Suffering In Preparation For Glory

Transcript

GR 1924
07/12/2015
Suffering in Preparation for Glory
I Peter 1:6-9
Gil Rugh

We are studying the book of I Peter together so I invite you to turn to I Peter chapter 1. We are just in the opening verses and as I can say about every portion of Scripture, it is a very pertinent portion of Scripture but in many ways it is. We have been blessed in our country to live, I don’t want to say an easy Christianity, but a comfortable Christianity relatively free from any overt persecution that may change. I don’t say that because we have a fear of the future because we don’t but none the less it does not mean that there would not be difficult times ahead for the church and for individual believers. And some of the decisions being made that we have talked about could make those difficulties more real in a more immediate future. I Peter is very pertinent for that because he is addressing believers, in this case Jewish believers, but believers going through trials, difficulties, persecutions, suffering unpleasantries and he is encouraging them and challenging them that they might live faithfully and godly in this kind of situation.

One of the things that happens when we get into trials, difficulties we can begin to feel like we are overwhelmed and that is an indication that we have probably become so focused in on the trial that we have lost perspective and that is what Peter is doing. He is bringing things back into perspective. He is taking their attention from what is seen and what is unpleasant to what is unseen and glorious and keep the perspective. It is not what it is costing you; it is not what you are losing. It is not the difficulty that is pressing in on you. It is what God is doing in your life to prepare you for that which He has promised and that is what Peter is focusing on.

It starts out in the logical place we saw with the sovereignty of God in the opening verses. He indicated the people that he is writing to, the sovereign work of God in our salvation which becomes a focal point and He is the God who caused us to be born again, verse 3. So we are reminded of His sovereignty and His control and we belong to Him by His choosing. So that puts us in that unique special relationship to Him. He is reminding us that He in our God, our Father. We are His children. That is my comfort and security and he focused in verses 3, 4 and 5 which we have looked at. Not only has God caused us to be born again but he reminds us He has “caused us to be born again to a living hope, to obtain an inheritance,” verse 4 which is “imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away.”

Reminder, it is not what we possess in this life that matters. Remember when we studied the book of Hebrews. In chapter 10 the writer to the Hebrews reminded them, In the past you suffered great loss. You lost your homes. Some of you have been in prisoned and so on but don’t give up hope. They were facing another go around in persecution but a reminder, it is not the things here that matter.

In his second letter Peter will again draw their attention to that, “All these things shall be burned up.” So in light of what is going to happen here, what God has promised to His children, “What manner of godly people ought we to be,” holy living people, living holy lives.

So he has focused attention on what God has done for us in causing us to be born again and the future that gives us with an inheritance in His presence which can be the encouragement and challenge.

Now as we come to verses 6 and following he is going to talk about the present reality. He talked about what God has done for us in the past and we give testimonies and the joy of talking to a couple this morning, visiting back. They said we attended here 30 years ago and that is when they came to trust Christ and they could say you were preaching on John 15 on the vine and the branches and we realized we weren’t in the vine. I was sitting right there, you know, wonderful that God has done. We could take turns giving our testimony of what God has done, causing us to be born again.

We look forward to a glorious future but now let’s talk about the present reality and it seems out of character. You know God has called us to Himself, we are His children. He has promised us a great future and life can be very difficult, very unpleasant. It is not always that way but those kinds of trials come into our lives.

So he picks up in verse 6 and you will note he’s prepared for coming to this. We have not only “obtained an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, won’t fade away. It is reserved in heaven.” That doesn’t get any more secure and we are assured of getting there because we are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” So the inheritance is sure as we saw. We are assured of arriving there.

So verse 6: “In this you greatly rejoice.” And what he has just talked about in verses 3, 4 and 5, God’s work in causing us to be born again in providing a sure inheritance and assuring us of His divine protection so that we will someday arrive at that appointed goal. “In this you greatly rejoice.” There is great joy. The word here is a strong word. It denotes intense joy. The joy that is produced by the salvation God has brought to our hearts and lives and joy that flows from what God has done within. We greatly rejoice not in the fact we are going through trials but what we know God is doing in preparing us for what He has promised. “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” And you see the way it is put, “Even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” That word “distress” means brought to grief. These aren’t necessarily light things. They cause grief, pain, sorrow. We have great joy even though presently we are all going through those things which cause us grief, pain, sorrow and these are things that are what, “for a little while.” What has been promised to us in verse 4 was an inheritance that is reserved in heaven and that an eternal inheritance because that is our dwelling place for eternity, the presence of God but the present reality is a little different, what we are living out and living through, things that cause grief, pain but he reminds us that you greatly rejoice. This doesn’t destroy the inner joy that we have. That is produced by the Spirit within. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.”

