Temple Baptist Church - 9-4-2022
1 Peter 1:3-11
Introduction:
A. I want to preach a message this morning on a subject that I am not an expert on but am VERY familiar with, trials or the hard places in life.
B. No one is exempted from trials. Mrs. Barbara and I have been subjected to much over the past 45 years and especially the last 35+.
C. In verse 6, we find four things that I want you to see: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:”
1. Trials are seasonal. “now for a season” Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
This means that there are beginnings as well as endings to each. Thank the Lord that there are plenty of good times when our trials are “out of season!”
2. Trials are purposed. “if need be” Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Nothing can touch the child of God unless He allows it. Job is the perfect example.
3. Trials cause heartaches. “ye are in heaviness” We are to weep with them that weep and laugh with them that laugh.
4. Trials are different. “manifold temptations” Life is full of trials. They can come in many different forms such as temptations, sickness, life’s hardships – finances, etc., or persecutions just to name a few. Though our trials are specific to each of us, there haven been multitudes who have sat where we sit.
D. Trials can come in different degrees of difficulty.
1. There are Trials. 1 Peter 1:6-7 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
2. There are Great Trials. 2 Corinthians 8:1-2 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; (2) How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
3. There are Fiery Trials. 1 Peter 4:12-14 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (13) But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. (14) If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
4. All valleys are conditional. Verse 7. “might be found unto” Might be leads to the opposite of “might not be!” Better or bitter. Glory unto God or not glory unto God. These are choices that each of us make during the hard times of life.
E. I have often said that life is hard and the older you get, the harder life gets! Growing old is not for “wimps,” and neither is the ministry. Paul, when writing to Timothy, said this.
2 Timothy 2:1-3 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (2) And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. (3) Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (Paul likened the ministry to warfare. A lot of young people have joined the military to get a free education and ended up in a war.)
F. In verse 6, we found the words “If need be” in relationship to trials. Trials are of necessity to each of us as they teach us as we go through them. Hard places in life have both negative and positive aspects to them.
G. The negative aspects of trials are easy to identify! We do not understand them. We do not like them.
1. Valleys of life are just that: valleys! Some deeper than others but all still valleys. Problems run from not so bad but aggravating to valleys of deep sorrow. Problems vary in their depths but not one of us like valleys of any description!
Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
2. Some valleys are more beautiful than others that are barren wastelands! Small problems still allow for the enjoyment of life in general while larger problems have a way of consuming the traveler.
2 Corinthians 7:5-6 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. (6) Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
3. Some valleys are short, and some are long! There is a place out west called Ten Sleep Canyon. It took an Indian 10 days of camping to get through that valley. Valleys always take the long way around the mountains because they are an indirect route. The shortest way is usually over the mountain.
Psalms 77:2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. (Job went from seven days and nights to 42 chapters!)
H. I want to look at the positive side of trials.
1. Trials reveal of what sort our faith is. “The trial of your faith”
Matthew 13:20-21 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; (21) Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
A faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Someone once said that troubles do not build character; they only expose it. A right faith in the Lord will get you through the valleys in good shape spiritually.
2. Trails are places with the potential for Spiritual Growth. “being much more precious than of gold that perisheth”
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
We grow in the knowledge that when God is all that we have, it is then that we find that He is all that we need. We grow in the knowledge that God’s grace is always more than sufficient. We grow in the knowledge that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
3. Trials cause us not to take the good times for granted! “though it be tried with fire”
Job 29:2-4 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; (3) When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; (4) As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
It is in the valley that we remember the mountains! Too often, we take good days for granted. Most of life is good and we should rejoice when it is.
4. Trials give us opportunity to glorify God before the eyes of the world! “might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”
Isaiah 24:15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
It is easy to be a good Christian when all is well but the world watches us closely when we are in trouble. It is in the hard times that our little lights become big ones as the world fastens their eyes upon us and glorify our Father in heaven.
5. Trials deepen the child of God’s love for Him! “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”
2 Corinthians 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
Hard times in marriages either “make them or break them!” When a couple truly love one another, they will cleave to each more in the hard times and their love deepens. Thus it is with the Lord. When we walk with Him in the hard times our love for Him deepens.
6. Without trials, there would be no deliverances! “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
2 Timothy 4:16-18 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. (17) Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. (18) And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Without valleys, there would be no mountains climbed or to be climbed. From the valleys, we view the mountains and from the mountains, we view the valleys. Both, when viewed from a distance become things of great beauty.
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