Trinity Baptist Church

 

One of the great disservices that we, as churches, subject new believers to is not telling them that suffering is a part of the Christian life. 

 

Did you know that? Suffering is in the plan. Most believers find that out, not by being taught, but by experience. 

 

Let me just give you my message in a nutshell right at the very beginning. If you are suffering as a Christian, you should not be surprised. It is a part of God's big picture for your life.

 

That is normally not what we think, is it, when we suffer? Normally when we have hard times, when things go wrong in our life, we really wonder, "Where is God in all of this and what is the purpose of it all?" 

We think it is strange. We think it is surprising, and yet the Apostle Peter says in these verses of scriptures to the day in which he was speaking and now by the Holy Spirit's inspiration to your day and my day, "Do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is to come upon you."

 

That was certainly true in the New Testament day. Around A.D. 64 you may recall that Nero burned down Rome, and he blamed it on Christians, and it started a wave of persecution among believers. The stories are atrocious to listen to. Some of them were crucified. Others of them were rolled in pitch alive. Others were set on fire. Others of them were sewn up in animal skins with rats to eat them. Others of them had wild dogs loosed on them. 

They went through unbelievable fiery trials. Yet, Peter says, "I want you to know that you shouldn't be surprised. This is a part of God's plan. God's doing a work and this is one of those unusual, strange, out of the ordinary components of the plan of God for your life."

 

The teaching of the Apostle Peter is specific. By that I mean he is not talking about general suffering. He deals specifically with why Christians suffer. He is talking about the suffering of believers in particular. 

 

Basically what he is saying to us is that it is a part of the plan of God. You need to understand the role suffering has to play in your life.

 

In the course of these verses he says there are several aspects you need to understand when suffering comes to your life as a Christian.

 

The first thing I want you to understand from these verses of scripture about your suffering is

 

 

In other words, the purpose or the reason. What does God have in mind? What is God trying to teach us when the suffering comes?

 

He names several things that are the objectives of the suffering we experience. For instance, the first thing I notice in these verses is that he says that God lets suffering come into our life to purify us.

 

Look at the language here. It is rather interesting when you study it in its original text. 

 

Verse 12

 

The words are very interesting there. The verb for trial is a word that was used to describe the refining of metals in a refiners fire, not in order to destroy the metal, but to purify and to cleanse the metal.

 

He is saying here that fiery trials are a furnace which God uses to purify the lives of believers. God has a purpose in mind. God has a plan. God's ultimate plan is that you and I be like the Lord Jesus Christ. He allows the sufferings to burn away the dross and to burn away the impurities and to burn away the un-Christlike aspects of our life. He's saying that suffering is one of God's furnaces that He uses to purify our life.

 

I heard about an atheist who lived next door to a Christian. They had adjoining farms. His pumpkin crop was very good, but his Christian neighbor's crop was unproductive. The atheist said to his Christian neighbor, "My crop was good. Why was your crop not if your God is all that interested in you?" The Christian wisely replied, "My God is not growing pumpkins. He's growing men."

 

Just keep in mind that the object of your suffering is first of all to purify you. 

 

Then I want you to notice the second thing. It is also to identify you. 

 

verse 13a

 

That is, you are partners with the suffering of Jesus Christ. In others words, our suffering identifies us with our Lord.

Jesus Christ suffered. Sometime go through the gospel accounts and read about the things that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced and went through. 

 

When we suffer, Simon Peter says here that what's going on in our life is that we are being identified with Jesus. So if you are going through some suffering this morning, just keep in mind that you are identified with Jesus. Jesus also knew what it was to suffer.

 

Not only does it purify you and not only does it identify you, but Simon Peter says that your suffering glorifies you.

 

verse 13b

 

As you study your New Testament, you will find how very often God ties suffering and glory together. 

 

You will find this, for instance, in the life of Jesus. In Luke 24 the Lord Jesus said, "Ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter into His glory." 

 

In Romans 8, verse 18, he says the same thing about believers. He says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

 

In fact, if you read carefully, you will find that suffering and glory are always linked. 

 

Christ suffered and it brought forth the glory of the resurrection. Christ suffered for our sins and it brings forth the glory of forgiveness of our sins.

 

What he's saying is that suffering glorifies us. Of course, there is a sense where it glorifies us in the future because he says in verse 13, "That, when his glory shall be revealed." There is a glory that is coming out there in the future.

 

I like that dear gospel song that I hear sometime, "Oh, that will be glory for me, when by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory for me."

 

There's going to be glory by and by, and the Bible says that when it happens there will be exceeding joy. 

 

The words there carry the idea of abundant, bubbling over joy in our life. One of these days you're going to get to heaven and the heavenly Father is going to explain to you why you suffered and what He was doing in your life, and you are going to see the glory of it all, and it's going to make you hop-skipping happy when you get to glory. Glory by and by. But it's good this way too. 

 

There is also going to be glory right now. 

 

verse 14

 

He's talking about right now. Glory rests upon the believer who is going through suffering now.

