Do Not Be Surprised

And we are going to try to get through more than twice as many verses as we average. We'll see how that goes. But stand with me as I read from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. You may be seated. at first glance this little section of scripture might not appear quite as utterly chilling as I think it is for many of you in this room I appreciate Jason's prayer very much he prayed first of all that we would get our minds off of other things here on the Sabbath and that was actually my prayer for myself on my way to church today as my mind was wandering into secular affairs and then he also prayed that the children would sit still that they would listen to the word of God preached because what's chilling about this passage is that there's a horrible eternity waiting people that don't know Christ and there's a number of people in this room who have not yet confessed Christ with their mouth and believed on him in their heart and what a shame it would be to sit through hours and hours of preaching in your life and to never come to know him and so I do beg the children to listen if you have to doodle or color while you do so I understand that completely but I think that you should be listening Peter in the first three chapters and now three and a half chapters of his letter has told us a few things and one of the main themes my wife asked me what are you going to preach about nice little suffering because it's Peter's constant theme is suffering.

And if he's not specifically talking about suffering in one of the passages, the context of what he's commanding the people to do, what he's telling the people to believe is in the context of their suffering. And if you're wanting to escape that, when we get on to another book, it's actually the theme of the entire Bible is the suffering of God's people. And one of the reasons why God's people suffer is because of the suffering of God's own son, the darling of heaven, as Jason prayed.

So you're not going to escape it. But Peter tells the people, he says, beloved. He addresses them with a very endearing tone. He says, beloved, those whom I love. He says, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. And it's reminiscent of the first chapter of Peter, verse 7.

Oh, we'll go back to 6. He says, they rejoice in their salvation, though now for a little while, if necessary, they've been grieved by various trials. And he tells them why they have trials. He says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold, though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The genuineness of their faith is one of the objects of their suffering. It's to give them assurance. And it's not because God doesn't know if you have faith. God's the one who, if you have faith, actually granted it to you. He's abundantly aware of whether faith is in you or not. The testing of your faith is mostly for your assurance.

But you see, there's actually a greater purpose to all of this. And he says in verse 7 of chapter 1, that it may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Well, in chapter 4, he repeats himself. he says rejoice in so far we're in 4.13 he says rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed so he's saying the same thing again so I could have gone back to last August or September and almost probably re-preached the same sermon and just stuck to one verse but what we'll do is we'll understand that Peter's doing what most good communicators do.

They tell you what they're going to tell you, and then they tell you and then they tell you what they told you, is the old saying. And Peter's really repeating himself, and there's nothing wrong with that, because we're good forgetters. We need the reminders. It helps us to understand, and it emphasizes oftentimes the point that he's trying to make. If Peter's point in the letter was whether how husbands and wives should treat each other, it probably would have gotten a lot more airtime than it God.

See what I'm saying? So although those are important points, when you're reading Scripture, one of the things I want you to do when you're reading it on your own, when hopefully, hopefully you're reading on your own. One thing, if you don't know what to read, I find having a plan helps. You could be reading 1 Peter. I think I recommended that months ago That it should be you know five chapters It be pretty easy to read 1 Peter once a week And then you be agreeing when you sitting in the seats and you listening to me tell you what it says But looking for these themes that are repeated in God's Word is one of the things that helps you to know what God's trying to communicate to you through His Word.

He is a God of the details, and every detail matters. But there are themes in Scripture that pop out if you read it repeatedly. And there's ways to understand scripture by reading other scripture that's maybe more clear to you to help you understand the unclear scripture. So it's one of the one of the hermeneutical tools that we use is called the analogy of faith.

I think in Latin it's a fee to analogia or something like that. And and what that means is that if you're in scripture and you're understanding something, it says. and there's other scripture that clearly contradicts what you think the one thing means, well then you need to rethink what you think it means. So for example, passages of scripture where it sounds like you can lose your salvation, we apply the hermeneutical principle that says we know you can't from other scriptures to understand those scriptures.

So understanding what God is saying to you because of his repetition is important. and we're going to get back to this do not be surprised concept that's how I want to actually end I'm actually going to try to end the sermon going back to verse 12 is my goal but I will say this I think do not be surprised is possibly the biggest command ignored in scripture I am I am constantly looking at other Christians who are seemingly shocked by what is going on around them, and they're shocked by things that the Word of God has told us are going to happen. And I try not to be shocked that Christians are actually going to be shocked, because then I'd be committing the same fallacy. But turn to Romans 8, 17 and 18.

