Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Our subject tonight is the trials of your faith, the trials of your faith.
This ear thing came loose while I was sitting over there, and so who knows what it's going to do, so I apologize. And 1 Peter chapter 1. I am going to jump right into it. Let's pray. And let me just give my way of introduction. As Christians, we face trials.
It's not a surprise. The Bible said we're going to. I do happen to know some of you, some of the trials you're facing.
I am sure that a number of you are facing some trials that I have no idea about. And tonight we just want to, this thing is agitating the, I tell you what, I'm going to change. No, that's right. I gotta, I gotta play the game tonight. Let's just do this. There you go.
I don't know, we got an issue tonight, apparently. So, all right, let's just do that. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Pray you'd help us tonight, Lord, as we deal with something that all of us deal with. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd give us wisdom.
Thank you for our people coming in the cold. To be here to honor you, your word, and your house. And, Lord, I just pray you'd help. Bless tomorrow night and our iron men's, dear Lord, as we have prepared for this. And I pray that you'd help our men that can come to be blessed and edified and built up. And, Lord, we just want to continue to sow the seed of your word into lives and let you bring the growth. So, I pray, Lord, that you would grow us some tonight.
And we sure do love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Number one tonight, as we jump and just jump right into it, deal with our passage. Number one, we want to talk about the trials of our faith. Verse six, First Peter chapter one. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith. The first thing I want you to notice under this passage is first is that trials will come. Notice what the verse says. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season.
Everybody's going to have this season and we should be, by the way, ready for them to come. I don't know why sometimes we as Christians still act surprised when we face trials. Just because we're saved doesn't mean we don't have trials.
And so trials are going to come. No Christian is immune from them. Billy Graham wasn't immune from them. Charles Stanley isn't immune from them. Moses wasn't immune from them. David wasn't immune from them. And you're not either.
And I'm not either. Trials are, it's no respecter of persons. It's going to be that way. Every book of the Bible that you read, it talks about trials. Every person in the Bible that you read about at some point faced trials if the Bible talks enough about their life. It's just part of it. Don't think, by the way, that you are an abnormal Christian when trials come.
Don't think for some reason that, oh, you must be doing something wrong. May I say that oftentimes you're doing something right is why trials have come into your life. So trials will come. Second is this, trials will come in many different varieties.
Notice verse 7, it says that the trial of your faith, the trial of your faith. It means this, just when you think you've got one thing figured out, something else comes up. We can never anticipate it. We don't have any idea when they're going to come.
We don't have any idea what might happen. The Bible even tells us that we are not aware of what, or guaranteed of what will happen even tomorrow. So trials are going to come, and trials are going to come in a lot of different varieties.
There are a lot of ways for your faith to be tested. Number 3, trials will bring grief. Notice in verse 6, it says ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
Heaviness. Some of the trials hit us hard. We don't understand why things happen like they do sometimes, and many times things get out of our control. We have a hard time reacting to them, handling them, keeping a right attitude, a right spirit through them. But may I say is that oftentimes trials will bring grief.
I could sit here and mention instance after instance with some of you that you've been through in your life. Nobody enjoys a trial. Fourth thing I see in this is that trials will test us with fire. Look at verse 7. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.
Get this this evening. Fire burns. Fire burns. God says that literally trials in our life are almost like being tried with fire, and fire burns. May I say something that oftentimes trials will leave scars. Trials are things you'll never forget. Trials are something that might be in your past and thank God they're in your past, but you're never going to forget them. And sometimes trials you've been through still affect you.
I know they certainly do with me. I want you to notice secondly here. So those are the trials of our faith. Just giving you the information. It's what the passage teaches. Second thing is this. Why the trials of your faith?
Why do we even have to go through this? Look at verse 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season. If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Notice first that phrase, if need be. It means this, that sometimes trials are needed.
Now I don't fully understand this. All I know is this, that I don't enjoy trials. I don't want trials. But I have learned the most valuable lessons in my life during trials. I think that I've done the most growing in my Christian life through trials. Sometimes they're needed.
Notice that, if need be. This phrase seems to point to the fact that trials in our life are many times something that is needed. Listen, practice is needed for a sport to get better. If you are like me, I have three sons, and I am not to spend my life doing everything I can do to make sure my sons have no difficulty. My job is to try to teach my sons when difficulty comes how to handle it. You try to shelter your kids from difficulty, they're going to have no idea how to handle life. Because you've got to go through difficulty. You've got to go through tough times.
