The Joy Of Our Salvation - Part 2

We're in 1 Peter and we're going to look at a section here in 1 Peter. This is actually a continuation of last week. We're looking at verses 6-9. And what I like to do here is to look at an outline of at least the first 10-12 verses. So this whole section, if you read, and we're going to read a portion of this shortly, if you read verses 1-12, the word salvation... Hi Bob. You'll see the word salvation occurs just multiple times so Peter's talking about the believer salvation and all through this and the first part is And we've covered this previously a word of greeting a salvation of divine providence and we're going to look a lot at this the results of salvation verses 3 through 5 and And then today, we're looking at verses 6 through 9. We went through 6 through 7 last week.

We're going to repeat that a little bit. So in the midst of this, Paul's going to talk about trials and testing for the believer. He's going to talk about their character and their purpose in 6 and 7. And they sort of talk about attitudes toward tests and trials and ultimately the end of tests. And basically that's actually when we go to be with the Lord in glory, glorification. And then coming up actually, Bob's going to be teaching this next week, I hope. That wasn't too subtle, was it? I'm sorry. I'm already telling. You're already telling. Yay! Okay.

And it would help with the greatness of our salvation. So you can see, if you look through here, salvation shows up just multiple times. Okay, so I get somebody to read, here's the verses we're going to talk about today, 6 through 9. Could someone read this just from your phone, from your Bible, or just from the overhead? Six or nine, right? Right, correct. Okay.

In this she greatly rejoiced, though now her season. It may be you're in heaviness enough through manifold trials. If the trial of your faith be much more precious than of gold of parishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen, you love, in whom though now you are him not, you yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith into the salvation of your souls. Great, thanks Bob. So I've underlined a couple of things here. I want to show you a little picture on the next slide here. In verse six, he talks about, you greatly rejoice. And he's referring back to their greatly rejoicing and what he has taught before.

He talked about their, what they have in the Lord Jesus, that they've been born again to a living hope. This is in verses three through five. So this kind of points back to those verses. You greatly rejoice in being born again to a living hope. obtaining an inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, and protected by the power of God."

So that's the first rejoicing. Then at the end of this in verse 8, he talks about rejoicing. If you look at the context here, he's talking about seeing our Savior, the Lord Jesus, but he's not seeing him physically. He's seeing him through faith. And we'll get into that shortly, but there's two rejoicings.

So actually I do this little picture. I know I'll do a lot of pictures, but so the first part of this picture is you greatly rejoice based upon your spiritual possessions, which are verses three through five, your living hope, your inheritance in heaven, reserved in heaven for you, protected by the power of God. Then he kind of has the middle part of this. You've been distressed by various trials.

We're going to go back over this again. We did this last week. And then lastly, you're going to rejoice again. You're going to rejoice based upon you seeing Christ. And seeing Christ here is You don't see him physically, but you see him through the scriptures, through the Holy Spirit illuminating your mind. So you see him in that sense.

So this is like a sandwich. I always tell Vani about this. The sandwich with the trials in between. So the believer's life Is one, you know, some people present the Christian life. Well, the Christian life is nothing but, you know, the, the prosperity gospel, everything's going to turn out well and good. Well, that's not, it does turn out good for, for you actually in, in, in reality, the trials that you have, that God allows in your life are, are actually as tough as they may be sometimes are for your benefit.

And we're going to see that shortly, but in between that notice that you're rejoicing at the beginning and you're rejoicing at the end for different reasons, Tom. Well, I had to make it you know, I did that I know Well, you know, I wouldn't I had two bright colors and I didn't you know, there's a little bit of visualization here Okay, all right Okay, so that's so what we're gonna do next is we're gonna look at versus six and seven kind of review that from last week And then we're gonna look at verses eight and nine. So that's where we're headed Okay All right Okay, so we're going to greatly rejoice, even though for a little while. So what I've done is I've chopped up verse 6 into about four sections. The first part is, even though for a little while.

What's interesting about this is the duration of a trial or a test. is for a little while. And it's by God's standard of time. We had a brother here, Vern Peterman, who had his pen, and he said, here's how God looks at all time. This pen represents time, right? He looks at that as the totality of all time. So from his perspective, a little while is different than what we think.

