The oldest question men have ever faced is
the question as to why a righteous man
should be tested and suffer.
This was the question which is faced in
the book of Job, which is perhaps the
oldest book in our scriptures.
The prophets of the Old Testament gave themselves
repeatedly to this theme.
Why does God permit a righteous man to
suffer?
Every religious system that men have devised, and
every philosophical system which men have followed, have
addressed themselves to this perplexing question.
Men are not surprised that wicked men suffer,
for we can readily accept the proposition that
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reach.
We recognize that it is just that a
man should receive for his injustices.
But what justification is there that God would
permit a righteous man to be tested, tried,
and to suffer?
Because the saints of God are in a
privileged position, because by faith in Jesus Christ
they have been brought into God's family and
have become beloved children of the Father, the
question becomes particularly acute.
If a man who behaves himself morally seems
to be exempt from suffering, how much more
one who has been obedient to the gospel
of Jesus Christ?
And it is to this perplexing question the
Apostle Peter has addressed himself in writing to
suffering saints who were scattered throughout Asia Minor
in his first epistle.
The Apostle reminded us that when we were
born into God's family, we were born to
receive a hope, a settled assurance of our
resurrection.
Therefore, this life is only the threshold to
life, not the sum total of life.
We have been begotten not only to an
assured hope, but to an inheritance.
This inheritance is a place in the Father's
presence.
We have been given one who keeps us
even in the midst of testing, and as
a result we can rejoice as we believe
God.
But in order to carry his readers a
step further in this basic problem, in the
passage to which we direct your attention this
morning, 1 Peter 1, verses 10-13, the
Apostle shows us that the Old Testament prophets
who wrote concerning the coming of Jesus Christ
wrestled with the same basic problem that these
suffering believers wrestled with.
The problem of why a righteous man must
suffer.
The Apostle reminds us that the prophets, that
is, the Old Testament writers of Scripture, inquired
and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto you, searching what or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify when it
testified beforehand two things.
First, the sufferings of Christ, and second, the
glory that should follow.
Peter reminds us that the coming of Jesus
Christ to be the Savior of the world
was a central theme of the Old Testament.
From the time that God made a promise
in Genesis chapter 3 that the seed of
the woman should crush the serpent's head, on
down to the close of the Old Testament
when the prophet Malachi prophesied of the coming
of the Son of Righteousness, the Old Testament
had promised the coming of a Savior.
That coming Savior was typified in God's sacrifice
of a lamb to cover Adam's sin and
to cover Adam's nakedness.
That coming Savior was prophesied in the offering
made by Abel, repudiated by Cain, the blood
-offering sacrifice to God in obedience to the
commands of God.
That coming Savior was prophesied in Abraham's sacrifice
of Isaac, and then the substitution of an
animal for Isaac there on the altar.
The coming of the Savior was prophesied in
every animal sacrificed to God on Jewish altars
in obedience to the command of God.
The prophets wrote of this coming one.
In Psalm 22, his death is described in
detail.
In Isaiah chapter 53, the prophet so graphically
describes the suffering Savior who, as a lamb
brought to the slaughter to be sacrificed, so
Jesus Christ would give himself in sacrifice for
the sins of the world.
On the one hand, in giving hope to
men that God would make a final dealing
with sin, the Old Testament by type and
by written and spoken prophecy anticipated a suffering
Savior.
But on the other hand, the Old Testament
gave us an entirely different picture of the
coming one.
In Psalm 24, he is described as the
invincible King of glory, the coming of one
whose glory is so great it brings light
to the earth.
The prophet Zechariah describes his invincibility, showing that
before him nations would bow and subject themselves
to his irresistible authority.
And from beginning to the end of the
Old Testament, the transcendent glory and the resplendent
might of the coming Savior was portrayed to
Israel, so that through the prophet a twofold
message concerning the two phases of Messiah's coming
was presented to the nation.
He was a Savior who must suffer, but
he was also a Savior of glory.
But this created an irreconcilable division in the
minds of those who received these prophecies.
Peter tells us that the prophets who wrote
could not reconcile this difference.
How can one be irresistible in his might
and resplendent in his glory, and at the
same time suffer?
Where would enemies arise who would assault and
despise and reject such in one that would
cause the postponement of his kingdom?
For had not the prophet David given the
words with which the Father welcomed the glorious
Son into his presence after his suffering when
he said, Sit thou at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
And in Psalm 110, the prophet is anticipating
the seeming defeat of Jesus Christ, the postponement
of the institution of his kingdom, and a
delay in the accomplishment of all that he
had come to do as a glorious king.
