Please be seated. Our Scripture
reading this morning is the 72nd Psalm, Psalm number 72. This
is the Word of the Lord. Psalm 72, beginning at verse
1, we read these words, Give the King thy judgments, O God,
and thy righteousness unto the King's Son. and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace
to the people and the little hills by righteousness. He shall
judge the poor of the people. He shall save the children of
the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressors. They shall
fear thee as long as the sun and the moon endure throughout
all generations. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth. In his
days shall the righteous flourish in the abundance of peace so
long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea and from river to river unto the ends of the earth.
They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his
enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and the
Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba. and Seba
shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him. All nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the needy
when they cry it, the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
He shall spare the poor and the needy and shall save the soul
of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from
the deceit and violence And precious shall their blood be in his sight. And he shall live, and to him
shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made
for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. There shall
be a handful of corn on the earth, upon the top of the mountains,
the fruit thereof and they of the city shall flourish
like grass on the earth. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations
shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things, and blessed
be His glorious name forever. and let the whole earth be filled
with His glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of
David, the son of Jesse, are ended. That is such a blessing. My guilt and despair. You know,
the Lord has to teach you that. The Lord had to teach me that.
Maybe some of all you folks, maybe somebody here, maybe you
were able to figure it out. Old Johnny, he's running around
thinking he's a pretty good guy. Oh, God's got nothing to be mad
at me about. I've done some things here and
there, but I've never hurt anybody really bad. Yeah, I've done some things against
the country. I've done some things against
this or that. But nothing has been bad enough
to convict me of death. And then the Lord comes. in the
day of His power, shines true righteousness in the heart. A heart that was once dead, it
didn't have any desire for Him at all. Giving new life to that
person, to me. And convicts me of what I really
am before a thrice holy God. Guilty. That's what sin does. It convicts you of guiltiness.
What do I deserve? I deserve the wrath of God. Here's
good news to you who know that of yourselves. Here's good news. Christ died for the ungodly. He died and took the wrath that
we all deserve and paid the penalty in full. Knowing that, I can
sing this song, Calvary covers it all. My guilt and despair, Jesus took
on him there. Calvary covers it all. Is it just me, or does it seem
to you as well? You know, I never used to have
as many trials as I have in my life as I do now. Like I mentioned a moment ago,
Johnny was okay. He was alright. Things didn't
bother him that much. Now, I'm driving down the road. Oh! God! Got it! Another red light. Wait a minute. I just cursed against the one
who rules everything, including the red light in my heart. I just cursed against the very
one who created everything. And I'm not going to share with
you the real troubles that come up in my life because they're
way too embarrassing and I'm too much ashamed of to mention
them to you folks. And I'll bet you've got the same
situation with you as well, don't you? Some folks have shared with
me the stress of becoming aged. You know, I used to be able to
climb up on this roof. And Gene would tell me, man,
I could walk up and over the top of that roof, walk down the
other side. I never worried about falling off the roof. He goes,
now at my age, I've got to sit down and scoot down to the bottom
of the roof. Because I just know if I get
close to that roof, I'm going to lose my balance and just fall.
Getting older, that's a trial, isn't it? I see some heads out
here moving up and down a little bit more than some of the others. Is it just me, or does it seem
to you as well that just as soon as we get through one trial,
the Lord lets me step it in another. We were talking, I can't remember
which message it was, I use it so often, The story of Peter,
we were actually studying it. It's in the book of Matthew.
We were just looking at it here the other day, yeah. And I was thinking
about that very scene. How many times a day do I take
my eyes off of the Lord and begin to sink in my own increment? How often? Let me give you some
assurance if you go to that very same thought. If trials that
are troubling you in this world are bothering you now, let me
give you some assurance of something. God teaches His people. He teaches us. It is written in the prophets,
He says, And they shall be all taught of God." That's in John
6.45. And most every bit of that teaching
comes through trials. Turn in your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 Peter chapter 1. We spent a little time last week
looking at election. What a beautiful word. What a
beautiful doctrine, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of
God choosing a people for himself. Most of God's teachings come
through trials, trials of our faith. We are saved by grace. But it is through faith, as we
read in Ephesians 2, verse 8, God does not test to prove anything
to Himself. Let me be clear about that. The
Lord is not testing us to see what we would do for Himself.
