Climactic Directive to Suffering Saints

Introduction: Peter as a Good Teacher

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 12, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together in God's word to 1 Peter and chapter 4, 1 Peter and chapter 4.

0:30 And as we shall be completing our study in this chapter this morning, I read for the last time for a while this paragraph that we've read for several Lord's Day mornings, beginning in verse 12, continuing to the end of the chapter.

0:47 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial among you which comes upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you. But insomuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you may also rejoice with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rests upon you. For let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler in other men's matters.

1:33 But if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name. Amen. 4. 1.

1:43 2. 3. 4. 4.

1:43 5. 6. 7. 8.

1:44 9. 10. 11. 12.

1:44 13. 14. 15. 16.

1:44 17. 18. 19. 20.

1:44 21. 22. 23. 24.

1:44 24. 25. 26. 27.

1:44 28. 29. 29. 30.

1:45 31. 32. 33. 34.

1:45 34. 35. 34. 36.

1:45 37. 37. 38. 39.

1:46 40. 39. 40. 40.

1:58 41. 42. 42. 43.

1:59 44. 44. 45. 46.

1:59 46. 47.

2:01 Where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Wherefore, let them also that suffer according to the will of God, commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.

2:21 Now imagine with me at this point in the service that I were to ask the ushers to come down the various aisles as they did to receive our offering, and to distribute a piece of paper to all of you who could write. For you, who just would draw pictures and doodle, no paper for you. But if you're old enough to be able to write, we would encourage you to take a piece of paper, and then to write down your answers to a little survey that I were to do on the subject of what makes a good teacher. Now I'm sure that most of us have an opinion with respect to the issue of what makes a good teacher.

3:03 In fact, some of you kids no doubt have very, very strong opinions. And your opinions are in direct proportion to your ignorance in some cases. But nonetheless, you feel you know what a good teacher is. Some of you a bit older and more mature, perhaps, are a little less dogmatic, but at least you have some idea of what constitutes a good teacher.

3:28 Now, as you were writing your answers, suppose I were to ask, what are the characteristics of a good teacher's personality? And you might write down, Well, cheerfulness and approachableness, and no doubt there'd be a general consensus. But now, if I were to ask you, what makes a good teacher as to the teacher's teaching method, that is, how the teacher teaches, I think it would be very interesting to receive your papers to go through them and see if we had some kind of a general consensus. And I'm quite sure we would, though the wording might be different, I think the characteristics that most of you would put down with reference to what makes a good teacher as to teaching method, that somewhere in there at the top of the list would be the fact that the teacher really knew his or her subject. You never sat there wondering, you know, I just might know more than he or she does about this. You have that sense of confidence, whatever the teacher's passing on to you, he or she knows a lot more than he or she is giving you. But then you would say a good teacher is one who can excite the students.

4:40 You can excite the student about the subject because the teacher is excited. There's nothing worse than a teacher bored with his own subject. The quickest way to bore your students is to be bored with it yourself. So you'd say, well, a good teacher is someone who not only knows his or her subject, but is excited about it.

4:58 And then as you thought through the characteristic of a good teacher, you no doubt would then, some of you at least, would put in there, well, as to teaching method, it would be that the teacher tells us what he or she is doing. What he or she hopes to impart to us, where he or she is taking us, and then clearly takes us step by step on that journey of learning, and when we've arrived, looks back and gives us a nice summary of where we started, where we've come, and where we are. Isn't that what you appreciate? And you would call a good teacher who tells you where he hopes to take you, takes you there, and you're not lost along the way, and when you've arrived, stands with you and looks back and says, that's where we were.

5:40 That's where we were, here's where we've come, and this is where we stand. Well, if you agree with me, and I don't have time to say how many agree with this, that, or the other, but I think I've carried the judgment of many, if not most of you, this is precisely what Peter, as an inspired apostle, has done in this section of his letter. He began in chapter 3 and verse 13 to tell us that he was now going to come to the very center of his study. He began in chapter 3 and verse 13 to tell us that he was now going to come to the very center of his study.

6:13 He began in chapter 3 and verse 13 to tell us that he was now going to come to the very center of his study. Namely, the subject of suffering for righteousness' sake. And having announced to us the subject with which he is dealing, he then has led us step by step into an ever-enriched perspective on the suffering of a Christian in the way of righteousness, suffering for righteousness' sake, suffering, as he says, for the name of Christ. Now, as we come to verse 19 of chapter 4, Peter is standing with us and, in a sense, looking back and saying, now here is the summary of all that I've said.

The Climactic Directive: Ultimate Cause of Suffering

6:55 Look at the text. Wherefore, and this word wherefore, used only twice by Peter in his letter, he doesn't throw it out carelessly or frequently, points to the fact that he's giving us a summary statement a statement in which he will sort of recapitulate in many forms the heart and soul of what he has been conveying to us by the inspiration of the Spirit and the fact that there follows the wherefore, the final imperative with respect to the subject of suffering, it is, as it were, the capstone directed over everything else that he has set before us. Granted, in chapter 5 and verse 1, Peter says, Verse 1, he will make a reference to the sufferings of Christ, but without any connection with our sufferings. Again, in chapter 5 and verse 9, he will make a reference with respect to the sufferings of their Christian brethren in other parts of the world, but no directives in conjunction with that aspect of suffering, and in that final expression of confidence in God's work in the world. And then in verse 10, he speaks of the fact that their suffering will be but for a little while, but there is no exhortation, no admonition.

