Three Doctrines, Genuine Chr. Experience

Introduction: Returning to Glean from 1 Peter 1:10-12

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 24, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I encourage you to turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1, as we continue our expositions in this portion of the Word of God. And I shall read in your hearing, once more, verses 3 through 12, this lengthy paragraph of a eulogy, a speaking well of God and of His great salvation. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3.

0:49 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, begot us again unto a living God. Living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God, are guarded through faith, unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, not having seen, you love, on whom, though you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Concerning which salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you,

2:15 searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did point unto, when testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preach the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven, which things angels desire to look into. Now as we again pray and ask the help of God the Holy Spirit in our understanding of the word, let us also be mindful, of the number of our singles who are away from us today, sitting under the word of God up in Ballston Lake, Pastor Jim Sebastio preaching to them. I spoke to Pastor McDiarmid last night, and he said God wonderfully owned the first ministry of the word of God in this singles weekend, and let's pray that that will be an increasing reality throughout the day today in Ballston Lake as well. Let us pray.

3:32 Our Father, we come once more conscious, that unless you by the Holy Spirit bring light into our natively darkened minds, we shall not be able to understand or to receive in faith and obedience your word. And so we look again to you that you would give that needed grace to preacher and to hearer alike, not only in this place, but we think especially of the many of our singles who are gathered there with, others from several other churches, and pray that you by the power of your grace and spirit, would likewise visit them in such a way that some who went to that conference unconverted may return new men and new women in Christ, and that others will be so instructed and helped by the ministry that they will look back upon this weekend as a watershed of deep heart dealings with you, the living God, the living God. Oh, Lord, come to us in our need in this hour and speak to us with grace and power and light. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

4:53 Now, in a book soon to be released by the banner of truth, the book entitled Eyewitnesses of His Majesty, our esteemed brother and friend, Pastor Ted Donnelly of Northern Ireland opens up some of the major, the biblical materials relative to the Apostle Peter under three very distinct headings. He has a section on Peter, the disciple, another on Peter, the preacher, and the third section on Peter, the pastor. Well, as we are studying together that portion of the word of God called first Peter, we are seeing Peter, the apostle functioning in a very pastoral way as he writes to the people of God, scattered, scattered throughout the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. And although Peter's mind and heart are obviously bursting with a large and varied number of practical pastoral concerns, which he will address in some detail throughout his letter, it is clear that he does not begin with exhortation, admonition, or even explicit motivations focused upon the particular, duties and responsibilities of the Christian life. Rather,

6:15 he begins by setting forth a wonderful statement of the amazing salvation which God has provided in Jesus Christ, a salvation which is the present possession and the glorious future prospect of the most humble of the people of God. He indicates that this salvation, which is the most precious of all, is the common possession of all of the people of God described in verse one, as the elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. That every one of them has in common with Peter, this glorious salvation for which he begins to bless God. In verse three and concerning which he has not concluded, his fundamental and fundamental salvation. No, fundamental statements until the end of verse 12. Now in our last exposition, we examine verses 10 through 12, the very capstone of this section in which God's gracious salvation in Christ is magnified before our eyes. And the last way in which Peter magnifies this salvation

7:33 is in terms of prophetic searching, verses 10 through 12a. He magnifies salvation in terms of gospel preaching, verse 12b. And salvation is magnified by angelic inquiring, verse 12c. Now as I began the exposition two Lord's Days ago, I stated that it would be pure exposition.

8:01 There was no way to responsibly handle the passage and to open up the things that Peter, by the guidance of the Spirit, is setting before these first century believers, but to track down those three avenues by which this salvation is magnified. However, I said on that occasion that we would come back to the passage in order to pause and glean from it many of the rich and wonderful, helpful insights Peter gives us. Peter gave us many fundamental perspectives of Christian truth and of Christian experience. And that's what I propose to do with you this morning and again this evening, having expounded verses 10 through 12, the magnifying of God's salvation through prophetic searching, gospel preaching and angelic inquiring. We're now going to go back and take the gleanings. We're going to do something with the text. that an Israelite was forbidden to do with his fields.

9:06 Once he had reaped his fields, he was not to go back and take the gleanings. He was to leave those for the stranger and for the foreigner who might come upon his land. But we're going to go back under the discipline of exposition. These passages cried for amplification, but I resisted the temptation in order, I trust, to help you to understand what the verses are teaching.

