Snapshots of the Wordly

pictures, photos. And what I
want to look at this morning is snapshots of the worldly,
which I hope is not a parallel of the snapshots that you can
look at at Sunday school. What I envisioned as I looked
through this passage is various scenes that are laid out for
us purposefully by Peter of the worldly, of those who do not
know or love Christ. As I said, I hope the parallel
with our own trip stops there. But turn, if you would, to First
Peter, chapter four, the passage we’ve been in for a number of
weeks. And we will spend just a few
more minutes in it this morning. We looked at verses 1-3 last
time, and in order to do so, I took you all the way back to
chapter 3, verse 13. The whole book is about persecution.
It’s about suffering. From the opening words of Peter’s
epistle, we’ve been reminded that Peter was talking to aliens
and strangers, people who didn’t fit. And that was a good thing.
They didn’t belong in the world. They had a new master. They had
new priorities. They had new passions and desires. And in a sense, they didn’t fit
in in the world. And so we go back, if you would,
all the way back to chapter 3 and verse 13, where Peter asked them,
who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?
And with that, he began this great section which carries all
the way through the passage that we’ll consider this morning.
Instructions to the oppressed. How are we to handle persecution? And today, finally, he will actually
address the persecutors themselves. And he will bring them into focus
and give us a few snapshots. The first piece of advice that
Peter gave us is that we are to be reasonable. We’re supposed
to remember who we serve. Who is there to harm us? Ultimately,
our souls Who is there to harm us if we prove zealous for what
is good? Secondly, he said, be assured,
because the smile of God awaits. Look at verse 14. But even if
you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. God is watching. God has a purpose
in this, a design, and he will honor that. Not only that, not
only be reasonable and assured, but be composed, be fearless
in the face of opposition. Do not fear their intimidation
at the end of verse 14. Do not be troubled. Don’t let
them see you stirred by the events of the day. But sanctify Christ,
be devoted to Christ. And here he begins to talk about
that submission to Christ and to your earthly circumstances
that issues forth in proclamation. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your
hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, yet
with gentleness and reverence. And finally, Peter’s advice was
to be clean, be innocent, keep a good conscience so that in
the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior
in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better If God should
will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than
for doing what is wrong.” Everybody suffers. Everybody is going to
encounter difficulty. Everybody is going to encounter
great difficulty and trials. The unbeliever, through the consequences
that he reaps because of his sinful choices. The Christian,
for doing what is right. And that context carries through
to the passage that we find ourselves in this morning. Now, Paul goes
on and Peter goes on here and details a great deal of of matter
that we’ve spent a long time on, including the waters of baptism. But what I want to take you to
directly is as Peter turns the corner here into chapter 14 or
chapter four in chapter four, verse one, Peter essentially
begins to summarize where we’ve been. Look at verse one of chapter
four. Therefore, since Christ has suffered
in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose. We
are to suffer because Christ suffered. If it was good enough
for Christ, it will be good enough for us. Therefore, since Christ
has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same
purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer
for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time
already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire
of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust,
drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.”
He paints that horrid life of the unbeliever whose idols are
many and destructive. We looked at it three weeks ago. that this is Peter’s cause here. It is sanctified suffering. There
is a purpose to our suffering. And it’s Peter’s intent to point
that out to us, that there is a reason for our suffering. And
the reasons given there are quite clear. First of all, our testimony
needs verification. It’s easy to make a verbal testimony. It’s much more difficult to carry
that out in perseverance before the Lord. Since Christ has suffered
in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same purpose, because
He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Our life
is also in need of a change of mastery, we saw. So as to live
the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men,
but for the will of God. We have a different master, a
new master, a holy master who calls us to live as Christ lived. And finally, our sin has need
of mortification. That’s the purpose in sufferings.