8:20 This is Peter's final word of directive concerning the Christian as he faces his suffering for the sake of Christ. And so I'm entitling our exposition this morning, The Climactic Directive to Suffering Saints. Not the only directive. But the climactic directive to suffering saints.

8:45 Or we might think of the passage as the spirit-inspired last page in Peter's little mini-manual on how to suffer for Christ in a way that glorifies Christ and advances the cause of the gospel of Christ. And as we look at our text this morning, you will note with me that there are two main units of thought. Wherefore, let them also that suffer according to the will of God. There, Peter points us to the ultimate cause of all suffering for Christ.

9:26 And when he says, let them commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator, he's setting before us the unchanging duty in the midst of all suffering for Christ. So we have the ultimate cause and the unchanging duty. Very simple. But that's Peter's desire as a good teacher to nail the issue in very succinct words.

9:55 And if we rightly apprehend those words, not merely comprehend but apprehend, lay hold of them, in a sense, they will have a bunch of little pegs on which we can hang all of the other issues which Peter has set before us. Here we go. Verse 1. Verse 2.

10:10 In this section, beginning with chapter 3 and verse 13, coming through to verse 19 of chapter 4. First of all, then, the ultimate cause of all suffering for the sake of Christ. As Peter is about to issue his final and climactic directive as to how a Christian is to conduct himself in the midst of suffering for righteousness, he takes his readers back to this most foundational issue, namely, what is the ultimate cause of all suffering for the sake of Christ? And according to Peter, what is that ultimate cause?

10:54 Well, the answer is on the surface of the text. It is the will of God. So he writes,

11:06 Now, Peter is not introducing a new subject. In Suffering 101, as we called it, the first paragraph, treating of suffering in a concentrated way, Peter brought this issue into sharp focus. Verse 17 of chapter 3. For it is better if the will of God should so will.

11:32 You English grammarians, if one of your students, if you were a teacher, sent in an essay and had this language, you say, that's tautology. That's using the same word or similar words with no additional meaning. And the Holy Spirit knows it's so vital that it's not beneath his dignity to use tautology in the words with which he speaks to us. Peter writes, For it is better if the will of God should so will.

12:00 He wants these believers never to forget that when clinging to Christ, and out of unswerving loyalty, and out of unswerving loyalty to Christ, and diligent, scrupulous obedience to the word of Christ, we are plunged into suffering, that behind the frowns on the faces of those who may frown, behind the sneer of those who sneer, behind the bitter words of those who may reproach us, behind whatever combination of actions could be described as they are in verse 12 of chapter 4, the fiery trial, the burning which comes upon us to try us, behind the look, the mouth, the hands, the rack, the prison, whatever it is, stands God in all of his undiminished sovereignty, the living, the reigning, the almighty sovereign of the universe, in his governing and disposing power, Peter says, is the ultimate cause of the suffering of the child of God.

13:18 Now, one of my patron saints, as I've been working through 1 Peter, you've heard me mention him before, is Hebert. And he writes on this little phrase, Their suffering was according to the will of God, for the name of Christ, verse 14, and as a Christian, verse 16, a suffering now regarded from the standpoint of God's will. Behind the vicious activities of their enemies stood the wise will of God. Peter sought to assure the readers that Christian suffering does not come at the caprice of blind chance, or as the predetermination of inexorable fate, but as a divine discipline.

14:02 Assured that their suffering was in harmony with the divine will for them, they were not to quarrel with that wise, and gracious will, neither let them be discouraged, or grow faint and weary in their Christian course. Now, as with these believers in Asia Minor in the first century, so with us. Whenever suffering comes to us, not for our evildoing, not for our reckless and foolish actions, but because of uncompromising love for and unswavering obedience to Jesus Christ, it is crucial that we remind ourselves that that which has determined both the nature, the intensity, and the duration of that suffering is the will of God. That's what Peter does in his summary statement. Before he brings his capstone exhortation, his final imperative to the saints with respect to this matter, the matter of suffering, he says always remember this. As you're seeking to do what I'm about to tell you to do, it will be so much easier to do it if you constantly remind yourselves, I suffer, kata, according to,

15:28 by the measure and the standard of the will of God. Isn't this beautifully illustrated in the book of Acts? You remember in the early days of the outpouring of the Spirit, in Jerusalem, and the disciples were multiplying greatly. What was the climate in which the church was growing?

15:49 Well, Luke tells us, in three places, that it was a very congenial climate. Oh yes, there was a little ruffling of the feathers of some of the leaders, but the overall climate is described in Acts chapter 2 and verse 47. Speaking of God's people, they were praising God and having favor with all the people. In those early days, even non-believers, witnessing their internal life, they had favor with them.

16:18 They liked what they saw. Chapter 4, we have a similar statement. Chapter 4 and verse 21. And they, when they had further threatened them, that's the leaders, they were causing some disruption.

16:32 They let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them. Why? Why did not these few disgruntled religious leaders let loose more vicious, concentrated opposition and suffering upon the servants of God? Because of the people.

16:49 For all men glorified God for that which was done. God was restraining the native antipathy to light and truth. God was giving His people favor. And even though Peter and John had a measure of opposition and persecution, the rank and file of God's people did not.

