Suffering With Endurance

Amen. Good morning, church. Let's pray. I want to pray, too. Father, thank you so much for this privilege, this opportunity, and Father, that we can enter your presence like we did this morning. Uh Lord, we don't always sense that, but I sense your presence in this place, and I'm so grateful for that.

And father, as we we go into your word this morning, Lord, we need your help. We need you to keep us faithful to the text. We need you to broaden our minds to understand. We need you to teach us how this becomes um applied to our life, how we're to to live in it and to to walk in it. And it's not just something some knowledge that we gain, but Lord, that it begins to change the way that we think. And God, it begins to change the desires of our heart.

And that in turn, Lord God, begins to change the way that we walk from day to day. So, Father, I need that. Father, we need that. We can't do that without you. So, Father, would you just meet with us in that way today and make this real? And Father, we thank you for it.

All in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. I'm uh I'm not real big about, you know, harping on the presence of God, but I really sensed his presence this morning. And I I'm just waiting a second because I mean, he's the main reason that we're here. Uh if you've got your Bibles, you can go ahead and open them to 1 Peter chapter 2. [snorts] And our verses today are going to be verses 18 through 25.

Uh before we get into the text, I want to spend just a little bit of time this morning. I want to try to uh if you will recapture the the context of what Peter's talking about when we read this particular chapter. Now, we're going to get into the text, but I'm going to take about 10 minutes. And so, if you're taking notes, and you probably should, we've learned first of all about this book that it's exilic in nature. [snorts] And we know that because Peter says that in his opening and we also know that Peter is writing this book uh historically he's writing it from Rome and he's writing in approximately the year 64 to 65 AD and we know that he's writing to those believers who he says that are dispersed and he names all these places but it's basically Asia Minor and what we would call our modernday Turkey. And so this is about 30 years or so after the ascension of Jesus.

And in that time, the gospel has pretty much gone out all over the the known world at that time and pretty much the Roman Empire. [snorts] And the reason that these believers are dispersed and that they're under persecution [snorts] is because Neero in his insanity has recently burned down half of Rome and people are really ticked off with him about that. And so in order to get the heat off of his back, what he has done is he has blamed the Christian population for doing that. [snorts] And and they and they believe that. And so because of that, what has happened is that many believers that were in Rome, they have now fled to the outer parts of the Roman Empire. And by doing that, what they've done is they've taken the gospel with them.

And so people now are getting saved on every different level of society. And so that has begun to uh impact relationships, but at the same time it has also begun to challenge what was the status quo of the Roman society. And this is is especially impacted because Rome was somewhat of a a cast society, if you will, not necessarily from a from by ethnicity, but more so in societal roles in the sense that it was a hierarchy vertically thinking and it was structured by class. For instance, there were six different levels that you could exist in the society. And at the top of this was Caesar. We just mentioned him who was Nero at this time.

But under them, you had what was called the Senate. Underneath them, you had what was called the equestrians. And then underneath them, you had what was called free men. These were people that were born Roman citizens. Their parents were citizens and they were born Roman citizens. And number five, underneath those you had who were called freed men.

And these were people that one way or another were able to buy uh their their freedom. And so they were just just under Roman citizens. And then at the very bottom of the list, number six, you had what were called slaves, which is what we're looking at today. Now, in particular, Peter's talking about these domestic or household slaves, and they were somewhat of a subset underneath the whole uh slave population of of Rome at that time. And it was a huge part of the population. It was roughly 30%.

And so, this is a significant issue that's going on uh here. Now, as for these slaves, they were literally owned and they were legally considered uh property. And so, the owner could pretty much do what he want with them. He could he could beat them. He could he could have them killed. He could do anything that he wanted with them.

And so unless you had a master who was a believer or maybe someone that just was not cruel, most slaves at that time suffered cruelty in the general population. And so Peter, what he's doing here is he's addressing this conflict that has begun to impact believers now in every level of society. And so what he's doing is he's telling the church, this is how you are to relate to a societal structure as believers and especially we're see here in this particular book under times of persecution. And then what he's going to do is that he's going to give us that what is to be our proper motive and then he's going to set forth an example for us on how we are to live under this type of conflict. Now, the way that Peter does this is by using this concept of subjection or submission depending on which translation you're looking at. And as we saw last week, these existed in five different areas.