Let's just get a little taste of what it means to suffer with Christ. So that his glory would be revealed. If it was up to most of us, we would be what carried to heaven on flowery beds of bees. I think that's the song of my soldier of the cross or one of those soldier songs. And it's very hard as a United States of American person to actually have any concept of what it really means to suffer sometimes.

And so we should be mindful that the Spirit warns us. In verse 17 of Romans 8, Paul's writing, he's talking about our adoption as children. He says, and if we're children, then we're heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Which, that's an amazing thing in the first place. So you need to meditate on that once in a while. But he says, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

If you want to go up with Christ, you have to go down with Christ. That's why we get baptized. That's why at this church, we're not going to sprinkle your poor water over your head either if you get baptized. We're going to dunk you underwater because that's how you identify with Jesus Christ going into the grave and really dying a real death. but then Paul wants to encourage his people who he's telling them they're going to suffer he says for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us the idea is this if your mind is meditating on the eternal glory that you inherit with Christ you'll suffer happily you'll count it all joy and most of you can figure that out if I told you that I'd give you a million dollars to cut my lawn next week, most of you would say, sure.

In fact, a lot of people would say something like, well, for a million bucks, I'd do almost any job. You know, as long as we're not talking about sinning here, there's very few things we wouldn't slog through for even a month or two if we knew there was a reward like that at the end. Do you know what I'm saying? And yet we balk at the idea of suffering through this life if that's the means to eternal glory.

So back to 1 Peter 4, verse 14, moving down the chapter. Peter says, if you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed. Because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. In Matthew 5, our Lord speaking, the incarnate Lord. If you go to Matthew 5, look at the Beatitudes and his Sermon on the Mount. Some of you, your Bible is going to have these words in red.

I'm not a red letter Bible guy every word of God is true and every word is inspired by the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ he's called and so we don't think that the words Jesus spoke when he was incarnate are any more important than the rest of the words of the Bible but it's certainly exciting to hear the things he actually did say in verse 11 Matthew 5 blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. He says, on my account. Actually, if you look through all the Beatitudes there, verses 3 through 11, what you'll see is a list of things that our world hates and despises, things you would never put on your resume if you were applying for a job.

But these are actually the things that Jesus Christ embodied for us and provides for us in the gospel. But the idea that you're blessed when others revile you on his account goes right along with if you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed. Because if you're insulted for the name of Christ, you blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you The idea is this is that the world is going to punish Christians The world is going to punish you for opposing what they want to do.

There's a rule in our world that there's no neutrality. So the word neutral, if you don't know what that word means, it means to not take a side. So if your brothers were fighting and they said who was right. And you said, I'm not going to take a side. You're trying to remain neutral. And we have this thing that we call the neutrality fallacy where we think we can remain neutral in all of these areas.

Well, I don't have to take a side in this debate about transgenderism or this debate about guns or whatever all the different things are. And in some cases, maybe you can get away with it. But for the most part, God has given us clear direction on how we are to perceive the world around us. God has told us what is right and wrong, and we are to take a side.

And if you simply try to live a righteous life, all those who desire to live a righteous life in Christ Jesus will be crucified, or persecuted. They will be persecuted, right? And so just living a righteous life is enough to anger the people around you. Turn to 1 John 3. In 1 John 3, verse 12. Sorry, I was looking at 2.

In 1 John 3, verse 12, John, the apostle, writes, We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. So Cain did this bad thing, and we know that. He says, And why did he murder him? He says, Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. And then what does he say? He says the same thing Peter says.

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Jesus said a servant is not greater than his master. If the world hates me, they're going to hate you too. But in this passage, there is no indication that Abel was standing there preaching at Cain. He may have, but it's not indicated there. And it doesn't say that's why Cain killed him.

It says, Cain murdered his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. If you simply want to stand up in this world and just do the right thing, you are a shining light on the darkness. People will hate you. And it will tempt you to compromise. Peter understands this. So in verse 16, we'll skip 15 for a moment.

And he says that if anyone suffers as a Christian, let them not be ashamed, but let them glorify God in that name. One of the fears that Peter would have for his people, one of the fears I would have for you people, is that when the persecution comes, when people start calling you names because you stand up for what's right, when people start calling you a bigot, or a racist, or a misogynist, or a woman hater, Or when people call you mean names like idiot or stupid because you hold to things like God created the world and there's an order to things that God has given us. That the temptation becomes to actually be a little bit ashamed of that.

