In the sermon 'Being Made Holy,' Jason Dohm explores 1 Peter 4:12-19, emphasizing the role of trials and sufferings in the Christian life. The sermon highlights that believers should not be surprised by fiery trials but should rejoice as these are a part of sharing in Christ's sufferings. Dohm explains that God uses these trials to purify and mature His people, likening it to a refiner's fire that removes impurities. The historical context of early church persecution is provided, illustrating how these challenges led to the church's growth. The sermon also discusses the importance of fervent love and practical expressions of love, such as hospitality and using one's gifts to serve and glorify God. Dohm distinguishes between suffering for doing good, which is commendable, and suffering for wrongdoing, which should be avoided. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to commit their souls to God in doing good and to embrace trials as part of God's redemptive work.

Sermon text is 1st Peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19 Beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as Though some strange thing happened to you But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed You may also be glad with exceeding joy if you are reproached for the name of Christ Blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you on? Their part is blasphemed, but on your part. He is glorified But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evil doer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God.

Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator. The title of the sermon today is Being Made Holy. God doesn't just justify a people. He doesn't just take a sinful people and wash away their sins and just leave them there.

He actually goes to work on them. To change them. To help them. To give them progress in the faith. And that's what the text today is about.

It's about a God who goes to work on his people to help them advance and to come to maturity. Last week the centerpiece, I guess two weeks ago, last time we were in 1 Peter, The centerpiece of the text was verse 8 where Peter says, and above all things have fervent love for one another. So he started that section of text by saying that the end of all things was at hand. And in view of this being the end times, he sweeps away all secondary things and talks about the primary thing. And what is that?

Love. Fervent love for one another. And so He opens by saying, and above all things, have fervent love for one another. And then he gets very practical. And he talks about what it means to love, what it looks like to love.

He talks about hospitality. Putting your resources in play to demonstrate love so that love is not hypothetical or a matter of intellect and things to be thought about and felt, but it's actually something you can see worked out in life. Hospitality is one of those things. Putting your resources in play to demonstrate the affection that exists in the heart. Then he talks about the gifts that God gives to his people, the things he makes them good at and how the people of God ought to put those into play also to serve one another and to glorify God.

So he gets really practical about love. He takes it out of the realm of sentimentality feeling, and he puts it into the realm of doing. He says, love looks like this, putting your resources in play. Love looks like this, taking the things that God has made you good at to serve your brothers and sisters and to bring glory to God. Now on the heels of that, in our text today, Peter returns to the overarching theme of the book.

If you had to boil down the book to just a single theme, there's a couple of streams running through it, but if you had to just eliminate the rest and be stuck with one, it would be trials and suffering. The role of trials and sufferings in the life of those who have trusted in Christ. And you have to understand where this fits into the flow of history, all of earth history. You have the culmination, the pinnacle of history in the coming of the Messiah, the promised Messiah and his death and his resurrection. Then on the heels of that, you have 200 years of persecution and it's just getting started when Peter writes this letter.

So Peter, An instrument of the Holy Spirit, the inspired author of our letter, is making the people of God ready to endure 200 years of pretty much uninterrupted persecution. Go study church history and this is what you're going to see. After the resurrection, there's a little bit of respite, even though you're immediately seeing persecution in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. And you're going to pretty much see persecution. There will be some ebbs and some flows to it, but it will be uninterrupted persecution across the world for God's people for 200 years.

And then I think it's in 313, the year 313 AD, Constantine comes and then it becomes acceptable to become a Christian. And that was actually worse for the church than the persecution was. The persecution caused the explosion of the church. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. And the church had worse problems when Christianity becomes acceptable under Constantine in 313.

Many more problems than it had before. So these trials and sufferings proved to be so helpful for the church. God was going to work on his people and that's what this text is about. Before we go to the verse by verse exposition let's pray. Oh God I pray that you would make us ready to suffer.

I pray that you would make us ready to suffer. I pray that you would make us eager for trials. God, could it even be possible that you would make us eager for trials? I pray that you would make us rejoice in the trials that your sovereign hand brings upon us. I pray that you would make us grow.

I pray that you would make us a holy people. I thank you that you do not leave us at the moment when you cleanse us from our sins, but that you make us your disciples, your pupils, your followers. You teach us to become like Jesus through time by using these things in our lives. May it be so. Bring us trials to make us a holy people.

