6 there of 1st Peter chapter
1 Let's read that again wherein you greatly rejoice in all these
blessings of God and in the in God himself talks about God Blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ And we rejoice
in him Though now for a season that we know we've experienced
these seasons haven't we and It's good to know that it's a
season, and not forever. If need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold trials. That's what that word is, trials.
It's not that you're being tempted to do something bad. It's a trial. That's what that's talking about.
The context would tell us that, even if we didn't have a Greek
concordance the trial of your faith being much more precious
than of gold. And so it's trials that we're
talking about here, heaviness through trials, but there's rejoicing
even though there's heaviness. It doesn't say wherein you did
greatly rejoice before this season came, but you greatly rejoiced
though now for a season you're also heavy. But I like those words, those
three words in the middle there, if need be. We would never say
that, would we? We're just, you know, traipsing
along through life and just stop one day and say, you know, I
need to be tried today. I need to go through something
horrible. We would never say that, but God knows what we need.
He knows what we need. Maybe it's necessary according
to him. Can we bow to that? And I mean that question that's
not just a rhetorical question answer that in your heart Can
we bow to that can we bow to him? We saw in our study in Revelation
that when John was told to eat the little book in chapter 10
and that it was gonna be sweet, sweet as honey in his mouth,
but it was gonna cause his belly to be bitter. And that's part of our trial
in this world, isn't it? Think about how much more acutely
our Savior felt the heaviness of his trials because of his
holy nature. And us having his nature, we
don't feel it like he did, but we do more than this world does. That wherein Peter says we greatly
rejoice is everything that was previously mentioned in those
first five verses. All the blessings of the Father's
electing grace, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, the sprinkling,
the application of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer to our souls, In a word, the completed work of our salvation
as accomplished by the God of all grace through his Son. We
do rejoice, and because it's necessary, we're in heaviness
often. This may seem like a contradiction
unless you're a believer. How can you rejoice and be heavy
at the same time? You don't even have to think
about that if you know the Lord. That's almost a daily thing,
in some degree or another. It may be a paradox, but it's
a paradox among many when it comes to believers, isn't it?
We're paradoxes in many ways. We're poor in spirit, and yet
all things are ours in Christ. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong. You think the world understands
that? We're fully persuaded like Paul,
aren't you? I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
yet we constantly doubt. The Lord has to ask us, I'm sure
often, like he did his disciples, how is it that you have no faith? How is that? Yet we are persuaded that he's
able. We're both holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in the sight of God, and also we see every
day more how evil we are. How wretched we are. As Simon describes here, we're
happy. Believers are full of joy. We
enjoy the things of this world, I believe, more than the world
does because of Christ. Because we enjoy them in the
right way, in the right sense, for the right reasons. But how we rejoice in the things
of God, in the spiritual blessings, all of which are ours, Christ
Jesus The joy that we have in Christ doesn't exempt us from
heaviness though But neither can the heaviness
of the trials of this world That the Lord gives us because they're
necessary They can't take away our joy Because our joy is not in things.
Our joy is not in circumstances. Our joy is not in what the world
calls everything's going well. Our joy is a person. And he said,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Look at verse eight in our
text. Whom having not seen, you love. In whom though now you see him
not yet believing. Believing on Christ, knowing
him, though you've never seen him with your physical eyes,
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We do, don't
we? When the gospel is preached,
especially, but sometimes just throughout the day at a random
time, we'll get to thinking about God and all of his mercies upon
us and rejoice in him. Are we acquainted with this heaviness
and this joy? Is this our experience? The word heaviness there is to
make sorrowful, to affect with sadness, cause grief, to throw
into sorrow. Our Savior was acquainted with
grief. Every grief we feel, he felt, again, more acutely than
we ever will or have. Hebrews 4.15, we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. What a blessing to think that
when we are in heaviness, when we are going through a trial,
We come to the throne of Him who suffered in every way we
have, yet without sin. None of it's alien or foreign
to Him. He understands. And that, you'd
think that that would kind of go without saying that the God-man
understands. He's omniscient. There's something more to it
than that. He understands because he's omniscient, but really,
you don't really know anything unless you've experienced it.
