Speaker: Well, I'm not trying to call you names with the title of the sermon.
Uh, you, you may know deism, maybe it's a, a foreign term for you.
And, and I'll unpack it for us a little bit here, but, uh, before I, I get
into what deism is and why we should avoid it, I wonder if you've ever sat
there and thought to yourself, does God know what I'm going through right now?
Does God know the suffering that I'm enduring?
Does he feel Does, does he see what?
That person did to me.
Does he hear the words that my spouse said to me or my coworker said to me, does God
know the suffering that I'm experiencing?
Maybe you've said, well, yes, I, I know that he knows because I know
the doctrine and I know the theology.
I know that God is omniscient, that God never learns anything, that he knows all
things, that he knows the beginning from the end, that he exists outside of time.
Uh, nothing happens that catches God off guard.
And so certainly he knows.
Maybe you even think about his sovereignty and you think, well, he knows, and
he even ordains even as we just sang, whatever my God ordains is right.
You know, that that is true, that he knows that he's aware, that he's even
ordained the things that you walk through, but perhaps you've asked the
question that goes another step beyond that to say, okay, but does he care?
He knows what I'm going through.
He knows the argument that I had with my spouse on the way to church this morning.
He knows the tension that I'm under at work.
He knows the rude response from my neighbor when I was just trying to say hi.
He knows these things, but does he care about them?
See, deism is the belief in God that says that God is not a God who's
involved in the lives of his creation.
Deism is the view that says that God is the divine watchmaker and the watchmaker
who creates the watch, winds it up, and then he's done with that watch.
The watch goes on to wear itself out after that.
That's the deistic view of God and creation.
The deist says God created the universe and all there is, and then step back and
has nothing more to do with it after that.
Uh, that is a, a formal heresy, that's an incorrect and unbiblical view
of God according to the scriptures.
We would have to reject that outright and say that that is wrong.
And I, I would imagine that most in the room would probably
agree with that being wrong.
You would say, no, that's not the God that I know.
I know the God of the Bible.
I know the God of Psalm 1 39 that we just read about this morning even.
But though we may reject it formally, I wonder if functionally we find
ourselves embracing more of a deistic view of God than we would like to admit.
As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, as we walk through
the trials, as we endure the suffering that we talked about last week,
beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.
I, I wonder if there's part of us that functionally operates as though God is
the deistic God, and we're left to ask ourselves the question, God, do you know?
Do you care what I'm going through right now?
Do you see me right now?
This morning's passage is going to comfort us that God does indeed
know what you're going through?
He's aware of what you're going through.
He sees what you're going through.
He cares about what you're going through.
'cause even as we just saying, he's ordained what you're going through.
He's in control of wherever you are, whatever you're facing, whatever trial
you're walking through, be it a fiery trial or suffering because of health or
suffering, because of family tension, whatever it may be, God knows because
he's ordained that he's brought you there.
He's in control of that.
If that has led some to conclude, well then if that's true, then we should just
rest in God and say, let go and let God.
But our passage this morning is also gonna fight that.
See, rather than letting go and letting God, I believe what Peter's
gonna want us to do is hold fast and let God hold fast to his promises.
Hold fast to who we know Him to be in scripture, hold fast to what we've known
him to do in our lives and what we've seen him do in other people's lives.
Hold fast to our doctrine and our theology, and also hold fast to what he's
commanded us to do, while at the same time letting God do what God's gonna do.
Take your Bibles if you're not there already, and open up to one Peter
chapter four, verses 17 through 19.
As we try to combat not just formal deism, but functional deism in our lives.
Peter in this passage, I believe is going to address some questions
that may have been percolating in the minds of his listeners, his
readers, and they may be questions that you have or have had as well.
And I think one of the first questions that maybe would've been
there and present as he's been talking a lot about suffering.
In fact, maybe you're here this morning, you're just going, wow,
pastor you, you've just been hammering on suffering in this series.
And there is a lot about suffering in one Peter.
And remember, he's writing to this group of elect exiles.
He's writing to a group of people that just, that they suffering
was what they woke up to.
Uh, and, and so this is, is all throughout the book because that's
what his audience was up against.
And even as we talked about last week though, that shouldn't be all that
different from what we're facing.
But maybe that's you and you're going, why is it so much suffering?
Why does the church have so much of the suffering in the world right now?
Why is the church so often the bad guy in the world's eyes?
Why isn't it more that the church is winning and the world is losing?
I think Peter begins to answer that question for us.
In verse 17.
He says this, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
Now, let's just stop there for just a minute.
He says four, which should drive us backwards.
In the text of verse 16, here's what he said in verse 16.
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.
We are called to glorify God because God is bringing judgment upon the church.
What kind of judgment is this?
A, a judgment of punishment.
Is this a judgment of the wrath of God being poured out on the church?
Is this a judgment of his discipline?
Because we've aired, because we've done something wrong?
This is not the judgment of his wrath.
How do we know that?
Well, what happened at the cross?
The wrath of God was satisfied at the cross, right?
This is not his wrath being poured out on the church, but this is his refining
discipline at work in the church.
Peter has talked about the refining presence of God's.
Love in our lives.
Even earlier in the letter, uh, back in, in one Peter chapter one, he
talked about our test, our faith being found to be more precious than gold.
Though it perishes when it is tested by fire, that is gold.
