Turn with me if you would now
to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Our text tonight will be verses
6 to 9. but we'll be mentioning the verses
before it. So let's begin reading in verse
1. 1 Peter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. 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. wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you 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. whom having not seen, you love,
in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I want to remind
us of something tonight that If the Lord will let us get a
hold of it, again, we have to be reminded of this all the time. We have to be reminded of this
all the time because naturally we don't retain it. And isn't
that how it is? Isn't that why we come to service
as often as we do? It's because we don't retain
it. We don't retain it 30 seconds after we walk out of this building.
We're in the same boat we were in when we came into this building. And we need to get a hold of
this again. All of God's people need to get a hold of this again.
If the Lord will let us get a hold of this, I believe it'll be a
real comfort. I pray it'll be a real comfort
to us. Verse six says, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness. through manifold
temptations, many trials, that the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perish it, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday night, After the
message, I was talking with a brother about all of our loved ones,
all of our loved ones, the ones we just mentioned, the ones that
we haven't mentioned much of, so many loved ones, all of the
trials that they're going through, such great trials. And the comment was made while
we were talking that life on this earth is a tough road. Life on this earth is a tough
road. This road that we travel here
is a tough road. This road of life that all of
us are traveling down. You know, we start out as children
in hopefully, hope and pray in the safety and the comfort and
the peace of our parents' homes. That's how we start out. And the older we get, the more
we step out into the world until one day we're on our own. And I can't tell you how many
times, I mean this, over the course of my life after I got
out on my own, I can't tell you how many times I would have been
happy to just step back into dad's house. Have you ever thought
that? Have you ever felt that way?
Just let dad take over again. You know, whenever you first
get to that place where you want to step out, all you want to
do is get rid of dad. You want to be on your own. I
can do this. And then you get out into it
and you say, oh, that I could just go back to dad's house,
let him pay the bills, let him make the decisions, and all those
kinds of things. We, you know, step out a little
bit more as the way of life is until one day we're traveling
this road of life on our own. And every one of us will find
out that the road of life on this earth is a tough road for
everybody. For everybody. It's a tough road. But, and this is what I was talking
about with our brother Sunday night. Life on this earth is
a tough road, but for a believer, for a child of God, it's a road
that brings us to Jesus Christ. It's a road that brings us to
Jesus Christ. God's people are predestinated
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That word predestinated means
limited in advance. Limited, it just keeps getting
more and more limited. You know, this is how we all
start out. And the longer we go and the
Lord calls us to a knowledge of Christ and these things, hopefully
by the time we reach the end of our life, it's just narrower
and narrower until it's just Christ. Till we finally arrive
at Christ. Verse six right here says, wherein
you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, You
are in heaviness through many trials. You are in heaviness. And I'll go ahead and tell you
the state of everybody here. We have our good moments and
our bad moments. I hope everybody's in a good moment. But you are
in heaviness through your many trials because of your many trials. It's the way of life. The road
of this life is many trials. It's not just one great trial. Well, that's it, I did it, I
made it through my trial. Which we can kind of think, you
know, well, yep, that's right, I had my trial, that was it. It is trial after trial after
trial after trial. Every now and then, as our dear
brother Dale Simpson said, you get a lull between the trials.
But that lull does not last forever. It does not last forever. The
road of this life is a road that brings us from one trial to the
next trial. If we want to know what life
is, that's what it is. It's one trial to the next trial. Verse six says, wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season If need be, you are in heaviness. Just heaviness. And we all know
that feeling, just heaviness. It just weighs on you. It weighs. All that men and women want to
reach is peace, rest, and contentment. That'll never happen till we're
in glory with Christ. People want to find that on this
earth, and it'll never happen till we're in glory with Christ. He said, you're in heaviness
through many trials, manifold temptations, verse 7, 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.
