Let us turn to the chapter that
we read in the First Epistle General of Peter in chapter 1
and reading again verses 6 and 7. The Apostle Peter writes,
wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,
are in heaviness through manifold temptations. that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than the gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The opening words of this sixth
verse clearly refer us back to those things that the Apostle
has been speaking of in the previous verses wherein ye greatly rejoice."
In fact, the rejoicing that he speaks of is exultant rejoicing. The words are very strong words
as we have them. It's not just rejoicing, it's
greatly rejoicing, it's exulting. And what are these things that
are the cause of such joy in their hearts. Well, he speaks
previously of a number of things. In verse 3, we have the great
doctrine of the new birth, the doctrine of regeneration. He blesses the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ as that one who, he says, hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Here is cause for them to be
exultant then as Christ is the one who is risen from the dead
so that resurrection life of Christ has come into their own
souls and experienced that new birth, born again by the Spirit
of God, as the Apostle John says, God hath given to us eternal
life, and that life is in His Son. Remember, it is that same
resurrection power that was there when Christ was raised again
on the third day that is necessary in order to saving faith. the exceeding greatness of his
power," says Paul to Oswald, who believed according to the
working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead. Surely then, here is cause for
these people to be a joyful people, to be an exultant people. Has
not God the Father blessed them according to his abundant mercy? in that he has begotten them
unto a lively hope. They've known something of the
experience of that resurrection life of Christ coming into their
very souls, those who were dead in trespasses and in sins. But not only regeneration, he
also has previously spoken of concerning that God has reserved
for them that inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that faith is
not a way reserved in heaven for you, he says. Isn't this
cause of great joy then? I have not seen, nor heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. And not only caused to be joyful
in respect to what they are experiencing in these present worlds, but
all that that God has laid up for His people. The Psalmist
can say, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? There is none upon
earth that I desire beside Thee. There is an inheritance. There
is that that God Himself has prepared, and Christ, the One
who has gone before His people, has entered heaven, that he might
prepare a place for them, that where he is there they might
be also. Not only regeneration in them,
but also that God himself has seen fit to lay up in store for
his people, that they must in the fullness of time enter into
all the joy of. And then also he has spoken previously
of the way in which they are being preserved, they're kept,
he says in verse 5, by the power of God, through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. As God has purposed these things
for them, as Christ has gone to prepare a place for them,
so they must be preserved in this present life. They must
endure, they must persevere in all the ways of God. He that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And yet,
although he speaks of all these things, he goes on here in verse
6 to speak of heaviness. Heaviness, he says, through manifold
temptations. There's that that does bring
distress to them. There's that that causes them
sometimes to grieve. The way of faith is not an easy
one. There is, in fact, that awful
trial of faith. And that, of course, is what
he is really speaking of in these verses. wherein ye greatly rejoice,
all these things that we've just outlined, spoken of in the previous
verses, though now for a season, he says, if need be, are in heaviness
through manifold temptations at 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 honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. What is the life they are to
live in this present world? It is that life of conflict. Yes, God has given them life,
spiritual life. They are those who are born again,
born from above, born by the Spirit of God. That new life,
that divine life has come into their souls. But what comes with
that life? Remember the word that God spoke
to that man Barak through the prophet Jeremiah, there in Jeremiah
45, Thy life, he says, will I give unto thee. Thy life will I give
unto thee for a price in all places whither thou goest. Oh yes, this life, this eternal
life is given, but how it is preyed upon, how it is assaulted. And this is what he is speaking
of, of course, here in these verses that we've read this morning.
And I want us, at the moment, to consider something of these
manifold temptations that are spoken of, particularly at the
end of this sixth verse. And we'll consider these temptations
under some four headings. First of all, we see that there
are many trials, many troubles that come into the lives of the
people of God. Now for a season, if need be,
he says, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And the language is not really
dissimilar to what we have at the beginning of James' epistle.
