Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. I realize that we've been in
this chapter and especially in these first three verses for
several weeks. But when the apostles, Paul,
Peter, and the rest of them, when they state things in general,
each statement in a single verse You can preach and teach on that
one subject, election. I mean, we don't have to go any
further than that. We just sit and talk about that.
And I did want to talk about these things a little bit. And this morning, before we get
into our lesson, I want to go back and recap just a little
bit. Everything that Peter says from verse 2 through verse 5
is a summary of the believer's experience of grace. Peter tells us where the believer
had his beginning. He tells us the basis of his
hope. He tells us how he was able to
acquire it. And he tells us how this hope
shall be preserved. And this is the history, if you
will, of saving faith. This is the history or experience
of the believer. He discovers all these things
by the grace of God. And he not only discovers these
things, but he understands these things, and he believes these
things, and he rejoices in these things. This is his history.
This is his history. It began with divine election.
God the Father chose a people in Christ unto salvation for
the glory of His great name. Did you know that the name most
commonly used in connection with Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ? Jesus Christ. Over and over and
over, these men, these apostles, establishing the doctrines of
grace and the doctrines of Christ, they refer to him as Jesus Christ. Now, I've got a problem with
religion today who drops the Christ and just talks about Jesus,
Jesus this and Jesus that. I've got a problem with that
because apart from his appointment as the Christ, Jesus doesn't
have any significance. It means Jesus in Spanish. Mexico is full of them. It doesn't
have anything to do, it has nothing, it doesn't impact you at all.
It doesn't impact your mind or your soul or anything else apart
from this word Christ. It's the name most commonly used.
And the Christ is that one appointed by the Father as the Savior,
the Redeemer, the Mediator who alone shall accomplish the redemption
of His people. We were chosen in Him unto salvation,
and we were chosen in him to manifest the glory of God. The Christ is that one called
Immanuel, God with us, and stands for the name of the one who takes
to himself the nature of both God and man. Man cannot satisfy,
and God cannot suffer, but the God-man can do both. He can do
both. And there's only one God-man,
only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
The Christ describes His person and it also describes His office. Christ is an office. This is
the office of the Son of God. The husband is the head of the
wife. Now listen to this, as Christ
is the head of the church. The word husband is an office.
If you're a husband here this morning, you hold an office. And that which a man takes to
himself when he's joined together with his bride, and this office
requires him and holds him responsible to care for her, and to love
her, and to forsake all others for her, regardless of her condition. The church was given to Christ
as his bride, making him willingly and lovingly responsible for
her in all things. We're talking about this office
of Christ. Faith sees the believer's election
in Christ and it sees the accomplishing of our salvation in his person
and work. He honored and exalted the law
by his perfect obedience to it and by his death on the cross. And as God chose us in Christ,
he predestinated us to be heirs together with Christ, made us
accepted in the beloved, and then abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence, making known unto us the mystery of his redemptive
will in Christ. There in Ephesians chapter 1
where he talks about the Lord abounding toward us in wisdom
concerning these mysteries, the mysteries of God's will, that's
what he's talking about, His redemptive will. His redemptive
will. And this hope, Paul said to Titus,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began, He hath
in due times manifested through preaching. He made this mystery
known. He didn't leave it to be a mystery,
but he made this mystery known. And he made it known through
the appearing of Jesus Christ and through the preaching of
the gospel. So then, if we sum it all up, we can say, like Paul
said over in 2 Thessalonians 2, he said, verse 13, I believe
it is, that God hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. There's the history. There's
the history of man. Or as Peter says here in our
text, he hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the believer's history.
And it's the history of his faith and calling of God and his experience
of these things through the work of the Holy Ghost. Now, the man
who knows these things is a happy man. He's a happy man. He can't help but be happy. He
can't help but rejoice in Christ. He rejoices in Him, praises God
in his heart, and his desire is to walk all his days with
the Lord. He sees the love of God in Christ. He sees the mercy of God in Christ. He sees the wisdom of God in
Christ. All these treasures now are opened
unto him as he sees his person in work. He sees the glory of
God as Paul says over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in the very beginning
of the chapter. He sees the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ our Lord. And this faith given to him by
the grace of God has set him apart from this world. Our Lord said this to his disciples. He said, you are of the world. I mean, you are in the world.