Now having that inner joy is focused on what God has promised, the knowledge that He is sovereign, the knowledge that He is protecting me and nothing can sever me from the love of God bestowed on me in Christ as Paul wrote at the end of Romans chapter 8. That doesn’t mean I am happy. I have grief. I have pain. That is what readers are going through “even though now for a little while, if necessary,” and it is necessary. This is part of the plan of God. It is necessary in the plan of God for these children of His that He has promised such a wonderful inheritance, that He promised He will protect but it is necessary in His plan for them to be going through this time of grief and sorrow, brought about “by various trials.”

He doesn’t just say “one kind of trial.” They are multi-faceted, multi-colored. It may be like the multi-colored coat of Joseph in the Old Testament. They are multi-colored, multi-faceted. The trials can come in different ways. They impact people in different ways but these various trials that are coming. They are multi-faceted and I love it we will get over to chapter 4, verse 10 but just turn over there. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” That word “manifold” is the same word that we have translated “various.” We have various trials, multi-faceted, multi-colored if you will, trials; we have the multi-faceted grace of God providing and sufficient in every way; that “for a little while.” It is a short duration. It may not seem short.

It doesn’t indicate what “short” may be. For Peter the trials he faces are going to culminate with his own execution as a martyr; tradition saying, “being crucified upside down.” But no matter how long the trials in this life go, no matter what the depths of their severity measured in light of the eternity promised us, it is only a little while Peter suffered the Lord. Paul suffered for the Lord but for the last 2,000 years they have enjoyed the glory of God’s presence. Those years of suffering already seem short and things have just begun and the ultimate realization of their glorified bodies as yet future and it only keeps getting better. So it is a short time, relatively speaking but sometimes it seems long when you are going through it.

Won’t this ever end? I don’t know if I can endure this one more day. Then I am reminded this is part of God’s determined plan for me. It is necessary. He is in control. That’s why you start out with the control of God, the sovereignty of God, the promises of God and then we are told, “It may be necessary in God’s plan for you that you go through suffering.” And it is for these believers because they are presently enduring it.

We have to be careful. We think “Well if these people hadn’t done that, if this hadn’t happen, if that hadn’t happened,” now wait a minute. This is divine necessity and God uses even the actions of sinful people to accomplish His purposes in our lives as His children. That doesn’t exclude their sin. That may be causing pain and suffering but it is not that this is outside of God’s plan for me. “God causes all things to work together for good to those that He has called to Himself” if I can abbreviate the quote.

So “you have been distressed for a little while by various trials” and this theme or emphasis on joy and suffering is repeated numerous times. We are just going to look at a couple of passages. Come back to Matthew chapter 5. You know the world rejoices when things are going well. They are healthy, wealthy, you know life is good. But for us as believers, our joy is not determined by that. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus is speaking in the Sermon on the Mount and He says in verse 10: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Blessed, happy, its spiritual joy and happiness, prosperity “when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad.” Not because we like to suffer but because our reward in heaven is great. And that is the way they treated the prophets. We can expect. We don’t court suffering. We don’t purposely do that to bring suffering to ourselves but our number one priority is what? To be faithful to our Lord, to honor Him. The result of that often in the world is suffering.

Verse 11: “When people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil” and we see this and it has such a detrimental impact on Biblical Christianity where Christians think, “Oh, if we only did things differently the world would appreciate it. They might not agree with us but they would respect us because” and we have seen in our studies on Sunday morning, that is not the case. They oppose us because there is a spiritual war going on between the children of God and the children of the devil. You cannot resolve that. That doesn’t mean that every contact we have with unbelievers is an unpleasant one but it could come to that just like the Jews as God’s chosen nation. No matter what they did, they could not avoid the hatred of the unregenerate person; so that promise of joy.

Come over to Romans chapter 5, passages that are familiar. Romans chapter 5, Paul talks about a similar thing. He begins here as he’s talked about our justification beginning in chapter 3 verse 21 which we touched on earlier today down through chapter 4, the emphasis on faith. Coming into chapter 5: “Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God and not only this but we also exalt in tribulations,” the trials, the suffering, the difficulties because we know tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance proven character, proven character, hope and hope doesn’t disappoint because what God promised will be realized.

