More Precious than Gold

If you’ve ever taken a road trip with children that has been longer than 3 or 4 minutes, you have been asked a question that I think is mandatory for children to ask at this point. You’ve been driving for hours, you were late leaving, everyone else around you suddenly got a memo that they were required to go 10 miles under the speed limit and any previous knowledge that they had on driving was to be tossed out the window, the time on the GPS that was supposed to be going down is now going up, you’ve listened to the same 10 songs on repeat, your co pilot has fallen asleep, and amidst all the sounds of iPads and items dropping onto the floor of the car, you hear a little voice, that is usually a very cute and adorable voice in your estimation ask, the 4 word question that causes you to finally lose it: Are we there yet? When you got in the car originally you were on your way to the happiest place on earth and now you’re contemplating being on your way to a mental hospital. We are so concerned about the destination that we often forget about the journey that it takes to get there. The same holds true for many of us in our Christian lives. Really, we can look at it from 2 perspectives and we’ll touch on them both a little this morning. Our eyes are so set on eternity the destination, on the end goal, that we see no purpose in the journey to get there. Or from the other perspective, we get so discouraged in the journey that we don’t believe that the destination will more than make up for it. I have met a fair share of Christians that seem to get caught up into this idea the Christian life should be a pleasure cruise to heaven without a storm cloud or rough sea in sight. We think that the Christian life is relatively straight forward, there and back again adventure but that isn’t the case. Years ago, heard Tim Keller compare the Christian life to the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books. Keller said that in life, in literature, there are really only 2 types of stories: there are adventures and there are quests. The Hobbit is a children’s story and it’s an adventure. It really is there and back again. In the book, Bilbo gets recruited to be the master burglar for a company of dwarves and Gandalf the wizard and he goes on this adventure, gets to the treasure and by the end of the book he has a shiny new ring and he is back in his hobbit hole. There’s some bumps and bruises on the way but sure enough, he gets to where he needs to be and then comes home and that’s the end of it. The Lord of the Rings isn’t like that, the Lord of the Rings is a quest and in a quest you never really return from it. You either die on the way or you are so greatly changed by it that you’re never the same as you once were. No one in the Lord of the Rings comes back the way they went. Frodo has some bumps and bruises at the end of the book that he doesn’t look like the same Hobbit that he once was. Aragorn the mysterious ranger becomes king of Gondor. Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the white, a quest changes you! It forces change upon you and that is what Keller says the Christian life is like. No one truly goes into the Christian life and comes back the same way and what we are going to see this morning is that Peter says, “Praise God for that!” What’s our big idea for this morning? The Christian life is an adventure and not a quest. In this life there will be trouble but Jesus Christ has overcome the world. The temporary troubles that we go through now only makes the Christian better and the Jesus that we cannot see now will more than make up for what we endure on His behalf here on earth. Let’s pray and then we will read 1 Peter 1:6-12.

1 Peter 1:6–12 NASB95

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.

