5. God's Great Mercy in Tribulation

God’s Great Mercy in Our Trials

1Pe 1:3-9  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  (4)  to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,  (5)  who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  (6)  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,  (7)  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,  (8)  whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  (9)  receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Introduction: If I am honest, I found it difficult connecting to this text. The afflictions, yes, the testing by fire, that too. What I have a difficult time with is the rejoicing. The Greek word literally means to jump with joy, so it is more than just an inward attitude of the heart, but also an outward manifestation of praise and adoration. But my failure to identify with this text is not because God has failed to take into account my Eeyore type personality, but it is rather my failure to make God’s great mercy in my salvation a focus and priority in meditating on these great truths. It is a false piety to dwell only on my failures to the exclusion of the excellencies of the Triune God of our salvation. Yet again, Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, takes us and baptizes us in the ocean of God’s infinite and great mercy. He does not sprinkle, he does not pour, but plunges us beneath the great healing waters of God’s mercy and God’s truth.

There is Joy in Sorrow v6

UnBiblical Views

There are a couple of views put for in churches that are unbiblical in their teaching on how Christians should deal with sorrow and distress in this life.

Health and wealth prosperity gospel or the name it claim it crowd teaches that if you are suffering it is because you don’t have enough faith.

Another teaching is that we should sail through suffering with a smile without acknowledging the pain or the heaviness of our hearts. This view makes it impossible to deal biblically with pain and grief. With this view Pastors speak platitudes that do nothing to alleviate the pain, do nothing to comfort the Christian in distress.

The Biblical View

Don’t deny the pain or grief. The Psalmist acknowledges over and over again his distress. Psa 31:9-13 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. (10) For my life is spent with sorrow, And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. (11) Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. (12) I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind, I am like a broken vessel. (13) For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life.

Peter acknowledges their struggles ‘you have been distressed by various trials’. He doesn’t minimize their struggles, but Peter brings balance in that he acknowledges their great rejoicing. Struggles and rejoicing are not mutually exclusive.

Paul spoke of his own experience through trials as being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10). He modeled it many times, but perhaps nowhere as clearly as when he and Silas sang praises to God at midnight from the Philippian jail, as their backs were laid open from the illegal scourging they had received (Acts 16:25).

It is in this verse that Peter points us back to the God of our Salvation. He marries their great rejoicing in God’s causing us to be born again to a living hope and to our future inheritance to God’s present work in the life of the believer. You may ask, brother, how does Peter do this? He does this with two phrases that define the limits of their present trials. “Now, for a little while” and “if necessary’. In the context of the following verses we understand that the various trials are for the proving, the refining of our faith. From this text there are three major points.

Because of God’s great mercy and love He takes all whom He loves through trials.

“In the world you have tribulation” (John 16:33).

“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

“All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

Of Jesus it is written, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

Of us it says, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.... If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb. 12:6, 8).

If we are good students of the Scripture we should ask why does God take us through trials?

Because of God’s great mercy and love He takes all whom He loves through trials to refine their faith.

Trials for the people of God, refine faith.

“That” (1:7) points to the purpose of the various trials of 1:6: that our faith might be tested or refined, like gold, to remove the dross so that at the coming of Christ there will be praise, honor, and glory. Faith is at the very heart of the Christian life. We are saved by faith; we walk by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

Proof is a verb that describes either the process of determining the genuineness of something or the end result. The Puritan, Thomas Manton explained it as "Trial is not only to approve, but to improve."

Faith is compared and contrasted to gold. Gold was and is of high value. It was a measure of wealth and worth. But Peter is saying that faith, refined by fire, is more precious than gold. How? Why? Gold only has value in this life. It may provide creature comforts and ease in this life but it does nothing for the soul. It can offer no solace, no hope, no promise for the future. While faith does not provide creature comforts, it is precious in comforting and soothing the soul when fixed upon Christ. It is compared to gold in that as gold is made more pure in the refiner’s fire; as the dross floats to the top of the gold and skimmed off. Faith likewise is made more pure in the fires of affliction. It is by faith that a wife of a missionary in Haiti held her dying husband in her arms and sang to him while he was drawing his last breaths, ‘What’ere My God Ordains is Right’.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

His holy will abideth;

I will be still whate’er He doth;

And follow where He guideth;

He is my God; though dark my road,

He holds me that I shall not fall:

Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

He never will deceive me;

He leads me by the proper path:

I know He will not leave me.

I take, content, what He hath sent;

His hand can turn my griefs away,

And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

His loving thought attends me;

No poison can be in the cup

That my Physician sends me.

My God is true; each morn anew

I’ll trust His grace unending,

My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

He is my Friend and Father;

He suffers naught to do me harm,

Though many storms may gather,

Now I may know both joy and woe,

Some day I shall see clearly

That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

Though now this cup, in drinking,

May bitter seem to my faint heart,

I take it, all unshrinking.

My God is true; each morn anew

Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,

And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:

Here shall my stand be taken;

Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,

Yet I am not forsaken.

My Father’s care is round me there;

He holds me that I shall not fall:

And so to Him I leave it all.

There is a faith that is false. It falls to the wayside in the midst of trial. We need to be clear that there is such a thing as false faith that does fail. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that in the shallow, rocky soil, the seed sprouted, but when the sun came out, it withered and died because it had no root. He explained that this refers to those who first receive the word with joy, but when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, they fall away, thus showing that their faith was not genuine (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17).

