Rejoicing in the Fire

Let me ask you this: Have you ever gone through a trial? Yeah, all of us, right? But have you ever wondered why God allows his children to go through trials, through painful trials? I mean, if he loves us, like he says he does, why doesn't he simply remove the hardship?

I fear there are some believers who believe that should happen. But Peter is going to answer those questions, or at least that question, here in his book, The Letter He Wrote. And he shows us that trials are not a sign of God's absence, but they're actually instruments of his grace.

James says that they do so much in our life that we should consider them something that should bring joy into our life as we embrace them. See, trials are temporary, but they're also necessary. They're purposeful, and they produce eternal results. That's why, in the scriptures, the scriptures do not have a negative view of trials at all.

It's very positive because of what they do in our lives. So, anyway, that's what we're going to be looking at today, trials. And I think we'll find much comfort in these words. Look at verse 6 here. This is the experience of the readers that Peter is writing to.

Rejoicing while being distressed. Verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. I mean, does that sound like a contradiction? Rejoicing and distressed at the same time? It's not for a Christian. That paradox is something that we live all the time.

I mean, you can be at a funeral and you can be weeping because you miss the one. Who has gone on before you, but you can also be rejoicing because you know the truth. They believed in Christ. So I know where they are, grieving and rejoicing at the same time.

And notice Peter is not telling them to just psych themselves up here. That's what we can try to do. You know, just stiff upper lip, man up, have joy. No, I need something to build that joy off of, don't I? And that's what Peter does. Peter gives them truth to build their joy off of.

Truth that they can control their emotions with. He says, in this you greatly rejoice. Now, what does in this refer to? What is powerful enough, Peter, that would allow me to have joy when I'm in pain? Tell me. I need it. Well, this, in this, points back to what Peter had talked about or wrote about in the first five verses.

Eternal truths that tell us about our identity in Christ. This is who you are. In that, find joy, even though you may be going through trials right now. He says, we've been born again. We have a living hope. We have an inheritance reserved in heaven for us, and God is keeping us so we'll enjoy our inheritance.

You know, I hear some Christians go, Oh, yeah, I got an inheritance in heaven. You know, that's good, but how do I know I'm going to get into heaven to enjoy my inheritance? Well, Peter says, you know how? Because God not only is reserving the inheritance in heaven, he's keeping you so that you'll get there to enjoy that inheritance.

So we rejoice in these eternal, unchanging truths that tell us who we are in Christ and what He has done for us. See, if I was basing my joy on just circumstances, I mean, good luck with that, right? I've always said life is a jerk. You know why?

Because it promises so much, and you get these dreams built up in your mind. This is what's going to happen. This is how things are going to work out. And so many times they don't work out like that. Life has a way of changing things to where it doesn't work out anything like you think it's going to.

But Peter says that's not what you're basing your joy upon. He gives us something stable. He says, life may be difficult, but this is who you are. This is unchanging, eternal truths. You are God's child. And you know what that means? If you're God's child, that means all of the promises in the scriptures are yours to claim.

Scripture says all of the promises are yes and amen in Christ. Isn't that good? You know Christ, then all of these promises just flood into your life. That's mine. That's mine, that's mine. I am going to live according to that promise. Things like, I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

I really like that one. God is a good shepherd, and he promises, I'll take care of you. It doesn't say, I'll take care of that want doesn't mean want like, you know, I want, you know, a Lambo. Thank you, Lord. What it's saying is that all of our needs will be provided.

That means I can walk through this life and I don't have to worry about my needs. God says, I've got that. I'm a good shepherd. I'm responsible to take care of your needs. That's what a good shepherd does for his sheep. All of the promises become mine in Christ.

So Peter says, view your trials through truth. This is so important, guys. View your trials through truth rather than letting your emotions bully you. I think that's a huge point of growth for a Christian when they can say, you know what, this is what I feel like, but this is what the truth says.

And I choose to stand on truth. I am going to master my emotions by truth rather than letting them master me. That's a huge point of growth. Now, Peter highlights three vital truths about our trials. First one, he says, is they are temporary. He says, though now for a little while, verse 6 again, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while.

