I want to read a verse for you
from 1 Peter chapter 4, just one verse at the moment, because
I want to draw your attention to the last verse of chapter
4. The last verse of chapter 4. Here we read verse 19, 1 Peter
chapter 4 and verse 19. 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. The Lord Jesus Christ has a people
in this world. Let us realize and remember that
the Lord Jesus Christ has a people in this world. Not everyone in
this world is the Lord's people. The Lord has a people. Sometimes
in Scripture we talk about the wheat and the tares. Sometimes
we speak about the sheep and the goats. Sometimes we speak
about the lost and the found. There is a distinction, there
is a difference amongst men because the Lord has a people in this
world. And these people are being gathered
to him through the preaching of the gospel, through occasions
like this. These people were chosen by God
the Father way before the world was ever created. In the eternal
covenant of peace, God the Father, in eternal election, chose a
people for himself. upon no other ground than His
distinct love for them, His particular love for them. And He caused that people to
be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ as the Saviour came into
this world and went to the cross. And that people are being gathered
by God, the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel,
as we have said. They are a people who, despite
their own nature, are called to great and glorious things. the things of God and the things
of Christ, the things of salvation and the things of grace, the
experience of mercy and a knowledge of their sins forgiven by the
shed blood of a substitute and a saviour. All this is true. All this has
scriptural warrant and a Bible basis. but there is something
else which is also true, and that is that this people, chosen
of God, redeemed by Christ, called into salvation by God the Holy
Spirit, also suffer hardship in this life. That is also true. They experience trials. And we've
seen something of that in this fourth chapter of 1 Peter, how
that Peter speaks about a fiery trial that these people must
experience. A people of whom it is said by
the Apostle Paul in Acts 14 and verse 22, that we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Friends,
that's you and me this morning that he's talking about. If we
are going to enter into the kingdom of God, if we are going to be
brought into that experience of grace, it will be through
much tribulation. God doesn't save us in this world
and then give us an easy passage. No, if he is going to save us,
he is going to win us from the love of this world, and he is
going to cause us to see the contrariness of this world, and
he is going to set us at odds with this world, and he is going
to cause this world to become repulsive to us. We must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Do you know
when Paul said that? Do you know the circumstances
in which Paul made that statement? He was at Lystra, a town called
Lystra, and he had just been stoned. Let me say this, Paul
had just been stoned to death. That was what his persecutors
thought. They stoned him And they dragged
his body through the streets of Lystra, stoned. And they dumped him outside.
And they walked away. Now, was he dead? He stood up. The Lord gave him
his life. The Lord brought him back to
health and strength. And the next day he left Lystra
and went on, continued preaching. I wonder how disappointed those
men, those Jews were, when they realized that there they had
Saul of Tarsus, that man that they had once called a friend
and a brother in their Jewish religion, but now called a foe
and an enemy and tried to kill. And Paul went into the next city
and there he said to the saints, I don't know whether he was still
sporting bruises and cuts, there he said to the brethren that
we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. The fiery trial that Peter speaks
about here in verse 12 is an example of that tribulation
that the Lord's people must face. He says, Beloved, think it not
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened unto you. And throughout the
history of the church, God's people have known sorrow. And so it is that Peter has concluded
this passage where he speaks about the hardship and the trial
and the sorrow with a beautiful little phrase. He says, commit
the keeping of your soul to Christ. Whatever it is that you've got
to suffer, whatever it is that you've got to undergo, whatever
it is you've got to experience in this world, Do so committing
the keeping of your soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful
phrase and I'm sure that it has been adopted by those who have
from time to time been cast upon particularly dangerous and hazardous
experiences. And it may well be that Peter
has drawn the phrase from his own knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, hearing something of the Lord as he hung upon the
cross. And the Lord Jesus Christ there
said, Father, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. The great similarity there to
what Peter enjoins to the believers. committing our souls, commit
the keeping of our souls to Christ. And I think that knowing something
of these circumstances does help the believer to face the challenges
of our day. It steels us to boldness and
to confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ has all things under his
control and that he is safeguarding our souls as a priority. Can you think of all the things
that the Lord Jesus Christ has to be involved with in this world? All of the things that clamor
for his attention. Speaking as a man. And yet he keeps the safeguarding
of his people's souls close to his heart. He cares for us. He cares for us more than we
care for our children. And we care for our children.