17:09 But then you know what happened. This man Saul comes into the picture. Stephen is martyred. And then the Scripture tells us in Acts 8 and verse 1, Saul was consenting to his death, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church.

17:29 And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Favor with all the people. A short time thereafter, everyone is raided. Aging against them.

17:43 And they are scattered. But a while later we read in Acts chapter 9 in verse 31, after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Acts 9.31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace.

18:02 Being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit was multiplied. From a favorable climate to intense persecution. Back to a favorable climate. And what's behind all of this?

18:17 The will of God. The will of God. And in the very book of Acts, we see some of the unfolding of the divine purposes. He wasn't acting capriciously.

18:28 He wanted the gospel to penetrate other areas. In Acts chapter 11, the very future base of missionary endeavor to the Gentile world is established because God let loose persecution upon the church in Judea and Samaria. Or the church in Jerusalem. Read it for yourself and see.

18:45 So when Peter says to these distressed believers, here in my summary directive to you on this issue of suffering, never forget. Keep it as a given. Let it reverberate through the chambers of your heart again and again. When you come into the crucible of suffering in the way of righteousness, suffering as a Christian, suffering for the name of Christ, suffering for the name of Christ, suffering for the name of Christ, Christ, the ultimate cause, is the will of God.

19:17 Not only do we see that clearly illustrated in these broad stroke examples in the book of Acts, but what has Peter continually brought before these believers as the most fundamental spiritual perspective in handling their sufferings? You remember? I hope you do. He constantly brings Christ before them as the model sufferer.

19:41 You remember how he did this with respect to those slaves who were being ill-treated by their masters in chapter 2 and verse 21? Hereunto were you called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. He says to these slaves, Christ is the exemplar par excellence with respect to suffering in a way that pleases them. He goes on in other passages.

20:12 He goes on in other parts of the epistle to focus again upon Christ's sufferings as the model for the people of God. And while we assert and constantly underscore that as to the purpose of his sufferings, the nature of his sufferings, Christ's sufferings are utterly unique. Chapter 3 and verse 18, Christ suffered for us, but just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. There is that which is utterly unique.

20:42 In the nature and the intent and end of Christ's sufferings, but having said it and having repeated it again and again, we dare not bleed off the vigor of Peter's use of our Lord as the example for the suffering of his people. And when we take that perspective and apply it to this statement of Peter and we look at the life of our Lord Jesus, what is it that was the ultimate cause of all of his suffering? It was the will of God. He says in John 12, Now is my soul troubled?

21:21 And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, he says, for this purpose I came forth. Lo, I am come to do your will.

21:31 John 18, the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? In the well-known words of Gethsemane, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup be mine, and let this cup be mine, and let this cup be mine, and let this cup be mine, and let this cup be mine, and let this cup be mine. If this cup cannot pass except I drink it, your will be done. It was the embrace of the will of God that was the ultimate reference point for our blessed Lord.

21:59 And since we are called to follow in his steps while trusting in the virtue of his unique sufferings as the divinely appointed sin-bearer, we are also to fix our eyes upon Jesus, author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and underneath and around all of that was his resolute determination to do the will of his Father, no matter what the extent of the suffering doing that will would entail. So Peter, in this climactic directive to suffering saints, says, let's never forget the ultimate cause of all suffering for the sake of Christ, the will of God. But then secondly, and this is the heart of the text,

The Climactic Directive: Unchanging Duty - Specific Object (Faithful Creator)

22:56 Peter sets forth what I'm calling the unchanging duty in the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ. Here are the words.

23:08 Let them commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful creator. Now, I've called these words a statement of our unchanging duty. Now, I know that the word duty for many is a dirty word. But it's not dirty to those that love Christ.

23:30 For he said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If we say that we know him and keep not his commandments, we lie, and we do not the truth. And we keep them as commandments.

23:44 We don't look at them as mere suggestions and get enticed to doing it. Jesus said that the world may know that I love the Father as he gave me commandment, even so I do. He goes to the cross as a matter of duty. Not naked duty, but duty nonetheless.

24:05 The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? It is part of my duty as the messianic Savior. And I say, it is part of my duty because it is an imperative. Peter chooses an imperative.

24:24 And I say it's an unchanging duty because he chooses a present imperative. He writes, Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God be continually committing their souls unto a faithful Creator. So it is the unchanging duty that is incumbent upon every child in the midst of suffering for the sake of Christ. Now, the translation in the American Standard is a good translation.

24:57 The one that's in the New King James is good. But none of the translations that I've consulted reflects what I believe are very, very helpful nuances that are there in the original. Let me offer my own translation that's a bit rough in terms of English sentence structure, but I hope will be understandable. And it's the way I'm going to expound it.

25:21 Wherefore also the ones suffering according to the will of God to a faithful Creator let them continually commit their souls in well-doing. Wherefore also the ones suffering according to the will of God to a faithful Creator let them continually continually commit their souls in well-doing. And what we have, basically, are three units of thought. We have, first of all, the specific object of this unchanging duty, and then we have the essence of the unchanging duty, and then we have the context, or the assumed sphere, in which that unchanging duty is to be rendered. First of all, the specific object of this unchanging duty. See, when Peter wrote under the guidance of the Spirit, he did not write what is reflected in the English translations. Wherefore, let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.

