Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 1 Peter 1. We're going to begin reading in verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. We don't understand the details
of what God is doing in Providence, but the peace of God which passeth
all understanding. That piece of God that keeps
God's child looking to Christ and to Christ only is this. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ has given us abundant mercy in Christ. Abundant mercy. Abundant mercy because of our
abundant sins. He's begotten us again unto a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the peace of God. It
passes all understanding. It passes us. It's the peace
we have when we don't understand. In Christ, each of God's saints,
every one of his people has an inheritance an inheritance, an
eternal inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled. For each child
who arose in Christ Jesus, our sins cannot corrupt or defile
our inheritance. We don't use that as an excuse
to sin, but we do rejoice in the truth that our sins cannot
corrupt this inheritance. It cannot defile this inheritance.
It is incorruptible. It's undefiled because it's in
Christ. Our inheritance will not fade
away. Everything in this earth will
fade away. But our eternal inheritance shall
not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you. The peace of God, when we don't
understand, the peace of God is knowing we're kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. This is the joy of God's salvation
for each one who's been given faith to rest in Christ alone. This is the joy of salvation
that He gave us through faith in Christ. God shall keep us
by His power. He shall keep us by His power. He'll keep us believing in Christ.
He's going to keep us by His power through faith. And He's
going to do it unto salvation and to the end. We saw last time
in Psalm 121.7, the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. All evil? That's what it says
and that's exactly what God means. Because here's what He's saying,
He shall preserve thy soul. No evil is going to touch your
soul. Your inner man, no evil will touch. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even
forevermore. That's peace, brethren. That's
the Word of God. And there's nothing for us to
do in order to complete our salvation. Listen now. Is salvation ready
to be revealed? That's what he says. Is salvation
ready to be revealed? It's all ready. Christ cried, it's finished.
It is finished. He accomplished the justification
of every elect child of God. That's what Christ did. Every
sinner begotten again to this living hope is complete in Christ. Seated there with Him right now.
He says in verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. This is our joy, this is our
rejoicing. Everything He said there in those
first two or three verses, this is what we rejoice in, brethren. Though now for a season, though
now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness. through
manifold temptations. You're in heaviness through various,
multiple trials. We greatly rejoice in our living
hope in Christ, but for a season, now for a season, if need be,
we're in heaviness through manifold, through various trials. Isn't
that the life of a believer? Paul said, as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing. Our subject tonight is God's
word concerning trials. All God-given faith will be tried
by God. All God-given faith will be tried. But through tribulation, God's
growing each of His saints in faith to trust Christ alone for
all. We're learning more and more
the simplicity of Christ. The singularity of Christ. We're
learning more and more Christ is truly all our salvation. That we must trust Him and He
shall save us. Now, first of all, when we come
into trials, remember this. The trials are only for a season. He says in verse 6, now for a
season. He doesn't say how long the season
is. And when the trial begins, It
can be us falling into some sin, or it can be a brother falling
into sin. It can be losses that we suffer
in this world from those we love. It could be various things, manifold
different things. But when that trial begins, And
we're in heaviness, and what a good word to describe that
ache of sorrow that you have. When we're in heaviness, it feels
like it will last forever. But God promises, the trial is
only now for a season. It's only now for a season. We
can be sure of this, brethren. Our faithful Heavenly Father, as surely as He's ruling the
grief, He has a set time. And He will have compassion. He will have compassion. Lamentations
3.31 says, the Lord will not cast us off forever. It feels
like it when you're in the season of trial and you're in heaviness. It feels like you've been cast
off forever. The Lord will not cast us off
forever, though He calls grief. Yet will He have compassion according
to the multitude of His mercies. He will have compassion according
to the multitude of His mercies. Peter calls them abundant mercy. The Lord never casts off His
people forever. He'll never cast us off in the
sense of casting us away. That won't happen. Not those He everlastingly loved. Paul said in Romans 8, He asked
the question, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He said, shall tribulation, that's
what we're looking at here, tribulation, serious trial, heaviness, shall
tribulation separate us from the love of Christ? Or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No. in all these things. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. He said, I'm persuaded. Nothing. He lists a long list of things,
but He said nothing. Not life and not death. Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus. Those God loves. He loves everlastingly. He loves freely. He loves in
Christ and for Christ's sake. And his love never diminishes,
it never varies, and it never changes. You remember Gomer? She played the harlot. Gomer
went out and she was with her lovers living in adultery and
she had, it appears she had some children while she was living
in adultery. And what did God tell Hosea?
