That We Might Rejoice in Trials | Andrea Heck

Well, I don't know what goes through your mind when you think about a conference session on rejoicing in trials. I don't know what circumstances you find yourself in today in this season of your life. It could be that you are in a season of suffering. Deep, dark trials. It could be that you are walking alongside someone else in their season of suffering. Or it could be that you are simply aware that down the line there is going to be a season of suffering and you want to be equipped. You want to go through that season of suffering in a manner that glorifies God. If it is you personally who find yourself in a season of suffering, I would like for you to hear the things that I am saying in this session as coming from one sufferer to another. I have walked through some very deep, dark valleys of suffering over the course of my life. We don't have time to talk about all of that right now. But the last two years especially have been filled with the most profound suffering I have ever experienced. The sudden and unexpected death of my husband, my pastor husband, Susan's son. The sudden and unexpected death of my mother just 4 months later. The death of my brother several months after that after decades of cancer and cancer treatments and all of the ramifications cancer in his life and all of those deaths within the span of a year. The profoundly disorienting and confusing and isolating and lonely road of being a pastor's widow, something far more difficult and challenging for me than being a pastor's wife ever was. The functional loss of more friendships than I can count and I say functional loss because most of those people would probably still think of themselves as my friends, but many of them have not said a word to me since my husband died. And probably because they don't know what to say. But functionally, that friendship isn't there anymore. Deeply hurtful things that people say to you in your grief. Countless personal health issues. It's almost comical at this point. I get over one thing and something else happens and and this is incredibly common among new widows. Their health just tends to go off a cliff. >> [clears throat] >> Finding myself having to re-enter the workforce after nearly 25 years as a homemaker and pastor's wife and um having little to no marketable skills and very little time to prepare for it. Costly car repairs, a car accident, having to sell our home because it's simply more than I can manage and more than I can afford at this stage of my life. Figuring out how to parent three nearly grown sons as a single mom as they enter into adulthood without the man that they counted on having to guide them into that season of life. Figuring out how to function as an extended family now that three of us in the family, nearly all of us who were married are now widowed. Figuring out how to function socially in the church now that I'm not the pastor's wife anymore and I'm not part of a couple and now I'm a single mom, I don't fit socially in any group that I fit in before. I could just go on and on and on. And I don't share those things to prove to you that I have, you know, the credentials to talk about suffering, but really just I think to identify with you because some of you have walked really difficult roads. I'm not alone as the only sufferer in this room. And for those of you who are walking through deep valleys of suffering, my heart is just full of compassion for you. There have been in the past 2 years countless things to praise the Lord for. Countless ways that he has shown himself faithful. We could just spend an entire hour just talking about his faithfulness. But even amidst all that, there have been some very dark days. I would be lying if I didn't say that there were days when I wondered if my faith would fail. Days when I questioned genuinely whether God would keep his word. Days when I doubted his character. I have been told more times than I can count that I am so strong and so courageous. And I I know people mean well when they say that. Most of the people who say that have not spent time with me when I am in deep anguish. They have not seen me alone, sobbing, doubting, angry, pouring out my heart, pleading with God. Most of that wrestling has come when I'm alone, when I have nowhere to turn but to the Lord. And in his he has met me with truth time and time again. He has pulled me out of the mire. He has infused my soul with the courage to keep following him, and he has reoriented my thinking upon the firm foundation of his character and his ways over and over and over again. One of the things that struck me shortly after Charles died was that God in his providence had already allowed me to develop a theology of suffering. He had already embedded within my heart through years of trials and years of studying and teaching God's word some just unshakable, rock-solid truths about why he ordains our suffering and what he intends to accomplish through it. Now, I won't lie to you. Having a robust theology of suffering doesn't mean that your suffering is less intense. I think of David and all of the lament Psalms that he wrote, and I think he still penned all those lament Psalms in the midst of deep, profound suffering and a robust theology. I think it was because of his robust theology that he could pen those lament Psalms. What having a robust theology of suffering does for us is this: It allows us to fall back on what we know to be true even when none of it feels true. When I have been overcome with sorrow and when I have deeply doubted God's love for me, when I have been utterly baffled by his dealings with me, he has in his faithfulness brought me back time and time again to the truths that are found in his word. Now, there's no way in one session like this that I could possibly cover all of the truths that you and I need to know and be assured of in our suffering. But, I would like to share with you uh several of the truths that God has used to carry me through my own suffering. Just one portion of scripture that has ministered to my heart in my suffering. And those truths are found in 1 Peter 1 verses 6 through 9. >> [clears throat] >> 1 Peter 1 verses 