The text today will be verse 6-12 of 1 Peter chapter 1. After speaking about the living hope and the inheritance that the child of God has, and speaking about it in great detail, and yet great brevity. Peter goes on in verse 6 and says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look." As we said last week, this first 12 verses of 1 Peter is typically looked at in one single lens, and yet there, I believe, is much to be gained by looking at each of these halves of these opening verses of 1 Peter in their own light. I want to speak to you today about the Christian and his trials. The Christian and his trials. A lot of Scripture is given talking about trials, affliction and burdens. A lot of scripture is given to this topic, and nothing I'm going to say today is going to really bring out anything new, I don't think. David talked again and again in the Psalms about enduring trials and affliction. The apostles speak many times in the New Testament about trials that we face as we walk in this life as a child of God. Jesus himself spoke about it again and again and again about the trials of life. Of course, we have an entire book in the Old Testament given completely to the enduring of trials and sorrow and heartbreak in the book of Job. And so the scripture just says over and over, how we are to expect and then to to endure trials that we face in this life. I spoke last week about these people that Peter was writing to this elect dispersion of believers. How that they were enduring great difficulty and great trial, and I want to read to you today the martyrdom of Andrew, the apostle. This is found in Martyr's Mirror. If you don't have that book, I highly recommend that you add it to your library. By Thielen J. Von Braat. And it is a large volume. And it is in one account after another through the centuries of Christian martyrs. And it begins in the first century and speaks of the martyrdom of James and of others and certainly of the apostles. And this is what's recorded about Andrew, because I want to read this to you because I want you to remember and us to remember and to know the very real danger that was faced in the first century if you were a Christian. If you are a follower of Christ. Persecution was not only something that you knew might happen, it was something that you knew was probably going to happen if it wasn't already happening. And we know that all but one, John himself, would die a martyr's death of the of the apostles. Of course, we know Judas kills himself and all these others, except for John. were martyred. Tradition says Peter was crucified upside down. And this is what we read about Andrew. This is the reality of what it meant to be a Christian at the time of this writing. And as I said last week, it's so easy to not understand scripture clearly when we don't appreciate the reality of the trials that God's people were facing at that time. We can skip past it and try to apply it only to our And don't misunderstand when I say this, our relatively persecuted less Christianity, we can sometimes miss the depth of what's here. And so I want to read this about Andrew. Von Brott writes, the enemies of the truth, having apprehended and sentenced to death the apostle Andrew, he went joyfully to the place where he was to be crucified. And having come near the cross, he said, O beloved cross, I have greatly longed for thee. I rejoice to see thee erected here. I come to thee with a peaceful conscience and with cheerfulness, desiring that I, who am a disciple of him who hung on the cross, may also be crucified. The apostle said further, the nearer I come to the cross, the nearer I come to God, And the farther I am from the cross, the farther I am from God. The holy apostle, as it says, the apostle hung three days on the cross, he was not silent, however, but as long as he could move his tongue. He instructed the people that stood by the cross in the way of the truth, saying, among other things, I thank my Lord Jesus Christ that he, having used me for a time as an ambassador, now permits me to have this body that I, through a good confession, may obtain everlasting grace and mercy. Remain steadfast in the word and doctrine which you have received, instructing one another that you may dwell with God in eternity and receive the fruit of his promises. The Christians and other pious people besought the governor to give Andrew unto them. And breaking the reading briefly, Andrew found himself in this position at the governor's will because Andrew had preached and proclaimed the gospel and the governor's wife had been converted to Christianity. And it greatly agitated the governor. And Andrew is going to pay for that preaching with his life. This governor After Andrew has preached this gospel, sentences him to death, the other Christians and other pious people besought the governor to give Andrew unto them and take him down from the cross. It appears that he, that is, Andrew, was not nailed to the cross like Christ, but tied to it. When the apostle learned of this, he cried. So the people are saying to the governor to let him down and to give him to us. And when Andrew hears that this is what they're saying, he says, Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, I suffer not that thy servant who hangs here on the tree for thy name's sake be released to dwell again among men, but receive me. Oh, my Lord, my God, whom I have known. whom I have loved, to whom I cling when I desire to see thee, in whom I am what I am." This was the reality for a Christian. A great many of them like these Christians that Peter is writing to. When you claimed to be a follower of Christ, you put your life in grave danger. And trial found you. I've often said, I think I even said last week, I don't want any of us to go searching for persecution. I've known some who have, in my assessment, have kind of gone that way. Trials and persecution will find us as we center our thoughts and our eyes upon Christ and we walk with Him. The world will take notice and it will not let it go by. But it is not something that we ought to champion or be proud of or to go after. It's just something that will happen. As Paul said, all who live godly will suffer persecution. So we