Affirmation of Basic Doctrines: Special Revelation

9:31 But now this morning we're going to go back and take up two categories of further lessons in the passage, and then, God willing, tonight another three. And the first category with which I would ask you to go back and glean from these verses is what I am calling the affirmation of several basic doctrines of the Christian faith. In these verses, verses 10 to 12, in which Peter begins by saying, concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, and concludes with speaking of angels continually longing and yearning to look into this salvation, Peter affirms several of the most basic doctrines of the Christian faith. And I ask you to go back to the passage and consider those doctrines with me for a number of reasons. Not the least. The least of which is this.

10:33 As God reveals to us in the Scriptures those truths that are essential to Christianity itself, to the Christian faith, they constitute the faith of Christ. There are certain places in Scripture where God plunks down a mountain of revelation of that particular truth. For example, the truth that Jesus Christ is God. We have a mountain.

11:01 We have a mountain deposit of that truth in a passage such as John 1, verses 1 to 3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made.

11:23 That is a mountain-like deposit of the truth of who Christ is as God. However, the doctrine of the deity of Christ does not stand or fall on those mountain-like deposits of divine revelation. God has given us, more like the stalactite and the stalagmite, many drip, drip, drip revelations of such a basic doctrine as the deity of Christ. Now, you know how a stalactite and a stalagmite are formed, don't you?

11:59 As water, as water. As water drips, the mineral deposits are left, and over a long period of time, drop by drop, there is built this massive structure. And the way I remember the stalactite is that it comes out of the ground, stalag, and the stalagmite, I'm sorry, and the stalactite comes from the ceiling. The ceiling down, the stalag from the ground up.

12:24 Well, as the people of God, we must not only be familiar with those mountains, like deposits of divine truth and those passages, ought to be household passages with us. But our eyes should be keen to pick up the drops that God gives us along the way that in their cumulative effect. Build up these massive, fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. And here in these verses, where Peter's primary concern open up and expound it in the priest, exposition has to do with magnifying this great salvation with respect to the prophetic searching with respect to gospel preaching and angelic inquiring Peter does indeed affirm several basic doctrines of the Christian faith note with me first of all how he affirms the doctrine of special revelation Peter uses these words verse 10 concerning which salvation the prophets sought in search diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come to you in using those words Peter is affirming that he believes there are prophets who

13:50 prophesy of coming realities he doesn't stop to prove it he doesn't stop to explain it he simply affirms that there are real profits real men who become the real instruments of real revelation from God and to speak that revelation to others in the very words of God furthermore he goes on to say that these profits by the work of the Spirit of Christ who was in them were testifying beforehand of the sufferings of Christ that there is real predictive revelatory data that there is a God who knows and controls the future and can infallibly predict what will happen in the future which he both orders and governs and controls furthermore in verse 12 he says to whom that is to these profits it was revealed that there is actually a thing of divine revelation given to the profits so by the use of this terminology the profits prophesied the spirit in them pointed unto testifying beforehand to whom it was

15:13 revealed that is the language of special revelation but you say faster I don't understand the terminology what makes it special well the terminology general revelation and special revelation those are not terms that you will find explicit in the Bible but they are terms that we use to help to collate what is clearly revealed in the Bible what is general revelation general revelation is God's self-disclosure in the world around us and the world within us Psalm 19 the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork day unto day utter speech and night unto night shows forth knowledge why do the heavens declare God's glory because God makes them declare his glory he has constituted them his self-revelation you find this in Acts 14 and Acts 17 it's the world around us and according to Romans 1 and 2 it's the world within us as well the existence of a conscious that condemns us or accuses us is an indication that we are moral creatures

16:34 who still bear the evidence of the work of God in the very presence and function of conscience that's general revelation it is God's self-disclosure in the world around us and the world within us open to all men everywhere at all times and all circumstances that's general revelation but you see what Peter is affirming in this passage is the doctrine of special revelation and what is special revelation it is God's self-disclosure made in words now embodied in the scripture that's special revelation it is God's self-disclosure embodied now in the words of the scriptures and when Peter affirms without embarrassment the doctrine of special revelation he is underscoring what the Bible everywhere teaches about God that God can reveal his mind to men furthermore that God has revealed his mind to men and that God has so superintended that process that what we have in the words of scripture are the words of God

17:58 things that are a stumbling block to many in our day they were no stumbling block to Peter he weaves them into the texture of this eulogy that is magnifying God's great salvation and in so doing he affirms in unmistakable terms the doctrine of special revelation Peter had no problem with the truth articulated in Hebrews 1 1 God who at time was a man of God and he was a man of God and he was a man of God and he was a man of God he was a man who was a man of God. all but to me equal and and equal all but to me equal Jesus and Paul Jesus and God parcel of your emerging consciousness of the world around you, you need to understand that the mindset of the average man in pagan America is such that this is marvelous news for some.

