You know, one of the things I
enjoy so much about doing what I do, going through the Scripture
verse by verse, is we become, if the Lord would teach us, well
taught in all the Scripture, all the Word. And the Scriptures are so relevant
to us, to our lives, you know, we do as we live our lives in
this world. All Scripture is relevant. It's
all profitable to us. But these verses this morning,
as I began studying last Sunday afternoon, struck me as so relevant. So maybe relevant's not the right
word. Timely might be the right word
to this group. The title of the lesson is The
Trial of Your Faith. And it's just very timely. as
so many are going through the trial of your faith. And our
lesson begins in verse 6, where Peter writes, wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. Now he says, wherein ye greatly
rejoice. Well, the thing he's talking
about is what we looked at in the previous verses last week.
Wherein we rejoice in all the works of God's grace. We rejoice
in the sovereign, electing love of God. We can greatly rejoice
in being sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Christ.
We rejoice in the abundant mercy of our God. We rejoice in being
born again by the Holy Spirit. We rejoice in the eternal inheritance
that we looked at, that God's people are given. We rejoice
in the keeping grace of God. I don't have to keep myself.
His grace will keep me. We rejoice in the gift of faith
in Christ. And we do greatly rejoice in
these truths. Even in times of heaviness, that's
the way Peter describes these trials, heaviness. Even in times
of sorrow and these things that are beneath, we still rejoice. The believer does. Even in the
day of trial, you can truly say from the heart, this is the day
the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it.
Now, I'm not saying that the trial won't hurt, because it
will. I'm not saying it won't be hard, because it will be hard.
But the believer can still rejoice. And I can tell you why. We rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Wednesday night, I was sitting
here, and this is exactly where Cody began from a different scripture.
I thought, well, he said everything I was planning on saying. I'm
not going to say anything new. But I never do. It's the same message. We rejoice because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nine times in Scripture we read
this phrase, rejoice in the Lord. That's where our rejoicing is,
in the Lord. Look at Isaiah 61. I want us
to look at a couple of them. Isaiah 61. We rejoice in the
Lord. These times of trial and trouble
are hard, but it doesn't interrupt, it doesn't affect our rejoicing.
Because we don't rejoice in things beneath. We rejoice in things
above. Our sorrow comes from things
beneath. Or sin is. But our rejoicing
is in the Lord. Look in Isaiah 61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For he hath clothed me with garments
of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, And as a bride adorneth herself with jewels,
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord." He's covered me with the
robe of the righteousness of His Son. I'll greatly rejoice
in Him. Now look at Habakkuk chapter
3. You've got the authorized version. That's page 1162. That's
after Micah, Nahum, and then Habakkuk before Zephaniah. Habakkuk
chapter 3. Verse 17, Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines. The
labor of the olive tree shall fail, and the field shall yield
no meat. The flocks shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. That's a time of heaviness, a
time of sorrow and trouble. Yet, he says in verse 18, I will
rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. And one more scripture, Philippians
chapter 3. Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 3, verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous. But for you, it's safe. We rejoice
in the Lord. To preach the same thing to you
you heard Wednesday night is not grievous. It's a joy. It's
a pleasure. It's a benefit to us. It's safe
and necessary for us. Our rejoicing is in the Lord.
And this is another one of the things I love about Scripture. Scripture tells us the truth. We're not going to gloss over
the fact that trials are going to come to God's elect. It's
a certainty that they'll come. Ask Abraham, a man of great faith,
how many times has his faith tried? Hard trials. Job lost
everything, his faith was tried. David, Peter himself, Satan desired
him, he might sift him as wheat. But the Lord prayed for him,
what? That his faith fail not. His faith was tried. Trials are
going to come. And they're going to be hard.
Now, there'll be burdens. That's why Peter calls them heaviness.
But here's our comfort. The Lord only sends them when
necessary. You see what he says? If need
be. They only come when need be. Our Heavenly Father knows when
it's necessary, when it need be. Because these trials come
to increase our faith, to try our faith, to increase our faith,
to teach us more of our weakness. and more of the Savior's sufficiency.
That's why they come, if need be. And they won't last forever,
their first season. Just a season, just a short time,
every trial has its end. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Every single night is dark, but
the sun always comes up in the morning. First season, it's dark,
and then the sun comes up again. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, it's just a season, it's just for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
For we look not at things which are seen, but the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen,
they're just temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal. So these trials come when need
be and just for a season. And they'll come in many different
shapes and sizes and colors. They're manifold temptations,
what Peter says. It can be sickness, loss of a
loved one, loss of friends over the gospel, hatred for the Christ's
sake, financial difficulties. One of the writers said, either
poverty or wealth. Either one. Both can try your
faith. Prosperity can try our faith
as much as poverty can many times. But our faith will be tried.