We know these are dangerous prayers, but we pray them because we see what we're like and we see Jesus and we want to be less like us and more like Jesus. Use these things to make it so we pray in His name. Amen. Alright, let's begin by looking at verses 12 through 14. 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 14.

Peter writes, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you. For the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, He is blasphemed.

But on your part, he is glorified. In this section, Peter is teaching us not to be surprised by trials and sufferings, but to rejoice. He says, Not this, but that. Not this, being taken by surprise when trials are brought into your life by the hand of the sovereign God, but this, rejoice. So not being caught by surprise, but instead rejoicing when they come.

He tells us what not to do. Get caught off guard by God bringing these things into our life. And he tells us what to do. Be happy about it. Rejoice.

God cares enough about you not to leave you where you are but to bring these things upon you to conform you into the beautiful precious image of His Son Jesus Christ. Peter begins by saying, Beloved, Beloved, Peter is not a chief executive officer speaking to his hirelings. Peter is a concerned spiritual father, speaking tenderly to his brethren. And this should inform all of us. Peter is right there at the top of the list of the apostles.

He and Paul are right there. The most influential apostles, foundation stones of the temple that God is building and yet he is not a boss simply sending directives from above. But he is a tender hearted spiritual father who has love for his brethren, who is yearning, who is burning to be used to be a blessing among the people of God. So if Peter would relate to the people of God this way, how much more we among each other should affection be flourishing, growing, should we nourish it, Should we fan it into flame? Yes.

Peter, one of the greatest apostles addresses his readers, beloved. And it should be a factor of a bunch among us. We should be fanning that sentiment, that affection into flame. Peter actually has already said this in chapter 2 verse 11. He starts that section the same way.

Beloved, people who are loved by me and by God, and then he gives the instruction. Peter says when trials come, when, not if, but when trials come, we shouldn't think that something strange is happening. Because this is how God works. Because when God goes to work on those that he loves, this is what it looks like. So we shouldn't think it's strange.

Because this is his standard operating procedure. This is how he works on his people to change them, to bless them. So we are told to expect trials and sufferings. Listen to what Peter says, the fiery trial which is to try you. Do you hear the certainty of that?

The fiery trial which is to try you. Not if but when. Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 3. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 3. Paul says, No one should be shaken by these afflictions.

For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. That's it. That's right what Peter is driving home. No one should be shaken by these afflictions. You should not be taken by surprise.

You should not think that something strange is happening to you. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. The God who controls every molecule of the universe has said it would be so. You're appointed to it. And so it's foolish to be taken by surprise.

Because God has said, and God has said, and God has said, and God has said that This is how he's going to go to work on his people. Now let's look at the phrase fiery trial. It's the fiery trial which will try us. This is a single Greek word And it's fine to translate it fiery trial. There's nothing but it does not have the depth of the Greek word.

When you go to a Greek lexicon and you look at the fullness of what it means, it's talking about a refiner's fire. The fiery trial is a refiner's fire. It's a fire that is used for purifying metals to remove the impurities. That's what's being talked of here. That's what the Greek word means is the fire that a metal worker, a precious metals worker would use to get the impurities out.

Heat it up and Heat it up and heat it up and heat it up until those impurities are coming to the surface so you can skim them off so that it's a pure metal not an impure metal. These are the fiery trials. That's what the Greek word means, a refiner's fire that causes the impurities to come to the top so that God himself can skim those impurities off and make a pure people, make a holy people. Listen to Psalm 66 verse 10. Psalm 66 verse 10, for you, oh God, have tested us.

You have refined us as silver is refined. That's what Peter's teaching. You, O God, are a tester of the hearts of your people. And you crank up the heat so that the impurities will come to the surface so you can skim them off, so you can refine us like silver. That is what God is doing among his people and it's a beautifying work.

You should be glad that God is turning up the heat. And that you know what happens when the heat gets turned up. Wow, those impurities that you thought weren't there anymore bubble right to the surface. It's just like purifying metals. God wants to crank up the heat on his people so that all of our pride would be swept away, so that we'd be humiliated by what comes to the surface.

When the people of God begin to think too highly of themselves, God cranks up the heat. So that those impurities, which might be below the surface but are there, have to rise to the surface. And then we see, Oh my word, look at what is still in me. Thank you merciful God for dealing with my sin, not just leaving me there. Proud of myself, feeling good about all my progress.

