The Furnaces of Life - 1 Peter 1:6-7

Remember, when God puts you into the furnace, He has purposes in mind, and He always keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. He knows how long we can take it, and He knows how much we can take, and He works out His purposes.

Let's talk to our Father now. Gracious Father in heaven, we're grateful that You are on the throne, that Jesus Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords. And that You have our times in Your hands, and You do make all things beautiful in Your time. Give us patience to wait for that beauty to come, even when we're going through times of difficulty. Help us now as we study Your Word. Remind us of what we have learned, teach us something new, convict us, and most of all, make us more like the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

A faith that can't be tested, can't be trusted. And this is one reason why the Lord permits us to go through some of the furnaces of life. We're looking at 1 Peter chapter 1, and in verses 6 and 7 we read, "In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

At the beginning of verse 6, he says, "In this ye greatly rejoice." Now what does "this" refer to? Well, it refers to the time when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed. The previous verse says that we are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And in this appearing of the Lord Jesus, we rejoice. We're looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's going to be a time of reunion. The older we get, the more we are separated from those we love and for those who care for us so much. It seems like the older we get, the more friends we have in heaven than we have here on earth. It'll be a time of reunion. It'll be a time of redemption. We'll have new bodies, glorified bodies that will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in their radiance and their glory.

Oh, so often we feel the shackles of this mortal body of ours. So often we feel the burden of just having a body that holds us back. There's so much we'd like to do. Well, one day we're going to have a completely redeemed body. And of course, when He returns, we're going to see Him, and we're going to be with Him, and we're going to be like Him. We greatly rejoice in this assurance, this wonderful promise that our Lord is going to come. But, but what about today? You see, we do get joy today anticipating glory tomorrow, but we need much more than that. We can't just live on some future experience. We need the help of God today.

Even though it's a great encouragement and a great strengthening to know that Jesus is going to come, we also need help today. And that's why he talks in verses 6 and 7 about what God does for us when we go through the furnaces of life. "In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations or trials." Here we have heaviness and happiness in the same verse. "Ye greatly rejoice, and yet ye are in heaviness." People don't understand this. People do not understand how Christians can carry joy in the midst of sorrow. How we can have happiness and heaviness at the same time. And yet, this is something that God makes possible.

The word that is used here for heaviness is the same word that's used for our Lord's experience in Gethsemane, when He was feeling the great sorrow and woe of facing the cross. Life does have its Gethsemanes. There are trials, there are testings, there are furnaces in our lives. Oh, I know there are those who have a very shallow view of the Christian life today. They tell you that if you are sick or if you are injured in some way, that this is not the will of God, that it is not God's will for anybody to go through the furnace, that God wants all of us to be healthy and wealthy and prosperous. But that's not what Peter says. Peter tells us that when you find yourself in the midst of trials and testings, just lay hold of some wonderful assurances and they will carry you through.

First of all, you can be sure that when you are in the furnaces of life, God is watching the clock. Did you notice what he said here? "In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season." Literally, for a little while. You see, God knows how long the furnace is supposed to go. God is in complete control. I've noticed in my own life that when I suffer, it affects my perception of time. Time goes so slowly when you're lying in a hospital bed. Time just trudges along when your body hurts. And yet when you're feeling good and everything is going well, my, how time flies by. Suffering affects our perception of time. Everything seems to go slowly and we find ourselves crying out, "How long, oh Lord, how long?" And yet the assurance Peter gives us is that God is watching the clock. He knows how long we need to go through trial and suffering.

And for that matter, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. What we're going through today is really nothing compared to the wonderful glory, the surpassing glory that we're going to experience when we meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Now keep in mind, God keeps His eye on the clock. God is watching the clock. This is why Paul wrote, "For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." It's just but for a moment. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17. If you're going through difficulty and trial today, here's assurance number one: God is watching the clock. For a season, He knows how long.