And every time it will be tried to reveal that that faith is
genuine. Look at verse 7 in our text.
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. Now gold is very valuable to
us. Human beings are fascinated with
it. I mean, you read about people's
blood pressure going up and their endorphins all go up and they
just see it. They just touch it. I mean, oh my goodness. It's
so valuable to us. And a wise goldsmith will put
that gold in the fire. Right in the fire. Just right
in the flame. And he does it to burn off the
draws. To make that gold even more valuable and more beautiful.
Well, faith in Christ is much more valuable than gold. One
day, that gold is going to vanish. It's going to disappear and perish
just like the rest of the earth. And in that day, faith in Christ
will be all that matters. It's much more precious than
gold. And this precious faith is tried with fire just like
gold is. You know, we don't think it's
strange when the goldsmith takes that gold and puts it in the
fire. We don't give it a second thought because we know what
he's doing. Well, then don't be surprised when our faith,
which is much more precious than gold, is tried the same way in
fire. Look over in chapter 4 here,
1 Peter. In verse 12, he says, Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to
try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. Don't
think it strange when your wise heavenly Father puts us in the
fire of trial, so He'll burn off the dross. He'll make us
more attractive and more valuable. The fire of trial will make us
more attractive, and I'll tell you why. Because it's going to
burn off everything but Christ. Everything but Christ is dross,
and He's going to burn it off. And when that happens, we'll
become more attractive. Our faith is more attractive.
And our faith will become more valuable, too. It becomes more
valuable, first of all, to me. When that faith is tried, that
dross is burned off, it becomes more valuable to me. Because
now I'm taught how truly frail and weak and fragile I am, and
how sufficient the Savior is. I learned, I really learned,
how worthless the temporary things of this world are. And I really
learned how I shouldn't put my trust in men. Even the best of
them, I really learned that. And that faith becomes more valuable
to me because it teaches me to trust more fully in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's more valuable. And that
fire of trial makes that faith more valuable to others. It's
to me, and it also makes it more valuable to others. Once you've been through the
fire, and you've come out, now you can comfort those who are
in the fire right now. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
1. Now you're able to comfort them. I think I may have learned that the best message that we
preach is the message that the Lord's just wrung out of you.
Just wrung it out of you. Those are the ones that's a blessing. Once you've been through the
fire, Now you can comfort those who are in the fire. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3, Blessed
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in
all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God. That's what he's saying. that's
been tried by fire is more valuable to others too. And that fire
makes our faith stronger. The only way physically we're
able to get stronger is to work hard, to lift weights or to put
our muscles under a lot of stress so that they get stronger. If
you're going to run a marathon, you don't just go out in the
morning and run a marathon. You spend six or eight months
slowly building up, slowly strengthening your body to be able to do that.
Well, that faith is made stronger the same way, by putting it under
a heavy burden, under the fire, so it'll get stronger. And listen,
the one who's putting it under that burden is our Heavenly Father. He's not going to put a weight
on you that'll crush you, just to make your faith stronger.
And true faith that withstands that fire is going to be found
under praise and honor and glory when the Lord Jesus Christ appears.
Now, we're not going to get the praise and the honor and the
glory. Oh, you had such good faith. No. He's going to get
all the praise and the glory and the honor because he's the
one that gave the faith. He's the one that tried it. He's
the one that kept it from failing. He's going to get all the glory.
Yet, he's still going to say, well done, my good and faithful
servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And true faith is always looking
to Christ and for Christ. Look at verse 8. Whom having
not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. I told you before, I was at Madisonville
preaching one time. I went over early to kind of
go over my notes. I'm sat in Reese's study. I looked
up over his door, there's an empty picture frame. Empty. And
underneath it is this verse. Whom having not seen, ye love. We've not seen the Lord Jesus. No, none of us have. With these
eyes. But we've seen him with eyes of faith in the word. We've
seen him. We've never heard his voice,
but we hear his voice in the word. We've heard him. We've
heard him described in the word. And the believer loves what he's
heard, loves what he's seen, just absolutely loves it. We
love him because he's altogether lovely. We love him because he
first loved us. We love him because of the perfections
of who he is. It's not just what he's done
for us, although we love him for what he's done for us, we
love him for who he is. We love to worship him. We love
to sing his praises. We love to partake in the ordinances,
the Lord's table and baptism. Because they all show us the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now normally, you have to see
somebody before you fall in love with them. There is such a thing
as love at first sight. This is not that kind of love. It's not physical. It's spiritual
love. Normally, you have to hear it
to believe it. When I believe it, when I hear
it myself. I believe it when I see it myself. This is spiritual
believing. Spiritual love. We believe without
ever seeing. We love Him without ever hearing
Him. And we believe on Christ for everything. For life, for
salvation, to keep us, everything. We cast all of our hope on Him.