Temporary Trials

There is something in these verses, really in the entire letter of 1 Peter that, in order to truly understand and appreciate what Peter is writing, you need to have experience. The longer you live the Christian life, the more you will be able to understand and relate to what Peter writes about in these verses. What do I mean by that? Back when I was at my old church in Virginia, I preached through 1 Peter in the Spring of 2021, so over 4 years ago and I can honestly say that I have a better understanding of what Peter says in these verses, a better appreciation of what Peter says in these verses now than I had then. How so? They’re the same verses, I’m even preaching the same division of verses that I preached then? How can I say that there has been a greater understanding and a greater appreciation and the answer might surprise you: I know more and I’ve suffered more. I know more, I’ve suffered more, and you know what? Praise God for it. Now on the surface, if you look at me and you look at someone else, you would possibly think and I would probably admit that I have not suffered as much as someone else. But grief and suffering, regardless of the degree, is still grief and suffering. One of the greatest evidences that we are human and live in a fallen world is the fact that each and every one of us experiences grief and suffers. If you haven’t suffered yet, just live a little bit longer and I promise that you will. Peter readily acknowledges that in his letter. He says in verse 6 that the believers that he is writing to have been distressed or grieved by various trials but notice before we even go past those words what he says at the beginning of verse 6. Here we see what I call the answer to enduring the suffering that we go through now as Christians. Here is why I can say that I have a better understanding almost 5 years later than when I first taught this. The first words in verse 6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice.” In what? It’s the reality of what Peter writes in verses 1-5. Do you remember what Peter writes about in those verses? Basically we have an entire systematic theology in 5 verses. In the first 5 verses we have what is known as the Ordo Salutis. That’s Latin for the order of salvation or you might know it better as the golden chain of salvation. Not to rehash what Ken preached last week but if you look at verses 1-5, you see all of this doctrine, you see all of this theology. We see that the Christian is the one that is foreknown by God, chosen by God, saved by Christ and the shedding of His blood, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and all of this is done because God who is rich in mercy has caused us to be born again through the resurrection of Christ as we await a glorification that is reserved for us, kept for us, and protected for us, until the time has come for it to be reveal. Peter says in this the Christian greatly rejoices. If you want to be able to endure through trials, endure through sufferings, you need theology! You need doctrine! This is something that doesn’t sound complicated or controversial but oh how people fight against theology and doctrine. How often do we hear the phrase “doctrine divides?” People say, “Keep your doctrine, keep your theology, I just want to love Jesus.” But what is Peter saying? He’s saying the grounds of your rejoicing doesn’t come from less doctrine, it comes from a greater understanding of doctrine. You and I need theology. R.C. Sproul used to say that everyone’s a theologian, what matters is will you be a good one? Without knowing Christian doctrine, you can’t make sense of the presence of suffering in the world and you certainly can’t make sense of it in your life. Did you know that? The only way that anything in this world makes any sense is if the Christian worldview is true. Any other religion, any other belief system, any other worldview cannot make sense of suffering, in fact it can’t even support why it exists. In the Christian life though, we see that grief and glory are bound together. There is no glory unless there is grief. The reason that so many Christians find themselves struggling in grief and suffering is because they spend all of this time listening to themselves instead of preaching to themselves. You see part of the issue is that we try to reason suffering away outside of what we know from Scripture. We ignore doctrine, we ignore Scripture, we ignore theology and when we try to find the answer to the problems and grief of our lives just through Jesus-tinted glasses, we end up with unbiblical and disappointing answers. Instead of listening to yourself, we need to talk to ourselves. Ask yourself why questions. That’s what the Psalmist does in Psalm 42. In Psalm 42 the Psalmist is going through trials. He is going through suffering and instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist, instead of doing all sorts of escape mechanisms that people attempt to do when it comes to suffering, he tells himself what he already knows! He preaches to himself doctrine. Look at Psalm 42:5 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.” Then in verse 11 he repeats the same thing. He doesn’t deny the trials, he doesn’t deny the suffering, instead he is saying that despite this going on in his life, the ultimate answer to it is that he will hope in God. The Christian is the only person that can go through trials and still rejoice. Notice what Peter says in verse 6. He doesn’t say that various trials have come and gone and now we can finally rejoice. He says that currently they are rejoicing even though they have been distressed by various trials. There is this misconception that people have that true Christian joy can only be experienced after the trial has passed. Why do we have these trials? Peter gives the answer in verse 7 1 Peter 1:7 “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The reason that anything comes into our lives as Christians is ultimately for our good. When we think about a passage of Scripture like Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” how much do we really believe that? Because it can be very tempting to take a verse like Romans 8:28 and say that it is a verse that promises us that only good things will happen in our lives. It’s so tempting to take this verse and say, “God loves me so much that He will never make me go through anything. God will never push me, God will never challenge me, God will never try me.” But that isn’t what Paul is saying and that certainly is not what Peter is saying in these verses. What all of Scripture testifies to is that for the Christian, even the pain that we go through now, will ultimately lead to glory. The things that we go through now that God gives to us isn’t to remove faith, it’s to purify it. It’s to make it stronger than it was before and I will say that the more I go through things, the harder life becomes, the stronger I discover God to be and I would never have come to that conclusion if God did not first bring trials into my life. Edmund Clowney said,

The Message of 1 Peter 3. Joy through Trials in Christ Our Hope (1:6–9)

God sends trials to strengthen our trust in him so that our faith will not fail. Our trials keep us trusting; they burn away our self-confidence and drive us to our Savior. The fires of affliction or persecution will not reduce our faith to ashes. Fire does not destroy gold: it only removes combustible impurities.