Does our faith though, comes out on the other side and is
found a result in the praise and honor and glory of Jesus Christ.
We talked about it last week.
Do not be surprised at the fiery trial.
The fiery trial is that refining presence of God's discipline, God's
judgment in our lives as believers.
That God is working to purify the bride of Christ to purify the church, and
that's the household of God language that he uses here Back in one Peter chapter
two verses four through five, Peter said this as you come to him, a living stone
rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like
living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.
And so we are the church, and so corporately together we are the, the
church with, if I can put it this way, a, a big C, the capital C Church.
That's the universal church.
By the way, the Universal Church is only known through the
gathering of the local church.
And so I cannot be a Christian that says I'm part of a universal church,
but I don't want the local church.
If that's you, you're not part of the church.
And so as we're talking about this, we're talking about the universal church, but
we have to think about it, how it shows up here locally, because that's how we know.
The church.
And so God is bringing discipline.
He's bringing judgment.
He's bringing this refinement to the church.
There are commentators who see a couple of Old Testament backgrounds
to what Peter's talking about here.
The first one is from Ezekiel chapter nine in Ezekiel chapter nine.
What the, the prophet says There is the Lord said to him, pass through
the city, through Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the
men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.
And to the others.
He said in my hearing, pass through the city after him and strike your eye shall
not spare, and you shall show no pity.
Kill old men outright young men, maidens little children and women,
but touch no one on whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary.
So they begin with the elders who are before the house.
So God here is treating Israel like he was treating the, the nations we're
reading in our daily Bible, reading about the conquest of the promised land.
Here you see God treating Israel the same way.
Because Why?
Because Israel drifted because they had become perverted with idols.
In fact, in Ezekiel's Day, there were idols set up in the very temple of God.
They were worshiping false gods in the place where God said, this is
where my name and my glory will dwell.
And so God was coming after them to purge the evil from their midst.
But notice here he says, begin at my sanctuary.
It wasn't just the temple that was the problem in Israel during Ezekiel's day.
It was the whole nation.
But God was gonna start with the temple and then move outward.
And so there are some that, that see that as a background here to what
Peter's talking about, it's time for judgment to begin with the church.
It's not gonna be held here.
It's not only at the churches.
We're gonna find out, but it's gonna begin here.
One of the problems we're seeing, Ezekiel nine here, is that this was a,
a transition point in Israel's history.
In fact, what Ezekiel is witnessing in the context is the glory of
God departing from the church.
In first Peter Peter's not writing about the, the glory of God leaving
the, the church or the glory of God was leaving the temple.
Sorry, sorry.
There, uh, the, the glory of God was leaving the temple in Ezekiel nine.
The glory of God's not leaving the church here.
And so I think there's something else at work here besides Ezekiel nine,
other than the fact that God has in the past begun with the place where
worship is supposed to take place, which is the, the, the sanctuary back then.
The church today.
But there's another Old Testament passage that I think fits a little bit
better, and that's Malachi chapter three.
In Malachi chapter three, we read this.
Behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
Notice that again, the Lord whom you seek.
This is the the Messiah.
This is a messianic prophecy.
The Lord is gonna come to his temple and the messenger of the
covenant in whom you delight.
Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts, but who can endure the
day of his coming and who can stand when he appears for He is like a
refiner's fire and a Fuller's soap.
Fuller is a word we don't often use anymore If you've got an old King James
in the transfiguration account, Jesus, when he was transfigured on the mountain
there, it said that his clothing became whiter than any fuller could bleach it.
So a fuller was one that was a laer would bleach the, the garments
to cause them to be white again.
So he, he, Jesus the Messiah is like a.
Finer fire in like Fuller's soap, he will sit as a refiner and a purifier of
silver and he will purify the sons of Levi, the priests, and he will refine
them like gold and silver for what?
That they may bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
See what was taking place in in Malachi's day was that the people were
beginning to drift from, from the Lord.
They were calling good evil and evil good.
They were doubting the goodness of God, even.
They were questioning his justice.
They were saying, where is God?
Where's the promise of his justice?
And so Malachi in response said, there's a day coming when the refiner's going
to come and deal first with the temple.
In order to what?
Purify.
Purify the people, purify the priesthood, that then the offerings might be
acceptable to the Lord back and first Peter as God would do that with Israel.
So I think God does that with the church, and that's what Peter's saying.
He's saying, beloved, if, if anyone suffers as a
Christian, let 'em glorify God.
Verse 16, for God is, is purifying the church with the
opposition, with the fiery trial.
He's refining this place so that we will be a more pure and spotless bride for him.
He was active doing that, then he's active here.
God has not changed.
He's still after those things from us.
He still wants acceptable worship, and so he's gonna begin, and one of the
reasons why we see him doing that with the church today is because he has an
affection for the church and wants us to be useful to him while we're here,
until he calls us to be with him.
Towards that end and until he comes back for us, we should point number
one, expect God to refine his church.
Expect God to refine his church.
In fact, the writer of Hebrews talks about the father's discipline, and he says
this in Hebrews chapter 12, five and six.
He says, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor
be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
And so even there in Hebrews, we see a similar concept to
what Peter's talking about here.
Judgment is beginning at the household of God.
God is gonna discipline the church in order to purify the church, in order
to refine the church so that we will be free from Joss and more effective for
him in the mission that he has for us.
