Series Overview, Part 2

Prayer and Review of Previous Statements on Suffering

0:05 Dear children, as you're thinking about friends and what friends you should choose, I challenge you, find anyone over 50 who has not known Christ as his friend through his life and ask him if he can sing a song like that about the devil.

0:27 Anyone ever make up a song like that to the devil? He cares for me. He meets all my needs. No, Jesus said of the devil, he is the thief who comes not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

0:45 May God grant that Christ will become your Savior and friend in your youth. You may testify that there is no friend like Jesus.

0:57 Now let us pray and ask God to help us as we come to his word together. Our Father, how we do thank you for all the truths. We have been able to sing out of our hearts unto you, our God and our Savior. We do thank you that we are accepted not on the grounds of what we have done or ever shall do, but because Christ has lived the life we should have lived and did not, died the death we should have died but dare not, we can come into your presence in the confidence of sins forgiven, of a declaration from the court of heaven that we are accepted as righteous in the Lord Jesus. And we thank you that in him you have promised us all things needful for life and for godliness. We now need your help. I need your help that I may rightly open up your word.

2:02 Those who gather here need your help that they may rightly understand, receive in faith and obey. That way. So in our corporate need we call upon you, our gracious God, come and meet with our waiting hearts we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

2:24 In the evening service of August 13 of this year, eight weeks ago to be exact, I made the following statement. I said it was my intention to bring our studies in the book of 1 Peter to a conclusion by preaching, two final messages, one on the evening of August the 13th and then the second on the evening of August the 27th. Well in the overriding providence of God that second summarizing message get preached and I intend to preach it this evening. And for the sake of those who were not with us on August the 13th, let me take just a few minutes to highlight the primary issues addressed, in that first of the two concluding and summarizing messages. I began by reminding you of the central pastoral burden of the entire letter of 1 Peter. It was Peter's pastoral burden to impart instruction, comfort and exhortation to the believers in the churches of Asia Minor in the light of their present and future sufferings

3:46 sufferings for the sake of Christ. I then stated that it was my judgment that the rich and varied instruction of that letter regarding suffering for righteousness' sake could be stated in six major statements. And in the message on August 13, we covered the first three of those statements. And as I give them by way of review, I am not going to cite them from 1 Peter that validate these summarizing statements. I commend to you the tape if you desire to have the specific portions. Here are the first three of the six statements that I intended to make relative to the doctrine of suffering for righteousness' sake as it is set forth in the first letter of Peter. Number one, in the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, feed your soul on the greatness of your salvation in Christ. In the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, feed your soul on the greatness of your salvation in Christ. From the opening words of the formal

5:06 part of the epistle, after the introductory words, Peter focuses the attention of his readers upon salvation in Christ and all the way through to that marvelous statement in chapter 5 and 10. This great salvation in Christ is set before suffering saints that they might feed their souls on the greatness of that salvation. Peter describes it as a salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation rooted in eternal purpose. A salvation that has come by the past accomplishments of the work of Christ. A salvation with its present privileges and a salvation with its glorious future prospects. The second summarizing statement, in the midst of your suffering, Peter writes to his believers, in the midst of your suffering for the sake of Christ, fix the eyes of your soul upon Christ the great and the perfect sufferer. In the midst of the suffering, fix the eyes of your soul upon Christ the great and the perfect

6:20 sufferer. Christ's sufferings on behalf of sinners are also to be the pattern for the suffering of his saints at the hands of evil men. Christ's response to the suffering of evil at the hands of evil men are a divine pattern for the suffering of sinners. He is the pattern for the suffering of A pattern for all of his followers. And not only is his response to that suffering a pattern, the relationship of his sufferings in life as the preview to glory at his ascension is the paradigm for the experience of God's people.

7:01 For him it was suffering then, glory now. For us it will be suffering now and glory at his appearing. Then thirdly, in the midst of your suffering for the sake of Christ, continue to pursue a life of holiness and growth in grace. Continue to pursue a life of holiness and growth in grace.