And when these two truths were presented by
Moses, Moses could not reconcile the problem.
When David, the royal king and the prophet,
described the sufferings of Christ and the glory,
he found no way of reconciling this problem.
Isaiah had no more wisdom than his predecessors,
nor did Zechariah and Malachi, who were heirs
of the wisdom of the ages as it
had been applied to the written scriptures.
And so, this problem was an unresolved problem.
4 Peter tells us, The prophets who prophesied
of the grace that should be brought to
you, searched what or what manner of time
the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow.
I do notice this one interesting fact, that
even though the prophets could not resolve this
problem, they did not dismiss the truth in
their revelation because they could not understand it
themselves.
We, with our intellectualism today, sit as judges
upon the word of God.
That which seems irreconcilable to us, that which
seems not understandable to us, that which seems
out of harmony with our theories or philosophies
or our thinking, we are so quick to
reject.
But the prophets who were faced with this
irreconcilable problem trusted God that in his own
time he would reconcile the difference and would
explain to them and cause them to understand
how Christ could suffer on one hand and
how he could be glorified on the other.
So, the Old Testament closed with the basic
problem essentially unresolved and the truth unrealized.
They recognized that what they wrote was written
under the authority by the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, for these prophets did not originate
their own message.
Revelation has to do with God's disclosure of
himself and his truth to man.
God revealed himself, and these prophets had these
two facets of truth which they recognized as
a divine revelation.
Messiah must suffer, Messiah must be glorified.
That was not their conception, that was not
a conflict between two different writers writing from
two viewpoints at two different times in history.
This was the united testimony of the Old
Testament prophets.
They had received revelation.
And then that which God had revealed to
them under the control of the Holy Spirit,
they wrote into the scriptures.
And inspiration had to do with recording the
revelation of divine truth that had been given
to them.
And these writers did not compare scripture with
scripture, and because one prophet emphasized the glory
of Christ, and another prophet emphasized the sufferings
of Christ, conclude that there were errors in
the scriptures.
They recognized that the Spirit of Christ, that
is the Holy Spirit, revealed truth to them,
and then caused them to write the truth
that had been revealed.
There is one essential link in this chain
of understanding the mystery of the sufferings and
the glory of Christ that was missing, for
the Holy Spirit, who had come to dwell
with man or alongside man, had not yet
been given to indwell man.
And when I turn back to the sixteenth
chapter of the Gospel of John, in verses
12 to 14, or verse 50, Christ is
promising a new ministry of the Spirit following
his advent to indwell believers on the day
of Pentecost.
Christ said, I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.
The Spirit will continue the work of revelation.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, that
is by his own authority, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that is from the Father, that
shall speak he will show you things to
come.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you.
All things that the Father hath are mine,
therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine, and shall show it unto you."
Now, in this passage, our Lord is promising
that when the Holy Spirit would come, he
would take the scriptures that had been written,
the revelations that had been given, and he
would cause those who had received the revelation
to understand what had been revealed.
This we call illumination, and Christ is promising
the Holy Spirit as the illuminator of the
scriptures that had been written.
Now, let's apply it to the problem in
1 Peter.
Peter has reminded us of the age-old
problem.
Why do righteous men suffer?
He says, this problem existed without any final
solution, for the final solution was awaiting the
coming of the illuminator, the coming of the
Holy Spirit.
And he uses as an illustration of this
fact the Old Testament truth that Messiah must
suffer and must be glorified.
This truth the Old Testament prophets could not
understand.
And I fully believe that when contemporary prophets
met together, this was one of the questions
that they discussed, but with no final solution.
And Peter tells us that a revelation of
the fact was given, but an explanation of
the fact awaited the coming of the Holy
Spirit.
And when I read in verse 12, unto
whom it was revealed that not unto themselves,
but unto us did they minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them
that have preached the gospel unto you with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into.
And what Peter is telling us in verse
13 is the fact that the Holy Spirit
has come, he has given teachers to believers,
the Holy Spirit has taught these teachers these
very truths so that the teachers under the
authority of the Holy Spirit may teach or
preach or proclaim the good news to these
believers.
Now, what was the good news?
The relationship between suffering and glory.
He is not emphasizing here so much the
fact that the preachers preached salvation, which they
certainly did, for these readers had been brought
to a knowledge of Christ through the preaching
of the gospel that Christ came to save
sinful man.
They had been saved by the presentation of
one of the two aspects of the Old
Testament presentation of Christ.