19:13 It is shocking. If we have an average American pagan sitting here today who's gone through the average climate in the average university, he would either hear this as marvelous, marvelous news or look upon me as some kind of an anachronism, some kind of an ecclesiastical Rip Van Winkle who just awakened from decades of sleep and is yet to face the real world. To say in this generation that this is not a closed universe, this universe is not bound by the laws with which God has framed it and under which he governs it. This is an opiate universe, the God who made it, can break into it and speak. To state it simply, the Bible teaches God is and God is not silent. God is and God is not silent. He is a speaking God. Yes, He does speak in the world around us and in the world within us. And we're accountable

20:27 for listening to the voice of God's self-disclosure in general revelation. That's what Romans 1 teaches. When men will not listen to the voice of God in general revelation, a man looks at a woman and says, she is my counterpart. She is made to be the counterpart of my sexual intimacy, not another male. Romans 1 says when people will not listen to the voice of general revelation, they will not listen to the voice of God in general revelation. With regard to sexual identity and function, God gives them over to a reprobate mind. They are putting down the knowledge that screams into their ears and impinges continually upon their eyeballs. Yes, men are accountable if they do not listen to the voice of God in general revelation. But you see, general revelation can never tell me where did I come from? Why

21:25 am I what I am? Where do I go when I'm not listening to the voice of God in general revelation? How can I die? How can the deepest longings of my heart be filled and met? What is right and what is wrong in the particulars of all my relationships? The God who has made us is not silent, and He has spoken, and what He has said is embodied in the words of this blessed book. And we ought therefore as the people of God to be filled with a sense of gratitude in the language of God. In the language of hymn number 265 in our hymn books, how precious is the book divine by inspiration given. Or in the language of the children's hymn, Holy Bible Book Divine,

22:13 precious treasure thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach me what I am. Without the Bible, you won't know where you came from. You won't know what you are. And you'll certainly not know where you came from.

22:30 You'll never know where you're going for certain. And we ought to be filled with gratitude that in picking up a pastoral letter written to suffering saints in the first century, the stuff of the Christian faith is so unashamedly affirmed by Peter in these verses, the doctrine of special revelation. And not only ought we to be filled with gratitude, but always beware of the doctrine of special revelation. And not only ought we to be filled with gratitude, but also shall we be filled with capital chauffeur. I letters to Matthew chapter 3, chapter 1 of the Galatians, let us quickly bring into account the devil'siviage, per example, moments litioufdining the death of the soul. To the devil's first whisper to our first. What were his first words to Ohhh, to both pessoas e Iа that need to come up fellows e Īanded which to dislodge herih from the center ohheu ministerial s compacto. . knots? and p único que, and cincav Von Godon intbuído tadió meinem

23:39 The day he came to see me it was just like to say the first words to the pet so Rash. of the validity of God's special revelation to man. It wasn't general revelation that told Adam and Eve, of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden you shall not eat, even lest you die, that was special revelation. And the first intrusion of the devil's nefarious effort to wrench our parents from their God was the question mark over the validity, special revelation.

24:13 I trust that each of us sitting here today will recognize that whenever that whisper comes, we ought to respond by saying the language of Romans 3 and verse 4, let God be true and every man a liar. Let God be true. You say, but pastor, the more I study my Bible, the more I see there are problems in the Bible. There are passages that I cannot seem to reconcile and there are accounts of things in Kings that don't quite match with what I read in Chronicles and there are accounts of details of the resurrection and I don't know how to harmonize.

24:49 I have problems perfectly harmonizing all of the parallel records. Yes, you do. So have God's people for many centuries. And there are things that God does that seem to be inconsistent with what He says He is and I don't understand it.

25:08 Yes, there are problems. There are problems in the Bible.

25:11 But my friend, do you want to live with the problems you have if you get rid of your Bible?

25:19 Yes, there are problems. Why? Our knowledge is limited. Our understanding is limited.

25:25 We still have remaining sin darkening our minds. And the child of God has every confidence that any problem that needs to be resolved to get him safely to heaven will be and all the rest will be resolved after we get there. And the author himself will sit down and say, now look, you see that silly problem you had? Here's the resolution.

25:43 And if you can knock your head and confess things in heaven, you'd say, Lord, forgive me for being so stupid. That's so obvious. Haven't you had that happen in your human experience? You thought here were two sets of irreconcilable realities.

25:57 And you talk to the people involved and lo and behold, in three sentences, they gave you one or two facts. And what seemed to be an irreconcilable contradiction was brought together in a beautiful synthesis. You see, the child of God, he doesn't stick his head in the sand. No, there are no problems in the Bible.