When somebody with the word doctor in front of his name stands up and says something contradictory to what you think the word of God teaches, there's a temptation to actually be ashamed. when people say don't stand on that street then shout at people to believe the gospel that's not the way to do things it's not the way to win people the temptation is to actually be ashamed because it's foolishness the bible even tells us it will be considered foolishness to preach his word so Peter says if anyone suffers as a Christian don't be ashamed Paul says he's not ashamed of the gospel Why? Because it's the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Everyone who believes, right?

Because in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed. And so we stand out there and some of you don't preach. Some of you just go to work. Some of you go to school. Some of you go to different places and do different things with different people. And you tell people about Jesus Christ.

And if you do it enough times, you're going to find people that look at you like you have three heads. There's going to be people who make fun of you. The same way we'd make fun of somebody if they walked in here right now and said they believed some really weird thing. Because it's really weird to them. People talk about the flying spaghetti monster. If you've never heard of it, you will if you ever want to do evangelism.

Okay, so atheists, because atheists can't just exist. They can't just be happy with their life because they're living in a constant turmoil of hating the God they deny. they've made up this idea of a flying spaghetti monster that they say they worship because they're saying it's similar to what we are saying. It's just a make-believe thing. And they say these kinds of things to you.

And you actually look at someone like they're crazy when they say it because you know they're making it up. And that's what they think of us. Peter tells us, don't be ashamed, but glorify God. If you read through the history of the Christian church, our church is littered with a history of people who have spilled their blood some of them spilled their blood just to get the Bible translated the reason why you have an English Bible right now is that 600, 800, 700 years ago John Wycliffe fought to translate it William Tyndale was burned at the stake for it and so there's people who are going to persecute Christians and they going to say things about you some of which aren true or they going to twist true things and it going to try to get us to quit what we doing There a guy in Canada right now Pastor James Coates And don't misunderstand a word of what I say.

That man right now is in jail as being persecuted for Christianity because he believes what Jesus has said is why he's being persecuted. Now, the practical application of it, though, is that he believes his church should gather on Sunday and worship the Lord together, and they should not restrict people in how they have to dress or act in order to come to worship. And he believes that Jesus Christ is the head of that church, and he does what the head of that church says.

That's what James Coates tells his church to do. And in Canada, where they're releasing sex offenders every other day from the same prison where this guy's being held, they're saying, no, he's not being persecuted for his faith. They're saying, he's not being persecuted for his faith, he's in jail for violating health orders. And you know what? If you go on the internet, which I don't recommend anyone do anymore, unless it's the covenant5ohio.com, I guess.

If you go on the internet, what you'll see is a long list of Christians lining up to judge him and to call him wrong because he should have just shut down his church or made everybody wear a mask or whatever the next rule is going to be even. He's being persecuted and suffering as a Christian and he's not ashamed, he's glorifying God. And he needs your prayers.

Verse 15, Peter says, let none of you suffer in this other way though. He says, let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer as a meddler. And it seems a little bit obvious maybe. And hopefully it is obvious. This is the kind of thing you don't want to have to deal with with people, actually. But one of the temptations would be, well, hey, I just read this letter and I see this other guy suffering.

And now, hey, you know what? I want to be a martyr, too. I want people to put my name on their little circle around their Facebook picture. And so people will be tempted to do things that are going to get them in trouble. to go beyond just preaching God's word and meeting and doing the things God has commanded and to actually instigate more trouble with the law than they deserve.

In some cases, you may have a person that reads the Bible, recognizes the fact that abortion is a horrible evil. I would dare say it's the worst evil of our day right now when it comes to man versus man evil. Evil we commit against God is all sorts of worse in different ways. but some people will take that into their own hands and think well I will go and kill the abortionists there's people who have done that there's people who have murdered people because the working of our legal system is not what it should be and then they end up suffering and they're not suffering as a Christian now they're suffering as a murderer and God the Holy Spirit saw this coming And he inspired Peter to warn us not to do things so that we will suffer.

And then act like, well, I'm just a Christian, so Christians are going to suffer. Well, no, you're in jail because you're a thief. You're not in jail because of your obedience to Christ. You're not in jail because of your faithfulness to what Christ has commanded. You're actually in jail because you're some kind of evildoer. And Peter even includes meddler in here. for you Greek students, look that one up.