6 through 9. In these verses, Peter unfolds for us nine truths that you and I need to hold fast to in the midst of our trials. Nine truths that are essential to our understanding of the testing of our faith. And you have them in your notes. There's not a whole lot of room for you to write there. I apologize for that. Um I will not list them all out right now. I'll just simply highlight them as we go through and then review them when we reach the end. Let me read these verses for us and then we'll begin to unpack them. Peter says, beginning in verse 6, "In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." The first truth that we glean from this passage concerning our trials is this: The testing of our faith is a the of joy and grief. It's a combination of joy and grief. So, when Peter says, "In this you greatly rejoice." He's actually referring back to all that he has said in verses 2 through 5. So, if you glance back at those verses, you'll see that he's reminding us of our being elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, our being sanctified by the Spirit, our being sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, our being recipients of God's great mercy, our having been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, our incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance that is right now being guarded for us in heaven, and our being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation that is ready and waiting to be revealed when Christ returns. All of these things form the basis of our rejoicing. They are the truths which produce joy in us. And all of that joy gets expressed in the act of rejoicing. Rejoicing is the external expression of the internal character quality of joy. Galatians 5:22 and 23 tells us that joy is the fruit of the Spirit's work in us. He produces it in us. And we are repeatedly told throughout the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, to rejoice, to give expression to the joy that is being produced in us. But, >> [clears throat] >> Peter here also says to us, so he says, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials." And when Peter says you have been grieved, he's sort of focusing [clears throat] in on the grief or the sorrow, if you will, that these trials have produced, not on the trials themselves. This word grieved, it's the idea of being harassed. It's the feeling of grief that accompanies our trials because they seem to be unrelenting, like we are being harassed by them. The Christian life is a life of joy. But that's not the only thing we feel. Right? It isn't only joy. The reality is that you and I live in a sinful, fallen world. Our lives are undoubtedly touched by sin and sickness and suffering. And contrary to what many false teachers would teach, and also many genuine, well-meaning, but misguided Christians will tell you, following Christ is not meant to be all rosy. It isn't all peaches and cream and easy. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12 that indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's going to be suffering. In 2 Corinthians 6:10, Paul says that he describes he and his companions as sorrowful, but always rejoicing. In Acts 5:41, when we read about Peter and the other apostles being jailed for preaching the gospel, it says they were rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 1:6, Paul says to the Thessalonians, "You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit." And then Jesus in Matthew 5:11 and 12 said, "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." This is one of the paradoxes of our faith that joy and grief can and do coexist. Neither cancels the other out. They're both real. They are both deeply felt. But while the testing of our faith involves both joy and grief, it is also temporary. And this is the second truth we glean from these verses. The testing of our faith is temporary. Peter says, "Now for a little while you're in these trials." For a little while. The joy you and I know in Christ is permanent. It is ongoing. Continual rejoicing. Unceasing. But the grief is temporary. The grief is for a little while. Your translation might say for a season. The rejoicing doesn't stop just because the pain begins. The rejoicing remains even while we endure the pain. Now when Peter says that these trials are for a little while, he's emphasizing the fact that they will pass. They will pass. He isn't being trite. He isn't being condescending. He's simply putting the duration of these trials into their proper perspective. Compared to the vastness of eternity, our trials are relatively short. And compared to the vastness of the riches of our inheritance, which Peter has just got done talking about in this letter, the grief that comes with our trials is relatively insignificant. It doesn't necessarily feel that way. But it is true nonetheless. In the book of Philippians, Peter or Paul, excuse me, says, "For I know that this will turn out for my salvation." And he's reminding his readers there that he's in prison, of course, but that this trial of his imprisonment is actually temporary. He didn't really know how long he was going to remain in chains. He didn't really know ultimately how he would be delivered from those chains, but he knew that he would, whether it was by being released from prison or by death, that trial would ultimately end in some kind of deliverance. In this room, few of us there might be some, but few of us live with life-long suffering, unrelenting suffering. Perhaps there are a few of us who do, but most of us look back on the landscape of our lives and we can see some some hills and some valleys, right? Some highs and some lows. Seasons of ease punctuated by seasons of pain and sorrow. But, even if our sorrow, even if our grief, even if our suffering is life-long, even if ours is a trial that lasts our entire lives and the periods of respite are very few, the reality is that our trials are still temporary. They will not last for eternity. And the truths that we found in verses 2 through 5, all those things that we rejoice in, they are the cause of our constant rejoicing and they don't cease to be true in the midst of our