But you're no longer of it. For I've chosen you out of it.
If you were of the world, the world would love their own. But
I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hateth you.
You see that God has set his people, when he calls a man to
Christ, regenerates that man, reveals his treasure, his glory
in his heart, all those things that were accomplished in Christ.
In so doing, he sets this man apart from this world. He sets
him in distinction. And our faith in Christ has set
us apart from other men. We've been called out of darkness,
called to discipleship, called by His grace to reveal His Son
in us. Now, I said all of that that
you might understand our lesson this morning, Peter's next statement
here in 1 Peter 1, 6. We're in all these things that
we just talked about. You greatly rejoice. Do we? Boy, we ought to. I tell you,
we ought to. And the more we look around us,
the more we ought to rejoice. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. Now
watch this. Though now for a season, for
a little season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. That word is trials. Trials. This word temptation here is
not to be understood as being tempted to sin. That's not what
he's talking about here. He's talking about trials. It
has to do with being tried. It refers to trials, sin of God
for our good and His glory. And these trials come in different
ways, different forms. Trials of difficult service. Trials. That's a trial. It's
a difficult decision. Is it not, Caleb, to sell your
house and pack up your clothes and move across the state? That's
difficult service. That's what that is. Some of you in this place have,
I have, I know he has, and others. It's a difficult decision for
a man to make who knows his alliance with the children of God will
cause nearly everybody he knows to cut him off. That's a difficult
decision, isn't it? Listen to this. This comes right
out of the faith chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. He gets down
and he's talking about Moses down in the later verses. And
listen to this. By faith, when he was come to
years, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin, for a season, trials of difficult
service, the trials of reproach from family and friends, and
then trials of riches or poverty. You go on down a little bit more
in Hebrews chapter 11, and it said, Moses esteemed the reproach
of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And then
there's trials of sickness and sorrow, and trials of success
and failure, and trials of disappointment. God has a reason for every trial,
and every trial is customized for that particular individual
whom He puts this trial in front of. Now watch this, 1 Peter 1,
saving, that the trial of your That's
about as personal as it gets. Not talking about trial of somebody
else's faith, he's talking about trial of your faith, my faith. That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The faith of God's
elect, that which enables him to see and understand and embrace
the Lord Jesus Christ is likened here unto pure gold. Pure gold. If you go back, and
some of you were able to attend the services when I went through
the book of Exodus, and you saw there the tabernacle as a picture
of Christ, and you seen inside this thing, Time after time after
time, that ark was overlaid with pure gold. The candlesticks and
all of these things. You go through there and you
see all of these things. Pure gold, pure gold. And like
gold, it's given to men in the earth. Now don't you think about
what I'm saying here. Not going to be any need for
faith and glory. We're going to leave faith down
here. Faith is needful here, but it's of no use there. No
use whatsoever. There'd be no need for faith
and glory. Then we shall see him as he is,
and then shall we know as we are known. Faith is God's gift
to sinners. It's God's gift to sinners. It's
that which allows them to be partakers of their inheritance
with all the rest of the enlightened saints or the saints in light,
as the scripture states. A good summary of man is given
over in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 47. This is what most of the
commentators, they use this at funerals and during times of
funerals. But it begins to describe man
down in verse 47 and said, he is of the earth earthy. That
man, he's earthy, head to toe. He's earthy. Another word Paul
uses to describe natural man is carnal, sold under sin. And again, he likens him, he
calls him a natural man. Natural man. The objects of God's
gift of faith are sinners in their nature. They have no innate. knowledge of God. They're not
born with any knowledge of God except conscience and that which
bears witness in creation, which most men ignore anyway. Saving
knowledge must be given. This pure gold must be given. In James chapter 3, setting forth