God experienced what we do, yet without sin. What Paul is saying there is
that when we come to the throne of grace, we're coming before
one who became, in that sense, what we are. Not in the sense
of sin, but became man. The man. The only difference
between us and him in the experience of living as a human being is
that he's the sinless one. Thank God for that. We're in heaviness, Peter said,
and he was in heaviness. They came to a place which was
named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit ye here
while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter
and James and John and began to be sore amazed and to be very
heavy. And saith unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here and watch. And
he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed
that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And
think about this, what caused his heaviness there in Gethsemane
is what causes mine too. My sin. My sin. He was bearing the burden of
my sin. And of course, our trials, the Lord uses them for our good.
There wouldn't be any trials if there weren't sin. We're not going to be tried in
glory. We're going to be like Christ then. He suffered from us in all of
his life and then bore them in his death. His acquaintance with grief lies
at my door. I introduced him to grief, in
a sense. It pleased the Father to do so,
but it was my guilt that caused it, my shame. It was the price of my redemption.
The chastisement of my peace was upon him. But also as we rejoice, our Savior
rejoiced. Though he was the man of the
man of sorrows acquainted with grief he rejoiced Hebrews 12
to looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith Who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross? Despising
the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God his joy Was the redemption of his people? but in that Part
of that and essential to that joy was doing the will of his
father. That was the will of his father, that he come and
redeem us from our sins by making his own soul the offering for
our sins. What caused his joy is also what
causes my joy. He died for me. When he endured the cross, it
was for the joy. That was set before him. That
doesn't mean he enjoyed being on the cross. That means he did
it and he counted the shame a small thing because of the joy of the
result of it. He died for me and nobody can
take that away. That's what I rejoice in, Christ
crucified. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Nothing can eclipse that in this
world. No trial is that heavy. And our heaviness comes in the
form of trials. The word translated temptations
here, listen to the actual definition of this word. Very, very informative. An experiment. That's the first
thing it says about, it's an experiment. Now think about that
for a minute. An experiment, trial, proving. When you go through
heavy times, it's an experiment. Now we know that God doesn't
do experiments in the way we do to find out what's gonna happen.
He already knows what's gonna happen. So it's not in that sense,
It's not an experiment the way we use the word. He's not waiting
to see the outcome. It's a manner of speaking that
describes how God tries and exercises the faith that he gives. Religion
speaks about man producing faith and exercising faith. Man doesn't
do either one. Faith is the fruit of God's spirit. Christ is the author and finisher
of faith. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Only God can increase our faith
and only he can exercise our faith. And that's what he does. He takes it for a run, so to
speak. It's all through the word of
God, Abraham and Isaac. That was a proving. It was an
experiment. Not to find out what was going
to happen. God knew that. But to cause it to happen. To
cause the result that was going to happen that God did know about. Job. Job was tried with some
fire, wasn't he? Philip at the feeding of the
5,000. It says there that it was to prove him. To prove him. The word temptations, turn to
John 6. Let's look at that real quick.
John 6, 6. I believe it's where that is. Yeah, let's read from verse 1. This is interesting. After these things, Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a
great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles,
which he did on them, that were diseased. And Jesus went up into
a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover,
a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes and saw a great company coming to him, he saith unto
Philip, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this
he said to prove him. That word prove right there is
the verb form of the noun temptations in our text. Same word. So let's look at it back over
there now. This he said to prove him, for
he himself knew what he would do. It wasn't an experiment to
see for God, for the Lord to find out what would happen. He
knew what he was going to do. Why does God do that? Why does
God do that? Why does he try us? Why does
he put us through things to call it And it's him exercising our
faith. It's causing us, if we have faith,
we're gonna need it, aren't we? We're gonna need it in these
trials. It's gonna be exercised. Well, why does God do everything
he does? Look at verse seven back in our
text. 1 Peter 1, seven. That the trial of your faith
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. Though
it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and
glory. That's why he does it at the
appearing of Jesus Christ He does it for his glory He does
it for his glory, and you know what think about this what what
is the ultimate for us? That's what God is doing everything
for, for his own glory. What's the ultimate for us? His
glory. Remember when he said, I will
that they which you've given me be with me where I am. You
remember the next part? That they may behold my glory.