To verify our testimony, to test our allegiance and to help us
by God’s grace to put to death sin. And it’s in that context
that Peter says, and in all this, verse four, they are surprised
that you do not run with them and they malign you. pardon me,
and they do not that you do not run with them into the same excessive
dissipation and they malign you. But they shall give an account
to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For
the gospel has for this purpose been preached, even to those
who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men,
they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. Peter wanted to give his precious
church that was suffering under already difficult and expected
to increase. And historically, we know that
persecution got much, much worse. But they were already experiencing
the great throes of persecution. And what Peter wanted to give
his precious church is another encouragement that, look, your
persecutors are not going to have their way forever. Your
persecutors are not going to be malignant forever. One day,
they too will stand before God. And Peter, I think, even with
a sense of just grave, grave concern for their souls, uttered
this. That they are going to stand
before the judgment seat of God. You can bear up with this. And
he even gives an encouragement at the end to Christians, as
we’ll see. What he gives us is some observations,
just glimpses, snapshots, if you will, into the enemies of
Christ and Christians. And I say that because you have
to remember that first and foremost, they are not your enemies. We
take it all too personally. I suppose it’s noble to want
to step in front of Christ, but it’s ultimately Christ that is
the object of their hatred. Sometimes we just happen to be
in the way. We happen to be suffering for
the sake of righteousness. But it’s Christ that they want. It’s Christ that they hate. Snapshots into the life of the
worldly. Snapshots, I suppose you could
even call it, into the life of the persecutor, because that’s
what’s in Peter’s mind. that with regards to Christians,
when we turn away from our sinful life and we turn to Christ, persecutors
become animated. And what he wants to give us
is just three snapshots into what happens to the life of the
ungodly persecutor when they’re faced with a Christian. First
of all, they are astonished. They’re astonished. Look at this
word, verse four. And in all this, they are surprised
that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation.
Now, I suppose what you could have in your mind is, you know,
you come to Christ, you’re converted and your good friend, Joe, calls
you on the phone and says, hey, come with me to the party. And
you say, no, I don’t go to the parties anymore. I’ve become
a Christian. And he’s surprised. Oh, gosh,
I’m surprised. Our word surprise doesn’t even
hold a candle to the intensity and the meaning of this word,
as you’ll see in a moment. Let me take you to the context.
In the act of baptism, about which Peter has just spoken,
remember, if you look back to the end of chapter three, the
new man is identified with Christ. He shares in the sufferings and
even the death of Christ, remember? And he shares with Christ’s risen
life and his risen power. And because of that, he is a
victor over sin. Not because of his own ability,
but because of Christ’s. When that happens, this individual
is already in a state of having begun to bid farewell to his
sin and his sinful life. Not just sin in general, but
even the specifics. And it’s the specifics that bother
the worldly people. As one said, the rule of pleasure,
pride and passion is gone. The rule of God has begun. But
this isn’t an easy task. This isn’t just stepping away
from the world. OK, I’m a Christian now. You
have all the forces of evil poured out upon you. You have all the
demonic forces to mitigate against you. You have all of your friends
who are willing participants in that. And so our friends, our former
friends, sometimes it’s a hard break. We would like to see them
come to Christ. We still love them. We still
count some kind of camaraderie with them, but it’s not the same
kind anymore. And yet we care for them. Sometimes
we’ve grown up with them and spent years walking and living
with them. But our friends don’t like our
newfound lifestyle. They don’t like our Christianity.
They don’t like our Puritan lifestyle. They don’t like us and they call
us names, goody two-shoes and the rest. Any Christian, any Christian
who has come to Christ in the midst of that course, as I did,
knows the catcalls. You know the life of the persecutor,
as we’ll see in a moment. But any true Christian also knows
that there is a judge who is watching. There is a judge who
is watching and that’s exactly what’s in view in this passage.
Ultimately, the judgments of earth and heaven will come into
collision and the judgments of earth will be reversed and the
judgments of heaven will carry through for eternity. And all these stresses and struggles that we
endure in this life will meet with the smile of God But in
the meantime, we come face to face with our friend. Come face to face with our lifelong
friend. I’ve lost so many, I began to
lose count. They are surprised. And I told
you that our modern word doesn’t even come close to the original
Greek. Originally, it meant to entertain like you’re entertaining
a stranger. And what you begin to get a glimpse
of in that word is surprise of such a kind, almost like the
Good Samaritan, right? Who took the poor, beaten individual
to an inn and plunked down his own purse and said, whatever
it costs. It’s that kind of a surprise. You’re doing this for me? The word means to astonish, to
utterly shock. They can’t even fathom that you
would get off this merry-go-round of a party called life and get
out of all of the fun that we have and go and walk with those
people. They’re utterly shocked. The meaning of this little word
ranges from everything from being surprised or entertained by the
novelty of some new thing, or being utterly surprised and upset
at a new turn of events. And that’s what you get. They’re
shocked. They’re stunned. They’re taken aback. And you
know what? They take it personally, don’t
they? Because all of a sudden you see that your friendship
was built on sin. That’s what it was built on.