Trials are temporary, necessary, and under God’s control.

-temporary now for a little while. There are times when we endure trials for many years and it may be difficult to grasp Peter’s meaning here. That’s a little while compared to eternity. Paul expressed the same thing when he said, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

- Trials are temporary; salvation is eternal. In a short while, Jesus Christ is returning in glory and we will spend all eternity with Him. Our present trials, no matter how great, will pale in significance in the light of eternity. Thus, in the midst of our pain, we can have great joy if we will focus on the shortness of time and the eternal glory that awaits us when Jesus returns.

Necessary - If necessary points to only that which is necessary and not one thing more. God is not spiteful or evil in the unnecessary affliction of His people. Rather only those trials and afflictions which are necessary for the growth in faith are permitted; not for our detriment but for our good, as God has ordained that we should be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. Of Jesus it is written, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). How much more so us?

Under God’s sovereign control. The implication of verse 7 is that God is the refiner. He is the metallurgist proving our faith as gold, removing the dross. Eph6 and 1Peter5 speak of Satan and spiritual warfare. We know from Eph6 that Satan’s spiritual warfare against the people of God are specific and unique to each believer. I Peter 5 says that Satan prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The comfort in these two words ‘if necessary’ is the knowledge that Satan is that heavy hammer intent on the destruction of those whom he strikes. But he is just a tool of our heavenly Father, who wields it not for our destruction, but for our shaping and molding. Each blow placed specifically and with just the right amount of force to accomplish His design. I heard this analogy many years ago and I don’t remember the Puritan who first coined it.

The product of trials is reward when Christ returns

The result will be “praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Whose praise, glory, and honor is Peter talking about? Since God alone is worthy of praise, glory, and honor in the ultimate sense, we could argue that His praise alone is in view. But there is a secondary sense in which God will reward believers at the coming of Christ with praise.

1Co 4:5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.

2Ti 4:8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Glory (Rom. 2:7, 10; Col. 3:4), and honor (Rom. 2:7, 10; 2 Tim. 4:8). We share these because of our identification with Christ (Rom. 8:17), and we will properly cast all honors back at His feet. Yet we can endure trials knowing that we will be rewarded when Christ returns.

Because of God’s great mercy we can have joy in our affliction by looking to the Savior and His salvation.

We look to the Savior with faith.

We’ve already seen that trials are to purify our faith. Peter says (1:8) that inexpressible joy in trials comes through believing in Jesus even though we do not see Him. We need to understand that faith is not an automatic response. Neither is it passive endurance. Faith is actively choosing to trust God in spite of my circumstances. Faith is putting my weight down on the firm promises of God. Spurgeon said that trials aren’t just to burn out the dross, but also to burn in the promises.

In a time of trials, it seems as if Christ is not there with you. So by faith you must say, “He promised to be with me even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20), He promised never to leave or forsake me (Heb. 13:5), so I lay hold of Him right now by faith.” As Jesus told Thomas, who didn’t believe in His resurrection until he saw Jesus with his own eyes, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29). That’s us! We will be blessed when we look to the Savior by faith even when we’re in the pits. It’s our choice and duty.

We look to the Savior with hope.

Note the future look of these verses. I’ve already mentioned the temporary nature of our trials in light of eternity. Peter mentions the revelation of Jesus Christ. That means His coming, but it brings out a subtle nuance that is important to grasp, namely, that Jesus is present but unseen right now, but the day is coming when He will be revealed. (Peter repeats this word, in noun or verb form, in 1:5, 7, 13; 4:13; 5:1.)

Also, Peter emphasizes the future sense of our salvation (1:9). In the New Testament, there are three tenses of our salvation. Once we have truly believed in Christ, we can say, “I have been saved from sin’s penalty” (John 3:36; Titus 3:5-8). But also, all who have been saved must say, “I am being saved from sin’s power” (1 Cor. 1:18; 15:2). Some day we will be saved from sin’s presence (Rom. 5:9-10; 13:11; 1 Pet. 1:9). Thus in a time of trial, we look with hope to the Savior who has saved us, is saving us, and will save us completely when He returns.

We look to the Savior with love

“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him” (1:8). Love for Jesus Christ in response to His ultimate love for us as seen in the cross, is the central motivation for the Christian life. It’s so easy to drift into the place of the church in Ephesus, which Jesus commended by saying, “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who called themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.” Wow! What more could you want, Lord? “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:2-4).

May we look inwardly and see if we have indeed left our first love.

How do we cultivate and maintain that kind of love for our unseen Savior? Three thoughts:

First, Spend time alone with Him. You can’t cultivate love for your mate if you never spend time alone together. If you want to love the Lord more, spend time alone with Him in His Word and in prayer.

Second, Obey Him. In our day of “sloppy grace,” people think that obedience is legalism and has no place under grace. Those who think so need to read their Bibles. Jesus said, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (John 15:10). The apostle John wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3). If you are disobeying God, you will not be able to love Him as you should.

Third, Come frequently to the Lord’s table. It is a time to look to the Savior and the salvation He provided for us at the price of His blood. He knew that we tend to forget, so He instructed us to do it often in remembrance of Him. It’s a time to receive His love and express your love back to Him. As you look to Christ and His salvation, as seen in those elements, you will experience His joy, even from the pits.