That's the ultimate for you. God-given faith is always God-tried
faith. We should not expect or want
for it to be any different with us than with those who are given
to us as examples in the scripture. God doesn't try faith to see
if it's strong enough. He knows all things, but he does
it to make it strong, to make it stronger. Abraham, he said,
was strong in faith. Remember in Hebrews 11, strong
in faith. Well, God tried Abraham's faith
both before and after the occasion that's spoken of where he's described
as being strong in faith. Why was he strong in faith? God
tried that faith very, very strongly. But then even after it says he
was strong in faith, On the occasion of the birth of Isaac, God tried
his faith after that too. It redounds to the glory of God.
And that's what we want, not as much as he does, but like
he does. We want him to be glorified.
And this faith that God gives is said to be precious. It says
the trial of your faith is precious, Because the faith itself is precious
more so than gold It's precious to God because it honors and
exalts and looks to and rests in his son the Lord Jesus Christ
That's what happened with Abraham The Hebrews 11 says that Abraham
went up that hill Knowing that if he sacrificed his son, as
God told him to do, he would be killing the one through which
the Lord told him the promised Messiah would come. And yet he did it knowing this,
that God would raise him from the dead. If he ended up killing
him, he'd raise him from the dead. Believing that God could
raise him from the dead. God's word is trusted by faith, by those who are given
faith. And the faith that's strong,
like it says Abraham had, when it's tried, it's gonna glorify
him. You see that? It's gonna say
he's able, he's worthy, his word is true. It's gonna trust in
Christ and exalt him. And God does everything He does
for the glory of His Son. This faith is precious to Him.
Because of that, the faith that He gives is precious to me because
it's how He saved me. It's the means that God's given
me whereby to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. It unites
me to Christ who is my all, my life, my salvation. Peter says
the way that God tries faith is with fire And it's as though
it be with fire And that doesn't mean it's always
as fiery of a trial as at other times. Sometimes
we go through things, but you know sometimes what we might
consider a smaller trial, we would consider going through
some drastic life-changing event, a great trial. Sometimes it's
just a little something in your heart that doesn't affect you
physically at all that you don't even know you failed. A trial you don't ever even know
that you failed. We're tried all the time in different
ways. And some of the hardest ones
to endure are those ones on the inside, aren't they? But it's precious to God and
to me. But tried by fire, you know,
Job would have said amen to that. God tries faith by fire. Look
what he went through. Abraham went through a little
fire on Mount Moriah with that would you describe it that way
if the Lord said take your son? Your only son whom you love Sacrifice
him to me Saul of Tarsus Paul As he's known as a believer
in 2nd Corinthians 11 23 through 28 we won't read that this morning
That's just a few of the trials that he went through it the flesh. Why would God do this to his
children? What purpose does that serve?
Well, when gold is purified, it's not that the gold is diminished
in any way, it's just the opposite. The gold is made more precious.
That's why the word precious is used here. It may appear less
in volume, there be less Mass there, when gold is tried with
fire, but there's not less gold. There's less impurity. There's
less of the flesh. The flesh doesn't go away, but
the Lord tries our faith. And the gold, when the gold is
tried by fire, the illustration given in our text there, The
gold itself is not diminished, but also it's more precious than
it was before. Likewise, faith is not decreased
by trial. The flesh is decreased in our
trusting of it. Paul said we have no confidence
in the flesh, and yet our flesh has confidence in the flesh.
