seeking for the help of the Lord. I wish to continue this evening. Two weeks ago, we had in the first of Peter, chapter one, the first four verses, a people with a good hope. And then last week, we looked at verse five, a people kept through faith. Well then this week our text begins with a rejoicing at such a prospect, a good hope wherein we greatly rejoice from verse 6, we're looking at from verse 6 through to verse 9, and then going from that rejoicing for that hope They then go to what they are passing through, trials. And our text then sets forth the necessity of these trials, this trial of faith. And I want to think of it in this way, brought through the trial of faith. Not just brought in it, not just brought through it, but brought to the end of it, brought right to the end. So we read these verses together first as our text from verse 6, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 6.

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 being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Remember we are seeking to look at how Peter is fulfilling the Lord's commission to him to strengthen the brethren and also to feed the lambs and feed the sheep.

This evening it is most specifically the strengthening of brethren Brethren who have been given that good hope and rejoiced in that which is set before them in heaven, that inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, and yet then come into really trying pathways, making them very heavy, very discouraged, very despondent, and this passage, it explains that.

It sets forth the need of it, what the Lord is doing and what the Lord will do through it, which if it was said to ones that were first come to the faith before they knew any trials like this, they would say, well, we can't understand that. We are having rejoicing, we've got joy, and we don't know anything about these trials and troubles yet. But to those that are already in them, those that are perplexed and troubled, this is of a great comfort a great need for them. And of course, we can trace back to Peter himself, the trial of his faith and what he went through, left to deny his Lord and Master, but then brought through to the other end and still in the faith, still loving the Lord, still believing. He knew what it was to be brought through these fiery trials. And so he is strengthening the brethren, may be a strength to us as well.

Now some of the Lord's people, when a young convert has been baptised or they're making an open profession, they might say to them, well, your joy won't last long. You're soon going to have trials and tribulations. But I often think, well, they'll soon enough find that out. Don't quench their joy and rejoicing before the time.

And it is true that we will, but while we have the blessings, you know, our Lord was asked, why wasn't the disciples of John, they fasted, and why didn't their, his disciples fast? He said, how can they? Well, they have the bridegroom with them. They had joy, they had the Lord with them.

But there was coming a time when he would be taken from them, and then they would have sorrow. and then they'd have trouble. And so we are to expect these trials and this word especially is a help to those passing through them and encouragement. You shall be brought through. It's only for a season.

And yes, there may be trial upon trial, but the Lord is in control and he is doing what he will with these trials and testing the faith that he has given his people. So I want to look this evening at four points. I don't usually have four, I usually have three, but I feel it is better for four this evening.

Firstly, the value of our faith. Our text says that is, verse seven, much more precious than of gold that perisheth. of the value of faith, though it be tried with fire, it may be able to be read as well that even the trial of the faith is much more precious than gold. Whichever way you were to look at it, whether the faith is precious or the trial of that faith, both are like precious. So the value of our faith, and then Secondly, a needs be for seasons of the trial of our faith.

And we have that set forth here in verse six, wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be. Time to look at the needs be. And then thirdly, what is used to test or try our faith is spoken simply here, manifold temptations, or many diverse, different temptations.

And then lastly, the end in view. The end in view is in from verse seven in the middle that it might be found that his faith might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen he loved in whom though now you see him not yet believing he rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls. A reminder that God does not do anything without a good reason and an end in view. Of course, we're reminded in that in all things that we do in life.

I hope so. If we start a job, there's an end in view. If when I was designing a machine, the end was in view. It was useless going through lots of exercises, drawings, and making things if it wasn't realized that at the end, the machine that was asked for was produced. And so we have many things in life where what we do is looking to an end in view. I want to look at that lastly.

But firstly, the value. of our faith. What is faith? We need to be reminded of that again. Some may say, well it is trust, trusting in the Lord. But the scripture gives us the description in Hebrews 11 verse 1, our faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And in the margin, Instead of substance, it says, or ground or confidence. Faith is the ground or confidence of things hoped for. So where we're looking for heaven, we're looking for this inheritance, we're looking for the Lord's help, for the Lord's blessing, it is faith that Trust the word of God, trust the promises of God, lays hold upon them. And though all outward things seem to be completely opposite and seem to go against it, we'd rather trust in the word of God, trust in what he has promised. And that is faith. Faith that cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord.

