We continue today our summer series in the book of 1 Peter, and we come for the second time to part two of our message on 1 Peter 1-3-12. I'm going to read that again, and as always, I'll ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's words. Let's stand together. And I urge you, because this is not simply the word of man, but truly the word of the living God, I urge you to listen and listen carefully with your hearts and your minds fully engaged. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Please be seated. I have many illustrations of faith that I've shared with our congregation through the years. Maybe my favorite is, and if you've heard this umpteen times, please bear with me. Perhaps my favorite is my episode with my son Connor and giving him a bath. when he was about two years old, two, three years old, something like that. And he would, everything would go great as I put the soap on his body, all parts of his body, and washed him off until we got to the hair. And we had to use some shampoo and I would put the shampoo in and because of past experience, I would always say, now Connor, now listen, here's the thing. I put this shampoo in your hair and it'll feel fine, but then I have to wash it out. And I'm going to put your head under this water when I turn it on. And when I do, you are going to have to lean your head back like this and let the water wash. And you want it to wash this way because if it washes this way, it's going to come down in your eyes and the soap's going to get in your eyes and it's going to sting. It's going to hurt. You don't want that. And so, what you want to do is keep your head like this. Keep it back like this. Don't do this. Don't raise up. Now, when that water hits your head, you're going to want to do this. Because you're going to be scared that it's going to come into your eyes. But don't do it. When that water hits, believe me, if you just keep your head like this, it will go the other way and it won't go in your eyes. And I said, now, do you believe me? Do you believe what I said? And he would always say, yes, daddy, I believe you. We'd put the soap, and there'd be lather, and I would move his head back, and just pushing his head back, I could feel just a little bit of resistance. And then I'd let the water start to rush. And the water would come down. And as soon as that water hit, I would feel that neck tense. And he would start doing this. And I'd say, Connor, Connor, keep your head back. Keep your head back. And he just couldn't do it. And the water would come down in his eyes. And he would start crying. He'd say, oh, it hurts, Daddy. I'd say, Connor, if you'd just believe me. And he'd say, I do believe you, Daddy. But see, that's the thing. There's believing and there's believing. There's acknowledging that, yeah, yeah, yeah, what you say is true, yeah. But then there's really trusting. And there's a difference. And saving faith involves trusting. It involves being willing to commit myself to the truth of what I'm saying I believe, even when it seems like it's not true. and to commit myself to it so much that I'm going to act, no matter what, in accordance with what that truth demands. Connor eventually did come to the place where he figured out what he was doing wasn't really working too well and he said, no matter how much my instincts tell me to raise my head up, I'm going to keep my head back like my dad said. And lo and behold, he found out the water goes the other way and it doesn't come down in his eyes, and it was right. But it's hard sometimes. It's hard sometimes to do that. Why? Because there are situations that challenge us. What do we call those? We call them trials. Situations that challenge our faith, that challenge what we say we believe as Christians. We define trials in that way. This passage talks about trials. And we began to talk about how Peter in this passage is Helping, seeking to help his hearers, the members of these churches in these provinces, really in churches that, for the most part, Paul had founded. Paul, for one reason or another, is not there, and so Peter has taken over some pastoral responsibility for these churches, and he's trying to encourage them because they are facing trials. They're facing difficult situations. They're facing things that challenge their faith. Much of it is persecution. But they're facing different kinds of trials. We'll read about these different kinds of trials as we go through 1 Peter. The question, again, that we're considering as we consider this passage is what are the key factors which enable endurance of trials? How do we endure trials faithfully? How do we endure trials with faith in a way that carries us through? Well, we began by saying that Christian endurance is inspired by a certain hope And of course that hope is the hope in God's promises in what He has said He's going to do. Now this passage, this passage talks about that hope in terms of salvation. It uses the term salvation a couple of times. And we need to remind ourselves, what does salvation mean? We talked a little bit about this last week. I want to talk a little bit more fully about it this week. is often conceived of in the evangelical church today as simply salvation or deliverance from the penalty of sin. I'm going to heaven rather than hell. And if I'm going to heaven and if I've been forgiven of my sins, then I've been saved. And the Bible does indeed talk about salvation in that way. In Ephesians, you have been saved by grace through faith. You have been saved. It talks about this as something that's been completed. And this is primarily talking about our justification that God has declared us righteous. But salvation involves so, so much more than that. What we read in Hebrews, and that which we call the gospel, talked about purification for sins, but it also talked about the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the throne. And we talk about this frequently in our church, Christ the King Presbyterian Church, because Christ being enthroned as king is part of what he did for our salvation. Because