And so, beloved, do not be surprised that the fiery trial, when it comes
upon you for it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
In other words, when we see him judging, when we see him refining the church.
It's an evidence to us that we belong to him.
It's an evidence to us that, that he loves us enough to pry from our
grips, any vestiges of worldliness that we want to still hold onto.
Maybe we as, as Christians would say, well, I, I, I want
Jesus and I want materialism.
I want Jesus, and I want my lust.
I want Jesus, but I wanna be comfortable in this world.
I want Jesus, but I also want the promotion that maybe I'm
gonna have to compromise a little bit to get, I want Jesus.
But you know what I, I don't know if I want everything that's
involved in following Jesus.
God is going to, if he loves us, refine us and pry those things from our grip.
But that's individually right.
He also does this corporately, and I think that's largely what Peter has in view
here when he says the household of God.
He's talking about the church that God wants a pure church.
And so as we look around at the American church or the Texan Church,
it's not hard to see why the refining process might be necessary still, even
where we sit today, that we should expect to see the refinement of God
present in the life of the church.
Think about different things that, that God might be
working on in the church today.
For example, an adulterated gospel.
We see that, don't we?
It's not hard to find that open up social media or you, in the old days you used
to turn on the TV, I guess, and turn over to to TBN or something like that and you
see the blue hair and they're talking about health, wealth, and prosperity.
Gospels, any false gospel in the church, wherever it is, God is interested in
refining his church to get rid of it.
About disqualified leadership.
That's been something that God's been doing a lot recently, hasn't he?
Exposing sin in the lives of, of pastors that shouldn't be leading,
shouldn't be pastoring churches.
Because it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
He wants a pure church about worldliness just in the body in general.
We should expect individually, God to go to work on sin in our life because
corporately he wants us to be a holy body in our holiness as a body is only
as good as our holiness as individuals, and so the refiner's fire is going
to come into our lives to help make us more like Christ as individuals.
And the last but not least, how about the idol of comfort in the church?
We talked about it last week.
We're not just here to run out the clock until Christ comes back.
And yet, a lot of times that's so easy for us as a church to just turn
so inwardly to just say, well, can't we be our, our, our holy huddle, our,
our cloistered clique, and just hang out here until Christ comes back.
And he wants us to get out into the world.
He wants us to reach the loss.
He wants to, to get uncomfortable on mission.
And so if God is going to be about refining the church and we
should expect that, then, then as a church locally here is Compass.
What I want us to be on, on guard against is I want us to be proactively guarding
against any need for him to do that here.
And that is gonna require you guys as much as it requires any
of your pastors or leaders here.
A few thoughts at what it looks like for you to help us guard against
the refining needing to come against us is number one, be good berean.
Here's what I mean by that.
The Marines were commended in the Book of Acts because they heard what
the was preached, and they went to the word of God to say, is this true?
According to the word of God,
this is my standard.
Week in and week out is this book right here.
I prayed about it earlier.
I can't change your life.
I don't have the intellect, the wisdom, the wit, the, the
humor, anything like that to do anything worthwhile in your life.
What changes your life is the word of God.
My job is to preach.
The word is to be a vessel, and so again, I've, I've said
it before, I'll say it again.
My job when I stand up here to preach is that you walk out understanding
the passage better than you did when you walked in and knowing
what it should do in your life that what it should do in your life.
That's the spirit's work that that goes to work in your life.
After that.
And, and, and so one of the things that you can do to help us guard
against needing to be refined by the Lord is that you can be good Bereans.
Make sure that what you here preach, whether it's here or in men's Bible study
or in Women's Bible study in true north or student ministry, make sure that it
lines up with what the scriptures teach.
Second, pray.
Pray for your leaders.
Hope you are.
Pray for your pastors.
Pray for your leaders.
Pray for your your community Group leaders.
Pray for one another.
I mean, this week I, I, I found myself.
Just wanted to get back into a, a more organized prayer life.
And I've used apps in the past, like I've used PrayerMate in
the past and echo in the past.
And, and, and those things can be good, but I found them not to be
as, as helpful for me because those apps tend to get buried on my phone.
So I watched a YouTube video this week where a guy was just
talking about going back to the old fashioned index card system.
So that's what I did.
I sat down in my office, I took our community group prayers, and I just
wrote 'em out on index cards this week.
And he encouraged me to, to, to write the date of it and then on the back of the car
to write date answered and leave it blank.
Just in faith that God is gonna answer that prayer.
It's exciting to, to, to do that and to start praying more organized and
consistently, maybe you're struggling to get involved and get consistent
in prayer, and you need to just put some organization behind it.
It is hard if, if you're not praying right now to say, okay, well, I wanna sit, the
pastor told me I should be praying more, so I'm gonna pray for, for 10 minutes.
And you just sit there and you go, what do, what do I pray about?
Two things can happen.
You can struggle to come up with something, your mind can drift or you can
have a million things hit you at once.
Have a system of organization but be praying.
We need to be a church that is praying regularly if we're gonna avoid the
refiners fire here in our church.
Third, fight sin in the camp.
Fight sin in the camp.
We just read about Aiken recently in our DA Daily Bible reading
Aiken during the Battle of Jericho.
He took something from Jericho, didn't he?
This is an individual who took something from Jericho and he hid it.
