Once again, we have a wonderful opportunity to look into the Word of God and understand more of who he is and what he's done for each of us. And this morning, we're stepping away from our verse-by-verse study of the gospel of Mark and I want to take you to First Peter one, in a few minutes; we're going to look at some other passages before we get there. But we're going to do so under the heading "Resurrection Joy" for after all, this is Resurrection Sunday.

Now, I know that the internet is burning up with this proclamation from our president. March 31, 2024, has been declared Transgender Day of Visibility, which obviously happens to be on Easter Sunday, this year. Many of you have sent me that information. I'm very aware of it. And I was reading how some apostate churches have incorporated drag queen performances with their Easter service. Now, folks, this is disgusting. This is deplorable. This is demonic. But this should be no surprise. This is once again, evidence of the wrath of divine abandonment on our country, where God has given people over to the consequences of their iniquities as Romans one makes abundantly clear in other passages. And sadly, this is also indicative of those who are spiritually dead. Those who are ruled by the desires of the flesh and of the mind. As we read in Ephesians. These are those who are, by nature, children of wrath; they have no fear of God before their eyes. And so naturally, these are the types of things they're going to do. And sadly, the whole transgender, LGBTQ, that whole movement, is repeatedly called an abomination in the eyes of God, and that indeed it is. In fact, there's no such thing as a transgender, you're either a male or a female made in God's image. Nevertheless, this should be no surprise, and may I encourage you, and I know many of you are very angry over this, and certainly I am righteously indignant as well, but these people need our pity. And they need our prayers. Because unless they repent, they will perish in their sins. And certainly, this is another example of the postmodern world in which we live, where truth is determined subjectively by every individual, not through the objective, authoritative word of the living God found in Scripture. And indeed, this is purposeful, satanic blasphemy. And please hear me, this is going to get much worse. This is going to get much worse and what better way to inaugurate such wickedness than on the day when Christians celebrate the redemption, validated by the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And I might add that the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ and His Kingdom shines even more brightly against the darkness of this satanic evil. And while our pagan culture worships humanity at the altar of wokeism, we as Christians worship the Lord Jesus Christ, at the altar of his sacrifice, where he took upon himself our sins, and paid the penalty that we deserved, that we might have forgiveness of sins; that he who knew no sin would become sin for us that we might have the righteousness of Christ, amen? And now because of his imputed righteousness, we have been declared justified, we've been declared righteous. And though we still sin, God no longer sees that sin, but he sees the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have forever been united and hidden and clothed in his righteousness. So let's celebrate these things together.

Now, as we think about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, I mean, this is absolutely a staggering truth. And its implications are equally staggering. And many I know are gathered, even here today, to worship the Lord. And I want to encourage you as we look at his resurrection, because I know that some of you are struggling with significant issues in your life. I know that for a fact, with a number of you. And I'm sure there are many more because we're all sinners living in a fallen world, right? And our sin is bad enough, but everybody else's sin splatters on us too, right? And so, as we look at these passages of scripture this morning, I want those of you that are struggling with health issues or financial issues, you're lonely, you're discouraged, you're depressed, you're whatever it might be, I want you to know that there is hope, there is joy. There is purpose and eternal life with Christ. But that is only available to those who have placed their faith in Christ, and who have been truly, genuinely born again. And then, it is also true for those who not only know him, but walk with Him in obedience, who love him, and who long to have intimate fellowship with Him.

But fundamental to all of this is an understanding of the gospel, which includes an understanding of Christ's death, his burial and his resurrection. Do you realize that according to Second Peter one, beginning of verse three, "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust." Then he adds these admonitions, "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's my goal this morning, to give you the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." So these virtues will be yours, and they will be increasing. So you can be useful and fruitful, so that you can enjoy all of the magnificent blessings that belong to those who are united to Christ.

Now, let's focus on the resurrection and its implications. Let me remind you of the context, Jesus was buried sometime before sundown on Friday. And then just before sunrise on Sunday, God the Father raised him from the dead. We see this clearly in Romans six, four and Acts 2:32, for example. However, you must realize that Jesus also participated in his own resurrection. John 2:19, he said, "'Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.'" And in verse 21, John adds, "He was speaking of the temple of His body." God, the Father gave him that authority. We read about this, in the words of our Lord in John five, verse 21, "'For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.'" He went on to say the Father "'has given all judgment to the Son.'" And in that familiar passage in John 10 and verse 18, we read the words of Jesus, "'I lay down my life, so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.'"