Secondly, God is controlling the thermostat. He knows just how much, and He knows just how much we can take. I appreciate that, because God is the only one who knows how much I can take. I don't know how much I can take. I'm constantly amazed at what God is able to do through His people. God knows exactly how long, and God knows exactly how much. Peter tells us that the trial of our faith is to God and to us much more precious than of gold that perisheth. You know, when the goldsmith is melting down the ore, melting down the gold, oh, he watches the heat. He knows just how long and just how much.

I think it was Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India, who was watching a goldsmith in India as he worked his little furnace. And she said to him, "How long do you do this? How do you know when to stop the heat?" Oh, he said, "When I see my reflection in the melted ore." I wonder if that doesn't teach us something. God knew just how long to cause Joseph to suffer, and then He elevated him to the throne, the second ruler of Egypt. God knew just how long for Job to suffer. And God knew just how long for Jeremiah and even for Jesus to suffer, and God knows just how long for us. The picture here is that of a furnace, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

This is what Job said in Job 23:10, "But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Am I going to come out of the furnace burned and bitter and calloused? Or am I going to come out of the furnace refined to the glory of God? You see, God is putting us through the furnace that He might refine us. And God is watching the clock, and God is controlling the thermostat. And I think sometimes that in my life there's a great deal of dross that needs to be taken away. I think that God puts me through the furnace because I need to be purified. I need that the ore of my faith, the gold of my faith be purified. I don't want my faith mixed with doubt or worldliness or unbelief. I want my faith to be a growing faith, a strengthening faith. God is controlling the thermostat.

Peter compares the trials of life to a fiery furnace. And Peter has told us the purposes that God has in mind for the fiery trial. Remember, when God puts you into the furnace, He has purposes in mind, and He always keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. He knows how long we can take it, and He knows how much we can take. There's a third assurance that you want to lay hold of when you find that you are in the furnaces of life, and that is this, that God is achieving His purposes.

Now I've been saying many times over this program and other places, we do not live on explanations, we live on promises. God doesn't have to explain anything to me. God explained nothing to Job. And yet Job said that when He's tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold. He's going to take the dross out of my life. God does not have to give us explanations. To begin with, we wouldn't always understand them. God's thoughts are above our thoughts and God's ways are above our ways. And secondly, even if we did understand them, would that help us to feel any better? When the doctor comes into the hospital room with a bunch of X-rays and starts to explain to you about your broken bones, does that make you feel any better? No. I don't think so. I'm glad he does it, but I don't think it makes me feel any better. But when the doctor walks in and says, "You know, you're going to be walking within eight weeks." That's something I can live on, that's a promise. And we as God's people, we don't live on explanations, we live on promises.

But God does have purposes for the furnaces of life. God does not do things carelessly or lightly, He loves us too much for that. To begin with, sometimes God has to bring the furnaces of life to chasten us. The psalmist said in Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Thy word." Sometimes God has to send affliction in order for us to come back to the place where we ought to be in serving the Lord with dedication and devotion. Sometimes the furnace means chastening. Sometimes it means the building of character.

I read in Romans chapter 5, beginning at verse 3, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed." He's talking here about the development of character. This is discussed at great length in Hebrews chapter 12, where he talks about the building of character. Each Greek and Roman child was enrolled in the gymnasium for the purpose of building a strong body, learning how to obey the rules and building character.

Now God puts us through the furnace sometime, that He might be able to build strong Christian character. I wrote a book on suffering, and in preparation for that book, I read so many books. I have a shelf of books in my library devoted to the subject of why do Christians suffer? Why is there suffering in this world? And I noticed when I read these books that I had two kinds of books. There were those books that were written out of the furnace. Here were people who really had suffered. And when they wrote a book, it really said something. There were others who were very academic. They'd read their Bibles, they'd studied some theology, and they'd interviewed a few people, but they'd never really suffered themselves. You can always tell when you read a book on suffering whether the person who wrote it had ever suffered himself.