If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So you may have walked in here and you are suffering right now, but you know what? What that says is your trial has an expiration date. Some trials last days, others remain longer, but none are eternal. Pain has boundaries established by God's sovereign hand.

Your trial will last only until it accomplishes what God sent it for. As soon as that happens, the trial is gone. He will remove it from you. So, trials are temporary. Secondly, they are varied. It says we are grieved by various trials. Trials come in many shapes and sizes, so don't be surprised.

I mean, we get some weird trials. I mean, how'd that happen? Well, it says right here, there's going to be all kinds of different shapes that the trials are going to take. Some are physical, some are relational, others are financial. See, different trials work in different areas in our life, and God knows the perfect trial for the area he's working on.

And that's what he'll send. The next one is one we must remember. Peter adds that they are necessary. Look at verse 6 again. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. So they're not accidental. We're not just going through a bit of bad.

Bad luck when trials come into our life. They come into our life because they're necessary to work on what God is working on at that moment. They're necessary for our spiritual growth and our spiritual maturity. See, there are flaws. Now, get this: there are flaws in my character, there are flaws in your character that only the fire of trial can burn away.

Flaws, if they weren't addressed by the gracious hand of God, by the love of God, that would ruin you somewhere down the line. God, in his perfect wisdom, knows that. He says, if I don't take care of that now, this is going to destroy them later on. And so God is gracious enough, he's merciful enough to take care of it now.

It's necessary. Praise God, he's that way, right? John Chrysotom said this: Trials are not signs of God's abandonment, but the surgeon's knife cutting away the hidden ulcers of our soul before they prove fatal. Isn't that good? The surgeon cutting away the ulcers of our soul before they prove fatal.

I am so glad he does that. And there are times when trials are necessary to turn us back to God. Listen, I have no idea where I'd be today if it wasn't for the trials God has sent to turn me back. And we have hearts. There's that great hymn, hearts prone to wonder.

Have you noticed that with your heart? Our hearts are prone to wonder. They get distracted by the world. Our hearts grow cold towards God. But you know what? God says, I am going to finish what I started in you. There's one of those promises. I will finish what I started in you.

And one way he does that is through the trials that turn us back to him. And we're going along, we're thinking we're doing just fine, but we're actually wandering off the path, and God brings a trial into our life, and all of a sudden it makes us serious again.

I've got to get near God. I can't handle this by myself. I am grateful for the trials God has sent that keep my heart weaned from the world and dependent on him. I know in my life they're necessary, and I'll say in your life they're necessary. That's what Peter said.

And so we should thank God. Right now, we should thank God. Thank you, Lord, for the trials that have kept me on the path. The trials are necessary for our growth and spiritual health. Next, they're necessary to prove our faith is genuine. Look at verse 7. So that the proof, or the genuineness, some translations say, so that the genuineness of your faith being more precious.

And gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, proof here, in the original Greek, refers to something proven authentic after being examined. Peter is saying trials expose faith that is not genuine.

It tests faith. The trials test our faith. Is our faith real or not? See, faith is so easy when life is easy, isn't it? When the bank account is full, when the family is healthy, and life is going according to plan. Oh man, I've got all kinds of faith.

God is good. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. But suffering has a remarkable way of revealing what we truly believe, what's really in our heart. When everything else is stripped away, when everything else seems to be falling apart, when my dreams are shattered, do I still have faith? We see this in the parable of the sower.

Turn over to Matthew 13. I want you to see this. We'll be looking at verses 20 and 21 here. Now, in this parable, the sower sows the seed, which is the word of God, and it hits four different kinds of soil. Which are the different kinds of heart that the Bible is sowed into?

Three of the four proved to be unbelievers. That's a little frightening. But the one I want you to notice is the second one, Matthew 13, 20 through 21. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. See that? This person looks saved. I mean, they come in the church. It's one of those people. They come in the church and they're so filled with joy.

And you think, man, I wish my Christianity was like that. And they get involved in everything until they are tested. Until trouble comes, until their faith, there's a cost to it. And what happens? They fall away. They return back to the world. The trial exposed the truth that their faith was not genuine.