But as believers, we don't. And when our faith is tried,
the faith of God's elect is more precious to God, being more and
more reliant upon Him, more exalting of Him, the Lord Jesus. It's even more precious to us
because the more clearly we see the Lord Jesus and the more fully
we rest in Him, the more fully we trust in Him, the more glorious
He is to us. That's what happiness is The faith itself is more precious
than gold because it cannot be purchased with all the gold in
the world He who has this gift from God
though having little or no gold has everything first Corinthians
3 21 and 22 all things And our text, as I said, it seems
to indicate that the trial itself is precious. The trial of your
faith is precious too. And that's because though perhaps
painful and disruptive to your life, it worketh that which honors
him who gave it. It redounds to the glory of him
who gave it. The one who's worthy of all glory. Always remember these things
about your trials in this life. Think about this. For a season. We touched on that already. For
a season. I'm glad it's for a season. 2 Corinthians 4.15, all things
are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint
not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, just a little while, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I'm
glad it's a season. And then those words we looked
at also, if need be, And we may not see the necessity of the
trials that we face, but God says they're necessary. Listen
to 2 Corinthians 12, 7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me And he
said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. So remember those things. For
a season, it's necessary for us Thirdly they were down to the
glory of Christ verse 7 the glory of the Savior And that's what
we want by his grace not unto us, but unto thy name give glory
Verse 8 in our text whom having not seen you love In whom though
now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory Now he's been talking about faith, and here
he describes faith. He describes it this way, not
seen, not seen. Now you see him not. What is
faith? Again, from Hebrews 11.1, faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Whom having not seen, Notice here he does not say we
have faith in lieu of evidence. Faith is the evidence. We don't require physical evidence
because we have spiritual evidence. Faith. Faith is supernatural. Faith is the gift of God. It is, there's nothing else like
it. I've heard people illustrate You know, a child jumping into his father's
arms in the dark, you know, the father's saying, jump, jump,
and he can't see, but he jumps because he trusts in his father.
And I guess there's some place for an illustration like that.
But faith is a supernatural gift of God. It's not like something
natural like that. It's not a leap in the dark.
Faith is the reasonable response of the regenerate heart to God's
revelation. When God says something, when
He reveals something, we believe Him. We believe God. And that's not jumping in the
dark. We know we can trust Him. We
know that all things work together for good. So you can't really compare faith
to anything natural because it's not natural and there's nothing
else like it Though we don't see him It says we love him and
we rejoice in him With joy unspeakable just as faith is the fruit of
the spirit so is love and And that doesn't say fruits of the
Spirit. We've pointed that out every time. It's the fruit of
the Spirit. It's the fruit of God's Spirit
dwelling within us. And both of these characteristics
are aspects of that fruit, the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. So
where one is present, the other is of necessity present. If we
do indeed believe, then we love. They're really the same thing. with some different qualities.
They're two sides of the same coin. Where the Holy Spirit has
come in regenerating, life-giving faith, and Christ-revealing grace,
when the Spirit shows us the things of Christ, and turns the
light on, and we see Him and believe, This fruit is present
which is described in all of these various ways three of which
are mentioned in this verse love faith What's the other one joy
joy, that's the fruit of the spirit too Peace and hope are also mentioned
in the context in verses two and three This is the blessing
of God on his people if you have Christ in You have all of these
characteristics. You rejoice in him, you love
him, you believe him, you trust him. You have the peace which
passeth all understanding, filling your heart. Not because you were
born with them in the flesh, but because you're born of the
spirit. So do you have these things?
That's the question. I've heard it preached, and I
think I've preached it myself, that the evidence that we're
saved is faith. And that's primarily true. Do
you believe on the Son of God? But you remember what he asked
Simon? Do you love me? Well, did he forget about faith?
Did he neglect to mention faith? It's the same thing. It's the
fruit of the Spirit. Do you trust Him? Do you love
Him? Do you have His peace in your
heart? Do you rejoice in Him? Do you actually experience joy
when the Gospel is preached? If you have faith, you do. If
you believe God, how can you not? How can you believe God
when he says everything in this world works for your good and
not be happy about that? If you're not happy about that,
you have no idea who God is. There's just no way, you couldn't.
