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We find ourselves again in First Peter chapter four this morning, First Peter chapter four verses 12 through 19, as we learn some more about the proper perspectives that suffering saints must have in order to endure persecution. First Peter, chapter four, beginning with verse 12.

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

"but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

"If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

"By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer or thief or evil doer or a troublesome meddler;

"but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

"And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?

"Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right."

Over the years, I have had opportunity to counsel many hundreds of people that are in various forms of ministry, people that are distressed because they're struggling financially, or they're lonely, or they're laboring in some very difficult place where there's persecution. Certainly, their message is offensive. They must endure never-ending criticism from unbelievers and believers as well, and many times they just want to give up. There are also people in the laity, many of you that take a stand for Christ, maybe in the workplace, and because of that you suffer all manner of indignities, and you're perceived as kind of the skunk in the office place or the work environment, and because of the animosity and the criticism, sometimes you may lose friendships or maybe even an advancement in your career, you might lose your job altogether. So, what do you do?

Well, there are many options that people can choose. One would be what I call the chameleon strategy. That's where you just try to blend into every situation. You camouflage yourself with compromise, so that nobody will know that you're a Christian. You avoid certain conversations when they do come up. You change the subject very quickly, because you don't want anybody to be offended, and you certainly want to guard yourself.

Well, there's another strategy that some will use, and that's the carnal strategy - carnal being fleshly. This is where you just join the world, after all, the grace covers it all. What's the big deal? I'll be a Christian on Sunday morning, but I'll live like the world the rest of the week. After all, my good outweighs my bad.

And then there's the crusader strategy, you know, the militant type, the in-your-face Christian, the go-ahead and make my day type of Christian, the type that are involved in all of the social and political activism, their marching and waving banners, and all of these types of things, but friends, I would suggest to you that none of those are the right type of strategy.

There is a Christ-like strategy that we want to investigate again this morning. Let me give you some context here once again. Christians of that day were facing mounting persecution because of their faith, because they were suffering due to their obedient, godly living, and they were hated because the gospel message exposed the sinfulness of man and their culture and the holiness of God, and obviously the same is true today. It exposed man's pride and the futility of self-righteousness, and frankly, the absurdity of all of the religious systems that were out there, and to tell people that Jesus was the only way was horribly offensive to the people of the first century, as it is today. The message of the cross was equally offensive. First Corinthians 1:22 we read that the, "Jews asked for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;" but Paul said, "...we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness."

Indeed, the Jews of that day, they wanted another sign, they wanted a supernatural miracle, they wanted to be wowed with something sensational; impress us with the paranormal, intrigue us somehow with the mystical, and yet they missed the greatest miracle of all of all, that God became man, that he was born of a virgin, and he died on a cross as their substitute, and then was resurrected the third day.

The Greeks wanted wisdom. Let's debate this frankly for our own entertainment, let's look at all the varying philosophies. Let's depend upon human reasoning, not divine revelation, and in so doing, we will have an opportunity to make fools of all of you Christians and debunk this ridiculous notion that Jesus is God. Well, again, things haven't changed much today, and many places we see that people still prefer signs and wonders over the exposition of the word of God. We see that people want to hear a prophet, not a preacher. People prefer ecstatic gibberish over exegetical commentary; people love sensationalism and mysticism more than objective truth. Just ask a promoter, which he would rather have: three days with Benny Hinn or three days with a faithful Bible expositor? Which one do you think will pack out the stadium?

Other people were like the Greeks, they still prefer philosophers and psychologists rather than theologians, especially those that believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient word of the living God. So, the people of the first century, like people today, resented the message of the gospel, and they despised Christians. The Jews and the Gentiles hated each other, but now the Christians were coming along and converting different ones to Christianity, and those people were leaving their families, at least the religion of their families, for this new religion, and that would disrupt families, and it was causing all kinds of problems. They were defensive because Christians considered their religion obsolete, if not blasphemous. And there was already plenty of hatred to go around between the Jews and the Gentiles. They hated each other as it was, but now Christianity comes along, and it was considered, frankly, just a new extremist faction of Judaism. And it's fascinating to see how antisemitism has been around from the beginning, and it's gaining momentum.