7:28 From that opening call in chapter 1 in verse 15. Be holy as I am holy. Right through to the end of the letter, Peter calls suffering saints to press on in the pursuit of universal holiness.

7:45 Suffering is no excuse to become static in Christian growth. In fact, Peter makes it clear that it's in the crucible of suffering that our faith is purified and our graces are pruned. So much then for that brief review. Of the three statements of August 13th.

Statement 4: Continue Involvement in Church Life Amidst Suffering

8:07 Now tonight we come to look at statements 4, 5, and 6, which I trust to some degree accurately summarize the theology of suffering for the sake of Christ as found in 1 Peter. And here is the fourth statement. In the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, continue to involve yourself in the life of Christ. Peter is writing to suffering saints.

8:37 They are found in Asia Minor, the modern land of Turkey. But in writing to these suffering saints, though he does not address any specific church or churches explicitly, it is clear that in what is called a general epistle, those letters that are not directed to any specific individual or church are called general epistles. It is obvious that he assumes that these suffering saints are involved in the life of local churches. And we know that from the passage that is the very watershed, the very distillation of the cream of the teaching concerning suffering.

9:22 That passage begins in chapter 3 and verse 13 and continues to the end of the letter. But in the midst of that section, Peter, after giving some very specific instructions about how the believer is to respond to suffering, In chapter 4 and verses 7 through 11, he is addressing the matter of living together in God's house, church life, having love among the brethren, using hospitality, exercising their gifts to the benefit of one another, and ultimately to the glory of God. Then in chapter 5, verses 1 through 5a, he addresses the elders, the pastors, he addresses the people of God. He assumes that these believers, in the midst of their suffering, are involved in churches, and he is giving instructions as to how their experience as those identified with churches is to be regulated, even in the face of the world. Even in the face of the world. Even in the face of the world.

10:32 Even in the face of suffering. And this emphasis is found likewise in the book of Hebrews. You remember that the problem with many of these Hebrew Christians was that they were suffering for their identification with Christ. They were tempted, because of opposition and suffering, to go back to the old way of the external trappings of Judaism.

10:55 And one of their temptations was to allow that suffering to cause them to draw back from public, identification with, and ongoing involvement in, the life of the church. And the writer of Hebrews says to them in verse 24 of chapter 10, Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing nigh.

11:31 One of the most moving... One of the most moving things that I have discovered as I have sought to become more aware of our suffering brethren throughout the world, is their determination to be churchmen and churchwomen, even if it costs them their lives.

11:49 If they're willing to simply be private Christians, and not gather against the dictates of anti-Christian governments, gather in homes, gather in buildings, gather at the, the risk of their lives is because they've been persuaded that if they are to be preserved in the way of holiness they will be preserved in that way of holiness and of God's grace in the context of his church and God alone knows what we may face in the coming days. I am no alarmist, but neither do I have my head in the sand, and there is a very definite creeping growing intrusion of our own government, intrusion of our own government, intrusion of our own government, intrusion of our own government, into those liberties that we have known for many, many decades in our country. And what will you do? What will I do if those liberties are removed? Peter has a word to say to us, and that word is, in the midst of...

12:50 for the sake of Christ, continue to involve yourself in the life of the church. To be identified with Jesus Christ biblically is to be identified with his church, Christ identifies himself with his church, so much so that though the scripture says Saul is breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church, when Christ arrests that man, he says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? When you touch my church, you touch me. It's a mutual, reciprocal identification and love and attachment, and we must allow no suffering to cause us to draw back from our involvement in the life of the church. And then, statement number five. In the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, don't forget your evangelistic responsibility to an onlooking world. In the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, don't forget your evangelistic...

Statement 5: Don't Forget Evangelistic Responsibility to an Onlooking World

14:03 responsibility to an onlooking world. And here I want us to look at several specific texts in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 2, verses 8 and 9, Peter writes, verses 9 and 10, I'm sorry, but you are an elect race, a royal race, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, in order that all that we are in our privilege, identity, with all of this rich Old Testament terminology, now finding its fulfillment in Christ's church. He says you are all of these things to this end, in order that you may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He says you are all that you are to this end. In order that you may show forth. And Peter uses one of those words that is found only here in the New Testament, exangelo.

