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Well, a little bit of extremes
here. Last Lord's Day I was in Fresno,
and for the first time, I had to scrape the ash off my Bible
between Scripture readings as it was coming down on us. Today,
I find myself praying a prayer that a friend and mentor of my
father prayed one night in their home as the furnace had gone
out in the dead of winter in Ohio. and bless this meal quick
before it freezes. So as we come to God's Word,
I pray that your attention is fresh and crisp like the air,
and that your souls are warmed as the sun shines upon you. We
are in 1 Peter 5, verses 10 and 11. Let us turn our attention
now God's Word again as I read these
two verses. Hear God's Word, my friends.
But after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who
has called us to His eternal glory through Christ Jesus will
restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen. About the time I was in middle
school, my dad developed this really strange and at the time
very annoying habit. Any who know my driving habits
know that I always like to know more than one way to get from
point A to point B. If I have to go out to Mount
Airy or Westminster, there's really no guarantee of which
way I'll go. Because I know about seven or
eight ways from where I live in West Laurel out there. I love
to take different ways. But my dad had always been a
creature of habit. And he'd always taken the same
way no matter wherever we were going. But then all of a sudden
one day, he started taking different ways. to get to where we're going
or just start going on what seemed like random excursions in the
middle of being out and about doing things. And so we would
ask and would say, Dad, where are we going? And he responded this way. For
a while. So my brother and I are in the
back seat debating, probably much like the scribes and Pharisees.
For a while, is this guy crazy? That's not what we asked. We
didn't ask, how long are we going this way? We asked, why? Where
are we going? We had this very strange habit
of just answering, for a while. We realized, Dad doesn't want
to tell us why we're going this way. He's distracting us from
the point. Sometimes we turn to our Heavenly
Father on the path of life. And we ask, Father, why are we
going this way? Why am I suffering? Where are we going with this? Why is this the path that we
have to be on? And friends, not being evasive
and not avoiding the point, but our Heavenly Father answers for
a while. The scriptural context It clearly
says that this is not an evasion on the part of our God. But it
is a promise worth holding on to in the days to come. And there are four points for
you today, and all of them are calling you to remember. And that is because while we
suffer, we easily forget. We forget reality. We forget
purpose. We forget joy. We forget truth. And today I want to call you
to remember the promise that God has given you in the midst
of uncertainty, in the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering,
as He answers your question with that two-word oddity for a while. For a while. First, I want to call you to
remember the context of this promise. The two verses just
previous to this that we handled nearly a month ago now. Be sober and watchful because
your adversary the devil walks around as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. Resist him firmly in the faith
knowing that the same afflictions are experienced by your brotherhood
throughout the world. but after you have suffered a
little while. Friends, we are formulaic people. We like to know that if I just
ABC, then God will XYZ. And we want to know that every
time we do it, He responds exactly the same in our circumstances,
and in the blessing, and all of that. And there is a temptation
in our hearts and minds to say, okay, be sober and watchful. If I resist the devil firmly
in the faith, if I understand that others around the world
are suffering, then I won't suffer. Or I won't suffer as much if
I just ABC, then God will XYZ. And then I can get out of this
situation, PDQ. But friends, I want you to be
careful. In your application of Scripture. Because you can perfectly obey. Versus eight and nine. and still not avoid verse 10. How can I say that? I can say
that because of my Savior, my perfect Savior, Jesus, who suffered. He suffered in this life, much
like we do in harassments and with enemies, but He didn't deserve
any of that suffering. And he suffered for me. So that
I might experience his glory. And that's number two, I want
you to remember the contrast in this promise, it's a. contrast
that we find throughout Scripture. But after you have suffered a
little while, the God of all grace, who has called us to His
eternal glory through Christ Jesus. There is the contrast.
Suffering versus glory. Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 reminds
us, he says, our light affliction, which lasts for a moment, works
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. This is the same Paul who experienced
prison after prison, beating after beating, shipwreck, hunger,
snake bites, the whole nine yards. This is the Paul saying this
affliction is light and momentary. That's when I come to that classic
applicational question of Scripture. What's your problem, Joel? What
are you afraid of? And Paul reminds us that the
suffering in no way outweighs the glory. That on that last
great day, God will not just bring the negatives of this life
up to zero and the game starts over. No, he takes all the suffering
and negativity and hurts and harassments of this life, and
he turns them upside down into glories and blessings for us
through all of eternity. The crosses become crowns. The suffering is translated into
glory. And believe me, brothers and
sisters, when I say that you will suffer. It's in the language
here, but after you have suffered a little, that's a sentence you
don't like to read. Because there's great promise,
but it means that there is great travail to be passed through
on the way to the promise. You will suffer, and I know this,
and how can I say that? Again, because of our Savior,
Jesus. We can say this because of the
Apostle Paul. We can say this because of King
David. We can say this because of Father Abraham. He's reminded recently again
of the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that
he would obtain the land. Remember, the first plot of land
that he owned in the promised land was the cemetery plot of
his dear beloved wife. How is that for a fulfillment
of a promise? There is suffering in this life. All of the apostles, all of the
faithful martyrs. And yet in all of the suffering
of God's people, in all ages of the church. Ultimately, that
suffering is turned on its head and it is converted to glory. The glory. Of Jesus Christ, that
eternal glory. And what is it that does that?