He concealed it, but he didn't hide it from God.
And I just want you to think about the impact that Aiken's sin had on the entire
community of Israel, that when it, they went out to battle against ai after
the Battle of Jericho, what happened?
They got defeated and people lost their lives because of Aiken's sin.
You may have sin in your life right now that you don't think
impacts anybody in this room.
You may have sin in your life right now that you don't think
impacts anyone else in the world.
But what you need to understand is your sin as secret as you might think
it is, God is aware of, and God may be withholding his hand of favor from our
church corporately because you're not getting sin outta the camp individually.
Finally, beyond mission, beyond mission, I, I, I believe God wants
us to be a church that is on mission.
I believe that I want us, that God wants us to be a church, that that
is reaching people for Christ.
I appreciate about this last week, right?
That, that the fiery trial is a fiery trial that comes from the outside because
we are representing Christ because people see Christ in us and hear Christ
from us, and they don't like that.
And so they're gonna persecute us.
So y'all, we need to be a church on mission.
I was preaching myself last week a a little bit on this and,
and just en encouraged by some brothers in Christ too on this.
I went to, to grab breakfast with somebody this week and I was sitting at the,
the booth and the server came up and he had a couple of crosses on a necklace
around his neck, and so I was like, okay, you teed it up, Lord, here we go.
I was like, nice necklace.
He said, thanks, man.
I got it off TikTok.
It's gonna turn my neck green.
I said.
Let's get you a better necklace.
But I said, do you, where do you go to church?
He was like, well, I, I actually don't.
I go occasionally from time to time, different places.
Um, and so I, I got to invite him to come to our church.
I said, well, why don't you come check us out?
Here's a, an invitation.
I gave him an invite to, to our Easter services and then I, I left there.
I got my car and I, I was on my way back to the office and I looked down.
It was nine o'clock.
I was like, Hey, I need to get a haircut.
So I pulled into Sport Clips 'cause I like to eat a fancy haircut.
And, uh, I sat down with, with the lady that was gonna cut my hair,
and I was like, man, I've got a captive volumes for like 20 minutes.
The worst she can do is butcher my haircut.
So you can decide what she thought about me based on how I looked this morning.
That's up to you.
Um, but I started talking to her and, and she asked me what I did,
and I was like, well, I'm a pastor.
And she was like, oh, I've, I've been starting to read my bible recently.
I was like, okay, God, here it goes again.
Right?
Like you're teeing it up.
If I don't take advantage of this, then I don't know what I'm doing.
And so we got to talk for 20 minutes and, and got to say, Hey, we'd love to
have you come to join us at our church.
You, we need to be doing things like that.
We need to be having those conversations, looking for those things.
'cause God wants us to be on mission.
If we're not, he's gonna refine us or he is gonna shut us down.
I mean, the church in Ephesus and Revelation, he said, look, you've
abandoned your first love and, and if you don't repent from that, then I'm
gonna come and take your lampstand away.
If you go to Ephesus today, there's no church there.
I don't want God to take this lampstand away because we're not on mission.
So let's be faithful.
We need to expect God to refine his church in large part because of what
he writes in Ephesians chapter five.
We, we think about this with marriage and rightly so because it is the marriage
paradigm here, but I want you to read this in light of Christ in the church
and what God wants to do with the church.
It says this in Ephesians chapter five.
It says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.
Gave himself, Jesus gave himself up for her, for the church that he might sanctify
the church having cleansed the church by the washing of water with the word so that
he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle, or
any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish, we should expect the
sanctifying work of Christ in the church.
That should be normative for us.
I'm not saying that that we're ever gonna get to a place
where we're the perfect church.
I just want us to, to be as, as holy as we can be.
And that looks like us doing those things that I was just talking about.
It's a mercy y'all, for God's judgment to begin with the bride of Christ.
It's a mercy for him to discipline us in this way, to refine us, to make
us a more pure and spotless bride.
So when we see his judgment begin here, we shouldn't say God, why us?
We should say, God, thank you for doing this in our lives.
It's hard.
It's not easy.
It's not fun.
It's a good thing because it's evidence that God wants us to be more like Christ,
that God wants to use us, that he's not taking the lampstand away, that
he still has us here for a purpose.
So expect God to refine his church, but that judgment of God is not gonna
have a positive effect on everyone.
In fact, what's positive for us, Peter's is about to say, should serve
as a great warning to the unbeliever.
Look back down at your text in verse 17, the second half, now through verse 18.
Peter continues here and says this, 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?
And so Peter says, if it begins with us, verse 17, it's time for judgment
to begin with the household of God.
If it begins with us in Greek, it's the word.
If it's first with us.
Uh, that implies that it's not gonna stay with us.
And that's where Peter goes here.
He says, if it's gonna begin with us, what will be the outcome?
It's the word in the Greek.
Tell us, which is the word for the culmination, the end,
the result, the destination.
What is the destination he goes on to say, for those who do not obey the gospel of
God, that is the unbeliever for that is what it is to not obey the gospel of God.
This is not implying that there's a, a, a to-do list to be saved.
This is not implying that there's a, a list of, of righteous requirements
that you have to measure up to do all these things and then you'll be good.
That's not what he means by not obeying the gospel, rather the first
act of obedience to any believers, the obedience of faith, believing the gospel.