It was counterfeit. But Jesus finishes with the good soil, the genuine believer, and they have trials just like others. He's not saying this is one who doesn't have trials. Everybody has trials. But the genuine believer handles those trials differently. Look at verse 23. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some 100, some 60, and some 30.

They may feel like running back to the world, like that other person, like the second soil. They have the same temptation when they're under trial. You know what? This hurts. But they don't. They don't go back to the world. They endure, and when the smoke clears, they're still standing.

Why? Because they have genuine faith, and genuine faith endures. Not only do they not return to the world, but through the trial, a crop of righteousness is produced. Hebrews 12:11 says this: All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

James 1:2 through 4, one Matthew read earlier. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Why do I consider it joy? Now listen to what the testing does, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. You know what endurance is? Endurance is that ability to carry on doing the right thing regardless of the resistance against us.

We all need more endurance. And its trials that produce it. It says, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. In other words, that's Christ-like character. And so the trials produce great things in our life. But genuine faith endures.

And we get that with Peter's example. Go over to Luke 22, verse 31. And I'll have you turn a little bit today. Peter has this great example of enduring faith. It doesn't look like it, but it does. I'll show you. Luke 22:31 through 32. Here we have Jesus' words talking to Simon.

Simon, the same one as Peter. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Can you imagine hearing that from Jesus? Peter, you're about to be shaken by Satan. He is going to sift you like wheat.

Now, what was sifting? Sifting is when they would take the wheat and shake it so vigorously that it would separate the kernel from the chaff. And so, what Satan was trying to do here, he was trying to shake Peter so vigorously through this trial that it would separate him from his faith.

It looks for a while. Let me just say it that way. It looks for a while like Satan was successful, doesn't it? I mean, Peter denied the Lord three times. It looked like complete failure. But you know what? He never abandoned Christ completely. Why? Because he was the Lord's.

He had genuine faith. And Christ prayed that his faith wouldn't fail. And it didn't. See, the minute you enter into a trial, Christ enters into prayer for you. And he prays that you will stand. And his prayers are always answered. His prayers sustain us through these times of struggle.

See, genuine faith endures because God, who gives us that faith, has promised to complete the saving work he began, like I said earlier. And notice the fruit that will come out of the trial. Look at verse 32 again. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and you, when once you have turned again.

Notice when Jesus prays, there was no question mark there. I've prayed that your faith will not fail. And if it doesn't, I mean, if that prayer gets answered, no, he says, when you come back. Jesus has never had a prayer not answered yet by the Father. So he says, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brother.

I love this. Peter, this trial, you're going to feel like it has destroyed you. It won't. It's not going to. The trial is going to be used to authenticate your faith when you endure. And in the end, he did endure. And it's going to be used for your good.

You're going to recover and be stronger, strong enough for me to use you to strengthen others when they're going through their trials. I love that. Don't you love that about God? Satan thinks he's got us. Man, I'm sifting them, and I've almost got them separated from their faith and all that.

And God just flips it. It says, no, no, I've been praying for you. You're going to come back and watch what happens when you come back. You're going to be stronger than before you entered the trial. I mean, that's the promise of 1 Peter 5.10. Listen to this.

I love this promise. And listen to this. If you're in a trial right now, you need this promise. Trust that God will use it to strengthen you and use you to strengthen others when you come out of the trial. 1 Peter 5.10. And the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

Isn't that good? God said, no, just wait. You're going through the trial right now, but I'm sitting back here. I'm involved. I'm watching. And I am going to come at the Perfect time, and I am going to restore you. He's the lifter of our head, the scripture says.

I am going to come, and I'm going to lift your head. I'm going to encourage you again, and you're going to be stronger than ever. The trial is not going to ruin you, it's not going to destroy you, it's going to develop you. So, trials are valuable because they prove the genuineness of our faith.

See, I want to know if my faith is real, don't you? And there are some people who go, I guess I'll find out on that day when I stand before the Lord. No, that's way too late. I need to know now: is my faith real? And if it takes trials to show me that, then yes, please.