26:32 No, faithful Creator stands on the front end of Peter's directive.

26:39 Wherefore, also, the one suffering he describes those to whom he is writing with this present participle, the ones who are in the process of suffering, and the next two words are, to a faithful Creator. Two words in the original, we take three in English. To a faithful Creator. Before he specifies what they are to do, he sets before them the one with whom they are to have dealings in the doing of it.

27:14 It is the specific object of this unchanging duty that Peter is highlighting, he is putting the floodlight on the God to whom they are continually to commit themselves. And notice the unusual way that he describes God. He describes Him as a faithful Creator.

27:39 Now, this word, Creator, is another one of those words found only here in the New Testament. You Greek students, it is a hapax lagomenon. Hapax, once for all, lagomenon word. Saying, it's a once for all.

27:52 The only time this word is found in the New Testament. Oh, you say, but Pastor, God is called Creator many places in the New Testament. Yes, He is. Christ is called Creator.

28:03 John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.

28:12 That's a statement of creation. In Acts chapter 17 and verse 24, Paul in his preaching at Athens, describes God as the God who made all things, and who subsequently governs all things. In Acts 4.24, when they gather to pray after this opposition, they address God as Creator.

28:33 And in the book of the Revelation, chapter 4 and verse 11, God is worshipped as Creator. But this particular word, this specific word, is found only here in the New Testament. And it highlights the reality that God is indeed Creator, and He is God. Now, put yourself in Peter's place.

28:53 You're thinking of Christians way out there in the outer reaches of the Roman Empire, in the midst of opposition from a pagan society. You have a sense that more intense suffering and persecution is going to come upon them, and you're encouraging them now to do something with reference to their God. What of the various characteristics or titles or names or functions of God would you have highlighted? Maybe we might have written, Wherefore, let them also who suffer according to the will of God, to a faithful Redeemer, to a loving Father, to an unchanging...

29:35 Whatever concept that is biblical, we might be tempted to focus upon some other aspect of who God is. But what Peter focuses upon is the fact that He is Creator. Now, let me ask you a question. Again, when you think of God as Creator, go back to Genesis 1-1.

29:59 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You read all the way down through, and I love verse 16 of Genesis 1. He makes the greater light and the lesser light. And then almost as an afterthought, no repetition of the verb, the stars also.

30:19 I sat at my desk and I laughed. Oh, the stars also. Think of it. The stars.

30:27 Yeah, He made those also. No big deal for God. In the beginning, God created all reality. It's created reality.

30:34 What aspect of God's being comes into sharpest focus when you think of God as Creator?

30:43 I hope you're thinking His unlimited power. Maybe you're also thinking His unfathomable wisdom. Maybe you're also thinking His unfailing faithfulness. What He makes.

30:58 He upholds. And governs. And guards. And protects.

31:02 And guides to its destined end. But surely, the concept of unlimited power stands to the forefront when anyone within biblical intelligence thinks about God as Creator. In fact, Paul is careful to underscore that even those who don't ever see the pages of a Bible, Romans 1 in verse 20, he says that from the things that are made, God is bearing witness to Himself. And what do men who've never seen the pages of a Bible know about God from His creative work?

31:36 They know even His everlasting what? Power. And the next word is hard to translate. Probably the best way to translate it, His God-ness.

31:48 This is what men know simply by looking at the world around them. His everlasting power and His God-ness. Now, come back to 1 Peter 4.19.

31:59 Peter, having reminded these saints that the ultimate cause of all of their suffering is the will of God, he's about to tell them what their unfailing duty is, their unchanging duty, with reference to this God. And he said, I want you, in the midst of your suffering, to think of Him in terms of who He is as Creator. Think of Him in terms of His unlimited power. His unfathomable wisdom and His unfailing love manifested in His creative work.

32:40 And then, he put to help us this adjective in front of the noun, faithful. Now, he doesn't say, all-powerful Creator. His power is highlighted in the very fact He's Creator. His wisdom is highlighted in the fact that He is Creator.

33:01 But, what he says, you must think of Him as faithful Creator. This word faithful, in the sense in which Peter uses it, means trustworthy. He's predictable and reliable. He is, if I were to give a long hyphenated word, an always-to-be-trusted-as-trustworthy God.

33:24 Always-to-be-trusted-as-a-trustworthy God. He is faithful Creator. If He's infinite in power and yet we're capricious, to think of Him would be intimidating. Don't know if He's going to blow a cork.

33:44 If He's infinite in power and unpredictable, there would be anxiety. If infinite in power and unreliable, we would be discouraged from trusting Him. So, Peter says, oh, you saints of God in Asia Minor, listen, listen. In the midst of your suffering, never forget they are ordered ultimately by the will of God.

34:07 And I'm directing you to constantly commit yourselves to this God, particularly thinking of Him as men and women of faith, as a trustworthy Creator, as the God whose covenant fidelity is never, never eroded. We read Deuteronomy 7, 9, Isaiah 49, 7, and a host, not a host, a number of other passages you will find that God's faithfulness, His trustworthiness inheres in His very being. God can no more cease to be untrustworthy than He can cease to be holy. It is of the very essence of His being to be the God who holds Himself to His word, who is perfectly predictable in terms of what He has bound Himself to do. No temptation taken you, but such as man can bear. And what's the great encouragement? But God is faithful.

