Turn with me to the Fourth Epistle of
Peter, fifth chapter, verses twelve through nineteen.
First Peter, four, twelve through nineteen.
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to test you as though
some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice
inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings,
that, when his glory shall be revealed, you
may be glad also with exceeding joy.
If you be reproached for the name of
Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of
glory and of God rested upon you, and
on their part he is evil spoken of,
but on your part he is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a
murderer, or as a thief, or as an
evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's
affairs.
Yet, if any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him
glorify God on his behalf.
For the time is come that judgment must
begin at the house of God, and if
it first begin at us, what shall the
envy of them that obey not the gospel
of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the
will of God commit the keeping of their
souls to him in well-doing, as unto
a faithful creator.
It is our desire as parents to spare
our children all that it is possible for
us to spare them.
And in being overly solicitous and overly protective,
and in withholding from them the disciplines and
the corrections that they need, we have produced
a lawless generation.
Some day, when we are so prone to
criticize the younger generation, we also forget that
the younger generation is what we have made
them.
The problem that arises in the minds of
many is the problem of why God permits
any suffering in this world.
This problem is particularly prevalent among believers, for
since we are solicitous for our children, we
conclude that God must be made in our
image and must be solicitous for his children.
And since we spare our children all that
it is possible for us to spare them,
certainly God, if he is the kind of
God we think him to be, would spare
us all suffering, all testing, all hardships, and
all discipline.
The Apostle Peter, writing about the problem of
suffering, was writing in a very personal way
for those who were under his tutelage, were
facing unprecedented persecution and peril because of their
faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle was writing to equip them to
be able to meet the testings that would
come to them because they are Christians.
Before he concludes his large treatment of this
important subject, the Apostle, in verses 13-19,
comes to face a very pertinent problem that
existed in the minds of his readers.
They obviously thought it strange that God would
permit suffering.
They perhaps had come to the conclusion that
God could not prevent it, and if that
be true, then evil is greater than God
is.
Or, they perhaps thought that God was handicapped
in dealing with his children, in that he
was helpless to prevent that which was coming
to them.
They had an erroneous concept of God, an
erroneous concept of the purpose that God would
use or make of suffering.
Man has always attempted to make God in
his image, and since it seems natural for
parents to protect their children, they had concluded
that God, as a heavenly Father, must protect
his children.
The Apostle is writing in the twelfth verse
because they did think it strange that they
should have fallen into the persecutions that were
their lot.
Peter, first of all, in dealing with this
subject, in order to bring them the joy
of the Lord in their textings, reminded them
of what the Lord had taught them when
he was present with them.
We turn back to the Gospel of John,
in chapter 15, where our Lord predicted just
such sufferings as these believers were passing through
at that time.
I read John 15, beginning at verse 18
through verse 21.
If the world hate you, and it most
certainly does, ye know that it hated me
before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, but ye
most certainly are not, the world would love
its own.
But because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you,
the servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you.
If they have kept my sayings, and they
certainly didn't, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto
you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me.
Then in chapter 16, verses 1-4, these
things have I spoken unto you, that is,
concerning your suffering for my name's sake.
You should not be offended or caused to
fall when these persecutions come.
These are some of the things they will
do to you.
They will put you out of the synagogue.
May the time cometh that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God's service.
And these things will they do unto you,
because they have not known the Father nor
me.
But these things have I told you, that
when the time shall come ye may remember
that I told you of them."
Our Lord, just a matter of weeks after
he had spoken these words, was received up
into glory.
His ascension is recorded in the first chapter
of the book of Acts, and you have
not read more than several pages in the
book of Acts until you find that the
believers are imprisoned because of their faith for
Jesus Christ.
That which our Lord predicted of suffering for
his name's sake was fulfilled, not in a
matter of years, nor in a matter of
months, but literally in a matter of days.
And those who had had freedom to fellowship
with Christ are now imprisoned for Christ's sake.
How literally our Lord's prophecy of the fulfillment
of suffering for his name's sake came to
pass.