26:12 Yes, there are problems. But they are the problems not of the God revealing. But they are the problems of the limited sinful creature receiving the revelation. And anyone is a fool who says, until I can resolve all the problems of the Bible, I will hold off the Bible and shut myself up to the midnight darkness of my own limited understanding and the relative darkness of general revelation, which was never intended.

26:45 They were intended to tell people how to be ready to live and to die, and to go to judgment. And so, Peter, without embarrassment, without reservation, writing to a people who for the most part had a pagan background, whose life according to verse 18 had been shaped by nothing more than the vain traditions handed down by their fathers. And Peter lets them know that as Christian believers, they have no right to judge others. They have no right to judge others.

27:16 They have no right to judge others. They have no right to judge others. They have now entered the realm where special revelation is to shape and to mold all of their thinking about God and truth and life and salvation and heaven and hell and the world to come. But then note with me, not only is there an affirmation of the doctrine of special revelation in these verses, but there's an affirmation of the doctrine of the pre-existence and deity of Christ.

Affirmation of Basic Doctrines: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ

27:47 There is an affirmation of the doctrine of the pre-existence and deity of Christ. Look at verse 11. These prophets were searching what time or what manner of time, and as we saw in our previous study, that could be what person or time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did point unto, when, better translated, testifying before. Beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them.

28:24 These prophets who are prophesying and the substance of their prophecy that is highlighted by Peter is that which focused upon the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. Now, when did the last prophet prophesy before the coming of Christ? Well, you've heard of the 400 silent years. After Malachi prophesied, and his prophecy was written, 400 years before the angel visits this young virgin in Palestine named Mary, and tells her that she's going to conceive in her womb, though she's never had sexual relations with a man.

29:10 And 400 years before the visit of the angel, before the manger scene in Bethlehem, before the heavens are brightened with the presence of those angelic beatings speaking in chorus, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. How could the Spirit of Christ be in prophets over hundreds of years before the visit of the angel to announce the conception in Mary's womb, and the birth of Messiah, in Bethlehem? How can the Spirit of Christ be in these prophets, and so acting in them as to give them accurate information concerning the sufferings of one who doesn't yet appear on the stage of human history? Well, the answer's obvious. Peter is affirming. He doesn't pause to prove.

30:20 He doesn't pause to expound. He is coming. He is comfortable in the very climate of the reality that Jesus Christ did not begin to be in Mary's womb or come into existence in the manger at Bethlehem. Now think what that meant for Peter.

30:38 With his mother's milk he was reared on that great confessional statement of God's ancient people called the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. The concept of God is one. The concept of monotheism, ingrained in the very fabric of his soul from a little child.

31:01 And yet this very Peter, writing to these scattered believers there in the provinces of Asia Minor, speaks of the Spirit of Christ not only in existence, but indwelling and so operating upon the minds and faculties of these prophets that they could actually tell beforehand what was going to come to pass, hundreds of years later. Well, Peter can do that without a burp, without any embarrassment, because he knows that Jesus Christ is none other than the eternal Word made flesh. When he said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. For Peter as a Jew, that designation did not mean someone who was the offspring of God, in whose existence there was a time when he was not. No, it meant nothing less than you are the Christ, God the Son. You are deity incarnate.

32:10 For if Jesus Christ were a mere man, how could he be active hundreds of years before his conception and birth? If a mere man, how could he dwell in various men separated by hundreds of years, and so operate on their minds, their mouths, and their pens to secure the utterance of the very words of God? And if a mere man, how could he testify beforehand to the very events of his own suffering and glory? No, the old dictum is true.

32:40 If Jesus Christ is not God, he is not good. And furthermore, all who preached him and wrote of him are not good either, because they have perpetuated a wretched idolatry, in that they constantly, without even consciously doing it, they are attributing to Jesus Christ a mode of being that can only be understood in terms of pure, undiluted, essential deity. The preexistence and deity of Christ is affirmed by Peter, not in a formal statement, such as his statement in Matthew 16, Who do men say that I am? This is my identity.

33:23 You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But in seeking to magnify this great salvation, demonstrating to these first century Christians with a primarily pagan background, without the deep, rich understanding of Old Testament scripture, he is seeking to let them know that their salvation is one that has its tap roots in the Old Testament. It is a salvation that was the subject of prophetic inquiry, and it was the very salvation that was proclaimed to them in the Gospel, a salvation that angels desire to look into. And in opening up that central concern, this reference to the Spirit of Christ points us back to this basic doctrine, preexistence and the deity. Now again, I ask, why underscore? Why pause to underscore? Why take part of a sermon, before pressing on in the exposition of verse 13, to highlight this?