It's interesting, isn't it? As you think of the United States, we were founded upon the Judeo-Christian ethic, but now we are seeing that constantly attacked by the liberal left of secular humanism and the jihadists of Islam, and so on. Well, in the first century, at the time that Peter was writing this, the political spin machine was in high gear. Many were saying that Christians were like cannibals because they eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of Christ every time they celebrate the Lord's supper. They also would say that they were immoral, that they got together for orgies because they would greet each other with a holy kiss. They also would claim that they were insurrectionists, because these people are bowing down to King Jesus, and they say that they're not even citizens of this kingdom. And by the time Peter wrote this epistle to the saints that were scattered abroad, being persecuted in Asia Minor, which, by the way, is now Turkey, the animosity against Christians was inexorably moving toward genocide. The barbaric and insane Emperor Nero had a political agenda, and he used the hatred of Christians to his advantage. Because of his insatiable appetite to build, he burnt Rome in AD 64, which was right at the time Peter wrote this epistle, and obviously he blamed it all on the Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus said that Christians were blamed not only for the burning of Rome, but for their hatred of the human race; and as you may recall, they made great sport of Christians being tortured, they were fiendish tortures, things like sowing them into the hides of bloody animals and feeding them to wild dogs. There were 1000s of Christians that were crucified soon after the writing of this particular epistle. Many would be dipped in wax and then lit a fire burned alive to illumine Nero's Hippodrome, which was his personal racetrack, and he would run through the burning Christians madly in his chariots.

Well, it was in this context that Peter and Paul and many others were eventually martyred, and it was on the precipice of this inconceivable era of suffering that they penned their epistles as things worsened. By the fourth century the Emperor Diocletian tried to utterly destroy Christianity until Constantine came along and rescued it in AD 313 even though there were many heresies that he brought in with it. But soon after Constantine, during the Middle Ages, the church became so deceived by so many false teachers that it lost its ability to discern, which I would submit to you as the same place that we have today; and an apostate church began to evolve into a well-organized and politically powerful machine called the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church then took up the satanic banner of destroying the gospel of Christ, and it still exists today.

Today we know that millions of Christians are tortured and killed every year. It continues to mount. It's rather mild in the United States, but it is certainly mounting in Europe, and especially in communist and Islamic governments. According to the Voice of the Martyrs, there are 200 million that will be severely persecuted this year around the world. 200 million and 160,000 Christians will be killed this year. Friends, that's 44 brothers and sisters in Christ, just like us. That's almost one person every 30 minutes. In the course of the time that you have spent here worshiping the Lord together, approximately four of our brothers and sisters will be killed because they believe exactly what we believe.

But God has not left us defenseless. The word of God is living, and it is powerful. It is the power of God unto salvation. In Psalm 19, we know that it's the word of God that restores the soul, it makes wise the simple, it brings rejoicing to the heart, it enlightens the eyes. It endures forever. It is righteous altogether. And so, friends, don't think for one second that somehow we are without divine weaponry. The Holy Spirit also dwells within each of us and equips us as His own to be His servants, and Peter has reminded us in verse 10 that each one has received a special gift; and I mentioned to you last week that we have speaking gifts and we have serving gifts, and the purpose of that is to edify the church and evangelize the lost.

Indeed, later on in Second Peter 1:3, he tells us that, "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence." Indeed, as John says in First John 4:4, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." a reference to the power of the Spirit of God that helps us discern truth from error, so that we can understand the dangers of false teachers. And because of the combination of the word of God that we've been given and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, who authored that word, because He resides in us, my friends, we do not need philosophers to help us understand how to live. We do not need psychologists or therapists or rehab centers or the wisdom of man to somehow give a self-help book, so that we can survive this thing called life. Nor do we need other religious fanatics who would try to convince us that somehow God is speaking directly to them. Indeed, we have the word of God, and we have its author living within us. And for this reason now the Holy Spirit continues to equip all in whom he dwells with even more crucial information necessary to help these dear people of that day, and frankly, of all of us to somehow endure the inevitable sufferings that they might face.

So, in verses 12 through 19, he instructs us through his apostle Peter concerning four spiritual perspectives that we must have in order to be able to persevere in times of severe testing. Let me give them to you. And then I have a few more remarks that I want to make. And these four perspectives that we must have: number one, we need to anticipate persecution. Anticipate persecution. Secondly, we must persist in rejoicing. Thirdly, we must suffer in righteousness, and fourthly, we must trust in God's purpose and power.