we remember that what God created us to be and to do was to be those who exercise dominion as his image bearers over all of his creation. And we lost both the right and the ability to do that when we, through our representative Adam, fell into sin. And so we can't do, we can't be in our sin what God intended us to be and to do. We can't be kings, vice rulers for Him, applying His rule over everything as His image bears. We can't do that because the image has been marred by sin. But in Christ, the New Testament tells us that image is being restored. It is being restored. We are being conformed to the image of Christ, who is, as we read in Hebrews, the image of God. And He has because He is now the one with whom we are united, not just Adam, but we are in Christ. We not only died with Him so that our sins are atoned for. We not only rose with Him so that now we no longer have to live in sin. We are freed from sin. We are given a new life. But we are also raised to the right hand of God with Him. Ephesians tells us we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. Where is He seated? He's seated on the throne at the right hand of God so that our right to rule, our right to dominion is restored in Him. And this is the gospel of the kingdom. It is that we're part of that kingdom. And what is the kingdom of God? It's the rule of God over His creation through man. who is His image. It's nothing less than the kingdom of God that is restored. It's nothing less than the kingdom of God and our restoration to that that is salvation. And that is our hope. That's what we look for because it is not fully realized, is it? We see everyone doesn't bow the knee to Christ. We see that everyone doesn't reflect His image now. We see that there is a type of dominion that is attempted apart from God and apart from His law as something that doesn't reflect His law and His rule and His character. And that's the kingdom of Satan that is rivaling the kingdom of God. And that's not just something out there, that's something that's still, at least in part, in us because we still have indwelling sin. So what is the hope of salvation? Really, it is the hope of the full realization of this full salvation. It is that we are completely delivered from the sin that remains in our hearts. That we are completely enabled to enjoy this kingdom and to enjoy God fully and to serve Him without hindrance. without any obstacle in our path, that is true freedom. And it's the law of God that brings us into that true freedom and our conformity to that law. And God is accomplishing that in us now. And so what we read in this passage, it's interesting. We read about a salvation that is happening presently. It's going on, it's not completed. It's going on presently, continually. And so, we say, we read in verse 9, you are obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. You are obtaining that. It's not complete yet, but you are obtaining it now. More on that in just a little while. But then, at the beginning of the passage, you remember that he says, look, in this hope, it's inspired by a certain hope. What is this hope? It is the salvation, verse 5, that is ready to be revealed in the last time. when God brings this process of salvation to its consummation, to its completion at the coming, the second coming of Jesus Christ. And so this salvation is something that is past and accomplished, it is presently ongoing, and it is to be consummated in the future. It has been inaugurated It is now progressing and it is to be consummated in the future. That is salvation. We have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved. That's the salvation about which Peter is speaking in this passage. And so, we talked about how Christian endurance is inspired by that hope. It's looking forward to that hope. And it's a certain hope. Hope is certain to the Christian. Certain why? It's certain because of its basis. What is its basis? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. How do I know that I will be resurrected? That my body will be redeemed and perfect? That my soul will be perfect? Because Jesus Christ has been resurrected as a historical fact. So it's absolutely certain that I and you who are united to Him will experience these same realities and have experienced them in principle. It's certain because of its permanence, we said. He talks about how this reality that's reserved in heaven for us is imperishable, undefiled, unfading. It won't fade away. It can't perish. it can't fail to be accomplished. And it's certain because of its insurance. Why? Because God Himself is keeping us by His power. We are kept by God's power. Then we saw that that power that keeps us is not one that keeps us apart from what I want to be the lion's share of what we say today, and that is our faith. We are kept by God's power through faith, not apart from faith. And so to say that we're kept and this is certain doesn't mean that, well, I can just do whatever I want and just indulge my sin, then it doesn't matter because I'm kept by God's power, right? No, but the way God's power keeps us is by working faith in us continually. That faith that He gives us as a gift is something that He continues to give and continues to grow in us. And He doesn't save us apart from that. So if you think you're being kept, but you have no faith, you need to ask yourself again, am I being kept? You need to, as the Scriptures tell us, make every effort to make your calling and election sure. Examine yourselves to see if you be in the faith. Paul says. That's all of our responsibility as members of the covenant. And so faith is what makes everything go. And so secondly, Christian endurance is achieved through genuine faith. Now we talked about a couple aspects of this last week. We said that faith enables substantial joy. What is it that enables me when I'm facing something difficult or something that challenges my faith, what enables me to get through that? What enables me, in fact, not only to get through it, but to have joy in the midst of it. To be joyful in the loss of