34:30 Because such a Christ, who is very God of very God, as well as very man of very man, is the only Christ of Biblical revelation. And you see, you can't get around it like the Jehovah's Witness tries to, by twisting the translation of the Greek of John 1. And when the Jehovah's Witness comes and says, well, it doesn't mean the Word was God, it means the Word was a God, and shows his ignorance of Greek as well as of Biblical theology. You see, the deity of Christ does not rest only in those mountain peak deposits of that truth that are found in Scripture.

35:13 It is the assumed climate of New Testament worship and life. And everywhere you turn, such as in the very greeting, by which Peter addresses these people. He says that Peter is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, the consciences of those believers are not to be bound by any human authority.

35:37 They are to be bound by God and God alone. And it is only if an apostle of Jesus Christ is one commissioned by one who is God, that he has any right to find the consciences of those who receive his epistle. He can speak of them as those who have been brought under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood has no worth unless it is the blood of incarnate deity.

36:07 And it has that worth because it is just such blood. This was Peter's faith. And this was the faith of all who came into the apostolic church. Their confession was Thomas's confession.

36:22 You remember in John chapter 20, when the Lord Jesus shows himself in his resurrection person to Thomas and says, Look, doubting Thomas, you said you won't believe unless you see those remnants of the suffering I underwent. And Thomas beholds him and falls before him and says, My Lord and my God. And what does Jesus say? Blessed are you, Thomas, because having seen, you have believed.

36:50 But blessed rather are those who having not seen, yet believe. Believe what? Believe, Thomas, what you've come to believe. I am your Lord, and I am your God.

37:03 And isn't it interesting that here in the previous verses, Peter describes these believers as those who have, having not seen Christ, they love him. And though they see him not, yet they believe upon him and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And as you read your Bible, don't just skip over passages like these. Pause and ask yourself, this is said of Christ, that the spirit of Christ was in them.

Affirmation of Basic Doctrines: Definitive Outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

37:37 Can the spirit of a mere man so indwell another man as to operate upon his mind and pen and tongue to reveal the very words of God? Only God can dwell in men in that way over a period of time and in all those circumstances and exert that kind of infallible, truth-begetting influence upon them. But then not only the doctrine of special revelation is found in these verses and the doctrine of the preexistence and deity of Christ, but note with me third, the doctrine of the definitive outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. When Peter says that these believers had the gospel preached unto them by unnamed preachers, notice how he describes them, verse 12, to whom it was revealed, that is the prophets, that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by, or more literally, in the Holy Spirit. He says they preached the gospel unto you in, that is, in the realm, in the sphere

38:59 of the Spirit's present powerful operation. But notice now, as he seeks to identify who that Spirit is, notice the words by which he identifies him. They preached the gospel unto you in the Holy Spirit, sent for, from heaven. Now Peter isn't just throwing in words to just sort of fill out the sentence.

39:27 He's saying the Spirit in whose realm or in which sphere they preached the gospel unto you is the Spirit who is to be identified as the one sent forth from heaven. Now he uses a verb which means to send one forth as an official and authoritative, and authoritative representative of the one sending him, apostello. And for Peter that could have only one reference point. You remember, put yourself with Peter.

40:04 Where was he? In that first meeting when the Lord Jesus said he was going to change his name. He hears John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as Lamb of God, Son of God, Lamb of God who would bear away the sin of the world and the one who would baptize, in the Holy Spirit. Peter had heard our Lord's constant references to the coming of the other helper in the upper room discourse.

40:33 He had heard the Lord Jesus say you wait until Jerusalem until you be clothed with power from on high. You shall be clothed with power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Peter was there on the day of Pentecost and you remember the language of Luke in Acts chapter 2. Suddenly there came from heaven.

40:54 And Peter stands up to explain what had happened and he said this is that which is prophesied by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass afterward I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh. When Peter writes to these believers and said he is the Holy Spirit sent forth, not a present tense but a definitive, once for all sending forth of the Holy Spirit. From heaven he is underscoring that the Spirit who operated in the minds and hearts of these believers so that they came to embrace an unseen Christ on the basis of the testimony of those preachers. It is the Spirit who was poured forth definitively on the day of Pentecost. It was by His ministry bringing them to see their desperate need of the Christ of apostolic preaching. It was by the ministry of the Spirit that their natively rebellious hearts were subdued and they were brought to repentance and faith and to newness of life.

