"Precious Faith:

I. Introduction

A. Funny Story about FAITH

Electric Eels in the Amazon-

We had to trust the missionary beleiving him when he said that everything would be okay if we just followed his rules.

B Today we are going to be jumping into the waters of Faith

Last week we looked at the Foundation of Salvation we have as believers. and How the salvation that God orchestrated in our lives is past present and future. and held completely in his perfection and this brings us living Hope.

1 Peter 1:6 (ESV)

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

He simply tells the Christian that Because of their foundation of Salvation they can have great Joy even in the midst of their suffering.

And Now in verses 7-12 He builds upon this foundation and teaches the church about the correlation between our suffering and our faith.

Faith and trust go hand in Hand

Trust- is having a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or strength of someone or something..

It is rooted in confidence and reliability.

Faith- similarly refers to a strong belief or confidence in something for which there may not be visible proof or evidence.

When we sit down on a chair we trust it to hold us up - We have confidence that it will do what it has done for us before.

Faith is believing God will do what God says he will do even when we cant see how.

Faith is what gives us the ability to completely rely on God for everything we need in this life!

Listen to our text

C. 1 Peter 1:7-12

1 Peter 1:7–12 (ESV)

7 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. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Friends when we suffer our faith is tested.

God wants to use the suffering in your life to grow your faith.

This morning I want us to leave here with a better understanding of our Faith and how it is our suffering that Grows our faith in Christ.

II. The Refinement of Faith (1 Peter 1:7)

1 Peter 1:7 (ESV)

7 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.

Peter tells the believer that Genuine faith must be tried and Tested even as gold must be put through the fire so that it can come out as pure.

Illustration:

I remember as a kid on a vacation in CO, we went down into a gold mine to see how they mined for Gold. Im pretty sure all I did on that tour was looked in every crevice and cranny to see if I could find even the smallest nugget- but to no avail.

Gold is the most precious mineral earth, It has been the sign of royalty since the begging of human civilization. In fact the Bible descrribes many kings wealth by the amount of Gold

In Gen 41 Pharoah gave Joesph a gold chain signifying his elevated status and wealth in Egypt.

In1 Kings 10 it tells us that the weight of Gold Solomon recieved yearly was around 49,000 pounds

In Dan. 3 Nebakanezzer is described as having great wealth and from it he built a giant image of himself out of pure gold to represent his power over the people.

throughout history - and even today- Gold is the standard of wealth, it is the adorment of power.

and in our verse we see Peter describe our faith as more precious than the most refined gold in the world.

You see in order for gold to be pure and of great value, it must go through the fire.

The purpose of the fire is not to destroy the gold, but to take out all of the impurities making the gold even more precious.

As the fire begins to melt the gold all of the impurities start to float to the top where the refiner carefully draws them out of the pot leaving only the purest gold.

Peter is telling believers that when God sends us into our trials they are not meant to hurt or destroy our faith but to refine it.

He puts us into the furnace-To make our faith in him more precious than gold.

Friends when we go through suffering all of the impurities in our life will come out. All of the things that we are putting our trust in will come out.

Its in the middle of the darkest storms when we run to what we trust most.

And friends if it is not the throne of Jesus than it is an impurity in your life.

I

Brothers and sisters understand that without trials in your life there would be no refining of your faith, Thopse things that have captivated your heart will still have a hold on your life.

Trials are how God reveals the impurities of our heart

Our suffering is how God grows your Christian character to be more and more like His precious son Jesus Christ.

This idea that God uses suffering in our lives to grow our faith is not new to us as the church

In Job 23:10 Job speaking of God says

Job 23:10 (ESV)

10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

Isaiah 48:10 (ESV)

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

Friends, There are no shortcuts to becoming spiritually mature in Christ. There is no easy path of refinment in our walk with Jesus. You must go through various trials in order for your faith to Grow.

Friends We need the trials in our lives as believers Because, Just like the gold is refined in the fire, all of our impurities come out as dross and can be removed from our lives and the precious gold of Christ in us appears even more pure.

Look again at the outcome of our testing by fire in verse 7

1 Peter 1:7 (ESV)

7 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.

When Gold is refined and sculpted into beautiful works of art - People marvel at its beauty ,People praise the artist for what they have done

similarly Peter says that when our faith is refined through our suffering it will result in our praise and glory when Christ returns. and that will ultimately lead to the praise and Glory of the one who refined us.

Peter Moves on in verse 8-9

III. The Joy of Faith

1 Peter 1:8–9 (ESV)

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We may not be able to rejoice over our trials but we can rejoice in their midst when we center our attention on Jesus Christ.

Remember, Peter was a man who walked with Jesus, He was a man who traveled with Jesus for 3 years. And yet he still failed at times to fully trust in Him.

And now He is writing to Christians who have never met Jesus Personally, and He says

“You love Jesus even though you have never seen him . Even Though you do not see him now, you still trust in him.”

Friends this is what the Holy Spirit does for us in our lives.

Understand that the reason we can fully trust in Jesus as Christians is because the H.S. indwells us pointing us to Him.

-He ia the One who introduces you and me to Jesus,

-He opens our eyes so that we see him as our savior,

-He changes our hearts and molds us in a personal relationship with the one we have never seen with our own eyes.

Friends thats what Faith is.

