Published: December 21, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 30 | Scripture: 1 Peter 3:15-17
Transcript
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And if uh you are expecting or maybe hoping for a distinctly uh Christian or Christmas message, um it's it's not here. Um
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but Peter has a glorious um christoologgical passage in verse 18 that we'll look at uh next week. Um, so stay tuned for both.
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I'm going to read from 1 Peter uh 3:es 13-1 17. 13-1 17. And who is there to harm you if you
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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
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be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is
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in you, yet with gentleness and fear, and keep a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in
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Christ may be put to shame. For it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather for than than for doing what is wrong.
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Let us pray. Our father, again we do ask that by your holy spirit you would speak. You would speak to us and our our minds but also
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our heart to obey and that we might understand the things that you by your spirit bring to us that we may act upon
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them that we may do that which is pleasing in your sight. And we do pray, Father, for not only the individual building up, but as as a church, we may
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have confidence and we may have that great hope of which Peter speaks, that on that great day that you will give us our reward and we will be with you. We
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ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Peter tells them there's no need to be afraid or fear suffering
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because it is a pathway to blessing. But we live with a proper fear. Proper fear of God. The pro proclamation
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that he is king. Proclamation that he is
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Because we know that in this passage he tells us that that God will vindicate the righteous, that he will bring a blessing to those who do good. And yet he calls upon us to do it with
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keeping a clear conscience as we speak to others to others with gentleness. And your version may say reverence, but it's
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actually fear. right, it may be the will of God
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that he brings that suffering to us. So these are these are things that can cause us to be uh a little uh trembling, a little well, Peter, what are you what
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are you speaking of? And I think that he combines two things. one that we spoke of last time and you you hear it um kind of tritly
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said I'll say it as Peter says sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within
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you. Some people call that talking the talk. Well, if we use that language, yes, we are to talk rightly. We are to be able to give that reason for the hope that is
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in us. in us. But if we are to talk the talk, you better be willing, I think Peter says, to walk the talk.
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Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense. And yet he says with gentleness and fear and keep a good conscience so that in
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the thing in which you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Always being ready to give a defense
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yet with gentleness and fear. The hope that is in you and again I believe that it is not limited to the individual but the hope that is in us as
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believers. The hope we have our shared faith in Christ because he is the one who gives us life.
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He is the one that gives us hope by his work upon the cross by his life imparted to us by the spirit. Our
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defense is not meant to be because of hate or fear. He's already talked about that up further. Do not repay insult for insult or evil for evil.
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But our defense is not to be that out of hate or fear of an unbeliever who would question our Christianity. It's
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not meant to slam the door in their
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But he says with gentleness. It could be translated with meekness. Meekness of spirit. Not hotty, not annoying, not uh in a way that is harmful to those
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to whom you speak. But he says yet with reverence or again the word is is fear. And the question is, does he mean fear
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of the other person or is some of your translations respect translations respect or does he mean as I think and I'm
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giving away the punchline here in Peter every time he uses that word fear it is in re reference to
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God. It is always fear directed toward God. And so you might think, well, yeah, but he's saying gentleness and and he
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really means reverence here or respect for the person that you're uh dealing with that you're giving your defense to.
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But I think again, it's meekness toward the person that you're speaking to. But I think it is, as Peter seems to always say it, directed toward God. It's
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far more than just reverence for God or or respect for him, as one of the commentators wrote, with fear and humility as though you stood
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before God's judgment and were making answer. See, this connects to what he's about to say about the conscience that that we we say things sometimes in order to get a
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reaction. Sometimes to make ourselves look good. But if we're meek toward the person that we're speaking to, having a gentleness,
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we also have that other dimension of
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Proverbs chapter 1 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." until we understand who God is and we develop a proper fear of him and we sang about that today that fear of
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God. I don't think we can have true wisdom and I don't think we can have true knowledge of what we're going to say and how we say it. And I don't think we can have a true clear conscience before men
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or before God. It only comes from understanding who God is and that he and he alone is holy and
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just and righteous. In Deuteronomy 10, we read these words of Moses just
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pointedly asking Israel, "Don't you understand the the real question now? Israel, what does the Lord your God require from
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you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and his
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statutes. It begins with the fear of the Lord. So walking in his commandments, walking in his statutes, doing those things that he commands
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has a foundation, the fear of God. He goes on to say, "You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him, and you shall swear by his name."
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talk, the fear of the of God for the believer includes understanding who God is. But it also means understanding that God hates sin.
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And fear is part of fearing his judgment upon sin. upon sin. a godly fear of his discipline and a seeking to live a life in conduct
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that pleases him. Hebrews 12, right? The writer writes, "We had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them.