42:08 All that these former pagans had known of their pagan ignorance and in chapter 4 he describes in detail something of their pagan lifestyle. All of that had been transformed not by some kind of self-help scheme not by some psychological manipulation but the Gospel had come not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. And when Peter now makes reference to the Gospel coming in the Holy Spirit he identifies Him as the Spirit sent forth. Pastor Martin, that seems to be true but why underscore it?

42:51 Well, there's a reason for it. While I trust every one of us yearns and prays for a more intensive operation of the Spirit's grace and power in our individual lives I trust you yearn and pray for that. To be more filled with the Spirit to bring forth more fruit of the Spirit to know more of the graces of the Spirit. I trust each of us yearns and prays for more intensive operations of the Spirit's grace and power personally and more extensive manifestations of His convicting and converting power in the world around us. We must never depreciate the event of Pentecost. Never! We must never talk or think about another Pentecost any more than we think about another Bethlehem.

43:51 We live in the ongoing benefits of Bethlehem. You don't ask for a repeat of Bethlehem. When the angels had gone back to heaven and the shepherds had gone back to their fields what was there in that manger is the abiding gift of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

44:19 And He doesn't keep re-giving Him in new incarnations. He has been given. And in a very parallel way Pentecost is an epical event in the history of redemption. And I underscore that not to discourage yearning and praying for more intensive operations of the Spirit within us and more extensive manifestations of His power and grace around us.

44:51 I underscore it because unless you come to grips with that you will not be at home with the whole climate of ethical and moral instruction in the New Testament. All of the ethical and moral instruction in the New Testament assumes this simple basic fact that every truly penitent believing sinner stands in his experience this side of Pentecost. He has the Spirit. Romans 8, 9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of this.

45:29 And when ethical norms are pressed they are not pressed in this way you are in a mess here get the Spirit and get out of your mess. No. For example, Paul is dealing with the sordid problem of the horrible spate of immorality at Corinth in general and it had infected the church in particular. And in chapter 6 he is piling up motives for Christians to deal with sexual sins.

45:56 And how does he address it in chapter 6 in verse 19 he says what? Don't you know that you have been bought with a price you are not your own don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? You see he says not you need to get something in order to be different he says be different because you have something. And he does the same in chapter 3.

46:28 He says corporately he said you are a temple of the living God. That church with all of its problems he said you are a sanctuary of the living God. If any man destroy the temple of God him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy which temple you are. He doesn't say because of your divisions and your problems and your aberrations and your abnormalities and your excesses you are no longer a temple seek God till he comes into his temple.

46:58 He doesn't say that. Ephesians 4.30 He says do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you have been sealed unto the day of redemption. It's in the context of saying let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

47:18 Be kind tender hearted forgiving one another. Why? You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. We are commanded to be continually filled with the Spirit.

47:31 We are commanded to walk in the Spirit. We are commanded to grieve not the Spirit. But you see all of that is predicated on this simple basic reality that if you have truly repented of sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you have received the gift of the Spirit. You are spiritual.

47:52 I didn't say you did. I said you are. That's what God calls you. And you see that's critical.

48:03 If we think well the reason I'm not making a promise is there is something yet to have I don't have. Ultimately you can blame that on God because He doesn't give it. But if God in grace has given you all things necessary to life and godliness and He has endowed you with His Holy Spirit and placed the stuff of growth and progress in your hands then you are culpable if you don't grow. And you are responsible if you do not by the Spirit mortify the deeds.

48:21 And so Peter without Paul and without the Holy Spirit he would not have been able to do that. And so Peter without Paul and without the Holy Spirit he would not have been able to do that. And so Peter without Paul and without the Holy Spirit he would not have been able to do that. And so Peter without Paul and without the Holy Spirit can write to these relatively young converts that he calls in chapter 2 newborn babes that he calls in chapter 2 newborn babes and underscores for them and underscores for them this doctrine of the definitive outpouring outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as they think back upon what happened to them when the Gospel was preached and as they come into a fuller understanding of the significance able the Jesus whom it was that brought them to own their sin and feel the weight of their guilt and see the glory of God in the face of Christ. They are a people who understand that this is the Holy Spirit who has been sent forth from heaven. They live in the age of the outpoured Spirit. And Peter made that plain on the day of Pentecost when they cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do?

Introduction of a Basic Reality: Suffering Followed by Glory

49:35 He says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. Here were believers far off in the easternmost part of the Roman Empire and Peter can write to them in the confidence that when the gospel was preached unto them resulting in their salvation it was the gospel preached in the realm of the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven. Well, there are three basic doctrines Scripture, Christ, and Holy Spirit all in the flow of the apostles writing to these young believers to magnify God's salvation before their eyes. But now, much more briefly, I want to touch on just this second category this morning. Not only does he give this affirmation of several basic doctrines of the Christian faith, but he also sets before them what I'm calling the introduction of a basic reality of genuine Christian experience. In these verses, there is the introduction of a basic reality of genuine Christian experience.