What was the whole point of that? He said, go yet and love a woman
though an adulteress. And he said, according to the
love of God toward the children of Israel who look to other gods
and love flagons of wine. unchanging sovereign love, unchangeable. Our heart may be heavy for a
season, the trial may last for a season, but Christ is our consolation
and he shall console his people as only he can. Now secondly,
remember this, God only gives the trial to meet our need. He said there in verse 6, if
need be. Our Heavenly Father, I just like
saying that, our Heavenly Father is God. He's God. He's all-knowing. He is all-wise. He is all-powerful. He's all-providing. And the Lord knows our need.
He knows our need. And He has the power and the
wisdom and the ability to work all things in providence together
to meet our need. That's including the trial and
that's including the gospel He sends to us to teach us. I'll give you an example of God
meeting our need. That message that I preached
Sunday out of Philippians 4 on peace which passes understanding,
I prepared that message and had my notes prepared Wednesday,
March 27th. And when I was reading the text
that week, that phrase, the book of life grabbed my heart and
I ended up preaching on that instead of preaching on preaching
that message. Six services went by. I went to Danville, came back,
six services went by. And then last Sunday I preached
that message. From March 27th to April 21st. And then Monday and Tuesday I
received texts saying how timely that message was. And my response
to that was, that's an example of God knowing our need and meeting
our need when we don't even know what we need. I had no idea what
we were going to need that word, but God did and he provided. And the same is true with these
trials, brethren. When these trials come, they're
sent to meet our need that we don't even know. They're sent
to meet a need we don't even know we need. But He does. Our Heavenly Father does all
things for His children's profit. That's what He's doing. He's
doing it for our profit. And the trial is not only for
the ones nearest to it or for the ones it's specifically come
upon. It's for the whole body. The
Lord's people are one body. One in Christ. Members one of
another with Christ as our head. So if one member suffers, we
all suffer with them. If one member is bound in prison,
we're bound there with them. Manifold temptations, that's
a good word. Various trials. There's the major
trial that happens. But you know, usually, usually,
when that major trial comes, there comes varying other trials
that come with it. But as God teaches one member,
He's teaching each member in the body. That's how wise God
is. That's how powerfully He is.
That's how all-knowing. That's how able He is to meet
our need. What does God teach us? God's weaning us, brethren, from
everything below. He's weaning us from everything
below. He's setting our hearts more
and more on Christ only. Who do you think, just think
about it, when you come down, if you're in a sick bed, and
you're facing death, and you're confined to a bed, who's the
only one you think you're going to be thinking about? Aren't your only trust going
to be, Lord, have mercy on me, save me? Well, that's what the
Lord's doing in these trials. He sweetly just forces us to
where we don't have anything else or anyone else to look to
but Him. That's what they're for. I don't grow tired of repeating
scriptures to you that I quote a lot, because I'm telling you
more and more, this passage is dear to my heart. That passage
from Colossians 3.1, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand
of God. Set your affection on things above. not on things of
the earth. For you're dead, you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in
glory. You just try to imagine, just
try to imagine the joy of our brethren who now appear with
Christ in glory. Just try to imagine that. Think
on these things. Things above, not things on this
earth. God's growing us in patience,
and experience, and hope, and love. He's doing it through tribulation. The fruit of the Spirit is not
of our producing, and it's not of our growing. You know, if
you look at plants, how do plants grow? They face the sun. That's how they grow. There are
some plants that in the morning, they'll be facing the east. And
as the sun progresses through the sky and goes to the west,
they just follow the sun. That's how they grow. That's
what the Lord is telling us. Look to the sun of righteousness.
