I want to pick up in verse 12
here in 1 Peter, suffering for Christ's sake. Every chapter in this epistle,
Peter speaks of suffering over the gospel, over the gospel that
we believe, over the gospel that God has given us. Peter speaks
of suffering because of it. Some may think, if you listen
to modern day preaching, that when a person becomes a believer,
it's happy and joyful. Well, it is in the heart, but
that's when the battle begins. That's when suffering really
begins, is when you believe the gospel. That's when the warfare
starts, is when you believe the gospel. And Peter knew from experience
that the gospel and faithfulness to the gospel, faithfulness to
the Lord Jesus Christ would bring persecution. It would bring suffering. Now, you realize the people to
whom Peter is writing to are those that have been scattered
abroad and those who've been under heavy, heavy persecution. We've not seen persecution and
suffering over the gospel like they have. They would run out
of their homes and excommunicated. I mean, they really suffered
for it. And Peter is writing to them.
And who knows at what time this will apply to us? Now, he says
here in verse 12, Beloved, yes, even though you suffer,
even though you're persecuted, you are beloved of God. You are,
but do not question God's love by outward circumstances. Don't
question God's love and God's care and God's concern for you
by outward circumstances. You know, David over here in
Psalm 73, let me read you something over here in Psalm 73. David was guilty of this at one
time, Psalm 73. David said, truly God is good
to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for
me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. They were prospering. For there are no bands in their
death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble
as other men. Neither are they plagued like
other men. Therefore, pride compasses them
about as a chain. Violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could
desire. They are corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walks through
the earth. Now jump down here to verse 16. When I thought to
know this, it was too painful for me. It troubled me until
I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their
end. Then I understood their end. And he understood not only
their end, he understood something of God's purpose concerning himself
and concerning the wicked. Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places. Thou cast them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation? In a moment they are utterly
consumed with terrors. When he went into the sanctuary,
he didn't envy them no more, did he? No, God taught him something. He said, I saw their end and
I don't envy them anymore. Not anymore. So back to our lesson
here. So Peter says, beloved, beloved. Yes, you are beloved of God,
even though you're going through such trials and heartaches and
whatever it may be, you are beloved of God. Beloved. And don't be
amazed, he says here, beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing
happened to you. Don't be amazed when some strange,
unexpected, fiery trial, a fiery trial comes upon you to try you. And Peter says here, the fiery
trial which is to try, it's coming. It's coming. Everyone, every
one of God's children will have their fiery trial. God will determine
the measure of it. He'll determine the severity
of it, the duration of it. But every one of His children
will have it. They will have it. And notice here, it's a fiery
trial that comes upon you to try you, not destroy you. These
trials don't come to destroy, they come to refine, to prove,
to test. That's what they come for. And if we truly believe that
all things are of God, we believe that. And it'll be proven by
trials and troubles that we do believe it. It'll be tried. It'll
be proven. And if we truly believe that
all things are of God, then we will not stand amazed or shocked
or stand in awe that something like this would happen to us.
He says, they're coming. And if we believe that all things
are of God, then that's the way we will take it. This is of God. You know when Eli's two sons,
Hop and I and Phinehas, when God killed them, he said, it's
the Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do as he will. That's
what he said. And then there are called fiery
trials. The reason they're called fiery
trials is because they hurt. You ever get burned? It hurts. Something fiery hurts, doesn't
it? It hurts. If it did not hurt, it would
not be a trial. It would be an inconvenience.
But this is not an inconvenience. It's a trial. It's a trial and
it hurts. And they're necessary. If it
was not necessary, our Father Our Heavenly Father, our infinitely
wise Father, would not send them. And I take comfort, and every
one of His children take comfort in this, God sends them. Our Father sends them. And they're
necessary. They're necessary to prove faith.
To prove whether we have faith or not. To prove the genuineness
of faith. And it proves the strength of
faith. And it increases the strength of faith. Would you want your
faith increased? It's going to take trials. Would
you want the faith of Abraham? I believe every one of us in
here would say, I would love to have the faith of Abraham.
Would you want the trials of Abraham? It took the trials that
Abraham went through to produce the faith that Abraham had. That's what it takes. It takes
trials. And then they prove our love to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our love to Christ is going to be proved. And they're going
to be proved by trials. We say we love Him. We say we
love the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, God will prove it. He'll
prove our love to His Son. And then they try our hope by
weaning us from this world. I am still more attached to the
things of this world than I like to admit. I have to say, I'm
still more attached to these things than I like to admit.