Now, Peter, perhaps with those very words ringing
in his ear, writes to those who are
going through similar persecutions to that through which
Peter has passed in the opening chapters of
the book of Acts, and he says to
them in 1 Peter 4.12, Think it
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is
to try you, as though this were unexpected
and unprecedented, and as though the Lord had
made no provision to forewarn you of these
experiences.
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened to you, but rejoice inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering.
The suffering through which believers were going at
that time were sufferings that came to them
because of the world's hatred of Jesus Christ.
Peter and Paul were not imprisoned because the
world did not like them.
They were imprisoned because the world hated the
Lord Jesus Christ, and since they could not
reach up to heaven to touch a resurrected,
glorified Christ, they were pouring out their venom
against Christ on those who were Christ's representatives
in their day.
And Peter, writing years later, tells those who
were going through their present sufferings that they
are suffering not because God is impotent, because
God is careless, because God could not prevent
those sufferings.
He tells them that they are suffering because
the world hates Jesus Christ, and that they
are partakers of Christ's suffering.
They are fellowshipping with Christ in his suffering.
The world must hate Jesus Christ because Jesus
Christ has pronounced condemnation and judgment upon a
godless world.
I repeat, the world must hate Jesus Christ.
And hatred must be expressed.
It cannot be self-contained.
And since the world must express its hatred
of Jesus Christ, the world pours out its
hatred on those who are Christ's representatives.
And when one names the name of Christ
by that very act of professing to love
and obey and believe Jesus Christ, he has
put himself in a position where the world
must hate him.
One of the common deceptions is that we
can so live as a Christian in this
present age that we can make the world
like it.
It is utterly impossible.
The cleavage between Satan and God, between good
and evil, between right and wrong, between this
world's philosophy and the deep things of Christ
is so deep that one cannot live as
a Christian in this world and escape the
hatred of the world.
And yet, the hatred that comes is only
a continuation of the world's hatred of Jesus
Christ.
What Peter is doing, then, first of all,
is to show them the reason for their
suffering.
It is not because God is careless, because
God is omnipotent.
It is because of their identification with Jesus
Christ.
And since the world must express its hatred
of Christ, it expresses it by persecuting those
who are Christ's.
Now, the great theme that Peter is striking
through these verses is the theme of rejoicing
in the suffering.
This is the same thing that James presented
to us in James chapter 1.
As he said in verse 2, "...count it
all joy when ye fall into divers or
different kinds of testing."
Count it all joy.
And even though these theaters are going through
what Peter calls in 4.12, a fiery
trial, not just insignificant little snipings, but fiery
trials that are being poured out upon them,
the theme that Peter emphasizes is the theme
of rejoicing.
Indeed, in verse 13, rejoice.
In verse 14, happy are ye.
In verse 16, let him not be ashamed.
And so, Peter wants to give believers the
joy of the Lord that can be there
in the midst of their trial.
Now, in the first place, Peter says that
we can rejoice because the suffering that they
go through proves that they belong to Jesus
Christ.
In verse 13, he says, "...ye are partakers
of Christ's suffering."
Christ will not ask one who is not
his to suffer for his naysayers.
Christ will not ask one who belongs to
Satan to suffer for him.
Christ will permit suffering only in the experience
of those who are his own.
And when Christ entrusts suffering to an individual,
it is proof to that individual that he
is a child of God.
God does not move into Satan's family and
try to correct Satan's children.
He brings them into his own family before
he begins the disciplining process.
And they come into his family, of course,
by the new birth.
But Peter says that we can rejoice when
we are partakers of Christ's suffering because if
we partake of his suffering, we must partake
of his glory.
You cannot separate suffering as a partaker with
Christ and sharing in the glory with Jesus
Christ.
It is a truth of the gospel that
is indeed glorious that since you and Jesus
Christ have been joined together in salvation, Christ
cannot be in heaven without you.
Heaven would be incomplete without Jesus Christ.
For a child of God, heaven would be
no more incomplete without Christ than it would
be incomplete without you if you belong to
Jesus Christ.
We have been so joined to him that
we are partakers of his glory.
