May I encourage you to turn with
me to 1 Peter 1, as we continue our expositions in this portion
of the Word of God. And I shall read in your hearing
once more, verses 3 through 12, this lengthy paragraph of a eulogy,
a speaking well of God and of his great salvation. 1 Peter
1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy,
begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled, and that fades not away reserved in heaven for you,
who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put
to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith,
being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved
by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation
of Jesus Christ, whom, not having seen, you love, on whom, though
you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy
unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. concerning which salvation the
prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you, searching what time or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did point
unto, when testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glories that should follow them. to whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these
things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preach
the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven,
which things angels desire to look into." Now as we again pray
and ask the help of God the Holy Spirit in our understanding of
the Word, let us also be mindful of the number of our singles
who are away from us today sitting under the Word of God up in Ballston
Lake. Pastor Jim Sebastio preaching
to them. I spoke to Pastor McDiarmid last
night and he said God wonderfully owned the first ministry of the
Word of God in this singles weekend and let's pray that that will
be an increasing reality throughout the day today in Boston Lake
as well. Let us pray. Our Father, we come once more
conscious that unless you, by the Holy Spirit, bring light
into our natively darkened minds, we shall not be able to understand
or to receive in faith and obedience your word And so we look again
to you that you would give that needed grace to preacher and
to hearer alike, not only in this place, but we think especially
of the many of our singles who are gathered there with others
from several other churches and pray that you, by the power of
your grace and spirit, would likewise visit them in such a
way that some who went to that conference unconverted may return,
new men and new women in Christ, and that others will be so instructed
and helped by the ministry that they will look back upon this
weekend as a watershed of deep heart dealings with you, the
living God. O Lord, come to us in our need
in this hour, and speak to us with grace and power and light,
we pray, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now in a book soon to be released
by the Banner of Truth, a book entitled Eyewitnesses of His
Majesty, Our esteemed brother and friend, Pastor Ted Donnelly
of Northern Ireland, opens up some of the major biblical materials
relative to the Apostle Peter under three very distinct headings. He has a section on Peter the
disciple, another on Peter the preacher, and a third section
on Peter the pastor. Well, as we are studying together
that portion of the Word of God called First Peter, we are seeing
Peter the Apostle functioning in a very pastoral way as he
writes to the people of God scattered throughout the Roman provinces
of Asia Minor. And although Peter's mind and
heart are obviously bursting with a large and varied number
of practical pastoral concerns which he will address in some
detail throughout his letter, It is clear that he does not
begin with exhortation, admonition, or even explicit motivations
focused upon the particular duties and responsibilities of the Christian
life. Rather, he begins by setting
forth a wonderful statement of the amazing salvation which God
has provided in Jesus Christ. a salvation which is the present
possession and the glorious future prospect of the most humble of
the people of God. He indicates that this salvation
is the common possession of all of the people of God, described
in verse 1 as the elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, that every one of them
has in common with Peter this glorious salvation for which
he begins to bless God in verse 3, and concerning which he has
not concluded his fundamental statements until the end of verse
12. Now, in our last exposition,
we examine verses 10 through 12, the very capstone of this
section in which God's gracious salvation in Christ is magnified
before our eyes. And the last way in which Peter
magnifies this salvation is in terms of prophetic searching,
verses 10 through 12a. He magnifies salvation in terms
of gospel preaching, verse 12b. And salvation is magnified by
angelic inquiring, verse 12c. Now, as I began the exposition
two large days ago, I stated that it would be pure exposition. There was no way to responsibly
handle the passage and to open up the things that Peter, by
the guidance of the Spirit, is setting before these first century
believers, but to track down those three avenues by which
this salvation is magnified. However, I said on that occasion
that we would come back to the passage in order to pause and
glean from it many of the rich and wonderful, helpful insights
Peter gives us to many fundamental perspectives of Christian truth
and of Christian experience. And that's what I propose to
do with you this morning and again this evening, having expounded
verses 10 through 12, the magnifying of God's salvation through prophetic
searching, gospel preaching, and angelic inquiring. We're
now going to go back and take the gleanings. We're going to
do something with the text that an Israelite was forbidden to
do with his fields. Once he had reaped his fields,
he was not to go back and take the gleanings. He was to leave
those for the stranger and for the foreigner who might come
upon his land. But we're going to go back under