And actually, I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 4.17. for me, it alludes to another expression for a little while. And in terms of trials, go ahead. This is a polite reflection which is left for a moment. We're concerned as a far more eternal and exceeding way of glory. While we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.

Right. So what was the very first part, Bob, that you said for the very first part of that verse is? I have for the momentary, yeah, so in this case he calls them momentary. Well, you know, Peter's talking here about trials for these believers where he was ministering to that could last their entire lifetime. But he says we want you to think about the long perspective. The long perspective is you're being saved for eternity. So the long perspective is eternity, if you will. So a little while is not what we think of as a little while.

Secondly, if necessary, the idea here is that, means necessary, proper, inevitable from the circumstances or nature of the case. And what's interesting is, And Macaulay kind of says, every test is necessary for our growth in God's glory. And we see that kind of all throughout scripture.

But what's interesting is the word for this, if necessary, is the idea that, remember when John was talking to Nicodemus in John 3, he says, you must be born again. The word here for must is the same word. It's a necessity, right? It's a necessity that you be born again to become a Christian. And it's a necessity that God allows these trials in our lives. It's a necessity.

That's what made it a hard thing to kind of come to grips with. But Peter's going to make his case here. So first of all, it's for a little while. Secondly, it's if necessary. Thirdly, and this is kind of interesting. I studied trials before, especially with my brother Hal and James a lot. But I haven't really picked up on this one. This is really, I find this encouraging.

Maybe you won't find this, maybe this is a negative encouragement. No, I think this is actually a positive encouragement. You may have been distressed and it's in the passive voice, it means that God is the source of this distress. You may be grieved, you may be sorrowful, but it's going to be for a purpose. Where's my second book? Aoristense implies that it's transitory. And actually what's interesting is, if you think about this, our Savior was grieved. Paul was grieved.

If you look through Scripture, and could someone read just in Luke, and this is in the Garden, Luke 22, and maybe go back to verse 20. I want to read 28 for sure, but I'd like to go back and give a little context. So let me see, Luke, hopefully somebody will get to this before I do. Luke 22, may start in 27 or a little bit before that, and read down through 28.

But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest and a leader like the servant. For who is greatest, the one who defines the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who defines the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who are stood by me in my trials.

Okay, it's that last little part. So the Lord Jesus said, he's talking to his disciples, he's saying, actually I didn't, it wasn't in the garden, this was with his disciples, I apologize, but he says that, you know, the disciples who were with you stood by me during my trials. So the Lord Jesus had trials while he was on this earth. So trials are not a thing that's foreign to our Savior, they're not a thing that's foreign to Paul, and they're certainly not things that are foreign to us. It is a normal part of the Christian life that it will be trials, but they have a purpose.

Okay. So that's the third one. The fourth one is, and basically it's by various trials. So there's actually two things to consider here, the word various and the word trials. Both are kind of important. Various is this idea of variegated, many colored, various diverse. Anyway, there we go.

Macaulay kind of says, and I agree with him, the pressures that we may expect all kinds of tests, any pressure known to human may occur in the believer's life. The believer is not immune to things. He can encounter the same trials that anyone in the world sees, any unbeliever. But the difference is that the trial that he's going to undergo, God is in control of that trial, which is huge.

And trials, there are several words for trials in the New Testament. The two that are really most important are parasmas, and that's this word here, and then we're going to see the other word, documas. Parasmas can be used in two different ways. It can be used in a good sense or in a bad sense. It can be used, put into a test. putting to a test. The good sense is putting to a test. The bad sense is a temptation to sin.

James declares on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God never tempts man to sin. God is never the source of sin. He doesn't hang some bait out that man will sin. The world, the flesh, and the devil do that, but not God. God doesn't tempt man to sin.

But He does put them to a test. He does allow trials. So in this sense, the ones I've listed here, Luke, the Luke passage, the Acts, they're all divinely permitted. And we're considering 1.6. I'd like to look at just the verses for, if someone would read Let's see here. Matthew 20, 26. Let's try 1 Peter 4, 12. 1 Peter 4, 12. Beloved, do you not think it strange concerning the Fari trial? Which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you.

