1 Peter 1, and we'll be looking
verses 6-9. 1 Peter 1, verses 6-9. The title
of the message this evening is, Great Rejoicing and Needful Trials. Great rejoicing and needful trials. Let's read this together in 1
Peter 1, beginning in verse 6, Peter says, wherein you greatly
rejoice. You see where I get the title
then, off the beginning here. Wherein you greatly rejoice. Not a lot of elaborate thinking
for this one, is it? Wherein you greatly rejoice,
though 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 gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love. in whom though you 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." Great rejoicing and needful trials. Peter says,
wherein you greatly rejoice. Now I know this, everyone in
this room has had times of rejoicing. We have had times of celebration. We have things that we are thankful
for and things that we rejoice in. Family. We rejoice in to
have our family. I met with my family about this
last month and I was rejoicing. I had a good time. I had a really
good time with my family. We rejoice in our children. We
rejoice in birthdays and graduations and all kinds of celebrations
we have in this life. And you know, we ought to be
thankful for these things. These things are given to us
of God and they're given for our enjoyment. God is not a miser. He gives joy. He is the fountain
of joy. And these things that we have
are for our enjoyment. God's given us all things to
enjoy. It's what the Scripture says.
But I'll tell you about these things that we rejoice in in
this world. They're fleeting, aren't they?
They don't last long. We rejoice in the moment, in
that moment that we're there. We're having an enjoyable time,
but as soon as we leave, it's over. It's over. You can look
at pictures, but you can't get back to that time. You can't
get back to that rejoicing. It's over. It's complete. And
you're just waiting for another one. So these fleeting moments
of enjoyment, they just last for a little while. But Peter
is speaking about a joy of great rejoicing that we may daily rejoice. Peter is talking about a rejoicing
that's not temporal, but it is continual. It's not something
that lasts for the moment, but it's something that lasts our
whole life through. Great rejoicing. We may daily
rejoice because this rejoicing is an everlasting rejoicing Peter
is talking about. It's a kind of joy and rejoicing
that he calls unspeakable in verse 8 and full of glory. This
rejoicing he's speaking of is unspeakable. It's infathomable. You can't reach the bottom of
this joy. When you thought you've had all
you can take, there's plenty more where this comes from. This
kind of rejoicing. Why? Why is this joy lasting? Because the source of the joy
is found in God, who is the eternal, immutable, omniscient, omnipotent,
omnipresent God. And because the eternal God of
heaven is giving this joy, it's something that lasts forever. It's something that lasts forever.
Believer, are you in need of joy? Sometimes we feel like we're
lacking in joy. Sometimes we feel like we're
missing in joy. But you're only missing it because
you're not looking at it. You're not looking for it. It's
there. It's always there. It never leaves you. Many times
we feel downcast. But friends, there is an endless,
unspeakable supply of joy to be had. Now, the joys of this
earth are nothing more than muddy puddles of water. They aren't
all that great. The best one you could possibly
have, it really isn't that great. You see, the things of this world
are fleeting. They're illusions of joy. Illusions. We really think we're having
a good time, when actually, in comparison to this, there's nothing
like it. It's unspeakable. You can't even
express it. But when you behold the harmony the
order and unity of the Godhead, there is an ocean of unceasing
comfort, unceasing peace, and unceasing joy for everyone who
believeth on Christ as all their salvation." You believe on Christ
as all your salvation? Then I tell you, by the Word
of God, there is great rejoicing to be had. Great rejoicing. There's
an ocean full of rejoicing. And if you take some of that
joy from the ocean of God's rejoicing, you're not going to diminish
it one bit. You can take as much as you want.
You can go as far as you can. And it will never decrease one
bit. Never. There's enough for us
all. There's enough for us all. And I'll tell you, we must see
the rejoicing in the order and unity of the Godhead in our salvation. This is where the joy comes from.