It was woven through and through. The whole fabric of your friendship
is woven with idolatrous sin. And suddenly, they see that you’re
tearing away at that fabric. And it hurts just like if a romance
is to break up. It hurts them. It hurts them
to see you tear away at the fabric of this friendship. As they came to Christ, as they
come to Christ, even in our day and age, we’re compelled, aren’t
we, to walk with Christ. We’re compelled to put off the
old man and to put away sin and sinful practices and all of those
social pleasures that feed into that. The nonbeliever hates this kind
of lifestyle. Even until I was probably five
or six years old in the Christian life, even the word puritanism
or puritanical has a dirty and disdainful connotation, doesn’t
it? In the minds of the those who do not know Christ. And then. Through a course of a number
of professor friends of mine, he began to read into the lives
of the so-called puritans. And I began to see that these
were noble, godly, humble people who loved God intensely. And then I began to understand
why the Word has reached the level of mockery among the ungodly. They hate the lifestyle. They
hate those who walk like Christ walks. They hate those who love
what Christ loves. One said it this way. When these
Christians abandoned such sins, as is just mentioned, sensuality,
lust, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, abominable
idolatries, their fellow sinners, still unregenerate, were surprised,
astonished, shocked with the connotation of taking offense
or being resentful. They resent your Christianity.
How could you dare love somebody more than them? Sin was such
a normal lifestyle for the unbelievers that they were not only amazed
that the Christians lives had changed so totally, they resented
the fact that the new believers no longer went with them. I can
remember people, I’m not going to give you all gory details
because I don’t want to glorify that part of my life. But I can
remember being saved halfway through college and the lifestyle
that God saved me out of. And merely to go there and not
participate, to be among my friends and not participate in all the
things they were doing was immediately and utterly convicting to them.
And they didn’t want me there. If I wasn’t going to play, they
didn’t want me. They’re surprised that you do
not run with them. And it literally means to run
in company with, to participate, to have that grand old fellowship
that you can only have in that group, to tramp around and troop
around with others like a band of revelers. That’s the nature
of the word. And what it expresses is this
blind hurriedness of the wicked, evil man who rushes headlong
into his pleasure. It’s almost like, you know, are
you coming with us or not? And the resentment is there.
And if you’re not, goodbye, I got to go. And what it reminds me
of is how to catch a crawdad. I think I’ve shared this story
before. You know how to catch a crawdad? It’s simple. Tie a
string around a piece of bacon and throw it in the water. and
sit around and wait about 15 or 20 minutes. And as you pull
the string out, the crawdads are coming with it and they will
not let go. To me, what a graphic image of the life of the world.
They won’t even pause to hear you talk about why you went off
this merry-go-round, this rat race, this ungodly course to
hell. They won’t even listen. They’re
hanging on for dear life to the very thing that’s going to take
them to the pit. One Puritan said it this way,
it does not satisfy graceless persons to go at leisure into
their way of destruction. But being acted upon by that
violent spirit of Satan, they make all the haste they can to
wear their own ruin as men in a race do for a great prize.
and they will not spare to spend their bodies and spirits in waste
of their means in the service of lusts, and they cannot be
satisfied with any that will not do likewise.” If you’re not
coming, fine, but I’ve got to go. That’s the message. And how
many of us, heartbreakingly, have lost friends at least friend
with a small f, to exactly that. No wonder Peter calls us strangers
and aliens. We’re just passing through. We
don’t share the same loves, the same values, the same aspirations
of the entire society around us. We don’t fit into the social
fabric anymore and we tear away when we come to Christ. Look at it again. They’re surprised
that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation. That’s an interesting word itself.
