Precious Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7

Immanuel – 3/21/21

Christ is life! He is the Living Water that quenches our soul’s thirst. He is the Bread from Heaven to satisfy those who hunger for righteousness. He is the Lamb that was slain in our place, that we might be forgiven. He is the Lion that devoured death. He is the Son of Man, born in the flesh to redeem all things. Christ is life!

Our faith is nothing without Him. And yet our faith is weak and forgetful. It needs to be strengthened, and perhaps the greatest way that God strengthens our faith is through suffering.

Purpose

Introduce a number of Biblical concepts about suffering.

What is it about suffering that leads to praise, glory, and honor?

Read 1 Peter 1:3-7

Sorrow and Joy

Our passage starts with “in this you rejoice.” What does this refer to? What is it that we rejoice in? Everything that has come in the past two verses! God’s great gift of faith that He has birthed within us; the gift of an unshakable life filled with hope; our union with Christ so that when He rose, we rose; and inheritance God gives that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading – for all this we rejoice!

What great mercy God the Father has lavished upon us! What gracious promises He gives! What joys of salvation He works! Next week, for Palm Sunday, we will look at these words from Peter: you…rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. The bedrocks of faith, the soaring heights of hope - these are inexpressibly glorious joys! Yes, in these we rejoice!

But from the happy heights of salvation, Peter brings us crashing down into a world afflicted with pain.

Read vs 6

Are we not grieved by various kinds of trials? And there are all kinds: bodies that fail, dreams that die, temptations that won’t, loss, relational strife, pandemics, politics, and persecutions. Of course, there are the internal trials of depression, anxiety, insecurity, loneliness, and so on.

But let’s just say, hypothetically, that you are experiencing no personal suffering in your life. One moment of lucid global awareness should sober you immediately – as African children are stolen and turned into bloodthirsty soldiers, as people groups in China are quietly being made to disappear, as Jihadis collect the heads of infidels, as America has devoted herself to slaughter millions of her unborn. Just being alive in a world of such godlessness is in itself painful.

The possibilities for suffering are manifold and without end. All of us are touched by affliction, and perhaps these considerations are enough to prompt a sense of sorrow within you. How we live in the middle of a great paradox! Let us not forget God’s great work of salvation which fills us with inexpressibly glorious joy! It is as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:10, we are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

This life is a long drink of vinegar and wine; at least is seems like a long drink. In verse 6 Peter writes that these trials are now for a little while. Of course, this “little while” means our life of mortality. Peter is essentially calling it a short stint of suffering. Paul likewise writes that these afflictions are light and momentary. God is reminding us that this marriage of pleasure and pain, sorrow and joy, is only a brief moment.

To be honest, the weight of our present sufferings diminished to a light and momentary affliction, is hardly capable of dissolving the pain. The hurt is real. The sorrow is real. The illness is real. And no matter how long, it feels too long. So many have turned their back on any sense of God because the pain of life is too great. So many have thought that the pain is too great to even go on living.

But there is a conditional clause in verse 6 that turns all of this on its head.

Read vs 6

If Necessary

Did you see it? If necessary. This tiny little conditional clause means that someone is deeming your trials necessary, and mine, and the whole world’s. Someone is behind this world of suffering.

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord commanded it? Is it not from the Most High that the good and bad come? -Lamentations 3:37-38

“I form the light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. Woe to him who strives with Him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to Him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles?’ Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’” -Isaiah 45:7,9-10

Once again we see that God is the first cause, even of suffering. Peter is not afraid of the sovereignty of God, and we will see him return to it numerous times in this letter. Just as God predestines those whom He will elect, so He also predestines all things, knowing the end from the beginning, and bringing about all His purposes. God makes well-being and calamity.

But God is not capricious or random. He is not spiteful or cruel. His purposes are supremely good. If God has purposes in our suffering, then suffering has meaning, it is valuable, it is worthwhile. And for that we need the next verse in today’s passage.

Read vs 7

To understand what God is doing with suffering, let’s start with this image of gold: the unparalleled symbol of value and wealth throughout human history.

When gold is removed from the earth it is both rough and filled with impurities. It must be taken to the refiner, heated to nearly 2,000 degrees, and melted. The impurities then rise to the molten surface and can easily be skimmed away. Finally, the liquid gold is cast into something beautiful and new; the same gold, but bearing very little resemblance to what it once was.

Gold – in the rough – is precious for what it can be. Gold – refined – is precious because of what the Refiner has done. And even as precious as gold is, it is temporal. You cannot take it with you. It is passing away.

Now we come to faith; precious faith, more precious than a world of the most highly refined gold. But we, those that God has caused to be born again, the elect, do not begin in this world of sin with a refined faith.

We are still plagued with sin. We have doubt. Our belief is fragile and often conditional. We allow our sorrows to govern our joys. We easily confuse God’s will with our own. We rely on ourselves rather than God. Yes, our faith is filled with impurities. We are like the desperate father who once said to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

Those God has given faith, and made come alive to a living hope, have yet to be consumed by those realities. Impurities abound. And so the heat must be applied. God casts those He loves into the furnaces of affliction.

Today we are not concerned with the suffering of the whole world, or the suffering of the wicked. Peter will eventually take us there. But it must be said that suffering in the world is a just consequence for sin. Nonetheless, today we are concerned with another question. If a person has genuine faith, what happens in the face of suffering? In other words, how does the furnace of affliction refine faith?

The Furnaces of Affliction

In the face of suffering we are all confronted with the reality that we have no control over our circumstances. We cannot depend upon ourselves to change things, or even to have the strength to get through it. Often, suffering strips us of the things we value, the things we love, the things we think we can’t live without, the things we have made into gods. Suffering reveals all the things of the world, and all the strengths I possess, to be pathetic substitutes for God.