15:16 And it means to show by telling. Now you thought that show and tell was a recent innovation of modern educational systems. No, Peter says you are show and tell Christians. And God has made you what you are, to the end, that you might show forth by telling.

15:39 That you might declare the excellencies, the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. And how are they to be show and tell Christians? Well, they are to be show and tell Christians, among other things, by realizing in the midst of their sufferings, their sufferings have an evangelistic thrust. They are to confront evil men who do evil to God's people with the fact that there is something about them that is radically different.

16:14 Not because they simply tell you, but because they show and they tell. Notice several texts in 1 Peter that make this very clear. Verses 11 and 12 of chapter 2. I beseech you, beloved, as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your behavior seemly or good or honorable among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

16:57 He says, let your pattern of good works, you heard something about that a couple of weeks ago, let your light so shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify your Father. Now remember the setting. These are good works performed in the midst of suffering. Some of the suffering was being the receivers of this speech that accused them of being evildoers, which they were not.

17:28 And Peter says, you are so to live before those who oppose you, and cause you suffering by speaking evil of you, that in the day of visitation, whatever that may be, and when I sought to expound this, I gave you the realities, and I'll not go over that, God may be glorified. See the same emphasis in verse 15 of the same chapter. So is the will of God, that by well-doing, you should put to silence the ignorance of the world. Foolish men are blabbing about these foolish men, phony religious nuts.

18:07 He said, so live in the midst of their opposition that you'll shut their mouths. That's what he says. That's modern vernacular. This is the will of God.

18:18 By well-doing, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Verse 1. Here is that godly Christian wife.

18:29 She has a churlish, unconverted husband. He does not obey the word. What is she to do? She is to live out the terms of the marital relationship.

18:41 She is to take her place in submission to her husband. It has nothing to do with his noble character. It has nothing to do with his graciousness, his tenderness, his understanding. It has to do with his position.

18:53 He's her husband. And unless he demands something of her that would cause her to violate the word of God, she is to be in submission to her husband. He is the churlish, unbelieving, disobedient husband. Yet he says, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that even if any obey not the word, they may, without the word, be gained by the show-and-tell pattern of their wives.

19:25 They may be gained by the behavior of their wives, beholding, seeing, your chaste behavior coupled with fear. You have spoken of the change that Christ has wrought. You have told. Now he says, show, show, show, with that silent evangelistic pressure consistent godly life in the face of unreasonableness and opposition.

19:55 Similarly, chapter 3, verses 15, after stating, if you should, for righteousness sake, you are blessed, don't be afraid, neither troubled, but, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man. Now notice that asked you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. Yet with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ, ready to give answer, in what context? Good manner of life.

20:39 Show and tell evangelism. Show and tell. Not all show without tell. Not tell without show.

20:46 It's show and tell evangelism in the context of opposition and of suffering. That's Peter's emphasis. Throughout this epistle, the varying reactions summarized as you, in the midst of any opposition for the sake of Christ, hold to, a course of obedience, sharing the message of Christ and His saving grace. All of these things are said in these texts.

21:17 They will glorify God in the day of visitation. You will cleanse the ignorance of foolish men. Some will be won by the manner of life, and others will be put to shame. In the midst of whatever suffering we face for the sake of Christ, don't forget your evangelistic, Catholic responsibility to an unreasonable and unbelieving man many times have a very accurate interpretation of what a real Christian should do and will do even when the opposition against him is unrighteous and unreasonable.

Statement 6: The Ultimate Reason for Suffering is the Will of God

21:57 And Peter says, shut their mouths. Elicit the questions by your show and tell pattern of behavior in the face of suffering. And then we come to the sixth and final and in many ways the most crucial of all of these principles. And it is this.

22:18 In the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, don't forget that the ultimate reason for your suffering is the will of God. In the midst of your suffering for the sake of Christ, don't forget that the ultimate reason for your suffering is the will of God. Peter is very aware of the fact that evil men with evil words and evil and unrighteousness are the instruments of inflicting upon God's people. And he makes that plain throughout this epistle.