Remember how that epistle opens James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting, my brethren, he says, count it all joy when
you fall into diverse temptations. How the language is so very similar.
to what we have here in Peter's epistle. Peter also addresses
himself to those strangers scattered throughout these various regions,
and he also speaks of their temptations, manifold or diverse. In fact,
it's the same word in both James and in Peter, although Our translators
have rendered it differently in each case, but it's the same
basic meaning. But it's the temptations that
we're particularly interested in. There are many. There are
many. Now, there are many in this sense,
in that we can understand them in a twofold fashion. We can
understand them as having a certain evil connotation, temptation. that temptation that comes from
him who is the great tempter, even Satan himself. But the word that's used may
also be employed in a good sense, in the sense that God himself
is the one who doesn't tempt his people, but God certainly
tries his people. The believer is put to the test,
as it were, by his God. Remember how Abraham is set before
us in Scripture as the great pattern of faith. He is the father
of all them that believe. And we see quite clearly in Hebrews
11 how that Abraham was a man whose faith was tested. In fact, it says as much, does
it not? Hebrews 11 17 by faith Abraham when he was tried offered
up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten Son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy
seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up
even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure."
Now the history that's being referred to there in Hebrews
11 is that that is recorded in the 22nd chapter of Genesis. And remember the opening words
of that chapter as we have it here in our authorized version.
God, it says, did tempt Abraham. God did tempt, but it's not to
be understood in any evil connotation. what God was doing was testing
Abraham in respect to the promised seed. This son that Abraham had
waited for so many years. Those years where in Sarah was
barren and childless and yet in God's appointed time this
child Isaac is born and then God In his strange dealings gives
that command that Abraham is to take his son, his only son,
Isaac, and to offer him upon one of the mountains, there,
the Mount Moriah, the very spot where the temple would stand
in the days of King Solomon. And Abraham is obedient to that
strange command. He takes his son. He will sacrifice
his son. But not so. The accounts that God is able
to raise him up, even from the dead, we're told from whence
also he received him in a figure. It was if he had sacrificed him,
but he didn't sacrifice him, of course. There was that ram
that was to be sacrificed as a substitute in the place of
Isaac. But it is the trial then, it's
the trial that we see this man Abraham having to undergo. God tests the faith of his children,
tests their faith in respect to the word of promise that he
gives to them. Isaac was the promised seed.
God was faithful to his word. How strange that God, having
fulfilled his promise, should now give this particular commandment
to Abraham. Oh God, test us. He tests us
in respect to those things that He has laid upon our hearts,
those exceeding great and precious promises that Peter speaks of,
that God is pleased to give us as words of encouragement, and
sometimes now those words are put to the test. And we are to
rejoice, you see, even in the midst of these trials. I know that here in the context
when he speaks of greatly rejoicing, the reference is to what has
gone before. But there is cause for joy even in the midst of
the trial of our faith, because that is God proving the genuineness
of our faith. You go and look at what James
says there. In those words that we just referred to at the beginning
of his epistle, he says, "...count it all joy, my brethren, count
it all joy, when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." Let
patience have a perfect work. that she might be perfect and
entire, wanting nothing. And what James says is also echoed
by Paul. There's no contradiction between
the apostles. Some suggest that James has a
very different view of things to what Paul has, especially
with regards to where James speaks of the significance and the importance
of works. But he doesn't say that salvation
or justification is by works. What James is speaking of, when
he speaks of works, is those works that give evidence that
the faith of the believer is the genuine justifying fact. There's no contradiction between
James and Paul, and so as James speaks there of the significance
of the trial and how it works, and it works patience and endurance,
and other graces in the soul. So, Paul says something very
similar. In Romans 5 at verse 3, he says,
Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that
tribulations work as patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope make us not ashamed. because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us." Here we have the word tribulation. It's similar
to the trial, is it not? And that tribulation, like the
trial of faith, works patience or endurance. And then he goes
on to speak of experience and hope and love, how these various
graces are brought forth as God is pleased to put the faith of
his children to the test. Now sometimes with the believer
it seems as if he's left with nothing. When God tries his children
it can go to such an extent, can it not, that it seems as
if there's nothing left but God and his bare promise. Now that
was certainly the experience of Abraham. When God had spoken
to him concerning this son that was to be born, against hope
we find this man, as Paul says, believing in hope. He has nothing
at all that he can cling to except God and that bare words that
God had given him in the promise. Do against hope believed in hope
that he might become the father of many nations according to
that which was spoken so shall thy seed be and being not weak
in faith says Paul he considered not his own body now dead when
he was about a hundred years old neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also
to perform he had God and that's all he had and that word that
God had given him we sang the words just now in that hymn of
Joseph Swines he never takes away our all himself he gives
us still and that's how God tests us, is it not? All we have is
God and what God has revealed of himself to us in his word
and what God has made known to us in his gracious dealings in
our soul. And we're called sometimes to
question everything. And yet we have to cling to this,
that God is that one who is faithful and true to his word. He is not
a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should
became, but he said it. All shall he not do, that is
spoken it, shall he not make it good? But o'er the trial of
that faith, when God testeth and takes, it would seem to us,
everything away, and all we have left is himself to rest it. I say that the trial then is
many-sided, and manifold temptations that are spoken of here, because
as God tries the believer, We have to recognize also that Satan
is that one who sometimes comes with his temptations. He is the
tempter. Did he not assault even the Lord Jesus Christ himself?