He's sending these tribulations to make us look to Him and He's
growing us thereby. Look with me at Romans 5 verse
3. You see here, Paul is talking about how we,
just what Peter said there at the beginning, how we glory that
we rejoice that we are justified in Christ. We have access to
this grace wherein we stand in Christ. But he says in verse
3, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. That's trouble. That's trials. That's when he brings you into
heaviness. We don't glory in it necessarily
when it starts or when it's painful and it's heavy on us. It's breaking
our heart. But we do eventually. Why? We know that tribulation worketh
patience. and patience experience, and
experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us." That word patience there, that's a
different word. It's translated from a different
word, but it carries the same meaning that Paul is conveying
in Philippians 4 when he said, let your moderation be known
to all men. It's a patient, mild, forbearing,
knowing the Lord is at hand. The Lord's working this. He's
at hand. He's right here present. One
trial that we face very often, when trouble comes, when trials
come, another trial that usually comes when a great trial comes, Brethren, we're so prone to judge
by appearance. We're prone to judge by appearance.
And we all do this. Every one of us do this. Imagine if you didn't know the
Scripture. Just imagine, you did not know the Scripture. Like we know each other right
here. And you lived in Egypt in the
day of Moses, when he was in Egypt, in Pharaoh's house. And
you saw Moses kill the Egyptian, or heard about Moses killing
the Egyptian. Moses had some understanding
that he was going to deliver the children of Israel. And he
thought Israel would understand. He thought he was doing God's
service by what he was doing. And he fled Egypt a wanted man,
wanted for murder. If we were there, judging by
appearance, we'd be real prone to err in judgment, wouldn't
we? What if you didn't know what the scripture says about this
man, and you were Lot's neighbor? And one day you saw his daughters
are starting to show. They're with child. and you heard people talking,
and you heard that Lot got drunk and in an altered state of mind
committed incest with his daughters. Judging by appearance, we'd never
know God said Lot is a justified, righteous man in the Lord Jesus
Christ, would we? What if we heard about David
committing adultery and then killing his friend Uriah? If we judged by our parents,
it would be impossible for us to know that
God said, David is a man after my own heart. You see, through tribulation,
God's growing us in this understanding. We'll make our judgments like
that, and we don't know what God's going to do. We just don't
know. But we'll make our judgments, judging by our parents, and we'll
talk, and we'll hear talk, and you know, all these sinful, sinful
things. And then God proves us to have
made bad judgments. And God's growing us in understanding
that in our own flesh dwells no good thing. Not anything. Brethren, there is no righteous
judgment that ever comes from our flesh. Just pharisaical,
that's all. The most heinous sin that we
see in others is in my sin nature and in yours. We may not have committed adultery
outwardly, but we have inwardly. We may not have committed idolatry
outwardly, but we have inwardly. We may not have committed murder
outwardly, but we have inwardly. God gave the law to teach His
people that Adam's one transgression in the garden was so heinous
to God as the worst sin that you and me know of. It was that
heinous. It left all mankind dead in sin. That's pretty bad, isn't it?
And yet God saved Adam. We come into this world ungodly
in our nature, guilty of breaking the entire law of God in Adam, And yet, for those the Father
chose in Christ Jesus, God sent His only begotten Son, and Christ
redeemed us, He justified us, and then He called us by His
grace. Well, what about our sin now? Much more than being now justified
by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. That's how
come God saved Lot. That's how come God saved Moses.