You've got to go through trials. These things are oftentimes needed in our life. And may I say, don't try to shelter your kids from difficulty. The first time that somebody in authority at a school is a little bit unfair with them, don't you run over to the school like some wahoo in the Lone Ranger is going to take prisoner of everybody in that school.
Can I tell you something? Your child needs to learn to deal with some of that. And you and I need to be careful that we don't shield our kids from the very things that will mold them into what they need to be. Now I'm not saying don't defend your kids.
I'm not saying that at all. I've had my times where I've had to too. But there are times where my gut wanted to just go down and drop an atom bomb somewhere. But guess what I have found out?
If they don't learn how to deal with this now, they're going to be a 30 year old adult still pouting and can't deal with anything. So trials are sometimes needed. Secondly, I want you to understand this, God does not do anything without a positive intent. Now look at verse 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes. Now gold is tried with fire, but gold is temporary. Gold is earthly. Literally God is saying the trials in your life are much more valuable than earthly treasure.
Do you understand what I'm saying here? So God is not playing with us. God is not just trying to almost do a cat and mouse game.
Let's see how much I can just put them through for the fun of it. God is not some mean God who torments us for no reason. God has a reason, God has a purpose for every trial that He either allows or He causes in our life. He uses everything by the way to bring us closer to Him. Everything that God allows has been brought into our life and His purpose is for you to grow closer to Him. Now if we don't handle those trials right, it can lead us further away, it can cause damage. But anything that God does or that God designed or that God allowed was not for no meaningless purpose. It was so that you or I can grow closer to Him.
It's that simple. I want you to notice thirdly here is that this, we might not know every reason for the trials we have. Look at verse 6, it says, for if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Manifold. What does this word mean besides a mechanical term?
This word literally means various, different types. You and I are going to go through so many different kind of trials that it's to the point we don't know the reasons even for some of them. You know there have been some things even associated with this church, tragedies, I still don't know the real reason for it. You know a lot of times when something happens we try to make people feel better, hey listen the time's going to come we're going to understand why God allowed this. And may I say there's still some things that I see, I still don't see the purpose in it. Now I know that God had a purpose in it, but we're never guaranteed that we're going to see it. I hear people all the time and I've even said hey maybe when we get to heaven we'll understand. You know what I think when we actually get to heaven we won't even care about 90% of the things that are driving us crazy here on earth.
We're going to take one glimpse at him and I think it's just going to, we don't even care. But we're so consumed with the here and now and I understand that, but a lot of times we might not even know the reason for the trials that we face because it's going to be so many various kind of things. But may I say this, we don't know the reasons but God does. You know the Bible, the book of Job, look at what Job went through and one of the things that Job struggled with is the reason. Job stayed faithful through all that, I mean that says more than I probably could have. Listen I falter for far less in my life than what Job went through, but one of the things he struggled with was why, the reasoning of it. And then he had three friends that felt they knew the reasons and that wasn't encouraging at all and they were dead wrong by the way. And be careful about people that come up to you and tell you why you've gone through certain things.
I'm not saying they're wrong and they probably mean well, but I have found out they don't know. Only God knows and God's going to accomplish his purpose in our life. Notice this next thing is this, verse 7. We should believe that the trials we find ourselves in is part and has a purpose in the will of God.
Look at verse 7, the trial of your faith. Now let me say this, there are different trials in our lives and we've said there's various different kinds, but there are some trials that you and I find ourselves in because of our sin. Don't blame God for those.
You know, I did this, I lied over here, I got caught, now it's led to this and this has caused this. Why did God allow me to go through that? God didn't cause that.
God didn't design that. God wasn't within 100 miles of that. But what we're talking about in this passage is the trials of your faith. It is the things that happen in your life that tend to battle your faith.
That tend to make you question not just what you believe, but who you believe in. It's the trials of your faith. And these kind of trials, we have to understand, are something that God is using in his will.
Because may I say this, if you have a faith that can't be tested, then you have a faith that can't be trusted. So it's a trial of our faith. Now we face other trials and some of those are our fault. But we're talking about trials of faith.