And the proof that we one day will
be partakers of his glory is that now
we are partakers of his suffering.
And so Peter says, did you ever doubt
your salvation?
Let me remind you of this fact.
If you ever doubted your salvation and you
suffered reproach and persecution from the world because
you belong to Jesus Christ, that's one of
the strongest proofs of your salvation that you
can possibly have.
And Peter says, let me remind you that
those who partake of his suffering are those
who are destined to partake of his glory.
So, child of God, when you begin to
feel some persecution or some hatred from the
world because you belong to Jesus Christ, your
heart ought to leap up and praise to
God that God has given you one more
evidence that you are his child and that
he has destined glory for Jesus Christ and
you.
Then, in the second place, he tells us
in verse 14 that they can rejoice in
their suffering because God has chosen to use
them as the instrument to reveal his glory.
God has chosen them to be instruments to
reveal his glory.
I read in verse 14, If ye be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are
ye for the spirit of glory and of
God rested on you.
On their part is evil spoken of, but
on your part he is glorified.
God glorifies himself or reveals his glory not
through the blessings that he confers on his
child, but through the suffering through which he
permits his child to pass.
When God wanted to reveal how glorious he
was to the nation Israel, he took Moses
up on the mount, and God transfigured Moses
so that Moses may show.
And when Moses came down off the mount,
the children of Israel could gain some concept
of how glorious God was by the glory
of God that radiated from the face of
Moses.
When God wanted to reveal his glory to
the nation Israel, God possessed the tabernacle and
then the temple that became the meeting place
between God and man.
And the tabernacle and the temple radiated the
glory of God.
And Israel knew how glorious God was by
the Shekinah glory of God that radiated from
the temple.
When God wanted to reveal his glory to
this earth, he sent his son, and the
apostles could testify that we beheld the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Those who fellowship with Jesus Christ learned of
the glory of a glorious God as they
watched the Lord Jesus Christ live before them.
Do you realize the method God has chosen
to reveal himself to the world today?
God sends suffering into the lives of his
saints, and the way the saints respond to
the suffering that God sends reveals God's glory
to a world that is ignorant of the
greatness of the glory of our God.
And Peter is emphasizing that fact when he
says, if ye be reposed for the name
of Christ, then God is glorifying himself through
the believer.
And the believer, suffering repose for Christ's sake,
becomes to his generation what a transfigured Moses
was in his generation.
I can well imagine that Moses found it
pretty rough climbing up to the top of
Sinai.
Nobody had preceded him to make an easy
trail up that mountain so that his going
was easy.
Can't you imagine Moses making his way up
to the top of that craggy mountain?
God, why did you ask me to do
this?
God, deliver me from this.
God, don't ask me to go any further.
These rocks are cutting my feet, and these
thorns are tearing my legs, and perspiration is
staining my robe.
God took him up there through all that
was entailed in getting to that summit.
But it was there that God revealed himself
to Moses and transfigured Moses, and then told
him to go down so that he could
reveal the glory of God to his generation.
No glory without suffering.
Even Jesus Christ could not reveal the glory
of God to man apart from his perfect
obedience that took him to the cross.
The fullness of God's glory was revealed to
man as Jesus Christ suffered in obedience to
the will of God for man.
And we so glibly pray, God, use me
as an instrument to reveal thy glory.
But don't ask me to suffer anything to
do it.
I'm willing to travel down a broad superhighway
in comfort and ease, but don't ask me
to get off into a difficult path.
Don't ask me to feel any rocks or
any thorns.
There's a burning sweat in my eyes, and
our prayers are empty and hollow.
Because God glorifies himself through the response of
his children to the suffering that an unbelieving
and hostile world pours upon.
The next thing Peter points out is in
verse 16, as he tells us that they
can rejoice in the sufferings that God sends
because sufferings are a means of testimony for
Jesus Christ.
If any man suffers a Christian, let him
not be ashamed, but let him glorify God
on this behalf.
If you were to suddenly receive an inheritance,
a totally unexpected, unanticipated inheritance, I imagine that
you would find a certain amount of rejoicing.