This is why God cranks up the heat. Peter has already opened this topic. I love this letter. This letter, Peter has a couple of streams running parallel And he keeps coming back to them. He opens a well, and then he dips out of it, and he serves us some of this cool, refreshing water of the Word of God.

And then he'll go to something else, but then he'll come back to this well that he's opened up, and he'll dip out of it again and he'll pour out and he just keeps developing, keeps coming back to these few streams that are running through the letter. This is what we see with trials and sufferings, which I believe is the central theme of the letter. Flip back to 1 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Peter chapter 1, here's Peter opening the well and dipping out of it and pouring this cool refreshing water on us for the first time. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 6 and 7, Peter said, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

On many different levels, our text for today is just a restatement of what Peter was saying in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, where he speaks of approving out of our faith like refining gold and what is the purpose of this to glorify his name to make a beautiful holy people that bring honor to His name. This is why God is committed to bringing trials upon us. The God who is the maker of heaven and earth has a commitment to bringing trials into your life. Because he loves you. He doesn't want to leave you with all those impurities, but he wants to crank up the heat on you.

So that the impurities rise to the top and he can skim them off. And you can live to his praise. He is refining us. He is purifying us. So rejoice.

Isn't this something to be glad about? That God has not left us with all those impurities, patting ourselves on the back, feeling so good about our progress in the faith, but that he continues to work. He keeps cranking up the heat. And we should rejoice. We should not lament at the trials, at the cranking up of the heat.

The immature lament that. Are you with me? The immature, the babies, you might be in the faith, but if you're lamenting the trials, you're a baby. The mature have been taught by God to rejoice. No discipline to rejoice.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, Hebrews 12. And the more your sufferings are associated with Jesus, the more you should rejoice. There are different kinds of sufferings. We're coming to that. But the more closely your trials and your sufferings are aligned to you clinging onto your master, the Lord Jesus Christ, with all your might, the more you should rejoice.

This is what Peter does. We have a historical record of Peter doing this in Acts chapter 5. In Acts chapter 5, all the Apostles keep going to the temple. They keep preaching salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. They're dragged before the court.

They're commanded not to preach anymore in this name. Peter, as a spokesman for the apostles, says, we can't do that. We can't stop. We have to continue preaching in this name. We have to obey God.

We can't obey you. We must obey God. The court is beside itself and admonishes all of the apostles and then beats all of the apostles. This is Acts chapter 5. And then tells them one last time, don't preach anymore in that name, and lets them go.

And then Acts chapter 5 verse 41 says, Acts 5, 41, So they departed from the presence of the Council. Now this is the 11. Actually it would still be the 12. Judas has been replaced. This is the 12, all of the apostles.

So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name. Isn't that beautiful? Dragged before the court, shamed, beaten, and released. And they went away not lamenting hardships, but rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for that name, the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, may God make us a people like this.

That just makes my heart burn. The beauty of the hearts of the people of God being so turned towards Him with a heart of obedience, a heart of honor that when they're beaten and shamed they would go away rejoicing that they've been counted worthy to suffer for that precious name of their Lord. It's a privilege to suffer for this name. Now why are these called Christ's sufferings that we are partaking in? Why Christ's sufferings?

We are here undergoing the trials. We are here undergoing the sufferings. And Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father in glory. And He's received an everlasting dominion. And His enemies are being made his footstool.

In what way can these be described as Christ's sufferings in this way? Our union with Christ. This is so beautiful. It's our union with Christ. We're joined to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're in Christ. We're accepted in the beloved. This is Ephesians 1 where it's said that we are accepted in the beloved. We're not a separate entity from Him for all who have placed their trust savingly in Jesus Christ and His work. You are not separate.

You are what? The body of Christ. And the head might be seated at the right hand of God in glory, but the head is not disconnected from the body. The head has been unified with the body. We are the body of Christ and so when we suffer it's His sufferings.

We're not suffering on our own behalf. We're suffering because of his name. We're suffering because of his word. We're suffering because of his works. Listen to Acts chapter 9.

In Acts chapter 9, Saul is about to become Paul. God-hating, church-hating, Christian-hating Saul is about to become God-loving, church-loving, Christian-loving Paul. And Jesus confronts Saul when he's on the way to persecute Christians. He's on the road to Damascus for the specific purpose of persecuting Christians in a blinding light and a voice from heaven and what does the voice from heaven say? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Jesus' people are unified to Him. We are given union with Christ, unbreakable union with head of the church. So when we are persecuted, God comes to the persecutors and says, why are you persecuting me? Because we're following Him. He is the head of the body.