Notice this here, when we find ourselves in a trial, may I say this, we should remember that God is working. It doesn't say it's a trial of endurance. It doesn't say that the trial of your ability.
It doesn't say the trial of your strength. It says the trial of your faith. Listen, oftentimes what God allows in our life isn't just for us to find out how long we can endure, how good we are at something. It's our faith. And by the way, faith without works is dead.
And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So what God is going to allow in your life is there as a trial of your faith. Because we need to make sure that our faith is strengthened, that our faith is strong. And so you and I need to make sure that we need to understand that many times when we're going through trials, God wants to use that to strengthen your faith. Satan wants to use it to make you question your faith. Because if Satan can make you question your faith, he can make you question the one you have faith in.
But God wants to use it to strengthen your faith. Same trial, same circumstance, Satan wants to do this, God wants to do this. That's why it's a trial of your faith. What contemplates a trial?
You have two opposing sides. And in a trial, a decision must be made. And so it is a trial of our faith. Now, I want you to notice thirdly, we see the trial of our faith, we see why the trials are number three. I want you to see the results of a tested faith. The results of a tested faith.
I'm just giving you information tonight. I know some of you are going through trials, I know some of you are going through things, and you're facing some possible things here coming up, as I am too. So we need to understand just biblically, I'm not here to tell you a lot of stories tonight, but just biblically, what does the Bible teach about this? Notice verse seven. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The results of a tested faith. Number one is this, that our faith is refined in the fire. One of the things that the result of a faith that is tested can do, it refines our faith.
What does it mean? It takes away the impurities. It literally uses the analogy here of being tried with gold, being tried with fire. How is gold refined? Well, literally gold that is refined, it passes over and over through fire, and every time it goes through the fire, a little bit of dross comes out. And the purities begin to come forth. You can't see the purities if you don't get rid of the dross. So literally trials in our life are God's refining fire.
And what is he doing? He's refining our faith because he wants not only our faith to be strong, but he wants our faith to be trustable. We want to be able to trust it. We want to make sure it can stand through even greater trials.
Let me illustrate it this way. I don't think it will embarrass any of my kids and stuff, but when my son Daniel was two or three, we had an issue. The doctor came with his foot, and he's going to have to have surgery. And I had a hard time with this. I left the doctor, and we had to schedule surgery, and I'm already mad about it. He's, I think, two years old.
I mean, he was little. And the doctor said, you're going to have to have this surgery. We're going to have to put a cast on his foot. He's going to have to have that cast.
I don't know how many months. Well, I'm just, I just can't believe this. I can't believe we're facing this trial.
I just can't, you know, and it just bothered me. And then we went through that, and they put that cast on Daniel's foot. And I'm just saying, he'll never be able to play ball. He'll never be able to do anything.
He'll never be able to, you know, I'm just going through all these different scenarios and kind of a thing. And, you know, he came out of the doctor, and he had that big old cast. He's just two years old. I mean, he was just small, and he's just, you know, kind of limping around, didn't bother him a bit.
He was just going about business. I'm over here, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. I just couldn't believe it. Let me tell you something. You sit in the hospital, and you watch your three-day-old baby come out of heart surgery.
You know what I realize? God allowed us to go through that little trial that was big to me at the time, to gradually strengthen, to say, all right, I thought this was horrible, but, you know, we got through it, and things were fine, and, man, it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be. So all of a sudden, those years later, all of a sudden, we do have a trial. And if that had been the first one that came my way, guess what? I don't know what I'd have done. But gradually along the way, we had to face some things, because God was at work.
He was refining our faith. You look back now, and you think, boy, that was meaningless. Why did it even bother me? Because it was my first one.
I mean, I was brand new to it. You know, as a parent, anything that happens to your child, you just, oh, I mean, all you see is all. But you know what God does? He refines your faith through that fire, because God knew, hey, in a few years, your faith better be stronger than it is right now.
And that's exactly what God does when He refines our faith. Trials refine our faith. Trials point out to you where the impurities are in your life.
All of us are great, strong Christians when things are going great. But trials will point out to you where the weaknesses are. May I say this? Every time you and I pass through the trials of life, our faith becomes a little bit purer and a little bit purer and a little bit purer. Secondly, here in this verse, the results of attested faith, your faith is refined. Second, we learn about ourselves during trials.