Okay. Alright. It doesn't say come for your testing. Does that continue on? Oh. Nope. That's where mine stops. Okay. Alright. Sorry. I have a new Bible. Okay. So what does 13 say? But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering. Okay. That when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Okay. So I have the fire ordeals that come upon you for your testing. And what did you have? How did yours read? Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though...

Okay, okay. Yeah, it flips. Okay, I'm with you. That's fine. Okay, good. Okay, so we kind of went through the word for various. You know, it can be any flavor, so to speak. Perosmos, it's a put into a test. And okay, let's go on here. So that the proof of your faith be more precious than gold, which is perishable. Proof of your faith. Proof is another word for testing in the New Testament. It's a root word. It's dokimas. This is a noun form of it. A test or a proof.

So God's desire is that he wants genuine faith. He wants to approve your faith and approve in the sense that that he's going to allow what he talks about, tested by fire, he's going to allow tests or trials to come into your life to prove your faith to be genuine. That's his desire. And then here's kind of the core word, the verb, documans, a test or a trial with a view to approval. He wants us to succeed. He doesn't want us to fail.

God will test your faith with a desire to approve it. I think that's key to kind of keeping your head straight about trials in the Christian life, is that he wants to approve us. He wants us to succeed. You know, man many times thinks of God as someone up in, you know, I think anyone who's studied the Bible or has any concept of who Christ is knows this is not the case. But God is not someone who's after you. He's going to hound you and make you fail. Put a Roblox in your way. I think that's just the opposite of that. He seeks man. He seeks after him. He's constantly seeking after man.

And what's cool about this is, and I mentioned it last week, you know, man, the commodity of, what's the commodity of this world? What drives this world? What comes to your mind? Money. Yes, right. Doesn't money, I mean, decisions, everything is based on money.

How? Yeah, this is just a, we like, actually, Bonnie likes Hallmark, so we watch a lot of the Hallmark things. And so, a lot of them are filmed in Canada. Why do you think they're filmed in Canada? cost less money. Exactly. It is so costly. They had one last night, I'm getting totally off the track here, that was supposed to be Denver, but it was actually in Calgary I think. So this is Denver, and they showed some scenes. I said, they had license plates that said Denver on them, but I'm kind of getting way off the track here. So what was my point about doing that?

What's that? OK. That's what drives the world. OK. So what drives, what is the commodity of heaven, of God's world, of his creation? What is God looking for from his creation? Okay, and keep going. In our context here, he's looking for faith, right? Faith is the commodity of heaven.

He doesn't want your money. Some people think he wants your money. They give it to them and they'll tell you they'll give it to God, but that's a different story. His commodity is faith, and he wants to improve our faith, which is just so cool. He wants our faith to be genuine and improved.

And so the next part, continue on here. Your faith being more precious. And now we're going to see, this is going to say how precious your faith is. Your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable. And precious here is this word of great price. Very precious, valuable. Your faith is more valuable to God because it is eternal, not like gold or silver that will pass away.

And I was mentioning last week, and we know that God, since God is eternal, what is of value to Him is something that is eternal, right? And our faith is an eternal thing. Anyway, that's actually for almost another class. But anyway, we'll have to think about that. But that's actually, if you think about it, I'm pretty sure that's right. Your faith is more valuable to God because of the eternal, not like silver that will fade away.

Okay. Well, I really got... Well, anyway, okay. You know, it's nice when you put the bullets coming in one after the other. Somehow I messed it up, but whatever. Okay, so now the next part. Even though tested by fire. So now we're going to talk about your faith is tested by fire. So it's being tested to prove with the expectation of approval. So here's another occurrence of this word, dakimazo, which is the one where God tests you to approve you. God wants your faith to pass the test. He doesn't, he doesn't, you know, I think we were joking about passing. You know, in man's, in our world, you know, It seems like in many places that they want to weed out the people, right? They want to weed you out. In this case, God wants you to succeed. We're talking about believers here. You've actually already succeeded. If you've trusted in Him, you've already succeeded. So, something bogging on the...