It's like the longest Greek word you ever saw. And the idea is just stay out of other people's business. You don't want to suffer because you're going around bothering people about things that are none of your business. And so people are going to suffer for all sorts of reasons. And it's a valid debate to try to figure out, are you suffering for Christ, or are you suffering simply because try to watch my words with the kids here but are you suffering because you're a jerk or are you suffering because you're a Christian and some of us need to do a real heart check on that and it can be difficult to know sometimes as well and that's why you have brothers with you and sisters that can look after you and when I go out I very rarely preach alone and I bring a camera a lot of times for, you know, some people think I want to be like a YouTube star or something.

Most I bring my camera to Planned Parenthood because if something happens, I want a record of what happened for legal purposes and it also provides accountability so that if that video is watched and somebody at this church says, hey brother, that didn't sound like gospel preaching. That sounded like you just being an angry guy. So that's one of the reasons why we have accountability It's why we come to a church on every Sabbath.

It's why we go to church and get to know people in deeper ways so we can speak into each other's lives and do ministry together so that nobody will suffer for these other reasons. There was a, I think I may have mentioned this one before in this series, but my old friend Andrew Rappaport, he used to have a website where you could sign up to go into one of his ministry classes or something or go evangelize with him. And one of the questions they asked people is if they had the gift of martyrdom.

Because they wanted to see if anyone would say yes, because there is no gift of martyrdom. But if you think you have the gift of martyrdom, I probably don't want you with me when I'm going out and doing my evangelism. The goal is to actually see people get saved and come home safely to our families. and we will trust the suffering that God will provide as it says even in verse 19 so those who suffer according to God will trust their souls to a faithful creator It can get a little difficult.

We're in verse 17, and this is chilling. And at first glance, it doesn't seem so, until you do what we've been doing throughout this series. We try to look up the Old Testament quotes, and they're not always obvious, especially in the ESV, where they don't do it all for you like the NAS, they try to. But in verse 17, after establishing all these things, after telling the people not to be surprised that suffering is coming and after having already established in chapter 1 that the suffering is actually the fiery trials that God is putting his own people through.

That God is sovereign. It's not like God's over there and the devil's putting people through trials and we're just waiting for God to swoop in like a Superman movie or one of those kinds of things. God is the one who's actually providing all this. And yes, it is a provision for your sanctification and for the glory of Christ. In verse 17 he says, For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

So turn to Ezekiel 9. We're not going to have time to exposit Ezekiel, although I've lost track of time already. I usually use my little recorder here. and I can't see it. It's not bright enough. Oh, I've got plenty of time. The nice thing about having a meal right after church with everybody is, like, literally, I know you have no place to go.

So no one can be like, come on, pal. It's not like you're going to get up and leave when I'm finished. Anyway, you're just going to go eat. But in verse 6, so Ezekiel 9, 6, I don't want to get... What I do to prep is I go through all these passages and I get all this stuff. And I remember a pastor saying once, he says, I want to teach them all this stuff.

And it's like, that's what happens is there's hours of time spent. And you only have 40 minutes or 45 minutes to explain what you want to explain. But in verse 6 of Ezekiel 9, Ezekiel is being told by God that there's going to be this judgment that comes. and there's going to be I think the Chaldeans are going to come actually and they're going to do some stuff to the Jews because the Jews have been disobedient and this is the story of the old covenant it's a non-stop, the covenant people of God don't do what they're supposed to do and they receive the curses that God promised that he would give them and curses are actually interesting in one sense we talked about this the other day they're a mercy on God's people to know that God actually follows through with his promises But you don't want the curses for yourself.

But in verse 6, God says, Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. So the first thing to note was that the group of people, old men, young men and maidens, little children and women, so if you're a little child in here, I want you to hear this. God's saying that in His judgment, these people who we normally would spend all of our efforts to protect are actually going to receive the judgment.

If somebody came in this room right now and was threatening to hurt people I know that there are a handful of men here who would the very first thing we try to do is we try to get the women and the children somehow protected. Even if it meant our own lives would be at stake. That's what normal men are supposed to do. But here, God's actually commanding those who are going to bring his judgment to kill the old men, the ones that wouldn't be able to do this type of thing, the young men, the maidens, little children, and women.