a loved one. To be joyful when I lose my job. To be joyful when I get sick and I don't know if I'm gonna live. How can we be joyful? How can we have a joy that the world doesn't have? Because we have His promises, because we believe, because we know that all things work together for our good. Faith enables substantial joy. Faith also, we know, elicits divine condemnation. How do we face trials? Because we know that there is going to be a last day, and when those who endure trials successfully will receive the commendation of God. Praise and glory and honor, Peter calls it here. I remember when I was in… I've shared this story before, I think. When I was in high school, in the band, we did a fundraiser, and we were selling raffle tickets. And I am no, let me just tell you, I am no Danny I'm not a salesman. I hate selling, as a matter of fact. I can't stand it. I hate it. I feel like a shyster. And salesmen are not shysters. Some of them are. But not all of them. But I just feel like I'm just, you know, okay, I want you to buy this, you know, for this reason over here. And so I'm always hesitant about that. But in this situation, whoever sold the most, we were selling raffle tickets. And what was being raffled was a painting by a local artist that was pretty prominent. And there were a lot of people who really liked this artist, and it was a very desirable thing. It was kind of a unique raffle. But I didn't want to go ask people, do you want to buy a raffle ticket? But there was a reward, and we were going to Disney World. The band was going to Disney World, and the section of the band that sold the most raffle tickets would get to go eat at the restaurant at the top of the tower in Disney World with the band director. And the person who sold the most, the individual who sold the most, would receive this special recognition. And so I remember thinking about that, you know, I would I would like to, I would really like to eat our group to be part of that. And I and that recognition with you know, I was I was kind of craving that. And so it made me go out and knock on those doors when I didn't want to knock on the door. And I didn't want to. And it was easier than I thought. But I kept doing it. I kept doing it. Why? Because I kept thinking about that day, you know, wouldn't it be great to be the person that was honored as the person who sold the most raffle ticket. So I did it. That was why I did it. I hated it. I did what I hated. But I did it because I was looking to that day. And sure enough, it happened. I sold the most tickets. And I remember the day we were sitting there in band, and the band director announced it. And he said, and we want to honor Mike Biggs. He sold the most raffle tickets. And I was so embarrassed that I kind of ducked down behind the stand, because I didn't want anybody to see it. But it felt so good. and say, this is what Peter is saying here. When he says, in this you rejoice, if necessary you've been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, when you come through, when you endure those trials faithfully, more precious than gold, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's talking about praise and glory and honor for you. You'll be praised. You'll get honor when you endure trials by His grace faithfully. That helps you endure. That's something you need to remember. Remember when you face trials, when your faith is tested, that when you are faithful, you have your Father's smile, and that smile will be public one day. And that's worth enduring. To receive that is worth anything. But then, notice faith ratifies covenant promises. This helps us endure because the promises of God are received through faith. And they are received constantly. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things. We talked about this a little bit last week. He says, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible. Look at verse 8. and filled with glory. Now, how is this joy filled with glory? Let's remind ourselves, what are we talking about when we talk about glory? We're talking about the manifestation of God's excellencies, the manifestation of God's greatness. That's what glory is. It's the manifestation of someone's greatness. We talk about glorifying God. We talk about highlighting and manifesting and bringing attention to His greatness, His weightiness. So, how is this endurance of trials filled with glory? It's filled with glory because through our faith we see a progressive and continual work of God, and we see Him fulfilling His promises to us. Now, we don't see completely. We don't see it all, but it's filled with glory because there are glimpses where God pulls back the curtain. He says, here's what I'm doing. See? You see the reason for this? And I've seen this so many times in my life. Some of you remember how I tell the story of when I had back surgery. And I haven't had back surgery again. And I was told, if you have back surgery once, you're going to have it again. I had back surgery once in 1995. I've never had another back surgery. I had a really good surgeon because they told me, don't do this and don't do this. And I haven't done it because I never again want to have that pain again. But I remember how bad that pain was. And I remember I had to travel. It was so bad, I couldn't stand up until I went to the doctor and they gave me this super powerful ibuprofen. But I had to go to staff training. I was working with RUF at the time, with Reformed University Fellowship, and I had to travel from New Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia on a plane trip, and it was four hours long. And it had been a while since I'd taken my medication, and I had to sit for that long. If you've ever had back problems, you know sitting isn't good for your back. So I had to sit on that plane for four hours. I get to the Atlanta airport. My back is starting to ache. And I can't wait. I just want to get my luggage, get to the room where I'm staying with a fellow campus minister. I just want to get there and just crash and lie down. And so I get there, and I'm