are going to endure trials. It's nothing new. We all know this. How do we endure them as Christ would have us to? When in verse six, We are told in this you rejoice. What is the this that he is referring to? Well, we need to remember the first five verses and particularly verses three through five that we spoke about last week. In this you rejoice, Peter says in what in what he has just said in speaking about the living hope that we have and that we possess as Christians. The living hope that he described as the new birth. What does a child of God rejoice in? The new birth. Being born again. And then Peter also described it and said that it was a new birth caused by God. Remember that he said that God has caused us to be born again and then made possible by Jesus death and his resurrection that we possess, that we rejoice in this, we possess an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, and that we rejoice in this, that that is kept in heaven for us, that God Himself guards us. He has just said these things that we spoke about last week, and He says, and in this, we rejoice. We rejoice in these things, and of course, we should. This is what the true Christian rejoices in, not the things that we so often seem to think we are to rejoice in. False Gospels of all varieties can very quickly be identified when we understand what they are telling us to rejoice in. Peter tells us to rejoice in this, referring back again to the new birth, to the relationship that we have with God, that that's what we rejoice in. As we face these trials that Peter is going to get into in a moment, as we face them, we are people that rejoice in the truth of the gospel where we know we've been born again. False gospels always substitute something else to rejoice in. Besides that, Health, wealth and prosperity. The prosperity gospel of the day. The preacher with the slicked hair and the two thousand dollar suit and the Learjet and all and the mansions and the power and the prestige and the popularity. He will tell you, of course, again and again about the worldly blessings that you will receive if you follow Christ. And it is in that that that particular false prophet tells you to rejoice in the worldly wealth that you will gain if you'll just submit to Christ. But Peter didn't say that. Peter said, in this you rejoice. In this salvation that we know. That is what the true Gospel rejoices in. Many other false Gospels, self-righteousness, rejoice in your own perceived goodness. Your own righteousness. your own religious acceptance, your own proper orthodoxy and your own right theology and all of these things that so many can go down this path, that they rejoice in this, their understanding that they know all and that they like the Pharisee who prayed to God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. That's another thing, another false gospel that people say to rejoice in. But we remember last week when Peter reminds us that absolutely everything that we have is given to us alone by the mercy of God, only through his mercy, not through any goodness on our part. The false gospel of cheap grace. And so overwhelmed this country in the late 19th and early and throughout the 20th century, just overwhelmed it. This idea that man can make a decision and accept Christ apart from what Peter just talked about, this new birth, this change. His cheap grace, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it, and many others called it and spoke about it, this grace that leads to a life that is absorbed entirely with one's self rather than with Christ. And I ask us today, who is our life absorbed in? Ours? Christ? Peter says in this. You rejoice. If you want to face trials successfully in your life, if you want to endure in this side of eternity, and as you, if you live to a good old age, and you want to look back on decades of service committed to God and useful and fruitful for His cause, you better, first of all, start with making sure you're rejoicing in the right thing. Christ, the new birth, relationship with God, The true Gospel rejoices in that. Paul said it this way in Galatians 6.14, Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not come out of the gate successfully to face trials if we do not come out of that gate every day in our life rejoicing in the truth of the gospel that I know Christ and he knows me and God himself keeps it. He guards me, and you remember that word guard? It is the same word used as of a battalion of soldiers to protect a city. It is God who protects us. He holds us. It's kept in heaven. It's unperishable. It's unfading. It's all these things, this living hope. This is what I rejoice in. You'll not successfully endure your trials of life if you're not rejoicing in the right thing. I know this because the Bible tells me. I know this because I have stumbled at rejoicing in the wrong things. And the trials knocked me flat on my back. So let us get that right first. What are we rejoicing in? But why? Why is it? It's a common question. Why is it that God allows trials? Why are trials? Why do they have to be a part of the Christian life? Why can't it be like the false prophet says, once you give your life to Christ, it's nothing but sunshine and roses. Why can't it be like that? Why do we face trials? What are the use of our trials? Peter said in verse seven, so that the tested genuineness of your faith More precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. There is our answer. Trials provide one of the most fundamental, the principal way to discern whether or not our faith is real or not. Trials provide a principle way to reveal whether or not our faith is genuine or it isn't. Faith that has never been tested. Faith that has never been tested. This is going to sound like a lot to claim, so I ask you to continue to listen after I say it. Faith that has never been tested does not know whether or not it's genuine. Coming to Christ in the first place tests our faith. Am I going to believe what God is telling me about me? Am I going to believe the working of the Spirit of God in my heart that is convicting me and condemning me and telling me that without God I have no hope in eternity, much less this life? Am I going to believe