So any persecution of the body is a persecution of the head. We are unified with our head. Listen to what Robert Leighton says. It is a sweet and joyful thing to share anything with Christ. All enjoyments without Him are bitter and all sufferings with him are sweet.

The people of God know something of this. If you've been walking with him long at all, you know something of this. You know that enjoyments without Him are bitter. You've lost your appetite for those kinds of enjoyments. They're just cheap thrills and then it's over.

And they're so bitter, so fast, Enjoyments without Christ. That's what they are to his people. But sufferings with him are sweet. He dwells among his people. So even trials, even sufferings with Jesus are sweet.

It is a sweet and joyful thing to share anything with Christ. Amen. That's why we are rejoicing in our trials and in our sufferings because a day is coming when Jesus will break the skies and the trumpet will be blown. The day is coming. We can know this with such confidence, with such certainty, with such joy that the day is coming.

It could be today. It could be long after we're dead. We don't know. But we do know that a day is coming and His glory is going to be revealed And it will be the supreme day of gladness for his people. We will be unimaginably glad on the day when Jesus returns to claim his own.

Exceeding joy. Glad, exceeding joy. That's what's in our text. That day is a day that the people of God cannot wait to get here. Come quickly.

That's how the Bible ends with John, With Jesus saying, I'm coming quickly, and John saying, amen, even so, come quickly, Lord. This is in the hearts of His people. So if you're insulted, if you're reproached for loving what your Lord loves, know that you're blessed. If you're insulted for hating what your Lord hates, know this, that you're blessed. Your accusers are blaspheming when they speak against you.

They're actually speaking against God because you're joined with your head, But you are glorifying Him by clinging unwaveringly to your Lord. That is what the text is saying. Your accusers are speaking against God. They're blaspheming. They're railing against the God of the universe, but by clinging to Him, by clinging to this Lord and bearing His reproach, by going to Him outside the camp, as Hebrews says.

Bearing His reproach, You're glorifying Him. It glorifies Him when His people cling to Him no matter what, no matter how high the heat gets turned up to bring these impurities, no matter how high the heat is turned up. When his people cling to him and cling to him and cling to him and refuse to be separated from him because he has the words of eternal life and they don't know where else to go so they cling to him with all they are, God is glorified. Listen to Matthew 5 verses 11 and 12. I think I say this cross reference every single week.

We've been in 1 Peter. I bet there are very few weeks. But I just have to. I can't come to this and not re-say what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 11 and 12, Jesus says, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad For great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." When you are reviled because of Jesus, just know that you stand in a stream of the faithful. That it's always been this way. That going back to the first prophets, his people have always been despised. Why is that? Because men love darkness.

And they flee from light. They hate light. So rejoice and be exceedingly glad because there is a reward waiting for you in heaven. And the moths can't get to it. And the rust can't get to it.

And the thieves can't get to it. It is held for you in heaven. It's waiting for you. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for your reward there is kept for you. Peter gives us another reason to rejoice in our trials and in our sufferings.

Here it is. It means the Holy Spirit rests on you. The Holy Spirit rests on you. Peter says, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. So Christians who are suffering, Christians who are enduring trials, then the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them.

The Holy Spirit was sent to be the special help of the Lord's people. That's why the Holy Spirit was sent. That's why the day of Pentecost is such a pivotal moment in your life, even though you weren't here then. Because it was Jesus dispatching the Holy Spirit of God to be the special help of His people, particularly in trials, particularly to sustain them in the middle of sufferings. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14 verses 16 and 17.

This is John 14 verses 16 and 17. Jesus says, �And I will pray the Father that he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." Jesus goes on to say, it's to your advantage that I go away and send the Spirit. It's better for you, it's better for the Lord's people, it's better for me and you, that Jesus is no longer bodily here, but that He went, has ascended to heaven where He can intercede for us at the right hand of His Father and where he sent his spirit to indwell his people, that he'll always be with us. The Holy Spirit is the special help of the Lord's people. He indwells us.

We're never more helped by the Holy Spirit of God than when God has cranked up the heat to purify His people. Then when we're hard pressed on every side And God has brought trials and sufferings into our life. Then, especially then, particularly then, the Holy Spirit is there indwelling us to help us and sustain us and keep us. Now turn in your Bibles to James. It's just a couple of pages to the left.