That's how come God saved David. They were believers when they
committed those heinous sins. Didn't look like it by natural
appearance. You see, Christ is the shepherd
of His sheep. He always recovers His straying
sheep. Always. Let your moderation be
known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Wait on
the Lord. It's hard to do when we're hurt
by a brother's fall, or by a brother's sin, or our loved ones are hurt. to be steadfast, trusting the
Lord and waiting on the Lord. But our Lord said this, Judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. What's that? How do you judge
righteous judgment? I'll tell you the safest way
to do it. Trust the righteous judge. committed all to him and
trust the righteous judge to bring his will to pass. The righteous
judge already accomplished justice on Calvary's cross for everybody
for whom he died. And if my fallen brother is his,
he's his shepherd, he's his righteousness, he's his holiness, he will recover
his straying sheep. I'll just trust the righteous
judge. Paul said, Judge, nothing before
the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels
of the hearts, and then shall every man, all for whom Christ
died, have praise of God. So speak ye, and so do as they
that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have
judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy. And mercy rejoices
against judgment. When the trial comes and we err
in judgment and we sin in many other ways, you know it's God
forgiving us of our own unrighteous judgment and of all our sins
for the sake of Christ alone. that teaches us to just trust
the Lord. He grows you a little more to be patient and wait on
the Lord. He grows you in experience, matures
you a little bit. He grows you in hope for the
fallen and hope for your brethren who have sinned and hope for
one another. He grows you in hope because
He sheds the love of God upon your heart. He shows you that
God's love is everlasting. He shows you that. He grows you. And so He makes you err on the
side of mercy. He makes us hope against hope.
Sometimes it looks really bad. We may not see how good could
come out of the trial. But that's our understanding. We don't see it. We don't understand.
But listen, God our Savior is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think according to His power that worketh
in us. You believe that? It's so whether
we believe it or not. I'll give you an example of that.
That sin of lots. started the Moabites. And through
the Moabites a woman named Ruth was born. And she was the great,
great grandmother of our Lord Jesus according to the flesh.
He can do exceeding abundant above all we ask or think. You
just trust Him and you just wait on Him. We may find ourselves
in uncharted waters. And we're in uncharted waters. But nothing's new to our sovereign
God. He charted the course before
the foundation of the world. We're running the race that He
set before us, brethren. And He's in charge and ruling
everything coming to pass to fulfill His eternal purpose to
glorify Himself and work good for His people. And the good
He's working is He's teaching you and me to trust Him. To trust Christ only for all
and to wait on Him. Now lastly, here's the end purpose
of every trial right here. You know, you're in heaviness,
you're troubled, the trial is, it's not meant to be pleasant.
It's a test. And in the case with Lot, in
the case with Moses, in the case with David, cases we see with
Abraham, cases we see with the Apostle Peter who is right in
this, many times God's saints absolutely thoroughly fail the
test. That's what the trial is, it's
proving, it's a testing of our faith. And we fail it due to
our sin nature, but we're not going to fail it because we're
kept by the power of God, we're not going to ultimately fail.
You know, here's the end purpose, verse 7, that the trial of your
faith, that's the testing, that's the proving, that the trial of
your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now you take fire. Fire, when you put gold in fire,
you got pure gold and you put it in fire, the fire just consumes
the dross. It can't hurt the gold. If it's
pure gold, it won't hurt it. It consumes the dross, so when
the gold comes out of the fire, the only thing left is pure gold. By the fiery trial, God is consuming
our draws. We got a lot of draws. What's
the draws? Everything that we're trusting
in except Christ is draws. And we got a lot of draws. But
the fire is consuming that, little by little. So when Christ appears,
when He returns, our faith will be found praising and honoring
and glorying in Christ alone. That's what God's going to accomplish.
And our faith, because it's the gift of God and because it's
sustained by Christ and because it's grown by Christ, it'll be
found unto praise and honor and glory from our Lord because He
worked it. The end of our faith will be
the salvation of our souls. That's going to be so of everybody
chosen, redeemed, called of God. The end of our faith shall be
the salvation of our souls. But He gives us a foretaste of
this right now in every trial. Right now. Listen, verse 8. whom
having not seen your love, in whom though now you see him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now at the end of our life, we're
going to receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.