51:03 Note again verse 11. The prophets were searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did point unto when testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. Peter is spoken of trials in verse 6. But this is his first mention of suffering.

51:34 And it's one of the main, major themes in this epistle. Four times the noun suffering is used in the original. And twelve times the verb to suffer. And if you were to do what Pastor Lamar suggested in the previous hour and take your Strong's or your Young's Concordance or if you have an Englishman's Greek Concordance it'd be a little shorter root to it and look up the verb to suffer you would find that it is used eleven times in all of the other epistles.

52:07 of the New Testament. You know how many times it's used in 1 Peter? Twelve times. More use of the verb to suffer in 1 Peter than all the other epistles combined.

52:20 So between the noun and the verb sixteen allusions to suffering. And very interestingly you look up the word glory though it's used with greater diversity eleven times in Peter's epistle the word glory is used. Two of his favorite words as he writes. To these new converts in Asia Minor are suffering and glory.

52:44 Now obvious here in the text he's focusing upon the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow the sufferings of Christ in the actual procurement or the purchase or the accomplishment of our salvation. That's very evident that the spirit of Christ who was in the prophets was pointing beforehand those who were in the prophets. sufferings by which Christ would procure the salvation of His people. Those glories that should follow the sufferings as the reward of His sufferings and that He might further accomplish their salvation. Chapter 3 and verse 18 points to the fact that this is the focus of His sufferings. Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. But now, follow with me as I try to state this very basic principle. What Peter teaches here

53:54 concerning Christ's sufferings followed by glory as the pattern in which Christ suffered for the salvation of His people. In the procurement or the purchase or the accomplishment of our salvation, he makes very clear that that pattern is true in the application of that salvation in the Christian life. For Christ, there was no way to procure salvation but suffering followed by glory. In those of us who come to trust in Christ, in the application of that salvation, as it works out in the Christian life, the pattern will be exactly the same for us. Suffering followed by glory. Notice how he emphasizes that in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. Beloved, do not 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 inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's suffering.

55:01 Sufferings rejoice that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy. What does he say? Suffering now, glory to come. What was it for your Savior? Sufferings followed by glory. What will it be for you? Don't think it strange. The pattern in your Savior's accomplishment of redemption is the fixed divine unalterable pattern in the application of that salvation.

55:31 Suffering now, glory to come. Look at chapter 5, 8 to 10. Telling them to be sober and watchful in the light of the devil's activity, whom withstands steadfast in your faith, knowing, and this is what you are to know, that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world, and the God of all grace who called you unto His eternal glory after you have suffered a little while. Glory comes after suffering. You see, Peter's very careful to underscore this principle that you and I must grasp, and if we're to enter in and really understand and lay to heart much of this epistle, it's vital that we understand at the outset that Peter's introducing this basic reality. Of genuine Christian experience, suffering precedes glory. In fact, according to two other passages, it is an inseparable attendant of all true saving experience, and a prerequisite

56:50 for entering to glory. Romans 8 and verse 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so, be the children of God. If children then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so, be the children of God. If children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so, be the children of God and joint heirs of God and joint heirs

57:25 with Christ, if so, be the children of God and joint heirs with Christ, if majorera you then you shall not be in Christ Jesus but in Christ Jesus, as I eat now, and so on and forth. You must understand and understand in Jesus Chrysostom's life which words you may use and understand in his life which words you too may use, if you'll just turn around and not only to believe on His name, but to suffer, to suffer. It is given to believe, it is given to suffer.

Why Underscore Suffering Followed by Glory?

57:45 We ask the question again, why underscore the fact of the introduction of this basic theme? Well, first of all, responsible exposition demands it. If you are to master a given musical composition that has a fundamental musical theme, you need to be aware of it at the outset, sometimes in the very overture of an opera. You'll pick up on a certain theme, and if someone who knows the score well points it out to you, it enriches your ability to appreciate that entire musical production.

58:18 You don't wait until three quarters of the way through and say, oh, now I know that's what... To understand that at the outset that theme is going to be introduced and picked up and woven throughout the entire musical production enriches your appreciation of it.

58:32 In the same way, the theme of suffering followed by glory will help us in our understanding of this epistle. But further, it's so fundamental an issue. Remember what Peter's seeking to do. He's seeking to equip these relatively new believers to live in a pagan society there in Asia Minor.

58:54 And one of the problems was that soon after their conversion, they began to experience suffering of different kinds. And Peter tells them, the worst is yet to come. And he's seeking to fit and prepare them for that. And how does he do it?

59:08 Well, as we shall see in our next exposition, he tells them that in the midst of all of their experience, they must have in the crosshairs of their conscious concentration of mind and heart, he says, set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, keep the coming glory in your eyeballs, and you'll be enabled to bear the presence, suffering to the glory of God. Lose sight of the coming glory, and the present suffering will distract and unhinge, if not actually drive you away from Christ. It's crucial that you and I grasp this fact and embrace it from our hearts.

59:52 Listen to a godly Scottish preacher who came from Scotland, settled in Kingston, New York, and has written a helpful commentary on first, and second Peter. He stated it this way, Let the afflicted children of God take comfort from the consideration of what was foretold and has been fulfilled in relationship to God's own well-beloved Son, the author and finisher of their faith, to whose image it is God's purposed and dearest ambition of their own hearts, that they shall be in all things conformed to Him. You see what he's saying? Let God's people, let the people rejoice that God has said for Him it was suffering followed by glory. And that's the God whose purpose to make us like His Son, and the deepest yearning in our hearts is to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now he makes the application, Grudge not then, brethren, to sit down beside the man of sorrows, and mingle your tears with his. So shall you after sit with him in his throne.

61:00 Do not refuse the fellowship, with his sufferings, what though you should even be conformable unto his death. Remember only that for him as for you the rule of the household was suffering, and after that, glory. That's the rule of the household. He was not exempt from that rule.

61:25 That was the great temptation of the evil one in the wilderness. Bypass the sufferings. Come to the glory. I'll give you the kingdoms of the world.

61:37 He knew that the path was suffering leading to glory. And that's the thing into which he calls all of his people. When he gave calls to discipleship, what did he offer people? If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross.

61:52 Identification with me in shame, rejection, suffering, and death. And he says, he that would love his life, who says, I want a way to life that bypasses the sin, such a suffering, such a one shall lose it. There is nothing that in the providence of God American affluence can produce that will ever negate the way of the cross as the way to life and salvation. As surely as no sinner can ever hope for pardon and acceptance with God who does not rest upon the work accomplished by him who suffered and entered into glory, no one can partake by faith of that salvation who is not put in the same pathway of suffering leading to glory. Our sufferings are not redemptive. He cried, it is finished. All of the suffering necessary to satisfy the law and justice of God he fully underwent.

62:59 But that does not negate the fact that to be attached to him in faith is to put oneself in the way of suffering that leads to glory. And if we want some other way we must make another savior who procured our salvation in another pattern. For us the procurement was suffering and the glories to follow. For us the way of appropriation and Christian experience is the way of suffering followed by glory.

Application: Embracing the Way of the Cross

63:34 Is that a word to us in the present time? God has rattled the cage of many of us. As I have said on one other occasion we have had it so easy. And God brings a little bit of suffering.

63:51 I sat in my study preparing the message and thought of what I know some are undergoing right now. Men who because they sought to preach and expound the scriptures have been thrown into prison shut off from wife and family nearly starved to death and beaten and crawling with vermin. And I say Lord I don't have one mark in my body born for the sake of God. I don't have one stitch in my face placed there because someone threw stones or rocks.

64:25 No bones that have been broken. I've got a few nasty letters a few ugly faces and a few nasty words ringing in my ears. Shame on me that I have such an aversion to the cross. May God help us dear people that this theme will not become a theme of maudlin negative monastic self-inflicted mournful Christianity.

64:57 But joyfully embracing this reality as surely as we share in the fellowship of his sufferings we shall know the blessedness of sharing in the glories to follow. May God help us. Let's pray. Our Father we thank you for the richness of your holy word and we pray that you would establish your people in this place in these basic doctrines that Peter felt so comfortable with.

65:33 We do thank you that you have revealed yourself in this blessed book that you are the God of special as well as general revelation and our Lord Jesus we worship you as the eternal God one with the Father and the Spirit in the mystery of the Trinity. We thank you Lord Jesus for your activity in giving the words of the prophets. We thank you for all that you have done in the path of suffering that led to glory. And we pray that you will help us that we will embrace from the heart that pattern that you have fixed as the pattern for all of your people and that we may with the Apostle Paul long to know you in the fellowship of Jesus and in all of your sufferings as well as in the power of your resurrection. Help us oh Lord Jesus we pray that we may know new measures of glorying in you and of clinging to you. Continue we pray to seal your word to our hearts and bless us in this day as we seek to honor you. Amen.