Now, some more remarks that will help you understand some of the context and also elaborate on some of the things that I didn't have time to finish the last time we were together. It's fascinating to me to look and see the enormous love that Peter has for his brothers and sisters during this time, and we see this because of the repeated doctrinal themes that provide deep encouragement to the suffering saints. And by the way, this should be a model for all of us when we are called upon to minister to people that are suffering. We need to be able to help them understand doctrinal truth about the nature of their salvation and the hope that they have in Christ, because you will find that that, and that alone, will bring comfort to the soul of someone who is struggling; remind people of all that they are in Christ, because frankly, Bible doctrine is the Gibraltar upon which we stand in times of persecution.

So, as I think about this, you will recall how he has repeated a number of these themes. In fact, some of you might be thinking, my, it's almost as though he is going over the same thing. Well, at some level he is, but he continues to expand as these themes overlap. For example, he reminded them in chapter one, verses one and two, that they must remember that they are chosen, sanctified, sealed, and blessed. In verses three and five, he reminds them of the unspeakable benefits of their salvation, namely the source, the power, the promise, and the certainty of their hope. In verses six through nine of chapter one, he reminded all the believers that they can rejoice greatly because their salvation is secure. They have a faith that is proven, a commendation that is inevitable, a love that is unseen, and the deliverance that is in progress.

He didn't stop there. He also said, in chapter three, for example, verses 18 through 22 that we have a supreme example in Christ Jesus, and He is the one that endured to the very end. He was the victor over alienation, the victor over Satan, the victor over sin, and the victor over all creation. So it is in Him whom we trust. In chapter four, verses one through six, we are reminded of the divine weaponry that we have, especially as saints in times of suffering. He told them to remember the Lord, to live for the Lord, remember the past and hope for the future. And in verses seven through 11 we learned the last time we were together that we need to have a vigilant watch for the Lord's return, a passion for holiness, a love for fellow Christians, a love for the church, and a zeal for God's glory.  And now again, four more spiritual perspectives that we need to anticipate persecution: we need to persist in rejoicing, suffer in righteousness, and trust in God's purpose and power.

Now again, by way of some more introduction and some further context, remember that the Christians of that day, and this is so important for you to understand, they did not have a New Testament to pick up and read. They did not have that. The church was new, they had no Christian heritage, they didn't have all of the resources that we have, but they did have certain spiritual gifts of people in that day, as I mentioned last week: the revelatory spiritual gifts, for example, for edification, that was the gift of apostleship and prophecy, distinguishing spirits, word of wisdom, and word of knowledge, that's what they had.

Now, let me remind you of this, the apostles - the gift of apostleship that they had in that da - were those men, and we're not really sure how many there were, but they were men that were specially gifted with perhaps all of the spiritual gifts to lead the church, and the prerequisite was that they had to have had personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, and they had to also see him alive after his resurrection, and they received a direct appointment from him, but there were also prophets that worked along with the apostles, kind of a secondary status, shall we say, the prophets received inspired, inerrant, authoritative messages directly from God to convey to the church for the purpose of edification and comfort and evangelism.

You will recall, for example, the ministry of Agabus, who was a prophet in Acts 21. Also, Luke was not an apostle, he was most likely a prophet, and he wrote the Gospel of Luke, and he wrote the book of Acts. And then you also have another prophet, undoubtedly, that wrote the book of Hebrews. We don't know exactly who it was. I think it might have been Apollos, but we don't know for sure. But then working along with these prophets, whom God was giving direct and authoritative binding revelation, there was another group of people who had the gift of distinguishing spirits, and these people had the ability to judge the words of a prophet to determine if indeed what he was speaking was the word of God. In other words, these people were gifted with the ability to discern against heresy.

And then people were also gifted in the revelatory gifts. There were some that had the gift of wisdom, or the word of wisdom, as it's sometimes called. Another special group that received direct communication, divine revelation from God, and these people had insights into revelation that had been received from the apostles and from the prophets, and they looked especially and understood especially God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, and so on. For example, First Corinthians 2:7; especially some of the mysteries that were spoken of in the Old Testament and yet revealed in the New Testament. For example, Israel and the church, and the Gentiles being grafted into the vine, and so on.

And then there were also those that had the ability of knowledge - the word of knowledge, as the gift is called, which was an ability to grasp objective truths communicated and also communicated to them, and then by direct inspiration from God, they were able to practically apply those truths to the church.