If you miss this, if you miss the rejoicing in God, in His
persons, then you miss the joy. First of all, we as believers
in Christ, we have an eternal rejoicing in the Father. In the
Father. You may forever rejoice in God
the Father. You may forever rejoice in God
the Father. Believer in Christ, let us, with
a true heart of faith, praise God the Father for His electing
grace. His electing grace. Rejoice,
believer, for God has unconditionally chosen you before the foundation
of the world. He has chosen you without merit
in you, without works in you. God chose you, the Father chose
you, because He would choose you out of His own sovereign
love. Before there was a world, of
perfection that He made. And before there was ever a world
of death, sin, sorrow, and unrest, friends, there was God the Father
who chose His people. It was God the Father in eternity,
through an eternal, unchangeable, and sovereign love for us, predestinated
us to be His children. I'll tell you what, God choosing
us, He chose us not only to be servants, that's one thing, but
to be children. You see, that takes a different
light, doesn't it? It's one thing to go out and
pick a bunch of slaves. It's another thing to go out
and adopt a couple of children, isn't it? It's all together different.
You see, God's electing love is one that would make us holy
and blameless. He said, I will that you be holy. I will that you be blameless.
And I will that you be accepted in Christ. I will. That's what God the Father did.
He willed that before the foundation of the world. And God the Father
did so because of His own will, because of His own goodness,
and not because of what we could do for Him. God didn't look at
what we could do for Him. Thank God He didn't. We can't
do anything for Him. We can't add one thing to God.
But praise God that He Himself chose a people to be His children. He chose us. because He willed
to do so. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
6, you know this, that God predestinated us to be His children by adoption,
by Jesus Christ. What was the reason that Paul
gave there? He said, according to the good pleasure of His will. He did so because He would. Because He would. He loved us
with an eternal love. Jeremiah said, "...the Lord hath
appeared to me of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love." Believers, listen. The Father's love is
not something cold and impersonal. It's not like choosing a lamp
at the store. God did not elect us like a piece
of furniture. God elected us as His loving
children. He loved us. And because of His
love, He chose us and put us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Father's love is personal, it's
effectual, and it's affectionate. Friends, God is affectionate.
God is not passionate. God is affectionate. Affection
is greater than passion. Passion, it moves. It goes up
and down. You see, God's love is never
passionate. It's always affectionate. It's
always infinitely perfect. And it never ceases. It never
has a dip. It never has a moment where it
goes down. Never. Ever. You see, if God's
love were to change, if it were to go up one day and down the
next, then God Himself would be imperfect. You see, God's
love is not that way. In other words, you hear this
all the time, people say, well, I love you, and then ten years
later they say, well, I don't love you. You see, they're imperfect. Their passions change. But God
doesn't. He's unchangeable. And you know
what He says, believer, about you? He says, I love you. And I've always loved you. I've
always loved you. There's never been a moment that
God the Father didn't love His children. He's affectionate to us who believe
in Christ. Our faith in Christ is the result
of God's election and not the cause. You that believe in Christ,
our faith is not the cause of God's love. Our faith is a result
of God's love. You believe because God loved
you. Otherwise, you wouldn't believe. God's love was an electing love.
He chose you. He chose you. As children, for
the children not yet being born, neither having done good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of
works, but of him that calleth for Jacob have I loved." And
you know what? There was never a time he didn't
love old Jacob, that snake. And there was never a time he
didn't love this old snake. And that old snake, he loved
you always. So we can rejoice in the Father's
love. Believer, rejoice in the Father's
love that chose us and adopted us to be His children. Number
two, rejoice in the Son. Rejoice in the Son. Believer, we may rejoice in that
the Father has chosen us and not left everything to us to
make our way to Him. Is that clear? I'm glad that
God chose us and gave us to Christ instead of just choosing me. Say, hey, I choose you, now make
your way to me. No, He didn't do that, did He? We wouldn't
have any hope that way. But when God chose us and loved
us, He chose us and put us in Christ. He gave us to Christ,
His Son, to be our surety. He gave us to the eternal Son,
who was the Father's everlasting delight. You remember in Proverbs
chapter 8, He said, I was with God and I was daily His delight. Therefore, the Scripture tells
us that we were chosen in Christ, the Son of God. And we should
rejoice in this eternal covenant between the Father and the Son.
