re in paradox. And that’s what Peter did.

And he had great victory in his life. And God used his life in a great way. Friends, paradoxes aren’t your enemies.

God’s teaching you to trust. It’s not hard to trust when you can figure things out. It’s much harder to trust when you can’t, but recognize when you can’t figure things out, you’re vulnerable.

Satan is going to try to throw question marks at you, riddle you, sift you. But Jesus said, I’ve prayed for you and I wouldn’t be surprised. Friends right now in heaven, he’s interceding for all of us.

And, um, as the Bible says, he does make intercession for us and he’s praying for us that our faith doesn’t fail, that we lift the shield of faith. And if you’ve allowed those question marks to get through, the answer is not hard. Put your confidence back in those very things that Satan has got you to question.

And friend, I’ll tell you, you’ll grow in the Lord and you will come to Christian maturity as you learn to do that, and you trust God and trust him when you can’t see. It’s trusting him in the dark, so to speak. Well, friends, I hope you’ve enjoyed just a short time here thinking about these wonderful truths.

And let me just conclude again with the wonderful encouragement to each one of us to be totally surrendered to the will of God. And let’s be totally dependent. That’s what we’re talking about today, totally dependent on his grace to accomplish his will.