See the same pattern, so there is rejoicing in our salvation and the hope we have in Christ of the ultimate realization and in our tribulation our rejoicing and exalting is not changed because our joy comes from our relationship with God and what we look forward to having in Him. It is when we get pulled down and say, “Oh, what am I going to do? What now. How will I handle this?” They wouldn’t be tribulations if they weren’t difficult, trials, things that cause us grief as we have in Peter.

So we don’t want to minimize the unpleasantness, humanly speaking but our joy never was in the things of this life ultimately even though we could enjoy them but it is in God and what He has promised and we understand He brought the tribulations into our life to develop us, mature us and prepare us.

Come over just to James since it’s close to Peter just after I and II Peter. There are a number of other references but we won’t look at those. We come to James because it is close to Peter and very similar in much of its content. James chapter 1, verse 2: “Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials.” There is the word again, ‘multi-faceted’ trials, multi-colored, trials of all kinds. Not because we like to suffer but “we know that the testing of our faith produces endurance.” The same thing Paul said in Romans 5. “Let endurance have its perfect result.” That’s what God uses to develop us to maturity, to perfection to all He intends us to be as His children. “So that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” And then it will go on in verse 12: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” This is what keeps us going. We keep our focus. One of the things that could trap the church and believers unprepared is life has been good, life has been easy overall and that suddenly changes. All of a sudden it’s like we are not prepared. Overwhelmed, what has happened? I was trying to be faithful. I was trying to honor the Lord. What happened? Exactly what God said would happen but it shouldn’t catch us off guard. He is prepared. Not that we court it but we do things to bring it upon ourselves. That is why we want to be careful to have a Biblical perspective in handling of things. Some Christians bring trouble on themselves by doing things that are not necessary but we have to be faithful to our God, to His Word.

Alright, come back to Peter and Peter is just after James if you are confused; I Peter chapter 1. So we are greatly rejoicing in what God has done and what He has promised. And even in trials this is our cause of great rejoicing and what is going on here. “We greatly rejoice so that the proof of your faith being 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.”

What is going on with the various trials that come into our lives? It is a refining process, the proof of your faith, the putting of your faith to the test. And he compares it to gold and the refining process that gold was put through to burn off the dross, to give a more pure refined product. That is what is going on with your faith. The trial of your faith, the proof of your faith, the testing of your faith, that refining process is what goes on. “So that the proof of your faith,” faith being put to the test.

We were just in James chapter 1 and in verse 3 he says, “Knowing that the testing of your faith.” Now that is what we are talking about. The trial of your faith, the proof of your faith, that testing of your faith produces endurance. Trials strengthen you.

Sometimes in our day, you know, we want to protect our children. We don’t want them to have the bumps and bruises but that’s not necessarily good for them. They need to go through the trials, the unpleasant things so they learn to handle it. Otherwise they get to be 20 or 30 years old and they are still acting like they are six years old. That is what God is doing with us as His spiritual children.

Back in I Peter 1, the proof, the testing of your faith to strengthen our faith, to bring endurance. “The testing of our faith is more precious than gold,” which is put to the test of fire, which is perishable. The gold is perishable. Our faith is imperishable. It doesn’t matter how much gold you have as a measure of your wealth. It won’t be worth anything in heaven. That won’t be the measure of your wealth. How rich were you in this life? No, how rich will you be after this life? Jesus spoke of the rich man who was a fool. So he had great wealth, built great barns to house more of his wealth, ready to take his ease, “You fool, this night your soul will be required of you” then whose will these things be? We won’t be carrying our bags of wealth to the judgment seat. It will be nothing.

So “the proof of our faith is more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire.” It indicates the trials that these believers may be going through that we as believers may go through may be intense, fiery.