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Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live?"
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And one way of fearing God is respecting others, being gentle in our response. Peter's already indicated that for us in chapter 2. He talks to the servants and he says, "Be submissive to your masters
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with all fear. Not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable." are unreasonable." In chapter 3, he says, "In the same way, you wives be submissive to your
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husbands, so that if any of them are disobedient to the word, they be one without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chasteed and respectful behavior." And he doesn't
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leave the husbands out either. He says, "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way." But where does it begin? He he he he couches that in the fear of God, in the respect
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for who he is and how he is with his people.
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And the purpose of giving a respectful defense, a gentle defense of your hope in Christ is that those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
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And the shame is used in the Old Testament and I think in the the Greek language it means being overthrown
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being left at one's the mercy of one's enemies. So our our it's not an emotion here. It's it's it's a standing.
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Our our purpose of our defense in both our words and our actions is not to embarrass the other person and it's not to to conquer their
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emotions and just just run them under the bus, but it refers to their their standing.
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And we are not allow to allow fear to drive us to use in our defense insults or slander or slander or to retaliate against them in any way.
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But it means to render a positive and truthful explanation of the gospel in a humble and respectful way.
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words must declare God's work and his word. But our lives must represent the gospel also. He says, "With gentleness and reverence,
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and keep a good conscience, so that in the thing in which they slandered you, those who revile you will be put to
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shame. It's absolutely necessary that you have a good word, but it must be spoken with a good conscience because the witness of your words
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will be noted and it'll be checked up on. if your life does not back up your words, it will come back to haunt you.
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The word conscience literally means co-nowledge or with knowledge. It's a natural faculty of of humans.
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The conscience uh someone defined as a person's inner awareness of the moral quality of his actions. conscience. Conscience is a a state
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of the man in which he reviews and judges his own actions. As one person said, we must sit in judgment
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upon ourselves. Is what I am thinking is what I am saying or about to say. Is
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what I am doing right or wrong? This thing that I'm about to read, this thing that I'm about to watch on TV, this thing that I'm about to look at in this
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book, this thing that I'm about to say to this person, this thing that I'm about to do, is it right or is it wrong?
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Miriam Webster actually came pretty close I think to the idea the sense of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct is intentions or character together with a feeling of
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obligation to do right or to be good. See conscience is not only a judgment but it's also legislative.
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It not only says is this right or wrong but it says this is wrong don't do it and this is right do it.
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And one of the attitudes that many of us sometimes have when we contemplate things that we are going to say, do or look at is I don't I don't care. I'm going to do it anyway.
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And I I think there's a level below that. Uh I was once on u one of Ariel's job sites and somebody said, "I don't
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care. I'm not doing it." And we kind of looked at him like he said,"I don't care." And I don't care that I don't
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Conscience judges, but also legislates. And it's not being conscientious, which is wishing to do well, being
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meticulous and careful about doing your job. Many people are conscientious because they want a raise or they want to get promoted or they want this or that.
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But the idea of just being conscientious is not the same thing as a good conscience. Because being conscientious cannot make you a believer.
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And the reason it can't is because the human conscience is an inner faculty corrupted originally by sin and the fall of man into sin. You want to know what a bad conscience
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is or a seared conscience or conscience that is not righteous? Read Ephesians 4. Paul says, "The Gentiles walk in the
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futility of their mind, darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of ignorance, and because of the hardness of the heart,
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having become callous and given themselves over to sensually sexual sensuality and the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
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But fortunately for us, Paul goes on and tells us that the Holy Spirit is the one that can change that conscience. He is the one that allows us to lay aside, Paul says, the old self which is
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being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind to put on the new self which in the likeness of God has
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been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. See, there's the difference, the one and the other. God's forgiveness
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delivers our conscience from guilt and condemnation. God's righteousness transforms and reshapes our conscience.
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And that's why I believe that if we look at Paul in Acts 24, he's he's giving his defense before I think it's Governor Felix. And he says, "Having a hope in
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God that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, in view of this," he says, "I also do my best to maintain always a
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blameless conscience before God and before men." Literally the words mean I do my best to maintain a blameless conscience means I do my best to
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practice myself practice myself to maintain to maintain a blameless conscience and that's why I think conscience because it's a human faculty conscience can be cultivated
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it can be renewed it can be informed and it can become clear you heard Somebody say, "Well, do do you have a clear
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conscience? You know, you slept pretty well last night. You must have a clear conscience." What does all that mean? It it's something that we can relate to. It's renewed because it's renewed by the
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Holy Spirit. Again, from first Corinthians 2, Paul Paul says, "The thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit
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who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God that re he renews our mind. He he he renews our thinking our thoughts how we ought to
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think about things in this world. How to take as we said in Sunday school the spiritual thoughts and the spiritual words and understand what they mean.