Once stripped of the things we cannot live without, we finally understand that all we have left is Jesus. He is the rock in the midst of the storm, the refuge when all is chaos. As Tim Keller writes: “You don’t really know Jesus is all you have until Jesus is all you have.”

Those are the moments where faith becomes real, when we are truly living in hope. This living hope, this unshakable faith, allows us to look beyond our suffering and see Jesus – our Rock and Refuge – and know that this light and momentary affliction is working for us a weight of glory beyond all comparison.

It is in these times that the precious nature of our faith is revealed. As C.S. Lewis writes, pain is the megaphone of God’s love. We know that no matter how hard, no matter how devastating the loss, no matter how dark the depression, we have faith that God sees and He promises to restore.

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. -Psalm 56:8-9

[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. -Revelation 21:4,7

God not only keeps track of every pain, every tear, but He will one day restore all that was lost, wiping away every tear that has fallen. What love God has for His children! What love we, in turn, have for Him! Is there anything on earth better? Is there anything else you would want more than to fall into the arms of your Savior?

This process, of looking beyond the pain to the day where we will be united with God, is the refining process.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. -Romans 5:3-5

Again, the question was how does the furnace of affliction refine faith? The answer is that suffering reveals all the things of the world, and all the strengths I possess, to be pathetic substitutes for God. And so we must look beyond the pain and see our Savior, and rely on Him, and trust Him, and love Him.

The furnace of affliction purifies our hearts of faith.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” -Matthew 5:8

But it seems to me that there is a problem. Look again at verse 7.

Read vs 7

Matters of Faith

The tested genuineness of your faith. As we have seen, your faith is being tested through the trials of suffering. But, if God is omniscient – knows all things – doesn’t He already know whether or not our faith is genuine? What’s the point of all this suffering if God already knows the results?

Knowing that gold can be refined does not itself refine the gold. It still needs the fire. And God knows perfectly the temperature, and for how long, each rough lump needs to reveal the highest quality of faith. Let us not question God, nor His methods. Let us trust that He knows infinitely better than we.

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it; for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” -Isaiah 48:9-11

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. -Romans 8:28

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. 1 Peter 4:19

God knows. When He casts us into the furnace of affliction, though the suffering is painfully real, let us rejoice! He is working something good, refining something beautiful! Entrust your soul to Him!

The fire may be hot, but these flames are kindles in love. To truly see this, we must finish our passage, but this time I will read it without the parenthesis about gold.

You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This is most specifically talking about the praise, glory, and honor that we – the elect – will receive when Christ returns. You will receive praise and glory and honor, you of little faith, you who needs help believing, you! And God is the One who will lavish you with praises, with glory, with honors.

Each one will receive his commendation from God. -1 Corinthians 4:5

“Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” -Matthew 25:21

And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

-1 Peter 5:4

And now we come to the final question, the one that hangs over this entire passage; and the questions that I gave you for homework in the mid-week update. What is it about suffering that leads to praise, glory, and honor?

First, understand the nature of God. Genuine faith is supremely precious to God because He delights to be trusted. And since God’s evaluation of something is the ultimate standard of meaning in the universe, faith is the most precious thing any human being can possess, because God has an infinite love for those whom possess faith.

And faith is refined in the furnace of affliction.

So when suffering reveals all things to be untrustworthy, and your trust falls finally to Him, He rejoices. When your powers are proven to be weakness, and from Him you draw strength, it is His pleasure. When in a world of sorrow, your hope in Jesus floods you will present joy, God exalts!

Nothing pleases God more than when we trust our troubled, weak hearts to Jesus, and the good plans of our loving Father.

So, what is it about suffering that leads to praise, glory, and honor? When you endure through a world of trial and tribulation, while entrusting your life to God, He will lavish upon you praise and glory and honor.

A few moments ago I read from the prophet Isaiah. That passage ends with:

“My glory I will not give to another.” -Isaiah 48:11

You need to see how your glory in no way diminishes God’s glory. God will heap upon you praise and glory and honor, but this will only serve to magnify His own.

When, one day, God says to you, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master,” when He praises you for your faith, when He honors you with unimaginably great rewards; you will fall on your face in utter humility and awe and cry out, “It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! I did nothing! I am not worthy! All I have is Christ! He has done everything!”

We will join in Heaven’s song,

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! -Revelation 4:12

He took what was impure, and cleansed it. He took what was broken, and restored it. He took what was sinful, and forgave it. He took what was faithless, and made it faithful! He did!

And we will cast our crowns before Him who lived and died and lives again, our righteousness, our Rock and Refuge, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!

Though God will reward His elect with praise and glory and honor, with abounding joy we will return it to Him. And we will know the endless pleasure of Fatherly affirmation, returned with jubilant praises.

These are the promises that lie before us, and all the pain of this world cannot tarnish the weight of glory that is coming! Yes, even in the midst of our present sufferings we have much to rejoice in! Though these words will not eliminate sorrow, may they increase your joy; may they further fix your eyes on the object of our faith: Jesus Christ!

Have hope those who are weary, this is only for a little while. Have hope my friends, God sees each tear that falls. Have hope brothers and sisters, your faith is being refined. Have hope God’s beloved, every sorrow will be extinguished, when faith turns to sight, and you are flooded with pure, exuberant, eternal joy at the revelation of Jesus Christ!

But until that day, let this be your living hope! Let your faith only grow, even if by suffering! It is ok to have small faith. In reality, we all do. And until we see our Savior’s face, let our enduring cry be “I believe, help my unbelief!”