22:57 He's not Pollyannish. He knows that when the light of the gospel comes to men in word and in deed, that light shines into darkness and Jesus said, this is the condemnation, light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And while Peter acknowledges that the opposition and the suffering comes at the hands of evil men with their evil words, he says to these believers, you must see beyond the evil men and see that in all of this complex of distressing situations, circumstances of sovereign God is absolute control. And he wants the people of God to see beyond such men and embrace the fact that apart from the sovereign, wise, and I use the next word deliberately, loving will of God, no such suffering could be inflicted upon God's people. It is God who gives life and breath to all men. Isn't that what the apostle says in his sermon on Mars Hill?

24:14 This God, he said, whom I preach to you is the God who gives to all men life and breath and all things. The persecutor of Christ's church could not draw his next breath if God did not give it to him. God could take it from him. In preparing for this morning's message, I was reminded that in Acts chapter 12 of a man who had great eloquence.

24:40 And they said, this is not the voice of a man, but of the gods. God struck him dead and let the worms eat him right in front of people.

24:52 The persecutors of Christ's church, they don't sustain their lives. God does. When there is energy and strength to conceive ways to torture the people of God, it is God that upholds their hands in their evil deeds. While he is not stained with any responsibility for the evil of their deeds, those deeds do not escape.

25:17 His sovereign control and his present government over all men. That's why three passages here in 1 Peter point in that direction. One is a strong hint. Two are explicit statements to these sufferers.

25:37 In chapter 1, here is the strong hint. He speaks of their great salvation with the best yet to come. And we are kept and guarded until we come back. Until we come into possession of it.

25:51 But in spite of what we have and what is secure to us in Christ and by the power of God, he says in verse 6 of chapter 1, wherein, that is, in this salvation you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, notice the next words, if need be. If need be. You have been put to grief in manifold trials. If need be.

26:19 Who determines that you and I need a specific trial and those aspects of trial that come from opposition from evil men? Who determines what I need? It's my wise, sovereign, loving Heavenly Father. That's the implied emphasis of that text and I opened that up more fully when I expounded that two and a half years ago.

26:49 But now, turn to chapter 3. And here it is not implied and inferred and hinted at very strongly. It's stated, as we say, in spades. Peter begins in chapter 3 in verse 13, that section which is the focal point of the book on his doctrine of suffering.

27:10 And he writes, And who is he that will harm you if you be zealous for that which is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are you, and do not fear their fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ for. It is better if the will of God should be done.

27:50 So will that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing. Could language be plainer? The will of God, so will. Don't need to know a word of Greek.

28:05 Don't need to know a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Any translation that in any way reflects the sense of the God-breathed words of this letter makes it abundantly clear that in the midst of all of this suffering that has come upon the churches, there in Asia Minor, and more to come. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you. More is to come.

28:31 What am I to see in all of this? I'm to see beyond evil men with their evil intentions and the devil who is behind the evil men with his evil intentions. And I'm to see the hand and the overruling providence of a sovereign, wise, loving will of God. The same God whom Peter celebrates in chapter 1 and verse 3.

28:58 Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus who has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection from the dead. This God who is guarding us by His power that we might come into the full inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us. This God with our suffering.

29:22 You see it with your own eyes. You see it with your own eyes. In your own Bible surely you say the God who begets us again unto a living hope by the resurrection He's a God of gracious, wise, loving, sovereign power.

29:38 But when He allows evil men to conceive their evil words and to hatch their evil deeds and to bring, quote, evil upon God's people is God still sovereign, wise, and loving? Yes, He is. Peter wants these believers to know it. He says you must see your sufferings in the light of this bedrock foundational reality that the ultimate reason for your suffering is the will of God.

30:15 Chapter 4. In case they missed it the first time around,

30:21 Peter says I'll give you another dose. Maybe the first shot didn't take and you're still going to be exposed to the measles or smallpox but we'll give you another inoculation. Verse 12 of chapter 4. Beloved, don't think it strange concerning the fiery trial among you that comes upon you to prove you as though a strange thing happened unto you but insomuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings rejoice that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy and if you are reproached through the name of Christ blester you because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you.