You just wait until some of them have to go and see how much squawking
I do. You know, I've lost four jobs
in my lifetime. Why did that happen to me? Why
did I have to lose that job? But each time I lost one, I said
that less and less. I finally learned it's the Lord
and things will work out just fine. But the first time I lost
it, I was upset. The last one I lost, I wasn't
upset. It takes those things to prove our faith and to prove
our love to Christ, to prove our hope in Him, and to wean
us from the things of this world, and it proves our weakness. We're never as strong as we think
we are. Never. Never as strong as we think.
We never believe as much as we think we believe. Never. It proves our weakness, but it
also proves His strength. He's able to keep. He's able
to carry. He's able to make all things
work together for our good. Everything this day, Absolutely
everything this day is working together for our good, no matter
what the trial may be we're going through. It doesn't matter. He's
able to do it. And the trials we are going to
go through and the fiery trials that come our way from time to
time, and they're going to happen. It's the common lot of all God's
children. You know, I have never suffered anything in this life,
and you haven't either. And we will not suffer anything
in this life that someone else hasn't already gone through.
Someone else has already gone through it. Many have already
gone through it. I mean, we have a whole history, what, 6,000
years behind us of people going through the same things we've
gone through, and God kept them. He's kept them. I heard Henry say this, and he
got it from somewhere. God has only one Son without
sin, but no sons without suffering. None. Now, Peter says here, he
says in verse 13, but rejoice when these fiery trials come
upon you. Instead of moaning and mourning
and murmuring against it, he says
rejoice. Rejoice. Don't mourn, don't moan,
don't murmur, but rejoice. And here's the reason why. Inasmuch
as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, here's what this
means. This means that you are a part
of the body, you are a member of the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the church. The church is His body. The old
writers called it the mystical body of Christ. You're a part
of His body. And because of that, being a
part of His body, being a part of the church, a member of it,
you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer for it.
In this world you are. Every true believer, every blood-bought
child of God is going to suffer for the gospel, for the testimony
of the gospel in some form or fashion. Some form or fashion. And we'll see a little more of
this in the message out of Matthew chapter 10 this morning. It goes
right along with this lesson. It just goes right along with
it. And you'll see that when we get to it. If you were not
his, if you were not his, you wouldn't suffer. You wouldn't
suffer because of him. You wouldn't suffer because of
a testimony to him. You wouldn't be rejected and despised by your
own family members because of him. The world loves its own. Our Lord said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? What was he doing when the Lord
said that to him? He was on his way to Damascus,
on his road to Damascus. to persecute the church, to waste
the church. And the Lord stopped him and
said, why are you persecuting me? Well, Lord, I'm not persecuting you.
Yes, you are. Yes, you are. That's my body. That church is
my body. And he feels what his body feels. He feels what his body feels.
And he said to Saul, which became the apostle Paul, why are you
persecuting me? For any man to persecute the body of Christ
is to persecute Christ himself. If you offend any member of the
body of Christ, it's to offend Christ himself. There's no separation. It's to do that. And if you suffer
for Christ's sake, he said, you shall also be glorified with
him. We have no concept. I mean, we
have a little bit, but not really a real concept of what that means
to be glorified with him seated at God's right hand in paradise. He said, you shall be glorified
with Him. In other words, the best is yet
to come. The best is yet to come. We can't even begin to imagine,
not even imagine what that glory is. Can't even begin to. And if you are reproached, for
Christ's sake, over the Gospel, over the message you believe,
He says, be happy. Be happy if you're reproached
for it. If you are despised for it, don't hang your head. He
says be happy. Look over in Acts chapter 5.
Here's how we have to handle it. In
Acts chapter 5, verse 41, after the apostles
were beaten, And they departed from the presence of the council
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name. They didn't go out complaining
about God's inability to keep them or why God let them go through
this. They went out rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for Christ's sake. Worthy to do it. And that's what Peter says here.
Be happy. Rejoice. Rejoice. He said the Spirit of God rests
on you. The power of God is on you. If you're able to rejoice,
it's on you. If you're able to endure in a
good spirit, the power of God is on you. You sure can't do
that by yourself. He said rejoice. The Spirit of
God rests upon you. And on your part, Christ is honored. On their part, He's evil spoken
of. But on your part, He's glorified. He's glorified in your faith.
He's glorified in your loyalty. He's glorified in your hope.
He's glorified. Be happy, He said. Be happy. Happy are ye. Happy. Now, you may not be happy at
the time you're going through it. You may not be happy when
the fiery trials come upon you. It hurts. It hurts. But here's when you'll be happy.