Notice verse 7, that the trial of your faith, notice what it says, might be found. There's some things that God wants you to find in your life because of trials. There's some things that God wants to bring out.
There's some things that God wants you to see about yourself, that they might be found to the praise and honor and glory of Jesus Christ. We learn through trials that we're not as strong as we think we were. We learn we're not in control like we thought we were. We learn how helpless we really are.
We learn how little we can actually do about some things. We learn that we have to seek someone higher than us to get us through these things. May I say that trials help us to learn a lot about ourselves. Third, trials help us to learn about Jesus through those trials. Trials help us to learn a lot about ourselves, but it also helps us to learn a lot about Christ. You see, while trials show me I'm not as strong as I thought I was, trials show me how strong Christ really is. Trials show me how I am so not in control, but trials also show me how Christ is in control.
Do you understand where we're going with this? We learn that there's no one else to turn to. Look at verse 7. That the trial of your faith being found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. These trials have led to praise in Jesus Christ because the trial allowed me not only to get to know myself better, this trial has allowed me to get to know Jesus better.
And the more I get to know Him, the more I want to praise Him. We learn only the grace of God can bring us through. We learn that He is faithful. We learn that He'll never leave us nor forsake us in trials. I mean, all the bad that I learned about me in the trial can't compare to all the good I learned about Him in my trial. That's the results of a tested faith.
Look at me. Bill Gaither years ago wrote the song and I've always loved it. Through it all. Through it all, through it all. I've learned to trust in Jesus.
Okay. And that one, I think the last verse, I thank Him for the valleys. I thank Him for the mountains. I thank Him for the things He's brought me through or the whatever He's brought me through. Because if I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that He could solve them. I wouldn't know what faith in God can do. But through it all.
What does it mean? It means if I didn't have a problem, I wouldn't know that He could solve them. If I got saved and never had a problem, why would I need Jesus? If I got saved and never had a trial, why would I need Him? So that literally the trials, it refines my faith. It shows me and teaches me a lot about myself.
But more importantly, it shows me and teaches me a lot about Him. Notice fourthly is our tested faith will be stronger than it was before the trial. That's the results of a tested faith. Look at verse 7. That the trial of your faith being much more precious, notice this, than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found where? Where? Unto praise and honor and glory of Christ.
Where was it before? Probably on yourself. What do trials do? Trials lead me to the point that now my faith is stronger than it was before.
Why? Because through the trial, now I'm praising more. Through the trial, now I'm glorifying God more.
The trial brought me closer to Him because before the trial, I was further away from Him. Our tested faith will be stronger than it was before the trial. Notice last, not last, but our tested faith will bring praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ.
That's the ultimate. Do you know that's where everything should lead and bring us to? Is the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ. But oftentimes it takes trials to get us there. When things are great, usually the last thing we do is praise, honor, and glorify Christ.
Because we're out enjoying all the good things. But you bring a trial and we go through that trial and God is faithful through that trial. Where does it bring us? To the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ. May I say this? When we come out of the fire, we give praise to Jesus. What happened when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the fire and they weren't burnt? God was glorified.
Not just by them, but by everyone that saw it. Look at me, do you understand that when you and I go through trials it's not always just for us? It's so that people can see through your life how faithful God has been to you. And that they can see in your life that even though God didn't just take it away, God's given you strength through it, that God's been good through it, that God's even been faithful even though he didn't take it away, even though he didn't heal you right away. But it shows that God will never leave us nor forsake us. It brings praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ.
May I say this? We might not ever know fully God's purposes for trials until we see Christ. Verse 7 says it might be found. We might never know until we see Jesus Christ. There are some things that we can't explain.
There are some things that we go through that we're not going to have an immediate explanation. But we can be sure that God has a purpose through it, and we can be sure that God can accomplish his will because of it. Number four, and we're done. Number four, the victory of attested faith. The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally.
Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3 23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, we're not good enough to obtain God's glory or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6 23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our Savior.
Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5 8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ by faith as your Savior. Romans 10 9 says, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner, believing that Jesus is the only way, and calling upon his name. The Bible says whosoever, that's anyone, can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your Savior? If you have any questions please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at KerwinBaptistChurch.com or visit us at person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you.