31:02 And then he says but don't let you suffer. Don't suffer in terms of a lifestyle that is a contradiction of your profession. And then he says I want you to know that judgment begins from the house of God and moves outward. And then he comes to his conclusion in verse 19.

31:18 Wherefore, let them also that suffer according to the evil intentions of men commit their soul. No. Let them also that suffer according to the machinations of the devil and the host of hell. No, he doesn't say that.

31:37 He says let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their soul unto a faithful creator. Language could not be more clear. Peter wants all of those saints who are in the fire who are in the tumbler of God. Mild words and negative deeds and all of the various corn kinds of persecution and opposition and affliction they know to see that behind it and over it and underneath it and around it is the will of God.

32:17 The will of a wise sovereign loving God. Now does that mean that God has anywhere promised us that we will see in the midst of the suffering all of the evil things that we do? No. All of the purposes of his will?

32:31 Of course not.

32:34 And he's never promised that to us.

32:37 I was reading the other day an article in which Mrs. Elizabeth Elliot Grin was being interviewed and the interviewer asked her a number of questions that would let you know something of the heart of that noble woman and the question was asked something along this line Mrs. Elliot Mrs. Grin do you do you know what God's purpose was in allowing your first husband Jim to be martyred when he was martyred?

33:12 And her answer was something along this line I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue.

33:23 But did she have any question that God allowed whatever spirit moved that particular Alka Indian to take his spear if that's the way Jim's life was taken and thrust it through his bowels? She has no doubt that the hell that Alka Indian was upheld by Almighty God and God could have arrested it as he thought to thrust it. Read the life of missionary John G. Paton of the Hebrides and evil men at times surrounded his home determined to kill him and they ran away in fear and later on upon inquiry they would testify that they saw an army of shining ones about his house. You see folks this is not just pie in the sky nice religious talk. What are you going to do? What am I going to do?

34:20 With the little measure of persecution and suffering for Christ that we have known individually corporately as a church we're going to go into some kind of a funk? Why doesn't God this? My friends see beyond what the evil intention of men's hearts and men's fingers and men's telephone calls and the rest mean and say from the heart if the will of God so will that you suffer and embrace it as the good acceptable and perfect will of God. Let them that suffer according to the will of God and God's will is inscrutable to us.

God's Sovereign Will in Action: The Early Church's Persecution

35:05 The scripture says who has known the mind of the Lord or being his counselor has taught him who has known the mind of the Lord his ways are past tracing out and as I was preparing for tonight I could not help but think that I was wrong. I could not help but think that I was wrong. I could not help but think that I was wrong. I could not help but think that I was wrong.

35:18 I could not help but think that I was wrong. Some of this as it's seen in the first baptism of open persecution that is let loose on the new Christian church in Jerusalem and here you may want to follow with me as I allude to several passages in those early days when the Spirit of God had come in power upon the 120 and they soon become approximately 3,120 and notice how it describes their life in Jerusalem in the face of God. Of many who have yet not come to faith, verse 46 of chapter 2, day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple. That's where they had their main congregational meetings in Solomon's porch and breaking their bread at home. They took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, now notice, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved. Shortly thereafter, some opposition is focused upon two of the leaders, Peter and John.

36:26 The religious leaders begin to show the same jealousy they showed when the crowds went after Jesus and no longer were following them. And they threatened them and then they put them in jail and God releases them and they beat them and they go back to preaching. But by and large, the context was one in which the Word of God was going forward with power and there was great blessing upon them. Upon the church.

36:51 But the Lord had given them a commission. You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in Judea, all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. So what does God superintend in His sovereign, wise, loving will? He superintends the emergence of an unusually godly, spirit-filled, Christ-like man by the name of Stephen.