In fact, Jesus, I believe, makes this point in John chapter three, verse 36.
In John chapter three, verse 36, Jesus says this, whoever believes the son has
eternal life, but whoever does not, and I'm gonna leave that blank for a second.
The son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
So Jesus is contrasting the two groups here that Peter is contrasting.
You've got those that are destined for eternal life and those that
are destined for the wrath of God.
And Jesus says, those that are destined for eternal life are
those that believe the gospel.
And so you would expect him in John 3 36 to say, but whoever
does not believe the son.
On him, the wrath of God remains.
But that's not what Jesus says.
He does say, whoever believes the Son will have life, but he says,
whoever does not obey the Son on that person, the wrath of God remains.
Jesus is putting in parallel, in other words, and that belief in obedience.
And so when Peter says those that do not obey the gospel of God, what
he's talking about is those that have rejected the gospel of God.
Those that do not believe, those that have not bowed the knee in faith and repentance
to Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
And that unbelief, Peter says, what will happen to those in that camp?
He's acknowledging the reality of the suffering of the church.
He's saying, if, if, if we are suffering, now think about the lost.
Think about the person that rejects the gospel.
Think about the person that that dies, not in Christ.
He says, what will be their outcome?
Then after this, he quotes from the tugen of Proverbs 1131.
He says, for if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become
of the ungodly in the sinner?
If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
The word scarcely there can also be translated as saved with difficulty.
And I think that's what it it means, and what it, it is better rendered as.
Because what Peter's not saying is like, oh, we're gonna get to heaven and be like,
whoa, didn't think you'd get me here.
God, that was a close one.
Barely got here.
We are secure in Christ, we're sealed with the promise.
Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance.
We are being guarded by God's power through faith for salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time.
But what our life looks like between here and that deliverance
is a life of difficulty.
And so if the believer is saved with difficulty, in other words, if we are
on the narrow road, as Jesus said, broad is the path that leads to destruction.
Easy is the path that lead to destruction.
And there are many who find it narrow and hard is the way
that leads to eternal life.
And few there are that find it if that's true of the church,
if we are saved with difficulty.
He says, what of the ungodly in the sinner?
What if the lost, what are they gonna face again, he's anticipating the
question as, as Peter was writing to his audience, that maybe they were
saying, okay, why are we suffering?
And it looks like the world is fine.
Why are we suffering?
And, and the world just gets to do whatever they want to do.
Why do we have to deny ourselves things that would make us feel pleasure and
happiness and joy and things that the world loves and, and the world just gets
to do it and you're not doing anything.
Peter's saying we need to broaden our horizons.
We need to zoom out and understand things, not just from a temporal perspective,
but from an eternal perspective.
And so Peter says, if, if we as believers are facing difficulty now,
if it's a a, a hard life as a believer to walk the narrow road, the argument
is from lesser to greater here, the greater is how much worse will life be?
Eternal life be for the unbeliever who rejects God?
Who does not obey the gospel of God, who rejects, who disbelieves the gospel.
The doctrine of hell is probably not one we spend a lot of time
thinking about, and I get it.
It's not the one that makes us feel the warm fuzzies.
It doesn't sit there and and make us feel the same thing that we feel when
we think about God's grace and God's mercy and his love and his compassion.
At the same time, though, the doctrine of hell is imperative for us as Christians
to understand because it both comforts us and it compels us into action.
Our second point this morning, along those lines is this, think
of hell to gain perspective.
Think of hell to gain perspective.
Hell is that thing that you're probably willing to acknowledge its existence
if you're a Christian at least.
But outside of that, tacit hats hit to its opposite reality
of, of everything about heaven.
You really don't want to think about it too much,
and I get that.
But again, I think it's important that we do because it will comfort
and compel us the way that God wants us to be comforted and compelled.
Some of the things that a biblically informed doctrine of hell will
do are these, hell aids us in maintaining a, a proper fear of God.
When I give myself over to thinking about what it is and the wrath of
God being poured out therein and in all of the suffering that's there, it
makes me fear God more As a believer,
the doctrine of hell reminds me of the true nature of my sin, that it
is not something to be toyed with.
As a believer, it reminds me of the true nature because it reminds
me of the cost of my sin when I consider that hell was born for me
by Jesus when he died in my place.
Hell also fosters a hatred of sin and a love of holiness.
When I think about hell, and I think about the cost of my sin, and again, what was
born by my savior on the cross, it should cause me to hate my sin and love holiness.
Hell encourages me to endure the earthly trial here that I may be suffering.
And that's part of the comfort that Peter's socking about churchy may
be suffering right now, but it pales in comparison to the suffering that
awaits those that reject the gospel.
This is the Randy Alcorn statement.
This is as close to hell as any believer will ever experience.
What you go through here on earth as a believer is as close
to hell as you will ever be.
It also comforts our souls that justice will be done.
When you think of the earthly justice system, sometimes the courts fail us.
Sometimes justice is not done on this side of eternity.
Hell reminds us that justice will ultimately be done.
Another reason why we need to think about hell is that it
answers the age old question of why do the wicked seem to prosper?
And it does this by causing us, again, to zoom out and realize
that the wicked will potentially maybe prosper during this life.
But what is this life in light of eternity?
A doctrine of hell also helps us develop, motivate, and maintain evangelistic zeal.
