Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. When life seems to fall apart, When your circumstances around you are devastating, will you say yet? I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Why?
Because I know Christ. And it is well with my soul. That's the testing of her faith. Welcome to The Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. How should we respond to trials and difficulties in our lives?
Sometimes we're tempted to question God when life gets hard, but Scripture teaches that trials serve a purpose. Today, we'll discuss what it means to have our faith tested, to be refined like precious metal in a furnace.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with a message titled The Testing of Our Faith. All of us experience suffering. As followers of Jesus Christ, we may think That as long as we are true to the Lord, life will be easy. Those who preach a prosperity gospel may teach health and wealth, but that is far from biblical truth. Our Lord was called The Man of Sorrows.
No one suffered as he did. And as we learn today, whether we live in the first century or the 21st century, suffering. comes. Certainly the readers of 1 Peter knew about suffering. Peter writes about the trials they are experiencing.
And today, we'll learn about sufferings, the nature of them, the purpose of them. I know that many of you are experiencing suffering, heartache, disappointment and pain right at this moment. But be encouraged. Let's look at the first chapter of 1 Peter.
Sometimes disappointment and suffering come slowly into our lives. At other times they come like bolts from the blue, unexpected. Unpredicted. Unwelcomed. And irrespective of how they come, we know that from time to time, all of us, all of us, find ourselves in the middle of struggles, fears, anxieties, injustice, pressures, heartaches, confusion, loss.
Yeah. The question is, how do we respond? How do you respond? When you're told you have a serious illness. How do you respond when you unfairly lose your job?
How do you respond when a friend betrays you, when your dreams come crashing down? How do you respond when a loved one passes and dies.
Well, you're criticized and ostracized, perhaps, because of your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you respond? as a follower of Jesus Christ when your faith is tested. Peter, in the passage we're going to read, is saying that suffering and trials test the genuineness of our faith.
So let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1. And we're going to read from verses 6 through 9. We're going through 1 Peter, and today we come to 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6. Peter writes, In this you rejoice. Though now For a little while.
If necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.
so that the tested genuineness of your faith More precious than gold, it 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. Those you do not see him now, 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. The testing of your faith.
Exiled, persecuted people, rejoicing with joy. Is that really what Peter is saying? That's astonishing, isn't it? But we're going to learn that there is a joy There is a joy which transcends suffering. There is a joy which transcends distress.
and trials. The testing of our Faith. I want us first of all to understand, and this is implied in this passage, that followers of Christ are not immune from suffering and trials. Perhaps you are a new follower of Jesus Christ, and I have to tell you. The reality is this, that we who follow Jesus Christ are not immune from suffering and trials.
Have you noticed that increasingly our society seeks to eliminate pain and suffering? We'll become a generation of whims, haven't we? The slightest pain. The most minor of inconveniences, the mere suggestion of a difficulty, the most trivial of misunderstandings, the smallest of disappointments, and we start to complain and feel sorry for ourselves, isn't that right? We are As a people.
very emotionally fragile. We get so upset so easily, we are offended so easily, and not only do we look for the relief of pain and suffering and inconvenience, we almost demand it, and we have a kind of ejector seat mentality. Bail me out of this situation as quickly as possible. I don't deserve this. There must be some cure, some answer immediately to my pain and suffering.
All right this week. It's reported in the Wall Street Journal. that some college students now require a concierge service. Didn't have that when I was at uh university. Apparently, some of our very fragile college students, I'm sure none here, they have difficulty getting up in the morning.
So these rich parents pay someone at the college to give a wake-up call to their students. Have you heard of it? And apparently, according to some of the professors, some of the students write to them when it's raining and saying, Do we really have classes when there's raining? I mean, it's incredible. Other professors say that they get emails from students saying, Can you suggest a quiet spot for study?
Incredible, isn't it? Um that we as a nation are so easily upset.
So easily inconvenienced.
so easily feel that we cannot cope with life. And sadly, in some circles, that mentality Impacts The church impacts the Christian life. Where in the church, in the Christian life, everything has to be positive, successful, amazing. If I hear that word again, I'm going to scream. Everything's got to be amazing, everything's got to be high energy, it's got to be upbeat, it's got to be fun, it's got to be exciting.
Have you noticed this? And some churches? Christian life presented like that. Let me tell you the reality. Are you listening?
Authentic followers of Jesus Christ experience suffering. Genuine followers of Jesus Christ. Experience. Suffering. Authentic New Testament Christianity is a faith of realism.
One of the reasons why I've decided to study First Peter. Authentic New Testament Christianity is a faith of realism, not of false hype, not focused on selfish and false promises of prosperity and success. The gospel is not. If you follow Jesus, life is going to be wonderful, and you're never going to have any problems on earth. Again.