The Father and the Son covenanted together for our salvation. The Father chose us, and the
Son, given the people that God chose, He said, I will be their
representative. I will, Father. He will be our surety. He had promised to be our representative,
our eternal Redeemer and Savior of all of God's elect. And friends, as I told you, there
was never a time that God loved you, and the reason was because
you were always in Christ. He loved Christ. And the reason
He loved us was because we're in Christ. We were in Christ
from all eternity. The Father never failed to delight
in His Son, because He chose us in Him. And there was never
a time He did not delight in us, because we were in Christ.
Christ Jesus was always given to people. He was always the
delight of the Father. And you know what? We were always
the delight of the Son. That's the very next verse in
Proverbs 8, verse 31. He said, My delight was among
the sons of men. Christ always rejoiced in us.
He always loved us, and we were daily His delight from all eternity. Believer, because of the love
of the Son, to agree for us to be our surety, and to do all
that was necessary, He agreed to do all that was necessary
to make us holy, blameless, and acceptable before God. He agreed
to do that. You see, this is because we were
not born blameless. We were not born holy. We were born dead in sins, we
were born depraved, just like every other man. There was no
difference between us and anyone else when we were born into this
world. No difference at all. We were not higher in elevation
above anyone else. We were all dead, all born dead
in sins. None of us could have ever merited
God's favor. Not one of us. And you know what? Not one of us was willing to
try anyway. We were both unable and unwilling
to serve God by nature. Scripture says we were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. There was no difference
in our nature from anyone else. You'll never look at a newborn
baby and say, oh, that's a child of God. You can't do that. Why?
He's born like everyone else. You don't know. I don't know.
Will my children ever believe in Christ? I don't know. I don't
know. We were deceived and depraved,
doing only what was right in our own eyes. And it's because
of this that God had to send His Son. It was necessary. Do you not think if there was
another way for God to save His people that He would have done
it? Of course He would. But this was the only way. The only way God could bring
those elect whom He loved was bring them by His Son, Jesus
Christ. To send His Son to unite Himself
with human nature and become a man. And Jesus Christ was so
much God as if He were not man, and so much man as if He were
not God. He is the only God-man. The only
God, man, there's only one. There's only one. You shall call His name Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people
from their sins. That's what He came for. That's
what He came for. To unite Himself to be our representative,
He had to become a man. He had to come down from the
lofty heights of praise and glory where He shared glory with the
Father and the Spirit from all eternity. He must have condescended
to come down so low to take on Himself humanity. To be a man
and to suffer as a man. To be entreated as a man. so that He might represent us. He subjected Himself underneath
the law of God and veiled His deity in humanity. You see, the only way a person
could become a high priest, he must first of all be a man. Look
at this in Hebrews. Flip over a couple of pages to
Hebrews chapter 5. Look at that first verse there.
Hebrews chapter 5. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men. You see that? You can't have
a pride priest for a man unless he's a man. Unless he's a man. in things pertaining to God,
that He may offer both gifts and sacrifices." Look down at
verse 5, "...so also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high
priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son this day
of thy legatony, as He saith also in another place, Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." You see, God
made Him a priest. He didn't make Himself a priest.
He subjected Himself to God and God said, Thou art a priest.
forever after the order of Melchizedek. How are the priests? A high priest is one that offers
sacrifices. He's not only of man, for man,
that represents man and offers sacrifices to God for man, but
he must offer sacrifices for the people of God. But you think about those high
priests. They never sat down, did they? They always had to
offer a sacrifice. And then their sacrifice wasn't
over because in just a few hours, they had to offer another sacrifice.
