Alright, turn with me now to
1 Peter chapter 4. We're going to start with verse
15, and I hope to work my way through the end of the chapter
this morning. We've been looking at the sufferings for Christ's
sake, the believer's sufferings. And of course, our Lord is the
pattern for those sufferings, and He's the reason for those
sufferings. But I titled the lesson this morning, and here
Peter's going to, he's been working on this all the way through this
chapter, and he's going to set out before us the prime motivation. He's going to give us the reason
to be patient in these sufferings and the reason to bear these
sufferings for Christ's sake. So I titled the lesson this morning,
The Faithful Keeper. Let's start here in verse 15. 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 matters." Now, throughout the chapter, Peter's
been talking to the church about godly suffering. And he's given
us examples of it. And he's given us a clear definition
of it. He's told us that God has appointed
it and arranged it in His providence for our good and His glory. But here in verse 15, Peter draws
a distinction in sufferings. There's all kinds of sufferings
in this world, and some of these sufferings are not for the glory
of God. Some of these, just because a
man suffers, he can't say, well, I suffered for the grace of God. He might be suffering because
of his own sins and faults. But Peter draws a distinction
between these godly sufferings and ungodly sufferings. He says
this. He said, let none of you suffer
as a murderer. Now, I think everybody in here,
including the children, know what murder is. They know what
it is. Under the law of God, to murder
is to take another man's life. It's to shoot him, to stab him,
to poison him, to take another man's life. That's murder. He's a manslayer. He's a killer.
For wicked reasons, he takes another man's life. But the spiritual
definition of murder goes a little further than that. He said to
be angry at your brother is to be guilty of murder. One of our brethren in the church
says something to us, and we get upset, so we just shut him
off. We just cut him off. We won't
talk to him. We won't shake his hand. We won't discuss it. We don't want to be reconciled. We just cut him off. You murdered
the man is what you did. You murdered him spiritually. It goes a little further than
just taking a man's life. So when he says, let none of
you suffer as a murderer, a man who hates others and tries to
destroy their character by gossip and slander, he's a murderer.
And he'll suffer for it. He'll suffer for it. And Peter said, you be sure none
of you suffer as a murderer. And then he says this, let none
of you suffer as a thief. robbing men of their wages, robbing
men of the love that you're commanded to have for them, or of the gospel
of which we're stewards. Let none of you suffer as an
evildoer, he says, a lawbreaker, a man with no respect for the
law or justice. And then he says this, let none
of you suffer as a busybody in other men's matters. Now, one
version, in particular because Peter's writing this letter to
the church. He's not writing this thing to
a bunch of men to a union meeting or something. He's writing this
letter to the church. And he's talking to them about
problems that's going to arise in the church. And he says, let
none of you suffer as a busybody in other men's matters. One version
renders this like this, as an inspector of another man's matters. And then another version reads
like this, to spy upon other people's business. Put your nose
where it don't belong. And then John Gill wrote this. This is the first thing he had
to say about this verse of scripture. He said, as a bishop, in another
man's diocese. That is, a pastor of another
church somewhere comes in here and as a busybody spies on me
and talks about my work and begins to talk to my people about what
they need to do. And, you know, he's really, he's
gone wrong here. He's gone south here and he starts
butting his nose into another man's matter. So Gill makes that
application to it. And these things are forbidden. They're not to be tolerated in
the church without correction and reproof. And then he tells
us here in verse 16, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, if
he suffers as a Christian, that is he suffers for the gospel's
sake, He suffers because of his testimony to men. He suffers
for his identification with the church. If any man suffer as
a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this
account. We need not be ashamed if we
suffer as a Christian. If we suffer for Christ's sake,
if we suffer for the sake of the gospel, You know, folks,
they come and hear and then they leave. And I know why. They've been raised in religion
and raised in ignorance and lies and deception, but they come
and they hear one time and they leave. And then when they leave,
they just, they can't really find anything wrong with what
you said as far as the scriptures, but it's not right compared to
what they think and what they've been taught and what this man
says or some other man says. And so you suffer persecution
because of it. We suffer for the gospel's sake.
