Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWhat Glory Is It?
Bible Text1 Peter 2:19-25
Synopsis Believers should live among unbelievers as servants of God. Listen.
Date01-Oct-2017
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: What Glory Is It? (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: What Glory Is It? (128 kbps)
Length 46 min.
 

Title: For What Glory is It?

Text: 1 Peter 2: 11-25

Date: October 1, 2017

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

I Peter 2: 11: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12: Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13: Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14: Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15: For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17: Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. 18: Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. 19: For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20: For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21: For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

 

Believers should live among unbelievers as servants of God. Our duty is summed up in verses 17 and 18, “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear”—even to the forward—the crooked, perverse, unfair, wicked men.

 

Now here is our focus. This applies to any situation in our lives: to a pastor’s ministry, to a believer’s job, our dealings with our neighbors.

 

1 Peter 2: 19: For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

 

This is thankworthy—it means “this is due to grace, this is the token or proof of one governed by divine grace” If a believer for conscience toward God—your inner man tells you this is what is honoring to God. Therefore, you endure grief, suffering wrongfully. That is thankworthy—that is the grace of God working in a man to make him desire to please God, to honor God, so much so that he endures grief which he suffers wrongfully.

 

1 Peter 2: 20: For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

 

What glory—what praise is due someone—who patiently bears being rebuffed, rebuked, rejected for doing wrong? It is only acceptable with God if when we do well and suffer, we take it patiently

 

THANKWORTHY

 

It is due to God’s grace when a believer suffers wrongfully and takes it patiently.

 

Take as an example, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  By God’s grace these men were faithful to God.  It was by the power of the Holy Spirit working in them that they refused to be influenced by men of the world and refused to bow to a worldly king or to his idol gods.

 

Also, by God’s grace these men were faithful to God’s people.  They were not dividers of brethren.  These men did not cause confusion among God’s people. By God’s grace, their witness turned men from this world to the true and living God

 

It is evident that they honored God by their faithfulness because Christ honored them. They were buffeted for doing good when they were cast into the fiery furnace. Yet, Christ appeared with them and blessed them. Nebuchadnezzar said, “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?...and Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”  He called the three men out of the fire and all the governorssaw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” He made a decree that no one could speak against their God for he said, “there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.”

 

Another example is Daniel. By the grace of God, Daniel was such an exemplary servant of God, so faithful to God and so honest in his dealings with men that Darius promoted Daniel to be the first president to rule over all the princes in his entire kingdom.

 

Daniel 6: 3: Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

 

He was such a faithful servant of God that his enemies knew they could not entrap Daniel except it be by making a law which forbid him to be faithful to God.

 

Daniel 6: 5: We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

 

So they persuaded the king to pass a law that no man could pray to any God or man for thirty days except the king. So when they found Daniel praying to God they accused him to the king. For this, Daniel was cast into the lion’s den.  Daniel was not cast into the lions den for disobeying God. But Daniel was cast into the lion’s den because he worshipped God and would not be influenced by the cunning of men.

 

So God was with him. When the king went the next day, Daniel said

 

Daniel 6: 22: My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.

 

That Angel was Christ. So the king threw Daniels accusers in the lions den. They could not boast that they were suffering for God. They had done evil and suffered justly for it. But God moved Darius to declare that Daniel’s God

 

Daniel 6: 26…is the living God, stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. 27: He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

 

If God is working in a man then he will patiently bear suffering wrongly and God will be with him and turn it to good for his people. But if God is not in it, men shall suffer just as the accusers of these brethren suffered. When a man suffer wrongly, and take it patiently, it is thankworthy. It is due to God’s grace and to the praise of God. It is worthy of thanking God.

 

NO THANKWORTHINESS

 

2 Peter 2: 20: For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?

 

There is nothing thankworthy about a man who is patient when he is buffeted for his own faults.

 

Imagine Simon Magus, who offered Peter money to have the power to lay his hands on people and give them the Holy Ghost, saying he was cast into the lion’s den or suffered the fiery trial when Peter buffeted him for this great fault.

 

Acts 8: 20: But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21: Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 22: Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. 23: For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

 

Just imagine Simon Magus pretending humility by saying to people, “O, I have been suffering the fiery furnace; I have been thrown in the lions den.”  How would the Lord’s people respond to such a vain, ignorant and arrogant boast? They would say, “Yes, and you suffered exactly as you should have. You denied God. You did not suffer wrongly. You were buffeted for your faults.”

 

Brethren, use spiritual discernment. Folks speak of bearing their cross, when in reality, they have been rebellious. They have not been in submission to the Lord Jesus, not honoring those to whom honor is due, not bearing a cross at all. There is nothing thankworthy about being patient when we are buffeted for our own faults. “but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called:

 

CONSIDER CHRIST

 

1 Peter 2:22…because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

 

At no point did Christ ever sin. Our Savior came into this world holy and without sin in his nature. He is that Holy Thing conceived in the womb of the virgin.

 

“Neither was guile found in his mouth.”  There was no deceit, craftiness, lies, or exaggeration in his mouth. His heart was pure therefore out of the abundance of his heart there was no guile found in his mouth.

 

“Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not.” Sinful men called the God of heaven and earth, the Prince of life: a devil, a wine-bibber, a friend of sinners. He did not respond. He said to God,

 

Psalm 38: 12: They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. 13: But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 14: Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

 

The greatest power this world has ever seen a man exert is found in these words “he openeth not his mouth.” In this alone, you and I are forced to acknowledge that we are altogether full of sin and guile.

 

“But committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.”  Facing the awful weight of sin he would bear for his people, he committed himself to the just Judge (John 12 27-28.) In the garden of Gethsemene he prayed, “not my will but thine be done.” (Mt 26:42)

 

What awful suffering was our Substitute suffering as he did this? “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” It was not his own sins. He was not buffeted for his own faults. It was not guile or deceit in his mouth. He was not buffeted for that.  It was because Christ bare the sins of his people in his own body on the tree. That is why he was buffeted.

 

The righteousness of God required he bear our sins before God would or could buffet him. But when he bore our sins—the righteousness of God also required the must be buffeted because our sins were made his sins. Oh, the unyielding, perfect righteousness of God. We serve THE RIGHTEOUS GOD—THE JUST JUDGE!

 

Why did he bear that for his people? “That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Christ cried died unto sin—

 

Romans 6: 10:…he died unto sin once

 

When he did, all his people in him “died unto sins.”--“that we, being dead to sins.”

 

Romans 6: 6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7: For he that is dead is freed from sin…11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,…14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

 

Since we died unto sin when Christ died unto sin, all for whom Christ died are justified. Sin shall not have dominion over us to condemn us because Christ justified us. Nor shall sin make us the slaves of sin in our lives because Christ abides in us. It does not mean we can live without sin. It means we cannot not believe on Christ and love our brethren.  Before he took up abode in our hearts, we could not believe on Christ and we could not love our brethren because we were slaves to sin.  Now, Christ has freed us from sins dominion.  We can believe by Christ the Faithful abiding in us.  We can love by Christ who is love abiding in us.  

 

Christ did all this for us that we should live unto righteousness—“that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

 

Brethren, live unto righteousness—live unto Christ our Shepherd and the Bishop of our souls doing that which is right. “Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: [unbelievers] that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps…”

 

Amen!