37:17 And Stephen preaches and Stephen preaches to people in such a compelling way it says they could not withstand the wisdom or the grace with which he spoke. But in their unbelief and hatred of light and truth, they stone him and they lay his garments at the feet of one of the witnesses. Acts chapter 7 verse 60 and 8, 1 of the book of Acts. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

37:49 When he had said this, he fell asleep and Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Sound familiar? You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

38:19 And to the uttermost part of the earth, the church was enjoying days of peace and general acceptance and flourishing. But Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth are not being penetrated. So what does God do? In his sovereign, wise, loving will, he has a man named Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Pharisee.

38:49 And he allows that man in his blood, his divine zeal to become inflamed against the church. Look at verses 2 and 3 of Acts 8. And devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him, but Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house and bragging. Men and women committed them to prison.

39:14 Think of it. Let your imagination run out. As Pastor Hartman said, let your mind expound the white spaces. Men and women, fathers, husbands, motherless children, seeing a mother dragged off, crying for her little ones.

39:35 Her children with tears streaming down their faces, desperate. Mummies going to jail.

39:43 This blind, picketed Pharisee and all of his magic. Surely, the Lord was looking the other way. No, he wasn't. Because what happened?

39:55 Verse 4. They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word. And what do we find in the next chapter? How Samaria receives the gospel.

40:11 And then from that scattering, there are some bold ones among them who even preach to some Gentiles up at Antioch. And God calls a number to himself. And then he says, well, I've allowed the venomous, hatred of this proud Pharisee to be unleashed to do what? To get the gospel to Judea and Samaria.

40:35 But now the uttermost part of the earth need the gospel. So what's he do? That blind, bigoted Jew is on his way to Damascus and God says, now I'm going to get my man.

40:46 Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus whom you persecute. And God gets his man.

40:58 And what's he do with him? He makes him his enemy. He makes him his instrument to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He said, I've appointed you to be my witness to the Gentiles.

41:10 And what happens to him? No sooner does he begin to witness than people with the same bigotry that he had against Christians begin to show up to him until eventually to be kept from being ripped to pieces and mugged and killed at their hands, he appeals to Caesar. And what happens? Can't you just see them laughing when Paul's taken off the field of gospel endeavor, stuck in prison?

41:31 Can't you just see them laughing? Can't you just see them laughing? Can't you just see them laughing? Can't you just see them laughing?

41:31 Can't you just see them laughing? Now this scoundrel won't bother us anymore. And what comes out of prison? Those precious prison epistles.

41:37 Where would he be without Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon and 2 Timothy? Oh, dear people, do you catch a little bit of the flavor of it? His ways are past tracing now. And all we need to know in any given crucible of suffering for the sake of Christ is that the ultimate reason for that suffering is the will of God.

Embracing God's Will and the Reality of Spiritual Warfare

42:01 And let God, let God exegete His will in His own way and in His own time.

42:08 And stop trying to figure Him out. We've got a whole eternity to have Him exegete why He did what He did. And I personally believe that only to do a little bit at a time, because even though we're glorified, we're not infinite. And the joy that it would bring us to see how the wheels within wheels of the divine will permeated with sovereign love and wisdom.

42:34 And we're going to see and we will be amazed when we see the picture. And as the scripture says, though we see through a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face and we shall know even as we are known. So dear people of God, let's not have pity parties for one another when we experience a little bit of suffering here. Yes, some evil words, some malicious pieces of paper in the mail, vicious rumors.

43:06 That's not much. I can't yet say I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I got some scars to show where the surgeons gone after me graciously on the operating table. And I'll have some more in a couple of weeks when they open up my shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff.

43:26 But I can't say here's some marks I have for Christ. The elders watched a little video the other night where a little 10-year-old African boy pulled up his shirt and showed, showed the scarred skin on his abdomen because a group of men said, renounce Christ or we're going to throw you into that fire that we've built. And he said, I'm Christian. I will not renounce Christ.

43:57 He was thrown on the fire and left to die. He bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. What are a few nasty words on a piece of paper? A few ugly rumors.

44:10 God help us if we're ready to think the world's come to an end. God help us if we're ready to think the world's come to an end. God help us if we're ready to think the world's come to an end. God help us if we're ready to think the world's come to an end.