He knows what we would do. He's testing us And He has the
right to test us, by the way, as the Creator of all that is.
Just as the potter has the right to make vessels of honor and
vessels of dishonor, He has the right to test His vessel. To
prove to them. To prove them. To teach them. And that's what the Lord does.
He tests. He proves. To us, he who knows all things,
nothing is hid for him. He tests us or tries us to teach
us that we may know as well. He already knows. Not teaching
him anything new. Know what? What is it he's teaching
me to know? That we may know his truths. That we may know this, my grace
is sufficient for thee." That's not something that you
can just read about. If anybody could just read about
it, the whole world would be wiser, wouldn't it? No, the Lord's
got to reveal these things to you in special ways, and He does
that through trials, through testing, through temptations,
trials. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my streams, And this is talking about His
grace, His strength. The strength in His grace is
made perfect in weakness. My weakness. Not His. He's not
weak at all. But in my weakness, He teaches
me the strength of His grace. That's pretty deep stuff, isn't
it? To those who think that I just flap my arms around on top of
the pond, there's some deep stuff for you right there. God teaches
us the strength of His grace and the weakness of His flesh. Here's some good news for you.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. That's Romans 8 verse 37. Isn't
that good news? We're more than conquerors, not
in anything that we can do. Not in any action we may take.
I can't stand here today and say, I'm so thankful I did this. Because I haven't done anything
but mess stuff up. But there is one who's done it
perfectly for me. And for all who belong to Him.
That's our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Folks, He's done everything perfect.
Didn't the Father say, this is my Son in whom I'm well pleased? Isn't that what God the Father
said? Everybody standing around have heard it. We read it in
the Scriptures. He's the only one who does everything
perfect. And to be in Him means that you
have done it perfect as well. Oh, that's a tough one to wrap
our minds around, isn't it? especially if we look in the
mirror, or especially if we take our eyes off of Him like Peter
did, or like I just mentioned a moment ago myself, and we start
to slip into the water, into the stormy seas that are all
around us, the trials. Did you know God brought that
trial for Peter to look at and start to fall into? He did. He brought those winds, that
storm upon that ship. Just as he did when he was sleeping
in the ship. And he got up and came down crying
to the Lord. Lord, don't you care about us?
Aren't you going to save us? Oh, ye of little faith. Where
did you doubt? Be calm. That's all he did. I'm not even sure he actually
verbally spoke it. He didn't have to. He's God. He works everything out according
to the counsel of his purpose. They, in all things, we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. A man by the name of
J.C. Philpott wrote an article. I
want to share it with you. Some of you have already seen
it. Don't fall asleep while I read it. It's a little lengthy, but
I hope you'll catch the grasp of it. He says, those who know
nothing of their own heart. Now, that was you and I at one
time. I talked about that a moment ago, about God has to teach us,
has to reveal it to us, the depth of our depravity. To those who
know nothing of their own heart, of their own infirmities, of
their own frailties, of their own inward and outward slips
and backslidings, know nothing of the secret of superabounding
grace. Nothing of the secret of atoning
blood, nothing of the secret of the Spirit's inward testimony,
they cannot, only in proportion as we are emptied of the self
of its various forms, are we filled out the fullness of Him
who fills all in all. Now you, perhaps, you who are
poor, a poor tempted creature, And your daily sorrow, your continual
trouble is that you are so soon overcome that your temper, your
lust, your pride, your worldliness, your carnal, corrupt heart are
perpetually getting the mastery. In other words, taking over.
From this you sometimes draw a bitter conclusion. You say
in the depth of your heart, can I be a child of God and be thus? What mark and testimony have
I of being in the favor of God when I am so easily and so continually
overcome by these trials? Do you have trials? I ask you
once again, does your sin bother you? Oh, I pray I pray the Lord causes
it to bother me to the uttermost, to where all I can do is look
up and seek Him. You know what that is? That's
God reaching down and grabbing a hold of Peter by the arm out
of love and saying, I'll not let you go. Are you getting the
picture of what I'm talking about of your trials? Oh, folks, this is a message
for me. This is a message for me. I need to learn this every
day. My trials are for my good. Does Romans 8.28 apply to that
as well as everything else? Absolutely, doesn't it? Including
our trials, does not Paul talk about glorying in his trials
and temptations? Why? Because they bring us closer
to our Savior. They teach us not to trust. This
is God teaching you and I not to trust in this flesh. Not to
have any confidence in what we have right here in this body
of death. But our only confidence can be in our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. And what He has done. The world
loves to say, I'm so thankful I did this or I did that. God's
people are brought were brought to understand that it is Him,
it is Him that we have confidence in. Nay, in all these things
we are more. You got a trial in your life?