the discipline of exposition. These passages cried for amplification,
but I resisted the temptation in order, I trust, to help you
to understand what the verses are teaching. But now, this morning,
we're going to go back and take up two categories of further
lessons in the passage, and then, God willing, tonight, another
three. And the first category with which
I would ask you to go back and glean from these verses is what
I am calling the affirmation of several basic doctrines of
the Christian faith. In these verses, verses 10 to
12, in which Peter begins by saying concerning which salvation
the prophets sought and searched diligently, and concludes with
speaking of angels continually longing and yearning to look
into this salvation, Peter affirms several of the most basic doctrines
of the Christian faith. And I ask you to go back to the
passage and consider those doctrines with me for a number of reasons,
not the least of which is this. As God reveals to us in the scriptures
those truths that are essential to Christianity itself, to the
Christian faith, they constitute the faith of Christ, There are
certain places in Scripture where God plunks down a mountain of
revelation of that particular truth. For example, the truth
that Jesus Christ is God, we have a mountain deposit of that
truth in a passage such as John 1, verses 1 to 3. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that hath been made. That
is a mountain-like deposit of the truth of who Christ is as
God. However, the doctrine of the
deity of Christ does not stand or fall on those mountain-like
deposits of divine revelation. God has given us more like the
stalactite and the stalagmite many drip, drip, drip revelations
of such a basic doctrine as the deity of Christ. Now, you know
how a stalactite and a stalagmite are formed, don't you? As water
drips, the mineral deposits are left, and over a long period
of time, drop by drop, there is built this massive structure,
and the way I remember the stalagmite tight is that it comes out of
the ground, stalag, stalagmite, I'm sorry, and the stalactite
comes from the ceiling, the ceiling down, the stalag from the ground
up. Well, as the people of God, we
must not only be familiar with those mountain-like deposits
of divine truth, and those passages ought to be household passages
with us, but our eyes should be keen to pick up the drops
that God gives us along the way that in their cumulative effect
build up these massive fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. And here in these verses, where
Peter's primary concern opened up and expounded in the previous
exposition, has to do with magnifying this great salvation with respect
to the prophetic searching, with respect to gospel preaching and
angelic inquiring, Peter does indeed affirm several basic doctrines
of the Christian faith. Note with me, first of all, how
he affirms the doctrine of special revelation. Peter uses these
words, verse 10, concerning which salvation the prophets sought
in search diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come
to you. In using those words, Peter is
affirming that he believes there are prophets who prophesy of
coming realities. He doesn't stop to prove it.
He doesn't stop to explain it. He simply affirms that there
are real prophets, real men who become the real instruments of
real revelation from God and who speak that revelation to
others in the very words of God. Furthermore, he goes on to say
that these prophets, by the work of the Spirit of Christ who was
in them, were testifying beforehand of the sufferings of Christ,
that there is real, predictive, revelatory data. that there is
a God who knows and controls the future and can infallibly
predict what will happen in the future which he both orders and
governs and controls. Furthermore, in verse 12 he says,
to whom, that is, to these prophets, it was revealed. that there is actually a thing
of divine revelation given to the prophets. So by the use of
this terminology, the prophets prophesied, the spirit in them
pointed unto testifying beforehand, to whom it was revealed. That is the language of special
revelation. But you say, Pastor, I don't
understand the terminology. What makes it special? Well,
the terminology, general revelation and special revelation, those
are not terms that you will find explicit in the Bible. But they
are terms that we use to help to collate what is clearly revealed
in the Bible. What is general revelation? General
revelation is God's self-disclosure in the world around us and the
world within us. Psalm 19, the heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto
day utters speech, and night unto night shows forth knowledge.
Why do the heavens declare God's glory? Because God makes them
declare His glory. He has constituted them His self-revelation. You find this in Acts 14 and
Acts 17. It's the world around us, and
according to Romans 1 and 2, it's the world within us as well.
The existence of a conscience that condemns us or accuses us
is an indication that we are moral creatures who still bear
the evidence of the work of God in the very presence and function
of conscience. That's general revelation. It
is God's self-disclosure in the world around us and the world
within us, open to all men everywhere at all times and all circumstances. That's general revelation. But
you see, what Peter is affirming in this passage is the doctrine
of special revelation. And what is special revelation?
It is God's self-disclosure made in words now embodied in the
Scripture. That's special revelation. It is God's self-disclosure embodied
now in the words of the Scriptures. And when Peter affirms, without
embarrassment, the doctrine of special revelation, he is underscoring
what the Bible everywhere teaches about God, that God can reveal
his mind to man. Furthermore, that God has revealed
His mind to men, and that God has so superintended that process
that what we have in the words of Scripture are the words of
God. Things that are a stumbling block
to many in our day, they were no stumbling block to Peter.