Now, I want you to listen to Matthew's account of the resurrection, earlier I read Luke's account. Follow along as I read from Matthew 28, beginning in verse one, "Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the LORD descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, For He has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.'" My friends, the most irrefutable and compelling evidence that Jesus was indeed who he says he was, and is the son of God, is the fact that he rose from the dead. In fact, we read in Romans one four, "He was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." The angelic announcement just runs shivers up my back. Can you imagine that, when they said, I invite you to come and see the place where he was lying. Come, see the stone rolled away from the sacred sepulcher. Enter the empty tomb, gaze upon the slab where your dear Savior was lying. The God-Man who was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows acquainted with grief is not there. His work is finished. And now he sets at the right hand of the Father, awaiting that day when he will return in power and great glory.

And dear friends, please hear me, someday every single person who has ever lived will see him. And you will see him either as your risen Savior and Lord, or as your righteous judge, and executioner. I wish to encourage every believer this morning by reminding you have the implications of Christ's resurrection. And this now takes us to our text in First Peter one, and I'm going to focus mainly on verses three through nine. So let me read that section to you and then give you a brief introduction to it. He says there in First Peter one three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed 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; though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy and expressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

I want to give you three reasons to rejoice that comes out of this passage of Scripture? Number one, we rejoice in the promise of our faith. Secondly, the permanence of our faith and finally, the power of our faith. Again, as we go to First Peter one, let me give you a bit of context by looking at the first few verses that he gives us leading up to our text. It says in verse one, "Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens." The term in the original language denotes a pilgrim, a foreigner or a sojourner temporarily living in a strange place that is not one's home; a temporary residence whose laws and culture and everything about it is foreign. A person whose allegiance in love is for another place. The term is "paroikos" and we get the word English word "parish" from that is derived from the Greek term "paroikos." In fact, Calvary Bible Church, you might say, is a parish, an assembly of aliens. And I can say that in a rather comical way, but also in a spiritual way. Sometimes we do look and act like aliens. But to be sure, as believers, we're aliens here. This is not our home. And we all understand that. We are sojourners in this world. And he says he's writing to those who are aliens scattered throughout. This is the Diaspora, the Jews dispersed with their deportation. And through deportation, some of them voluntarily have left for a foreign land, though they longed for their land and for Jerusalem, for their temple. But their supreme longing was for heaven, as it is for each of us.

And he says that they are "scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." These are all Roman provinces in Asia Minor, a listing that is perhaps in the order of the mail route in which this letter was originally delivered. It's interesting that in his lust to build, the Emperor Nero burned Rome, and he blamed it on Christians, which caused enormous persecution. And so these regions in which this letter is now being circulated, were hostile to Christians. So they suffered persecution, they were very badly in need of encouragement. Even years after Peter had written this letter, a man named Pliny the Younger was put in charge of Bithynia. And he wrote to the Emperor Trajan asking for advice about how to handle these Christians. And they tried to force them to recant their faith and worship their pagan gods. They had their own version of what we're dealing with in our country today, where we have to somehow celebrate all of the wickedness of our culture, and they wanted them to curse Christ and bow down before the emperor himself, the image of the Emperor. Some did, most did not. So, here's what Pliny wrote to the Emperor, quote, "It seems to me to be necessary to get advice. Because many in every age group, every status of life, and both male and female are now in danger, and will be in the future. This plague of superstition has spread over cities, and over the fields and villages. But I believe that its advance can be stopped." Well, obviously, he was wrong. The Lord has promised to build his church.

So, you must understand that our text here this morning is that really the front edge of this great expansion of Christianity, during a day of enormous persecution of both Jews and Gentiles? So, he says to them, the end of verse one, he says that you are those "who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Remember, he's trying to encourage them; "who are chosen." "Eklektos"-- it's translated "elect." It means "to choose," "to pick," "to select." It denotes those whom God has sovereignly chosen for salvation. In fact, the same term is used in the Septuagint, to translate Deuteronomy 14 two that describes God's election or choosing of Israel. There we read that the Lord has "chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." So he's reminding these dear persecuted saints that their sovereign God has chosen them. What a wonderful comfort.