Donald Gray Bauernhouse said this, one of my favorite quotes: We believe in eternal security, but we do not believe in eternal presumption. Let a man examine himself and the trials examine us. So, Peter's faith was proved genuine because it endured. Trials rocked him to the core, but it didn't ultimately destroy him.

So, can you relate to Peter? I'm sure we've got people in a congregation this size that are coming here and go, man, I'm going through it right now. I don't know how I'm still standing with Christ. Well, the answer is: God is carrying you. You are standing because God stands with you.

You, he strengthens you, he sustains you. Your perseverance is evidence of his preserving grace. So, genuine faith may be battered, shaken, and exhausted, but it does not abandon Christ. It may be tempted to abandon Christ, but it doesn't. I want to expose myself here, what I went through one time, and use myself as an example.

And when we came back from England, there were some situations that happened that was just rocked me to the core. For a couple years, I was so stressed out. I lost 40 pounds of weight. My clothes were just hanging on me. People said I looked like a cancer patient.

And I was still teaching every week. My wife was going, I don't know how you're doing this. But the prolonged trial, and if you're going, now you're saying, yeah, I get it. I have a trial that's been extended. You know what? The devil's going to come to you and he's going to tempt you, isn't he?

And what he wants to do is he wants to use the same trial God's using to develop you to tempt you, to try to get you to walk away from God. I know. There were many times as that trial and the pain wore on. And now here's where I'm going to be honest with you.

I was tempted. To go to the bar and get drunk, the deaden the pain. You know what that was? That was my flesh just being my flesh. That's what my flesh did before I was saved. And the flesh does not change one bit after you're saved. But here's the thing.

I was tempted so many times because I was in such pain. But you know what? I never went. I never went. And temptation is not a sin, is it? Christ was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. And I was tempted. And I didn't sin.

I kept clinging to Christ. Why? Because I was so strong, Mr. Christian. No, because Christ was so strong. And Christ held me through it all. In my weakness, I was held by Christ. And that's what He does for His followers. Real faith endures, even though we're tempted to do all kinds of things that we shouldn't do because the pain is so deep sometimes.

God is involved in keeping us. From day one of our salvation, Ezekiel 36:27 says that He places His Holy Spirit in us. Why? Well, here's one of the reasons to move us to follow His decrees and be careful to keep His laws. So we have the Spirit in us that is released.

Resisting sin, that is resisting that pull back towards the world. The Spirit in us that keeps us on track. Listen, without Him, I would have been back in those bars in a second. I'm not strong enough. Jesus said, You can do nothing apart from me. I can do nothing apart from His power in my life.

My flesh, like I said, is the same as it always was. But you know what? I'm different. Why? Because God dwells in me. The Spirit dwells in me. And there's this power of resistance that keeps me even when everything in me is saying, you know what? I don't need this anymore, Lord.

I don't need this. Asaph, Psalm 73. Read that sometimes. Asaph looked down, he saw all the ungodly, and they were being blessed, and he had been in a trial. He says, every day I wake up, it's the same thing. It's on me, it's on me, it's on me.

And he said, My feet had almost slipped. I almost packed it in. I almost said, you know what? I'm going back into the world. I'm going to try their life for a while because it looks a lot better than mine. Ever been there? And if you say no, well, I'm not going to say you're lying.

Some haven't yet, haven't yet. That's the way it is. We feel like I can't take it another time. Day, Lord. How long are you going to crush me? That's David in Psalm. I love David's honesty in Psalm. How long are you going to crush me? Where are you?

When is this going to end? That's what I felt like. But you know what? I never left Christ. I never said, I'm done with this, even though I felt like saying, I'm done with this. Why? Because I had genuine faith that Christ had given me, that God had given me.

Faith is a gift from God. And He held me. And He kept me. And I'll tell you what, the trial taught me so much. I came out at the end of that, and I had learned so many lessons about relying on Christ. Lessons that I still use today.