And we suffer because of our identification. Somebody comes
here and gets upset with me, and they find out later on that's
where you belong, that's where you go to church. Well, man,
they just turn that immediately on you because of your identification
with what's being taught here and what's being said. And then
by your own testimony, when you tell men how God saved, when
I tell men how God saved this sinner, they get offended. They get offended. They despise the sovereignty
of God in salvation. They despise the gospel. They
despise the Word of God. Now, here's the first thing.
They despise the Word of God. This is why they're offended.
They despise the Word of God. Do you know the scripture said
that the carnal mind is enmity against God and it's not subject
to the law of God? And that word law is rendered
word often in the scriptures. Because every word that God's
written is law, is it not? Because of who wrote it. It's
law. It's the commandment of God that
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the commandment
of God that He now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
He doesn't ask men to repent. He commands it. And the carnal
mind is enmity against that. He's enmity against God. And
he finds that enmity in the Word of God. And he finds that enmity
against the gospel of Christ, which is the message and theme
of the Word of God. And thirdly, they despise the
sovereignty of God in salvation. Paul said he was writing there
in Romans chapter 9, and he was stating the sovereignty of God
so clearly in Romans chapter 9. And then he pauses, and he
said, now, Here's what you're going to say to me. You reckon
he ever heard that before? Well, sure he did. That's why
he said that. Thou wilt say unto me, then, why doth he yet find
fault for who hath resisted his will? Now, he said, I'm going
to ask you a question. You questioned the sovereignty
of God. Let me ask you a question. Who art thou that replies against
God? Huh? God has and exercises his sovereignty
in the salvation of sinners, and natural men despise it. And then fourthly, the natural
man hates the grace of God. The only way a natural man will
attempt to reconcile himself with God is by something you
give him to do. If you don't give him something
to do, he'll be gone in a little while. He'll be gone. I don't
care how ridiculous it is. He'll do it if you give him something
to do. Give him a part. But he ain't
going to submit himself to salvation by grace. And a man or a woman that believes
these things and confesses these things and lives this way, lives
according to what he believes, he's going to suffer persecution.
He will suffer persecution. And as he suffers, He is to recognize
his suffering as godly suffering and then glorify God in the suffering. 1 Peter 4, 17. For the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us,
what shall the end of them be that obey not the gospel? The time has come that the judgment
must begin at the house of God. What judgment? What in the world
is he talking about in this verse of Scripture? He's talking about
sufferings and he's talking about you glorifying God in your sufferings. He's talking about these sufferings
being a trial, sin of God to prove your faith. And now he
said judgment has to begin at the house of God. What in the
world is he talking about? How does that fit into this? Well, he's not talking here about
a judgment of sin. Our sins were laid on our substitute
who bore our sins and his own body on the tree, delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. When Christ
cried, it's finished, he was talking about that great work
of redemption and forgiveness of sins for which he came into
this world to accomplish. He was delivered and then raised. And then he tells us this in
Romans 8 verse 1, there he is, therefore now, right now, to
the believer, no condemnation. No condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit. And then he talks here about
the household of God. That's the elect of God. And
the word judgment here has to do with trying and proving the
love and faith of his house. Now that's what he's talking
about here when he said this judgment must begin at the house
of God. He's going to put your faith
on trial. And here's the amazing thing
about the grace of God. In the trial of this faith, He's
going to justify that faith because He's given you that faith and
He's going to maintain that faith and He's going to prove His work
in you. He's going to prove this work
of grace which He does in you. He's going to prove it. God's people will be proven beyond
all doubt to be His people. Now, if that work begin with
us, what shall the end of them be that obey not the gospel? Those who are exposed by trials,
who are offended and leave, those who suffer and give in, what
shall their end be? What shall be the end of the
man who doesn't go through the trial? Who's exposed in the trial? whose unbelief is brought into
light. And you could go through a long
list of men that at one time were considered to be fellow
laborers with the children of God, with Paul and these great
men of God. And then he says in verse 18,
and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? Now, the New American Standard
Version reads this verse like this. And if it is with difficulty
that the righteous be saved, what will become of the godless
man and the sinner? There were and are difficulties. that have been and must be dealt
with in the salvation of sinners. Here's the difficulty. First
of all is the character of God. You see, religion has the, they
present the possibility. They do it in infinite ways,
but they, what it all boils down to is this. They assume that
man has the potential. to reconcile himself with God. He has the potential to believe.