Well, how valuable Is it? Well, we are told in our text that it is more precious than of gold that perisheth. Many times in the Word, our Lord takes from natural things, illustrations. He speaks of the lilies of the field. He says, behold how they grow. He says, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. using illustrations like the bread that perisheth, that we know we need to live in our mortal bodies, but then man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

And so we go from that which is precious and is needful for natural life back to what is vital for eternal life, and so we have here gold, the most precious metal, that which was used in the tabernacle to set forth the glory of God, but we have here something that is more precious than even gold, more precious than earthly things. You often get earthbound, but And the Lord uses, or the inspired word uses, these illustrations to point us, to alert us to a preciousness. So our Lord uses the pearl of great price that a man found, sold everything that he might buy it, or treasure in the field, and sold everything that he might buy it. And he's illustrating spiritual truths by treasure and value that we do understand, as if he'd say, you understand the value of gold. Now what I am telling you concerning faith is more valuable than that.

Another reason why our faith is to be valued and precious, all men do not have it. We're told in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 2, all men have not faith. We are not born with faith that we then must exercise and use ourselves. No, if we have faith, we're not to think, well, everyone has that because we have something that many men do not have. Surely if we have something like that, that that should tell us that is very valuable. Especially when we think, again, that how we have received it is through a gift.

By grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. And so if we have a gift, a very, very precious gift given us by God himself, that is a very precious token to us. It is to us, and in verse seven, we read this, that the trial of, not just the trial of faith, but your faith, your faith.

God has instituted the institution of possession, of belonging. That's how we can have thou shalt not steal, because God has said, well, someone else has something, And we're not to take that thing from them and bring it to us. The fact that there is belonging, that is ordained of God. He's ordained it so.

And when we think of it in a spiritual way, we that do not normally, do not naturally have faith at all. And the Lord has then given us faith and he says, that is your faith. It is yours. Not someone else's, it's yours. Belongs to you. is an evidence to you and a use for you eternally. It's also of great value because without it we cannot please God. We are told this very clearly again in Hebrews 11 verse 6, but without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Giving also an illustration of the action of faith as, of course, right through Hebrews 11, it does in various ways. Then we are told that the just shall live by faith. We would go back to Habakkuk with that, the prophecy of Habakkuk. which then is quoted by Paul here in Hebrews, Hebrews 10 and verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. And so it is also quoted when Paul writes to the Romans.

Of course, that was the text in Romans 1 verse 17. that was used for Martin Luther, to open his eyes that justification, or to be accounted free from condemnation, is not by works, but by faith alone. Justification by faith alone. So without faith, we cannot be justified. We cannot be counted free from condemnation. It is vital for salvation.

And of course, it is that which our Lord prayed for Peter, that thy faith fail not. Again, it was Peter's personal faith, and the Lord saw the value of it, the necessity, more value than maintaining Peter's pride and asking that he do not deny him, which he said with those that he would not deny him. But the Lord prayed instead that his faith fail not. In other words, the Lord was saying, your faith is more valuable and more precious than all your resolutions and all your pride and able to get through and to be able to say, well, yes, all men did forsake, but I didn't. Well, the Lord prayed for faith. And so afterwards, Peter, he came through. And he still had that faith.

We read the passage in Genesis chapter 22, where Abraham's faith was tried. And Paul refers to this in Romans, in Romans chapter 4. And he says in verse 20 concerning Abraham, not only concerning that trial, but the trial that went before with Sarah being not able to bear and have children, that he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered for our offences, raised again for our justification.

And so if he had the same faith like Abraham had, that believed God, though he looked how old he was, he looked at the barrenness of Sarah's room, but he believed that God would honour his promise, he would have seed, when he had the seed, He was able to say, as he went up that mountain, being tested of God, when Isaac said, my father, the fire, the wood, but where is the lamb? My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And before that, he said to his servants, I, my son, will go again and worship and come again. And he had that faith to believe, as we are told in Hebrews 11, that even if he had slayed his son, that God would have raised him up from the dead, because he believed that the promises that were in Isaac must be fulfilled.