And the next day, they would repeat the same thing over and
over and over and over because their work was never finished. But this man, after he had made one offering
for sin, sat down. He was finished. He made one
offering. What was the offering? He offered
himself as a sacrifice. Jesus Christ offered Himself
a sacrifice. It says that in Galatians 1 verse
4. Who gave Himself for our sins. He gave all of Himself for our
sins. You ever put all of yourself
into something? We try. We try to put all of ourselves,
but we've got other irons in the fire all the time. Everything
Christ did on the face of this earth was for the glory of God
and the salvation of His people. That's what He did. He gave all
of His focus, all of His attention, all of His power to this one
thing. The glory of God. The obedience
of God. The honor of God. And the salvation
of His people. And after He had gave one offering,
Just one. Just one time God imputed all
the sins of all His people. Just one time. And when Christ's blood flowed
from that cross, His blood paid in full all of our debt of sin
that we owe to God. All of it. There's not one sin,
not one thought, not one word that I have ever spoken that
is against God's law that Christ did not pay for. Not one. Not
one. Jesus paid it all. He cried from the cross, it is
finished. And when He gave up the ghost,
redemption that was purposed is now a redemption that is accomplished. Accomplished. Finished! Christ's
work is finished! And God was so pleased, God was
so pleased with His sacrifice that He raised Him from the dead
and set Him as a man on a throne in front of everyone and said,
this is your King. He has highly exalted Him and
given Him a name that is above every name. That at the name
of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
I was talking to a man today about kingdoms. And we were speaking
about the statue that was in the dream in the book of Daniel. the head of gold and silver and
bronze, and then you had the iron and clay, iron and clay.
And those were the kingdoms of the world, where actually one
man, a potentate, ruled the world at that time. But there was a
stone, a rock, that was thrown at the foot of this statue, and
it collapsed the statue. You see, when Jesus Christ raised
His Son to the throne, do you realize why there are no more
earthly kings to reign over the world? Because He set His Son
there. His Son reigns over this world.
And all the affairs of men, Christ reigneth over them all. He reigns. He rules. He's the only potentate King
of kings and Lord of lords. You see, He is that as a man. We have a man that's ruling all
things. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. And He's ruling all things because
He pleased God. He pleased God in everything
He did. He saved His people from their
sins. Jesus says in John 17, verse
2, He says, Father, I've finished the work You've given Me to do.
Rejoice in the Son. Rejoice in the Son. Why? He's
done it all. He's done it all. What is left
for us to do? Nothing. Number three, rejoice
in the Holy Spirit. We who are loved and chosen by
the Father, loved by the Son and redeemed by His righteousness
and blood, we also were loved by the Spirit of God. Also loved
by the Spirit of God. Who also entered into the eternal
covenant of grace to call to life and faith all Christ redeemed. Look at 1 Peter 1 and verse 2.
Go back to your text and look at that. 1 Peter 1 and verse
2, "...that elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification of the Spirit." Never apart from
that. Never apart from that. Paul said
in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, "...Beloved, we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you. For God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation through..." What? sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Now, friends, a man may know
a lot and rejoice in the knowledge of election. I know a lot of
men that do. I know a lot of men that rejoice
in the knowledge of redemption. But unless a man has been sanctified
by the Spirit of God unto faith in Christ, his knowledge is no
cause for rejoicing. Unless God the Holy Spirit has
resurrected your soul, you have no cause to rejoice. But we who believe in Christ,
We who have come to faith, we recognize this, that it was because
of the Spirit moving on us. It was because of the Spirit
regenerating our souls and giving us life that we could ever believe
on Him. I believe on Christ because the
Spirit of God quickened my dead soul. And you know what? He agreed
to do that long before there was ever a world. He agreed to
be our regenerator. He agreed to be the one to give
us the new birth, to give us faith in Christ. And how does
He do that? Through the preaching of the
Gospel. This is the means by which the Spirit of God uses.