Life on this earth is a tough road, but For a child of God,
it's a road that leads to Jesus Christ. Turn over to Psalm 119
with me. Let's see if we can really enter
into what David is saying right here. Psalm 119 verse 65. He said, thou hast dealt well
with thy servant, O Lord. According unto thy word. Teach
me good judgment and knowledge. For I have believed thy commandments. He said, Lord, you have dealt
well with me. Teach me through this. What do
you mean, David? What are you talking about? How
has the Lord dealt well with you? Verse 67. He said before I was afflicted. That's how he dealt well with
me. David said he afflicted me. And
he said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I
kept that word. Now have I clung to that word. Now have I held to and hoped
in that word. I have fallen on, I have cast
my all on your word, the promise of your word. Verse 67, before I was afflicted,
I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good and doest
good. Teach me thy statutes. The proud
have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts
with my whole heart. I will keep them in my heart. I will cling to the fact that
Christ kept them for me. satisfied everything in the law
and the commandments of God for me. I will cling to that. I'll
hold to that. Verse 70, their heart is as fat
as grease, but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I
have been afflicted. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. That means
that I might get out of this world and into thy word. That
I might get out of myself and into my Lord. In mind, in heart,
in soul. Verse 72, the law of thy mouth
is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Why do you
say that, David? Why do you say that that affliction
which drives you to the word is better than thousands of gold
and silver? David said, because all of it
is bringing me to Christ. All of it is bringing me to the
Lord Jesus Christ and gold and silver is going to perish with
the rest of this world. But Jesus Christ and his salvation
and the word of his comfort and hope and peace and rest is forever. Yesterday, today, forever. Aren't you so thankful for that? In Christ, everything is the
same. Everything remains the same.
I just put two articles in our bulletin for Sunday. I think
one of them is called, He is the same. And one of them is
called, He never changes. Written by two different men.
They're so wonderful. I can't wait for you to read
them. But how thankful we are in this
ever changing world, how thankful we are for the fact that he never
changes. Everything with him stays exactly
the same. The road of this life, it may be an extremely tough
road to travel, but as long as it leads us to Jesus Christ,
it's worth it. As long as it leads us to Jesus
Christ, it's worth it and it's a good road. It's tough. But if it brings us to Jesus
Christ, it's a good road. No matter how tough the road
is, every child of God will be able to say with David, Lord,
you have dealt well with me. Everything you've allowed me
to go through has been good for me because it's brought me to
you. If it has brought me to you,
it has been good. Turn with me to James chapter
one. James 1 verse 1, it says, James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting, my brethren counted all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, different trials. Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have
her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting
or lacking nothing. He said, know this, it is the
trying of your faith that works patience in you. It's the trying
of your faith that brings patience in God's people. The story is
told of a man who came to, I believe it was Ralph Barnard, and the
man said, Brother Barnard, would you pray for me that the Lord
would increase my faith? I just so desperately need the
Lord to increase my faith. He said, I'm so anxious, I'm
so full of doubt all the time. I need the Lord to give me more
faith. Would you please pray for me?
And Brother Barnard said, yeah, I will. He said, bow your head.
And he said, Lord, would you bring great trial to this man? Would you bring great heartache
and great pain to this man? And the man said, no, hold on,
Brother Barnard. I wouldn't ask him for trial and heartache and
pain. He said, you want your faith increased, don't you? And
the man said, yeah. He said, faith comes by hearing
the word of God. And faith is proven through the
trying of it. And that is how it is. That faith
is proven to us through the trying of it. If faith is never truly
tried, we will never truly believe with it. If it's never truly tried, we
will never truly believe with him. Go back to first Peter one,
a few pages over first Peter one. Verse six, it says, wherein you greatly rejoice. He said, you do in the midst
of trial, greatly rejoice in God's people do. God's people
do. I want to make that very clear.
In this road, God's people rejoice. Even if they're in the midst
of great heaviness, the greatest heaviness they've ever known,
they still rejoice. Even if they're in the midst
of the greatest heaviness they've ever known, they still rejoice. In what? What are they rejoicing
in? They rejoice in the fact that verse 2 says they were made
to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
chosen to salvation. It says through sanctification
of the Spirit, set apart by the Spirit of God, selected by the
Father, set apart by the Spirit, Verse 2 says, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, chosen and set
apart to the obedience of Christ. Don't you love the sound of that?
Chosen and set apart to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Given
to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness,
all our holiness, all our purity. And verse two says, not only
the obedience of Christ, but also the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Chosen and set apart to the redemption
that is in him. Forgiveness in His blood, full
payment, full pardon, eternal deliverance. That's something
to rejoice over. That is something to rejoice
over. The end of verse two says, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Free gift from God and eternal
peace and rest be multiplied to you. That's something to focus
on. In the midst of trial, in the
midst of heaviness, that's something to focus on. In spite of what's
going on in the road that we call life on this earth, verse
3 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to His abundant mercy. Why do God's people rejoice
in the midst of trials? It's because of His abundant
mercy. Abundant mercy, never-ending
mercy. Our happiness in this life may
end. but His mercy won't. Our health in this life may end,
but His mercy won't. The sanity of our minds may end
in this world, but His mercy won't. It's new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. Great
is His faithfulness. His faithfulness to His covenant,
His faithfulness to His promise, His faithfulness to His people,
His faithfulness to remember the blood, His faithfulness to
make intercession for His people through His own blood. That's
something to rejoice over, even in the heaviness of trials. Verse
three says, 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. No matter how down we feel, we
are up in Christ. We may be as low as we can possibly
get in this world, but we're still as high as we can possibly
get in Christ. Happy Jack, the huckster, that
story Charles Spurgeon told, they kept asking him, why are
you so happy all the time? That's the middle of the story.