And so if we have faith, then we will not stagger at the promises of God. will they hold on them and believe them, though everything seems against them? We think of what is said concerning faith as well concerning the word of God, that the word did not profit them, being not mixed with faith in them that heard it. Yet we have not faith. We may have the word of God, but we read it, and it doesn't profit us. We don't understand it. It doesn't do us good. How precious is faith then? Is it vital that every blessing that comes to us through the word of God is dependent on that faith?

And it is then through faith, as we saw last week, that we are kept. As in the previous verse that we had, verse 5, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And so just in looking at these points, we realise how valuable, how precious it is to have faith. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

He gives it at the new birth, It is taken, changed to sight when we die, and we see Him as He is. But faith is needed here below, in this veil of tears, in this world of sin, in this body of death. That's when we need faith. That's when this gift is so valuable and precious to us. It brings us, brings us right through. and lands us safe above. May we then be reminded of how valuable and precious faith is and how vital it is that our faith be a genuine faith, a real faith, that it really be given by the Lord, that it not be an imitation, that it be And so on to then come to our second point, which is a needs be for seasons, seasons of trial of our faith.

Verse six, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. and needs be, how we would be thankful to the Lord for anything that He says, especially those things that are painful in our life. There is a need for this. A good reason for this is not being done for no purpose. That sickness, that so-called accident, that trial, that disappointment, that hard path, Those things are actually needful. We might pray for many things that we think we would like, be quite nice to have them.

But the Lord says in this, no, this is something not optional. It is actually needful. God knows his people's faith. He knows all about them. But he'll do those things so that they know the faith that he has given is real, that they have the confidence of it. If you were to go to Deuteronomy chapter eight and from verse two, we have the Lord saying through Moses, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

And so what they went through. We think of those times they had no food. And how then they rebelled against the Lord. They had no water. The water then was bitter. Again, they murmured against Moses, murmured against the Lord, but all these were trials, all of these were testing, and in the words here in Deuteronomy, they were designed to humble them, designed to make them know that they were dependent upon the Lord, that they couldn't just go on their own. They needed the Lord to do for them and appear for them. And so when the Lord gives those trials, he is bringing it so that we, before we come to the river of death, before we come to that last enemy, that we might know that we have the faith of God elect. You know, we might make something, we might make a car, And that car has got to do a certain speed, and it's got to go for a certain distance. And we look at it, and say, oh, that's a beautiful car. It's a lovely car. And it starts, and it goes.

But the test is, when you put it on the road, and you try to get it up to the speed, and then when you try to make it do the distance, if it just doesn't go the speed, then it's failed. If it doesn't make the distance, it's failed. And so it is in the testing. How many mothers, after they've made a meal, and you say, oh, that looks a lovely meal. Well, the proof is in the eating. It is not how it looks.

It needs to be tested. And so with faith as well, there is a need to be that we know that that is real. God-given faith is not just us using our willpower, is not just thinking that, well, we are able to stand by ourselves. Faith that is real supports us. Faith that is manufactured, we must support. There's a very, very big difference between the two. One reason then that the Lord gives, and Peter knew this, and what we've just read in Deuteronomy pointed to it as well, is that the trial of faith is to humble us, to take away our pride, our supposed thought that I am a good Christian. I would not fall. I would not lust. I would not have anger. I would not be fretful. I would not be crossed with the Lord. I would be a good Christian. I would be able to trust in his word.

And all is the thought is just like Peter, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. The Lord then brings us into those situations which bring forth our weakness, that makes us do what we said we'd never do, that makes us fail in the way we thought we never would fail.

The devil says, there you are, you've failed. The Lord says, no, I've proved to you that you haven't got strength in yourself, you haven't got ability in yourself. You need a faith that is given, a faith that will carry you over these failures. Peter, you need a faith that will fail you over your fear of man, and over the fear of a maid, and over denying me three times, and that will still come out the other side, though a failure in many ways, yet still having faith. and still trusting and still believing and still resting in the Lord.