We said that number one, it was government. We looked at that last week. Number two, we're looking at today is slavery. Now, if you take notes next to slavery, I would put in parentheses the word vocation because we can see that this this a transfer over for us. And number three, we'll look at this next week is family. Number four, we said was church and I would put for forward slash kingdom of God.

And we know that these first four right here that we just looked at, we know that they're instituted by God. I'm not talking about slavery in itself, but the whole concept of vocation, commerce, stewardship, work, occupation, that sort of thing. But then Peter in order to cover all of his bases, what he does, and we looked at this last week, number five, he says in any other human institution that you can come up with. And so even the things that men can conjure up and do. So Peter is talking to the church and and us too about how to get along in in under those five different categories or institutions. And we know that even though four of these are established by God who has given authority, delegated authority in those areas, we know that from Romans chapter 13.

We know also that most of the time they don't function without flaw and even uh abuse. And we know that we've seen abuse in churches. We've seen abuse in government. We've seen it in family. Uh and so the reason for that is simply that we live in a fallen world. Thus we have those problems.

Now submission is not always comfortable and a lot of times it's even abusive to be under authority. And I'm not saying by any means that we should put up with it. But the point that Peter's going to be driving here is that persecution, which is another concept, is a very real issue if you want to follow Christ. In fact, Paul wrote about this in 2 Timothy 3:12. He said this. He said, "Indeed," and that simply means this is a fact.

This is going to really happen. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And I'll say more on that in just a minute, but but he's saying this is just a fact. Now, so the contrary to that would be that if [clears throat] excuse me, you're not being persecuted in some form of fashion for our endeavor to live a godly life around those in this world, then we're probably not doing a a very good job of it. [snorts] Now, as we mentioned, the word that Peter used here to help us is this word subjection or submission, whatever translation you're using. And the word in the Greek lexicon here is just simply hupataso.

And in this basic form, it just means I submit. That's all it means. I submit or it could be used infinitive as to submit. [snorts] Now we also know that this word is used six different times in the various parsing that we find in this epistle. And so the idea here that for Peter, this is a very important concept that he has to deal with it so many times. And so it's not just something on the fringe that he feels like he has to to mention and to look at, but it's it's an important topic and it's something that's going on.

[snorts] Now, I think for us that we can agree that it's not a word that we really like. Uh, and I think some of that is simply because of the the fact of the abuse that we've seen of that. But I think especially for we don't like it because of our individual societal construct that we have in our country. And that's simply being that we are a nation where we have individual rights. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. That's an excellent thing.

In fact, this is the only country I know of where I have been that we have that. And so, individualism is a large part of it. And we most often express it as you can't tell me what to do. We know that saying, right? Uh or maybe if you raise little kids, or at least mine did this, when they were siblings trying to boss each other, one would say to the other, "You're not the boss of me." Your kids probably didn't do that.

So what I want to do is with this context in mind and and and the the the bad thought of submission under authority, I want to push that all aside. I want to just give us a simple uh definition of that today. And if you're [snorts] taking notes, it's simply this. It means to come under or arrange under in an orderly fashion and being subordinate. In other words, it's talking about a certain order. And in this context that we're talking about today, he's talking about the the divine order that God has established.

And so God has arranged a certain order for things to function. He's done that for government. He's done that for family. He's done that for church. He's done that for all these areas, these five areas that we just mentioned. And so what Peter is trying to accomplish in this chapter and ne in the next chapter also is that he's bringing all of this into focus for those whom he is writing to and for us also by way of them so that the church us and them that we can know how to live in this divine order.

Listen to me in whatever environment that we find ourselves in. Not just the easy environments, but even those that are hard or sometime difficult. That's important. And so to to subject ourselves or submit ourselves, it's not about a a better than or a less than in in the sense of value, but it's simply speaking about God's divine order. And if we can keep that in mind, it makes sense to us. [snorts] So with all of that in mind, we're going to get into our text.

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 18. He comes straight out the the gate and he says servants. Now that word there is is better translated as literally slave. And so this is the group of people that he is addressing. Now last week he was addressing everybody but now he's singled out this particular group. Now what he's not doing here is condoning slavery but he's just acknowledging the reality of the first century in which Peter lived.