When, when you see your coworker, when you sit down at that restaurant
and your server comes to the table, not just looking at them as somebody
that's there to make sure that you get seeded and get water before your
waiter comes to you, but looking at the person going, this person has a soul.
They're going either to spend eternity in heaven with the
Lord or in hell apart from him.
Thinking of your, your neighbors by name and thinking that person has a soul.
Your boss has a soul.
Your coworkers have a soul.
They will either be in heaven or they will be in hell.
Hell compels us.
A doctrine of hell compels us to be on a mission to reach the loss.
Like Spurgeon said, I want to operate a rescue mission within a yard of hell.
Hell also promotes humility in us when we realize that's what I
deserve, but for the grace of God, and it also promotes gratitude.
We don't like to think about, hell,
maybe we don't even really like to think about eternity.
But again, remember, we are the church on exile, not the church on vacation.
We're not here just to run the clock out on things to be
as comfortable as we can be.
I want you to picture yourself on a, a ship.
And this ship has a, a lounge, has fireplaces, has game rooms,
has a movie theater, has stadium seating in it, has a place to shop.
You can get whatever you need there.
You can even get electronics there if you need them.
Has a hospital even on board the ship.
You've got doctors, you've got ICU there, you've got nurses, you got dentists there.
You've got a problem with your, your, your tooth while you're on the ship.
You can go see the dentist there.
You're gonna be good to go.
It's got wireless internet, it's got a library.
It's got a barbershop.
You can get your haircut.
Maybe better than mine was.
I don't know.
I, I like, I thought, I think I looked good.
Lemme just say that.
Gyms, it's got gyms, right?
You got different places you can go work out there.
You got post office, it's got all these things.
Now, before you sign up for your next cruise on this ship, I want
to give you the name of the ship.
The name of that ship is the USS Abraham Lincoln, and it's currently
stationed in the Sea of Arabia, offering support for what's taking place.
In operation to Epic Fury.
My guess is those amenities on that ship aren't getting much action right now.
Why?
Because of the perspective of the sailors on that ship.
They're not there to be comfortable.
They're there on mission.
They're there to man their battle stations, not to lay out by the pool.
I don't think it has a pool.
I didn't read.
It does.
At least, maybe it does.
I don't know.
They're not there to get their hair cut.
They're there to stay focused on what's there, the mission.
Y'all.
Let's not be derailed by the amenities of this world such that
we begin to lose sight of eternity.
Heaven and hell are at stake with the conversations that you have with your
barber heaven and hell are at stake with the conversations that you have with
your neighbor and your coworker there.
This is what we're dealing with here, y'all.
If we get to eternity and, and, and your, your neighbor.
Let's say eventually somebody saves them and, and you and your neighbor
both get to heaven at the same time, and you look at each other and
they look at you and they're like, you were saved that whole time.
Why didn't you say anything?
Didn't you know that for 50 years of my life I was hanging like a spider on a
thread dangling over the fires of hell?
Why didn't you do anything?
Understanding how gives us a reminder of what's at stake for you and me,
and our neighbors and our coworkers.
It reminds us that we're not on a cruise ship.
We're on a battleship.
It reminds us that we're not the church on vacation, but the church
on exile, the church on mission.
That we're not just here to run out the clock on our deployment.
We are here to reach the lost still.
You may be wondering, okay, but, but what is hell?
Where is hell?
Maybe we start there.
Well, it's not at the middle of the earth.
The way the cartoon's depicted.
It's also not Satan's domain.
You don't have Satan with his pitchfork guarding the presence of hell there.
Did I give the second point?
I think I did.
There it is.
If I did, hell Is is a place, as the Bible describes it.
Where the, the people that reject the Lord, the unbelievers, those who
don't obey the gospel will suffer and they will suffer in intense anguish.
Luke 1624 says, it's a place of anguish.
Luke 1628 describes it as a place of torment.
Matthew eight 12 describes it, A place of darkness in weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mark 9 43 describes it as a place of unquenchable fire.
We could go on and on, and these are all things that Jesus.
Spoke of about hell
is hell eternal, that's been bantered about on social media and, and
YouTube channels for a while recently.
In short, yes, lemme just give you three reasons why I'm going to suggest to you
that hell is eternal, meaning those that are there will never, ever be destroyed.
They will never get a moment's relief while there.
The first reason why is the language used in Matthew 25 46.
Matthew 25 46.
Jesus says, these will go away into eternal punishment, but
the righteous into eternal life.
So there you have Jesus comparing the destination of
both the lost and the saved.
We don't look at an eternal life and say, well, there must be an end
to eternal life somewhere there's a termination point to eternal life.
And so because Jesus is using the same word, eternal, within that close context
with each other, you've got eternal death or eternal punishment and eternal life.
And so the language used tells me that hell is a, a place of eternal suffering.
Second, the language used of torment implies a conscious existence.
I, I can't be in torment if I'm not conscious of it.
I say, well, what does that have to do with how long it lasts?
Well, revelation chapter 20, verse 10 tells us that the false prophet and the
antichrist are going to be thrown into the lake of fire where it says they will be
tormented day and night, forever and ever.
The false prophet and the antichrist, both of those are human beings.
They will be thrown into the lake of fire where there will be tormented
day and night forever and ever.
Now you fast forward to Revelation 20, verses 13 through 15.