I have shared with you the example, on a number of occasions many years ago my Dad worked as supervisor at U. S. Steel so when I graduated from high school I got a job at U. S. Steel and I happened to get a good job, not the laborer. The Lord knows how delicate I am but my job was to check the temperatures when they made the steel and then they would bring it over to the part of the mill where I was working. It came over in big ingots and I would have to watch it being unloaded to see if any damage was done but then they would put in these large furnaces and I would walk the catwalk. Up on the catwalk they had the temperature gauges in the rooms and I would measure because they would heat the steel enough to burn off the dross, to help purify and get it ready to be rolled into the thin sheets. It’s just a big block of rectangular metal. But I had to watch the temperature because if you heated it up too much it melted and if that happened you had a pile of melted steel in a furnace. Now you have to get it out of there. That is what the laborers would have to do. So you want it heated enough to get rid of the dross but not enough to melt. I have mentioned that I often think of that. God puts us to the test of the fire, heats it enough the trials difficult enough to burn off the dross but not so difficult we melt and God is in control of the temperature even though our trials are fiery they are not more than we can bear because God will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can bear. But it has to be difficult enough to accomplish God’s purpose with us and that is what he is saying here; “The proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire.” Note: “May be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” When we stand before Him God has done what is necessary so we can receive from Him, praise and glory and honor. Is that not the goal? When you think of it that way, you know none of us like to suffer. You think well boy, more praise, glory and honor when I stand before Christ. Bring on the trials. Sort of like when Paul, when the Lord told Paul that “My power is magnified in weakness” Paul said, “Bring on the weakness.”

So here he is encouraging these believers. We get absorbed in the trials and oh, it is so painful, so hard and so unpleasant. What Peter is saying, “Look what God is doing. He is refining you so when you stand in His presence it is to receive praise, glory, and honor from Him.” Does it get any better than that?

So we see the trials that come into our lives they are the opportunities to grow and develop to be refined and purified and that doesn’t mean they are pleasant. It doesn’t mean that they are not going to go on for a long time. They go on for the extent of our lives. Some physical trials do. Other kinds of trials that come but we keep on. What is God doing? We sometimes say, “I don’t see any purpose in this.” We don’t have to. He’s told me what the purpose is. Well, I think I could have learned these lessons in another way or I sometimes tell God, “Lord, I’ve learned the lesson already, I have grown, we can move on,” as though He didn’t know. He knows what is necessary. That’s why we have to start with He is sovereign. He is protecting me. Verse 5: “We are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. He who has begun a good work in you will see it to completion to the day of Christ Jesus” in Philippians 1:6.

Back up. You see if I keep my perspective right, I can even appreciate the suffering even though it’s painful. It is like going through surgery. It’s unpleasant, no one likes it but I keep my goal on what, how wonderful it will be to have it over with, to have the problem corrected. In a sense that is what we are doing spiritually. God is working. Though the trials are part of His plan they are not a frustration to His plan.

We ae not going to look through the words, praise, honor and glory that would come up numerous times in Scripture but that is the overall goal.

So we come to verse 8: “Though you have not seen, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now but believe in Him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” They are going through these fiery trials. They have caused grief and sorrow. That word ‘distressed’ in verse 6, ‘distressed,’ caused grief and sorrow by various trials. It is fiery but you haven’t seen Him. We walk by faith, not by sight. You love Him. These are readers who didn’t personally as Peter had the privilege of seeing Christ. Remember in John chapter 20 Christ appeared to the disciples after His resurrection and Thomas, we call him ‘doubting Thomas’ was not there and he said, “I won’t believe unless I see Him and see the wounds” and so on. Then Christ appeared and he saw. What did Jesus say, “You have seen and believed. Blessed are those who don’t see but believe.” We are part of that multitude. These readers of Peter were in that condition.

So “You have not seen Him, you love Him. You don’t see Him now.” That’s why the world doesn’t understand. They say “We are just holding on to that pie in the sky hope.” We have just not faced reality. No, I have never seen Christ. I have never seen heaven. I have never seen the glorious things God has promised me. The unbeliever can show me his mansion, can show his wealth. It can be tangible but my wealth is intangible. My faith is in a Person I have never seen and I am living faith. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.” You love Him. You are loving Him; this present tense.

Love for God and Christ in the New Testament is the mark of a true believer. It is important to see that love is just not a feeling of the heart. Love is an action that comes from the heart; important to make this connection. Love is more than a feeling but love is an identifying mark of a believer. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciple if you have love for one another.” But a way to speak of a believer is he loves God. And as one who loves God he obeys God.

There is a long list of verses I had collected but we will look at just a few of them. Come back to Exodus chapter 20. We have many people say they love Christ and they love God and they talk about experiences they have and much that is done in the realm of worship is done to evoke experiences. Read the testimony of some who claim to be evangelicals who have returned to Catholicism and they missed the majesty associated with it. You look at the cathedrals that were constructed and they were constructed to what, to convey that sense of awe but really the love of God is manifested in our obedience to God.