-beleiving in the God whom you have never seen to do what He has always promised to do,

Faith is a gift from God

so that you can know His son Jesus personally with your life.

So that The H.S. can change you to be more like Jesus every day.

And Peter in verse eight is simply reminding these believers that because of this Faith we have been given, we can rejoice even in our trials with a glorious, inexpressible Joy, Knowing that God is using it in our lives for our spiritual good.

Pause

Friends, its this Faith that sets the believer apart from the world.

When the Believer, goes through Trials it produces the character of Jesus in their lives- it sanctifies them -

and It’s the method that God uses to make his children more and more like Jesus and this results in our Joy,

In Contrast

When the world without Jesus, goes through suffering in their lives it produces the character of this world- Instead of finding Joy, they turn inward towards themselves -

They grow angry - Asking Why Me when so many other people are worse than i am,

They Grow Bitter- Why would God allow something so awful in my life,

They get overwhelmed and consumed by their suffering which leads them to complete hopelessness

Brothers and sister sin Christ - God has redeemed you from this futile way of thinking - You have hope- You have salvation - Dont let your trials consume you and rob you of the joy that is yours knowing that God is in the process of growing your faith through this suffering.

Friends Chose Joy over bitterness

Chose Joy over Anger

Chose Joy over selfishness

Trans- Peter Now goes on in verse 9-12 to tell us the outcome of our Faith.

IV. The Outcome of Faith (1 Peter 1:9-12)

Listen to what he says

1 Peter 1:9–12 (ESV)

9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

God's divine way of meeting our needs is through faith, He wants us to put all of our eggs in his basket,

I recently read a story with the headline ‘ Man skydives without a parachute. He jumps from 20,000 feet without any parachute and free falls at 120 mile an hour headed towards earth. But as he is falling His friend whom he is trusting with his life is right by his side the whole way, and his job is to at the last moment grab his friend and release his own parachute and save both of them from impacting on the ground.

This man who jump with no parachute had to have complete trust in his friend.

He had to risk it all He had to be all in when he jumped from that plane, because if his friend failed it would cost him his life,

Friends this is what complete Faith looks like- its beleiving God so fully that if you found out tomorrow that he did not exist your life would come crashing down around you.

Peter is saying in these verses that when we genuinely love and trust God unwaveringly in our suffering, the outcome is that we experience the blessings of our salvation in our lives today.

Look again at verse 9

1 Peter 1:9 (ESV)

9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Friends, too often we think that our salvation is something we will experience after we die,

We love the fact that we will never experience eternal seperation from God in the Lake of Fire. But friends the salvation that results from our Faith is so much more.

in verses 2-6 Peter built this foundation of Salvation as being Past present and Future.

and Now as he is teaching about faith in verses 9-12 He circles back around to this foundation, because salvation is fully dependent upon our faith.

When we put our faith in God during our suffering We see him do the impossible in our life,

He gives us hope in the midst of our storm,

He gives us peace when nothing seems to make sense.

It is through our suffering that the blessings of our salvation come out in our lives.

In essence, when we go through trials fully trusting in God’s Plan, we get to catch a glimpse of the heavenly glory We will one day have even in our present circumstances.

Charles Spurgeon aptly noted, "Little faith will transport your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul."

In verse 10 peter tell’s us that

What's truly astounding, is that this "finished work of salvation" we eagerly anticipate—at the return of Christ—was the central part of God's Sovereign plan for us from the very beginning.

In fact, The Old Testament prophets were eager to learn more about this future salvation, and they foretold of the Messiah’s suffering and the glory that would come through the salvation He would offer mankind for their sins .

Friends, They only had a glimpse of the this salvation that were looking forward to the Messiah, and yet they still had faith to believe it.

They still put their complete trust in The promise that God would send a deliverer to save mankind from their sins.

and In verse 12 Peters tells us that God informed these prophets that they were preaching this message of Salvation for the benefit of us today- those who are the church.

and at the end of verse 12 Peter says that this revelation that God would give eternal life to all sinners who would have Faith in him, was so profound that even the angels long to look into it.

They couldn't believe that the perfect holy righteous God would fully pay the debt of mankind's sins with his own blood, they couldn't believe that God would let sinners into his family with a full inheritance in heaven but only putting their faith and trust in Him, All for His own Glory.

The point of these last few verses is this

When we go through our suffering God Grows our faith and the result of deeper faith is God’s glory in our lives.

As our faith grows, We begin to see the blessings God has given us through our our salvation today,

.We begin to experience the joy that Jesus promised even in our storms

We grow in Hope even when life is hopeless

We become more and more surrounded Peace that surpasses all understanding even when our life is chaotic.

V. BRING IT HOME

listen again to the key verse of this text-

1 Peter 1:8 (ESV)

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Friends, When we trust in God, glory awaits you at every turn!

When we place our trust in Christ, we are born again for glory.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

and Through the Holy Spirit you are being preserved for Eternal Glory with Jesus one day in Heaven,

but we need to understand that In this life as we go through Trials our faith is growning in His Glory

And when we love Him, and trust Him implicitly, and rejoice in His presence, we experience His glory here and now in this life.

As Peter said Our faith Produces a joy unspeakable full of Glory.

Friends dont wait until you get to heaven to experience the glory God has given you through faith in your life.

Pray