What we find there is hell with all of its inhabitants is going to one
day after the great white throne be emptied into the lake of fire as well.
Where we can safely assume that those will also be tormented
day and night, forever and ever.
With the false beast and the prophet, the false prophet
and the beast, the antichrist.
And so the language of torment implies a conscious existence.
And then finally, there's good reason to believe that those
in hell never stop sinning.
In Romans chapter one, Paul writes three times that God gives the godless
over to their passions and their lusts to the things that they desire, which
are not the things that God desires.
And so there's no reason to believe that in hell that that's gonna stop.
In fact, RC Sproul.
I saw a clip of him this week preaching on hell.
If you get a chance, if you see it, it's, it's worth your time.
But he says in hell, there's gonna be two people, two types of person.
There's gonna be the one person that dies and awakens in the, the torment of hell,
realizing that they missed it because they thought they were with the Lord.
These are the people that say, Lord, Lord, didn't we know
do all these things for you?
And He's gonna say it apart from me.
I never knew you.
And these are the people that swirl describes 'em in hell, that there's
not enough tears for them to weep
over the anguish and the sorrow that they missed it, that they put their
trust in something other than Jesus.
And then there's gonna be the second group in hell, and that's the group
that's just furious that they're there.
This is the weeping in the gnashing of teeth as sprawl said.
Those that are gonna look at God and say, how dare you.
Put me here.
This is the nature of hell.
Whatever you may think of it, I plead you to guard against ever thinking
that it's not gonna be that bad.
There's nothing worse than what awaits those that do not obey the gospel of God.
So on the one hand, as we suffer, that puts our suffering in perspective here.
As a church, our suffering is, but for a moment, this light,
momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory.
But the other thing that I hope it does is I hope that it compels us to
look at those in our lives that right now are just like Jonathan Edwards
said, that's spider dangling over the fires of, hell say, what can I do?
To get the gospel to them such that they might repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
God gives faith.
You can't do that, but you can be faithful to pursue them with the gospel
as far as humanly possible.
So think of hell to gain perspective.
But there's one last hurdle for us to overcome here.
One last question that may have been in the back of people's minds.
Okay.
Suffering is here.
It's going to happen.
I've got a perspective shift on this, but is this all just happening at at random?
And if not, is God behind This?
Is this part of his plan for my life?
Peter answers that in verse 19.
He says this.
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to
a faithful creator while doing good.
Let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a
faithful creator while doing good.
Those who suffer.
Those are, that's the believers.
This is what we've been talking about all the way back from verse 12.
In fact, when he says, therefore in verse 19, he's summarizing not just
verses 17 through 19, but really he's summarizing all the way back in verse
12, all the way down through verse 18.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire trial when it comes upon
you as though something strange were happening to you to test you.
Th this is all of this.
He's saying, those who suffer, let those who suffer.
And then he says this phrase here, according to the will of God.
That's a phrase that's both comforting and hard at the same time for us.
We should expect to suffer as those that that follow the Lord, and
this is part of his will for us.
Some of the things that we should expect to suffer for, he's already talked
about in the letter you're an elect.
Exile.
Okay?
That, that the word of being in exile, that should imply that
I'm gonna suffer to an extent.
You have a, a living hope, but that hope's not here.
If it was here, it wouldn't be hope anymore.
Our hope is in something that's in the future, not present.
What's present is going to disappoint us.
It's going to discourage us.
It's going to lead to suffering your inheritance.
That what you're hoping for, it's, it's not here.
And so you're not chasing after the same thing.
The world's chasing after that's gonna lead to suffering.
You have a future deliverance that's coming.
You're not delivered yet again, it's with difficulty that we're going to be saved.
You're called to be holy.
To be holy is to be separate, to be distinct, to be called out from the world.
You're ransom from the world's ways, meaning again, that you are
not to participate in the ways of the world that's gonna cause
friction with the world around you.
You're a people for his own possession.
And so God wants to use you for his glory and his good and his work, which is gonna
be counter-cultural like we talked about last week, and your sojourner and exiles.
So Peter's been telling us we should expect this, but now he's telling us
because it's part of the will of God.
And maybe that's begging the questioner or inviting the question
from you is, is isn't that harsh for God to will me to suffer right now
a few things that we should remember.
Number one, his will is good and perfect.
Scripture says that we need to do what we can to discern the will of God.
That which is good and perfect.
And so if God's will is for me to suffer, I need to know that
God's will is good and perfect.
Second there, there's a limit to our suffering here, right?
We've been talking about that we're suffering here temporarily, and so his
will is not for us to suffer for eternity.
It's to suffer for a time.
For the purpose of his glory.
Third, our suffering is ultimately for our good.
He doesn't waste your suffering.
He uses any suffering that you undergo to like the, the, the artist
with the hammer and the chisel to make you look more like Jesus.
And so our suffering is not purposeless.
It's not random, it's not pointless, but because it's for
our it's, it's part of his will.
It's for our good.
And then finally, we don't suffer alone.
Look back at verses 13 and 14.
Verses 13 and 14 say this, but it rejoice insofar as you share Christ's
sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit
of glory and of God rests upon you.
So if you're suffering right now, you are suffering according to the will
of God, but you're suffering with him.
He's with you in your suffering right now too.
These are reasons why I would say it's, it's not harsh for
him to will us to suffer.