He says, "who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Herein is why God chose us--it's because he wanted to. It was his divine prerogative to choose whom he will. He did it, it says, "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." "Foreknowledge" comes from a Greek term "prognosis." And it can also be translated, foreordained or foreloved or foreknown as it is in verse 20, of this passage. In fact, foreknowledge is paired with predestination in Acts two and verse 23, where we read, "This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God"-- referring to Christ. So the idea here of foreknowledge is far beyond some naive concept that God merely knew what would happen in the future. Although that is certainly true because he is omniscient, but the term must be understood in terms of covenantal love. In fact, the word "know" in Hebrew often refers to God's covenantal love, bestowed upon his people. So he not only knew who would be his, he chose them, according to his unconditional sovereign election. It was a divine decree, and he's using this to encourage them. And I am unimaginably, unbelievably encouraged that God would choose me, as you should be as well. Romans 8:28 We read that we are "called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew--"proginóskó" in the original language. "He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." So foreknowledge speaks of predetermined choice, to set his love upon us and forge an intimate and indissoluble bond of love with us. So foreknowledge here must be understood as foreloved as foreordained, not merely for observed, there was never a time when God is in omniscience lacked knowledge, and he had to somehow look down the corridors of time and see who would and who wouldn't believe in Him, and based on that, decide to choose them. That is a heresy. That is untrue.

So Peter begins with these profound words of encouragement, as if to say, folks, I want you to remember that he set his love upon you in eternity past and he drew you unto himself. As Paul said in Romans 9:16, salvation "does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs"-- referring to human effort, "but on God who has mercy." Indeed, it is God who is the author and the finisher of our faith, not us. So the same God that chose us in eternity past, will, by the power of his omnipotent and sovereign love, safely deliver us unto himself in his good time, as he accomplishes his glorious plan of redemption.

Then in verse two, he says that he does this "by the sanctifying work of the Spirit." Sanctifying work, it means he sets us apart, or he consecrates us, not only unto salvation--that is the imputed righteousness and declared righteousness of Christ in our justification--but he also sets us apart under holy living. A process of conforming. Notice the universe to that you may "obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood." This is a curious phrase. In Exodus 24, one through eight, we understand what he's referring to here. And there, if we were to go to it, we would see that Moses rose up early in the morning, and he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings unto the Lord. And he took half of the blood and put it in basins, and he took the other half and sprinkled it on the altar. And then we read that he read the book of the covenant to all of the people. And the book of the covenant would include all of the civil and the social, and the ceremonial, moral laws, etc., that God gave him on Mount Sinai. And they agreed, saying, "'All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient!'" And then in verse eight, we read this, "And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you, according to all these words.'" So in response to the people's commitment, to be obedient, he officially sealed the treaty with the blood and likewise, you must understand, in the New Covenant, it is the blood of Christ, that seals God's covenant promise to us to forgive us of our sin. His blood was the perfect atonement--the propitiation-- as we mentioned earlier in our time of communion, that satisfied the justice of God, but his blood also seals our commitment to be obedient to Him.

So Peter, my point with all of this is just to simply say, Peter uses all of these magnificent theological themes to bring comfort to the Diaspora. To these aliens, to the suffering saints. Imagine what it would be like if it was us, if we had lost our homes, and maybe we're scrounging around just to find food someplace. Some of our family members have been tortured and killed. My how they needed comfort, as we all do. So he reminds them of the activities of all three members of the Godhead, the Triune God that we worship, our faith is a trinitarian faith and because of the absolute certainty of these astounding realities, he concludes his salutation by saying, "May Grace and peace be yours in fullest measure."