That's not the gospel. Jesus said. You wanna follow me? What's the first thing you said? Deny.
Self. Take up your cross. And follow. Me. And if you are suffering as some of you are today, please do not interpret that as evidence of a lack of faith.
Notice what Peter says here. Inner text. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various Trials. This word grieved may be translated heaviness or distress. It's dealing with mental anguish of being distressed.
Many have experienced, haven't we, heaviness of heart. Emotional turmoil, distress, pain, and grief. These trials, Peter says, come in various ways. trials. And we who follow Jesus Christ Are experiencing more and more what others of our brothers and sisters have known throughout the world.
that our world will tolerate just about anything. You can have the most bizarre belief in the United States. You can have the most astonishing lifestyle. And you can come up with the most stupid statements, and people will say, oh, yeah, okay, that's okay, man. Just go ahead.
But when you say You're a follower of Jesus Christ. And when you bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and particularly when you say that this book, the Bible, is our authority and that God speaks to us in His Word, there is rejection. We're accused of being bigots, we're accused of being judgmental. And so increasingly We who stand for Jesus Christ will find ourselves as these first century Christians felt.
Socially ostracized.
Social pressure. From their family. From their friends, losing their jobs, scattered.
So Peter refers to them in verse one as we saw. Uh three or four weeks ago as ex as elect Exiles. Peter is writing. Yeah. To persecuted Christians.
Verse one. They are elect exiles, or exiles from their homes. Here in verse six, he says, You've been grieved by various. Trials. Chapter 2, verse 21, he talks about suffering, and he says, To this you have been called.
Because Christ also suffered for you. The Christian life is a life of suffering. Chapter four. Verse 12. Beloved.
Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised. When that persecution comes, when that suffering comes. Chapter five verse nine. Regarding our enemy, resist him.
firm in your faith. knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
What's Peter saying? Don't be surprised. When grief Pain Tears, isolation, disappointment, discouragement, suffering. And this race come. We who follow Jesus Christ are not immune.
From such trials and sufferings. The question which Peter is presenting is. How are we to respond?
Well, first of all, he explains in verse 6 that we are to understand that our sufferings. and their trials are only temporary. Notice what he says in verse 6: In this you rejoice, though now. For a little while. If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
For a little Wow. The same expression is used in chapter 5, verse 10, as I read, a little while. While we are in the middle of the trial, When we're in the middle of the distress and the emotional turmoil, it seems that the situation will never end. It seems that we will never ever get through it. The pain, the distress are so intense.
But that's not encouraging to know. That when you're following Jesus Christ, And we sang about it in a wonderful Psalm from Psalm 23. It's encouraging to know that the severest of sufferings. The blackest of nights, the fieriest of fires, the deepest of valleys, the most frightening of storms last only. for a little Wow.
And that great truth: that our sufferings and our trials are only for a little while, that sustains us and gives us a spiritual perspective. These trials are only for a little while. The psalmist says, There is weeping in the night, but joy comes in the morning. In your pain, in your suffering, in your disappointments, in your trials, and your testings, dear child of God, do not despair. The heartache.
The tears, the sorrow. The loneliness and the distress will soon be gone. We are, Peter is reminding us right in verse one: we are exiles. We are. Pilgrims, we're sojourners, we're away from home, but we're going home.
We're living in an alien world, we are not of this world, although we are temporarily in it. Therefore, don't expect this world. which is opposed to Christ.
Well we have this enemy, he goes around like a roaring lion. Don't expect this world to treat you well. But soon we'll see the king.
Soon we'll be at home.
Soon, to use the words of John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress, soon we will be in celestial. City.
Soon our sufferings and our trials will be over. They are only for a little while. I realize they're very intense. But Peter is saying, look to the future. And when you do that, you can.
Rejoice. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.
So first of all Sufferings and traumas are only temporary. Secondly, sufferings and trials are for a perfect purpose. They're not random. It's not a matter of the luck of the job. They are for a purpose and a perfect purpose.
Look at verse seven.
So that Follow the argument.
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. The tested Genuineness. Of your faith. Yes, there is that faith which is purely hypocritical. There is a faith which is not authentic but is false.
But the sufferings and the trials are for a perfect purpose. when we reflect on our sufferings and our trials. There's much that we don't understand. As William Cowper writes, God works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. You've found that, haven't you?
God's ways are inscrutable. And there is much that happens in our life that we simply do not understand, but we do know this. that God's purposes are perfect. And we do know from his words. That we are to trust him even when we don't understand his purposes.
That's faith, isn't it? We sang it, and I will trust. in him alone. Yes, when I go through the dark valley. When the enemy is against me, I will put my trust in him.
I don't understand it. I wish life was different, but meantime, I'm going to put my faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not going to walk away. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm going to stand firm with your grace, even although I don't understand the circumstances I'm in.
