Special segment: faith, difficulties and salvation

December 21st lesson Special seasonal segment: the connection between difficulties, faith, salvation — and that wonderful baby in the manger.

* Red, bold words correspond to class worksheet fill-in-the-blanks.

**I originally intended to jump right into the Christmas story, but I’ve had a growing sense in my spirit that I need to cover a passage in 1 Peter. **

1 Peter 1:3-10

Vs3
• God has showered us with His great mercy in that He has “begotten us again” — that is to say, He has birthed in us new life, where once there was no life, now there is a vibrant, new, precious life in us who believe, that is connected to the life of God. We were born dead spiritually in this world, but now in Christ, we have LIFE!

• That new life in the Spirit, gives us a living hope. We have hope HERE AND NOW, and a hope that stands and lasts forever. Remember Jeremiah 29:11 — “… a future and a hope.” Life now has meaning because Christ changes EVERYTHING.

• This new life and hope come to us because the little, innocent baby in the manager, 2000 years ago, gave His life, all His life for the lives of all mankind — even to the death on the cross 33 years later. But He didn’t die and that was end of story. He powerfully, and wonderfully resurrected from the dead! He came back to life, conquering sin, hell and the grave! He paid the price for our sins on the cross. His resurrection made effective God’s plan to overcome the damage of sin in the world. Eternal life with God in heaven is now available to all who desire it.
THE RESURRECTION CHANGED EVERYTHING AND GAVE US HOPE.

Vs4
• The Bible talks about an inheritance that each true believer has waiting for us in heaven. It is unclear ALL that it is, but it will be wonderful. It seems to primarily deal with salvation and all the benefits of living blissfully with God for eternity. It is something beautiful that we will share with Christ, and should give us hope, and something to really look forward to when we get there. It may be hard for our minds to grasp how wonderful this will be, but consider we were meant to be in unbroken relationship and fellowship with God — enjoying His presence and the beauty of His manifest love toward us. It will finally be in heaven, what it should have been here. The terrible and horrific consequences of sin will be no more.
Some people look forward to earthly inheritances — they seem to be a long way off — but eventually comes. This is so much better and worth the wait! And this, unlike the stuff of earth, will never run out, never be stolen, and never in any way deteriorate.

• Why should this give us hope? Why did God ensure we know this? Because this world is hard — and it tears us down, robs us of joy and hope. If we had no hope, many of us would be on the brink of giving up altogether. I know I probably would have. There is a future waiting for us, that is not long off, that should really encourage us and be a steadying presence in our lives from day to day. This life, though troublesome and hard, is very, very, very, very, VERY short — compared to eternity. It cannot even be compared. But because we live here and now, it is extremely difficult at times to remember that. Right?
WE HAVE AN AWESOME BLESSING WAITING FOR US IN HEAVEN

Vs5
• We are “kept”, [that is “guarded”— like by soldiers] by the power of God through faith — for salvation. That is, God is actively protecting our souls in unseen, probably mostly undetectable ways, to secure our future and completion of salvation. You see, if we believe on Him, we are saved past tense, but we are in a sense still being saved, and this will culminate in the final completion of God’s salvation plan when we get to heaven. God protects that process to assure us our final home with Him. And if God is guarding it, you can be sure you will never lose it!

Vs6
• SO, KNOWING ALL THIS, WE CAN GREATLY REJOICE.
• Though we rejoice in our blessed future, we must for a time endure the hardship of life.
WE MUST NEEDFULLY, ENDURE FOR A LITTLE WHILE, DISTRESSING TRIALS OF ALL SORTS. And life is full of trials. We all must go through them. And some shake us to the core of our being. Some even very nearly destroy us. So, why does God allow this?? God, being God, could save us from every and all problems! Why doesn’t He? I mean doesn’t this show a lack of love and fatherly compassion toward us?