To make us dependent upon the Lord. And Peter's very evident in these epistles is that he is pointing the people not to their own strength, but to the Lord and but to that gift of faith. To trials make us dependent on God, bring us to Trust him for all strength, for all help, and distrust ourselves. Also, it equips us to help others as well.

We think of our Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest, tempted above all men, and that he was able to succor them also that are tempted. But Peter here as well, through his trial, that he then can strengthen the brethren, and then can feed them. So there was a purpose for Peter, and there's a purpose for all of the people of God. That is, iron sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a man, a friend, were able to draw near and walk with those also passing through these ways.

God is using tribulation. Remember, our Lord said that, these things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. We must have tribulation, we must have trial and trouble because of our sin, because sin is in the world. that the Lord turns that about for good.

He uses it, and He uses it for the refining of His people, for the trying of their faith, and showing that it is of God. Another reason for it, and needs be for it, is to give glory to God Himself. And We should remember, God has said, this people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. And if his grace is going to be magnified in us, and through that grace, the gift of faith, then there must be something to try that.

And when a poor, weak sinner, remember Paul, he says, when I am weak, then I am strong, goes through those trials, and the Lord brings them safely through, who gets the honour and glory? It's not man, it's not the sinner, it is God. And so these trials and needs be, it shows the nature of faith, where it comes from, that it is genuine and the glory is to God. Nothing in this trial, and maybe remember this dear friends, nothing in these trials is designed to lift up and puff up and glorify man. We sometimes think if something is going to be sanctified or made to work for good, then it will leave us with a good feeling, a spiritual feeling that it has been for good.

But often, those trials, we think of Peter's trial. He went out, he wept bitterly. how it must have pained him the rest of his life. David, in his fall, his adultery, his murder, well might the psalmist say, past offences, or the hymn writer says, past offences, pain my eyes, or the psalmist says, remember not the sins of my youth. They're those things that really cause pain that we've gone through and that ourselves has failed. And yet the work of faith is still to trust the Lord, still to hold on to Him, and still to believe in spite of my failure and my sin, He will bring me through, and He will still hold me to His way.

Satan, you know, with Job, he said to the Lord, you touch everything that he has and he will turn around and he will curse thee to thy face. And many natural people, they would do that. Without faith, they would. And Satan knew that. But again, Job was tried. His faith was tried. And he still came out the other end, brought right through. The latter end of Job was better than the beginning. But what a painful path. What a difficult path. And yet the Lord. was using it, there was a needs be for this season.

It is to sanctify us, cleanse us, purify us. It is to make us to be what the Lord would have us to be. Even in chastening, which bound up very closely with trials, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth a piece of a fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. You must take away this idea that when something is a spiritual exercise or a trial from God, that it is something that is pleasurable or nice or praiseworthy. It is the afterwards.

Often the way the Lord works is he must increase, I must decrease. And in these trials then we read that if need be ye are in heaviness. It really affects the person, makes them heavy, discouraged, despondent, low. As our Lord says, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Our flesh dislikes the way, but faith approves it well.

And so may we hold fast onto this knowledge here, that these trials so unpleasant to us, so difficult, so humbling, so galling at times, that cause us to be so tossed to and fro and troubled, that they are needful. The Lord is doing things with them. Well, what is used then? Of course, we have mentioned some of them, but what is used to actually test, try our faith?

Verse six says that it's through manifold temptations, and if you look at the original, then it points to diverse or different temptations. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ entered into this path, driven by the Spirit into the wilderness immediately after his baptising.

And it was to test who he was, not on the devil's terms. The devil terms were, if they are the son of God, command these stones that they might be made bread. Our Lord is not the servant of Satan. His testing was rebuffing Satan with the word of God. That was the triumph of faith. That was what proved who he was. And it gives us, too, a real picture of what we would expect when our faith is tried.

That we also, not just once, our Lord was three times, three different ways tempted by Satan. And Satan has many ways and the Lord has many ways to allow Satan or to use him or bring direct things. We have mentioned of David's lust. That was used. Peter's ashamed of Jesus, the fear of man, we've mentioned that.