It’s built on the word salvation. Can you imagine this word dissipation? Sotia. is taken from the word
where we get our study of soteriology, the study of salvation. But there’s
an interesting little article placed on the front of it, the
letter A, Ah Sotia, and what it speaks of is just a wastefulness,
an utter wastefulness of living, an abandoned, dissolute life
that is profligate, prodigal, we would call it. It occurs in
a number of places. Ephesians 5.18, do not get drunk
on wine, which leads to debauchery. Titus 1.6, an elder must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, a man whose children believe are not
open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. The image that
stands out in my mind is the prodigal son used repeatedly
there of him. turning and just spending his
life just wastefully and not just his monetary things, but
his life itself, wasting his life. One great translator and commentator
translated this by the word slough. If you’re familiar with Pilgrim’s
Progress, the slough of Despond, it’s a swamp. It’s filled with
muck and mud. And what he refers to here is
a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection into which
one sinks, but he cannot free himself. He’s stuck. One described it as a euphoric
stampede of pleasure seekers. That’s cute. One described it
as an outpouring of debauchery drawn from what was observed
in the rushing floodwaters of excavations into the land. What
you had is this sandstone, this gravel. And when the rains would
come down, it would cut a gully almost instantly. But what an
image, what a horrible image Peter presents here of the life
of the ungodly rushing headlong into a life of sin. The people
of the world, Our former friends thought it absurd, shocking,
utterly, when all of a sudden they decided not to run with
them. One pastor said that men that
are left of God to live in any sinful course are very unwilling
that any should part company with them in their way They are
strongly desirous to have others infected with their sins so that
there might be none to make them ashamed and many to encourage
them in their evil way.” That should come as no surprise to
us, should it? There’s a second snapshot given
here in the life of the persecutor. That with regard to the Christians
who turn from a sinful life to Christ, persecutors are not only
astonished, they’re verbally abusive. And I’m sure that any
who have lost a friend, so-called, because of your Christianity
know exactly what Peter refers to here. It’s not just name calling
and poking fun, but you’ve actually had them blaspheme Christ. You’ve
actually had them harshly criticize the things that you hold dear,
your Bible. I remember coming home from college
one day and my roommate had written, scribbled in, in kind of a drunken
state, scribbled in one of my Bibles. They malign you. It’s an interesting
word because it’s often used of God. Blaspheme. They’re blaspheming
you, which means ultimately you’re not even in view. As I said,
the one they hate is Christ. You just happen to be in a way.
They malign you. This word is used of evil speaking,
both of sacred persons, the Godhead, or things, or sacred things,
or even of people. These one-time friends of ours
suddenly are turned to enemies, aren’t they? And they put us
down with their words. They blasphemous. They slander
us. They defame us. They’ll even invent things about
us. They’ll let forth with anything from our past, whether it’s true
or not. And it was because of the Christians’
desire to walk with Christ and their reluctance to step away
from these societally approved events, these amusements, these
ungodly ceremonies. It’s because of all that that
draws out the hatred through their mouth. One commentator said it this
way, unbelievers are surprised that believers do not participate
in what they consider to be normal cultural activities. Right. This
is part of the rite of passage to go drink all that we can and
to get so drunken that we can’t even spell our own name. This
rite of passage. Right. I think there’s even a
course over at the school on it. Some of you skipped that
course. In response to that, they criticize,
they defame and they revile believers and thereby also the God they
worship. Unbelievers were first puzzled,
then outraged by the failure of believers to participate in
activities that were a normal part of the culture. Listen to
this. Pagans feel this way because
idolatry was woven in almost every dimension of their lives.
from life in the home, to public festivals, to religious observances,
even social occasions. The public festivals in which
gods were venerated were considered a civic duty. And people don’t
think for a minute that the life and lifestyle of the ungodly
today is any less focused on idolatry. It’s merely idolatry
of self. And your decision is a decision
not to worship the idolatry of hedonism or the idolatry of self
any longer. He concludes. The veneration
of the emperor was simply a mark of good citizenship, and those
who failed to participate would be considered as social outcasts. The readers were mistreated by
being socially outcast at a bare minimum. They did the same thing
to Jesus, right? They did the same thing to Paul. The ungodly man thinks that the
Christly man’s conduct is strange, and so perhaps, you know, almost
the worst thing is to be ignored altogether. They don’t talk to
you. They don’t interact with you.
You’re just persona non grata from here on out. It’s not only
that, but he’s aggravated by it. And sometimes by God’s grace,
it leads him to inquire. That’s what it’s all about. Be
ready to give an account for the hope that is within you,
right? The illustrations are so plenteous here, even from
my own life. You know what it’s like to be
maligned for your faith. You know what it’s all about.