 

In the Old Testament you may recall that they had that glory cloud. That glory cloud would come down and it would rest upon that tabernacle. The people could see the glory dwelling upon that tabernacle, and they would know that God was there.

 

 

There is a special glory that seems to reside and rest upon the child of God who is going through the suffering and difficulties of life. It's as if the Holy Spirit is resting with awesome splendor and with unbelievable power upon the life of a believer. 

 

I think about Stephen in the Bible. Remember how he was martyred for his faith in the Lord? The Bible said that they looked upon his face and it looked like it was the face of an angel. There was a glory resting upon him. It has been true of God's people all through the ages.

 

I read sometime ago about John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He would have open air services. One day two thugs came with the purpose of breaking up his service. They were going to stone him and cause disruption. As he began to speak, the glory of God seemed to reside upon that dear preacher of the gospel. As he preached, one of them looked at the other and said, "He ain't a man, Billy, he ain't a man." They listened further and further, and as they departed to leave Wesley pronounced a blessing upon them, and they said, "He is a man, Billy. He is a man like God." 

 

I have seen it all through the years of my ministry these precious saints of the Lord who go through all kinds of suffering and all kinds of hardships and problems and there's a glow about them. There is a sense of the closeness and the preciousness and the power of God about them.

 

If you are suffering this morning understand the object of your suffering. It's to purify you. It's to identify you. It's to glorify you.

 

But then there is another aspect you need to understand about your suffering. This is kind of a warning. He's saying in the verses that follow that you also need to understand not only the object of your suffering, but also you need to understand

 

 

There's an obligation when you suffer. You have an obligation when suffering comes.

 

You ask, "What's the obligation?" What he's saying is, Be sure that you are suffering for the right reasons. Be sure that when you are suffering you are suffering because of your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what he does is he talks about some suffering that is deserved that comes into the life of believers; and then there is some suffering that is derived, that is, it comes because we are Christians. 

 

You caught that, didn't you in verse 15? That's what he was saying. He says, "But let none of you suffer." He's talking about Christians and he names four things, "As a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer."

 

You say, "Is he talking about Christians?" You would be stunned at what believers can do when they get out of the will of God and when they don't let Jesus have Lordship in their life.

 

But then he says, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer." He's saying, "Don't you suffer because of your own sin."

I'm not going to talk about those three. 

 

I want to hit that fourth one, a busybody. Have you ever heard that word busybody? "She's just a busybody. He's a busybody."

 

The word really means somebody who inspects other people's affairs with the intention of running those affairs for them. In other words, it is someone that is always sticking their noses in somebody else's business. Do you know what I mean? It is those people who want to run your life for you.

 

There are some Christians like that. That's the way they deal with people. There are some Christians who think it is their job to go around telling everybody what they should do and what they should not do and they think it's their job to go around being the Holy Spirit and condemning sinners of the sins in their life. They are busybodies. 

 

They go around prying when they should be praying. Then they catch it. Somebody fires back at them and they say, "Oh, I'm suffering for Jesus." No. You are not a martyr. You are a meddler.

 

He's saying be very careful. You have an obligation when you suffer to say, "Have I caused this by my own obnoxious behavior?" Or, he says, "Is it coming because you are a Christian."

 

Look at verse 16 1 peter 4:16

 

There are only three places in the entire New Testament where the word Christian occurs. In the book of Acts, Christians were first identified as Christians in Antioch, Agrippa said to Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Now, Simon Peter says, "If any man suffer as a Christian." 

It was a nickname really. It was a name that other people used to describe those who were followers of the Lord Jesus. They meant it as a complaint, but it became a great compliment. 

 

He's saying that if you suffer, be sure that you are suffering as a Christian. He says that if you are suffering because of Christ, if you are suffering for the name of Jesus, if you are suffering because your life is a Christ-like life, then he says, "Don't be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." That's the caveat. 

 

If you are suffering, you have to understand the object of it, what God's doing. But you have an obligation to be sure that you are not suffering because of something that you do but that it's for the name of Christ.

 

Then there is a third thing he says he wants you to understand. He wants you to understand

 

What I mean by overview is he wants you to get the big picture of your suffering.

 

In the overall plan and scope and providence of God, God uses suffering as a component of the whole aspect of His judgment. In verse 17 he talks about God's judgment upon saints and also God's judgment upon sinners. 

 

He talks about suffering and judgment as it ties in first of all to saints. He says, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God." 

 

Of course, we know that the Bible teaches if we be in Christ there is no condemnation. We know that ultimately we are not going to stand at the Great White Throne Judgment. We know the Bible teaches that.

 

But the Bible also teaches that believers are going to appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ for examination time. He's saying that this suffering that comes sometimes is a purging work of God. He says that the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.

 

He's really pulling back from the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel told about a man who had a writer's ink horn who went around and was putting a mark on people. He was getting ready to judge and he says, "Begin at the house of God."

 

I don't know but it may be possible that believers in America are headed for a time of purging, a time of trial, like we have never known in our life time.

 

Who knows what may be coming ahead. Time has come to begin judgment at the house of God.

 

Notice what he says in verse 18. "And if the righteous scarcely be saved."

 

The word scarcely means “hardly; with difficulty”. If the righteous are scarcely saved. I've got news for you. When you go rolling into Glory, you are not going to go in there singing "How great I am." You are going to go in there singing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." The old ship of Zion is going to be pulled into the heavenly harbor by the tugboat of the grace of God.

He says that's the way it is with believers.

 

Then what about unbelievers? 

 

He says, "Where will they appear?" 

 

Look at verse 17, "What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"

 

There is an interesting progression of thought here about sinners. It starts off by not obeying the gospel. When you don't obey the gospel you refuse that which you know to be true which God has revealed in your heart is true. 

 

But when you disobey the gospel, then you move on into verse 18 and it says that you become the ungodly. 

 

What does it mean the ungodly? It means someone who has no God-awareness in their life. They have no interest in God, whatsoever, in their life. All around us are thousands of people who have no interest in God in their life. They live their life as if there is no God and as if He does not exist.

 

Notice that they move from those who disobey the gospel to the ungodly and then he says sinners. That means those who are absolutely rebels and hostile to God.

 

He says in verse 18, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" They will not appear in the Rapture. They will not appear at the marriage supper of the Lamb. They will not appear around the throne of God in Glory.

Where will they appear? They will appear in death. They will appear in judgment. They will appear before the Great White Throne. They will appear in the lake of fire. What a terrible thing to be lost and to experience the full force of the judgment of God upon your life.

 

Finally, we need to understand

 

 

In other words, what should you do? What should be the outcome when you suffer as a believer? 

 

This is what he deals with in verse 19. 

 

What he's saying is “Since it is in the plan, then the first outcome should be that when you are going through suffering, commit your life to God. 

 

The word commit was a banking term. It was used as a word to describe the deposit of something valuable into a place of safe keeping.

 

What Paul is saying is the most precious commodity you have, the most valuable thing you have, is your eternal soul. He says, "Commit your soul unto him as unto a faithful Creator." 

 

He uses creation as the example of how dependable God is. God is a faithful Creator. The same God who created you is the God who has the power to sustain you, and the same God who sustains you is the one who has the power and loves you enough to take care of you. He is the faithful Creator.

 

 

Look at creation. The stars and the planets move in their orbit by precision. He is a faithful Creator. The earth revolves consistently around its axis. He is a faithful creator. The seasons on the earth continue to go undiminished in their regularity. He is a faithful Creator. If God is that faithful with His creation, don't you think God will be faithful then if you deposit your soul into His hands?

 

Commit your life to God when you are going through suffering. Say, "God, I don't know what You are doing and I don't know why this is happening. I don't know what the purpose of all of this is in my life, but, God, I commit my life to You. I place my soul in Your hands. I place my life in Your care. Lord, here's my life. I give it totally and completely to You."

 

Then here's the second thing he says to do. He says to continue to do good. Commit your soul unto Him and then it says that you are to do it in well-doing. Just keep on doing right.

 

Do you know what the normal tendency when you are having a problem is? Take your marriage. You and your wife are having a little problem, especially young couples. You have a fuss before you come to church, then you say, "I'm not going to church today. I'm not going to play the hypocrite. I'm just not going to go there. You can go there if you want, but I'm not going." 

 

That's when you should come to church. You might get in the service and God might sweeten her up just a little bit for you. But when we have trouble we want to pull away.

 

You may be battling with some temptation. Men, you've lost the battle and the devil says, "You can't go to church. You are just an old sorry failure." That's the time you should come. That's the time you need to be here.

 

Sometimes when God's children are going through the trials and the heartaches and difficulties and the tragedies of life the devil whispers in their ears, "Why do you go up to that church? It's a waste of time. You are not getting out of any of these problems you've had. Just stay home." That's the time you need to continue in well doing. Just keep on keeping on. Just keep on living for Jesus. Just keep on serving the Lord. Just keep on doing good. Just keep on doing well.

 

I think about the life of the Lord Jesus. I think about our Savior on the cross. Of course, we know that He was on the cross engaged in well-doing. He was on the cross doing the great work of redemption for the souls of men, paying the price for our salvation. He was doing good on the cross. 

 

Just before He died He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." It's the same word translated here, commit. "Father, into Thy hands I place my spirit. I place my life. I commit myself to You for safekeeping." Then He died. 

 

The devil said, "I've got Him." The devil's crowd said, "We've got Him." They put Him in a tomb and three days later God began to shake the ground which He had created. He's a faithful Creator, and God split the rock that He had formed. He is a great Creator. God raised from the dead His Son that He had sent into the world to die for our sins.

 He is a faithful Creator. 

 

And He is still doing good. He is ever interceding on your behalf. It is because of His faithfulness that you are kept in salvation. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

 

And the same God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and brought glory out of suffering is the God who one day is going to bring glory out of the suffering you're going through in your life as well.

 

The question is have you made your deposit? Have you deposited your soul into the hands of the One who is the faithful Creator?

 

Let's bow our heads in prayer.