suffering. If anything, our suffering allows us to look at those truths and see that they take on newer and deeper and more profound meaning to us. They fortify us in our suffering. They sustain us when everything around us just seems so unsure. They prompt us toward perseverance when nothing else around us seems like it's working toward a better outcome. Because we know that in Christ, we do have a better outcome. And this is what Peter means when he tells us that these trials are necessary. They are necessary. He says, "If need be." This is the third truth we need to cling to in the midst of our suffering. The testing of our faith is necessary. It's necessary. These trials only come upon us because they [clears throat] are necessary. There are no arbitrary trials. It's been said that God's people are never needlessly afflicted. Praise the Lord for that. We are never needlessly afflicted. Romans 8:28 and 29 teaches us that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. He is actively working in our trials to conform you and me into the image of his son, to make us like Jesus. And he will only ordain those afflictions that serve his purposes in making us like his son. Now, in God's wisdom, he directed Peter to write the words of this letter in a in a rather generic way. So, the context of the letter tells us that Peter's initial audience was suffering some persecution. But the truths that are contained in in these few verses, and really throughout much of the letter, apply equally to suffering that comes about because of persecution as they do to suffering that comes upon us because of, say, illness or injury or loss. God is using these trials to work in us his grand purposes. And in his wisdom and his goodness and his love, there is no other way to work these things in us. But what exactly is it that God is producing in us through our trials? Now, we could do an entire conference just on this, so I won't try to touch on everything that I think the Lord is producing in us. But let allow me to just touch on a few things that I think the Lord is working to produce in us through our trials. It may be first that God intends to use our suffering to display his power and authority and sustaining grace in our lives. You know, even if you just did a cursory reading of the book of Job, it would become very clear that one of God's primary purposes in allowing Job's suffering was to powerfully demonstrate God's final authority over all that happened to Job. And also to demonstrate that those whom God has redeemed simply cannot be shaken from his hand. It does not matter what Satan is trying to accomplish in our lives. God is authoritative over all of that, and he will sustain us by his grace through that suffering. It may be also, another thing God's producing, that God intends to use our suffering to humble us. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me to keep me from exalting myself." And you'll notice there that that was preventative. Sometimes the Lord humbles us because we have exalted ourselves, and so it's corrective, but sometimes it's preventative. He gives us something to keep us from becoming exalted. It may also be that God intends to use our suffering to teach us to rely upon his grace and power and not our own. In that very same passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 8 and 9, Paul goes on to say concerning this, this thorn in the flesh he'd been given, "I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore,' Paul says, 'I will rather boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong.'" It may also be that God intends to use our suffering to make us like Christ in his sufferings. In Philippians 3 verses 8 through 11, Paul says, "I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Have you ever thought about this? Jesus did not approach the cross saying, "I got this. I can handle it." No, he didn't. He approached it in misery. In agonizing prayer, sweating drops of blood. The stress of that, knowing what was coming to him was so great that he was sweating blood, crying out to his father to take the cup from him if it were possible. But he also, in the midst of all of that agony, resolved to do his father's will in the midst of it. That resolve in the midst of grief may be what God is intending for us to learn. It may also be that God intends to use our suffering to teach us to mourn over the sinfulness and brokenness of this world and in so doing be prompted by the urgency of the gospel. The The Puritan pastor Pastor Richard Baxter, try to say that fast, once said, "I preach as a dying man to dying men." The window of opportunity that you and I have to bring the gospel to someone, the window of opportunity that they have for turning to Christ for salvation is, compared to the prospect of eternity in hell, very very short. And you and I have the message of salvation. We have the hope that they need. We don't have much time to deliver that message. It is urgent. It may also be that God intends to use our suffering to teach us to empathize with and comfort others. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1:4, Paul says that God comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Charles Spurgeon said, "There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves." "Those who have been in the chamber of affliction," he says, "know how to comfort those who are there." It may also be that God intends to use our suffering to teach us to extend grace to others in their weakness. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, we read that we are to admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. And you'll notice there's a different way to interact with people based on their situation in life, where they're at. I've endured some pretty harsh criticism in my 2 years of suffering. And if I had not endured harsh criticism when I was fainthearted, I might not have come to understand the harm that can be done by meeting faintheartedness with rebuke rather than encouragement, as Paul says. It may also be that God intends to is bringing a trial upon us for our chastening. It could be that it's for our chastening. Hebrews 12:7-11 tell us that it is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But he disciplines us for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. But to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. It may be that we are in sin. We are omitting something we should be doing, or committing a sin we should not be doing, and we need to be chastened. We need to be rebuked, and the Lord is disciplining us. It may also be that God is weaning us from this world, and causing us to long for heaven. 