44:15 And if by the grace of God we make marks for the kingdom of Christ that we've never yet made, beloved, in the language of Peter, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, I regard this kind of opposition as the affirmation of hell that we're making some debts on the devil's kingdom. And if you want to sail to heaven in flowery beds of ease, go to one of these let's play church places where the glory of God, and the honor of Christ, and the integrity of obedience to his word are secondary or tertiary issues. And the central issue is make people feel good. Stroke their self-image. Make them comfortable sailing to heaven with no hardship, no suffering, no self-denial. There are plenty of such places for you to go and part. Dear people, we've been enrolled in an army.

45:16 And this ain't wartime games. It's real war. With a real devil and with a real host of darkness, you singles began to consider that strategic Ephesians 6 passage. And I hope God will use it in days to come.

45:30 We are engaged in a warfare if we're united to Christ. And we need to joyfully, cheerfully march forward believing that at the head of our ranks is one who says all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go therefore. John saw in the midst of the throne a lamb as it had been slain.

45:55 And he orders all the affairs in his world that his sovereign saving purposes will be accomplished. Peter wants these suffering saints to know this, that in the midst of their sufferings, the ultimate reason for those sufferings is the will of God. Well, I leave you with those six statements that I trust will be helpful to you. As you think back over our two and a half years of working through this wonderful epistle together, and that should God bring some of us, some of you, into circumstances of more intense suffering for the sake of Christ, I trust you'll go back and remember not the words that I used to capture it, but the truth of Scripture itself. That in the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ, I'm to feed my soul upon the wonder and glory and greatness of my salvation in Christ. I'm to fix the eyes of my soul upon Christ as the perfect sufferer. I'm to continue to pursue a life of holiness in the context of involvement in the life of His church.

Mingle Emotions: Gratitude, Satisfaction, Sadness, and Sobriety

47:12 I am not to forget the evangelistic responsibility toward an onlooking world, and never forget that the ultimate reason for my suffering, is the will of God. Now as our studies in this precious portion of God's Word come to a close, I confess some mingled emotions. I sat at my desk this afternoon and said, how am I going to conclude this? And what am I feeling and thinking?

47:39 Well, on the one hand, I feel a sense of gratitude. As I told you when I began the expositions, I had promised we were going to start 1 Peter several years before we did. But when I started mapping out how to preach it and looked at some of the passages, and some of the questions that had to be resolved in my own mind, I was scared witness. And then I finally stuck my neck out and began to preach through.

48:01 And more than once, and my wife will bear witness to this, that there are times I've sat at my desk, looked at a text, taken out my Greek testament, and begun to try to unravel Peter's grammar and his vocabulary using so many words that only Peter uses as he was guided by the Spirit. And I've wondered, Lord, how in the world can I ever stand up Sunday morning, and feed your people with this? I don't have a clue what he's saying, let alone try to explain it to someone else. And you pray, and you study, and you have the old masters over your shoulder helping.

48:34 And I believe we can say there's not been a Lord's Day. And God has not, to some degree, at least given us some crumbs from his table. And I feel a sense of gratitude for God's mercy to me as a preacher, as the Lord has been pleased to help us. So I feel a deep sense of gratitude.

48:51 There's a sense of, oh, I'm going to pray. There's a sense of satisfaction, the kind you feel when you climb the top of a mountain and you ain't fallen halfway back down again. And you say, whew, made it. Well, when I looked at some of those passages, the light figure which doth save us now, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus, I said, Lord, I don't know how in the world I'm going to unpack that.

49:16 God has helped us. And I feel, and I trust you share with me, a deep sense of gratitude, a sense of satisfaction that this is closure tonight. I hope not closure on our contact with first Peter in its truth, but closure in our formal exposition and reflection upon it. So there's gratitude, a sense of satisfaction.

49:37 But then there's also sadness. I'm a sad man tonight as I think of where we are. Christ in his gospel, the gospel of saving power, percolates through first Peter. And I've sought.

49:54 Whenever Christ and his saving mercy were central in the text to hold him up with whatever help God has given to try to set him forth in such a way that some of you would see how ludicrous it is to cling to your sins that can only damn you when a gracious Savior extends his hands in mercy and says, leave your sins and come to me. I'll pardon, cleanse, accept you. Be your companion in life, in death, and be with me. Forever.