Yeah, Roger, what's this proof of our faith look like? Okay, okay. So how does God prove our faith is what you're asking? Well, I think... Well, the word proof, right? We've kind of gone back. Proof is the idea of genuineness, genuine faith. And what you're saying is, how do I recognize that? How do I know that I have genuine faith? In other words, we're called the live-by-faith religious trials.

Right. what does that look like? I mean, where does that begin and what is perceived by, say, the body of Christ surrounding us? I mean, we're different, and their faith may be manifested differently. It's built to the right hand. It kind of begins with citizenship, doesn't it? I mean, kind of seeing where our true home is really placed, but then that state that we have through these trials may be looking a little different from personal. Well, actually I think it does look different. I listen to Macaulay a lot and he was pointing out the fact that it may not look all that well as you go through a trial. It's ups and downs. You don't, I mean, you know, some days you do well, some days you don't. Some days you trust in the Lord, some days you don't. And it just goes up and down.

But at the end of the road, in fact, Mike's going to have this picture today about spirituality, which somewhat connects here. We can either be trusting the Lord at any instant in time or not trusting the Lord. But over time, Hopefully we're growing. We're learning to trust him. So I think genuine faith has seen the course. It's seen the course through these ups and downs. So let's go on. I made a few more points here. May be found. Your faith may be found. And may be found is the idea to find out, to inquire, to discover.

This is why I thought this was a good statement. Trials do to faith what fire does to gold. They purify it. They show it to be what it really is. So without, you know, you've heard the things about the rice Christians in China, right? When Christianity came to China, I think, right? Yeah. Thanks Roy. They were around when, when rice was plentiful, they were around, they were Christians, but when rice wasn't plentiful, they kind of, you know, didn't show up.

So, you know, God is looking at us over the longterm and he realizes that we're sometimes not, we're going to have weak faith. We're going to have no faith possibly. But he's looking for the long term. He wants to grow us up into a genuine faith that's trusting, relying upon him. That's his goal. Okay. Yeah, go ahead.

Our city in Genesis, if you clear back to Adam, of course, he was in innocence before the sin came. But he believed God because he knew God and he walked with Him. There are those that think that faith is a gift. But no, according to Romans, the first chapter, he has that capability of believing God or knowing that there is a God. It was created in Him to begin with. And I think that shows up in others. Why would he do this? Why would he go through this if he didn't care about us? I mean, I think this shows his love. I mean, and actually we're going to see that this tested faith, this genuine faith, the last part of this verse is just incredible. And that's the eternal value of our tested faith.

So the last part of this says, your faith to result in praise is to be praised, bestowed upon God, glory bestowed upon God, honor bestowed upon God at the revelation, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So isn't that incredible that our faith just in living our lives Our faith in living our lives that has gone through the ups and downs or whatever will result in praise, glory, and honor to Him at His coming. And Macaulay has it here. Tested permanent faith is important because a day is coming at the revelation of Jesus Christ when that faith, that tested genuine faith will bring praise, glory, and honor to Jesus Christ. Isn't that, isn't that mind boggling that that faith that we have, each believer has will result in that? I mean, it's just, so that's something that will eternally be in view.

And think about all the number of believers. Think about the, it's almost like a chorus, if you will, of all believers bringing praise, glory, and honor to him. So I think that's just really neat. Other thoughts? Go ahead. So there's a point of time at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Okay.

So what is this of the rapture? Well, there's some discussion about that. I wouldn't say I have this rock solid, but it looks like to me this is pointing to the rapture. Because for the believer of the revelation of Jesus Christ, it's certainly the rapture, right? For like the nation of Israel or whatever, or the second coming, that's a different event, right? We have the rapture and then we have the second coming. So it seems to me that at the revelation it would be the rapture.

What's interesting is that our faith through our lifetime will bring praise, glory, and honor to him. That's pretty amazing. It's one of these things you don't, until you start digging into the details, you don't see. Yeah, I think the Greek term does refer to the rapture. I mean, first the revelation. Right, exactly. Is this, you know, honor and glory and all that that's wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of rapture? Are those rewards we're talking about here? Well, I don't know. What is this? I don't know.