To be ridiculed for getting up early on a Sunday morning. For
not going with people and certain courses of behavior. To be challenged. To be joked with. Almost from
my earliest days, long before I ever went to seminary, I was
called reverend, which term I still dislike. Jesus freak. That’s an older
one from my day. Ungodly men can’t stand that somebody might be in better
space than them Partly because of their natural hatred for Christ,
and partly because their way, their course of conduct is shamed
by our presence, just like Christ did to His enemies. John 7, the
world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that
what it does is evil. I mean, try walking into your
average college party and saying, Friends, friends, what we’re
doing is simply contrary to God’s Word. I mean, you’d probably
get thrown out and beaten in the course of it. Therefore,
they devise and spread lies to hurt our godly name. There’s a third snapshot in the
life of the worldly. This life of the persecutor that
with regards to Christians who turn away from a sinful life,
persecutors are not only astonished and verbally abusive, but thirdly,
they are drawing ever nearer to judgment. That’s the snapshot
that Peter wants us to have in closing. That’s, in a sense,
the encouragement that he wants to leave us with. that look,
things are not going to continue just as they are, seemingly out
of control. This is the same message that
so often occupied the prophets. Look, be patient. Wait on God. Even Psalm 34, I said there were
a number of parallels this morning. Psalm 34 said it this way. At
the end of John’s psalm, Many of the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps
all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Evil
shall slay the wicked and those who hate righteousness will be
condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of
his servants and none of those who take refuge in him will be
condemned. The thought is replete without
throughout Scripture. But here, Peter uses this thought
to encourage the lives of believers. Look at verse 5. They shall give an account to
him. I mean, what a frightening, frightening
thought is that? And don’t be so self-centered
as to think that it’s all about the hurt and hurtful words that
they dished out to you. They have so much more to give
an account for than their hurtful words to you. It’s their attitude towards Christ
that is most in view here. They shall give an account to
him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. This is courtroom language. He says they’re going to be called
to the witness stand and God himself is going to say, OK,
now tell me, tell me about this life that you lived. Tell me
about these words that came from your mouth. Tell me about this
life and lifestyle. The life of holiness. The life
of a Christian is going to be the charge, if you will, that
sets off the opposition. And it issues forth in not only
misinterpretation and abuse, but all that we have to remember
through all that, that God ultimately is the judge. We’re going to
be slandered and abused and mistreated. But the hope through all that
is that there is a good and righteous judge that sees all and will
deal with all. The people of the world here
are going to give an account to God who is holding himself,
it’s almost like God is already in the chambers, right? He’s
already ready to judge. He is ready to judge the living
and the dead. His robe is on. The gavel is
in his hand. He’s ready to call court. And
when he does, each one of these is going to give an account. malignancy that we get from them,
these hurtful words. That’s just, as I said, such
a small part, but it’s contributing to the great mass of debt that
they’re accumulating for themselves against God. And that’s exactly
what God’s going to call them to give an account for one day.
One said it this way, although a long-suffering God may let
wicked men live a long time, prospering in their sinful ways,
persecuting His beloved people, and He may defer His reckoning
with them. Yet, of necessity, they must
all at last appear before Him as their judge at the great day.
People, you know this to be throughout the Scriptures, but Romans 14. Romans 49, for to this end Christ
died and lived again, that he might be both the Lord of the
dead and the living. They will answer to him one day.
Acts 10, verse 40. God raised him up on the third
day and granted that he should become visible and not to all
the people, but to witness who were chosen beforehand by God.
That is to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the
dead. And he ordered us to preach to the people and to solemnly
testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead. Christ. And God is someday going
to hear from every single soul that ever walked the earth. Matthew 25, when the Son of Man
comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit
on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered
before Him. He will separate the people from one another as
a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the
sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then he will say to those on
his left, Matthew 25, 41, depart from me, you who are accursed
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
This is the language of Scripture, people. And what Peter just points
them to is, look, there is a judgment day. This is a merciful cry. This is a cry to us to be humble,
to be compassionate on souls, to live among them, not to provoke
them, but so that they might, in a quiet moment, in a darkened
room, when their friends aren’t around, when life is crashing
and crushing them, they might look to you and say, give an
account. Tell me why you’re so hopeful.
Because I have none. Peter closes it out with this
great encouragement. It doesn’t seem like it on the
face of it. In fact, it seems confusing to some and strange
doctrines have been built upon it. Verse six, for this reason,
pardon me, for the gospel has for this purpose been preached
even to those who are dead. And you say, oh, yay, there’s
a second chance. Not so fast, but the gospel has
for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead. that
though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in
the spirit according to the will of God. Some have said, because they’re
so uncomfortable with this idea, that what Peter’s referring to
is the fact that all are dead in sin and that anybody who’s
ever heard the gospel is dead in sin and the regenerating power
of the Holy Spirit comes down and awakens them and they come
to see their sin for what it is and they see Christ for who
it is and they can’t help but embrace Him. All that’s true.