Him? Am I going to trust Him? Or am I going to believe my own lies that I'm telling myself and that I will find all kinds of people in the world to reinforce for me? Or am I going to believe Jesus? Am I going to trust what God is telling me? Coming to Christ in the first place involves a test. And it's the most important test you'll ever take. And you talk about an understatement. The most important test you'll ever face is this tested genuineness in its original birth, in its original place and time, this faith and this exercising of trust and turning it over to God and saying, God, I am not sufficient. I am a sinner. I know, though, that Jesus hung on the cross after living a perfect life and died in my place. And like Barabbas, I have been set free. and I am now alive, and He had to die in order for that to be the case. And God, I believe that, and I trust You, and I repent of my sin." Or, you walk away from the test, and by so doing, you fail it. But the reality is, you'll take it. The test will be taken. One way or the other. Coming to Christ and salvation involves the test of our faith that confronts us, as we said, with our sin and our need of Christ and faith in our daily lives. Is genuine. While and when it is tested. It's easy, and we've said this and others have as well, it's easy to be a Christian when everyone speaks and thinks and treats Christians well. It's easy to be a Christian, at least to claim Christianity. I don't know that it's true to ever say that being a Christian is easy in this world. I think it's a constant battle. But it's easy to claim Christianity, to go through the motions when there's no risk, when you don't have to face what Andrew and countless other Christians and the very people that Peter is writing to, when we don't have to face those things, it's easy to claim Christianity. Peter's here writing to people enduring these very trials and persecutions because of their faith in Christ. There have been, there are today, there will almost certainly always be fair weather Christians. Christians who play the part, maybe even look like it outwardly, go to church, tithe, may be more engaged in outward Christian activity than even maybe some true believers. But they're fair weather in this sense. They're Christians who play the part. But when the decision is made, or when a decision is made that requires them to follow Christ, or to follow an easier path to avoid the trial, the fair weather Christian takes the easier path. Something in life we have to choose between. a spouse, a wife. I don't know what it could just any number of things in our life. But one path is taken because it's easier when God is calling us to the other path. The fair weather Christian will fail that test. But we endure trials in this life because we are His. And He calls us to this to ever keep our minds on the reality that we're not yet home. We must not look at this world as our home. It isn't. Nothing here is home. Home is on the other side. And when we follow Christ in this temporary land, and Andrew knew this, the apostle, as he hung for three days on that cross, that it was just temporary. And that he even at the end, when his fellow believers and those that loved him were begging the governor to let him down, and he says, Oh, no, let me go home to be the one I love, the one I long to be with. Trials are a key tool used to test, as Peter says, the genuineness of our faith. And that word genuineness in the Greek means a state of not being fake or counterfeit. It means this genuineness on the basis of having been tested. That's what the word means, that it's been proven to be something based upon testing and applying some critical thinking about it. It's been proven to be genuine. Genuine. And it's been proven to be genuine because of some test that has been endured. You often hear great athletes talking about them wanting to compete with the best in the world. They don't want to just compete with people they know that they can beat easily. They want to compete with the people who are best in the world to see just how good they really are. In the same way, when we face our trials, they allow us to see and test the genuineness of that faith. Don't misunderstand. This is not a test of salvation. Once we're saved, we've just clarified that. Peter has just said it, right? This is kept in heaven for you. It is sealed is the power of God. You are guarded by him. But every day, as we walk through this life, there's an opportunity for our faith to be tested and the genuineness of our faith is going to be revealed by the test. What's the use of our trials? They allow us an opportunity to test and apply and understand the genuineness of that faith. We're going to endure various trials. And this is so parallel to James that we've all read as well. We're going to face trials of various kinds. It's the exact same Greek word that James used when he spoke about various trials. My trial will not necessarily be yours. Yours won't be mine. We're all going to face various kinds of trials. Some situations may be easy for you to navigate. I remember and this is not to applaud me because trust me, there is plenty of of dark stains on my record of choices that I've made. But I remember as I was a freshman in high school playing football, and our sophomore year, because we'd moved to Bolivar, and I was seeing some success on the team, and the people were starting to be friendly. And I remember sitting in the locker room after practice one day, and them coming and saying, hey, we're all going to go out to drink. Do you want to go with us? And I just immediately said no. And it's the only time I ever had to answer the question. It never tempted me. That never tempted me. It didn't. That doesn't make me good. It doesn't make me admirable. It never tempted me. It wasn't my trial, but it's been the trial for many. I have other trials that have tempted and tried me that others have no trouble with. We all face various trials. And if we're going to endure them, we need to first remember what we rejoice in and then realize this test, this trial that I'm facing. In the moment that you're facing it, you say to yourself, This is an opportunity for me to show my Savior that I