And I'm sure through that trial, He burned away so many things that would have destroyed me by this time if He hadn't. But listen to these words of Paul when he was going through a great trial. And he shows us what the trials are meant to do. 2 Corinthians 1:8 through 9.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despair of life. Life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

Now, the reason why he was going through this. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. Isn't that good? He said, some commentators say Paul was going through a nervous breakdown, it looks like. He says, but you know what?

It was necessary. Why? So that we'd stop relying on ourselves. We had to be so weakened that we would finally look to Christ, look to God and say, I can't do it, but you can. And it does say something. Let me add this. What time is it? I don't want to run out of time here.

But he says, we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure. You know, I hear Christians say, God will never give you more than you can bear. You know what? He will. I mean, not really. He knows what you can bear, but it's further than what you think you can bear.

And he'll give you more than you think you can bear. Why? Because of what Paul said. So that it forces you to look to Christ. So you may be going through it right now and saying, you know, I don't know if I can bear this. Well, look to Christ.

That's the lesson, right? Look to Christ. Spurgeon said this. God never gives us strength to trust in ourselves. He brings us to our wits' end so we will trust in him. So, trials test us and prove our faith is real. When faith endures, it shows that we have saving relationships, have a saving relationship with Christ, that we are His.

Therefore, He will keep us through the sufferings. So, trials prove our faith is genuine. But Peter goes on to say, trials, our faith must be purified. Look at verse 7. Go back to 1 Peter 1:7 if you're not there. This is the refining power of trials. 1 Peter 1:7.

So that the proof of your faith being much more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Faith is much more precious than gold. He says, Why? Because it is the God-given means by which we receive Christ, walk with Christ, glorify Christ, and one day will be with Christ.

But gold can't do any of that. Gold can purchase many things in the world, but they're all temporal. It can't forgive one sin, can't justify one soul, or bring one person into the presence of God. But faith can, much more precious than gold. And he uses the illustration of a goldsmith refining the gold.

You have faith, but it has to be purified. Raw gold is taken from the earth, and the earth contains all kinds of what is called dross, right? Dirt and other metals. And so the goldsmith, he'll put that gold into the fire and intensely heat it up until it becomes molten.

And when that happens, those impurities rise up to the surface of the gold, up to the top. And he takes a stick or whatever and skims off those impurities. And the gold is a little purer. And he does that again and again and again until the gold is pure.

And you know how he knows the gold is pure? It's when he can look in the surface of the gold and see the reflection of his face. Now that's the perfect illustration for trials. See, God sees an area that he needs to work on, an area that can really destroy us down the line, or an area that we need to be worked on so that we can be more like his son.

It may be pride, self-reliance, unbelief, or anger. Those things hide in comfortable seasons. So what does he do? He heats up the fire. He allows circumstances that brings those impurities to the surface. We confess it, we repent of it, and it's skimmed off, and we're a bit more like Christ.

And then we move on, right? Doing really good now. And God says, okay, it's time to work on something else. Back into the fire, as he allows circumstances again that bring that next impurity to the surface. So it can be skimmed off. I mean, for an example, he may be working on our impatience.

And so he allows life to disrupt your schedule. The trial didn't create the impatience, it revealed what was already present, what was hiding in your heart. And so it pops up to the surface. We go, oh, God, help me with that. I confess it. Lord, I know you want me to be more patient.

Help me so that I can deal with people in a better way, be more Christ-like when I'm interrupted. And so, that impurity is skimmed off. We become a little more like Christ. You know, just as a goldsmith was looking to see the reflection of his face in the gold, what is God looking into your life?

What does he want to see? He wants to see the reflection of his son. Now, you know how much change that's going to take? You're going to be going through this process of the purification until you're in glory with Christ. Again and again and again. Now, I know for some of you, your current trial right now, it might seem like it's out of control.

That's what trials do. Trials make things confusing. Why is this all going on in my life? But there is nothing out of control. You've got to trust your Father that it's necessary, that it's doing good things. You know, I love the term father for. Everything that comes into my life is father-filtered.

It comes through his hands of love first, and it comes into my life through his perfect wisdom. He never makes a mistake what he allows. It's all for my good. Nothing is random. Nothing is accidental. It is measured, supervised, limited, and purposeful. God knows what he's doing. Father knows best.