It is the grace of God. It is the grace of God that creates
this contrast through Scripture. The suffering that is changed
into glory. God's sovereign grace. Friends, everyone in this life
suffers. But this promise is only true
for God's people who are saved by His sovereign grace. That
the suffering of this life turns into great glory. See, even for
the most wealthy, the most comfortable, the most extravagant life on
this earth, even that glory, without the grace of God, converts
someday into suffering. And the suffering of eternal
torment. There are some who suffer in
this life, suffer excruciatingly, and God's grace is still not
present in their life on that day, and so the suffering in
this life turns into more suffering in the life to come. But only for God's people does
this promise stand true, only for God's people. Does the suffering
translate into glory as we step into his presence? Thirdly, remember the compounding
content of this promise, the God of all grace will what he
will restore, he will support, he will strengthen, he will establish
you. That first word restore or perhaps
in your translation it says perfect. That's the the mending as the
disciples were doing on the shores of Galilee as they had these
tools and these tools would get damaged in the practice of their
trade. And so they would set mending
their nets, making them usable again, making them fruitful again,
making them whole again. The writer of Hebrews says, Now
may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd
of the sheep, make you perfect in every good work to do His
will, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. This is the work of the God of
all grace, restoring us supporting us, strengthening us, establishing
us, laying this foundation. Ephesians 3, 17-18, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and
grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height. Colossians 1.23, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled and are not removed from the
hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven and of which I, Paul,
have become a servant. In times when I write or teach,
there are times when I'm working, expounding something, and then
things take a twist, and it doesn't quite go where I think it's going
to. And this seems to happen with
Matthew Poole in his commentary on this section, because he starts
by expounding each of these four words, and then it just kind
of becomes a jumble, and then he says this, these four words
may be different expressions whereby the apostle sets forth
the same thing. God's confirming and establishing
those saints unto their final perseverance. And His using so
much variety of expressions may imply that it is a matter of
very great difficulty to hold on our Christian course without
failing or coming short of the goal. And therefore, we need
singular assistance from God to enable us to it. See friends, starting back in
verses 8 and 9, in those verses that call us to resist the devil
and to stand firm against him, it provides yet another opportunity
for our sense of self-righteousness to creep into the fray. That
sense of, I can do this. I've got this. I will prove to
God my love for Him by resisting the devil. And in thinking that,
we have succumbed to the temptation of the devil already. Matthew Poole is right. It is
difficult to hold on the Christian course. It takes the work of the God
of all grace to keep us on target. To lay the foundation for us.
To establish us on that foundation. To strengthen us. To support
us. To uphold us. And to perfect
us. To mature us in the faith. It
takes His grace. and only of His grace. I've called you today to remember
the context of this promise, the contrast of this promise,
the compounding content of this promise, and fourthly, the climax
of this promise. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Remember, in the Great Commission,
Jesus says to his disciples, the now becoming apostles, all
authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. And that is the authority which
Christ sends us out into the world to work for him and consequently
to suffer for the work that we do for him. We suffer for that same gospel,
it happens in that same context of the dominion of Jesus Christ. and of the ultimate glory of
Jesus Christ. This promise ends where it begins. This promise that after we suffer,
that God who has called us to His eternal glory through Christ
Jesus will restore us, support us, strengthen us, and establish
us It ends where it begins, with the glory and dominion of Jesus
Christ. Brothers and sisters, Jesus does
not send us on this task. He does not send us into our
suffering lives with hopefulness that all will turn out okay in
the end for us. He doesn't just say, have fun
storming the castle. Think it'll work? They don't
stand a chance. No, that's not our Lord. He holds
dominion over all times and all places. Remember, there was a
day and age where the world was under this imagination of territorial
deities. that if the United States had
its own God, that once you got to the Canadian border, then
that was a different God that was over that territory. And
Christ is reminding us, I have all authority in heaven on earth.
Wherever I send you, you are under my banner. And that banner
is effective in this place. You have my message, you have
my flag, and you go there in my name. And as we go, as we serve him,
as we labor for him and as we suffer in his name. We have this promise that those
suffering is part of our earthly experience. Growth, then glory
is guaranteed for all of God's children. That is the hope. That Peter
laid before these dear saints. Who are suffering. This is the hope that Jesus lays
before us today. But we suffer. But we suffer
for a while. And God's promise will never
fail. His promise to restore support
strengthen and establish you, the promise to persevere you
on into the glorious presence. Of the risen Lord and Savior.
Jesus Christ. Stand with me as we pray. Father, we trust you and we believe
this promise. And that can be difficult to
say because in it we are saying we believe we will suffer, but
the suffering of a little while is not worthy to be compared
with the glory of Jesus Christ. That is what we long for. That
is what we hope for. That is what we desire in the
life to come. And thank you for this promise
today, that after we have suffered, we will be restored. supported,
strengthened, and established. And that all glory and dominion
belongs to Jesus forever and ever. And church, let us pray together.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
For Awhile
Series Studies in 1 Peter
| Sermon ID | 92020172805255 |
| Duration | 23:03 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 5:10-11 |
| Language | English |
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