Or we read of the Lord's experience, how strange it was. He comes
forward and receives John's baptism at Jordan. and there he is owned
and acknowledged by the other persons in the Godhead, the heavens
open and the Spirit descends in the form of a dove, he's anointed
by the Holy Ghost, the Father speaks, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. And then immediately after that
experience, Christ is led of the Spirit into the wilderness.
And there in the wilderness, how he's tempted, how Satan assaults
him, if thou be the Son of God." Why? He had just been acknowledged
as God's eternal Son. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, the Father said. And yet here is Satan tempting
him. And it's immediately after what
was surely, in the Lord's experience, such a blessed occasion, when
he was baptized. And yet you see how the tempter
comes and you'll do the same with us. You'll tempt us and
you'll tempt us at the time when we least expect his approach.
He's such a subtle thug. Now James tells us quite clearly
that we're to distinguish between God's testings and Satan's temptations. What does the apostle James say
there in the chapter of his epistle? Verse 13, Let no man say, when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. You see, temptation
has to do with that that he's evil. Every man is tempted, says
James, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved
brethren." Now, we're not to be ignorant of Satan's devices. We're to be those who are aware
of this awful foe, this subtle foe who can come and so easily
gain an advantage over us. He comes to Christ, yes. But
Christ alone can say, the Prince of this world cometh and hath
nothing in me. He has so much in us that he's
able to take advantage of. And so, when we come to the end
of the epistle, we have that exhortation. Be sober, be vigilant. because your adversary the devil
has a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith." Oh, we are to resist him and he'll flee from us. We're to resist him and we can
only resist him by the grace of God. But there are these trials,
you see, and how they are manifold, how they are diverse. how they're
different, how subtle he is. Now he's able to take advantage
of our weak spot. There are many trials, I say,
manifold temptations. And then in the second place,
as we consider the nature of some of these trials or temptations,
we must recognize that they're heavy. They're heavy. wherein ye greatly rejoiced are
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness." They're
heavy trials. How are we to understand this?
In heaviness through manifold temptations. That gracious Scottish minister,
John Duncan, Rabbi Duncan, makes the observation, the heart, renewed,
enlarged, ennobled by grace, he says, is a wide thing, and
can hold apparent contradictions, great joy along with heaviness. That's the renewed heart, the
heart of the believer, renewed by the grace of God, It's ennobled,
it's a large thing. Doesn't God bring his people
into a large place? The psalmist tells us as much,
back in the 18th Psalm, and there, at verse 16, and the following
verses, David says, He sent from above,
He took me, He drew me out of many waters, He delivered me
from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me, for they
were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day
of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth
also into a large place. He delivered me, because He delighted
in me." Oh, that large place, oh God, brings His people to
that. They have an enlarged heart.
And that heart, you see, can hold apparent contradictions.