Remember that, Joe? Father knows best. He knows what you need, and he'll bring that into your life. So trust him. He knows how much you can bear. So trust him. And he won't take you beyond it. It will seem like he's taking you beyond it so that you'll trust in him, but he won't.

He'll never take you beyond what you can bear. And he knows exactly how hot the fire needs to be to do the work of bringing those impurities to the top. He knows what he's doing. Now, Peter, let's move on. Peter speaks of three great results of faith that has proven genuine.

That's in verse 7 again. The first one is, it will result in praise, glory, and honor when we stand before Christ. Let's read verse 7 again. So that the proof of your faith, being much more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

When Christ returns, suffering is going to seem so meaningful. You know, you have gone through trials and you have suffered. Stood with him here. One day you will stand with him in glory. And what's he going to do? He's going to look at you and he's going to say, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Can't wait to hear that. We should be living in a way where we will hear that. See, your faithfulness will be rewarded. It's all going to be worth it. Paul, in times of trial, kept this in mind. Let me just read this. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18.

Look at how he handled his suffering. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. He says, our outer man is perishing day by day. The trials are hard. Life is hard. It's not easy. He says the inner man is refreshed and strengthened by the grace of God.

And that refreshing comes through truth. That refreshing grace comes through truth, such as the promise that the trial is achieving for us an eternal weight of glory, like Paul said. He said, If I handle my trials well, faithfully, they are going to explode into reward one day. They're going to be worth it.

It is worth it. You listen, there's going to be nobody on that day we stand before Christ and say, You know what? I wish I hadn't gone through that. We're going to see all those trials turn into reward, and I think every one of us would think, and I wish I'd have gone through more.

It was worth it. So, what do we have? The first one was, When Christ returns, suffering will be meaningful because it's going to turn into reward. Second, the inexpressible joy coming from proven faith. Look at verse 8 and 9. And though you have not seen him, you love him.

And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. Peter brings us all back to the proper focus. He's been talking about hardship, but the end of hardship, one of the great treasures of it, value of it, is that we get to know Christ more deeply.

We fall in love with him in a greater way. That's what it says, and though you have not seen him, you love him. See, trials have a way of deepening our faith, our relationship with Christ. When we suffer for him, we suffer with him. He stands with us.

Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Thrown into the fire. Next thing you know, Nebuchadnezzar looks in there and goes, Didn't we just throw three people in there? There's a fourth one walking around with him. He looks like the Son of Man. Jesus enters our trials with us. See, they have a way of deepening our relationship with him.

Now, some of you know that I smuggled Bibles for probably, I think, eight years or something like that, into a lot of communist countries. And one of the privileges I had in smuggling Bibles was meeting the pastors who had spent 20-plus years in prison. And you know what?

The common thread that ran through them all was this: joy. They were grateful that God had put them in prison. Why? Because they met Christ in that prison cell in a way they could have never met him out in freedom. He was in that prison cell with them.

Richard Warnbrand, have you ever heard of him? A Romanian pastor, wrote the book Torture for Christ. 14 years he was tortured, and he said in a Romanian prison cell, this is what he said. He said, alone in my cell, cold, hungry, and in rag, in an, and, let me start that one again, alone in my cell, cold, hungry, and in rags, I danced for joy every night.

Christ was in that cell with him, like I said, in a greater way than he was ever with him out in freedom. He stands with us in our times of trial. So, this is what Peter means by a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Believers don't rejoice because suffering is pleasant.

We rejoice because Christ is precious. Our suffering drives us into His arms. John Piper said this, suffering strips away our self-reliance so that we finally experience the reality of Christ as our all-satisfying treasure. This says we end up rejoicing with a joy inexpressible and filled with glory. Why?

Because it's Christ's joy given to us. Therefore, it's a joy that words cannot describe. One author put it this way: it is a transcendent gladness that is not manufactured by human strength, but is heaven, this is this, but is heaven shining the consciousness of Christ himself into the heart as he stands with us in fiery trial.