He weaves them into the texture of this eulogy that is magnifying
God's great salvation. And in so doing, he affirms in
unmistakable terms the doctrine of special revelation. Peter had no problem with the
truth articulated in Hebrews 1.1. God, who at times passed
in different ways, in different manners, has spoken unto the
fathers in the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us in the Son. Now you say, for some of you,
that's obvious, that's baseline stuff. Why pause to underscore
it? But for the simple reason, if
you do not know this as a well-instructed Christian, perhaps reared in
the Christian home, where your Bible was part and parcel of
your emerging consciousness of the world around you, you need
to understand that the mindset of the average man in pagan America
is such that this is marvelous news. For some, it is shocking. If we have an average American
pagan sitting here today who's gone through the average climate
in the average university, he would either hear this as marvelous,
marvelous news or look upon me as some kind of an anachronism,
some kind of an ecclesiastical Rick Van Winkle who just awakened
from decades of sleep and is yet to face the real world. to
say in this generation that this is not a closed universe. This universe is not bound by
the laws with which God has framed it and under which he governs
it. This is an open universe. The
God who made it can break into it and speak. To state it simply,
the Bible teaches God is and God is not silent. God is, and God is not, silent. He is a speaking God. Yes, He
does speak in the world around us and in the world within us. And we're accountable for listening
to the voice of God's self-disclosure in general revelation. That's
what Romans 1 teaches. When men will not listen to the
voice of God in general revelation, a man looks at a woman and says,
she is my counterpart. She is made to be the counterpart
of my sexual intimacy. not another male. Romans 1 says
when people will not listen to the voice of general revelation
with regard to sexual identity and function, God gives them
over to a reprobate mind. They are putting down the knowledge
that screams into their ears and impinges continually upon
their eyeballs. Yes, men are accountable if they
do not listen to the voice of God in general revelation. But
you see, general revelation can never tell me where did I come
from? Why am I what I am? Where do
I go when I die? How can the deepest longings
of my heart be filled and met? What is right and what is wrong
in the particulars of all my relationships? The God who has
made us is not silent, and he has spoken, and what he has said
is embodied in the words of this blessed book. And we ought, therefore,
as the people of God, to be filled with a sense of gratitude in
the language of hymn number 265 in our hymn books. How precious
is the book divine, thy inspiration given, or in the language of
the children's hymn, Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure,
thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach
me what I am. Without the Bible, you won't
know where you came from, you won't know what you are, and
you'll certainly never know where you're going for certain. And
we ought to be filled with gratitude that in picking up a pastoral
letter written to suffering saints in the first century, the stuff
of the Christian faith is so unashamedly affirmed by Peter
in these verses, the doctrine of special revelation. And not
only ought we to be filled with gratitude, But always beware
of the devil's first whisper to our first parent. What were
his first words to Eve by which to dislodge her from the will
of God? Yea, has God said? Yea, has God said? The first intrusion of the tempter's
horrible effort to drag our first parents away from their God was
precisely at this point of the validity of God's special revelation
to man. It wasn't general revelation
that told Adam and Eve of all the trees of the garden you may
freely eat, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden
you shall not eat of it lest you die. That was special revelation. And the first intrusion of the
devil's nefarious effort to wrench our parents from their God was
the question mark over the validity of special revelation. And I
trust that each of us sitting here today will recognize that
whenever that whisper comes, we ought to respond by saying
in the language of Romans 3 in verse 4, let God be true and
every man a liar. Let God be true. You say, but
pastor, the more I study my Bible, the more I see there are problems
in the Bible. There are passages that I cannot
seem to reconcile. And there are accounts of things
in Kings that don't quite match with what I read in Chronicles. And there are accounts of details
of the resurrection. And I don't know how to harmonize.
I have problems perfectly harmonizing all of the parallel records.
Yes, you do. So have God's people for many
centuries. And there are things that God does that seem to be
inconsistent with what he says he is. And I don't understand
it. Yes, there are problems in the Bible. But my friend, do
you want to live with the problems you have if you get rid of your
Bible? Yes, there are problems. Why?
Our knowledge is limited. Our understanding is limited.