All of it. And we're confident that He'll
keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day, the
day of His appearing. And because we know that, we
rejoice. Even in this day of happiness
and trial, the trial of fire, We rejoice. We rejoice in Christ. So much so that Peter says it's
unspeakable. That's not that you can't talk
about it. It's that words don't do it justice. You can't explain
it. Gil says this. This is a joy
in believing on him, which is better experienced than expressed. It's better experienced than
expressed because you can't really express it. But to someone that's
experienced it, they say, I know what you're talking about. That's
it. I know what you're saying. Now, verse 9, he continues, he
says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of
your souls. Now, remember, Peter is writing
to people just like us. They're under trial. That's what
he's writing to those strangers who are scattered. They've been
scattered across the world because of persecution. And they're in
serious trial. And he's reminding them. See,
Peter's been through this. And this is not his first rodeo.
He's been through this. And he's reminding them, don't
fall into the same trap that I and the other disciples fell
into at one time. They were looking for Christ
to come set up an earthly kingdom. And they were constantly confused
why he wasn't doing it. And Peter learned the lesson,
just like the other apostles did. We don't just believe on
Christ so He'll fix our earthly problems. Now, He's capable,
He's able, many times He does do it. But that's not why we
believe on Him. We're not believing on Christ
so we'll be delivered from all of our temporal problems. He's
able to do it, but that's not why we believe on Him. We need
a whole lot more than the salvation of this body, the deliverance
of this body from some temporary issue that we might face. The
primary need that we have is the salvation of our soul, an
eternal salvation, not just something that's temporary, because the
Lord will deliver you from some earthly trouble. But you know
what? Next week you're going to have another one. We're talking
about something here that's eternal. It's spiritual. And our primary
interest is not in a temporary deliverance. That's not the believer's
primary interest because we've been taught that's not our primary
need. And that's not what Christ came to provide. The final result
of election. We started back in verse 2 last
week. The final result of election
is the salvation of your souls. That's where it ends up every
single time. Being saved from sin. Being saved
from the law. Being saved from hell. Being
saved from eternal death. Being saved from those things
to eternal life. To glory. Eternal glory with
Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and he saved his people from their sin. He redeemed them through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And redeemed means bought
back. Christ our Savior bought back
the souls of his elect. In Adam, we sold our souls under
sin. We sold ourselves under the power
of Satan. We sold ourselves under the law.
We sold ourselves under the justice of God. But our Redeemer came
and bought us back. He bought us back from the law
being made a curse for us. He bought us back from the power
of sin because he was made sin for us. Our Redeemer bought back
our souls from under the justice of God when he suffered the full
penalty of the sins of his people. Our Redeemer bought back our
souls from the power of Satan when he crushed Satan's head.
And he's the mighty victor that led captivity captive. He redeemed
his people. And we rejoice because these
trials, as hard as they are, are temporary. What we have in
our Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of our souls, is eternal. The
two do not compare. So we rejoice. And this salvation,
Peter says in verse 10, of which salvation the prophets have inquired
and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you. Old Testament prophets, they
wrote of Christ. They wrote of the redemption
that He would accomplish for His people. They wrote in prophecy
that Christ would come as a man. He'd suffer and He'd die as a
sacrifice for the sins of His people. Look over in Isaiah 53. This is right from where Cody
preached from Wednesday night. Isaiah 53. This is what they
wrote of. In verse 4, He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. He was made sin for us. He bore
our griefs. He carried our sorrows. Yet we
did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was the great substitute who
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed." These Old Testament prophets
wrote of Christ. Abraham, our Lord, said, saw
my day and was glad. He rejoiced for the same reason
you and me do, in Christ. And these Old Testament prophets,
they inquired and they searched diligently. They're like miners
who are looking for diamonds. You know, they didn't just go
turn up a few shovels worth of dirt and say, well, nothing here,
and quit. They dug, and they dug, and they
dug, so they dug deep. Because that's where you find
diamonds, is down deep. I mean, you've got to go way
down deep. And that's what they did. They dug down deep. They
were willing to dig deep to find Christ, to find this salvation. They were diligently searching
for it. He says in verse 11, here's what they were searching
for. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify. When He, if you haven't done
it yet, you take that word it, cross it out with an ink pen.