the faith and character of the believer, he said, if you have
bitter envy and strife in your hearts. Glory not, and lie not
against the truth. Now watch this. This wisdom descendeth
not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Now if
that knowledge descendeth not from above, then true faith does. True faith does. I read a little
bit about gold and the refining process of gold. Where gold is
found in the earth, it's found fused together with other things. The only time you find gold in
any kind of purity in this world is when you find it in a string
where it's been rolled and knocked and banged and this old heavy
gold finally comes down in the form of a nugget. Even then sometimes
there's impurities fastened to it. But most of the time it's
found deep within a rock, old hard Any of y'all ever watch on the
History Channel the gold people? I did, too. I kind of followed
that. But this one old fella, he went way up on top. He'd been
mining down at the bottom for a long time. Finally, he went
way up on top. And when he went up there, what
he discovered was these big old rocks about this big around,
some of them even bigger, and there was gold all in that rock. The problem then is how to get
the gold out of the rock. How do you get it out of this
rock? This thing hard as a piece of granite, how are you going
to get this gold out of it? It's adhered to it. It's down
inside of it. And I thought as I read this
how true it is to our experience of grace. The believer is first
crushed, isn't he? under the law. He's crushed under
the law. And then what's left still after
that crushing, he removes in the fire. That's what trials
are all about. And then sometimes gold's found
in connection with another valuable mineral. I didn't know this until
I read about it. Sometimes gold is adhered to
silver. And both of them are valuable
in their own right, but they're not valuable together. They have
to be separated. They have to be separated. This to me speaks of men and
women who are zealous like the Jews, but not according to knowledge. After faith in Christ is established
and their zeal separated from their salvation, it then becomes
a thing of value in itself. You ever think about that? Paul
was just as zealous after God saved him as he was before, but
his zeal before was an ignorant zeal. It was an abomination to
God before. But after God separated those
things and he saw his salvation 100%, he saw that pure gold of
Christ. Then his zeal become a good thing,
didn't it? And it's the same thing with
the mind. The natural mind is enmity against God, but not once
God separates it. When he separates it, it becomes
a valuable thing. Trial sometimes helps us to separate
or to make us realize that zeal is a good thing. And if it has a right end and
a right motivation. But it's an evil thing when it's
exercised in ignorance. Faith has to do with Christ alone. Christ alone. Trials are sent
not to create faith but to separate it from all the other impurities
in this flesh. I also read this about the refining
of gold. When gold is heated in the fire
to a temperature of 1,064 degrees, what happens? What happens? The gold melts and all the impurities
float to the top. And they take this little paddle
and they push them aside and there's nothing left but pure
gold. I've read biographies talking
about some of these old saints and how their faith shined in
trials. And this is true. I'm not trying
to down these old saints. It's true. The pure gold of your
faith is going to shine in a trial. But that's not what comes to
the surface first. Huh? What comes to the surface
when gold's passed through the fire? Impurities. Huh? Impurities. Who is it that can
say in trials that they had no doubts or fears? You can't do
it, can you? No anxious thoughts. No unbelief. Nowhere is our flesh brought
into view as it is in the beginning of our trials. That's when we
see it. And we see it for what it is.
And we take that paddle and we push it aside. Don't take very
long. Don't take very long. It's impurities. Now, understand what I'm saying.
I'm not suggesting that the believer is being made more and more holy
or more and more righteous. We're perfect and complete in
Christ. But this perfection of Christ
is surrounded by impure flesh. Listen to how John describes
this process in 1 John 3, verse 2. He said, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God. Right now. And it does not yet
appear, that is, looking at us and looking around in this world,
it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. That is, our faith concentrates
on Christ. It has to be reminded of it constantly,
but it focuses, it zeroes in on Christ. And when that day comes, Everything
else will be gone. God's going to burn it all up.