value Him more than this other thing. And I value Him in the midst of this trial. And I will bring and add my voice to Job, who said, the Lord has taken, or the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I add my voice to Job when he says, though He slay me, yet will I praise Him. We're all going to face various kinds of trials. And as I've gotten older, I realized that my trials at 47 are not the trials I had at 17 or even 27. And I'm confident that the trials I have at 47 will not be the trials I have at 67 if I live that long. We're going to go through various trials. But Peter says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, Why? Most of us, wouldn't you gladly just hand over your trials to somebody else if you could? Take this. I don't want it. Do you know when you say that, you are telling Peter, I am ready to just give this away, which is more precious than gold. It's hard to see that in the moment of trial, but the more mature and the more you face these trials as Christian and more times that through God's help, you successfully navigate it, the more you're going to come to see these trials are indeed more precious than gold, because unlike gold. Genuine faith never perishes. And gold does. I read this, thought it was a great sentence, great line. Gold will be valueless in the marketplace of eternity. Gold will be valueless in the marketplace of eternity. Listen, no one in hell is going to be impressed with how rich you were here. They're not going to care. Gold will have forever lost any value. And no one in heaven will have any gold because there's nothing on sale because God has already given his children everything. There's nothing left to buy. There's nothing left to add. There's not a larger house, a larger mansion. There's not another car. There's not another job. There's not another this. There's not another that. It's all there. No one in heaven or hell will care how rich you were in this life. There's nothing for sale by the way in hell either. That'll ease your torment. That gold that you seek in this life, that you, that you, Fail this trial of choosing and following Christ instead of the world. This gold that you've traded for that will be valueless to you, even if you had it all. I'm afraid, and I don't want to get into economics or politics, I'm afraid those green bills we have in our pocket one day, if we continue down this path, are going to turn into the same thing. Remember in World War II, Germans burning German marks in the fire to get warm because it was more valuable to them as heat than as currency? It happens and it has happened, and that's what's going to happen to the gold that you heap up in this life. You're going to wish you could turn it into something else to ease your discomfort, and you won't be able to. Now, what are our reasons? And I'll be done. What are our reasons? And there's a few. Verses 8 and 9, Though you have seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. What are our reasons? Because they end in praise, glory, and honor for Christ, certainly, but also for us. We endure trials because we know that they will prove to be found to result in the praise and glory of Christ. But note how Peter says it, to be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. These trials are going to be seen to be to the praise and glory and honor At the revelation of Jesus Christ, I spent a fair amount of time trying to puzzle that out. When is that? at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Is that when Jesus returns? That's what many seem to think. I don't know that that's what it simply means though, though certainly it's true to say that when Jesus returns, all our trials all of a sudden will come into much greater light and we'll understand, now I know and now I understand, but I don't think it's just then. This word revelation at the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Greek word revelation, it is meaning it is talking literally about that which was concealed, hidden, is then ultimately suddenly made known. And as any, have you ever been in a trial in your life? Maybe you failed it, maybe you were successful, but either way, all of a sudden realization came and you understood why you had to endure the trial. And you saw how all of it related to Christ and Him crucified. And then all of a sudden it began to make a lot more sense. We endure these trials because we know that they are going to end in glory, praise, and honor. But we endure these trials secondly, because we love Him. Because we love Him. Jesus said to him, speaking to Thomas, we've read this not too long ago, John chapter 20, verse 29. Have you believed? Jesus says, because you've seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Enduring trials is done. We endure them because we love Christ, not merely out of a sense of duty. Don't fall into that trap. Don't fall into that trap. Now, I think that it is good that we instill in our children and one another a sense of duty to live a life honoring to God. We should. We should instill that. But don't think for a minute you endure your trials successfully just because you're committed to fulfilling your responsibilities. You better do it because you love Christ. Because your commitment to following through with your responsibilities, it won't carry you far enough. You could be the person, the man with the most integrity on the planet. There's going to be some trial that you're going to face that is going to require you to love Christ more than anything else for you to endure it, for you to choose correctly, for you to walk the right path. If you do it simply because I'm supposed to, this is what I'm supposed to do. Have you ever gone down a path because you knew it was what you were supposed to do, but it wasn't what was inside of you? You ever seen a child obey an outward behavior, but you know, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their behavior, they'd rather do anything other than what you're asking them to do? And sometimes we have to settle for that. But that's not gonna work when it comes to our following of Christ. We endure these trials because Peter says, You have because you love him, though you have not yet seen