there at the luggage dispenser, the baggage claim area, and everybody's baggage comes, and my baggage doesn't come. And I'm thinking, oh, no. And this is the only time my baggage has ever been lost. So I have to walk through the Atlanta airport. My back is aching so bad, I have to lie down three times on the way to the ticket counter to tell them. I have to lie down in the middle of the airport, people walking around me saying, are you OK, buddy? Get to the ticket counter and tell them, we need you to go back, Mr. Biggs, and make sure your luggage isn't there. So I had to walk all the way. If you've ever been to Atlanta airport, you know how big it is. Lie down three more times on the way back. Find out it's not there. Lie down three more times on the way back to the ticket counter. No, my luggage isn't there. And all the time I'm thinking, I'm not saying it, but I'm thinking, God, how in the world could you let this happen this time? Of all times for me to lose my luggage. I can't believe that this is happening to me right now. You talk about a trial? And I wouldn't say it. I wouldn't say that to God, but that's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. How could you do this, God? Why in the world would you do this? There's no reason. Why would you put me through this? So they say, Mr. Biggs, we got where you're staying. We'll send your luggage to you when it comes. I go to the room. I'm rooming with a friend. We exchanged some greetings. We hadn't seen each other in a while. I lie down on the bed, and the phone rings. And it's my wife. And my friend answers the phone. He says, hey, it's Jana. And I take the phone, and I've gotten up to take the phone. She says, are you sitting down? And I said, no, I'm not sitting down. She said, well, sit down. So I sit down on the bed, and she says, the doctor got your MRI back from your test on your back. And he says, you've got a profoundly herniated disc in your back. And then she says, don't lift anything. Because if you lift anything, it's going to burst. You're going to have a ruptured disc. And you'll have to stay there, and you'll have to have surgery there. And then it hit me. Why was my luggage lost? It's because God was protecting me. Because if I'd carried that luggage just to the trim from the baggage claim, that would have been it. and God was protecting me. And what I saw was just a little bit of God's glory, a little bit of God's faithfulness. He allowed me to see, because what He was doing was protecting me. I saw His presence. I saw the fulfillment of His promise for me. And I hadn't been faithful. But let me tell you, whether we're faithful or not in our trials, this is the character of the Christian life. It is filled with glory. And because of that glory, because of that revelation of who God is and what He's doing in our lives, He gives us this. We go from glory to glory. And it's that recognition of what He's doing that enables us to persevere, to endure, because it's going on. It's not just something in the future. It's happening now. He's working now. And so that's why he can say, look, you're obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of yourself. You're obtaining that. Anybody who's ever worked out and you've wanted to build your body or you've wanted to achieve some kind of goal of fitness or whatever it is, why do you keep a record? You keep a record You keep a record of how many reps you can do and how much weight you're lifting as it steadily increases. Why do you keep that record? Because it enables you to see that, yeah, what's happening is I'm getting, I'm getting there, I'm getting toward my goal, I'm achieving the goal. That's what Peter's saying here. You see what God is doing. You see progress. It may be agonizingly slow, your progress in your sanctification, your progress against certain besetting sins. It may be agonizingly slow, but it's happening. God is at work, and He gives you indications that He's at work, that He's at work in your children and in their lives, in your hope for them. You see indications from time to time that, yes, God is there, He's working, He's faithful, He hasn't abandoned me. And that enables you to keep on. But then finally, we need to see this, that Christian endurance is validated by progressive fulfillment. And that's what we see here in verses 10 through 12. And he says, concerning this salvation, this salvation that we've talked about already, concerning this salvation, he says there were prophets who prophesied about this. And they prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. And I'll just paraphrase here. Notice that what he says is, look, they were prophesying about something that they didn't experience fully. They experienced a little bit of it, but really, most of what they were talking about was to be realized when Christ came. And we live in a time after Christ has come. And so he says, it was revealed to them that they were talking about what would happen to you, the blessing you would receive. But notice that the people to whom Peter is speaking, and he says, they were prophesying about you, what you would receive. These people hadn't fully received everything, had they? Because they were experiencing trials, right? They hadn't gotten to glory yet. Christ hasn't come back finally yet. But he says, they were prophesying about you. What's his point? What is Peter getting at? He's saying this, look, what God has promised, you see progressive fulfillment. And he says this. We referred to it earlier in 2 Peter. He says, we have the word of the prophets made more certain. Why is it made more certain? Well, the prophets talk about glory. They talk about the kingdom of God. They talk about a full restoration of everything as it should be in God's world. Well, that hasn't happened yet. How do we know that that's going to happen? How do we keep enduring now? Part of what enables us to keep enduring now is we see what God has done in Christ. that the lion's share of what needs to happen for all of that to be realized has happened in Christ. It has happened, and