You see the trials that God sends into our lives, He always sends with a purpose. He allows things to take place that, though we may not see the worth and value of now, we will see it in full later. How do we know this? Again it’s because of doctrine. It’s because we know what Christ is making us to be and we know that God is reigning and we know that before the world began, God has loved us with an everlasting love. What we see happening in the Christian life is really an ongoing living out of the Gospel message that God is more than able to bring glory out of grief. Is that not what we see happening in the resurrection? Is that not what we see in the death of Christ? What was once the cause of great grief turns into joy inexpressible and full of glory. Everything that the Christian goes through now, even the things that they don’t understand, God is ultimately using to bring them to a greater understanding of the faith, a greater understanding of joy, and a greater appreciation of the glory that is to come. So are you starting to see why the Christian life is an adventure and not a quest? Because in the Christian life, it is impossible to go there and back again. In the Christian life it is impossible to finish the way you came in. God is working all things ultimately for His glory and our good. So let’s stop there because I anticipate some objections. I anticipate that there’s some hurt and maybe some anger. Who am I as the pastor and maybe even deeper who is God that He can take something that is so painful to me and use it as an illustration or a building block? What gives Him the right to play with me like that? Well let me jump a little bit ahead to verse 11. At the end of verse 11, Peter mentions that the prophets predicted “the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” The what of Christ? Sufferings! You see we forget that Jesus Christ really and truly suffered. When we hear the question of why do bad things happen to good people, the only answer that we can give is that there has only ever been one and He volunteered for it. Isaiah 53:3-6 says,

Isaiah 53:3–6 NASB95

He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Then in Isaiah 53:10–11 we read: “But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” Read that and tell me that we serve a God that is unfamiliar and untouched by suffering. What happened to Jesus was ultimately so that God would receive praise, honor, and glory and that lost sinners would come home. What happened to Jesus is the only way that you or I or anyone could obtain the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls. When it comes to the presence of trials and suffering in the life of the Christian, understand that you do not go through anything that God Himself is not willing to go through. Jesus Christ lost all things, Jesus Christ lost His life, God the Father witnessed the execution and unlawful death of His own Son! The beauty of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, the perfect and sinless Son of God, takes on all of the weight of judgement and righteousness that you and I deserve as sinful and fallen people and we as sinful and fallen people get the peace, love, and grace that only the perfect Son of God deserves. One of the glories of the Christian faith is that trials and suffering serve to make us more like Jesus. Thomas Watson said, “A true saint carries Christ in his heart and the cross on his shoulders. Was His head crowned with thorns, and do we think to be crowned with roses?” So if you came in this morning hoping that I would be able to give you an exact answer as to why you are going through or went through what you went through, all I can tell you is what you should hopefully already know: Jesus takes all the wrath that you deserve so that you can enjoy the perfect peace with God that you couldn’t earn. What is happening to you right now as a Christian is not God’s way of trying to crush you under the weight of His wrath, everything that happens to you is designed by His loving hand to bring you closer to Him. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