35:11 May God sanctify your whole body, soul, and spirit. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, faithful is He who called you, who also will do it. So this is the specific object to which he calls these believers. Think of Him as faithful, created.

35:37 As you wrestle with your fears, the grief, the pain of suffering for Christ's sake, this is what you're called to do. Before you even focus upon the central duty in its essence, commit your souls, remember who He is, faithful Creator. I'm trying to illustrate this. The best I could come up with is another one of those very silly illustrations, but I hope it helps like some of the other previous silly illustrations have helped.

36:04 Here's a little girl, just old enough to be able to go out, with her older siblings, she's got three or four rough-and-tumble brothers, and she tries to mix it up with them and play with them. So one day, they're trying to get up into a tree in the backyard, and they get her to stand on their shoulders, and she gets perched up in the tree beyond now where they can help her down, and she begins to look down from a height of about 10 feet up, and she's scared witless, and she begins to cry, and the boys are torn. Shall we go in and get help from them? Shall we go in and get help from Dad, or shall we try to get her down?

36:41 If we get help from Dad, he's going to ask us what in the world we did putting her up there, and so finally her cries prevail, and they go in and say, Dad, Dad, Sis is in a mess out there, she's up in the tree, we can't reach her, and she's scared to death. And so Daddy comes out. Now Daddy can do one of two things. He can go out and stand at the base of the tree, and he can say to her, now sweetheart, Daddy's here, jump.

37:07 Or he can do this. He can go out, and he's noticing that she's white with fear, she's trembling like a leaf, she's sobbing, and he can start out by saying, sweetheart, look at Daddy. Sweetheart, look at Daddy. See Daddy's arms?

37:23 These are the arms that pick you up and carry you to bed at night. These are the arms that have snatched you when we've been swimming down at the shore, and the big wave caught you, Daddy's arms. And he reminds her of Daddy's arms and what they've done in the past. And then he reminds her of Daddy's words, he said, now sweetheart, has Daddy ever told you to do anything that was for your harm?

37:47 Has everything Daddy's ever told you to do been for your good? And he reminds her of Daddy's arms and Daddy's words. And after he's done that, then he says, now sweetheart, in the light of what you know about Daddy's arms and Daddy's words, jump. Does Daddy make it a bit easier for her to jump?

38:07 Now he has the right to come out and say, sweetheart, jump. But he reminds her. Daddy's arms, Daddy's words, that's what God is doing in His Word. He could have said, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls, period.

38:24 But He doesn't. He says, wherefore also the ones suffering according to the will of God, to a faithful Creator. Look at your father's arms. They're the ones that formed galaxies out of nothing, slung them out into space.

38:46 They're Daddy's words. It is always to be trusted. That's the object of the duty. Now what's the essence of the duty?

The Climactic Directive: Unchanging Duty - Essence (Commit Their Souls)

38:57 Let them that suffer according to the will of God, to a faithful Creator, be continually committing themselves. Now this verb, translated commit, is a verb that means to entrust something to another for safekeeping. In Luke chapter 12, in what is a very familiar text to many of us, I want you to turn there for a moment because you'll see what the context is. It is a stewardship context.

39:26 It is the context of an entrustment. The Lord is speaking a parable, Luke chapter 12. And the Lord said, verse 42, Who then is the faithful and wise steward to whom the Lord shall set over His household to give them their portion in due season? You remember some weeks ago, when we were considering chapter 4 and verse 11, good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

39:55 A steward is one who has been given a trust. He has been given property or money or goods or people to care for them by the Master. Well in that setting, look at verse 48. But he that knew not and did not things worthy of strikes shall be beaten with few strikes.

40:12 And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. And to him to whom, here's our verb, they commit much, of him will they ask the more. Here's the picture of the Master, the Lord of the house, the Lord of the plantation, the Lord of the vineyard entrusting to another for wise use and safe keeping. It's the very word recorded in Luke chapter 23 and verse 46.

40:47 Jesus' final prayer, Father into your hands, here's our verb, I commit my spirit. I entrust into your hands my spirit, into the safe keeping of His God and His Father. So that's the sense of its meaning. It is to entrust to another in the secular Greek world where you didn't have banks and safe deposit box.

41:17 If you were going on a journey and you wanted to take your jewels from out under the rug in your bedroom and put them in safe keeping, you would go to a dear friend and say, these are heirlooms, these are precious jewels, I'm committing them to you until I return. That's the verb you would use. Peter says, this is the essence of your unchanging duty in the midst of your suffering. Remembering that all of those sufferings are ordered by the will of God, that the one to whom you are to do this, is a faithful creator, you are to entrust to Him.

41:51 And what is it we are to entrust? The text says, committing their souls. Now what in the world did Peter mean committing their souls? Well, here again, it's a word that in the New Testament sometimes means our whole being, what we are, body and soul as we normally use it.

42:14 That's how Peter used it in chapter 3 and verse 20. Speaking of those that were spared in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls were saved. You didn't have disembodied spirits in the ark and coming out and inhabiting the earth after the flood. Souls is synonym for those people in the integrity of their spiritual and material and non-material psychosomatic entity as human beings.