Vs7
• No. On the contrary, our Father in heaven is allowing things into our lives “to do us good.” Remember Deut. 8, where God allowed all kinds of stuff to happen to Israel, His chosen people for their good?
• Q. Can you remember a time as a child when your dad did something that you didn’t like very much, but it was for your good? Did you understand it then? When did you understand it?
• And here we see the same thing. God is doing something for our eternal good: “that the genuineness of YOUR FAITH, BEING MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD…” may be proven.
• Imagine the world’s largest storehouse of gold. Gold brick after gold brick stacked to the ceiling. Not thousands, nor millions, nor billions, but trillions of dollars worth. It could buy cities, countries, continents, nearly anything the heart desires. Which would you prefer: all that gold or the little bit of genuine faith that you have? Well, let me tell you how God sees it. Your faith is more precious than all the gold in the world. It cannot even compare. Earthly gold is finite. It has an end. It will not last forever. But your faith will, and eternally effects you. Gold cannot buy your salvation — which by the way is the most precious thing on this earth that we NEED to obtain. But a small bit of faith can indeed make salvation certain for you. Can you see why faith, and what it can do, is far superior than a chunk of metal? Money can buy a lot of things, but it cannot buy life’s most precious thing.

• I want you to imagine that late one night you awake to the terrible sound and smell of your house on fire. Your child is upstairs at one end of the house, your safe-box and your life-savings at the other. You only have time to get one of them. It’s not even a contest. The child’s LIFE wins every time, right? It’s a hideous thing to even compare the two. Choosing your child does not mean you do not value money or think that you do not need it, it just means you got your priorities straight. It shows what you value most. Compared to your precious child, no amount of money in the world can be even compare to them. Faith is like that in a believer’s life. It’s not that money/gold has no use or value, but compared to what faith is and what it can do, it’s almost an insult to compare the two — faith wins out every time. It is far more precious than gold — and God wants us to have the genuine, kind that will bring praise, glory and honor to Christ when He comes back for us.

• Our faith is tested by life’s trials. They are needed to develop and strengthen and prove genuine our faith. A refiner’s fire melts the gold and the impurities can be separated and removed. Trials have that same effect on our faith: God is refining the impurities out of our faith and lives that will not bring praise, glory and honor to Christ upon His return.
• God sees into the heart, soul, and spirit and discerns those things that are vile, unprofitable, and hindering our faith walk with Him.
• Others say they believe on Christ and think they have salvation, and then when that faith is tested by a trial, they give up on God. That kind of faith is not profitable for salvation, so the Lord tests it to show us where we stand and encourages us to develop that real sort of faith that is genuine and profitable.
• Genuine faith gets refined through trials and makes the believer stronger and stronger in the faith.
OUR FAITH IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN ANY EARTHLY POSSESION.
TRIALS ARE STRATEGICALLY PERMITTED TO TEST AND STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH.

Vs8
• Most of us on earth have not seen Christ — but we believe by faith — and have joy because of what He means to us.

Vs9
• The purpose and culmination of faith: our salvation — an eternal home with God in heaven.
THE BEAUTIFUL RESULT OF OUR FAITH IS SALVATION.

V10
• The prophets of old prophesied about Messiah — the Christ — our Lord Jesus, and they searched carefully [with intensity] to discern when and where He would come. They were given pieces of a larger prophetic puzzle that they had to figure out. Different prophets had different pieces of that puzzle.
• Micah 5:2 — the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem
• Isaiah 7:14 — the Messiah would be born of a virgin
• Isaiah 9:6-7 — the Messiah would be called: Son, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He would be a direct descendant of David and fulfill a kingly role
• Isaiah 11:1-2 — the Messiah would come from the lineage of Jesse, David’s father and He would be very special in that the fullness of God’ Spirit would be upon Him.
• Isaiah 42:6-9 The Messiah would be a miracle worker, both physically and spiritually.
• Isaiah 52:13—53:12: the Messiah would be a suffering servant
• David — in Psalm 22 — the Messiah would die an excruciating death by His enemies.
• Psalm 16:10-11 (Acts 2:31-32) The Messiah would not stay dead for long , but be given life — He would be resurrected.
THE WHOLE LIFE OF JESUS WAS FORETOLD — FROM THE BABY IN THE MANGER, TO HIS RESURRECTION.