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But our conscience can be informed. It can be informed by the word, not by the world. the world. Knowing God's revelation in his word,
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again, who he is and what he desires of his people. And what does a clear conscience mean? I I think it could be defined as waiting
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patiently for truth to win out. See, it's in the context of we're dealing with those who may come against us, maliciously, slander us, or insult us, or just make fun of us for being a
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believer. And part of a clear conscience is just waiting for the truth to just show itself, to make itself clear. And having a clear
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conscience means that that there there is a strength. We we we have a stamina. We we have a a faithfulness that that we're we're going to wait for God's
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help. We make our defense. We do it with meekness and gentleness. We fear God because we wait upon him. We do our
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And I didn't know we were going to read from 1 Corinthians 8 this morning, but we are not to be those who have a weak conscience.
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weak conscience. Yes, sometimes we we have that paralyzing, at least I do, maybe some of you do a dwelling on our wellness of our
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own sin and and our own tendency to to just have these shortcomings and we can be paralyzed be paralyzed when we think about people thinking
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about us about us and and judging my life and my words.
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and being judged as a hypocrite. Well, you said this, but you do this. Or you said you were going to, but you don't do
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You've seen the bumper sticker. Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. But that's only a very small part of it. It's not the full thought.
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As Edmund Clowney wrote, "Yet because the Lord who forgives also makes us new creations, we are able by grace to show in our lives the reality of his
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salvation." And that's what helps us keep a good conscience before men.
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Peter writes as if this suffering for righteousness ha has not yet occurred. There are some who believe that these Christians are in the midst of the re realm and reign of of Nero. Uh my feeling is that
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the language that he uses in the Greek means that means that you can expect suffering, but it may be in different forms for
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different people and it maybe not quite yet. But I do think that Peter himself has suffered in the manner in which he
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speaks of and he is counseling his readers from his own experience.
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suffering but we are expected to respond without
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Verse 14 says, "If you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, it means that it could come, but it may not be now and it may not be quite yet."
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But in verse 17, Peter uses a proverbial form from the Old Testament wi wisdom literature. He says it is better to than to do something else. It is better to if
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God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. The motivation
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The motivation is that it's better to suffer now at the hands or as case may be the mouths of scoffers and insulters
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as doers of good than to suffer for the sins at the end of days when the unrepentant evildoers will be punished.
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But the question that most Christians raise here from verse 17 is, does God will the suffering of
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And I've heard people say, and you probably have as well, a loving God would never cause his own people to suffer. Well, that ain't sorry, that's not what Peter says.
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if God should will it. So, the will of God may be that Christians suffer for doing good.
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But the emphasis in Peter's language is the doing good, doing what is right. Because God wills doing what is right
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rather than doing what is wrong. And we should too. Jesus taught us how to pray, did he not?
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Matthew chapter 6, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now, there is one commentator that I
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came across who believes that Christians suffer in this life for uh quote for their spiritual well-being. And I'm not sure that I can delve into
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all of his thoughts behind that, but there's a difference between punishment and discipline.
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But the encouragement that we read in Peter, I think is reiterated by a comment from one of the commentators.
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Peter's affirmation is meant to be taken as an encouragement. If suffering is within God's will, it is also within God's sovereign control.
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Isn't that the lesson or one of the lessons of Job? No one can touch God's people without God's permission.
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God's permission. And so we may be called upon to suffer for doing what is right, for doing good, for giving a good defense, for for for
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being gentle and meek, for fearing God and not man.
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And any suffering for doing good is not by our adversaries will, but God's. And we are encouraged because Peter has already told us and it's only for a
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little while. little while. In chapter one, he's already said this to us in the way of this encouragement. Even though now for a little while, if
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necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, the proof of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
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Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our father, we do ask again that you would impress these things on our minds, that
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you would help us to understand the words of Peter, the things that he's saying to encourage his people and
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by the power of your Holy Spirit, us these many generations later, that we would walk in a manner that does defend our hope that glorious day when you will
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make us all to be with you. But also that you will give us strength for this life to live and to walk, to
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say things, to do things, to think things that give you honor and glory and truly gives meaning to our fear of you. How
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awesome and great you are. We ask that you would do these things. build your church, Lord, in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Please rise for the benediction
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The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in. From this time forth and forever,