LOVING, BELIEVING, REJOICING
What I have before me tonight is very simple and exceedingly blessed, and I want it to be a word of encouragement for all the Lord’s people here; I do not think you can find any portion more encouraging than this. God has presented to us all the wonderful activities of His grace, mercy and love, &c., for His people from the very beginning, and here they are all gathered up for us, and for our encouragement, as Romans 15: 4 puts it, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning”, so this stamps the character of the instruction and throws it all open for us. It is a very simple epistle—this first Epistle of Peter. Peter here writes to the Jewish believers “scattered”; the fact of their being scattered made no difference in the Lord’s love to them. The Lord’s love to us is a wonderful thing—how He loves us all, and how His love takes account of all that may befall us in our path down here—poverty or sickness—blindness or deafness, whatever it may be—He knows all about it, and we may still have shining hearts, and be superior to it all. His love delights to cater for us, and to minister to our every need. Oh! it is very encouraging!
Now let us look at these two verses, vv 8, 9. In the end of verse 7 our trials are spoken of, and it is in connection with our trials and circumstances that the Lord says, “the proving of your faith much more precious than of gold”. There is an unspiritual way of being occupied with our trials—a selfish way, but the Lord would have us to be exercised by everything. He would not have us indifferent to what He passes us through. Gold is at the top of the list of precious metals; and because it is precious it is subjected to the fire, so that every element of alloy and dross is separated from it. I have often been at a brother’s house who is a goldsmith, and seen the sweepings from the shop brought in, which look like dust and dirt, but the refiner wraps it all up carefully in paper, puts it into the refining pot, opens the furnace door, and in it goes, and the fire immediately consumes all the rubbish; the refiner keeps watching, and at last he puts in the tongs and lifts out the crucible, and leaves it to cool; then with a hammer he breaks it in pieces, and then you see at the bottom a little piece of gold—pure gold which has come out of the refiner’s fire. Pure gold is precious to man, but here the trying of our faith is called “much more” precious to God. Our very short-sightedness makes us often worry, and sometimes we are so short-sighted that we are positively mystified in our trials, but, oh, beloved, do we realise what God has in view? Do we take in that God is going to get a big revenue of praise for Himself through these very trials at the appearing of Jesus Christ? Saint of God, cheer up! you may be “put to grief” down here, you may have very real sorrow in your heart, but take courage, the harvest time is coming and God is going to reap a harvest; I do not know how it will happen, but I think He will say, as it were, ‘Look, here are the people that have been tried and tested by the fire; look at them now—they are all shining!’ Yes, He will get His revenue. Now see the point we have come to—“the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom, having not seen, ye love”. Are you really in the good—the present good of being a Christian? Is your heart going out in affection to Him? We do not find a passive love in scripture; all true love is active; when He commands your affections they flow out to Himself. Look at my watch, the mainspring is the secret of its working; so with us, it is when the heart’s affections are right that the rest corresponds. It is an easy thing to say—“Whom, having not seen, ye love”, but I want the hearts of all here to get really touched with divine encouragement tonight; God is set to encourage and comfort you. What could be more serious for us than anything that interferes with our affections; these saints to whom Peter wrote had lost everything down here, but the Lord had captivated their hearts. He commands their affections, and the Spirit could say of them, “Whom, having not seen, ye love”. Ah, beloved, there is always one thing a Christian can do, and that is, he can love Christ. He can look that blessed One in the face and say, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I am attached to thee”.
The next thing you get is confidence—“believing”. Do you remember His words to His disciples in John 14: 1, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe on God, believe also on me”? They were troubled at the thought of His leaving them, because they loved Him, and thought they would lose sight of Him, but He reminds them that they had confidence in God, whom they had never seen, and would they not have confidence in Him? Do not let the devil worry you; he will if he possibly can; he will tell you that you are a hopeless failure, but you can resist him “steadfast in faith”. Oh, do not give up your confidence in the Lord. Has He ever failed you? that is not His way. I believe I understand the Lord’s look on Peter! Peter had been cursing and swearing, and denying that he ever knew the Lord. What did that look say? Ah! I think it said, ‘Peter, I love you—there is no change in me, I love you just the same’. That is not the sort of look we should give! Oh, no! but that look of the Lord’s just smashed Peter’s heart all to bits—he “went out and wept bitterly”, Matt 26: 75. Oh, beloved, do not give up your confidence in Him! is He not worthy of it? He has never given you any occasion to question His love and faithfulness.
Now what comes next, “joy unspeakable and filled with the glory”—‘glorified joy’ is the real sense of the word. Think of it! if you could see inside such a believer’s heart, you would see it fairly shining with “joy unspeakable and filled with the glory”. Is it not wonderful? And that can be even now. He is coming to receive us to Himself, we are today another day nearer to that, but while we wait for Him, we may again be put to grief, the furnace may be hot, because the “proving of your faith” is going on, yet “believing” we may rejoice with joy unspeakable. I feel we are so little up to it; we are strangely shy of being happy, strangely shy of the road to joy, but “the joy of the Lord is your strength”, Neh 8: 10. The devil will turn us in on ourselves if he possibly can; he will make us miserable, and some try hard to be wise (doctrinal) Christians, and some think it necessary to take low ground; that is just what the devil wants, and if we give him the chance he will get us to low ground and crush us. But oh, to be simple Christians, to see that it is all Christ, and that He is the One we believe and confide in. How simple it is! And then the “joy unspeakable” follows. The Spirit of God says it is “unspeakable”. Peter is not writing to a company of advanced Christians. No, he writes to simple believers. Christ is enough for them.
Now comes the “salvation of your souls”, and it is a remarkable salvation from the very fact of its being soul-salvation. Do you say, When shall I get that? Well, it either takes place now, in this life, or not at all. “Receiving” soul-salvation is when you are morally superior to everything here. I once went to see a sister in Colorado, and for three whole hours she poured out all her troubles; she had got right down under them and they were almost as big to her as the Rocky Mountains, which take forty-eight hours’ travelling to get round. Now, beloved, where are we? Either our trials are on the top of us, or we are on the top of them; the Lord can put us right on the top of them all, and He loves to do so. The first link here is love, the second link is confidence, and then comes rejoicing, and receiving. These blessed things are all linked together, they keep step side by side. The Lord knows the trials of each one of you individually—you are proved by them—but let Him have your heart. Give it up to Him, so that it may go out to Him without let or hindrance; there is no restraining needed with that. We have to keep our loins girded; in walking here we cannot allow our robes to flow, but I can let all my heart go out to Him unreservedly, and then I can be superior to my circumstances and trials. We have in this scripture lovers, believers, and rejoicers, all filled with glory. If we know the glory inside now we shall not feel strange when we actually enter those scenes of endless joy. Do you think that the end of your faith is only to get to heaven? Oh, no! The end of your faith is the salvation of your souls, and that is to be realised here and now. Oh, beloved, try it—try it!