The means that we are doing right now. Preaching the Gospel. And
when you go out this door and you witness to others, you witness
by preaching the Gospel to them. And God uses these things. God
uses them. or the salvation of His people
through the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that gives
us breath, the breath of faith whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rejoice in the Spirit. Not only
He's the cause of our new birth, but He's also the cause of our
learning. If you're ever going to learn
anything of Christ, it must be taught by the Spirit. You can't
learn anything from me. I can't teach you anything. I
can educate you, but that doesn't do you any good. You need the
Spirit of God to teach you. And this is why the Spirit of
God dwells in us. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Know you not that you are the
temple of God, for in you dwells the Spirit of God. Isn't that something? Gilbert,
the Spirit of God lives inside of your body. And so does He live in every
one of us who are believers in Christ. So then how far is God from us? Not far. He lives in us. I like that when he said, we
will make our abode in Him. The Spirit of God lives in us
and helps our infirmities. Anybody got infirmities? Need
help? You don't know what to pray for
as you should? Well, guess what? That's what
God gave the Spirit for. So we would help us, encourage
us, strengthen us, and teach us. Teach us of Christ. We can greatly rejoice, therefore,
in God the Father. God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, salvation is of the Lord. From start to finish, all things
are of God. Second of all, my second point
is this, and I'll try to make it fast. I didn't expect to spend
so much time on that, but I did. Second of all, the necessity
of trials. Look at that in our text. Wherefore,
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold Temptations. Though we have received these
things of the Father, eternal life, eternal praise, eternal
joy, peace, love, worship, we've not yet received them in the
fullness that Christ has purchased them. Is there anyone here who has
experimentally blameless in their conduct? No, but Christ purchased
it for me. I know it's waiting. I know one
day I'll drop this robe of flesh and rise and seize what? The everlasting prize. I know
there's a day coming. I believe there's a day coming
because Christ said so. I have an inheritance, but I've
not yet fully experienced it. We still have doubts, we still
have fears, we still have unrest, we still have toil, we still
have sin in this nature, and we live in an unrestful and sinful
world. But believers in Christ, even
the trials of this life, even the trials of this life, we may
find great comfort. Great comfort, even in the midst
of our suffering. Why? Because God tells us our
trials are needful. Isn't that what He says? Verse
6, If need be. If need be, you would go through
heaviness and trials. Like I said before, If it is,
it is needful. If it is, whatever it is, it's
needful. It's needful. God would never give us anything
that is not needful for us. God only sends things that are
needful. that we must go through, the
trouble, whether small or great. Why? What's the purpose of these
troubles? If Christ has finished all things,
what's the purpose of these trials and temptations? Because we must grow in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. These trials are not here to
make us more holy. Block that out. These trials
and temptations are not so that we may grow holier. No. I'm as holy as God has created
me to be. I don't need to be more holy.
Christ has finished that. That's done. His righteousness
was enough and I don't add anything to it. But I'll tell you what, I can
grow in grace, can't I? Anybody here have enough faith
yet? I don't have near enough faith. I want more. Don't you want more?
I want more faith. I want more love for Him. Think
of a baby, and a baby is born with all of its fingers and toes. It doesn't grow more fingers
and toes. It's perfect. It's complete.
But what does it do? It grows up. It gets bigger. It gets more. And so we grow
in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We grow in faith. In faith. And so therefore, the only way
we'll grow in faith is by needful trials. Believers, our faith is precious. Why? It's a gift of God. God
gave it to you. And Peter here says that your
faith is much more precious than gold. Now listen why he says
that. This is great. Take a pound of
gold and you put it through the fire. When it comes out, it comes
out less, doesn't it? It weighs less. You may have
half a pound of gold when it comes out. But when it comes
out, is it not more valuable than it was when it went in?
Yes. It becomes brighter. It becomes
clearer. It becomes more perfect. It increases in value. But friends,
our faith is much more precious than gold. Why? Gold perishes. It perishes. It's going to go
away. But faith, listen to this, if
you put a pound of faith, God puts a pound of faith in the
fire, guess what? It comes out two pounds. How
would you like to have some gold go in one pound and come out
two pounds? That would be great, wouldn't
it? Well, that's what God does with our faith. It comes in and
God gives us faith and it goes through the fire and it comes
out more, not less. Gold comes out less. Our faith
comes out more. And our faith is more valuable.
Why? Because faith in Christ Faith
in Christ is necessary for the salvation of our souls. Without faith, you can't be saved. Can't have it. God's got to give
it. And friend, God's going to try
it. And I'll tell you this, if it's real, it'll come out of
the fire. If it's not real, it'll be burned
up in the fire. See, God doesn't need to know
if we have faith or not. We do. We do. And I need more. And the only
way you're going to get it is through the fire. And through
this faith, we receive the end of our faith, the salvation of
our souls. We believe on Christ. And because God has given us
this faith in Christ, we will be accepted when we die. We'll be accepted in the arms
of the Father. The inheritance of eternal life
will be ours. How do I know that? I see it
by faith. Don't you? I see it by faith. I've not seen Christ yet with
my eyes, have you? But I will. I will. And our trials are needful. I
pray that God blesses to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.