James, how could we come to this text and not talk about James 1? If you haven't memorized the first part of James 1, then do it. For your own joy, do it. So that you'll see trials rightly do it. Memorize the first whatever verses of James, at least two through four.

Let's look at James chapter one verses two through four together. My brethren, count it All joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So this is how we should see our trials. We should count it all joy, rejoice just like Peter says, and we should know the purpose of those trials.

To bring patience in our lives so that patience can have its perfect work. What? That we'd be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. God is building a people who are complete, who aren't lacking a single thing. How is he doing that?

Trials, sufferings. This is the beautiful plan of God to conform a people who were one thing and so far away from the image of his son. And they're conforming this people more and more and more pressing them into the mold a beautiful mold Perfect mold the mold of the image of Jesus Christ the Son of God If we are ever going to be what we ought to be to bring glory to God, if we're ever going to be that, we desperately need these trials. Can't you see that from James 1 and from the whole book of 1 Peter? If we're ever going to be what we ought to be, we desperately need these trials.

We'll be too much like us and not enough like Jesus if God won't bring trials upon us. To force those impurities to the top So he can deal with them and purify us and refine us. Now let's look at verses 15 and 16. Back to 1 Peter 4. Verses 15 and 16.

Peter writes, But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. Peter again talks about two kinds of suffering. Let me remind us of when he opened this well, started dipping out of this well. It was in chapter 2, verses 19 and 20.

So if you just flip back a page, Peter started talking about the two kinds of suffering in chapter 2, 19 and 20. He's just talked about how Christians ought to submit to the civil magistrate, even ungodly ones. He's just talked about how Christians ought to submit to those who own their time, even ungodly people who might own your time. And then he says this in verse 219. For this is commendable if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongly.

For what credit is it If when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently. But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. So Peter begins speaking about this in chapter 2 verse 19 and he talks about one kind of suffering where you're beaten for your faults, where you're getting what you've got coming to you because you didn't act right. So you're beaten for your faults. Peter says there's nothing commendable about that.

Peter says the suffering of a Christian ought to be the suffering of a person who's doing what's right before God. Suffering for doing good. So now he speaks of it again in today's text and he says, don't suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer. This is not suffering because of conscience toward God. No one's conscience is telling them to murder or to steal or to be an evildoer.

So Peter again talks about the wrong kind of suffering, being beaten for your own faults. And he says, don't do that. Don't suffer for the kinds of things that will put you on the doorstep of the civil magistrate like murder or theft or evil doing. And then he says, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Does that seem a little out of place to you.

Okay, we went from murder to theft, from theft to evil doing. And so far everybody who's reading the text is saying, yeah, get them. The murderers, the evil doers, the thieves, get them. And then we see this. A busy body in other people's matters.

It just seems like you're taking one extreme and then the list just changes in flavor so much when you're just talking about someone who's not minding their own business. It seems so much more palatable than these other things. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 3 where Paul is describing those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. And he gives this list of horrible things that these who deny the power of God but have a form of godliness are engaging in. And right in the middle of the list is disobedient to parents and you say, what?

This is strange on this list. This is out of step with this list. And I believe in these lists. That's not uncommon. I bet we could find other lists where we would find one that just seems so much more palatable to us.

God's helping us to think like he thinks. Okay? Murder might not bring that into your kitchen, so to speak. Theft might not bring that into your kitchen, so to speak. Evil doing, the things that you do, you might not think of evil doing.

But how about minding other people's business? Did you know God hates that like He hates murder and theft and evil doing? He's training us to think like He thinks. Actually the New Testament has a lot to say about busy bodies. For instance, consider what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11.

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11, Paul writes that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. So Paul tells his readers what kind of lives they ought to live. And he says, you ought to be living a quiet life. You ought to mind your own business. You ought to work with your own hands.

In other words, you need to be busy, but busy with your own business, busy with the things that God has given you to do, not busy with the things God has or hasn't given him to do, your neighbor, or her to do, your neighbor. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Timothy 5. I think Paul gets right to the heart of the matter and why being a busybody in other people's matters is on this list at all. In 1 Timothy 5, the qualifications for financially supporting a widow are given, and instructions to younger widows are given. So this is part of what I'm getting ready to read is part of the instructions to younger widows.

He warns younger widows about being gossips and busy bodies. And so he counsels them to marry and to love their husbands and to raise children. And then in verse 14 he says this, this is 1 Timothy 5, 14, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. To speak reproachfully. Don't open the door for God's enemies to speak reproachfully.

