The Positive Benefits of Negative Things
May 15, 2016, a.m. (1Peter 4:1-19) Command Baptist Church
TEXT: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy, (1Peter. 4:12-13).
This is a dynamic passage in the book of First Peter. There are so many thoughts here that I did not know which way to go. Some of the ten mini-themes running through this passage are: security, (vs 1), sobriety, (vs. 2-5), salvation, (vs. 6), second coming, (vs. 7-8), spiritual gifts, (vs. 9-11), suffering, (vs. 12-16), sentencing, (vs. 17-18,) and surrender, (vs. 19).
I wanted to speak to you about: “Arming yourself with the Mind of Christ,” or the subject: “What will you do with the Rest of Your Time?” But today, I want us to think about the subject of “suffering” or “trials.” As you know already, Peter has much to say about trials in this epistle. It was written for that very reason. He wrote it to strangers and spiritual pilgrims that were scattered abroad and persecuted for the faith.
When we think about suffering we cannot help but think of verse twelve where Peter said, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you…” Neither you nor I like to suffer trials. If you asked me if I’d rather enjoy the blessings of God or the trials of life, brothers and sisters, I’ll choose the blessings. However, it is not in the blessings of God that His confirmatory work is accomplished in the life of the believer. This comes through the trials that “test” us.
Saying you like the “fiery trials” of life is like saying you prefer a hospital room to an oceanfront beach cottage. We’d much rather be on vacation than in isolation. We’d much rather be on a hike in the mountains than a walk around the 4th floor of Iredell Memorial Hospital. We’d much rather enjoy a leisurely rock on the front porch of a mountain paradise than sitting in a hospital chair in a private room rehabbing from sickness or surgery.
Why all of the hype about suffering? The reason for it is because it’s REAL! At some time on your life you’re going to go through trials and suffering. You may experience it just because you live in a temporal house in need of repair or you may experience it because you are a Christian believer and your faith is on trial. Whatever the reason, I just want you to know that it is real and that there are some positive things that can emerge from it.
Don’t think that every time something negative happens to you it’s because you did something wrong. Now, it might be that what you’re experiencing has come upon you because of your own self-indulgence or lack or discipline. That happens, but it might be that the “fiery trial” you are enduring has been sent to help you.
My challenge to everyone here, including myself, is this:
BI - “When going through the fiery trials of life, don’t focus on the blame, but rather on the benefit of the outcome of the trial you are experiencing.”
Ask yourself this question, “What is God doing in my life and how can this trial make me better for the cause of Christ and the glory of God?” With that in mind, let me share three positive effects that can come from negative trials and suffering. First,
1. Trials and Suffering Purify Believers - (vs. 1-6)
What is the difference between the times when life is tranquil or tough? When life is tranquil we stroll through the park as though we haven’t a care in the world. When life is easy we mistakenly think that we have everything under control. When life is calm it is easy to drift away from the things that anchor our souls. When life is easy we tend to think that we are in need of no one or nothing. We develop an, “I got this” attitude.
But then come the trials. What happens then? We feel like we got the wind knocked out of our sails! We begin to question and doubt. We wonder what we did to deserve this? It is then that we realize that we are not the self-sufficient individuals we thought ourselves to be. It is the trials of life that God uses to purify us. According to Peter, trials do three things in the believer’s life that benefit him. First, trials:
A. Connect the believer to the suffering of His Lord, (vs. 1).
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
There is a connection to the Lord Jesus through trials that we cannot experience any other way. Jesus suffered to save us from sin. When we suffer, we learn to identify with Him. As we identify with Him through suffering, God develops in us a different outlook on life, suffering and sin. The more we love Jesus, the less we will love sin! Sometimes it takes trials to make us aware of our straying from Christ.
When you go through trials and suffering, it should make you reflect on what Jesus did for you. Suffering is real, but nothing we suffer here compares minutely to what Jesus suffered for us. When we are going through suffering, it should cause us to meditate on the cross and the extreme suffering that the Lord went through. Suffering is a connector. You will never suffer what Jesus suffered for you, but suffering can draw you back to Christ.
