Rejoicing in Our Great Salvation: Rejoice In Persecution and Suffering

Saving Grace Bible Church

Media App

Rejoicing in Our Great Salvation: Rejoice In Persecution and Suffering

Passage: 1 Peter 1:6–1:9

September 11, 2016 • Pastor Marc Wragg

Give

The Christian life is filled with seeming contradiction. We are saved by God’s grace, yet He calls us to obey. We live in the world, yet we seek the things above. We rejoice in our salvation, yet we also rejoice when we suffer for His name. How can this be? To the fleshly mind this is foolishness, but to the Christian it is the wisdom of God. We rejoice in suffering and persecution because it testifies to the reality of our faith, and we see plainly the hand of the God who is hidden from our eyes. By this faith we willingly die to self, keep His commandments, and lift our voice in the sweetest praise while in the throes of the bitterest pain. Are you rejoicing in God? Are you grateful for the work He has given you to do, for the suffering He has providentially appointed you to endure, and for the purifying effect these labors and trials have upon your soul? If not, then it is time to closely examine your heart. Then confess, repent, and rejoice!

More from Rejoicing in Our Great Salvation

Rejoicing in Our Great Salvation: Thankful for Salvation

May 15, 2016 • Pastor Marc Wragg

What do you say to someone who is suffering because they are a Christian? Would you commiserate with them, or maybe encourage them to focus on the positive? The natural inclination of our hearts is to turn from pain and avoid what causes us trouble. We may even be tempted to pull away from Christ when our relationship with Him is the reason for our difficulties. When persecuted, Christians must learn to endure their suffering and even rejoice in it, by fixing their eyes on the glory of Christ’s return and trusting in God’s great salvation work. We are His elect children, foreknown by God before the foundation of the world. Not that we responded to God’s gracious offer and He simply saw it in advance and affirmed it, but that He chose to pour out His love upon us according to the kind intention of His will. When you are suffering as a Christian, remember that God chose these trials to strengthen your faith and demonstrate His saving work in you, so that your salvation will be evident.

Rejoicing In Our Great Salvation: Rejoice In God's Work

August 14, 2016 • Pastor Marc Wragg

If our salvation were up to us, we would never lay hold of it. Nor could we maintain our grip if it were possible to lose. We stand faultless before Him, dressed in the righteousness of His Son; alive though we were once dead, and made children though we were once rebels. Not because we have earned it or deserve it, but simply because of His grace. For these wonderful truths we praise the Father for the riches of His grace and the kindness of His tender mercies. It is He who formed the plan by which we were redeemed, who sent His beloved Son and saw Him crushed for our inequities, who raised the Son to life from the grave, who causes us to be born again so that we may share in His life forevermore, and who gives us His Spirit as a guarantee. Do you avoid sin and seek to practice what is right? Do you love the truth, the Lord, and His Church? Then praise the Father who made all these things so in you!

Rejoicing in Our Great Salvation: Rejoice in God’s Gift

August 21, 2016 • Pastor Marc Wragg

Life can be difficult, even painful. Trials come that drive us to our knees, and that cause us to cry out to God for help and relief. At the same time, we rejoice because we know these difficulties are temporary, and that God uses them to make us fit vessels as we labor in His service and wait on His Kingdom. While the world searches in vain for peace, struggles and fights to find justice, and toils for riches that are fleeting, believers look forward with confidence to a hope that is indestructible, incorruptible, immortal, and preserved by the very power of God. As such, the Christian lives with the knowledge that he must be ready to lose his life now so he can gain an eternal inheritance in Christ. What motivates the Christian and drives him to lay everything on the altar of faith? We labor for a reward that is death-proof, sin-proof, and free from any spot or stain. It is a prize that cannot be lost or stolen, because it has been reserved in heaven for you.