42:46 And it's used this way throughout the New Testament. They sought the young child's life, the young soul's life, Matthew 2.20. They weren't out to try to kill the soul of the boy Jesus, the little babe Jesus.

42:59 They were out to kill Him, Acts 2.41. And 3,000 souls were added unto them. You didn't have 3,000 disembodied spirits floating around in the first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem.

43:11 So sometimes when you find the word soul, don't jump to conclusions. Well, it must mean the non-material part. It's not used that way exclusively in the New Testament. On the other hand, Jesus said, don't be afraid of those that kill the body.

43:25 But after this, have no more that they can do. But fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in heaven. All right there, it obviously means the non-material part of us. We have a material and a non-material part of our humanity.

43:41 When Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, I pray that your whole body and soul and spirit, he's obviously speaking of the non-material part of us. 1 Peter 2.11, in this one epistle, Peter uses it both ways.

43:57 Beloved, I beseech you, 2.11, I'm sorry, 1 Peter 2.11, to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. So it's used both ways.

44:09 Well, how do we tell how it's used here? Well, my judgment is, and here I don't take exception to anyone who's dogmatic one way or the other, but what Peter is simply saying is this. In the midst of the crucible of your suffering for righteousness' sake, remembering that the will of God determines that suffering, it's the ultimate cause, reminding yourself afresh of who God is, faithful Creator, commit the entirety of your being to Him from the inside out. And then you take both meanings and you're not robbed either way.

44:47 If you commit yourself from the very citadel of your inner being down to your last fingernails and the toes on your feet and the top of your head, you're in safe keeping from stem to stern, from toe to top, from the inside out. Commit your souls unto Him, to this faithful Creator. Now, why does Peter give that as the capstone duty? In the midst of their suffering.

45:21 He's given several other imperatives throughout this passage, telling them to sanctify Christ as Lord, ready to give an answer. He's told them many other things, but here he says this is the capstone duty. In the midst of your suffering, continually be entrusting to God the entirety of your whole being. Well, certainly one reason is that this is another way that they are following the example of Christ.

45:53 Remember back in chapter 2, when Peter is describing what Jesus did when He suffered unrighteous treatment? What did He do? We read in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 23, Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again when He suffered, threatened not, but committed to Him that judges righteously. That's what Jesus did.

46:22 Peter says, this is what you're to do. You are to commit your souls to Him, knowing that in that posture, the believer's demeanor, the believer's whole bearing, will be a monumental testimony to the transforming power of the grace of God. Again, let me try to illustrate. Here's a man who's been given a bag full of very rare and precious jewels.

46:55 He's had them appraised. They're worth tens of thousands of dollars. And for some kooky reason, he's so attached to his jewels that he keeps that bag in his trouser pocket. So everywhere he goes, the minute anyone begins to look at him, he gets very nervous.

47:14 He wants to see, are they looking at my pocket? Are they going to go after my jewels? He goes into any social setting, he's very nervous, bites his nails, he's jittery, he can't enter into, why? Because his whole life is wrapped up in the fear that somebody's after my jewels.

47:31 If someone should happen to look at, oh, he's looking at my pocket, he's after my jewels. Well, a close friend notices this pattern and sits down with him and says, now, John, anyone who's John here, I'm not picking on you. He says, John, you know, really, there's a better place for your jewels. What do you mean a better place? They're right next to me.

47:50 They're my jewels and I know what's going on. But listen, there's such a thing called banks and the banks have, you know, that safe deposit box. Well, what in the world is that? Well, let me tell you.

47:59 So he explains and he goes on to say that this particular bank has been in existence for over 100 years and they've not had an instance of the loss of a dime's worth of anything that's ever been put in their safe deposit section in the bank. And he explains to them that these huge, thick doors with all of these different things that mean the door is locked and when it's shut, no one but all, and finally persuades him. That he should go and put his jewels in the safe deposit box at this local bank with an impeccable reputation of fidelity to their trust. So he goes, fills out the forms, hands over his bag.

48:39 They put them into the thing, put it in. And so his friend meets him outside and says, how are you doing, John? He said, well, I feel kind of funny. My jewels aren't here.

48:48 Well, he says, you'll get over that. And every time you think where they are, just remember they're in safekeeping. And, you know, within a matter of two weeks, he's learned how to interact with people, the freedom and liberty. Oh, once in a while, he's tempted to get a little nervous when someone looks anywhere from here down to his toes and oh, wait a minute, my jewels aren't there anymore.

49:08 They just must be admiring my new trousers. They must like my dockers or maybe they like my botany 500, whatever it is. And he begins to learn to think and live and relate to people as a man who really believes his jewels are in safekeeping. Another foolish, silly illustration.

49:24 I know you have to forgive me. That's all I got. Give me another few hours might come up with something more elegant. But you see the point of the illustration.

49:34 If we are to be and to do all of the things that Peter has outlined in Chapter three, verse 13, all the way through this section as Christians who will, as we've said again and again, sooner or later, in one way or another, to one degree or another, we will suffer for righteousness sake. Peter does not want to nervous Nellies constantly wondering what's going to happen to my jewels. He says, you put them where they're safe and where the one who holds them is none other than your faithful creator. That's the essence of the duty.