You going through some troubles? Whether it be from the outside
or inside? Imagine the troubles that dear
sister Deanne is going through right now with her husband passing
away. Imagine what this dear sister has gone through when
her husband passed away a month ago. You can't, unless you've
had one loved one like that, go as well. What a trial! Yet God's people will take glory
in all of their trials. We may not know why. But Romans
8.28 stands in all things. In all things we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. The text, 1 Peter chapter
1, oh wait a minute, no I'm sorry. The text that I just read, in
all these things we are more than conquerors is this, that
through resolutions of the human wisdom, no, No, it's through
Him that loved us. There is no other way to overcome
but by His strength made perfect in our weakness. Now that's in
2 Corinthians 12, 9. And what a comforting way to
bring us to our text in 1 Peter 1, verse 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. greatly rejoicing in. That word
wherein points back and I want to go back and begin reading
at verse 2 once again and then read verse 6 at the end. Elet,
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification,
through the setting apart, it was His obedience, not ours,
grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
this is the wherein, according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope, that's where our hope is, by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that faith is not a way reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation ready to be revealed for the last time. This is what
we rejoice in. This is what Peter is setting us up to do. He's setting us up to look at
these next verses of our trials, and he says, Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season If need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations." Manifold temptations. This verse
is part of what's been written before. Believers are happy people. They rejoice that they are the
elect of God. that they have been regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, that they rejoice in the redemption of
Christ and His sacrificial blood, they rejoice in His redemption
for their sins, that they are forgiven, they rejoice in His
resurrection, and they rejoice in their inheritance, which is
reserved in heaven, as we just read. Though now for a little
while we are distressed by trials and temptations. Listen to John
chapter 16 verse 33. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me, nay, in all these things we are made conquerors
through him that loved us. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." AIDS troubles you, Brother Mike?
A little bit? He was troubled the other day.
We were talking about somebody coming in to do the texturing
and mudding of the house. We're trying to get it wrapped
up and finally done after five years of living there. And he
was like, oh, I would do it, John. I just can't. I just can't. He was troubled. Age is getting
to us, brother. Nay, in all these things you
are conquerors. And we are a conqueror in Him.
We rejoice even though we are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. Mark your spot here. We're going
to come back. Turn over to Luke chapter 6 if you would. I want
to show you an example of what we're talking about here. Rejoicing.
Rejoicing in our trials. Turn over to Luke chapter 6.
Look at verse 21. Luke chapter 6 verse 21. Blessed
are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. You can say it this way, blessed
are you that hunger for the righteousness of Christ. I'll keep going. Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall
hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company,
and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the
son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap
for joy. For behold, your reward is great
in heaven. For in the like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets, but woe unto you that are rich. For
ye have received your consolation. The word temptation that we're
reading about, go back to your text if you went in 1 Peter.
The word temptation refers not to a temptation of sin, but refers
to the trials which God in His wisdom decrees and permits for
our good. These trials come in different
ways. The trial of difficult service,
maybe you're under the whip at work. Maybe you're fighting the
age and you can't do what you once used to do. Or it could
be the trial of reproach from unbelievers. I was told once
that I was unqualified to be the pastor because I had not
been to school. I had to make this statement.
I was at school alright. It just wasn't in some classroom
somewhere. It was in the classroom of God.
I've been taught by God what grace is in my life. I remember
Pastor Gene when he first, he shared this story a couple of
times. Henry Mahan, I don't know, I
can't remember who it was. It was one of the preachers before
him. was encouraging him to become
a preacher. And he's like, well, I've never
been to school. And that one that was giving him the encouragement
said this, that's a plus for you. You haven't had your mind
all bundled up with those who are the world and the religious
world. Maybe your trial, maybe it's
a trial of riches or poverty. Have you ever thought about that?