We still have remaining sin darkening our minds. And the child of God
has every confidence that any problem that needs to be resolved
to get him safely to heaven will be, and all the rest will be
resolved after we get there. And the author himself will sit
down and say, now look, you see that silly problem you had? Here's
the resolution. And if you can knock your head
and confess things in heaven, you'd say, Lord, forgive me for
being so stupid. That's so obvious. Haven't you
had that happen in your human experience? You thought here
were two sets of irreconcilable realities. And you talk to the
people involved. And lo and behold, in three sentences,
they gave you one or two facts. And what seemed to be an irreconcilable
contradiction was brought together in a beautiful synthesis. You
see, the child of God, he doesn't stick his head in the sand and
say, no problems in the Bible. Yes, there are problems. But
they are the problems not of the God revealing, but they are
the problems of the limited sinful creature receiving the revelation. And anyone is a fool who says,
until I can resolve all the problems of the Bible, I will hold off
the Bible and shut myself up to the midnight darkness of my
own limited understanding. and the relative, the relative
darkness of general revelation which was never intended to tell
people how to be ready to live and to die and to go to judgment. And so Peter, without embarrassment,
without reservation, writing to a people who for the most
part had a pagan background, whose life, according to verse
18, had been shaped by nothing more than the vain traditions
handed down by their fathers. And Peter lets them know that
as Christian believers, they have now entered the realm where
special revelation is to shape and to mold all of their thinking
about God and truth and life and salvation and heaven and
hell and the world to come. But then note with me, not only
is there an affirmation of the doctrine of special revelation
in these verses, but there's an affirmation of the doctrine
of the pre-existence and deity of Christ. There is an affirmation
of the doctrine of the pre-existence and deity of Christ. Look at
verse 11. These prophets were searching what time or what manner
of time, and as we saw in our previous study, that could be
what person or time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did
point unto, when, better translated, testifying beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glories that should follow them. These prophets
who are prophesying and the substance of their prophecy that is highlighted
by Peter is that which focused upon the sufferings of Christ
and the glories that should follow them. Now when did the last prophet
prophesy before the coming of Christ? Well you've heard of
the 400 silent years after Malachi prophesied and his prophecy was
written 400 years before the angel visits this young virgin
in Palestine named Mary and tells her that she's going to conceive
in her womb, though she's never had sexual relations with a man. And 400 years before the visit
of the angel, before the manger seen in Bethlehem, before the
heavens are brightened with the presence of those angelic beatings,
speaking in chorus, unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. How could the Spirit
of Christ be in profits over hundreds of years before the
visit of the angel to announce the conception in Mary's womb
and the birth of Messiah in Bethlehem. How can the Spirit of Christ
be in these prophets and so acting in them as to give them accurate
information concerning the sufferings of one who doesn't yet appear
on the stage of human history? Well, the answer is obvious.
Peter is affirming. He doesn't pause to prove. He
doesn't pause to expound. He is comfortable in the very
climate of the reality that Jesus Christ did not begin to be in
Mary's womb or come into existence in the manger at Bethlehem. Now
think what that meant for Peter. With his mother's milk, he was
reared on that great confessional statement of God's ancient people
called the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one. The concept of monotheism ingrained
in the very fabric of his soul from a little child. And yet
this very Peter, writing to these scattered believers there in
the provinces of Asia Minor, speaks of the Spirit of Christ
not only in existence but in dwelling and so operating upon
the minds and faculties of these prophets that they could actually
tell beforehand what was going to come to pass hundreds of years
later. Well, Peter can do that without
a burp, without any embarrassment because he knows that Jesus Christ
is none other than the eternal Word made flesh. When he said, You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God, for Peter as a Jew, that designation
did not mean someone who was the offspring of God. in whose
existence there was a time when he was not. No, it meant nothing
less than you are the Christ, God the Son. You are deity incarnate. For if Jesus Christ were a mere
man, how could he be active hundreds of years before his conception
and birth? If a mere man, how could he dwell
in various men, separated by hundreds of years, and so operate
on their minds, their mouths, and their pens to secure the
utterance of the very words of God? And if a mere man, how could
he testify beforehand to the very events of his own suffering
and glory? No, the old dictum is true. If
Jesus Christ is not God, he's not good. And furthermore, All
who preached Him and wrote of Him are not good either, because
they have perpetuated a wretched idolatry in that they constantly,
without even consciously doing it, they are attributing to Jesus
Christ a mode of being that can only be understood in terms of
pure, undiluted, essential deity. The preexistence and deity of
Christ is affirmed by Peter, not in a formal statement, such
as his statement in Matthew 16, Who do men say that I am? What
is my identity? You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. But in seeking to magnify this
great salvation, Demonstrating to these first century Christians
with a primarily pagan background, without the deep, rich understanding
of Old Testament scripture, he's seeking to let them know that
their salvation is one that has its path roots in the Old Testament. It is a salvation that was the
subject of prophetic inquiry, and it was the very salvation
that was proclaimed to them in the Gospel, a salvation that
angels desire to look into. And in opening up that central
concern, this reference to the Spirit of Christ points us back
to this basic doctrine of the preexistence and the deity of
Christ. Now again, I ask, why underscore?