50:25 It's sad to think that some of you came into first Peter unsaved. And I conclude my expositions, and you're still unsaved. Some of you who are unsaved, you've shaken my hand all of these Sundays at the door. And how I've yearned and hoped that some Sunday you might have said, Pastor, I see it now.

50:53 God has shown me I want Christ. I'm sad. I'm sad. Because you remain unsaved.

John Brown's Sobering Reflection on Ministry and Accountability

51:06 And then in addition to the gratitude and the sense of satisfaction mingled with sadness, I've been sobered as I've come to the end of this study. In the first of these two concluding studies, I was going to give you a quote from John Brown, the Scottish Presbyterian preacher and commentator whose commentary on first Peter has been a help to so many over several generations and certainly to me. But I have John Brown with me. And I want you to hear what he experienced.

51:39 It expresses far more eloquently than I can this feeling of sobriety. I quote John Brown. And now, brethren, I have finished these expository discourses on this important and interesting part of divine truth. It is more than 16 years since I commenced them.

52:01 Of those who witnessed their commencement, many are in another, and not a few of them, I doubt not, in a better world. We must soon go to them in the grave. Oh, let us see that we go with them to heaven. It is in a very high degree improbable that I shall ever deliver to you again so long a series of discourses.

52:25 He meant another 16-year discourse. I hope God will let me deliver a few more two-and-a-half-year expositions. A solemn reflection both to me and to you. It says to me as a preacher.

52:37 And then he quotes a number of texts. Make full proof of your ministry. It will draw to a close. Work while it is called today.

52:45 The night comes when no man can work. Prepare to meet your God. The judge stands before the door. Make up your account.

52:53 You cannot long continue a steward. He says that's what it says to me. And he says to his people. And it says to you today.

53:02 If you hear my voice, harden not your heart. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. My work in composing and delivering these discourses and yours in listening to them are over.

53:16 But there remain the improvement which ought to be made and the account which must be given. The first will I trust follow. That is, our improvement of what we've heard. The second, our day of accountability, certainly shall.

53:32 It is by attending to the first, that is, applying what we've heard, that we shall be prepared for the second, that is, our account. For this, as for all means of religious improvement, we must ere long give our account. Oh, that it may be given with joy and not with grief. The Lord grant that both the teacher and the taught may, notwithstanding all that's been lacking and wrong in the manner in which they've been performed, the Lord will grant that we find mercy of him in that day.

Concluding Prayer: Praise, Thanksgiving, and Plea for Grace

54:07 Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we do praise you as a company of your people for your gracious blessing to us as we have worked our way through this wonderful portion of your word. We thank you for those times when the next verses in the regular exposition were so perfectly suited to our individual and our corporate life together.

54:43 We thank you, Lord Jesus. That you have been among us as our true and ultimate prophet, taking your own word and making it a means of instruction. You have ministered to us as our great high priest, pointing us to the virtue of your saving work. And you have unfolded your mind and will for us as our great king.

55:09 So we worship you and thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

55:15 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

55:19 Amen. Piety and praise and thank you, Holy Spirit, for the help you have given as we have sought to understand and to appropriate in faith, in obedience, this portion of the word that you have given us through the pen of Peter. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in the trinity of your being, we worship you and we thank you. Thank you, Father, that you have brought us to this hour.

55:42 Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. who have come through these expositions still strangers to your grace. O Lord, may you arrest them in grace and mercy.

55:55 Turn them to yourself and help us all as we have this fresh sense of the brevity of life and the certainty of our accountability. O God, stir us up that we may buy up the opportunities and that we may be zealous to see the kingdom of our Lord Jesus advanced in our day even to the ends of the earth. Thank you. We bless you.

56:23 We praise you. Now we plead for your blessing to rest upon us as we leave this place, as we go to our various spheres of responsibility. We pray, O God, that we may live out that which you have given to us in Christ. Hear us.

56:43 Cleanse and pardon all of our sins. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.