1 John 2:15-17 is crystal clear. Do not love the things of this world. Do not love the world or the things in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. All these things, and many, many more, may be the necessary lessons that God is intending to teach us through our trials. The testing of our faith is necessary. The testing of our faith is also grieving, which is the fourth truth we must hold fast to in the midst of our trials. The testing of our faith is grieving. Peter says, "You have been grieved." Now, we already mentioned this, and you're probably thinking, "Andrea, you already talked about it being a combination of joy and grief." Well, it's worth highlighting again. It's that important. So, allow me to just highlight this for a moment. It probably seems rather obvious to us that our grieves are our trials are grieving, right? Trials are by their very nature grieving, painful, heavy upon our souls. But, there are some, and there might even be some in this room who think that Christians should never ever be weighed down in grief, that somehow being grieved is inconsistent with joy. Now, we've already established that that isn't so, but it's also important for us to remember that grief is the very environment in which we are tutored in all of these necessary things that we just talked about. We wouldn't learn these essential lessons if our trials didn't grieve us. We simply wouldn't pay attention. We wouldn't learn anything from our trials if they were pleasant and easy. I think it was C.S. Lewis that said that God shouts to us in our suffering. We would not learn these lessons if our trials did not grieve us. >> [clears throat] >> We also wouldn't learn these lessons if our trials weren't varied, if they weren't personally suited to our sanctification. And this is the fifth truth we have to hold to in the midst of our trials. The testing of our faith is personal. Now, when Peter uses uh the word various, or your translation might say varied, it means variegated or many colored. It's a term that's used to describe embroidery work. And if you have ever looked at the back of a a back of a tapestry or a piece of embroidery work, you know it looks pretty messy, right? It is messy and many colored. Yet the front of that tapestry clearly shows us that that seemingly jumbled mess of colors on the backside is in fact the behind-the-scenes work of a master designer. That embroiderer has a plan to fashion from all of those threads a beautiful piece of art. All of those many colored threads, those variegated threads are producing something beautiful. And the colors and the patterns are chosen by that master designer to yield a very specific design that that designer intends. And so it is with the trials of our lives. They are variegated. They are specifically, uniquely chosen by God, the master creator, the master designer, the master weaver to create in us the design that he has chosen to weave us into. Yes, it is the image of Christ, but it looks different in each one of us. The testing of our faith is personal in that way. It's variegated. It's designed for our individual good. The testing of our faith also proves the genuineness of our faith. This is the sixth truth we have to cling to in the midst of our trials. All the reasons that we just listed for our trials being necessary work together for this one grand purpose to prove the genuineness of our profession of faith. Peter simply calls it the proof of your faith. Your translation might say the trial of your faith or the testing of your faith or the tested genuineness of your faith. And the word that Peter uses here for trials can very well carry the connotation of both testing and temptation. In James 1, we we read that God clearly does not tempt anyone, but he does surely test us. And in any given trial, there is both the occasion for temptation to sin, which is Satan's desire for us, and the occasion for obedience, which is God's desire for us. This word that gets translated as trials or tests or temptations, James tells us in chapter 1 of his letter verses 12 through 14, that temptation comes as you and I get carried away and enticed by our own lusts. There are certainly times when you and I respond to the trials we face with sinful attitudes, sinful choices. There are times when we behave in ways that God would not desire of us. But it is never God's desire to tempt us to behave that way. It is his desire that our faith would be tried in the furnace of trials in the same way that gold gets tried in the furnace of a goldsmith. Goldsmiths don't heat up gold for no reason. They do it to remove the impurities from the gold and to prove its genuineness. And heating it with intense heat, heating gold with intense heat is the only means by which those two purposes can be accomplished. And so it is with our faith. In God's perfect wisdom, the genuineness of our faith cannot be proven except by the refining fires of suffering. And in God's perfect wisdom, the dross that remains in you and in me cannot be removed except by the refining fires of suffering. Just as gold cannot be proven and purified without being subjected to the fire, so faith cannot be proven and purified without being subjected to fiery trials. But Peter tells us that our faith is actually a far greater value, far greater worth than gold. Gold perishes, but our faith will not. Back in verses 3 through 5, which we we already talked about all you know, Peter talked about that inheritance that we have, right? And he talked about it being kept secure for us and us being kept secure for it. God is keeping us by his power through our faith. And that faith, Peter says, is more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though it gets