The Holy Spirit is not an it, it's a he. He testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
The Holy Spirit moved those prophets to write of Christ. They wrote
of him in prophecy, and type, and picture, but they wrote of
Christ. They didn't write inspirational stories, you know, kind of like
Aesop's fable, you know. They didn't just write stories
that are good to teach our children some moral lesson. They wrote
of Christ. And they didn't only write of
Him coming as King. They wrote of Him coming as a
sacrifice for sins. And after that sacrifice for
sin, then comes the glory of the King. But they wrote of those
things. And those Old Testament prophets, they're just like us. They're exactly like we are today.
They wanted to know when Christ was coming. They wanted to know
who He was coming to save. They were searching what or what
manner of time. They wanted to know when He's
coming. They wanted to know when Christ would come the first time.
Just like we want to know when's He coming the second time. And
really, the better way to put it is this. They watched with
great expectation for His first coming. I don't search the Scriptures
to know when Christ is coming back because the Scriptures tell
me I'm not going to figure it out. I won't know. But I look
with great expectation for His return. And after you've been
through His fire of trial that He began talking about here,
you've been through that a time or two, you look with a much
more keen eye for His coming, for His second coming. No matter
what age you live in, whether you're Abraham, Isaiah, or us
today, what are you looking for? Christ, for His appearing. That's
what we're waiting for, His appearing. In verse 12, he says, unto whom
it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they
did minister the things which are now reported unto you, by
them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look
into. Old Testament prophets, they
realized that these things they were prophesying wouldn't be
fulfilled in their lifetime. That they weren't writing necessarily
for the fulfillment of these things for people that they saw.
It was for us. For us, He would come later.
And those very truths that those Old Testament prophets wrote
are the things that Gospel preachers preach to us today. Isaiah wrote
seven or eight hundred years before Christ was born, and he
prophesied of that. So in the year 2008, Cody Gruber
came here and ministered those things to us. That's what that
is. And we preach the very same Gospel,
because the same Spirit that led Isaiah least God's servants
today. It's the same spirit leading
us the same way, the same message, the message of Christ. Now we
have a better understanding of those things today because all
those prophecies that they wrote have now so many have been fulfilled
and we see Christ has come. We have the explanation of all
those Old Testament scriptures in the New Testament. We have
that explained to us and we see much better than they did. There's
a man at work, he's fond of this statement. He says, I'm not sure
I understand everything I know about that. He had to say that
six or seven times before I understood. I'm not sure I understand everything
I know about that. Well, I think that's probably
what those Old Testament prophets were. I'm not sure they understood
everything they knew about that. Now, they knew, they saw, but
not nearly as clearly as we do. And those prophets, they searched
diligently into these things. And the angels do too. They look
diligently at this matter of salvation. I'm telling you to
the angels, it was a mystery when God's Son was put in the
womb of that virgin. They just, they said that holy
thing that's in the air was a mystery to them. It was a mystery to
watch God Almighty be born a baby and laid in a trough. It's a
mystery to them. It was a mystery why everyone
around him wasn't absolutely in love with him like they were. Why was he being mistreated?
Why didn't people believe him? They looked in great mystery
at his suffering. I mean, they expected the Word
to come and wipe this thing out. And it never came. It's a mystery
to them. They watched God die. They watch life die and be laid
in a tomb. And they look with wonder. These are the things that are
preached to you. So wherefore, he says in verse
13, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the
end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The prophets and the angels desire
to look into the things that the Lord has revealed to you.
So treat this seriously. Apply your whole heart to it.
Apply your whole mind to Christ and the Scriptures. And take
the blessing of this opportunity very, very seriously. This is
a blessing that God would give us week after week after week. The opportunity to come and hear
His Word. That's a blessing. I'm telling
you. Maybe we learn a little bit how
quickly it could go away. It's of God's grace. Take it
seriously. Set all your hope on Him. In verse 14, as obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts
and your ignorance, but as He which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it's written,
Be ye holy for I am holy. Since the Lord's blessed you,
He's given you so much grace. Oh, He's blessed us. Then live
as obedient children. Don't live as children of this
world. Lord's made you his child. Now live like his child. You
know, in this previous verse when he talked about being sober,
he's not talking about just don't be ever drunk with wine. He's
saying don't become inebriated with this world so the world
chokes it off. So something becomes more important
than Christ. Instead of acting like our first
father, Adam, let's act like and follow our heavenly father.
And we, you know, this thing being holy, you're not going
to be holy before God. We have this sin. Nature will
never be holy until this body is put in the ground. But we
can conduct ourselves in a manner like our Heavenly Father. We
can conduct ourselves honestly and wholly before men. And that's
the result of regeneration. Just like the result, the end
result of election is the salvation of your soul, the end result
of regeneration is holiness. Act like your Father which has
called you. All right, well the Lord bless you.