And then is if he couldn't contain himself--it's like he's just bursting to go on with verse three and following, out of all of this abundance--he gives the saints, three reasons to rejoice, all made possible by the resurrection of Christ. First, he tells them to rejoice in the promise of your faith. Now, I want to stop here for a moment. Remember, now, Peter is encouraging them to rejoice, and yet he knows what the Lord has told him, that is soon going to happen to him; that he is going to die by crucifixion. It's amazing, isn't it? How he is encouraging others knowing all of that; John 21:18 through 19 tells you that. Nevertheless, his heart is overflowing with joy. And the reason for this, dear friends is because he is relaxing in God's sovereign purposes for his life, and he's rejoicing in all that will be his in glory. And he also knows what the Lord said in Matthew 5:11, "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." Don't you love being around people that live in light of eternity? I mean, their joy is absolutely contagious. And it's rooted in the great truths of scripture. And so now he is able to encourage the struggling saints, dealing with life and death issues, calling them to do the same. He's telling them, I want you to live above the fray. I want you to live victoriously, don't lose hope, trust in the Lord. And here's the perspective that you must have.

Now we come to verse three. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Because again, the resurrection was a validation that Jesus was the Son of God and that he had conquered sin and Satan and death, and that his resurrection secures our resurrection body. What did Jesus say in John 14, I believe in verse nine or so, "Because I live, you too, will live," right? And it also secures our new spiritual life. We can go to Romans six and we read how that we've been buried with Christ and raised with him. So we too, might walk in newness of life. Goes on to talk how we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. And this is why Paul said in Philippians, 3:10, that I want to know Christ "and the power of his resurrection." And so he's saying to these dear people, as I'm saying to you, folks, you are the recipients of divine mercy, he has set his love upon you in eternity past, he has given new birth to you, because you and maybe your family, to be born again to this living hope. You're a new creature in Christ, you have a new destiny.

Real practically, if I can put it this way, despite the wickedness that we know is occurring, even on this day, in our country, I'm so thankful to know that this godless world is not my home. And the reason I know that is because I know that according to his great mercy, he has caused me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have a living hope, you have a living hope. The concept here is you have an unshakable confidence confirmed and secured by the Holy Spirit of God that dwells within you. In fact, we read in Romans 15 in verse 13, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." O dear Christian, we possess a living hope, one that is confirmed and secured, by the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. An undeniable proof of the infinite power of God over death. Our hope is an abiding hope, it is an eternal hope, it is a spiritual power that cannot be extinguished by any circumstance in our life, unless we lose perspective. How incredibly glorious, that our God loves us with an everlasting love. And he has infused us with his nature and given us eternal life. As I think about it, what on earth can possibly dim this glorious light and cause, we as believers, to somehow live in gloom, and doom, and darkness? There's only one thing and that is you have lost your perspective of who you are in Christ--what he has done is doing and will do. You know, a man can endure just about anything as long as he has hope. You take away his hope, all is lost. And all too often Christians, perhaps unwittingly, doubt the goodness and faithfulness of God.

I think of James one and verse six, "the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind." Doubt--"diakrinō" in the original language--refers to a defective faith. It speaks of uncertainty of something that is set forward as an object of faith, not sure that all that I'm hoping in will happen. And you know doubt and depression walk hand in hand. That's the opposite of what Peter is trying to communicate here. I think of Bunyan's great spiritual allegory Pilgrims Progress. Remember, Bunyan, who in the allegory, is Christian. He had a friend named Hopeful. Bunyan succumbed to doubt, and so Christian, as the name is, in particular, lost his perspective of who he was in Christ and he was thrown into a dungeon of Doubting Castle, remember that story? That's where Giant Despair and his wife Distrust beat him mercilessly. He became so consumed, so overwhelmed by the problems in his life that he felt like he could go on no more. Feelings of sorrow and helplessness and bitterness and fear, and even anger just consumed him, enveloped him, like a cold, dark fog. He was blinded by self-deception. He was confused by errant doctrine, and he even refused to hear any words of encouragement from his friend, Hopeful. As a result, he felt like the only way out was suicide. And so here's what we read, "Now, when night had come and went Giant Despair and his wife, Distrust, had gone to bed, they began to renew their discussion of the prisoners. The old giant wondered why he couldn't bring the pilgrims to an end, either by his blows or his council. His wife said 'I fear that they live in hopes that someone will come to set them free. Or maybe they hope to find a way to pick the lock and escape. Since you mentioned it, my dear, I will go down and search them in the morning,' the giant replied. But it so happened that on Saturday, at about midnight, the pilgrims began to pray and continued in prayer until almost daybreak. Then Christian, a short time before daylight, became astounded and passionately exclaimed, 'What a fool I am. Here I lie in a stinking dungeon. When I could be walking in complete liberty. I have a key in my pocket called Promise that I'm sure will open any lock in Doubting Castle." And so as we go on to read, Christian pulled out the Key of Hope. He opened up the door and "the door flew open easily," it says.