we see it. We live in a time where the Holy Spirit has been given to us. We don't live in a time where God is over there in a building, and yeah, He's in our midst, and it's great to have Him here, but I can't go into the Holy of Holies. But we can go into the Holy of Holies now because the curtain's been rent from top to bottom. Why? Because Jesus said, it is finished. And we live in a time when the word of the prophets has been substantially fulfilled in Christ. And so what does that mean? That means everything that's the result of Christ's redemption will happen. It will be accomplished. It cannot be any other way. That's what he's saying. He's saying the prophets prophesied this and now look what's happened. Christ has come. And his work is still working its way through the whole lump of dough. But it will. And that enables you to endure now. Some of you know the movie Karate Kid. And one of my favorite scenes in the movie Karate Kid is where Daniel comes to Mr. Miyagi and he's coming to him for karate lessons, and Mr. Miyagi has him do all these chores, you know, wax the floor and paint the fence, and he tells him another chore he wants him to do, and finally Daniel's had it. He'd say, I've had it with this. You know, I thought you were going to teach me karate, and I hadn't learned anything, and I've been doing all these chores. I've fixed up your house for you, and I hadn't learned a thing. And Mr. Miyagi says, Stop. Come here. Show me. Show me. Wax the floor." He said, what? He said, show me. He starts doing his hands. He said, show me paint the fence. And he does these things, these motions that he's been learning. And then Mr. Miyagi just really quickly, after he tells him to rehearse all these things again, he starts to attack him. And Daniel just instinctively blocks everything that he does, really quick. And then it hits him. He's been learning all the time. He's been being taught karate the whole time. Look how much he's learned. Look how far he's progressed. He didn't even realize it. See, that's what God's doing now. And He's doing that in you. And you may not realize how far you've come, but you've come a distance since you came to know Jesus Christ. And what He's done in you now and what He's done in Christ in redemptive history ensures that that's going to be completed at the day of Christ. It's what enables you to keep going. It's what enables us to keep going as we look at a world that is ravaged by sin. As we look at things and we wonder, are we crumbling? Is everything about to end? Is our country about to collapse with what's happening? No. Maybe it will. I don't know. I hope not. But whether it does or not, it's not going to thwart God's plan, and He's not going to thwart what He's doing in you. and it's not going to thwart your salvation. And so we endure, and we're faithful, and we keep on keeping on doing what God has commanded us to do as His people, as His church, and we major on that. Why? Because God is faithful, and because our faith in Him is always justified. because what He has done in Christ in fulfilling His promises validates and establishes our faith. I'll ask those who are serving at the table to come forward now. And once again, I'll remind you of how Jesus is the perfect example of all of this, of how what we proclaim at this table is the perfect example of all of this. At the Last Supper, you know, I just wonder what was going through Jesus' mind when He's talking to Judas, and He knows that Satan has entered into Judas, and Judas is about to betray Him. He says, What you do, do quickly. And He says, this is Satan's time when darkness reigns. Have you ever felt like that? Jesus said it. This is Satan's time when darkness reigns. And yet He was ready to go to the cross. He was ready to go to this death. He was ready to go to hell. Why? For the joy set before Him. because he was going to have a bride and God had promised him a bride and you and I are that bride. So as you come and you eat and you drink and you partake of Christ by faith once again and you celebrate your union with him, realize that union is a union in his expectation and his faith. His faith in God, and in the joy that was set before Him, because that joy is your joy. And it's your joy not just in the future, it's your joy now. Now. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this sacrament. Thank You for what it means. Now, as we, as Your people, enjoy You, as we partake of Christ by faith, We ask, Lord, that you would do all that you mean to do for us. Seal to us the reality of your blessings, the reality of your promises. May we feel them as we partake of these sensory elements, these sensible signs of your grace. By your Spirit, apply them supernaturally to us so that we experience the reality of that in which we believe, and so that we experience sweet communion with the one with whom we are united. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. God's promises are received through faith. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, If you don't trust in Him, then don't partake of this sacrament because you will eat and drink judgment to yourself. But if you have faith as of a mustard seed, then come because there's blessing, blessing for you here. God doesn't require that you be perfect. God doesn't require that you have dealt with all of your sin completely. He simply requires that you trust in Christ and you come as you are. So if you trust, what is it that you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. On the night which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread. When he had given thanks, as we already have in his name, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup. And he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. He said, all of you, drink of it, because all who have faith in Christ are united to Him and to each other. And so as you partake, don't look down, don't be sad, be full of joy, inexpressible, and look up at each other as together we celebrate the goodness of the Lord and taste His goodness as we partake of Him.