But brethren, even right now, we get a foretaste of it when
He brings you through each trial and shows you Christ is your
salvation, you get a little foretaste of what the end of faith is going
to be. You see Him. You see Him, you know His power,
and you know His love, and His grace, and His mercy, and you
get a little foretaste by faith of what you're going to behold
face to face one day. For God's saints, every trial
has God our Father growing us to know Christ truly is all,
brethren. We don't just When I say that,
it's not that I'm just out of something to say, so I'm just
going to say Christ is all. No, Christ is all. He's all our righteousness. He's
our only righteousness. That's what God's teaching us.
When we start to think we're a little righteous in ourselves,
the trial comes and we see our sin and we realize, I don't have
but one righteousness, it's Christ. Christ is all our sanctification.
We start thinking we're keeping ourselves, and we start thinking
we can stand, and we start thinking that by our works we're holy.
God sends a little trial to let you see that in you is still
a sinful, wretched, wretched man. And you realize, Christ
is my sanctifier. He's keeping me. And the only
place I'm as perfectly holy is in Him. And He's keeping faith
in my heart to look to Him alone. He's all our consolation. When
we start finding comfort in other things, the Lord will send a
trial and the next thing you know, He'll make it so you can't
find comfort anywhere. And in Christ to console you.
And you know, He's the only consolation I have. All our peace. We think we have peace, think
we've made peace and God will send you a little trial and you
just can't, you have no peace of conscience, you have no, you
feel like God's against you, you just, everything, you have
no peace. And then the Lord makes you know again, Christ made peace
with God for his people and he's our peace. And he's the one keeping
peace in our heart. My peace I give unto you, he
said. And at the same time, by all
this we see, our flesh is nothing but grass. You see, He's teaching
us His grace is really sufficient. We're really kept by His power.
The Lord taught Paul that, not by removing the thorn, but by
sustaining him in faith by His grace through all the suffering. That's what the Lord's teaching
us, brethren. Nobody but a child of God understands how suffering
could cause us to grow in faith, and love, and hope, and patience. Nobody but a child of God would
understand this. But you know this brethren, true
faith grows from the ground that God is broken. True faith grows
being watered by many, many, many tears. At the end of our life, verse
9, we're going to receive the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your soul. But right now you get a foretaste.
Right now, He does this for you. The God of all grace who's called
us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered
a while. Make you perfect, mature, establish,
strengthen, settle you. It's hard to think that's going
to be the outcome when we're in heaven that's in a trial,
but He'll do so by making us behold our God who knows no variables
in us, neither shatter of turning. He'll do it by making us see
His grace is immutable. It does not have a limit. If
somebody sins enough, we'll put a limit on God's grace. God's
grace don't have a limit. It's immutable. His love is everlasting. And Christ alone is truly our
salvation every moment of every day all the way to eternity. Apostle Peter suffered a great
trial and Christ restored him and Christ consoled him. And
so Peter comforts his brethren, you and me, and he says in chapter
5, he says, Therefore, under the mighty hand
of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Verse 6. Humble
yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that
He may exalt you in due time. Cast in all your care upon Him,
for He cares for you. Each of God's saints are going
to be brought to glorify God for meeting our need in every
trial. And we're going to say what David said. David said,
I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right. and that thou in faithfulness
has afflicted me." You're going to say that at the end of every
trial if you're God's child. Because you're going to say,
this was so good for me. So good for me. That's the rejoicing. That's the fortes. That's how
we know God's meeting our need. This is the sure promise of God. Now get this. Psalm 34, 19, many
are the afflictions of the righteous. The health and wealth prosperity
folks, they don't say that. But this is what God says, many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. Go back to verse 30, 1 Peter
1 verse 30, and here's our rejoicing at the end of every trial, this
is it. You know when you know that most?
You know when you know those verses by heart more than any
other time? When He's brought you through
the fire. As soon as you're fresh from the fire, you know that's
so. And you believe Him. Alright, Brother Greg.