The conduct of the Lord's people should never open the door for the enemies of Christ to reproach Christ. And that's what minding other people's business does. It opens the door for the enemies of Christ, the enemies of God, to reproach God. It brings reproach when we are not attentive enough to our own business and too attentive to other people's business. That's what Peter is teaching here.

It brings reproach upon God. Remember, our lives are to be lived to His glory. This is another thrust of 1 Peter. Our lives are to be lived out to His glory so that our conduct brings praise and honor to God. This is the other side of that coin, the flip side, the bad side.

That the other potential exists as well. That our conduct would open the door to reproach. Here it is, not paying enough attention to your own business, to the work that God has given you to do, but instead allocating that time and that energy to other people's matters. That makes you a busybody. Not enough attention to your own business, too much attention to your neighbor's business.

It opens the door. You are to live a life that brings honor to God. The life of the busybody is a life that brings dishonor to him, that opens the door for the enemies of God to reproach him. Peter now speaks of a second kind of suffering, suffering as a Christian. A very different kind of suffering than being beaten for your own faults.

This is suffering for clinging to your Lord, Jesus Christ. We see the term here, Christian. It hadn't been in use very long when Peter is writing this letter. And it was used by the enemies of God as an insult. Christian, a follower of Christ.

What a despicable thing to be a follower of Christ. But Peter embraces the term. To Peter, it's a badge of honor. To wear the name of Jesus Christ is the highest honor to Peter. Who had denied him three times.

Peter can't get enough of bearing the name of Christ now. He denied him three times, but that's an old Peter. That's probably decades old by the time he writes this. And it's his highest honor to bear the name of his Lord and to be called a Christian, a follower of Christ. Peter says, if anyone suffers as a Christian, Let him not be ashamed.

The name of Christ is a name to be worn with pride. The name of Christ is a name to be worn with pride and boldness and confidence. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 1, 16. Romans chapter 1, verse 16. Paul writes, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." Jesus' name and his gospel ought to be a source of boldness for his people.

Did you get that? Jesus' name, his name to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ, ought to be a source of boldness and gladness and joy for his people. Never be ashamed of bearing the name of Christ. Never be ashamed of one word that Christ has said from Genesis to Revelation. Never back up and be ashamed for one thing that Jesus has said to his people from Genesis to Revelation.

Every word of the Bible is a word of Christ. Make no mistake, It's not Moses in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New. It is Jesus from Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, verse whatever is the last verse. I don't remember. We're not to be ashamed.

It should be a source of boldness for us. 2 verses 17 through 19. Our last section, 1 Peter 4, verses 17 through 19, for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where would the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator. Sufferings mean one thing. God is at work. Trials mean one thing, God is at work. Peter now speaks of those who are God's people and those who are not a people.

He speaks of those who have obtained mercy and of those who have not obtained mercy. He begins by saying judgment begins at the house of God. What does he mean by house of God? He's defined this already in the letter. Chapter 2 verse 5.

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 5. You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. This is the house of God where judgment begins. The living stones that are being built up into a spiritual house, a house of spiritual sacrifices offered by a holy priesthood. May we be found to be a living stone in that building, to be a holy priest offering up spiritual sacrifices in that building.

This is where judgment begins. It begins at this house of spiritual stones, living stones. In Psalm 73, Asaph, the Psalmist, laments this. And then by the end of Psalm 73, he understands. But he begins by observing that the trials and tribulations and persecutions and hardships seem to be reserved for God's people.

And he says, how can this be that the wicked prosper, the wicked enjoy peace? And God's People are hard pressed on every side. There's trial after trial. There's suffering. How can it be that God's people experience this, but so often the wicked seem to be scot-free, seem to be prospering, Seem to be enjoying peace on every front.

When the Lord's people are suffering war on every front, how can it be? And then Asaph says, I went to the house of the Lord, and then I knew. I saw the end of things. So while it may be true that the Lord's people are hard pressed on every side in this life, God is at work. And their end is glorious.

Their reward is sure. Their reward is something to be exceedingly joyful over. But the wicked who enjoy peace now, who often enjoy prosperity now, their end is destruction, eternal destruction, unending torment and destruction. Psalm 73 ASAP is observing exactly what Peter is talking about here. Judgment begins here.