And unsaved friends, loved ones or neighbors would
not be moved one iota toward Jesus Christ
by your rejoicing in that unexpected inheritance.
They would envy you, but not rejoice with
you.
But when instead of an inheritance, God sends
a financial reverse, and you can rejoice in
the reverse as much as you would rejoice
in the inheritance, then the world has a
testimony to what Jesus Christ can mean to
an individual that they cannot gain back.
It is not our blessings that give us
a testimony before unbelievers.
It is the sufferings that give us a
testimony before unbelievers.
Peter wants us to be very careful in
our thinking, though, because there are some sufferings
that are well deserved.
If an individual is a murderer or a
thief or an evildoer or a busybody in
other men's matters, and he suffers because of
what he has done, and then he piously
thanks God for it, there is no testimony
to Christ in that.
He is only getting what he deserves.
But when a believer suffers unjustly simply because
he is a believer in Jesus Christ, and
receives that gratefully and thankfully, then there is
a testimony that the world cannot understand because
it has never had a life experience.
So, Peter wants to remind us that they
can rejoice because suffering gives an opportunity for
testimony as to the sufficiency of the grace
of Jesus Christ.
Then, in verses 17-19, Peter reminds us
that we can rejoice in suffering, for suffering
prepares a believer for the judgment seat of
Christ.
Peter reminds us of that which was such
a central theme in Paul's epistle, that the
time will come when every believer must stand
before the judgment seat of Christ.
The judgment seat of Christ is an examination
of a believer's life, an examination of a
believer's stewardship, not to determine whether he enters
heaven or not, but to determine his degree
of reward in heaven.
The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3 and
2 Corinthians 5, said that it was the
great consuming passion and desire of his life
to so conduct his life as a believer
that he might find approval at the judgment
seat of Christ.
Peter has that same concept in mind when
he reminds us that judgment must begin at
the house of God.
He reminds us that when the Lord Jesus
shall have completed the church which is his
body, and at the rapture translate us into
his presence, he is going to sit as
an examiner in order that he might bestow
rewards upon believers.
If we live our lives in indolence, indifferent
to the will of God, if we dissipate
our lives in the pursuit of selfish ends
and interests, if we operate in the realm
of the flesh instead of according to the
spirit of God, if we guide our lives
according to our own philosophies instead of the
philosophies of the word of God, there can
be nothing but disapproval, and Christ will have
to withhold any reward from us.
Peter says that sufferings are sent into the
lives of God's children to be disciplinary measures,
so that when we come to stand before
Christ, we will not present a wasted life
to him.
He reminds us that this is a very
serious and sobering consideration, for God is a
just examiner.
He reminds us in verse 18 that the
righteous are saved with difficulty.
The righteous were saved by the sacrifice of
the righteous one.
If a man could not be saved apart
from the death of Jesus Christ on the
cross, if Christ must suffer in order to
provide salvation, who are we to think that
we who belong to Christ can be fitted
for rewarding glory apart from suffering?
Oh, by faith in Jesus Christ we are
made acceptable, we are perfected in the beloved.
All sin is cleansed, and all charge against
us has been fully paid, so that the
one who accepts Christ as a personal savior
is fitted for the presence of God.
But there can be no reward for the
child of God apart from a life that
is invested for Jesus Christ.
Peter says, as Christ provided salvation by his
suffering, God sends suffering to us and permits
the suffering of the world to come to
us, that in the light of the seriousness
of this judgment we might be conformed to
Jesus Christ.
Peter's conclusion to this matter is in the
19th verse, and this is actually his conclusion
and explanation as to why the fiery trials
of verse 12 stop.
Let them that suffer according to the will
of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well-doing as unto a
faithful creator.
What Peter says is this, we know from
the word of God that God has created
us, and in Jesus Christ by a new
birth he has recreated us and made us
a new creation.
The evidence of God's care for creation is
seen on every hand.
The stars move in their courses with perfect
precision.
Not a star can fall to the ground
without his knowledge.
He who creates the snow out of raindrops
has yet to duplicate a single design that
he has ever used before.