And I would say, but what just amazes me is, and another thing that kind of amazed me, this is the only verse that combines those three aspects. You'll see lots of verses that will have praise and glory, honor and praise. You'll have combinations, but this had all three. So, I mean, you know, if you're looking for uniqueness, this verse uniquely says that our genuine faith has a tremendous value to him. Compared with gold, more valuable than gold, it's precious to him and it results in praise to him. Praise, glory, and honor to him. Huge.

All right. And then actually last week I had a test. I had a Roger test and it actually was from a colleague. It was a test about comparing and maybe thinking about it maybe it wasn't. So here are three things that was put forth. And all of them are good.

And one of them is this, that your faith brings praise, glory, and honor. Well, how about if you're involved in bringing a person to Christ, right? If you lead a person to Christ, it says heaven rejoices, right? There's rejoicing in heaven over a soul being saved.

Okay, you have this choice, you have that choice. And then you have the third choice is one of where God has foreordained good works for us to walk in them. So let's say you walk in a good work. So I said, well, which one is number one? Of course, I already told you what my thought is. I think this one is number one.

Even though bringing a soul to the Lord Jesus is eternally valuable, and walking into good work, but in some ways this actually feeds into the other two. If your faith is genuine, you will be motivated to bring a person to Christ. You'll be motivated to walk in the good works. So in some ways it's not a fair comparison, but it's something to think about.

Okay, so now we're going to go to verse 8, finally. Okay. And this is a beautiful one too. This is going to talk about the fact that we haven't seen him. Though you have not seen him. So I have this in a variety of flavors here. How many times can I say the same thing? Four times. Four statements.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. And Interlinear has him not having seen you love him. Having seen is actually one of the words for no, but in this context it's used to have seen or perceived. Weest has it, which I like, of whom you've not had a glimpse, right? Have any in this room had a glimpse of the Lord Jesus? Physically? If you have, you know, some people claim they have.

Anyway, but I think that's So he's going to say, you haven't seen me, but what's cool about it is he was speaking to people who had not seen. His ministry was to people and that part of the whole on the front of this thing here, right? His ministry was all these people here, right? To Pontius, Cappadocia, all these places. They hadn't seen the Lord Jesus personally. So he was just like we. So he's ministering to those people.

So here's a related verse in 2 Corinthians 5.16, Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Kind of a little complicated verse maybe, but he's saying that that the way we know the Lord Jesus now is through the eye of faith. We know Him through the eye of faith. We perceive Him through the eye of faith.

But what's cool is, you love Him. The first thing is you love Him. And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And love Him, it's agape. It's a very familiar Greek word to us. And that is just totally, you know, we love. How do we know? Do we, Jennifer and ourselves, love for God? Scripture teaches just the opposite.

We love because He first loved us. We're really incapable of loving Him until He loves us first. And He did love us first by giving His Son. He loved us by sending the Holy Spirit. So the first part is you haven't seen Him but you love him and then we're going to go on to the second part and though you have not not seen him now but believe in him okay that's part two so we don't we don't see him now And again, we don't see in the present what we believe. So we have kind of two parts here. First part is that we love him. We haven't seen him, but we love him. The second part is that we don't see him now, but we believe in him. So we are operating, the Christian life is totally operating on a person we have not seen physically. And we love him because he loved us. And we believe him because he sent his spirit into our hearts.

And then I like this verse. This is really a cool verse in John 20, 29. I always like to remember this verse. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see me and yet believed. And that's all of us. That's all of us and all the people that he was ministering as well. So our whole frame of reference is not having seen him, but loving him, and I haven't seen him but believing him. Just really cool verses. Okay. Okay. All right.

So now the last part of eight here. You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. So based upon the fact that you love him and you believe in him, You greatly rejoice in the fact of back to verse six, where you greatly rejoice in those things reserved in heaven for you. You're greatly rejoicing in seeing him through the eye of faith. It's inexpressible, unable to be told out. It's only in first Peter.

And there's a similar idea in 2 Corinthians 9.15. It's an incredible gift. Let's just look here for a second. So basically, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible. You can't express it.