And then you had other gifts that were beyond the revelatory gifts that were the confirmatory gifts, or gifts that confirmed what was being revealed from the people that I just mentioned. They were gifts of faith, healing, affecting of miracles, the gift of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, which was the foreign languages, so that all could understand, all for the purpose of edification.

Now, as a footnote, I believe that all of these directly inspired, inerrant, authoritative, revelatory gifts, as well as the confirmatory gifts, became obsolete when the New Testament was finally completed. There is no more inspired, inerrant, authoritative revelation that God gives to people. The canon has been closed. We read that in Jude three, for example, and we see this also in the testimony of Scripture in First Corinthians 13 and other places, and particularly the warning that Jesus gave in Revelation 22 and 18, where he described a severe penalty for anyone adding to the prophecies of the book of Revelation, which was the final book of the New Testament canon. So, therefore, revelation that people claim to have, that where they claim that God is speaking to them; revelation that they would claim is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative is simply counterfeit.

Now, indeed, I want to point out there are variations of the gift of the revelatory gifts. For example, the gift of prophecy, distinguishing spirits, wisdom, and knowledge. There's variations of that that we see today, but nothing like we saw then. No one is receiving inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative words from God that is binding on the body of Christ. Now, the point with all of this is we see the gradual disappearance of these gifts, as, as the New Testament was being written.

And Paul discussed, for example, these gifts in First Corinthians 12 to 14, but it's interesting, a year and a half later in Romans 12, when the gifts were mentioned, these gifts weren't even mentioned, they were already gradually beginning to disappear from the scene. By now we come to First Peter, which was written in 64-65 AD, a number of years after even the book of Romans in 56 AD, and there's no mention at all of the revelatory or confirmatory gifts. He does remind the saints to exercise the speaking and the serving gifts that are still in existence today. The speaking gifts being that of evangelism, teaching, pastor/teacher, exhortation, and the serving gifts of help, showing mercy, giving, and governing.

So, the need for the revelatory and confirmatory gifts disappeared upon the completion of the New Testament, and they remained absent throughout church history. We don't see them throughout church history since the first century, except occasionally in sporadic ways, they would flare up in heretical groups like the Montanus, for example, in about 173 AD, and they were quickly put down as heretics, and rightfully so. And all of this was to preserve the integrity of scripture and to not allow it to be contaminated by false teachers and people that are claiming special revelation from God.

As a footnote, tragically these counterfeits were revived around the 1900s in what was called Pentecostalism, and it was held at bay quite well by the church, but eventually in 1959 Neo-Pentecostalism exploded on the scene out of Van Nuys, California, and that birthed the charismatic movement, and on and on it goes. And now, unfortunately, in many circles you have people claiming direct, divine, inerrant, infallible, and authoritative revelation from God, and that has absolutely wreaked havoc upon the body of Christ, where truth then is determined intuitively and subjectively, and emotionalism and mysticism begins to take over. Sadly the legacy of the charismatic movement is the utter abandonment of Bible doctrine; so it's for that reason that we stand firm, saying that we believe that the canon is closed, and yet we rejoice, knowing that God has given us His word, and He's given us these gifts, the speaking and the serving gifts, and He's giving us the indwelling power of the Spirit of God.

Now, my point with all of this is once again to say the saints in the early church did not have the New Testament, they had to depend upon all of that which I have just mentioned, and so therefore God repeatedly, if you wonder why He seems to repeat Himself over and over in varying ways, it's because he is repeating to them these glorious truths that are so important for their benefit as they suffer. Now, here is what God revealed to the church in First Peter four, beginning in verses 12 through 19. First of all, anticipate persecution. Verse 12, he says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." In other words, don't think that just because you're a child of God now that life is going to be a bed of roses, quite the opposite. He says, "Don't be surprised." The term is literally, 'Don't be shocked, don't be astonished, don't be taken back" at this fiery ordeal that's coming upon you, beloved.

Again, you must remember that the cost of discipleship is high, and this needs to be part and parcel of our gospel witness. We are told that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (Second Timothy 3:12). Jesus taught this, for example, in Luke 14, beginning in verse 26. He said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sister, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." In other words, he's saying that your supreme devotion to me must be superior to everything else in your life. So much so that your attachment to anything else in life would be perceived as hatred in comparison. He went on to say, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciples. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first set down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? " And he went on and used another example, "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle will not first sit down and consider whether he's strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000."

Dear friends, the point is simply this: only those willing to unconditionally surrender all they have and all they are can be disciples of Christ. And it may cost you your very life; we don't know that, but it might. So he speaks of a fiery ordeal, and as I think about the concept of a fiery ordeal, there are at least three important truths that are inherent in this concept: one, it pictures the pain and the suffering associated with testing. Many times I call it a crucible of grace. A crucible was a metallurgy term that described the hollow area at the bottom of a furnace, where metal collects during the refining process.

So not only does it picture that pain and suffering of testing, but also, secondly, the process of spiritual refinement, because the fires of adversity purifies our hearts, and frankly, they temper the steel of our faith. We all can attest to that in our lives, can't we? Can't we all tell the stories of how God and some fiery ordeal brought us through a furnace and refined us because of it, where God has ordained some great trial to consume us at some level for our good and ultimately His glory. So don't be surprised at your testing.

He goes on to say, "...as though some strange thing were happening to you." In other words, as if, oh my, this shouldn't be happening. This must be catching God by surprise. This must be some accident; I'm supposed to be a Christian. But instead, what he's reminding them of is: folks, you live in a fallen world. They hated the Lord, they're going to hate you. Moreover, God has ordained your afflictions to conform you to the image of Christ. That's why, in Romans 8:28 the apostle Paul reminds us that, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." And what is His purpose? To conform us to the image of Christ. Very often he does that through the fires of suffering.

Thirdly, this concept of a fiery ordeal pictures the fires of persecution that God uses many times to purge his church - to purge and purify his church - to somehow burn off the dross of those who merely profess Christ but do not possess him. It's fascinating, is it not, to see how we can see historically that the Church of Jesus Christ grows in direct proportion to the amount of suffering that it brought upon it. Isn't that interesting? In China right now, despite the incredible persecution, and in Russia, the church is just exploding in growth. It's a fascinating thought. You see suffering smokes out the pretenders. The fires of persecution have a way of causing the fair-weather disciples to run to a safer place.

In fact, Jesus pictured this in his parable of the soil, the seed and the sower in Matthew 13. He said some seed fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up. And haven't you seen that before, people get all excited. "Oh, yes. Where do I sign up for this Christian deal?" They can't wait, and they get involved in the church, and even maybe in evangelism, and oh my, they're passing out tracts and doing all kinds of things, but as the text goes on to say, because they had no depth of soil when the sun had arisen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. You see, friends, pretenders cannot persevere in the faith because they do not have the Holy Spirit residing in them to not only restrain the flesh but comfort them and empower them and strengthen them, so that they can endure, so that indeed they can persevere. They do not have saving faith, which is eternal faith.

So, for all of these reasons, Peter encourages them not to be surprised at their trials, but rather anticipate persecution. Secondly, he tells them to persist in rejoicing, verses 13 and 14. Notice, first he says, "...but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also with the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation." In other words, what he's saying is to the degree, or even in direct proportion with, it's the idea of to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ - to the degree that you suffer for his name's - to that degree you will be rewarded. The more suffering, the more reward.

Jesus spoke of this in Matthew five verse 10, in the Beatitudes, he said, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great." Friends, what a marvelous promise. What a marvelous promise, worthy of our great rejoicing. And notice, will you, when the reward will be given, it says, "at the revelation of His glory." Now, catch this: it is not necessarily something that's going to be given in this life as the televangelist and the prosperity teacher would have us believe. You see, folks, discipleship is all about self-denial, not self-indulgence. There must be a cross before a crown.

So notice here that we rejoice when we enter into his presence, when we see him face to face at the appearing of his glory, when the Lord comes and takes us home. The apostle Paul understood this. He endured enormous suffering, but as you read him, you see that nothing distracted him from having the proper perspective. In fact, in Second Corinthians four, beginning in verse 17, he said "momentary light affliction.' Let me pause for a second. In the Greek, it's so fascinating that means a weightless trial. I think a weightless trial, I mean you were beaten, you were scourged, you were imprisoned, all of these things, but now he says "momentary light affliction." A weightless trial is "producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."  You see, beloved, you must understand that endurance under fire requires us looking beyond the physical to the spiritual. It requires us to have a perspective that gazes into the eternal and not get caught up in being obsessed with the temporal.

So back to verse 14. Peter says, "If you were reviled for the name of Christ, you were blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you." Think of that, he's saying here, and we do not know fully all that he means with this, but I think it is fair to surmise that he is referring to certainly the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, that provides strength and comfort in the midst of great suffering. There are so many passages that attest to that glorious reality; but also the idea that he even provides relief in our suffering. Here's what I would say, that he says, "Here the spirit of glory and of God rests on you." Well, what was the symbol of God's glory in the Old Testament, and even in the New? It was his Shekinah. It was the glorious light that was always associated with the manifestation of his presence, that ineffable, brilliant light, that glorious light that somehow pictured the very essence of the holiness and the otherness and the purity and the glory and majesty of God, and so he says here that that rests upon us. "Rests" in the original languages is a fascinating term, it's the idea of bringing relief, of bringing refreshment, of providing assistance.

So here's the amazing concept that I believe the spirit of God would have us understand: the indwelling Holy Spirit will intervene in the midst of our great suffering, when we're enduring some crucible of grace, and He will envelop us with the glorious light of His presence. He will bring relief, He will bring comfort, He will bring strength, He will even bring joy. We are reminded of this with Stephen in Acts six. Remember when they looked upon him, and they said that that his face was like that of an angel. Somehow, the glorious presence of God, I believe, was was even refracting off of his visage. Beloved, like Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, regardless, the heat of the furnace, God will always be with us in the midst of it. That's what we must always remember. And He will therefore bring us comfort, He will bring us relief, He will bring us encouragement, he will bring us perspective and strength and hope and power and peace, as it produces, as Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:17, as it produces for us, "an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." That's the perspective that suffering saints must maintain.

So we are told to anticipate persecution and persist in rejoicing, but also He says suffer in righteousness. In verse 15, first part He says, "Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evil doer or a troublesome meddler." In other words, there's never a legitimate reason for such crimes, for a Christian, regardless the level of persecution; there's no justification for these types of things, and sometimes Christians even can feel so mistreated and feel like they've been so unjustly persecuted that they are justified in retaliating. You know, I've had enough of it, so I will become a Christian terrorist. I'm going to go blow up that abortion clinic, or kill that judge, or whatever it might be. Beloved, there's never justification for revenge. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. Never try to seize the sword of divine justice from the hand of God, as if you are worthy of wielding it. There's no excuse to be a troublesome meddler.

By the way, that's an interesting phrase. It means one who looks after the affairs of another. If you ever been around troublesome meddlers, they're always into your business. It's like the only thing you can say to them is, frankly, that's none of your business. Well, that's the concept here with respect to the world, that's none of our business. Don't be an agitator, don't be one who intrudes or meddles in something, and it's the idea of something that is alien to your realm of living. Evidently, there were some Christians that were engaged in this, some type of social troublemakers, social activists, whatever. You know, I get constant requests in the email and letters, and sometimes in phone calls, wanting me to get all of you together and let's go march on this, or let's drive to this place, and we're going to march on that. Beloved, there's no place for that, as I see it. No place for social and political activism. Yeah, I'm going to vote the way that my conscience would have me vote, but I do not see that this is our mandate. Our mandate is to make disciples for Christ, teaching them all the things that he has taught us, winning people to a saving knowledge of Christ. And frankly, this place is not even my home. I don't even belong here. It's kind of like living in Holland as an American for a few weeks, and somehow getting caught up in their politics. You see, what he's saying here is, if we're going to suffer, we are to do so for the sake of the gospel, we are to preach it and live it.

Therefore, he says in verse 16, "...if anyone suffers as a Christian..." and by the way, that was a derisive term in that day, all right, a Christian. Today, we might...what can I think of here.. Bible thumper, you know? You'll hear that sometime, the radical right, or whatever... that was the idea here with the word "Christian." He says, 'If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God." And in verse 17 he tells us how and what, how this is going to happen. He says, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God." In other words, the church.

Now, my friends, you must understand this is not referring to the eternal judgment of God's wrath. This is not referring to condemnation on sin, because we know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right? Absolutely, Romans eight one. But rather he's referring here to the refining fires of divine testing that will come upon the church, both for the purpose of chastening as well as purifying the church, and he's saying here that that season is upon us. The time is upon us, and indeed we know that the purging had already begun. What a difficult thing it is, yet a blessed thing to watch God purge his house of those who do not belong in it. He says, "...and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Indeed, he's saying God chastens those that He loves as a father would his son.

Moreover, we know that God even ordains our suffering; and often our suffering will be at the hands of the wicked to somehow accomplish God's eternal purposes in our sanctification. But the point here is that as horrible as those experiences may be for those who love Him and whom He loves, as horrible as those things may be, think how infinitely worse they will be for those who reject Christ.

Then he goes on by quoting Proverbs 11:31, actually from the Septuagint, in verse 18, he says, "And if it is with difficulty..." in other words, due to the divine testing here, "If it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?" Friends, what he is saying is simply this:the Christians suffering in this life is nothing to be compared to the eternal sufferings of those who do not believe. What a sobering thought. What a motivating truth that should cause our hearts to be stirred with passion for the lost, with a passion to pray and to evangelize. Aagain, our suffering, if you can put it this way, is but for a moment in this life, it's but for a moment in comparison to the eternal suffering of those apart from Christ.

Paul spoke of this very thing in Second Thessalonians one, beginning in verse five. You will recall in that text he is affirming the perseverance in the faith of those great Thessalonica believers, and he says that in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure, he's praising them for that, and then he goes on to say, "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you were suffering. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted unto us as well, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when he comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who believed - for our testimony to you was believed."

Beloved, again, this must be our perspective in suffering, and when it is, you will quickly see that when suffering does come your way, you know what it'll do. It will detach you from this world. When you suffer for Christ, you don't say, "My isn't it great being here in this world, enjoying all of this wickedness, enduring all it?" No, you know what you say is, "God, I will endure for your glory, but I cannot wait to go home. I cannot wait to go home." Suffering makes you want to go home, my friends.

So he says, anticipate your persecution, persist in rejoicing, suffer in righteousness, and fourthly, trust in God's purpose and power. Notice verse 19. Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. I love that term, "entrust." It was a banking term. To entrust something of great value for safekeeping, or to deposit something of great value to a party considered trustworthy; and folks, here's what he's saying: as Christians, we've got to learn to trust our souls and even trust the suffering that he brings upon us to his purpose and to his power to accomplish all that he has decreed. Remember First Peter 2:23 he gives the example of Jesus, and there we read that "while suffering he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously." And later on, even when Jesus was upon the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and he said, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit. And having said that, He breathed His last." (Luke 23:46)

Now, friends, please hear this. There is nothing more trustworthy than, as Peter says, "our faithful Creator." Don't you love that? Our faithful creator, I mean, friends, you can't get any higher than that, that's the absolute top, our faithful creator. Think of this, the creator who not only made the heavens and the earth in which we now live, but he is also the one who is going to make, as Peter says later on in Second Peter 3:10, "the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. We are trusting him to create things that have not yet even been made. Isn't that fascinating to think of it that way? So we've got to entrust ourselves to our faithful creator, and this is why worshiping and trusting God as the faithful creator is absolutely essential to the Christian faith. If you don't believe He's the creator, then you might as well throw all of it away. All of our hope is based on that; it's the very basis of our hope. And oh, child of God, what consolation, what assurance, what security we have in the lover of our souls, our faithful creator. No one will ever be able to steal our soul from our faithful creator, no more than a drop of rain could extinguish the sun. In Romans eight, beginning verse 35, when I was meditating upon this passage, my heart immediately went to this text with tears, and there is where we are reminded by a question that Paul presents to us, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, 'For thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered a sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things," he goes on to say, "...we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The question that I would leave with you this morning is: have you entrusted your soul to the faithful Creator? And if you haven't, I plead with you to repent while there is still time. And for those of us who have, may we never forget the glorious refuge that is ours as we entrust all that we are and all that we have, especially in times of great persecution, to our faithful creator. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. May they constantly be a witness to our hearts, especially during those times when, by your grace and for your glory, you ask us to endure some great crucible, some fiery ordeal. Lord, may we do so in a way that brings great glory to you, knowing full well that you will be our refuge and our strength and our comfort, that you will be our rest, and that we will be enveloped by your very presence. And, Lord, again, as always, we pray for those who do not know you as Savior. Oh God, how we pray that you will break their hearts because of their sin and cause them to run immediately to the foot of the cross and cry out for the mercy that can be theirs, because of your infinite love. We ask all of this in Jesus' name, and for His sake. Amen.