He has the potential to repent. He has the potential to live
according to the law of God. He has the potential to produce
a righteousness. If they didn't believe that man
has a potential to do these things, they wouldn't set the law before
him and command him to do them. But these things are done by
religion because they're ignorant of the true character of God. The nature and character of God,
God is known by his perfections of character and his attributes
are often interchanged with the word perfections. The perfections
of God, his holiness, his justice, his righteousness, all these
things. And actually, the word holiness in the Scriptures has
to do with the wholeness of God's character. God cannot follow
after one segment of His character at the expense of another. They've
got God as all love, all love, but not as just, not as just. My sister told me one time, she
said, I just don't think a good God, a loving God, would send
anybody to hell. And I said, he wouldn't. But
a just God will. A holy God will. Let me give you an example. Scripture
said God is love. But God's love cannot be actively
engaged at the expense of his righteousness and justice. Cannot
be. God is merciful, but He cannot
show mercy at the expense of His justice or His righteousness.
And all God's acts are holy. That means they are all in full
harmony with His character, with the wholeness of God. You just
keep that word in your mind. That's what holiness is, the
whole character of God. And everything God does is in
harmony with the wholeness of His character. To save sinners,
the sinner must be made perfectly righteous. Somebody said, well, you do the
best you can, and that'll be all right with God. It'll be
all right with you, but it ain't going to be all right with God.
That's all right with man. Do the best you can. Do the best
you can. After all, that's all you can
do. Yes, it is all you can do. That's why you can't save yourself. To save sinners, the sinner must
be made perfectly righteous before God. God must examine him with
pure eyes. We can't even conceive of such
a thing. God must examine him with pure
eyes, eyes that see his thoughts, that know the intents of his
heart, and find him without fault or blemish. To save sinners,
God's justice must be fully satisfied. By way of our union with Christ,
we have all suffered a perfect death in a perfect sacrifice. And through Him, we've satisfied
the perfect justice of God. Listen to what Paul says. He
said, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body
of His flesh through death. to present you, not to present
himself, to present you, unblameable, unreprovable, spotless in the
presence of his glory. That's what it takes to be saved.
You see what I'm saying? There's difficulty here. Salvation ain't up here on the
shelf and you go get it and get a drink, now you're saved. You
come down front and repeat some word, now you're saved. You're
not near about saved. Salvation is a work accomplished
in Christ. It's impossible for men. God said, when thou shalt make
His soul his soul in offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. And he'll see the travail of
his soul, and then he'll be satisfied. If the righteous be saved with
difficulty. Think about this. For men to
receive the grace of God in Christ, He must be born of God. It's
not something he can do. There are difficulties involved
in this thing. My soul, if I thought every man
had the potential for me to sit down and tell him these things
and for him to believe, I'd buttonhole everybody that come into church.
I'd get them up in a corner somewhere, and I'd buttonhole them, and
I'd tell them these things, and I'd walk away assured that they're
going to believe. But I know there's more to it
than that. There's a difficulty involved. This man has no ability. He has no ability. I don't care
how good your illustrations are. I don't care how good your teaching
is. I don't care how many points you have and how they build up.