In this house, among these living stones, why? Because God is at work, turning up the heat so that the impurities would come to the top and he would have a purified people, a holy people for the greatness of his own name. Now, judgment does not equal condemnation. If you're substituting in your mind condemnation for judgment, that's not right. You are not thinking about it right.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So that's not what Peter is talking about. Fathers and mothers exercise judgment with their children all the time. Not condemnation, but judgment, saying, that's wrong. That behavior has to go.

Any fathers and mothers here ever cranked up the heat so the impurities could be skimmed off? I know I have. We're just doing what we've seen God do. We're doing out of love for our children what God does out of love for his children, bringing a redemptive kind of judgment. Judgment begins at the house of God, But the judgment reserved for the living stones that are being built up, a spiritual house, is not the judgment of condemnation.

It's the judgment of discipleship. Okay? It's the judgment of discipleship, of being a pupil, a learner. It's the discipline that the Lord exercises on true sons. If you know nothing of this discipline of God, you're an illegitimate son.

Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 11. This is our Lord's Supper text. We're in this text all the time. 1 Corinthians 11 verses 31 and 32. 1 Corinthians 11 verses 31 and 32.

Paul writes, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. If God hated us, He would let us go our own way. He would let us have whatever we want. He would let us continue down every track of sin.

If God hated us, that's what he would do. He would just back off and let you have everything you want. But when he judges us, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. This is how God keeps you from destruction. He disciplines you because he loves his sons.

It has a redemptive purpose. This judgment is not for condemnation. It's for redemption. It's that you may not be condemned with the world. That's exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11.

We have had five cases of church discipline in the last two years. I've never seen anything like it in my life. These are marks of sonship. These are marks of sonship. God disciplines those he loves.

He doesn't let them continue down the track in their sin, but the Lord brings chastening that we may not be condemned with the world. God is too merciful and God is too concerned with His glory to let sin run among His people. God is too merciful to let sin run in his people. God is too concerned with his glory to let sin run in his people. So if Doug Phillips will not respond to the private chastening that God brings to him in his own heart, and repent, then God will deal with him.

And if Jason Dome will not deal with God in his own heart and examine himself and hear the voice of the Lord about his own areas of hypocrisy and deal with them, then God will bring them right to the surface. And if you will not hear God when He deals with you and your sins, then He'll bring that right to the surface. God's too merciful. He loves His people too much to just let them run headlong with their idols. We should thank God for this.

It is a mercy. It is a blessing that God cranks up the heat and brings these impurities to the surface so that he can skim these impurities off and make us a people that we're not like now. Maybe we were too smug two years ago. Maybe we thought we were something that we weren't two years ago. Maybe we needed to be brought face to face with our own sins through these things.

Through these things. It's a wonderful thing to be in his family. To be a son, to be treated like a son. Not like an illegitimate son, but like a real son who is disciplined for his own good. Not because he doesn't love, but because he does love.

Supremely he loves. But it's a fearful thing too. It's not one or the other, it's both. It's a blessing. It's the highest privilege to be his child, but it is a fearful thing to be his child too.

He knows everything and he holds all the cards. And if we think that we can hide our sins, we've not been paying attention. Attention. Your secret sins are not secret. And mine aren't secret either.

God knows them all. And if we don't repent now, if you're his child, you will repent. Peter then turns to those who will not obey the Gospel of God. This is that same word we keep running into which has two branches on it. The first being disobedience, not obey, but The second being withholding belief, stubborn unbelief.

Both of these things are wrapped up in this word. I think this is the fourth time, if I'm correct, this is the fourth time we've hit it in this letter. We keep hitting it. It keeps getting translated disobedience and that's good, but it's not a full enough representation of what the Greek word means. It does mean disobedience, but it also means the withholding, the unreasonable withholding of belief, stubborn unbelief.

So now Peter turns to those who stubbornly unbelieve, who withhold their belief, unreasonably, and they disobey the gospel of God. And Peter is making the argument, if God deals so decisively with sin among his own sons, what will it be like for those who will not embrace the gospel? What will it be like to those who have not been adopted into his family. If God is so decisive in how he deals with sin among his own people, what will it be like for those who hate the gospel and have rejected it? Listen to Psalm 75 verse 8.

Psalm 75 verse 8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red. It is fully mixed, and he pours it out. Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down." This is the cup that Jesus wanted to pass by him in Gethsemane. This is the cup that Jesus was agonizing over when he prayed to his father in Gethsemane.