Have you ever thought about winning the lottery? Seriously. All of a sudden you've got 25
million dollars. Woo! What are you going to do? I'm going to Disney Land. I'm
pretty sure it would ruin me. I may not be in poverty. It's what some of the world is
in poverty. But I'm thankful I'm also not
rich. What about the trial of sickness? I thought about calf when I read
those words. The trial of sickness. The man
who was the hub of a large family. I mean literally the hub. Everybody,
sons and daughters and grandchildren and wife and brothers leaning on Him for what they
need to get by in this life. Could you imagine what was going
on in his mind as he was thinking, the Lord's going to take me home
any day now? He didn't say anything about that. In fact, his words
were this, I'm so thankful that God has given me 70 good years.
I'm so thankful for the family that's around me as I'm sitting
here preparing to leave this world. But I would have thought about
that. What's my wife going to do if the Lord took me tomorrow? I think, I think He's been given
me the ability to prepare for it. I think. That's got to go through your
mind. Trials of sickness and sorrow. Trials of success and
failure. The trial of disappointment.
Folks, either Romans 8.28 stands or it doesn't. Either your trials
are for your good or God is lying. Sometimes the trial of faith
are unpleasant to this flesh, but not always. The Lord may
permit a man to prosper in order to try his faith. That's why
I said I'd be afraid to be a millionaire. I think it would ruin me. Look
at verse 7 of our text. Now Paul wrote those first five
verses to encourage us, and then he uses that verse 6 that we
just read. Ye greatly rejoice, wherein we
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are
in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith be much more precious It's hard to look at our trials
that way, isn't it? What a precious trial, what a wonderful trial.
That's not the way we look at it most of the time, is it? Most
of the time, I look at mine like, oh, this is painful. I don't want to go through this. Thank God He knows better than
I do. Remember what we said. My grace is sufficient for thee, For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold, that perisheth through
it, be tried with fire, might be found. Notice what it says
here. What is the trial of your faith
drive you to? Found unto the praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Folks, God has
a reason for every trial in our lives. Every affliction that
comes our way that He brings into our lives is like the waves
that He brought up against the ship. Faith is trialed to reveal
the geniusness of it. Your faith is more precious than
gold. And gold must be tested by fire.
When gold comes through the fire, it's purged of its impurities,
and it shines even the brighter. So faith that comes through a
real trial is purged of pride. It's purged of hypocrisy. It's
purged of self-righteousness. And only that which rests left
over is the beautiful brightness of Christ Jesus our Lord. What
am I going to turn to? Him. Our faith is tried in order to
strengthen it and increase it. The more my faith is used, the
stronger it becomes. Trials do not just produce faith,
they reveal faith. Faith is trialed to reveal the
value of it. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15 verse
19. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. is better for us than to find
out how frail we are and how fragile the things of this world
are. Nothing is better than that. Our trials enable us to comfort
others as well who are tried. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
1. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
1. Blessed be God, this is verse
3. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercy, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in
all of our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. I remember a time when my brother
and his wife lost their son. Did you know that Pastor Gene
lost a son? What comfort, what comfort God
gave to Lee and Shirley by the witnessing of Gene and Judy in
the loss of theirs as well. I could use another example of
that. Just recently, you know when Shelby Fortner lost Don,
when Don was taken home to be with the Lord. You know how many
times she's been used since then to comfort men and women when
they've lost their husbands or wives, over and over and over
again. Gladys, up in Redding, when Larry
was taken from the world, she was the first one to call Gladys
and talk to her and give her comfort. Faith, which survives
trial, will be honored and praised at the appearing of Christ Jesus.
It'll bring glory to Christ and to us. Look at verse 8. 1 Peter chapter
1 verse 8. Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. We have never seen Christ with
our natural eyes, yet we believe Him. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed. John 20, verse 29.
Let's look at one more. One more verse. Verse 9. Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. The chief design of this verse
is to distinguish this great salvation from a temporary deliverance. The end of faith, or the result
of faith, is not just to make life here bearable, or only to
give us the moral principles of which to live, but the outcome
of faith is the complete salvation of our souls from sin. from the
law, from hell, from eternal death, and eternal glory with
our Lord. This is the salvation we now
have by faith in our risen Lord. So, as we come to this table
to remember what He has done for us, to be brought in remembrance
of the body that was provided, the blood that was shed, let
us remember All through these trials that we're going through
in this life, our Lord brings them for our good to teach us. To teach us that my grace is
sufficient. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness.