Sufferings of Christ and His People, #1

Introduction and Textual Clarification

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 25, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together in our Bibles once more, this time to 1 Peter, 1 Peter and chapter 3.

0:26 I know many of you have the New King James Version, and I apologize for not taking just a moment to explain why in my reading of the passage, Last Lord's Day, and in my preaching of it, I kept insisting that Peter wrote, Sanctify Christ as Lord, and you were looking at your Bible, and it says, Sanctify the Lord God. Well, if you look in your margin, you will notice in that little key to the various textual variants, that is, the manuscripts from which people compile a Greek text, and from which they write. And then, will translate into an English version, they were using manuscripts that say, The Lord God. But in my judgment, and the judgment of the majority of current evangelical scholars, that the greater and more reliable manuscript evidence points to the translation that you find in the center margin of your New King James, namely, Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. But I should have at least explained that. Some of you children may have been wondering why pastors making such a big point of the deity of Christ when Christ was not even mentioned in that passage, in your version. All right, follow then as I read, beginning in verse 13, chapter 3 in verse 13.

1:51 And who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good? But, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, blessed are you. And for the sake of righteousness, blessed are you. And for the sake of righteousness, blessed are you.

2:04 And for the sake of righteousness, blessed are you. And fear not their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being 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.

2:34 For it is better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well doing than for evil doing. For it is better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well doing than for evil doing. Because, 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, in which He also went and preached under the spirits in prison, that aforetime were dispersed under water, which was to bring into charge the unrighteous and the unrighteous. But, some of ye will ascertain.

2:58 So God works� shirts to esease God works the hell-century rat, which commits vire metals toSI over the Vedaux and that the gods have committed. So that I can do mine life sakes. So, that we may be endowed of selling on ahor and the ceneeeee that we may visit the attracing earth. That aforetime were disobedient when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water, which also, after a true likeness, does now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. In one way or another, to one degree or another, at one time or another, every day, every real Christian will suffer for the sake of Christ.

The Inevitability of Christian Suffering

4:07 You heard those words last Lord's Day, and God willing, you're going to hear them for at least several more Lord's Days. And I hope by the time we're done working our way through verses 13 to 22 of 1 Peter, you will be persuaded that in one way or another, to one degree or another, at one time or another, every real Christian will suffer for the sake of Christ. As surely as authentic Christian experience involves repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus, and no one instructed in the most elementary truths of the New Testament would deny that, would he? What would you think of the person who said, oh yes, I'm a Christian, but I have nothing to do with repentance towards God. I'm a Christian, but I have nothing to do with repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus. Or if you heard someone say, I am a true proponent of the apostolic and biblical gospel, but I don't believe repentance and faith are of any importance.

5:14 You'd say, look, you're missing it in something that is the very heart of true Christian experience. Well, likewise, I'm asserting that as surely as no authentic Christian experience would exclude repentance, and faith, so likewise, the truly penitent and believing child of God is to be brought into the crucible of suffering for the sake of the Christ upon whom he has believed. Across the whole spectrum of all the possible kinds of suffering, from the snubbing and frown of one's peers, to the emotional distance, and opposition of one's own blood relatives, to the bypassing of a deserved promotion in the workplace, the precipitation of slander and false accusation, all the way to the end of the spectrum of the martyr's stake, of the martyr's bullet, or the martyr's axe or club, plus anything in between, from the front,

6:32 from the ground of peers, to the stake of the martyr, every true Christian will sooner or later suffer for the sake of his attachment to Jesus Christ.

Suffering with Christ: An Inseparable Reality

6:49 Romans 8 and verse 17, if that were the only text, would bear the weight of that assertion. Having spoken of the reality of our sonship, attested by the Holy Spirit, Paul goes on to say in Romans 8, 17, and if we are children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be, that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together with him. And you have two Greek words, each one with the prefix soon, which means together. And you have, on the one hand, you have together, together with Christ in his suffering, together with Christ in his glory, and no one comes to the togetherness of glory, bypassing the togetherness of suffering. The apostle, by the Spirit of God, has joined them as inseparable realities. And we come this morning again to this portion of 1 Peter, in which Peter is dealing with that which is the heart of his apostolic and pastoral burden for those saints in those five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. It is the whole issue

8:16 of how he, as Christ's servant, is committed to a ministry of seeking to enlighten, to comfort, and to strengthen the people of God in the face of present and future suffering for the sake of Christ. Now, last Lord's Day and the Lord's Day before, we worked our way through verses 13 to 17, and I called that passage Suffering 101. In it, Peter gives some of the fundamental perspectives on the subject of suffering for righteousness' sake. Now, remember, it is not the generic suffering common to all men in a fallen world.

9:01 It is a more limited kind of suffering. It is suffering, verse 14, for the sake of righteousness. It is the suffering that comes as a direct response to the evidence of a vital attachment to the Lord Jesus in life and in profession. And because no Christian will forever be a stranger to suffering, no Christian can be indifferent to this apostolic instruction.

The Difficulty and Purpose of 1 Peter 3:18-22

9:34 Now, having given the basics of what the believers are to think about suffering, that they are not to be surprised if it does come upon them, they are to regard themselves as blessed, their central duty is to set apart Christ as Lord in their hearts, and those attendant realities, ready to give an answer with a right disposition out of the context of a validating life, after giving the crowning encouragement in verse 17, it is better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing, Peter launches into this lengthy statement, beginning in verse 18, concluding with verse 22, that many serious students of the Word of God regard as one of the most difficult passages in all of the New Testament. Some regard it as a very difficult passage, some regard it as the most difficult passage. What in the world is this business of Christ going and preaching to spirits in prison? What is this business of baptism saving us?

10:46 These are difficult matters to understand, and I could not help but think of Peter's words about some of Paul's writings in 2 Peter 3, he says, our beloved brother Paul, as in all his epistles has written, some things hard to be understood, I think if Paul had read this section in Peter, he would have said, Peter, you've indulged in it as well, you've written some things hard to be understood, and as Peter said of Paul's hard to be understood things, the ignorant and the unstable twist them to their own destruction, what is in this passage has also been twisted to the destruction of people's souls, but what we might read in this passage, what is in this passage, has also been twisted to the destruction of people's souls, You must remember, and I think it will be most helpful to you as it has been to me, if we will not get ourselves on track from Peter's basic purpose, what in the world is he doing in this passage? He is seeking to instruct Christians concerning the subject of suffering, to instruct them in such a way as to encourage them, to stabilize them, to enable them to face their sufferings in a way that will glorify God and advance the cause of the gospel. Peter did not write these things out of that pervasively practical and pastoral passion.

12:13 And then turn around and write things that would simply give fuel to future heretics to concoct their heresies. Nor did he write to confuse those ordinary believers, nor did he write simply to give fuel for men seeking to earn a Ph.D. degree and to do their doctoral thesis on some aspect of this passage.

12:39 And such theses have been written, and more than one. When one begins...

12:43 When one begins to plow through the literature on this passage, it is amazing how much can be written that gives so little light and only adds to the confusion. However, as we come to the passage, we are going to come to it with this issue constantly before the eyes of our souls. What is there in the passage calculated to enlighten, to encourage, and strengthen believers facing their present suffering and possibility? You begin with the textures that define future suffering as things recognize then possible future sufferings for the cause of Christ.

The Logical Connection: 'Because Christ Also Suffered'

13:20 You begin with the textures that define future suffering as things recognize then possible future sufferings for the cause of Christ. Now, we know that there is a connection because notice how verse 18 begins. It begins with the words, because. And we know immediately that there is a logical and thematic link between verse 18 and what follows and what receives at least in verse 17, if not the larger context.

13:36 The natural process of time starts from this point on in the Orthodox world. But I want thataffen then that haven't yet ended. Now it's going to be about beginning now. I hope you are here.

13:43 With verse 13, he says, It is better if the will of God so will that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing, because, because there is a clear, logical, and thematic connection. Peter has not lost his track. He has not suddenly gone out, as it were, on the porch, scratched his head, and said, I'm going to think about some very marginal ideas that I've heard floating around, and give vent to them. But no, he is writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, with a heart that feels the pressure of his Christ-given commission to feed the sheep and lambs of Christ's flock.

14:24 And I would like you to imagine that you are sitting there, in an assembly of God's people, somewhere there in one of those five Roman provinces, and you have heard someone appointed by the leadership to read the epistle when it first came. And you've heard, you've heard the words of verses 13 through 17, culminating in the words, It is better if the will of God should so will to suffer for doing well than for evil-doing. And then there's a pause. And the one who's reading is letting some of that sink in.

15:05 And after a brief pause, he begins with the words, Because, and all the ears, perk up. What is going to follow the because? And the first thing that would strike your ears are, Because Christ also suffered. And you are being taken to the central issue of your Christian faith, the doctrine of Christ dying, Christ suffering.

15:39 And as the passage unfolds in its initial context, it is Christ suffering for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. This one who was doing this to bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit. There is really nothing that's very complicated in that verse, is there? It's dealing with familiar territory.

16:07 Now, if you'll just regard the next three verses, verses 19, 20, and 21, as a parenthesis with me, move down to verse 22. Move from verse 18 to verse 22. Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. If sitting there, in one of those initial assemblies, all you heard was this, It is better to suffer if the will of God should so be because, Christ also suffered.

16:43 It is better to suffer if the will of God should so be because, Christ also suffered. It is better to suffer if the will of God should so be because, Christ also suffered. It is better to suffer if the will of God should so be because, Christ also suffered. It is better to suffer if the will of God should so be because, Christ also suffered.

16:50 He 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. Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. You would not have left the assembly that morning, scratching your head, saying to one of your fellow believers as you walked together to a place where you were going to have lunch in the home of one of another.

17:11 The believer is saying, What in the world? What in the world was Peter talking about? or talking about, had He only given what is found in our Bibles in verses 18 and 22, we would have gone home chewing over those central realities and wrestling with the question, how does His suffering for us relate to our sufferings? How does His suffering for sins, followed by His resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and the subjugation of all spiritual powers to Him, how does that relate to our sufferings?

17:45 You would be chewing over how the common stuff of your common faith related to the common problem of your sufferings.

17:56 Agree with me? You still with me? Or have I left you in Asia Minor somewhere? You see, it's those middle verses that are the sticky wicket.

Basic Similarities: Christ's Suffering and Ours

18:05 They're the difficulty in the passage. And most commentators have noted, that the bookends of the passage, the introductory statement and the concluding statement are, in the words of one commentator, Thus, however dark and impenetrable may be the cloud of mystery that overhangs the middle portion of the passage, every eye can clearly discern its commencement and its termination, the former in the vicarious sufferings and atoning death of the Savior, and the latter in His triumphant ascension, and session at God's right hand. Well, I want us to concentrate this morning on the part that's clear. And then, God willing, next Lord's Day, I'll attempt to roll up my sleeves and work with you through that which is less clear. And as we begin with what is clear, I want you to note with me under these two heads, the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the suffering of His people, and then secondly, the exclusions, the exclusive aspects of the sufferings of Christ on the behalf of His people. So we're going to note areas of similarity between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of His people, and then aspects of disparity, dissimilarity,

19:29 areas where there are exclusive aspects of the sufferings of Christ on the behalf of His people. First of all, then, the basic similarities, the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the suffering of His people. Peter has written in verse 14, but even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, verse 17, it is better if the will of God so will that you suffer for well-doing, now he says, because Christ also suffered. And that little word also is critical.

20:10 I'm a man. I'm amazed how many commentators I think missed the mark in their treatment of the passage because they treat it as though it simply said, because Christ suffered for sins. And then they launch into this marvelous exposition of the vicarious sufferings of Christ on behalf of His people, and they make no connection between the sufferings of the people of God and the sufferings of Christ. But the Spirit of God has made a connection.

20:38 Peter has said, if you should suffer, and then again in verse 17, if the will of God should so will that you suffer, when you come to suffer, remember, Christ also suffered.

20:55 And you are to bring His sufferings into the theater of your contemplation of your own sufferings. For Christ also suffered. You Christians in Asia Minor, you are suffering. You are about to suffer.

21:14 When you suffer, remember, you have a fellow sufferer. For Christ also suffered. Because Christ also suffered. Now some of you may have a rendering that says Christ also.

21:36 And again, it's a matter of the manuscripts, and I am persuaded, and I'll not give the reasons, that what is in the New King James, the old American standard, many of the current renditions of Scripture, that the word suffering is the proper word. And by the use of this word, Peter brings their sufferings and Christ's sufferings into the closest conjunction. Therefore, my first heading is, the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of His people. Old Archbishop Layton said, God had one Son without sin.

22:21 He has none without suffering. One Son without sin, but none without suffering. He has a suffering Son, and all the Sons whom He's been bringing to glory, they are suffering Sons with Him. Now what are the basic similarities in the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of His people?

Similarity 1: Suffering in the Way of Righteousness

22:46 Well, let me suggest that there are at least three. Number one, His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness.

22:56 His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness. Earlier, Peter had described the Lord Jesus in chapter 2 and verse 22 in these words, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. He was the utterly, perfectly sinless One. Here in this passage, He is described as the righteous One.

23:27 Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous. Now what relevance does this have to the people of God? Well, Peter has described the people as those who are committed to a life of righteousness. They are determined, notice up in verse 12, to be such as those upon whom the Lord looks with favor, for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.

24:01 Verse 14, But if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, and using different terminology, he says, it is good and better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for doing good. The suffering that they are experiencing and will yet experience is suffering that comes to them, not in the way of evil doing, but in the way of doing well. It comes in the way of righteousness. And on the very surface then, Peter's encouraging these saints, saying, you're not the first ones to suffer in the way of righteousness.

24:44 Your Lord and Savior, the perfectly righteous one has gone before you. And that very term is one of the terms that is an apostolic designation of the Lord Jesus. In Acts 3, Peter's preaching and he calls him the righteous one whom they rejected and crucified. In Acts 7, Stephen refers to him as the righteous one.

25:09 And again in Acts 22, 14, Ananias speaks of him as the righteous one. And in 1 John 2, 1, I write these things to you that you may not sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Now think what this would mean to these believers. Here by the grace of God and the outworking of their new birth and their union with Christ and the purification of their souls, leaving them in the posture of commitment to obedience to the truth, as he describes it in chapter 1 in verse 22, they are determined to live righteous lives, not to earn their salvation, but because they've received the free gift of an imputed righteousness, but out of love to the God who has given that gift. And because of the regenerating work of the Spirit implanting within them a passion to be righteous, to be like their Savior, they are suffering. And Peter says, Look, Christ also suffered. He suffered in the way of righteousness, and your suffering then brings you more deeply into fellowship, union, and communion with your Lord himself.

26:32 Now, many of us don't think in terms of fellowship, union, and communion with Christ in terms of suffering, but I remind you that that was one of the passions of the Apostle Paul. He said in Philippians 3 that, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and count them but refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is from God by faith. But he doesn't stop there. He says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. He has a passion to know communion with Christ in His suffering, as much as he has a passion to be found in union with Christ, possessing a righteousness not His own. And it is the experience of the people of God who are in Christ, for this is the way Peter had described them. They revile your good manner of life in Christ.

27:49 The doctrine of union with Christ was not far from Peter's mind, and that union with Christ is surely as it brings us into a union that makes it right for God to impute His righteousness to us. It is a union that will inevitably bring us into the train of the fellowship of His suffering. Peter comforts them by saying, there is a similarity between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of His people. The first area of similarity is that His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness and so were theirs.

Similarity 2 & 3: Suffering Results in Good and Leads to Glory

28:30 But secondly, His sufferings resulted in much good. According to the text, His sufferings accomplished the salvation of sinners. Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God. The highest good that could ever come to men has come through the sufferings of Christ.

29:00 Now, Peter, all through his epistle, has been trying to educate these believers to understand that when suffering and opposition come to them, God has gospel good in mind in directing them how to respond to that suffering. He had told them in chapter 2 and verse 12, having your behavior honorable among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, there is the suffering of slander, that they may, by your good works which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Your godly response to the suffering imposed upon you by the ungodly is to have a good end. Even God's glory, and whether this is speaking of the day of visitation in grace or in judgment, God's glory and even the possible good in the salvation of others. Likewise, when He calls upon these servants to respond to their unreasonable and unrighteous masters in such a way, it is to the end that they will see mirrored in their response something of Christ Himself. When He calls upon wives to be in subjection, even to unconverted husbands who disobey the word, what is the end in view?

30:26 That they may, without a word, be won by the manner of life of the wives. And here again, in the passage we just looked at in chapter 3, if you should suffer for righteousness sake, verse 14, what are you to do? Sanctify Christ, is Lord ready to give answer. Here are questions raised that never would have been raised had you not suffered.

30:50 Suffering becomes the precipitate of questions that lead to an answer of gospel truth. You have opportunity to answer concerning the hope that is in you. And now He says when you suffer, remember Christ also suffered. There is a similarity between your sufferings in His not only a similarity in that His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness and so are yours, but His sufferings resulted in much good and so may yours as well.

31:27 But then thirdly, according to this passage, His sufferings issued in exaltation and glory. Notice 18, the end of the verse, because Christ suffered for sins, being put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit. And now down to verse 22, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. His suffering was but a bracket of His experience on the way to His glory.

32:10 Peter was one of those who actually saw Him ascend into heaven. You read about it in Luke 24 and then again in Acts chapter 1. And this reality of Christ's sufferings issuing in Christ's exaltation and glory was a precious truth to Peter. He speaks of it again and again in this letter and even in his second epistle.

32:36 This theme of suffering that issues in glory is one of the major themes in this epistle. Remember back in chapter 1 when he spoke of trials. This is not suffering in the same category, but trials more generically. He says concerning these trials, verse 6, If need be, you've 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.

33:11 Praise and glory and honor. Are the fruit of your godly endurance, of your manifold trials. Verse 11. Searching what time or manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did point to when it testified beforehand, what?

33:26 The sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. 121. Through Him are believers in God that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. 322.

33:43 The one who suffered is the one who is at the right hand of God. The place of power and exaltation. The fulfillment of Psalm 110 in verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.

34:00 Chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is among you. Verse 13. Inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice.

34:13 That at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy. Chapter 5 in verse 1. The elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Verse 10 of the same chapter.

34:34 The God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory after you've suffered a little while. I'm not making something up. I said it's a major theme. Suffering and glory.

34:46 Suffering and glory. Suffering and glory. And in God's economy, the suffering must issue in glory. It must issue in glory.

34:57 And the Apostle Peter understood this as surely as Paul understood it in the Romans 8 passage that I quoted to you earlier. And therefore as God's people who anticipate the glory to come. We must come to grips with this. Realism that as with our Lord, the path to glory lay through the crucible of suffering.

35:20 In union and communion with Him, it will be the same for us. But as surely as His sufferings issued in exultation and glory, so will ours as they are the fruit of our union with Christ. Remember Paul's words in Philippians 1. For unto you it hath been given not only to believe on this day, but to suffer.

35:45 It has been given. It's a donation of grace to believe. It is likewise a donation of grace to suffer. All that will live with, live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Application to Young People: Counting the Cost of Suffering

36:01 A different word, one long Greek word that we translate shall suffer persecution. But it is a form of suffering. I want to underscore this with particular application to you young people. I have said, other elders have said, one of the most thrilling things that I have seen in 37 years of laboring here in North Jersey is what I see right now among so many of you relatively young men and women of a serious interest in and concern for the things of God.

36:39 A number of you even quietly but really professing to have laid hold of Christ. And I've got to be an honest and faithful pastor to you. And since we've come to this portion of the word of God in our regular exposition, I want to speak very directly to you and ask you this very simple question. Have you come to grips and counted the cost concerning this principle that if your grasp of Christ is real, you have grasped him not only to know his forgiveness, but to enter into the fellowship of his suffering.

37:17 Right now, you are wonderfully cocooned in the midst of your sympathetic parents who are pleading with God for your salvation and nothing makes them more happy and more supportive than every indication that their prayers are being answered for your salvation. And then you've got many sympathetic peers. It's a wonderful thing to see groups of you standing around and walk up on you and hear you talking about things that really matter. As I said the other day, something's bigger to you than the latest British styles on the front of Seventeen Magazine or Vogue or Red Book or some other soft core pornographic thing passed off as a high class ladies magazine. There are things more important to you than how you look when you make your last look in the mirror and you check the size of your upstairs and the cut of your clothes. There are things more important to you. The state of your soul, your relationship to Christ.

38:24 Your Bible gets more attention than your television. That's wonderful. But you see, that's in the midst, not only sympathetic parents, but some sympathetic peers. And then you've got sympathetic pastors.

38:40 They rejoice when they hear this and when they interact with you, their hearts are thrilled that they can talk about the things of God and not have the conversation go dead like you were talking in tongues or like you had a bad, bad taste of garlic breath. It's wonderful. Sympathetic parents, sympathetic peers, sympathetic pastors and a sympathetic people of God, some of whom get up early on a Saturday morning and come in one of the last prayer meetings for a solid hour with peers and things with God for your salvation. Bless God for all of that sympathetic cocoon.

39:18 Now, what are you going to do when that cocoon is split? And for you to make plain that you're identified with Christ, you cherish your virginity. That is a matter of personal taste, but conviction that your body's been purchased with a price and you're going to glorify God in it and you're going to unashamedly say that's the taproot of your commitment to ongoing virginity as a young man or a young woman. What's going to happen when they get talking about relationships and you make it plain that Christ's cross is stamped over every relationship and get talking about future.

40:02 An ambition. And you make it plain that you're thinking about your identity as a man or woman. Biblically, you've not sold out to modernity and to the notion that gender roles are all up for grabs. There are no biblical absolutes.

40:17 And you make it plain that you are one of these cookie macronisms. You actually believe that women have a distinct identity ordained by God from creation. And that in that identity, there is a God ordained subordination to male headship and male leadership and a divine hierarchy. And you're committed to that hierarchy.

40:41 What's going to happen then, girls? What's going to happen then, guys? You'll get the frowns. You'll feel the social authorization.

40:53 And I don't talk to someone who doesn't know it from being a very popular guy in high school. I know what it was with the exception of four or five guys to be dropped like I had leprosy.

41:07 I'm being Mr. Cool guy because I could laugh at the latest dirty joke in the locker room and do a one up and tell my own. Someone who would now say if someone came with a dirty joke, I don't want to listen to it. I'm now a Christian.

41:25 It hurts, but something would have hurt more to go to the place where I prayed and have the heavens and no communion with my savior, the fellowship of his sufferings. That's what you kids have got to wrestle with. Because that's what it means to belong to Christ. You're going to enter in to the fellowship of his suffering.

41:58 It's inevitable in one way or another, at one time or another, to one degree or another, if you belong to Christ. Now, should you go on out and make a nuisance of yourself and try to get everybody mad at you to see if you'll stand the test? No, I'm just asking you in the secret place where you have dealings with God, you think this issue through and in the language of Jesus, you count the cost. You count the cost lest you be like the king that goes out to war with an insufficient army or the builder that begins to build with insufficient capital and materials and all laugh at his half built house. I love you enough to plead with you not to back off from Christ. No. But in coming to Christ, remember that he says to young and old alike, if any would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.

43:08 That symbol of suffering, rejection and death. God says you must take it up. And in the fellowship of his rejection and of his suffering and being made increasingly conformable to his death, you follow him. But you do.

Suffering Leads to Certain Glory

43:30 You do so. And this is what's critical in the confidence that beyond the suffering, there is glory and say, well, Pastor, isn't that a mercenary thing to think of that? No, it isn't mercenary. It's biblical.

43:45 And I don't have time. I'd love to just go into the details of it. Remember what is recorded in Hebrews 11 about Moses when he was come to years. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

43:56 Choosing what? You talk about a wingnut. Choosing. He would rather to suffer ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

44:08 Now, why in the world did he do that? It says, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He saw through the suffering to the glory and he said the glory is worth the suffering. That's not the mercenary.

44:24 That's being biblical. And this is what I urge upon you to recognize the suffering is real, but it leads to glory and the glory is certain and worth the suffering. When Jesus can say to him that overcomes, I will give to sit down with me in my throne as I am set down in my father's throne. You read here in first Peter 322, he's at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers subject to him.

45:03 He is seated at the father's right hand. He says, I'm going to share my throne with you. That's amazing. But that's true.

45:12 You share in his sufferings, you'll share in his glory and his exaltation because he is committed to make that the experience of his people. So you're sitting there in the congregation or one of the congregations there in Asia Minor. And one of the leaders, one of the elders, one of those appointed to read the epistle, has read the epistle. And you've heard the words.

45:39 Because. Christ also, you are to draw from that reality of his sufferings, comfort and consolation and encouragement. I have a share in the kind of sufferings my Lord experienced suffering in the way of righteousness, suffering that will result in good suffering that will issue in glory. However, as is so often the case in the New Testament, in the midst of this most practical instruction, Peter connecting Christ's sufferings with their sufferings.

Exclusive Aspects of Christ's Sufferings (Preview) and Conclusion

46:18 We have one of the richest, the most profound statements of the redemptive sufferings of Christ, those aspects of the sufferings of Christ that were utterly unique and exclusive to him. And as I look at my watch, there's no way that I can open this up in a reasonable amount of time. So that's going to have to be held off, God willing, for next week. Because we want to simply open up then phrase by phrase the exclusive aspects of the sufferings of Christ, Christ suffered for sins.

46:54 Christ suffered the righteous for the unrighteous. Christ suffered once. Christ suffered that he might bring us to God. Some have noted that this may be, if not one of the most, the most rich distilled statement of the nature of Christ penal substitutionary sacrifice for sin to be found anywhere in the New Testament.

47:21 But be that as it may, it's too rich and too important for me to just skip over the heads. So I'm going to, in a very awkward way, bring to a close a sermon that I had not anticipated would end with the first heading. But let me just go back full circle to where we began and ask you to think with me. You're sitting there in the congregation, you've listened to the substance of suffering 101.

47:48 You recognize that in the way of righteousness, suffering may well be your portion in new dimensions soon. But if you should suffer, what am I to do? Sanctify Christ as Lord in my heart. And with Christ being given his rightful place in my affections, in my obedience and in my confidence, my trust in him, I am to be constantly ready to give a reasoned response to every questioner and to do it with meekness and fear and to do it having a good conscience and a blameless life.

48:23 And I am to face that suffering knowing it's better if I suffer in the will of God for doing well than for doing evil. But then I'm to remember there is a communion and a fellowship, a similarity in my sufferings to the sufferings of my Lord, because Christ, who also suffered for me in the way of righteousness, in a suffering that accomplished good, in a suffering that led to glory. And that is my consolation, that in my sufferings I am in fellowship with his sufferings. And don't be ashamed to use that terminology.

49:02 Yes, we cling to the exclusive nature of Christ's redemptive sufferings. But the concept of fellowship in the sufferings of Christ is too dominant to play it down for fear. We will enter into some heretical notion that we somehow earn our salvation by our sufferings. No, Paul is not reluctant to say I am filling up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake.

49:30 There are non-redemptive sufferings that are part and parcel of true, vibrant, saving biblical religion. And if we have that commodity, dear people, suffering is going to be our portion and we ought to face it in the confidence that there is one who has gone before and in union and communion with him, we will know him more intimately in the crucible of suffering than we knew him in fair days when suffering was foreign to us. For you who are not Christians, you sit here and say, this is the wackiest stuff I've ever heard. You mean you're trying to induce me to think seriously about becoming a Christian. And you stand there talking about suffering. That's exactly right, because you're just going to choose when you get your suffering. You're going to suffer, too.

50:29 You can't avoid it. And I'm not talking about the sufferings in this life. Psalm 73 makes it plain that sometimes sinners escape much suffering in this life. They even lie in their deathbed and there's no terror.

50:44 Read Psalm 73, but suffer you will if you go on in your unbelief and impenitence, even the horrible suffering of the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. My friend, I would entice you away from an eternal suffering in the pit of everlasting burning, to bear in fellowship with the glorious savior a bit of suffering now on your way to the glory that awaits the people of God. My unconverted friend, you will suffer. And if in your unbelief and impenitence and love of your peers and love of the world, you will not turn from idolatrous attachment to your peers and idolatrous attachment to the world to cling to Christ in a death grip and in fellowship with him be willing to bear reproach and suffering, my dear friend, you're choosing an eternity of suffering which does not lead to anything but more suffering, which leads to nothing but more suffering. May God help you to turn from such folly and lay hold of Christ and bear for a little while the fellowship of his sufferings here, you might join the host of the ransomed who know nothing but glory in the age to come.

52:08 Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would take your word and write it upon all of our hearts. Use it, we pray, to draw some into vital union with your son. We pray that you will help us as your people.

52:30 That we would not allow ourselves to drift off into this unbiblical notion, that because we live in this country of affluence and with much common grace, restraining men's hatred to you and to your truth, that we can forever escape the more intense expressions of suffering. We ask, O God, that you will fit us and prepare us for whatever may yet lie before us. And those of us who have known at least some little measure of these sufferings for attachment to Christ, help us to think more and more biblically concerning those sufferings and ever look unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and has now sat down at your own right. And, O Lord Jesus, we pray that the fascination of your glory and the wonder of your grace will more than compensate for a few frowns and a few blows until we see you face to face. Seal then your word to our hearts, we pray. Amen.