Why pause to underscore? Why take part of a sermon before
pressing on in the exposition of verse 13 to highlight this? Because such a Christ, who is
very God of very God, as well as very man of very man, is the
only Christ of biblical revelation. And you see, you can't get around
it like the Jehovah's Witness tries to by twisting the translation
of the Greek of John 1. And when the Jehovah's Witness
comes and says, well, it doesn't mean the Word was God. It means
the Word was a God and shows his ignorance of Greek as well
as of biblical theology. You see, the deity of Christ
does not rest only in those mountain peak deposits of that truth that
are found in Scripture. It is the assumed climate of
New Testament worship and life. and everywhere you turn, such
as in the very greeting by which Peter addresses these people.
He says that Peter is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, the consciences
of those believers are not to be bound by any human authority.
They're to be bound by God and God alone. And it's only if an
apostle of Jesus Christ is one commissioned by one who is God
that he has any right to bind the consciences of those who
receive his epistle. He can speak of them as those
who have been brought under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ. His blood has no worth unless
it is the blood of incarnate deity, and it has that worth
because it is just such blood. This was Peter's faith, and this
was the faith of all who came into the apostolic church. Their confession was Thomas's
confession. You remember in John chapter
20, When the Lord Jesus shows himself in his resurrection person
to Thomas and says, look, doubting Thomas, you said you won't believe
unless you see those remnants of the suffering I underwent.
And Thomas beholds him and falls before him and says, my Lord
and my God. And what does Jesus say? Blessed
are you, Thomas, because having seen you have believed, but blessed
rather are those who having not seen Yet believe. Believe what? Believe, Thomas, what you've
come to believe. I am your Lord and I am your
God. And isn't it interesting that
here in the previous verses, Peter describes these believers
as those who have, having not seen Christ, they love him. And though they see him not,
yet they believe upon him and rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. And as you read your Bible, don't
just skip over passages like these. Pause and ask yourself,
this is said of Christ, that the Spirit of Christ was in them. Can the spirit of a mere man
so indwell another man as to operate upon his mind and pen
and tongue to reveal the very words of God? Only God can dwell
in men in that way over a period of time and in all those circumstances
and exert that kind of infallible, truth-begetting influence upon
them. But then not only the doctrine
of special revelation is found in these verses and the doctrine
of the pre-existence and deity of Christ, but note with me third,
the doctrine of the definitive outpouring of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost. When Peter says that These believers
had the gospel preached unto them by unnamed preachers, notice
how he describes them, verse 12, to whom it was revealed,
that is the prophets, that not unto themselves but unto you
did they minister these things, which now have been announced
unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by, or more
literally, in the Holy Spirit. He says, they preach the gospel
unto you in, that is, in the realm, in the sphere of the Spirit's
present powerful operation. But notice now, as he seeks to
identify who that Spirit is, notice the words by which he
identifies him. They preach the gospel unto you
in the Holy Spirit, sent for from heaven. Now, Peter isn't
just throwing in words to just sort of fill out the sentence.
He's saying the Spirit in whose realm or in which sphere they
preach the gospel unto you is the Spirit who is to be identified
as the one sent forth from heaven. Now, he uses a verb which means
to send one forth as an official and authoritative representative
of the one sending him, apostellos. And for Peter, that could have
only one reference point. You remember, put yourself with
Peter. Where was he? In that first meeting when the
Lord Jesus said he was going to change his name, he hears
John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as Lamb of God, Son of
God, Lamb of God who would bear away the sin of the world and
the one who would baptize in the Holy Spirit. Peter had heard
our Lord's constant references to the coming of the other helper
in the upper room discourse. He had heard the Lord Jesus say,
you wait until Jerusalem, until you be clothed with power from
on high. You shall be clothed with power,
the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Peter was there on the day of
Pentecost, and you remember the language of Luke in Acts chapter
2, suddenly there came from heaven. And Peter stands up to explain
what had happened and he said, this is that which is prophesied
by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass afterward
I will pour forth of my spirit upon all flesh. When Peter writes
to these believers and said he is the Holy Spirit sent forth,
not a present tense, but a definitive, once for all, sending forth of
the Holy Spirit from heaven, he is underscoring that the Spirit
who operated in the minds and hearts of these believers, so
that they came to embrace an unseen Christ, On the basis of
the testimony of those preachers, it is the Spirit who was poured
forth definitively on the day of Pentecost. It was by His ministry
bringing them to see their desperate need of the Christ of apostolic
preaching. It was by the ministry of the
Spirit that their natively rebellious hearts were subdued and they
were brought to repentance and faith and to newness of life.