him. If you don't follow through and you don't endure your trials because you love Christ and you don't have that close to your heart, you're going to see your trials as inconvenient, unfair, bothersome, heartbreaking. You're going to put all kinds of labels on it and you're going to become bitter. And bitterness is the garden that a whole lot of rebellion has grown in. Don't just follow God because you think you're supposed to. Don't just come to church on Sunday because you think you're supposed to, though again, I certainly hope you do. Come because you love Christ, because you love him. Which is more descriptive of a mother's love Responsibility and duty are love for that child. Love is going to endure all kinds of hardship that duty and responsibility never will, no matter how committed you might be. A mother will endure a thousand deaths if it would keep her child safe. She would endure hardship all her life if it would protect her child. A father will work his fingers to the bone seven days a week if that's what's required to feed his family because he loves them, not just because it's what he's supposed to do. Because in his heart he loves. A child of God that endures trials is a child of God who loves God and loves Christ. Third, we endure these trials simply because we believe Him. We believe Him. We endure them because we know they're going to end in praise, honor, and glory. We endure them because we love Him, and we endure them because we believe Him. We believe what He said about our sin, our need of a Savior, His sacrificial death, His second coming. We believe these things. And specifically, we believe what He said about the trials of this life and how they are an opportunity for us to show Him to the world. And then lastly, we follow Him and we endure these trials because of the joy that God has given us in Christ. It is the paradox of the Christian life that our joy most frequently is in a direct relationship with our trials. It's just the paradox of the Christian life. You have a time of ease and comfort in your life, and that's prolonged and extended. I can just almost guarantee you, you're probably drifting somewhat. It's just the way it is. It doesn't have to be. It's not an all-inclusive statement. But the paradox of the Christian life, again, is that joy in Christ most frequently expands as the trials that we face increase. And I'll finish. Verses 10 and 12, we're given a right perspective of these trials. Really an incredible set of verses. But verses 10 through 12, they're just best understood in light, again, of the persecution Peter had already spoken about. They were experiencing trials, persecutions, afflictions, all of these things, but they were doing so. They were enduring these trials. They were doing so because they were the recipients of what God had been working and doing for thousands of years. Peter tells them, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully. He's saying the prophets that wrote and spoke in the Old Testament. They searched, they inquired diligently and carefully what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ. Peter is saying that those in the Old Testament were wondering, who is this one? Who is this Christ? Who is this one that Isaiah spoke about in chapter 53 who was going to die and take the place of sinners, of us all? Who is this? When will He come? They searched and they looked and they waited and they inquired carefully, who is it? And Peter is telling these people in this letter, those things they inquired carefully to know and to understand, you now see. God has been at work for thousands of years and your trials, Peter is saying, they're just one part of a very, Big story. A huge reality that God has been working for thousands of years. Sometimes, sometimes we give in and we fail our trials because we don't see that they're one small piece of a much larger puzzle. And we think only of the trial instead of where that trial fits in to a much larger picture. And Peter is saying, God's been at work with this salvation for thousands of years from the Old Testament, as our forefathers wrote, he would say as a Jew. And they they prophesied of this one that is to come. Peter is telling these people who are enduring this very time of trial and tribulation, he's reminding them God has been working on this for thousands of years. He's been working on it from from before time began. He knows and you are a part of this much greater picture. It's when we begin to think of ourselves as being in the midst of a trial that is not or does not play a part in a much bigger story that we lose heart and we lose hope and we give in to despair and the temptations of this life. It's when we forget that. that we give in to trials and give up. So Peter didn't want them to do that, and so he reminds them in verses 10 through 12 that we could spend a lot of time, and maybe we ought to sometimes, just study and think about what all of this means. But the sense is this, these trials that you're enduring, they are a small part of a much bigger, glorious picture of salvation that has been won by Christ. I pray that you are one whose tested genuineness of your faith in Christ leaves you with certainty and confidence that God has saved you, that you will one day close your eyes on this side of eternity to open them again in heaven. and that the trials that you endure here from the very first one where you are given a choice as the Spirit of God convicts you and breaks you and makes you to know that you're a sinner, that from that time on, that tested genuineness of your faith reinforces for you that you're a child of God and that the trials that you have are a tool and a benefit that God has given to you to know that and then you'll understand why they're so precious. If you don't have that, my prayer for you is that more trials will come your way, until you do. That God will give you another opportunity to believe Him and to trust Him. If you do know Him, I pray that God would help us to walk in this life as His child and endure these trials for all of these reasons and many others that the scripture talks about. I pray that something's been said, that you've helped. Let's have a song this time.