And he says, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And so we have this mark that God had them put on his people, so his people wouldn't be touched, so they wouldn't receive the judgment. And we have a similar mark in Revelation 7-3 where people are marked so that when the angels bring the judgment upon the people, that God's people are unaffected by it from a judgment perspective.

Because if you're one of God's people, you've already been judged in Christ. God doesn't have an ounce or even a drop of wrath left for you if he punished Christ in your place. So there's no such thing as judgment for God's people in an eternal sense. But he says, but touch no one on whom's the mark. But then he says what? He says, and begin at my sanctuary.

So they began with the elders who were before the house. Peter's reminiscing about this passage that God, when he brings his physical judgment on the old covenant people, he is most angry with those who profess to know him. in fact I would dare say he's more angry with the idolatry of his priests than with even the pagan nation sacrificing children it's one of the reasons why we don't fellowship with the world even in our fight against what I said was the greatest evil in abortion I shake hands but I don't hold hands with Catholics at Planned Parenthood in fact if you watched last week's video you'll see the very first thing I did was broke up their little praying to Mary meeting they were having I'm sure they were bothered by it but they heard the word preached and if any of those ladies that were standing there praying the rosary are heading to the same hell as the abortionist get saved they going to be grateful that somebody had the boldness to come up and just preach the gospel and interrupt their prayer meeting Judgment begins at the household of God Peter is about to, in chapter 5, he's going to start talking to the elders. He says, so I exhort the elders among you.

So he goes through this whole letter where he's talking to the people. And then he starts talking to the elders. And you may think, well, he starts at 5.1 to talk to the elders. but it really flows right from what we're talking about. This is why I think it was John Knox said, I've never trembled, I've never feared the devil, but I tremble every time I step in the pulpit.

It's a serious thing to be one of God's people, in particular to think you're leading God's people. And judgment is on the household of God first. God is going to start with his people, and he's going to root out the people that are not of his people. Not all Israel is of Israel. And he's going to send the judgment in this world. And so it's time, so back to 1 Peter 4, it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

He says then though, he says, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now this is where it started to get really chilling because most people I've ever heard talk about this passage they make this really big deal out of what I just made a little bit of a deal out of which was that judgment begins at the household of God that God's angry when his religious people aren't doing the right thing and that even means his own people he doesn't have anger left in any forensic sense because of Christ but God still desires that his people obey him. but this is what is scary if God's going to send persecution and fiery trials that his people have to go through what is he going to do to people who are not his people if God is going to allow the fiery trials of this world and all the difficulties and afflictions and tribulations that are common to man to happen to people who are actually his children. What's going to happen eternally to those who are not?

We quote Romans 8 a lot. If God would not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all, how much more is he going to finish your sanctification and glorification? If he didn't spare his own son, he's going to save you, is what Romans 8 is saying in about verse 33. but the corollary is true. If God didn't spare his own son, he's not going to spare you if you're not found in his son.

If you're sitting here right now and you think, well, I'm too young to be a Christian, I'm too young to believe this stuff, God says that this is the one to whom I will look, he who trembles at my word and is contrite in spirit. if the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and sinner so we said earlier in verse 6 of chapter 4 this is why the gospel is preached even to those who are now dead that though judged in the flesh the way people are they might live in the spirit the way God does that God's people will appear to be judged in the flesh because they're going to suffer and die just like other people and some of them are actually going to suffer worse even than the wicked that was Asaph's cry in Psalm 73 why do the wicked prosper and they get to be fat and happy and all these things and he was actually jealous of wicked people because of their prosperity until the end when God revealed to him that he's really fattening them up for this longer one day and then while God's people suffer the eternity that they will enjoy will be that much better because it doesn't compare to the sufferings of this world because it's so much greater that if you could have even a little glimpse of what eternity would be like you would gladly suffer now if it meant a little more glory but our focus is always on the here and now but if the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner that's a quote actually from Proverbs 11 verse 31 so if you turn there, it's kind of interesting because this gets into Bible translation and interpretation a little because in Proverbs 11 verse 31 the writer I think Solomon says if the righteous is repaid on earth how much more the wicked and the sinner well that doesn't sound like that but Peter says if the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner Peter is actually word by word quoting the Greek translation of the Old Testament the one that he would have used which validates what that says for sure but it says the same thing if you inspect it if the righteous is repaid on earth or if the righteous is scarcely saved if God's people enter into heaven through much affliction if God's people have to go through the valley of the shadow of death if they have to go through the valley of Baca right like in Psalm 84 if God's people have to go through heaven through affliction and tears if on this earth God's people are not rewarded because they're God's people basically how much more will the wicked and the sinner be repaid in eternity so this is the chilling of it to me is this fearfulness knowing the terror of the Lord we warn people right and so what we want to do is we want to turn to Psalm 58 we want to remind ourselves in the end of Psalm 58 which we're going to look at during communion, we'll look at the whole thing momentarily. At the end though, in verse 11, the psalmist says, mankind will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous. Surely there is a God who judges on earth.