It just doesn’t have anything to do with this passage. He’s
not referring to those who are dead in sin. There’s a second consideration
that might be made. It refers to all the dead who
ever lived And now are dead at the time of Christ and at his
resurrection, before his resurrection, he went down into hell and preached
to them some kind of gospel of second chance. And as I said,
strange, strange isn’t even strong enough word, ridiculous are all
the doctrines that have come out of that kind of a thing.
This is where universalism comes from. that look, you know, you’re
going to go to this way station. There’s purgatory for the Roman
Catholic Church. It’s not surprising that they
would find that here. It basically proceeds, the understanding
of this proceeds on two points, and they’re both we can poke
holes instantly. First of all, that God has no
right to punish men who’ve never heard the gospel. That’s one
fallacy, and secondly, that even those who’ve heard and rejected
the gospel might have a second chance. And, you know, in our
natural spirit, we kind of like that. Oh, that’s kind of a relief,
isn’t it? The only problem is Scripture. Even if I only had one and I’m
only going to give one, Hebrews 9.27, it’s enough. It has been
appointed that man is destined to die once and after that to
face judgment. One time. You die once and then
you’re judged. The die is cast. The lot is cast. That is what you are. And that
is what you will face for eternity. Don’t be caught up in the gospel
of a second chance. There isn’t one. There isn’t
one for Uncle Joe. There isn’t one for your beloved
neighbor. And so what does it mean if it doesn’t refer to being
dead in sin, and it doesn’t refer to all the dead who ever lived.
What does it refer to? It’s simple. It refers to Christians
who had the people who had the gospel preached
to them, came to Christ and are now dead. What Peter is doing
is referring to them who were probably even martyrs, and he’s
saying they are already now in the presence of God. They’ve
been judged in the flesh, but now they are living in the Spirit
according to the will of God. This was all part of God’s design
and should be a great encouragement to you. These are Christians.
It refers to Christian believers who had died. The gospel had
been preached to them. They became Christians. And as
a result, they’d been judged while on the earth. And the judgment
was a form of persecution. And as martyrs now, they went
to be with God, even if they died of old age, they were now
in the presence of glory. He says this is an encouragement
for us people. It’s an encouragement. This thought of judgment is a
consolation to believers that regardless of what the world
dishes out to us in the here and now, We have a testimony
of those who have already gone and are in glory now. So, Peter
writes, the testify of the goodness and mercy of God, that His righteousness
stands. It’s the very reason that the
gospel was preached to those who are now departed, because
now they are already enjoying eternal life. The parallel passage
here, 1 Thessalonians 4, Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant
about those who fall asleep or grieve like the rest of men who
have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and
rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus
those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s
own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are
left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede
those who have fallen asleep. What a great encouragement. Not even death itself, if they
were able to put us to death for our Christianity, for Christ.
So it almost goes to the argument of the absurd
where if not even putting us to death can ultimately harm
our souls and take us off of the course to glory, which God
has purposed for us through the gospel of Christ, Then what can
these mere words, these malignant words do to us? Let’s bow. O Lord, we bow before you and rejoice
at the purpose that Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
wrote these words. that he no doubt had a congregation
who was weary, perhaps even tempted and already dipping back into
the life they once knew and had proposed to leave for Christ.
And now we’re tempted to re-engage with the world and hook back
up with old friends. Oh, Lord God, We pray that we
might draw the same encouragement that Peter intended for these
first century believers, that you are a righteous judge who
will judge each man according to his work. And Father, your
eyes look to and fro, your gaze is everywhere, you see the unbelievers
and the hatred that they have ultimately for Christ, but also
to us. You hear their words. Lord, we
do not wish it upon them, but we count it to be a fact, a solemn
fact, that one day they will give an account for those deeds. Father, make us to be humble.
Make us to be perseverant by your grace. Make us to have a
testimony that pierces through the darkness and touches some
of these even that have been in our minds during the course
of this message. Grant us Your grace, Lord, to
live for Your glory. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen. I never wished to meet a man
to love.