Great joy, great joy along with heaven. Now the believer knows
that, that's his experience, is it not? There's this strange
conflict going on in his very soul, he feels it. the flesh
lusting against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, and
this contrary one to the other, says Paul, and ye cannot do the
thing that ye would. And yet this is the very life
of the man's soul. That gracious and godly King
Hezekiah says it, O Lord, by these things men live. In all
these things is the life of my spirit rejoicing, and yet in
happiness at one and the same time. These apparent contradictions,
these strange paradoxes that are the experience of the godly
man. And this is God, you see. This
is God who's dealing with His people and teaching His people,
enlarging their hearts so that they know and feel things that
the unbeliever is a complete and utter stranger to. Oh, how
strange is the course that the Christian must steer, how perplexed
is that path he must tread. And so he proves it. And he proves
it by the heaviness that so often comes upon him. The goods that
I would, I do not, says Paul. The evil that I would, not that
I do, O wretched man that I am. There is a heaviness in these
things. There is a heaviness in these things. As they are
multitude as they are diverse so at times the believer feels
that they are overwhelming and yet in the midst of these things
what must he do? He must look again to his God
and cry to his God. But let us in the third place
observe also this with regards to the trials as they are spoken
of in this verse we see as a They are but brief. They are brief. Yes, they might be heavy. You
are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Ah, but they are
also said to be so brief. Though now, it says, for a season. Though now for a season. And again, is it not one of the
verses that reminds us of the great beauty of our authorized
version, because the literalness of the translation brings out
so much of the force that's there in the very language that is
employed by the Holy Ghost, as Peter is inspired to write these
words. Every word is a weighty word. Every word is a significant word. Look at the words that are used.
He says, now. And what's the meaning of this
particular word? Well, it's virtually just now. This moment. And of course, no
sooner has the moment come, than the moment has gone. That's time. There is a sense in which there's
never a now, because as soon as now has come, now has departed. It's so brief a point of time. Just now. This moment. No wonder the Lord Jesus says
that we're to take no thought for the morrow. The morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself, says Christ, sufficient
unto the day. Is the evil thereof? Oh, it's
just now. It's just now that the trial, the trouble comes.
But he doesn't just use the words now. Now, he says, for a season. For a season. And this word also
is an interesting word that he employs. Season. What is the
season that he's speaking of? Well, we might speak of the seasons
of the year. as we come into the season of
spring, and we anticipate the season of summer, and then comes
the season of autumn, and then the season of winter, the dreary
days of winter, but now we're in that lovely season of spring. But the word that we have here
is not to be understood in terms of what we might know as those
seasons of the year. It's a briefer period of time
that is conveyed by this particular word. It means a small time,
a little while, a few days. That's a season, as we have it
here. It's such a short period of time. The trial, you see, is so very
brief. And it's that time that he's
known to the Lord. It's that time that he's known
to the Lord himself. It's that time that the Lord
has appointed for his children. He is sovereign, he has ordained
all things in the lives of his people. And he knows how to deliver
his people. In the midst of all these seasons
of trial and seasons of trouble, in his In his second epistle, Peter
says, chapter 2, verse 9, The Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the
day of judgment to be punished. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations. All these things you see are
in His hand, all of these things are under His sovereignty. Again,
Peter reminds us here, hath no temptation taken you, but such
as is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not suffer
you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the
temptation make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Oh, how these times you see under
God's hand were to recognize they are but brief, passing,
And what has God done? He has reserved for his people
an inheritance. Remember where we began with
those opening words of the text, wherein ye greatly rejoice. And what is it that the believer
rejoices in? Well, amongst those various things
that we spoke of, verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you. Oh, in the midst of all these
brief passing trials, what is the Lord doing? He is making
it evident to His people that He is really their true portion. The Lord is the portion of my
inheritance. says the Psalmist. God is my
portion forever. It's that preparation you see.