God is achieving His purposes. He chastens us to restore us. He builds Christian character. Sometimes God sends us through the furnace to prevent us from sinning. That's what he did with the Apostle Paul. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, "Lest I should be exalted above measure." There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. God actually caused Paul to suffer that Paul might not sin. We don't understand all of that. Someday we will understand completely. Sometimes God permits us to go through the furnace that we might be prepared for service.

Now you can go through the Bible and meet people who will tell you, "We experience this principle." Joseph. God told Joseph through his dreams that one day Joseph would be a ruler and his family would bow down before him. But at the age of 17, Joseph wasn't ready to be a ruler. He had not yet learned how to be a servant. And God caused Joseph to go through 13 years of trial and testing. He was under the mighty hand of God until the right time came. Remember, I said before, whenever God puts His children into the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and He keeps His hand on the thermostat. He also keeps His hand on you. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. Joseph in prison could not understand why God didn't do something. When the right time came, God did it. And Joseph was exalted in due time. You see, God could trust Joseph on the throne because He discovered He could trust Joseph in the prison, in the kitchen, taking care of Potiphar's household.

God does not turn His hand over and lift us up until He sees that when He turns His hand and pushes us down, we are submissive. If we are under His hand, then one day His hand will be under us and lift us up. This was true of Moses. Moses took a sword in his hand and he thought he was going to straighten out the Israeli-Egyptian problem back in his day, and he killed a man. God said, "Moses, that's not the way we do it. You're not going to promote your way. You've got to learn My way. It's not your arm, it's My arm. It's not your hand, it's My hand. It's not your weapons, it's My weapons." And God had to put Moses off in the wilderness taking care of sheep. Moses was learned in all of the wisdom of Egypt, had a PhD, as it were, from Egypt. But he had to learn one thing, God has His time. And when God's servant is submitted under God's hand, and when God's servant patiently waits for God's time, then God is going to work. This was true of Joshua. Joshua began as Moses' servant. You see, Joseph was a servant, he became a ruler. Moses was a servant, he became a ruler. Joshua was a servant, he became a ruler. Gideon was a servant, he became a ruler. God's preparing you for what He is preparing for you. God is achieving His purposes.

But there's a fourth assurance that you and I must lay hold of. God is watching the clock and God is controlling the thermostat, and God is achieving His purposes, and God will receive the glory. Notice what he says here, "that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Now we may not see the glory today. Oh, we can. We're going to talk about that in our next study, how we can experience the glory today. But there is going to be glory tomorrow. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. In fact, Jesus Christ Himself had to go through suffering before there could be glory. In fact, this is what Peter talks about throughout this letter, throughout 1 Peter, he talks about suffering and glory, suffering and glory, because the two can go together. In fact, he tells us in chapter 5 and verse 10, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while." You see, verse 10 tells us that you've got to focus your attention on the grace of God.

Now the God of all grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory. Grace and glory, they go together, don't they? Suffering and glory go together. Suffering can lead to glory if you're on the bridge of grace. It's grace that turns suffering into glory. It's grace that God uses in our lives to glorify Himself while we are suffering. And this is what Peter's been talking about. Peter says, "Now when you go into the furnace of affliction, remember, God is equipping you. He's preparing you, He's outfitting you for your life and your ministry." Suffering is one of the tools that God uses. He's the God of all grace. Suffering + grace = glory. You may not see the glory today. You may not feel the glory today.

But when Jesus comes back, you will see the glory. And you know, many people, many people, many Christians who have gone through suffering and trial, and they raise the question, "Lord, why? Why?" They're going to find out why. They're going to find out when they stand before Jesus Christ and He gives to them a crown of glory. And they realize that their suffering was not in vain and throughout all eternity, they will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ because they faithfully endured suffering. God is watching the clock. God is controlling the thermostat. God is achieving His purposes. God is receiving the glory. In this ye greatly rejoice, Jesus is coming again.