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Welcome back to our study of 1st Peter chapter 1. We're in day 3 of that study.
We're going to look at verses 6 to 12 today.

We're talking in this letter about how you are different as a follower of Christ
and how to embrace those differences as a follower of Jesus. Yesterday we began
by looking at the fact that we have a different hope, a living hope. Today we're
going to look at a different faith that we have because of Christ.

Look at verses 6 to 9 with me. In the world below when you talk about having
faith in someone or faith in something, faith is a feeling most often. I feel
good about this person.

I feel positive about this person. Sometimes faith is doing. I'm going to become
an activist with this person.

But the cut above kind of living is faith is trusting. Faith is trusting in God.
And to see how different your faith really is, I want you to look with me at
four things Peter tells us in these verses we just read about faith.

Four ways that actually you trust God as you have faith. How do you strengthen
your faith? How do you strengthen your trust so you can have the kind of
different faith that God wants you to have?

Not a feeling faith but a trusting faith. Four things he says. He says first you
reflect on the worth of your faith.

He says it's more precious than gold. We think of so many things as valuable in
this world. As you see the worth, as you see the value of your faith, as you
think about how valuable it really is, how lasting it really is, you are
increasing, you're deepening your trust in God.

Now Peter actually likes to talk a lot about worth. One of his favorite words in
the Greek it's the word precious. He talks here about it's more precious than
gold.

And throughout 1st and even 2nd Peter reminds us of six valuable or precious or
worthy things in our lives. He talks about faith here in verse 19 of chapter 1
he's going to talk about Jesus' blood, being of worth, being precious. He's
going to talk about God's cornerstone in chapter 2.

He's going to talk about a gentle and quiet spirit particularly for women in
chapter 3. In 2nd Peter chapter 1 he talks again about faith. He talks about
God's promises in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 4.

Again and again and again he says I want you to look at what's really worthwhile
in your life. Peter placed a high value on things that are worthy. And when you
place a high value on things that are worthy it's one of the ways that you
deepen your trust in God.

You look at what's really worth giving your life to. So first you reflect on the
worth of your faith. And then 2nd he tells us to be refined, to recognize that
you are being refined by the test of your faith.

He talks about trials here. He says even though you had to face and suffer grief
in all kinds of trials. Notice he says had to here.

You don't want to face trials. Nobody wants to face trials. That would be crazy.

But sometimes you have to face trials in this world. And when you have to face
trials Peter reminds us that as we face trials God is working. Don't think that
the trials mean that God has stopped working.

God is ignoring you. In fact he says here the trials come so that your faith may
be proved genuine. Now I don't know what kind of trials difficulties you might
have to face in your life for your faith.

In this day they were being persecuted for their faith. They were being killed
for their faith. And there's still many many places in the world where you may
be facing that exact kind of trial in your faith.

Others of us we feel like well the trial I'm facing isn't much of a trial
compared to that. It has to do with personal rejection or loss of a job or
people who don't want to speak with me. It seems like a very small trial.

Well whether the trial seems small or it's huge the truth of the matter is God
is working in your life through it. Don't miss that. So that your faith may be
proved genuine.

Troubles only prove that your faith is strong. They don't say that you don't
have faith that you haven't trusted Jesus. Why am I going through this?

Does it mean Jesus doesn't know I'm here? No he knows you're there. He knows
what you're going through.

He's going to use even that to prove that your faith is strong. Trials only
prove that your faith is genuine. Because they say you're not trusting in the
circumstances of this life.

You're trusting in Christ. You're trusting in the hope that's beyond this life.
So in order to strengthen your trust in God you reflect on the worth of your
faith.

You recognize that God is refining you through the trials that you're going
through. And the third thing you do is you rejoice in the result of your faith.
The result of your faith Peter says is praise, glory, honor when Jesus Christ is
revealed.

Now did you notice the when? The praise, glory, and honor comes. When?

When Jesus Christ is revealed. This is talking about the end of time. The second
coming.

This is not now. Now you're going to see some of the results of your faith in
your life now. No doubt about that.

But you won't really see the results until Jesus is revealed. And every little
bit that I get to see now reminds me of the incredible results. Incredible
praise that's going to go to Jesus at the end of time.

And your trust in Jesus is deepened whenever you look at the ultimate result.
And the ultimate result is his glory. If you look just at the results in your
life you're going to have some good days and some bad days when it comes to your
faith.

But when you look beyond your days to see the eternal glory of God, it's coming
because of the fact that he has saved us. He has brought us out of the
desperation of a life without God here and in all of eternity. When you look at
what that's going to be like, that increases your faith.

Now faith means you don't have to wait until then to rejoice in what's going to
happen that day. You can start rejoicing now because you have faith. You know
that God's going to do it.

In fact, Peter talks about that here. He says he hasn't been fully revealed yet,
but you still trust him. Look at the kind of faith you have.

You trust in him even though you don't see him. He's not fully revealed. Though
you have not seen him, yet you trust him.

Don't you think God is pleased with that? So you rejoice in the result of your
faith. And then finally he says you receive the goal of your faith.

In verse 9, you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your
souls. Listen, the most important goal in your life is not something that you
achieve. It is something that you receive.

Let me say that again. The most important goal in your life is not something you
achieve. It's something that you receive.

Because it's not your goal. The most important goal in your life is not your
goal. It's God's goal for you.

And God's goal for you is to give you faith through the Holy Spirit's work in
your life so that you can trust him for salvation. There's no more important
goal. You're receiving the goal of your faith, your salvation.

Now, Peter here takes some time to talk about the value of this salvation that
we have in Christ. This goal that we have received. And in talking about the
value of it, he looks back and he looks up.

He talks about prophets and he talks about angels. Prophets, he said, search to
understand this. Angels long to look into it.

Look at what he says about prophets in verses 10 to 12. Concerning this
salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched
intently and with the greatest care. Trying to find out the time and
circumstance to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they
spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the
gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. So he talks about prophets
and he says they were looking forward to what's happened in your life because of
Jesus Christ. And then he talks about angels.

In the last half of verse 12 he says even angels long to look into these things.
Angels are not human beings who have gone to heaven. Angels are spiritual beings
who live in eternity serving God.

We don't become angels when we get to heaven. And so because angels aren't human
beings, they don't fully understand salvation. They don't understand the
desperation of a life without God.

They don't understand our need for God. They long to look into these things.
Look at this.

What you have been given in Christ, it is a treasure that the greatest prophets
in the Old Testament searched to understand. And they came to see that they
could not understand it because it wasn't for them. It was for you.

And then the angels, these great spiritual messengers, these servants of God in
the heavenlies, they long to understand what you understand about salvation.
It's easy to take what you have for granted. And so the longer you're saved,
sometimes it can be easy to take more and more for granted the fact that you're
saved.

It is good to be reminded of the miracle of salvation. Your salvation was looked
forward to for the thousands of years of Old Testament history. Your salvation
is looked upon with wonder by all of God's heavenly armies of angels.

Let's pray together. Our Father, thank you. Thank you for saving us.

Thank you for giving us life in Jesus' name. And we pray that you would help us
to live with a different kind of faith, a faith that trusts you, that's built on
understanding the worth of what you've done in our lives, the refinement that
you can bring into our lives even through trials, that's built on understanding
that the greatest thing that's happened in our lives is what you've done through
Jesus Christ, what you've done through our trust in Him. Thank you, God, for
calling us to you.

Thank you for salvation. In Jesus' name we thank you. Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to look together at what it means to have a
different character.