They had been saved because Christ suffered.
But now the Holy Spirit makes it very
clear through these teachers and preachers that God's
method of glorifying Christ was to bring him
to suffering, that even for Jesus Christ there
could be no glory apart from suffering and
testing.
May I re-emphasize it that not even
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Eternal
God, could be perfected in glory apart from
the experiences of testing and suffering.
Now, may I direct you to several New
Testament passages that emphasize this truth.
First of all, in Hebrews chapter 5, verses
7 to 9, Hebrews 5, 7 to 9,
after quoting Psalm 110, which is a reference
to the Son of God, the writer says,
"...in the days of his flesh, when he
had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able
to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared.
Though he were a son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered."
The reference, without doubt, in verse 7 is
to our Lord's garden experience, where when the
shadow of death hung over him, as it
is recorded in the Gospels, our Lord cried
to the Father three times, "...if it be
possible, let this cut pass from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou
wilt."
He cried with strong crying and tears, but
he prayed according to the will of God.
And then, in verse 8, the writer reminds
us that Christ learned obedience by the things
which he suffered.
We must be very careful about this verse.
It does not say he learned to obey.
It does not say that he was disobedient,
and that his lawless will was corralled and
brought into subjection to God by the disciplines
or the punishments which he endured.
He learned what obedience to God entails, and
obedience means complete submission to the will of
God.
Complete submission to the will of God for
Jesus Christ meant his death on the cross,
but complete submission to God for us meant
a salvation was provided through his death.
He learned what obedience entails by the things
which he suffered, and being made perfect.
Now, that does not mean that sin was
removed from him.
He was the sinless, perfect Son of God.
There was no sin to be eliminated or
atoned for, but being perfected in his obedience,
or being perfectly obedient, through that obedience he
became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him.
And the apostle is reminding us in these
three verses that the only way Jesus Christ
could provide salvation for sinners was to submit
in obedience to the will of God.
Now, look at another passage, please, where the
same truth is emphasized.
I ask you to turn to John, chapter
17.
John, chapter 17, where our Lord at the
beginning of what we often refer to as
our Lord's Prayer, or the High Priestly Prayer,
before he prays for believers, prays for himself.
And this is his petition, John 17.1.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his
eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour
has come.
What hour?
The hour of his death, the hour in
which the perfection of his obedience would be
demonstrated to God, to angels, to Satan, and
to man.
The hour has come.
Glorify thy son.
This glorification was Christ's glory through perfect obedience.
It was the glory of the cross, and
Christ could glory in the cross because it
was the sum total of his submission and
his obedience to the Father.
He is praying, then, if I can paraphrase
it, Father, the hour has come.
Let me complete my obedience to thee by
going to the cross, so that thy son
may glorify thee.
His obedience on the cross was the means
by which the son glorified the Father, but
yet further.
He says in verse 4, I have glorified
thee on the earth, that is, by my
perfect obedience.
I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do, and now, O Father, glorify
thou me.
What glory is he praying for in verse
5?
The restoration to his position at the right
hand of the Father upon the completion of
his sufferings here on earth.
Glorify thou me with thine own self, with
the glory which I had with thee before
the world was.
Now, what was Christ's thought in these five
verses?
That he had come into this world in
order to be obedient to the will of
God.
The will of God for him entailed suffering,
and it was by the endurance of suffering
that his obedience was brought to perfection, to
completion, to finality.
And through the perfection of his obedience, he
provided salvation for sinners.
He glorified the Father by being obedient to
the Father, and the Father in turn could
glorify him so that the path to glory
for the Son was by way of the
cross.
And apart from the cross, there was no
glory for Christ, no glory for the Father,
and no salvation for sinners.
Now, let's go back to 1 Peter and
notice what he says there.
In verse 12, what the Old Testament prophets
could not reconcile in their twofold description of
Christ, we through the teaching ministry of the
Holy Spirit have now come to understand that
that truth concerning the sufferings of Christ and
the glory of Christ was primarily for our
benefit, for they ministered the things unto us.
These truths are preached in the gospel by
the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
So, Peter wants his readers, these suffering, persecuted
sheep over whom he is a shepherd, to
get this principle that God could not glorify
Christ and perfect the obedience of Christ apart
from subjecting Christ to suffering.
And he would remind them of what Christ
said himself in John 16, that if they've
done these things unto me, they'll do them
unto you.
That God's principle of perfecting and glorifying Christ
is a principle by which he will deal
with his children.
Therefore, sufferings do not originate from Satan to
fulfill Satan's plan.