The Climactic Directive: Unchanging Duty - Assumed Context (In Well-Doing)

50:19 And from that posture, then we are able to pray for those that despitefully use us. We're confident that our entire beings are safe in his hands and if they take us to the rack and to the stake and to the prison and to the cross, it doesn't make any difference in his keeping. Peter adds at the end of his sentence, these words in well doing, having looked at the specific object of the duty, faithful creator, the essence of the duty, commit your souls to him. Here we have the assumed context of the duty. There is no command, just a little prepositional phrase. All of this is to be done.

51:18 Peter says in the sphere, in the realm of well doing to a faithful creator, be continually entrusting your souls in the context or realm of well doing. That's why I've called it. The assumed context. Peter's not saying be those who do well in this passage.

51:45 He's assuming that that's the context within which they are suffering for righteousness sake. But he does delineate and identify the assumed moral and ethical context. To use non-technical language, he assumes a specific lifestyle setting in which they would be obedient to this directive. Now, this word well doing, what does it mean?

52:15 Well, it's one of Peter's favorite, favorite family of words. We have again this poor, ignorant fisherman using a word found nowhere else in the New Testament. Again, he's using them all the time. I've come to appreciate the intellectual vigor of Peter.

52:31 The spirit of God guided him. Yes, but the spirit of God didn't put a word in his mind that he mindlessly wrote while in a trance. It was part of his working vocabulary. But it's in a family of words that Peter loved to use.

52:44 This is the noun, the verb he's already used four times in this epistle. Very quickly, look at the uses. Chapter two and verse 15. For so is the will of God that by, here's our word in the verbal form, that by well doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

53:05 Chapter two and verse 20. What glory is it if when you sin in your buffeted for it, you take it patiently. But if here we are, when you do well, there's the verb again. Chapter three and verse six and is directed to wives whose children you now are.

53:21 Here's our verb. If you are doing well and are not put in terror by any man, then chapter three and verse 17, for it's better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for. Here's the verbal use again. Well doing them for evil doing.

53:38 Now, what would happen to you? Ninth or 10th or 11th grade students? If you handed in an essay in which in a very short essay, you use the same verb four times, your teacher would write in the margin. Please consult your Roger Thesaurus or your Rodale's synonym finder.

53:57 You are overworking this word that you see again. The Holy Spirit has no such fastidiousness. There is a word that Peter uses by the inspiration of the spirit four times in this verbal form, well doing, well doing, well doing. He uses it in the adjectival sense.

54:16 In verse 14 of Chapter two, until governor is sent by him for vengeance on evil doers and for praise to them that do well, but here in the only now form, but the same family of words. Peter says the context in which you are as you suffer to conceive afresh of the will of God standing behind in determining your suffering. Prepare afresh to commit your souls to God. Think of him as faithful creator and be sure that all of this continually occurs in a context in which you're suffering has not budged you from the path of well doing.

54:59 That's what he's saying. That's to be the context within which this duty by the grace of God is to be continually performed. And here I must share with you a quote from old Bishop Layton. If you're doing any serious studies in first Peter, you will find almost every commentary of the 20 or so that I consult quite regularly.

55:24 Almost all of them are referring in one way or another to Bishop Layton's classic commentary on first Peter. Listen to what the old bishop says. He was the archbishop of Glasgow back in the sixteen seventeen hundreds. If you would commit your soul to the keeping of God.

55:42 Know that he is a holy God and an unholy soul that walks in any way of wickedness, whether known or secret, is no fit commodity to put into his pure hand to keep. Therefore, as you would have this confidence to give your holy God the keeping of your soul and that he may accept of it and take it off your hand. Beware of willful pollutions and unholy ways. Walk so as you may not discredit your protector and move him to be ashamed of you and disclaim you.

56:21 Shall it be said that you live under his shelter and yet walk in ways of sin as this cannot well be? You cannot well believe it to be. Loose ways will loosen your hold of him and your confidence in him. Dear people of God, do you hear that loose ways?

56:42 Yes. No other path other than the path of well doing the path marked out by the God who defines what well doing is loose ways will loosen your hold of him and your confidence in him. You'll be driven to question your interest, that is your saving relationship to him and think, surely I do but delude myself. Can I be under his safeguard and yet follow the course of the world and my corrupt heart?

57:13 Certainly. Let who will be so. He, God, will not be a garden, guarding and patron of wickedness. No.

57:22 Psalm 5, 4 says he is not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with him. If thou give thy soul to him to keep upon the terms of liberty to sin, he will turn it out of his doors and remit it back to you to look as you will with it yourself. Do you see what he's saying? You say, oh, the Bible says in the midst of my trauma and the pressure and the crucible and the jaws of suffering, commit my soul.

57:51 He says you commit to him a soul that is not fundamentally walking in his ways. And God will turn it back to you. They keep it yourself. Keep it yourself.

58:01 Yay. In the ways of sin, thou dost indeed steal it back and carry it out from him. Thou put it thyself out of the compass of his defense. You go without the trenches.

58:14 And are as your own has at your own hazard exposed to armies of mischief and misery. You see, there was divine wisdom in this little prepositional phrase. This is to be done in the assumed context of well doing all the previous pointers to the believers path as a path of well doing in the context of suffering and opposition, whether by word or deed. Now, Peter brings it to a sharp focus and says, yes, that is to be the context within which you commit your souls unto a faithful creator.

58:56 One brief quote from John Brown, who makes this observation. These two injunctions are most intimately connected. Commit the souls in well doing. He regards them as two injunctions.