They said, why are you so happy all the time? They said, sometimes
we enjoy good frames and feelings and feel very happy, and then
we lose them and sink in spirit. Jack said, I never get lower
than I am, for I'm down at the bottom. I'm down at the bottom, a poor
center and nothing at all. He said, I can't get lower than
that, can I? But he said, I'm also at the
top for Jesus Christ is my all and in all. I can't get higher
than that, can I? Can we not say that with him?
Really? No matter how much hope seems
to be lost for us in this world, according to our Lord's abundant
mercy, He has begotten us again to a living hope. A living hope,
an eternal hope in the heavens. a hope of life by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Verse 4 says, 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 wherein you
greatly rejoice. He said, that's why you rejoice. That's why all of God's people
rejoice even in the midst of trials. Verse six, wherein you
greatly rejoice though now for a season, if need be, you are
in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of
your faith, and that's what it is. That's why you are going
through whatever you are going through. This hard road that
you're traveling right now is bringing you to Christ. It's
causing you to look to Christ. That's what faith is. You want
to know what faith is? It's looking to Jesus Christ.
It's just needing Christ. It's just trusting that Christ
is your only hope. That's faith. These trials are what give us
a desire to be with Christ. That's what our trials on this
earth accomplish. That's what they accomplish for
us. They cause us to have a desire to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And at the end of all of these
trials, upon trials, upon trials, we will be with Christ. If we
are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. sanctified
by the Spirit, redeemed by the blood, we will be with the Lord
Jesus Christ. We will very soon be with the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about these dear
loved ones. We have this dear brother who's going through this
cancer right now, and it's going through everybody's mind. He's
going to be gone soon. No, he's not. He's not. He's just going to
be there soon. And we're going to go right behind
him. We're going to be with Jesus
Christ. Verse seven says that the trial of your faith being
much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, though this, this faith that has been given to
you is tried with fire as gold is tried with fire and purged.
He said that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Can you not wait to see the appearing
of Jesus Christ? Look at this next line, verse
8. Whom having not seen, you love. That is one of my 5,475,000 lines
in the scripture, that's my favorite. That's one of them. I love that
line so much because it's so true. Whom having not seen, you
love. We have only seen our Savior
by faith. We have only seen Him in His
written Word. We have only seen Him in His
written Word. By His Spirit. through what the
Spirit has revealed to us and caused us to believe about Him.
We have never physically seen Him. But I'm telling you the
truth right now. Every chosen called child of
God in this room is madly in love with Him right now. Madly
in love with Him right now. I couldn't help, I was in here
yesterday studying. And I took a minute, like I sometimes
do, and I listened to a message. I put a message on sermon audio.
And I was just standing here. I was standing in the foyer out
there looking out the front door and just thinking about the service.
And I thought, what if we knew that Jesus Christ would be at
the service tomorrow night? What if we knew that? Well, according to his word,
he is at the service tonight. He is among us right now. We
see Him by faith through what He has revealed in this Word.
But so soon, so soon, He's going to appear to us and we're going
to see Him as He is. And the moment that our eyes
leave this poor, wretched, sin-filled, rotten, decaying, disgusting
world and turn up and see Him, we're going to be just like Him. And that causes us to love Him.
That causes us to desire to be with Him. Romans 8 verse 18 says, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. To us, yes. But in us, the moment
we lay eyes on Him. Every child of God in this world,
every child of God in this world will say, amen to that. I believe
that. I'm hoping in that. I'm waiting
and trusting that and I love him for that. Whom having not
seen you love, verse eight says, in whom though now you see him
not. yet believing, you rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory." Even though heaviness is taking
place in the flesh, rejoicing is taking place in the soul,
waiting for the receiving. Verse 9 says, receiving the end
of your faith. even the salvation of yourselves. What is the end of our faith?
What is the salvation of our souls? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is life on this
earth is a tough road. Kids, it's a tough road. Adults,
it's a tough road. I've told you before, I've asked
my dad a thousand times, when does it get easier? His answer
every time is it doesn't. It's a tough road, but for a
child of God, this is a road that brings us to Jesus Christ.
That's our comfort in it. That's going to be our comfort
till the moment the road ends, right there at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. May the Lord comfort us with
those words.