Folks, this is a great illustration of what Peter was trying to do with those dear saints. And what, by the grace of God I'm trying to do with you, is to encourage you. Because it's so easy to be discouraged in these days. Never forget the promises that are yours in Christ. Because as soon as you do, you will begin to succumb to the deceptions of your own flesh and the lies of the evil one. And you will begin to sink down into the abyss of despair and discouragement. And you will reach out for the anesthetizers of life. Why do you think so many people are looking for drugs and alcohol these days? They have no hope. They're trying to escape. And for the believer, when you succumb to those things, you lock yourself in a dungeon of doubt and depression that will ultimately ruin your life, and it will ruin your testimony.

Notice Peter goes on further to describe the promise of our faith. He says in verse four, "to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you." Now as children, we have a family inheritance that awaits us, at least most people do. And the term "inheritance" here--"klēros" in the original language, literally means a portion of the lot. It's an allotment, especially according to the terms of will. In fact, in Colossians, one and verse five, Paul says that we have this "hope laid up for us in heaven." In other words, it's reserved for us. Verse 12, believers, he says, will please God when they are joyfully, quote, "giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light." Which includes all of the blessings of salvation.

By the way, I hope you notice we did not qualify ourselves by our own personal righteousness, rather solely because of his grace, he qualified us when we trust in Christ and his atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Verse 13, of Colossians, one goes on to say, "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Now, folks, I want you to let this sink in. Do you realize that if you belong to Christ, you have been allotted a portion of God's kingdom and it is an inheritance that is currently reserved for you with your name on it in heaven? Let that sink in. This is called a portion of the lot. Now you say, well, what will this include? Well, we're not really sure. A little hint maybe in Deuteronomy 15 four we read, "For the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance." So our inheritance will probably include some kind of geographical territory in the cosmos. In this case, it was a land flowing with milk and honey, a place of magnificent plants and livestock and water and houses, to make life full and enjoyable, to bring glory to God; a place where we could live that would just evoke even more glory, and worship and praise. Along with this, it was a place of responsibility, and a privilege to care and give oversight to what God has given us, as each family worshipped the Lord by having their dominion over the earth and subduing it for the glory of God. So somehow, I think it's safe to say that our portion of the lot will reflect some elements of all of this. But certainly, whatever it will be, it will be a possession of unimaginable glory and infinite delight.

And herein again is the reason to rejoice. That's the promise of our faith. Secondly, notice how we are to rejoice in the permanence of our faith. In verse four, he says that it "is imperishable"-- unending, everlasting, permanent. The term was used even to describe how a place cannot be ravaged by invading armies. Have you ever seen anyone able to steal the Christians joy and hope? Nobody can do that unless you allow that. And so this is great comfort to these people who have been ravaged, whose homes and possessions have been plundered by those who hate them, but not so in the permanent inheritance. He says also, it will be "undefiled." Meaning unstained by sin, uncontaminated by any form of evil, and "will not fade away." In other words, it will never decay, it will never cease to exist.

And if that isn't wonderful enough, he goes on in verse five, and says, "who are protected by the power of God." Protected here in the original was a military term describing a soldier that is standing guard over a very important object. And grammatically, because it's in the present tense, it emphasizes that this is a never ending, ongoing protection for indeed there's a constant struggle for our souls in the spirit realm; but we don't have to be afraid, because our souls, our inheritance, are constantly guarded by the power of God. You say, well, what about that person that was saved, and then they apostatize; they renounced their faith, they renounce their inheritance, they exercise their free will? What I would say is what the scripture says, they were never born again. No person who's truly been born again, would ever want to do such a thing, would never want to exercise their will to do such a thing. Both the child of God and his inheritance are protected by the power of God.