And the verse is similar to 2 Corinthians 9.15. Thanks be to God for His indescribable. It's inexpressible. It can't be uttered. and full of glory, literally glorified. He contrasts our present seeing Him with the eye of faith and our future seeing Him face to face at the rapture. Obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So in this case, this is a case here where souls is kind of used to represent, as it says here, refers to the person, namely the whole being.

And can someone read Romans 13.1? Does someone have a different reading on that? What's interesting is this word for souls here is translated many times as translated life.

Why don't we read Matthew 3.4. Matthew 3, 4. All I'm trying to point out is that it's speaking of more than the soul. The man is body, soul, and spirit. But this is speaking of the entire man, I believe. Matthew 3, 4. The Saint John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a lirthon girdle about his loins, and his feet was well-dressed in wild honey. Okay. Okay, I did it to myself here today. Okay. Well, the verse I was looking for, it was one about... I'm not sure I can find it. Okay, well, we'll just have to carry on here. And the other one is in James 121. How about someone reading that?

We are called to clean aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. Okay, so I think the thrust of this is speaking of the entire person So Peter is now going to address the completion of our salvation. So what's interesting is if you look at scripture you can look at their In reading scripture, you'll see there's three three aspects of salvation Well, the first one is When we come to faith in the Lord Jesus, we have been saved from the penalty of sin. That's considered phase one. That happens when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. So phase two, phase two is where we are right now. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're being saved from the power of sin.

And there's just a multitude of verses that discuss that, that tell us about that. Romans 6 is a good area that shows that, and many others. We're being saved. And then finally, we will be saved in the future from the presence of sin. So I believe this verse is looking toward that, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I believe it's looking to the, some people will call that glorification. We will be saved from the presence that will be glorified with him. We'll see him as he is. We will receive the consummation of our faith, namely the salvation of our souls delivered from the presence of sin and the glorification of our physical bodies. Dachon, questions? Go ahead. Yeah, here's kind of a contrast. Okay. 2.2. All right.

Literacy in 2 Corinthians 2.17. Okay.

In 2.18, he says, we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. So, you know, what you focus on, what he's focusing on, It's not what is seen. Exactly, exactly. And the other part that I thought was interesting, kind of in contrast, he talks about the house not made with hands, but our eternal dwelling in heaven, is for this we groan.

This does not sound like rejoicing. I'm not always rejoicing. No, well actually that came to my mind too. Keep going. I don't see where we're really rejoicing all that much. Maybe unless we're really focusing on the invisible, what Paul is talking about, and what's unseen. But in what is seen, it seems like in the world, it doesn't seem like you're surrounded by all kinds of worldly activities and nothing to rejoice in there. Right. No, I would agree with you. I wonder, what is this rejoicing he's talking about? Uh-oh. Okay, okay.

Well, I'm going to offer another example before I try to answer that question. Let's just look at it. And this has always kind of amazed me. Let's just look at, let's take our Savior for a second. I want to use him for an example about a difficult time. So let's look at Matthew, turn to Matthew chapter 26, and this one's going to be in the garden before he went to the cross. Matthew 26, and let's start here at I can see I need to do a better job writing down my references that way. Well, I can...

37. Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Can someone read... Bonnie, why don't you just read... Can you read 26, 36, and 37? 26, 36, and 37? Well, actually... Yeah, I'm sorry. 26, excuse me. 26, 36, through 38.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I gather there and pray. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me. Okay, so go ahead Bob.

Well, no, just to address Pat's question, maybe a little bit differently, is that Hebrews 12 too is a tremendous verse. Just looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, right? I mean, the cross was joyful to him because of you and me, Pat. I mean, this really brought tremendous joy and salvation to ourselves.

But what we're going to see here is, almost to Pat's point, It wasn't easy, right? It says, this word grief is the same word. And people really struggle with this. He did this without sin, right? Because he's sinless. So what it told me, the humanness of man can be grieved severely. And our Savior was grieved in His humanness. So this helped me to say, well, okay, when I'm grieved severely, That's nothing unusual. That's fallen man. Man has a body, can be grieved. Our Savior was grieved. And then Paul talks about being grieved too, the point of death.