It's that preparation that is necessary in the lives of his
people because God has laid up in store for them an eternal
weight of glory. And so, although we might say
that the trial at times is a heavy trial, Yet, when we see it in
its true light, when we see it in the light of what God is saying
here in His Word and the way in which God deals with His people,
we have to recognize that it is only a light trial. And that's
what Paul says, our light affliction, our light affliction, which is
but for the moment, worketh for us an enduring time of comfort. That's what Paul says, it's a
light affliction, just for the moment, works an eternal weight
of glory. Again, we have it in that great
chapter, that 8th chapter of his epistle to the Romans, so
many striking verses there in the 8th of Romans, look at what
the Apostle says in verse 18, I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. All the sufferings of
this present time, they are just now, and only for a moment, for
a few days, a small time, a little while, just a season. They are brief, you see. They
are brief in comparison with that that God has laid out for
His people, that that God is preparing His people for. The trials then are many, they
are manifold, they are diverse, They are, as we've said in the
second place, heaven, you're in heaviness. And yet the believer
has so enlarged the soul of his people that they can hold these
apparent contradictions, great joy, along with the heaviness. And why so? Because they're brought
to recognize that these trials are but brief. They're only for
a short while. And then, in the fourth place,
we see with regards to the trial as it's set before us here, that
it's necessary. As well as being brief trials,
they are only those trials that are necessary. Look at the expression in the
middle of the verse, need be, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, all though necessary. And God, you see, his wisdom
is inscrutable, is it not? We know that he's too wise to
be mistaken, he's too good to be unkind. These trials only
come when they're necessary, and they are necessary. You'll
go on to say in chapter 4, Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing
happened unto you. We think they're strange, we
think our life is a peculiar life at times, we can't really
understand the ways of God, our past, our finding out, but we
can rest assured that what God appoints is necessary for us. There's a purpose in all that
God does, is there not? And that's why Peter goes on
to say, think you're not strange, We do think it's strange, the
Lord's ways. There is a mystery in these ways
of God. But there's a reason for them.
The hymn writer says, afflictions make us see what else would escape
our sight. How very foul and dim are we
in God, how pure and bright. We have to learn that. The purity
of God, the holiness of God. And our own foolishness, our
own sinfulness. The Lord Jesus himself has spoken,
has he not, of tribulations in the world? In the world, says
Christ, you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. That's our comfort. Again, you
see, we have to look to God in Christ as the one who was overcome
and the only one by and in and through whom we can overcome.
Now, the Apostle echoes those words of the Lord Jesus in the
Acts, does he not? He says, we must, through much
tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's necessary, you see. Here we have it needs be. And
there in Acts 14.22, it's a must. We must. There's no escaping
these things, because they are so necessary. But then also,
as we examine the Word of God, it doesn't just say, need be,
but it's prefixed with an if. If, need, be. Oh, what comfort, even in that
little word, if. It's only if it's necessary.
God doesn't delight in these things. Isn't that a great passage
that we have in the third chapter of Jeremiah's Lamentations? In Lamentations chapter 3, Verse 32, Though he cause grief,
Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according
to the multitude of his mercies. Are temptations, trials, manifold,
diverse? Well, multitude is the word that's
here applied to God's mercies. Though he cause grief, Yet will
he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies,
for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. And the margin tells us in verse
33 that the Hebrew is literally, he doth not afflict from the
heart. He doth not afflict from the
heart, nor grieve the children of men. Martin Luther speaks of trials
as God's strange work. That's the expression that we
have in Isaiah 28-21, his strange work. That's what trials are,
says the Protestant Reformer. Salvation, says Luther, is God's
proper work. That's his proper work. The trial
is the strange work. The salvation is his proper work. What does he say through Jeremiah? I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you
an expected end. Oh, there's an expected end in
all of these things. God has a gracious end in view. Let that faith be found, you
see. unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ, 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, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." That's what God has in view. all the
fullness, all the blessing of that salvation and the trial
is necessary so that we can come into the fullness of it in our
soul's experience and know what it is to exalt to greatly rejoice
not only in those things that are spoken of in the previous
verses that great work of the new birth, regeneration those
things that God has as reserved in glory for His people, the
way in which God Himself is the One who preserves them, who keeps
them. But we can rejoice even in the
midst of the trials and the troubles that God in His inscrutable wisdom
has appointed for us, wherein ye greatly rejoice. So now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, 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, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Amen.