Exodus chapter 20, chapter 20 verse 6: “But showing loving kindness to thousands, (we are breaking into the sentence here about worshipping God and serving Him) to those who love Me, (God speaking) and keep My commandments.” We won’t go through all the verses but sometime just take time to go through your Bible and that expression, “Those who love God and keep His commandments” expressed like that. God speaking, “Who love Me and keep my commandments.”

Come over to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 10, a similar statement: “But showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Come over to chapter 6, verse 4: “Here O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.” Verse 17: “You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, His testimonies, His statues which He commanded you.” You love Him, you have His Word, and you obey His Word.

There is no concept of truly loving God and not obeying Him. It becomes important. We have many people today who say, “Yes, I am a Christian. I love God. I love Christ.”

I listened to one well-known person because of his past, elderly now, sitting there. “I am a born-again Christian.” He said it right on the news program “and I believe that Jesus would have approved of homosexual marriage.” Well you can’t truly love God, be born-again and not obey His Word. That is just an example since we have been talking in that realm. We just make a statement, “I love God.” We think, well, who am I to judge? We are not but God says, “Those who love Him keep His commandments.”

We will pick one verse from Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 5: “I said, ‘I beseech You, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.’” You cannot divorce the two.

Come to the New Testament, John chapter 14. I will leave you to sort out and pursue some of the other verses. John chapter 14, Jesus as He prepared for His impending crucifixion on this last night with His disciples. John 14, verse 15: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” You see there is no disassociating your love for Christ and your obedience to Christ. Down in verse 21: “He who has my commandments and keeps them is one who loves Me.” Verse 23: “If anyone loves Me he will keep My Word.” Verse 24: “He who does not love Me does not keep My Words.” This repeated emphasis, the two go together. The believer is one who loves God but be careful that love is not just some kind of emotional feeling. That is a love that is demonstrated in obedience.

Now we are not talking about being saved by being obedient but if we truly are saved, have placed our faith in Christ and come to love the God who has provided so graciously salvation for us, we will obey Him and that is why our Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ and He said, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, when you don’t do what I say?” It is a meaningless empty word. By calling Me Lord, you call Me your Master. That means I expect obedience. To call Me Lord but not obey Me are empty words.

Alright come back to I Peter. So this love and obedience goes together and in verse 8, “You have not seen Him though you love Him.” And we are not going to look at the verses, I Corinthians 2:9; James 1:12; 2:5, talk about believers are those who love God.

I am one who loves God and what does that mean? You ask most Protestants, most Catholics and other religions, “Do you love God?” “Oh yes, I love God.” But true believers are those who truly love God. So verse 8: “Though you have not seen Him you love Him.” That’s why we took the time to look at the connection. They manifest that by their desire to honor Him, by doing His Word and of course the beginning is what? Believe in His Son and the salvation that He has provided only in Him.

I Corinthians chapter 16, verse 22, don’t turn there. Paul wrote, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed, anathema, condemned to hell.” They are talking about the true love of God. I mean how could you not love God if you’ve come to understand the love that He showed to you in having His Son come, take your place, pay your penalty, die so you might have life? The God who loved me evokes now a response of love from me as I John says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” We are talking about those who have experienced and entered into the love of God by responding to that love in faith in Christ and His finished work who are responding to His love. So we are those who love God because we have responded to His love for us. “Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him.”

We have seen in Corinthians, “We walk by faith, not by sight” in II Corinthians chapter 5. That is what we have. We have the promises of God. We have the Word of God. That’s why the constant attacks are on the Word of God, the Word of God, why? Because without the Word of God what do we have to believe? Well, I believe in Christ. I don’t have a paper pope. There was one time it was said of fundamentalists, well, what do I know about God? We noted there is a revelation of God in creation but my understanding of that came through the Word that He gave in special revelation that resulted in my believing in Him and now the revelation became so clear to me that I had rejected before. It’s you believe in Him. We are those believing in Him.