The only thing left is Christ. The only thing left. And every man, he said, that
hath this hope in him, now listen to this, purifies himself, even
as he is pure. He's already pure in Christ. But that faith of Christ, it's
Christ in you, the hope of glory. That is, that's your faith, that's
your hope, Christ in you. And John goes on down there in
that same chapter, and he said, we cannot sin because his seed
remaineth in us. We're in him. You can't sin in
Christ. What sins, what continues to
sin is this flesh, this flesh. And every man that hath this
hope, he purifies himself. All through his life is a process
of casting aside these things that he thought he knew that
he don't really know. These things that he trusted
in that he ought not. These things that draw him aside. All of these things. It's a continual
purification of that faith. Not a purification of the soul,
but a purification of that faith. Paul put it this way, we behold
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and we are changed into
that same image from glory to glory. The purpose of trials
is to expose all the impurities that surround our faith and leave
us trusting in Christ alone. And being in Christ alone, bound
unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ. Alright, now look at verse 8.
1 Peter 1 verse 8. Whom having not seen, ye love. Huh? How do we see Him? We see Him by the testimony of
God. Now that's it. Somebody comes
to you and starts talking about a vision they had and they saw
Christ and they did this and that. Just tune them out. Tune
them out. Peter said, in whom we having
not seen, ye love. In whom, though now you see him
not, yet believing, see that? Believing, you rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. How does a man know if he really
believes in Christ? He rejoices in Him. He submits
to Him. He worships Him. And He trusts
in Him. Faith is that which believes
God. It has nor needs any other evidence
other than the Word of God. If the Word of God's not sufficient
for your faith, you don't have the faith of God's elect. Faith
is built on the foundation, Paul said, of the apostles and prophets.
It takes the Word of God. It takes God at His Word. What takes place in the conversion
of a sinner is that which enables him to say with Paul, let God
be true and never man a liar. I was talking to a lady here
last week. And she was talking to me about some things that
she believed and some things that I said. And I said, well,
I don't mind sitting down, having a conversation with you and talking
to you and answering your questions. But I want you to know this first.
We ain't getting outside this book. We're not going anywhere
else. And I said, if I can show you
in this book, Why I believe what I preach. Will you believe it? Well, she said, if it's not in
that book, then it's not true. And I said, then you and I get
along great. We ought to get along great. And then let me add this. There's
nothing in the testimony of God of which this world is at agreement. Nothing. Nothing. God says His
will is sovereign in the salvation of sinners. This world says man
has the last word. Huh? They're not in agreement
with God. God says creation was made by
His Son and for His Son. It was made for a divine purpose. A purpose, purpose before the
world, before the foundation of the world. It was made by
Him and for Him. This world said it's a product
of random evolution formed by chance and circumstance. God
says the salvation of sinners is particular. This world says
it's universal. God says salvation is by grace. This world says it's by works.
God says man is totally depraved. This world says there's a little
bit of good in all men. God says you must be born again.
This world says accept Jesus as your personal savior, make
your decision, and you're a saved man. God said, I am the Lord,
I change not. This world says salvation is
God changing his mind. There's nothing in the testimony
of God of which this world is at agreement. Nothing. Regeneration
enables men to believe and rest in Christ alone. It brings him
to see the testimony of God and to receive that testimony as
it is of God. Trials then separates what still
clings to our faith in this old flesh by refining our faith in
the trial. And Paul tells us that over in,
I think it's 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If you read through there,
he said, if any man build on, there's just one foundation.
And if any man build on this foundation, his work is going
to be made known because it's going to go through the fire.
The day will declare it because it's going through the fire.
And we all suffer these trials. But when you learn what the trial
is, we ought to rejoice. And Paul tells us that over there
in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 3. These trials, they separate
this old weak flesh and expose it for what it is and leaves
us clinging to Christ. That's what we want to do. When
we realize what that trial is doing, we'll rejoice even in
the trials. Count it all joy, James said,
when these trials.