59:08 We've seen there is an injunction, but then an assumed context. It is only he who is continuing well doing that in the day of severe trial can commit the keeping of his soul to God as to a faithful creator. And it is only he who commits the keeping of his soul to God as a faithful creator that in the day of severe trial will continue in well doing all others will become weary in well doing under persecution and silently withdraw from or openly renounce connection with the oppressed and persecuted Church of Christ. There is tremendous wisdom in his observation.

59:49 It is only the one who, in the midst of his can say, oh, God, in spite of all of my sin and my failure, you know that I love you, that I'm in this because of my adherence to your ways. Oh, God, I commit a fresh my whole being. Only he who walks in the way of well doing can commit his soul. And then he says, it's only the one who's committing his soul who can continue to walk in well doing.

Summary and Final Application to Believers

60:21 And that's why Jesus said, as we were reminded in the previous hour, when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, what happens to furious believers, they fall away, they fall away, they fall away. Now, then, what do we say in summary and final application? Here is what I've called Peter's climactic directive to suffering saints, the ultimate cause of suffering for the sake of Christ, the will of God, the unchanging duty when suffering for the sake of Christ, the specific object, a faithful creator, the essence, constantly turn over to his safe keeping all that you are, the assumed context, a life of well doing. So then, child of God, this is what this text says to you and to me. Let every new experience of suffering, suffering in the way of righteousness, suffering that Peter describes as coming upon us for the name of Christ, suffering as a Christian is another of Peter's terms. Let every new experience of this be a fresh call to do two things.

61:38 Remember who's behind all of this. It'll keep you from wanting to strike out at the secondary agents. Remember what Jesus said before Pilate? He said, hey, you better swear with me and do what I tell you.

61:57 Don't you know I've got power? What did Jesus say? You would have no power except that we're giving you from heaven. The person whose mouth, whose pen, whose typewriter, whose computer printer, the person whose hand, whose eye, whose heart is turned against you, could not draw his next breath if God didn't give him to.

62:23 He could not frame his lies about you. He could not frame his lies about you. He could not speak his words against you if God were not upholding him. You suffer ultimately according to the will of God.

62:37 That is the most liberating thing in the world. And then when you recognize my sufferings are ordered by the will of God, it is the God who is faithful creator, spoke worlds into being out of the womb of nothing, upholds them by his own power and will. And he is utterly trustworthy, utterly trustworthy. I can afford the luxury of again and again committing the entirety of my being, my soul, unto him and by his grace hold to the path of well doing.

63:12 That's what God has called us to. Safe and strong, writes F.B. Meyer, tender and true are the hands of our faithful God.

63:22 Drop down into them. They will catch you. Sweetheart, jump! It's daddy's arms.

63:29 And daddy's arms. Daddy's word that promises that I'll catch you. Drop down into them. They will catch you and sustain your burdens and yourselves.

63:39 They can hold the oceans in their hollow, but they are scarred with Calvary's nails. Weary, tired, suffering ones lie still. None shall pluck you out of the father's hands. Without anxiety or alarm, you may look sorry.

63:55 Without anxiety or alarm, you may look out from them on the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds. Those hands shall ultimately bear you as they did your Lord through all the heavens and set you down in his own right hand in glory.

Application to Unbelievers

64:13 It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. But what about you who are not his children? You are yet in your sins, yet uncleansed, guilty, dead. You will not suffer for Christ's sake.

64:32 You may suffer much in this life. Ill health. You may have frustrations with work, disappointments with people. But my dear unconverted friend, whatever sufferings you face in this life, though they will not be sufferings for Christ's sake, if you remain in your sins, they are but a piddling preview of what awaits you in another world. Remember last week we closed with those two questions of verses 18, 17 and 18. Those questions are still the same. What will be your end? Where?

65:08 Where will you appear? A week has gone by since we expounded those questions and I sought to press them upon your conscience. Maybe you forgot to sit here this morning. And I asked the same two questions in the language of Peter.

65:24 Where, where will you appear and what will be your end? God hasn't rubbed those questions out of his book. He's mercifully spared you for another week. You have no promise from heaven to spare you yet another.

65:43 We have concentrated in the opening up of this text to instruct and comfort, encourage the people of God. But oh, my unconverted friend, the Christ who has such mercy stored up for his people is the Christ who is accessible to you in the word and promise of the gospel. You go to him as a naked, helpless, hell deserving sinner. Throw yourself down at his feet and you have his promise, him that comes to me.

66:14 I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray.

Prayer

66:25 Our Father, we bless and praise you that you are the faithful creator. We worship you. We praise you as the God of unlimited power, the God of unfathomable wisdom, the God of unfailing faithfulness, and we pray that you would forgive us when through our confusion and our unbelief we have acted nervously as though we were holding our own jewels. We would commit ourselves afresh into your safekeeping, believing that you will preserve us to your everlasting kingdom.

67:08 Have mercy upon those who have no such confidence. Have mercy upon those who have such a confidence with no just grounds for that confidence. Strip away their false assurance. Bring them to rest truly in yourself.

67:27 Seal then your word to our hearts and bring it to our remembrance. When in days to come we are cast into new and uncharted waters of opposition and suffering for the sake of Christ. Help us, O God, our Father, we plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.