So you know there are several ways to identify Christians. They are those who love God. They are those who are believing in God. We have believed in Him and we are believing in Him. When I placed my faith in Jesus Christ and the promises of God regarding salvation in Him that was the beginning of a life of faith. That is not just a little circle or box there, there, I have faith. Now life moves on. Life changes forever. Now I live by faith, I walk by faith, I am continuing to believe in Him and have my life shaped by the faith that I have in Him and His promises. So believing in Him is what? The context here, believing all that He has promised me in Christ. That is reality for us as believers. That’s why we can face the loss that might come to us in this life; so the loss of our health, the loss of our possessions. We can endure grief and pain. We can put up with unjust suffering, slanderers, insults, abuse, various kinds of trials but I know this is just a developing stage for me as a believer, as a child of God. God is refining me. He’s preparing me in the brevity of this life for glory, honor and praise in His presence. That is the point. You believe in Him. You are believing in Him and greatly rejoice. That is just what he said up in verse 6, “Greatly rejoice.” That intense joy and that’s why you read the accounts of the martyrs and they could face terrible agonizing torture and pain and ultimate death with joy. They wore down their oppressors. The testimony that they bore had an impact.

That’s what he is talking about, “You greatly rejoice.” So you pick this up in verse 6 and he comes back to it at the end of verse 8: “You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” The joy, it is so great you can’t express it. I mean it’s irrational, humanly speaking. You are going through trials, you are going through suffering and I can’t explain it. God has just brought great joy to my heart. You’ve heard testimonies of people like that. We’ve read testimonies of it and they believe God gives you the opportunity to express that, heed that opportunity. We see people who are going through physical trials and suffering but the joy God brings to their heart is a testimony to us. Why did He do that? He is my heavenly Father who brought this into my life for His purpose. I would have liked to enjoy my life, be comfortable in this life, and enjoy all the good things that God provides but His plan for me has been different. I have to remember that I can’t compare myself to someone else.

Why do I go through this and they don’t? God deals with each of us as His children according to His perfect purpose for us. Isn’t that wonderful to know that? We are just not part of a big package and everybody gets the same treatment and dealt with the same way. It’s like you do with your own children. You recognize the differences in each of the children, recognize they have their own different personalities, their own different weaknesses and we try to do what is best for each one for their developing. Amazing! That is what God is doing.

So it is right. I can’t compare myself to someone else. You can’t compare yourself to someone else. When trial comes the trial might be greater for you humanly speaking than someone else. Does that mean you are more immature and he more? No, He may want to use you in a greater way so that requires greater suffering. That’s what He told Paul. “I’m going to use you in exceptional ways so you have to be weak so My power can be greater in you.” Well, okay, Paul, boy, that’s great. God is going to use me in greater ways.

So we have, “We greatly rejoice;” this isn’t just rejoice. We have this superb, overwhelming joy, “rejoicing with joy inexpressible, full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith, salvation of your souls.”

Turn back to the Gospel of John and we will wrap up here. John 15, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be made full.” And that is connected to “If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Can it get any better than that?

I may not look forward to suffering. I thank God for the blessings I have and the privilege I have to live in a country where we have been free from some of the trials that other believers have faced in other countries and some of the personal difficulties that maybe others have faced but you know, we want to be careful.

The focal point is not how much we get out of this life but it is God shaping us and preparing us for what He has for the future. Now again, these things are to prepare us. These that Peter was writing to were going through the trials. Part of the preparation is to be ready if trials do come so we are not blindsided so to speak, caught off guard and say, “Ah, I was not expecting this. What do I do?”

We are prepared to live for Him in what we might call the good times and the difficult times. We keep our focus where it should be. We live our lives in the good times with the right focus so when difficult times come we don’t have to find the focus. We are spiritually conditioned so to speak, spiritually in shape. We are not caught off guard. That doesn’t mean I am hoping trial comes but whatever my God chooses to bring into my life will be what is best for me, will be His purpose for me and He is preparing me for glory, honor and praise in His presence and that is what I look forward to and want more than anything as you do as His child.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the truths of Your Word. Lord, the richness of Your Word, how practical it is. Lord these truths about Your promises, the glory You have prepared for us, the inheritance You have prepared, the purpose of trials, Lord this enables us to live as we should for You day by day. This is for real life. We want to pray for us as a congregation, for believers here that are going through difficult trials, overwhelming trials, maybe several trials pressing in it seems at one time. Lord that they might appreciate your sustaining grace. And for all of us, Lord, may we be aware of becoming comfortable, fearful of trial and difficulty. May our focus be on what You have promised and our desire to be faithful to You in every circumstance of every situation. Pray for the week before us, the opportunity this week holds for us to be a testimony for You in serving You wherever you put us, however You choose to use us we pray in Christ’s name, amen.