Here's a wonderful thing to understand. that when you're going through these trials and their tests, God tests us not to disprove us, but to approve us. Have you ever entered into a test? Were somebody wanted the failure? I remember a teacher at school, I was 14, 15.
I was a student at Gibraltar Grammar School. It was taught by a Roman Catholic order called Christian Brothers. Very good educators, very strict, very good academically. Um but there was one And we had to call them brother. They wore a little dog collar.
There's one called Brother Murphy. Yes, he was Irish. For some inexplicable reason, he didn't like myself and the other Scottish boy, whose name was Malcolm Ruff, who was very tough rough. And Malcolm and I, for some unknown reason, incurred the wrath Of Brother Murphy. And from time to time, he would invite all of us, all boys, or about 25 to 30 of us, out at the front.
And we have to ask a question. In French. Possibly un castillion, he would say, ask me a question, and uh sometimes he would answer it, or sometimes you'd get another boy to answer it. And invariably he left Malcolm Ruff and I last. All easy questions were gone.
Then you say to us, Mano, put him in cassion. And almost always, and we struggle with French irregular verbs. My pronunciation was wrong, I didn't get it right. And Malcolm Ruff was the same. Everyone else sat down and he had a cane.
And he liked to use that canon R. Hands and Malcolm Ruff said to us, John, we're not going to allow him to show that we don't like this. I thought, you're kidding me. And so the cane came down. And it became very obvious that he was bringing us up front to fail us.
To humiliate us, to try and crack us, to bend us to his sadistic will, but we were not going to be broken. It's a bad experience, isn't it? If you've got a teacher like that, or a coach like that, somebody who wants to fail you, someone who wants to point out. Your Applause. Isn't that wonderful that we've a Heavenly Father who's not like that?
Okay. Our God is not a cosmic sadist. He is a loving person. Father. And this saw that at the beginning of verse seven gives the purpose of the various trials.
Peter writes in this wonderful way of our trials and their sufferings in terms of the refiner's fire. Even precious gold. has impurities and draws. And in subjecting the gold to the intense heat of the fire, the refiner's purpose is not obviously to destroy the gold. No, it's to remove the dross which rises to the surface.
And in this way, the gold is made more precious. The Lord says in Isaiah 48, verse 10. I've tried you. In the furnace. of affliction.
The furnace of affliction is a very difficult place to be, and yet, in it, God is not disproving us, He's approving us. And says Peter in verse 7 here: Your faith is more precious to God than gold that perishes. Your sufferings and your trials are like a refiner's fire, which remove the impurities in your life. And if you're finding yourself In suffering And there's this stress. In this difficult day?
Don't blame God. Don't fight God. God's at work in your life. And he's at work in your life. For your good.
And each day He gives us the promise. Of his grace, of his wisdom, of his strength. Charles Spurgeon says, suffering is meant not only to burn out the dross. But to burn in the promises. We're going through suffering.
The dross, the impurities in our life are being burned out. But Burning into our very soul are the promises of God. You see, without the refiner's fire, Without the Father's pruning. Remember, Jesus in John 15 talks about the pruning. Without us going into the refiner's fire, Without the fathers pruning us, you know what we tend to be?
we tend to be rather proud. We tend to be rather self-reliant. We tend to be unsympathetic and self-centered and hard. Many of you can testify that when we experience sufferings and trials. Or pride or Selfishness or superficiality.
Our hypocrisy. Your shallowness are exposed, aren't they? See, the fire doesn't destroy the genuine article. The fire is designed to bring out the best. That God doesn't punish his children.
Ah, but from time to time He does purify us. This is the verdict with Pastor Jean Monroe and the first part of a message titled The Testing of Our Faith. As we navigate life's trials, it's crucial to maintain an internal perspective. And that's exactly what this month's special resource helps us do. For the Time is Near is a comprehensive guide to understanding the book of Revelation in its biblical context.
This special resource breaks down five key lessons from Revelation, including the centrality of Christ, evil and opposition, and what Scripture teaches about heaven. We'd love to send you this insightful booklet absolutely free. Just visit our website at theverdict.org to request your copy. And when you support the verdict with a generous donation, you become part of something bigger than yourself. a worldwide initiative to bring biblical truth to those who need it most.
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Well, what's your verdict? What suffering have you experienced in your life? What have you learned from the experience? What are you experiencing now? Remember?
that God is in control. Don't you agree? that we live in a society which seeks to eliminate suffering and pain. But this is not the way of followers of Christ. Suffering is an unavoidable part of life.
So keep looking to Christ. Rejoice that your sufferings and trials are only for you. for a little while. And don't miss the broadcast next time as we think of the purpose of those challenges and trials. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict.
I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
