Kept but tested

1 Peter 1 verse 5 to 7
Part of our inheritance is to be kept safe until we receive it . If our faith is in ourselves, our goodness or our faith we will perish. If our faith is in God we will be safe. Peter gives reasons.
A. WE ARE SAFE UNTIL WE HAVE OUR INHERITANCE
1. The assurance is we are kept by God
Guarded or protected means to throw a guard around us or something. We are like a bird in the palm of an all powerful God. No one and no devil can snatch us. Why do we need it? We are in a spiritual battle and we have a powerful enemy in the Devil. We also have weak flesh which is vulnerable to attack by the Devil. By faith we are garrisoned around by God.
2. The Salvation is ready to be revealed.
a) We are protected by the power of God - John 10. We are secured and it cannot be taken from us.
b) We are protected through faith. If we have faith in God we are protected. We are not kept from slips and falls but our faith survives all this and we cannot finally fail. See Psalm 125 - as the mountains surround Jerusalem so God surrounds his people.
c) We are safe until the coming of the salvation when we are free from sin and temptation. He will preserve it in Heaven for us. We are being escorted home by Christ.
d) We will experience that fullness of our salvation in due time. It is referred to the great day or that day when the Lord Jesus comes. Our salvation is like a statue waiting to be unveiled. It is God's purpose to show off his Son's bride. God cannot reveal the bride until the end times.
B WE WILL SUFFER BEFORE BEFORE OUR INHERITANCE - verse 6
1. Trials do come. For Bonhoeffer, people said God was very real to him and he regarded death as the beginning not the end of life. Peter knew about difficult and painful times. Peter wrote this letter to people going through a rough time. Christian slaves were being treated unfairly by their masters, wives were being mistreated etc. Many believers had lost former friends who now slandered them. Our lives can be painful and hard. Trials come and they are inevitable.
2. Trials do not prevent joy. How do we deal with suffering?
a) Some say we shouldn't suffer. We're supposed to claim healing. It is unbiblical.
b) Others say that Christians are to rejoice in it. This can can lead to hypocrisy and emotional problems. It is to deny it and is also unbiblical. This Christian faith is not stoical. Jesus wept over death and suffering.
c) Some say that we need to express how we feel. They say 'let it all hang out and encourage Christians to rage against God.' These are all unsound.
d) The Biblical way is not to deny the pain or grief, but at the same time to have genuine joy in the Lord. It is to have a genuine joy. Afterwards it yields a harvest of joy. We will never lose our inheritance. Happiness comes and goes, joy is God given and far deeper - an inner joy in God is an enormous comfort. Peter does not deny grief, but says we can bear it with God's inner joy. We may suffer and we may grieve by there is the joy of knowing God loves us which will never leave us.
3. Trials are brief. Now, for a little while.
There may seem no end to the trial, it may seem to go on forever but what Peter says that what goes on in this life is little compared to the endless ages of eternity. We often suffer from spiritual near sightedness, now seem real and eternity unreal - see 1 Corinthians 4 verse 17. We need to live with the great expectation of Heaven. We know our trials cannot last forever. There will be an end to them.
4. Trials are multifaceted - griefs in all kinds of trials.
a) There are those who suffer simply because it is a suffering world. It might be illness, bereavement, unemployment etc. We can have deep distress over our sufferings in this world.
b) Others suffer on account of their identification with Jesus Christ. For the people reading this letter they suffered social ostracism. Peter has in view these people - see 1 Peter 3 verse 14 and 17 and 4 verse 13. Our hardship comes as we follow Christ in obedience. John Bunyan suffered because he followed Christ. Joni Erickson-Tarda suffered physically and emotionally and is a quadriplegic, are they the same? No! but she must walk as a believer.
5. Trials are needful.
Whether short or long, hardship comes, they are necessary to help us grow spiritually. The Saviour takes all he loves through trials. Hebrews 12 verse 7. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. This seems very depressing but we must learn through them. Malcolm Muggeridge said: "Everything I have learned, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness"
Luther called it: "the very best book in my library" and Whitfield said "God puts burrs in our bed to keep us watchful and awake." We are made wiser, better and more discerning through our trials. C S Lewis said "God whispers to us in our pleasure but shouts to us in our pain". We listen through our pain because we will not listen any other way. God drives home the eternal perspective through our pain and suffering. It keeps us humble and near the Lord. Trials are needful and if necessary, the Lord knows what we need for our eternal good. He knows what will make us depend on him more.
We have a wonderful inheritance to come, if we love the Lord. The road to glory may cut our feet but he is with is every step of the way and no trial can rob us of our inheritance. If our trials are great it is to make us ready for glory.