For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place, (Psalm 66:10-12)
==> Trials connect us to the suffering of His Lord. That’s a positive thing, isn’t it? 2nd, Trials:
B. Confirm to the believer the brevity of life, (vs. 2-3).
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.
Notice the phrase “the rest of his time.” Peter makes a comparison between what we as sinners were before we knew Christ and what we are now since coming to Him. It’s pretty simple: before Christ, we lived in the will of the Gentiles. After coming to Jesus, we should live in the will of God.
When you think about “the rest of your time,” what comes to mind? What comes to mind for me is the fact that my time is short. I am no longer in the prime of life. If you were to break life down into four quarters of twenty years, I am starting on the fourth quarter. That means that I have lived most of my life with just a short time left to go. Most of my life is behind me.
I’m not trying to be bleak or depressing. I’m just stating the fact: life is short and swiftly passing by.
ILL: TWO MINUTE WARNING
In football, there are four quarters. At the end of the fourth quarter comes the “two minute warning.” This is final countdown for competition. When the clock runs out: game over! To quote the Bible:
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that, (James 4:13-15).
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good, (Job 7:6-7).
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, Heb. 9:27).
Trials and suffering confirm the brevity of life to the believer. They remind him or her that life is short and getting shorter by the minute. Without the trials, we would waltz through life as if time was on our side, and there was nothing else to do. But because of trials, we come face to face with this reality and this makes us prepare for the inevitable. Friends, life is short: eternity is forever!
==> Trials connect us to the suffering of Jesus. Trials confirm to us the brevity of life. 3rd, trials:
C. Convince us of the judgment of God, (vs. 4-6).
Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
When we suffer from trials, we say things like, “I don’t know how people get through this who don’t know the Lord.” That is a true statement. How do people make it through the difficulty of trials and tribulations without the Lord helping them? Isn’t it funny when you are going through a trial or difficulty that your mind turns to someone who may not even be in affliction at that time?
Christian brothers and sisters, there is a day ahead when Jesus Christ will “judge the quick and the dead.” Believers will be judged at the Bema Seat, (2Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10-12), and unbelievers will be judged at the Great White Throne, (Rev. 20:11-15) only to be cast into the Lake of Fire, (Rev. 20:14-15).
There is a day of reckoning in which the saved and the lost will stand before a holy God and answer for their lives? Allow your trials and suffering to take you to the place where you are reminded of the future appointment everyone has with God, (Heb. 9:27).
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, (Heb. 9:27).
==> The 1st positive effect that trials and suffering have on believers is that they purify us. Suffering purifies us by: connecting us with the suffering of the Lord Jesus, confirming to us the brevity of life, and convincing us that judgment awaits us when life is over. The 2nd positive effect that trials and suffering have on believers is that:
2. Trials and Suffering Unifies the Church, (vs. 7-11).
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Every part of this section refers to the Body of Christ as it pertains to trials and suffering. Three times in this epistle Peter would issue the command to be “sober and watch,” (1:13; 4:7; 5:8). He reminds us that Jesus is coming again. He reminds us that in the midst of suffering we have obligations and duties to one another in the church.
We are to pray for one another. We are to love one another. We are to serve one another with the spiritual gift(s) that God has bestowed upon us.
Did you know you have a spiritual gift(s)? It may be a speaking gift or a serving gift. Do you know what your spiritual gift is? Did you realize that your spiritual gift is to be used in this church? Someday your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is going to ask you what you did with the gifts He gave you to use for His glory. What will you say?
==> The 1st positive effect of negative trials and suffering is that they purify us. The 2nd positive effect of negative trials and suffering is that they unify us. The 3rd positive effect of negative trials and suffering is that they:
3. Glorify God and the Lord Jesus Christ, (vs. 12-19).
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy, (vs. 12-13).
God gets the glory from our trials and sufferings when we:
A. Anticipate our trials, (vs. 12)
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.