Of course, there's gonna be times even though we know that we're
not gonna be happy about anything because we do doubt still, we
do go through seasons. Verse 9 of our text receiving
the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Salvation
the end of your faith the purpose of your faith The end result
of your faith given to you by God is salvation Not name it and claim it fleshly
carnal earthly gain I Religion has made faith a materialistic
magic wand, you know, where you can wave it and if you believe
enough, you can have all the selfish desires of your heart
satisfied. Believe and receive, they say,
health and wealth. And it's all a bunch of lies.
Faith has one object. One. The Lord Jesus Christ. And there's one end, one goal,
one result to faith. And it's not you winning the
lottery. It's the salvation of your soul. That's what it is. Salvation in, by, through, and
because of Christ. Now we've seen in the context
In the first several verses of this chapter, these truths concerning
salvation, salvations of the Lord. In verse one, Peter introduces
himself and describes whom he addresses. And then he addresses
us in verse two, beginning with one word, elect. Chosen, sovereignly
chosen out of love by God in eternity. Second thing, salvation involves
a separate, separating, regenerating work by the Holy Spirit of God.
Sanctified, set apart by the Spirit of God. We're born of
water and of the Spirit. Thirdly, salvation is the application
of the work of Christ to our souls. The fact that Christ died
will not save me, but if he died for me, I'm saved. It is the death, it is Christ
crucified who is my salvation. The sprinkling of that blood
on my soul, pictured by the sprinkling upon the mercy seat of the blood. It signifies the application
of the merits of Christ's effectual sin atoning death to me personally. Fourthly salvation is life. It's
the imparting of a new nature the nature of God that were begotten
in the text begotten born of God You must be born of the Spirit
of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh And that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit fifthly salvation is a relationship
with a person the word inheritance in verse 4 speaks of this and
Listen to that same thought in Romans 8 17 and if children then
heirs Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be that
we suffer with him that we also may be glorified together Those
who inherit and that word inheritance is in our context there Those
who inherit are the children? Only the children inherit and
If you're a child of God, you're an heir of God. That's what Paul
said in Romans 8. In verse 6, salvation is an eternal
and continual work. Verse 5, we are kept. That's a beautiful word. Kept. If you know what a wretch you
are, that word will be precious to you. Kept. Prone to wander Lord. I feel
it prone to leave the God. I love Here's my heart Lord Take
it and seal it Seal it for that courts above The print the perseverance
of the Saints is of the Lord we persevere because we're preserved
by God we're kept if the power of God and the salvation is not
exerted upon you today you're goners and It's not a past experience, it
is an eternal work. Thank God that he which hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it. Philippians 1.6,
he will finish it. And then that brings us right
to number seven, salvation's a finished work. Never forget
that beautiful word in verse five either, ready. All things
are ready, ready to be revealed. We're saved by God right now,
but we don't even know yet how saved we are. It's gonna have
to be revealed to us, isn't it? Ready, all that's left is for
it to be revealed in its fullness in the last time. It's already
accomplished for you. It's already accomplished in
you by Christ. The word ready in our text here
is the same word our Lord Jesus Christ used in John 14 too. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you I go to Prepare, I go to make ready a place for you. So that's that word ready in
our text. That's what it's saying, it's done. I go to make it ready. He went to the cross and made
sure that one of these many mansions is yours. Now, if you can't rejoice in
this salvation, You just simply haven't experienced
it. I haven't either if we can't rejoice in that we just don't
believe God again How do you believe him regarding these things?
And not be happy about that Many are unable to rejoice in
a salvation that's wrought altogether by Christ without them But can
we Is it all right with you that you're not getting any glory
at all? Is that all right with you? By God's grace, I'm fine
with that. I'm fine with that. He told those Pharisees, you
will not come to me, but you might have life. And that's why
they hated him. They thought they were doing just fine on
their own in this thing of salvation. They were establishing for themselves
a righteousness before God. Coming to Christ is a renouncing
of all of that. Everything I've ever done, am
doing, and will do, would put me in hell if God counted it. But because Christ is my salvation,
I'm plumb saved. And by His grace, by His grace,
I want Him to have all the glory. Amen let's bow