We love those who are close to us. We love our parents. We love our friends. And yet
Christ is closer to us than a brother. And he promises that he will
never leave us and he will never forsake us. He has saved us and
he will keep us and he will never lose us. And he calls on us to
believe him. He said that and he says, now,
will you believe that? I think I've mentioned before
the words of Edith Cherry's hymn, lovely. They were sung once in
a set of circumstances where some young men were getting ready
to go and go into a very dangerous situation. And they got together
and they sang these words. We rest on thee, our shield and
our defender. We go not forth alone against
the foe. Strong in thy strength, safe
in thy keeping, tender We rest on thee, and in thy name we go. Oh, the Lord would give us faith
to begin every day with those words upon our lips. We rest
on thee, and in thy name we go. So we have seen that to be a
believer does not mean that we will have an easy life. Nor does it mean that we will
have an easy death, but it does mean that the Lord Jesus Christ
is looking after our souls and the well-being of our souls is
his priority and is at the very heart of the Saviour's love towards
us. Who will dare touch one of the
Lord's people in this world? Who dares to go against one of
his church, one of his little ones? There's a lovely little
verse in Zechariah chapter two, verse eight, it says this. He
that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. Conrad, see if anyone touches
you. They touch the apple of the Lord's
eye, such is his affection for you. Do you know what the apple
of your eye is? That bit right in the middle. Don't touch it. Don't touch it,
because it will not do your eye any good. Nobody likes getting
their eye touched. The Lord Jesus Christ holds us
with such love and our wellbeing in such affection that anybody
who touches us touches the apple. They touched that little girl,
didn't they, that they took into Syria. They were touching one
of the apple of the Lord's eyes. And hence that little girl was
looked after all the days of her life by the Lord, even in
that far off country of Syria. Turn with me to Acts chapter
7 please. I want to read some verses from
Acts chapter 7. Verse 49 is what I have in mind. There's a man called Stephen.
He's called the first martyr of the Christian church. Be that
as it may, here he is standing before his enemies, standing
before the Jews, standing before people who are getting ready
to condemn him and to slay him. And he wasn't cowed. Here's a
man for whom Edith Cherry's words might have been his own prayer. Strong in thy strength, safe
in thy keeping tender, we rest on thee, and in thy strength
we go. Verse 49 says, Heaven is my throne,
saith the Lord, and the earth is my footstool. What house will
ye build me, saith the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hands made all these
things? And Stephen turns to his enemies
and he says, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did,
so do ye. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, the Lord Jesus,
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God. Where was the Saviour? Standing
on the right hand of God. Standing, watching what was happening. And he said, behold, I see the
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand
of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord
and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
standing at the throne of God to welcome his child home to
glory. It's a beautiful, beautiful passage. Saul, He was stoned and came
back to life. Stephen was stoned and he was
taken into the presence of his saviour instantaneously. You see, whether this fiery trial
costs us our life or not, These things are sent to the Church
of Christ throughout the history and to individuals within the
Church of Christ so that we shall commit the well-being of our
souls to Christ for life and for death, trusting in Him. And if we do it for death, Ought
we not more so to do it in life? Is he not an able and a worthy
helper of his people? I say, yes, he is. I say with
Peter, brothers and sisters, day by day, trial by trial, commit
the keeping of your soul to Christ. Could there be a safer place
to put it? For the remainder of our time
this morning, I want to consider why that's a wise strategy. Why Peter calls the Lord Jesus
Christ in this verse, a faithful creator. I don't know whether
you've ever noticed that name of the Lord that's given to him
here at the end of the chapter. Christ is the faithful creator. And that's not to deny that the
Father and the Holy Spirit were involved in the works or are
involved in the works of creation. But this is the only time in
scripture that this word for creator is actually used. And it has to do with the founding
or the authorship And the Lord Jesus Christ takes that foundational
role to himself in the establishment and for the salvation of his
church. And I believe that this lovely
title of Christ ought to rejoice our hearts because it is to him
that we are committing the keeping of our souls. Why is he called
by Peter, the faithful creator? Why is he not just called the
faithful one? Why is the word creator used? And if he's going
to be called the creator, why is he called the faithful creator?