All that these former pagans had known of their pagan ignorance,
and in chapter 4 he describes in detail something of their
pagan lifestyle, all of that had been transformed, not by
some kind of self-help scheme, not by some psychological manipulation,
but the gospel had come, not in word only, but also in power
and in the Holy Spirit. And when Peter now makes reference
to the gospel coming in the Holy Spirit, he identifies him as
the Spirit sent forth from heaven. Now again, you say, Pastor Martin,
that seems to be true, but why underscore it? Well, there's
a reason for it. While I trust every one of us
yearns and prays for a more intensive operation of the Spirit's grace
and power, in our individual lives. I trust you yearn and
pray for that. To be more filled with the Spirit,
to bring forth more fruit of the Spirit, to know more of the
graces of the Spirit. While I trust each of us yearns
and prays for more intensive operations of the Spirit's grace
and power personally, and more extensive manifestations of his
convicting and converting power in the world around us, we must
never depreciate the event of Pentecost. Never! We must never
talk or think about another Pentecost any more than we think about
another Bethlehem. We live in the ongoing benefits
of Bethlehem. You don't ask for a repeat of
Bethlehem. When the angels had gone back
to heaven, and the shepherds had gone back to their fields,
what was there in that manger is the abiding gift of God. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son. And he doesn't keep re-giving
him in new incarnations. He has been given. And in a very
parallel way, Pentecost is an epical event in the history of
redemption. And I underscore that not to
discourage yearning and praying for more intensive operations
of the Spirit within us, and more extensive manifestations
of His power and grace around us. I underscore it because unless
you come to grips with that, you will not be at home with
the whole climate of ethical and moral instruction in the
New Testament. All of the ethical and moral
instruction in the New Testament assumes this simple, basic fact,
that every truly penitent, believing sinner stands in his experience
this side of Pentecost. He has the Spirit. Romans 8,
9, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And when ethical norms are pressed,
they are not pressed in this way, you're in a mess here, get
the spirit and get out of your mess, no. For example, Paul is
dealing with the sordid problem of the horrible state of immorality
at Corinth in general, and it had infected the church in particular.
And in chapter 6, he's piling up motives for Christians to
deal with sexual sins. And how does he address it? In
chapter 6, in verse 19, he says, What? Don't you know that you
have been bought with a price? You are not your own. Don't you
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? You see,
he says, not you need to get something in order to be different.
He says, be different because you have something. And he does
the same in chapter three. He says, corporately, he said,
you are a temple of the living God. That church with all of
its problems, he said, you are a sanctuary of the living God.
If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,
which temple you are. He doesn't say because of your
divisions and your problems and your aberrations and your abnormalities
and your excesses, you are no longer a temple. Seek God till
he comes into his temple. He doesn't say that. Ephesians
4 30. He says, do not grieve the Holy
Spirit by whom you have been sealed unto the day of redemption.
It's in the context of saying, let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another. Why? You have been sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise. Yes, we are commanded to be continually
filled with the Spirit. We are commanded to walk in the
Spirit. We are commanded to grieve not
the Spirit. But you see, all of that is predicated
on this simple, basic reality that if you have truly repented
of sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have received
the gift of the Spirit. You are spiritual. Say, I don't
feel spiritual. I didn't say you did. I said
you are. That's what God calls you. And
you see, that's critical. If we think, well, the reason
I'm not making progress is there's something yet to have I don't
have. Ultimately, you can blame that on God that he doesn't give
it. But if God in grace is giving you all things necessary to life
and godliness, and he has endowed you with his Holy Spirit and
placed the stuff of growth and progress in your hands, then
you're culpable if you don't go. And you are responsible if
you do not by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh. And so
Peter, without pausing to give a theology of the Holy Spirit,
can write to these relatively young converts that he calls
in chapter 2 newborn babes and underscores for them this doctrine
of the definitive outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
as they think back upon what happened to them when the gospel
was preached, and as they come into a fuller understanding of
the significance of who it was that brought them to own their
sin and feel the weight of their guilt and see the glory of God
in the face of Christ. They are a people who understand
that this is the Holy Spirit who has been sent forth from
heaven. They live in the age of the outpoured
Spirit. And Peter made that plain on
the day of Pentecost when they cried out, men and brethren,
what shall we do? He says, repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission
of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for
the promises unto you and to your children. and to all that
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto
him." Here were believers far off in the easternmost part of
the Roman Empire, and Peter can write to them in the confidence
that when the gospel was preached unto them, resulting in their
salvation, it was the gospel preached in the realm of the
Holy Spirit sent forth. from heaven. Well, there are
three basic doctrines, Scripture, Christ, and Holy Spirit, all
in the flow of the apostles writing to these young believers to magnify
God's salvation before their eyes. But now, much more briefly,
I want to touch on just this second category this morning.