tested by fire. Just as false gold cannot withstand fire, so false faith cannot withstand the fires of testing. False faith cannot hold up under the heat and pressure of testing. This is Jesus' whole point in Matthew 13, in verses 20 and 21 when he's he's explaining the parable of the soils, and he says that there are some who hear the word and they immediately accept it, but they only endure for a little while because when tribulation or persecution comes, they stumble. They fall away. They forsake the Lord because theirs was a false faith, and false faith cannot endure the fires of testing. All of the lessons that God is intending to teach us through our trials are his means of testing the genuineness of our faith. Oh, and he's not testing it for his own knowledge. He's omniscient. He already knows. He's all knowing. He knows whom he has chosen and no one can snatch any of us out of his hand. He's testing our faith for our benefit. So that you and I might know with certainty whether our faith is genuine or not. God is all knowing, but you and I are not. And it is entirely possible for us to be a deceived about our faith as Matthew 13 points out to us in that parable of the soils. It's entirely possible for us to think that our faith is genuine when in fact it is false. And so he brings these trials upon us so that our faith might be tested and that you and I might know with absolute certainty whether or not our faith is going to stand that fiery test of suffering. If our faith withstands such intense testing, Peter says the testing of our faith will also one day be rewarded. This is the seventh truth that we absolutely have to hold on to in the midst of our trials. The testing of our faith will one day be rewarded. Peter says of our tested and tried faith that it may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. These three things, praise and glory and honor, they are definitely things that will be given to Christ on that day. But what Peter is referring to here is the praise and glory and honor that believers will be rewarded with on that day. Praise is the is approval or public commendation. And in this context it refers to the commendation that God will give to the faithful, to those whose faith has been proven. In Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents, Jesus said to the faithful, those faithful stewards, he said that they would hear, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master." In 1 Corinthians 4:5, we read that when the Lord comes, he will both bring to light the things that are hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one's praise will come to him from God. So, we have praise, but in addition to praise, Peter also says we will receive glory. One commentator says that this is the glory that already belongs to the believer, but is now reserved in heaven for us. He calls it our participation in the radiance and glory of future life because we've been changed into the image of the glorified Christ. Romans 8:30 teaches us that those whom God has predestined unto salvation, he also glorified. And Philippians 3:21 tells us that he will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by his working, through which he is able to subject even all things to himself. And then in 1 Peter 5, Peter says that he himself is a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. But even beyond this praise and this glory, Peter says that those whose faith has been proven will receive honor. This is the distinction that is conferred upon good soldiers. In that passage in Matthew 25, when Jesus Jesus likens when he's when he's saying, "Well done, good and faithful slave." to those faithful stewards, he likens the honor that we will receive to the honor that that master gives to that faithful servant when he says to them, "I will put you in charge of many things." That's an honor to be entrusted with more responsibility. And in John 12:26, Jesus says, "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." And all of this, Peter says, will take place at the revelation of Jesus Christ, when Christ returns in all of his glory. You know, in this life, believers are often rewarded, if you will, with scoffing and ridicule and rejection. But on the day that Christ is revealed, all of that will be reversed. And we will be rewarded with praise and honor and glory. Right now, however, as we await our future reward, the testing of our faith expresses itself in ongoing love, trust, and joy. This is the eighth truth we must hold to in the testing of our faith. The testing of our faith expresses itself in ongoing love, trust, and joy. Peter says, "And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." Peter had not only seen Christ, he had walked with Christ. He had lived with Christ day in and day out for years. He had grown to love Christ. He had no doubt whatsoever who Christ was. But the Christians that Peter's writing to in this letter, they had continued in their belief without ever having seen their savior. You and I have continued in our belief without ever having seen our savior. Peter had grown to love Christ. He had been personally loved by his savior as one of those 12 disciples, those 12 apostles. He had been rebuked by Christ personally. He had been restored by Christ personally. And yet these Christians had fallen in love with a savior they had never met in person. Just as Jesus told Thomas in John 20:29, "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." Peter is commending these believers for their faith without sight. He's saying, "You haven't seen him. You still don't see him. But you believe in him and that belief, that trust, it has caused you to love him and that love has produced a joy in you that is inexpressible and full of glory." This is the kind of joy that we see in Paul when he's imprisoned in Philippi, right? And he and Silas are singing hymns at midnight in jail. And you know, I think about that and I think it has to be true that their joyful praise was used of God to prepare that jailer's heart to receive the gospel. It has to be. And the same is true of us in our suffering. We haven't seen our savior. We still don't see him. We're not going to