So I guess my point is, but there was joy. There's joy for us. There's joy, we're going to be with our Savior. But there is grief and distress in our lives during trials. So you have the two tensions. You have the, well, I'm going through this very difficult time, but I have all the wonderful promises of God. I have a Savior who loves me, who's with me, who'll never leave me or forsake me.

So you have the, yes, the trials can be grievous. It says the point of death, which is pretty, pretty tough. That's a tough one. Yeah. It's interesting though, in Hebrews 12 too, it also says that he despised the shame. I know, I know. It wasn't the pain, and you'd think Gethsemane was... I mean, what's Gethsemane all about? Is it the pain of nails being driven? I don't, I don't... No, it's the separation from God. Exactly. That's why he was so great. He knew what was ahead. Yeah.

So I think, you know, that doesn't make our trials less. It just gives us a perspective. Well, that's what I found helped me when I looked at the Savior's life. And I look at, Paul said he was grieved to taking his life almost through his trials. And I say, well, I come into the picture as a believer and I'm grieved and distressed severely. Well, that's, that's not unusual, even though it's hard to convince yourself that, you know, when you're in the midst of that, that is unusual. It's very difficult to do that. But there's great hope is that, well, wait a minute.

The Lord said, later on, He says, Thy will be done, Lord. And what did Paul say? The thorn in the flesh? He said, well, if that's the plan, if it's, I asked you a few times to remove the thorn in the flesh and you didn't, well, then, I will glory in that thorn in the flesh.

So I will rejoice in that. So I think it's once again this tested faith. We come to say, okay, Lord, and this may take years or maybe our entire lifetime. Well, Lord, that trial, that testing had a purpose and you just didn't do it willy-nilly. Wayne, you have a thought? I guess you'd have to define what joy is. Is it jumping up and down?

No. a wretched man that I am, who can deliver me, and I thank God. There's the joy. Thank you, God. It also shows God's mercy in that, you know, He knows we're of the flesh. We're of a different nature. Exactly. And ultimately, you know, He knows these trials, and we all know this, from a human perspective, are difficult. That's because we live in fleshly bodies and exactly experience all of the nature that comes with that. That's being despaired and distressed and pained. shamed and, you know, ultimately people are offensive, as court says, you choose to be offended, right? But anyway, I mean, all these things are part of the earthly existence.

The joy, I think, is what I want to say, Bryce, from knowing who we are as Christians. Yeah. And where we're going, that we're going to be with Him. Exactly. The comfort we get out of His presence. This is a minuscule part of time, in the whole scheme of time. Right, right. And that's a rest. Well, I find it interesting and that's why I do this little picture on you. I don't take, but it's interesting.

He has you greatly rejoice, you're distressed, you greatly rejoice. So that's what he wants us to be. Distress is not to overrule the Christian life. And our joy in what we have in our Savior and seeing him, that's to overrule in our Christian life. So that's just incredible.

But think about Peter, you know, in terms of the way you described him early on before the study, in terms of what he was before the cross. Right, right. And the perspective that he's gained. Oh, I have one final verse. Peter's grieving. I'm sorry. I'm being ungrateful. Okay, look at John 21. I had these verses written here and there, and then I... Anyway, whatever. John 21. Can someone read John 21, 15-17?

So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again a second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep.

Yeah. So I guess I was tracking through grief. So here's Peter. And that was tough. He had the privilege of talking to the Lord face to face. And the Lord kind of showed him. You've been up and down, Peter. But he said, Peter, you're going to succeed. So here's what's really cool. Peter, you're going to succeed. And we had the book of 1 Peter to show that, right?

We have a guy who was up and down all over the map, promised all kinds, I'll follow you to death, Lord. And then next thing he's denying him in the garden. He's all over the map. And then finally, it's a wonder I know why Bob wanted to go here. He writes this incredible book of 1 Peter. It was a testimony to his genuine faith. He had made the transition. So now he has genuine faith. So anyway. Hope that was helpful today. Good, good comments. Okay. All right. Let's close. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the book of first Peter. Thank you for our time studying it. In Christ's name, Amen.