Not only does he give this affirmation of several basic doctrines of
the Christian faith, but he also sets before them what I'm calling
the introduction of a basic reality of genuine Christian experience.
In these verses, there is the introduction of a basic reality
of genuine Christian experience. Note again verse 11. The prophets
were searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ who was in them did point unto when testifying beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow
them. Peter is spoken of trials in
verse 6. But this is his first mention
of suffering, and it's one of the major themes in this epistle. Four times the noun suffering
is used in the original, and twelve times the verb to suffer. And if you were to do what Pastor
Lamar suggested in the previous hour, and take your Strong's
or your Young's concordance, or if you have an Englishman's
Greek concordance, it'd be a little shorter root to it, and look
up the verb to suffer, you would find that it is used eleven times
in all of the other epistles of the New Testament. You know
how many times it's used in 1 Peter? Twelve times. More use of the
verb to suffer in 1 Peter than all the other epistles combined.
So between the noun and the verb, sixteen allusions to suffering. And very interestingly, you look
up the word glory, though it's used with greater diversity,
eleven times in Peter's epistle the word glory is used. Two of
his favorite words as he writes to these new converts in Asia
Minor are suffering and glory. Now obvious here in the text
He's focusing upon the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow the sufferings of Christ in the actual procurement
or the purchase or the accomplishment of our salvation. That's very
evident that the Spirit of Christ, who was in the prophets, was
pointing beforehand those sufferings by which Christ would procure
the salvation of his people. those glories that should follow
the sufferings as the reward of his sufferings and that he
might further accomplish their salvation. Chapter 3 and verse
18 points to the fact that this is the focus of his sufferings. Christ also suffered for sins
once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. But now follow with me as I try
to state this very basic principle. What Peter teaches here concerning
Christ's sufferings followed by glory as the pattern in the
procurement or the purchase or the accomplishment of our salvation,
he makes very clear that that pattern is true in the application
of that salvation in the Christian life. For Christ, there was no
way to procure salvation but suffering followed by glory. In those of us who come to trust
in Christ, in the application of that salvation as it works
out in the Christian life, the pattern will be exactly the same
for us. Suffering followed by glory. Notice how he emphasizes that
in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. Beloved, do not think it strange
concerning the fiery trial among you that comes upon you to prove
you, as though a strange thing happened unto you, but inasmuch
as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice, that at
the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy. What does he say? Suffering now,
glory to come. What was it for your Savior?
Sufferings followed by glory. What will it be for you? Don't
think it's strange. The pattern in your Savior's
accomplishment of redemption is the fixed, divine, unalterable
pattern in the application of that salvation to all his followers.
Suffering now, glory to come. Look at chapter 5, 8 to 10. telling
them to be sober and watchful in the light of the devil's activity,
whom withstands steadfast in your faith, knowing, and this
is what you're to know, that the same sufferings are accomplished
in your brethren who are in the world, and the God of all grace
who called you unto his eternal glory after you have suffered
a little while. Glory comes after suffering. You see, Peter's very careful
to underscore this principle that you and I must grasp. And if we're to enter in and
really understand and lay to heart much of this epistle, it's
vital that we understand at the outset that Peter's introducing
this basic reality of genuine Christian experience, suffering. precedes glory. In fact, according
to two other passages, it is an inseparable attendant of all
true saving experience and a prerequisite for entering to glory. Romans
8 and verse 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed to us. For every true child of
God, it is suffering with him that we may be glorified with
him. And Philippians 129, for to you
it has been granted, to you it is the donation of grace, not
only to believe on his name, but to suffer, to suffer. It is given to believe, it is
given to suffer. Now, we ask the question again,
why underscore the fact of the introduction of this basic theme? Well, first of all, responsible
exposition demands it. If you're to master a given musical
composition that has a fundamental musical theme, you need to be
aware of it at the outset, sometimes in the very overture of an opera.