see him till we get to glory. But we love him. We trust in him. And our hearts are just overflowing with joy because of our love and trust in him. And so we express the genuineness of our faith through ongoing love and trust and joy. One pastor calls that the joy we have now, it's the joy of heaven before heaven. These are the ongoing habitual expressions of tested faith, love, trust, and joy. Finally, Peter tells us the ninth truth that we must hold to in the midst of our trials that the testing of our faith grows us toward maturity in Christ. >> [clears throat] >> He says, "Receiving is the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now, this word receiving, it can also be translated as obtaining. And of course, when Peter talks about the end of our salvation, this or this word outcome, the outcome of our salvation, it's sometimes translated end. You might have it that way in your translation in front of you. But of course, when Peter speaks of the end of our salvation, he isn't speaking of its cessation. He is speaking of the goal or logical end of a process. It's culmination, if you will. It's outcome. So, when Peter speaks of this salvation of our souls, he's referring to um and he's saying that we're receiving it right now, this salvation of our souls. He's referring to the entire process of transformation. The salvation of a believer's entire being. We are already obtaining this, receiving this. We are right now possessing and progressing toward the salvation of our souls. At the end of verse five, Peter said that we are being kept for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Well, here he is saying we are right now obtaining that salvation. Our salvation is all at once a past, present, and future event. In the past, our salvation was secured when we were justified. And in the future, our salvation, we will fully take possession of it, if you will, when we are glorified. But right now, presently, we are being saved as God transforms us more and more into the image of His Son as we are being sanctified. Justified, glorified, sanctified. All words that describe our salvation. And with each new trial, with each new lesson that is being learned, with each new experience of God's grace, we are being conformed more and more and more into the image of Christ. We are obtaining our salvation. The blessings and benefits of salvation, fixed within the fiery trials of suffering, are growing you and me toward maturity in Christ. The testing of our faith is a combination of joy and grief. The testing of our faith is temporary. The testing of our faith is necessary. The testing of our faith is grieving. The testing of our faith is personal. The testing of our faith proves the genuineness of our faith. The testing of our faith will one day be rewarded. The testing of our faith expresses itself in ongoing love, trust, and joy. And the testing of our faith grows us toward maturity in Christ. These and really so many others are the truths that God has used to carry me through the suffering of the past 2 years. The truths that he has used to enable me to rejoice in my trials. I could take you to countless other places in my Bible where God has used his words to comfort and sustain and encourage and challenge my heart. And that is exactly the point. It is through his word, this book, that God equips us to suffer well, to think rightly about our suffering, to rejoice in our trials so that we can steward the difficulties of life in a way that glorifies God. In God's kindness, he had already taught me so very much about his good purposes in suffering. He had already embedded within my heart unshakable, rock-solid truths about why he ordains our suffering and what he intends to accomplish through it. I certainly still had much to learn, and I still do. But that foundation, that robust theology of suffering, became the pillow where I could rest my head when nothing else made sense. Having a robust theology of suffering doesn't mean that our suffering is less intense. Having a robust theology of suffering allows you and me to fall back on some things that we know to be true, even when none of it feels true. There will be days when you are overcome with sorrow. There will be days when you are utterly baffled by God's dealings with you. There will be days when you even doubt God's love for you. But our God's faithfulness is just that, faithful. He will bring you back. If you are his child, he will bring you back time and time again to the truths of his character and his ways that are woven through the pages of his word. This book is the place where you will find the sustenance you need when your soul is weary. It is my prayer that as you are equipped with the truths of God's word, you will come to believe and to rejoice in the testing of your faith in the midst of suffering, and that you will be able to say with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves. In every way afflicted, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Down in verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying and it feels that way today. >> [laughter] >> Our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary momentary light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory. Far beyond all comparison while we look not at the things which are seen. But the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporary temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal. Let's pray. Father, I'm so grateful that your word is full of counsel for us in our trials. We have just scratched the surface of the truth that is found in your book about our suffering. Oh Lord, would you help us? Would you help us in the midst of our suffering to remember these things to Would you bring them to our minds? By your Holy Spirit's enabling grace, bring them to our minds that we might remember them in the midst of our suffering. That we might be prompted to turn to you to find hope and help from you, from your Holy Spirit, from your word in the midst of our suffering so that we might rejoice in our trials. We thank you, Lord, that we can do these things because of your grace, because of your son. We pray these things in his name. Amen.