What is it that is for us to learn and understand in the bringing
together of these two thoughts? Well, I think that this is one
thing anyway. He is the faithful creator of
this world and we see the hand of God in the creation of the
things around about us. John in his gospel said, all
things were made by him and without him was not anything made that
was made. We're speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Him in whom we live and dwell and have our being. And
the magnitude of that verse, it ought to equip the Lord's
people for anything, for any eventuality. Without Him was
not anything made that was made. The Lord Jesus Christ put everything
around about us that we see in this world, and it is all controlled
by Him. We should have great confidence
as we commit the wellbeing or the safekeeping of our souls
into his hand. And I think perhaps the problem
is very often that we cannot conceive of the infiniteness,
the limitlessness of Christ's power. And therefore it stumbles
us in our thinking. We have such a one. to whom we
can turn from the smallest subatomic particle to the outskirts of
the edges of the universe. Our Lord reigns and everything
is His. But Creator would have served
the purpose If Peter had just said, we're committing the safekeeping,
the safeguarding of our souls into the keeping of the creator,
that would have served the purpose. Why faithful creator? Because when the Lord Jesus Christ
made this world, he was being faithful. Think about that. When the Lord Jesus Christ made
this world, he was being faithful. It wasn't a random event. It was according to a plan. He was doing the creating purposefully
in order to accomplish something. He was fulfilling the outworking
of a plan. The plan of God's covenant. Do you know when the Lord Jesus
Christ created oxygen, he was creating it so that he would
breathe it? When the Lord Jesus Christ created
water, it was so that he would be baptised in it. Men and our bodies, are created
after the image of the body that was already prepared for the
Lord Jesus Christ. It had been prepared by His Father
and we are made in the likeness of Him. And when He planted that garden
in Eden, And when he created the trees that would populate
it, he was supplying the wood upon which he would ultimately
be crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ made the
world in order to accomplish his purpose. His purpose of redemption
and everything that is in this world is designed to that end. the salvation of his people,
the gathering in of his church. We are that important to him
who loves us. Our Lord was being faithful in
creation to his covenant obligations. Just as surely as he was when
he came into this world as a little baby, when he suffered at the
hands of wicked men, and when he died in our place on the cross. He was faithful in coming, he
was faithful in suffering, he was faithful in dying, and he
was faithful in creating the stage upon which all of these
things would transpire. So he's a faithful creator. as
far as the creation is concerned of this world. He's also a faithful
creator because he makes a new creation. Did you know that God's
creative work is still ongoing? He creates new men and new women
all the time. Not physically, but he takes
those who are in this world and he makes them a new creation
through the preaching of the gospel. He makes spiritual men
and women out of those who are naturally bound in their flesh
and in their sins. He makes a new creation when
he causes one and another to be born again. to be created
in Christ Jesus. So 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17,
we read, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new. A new
creature, when we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
4, 24, the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. That new man is created, is formed
like the Lord Jesus Christ in righteousness and true holiness,
the new man. In Colossians 3.10, renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him, which of course is the very purposed
intent of God from all eternity. because we're told in Romans
chapter eight and verse 29 that we are predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is our faithful creator. when he fulfils all his promises
and accomplishes all the purposes of God for his people in salvation. Working out that plan of redemption,
raising up a people for himself, a holy people, a righteous people,
a people fit for his presence, because they are made like unto
him. And that people are being created
every day. They're being created when the
gospel goes out, when men and women are challenged by that
word, when the Holy Spirit opens eyes, opens ears, quickens spirits,
causes men and women to believe the truth. That is a new creation. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who instigates and accomplishes and brings that new creation
to himself. And he is faithful in doing so. That's why Peter called him a
faithful creator. And he is faithful as the creator
of the new heavens and the new earth. In Revelation 3, verse
14, we read, These things saith the Amen. the faithful and true
witness, the beginning of the creation of God. That Amen in there is a name
for the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if you realize that
every time we say Amen, we're saying, Christ, let it be so. Let it be so, Lord. You have
the power to do it. You have the power to accomplish
all these things. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
that we are looking to. Look at Revelation chapter 21
with me, please, for a moment. Just turn with me in your scriptures
to Revelation chapter 21. I want to read a couple of verses
to you. This is what the church of God
has to look forward to. This is what the people of God
are anticipating every day. When we commit the safe keeping
of our souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are committing them
to a faithful creator. Revelation chapter 21, look at
verse one. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men. and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. our faithful creator. And he said unto me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. No more tears. Comfort, comfort to help us bear
those fiery trials that fall to us in this life. And our Saviour
told His disciples as He was getting ready to go to the cross,
I go to prepare a place for you. And He was speaking about mansions
that He was going to prepare to take His people to. He says,
in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so,
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto Myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. Paul says in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 9, as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. And if somebody tells
me that that's about the gospel age and the revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ to the church in the gospel age, I will say,
amen. it's not limited to that because
there is a whole eternity of wonder and splendour which I
hath not yet seen nor ear heard of and it is being prepared for
us by our faithful creator. There is much that we do not
know about what lies ahead of us as far as our lives are concerned. We don't know what a day holds
but we know who holds the day. We know who holds the future
and he has described himself as the one who is faithful and
true. He says to John in Revelation
21 verse 5, we've just read it, write for these words are true
and faithful. And that's, friends, if only
we could lay hold upon these things by faith, the truth and
that which is faithful for our souls. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one to whom we are to turn and to whom we are to come. We are
bound by time. But we can already testify of
what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. And we can
have faith for those things which are yet to be revealed. and we trust him for all that
is to come. Such is our faithful creator. May these things be an encouragement
to our hearts and a blessing to our souls. Amen.