This is just a matter of reality. It existed. And so what is happening in this context is that now some of these slaves they have come to faith in Christ. They've been born again. They've been slave saved. And yet they still find themselves in the same physical situation.

Although they're now free in Christ, they're still in slavery, my my I've been born again. I'm a different person. But you know what? I still find myself in this difficult situation. Now, he goes on to say when he when he when he addresses who he's talking about, the first thing he tells him to do, he says to be subject. To be subject.

Now, uh, we saw that word last week also when he's when he's telling people to submit to the government. Now, the way that Peter used it last week, that word meant something a little bit different. It meant more in a external sense. In other words, find your position in all this people understand that the government's up top and and we fall in line externally in this hierarchy. Just just make it a settled posture once and for all. Don't dwell on it.

Don't keep looking back on it, but just understand your position. And that was last week. But when Peter uses that same word here, he's now using it as a present middle passive participle. And that just simply means that he's saying it's not a force compliance. He's not trying to compel them to do this. And it's also not about now what is external but he's saying now that the the thought is now that you are to voluntarily live your daily life living in submission.

So where one was positional now he's talking about the action of it. And so Peter has a couple different dynamics going on here. He's saying look once you've made up your mind and settled your position in this society don't look back. But now that you know what that is, this is the way that we're going to live it out daily and willingly. We are going to live this way. And not only under the birth uh the the best circumstances because he goes on to say be subject well to who?

Well, he says to your masters with all respect. Now that word we use it today and it's it's a little bit lighter than what it means here but but in in this sense it means with all deference with all awe with all reverence. He says well for whom? Well he goes on to say he says and and not only to the number one good and gentle but also to number two the unjust. So Peter's dealing with two different types of masters here. Now in the first one he says they're good and gentle.

And I imagine that there were some masters probably who were also coming to Christ. And perhaps that probably would have been the dream situation for any slave. I mean, if a master got saved, then that's a good place to be. But it probably was also presenting a great temptation because we're going to see what Peter says after this to some of these because they're probably thinking, you know what, I'm only going to obey the good masters, the one that treat me right. And so you have that. Then he goes on and he names the other master.

And he calls this master the unjust. And so Peter says that the servants are called to submit even to unjust masters. Now what he's not trying to communicate here is that hey do it because injustice is good or bad. It has nothing to do with that. He's not trying to make that point at all. What he's trying to do here is to bring their attention past those two concepts to something that's bigger.

[snorts] And it's like this. I think it's because a lot of times people would like to think now that I've come to Christ and so my walk with Christ or my faith is a way for me to get out of every tough situation that I may find myself in. But how many of you know that usually after one or two years walking with Christ by experience, we know that's not true, right? And we also see that in the Bible that in fact over and over in the Bible, we see that God more often than not will decide to go through things with us. Instead of removing them or removing us from them, he'll walk with us through the situation, whatever that difficulty is. And you say, "Well, why is that?"

Well, the simple answer is simply because he is so much more interested in our holiness than he is our happiness. And and and it's like this, you know, sometimes we'll pray something. If you haven't prayed this, you should try it. Uh but we'll pray something like, you know, God make me more like Jesus. That's a dangerous prayer. [laughter] That's a dangerous prayer because what happens?

Oh, God, God, make me more like Jesus. Then he gives me an unjust master. He gives me an unjust person in my life. So it's not an external thing here that where he's saying just you know just flow with the hierarchy. Instead he's saying now there's this internal thing that we need to deal with. And what Peter develops here is this concept that we do it now not because it's good or bad.

That has nothing to do with it. But now we do it because God is more valuable to us than our comfort or even our vindication. Now we're going to see a little bit more than that in a minute, but I want us to look at another New Testament scripture. It's going to be in Hebrews chap 11. We'll look at verses 13- 16, but it's a a similar understanding where the writer of Hebrews is he's going to be talking about priorities and and values. Now, keep your place uh in Peter because we're going to come back and finish that that text.

But in verse 13, he says, "These all well picking up right there. You wonder who they are, but they're really everybody he just mentioned, Abraham and all these other guys, uh that were great examples of faith. In fact, he says these all died in faith. It wasn't a lack of faith. You say, "Well, what happened?" He says, "Not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged, listen, that they were strangers and exiles."

There's that word again on the earth. And here's the idea. Verse 14, he says, "For people who speak thus, people that think this way, that talk like this, like these people, [snorts] excuse [clears throat] me, they make it clear that they are seeking a homeland." In other words, they don't have one yet. And so he's saying these people, they understood that this this is not our resting place. God gives us seasons of rest, but this is not your resting place.

This is not our place of comfort. Although God gives us comfort sometimes in whatever situation we may find ourselves in, this is not ultimately our place of comfort. And it's certainly not what he's saying right here, our home. This is not your final home. And he goes on to say in verse 15, he says, "If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return." In other words, if if they had wanted to and remembered where they came from, they had the opportunity to go back.

They could have done that. But again, he's talking about value and priorities. Verse 16, he says, "But so instead, as it is, they desire a better country." You say, "What kind is that?" That is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

And so, what he's trying to communicate and and Peter is the same thing is that we are in this environment now, but we're not of this environment. You don't belong here. So, now our question for the day becomes, well, then how can we do this, Peter? Well, he goes on to say back in first Peter in verse 19, he says,"For this is a a gracious thing." Now, that word gracious, it means pleasing. So, this is a pleasing thing.

It it pleases God. He says, "When?" Well, what? When when we suffer. No, he says when we are what? Mindful or conscious of God, even when we're in the middle of it.

And so he means that when we are mindful or conscious of God in such a way that we place now listen all of our allegiance and all of our trust in his absolute sovereignty understanding that even in this difficult situation he is still in charge of our situation. So we're conscious of him. We're aware of him and the circumstances have nothing to do with it. So we we choose to trust in his sovereignty over and above the circumstances that we find ourselves in. And [snorts] when you think about it, that's just the basics of faith right there. That's all it is.

It's it's not so much about uh uh that we believe God for something, although we ask and we can do that or that we pray and our faith is that to get us out of something. But it's when instead that after we have made our petitions to him and we have asked him to to to change this that we continue to lean on him and trust him even we don't have a clue about how this circumstance or this moment even will turn out for us. Yes, we make our petition known. Then after we petition him, we trust him with the answer that he provides. Now Peter goes on by telling us that this isn't the suffering in itself that is pleasing but that when he says one endures sorrows now that word sorrow that doesn't just mean I have sad moments you know I having a sad time today or whatever but it it it's so much meaningful in the original it means listen it means all of this it means pain it means grief it means affliction he says so when one endures pain and grief and affliction while suffering how he says unjustly.

And so that means especially listen when it's not your fault. You're suffering and it's not your fault. You didn't do anything to deserve it. And God even sees us in the suffering. He's aware of it. And yet he still doesn't change the situation.

He says, "What do you do?" He says, "We endure it. We endure it." And and and the hard lesson in that that I have learned is that suffering unjustly, not just suffering, but suffering unjustly will always expose what it is that we value the most. And it'll be one or two things. It will either be our commitment or it will be our compromise that is exposed.

Now, I don't have much time to go in it into it today, but if you've never read or seen the story of Corey Timbon, the hiding place, I say that you should do that. You should make that a priority as quick as you can. Corey uh she worked with her father Casper Tinboom and her sister Betsy Tinboom and other family members. They were Dutch clock makers. [snorts] And and what they did is that they were helping Jewish people escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust and World War II by hiding them in her home. And what they had done is they had a wall here and they built another wall, fake wall in front of it.

and they had this space and they would hide them in here to try to move these people into safety. [snorts] Well, sadly and unfortunately one day they were all caught and they were all arrested and they they split the whole family up and eventually we know that eventually the whole family died. I mean she lost everybody and so she and her sister were arrested together and sent to Ravensbrook concentration camp. And in in in her biography, she tells the story about how she she she found and shared hope in God even while she was in prison at this concentration camp. And even though she had to watch her sister die and they were being evilly in an evil way, mis mistreated. And yet she says she still found hope and comfort in God and in his sovereignty.

He knew that she had he had never left. And she goes on to tell at the at much later years later that one of the guards who had mistreated her and her sister actually sought her out and asked her forgiveness. And he said he had come to Christ because he saw that her commitment to Christ in that circumstance was so real. That is what we're talking about. That's what Peter's talking about. Now, before Peter elaborates more, he's going to make a contrast here.

And the reason that he does that is because he really wants to double down. So, he says in verse 20, he says, "For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it and you endure?" He said, "There's absolutely no credit for that. There there's no there's no favor in that. There's no commendation for that. It doesn't bring honor to God when you don't do like you should and then you get in trouble for it.

We call that where I come from in Louisiana looking for trouble. And a lot of my old friends used to be that type. Now, but notice what he does now. He gives that contrast because he wants to double down. And he says this, "But going back to my original point, if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure." Now that doesn't just mean that you put up with it and it doesn't even mean that you tolerate it.

But that word, it means that you continue firmly. And the idea, if you want to paint a picture in your mind, is that when everybody else has left, you're still there. I'm still here. And now my attitude is this. And I've said this to God many times. God, I wouldn't do this for anybody else what I'm doing right now, but I'll do it for you.

I'll do it for you. I'll stay in this because you want me to. If if you gave me a choice, I'm out. But you want me here. [snorts] He says, he says, he says that when you do that, he said this is a gracious or pleasing thing in the sight of God. And then Peter goes on in verse 21 to say this.

He says, "For to this," this is interesting, "you have been called." Why? Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example. Why? So that you might follow in his steps. So there's there's really a lot of things here.

I'll pick a few of them out for time sake. He says, "For to this." Well, you say, "Well, to what?" Well, he's referring to all this unjust suffering that he was just talking about. To that, he says, "What? you have been called to that corn Greek word is calo there and and and God says and Peter says God's called you to this this is a biblical promise you get to you get this promise too that's not the ones we like to claim right but he's saying in the same way that we have been called to come to Christ and we have been called to follow Christ and we have been called to be disciples and we have been called to make disciples all that's included in that package he says in the same way as all of those we have also been called listen to me to suffer unjustly.

In fact, that has been Peter's theme all along. And the calling is that that that every believer will experience unjust suffering. And so it shouldn't be seen as something strange to us when that happens. If anything, that's a great time to lean into Romans chapter 8 28 and 29 because you know that all this stuff is working together in your life in order to do something good. It's not wasted, but we're being conformed into the image of Christ. And that most often happens when we're walking in the same path that he walked of unjust suffering.

You say, "Well, then okay, then why is that?" Well, he said, he goes on to say, he says, "Because Christ also suffered for you." Now, there are two different things that Peter is saying here. In other words, there's a double meaning. He's saying, first of all, Christ suffered for you in the place of you or Christ suffered uh with you in view, right? And so, we're going to see that connection when we get to verse 24 when Peter says that he bore our sins in his body.

So he's saying that yes, but he's also saying that Christ suffered as an example. In other words, Jesus also suffered before you in order that you could observe or see. And that's why Peter follows up that statement and he writes this. He says, "Laving you an example." Well, an example to do what? So that you might follow in his steps.

So he suffered for you to save you, right? And he also suffered before you to show you how to live in those circumstances. Now, that's important because he just told these believers to they had to endure this unjust suffering. And so now what he's going to do, he's going to say he's giving them the reason of why they can do that. But not only why they can, but why they should do that. And so he's grounding them with this concept which is that our suffer is not meaningless because it's patterned after the suffering of Christ when we walk with him in his path.

Now he also says in context that since Christ died for our sins that we can now endure that suffering because we are also empowered to follow in his steps. We couldn't do this on our own. You say what does that mean? what it means now that we are free to follow him now in righteousness too. We are free to be different than we were before. He's talking about a radical transformation if you will or or sanctification here.

And he's saying now because of this radical transformation that has taken place in your lives which he dealt with in chapter one by by the way when he told them this in verse three. He says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has done what? He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." We haven't seen it all yet. And so what he's saying there and along with this second part of this passage that we're studying, he's saying, let's deal with our attitudes in the same radical way that we were saved.

Let's deal with it in a radical fashion. And so the thought is that where maybe if we get practical about it, maybe you used to have a bad attitude in the workplace and now you've got joy in the middle of it. Or maybe you used to let others carry most of the weight and you slacked off. Well, now you step up and you you do it as unto the Lord. You're a better example. Or maybe you used to be so focused on what other people thought about you.

Now it's it doesn't really matter because it's it's all about pleasing Jesus. It's all about pleasing Jesus. So what we're dealing with here again is an interior and a hard attitude rather than simply as before outward circumstances that especially that we may find ourselves in. And the idea is that the call to follow Jesus is the call to walk the same path that he walked. Now we're going to see next that we're going to see that next when he shows us an example actually using Jesus in verse 22 in first Peter. He says this, he talking about Jesus, he committed no sin.

Neither was deceit found in his mouth. In other words, he never gave them a reason to attack him or accuse him. Right? He never did anything wrong. In fact, it says he never even misled anybody. He didn't deceive anybody.

It says when he was reviled, now that word means to be verbally insulted. In other words, they're talking bad about him, right? It what did he do? He did not revile. In other words, he didn't insult them back. He didn't throw words back at them in return.

Now, unfortunately, that's a huge thing in our culture, and I know that because I happen to glance at uh social media from time to time, and I see it all the time that people cutting each other verbally and and and and calling names and even foul language. And and I expect that from the world, but a lot of times I see this and I'm like, these are people who say they know and they follow Jesus is what they proclaim. And Peter is saying that is exactly the opposite of what we see of what we saw that Jesus did. And Peter is saying here that he is our example. Now he's going to go on to say in the rest of that verse he says when he suffered he did not threaten. Now up to this point he's pointing out all the things that Jesus didn't do.

Right? Now notice the shift. But and that means instead he goes into continued entrusting. Now that's that's perfect t imperfect tense right there and it means continuous action. So he didn't just entrust himself once but he continued in that. Well, what did he entrust?

He said himself to to him who judges justly. So there are a couple things there. So, it's not just about what Jesus didn't do as our example, but it's what he did do and he entrusted. And he didn't just entrust himself to his situation or his circumstances. In fact, I think that would have been a lot easier because those are the things that we can we think are in our control or that we can manipulate, right? But instead, [snorts] it says that he entrusted himself.

Now, I think that holds a whole lot more value because it's one one thing to pray to God and say, "Get me out of this situation. We've all done that. But entrusting ourselves has a whole lot more intent and value for most people anyway, right? Because it includes things like number one, our reputation, right? the false accusation, the the insults. That's probably a big one for most people.

[snorts] Uh, a second one, it could include number two, our desire for vengeance. H, you know, I'm going to get them back. Well, I have learned that God is a whole lot better with vengeance than I am. And and I have learned a long time ago that all things are better left in his hands and not mine. Now, a third thing that could pro probably include it would be our outcome, right? Because it could it could be talking about our job or what about that position you was hoping to get or how about that raise.

Well, he's saying basically we need to we need we need to count the cost in every situation. We need to count the cost because it's never worth a compromise. And then finally, number four, this is very important. How about our life, right? Well, I'll give us a little secret this morning. We don't really have any control over that anyway.

None of us know when we're going to pass and none of us even know today whether we'll see tomorrow. I hope we all do, but we do know that God is the only one that does and he's in charge of that. And since that is true, then why not just trust him? entrust yourself to him. Jesus, he said Jesus was entrusting himself. He says, "Well, to whom?"

Because that's very important, right? Well, he says to him, talking about the father who judges justly. So, he's talking about who and his character. Right here, I'll give you three things that you can write down that's going to help anchor you when you're in these situations. The first one is this. We know this.

God sees everything. Whatever you're going through, God sees it. He really does. Even the things you don't want him to see, he sees those, too. Number two, God judges perfectly. We don't.

We don't. We We try to, and sometimes we think we do, and we don't. Uh, and sometimes we get it right, but God always judges perfectly. And then number three, God is going to set all things right in his timing, not our timing. And it may not be even in this life, but we can have that confidence that God will do the right thing. He's going to set everything right one day, maybe in eternity, but nothing's going to get left undone.

No, no one will ever be able to look at God and point the finger at him and said, "You were unjust in that situation. You didn't you didn't have my back. You'll never be able to say that." And so we can trust him because we know him and we know his character [snorts] and his nature. And since we know those, we know that God will always do what is right and he will always be more gracious to us than we really deserve. You know, a lot of times we think that we are owed certain things, but that's not always true.

And so we are his and he loves us and he can absolut and we can absolutely entrust ourselves to him in all things eternal and even those things that are temporal. [snorts] Now Peter's going to go on to say back in first Peter in verse 24 that uh he himself speaking of Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree. And so that's not just saying that you know he sympathized with our sins or he you know he shared our struggle. There's a lot of that uh progressive theology that's out there now is is foolishness. But he's saying that he actually carried our sins. He actually carried our guilt.

He actually carried our judgment. And he took everything that we deserved. And not just to to get us to heaven because salvation is about so much more than logistics. It's not just about getting from point A to point B. You know, most of the time when you hear people share the gospel, it's all about if you died today, where are you going? Well, it's a whole lot more than that.

And that's a whole other topic. But he goes on to give the purpose of why two things. He says that we might die to sin. Number two, and live to righteousness. So the cross isn't just about forgiveness. It is that.

But not only that, it is as much about transformation. And so there are two things he's saying that pertains to that. The first one is that you might die to sin. We don't have time today, but if you'll read Romans chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7, Paul talks about that. And basically what he says, because we have died in Christ and with Christ, we are no longer under sin's penalty. Listen to me.

And neither its power. Now, we haven't been freed from its presence yet. It's still here, but one day we'll be free from that. But he says, we have died to uh to sin in Christ. And so, we are free now from its dominion. That doesn't mean perfection, but it means it's controlling power.

And so, you can say no to sin. And before being born again, you the Bible says you were a slave to sin. It was your master. It ruled you. It told you when to sin and you did it. But now that you are in Christ, he says, "Not anymore."

Then the second one, he says, "We we can live to righteousness." So from this context, I jotted this down. I don't know if it's profound or not, but I like it and and I'll I'll read it to you. I'll say it this way. One [snorts] of the greatest demonstrations of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is you walking in obedience and submission to God. And even more so under times of extreme circumstances that you have been unjustly submitted [snorts] to.

And the fact is that people see that. Remember the the Corey Timb Boone thing? People see that and they know that's not natural. People ought not to be able to do that. In fact, that's that's that that is the what the supernatural power of the gospel of Jesus Christ looks like. And in a practical way, we can do that in Christ is what he's saying.

Now, wrapping it up, Peter, he he he's going to end with some quotes from Isaiah 53. And he says, "By his wounds you have been healed." Verse 25, "For you were straying like sheep." Now, when I was thinking about this, I'm reminded that Isaiah 53 in its original context. Uh it's not just about a a servant who suffers under unjust authority. So, what Peter is doing here, he's taking it up a notch with these guys.

It's about a suffering servant who bears not only our sins, but listen, all of our griefs, our sorrows, our spiritual sickness. And so when he says that by his wounds you have been healed, yes that points to the cross, but it also points to a time that when Jesus returns, when all sickness, all sadness, all sorrow, and all disease and death, all of that's going to be done away with one day and we long for that. But he's saying, but since we aren't in that time yet, that means that following Jesus on his path, listen, it allows for all kinds of suffering. And Peter wants the church to know that this doesn't mean that God has abandoned you. If you find yourself in a situation like that or that God is angry with you, it doesn't mean that or that even that you've done something wrong. If you are in in doing the best you can to live a godly life and you're following Christ and and and things are going wrong, that doesn't mean anything except it's probably just evidence that you're walking with Jesus.

And because his wounds have healed us, he says, "Well, how does that look?" Well, he says it like this. He says, "You were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. And so he lands on that and that that healing is synonymous here with restoration and fellowship with God. And so he healed us. He he did that by bearing our sins which brings us back to God.

And in that restored fellowship, we now have fellowship in all of it, the good stuff and the unjust stuff. And so that means that in fellowship with Jesus, we walk in his path. That's what Peter's saying. We endure suffering. We entrust ourselves to the father. Why?

Because we know in the end. We know his character that in the end it's going to all be made right. Amen. Let's pray. Father,