Don’t think it a strange thing when hard times come your way. Anticipate that they will come your way and prepare yourself for them. We do not live in a pain free, stress free world. I wished we did and one day we will, but we are not there now! The last time I checked, this was not Heaven!
You don’t need to be obsessed with the fact that trials are coming your way. You just need to accept the fact that they come so that when you face one you’ll be prepared for it. Someone said about trials that they are like storms and that every person is either: getting ready to enter one, is in one now, or has just come out of one. That is a fair analysis of trials.
ILL: REFINING GOLD
Gold is refined by excessive heat that removes insignificant dross. The hotter the heat and the more times it is refined, the greater the quality of the gold. In a similar way, our lives are purified and refined by the fiery trials that come our way. Sometimes God fires up the heat to purify us. It’s not meant to be harmful. It’s God’s way of conforming us more thoroughly to the likeness of Jesus Christ.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, (Rom. 8:28-37).
You cannot avoid trials, but you can handle them better by anticipating them. When we anticipate trials and throw ourselves at the mercy and grace of God; that glorifies Him! 2ndly, God gets the glory from our trials when we:
B. Celebrate our trials, (vs. 13)
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Really? God wants us not only to anticipate trials coming our way, but He wants us to celebrate them as well? Unless I have misread what Peter has written here, that is correct! How are we supposed to celebrate trials we endure as believers in Jesus Christ? Do we have Scripture on this? Yes, we do.
And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name, (Acts 5:41).
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, (Rom. 8:17-18).
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, (Phil. 3:10).
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church, (Col. 1:24).
It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: If we deny him, he also will deny us, (2Tim. 2:11-12).
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, (James 1:2-4).
==> God gets the glory from our trials when we anticipate them. He gets the glory from them when we celebrate them. 3rdly, He gets the glory from them when we:
C. Appreciate our trials, (vs. 14-16)
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
It’s hard to imagine how we to celebrate the trials that come our way, much less how to appreciate them. Not everyone can go through the fire and stand the heat. God must think you are someone special to allow you to suffer for Him. Jim Caviezel, the actor that portrayed Jesus in the Passion of the Christ, said this in an interview recently, “You weren’t made to fit in: you were made to stand out!” I think about precious saints of God over my lifetime who went through trials and suffering throughout their life. Very few of them had any adverse thoughts about what they were enduring. They counted it a privilege to suffer for their Lord. Why? It was because the trials connected them with Jesus in a way that nothing else can. They understood that the trials and suffering were necessary to make them like Jesus.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong, (2Cor. 12:8-10).
==> God gets the glory from our trials when we anticipate them. He gets the glory from them when we celebrate them. 3rdly, He gets the glory from them when we appreciate them. 4th, God gets the glory from them when we:
D. Communicate our trials, (vs. 17-18)
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear.
How do our trials glorify God if we don’t use them as witnessing tools to communicate to believers and unbelievers what God can do through them? It is by our life experiences that we identify with people. If we go through them, then surely we should use them to help someone along the way. The Bible says:
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation, (2Cor. 1:3-7).
==> God gets the glory from our trials when we anticipate them. He gets the glory from them when we celebrate them. 3rdly, He gets the glory from them when we appreciate them. 4th, God gets the glory from them when we communicate them to others. 5th, God gets the glory when we:
E. Commit ourselves to God in the midst of trials, (vs. 19)
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
Turning to the Lord when going through a trial shows dependence on God and not on oneself. It’s like turning to your Father in Heaven who is bigger, stronger, wiser, and more experienced in these matters and saying to Him, “Father, I know you understand what I am going through because you have faced this and so much more. I don’t know how to handle it, but I believe You do. I’m turning loose of this trial and trusting You with it. Do whatever You need to do in my life to make me more like You and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul. When going through suffering said:
For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day, (2Tim. 1:12).
==> Three positive effects of negative trials and suffering is that they purify us, unify us, and glorify God.
BI - “When going through the fiery trials of life, don’t focus on the blame, but rather on the benefit of the outcome of the trial you are experiencing.”