Again, verse five, it says, "through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." I want you to remember that even our faith is empowered by God, is it not? Do you realize that? Romans eight, I mean, Romans two beginning of verse eight, "For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." And I might add that as we look at Scripture, enduring faith is certain evidence that we possess genuine faith. That's why we read, for example, in Hebrews three and verse 14, "For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end" and that's the validation of genuine faith. And this salvation, he says, "is ready to be revealed in the last time." Again, grammatically here, and even in the English, we can see this he's saying that our salvation is completely prepared and available and awaiting the day when our pilgrimage on Earth is over, and God calls us home.

Therefore, notice what he says in verse six, "In this you greatly rejoice." Folks, I pray that this is true for you. So not only do we rejoice in the promise of our faith and the permanence of it, but finally, in the power of our faith. Verses six and seven. "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed 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," not might be, but "may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We can all attest to the fact that the great trials that come into our life are like fire that burns away impurity in our life. And as we look at these two verses, there's seven things that we learn about trials.

Let me just give them to you; I don't have them written out for you. I want to close with these thoughts. We see that trials cannot eclipse Christian joy; we see that trials only last a little while; we see that trials are a necessary part of God's purposes; we see that trials do cause distress, that trials do come in various forms, that trials are fiery tests that validate true saving faith that will never perish. And finally, trials result in praise and glory and honor from Christ Himself.

Beloved, please know that God tempers the steel of our faith in the fires of adversity, and he forges it on the anvil of affliction. And so when they come, not if but when they come, we have to stand on the great theological promises that God has given us in His Word. And O child of God, ours is a powerful faith that can endure all of this. And as a result, we can be jubilant, we can be thankful, we can rejoice, knowing that King Jesus is going to return and reveal himself.

And he says this in verses eight and nine, he says, "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." This is why Paul would say in Philippians, four, four, "Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice." And again, I say, that's the point. Just keep on rejoicing. Yeah, life in this fallen world stinks. Yeah, there are idiotic demonic types of things that our president and our government are going to try to force upon us. Welcome to a fallen world. The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. Get used to it. That's just how it is. But this isn't our home. And ultimately, our God reigns. He rules and he will redeem us and transport us out of this place into his glory. Oh, but pastor, you just don't understand my situation. Oh, my problems are so great, it's far more bleak than you could ever imagine. So I think I'm quite justified in my despair. No, you're not. No, you're not. Friends, you've lost your perspective. You've forgotten about the object and the outcome of your faith

Great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon, put it this way, "The cure for care is joy in the Lord. No, my brother, you will not be able to keep on with your fretfulness. No, my sister, you will not be able to weary yourself any longer with your anxieties. If the Lord will but fill you with His joy, than being satisfied with your God, yea, more than satisfied, overflowing with delight in Him, you will say to yourself," and here he quotes the psalmist, "Why art Thou cast down on my soul and why art Thou disquieted in me. Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." Then he went on to say, "What is there on earth that is worth fretting for even for five minutes. If one could gain an imperial crown by a day of care, it would be too great an expense for a thing, which would bring more care with it. Therefore, let us be thankful. Let us be joyful in the Lord. I count it one of the wisest things, that by rejoicing in the Lord we commence our heaven here below. It is possible so to do. It is profitable, so to do. And we are commanded, so to do."

So folks, let me leave you with this challenge. The next time you find yourself in one of your pity parties. The next time you're laying on the couch with your thumb in your mouth whining about how bad life is. The next time you're moping around, like little Eeyore, that pitiful, forlorn little donkey in Winnie the Pooh. The next time your flesh lies to you and says, "it's all over, all is lost,” I want you to rejoice in the promise of your faith, in the permanence of your faith, and in the power of your faith. Because you have an inheritance if you are in Christ, that is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven, and that inheritance is protected by the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and will raise you from the dead. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. They penetrate our soul like nothing else, because our soul has been softened and prepared, indeed transformed by the power of your Spirit. Lord, if there be one, within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of what it means to be in an intimate, loving, saving, transforming relationship with the Lord Jesus, I pray that you will bring such conviction to their heart that they will repent this day and experience the new birth, the miracle of the new birth in Christ, that they too might have the hope of resurrection. Thank you. We praise you in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen..