Conduct in suffering - part 1
1 Peter 3:13-17 · Roger Henderson · Jun 7, 2015
1 & 2 Peter (2015), No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492656165933

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're starting into a new section here, and this is going to be through the rest of 1 Peter. We plan also to do 2 Peter. But through the rest of this letter, we're going to talk about suffering. So I've decided to go ahead and, let's see here. So basically in 1 Peter 3.13 through the end of the book, basically, I kind of have borrowed and kind of modified slightly colleagues outline here. So first of all, there's three divisions. 313 through about 4 or 6 is suffering for righteousness or doing what's right. And actually, he has his hand up here. Yeah. Thanks. They're still warm. That term hot off the press, right? Suffering for righteousness sake, or basically suffering for doing good.

And the verse that, have a look at this verse today, the key verse in this aspect is 1 Peter 3.14. But even if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, or doing what's right, you are blessed. Do not fear their intimidation, do not be troubled. So that's going to be the section one. Section two is suffering with Christ.

And the key verse there is 1 Peter 4.12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire and ordeals among you, which come upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. So we've got some really neat verses. And then lastly, suffering in service for Christ. And the verse here is in 1 Peter 5, 10. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

As you look through all these outlines, attempts to outline, You'll see within that, there's other topics that are covered. So it's not to say that in each of these sections, this is the only thing that's covered. This is kind of the primary thing. And suffering is a primary, the word occurs about 12 times in the remainder of this section, the remainder of the book basically.

But there are other topics that will be addressed in these verses. So there's a million, and what's interesting is that Unfortunately, people look at the Word of God and they say, well, I want to focus on God's love. And that's a wonderful thing to do. We should focus on God's love. But God has a lot to say about the believer. about the believers, trials, suffering, there's various words that are used.

And that's actually a pretty key part to understand in our Christian life. If we think for some reason, and we're going to see different, we're going to look at some other passages in the scripture that talk about reasons for suffering. If we kind of think that we really shouldn't be suffering, we think that's Sin, even. In fact, actually we're going to see a case where Christ talked to a guy, the man born blind, who sinned. If we think that that's somehow outside God's will, that suffering is really not part of the Christian life, we're going to be very confused and probably very disappointed and very disillusioned with the Christian life, I think. If we see that as a part of God's plan, and actually not to fear it, That's part of what's worth seeing. Not to fear the sufferings and trials, but to accept them from God, the only wise God. He is more wise than we are. We accept what his plan is for us. We know he has a purpose. He says there's no trial or suffering that's without a purpose. He doesn't say I'm going to communicate that purpose to you. He says I want you to trust me.

Just like I remember when our kids were small, we asked him what trusts us in this. They were uncertain. Most times kids will trust you. They'll trust their parents, which is a good thing. Then they get older, they have their own ideas. Hopefully by that time you've taught them something.

Before we get into the... We're just going to cover two verses today. We're just going to cover two verses in the section on suffering for doing good or for righteousness. But I'd like to go back and look through scripture. McCauley got me interested in this. Actually, at Holly Hills, Hal Malloy taught a six-month section on trials and sufferings, which is really good. I'm going to borrow some from that. Macaulay has a bunch of wonderful ones. There's just a lot of scripture that talks about what God's purpose is in suffering and trials.

I think it's good to understand that, that we're not surprised. And that's kind of what we read in some of these. Don't be surprised. agitated or moved. Accept that as what God is doing. It doesn't say it's pleasant. But accept that as what God is doing. Trust him. And we're going to see that actually that can be for your good. And that's, you know, count it all joy. How can I count this difficulty as joy? But he says that's what we're to do. And we can't actually, we really can't. If we try to do it ourselves, in our own strength, that's going to be probably a futile effort. OK. All right. OK, so I'm just going to go through the chart, Suffering for God's Glory. And this is the one that I was talking about. In John chapter 9, this is Christ.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? Just stop there for a second. The world kind of has the same view. If they see a Christian struggling, if they see a Christian sinning, or whatever it might be, they're thinking, well, something is awry here. In this case, Christ is going to set the... These are his disciples that ask it.

Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? So they're assuming this physical ailment had some root in sinning. Christ says, no, it did not. Jesus answered, it was neither this man's sin, nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

And then it goes on, in the last part, he basically heals him. He talks about how he's the light of the world. And John there, you can go through all the, he's the light of the world, he's a vine, there's a whole bunch of wonderful word pictures there. He's a lamb, This is the one where he's the light of the world, and he basically heals a man of his sight.

And then there's the kind of comical thing where he goes to the priests and the rabbis and they say, you sort of look like the man with the blind, but I don't think you are. You can't have your sight. But you sort of look like him. He can see. Actually, as Vernon points out, scripture is pretty amazing. If you don't see something amazing, you're kind of missing the point. being healed of his blindness is amazing. It's pretty amazing the interchange he has with the authorities there.

So this is one example of suffering. So this man, from birth he was blind, but Christ says it was for the flares of God might be manifested. OK, so the next one, suffering for our growth. And this is a good one. I've got three verses here. This is kind of good. Something to think about. We see suffering talked about by almost all the writers in the New Testament. We see it in the Gospels. We see it in the Epistles. We see Paul talk about it. We see James talk about it. We see Peter talk about it. They all talk about suffering. So first of all, James, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. So you say, well, how am I going to count it all joy? Well, he tells you in verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And that word endurance is this idea of, if you're an athlete, you want to have endurance. You want to be able to run the race, you want to be able to be in good condition, right? And so you train. And you train and train and train so that when you get out there on the day of the race, running that mile or that marathon or whatever, you can handle it. You have endurance. He's saying that we're to count it all a joy that these trials are going to produce in us this staying power, this endurance, this abiding under.

Actually, Paul uses the same word in a very similar way in Romans 5.3. And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations. Again, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance. Perseverance is the same word as endurance. It's the same Greek word. Hupomenone, abiding under the staying power.

This has a beautiful picture, this beautiful word picture of knowing that tribulation brings about the staying power, and the staying power brings about proven character, and this proven character brings about hope. There's a picture, a word picture if you will, about what God's doing here. So God has a purpose. That we can consider joy, not that the situation is joyful, but what God is doing is joyful in our lives.

And then in 1 Peter, we've seen this earlier. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that, with a purpose at, the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let's look at James. I didn't have this down on the chart. Let's look at James for a second. James has a lot to say about trials and suffering. I'd like someone to read James chapter 1. Verses 13 and 14 in James chapter 1. Actually let's go back to 12, 13 and 14. In James chapter 1.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted by evil. And he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Well, verse 13 is what I was kind of focusing on. When we encounter these various trials, part of the message we're to understand is that God is not waving the bait or the thing that might attract us. He's not waving that in front of us to make us sin. He's not causing us to sin. What you're going to see as you go on with this verse, It's our sin nature. The world, the flesh, and the devil are the three antagonists of the believer. As verse 13 says, God let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot tempt me by evil, for he himself does not tempt anyone.

So the trials and temptations and suffering are not The source of that is not God trying to catch us up, so to speak, or cause us to fail. He wants us to succeed. He wants to prove us who we are, who we are in Christ. Any thoughts so far? We've gone through two of these. The first one was suffering for God's glory, and this is suffering for our growth. So I'm just going to keep on going. Go ahead.

In Romans 5.3, Could be maybe maybe better translated as afflictions. Right. OK. OK. Sure. We exult in our affliction and our affliction brings about perseverance. Right. And that's they were being afflicted back then. Right. They were a lot. In Peter's time, exactly that. Nero was in play. Nero wasn't exactly the nicest guy in the world. He didn't like Christmas too well. He decided he needed more light in his garden. So he was going to use his torches.

We haven't experienced that situation, most of us in this country. Not to say it may not happen at some point. We've been blessed with that. You can imagine situations in some parts of the world, Your life is in danger every moment just about. So we are very thankful that we can gather here and teach God's word without fear. We are isolated. We are. Anyway, good point. So that's suffering for our growth. So let's go on here.

And this one is suffering due to our identification with Christ. And this one is, since we identify with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, we're going to see aspects of what Christ encountered that we're going to encounter too. The first one is in Philippians 1.29. For you has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. I actually didn't look up the word granted, but it's interesting just the way it reads.

In the first part it said, wonderful, it was God's plan for me to believe. Well, it's God's plan for you to suffer for his sake too. So you say, wow, thank you Lord that it was your plan. Your plan was for me to Isn't that wonderful? But he says also it's his plan for you to suffer for his sake. And actually that word for is a preposition that could be rendered on behalf of. So if you think about verses like, let's just read, this idea of suffering for Christ's sake or on behalf of Christ's sake is kind of pictured in John. John 15. Someone could read John 15. John 15, 18-21. Anyone can read. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my namesake because they do not know him who sent me.

Great, thank you. That kind of comes across really strongly. A lot of you folks weren't here, we studied Acts last year. Going through Acts, when Paul was on the Damascus road, he's walking along and this bright light comes out of heaven and he's blinded. There's a voice from heaven, the Lord talks to him and he calls him Saul. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church? Why are you persecuting believers, he says, why are you persecuting me?

So our identification with Christ, what happens to us is, because we identify with Christ, that is considered by God happening to him. And that's where the whole idea of identification is, that we're in this living union with him. And so as Christ suffers, this verse says, we're his offspring, we're his people. So if he suffered, We're going to suffer too, for the same reasons. It hated him, it's going to hate us. And that's why we shouldn't be surprised. Roger? Yeah, go ahead. I looked up Grant in Strong's middle voice from 54-85, to Grant as a favored, that is, gratuitously, in kindness, pardon, or rescue. Yeah, that's really cool. It's a favor.

Don't think that I have this all I don't enjoy trials more than anyone else. I'm here to tell you I don't enjoy trials. Even though the Lord tells them I should. But I still struggle with that. But then in the back of my mind I said, okay, let's think about this. I try to talk to myself. It's dangerous sometimes. Mumble to yourself, what are you saying? Well, he's like, wait a minute. Try to step back and look at the long picture. Sometimes it's awful hard. If something is very difficult, it's awful hard to step back and say, well, maybe there's some good that's going to come out of this.

And I think there is. There's always a purpose. And it's always God's good. And maybe there's some training. Maybe you're getting ready for the marathon. Go ahead. The people that go through the tribulation, persecuted, killed and all, There's a special place. God treats them differently. You're right.

Remember the church has been taken out, has been raptured. But those believers, it says 144,000 are sealed, right? So there's special protection for them. But the other people outside that, the ones that believe... And there's an uncountable multitude in heaven. that are there and they're beneath the throne, they're protected, they're comforted. That tells me that the tribulation and the struggles they go through in the tribulation are traumatic. They are. They need more comfort. They're angry because of what the Antichrist was doing against Christ. There is a special place. One of the seven churches was a persecuted church. Jesus had nothing bad to say about that church. I think it was the church of Smyrna. There were two churches that had nothing bad to say about them. The persecuted church was one of them.

So I think one of the messages that we're seeing out of 1 Peter is that suffering is something for us to be accepting of, as to see it as part of God's plan, and not to get moved, not to get agitated. And they certainly were in dire situations, and you could argue that many of us find ourselves in dire situations, maybe in our family, in our country, or wherever it might be. This one always amazes me.

Colossians 1.24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings. Once again, he's almost rejoicing in my sufferings. I rejoice in my sufferings.

Oh, isn't this wonderful? The key thing I think you have to remember. He's not telling you that you say that this bad thing that happened is a good thing. It could be a sinful thing that happened to you. You're to rejoice that God has a plan and a purpose in that, and you're looking to Him in that. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. So I have to be a little careful here.

He's not saying that Christ didn't, you know, Christ said it is telephilis, it's finished. His work is finished. He paid for the sins of the world, past, present, future. This isn't saying there's some more sins hanging out there that he hasn't taken care of. I think what this is saying is that since we're identified with Christ, we are The like nature, like we talked about before, the like nature of those sins, we're encountering, we're seeing. If Christ was afflicted, we're afflicted.

So it's this identification that, and the lacking, I didn't actually look at that too, unfortunately, I didn't look at that whole lot either. But this is more suffering in like kind, I guess I would say. Filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. Not to say that we're suffering things that he didn't get a chance to suffer. We're suffering those. This is saying that we're suffering in the like manner that he suffered.

Suffering so that we can comfort others. And this is kind of cool. My voice is... I'd like to read this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which ourselves are comforted by God. This is a wonderful thing. I think we see this in operation so many times in the body of believers.

We see that if a brother or sister is having a problem, and maybe you've had a similar problem, you can come alongside them and comfort them with the comfort that God gave you as you went through that trial or suffering. So one of the things to ask is, What does scripture talk about the encouragement that a believer gets? And that's actually in Romans. So the process here is that a believer who's undergone a trial or affliction is taking that, how he grew in the Lord, how he came to understand about his afflictions or trials or sufferings, and is communicating that to his brothers and sisters of the Lord.

And that's encouraging them. And you could argue, that's why you may have gone through your suffering. So if you see the pattern, I went through my suffering so that down the road I could help my brother or sister, or maybe as a family member. I went through this situation so I could help my children learn this.

So the place that seems to be real appropriate for how a believer is encouraged, and I basically ask the question, how are we comforted? Romans 15 verses 4 and 5. This is not surprising, this is what you would think would be the case. For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant to you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus. So the encouragement of the scriptures that we might have hope. So the scriptures are fulfilling their purpose as we take them in, as we understand them, as we see who we are in Christ, what Christ has done. As we see what God is doing, we see his plans and his purposes, that's to encourage us so that we can encourage others.

So it's kind of a two step process here. We're encouraged by the scriptures, we take that occasion to comfort others. Thoughts on that or comments? Now this particular one, you might argue, well this may not happen too often. It may happen more often than we think. Suffering to prevent exalting oneself.

Paul in particular zeroes in on this one. He says, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, plural. Think about Paul. Paul was such a special instrument of God. He was specially tutored by the Lord for three years. So he got a one-on-one with the Lord. Imagine having a Bible study. You wouldn't have me here, you'd have the Lord. It would be a lot better than this. I know he's trying to communicate, but it would be wonderful.

So Paul got one-on-one. So what the Lord is kind of saying here is that, what Paul is saying is, he was given this thorn in the flesh that kind of brought him back down to earth. Okay, I've been with the Lord, I know all this stuff, and you guys better listen up, because I've got the good information. Well, he says here that, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

So you might argue that that happens. I can't think of a whole lot of cases of that, other than what's mentioned here. But there are cases, I think certainly, where people, the Lord brings something along to keep us from maybe getting too proud or too whatever. So that's one of the purposes of trials and suffering. Actually, I kind of jotted down a few other ones that are talked about by various people.

Can you think of an example in scripture of a person who suffered, who didn't have a clue why he was suffering? He didn't know. He wasn't told, and we know why because we read scripture. Can you think of a person in scripture who didn't really know why he was suffering?

That's the obvious one, Joe. And think how awful, what he suffered. My goodness, he lost his entire family, everything he had. But then the Lord, after that, and he, you know. And of course his friends came by to help him out and encourage him. So part of the suffering in trials is that we may have comforters like Joe that come along. And they think they understand our situation. Well, what happened to you is, and they tell us why we're suffering. This is why you're suffering. You know? You're a sinner. This is what you did wrong. This is why, I mean, they read the Riot Act. So anyway. So that's another clue.

And I think that many times we don't really know I mean we can't put our finger on why we're suffering in certain situations. And God doesn't really necessarily tell us that we're going to know why. We may know why, we may not know why. But he basically tells us, just like we said, counted all joy, accepted as my plan and my purpose, realized that I'm a God who only does things, I'm a purposeful God, I never do something just in a whimsical fashion.

What will happen if I do this to this person? What will he do? Like with Joe, he was totally confident in what Joe would do. He said, go ahead and do it. You can't take his life, but you can do this. He allowed him to do that. So he was totally confident, he knew what Joe would do, and he knows us as well. Alright, and then another category is that, think about this, think about the garden. God goes to Adam and he tells Adam, here are the rules of the garden. This is what you can do and this is what you can't do. You can't eat from that tree.

And then Satan comes along and tempts him and so the result of that is suffering not only for Adam and Adam and Eve for all of mankind. So we have suffering that started back then that is continuing on through to now. So that's another whole aspect of suffering. So suffering is a big part of scripture. Really, it's a lot. I'm all for looking at God's love. I'm excited about that. He loves me and cares for me and died for me.

So I'm not saying we shouldn't I don't think we should go around. We should teach the whole counsel of God. We should teach His love. We should teach His suffering that He had. We should teach both. I think both will help us understand and live the Christian life.

So this is kind of a short summary of some of the types of suffering in scripture. So now we're going to look at the first two verses. So let's go back to James, if you aren't already there. So this is going to start the section. So these first two verses, I'll just go ahead and read that. James chapter 3, James, let's try it. First Peter chapter 3, see if you guys are awake.

First Peter chapter 3, starting in verse 13. And who is there to harm you? if you prove zealous for what is good. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled."

And the next week we're going to continue on, and this thought keeps going, because the next verse is a but, and I want to stop here for today. We're going to continue on with 15-17 for this for this section. But just today we're going to look at these two verses. And they're kind of in contrast.

The first one says, and who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? So some have seen this as being a law or a principle of God. He's saying that you're not going to be harmed if you prove zealous for what is good. Give me a short definition of what zealous is. What do you think zealous is about? You think of a person who is zealous? Paul was zealous.

He was super zealous. We learned that in Acts. He hated it before his conversion. He hated Christians. He went out of his way. In his mind, he was getting rid of what was offensive to God. That's what he thought. He was on the wrong track. So, zealous is a very strong word. What's interesting is here, it almost seems like he's giving us something to to really get working at it. We've got to get really pumped up and we're going to get there and really work really hard. That way we can't be... it's sort of like the tribulation.

If I do it, nobody's going to harm me. Another question is, what does harm mean? How do I look at harm? Can suffering be a non-harmful situation? If I suffer, is that a harmful scenario? Or maybe that's not a harmful scenario. Okay, so harm is the word to do evil to someone, treat them, play, injure, and actually acts.

Let's look at Acts 18.10. I thought I had it written down in my notes from 1810. OK. Could someone read Acts 18, 9 and 10?

And spoke the Lord to follow the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. My verse 10 says, no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.

So harm is to do injury. So one thing we are going to struggle with here, I don't say I have it all figured out, This verse is going to say that God is going to protect us in an interesting way. I'm not sure. This if and this situation. A lot of times we'll see if in a situation where it's assumed to be true and you could possibly translate it as sense. But in this case, it's uncertain. There's an uncertainty if you prove zealous or not prove zealous. But the third class condition is it presents the condition as uncertain fulfillment, but it's still likely.

It's likely that you'll prove zealous. In a minute, I'll show you why that's the case, I think. So this if is what's called third class. There's actually four classes, and maybe at some point we can go over those. Third class is maybe yes, maybe no. It's uncertain, but it's likely. So you could translate it, if you prove zealous, and you probably will. You prove, is this word ginomai, to come into a new state of being, or you become. So basically, and from Romans, the same word is used here.

For if we become, or come into this, become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. So this become. becoming zealous for him is actually part of our walk with the Lord focused on him.

I don't think it's, even though it has a very strong situation, a strong emphasis here, I don't think it's intended that we get involved in this outside of walking with the Lord and abiding with him. Otherwise, this is some work for us to do and it doesn't tie in with the rest of scripture. And that's what makes this first verse difficult, I think.

Zealous is a word from zealot, uncompromising, a partisan. In Titus there, we don't have to turn there, it just says in Titus they were zealous, he's talking about Christ was zealous. Let's look at that. Because actually part of the point is, we're going to see that Christ was zealous. And this actually is what helped me, I think, maybe understand this a little bit better. So if Christ was zealous, and Christ is in us, and we're in him, then we can be zealous in a godly way, and not be like Paul was. We can be zealous as Christ was zealous.

So Titus 2.14 says, talking about Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for himself a people for his own possessions, zealous for good deeds. So we're to be zealous for good deeds. And that zealousness has to have as a source the Lord Jesus. And so what I thought was interesting, zealous for what is good, or a little bit of good. I always liked this. I had a brother, and Cheryl knows who it is, a guy named Jim Hazen.

We'd be out at work, and he'd be walking down the hall, and we would greet each other. How are you doing? I'm doing good. You say, Roger, there's only one good. He would have a stern face. Roger, there's only one good. And he would quote this verse to me right here. And I'm sure he remembers that. He'd do it all the time.

Well, if you understand our identification with Christ, no problem. That's what the Lord wants. He wants us to have His rights in His life so we can be good. So I think we can, in the right way, with the Lord as our focus, He wants us to be zealous for good deeds. We can be zealous for good deeds and do exactly what this verse says and not be a raving, crazy person. We can do this righteously and rightly. And it promises us there is no harm for you if you prove zealous for what is good. So this is one part of your mind, okay, I can be zealous in a proper way because that's what Christ is about, and I can be zealous in the right way, loving him and trusting him and walking with him and speaking his word, telling his word. So the other part of this is that the doing no harm. So no harm is going to come to me. Bullets are going to fly off me. I'm not Superman. Is that going to happen? Probably not. So I put out two observations. One from Wyss and one from Macaulay.

Wyss says, Peter tells them, as a result of their righteous lives and God's care, their blessedness will be as such as to turn off all the malice of their persecutors making their suffering itself to be joy. And I say, boy, that fit well because what he's telling us here is that we say, I come to know harm.

Well, do I look at suffering as harm? And that's kind of key, I think. If I look at suffering as being harm, well, that's a harm. I'm looking at God's purpose in my life the wrong way. He says, no, be joyful for that. I'm not to say that suffering might not be physically degrading, but he says, don't look at it as being harmful. Once again, it's what is our mindset? And then Macaulay kind of built on that, I thought, a little bit.

How is it possible, he's asking the question, how is it possible, however, to say that a believer who is suffering, as they were, the people in Peter's time, cannot be hurt? The answer lies back in 1 Peter 6 and 7. Testing refined faith, testing and suffering, hurts? He hit question. Testing and suffering hurts us or helps us? Then question mark. So, does testing and suffering harm us, hurt us?

It may hurt us physically, but if it's God's plan, it's going to be beneficial to us. So I think that's kind of a cool message that comes out of this verse. Maybe a hard one, but go ahead. Even with the world, if you're zealous for doing good, the world doesn't usually persecute somebody who's doing good. Unless they just hate the person. Exactly.

We see in our time, we see it's kind of moved to that people just hate believers because they're believers. It doesn't really matter what they do. They at the core hate what God is. They hate Christ and they hate that person totally because of that. They might actually be helping and we see that over and over. Believers are helping lots of people but are put down because they're helping people. At one time that was actually praised. Being called a Christian gentleman or being a Christian was considered a good thing. Oh wow, we have some Christians here. They're going to be helpful. They're going to help people out. Times are a-changing as they say.

In this concurrence here. I'm sorry I can't find it. It says Revelations 3.19. Be zealous therefore and repent. And I don't know what else. OK. OK. Yeah. OK. I was changing that. OK. Well I'm not sure. Anyway you've got a little time left here. So OK.

So the message from verse 13 is that is that as this kind of question here and I think the point is that that verse says Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? You certainly cannot harm the position of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be harmed and in a way with God's providing trials and testing and suffering for us, that is not to harm us, that is to build us up basically. OK, so let's go on. So this kind of flips it around. So this says, OK, let's say, but even if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And then there's a quotation from Isaiah. Do not fear their intimidation, nor be troubled. So this kind of takes on, so this is a strong contrast. Even if you should suffer, this is another case of a third class condition.

The word suffer here that we're going to see at least 12 times through the rest of the book is this idea of to be affected by something from without, to be acted upon. It almost always denotes an unpleasant or hurtful experience of some kind. But as we talked about, God wants to use suffering for our benefit. And then to kind of complicate matters, I put this in here, maybe I shouldn't have, but anyway, there's a verb tense here which kind of makes this whole, this if is a probable situation, but in some situations it's likely, but this says with that suffering being that picker-opted mood, it may not be probable. So I'm not going to, Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll suffer, but even if you should suffer, maybe you'll suffer, maybe you won't.

Let's just melee with that right now. Sorry to be so... Okay. So suffer for righteousness sake. We saw this earlier. For this finds favor. For if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. So that glorifies God, that points to him as being the source, that you're able to bear up under that. And basically it says, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. James talks about this, we count those blessed who endure You have heard of the endurance of Job, which we talked about, and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

And then lastly here, this quotation from Isaiah, basically from Isaiah 8, 12-13. Do not fear their intimidation, and literally from Weiss it says, do not be affected with the fear of them, by the fear which they strive to inspire in you or incite in you, and neither become agitated. There is a verse that I always like and I want to read it in Hebrews. This last part talks about not being fearful or not being agitated. agitated or troubled, and this verse always really helps when I think about how steadfast the Lord is, how much he loves me, and how his promises are faithful and true. The Hebrew Bible is turned to Hebrews chapter 13. It doesn't come out real strong in English, but I'm going to read Peter chapter 13 verse 5. I'm going to read it in the Wiest New Testament translation.

What Wiest tries to do, he tries to bring out the full context here. So he puts in additional words. And like Vern says, in the English, negatives, you don't say I not not something. But in Greek, that's used for emphasis. So that's used in this passage.

Let your manner of life be without the love of money, being satisfied with your present circumstances. For he himself has said, and the statement is on record, I will not I will not cease to sustain you and uphold you. I will not, I will not, I will not let you down. So that you may be of good courage, we are saying the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what shall man do to me. So there's actually five negatives in there. I will not, will not, will not let you down. I will not cease to sustain you and uphold you. I think all we see in the English is we see just maybe two negatives there.

So what helps me with this verse is that it shows me that the Lord is resolved in caring for His own. That He is our life. He loves us and He is committed to protecting us. And he's also committed to growing us. So I feel like 13 kind of talks about, I'm going to protect you, and nothing's going to harm you. Then 13 comes along and says, well, you may get harmed. It's possible. And that's not contradictory. It seems that way. OK, so next we're going to go in, start at verse 15. We're going to look at verse 15 through 17.

We thank you so much, Father. We thank you for this day, for the blessings we have, Lord. We thank you that you are a God of purpose and plans, Lord. In your wisdom, Lord, you've allowed us to encounter trials and sufferings, Lord, but you have a plan and purpose, Lord, and you're steadfast in your care for us and resolve, and that we who know you, there's not the slightest possibility that we will not be with you forever in glory, but in our time here on earth, Lord, there will be trials and sufferings, but you will use them for our benefit. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.