The Creator exercises care over his creation, and
the one who has recreated us in Jesus
Christ exercises care over his new creation.
And what are we to do?
Trust him.
Commit the keeping of our souls to him
in the midst of the suffering.
We remind you once again of that which
we have seen to be Peter's emphasis over
and over in dealing with this question of
suffering in believers' lives, that God does not
ask us to explain or always to understand
the suffering, but he does ask us to
trust him in the suffering.
And no one will commit himself to Jesus
Christ until he comes to the end of
himself.
As long as he sees a way to
handle the situation, he'll try to do it.
As long as he sees a way out
of a dark tunnel, he'll keep pressing, and
not until he can see no light in
the darkness, and until he has no strength
within himself, will he come to cast himself
totally and completely upon the sustaining grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter says, I want you to rejoice.
Rejoice because these sufferings are a proof of
your sonship and a proof of your glory.
I want you to rejoice because God is
using you as an instrument to reveal his
glory.
I want you to rejoice because God has
given you an opportunity to bear testimony to
others in his sustaining grace.
I want you to rejoice because these sufferings
are preparing you for reward in the judgment
of Jesus Christ.
But in your suffering, I want you to
so completely commit yourself to the one who
has created and recreated you in Jesus Christ,
that his strength will be yours, and that
his purposes will be realized in improving to
his glory.
A number of years ago, when I was
a pastor in western Pennsylvania, I made a
trip about 100 miles south of where we
lived.
I was speaking to a young people's conference,
and during one of the afternoon sessions, I
found an antique shop in a little out
-of-the-way place, and I had a
heyday.
The antique shop was run by a widow
who, because war was going on, could no
longer get any help to refinish the things
that she had collected in the countryside, and
she wanted to get rid of all the
things she had.
She was willing to sell them very, very
inexpensively.
For a long time, I had wanted a
cherry corner cupboard, and she had a number
of them there.
I saw one that I liked very much,
and I began to talk to her about
it, and she said, Oh, I'm almost willing
to let you haul it away.
It takes up so much room.
And I asked her, Well, how much was
that?
And she said, Well, would you give me
$10 for it?
And believe me, I was delighted to do
it, even though $10 then was $10.
A year later, a year and a half
later, an antique dealer came by and saw
that corner cupboard, and he offered me 25
times what I paid for it.
If one came by today, he'd probably offer
me 50 times what I paid for it.
What made the difference?
I'll tell you what made the difference.
It was the same corner cupboard, but there
had been hours of scraping, innumerable sheets of
sandpaper that had been used up, sacks of
steel wool, lots of plumbing, abrasive, rubbing,
grinding, sanding.
That which made the difference was that grinding,
sanding, rubbing process.
I hesitate to say I'm looking out on
a congregation this morning of antiques in the
rough.
I'll just say you're in the rough.
We're all in the rough.
And if God is going to make us
into something of which he can be proud,
something that can reveal the handiwork, his handiwork
to his glory, it's going to take a
lot of scraping, and rubbing, and sanding, and
polishing, before we can reflect his glory.
Child of God, you realize that when you
ask God to lift those sufferings that he
sends to you, you're asking him to leave
you just as you are in the rough.
Nothing attractive, nothing beautiful, nothing that radiates his
handiwork, just as you were.
But if you want to be an instrument
to reflect his glory now, to be an
instrument to reflect his glory throughout eternity, and
reach out and embrace with rejoicing the sufferings
that he chooses to send, knowing that he
knows what it will take to reveal his
image and his glory in you, you have
to confess this morning that you are an
unpolished mirror to radiate Christ.
I would ask him, are you willing to
let him polish you so that his image
can be seen in you?
Are you willing?
We pray, our Father, that the Spirit of
God, who has revealed these truths from the
words, may apply them to our hearts, that
we might have a biblical attitude toward the
test through which we go, to realize that
thou art shaping, and molding, and refinishing, so
that we can radiate and reflect the glory
of Christ.
Let thy blessing rest upon this congregation here
assembled.
Give us a willingness to submit to God's
polishing process, that we might be instruments to
thy glory for time and for eternity.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.