1 Thessalonians 5:9–11 NASB95

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Christians are always in a sense in the process of obtaining salvation. Peter uses the same language in verse 9. Christians are saved, they are in the process of being saved, and they will one day finally and fully be saved when we come into the presence of Jesus. Everything that happens to us now is happening with a loving heart, gracious hands, and a sovereign purpose. But you say, “Brady, I don’t understand it though. I don’t see it yet. I don’t get how God is going to use this.” The promise of Scripture is you may not know all of the why just yet, but one day we will be able to look at every moment in our lives like Joseph did and realize that what man meant for evil, God used for good. As William Cowper once wrote, “Oh, fearful saints, new courage take: the clouds that you now dread. Are big with mercy and will break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for HIs grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. God’s purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure err and scan His work in vain. God is His own interpreter and He will make it plain.” Whatever we are going through now we know that it isn’t for nothing and we know that in the grand scheme of eternity, these afflictions really will be seen as light and momentary. The salvation of the saints is something that is so remarkable, so miraculous, so beautiful, that even the prophets of old labored their entire lives to proclaim it and angels long to see it.

So Great a Salvation and an Eye Towards Home

Now if you are here today and you are not a Christian, let me take just a second to do all I can to encourage you to get you to grab hold of this salvation that is offered to you. This salvation that prophets proclaimed and angels peer into is found nowhere else but in Jesus Christ. You live in a fallen world. We all do. This world is full of sin and all creation is longing for the day when God makes all things new. The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2 to not neglect so great a salvation. Don’t neglect this. Don’t push it aside. Don’t act like you don’t need it. You need it. I need it. This is not just a slight rescue from a temporary danger or disappointment. This is eternal life. In this salvation we are rescued from hell, we are rescued from death, we are rescued from the wrath that is to come. John Owen wrote, “But as we have seen what we are delivered from by this salvation, so the excellency of the inheritance which we obtain thereby is such as no heart can conceive, no tongue can express. It brings us into the favor and love of God, unto the adoption of children, unto durable rest and peace; in a word, into the enjoyment of God in glory eternal. Oh the blessedness of this rest, the glory of this inheritance, the excellency of this crown, the eternity and unchangeableness of this condition, the greatness of this salvation!” This salvation is more than sufficient, this salvation that is offered to you this day, the glory that is to come will more than make up for any and all loss that you may experience here. You may be here today and look at the suffering of this world, or maybe you are even suffering something today and you might be thinking, “How can God make up for this?” Let me say something that might push your buttons, God doesn’t owe you anything. God doesn’t owe you a cup of cold water on a hot day. On your own, you’ve given God nothing but further reason to condemn you in your sin. God owes you nothing. God owes me nothing. God’s not here to bargain with you. You can’t present your case to Him and be on the winning side. God will give you and your sin exactly what you deserve and it will be done righteously, it will be done with perfect justice. God does not need to make up for anything in your life because you’ve done nothing but sin against Him in this life and once you recognize that, once God opens your heart for you truly understand that, your whole understanding of the Gospel and salvation changes. God does not just put a new coat of paint on the totaled vehicle that is your life and soul. No, God makes you new. Here we are, sinners made from the dirt and instead of ridding the earth of us this very day, God has given us another day, and by His grace He will give us another day, and with all that grace and mercy that is shown to you, will you respond to it with more sin? With more reason for Him to rid the earth of you? God has given you this day, this moment, this second to cast your cares upon Him. To come to Him with all of your sins and say, “God take this away! Make me new! Lord Jesus, save me!” Hebrews 4:16 says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Friends, now is the day that you must draw near to the throne of grace, right now is your time of need. But let’s go back to your original complaint. Christians, you might even be thinking this too. You might be thinking that there is far too much suffering, far too much pain, far too much hurt and you may have no idea how God or the Gospel can touch on that. Might I challenge you by saying that the darkness of this world, the pain that you are feeling, does not detract from the glory of the Gospel, it enhances it? The Gospel has always been good. I remember hearing a pastor years ago talking about the day he went to buy an engagement ring for his soon to be wife and as he went through the Jewelry shop he looked at ring after ring and some were very beautiful but after a while, he still could not find one that he thought was good enough. He asked the man working behind the counter, “Is this all you have?” Well the jeweler