That is our hope actually. but your hope of salvation one day, your hope to be delivered from this body of death, those of you who are actually suffering from the weight of your own sin, who are suffering from the afflictions of this world, and those of you who actually can say like we talked about last week, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, or two weeks ago, those of you who really wish that it would all end, you have to remember that your glorification means judgment for everyone else. Just like when Noah got in that ark, It says, Noah judged the world when he got in that ark. This is a serious thing.

How much more the ungodly and the sinner. Turn to Psalm 1, which we just sang. Hopefully you all have it memorized. If you don't, memorize it. Sing the song. I'll share the MP3 with you.

You can learn the song. He says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers but is delighted in the law of Yahweh and on his law he meditates day and night. This is Jesus Christ. That's the man who does that. You don't do it. So if you read Psalm 1 and think, well here's my instruction so I can be a good person, you're missing the point of the whole Bible, which is that Jesus Christ is who the Bible was written about, it's who it was written to tell us about.

He's the blessed man. He's like a tree planted by streams of water and yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers. But if you are a Christian today, you have been placed in Jesus Christ. You've been baptized into him by the Holy Spirit and you get to identify with everything he identifies with. So if you want to identify with his suffering so that you can be glorified with him, you identify with him in these ways and you try to live a life that shows that you actually want to be like him.

But listen to what it says, the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. So you look around you and you see wicked people prospering. Don't be jealous. They're the ones that should be jealous. They're the ones that should be jealous, but they don't have eyes to see it. They will not stand in the judgment.

The wicked won't. Sinners won't stand in the congregation of the righteous. Peter's telling us to be heavenly minded. don't be so focused on temporal things and earthly things because Psalm 1 6 Yahweh knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish I don't know if anybody in this room is going to be a superstar one day maybe one of you guys will be a superstar and you'll get on Twitter and you'll get arrested for something and there will be hundreds of thousands of people posting your name around the place, but we'll do this.

I'm not a betting man, but I'll just bet none of you will be. That anyone in this room that ends up suffering is going to suffer a little bit silently. You won't be made famous for it. You won't get a book contract. You may not even get out. You may lose friends, family.

You may even have people at your church who you know are judging you and thinking that you did it to yourself. Are you ready to suffer all by yourself with only you and the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he enough for you? Some of you little kids, you have no idea what's coming. We thought we'd have flying cars by now when we were your age, okay? Seriously, we really thought, I thought I'd have flying cars that would deliver me pizza.

And here we are, and now we're talking about, okay, is the dollar about to tank completely? Are we going to have gigantic power outages around our country and people trying to control us in all sorts of different ways? And are people going to pretty soon prevent you from being able to homeschool or even travel? Or all these different things that we've taken for granted.

And some of you kids are going to grow up in a world where standing up and saying that you believe God created the world and that Jesus Christ was a real man who came and died and rose again is actually going to get you mocked so hard that it's going to make you cry. and you're going to feel so alone and there's not going to be another Christian standing there to pat you on the back or maybe the one that you thought was with you is going to run the other way and you need to be ready to in your heart know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and that he is enough for you the first thing persecutors do is separate people they separate parents from children, husbands from wives and Christians from other Christians. They're going to separate you. You have to have Jesus.

So Peter tells us, Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Peter reminds us of a number of things. One, he reminds us that God's the creator. That's one of the first things that you will be tempted to be ashamed of in this world is that God's the creator. Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in it.

It wasn't evolution. It wasn't millions of years or billions or whatever the new science is tomorrow. God made them male and female. There's a number of things that we know for a fact because God's creator and he described creation for us. Second of all, he tells us that we're going to suffer according to God's will. don be tempted to start thinking that God has turned his back on you because you suffering Your suffering is actually an indicator that he loves you When you suffer as a Christian, it's not because God has abandoned you.