When you come up to die, there'll be no bands in your death. When
you come up, happy are you when you come up to die. When you
finally take that last breath and you're finally going to leave
this earth and leave this body of sin, you're going to leave
it Happy. Happy. And happy are ye in judgment. My, my, my. You will not have
to hear the Lord say, depart from me, I never knew you. You
won't hear that. Enter in. Enter into the kingdom. That's what he'll say. Enter
in, thou good and faithful servant. Happy! Truly happy in death,
truly happy in judgment, and truly happy in eternity. When the Scriptures speak of
the miseries of hell, it speaks of weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth that never stops. But in Christ, In Christ, in eternity, in His
presence, there'll be eternal happiness. There'll not be, not
be for even a second, one sad moment. Can't imagine it, can
we? Those who've gone on already
are eternally happy right now. Happy! We've been happy a few times,
but they're happy. He said, happy are you. But now
let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or
a busybody. Don't suffer for that. Don't
be in trouble over that. No, you don't want to. You know,
that kind of suffering is not good. No, that's not good. That's that you deserve if you're
that kind. You deserve that. You deserve
suffering. But he says, don't be don't don't none of you suffer
because of a A murderer? That's not just someone who shot
somebody. That's also someone who hates
others, destroys their character and reputation, and gossips and
slanders everybody. Don't be guilty of that, he says.
A thief? That's not just someone who robs
and breaks into your house. That's someone who robs men of
the love and kindness that's due unto them. He said don't
suffer for that. Or evildoers? That's a lawbreaker,
whether it be God's law or men's laws. Or a busybody, a meddler,
someone who's trying to direct other people's lives, can't stay
out of it. A busybody, can't stay out of other people's affairs.
He said, don't be suffering for that. Don't be guilty of that.
No, don't be guilty of that. But if you suffer as a Christian,
a Christ follower, don't hide your face in shame. If they were
to come and take you to jail, he said, don't hide your face
in shame. You ever watch, I know you have, on the news, somebody
gets caught and the first thing they want to do, they want to
put their coat up like this so the cameras can't see them? Paul
said, don't do that. You have nothing to be ashamed
of. You hold your head up, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
That's what he told Timothy. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
or of me, his prisoner. The gospel of Christ or me, his
prisoner. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed. And then he
says here, for the time is coming when judgment must begin at the
house of God. The time has come when God will
judge His people not for their sins. He's not going to do that. He'd judge Christ for their sins.
But here's what He's doing. He's sending these trials and
afflictions, these fiery trials and these afflictions to prove
our love and faith to Him. Now, if God will do that, If
he'll do that to his children, what's he going to do to those
who believe not? If his children suffer these
fiery trials, what are they going to suffer who know not God? What
are they going to suffer? And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, that does not mean that we're barely going to make
it. Christ is a sufficient Savior. Christ is all we need. Christ
has provided all I need. He's all in all. We don't need
anything else. But here's what I think he's
saying here. If the righteous scarcely be
saved, if the righteous only have one Savior, we don't have
many Saviors, do we? We have one. There's only one
way of salvation. There's only one righteousness.
There's only one blood that makes atonement for the soul. There's
only one sacrifice. There's only one. There's only
one. Now, what's going to be the end?
What's going to become of unbelievers seeing they have no Savior since
there's just one and they've rejected Him and despised Him?
You say, now, what's going to become of them? There's not many ways to God.
There's only one. The Lord Jesus Christ. And if
they reject Him, there's no hope. There's no hope. Not at all. And then to close,
let those who suffer according to the will of God. We should
take comfort in that. We're suffering according to
the will of God. Here's what here's what we are
to do when these things happen, when they come, you know, sometimes
we're at ease. Things are going along fine.
And then something happens. Unexpected. Something comes up
on us. Unexpected. You see, here's what
you do. You commit the keeping of your
soul. You commit the keeping of their
soul to Him in well-doing. You commit it to Him. Lord, keep
me from falling. Keep me from bringing reproach
on Your name. Keep me from being an embarrassment
to the family. Lord, You keep me. There's never
a time we keep ourselves. Never. Lord, You keep. You keep me. You keep it. If
You keep it, it'll be safe. If You keep me in well-being,
it'll be well. It will be well. You commit the
keeping of their souls to Him and well-doing as unto a faithful
Creator. First of all, God is faithful.
And all you have to do is look at creation. The sun came up
again this morning, didn't it? How many thousands and thousands
and thousands and thousands of times has it done that? In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all the things
that He's created. And you and I, thousands of years
later, are getting to enjoy God's creation. Even though sin's in
it, we still enjoy it. God keeps it going. It's God
who keeps it going. Let's commit, he says, all things
to Him as unto a faithful Creator. He who created all things has
created us new in Christ. Now let's commit. Let's commit
the keeping of our souls in well-doing. In well-doing. Not just commit
the keeping of it when we get there, but now. To commit the
keeping of our souls and well-doing even though we go through these
things. Our conduct, our attitude. Lord, you keep me. You keep me. All right, that's the lesson.