The cup of God's wrath that has been prepared for the wicked. That the wicked will have to drink down to the dregs. You know what that means? The dregs are the floaties. The things that are heavier, that remain.

The impurities that go to the bottom. So when you drink down to the bottom and there's a little bit of coffee grounds at the bottom, that's it, that's the drags, and they're bitter. That means to drink it all the way down to the last drops to the just the residue at the bottom of the cup. The wicked, there's a cup ready for the wicked of God's wrath and they will have and drank it down to the dregs. And then he hands to his people, not that cup, but the cup of blessing.

All sinners have a cup. All sinners have a cup. Will you drink the cup of the anger, the fury of God against sin down to the bitter dregs Or has Jesus Christ drunk that cup down to the bitter drags for you and now He hands you a cup of blessing because you've trusted in His work? Peter quotes from Proverbs 11 verse 31. And we have this phrase in here, the righteous one is scarcely saved.

It could be translated, in fact it is in the NASB, with difficulty, saved with difficulty. Does that mean that the sacrifice, the atoning work of Jesus Christ is just barely enough? No, That's not what that means at all. It's hearkening back to what Jesus says in Matthew 7 verse 14, that the gate is narrow. The way is difficult that leads to life.

It's filled with sufferings and hardships, and this is by the design of God. God gives his people a narrow gate to enter and a difficult way to travel, But it leads to life. The righteous one is scarcely saved. The righteous one is saved with difficulty. It means what Jesus says in Matthew 19 verse 26 when he's just talked about how hard it is for a rich man to be saved.

And the disciples say, if a rich man, if it's so hard for a rich man to be saved, what about everybody else? And Jesus says it is impossible with men to be saved. You realize what a miracle it is when anyone gets saved. It is a raising from the dead. It is impossible with man.

Seven billion people on earth and not one of them, not one in seven billion, has the strength to be saved. They must be raised from the dead by the power of God. In Acts 14 22 it says we must through many tribulations. Now Acts 14 22, Paul has just been stoned. They thought he was dead, he wasn't dead, he gets up, he walks back into town.

Then he goes to the next city and then having just been stoned, Paul says, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. That's what Peter is saying in this text. With difficulty you're saved. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. That's what Peter is saying in this text.

With difficulty you're saved. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Listen to Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. Very well-worn verses and for good reason. Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, very well-worn verses and for good reason.

Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, 4, by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast. The righteous one is scarcely saved. He is saved with difficulty.

It requires the work of Jesus Christ. Finally verse 19 tells us what we must do in our trials and tribulations. We must, We must, we must commit our souls to God as to a faithful creator. We must entrust ourselves wholly to God who is faithful and who has given us every breath we've ever taken. We must lay everything at His feet.

A happy Christian is the Christian who has laid everything at His feet, who has learned to stop struggling against God and His work in your life. Just stop. You are impeding your own happiness. Do you know that? In your struggling against the trials and against the sufferings that God has brought into your life to refine you, to purify you, to conform you into the image of Christ.

By struggling against that you are impeding your own happiness. The happy Christians are those who trust and obey. Who entrust themselves fully to God. Who lay everything at His feet and know that He has brought the trials and the sufferings for their own good. I want to close in Ephesians chapter 5.

Turn turn to Ephesians chapter 5 and I'll begin reading in verse 25, another well-worn text, well-loved. Ephesians 525, husbands, love your wives. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. That He might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present her to himself.

A glorious church. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. A sovereign God who moves around every molecule of the universe is doing this. He is making for himself a beautiful bride. He's smoothing out the spots and the wrinkles by bringing trials and sufferings into life.

He's washing. He's cleansing. He's making her holy. And without blemish, We should praise God for our trials and our sufferings. We should rejoice just like Peter is saying because this is what God's doing.

He's creating a people for His own glory. He's taking us from what we are, too much of us. And He's making us what we ought to be, more like Christ. He's making us decrease so that Christ might increase. Increase.

Let's praise him for this work among his people. Let's pray. Oh God, I praise you for your work among your people that you would beautify the people. Oh God, in the state in which you found us we were so unlovely that you are making a bride without spot or wrinkle a holy bride, a beautiful bride. Amen.

May it be so. May you work a mighty work among your people. Oh God, if what stands between us and being yours, fully yours, are the trials and the sufferings that we desperately need. Oh bring them upon us, oh Lord, that we might know you as we are known by you. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.