You'll pick up on a certain theme, and if someone who knows the
score well points it out to you, it enriches your ability to appreciate
that entire musical production. You don't wait till three-quarters
of the way through and say, oh, now I know that's what... To
understand that at the outset that theme is going to be introduced
and picked up and woven throughout the entire musical production
enriches your appreciation of it. In the same way, the theme
of suffering followed by glory will help us in our understanding
of this epistle. But further, it's so fundamental
an issue. Remember what Peter's seeking
to do. He's seeking to equip these relatively new believers
to live in a pagan society there in Asia Minor. And one of the
problems was that soon after their conversion, they began
to experience suffering of different kinds. And Peter tells them,
the worst is yet to come. And he's seeking to fit and prepare
them for that. And how does he do it? Well,
as we shall see in our next exposition, he tells them that in the midst
of all of their experience, they must have in the crosshairs of
their conscious concentration of mind and heart He says, set
your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, keep the coming
glory in your eyeballs, and you'll be enabled to bear the present
suffering to the glory of God. Lose sight of the coming glory!
and the present suffering will distract and unhinge, if not
actually drive you away from Christ. It's crucial that you
and I grasp this fact and embrace it from our hearts. Listen to
a godly Scottish preacher who came from Scotland, settled in
Kingston, New York, and has written a helpful commentary on 1 and
2 Peter. He stated it this way, Let the
afflicted children of God take comfort from the consideration
of what was foretold and has been fulfilled in relationship
to God's own well-beloved Son, the author and finisher of their
faith, to whose image it is God's purposed and dearest ambition
of their own hearts. that they shall be in all things
conformed to him. You see what he's saying? Let
God's people rejoice that God has said for him it was suffering
followed by glory. And that's the God whose purpose
to make us like his son. And the deepest yearning in our
hearts is to be conformed to the image of his son. Now he
makes the application. Grudge not them, brethren, to
sit down beside the man of sorrows and mingle your tears with his. so shall you after sit with him
in his throne. Do not refuse the fellowship
of his sufferings, what though you should even be conformable
unto his death. Remember, only that for him as
for you, the rule of the household was suffering, and after that,
glory. That's the rule of the household.
He was not exempt from that rule. That was the great temptation
of the evil one in the wilderness. Bypass the sufferings. Come to
the glory. I'll give you the kingdoms of
the world. He knew that the path was suffering,
leading to glory. And that's the thing into which
he calls all of his people. When he gave calls to discipleship,
what did he offer people? If any man would come after me,
let him take up his cross. identification with me in shame,
rejection, suffering, and death. And he says, he that would love
his life, who says, I want a way to life that bypasses the suffering,
such a one shall lose it. There is nothing that in the
providence of God, American affluence can produce that will ever negate
the way of the cross as the way to life and salvation. As surely
as no sinner can ever hope for pardon and acceptance with God
who does not rest upon the work accomplished by him who suffered
and entered into glory, no one can partake by faith of that
salvation who is not put in the same pathway of suffering leading
to glory. Our sufferings are not redemptive.
He cried, it is finished. All of the suffering necessary
to satisfy the law and justice of God, he fully underwent. But that does not negate the
fact that to be attached to him in faith is to put oneself in
the way of suffering that leads to glory. And if we want some
other way, we must make another Savior who procured our salvation
in another pattern. For us, the procurement was suffering
and the glories to follow. For us, the way of appropriation
and Christian experience is the way of suffering followed by
glory. Is that a word to us in the present
time? God has rattled the cage of many
of us. As I've said on one other occasion,
we've had it so easy, and God brings a little bit of suffering.
I sat in my study preparing the message and thought of what I
know some are undergoing right now. Men who, because they sought
to preach and expound the Scriptures, have been thrown into prison,
shut off from wife and family, nearly starved to death and beaten
and crawling with vermin. And I say, Lord, I don't have
one mark in my body born for the sake of Christ. I don't have
one stitch in my face placed there because someone threw stones
or rocks at me. No bones that have been broken.
I've got a few nasty letters, a few ugly faces, and a few nasty
words ringing in my ears. Shame on me. that I have such
an aversion to the cross. May God help us, dear people,
that this theme will not become a theme of maudlin, negative,
monastic, self-inflicted, mournful Christianity, but joyfully embracing
this reality. As surely as we share in the
fellowship of His sufferings, we shall know the blessedness
of sharing in the glories to follow. May God help us. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for
the richness of your holy word, and we pray that you would establish
your people in this place, in these basic doctrines that Peter
felt so comfortable with. We do thank you that you have
revealed yourself in this blessed book, that you are the God of
special as well as general revelation. And our Lord Jesus, we worship
you as the eternal God, one with the Father and the Spirit in
the mystery of the Trinity. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for
your activity in giving the words of the prophets. We thank you
for all that you have done in the path of suffering that led
to glory. and we pray that you will help
us, that we will embrace from the heart that pattern that you
have fixed as the pattern for all of your people, and that
we may, with the Apostle Paul, long to know you in the fellowship
of your sufferings as well as in the power of your resurrection. Help us, O Lord Jesus, we pray,
that we may know new measures of glorying in you and of clinging
to you. Continue, we pray, to seal your
word to our hearts and bless us in this day as we seek to
honor you. Amen.