And the children of Israel in the wilderness, the lack of food, the lack of water, those things were used to stir up a thirst of questioning. Can God provide in the wilderness? Can he do a table in the wilderness? And you might say, well, their faith failed. They themselves failed.

But then the Lord did supply. And really, the faith of the faithful, it proved God was able to supply. He did supply them. And they still ended up, the people of God, though there's many fell in the wilderness, they were brought safely through. And as we read, had to consider all the way the Lord had led them.

Remember those times of obedience in hard things, times of affliction when we have sickness, when we have weakness, when we have disappointments, when our way is stopped up. We have those things that come and they are used to test our faith. Put in very simple words, through manifold temptations. and yet is described here, the experience of it, is described in verse 7 as being a fiery trial, tried with fire, painful, fiery trial. We think of the description in verse 6 that it is a trial that brings heaviness and weariness Sorrow like Peter weeping. These are things that are intimated and put here.

Satan would say, well, Christians should never have to go through this. If God was a good God, he wouldn't allow this. He would make this, prevent this happening. You know, it's said when Lazarus died, Could not even this man have caused that this man should not have died? And the Lord wept. Didst thou not say, if thou wouldst trust, that thou shouldst see the glory of God?

What a trial that was to Martha, to Mary, to those that were round about. But the Lord brought them through. They were still believers after. They were better believers. Their faith had been tried. They'd proved the Lord's word was true. They could trust in his word. Now every time where we've entered into a trial and we felt, well, we really struggled to trust him. But then we proved that we could. And that goes on again and again.

And each time we look back, each Ebenezer, each hitherto the Lord has helped us, each answer to prayer, each deliverance from affliction and through these fiery trials, it gives this token that our faith is a real faith, a genuine faith. because it has not been these trials that has destroyed our faith, our trust, or our love in the Lord. But may we not paint beautiful pictures of what the trial of faith is. Many of the Lord's people, they feel it day by day, not just as it were seasons. We have seasons of great trials, but an ongoing trial is our own sin.

The good that I would, I do not, says the Apostle. The evil that I would not, that I do. A wretched man that I am. And that is a trial, that is a burden. It's a good thing if our sin is a burden to us. But we are to be brought through the other side of this trial.

I want to look then at the end the Lord has in view. In the middle of verse 7. that might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Glory to God, glory of God, when he comes a second time, when he gathers his people together, when he finds them that he has shed his blood for on Calvary's precious, on Calvary's tree by his precious blood, those people chosen in him from eternity, and being called by His grace, have been given faith, and they've gone through life, through one trial after another, and the Lord has kept them in the way, in that narrow way that leads unto life, and He's sustained them, and they still love Him. In fact, they love Him more, and He's more and more precious to them, because this is what the end is in view. might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the peering of Jesus Christ. And what has happened in the way, through these trials, have had some fellowship with the Lord. They've walked with him, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. They've seen something of what the sin was that he bore and that he laboured under, that they have also walked and known. the bitterness of sin, and so has brought them, as described in verse 8, to love the Lord, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

That is the end the Lord has in view. Salvation, deliverance from sin and its consequences. Deliverance from hell and deliverance to heaven. And this faith, the faith of God's elect, the faith that is tried through life, is proved to be that which triumphs over sin.

Remember, dear friends, when our Lord put away your sin and mine on Calvary's tree, it wasn't without pain. It wasn't without trial. It wasn't without they all forsaking him and fled. It wasn't without them casting things in his teeth. May we remember this.

Our Lord triumphed at Calvary, but in that triumph, It appeared to all of those without that the Jews, the Romans had triumphed. And with all the expressions of our Lord, his pain, his agonies, the travail of his soul, all that he went through, is there not something of the echo of it here? And in what his people go through to bring them to know more and more what it costs the Lord to redeem their souls and to save their souls. There is an end in view, and it will be to the comfort of our souls, the glory of God, and to assure us that the faith that we have is of His giving, not our manufacture, and that He will bring us not through one trial, two trials, but through all, and land us safe above. brought through the trial of faith. May the Lord strengthen us in knowing what he does and why and the needs be and how precious it is to have that faith that is given by him, tried by him and to his honour and glory we will land us safe above. Amen.