And because of that, what, what do we do?
What should we do?
What can we do?
We should entrust our souls to our faithful creator while doing good to
entrust our souls is to hand our souls over to the care of another, to say,
Lord, I'm, I'm gonna trust you with my very being, with my very life.
You have my good in mind.
And it's not just the, the sovereign Lord of the universe.
It's not just God that Peter says.
But that we should entrust ourselves to our faithful creator.
This is why I wanted to read Psalm 1 39 with us during our scripture
reading this morning, because there we see the Creator God who knits you
together in your mother's womb, who knows the number of hairs on your head.
Who knows the number of days that you will live before even
one of them comes to pass.
That's the God that you entrust yourself to far from a deistic God.
He's a God that is intimately involved with everything going on in your life.
And so God wants you to entrust your soul to him.
But like I said at the beginning, that's not an entrusting, that's
a let go and let God because of the last thing he says here.
While doing good.
We trust him and we stay active in what he wants us to be doing.
We trust him as we walk through the valley, and yet we recognize
he doesn't sideline his suffering.
Saints, he gives them center stage.
We trust him and we keep walking forward.
We keep moving forward and trusting him while we do.
Good.
Point number three this morning is this, respond to your
suffering with active faith.
Respond to your suffering with active faith.
Let those who suffer according to God's will and trusts their souls.
There's the faith to a faithful creator.
Again, Psalm 1 39, that creator that knows you so intimately
wonderful are your works.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately
woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance and your book were written.
Every one of them.
The days that were formed for me when as not yet there was any
of them that had come to pass.
So we entrust our souls to this faithful creator.
But again, it's not letting go and letting God, it's, it's quite the opposite.
It's holding fast and saying, okay, I'm gonna hold fast and let, God,
I'm gonna hold fast to what you want me to do, Lord, to your promises,
to your commands in my life.
And here that command is while doing good.
In other words, Peter's words in these verses weren't meant to be
the dead bolt on our holy huddles to get us to, to hang out together and
just ride it out until Christ comes back and trusting him in that sense.
But rather it's entrust your souls to him and get on the front lines and trust
your souls to him and, and be motivated.
Be spurred on live with greater abandon.
George Whitfield is, is, is one of my favorites.
He wrote, we are, IM mortal on Earth until our work is on earth is done.
Your life's not gonna end before God's done with the
work that he has for you to do.
In other words.
So get busy doing it.
Whitfield was also the one who said this towards the end of
his life, he said, Lord Jesus.
I'm weary in thy work, but not of thy work.
If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for
thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth and come home and die.
Uh, one of the, uh, just awesome things, uh, about Whitfield's life
is he, I, I've said this before.
He literally preached himself to death on the night he died.
There were crowds outside his home that wanted to hear from him again.
He had been preaching all day long, so he grabbed his candle, he set it on the
window sill and opened the window and sat down on the stairs out of weakness, and
he preached until the candle burned out.
He got his candle, he went back upstairs, he climbed into bed, and
he entered the presence of the Lord.
Woodfield a week before that was quoted as saying, I would
rather wear out than rust out.
Oh, may that be our mentality, church, to entrust our souls to our
faithful creator to say, God, you've got me, so I'm gonna go do good.
You've got me.
Whatever the suffering is coming, I'm gonna go do good.
So don't sideline yourself, Christian.
Don't tap out, out of fear.
Don't tap out out of I'm, I'm, I'm just wiped.
I'm, I'm too.
There are seasons for rest.
Yes, there are.
So that we get back in the game.
Do, do Don't get to heaven with your tanks.
Still three quarters of the way full with energy that you're not
gonna need when you get there.
I'd rather wear out than rust.
Let's be that entrust our souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
Wherever you are, God has you there as a part of his will.
Not to just passively wait for the return of Christ.
Not to run out the clock on your time here, but to be active in doing good.
Obeying him, reaching the loss, loving the church, praying, reading your Bible.
He's not the divine watchmaker.
It's easy for us to acknowledge God's sovereignty and omniscience
and, and will in certain contexts.
But how quickly when we suffer, do we shift into this mindset that
says, God, are, are you there?
Do you know?
Do you see?
Do you, do you care?
He does.
He's not the deistic God.
He's intimately involved in your life, has you exactly where he wants you.
To be used by him and for him.
So hold fast and let God, let's pray.
Lord, you are kind to us far more often than we acknowledge or give you credit for
your goodness in our safety, your goodness in the food that you provide for us.
Your goodness in the family that we have, your goodness in our
health, your goodness would in in the sun that's shining outside.
And yet, there are times that you bring the opposition, you bring the refiner's
fire, you bring the chisel and the hammer to our lives, and it does hurt.
And it is hard and it is difficult.
And yet I'm so thankful that it is not without purpose.
You do those things for our good and for your glory.
I pray that you would make our church useful to you.
Whatever the cost refine us, make us an instrument in your hand to
exalt Christ and to be an effective lampstand here in this world.
Father, I pray that you would use us in the lives of the lost to call them to
faith and repentance, to call them to follow Jesus, that they might no longer
have to fear hell, but may be able to look forward to eternal life with Christ.
But we are so thankful for Jesus in that day that we will be with you and with him.
In the meantime, may we be faithful to entrust our souls to you while doing good.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.