took one of the rings that the man was looking at and he put it on top of a black piece of felt. Other than that he did nothing to it but the man said that in that moment, the light hit that ring just right and he could see this great contrast between the beauty of that ring and the blackness of that felt. The ring was always beautiful, the ring didn’t change, there was no slight of hand with a hidden ring put on display. It was always beautiful, in a way it was always perfect, but in order to see just how beautiful it was, there needed to be the contrast of that darkness. The Gospel has always been beautiful and when you see it in contrast to the darkness of this world, it only becomes more precious. In this world there is trouble, there is danger, there is pain, and yet God is good. Does God ever give us more than we can handle? Sometimes he will because sometimes it’s necessary. It’s necessary so that we can remember the surpassing worth belongs to God and not to us and though we don’t see Him now, one day we will. Though we don’t see Him now, we love Him because we know that no matter what we go through in this life, He loves us with an everlasting love. Until that time comes when we see Him face to face, what do we do? How do we endure on this quest that is the Christian life? We keep our eyes on Him and we keep our eyes on home. With the few minutes that we have left, let’s look again just one more time at 1 Peter 1:11. Peter writes that the prophets preached a message of salvation and it was centered upon the grace that was to come. Carefully they were “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” Do you notice that last phrase? “The sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” The entire theme of this letter is focused on Christians that were suffering, that were being persecuted, some may have even been put to death and what Peter wants his readers to know is that Jesus Christ Himself suffered and there was a glory that followed and the same is true for every other Christian. Suffer now; glory later. Where Christ is, we shall be too and as C.S. Lewis once put it, all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the fact that one day we will be on that side of the door. Gone will be the days of suffering, gone will be the days of heartache, gone will be the days of persecution, and that which the world takes from our lives, God will add to our crowns later. When we feel like we can’t go another step, when we can’t move another inch, Peter reminds his readers that Christ Himself suffered and glory followed. The author of Hebrews 12:2 reminds us that we are to be, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” How similar is that to what Peter writes about in these verses? There is a joy set before Christ, a joy that He did not possess prior to His sufferings that laid before Him and with that in mind, He endured and now He’s in glory. Suffering now, endure now with the full assurance that glory will follow. A day will one day come for all Christians when the sufferings of this life will look like nothing more than a drop of sand in an eternity of beaches. A day will come when all this darkness truly will look like a small and passing thing. Dear Christian, you aren’t going through these times and trials alone. We may look at these days we are in and think, “Why am I here? Why am I going through this?” God didn’t choose Billy Graham for these times, God didn’t choose Charles Spurgeon or George Whitefield or John Wesley or Augustine for these times. He chose you. God chose you to be the Christian that was to endure through these times and that in a way, is an encouraging thought. God chose you to be a light in this time, God chose you to be a living sacrifice for Him in these times, God chose you to bring the Gospel to this place and this time. Embrace it! Embrace the trials and the privilege now! Here and now is the only time where we get the honor and privilege of suffering for Christ because we won’t have that opportunity in glory. Just think about that, in Heaven, we won’t ever have the opportunity to glorify Christ in our sufferings because all suffering will be gone. Whatever it is you are going through, Jesus is enough. Jesus carried His cross and now we must carry ours, knowing that glory is coming. Even as we endure through these tough times we can do it with joy because Jesus Himself said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” With eyes to a Savior that loves us and will surely come again, look home to Heaven knowing that this adventure is only serving to make you better. Samuel Rutherford said, “Think not much of a storm upon the sea when Christ is in the ship.” Friends I don’t know what you are going through, I can’t even imagine what some of you may be going through but I can promise you this: 2,000 years of church history has testified to the fact that Jesus Christ gives a greater strength to endure and there is a greater glory ahead than anything that is behind us and with all the saints, we can greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible. In the moments where we cannot trace His hand, we know that we can trust His heart. May we not forget the words of one of the greatest hymns ever written. May these words be on our tongue and in our heart as we remember that the best is yet to come, the victory already won, and holy and righteous King that is over all: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. High king of heaven, my victory won. May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O ruler of all. Are we there yet? Not yet, just a little bit further, dear Christian you are almost home. Let’s pray.