It's because he's giving it to you because he loves you. And if for a moment you think he turns his back on Christians, then that means that you think he turns his back on his son. And he doesn't. God sends us our suffering so that we can know Him better. Some of you would have never even come to faith in Christ if it wasn't for the difficulties in your life.

Because He loved you so much, He didn't let you enjoy your sin for long. And the most judgmental thing God does is let people enjoy their sin. so when you suffer you trust that God ordained it that he willed it, that he's in control of it and nobody's going to touch a hair on your head unless he gives them permission and if he gives them permission then praise the Lord that you get to suffer like his son when Jesus Christ came into the world He said, repent for the kingdom is at hand. He said, believe the gospel.

He kept talking about this kingdom thing. And there's all sorts of, I don't know how to put it, weird thoughts about what the kingdom is and stuff like that. But Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Yahweh God of the Old Testament. He's the one who was all the Christophanies. He's the one who was leading the people of Israel all through the wilderness.

He was the rock that followed them. He is the sum total of everything. He's the object of our faith. He's the author of our faith, the perfecter of our faith. And he's the king of kings. And he's the king of this world.

And Jesus Christ has come into the world and he announced that he is the king and that he is the savior. And the Jews of his time misunderstood everything and they thought he was going to overthrow the Roman government and they were going to have this earthly king. Because everything is always earthly. And if you read through the gospels, it's just everybody is earthly, carnal.

They're just thinking carnally. Nobody's thinking spiritually. And Jesus is telling them things plainly over and over. And he's using all these obvious metaphors. And then he's explaining this stuff to them. And all they can do is think carnally.

And Jesus Christ then dies on the cross. Thereby making peace. Killing the hostility between Jews and Gentiles. And frankly between any ethnicities that want to have hostility. And Jesus Christ is the king. And he comes into the world.

And he says, I'm the prince of peace. Believe in me and you can have forgiveness of sins. Believe I died for your sins. that God punished me on the cross and that I lived the perfect life. You couldn't live so you could be saved. And then when I died, I rose again showing that my sacrifice was perfect and God can commute your sentence. God can forgive you because you are found in me and I'm your advocate.

I'm your mediator. And Jesus Christ, he offers this peace to the whole world. I get the elect part. I know how that works, but that's our goal. We go to the whole world and we announce the peace of God is found in Jesus Christ. Blessed are the peacemakers.

For they should be called sons of God. And Jesus Christ said, so we go out into the world, and you go out into the world, Lord willing, and if you don't, I hope you do, and you tell people about Jesus. You love people enough that if you have to, you imagine them consumed by fire for all eternity, or even for five seconds, and you realize, I better open my mouth because I don't know if this person is going to drop dead now, or Jesus is going to return before I get to tell them about what he did.

And we have this message of peace, but it is an absolute interruption into the kingdom of this world. There is a God of this world that's referred to in 2 Corinthians 4 and I do think that's Satan. I know it's a textual thing sometimes but there's a God of this world who thinks he's the king. And he's been given a little control to have a little fun. And there's people in this world that hate our God that this is their kingdom.

This is their little place where they get to be in charge. And when you walk around and you tell people the gospel, whether you even use the words or not, people know that you're announcing that there's another king. And this is actually his domain, and the earth is Yahweh's in the fullness thereof. And whether it's Mike DeWine or Joe Biden or Donald Trump or the Queen of England or all these different people, the guy in Canada that's putting people in jail for preaching the gospel and having church, whoever it is, they know that Jesus is a threat to their kingdom, just like Herod knew it, and they hate them.

And so when you announce these things, do not be surprised if the world hates you. Do not be surprised. You should recognize that you're walking into a battlefield. And God expects all of us to go into that battlefield with his armor. And he's told us how to put on the armor of God. and you need to recognize that you should not be surprised when even principalities and rulers and authorities and spiritual places and cosmic powers over this present darkness oppose you.

So don't be surprised. Put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6. That you may withstand the schemes of the devil. Let me pray. Lord in heaven, we desire that you would do the work in us that only you can do and that is to encourage our hearts that we may obey your commands.

I pray for the people in this room who have listened to this sermon that your spirit would use it effectually in the hearts of those who believe and that your spirit would regenerate those who do not. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.