I like that. One more. The inexpressible joy that comes from our certainty of salvation. We've seen that trials prove our faith is genuine. Then in verse 9 it says, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. So the trials prove our faith is genuine, and it gives us assurance we're saved.

If I have genuine faith, I know I'm on my way to heaven. Now, assurance of our faith, or assurance of salvation, knowing we're going to be with Christ, isn't necessary for salvation. But I'll tell you what, it's necessary. To enjoy the trip, right? It's not necessary to go to heaven.

You can have genuine faith and not have assurance, but it's necessary to enjoy the trip to heaven. I know. I lived a few years without any assurance of salvation, absolutely terrified of hell. I was not enjoying my Christianity at all. Assurance changed all that. Now I know I'm Christ.

I know I will be with him, and that changed all that. He will keep me. Listen to this promise: John 6:39, Jesus speaking, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

God the Father has given us to Jesus Christ, and then he says, it's his will that I keep you. It would be a sin if he didn't. He would be breaking the will of the Father. So Peter's given his readers truth to stand on when in times of trial.

He's encouraging them to be strong. Not in themselves, not psyching themselves up. You know, come on, Bill. Be strong. Be a man, Bill. Just stand. I've walked with the Lord long enough to know that just does not work. I stand because he's holding me. It's the only way.

I have joy because of his promises. Peter's given his readers truth to stand on. He says the trials are not wasted pain. Are you in a trial right now? Be faithful. Bring glory to Christ in it. And it's going to turn into a reward that's going to be unbelievable.

I don't know what the rewards are going to be in heaven. I just know God's not going to rip us off, right? They're going to be incredible beyond anything we could think or imagine. So, if you're going through a trial right now, you're responding in one of two ways: you're either letting your emotions bully you, or you're mastering your emotions through truth.

Let me suggest you choose the latter: mastering your emotions through truth. Now, before we close, let me speak to you who may not know Christ. Listen, life is not easy. You may have come in here and you're not a Christian. You're just kind of checking it out. You got drug in here by somebody.

You're going, I didn't want to go. All right, whatever. Just leave me alone. I'll go. You know what? I get it. I was that way for a long time. I wanted nothing to do with Christ. Nothing to do with Christians. I hated God. I hated Christians. I'm glad somebody cared enough about me to talk about the reality of eternity.

And we're a soul. Can go if they don't know Christ. Life's not easy. We all have trials, but for the believer, our trials end. They're swallowed up in glory, into endless joy. But for those who don't know Christ, one day the trial is going to just be so magnified.

It's going to be horrifying. Listen, to stand before a holy God without a Savior begins a trial that lasts for eternity. The good news is, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He bore the judgment we deserved. He died, he rose again. He conquered sin, and he conquered the grave forever.

The grave is no longer a threat for a believer, right? The grave is only the servant God sends to take us into real life with him. But for the unbeliever, the grave sends them into eternity, into an eternity of judgment. The invitation is this: turn from your sin and repentance and turn to Christ by faith, trusting in him alone.

The promise is he will not cast you away if you will do that. You will be accepted by him and you will enter into a loving relationship with God as your father rather than your judge. And for those of you who do belong to him, remember this: when the furnace grows hot, that's necessary.

God is doing good things in your life. He's doing things that burn away what is keeping you from soaring spiritually. But the heat of the fire is not your final destination. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King. All that fire of trial will be removed forever.

We will live in the blessedness of his presence. Trust God in the fire, because in the fire you will see him in a greater way. And that fire is only temporary. All right, let's pray. My Father, we do thank you that your book is so filled with promises.

But we thank you that we don't have to let our emotions bully us. Father, we can control our emotions through truth. Help us to do that. Help us to grow. Help us to trust your Bible enough to apply it in whatever we're going through. And Father, I thank you that you're the lifter of our head.

I thank you that this congregation is probably filled with people who said, yeah, I've been there. I remember those times of such great pain. I don't know how I was going to carry on, but I did. I did. Thank you, Lord, that we carry on because you're involved.

You hold us. You keep us. You sustain us. And in the end, you will draw us to be with you in heaven. In Jesus' name. Amen.