And every believer around will say, boy, that was so simple
and so easy even a child could understand. Yeah, up here. But
to be saved, you got to understand here. He must be born of God. He must
be brought to the place that he's ready to turn. Turn from his love of sin and
self, and turn from the world and all of its glitter, and turn
from the ways and philosophies of men. Turn from his idols,
Paul says. I know your election. You turn
from your idols, and you turn to the true and living God. Man must be brought to faith
in God. He must discover that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. God was in Christ. Peter said, Christ was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these
last times for you. Now listen, who by him do believe
in God. that raised him from the dead
and gave him glory, that your faith and your hope might be
in God. And this birth, this repentance
and this faith is the work of God in you, utterly impossible
for any man to do by themselves. This is a work accomplished by
God, a work of His grace. And then this man who's born
of God and led to repentance and given the gift of faith,
he'll be at odds with himself. He's at odds with himself. David
said, I hate myself. You ever been there? I hate myself. He's at odds with himself. He's
at odds with this world. And he's at odds with the religion
of this world. suffering persecution from the
world, great and small, and he's going to suffer it all the days
of his life. It is with difficulty that the
righteous is saved. Now, if that be so, if that be
so, what will become of the godless man? Huh? What's going to become of
the man that God don't intervene for him. He doesn't intervene
in his life. He doesn't open his heart. He
doesn't prepare his heart, his mind. He don't send him a preacher. What's going to happen with the
godless man? What's his end going to be? What's going to be the end of
the sinner? What will become of those who
have no redeemer, no substitute, no mediator, no high priest,
no representative? What will become of those who
ignore the gospel as though it was some kind of distasteful
food? You ever go to a, I don't know if you'd call it
a party, You go where some people are gathered, and they've prepared
some food, and you see some stuff there, but you've never had it
before, and you get a little spoonful of it and get it in
your mouth, but oh, as soon as it goes in there, don't go trying
to get it out some way. Get it out of your mouth. You
don't go, this ain't something you're going to swallow. That's
the way the gospel is at some point. What's going to be therein? Well, I'll tell you what Scripture
said. He that believeth not the Son shall not see light, but
the wrath of God abideth on him. He that believeth not, he said,
shall be damned. And he said, for this cause shall
God send them strong delusion. They wouldn't receive the love
of God that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie and
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but
have pleasure in unrighteousness. Where shall the ungodly and the
sinner appear? He'll find himself among those
of like-mindedness. That's where you're going to
find him. He'll find himself among those who are deceived,
just like he is. He'll find himself walking the
course of this world, the broad road that leadeth to destruction.
He'll have plenty of company. He'll find himself accepted,
loved, and honored by this ungodly, wicked world. And in that awful
day, he'll hear the king and the judge of this world say,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Verse 19, 1 Peter chapter 4. 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. Now, salvation
is of the Lord. If salvation is the gift of God's
grace, And if salvation is for the glory of God, then let me,
as much as in me is, commit the keeping of my soul to him, who's
my faithful creator. Not just the creator of me in
the sense that he took dust in his hand and formed man, and
that I'm the seed of my father Adam. Not just that kind of creation,
but if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Now let
me commit my soul to Him as my faithful Creator. The Creator
of this new man in me, let me commit my soul to His keeping. Listen to this over in 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 12. For the which cause, that is
the cause of the purpose of God and the gospel of Christ and
the salvation of God's elect, For the witch cause I also suffer
these things. What did he suffer? Slander,
imprisonment, beatings, defamation of character. I suffer these
things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. Why, Paul? For I know whom I
have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that. which I committed unto Him against
that day." What did you commit to Him? Everything. Everything. But in particular, the keeping
of myself. You see what Peter is saying? Commit the keeping of your souls
to Him as unto a faithful Creator. And then Paul told the Philippians
this. He said, I'm confident in this
very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will
perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So commit the keeping
of your soul unto him, especially when you're suffering for the
glory of God, that you be not found in the same lot as the
rest of this world.