Sufferings do not originate from sins in the
lives of the believers.
Sufferings are the method that God has chosen
to perfect us that we might bear the
image of Christ now, to glorify Christ here,
that we might fully bear his glory over
there.
Now, on the basis of this doctrine, Peter
in verse 13 gives us a threefold conclusion.
First of all, gird up the loins of
your mind.
You'll notice this statement is introduced with the
word, therefore, because of what the Spirit teaches
us about the relation between sufferings and glory
in Christ.
Gird up the loins of your mind.
Men normally covered their undergarment, a short tunic,
with a long-flowing robe.
That robe, such as is referred to at
the time of the crucifixion of Christ, was
one large square of cloth.
It would be impossible to keep that robe
in place without the use of a sash
or a girdle, and to gird the robe
was to bind it together to keep it
in its rightful place, to keep it from
straying.
When he says, gird up the loins of
your mind, Peter is saying, in effect, don't
let your thoughts wander.
Don't let your imagination run wild when you
try to consider this problem of why righteous
men suffer, because when your mind is not
brought under the authority of Scripture, the mind
raises all sorts of questions and doubts.
And first thing you know, the child of
God is saying, what right does God have
to do this to me?
We become those who sit in judgment upon
divine omniscience and omnipotence.
We say we know better than God, and
that which keeps the mind in its right
channel is the realization of this doctrine, that
God's method of perfecting his saints is to
subject them to testing.
And the knowledge that that is God's method
of conforming us to Christ now, that we
might fully bear his image later, will keep
the mind from wandering in the maze of
men's ignorance so that we sit in judgment
upon God.
And when something comes to you and you're
tempted to ask why, remember you need to
gird up your mind with the word of
God that you might be delivered from these
doubts.
The second conclusion of the revelation of this
truth is that we are to be sober,
to be sober.
And sobriety has to do not with the
use of intoxicants, it has to do with
seeing things in their true light, see things
in their true light.
When a test comes, we feel that it
originates from Satan.
We're going to have an entirely different response
to it than if we realize the scriptural
truth that that is God at work in
our lives.
How can James say in chapter one, count
it all joy when you fall into diverse
testing?
Well, you have to be some kind of
a nut to respond to testing that way.
Yes, you are a nut, unless you are
grounded on the truth that that testing is
God's handiwork to bring you into conformity to
Christ.
See things in their true light for what
they actually are.
God at work to mold and fashion and
conform us to the image of his son.
The third conclusion, hope to the end.
The girding up the loin of our mind
has to do with the reception of a
doctrinal fact.
The sobriety has to do with our present
experience.
The hope has to do with our future
destiny.
So he has moved from the present to
the assured future, even in the midst of
suffering.
We have a settled assurance that looks to
the end, not the end of time, nor
the end of life.
It looks to the end of the testing
process.
The end of the testing process is conformity
to Christ.
And so, that those who are being tested
today might endure those testing with the joy
of the Lord and faith of God as
their portion, Peter builds a doctrinal base.
He refers to Jesus Christ, who could come
to glory only by suffering.
Reminds them that the Spirit now tells us
that God will bring us to bear the
image of Christ by asking us to emulate
the submission of Christ to testing, so that
we might glorify him in the testing, that
we might be fitted to bear his glory
through the unending ages of eternity.
One who understands and receives that truth of
the word of God can have a new
attitude toward his testing.
He brings his mind under subjection to the
authority of the word, and is delivered from
doubt and despair.
He lives with the assurance that God is
evidencing his own work in the life, because
he is conforming us to Christ.
Now it will be Peter's portion to move
on to show how the testings work themselves
out in a believer's life, and what changes
God's handiwork will make in the life of
the child of God.
Lord willing, in our study next time, we
will see holiness as the product of suffering.
We thank thee, our Father, that thou art
so patient with thy children, that gently thou
dost deal with us, and thou dost not
suffer us to be tested above that we
are able to bear, for thou dost not
test to crush, thou dost test to conform.
We pray that we might, with minds settled
on the truth of the word of God,
have this joyous experience of knowing that God
is at work in our midst.
Give us the mind of Christ that brings
us into submission to the Lord Jesus, so
that God is not interrupted in his work
of preparing us to be instruments to reflect
his glory.
We pray that if there is one here
this morning who is not a child of
God, and whose life God cannot and will
not work because he is not his child,
that one may turn to Jesus Christ and
accept Christ as a personal Savior.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Let the riches of thy grace, and mercy,
and peace rest upon us, in Jesus' name.
Amen.