What a joy to be back with you this morning. I would if you would honor God's word by standing on your feet. And, Brother Allen, would you read 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 13 through 17? Turn in your Bibles, 1 Peter chapter 3. verses 13 through 17. Precious Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you do not leave us to wander aimlessly in this world, but you sent your word, God, and you moved upon 40 men to pin them down, God, and Lord, you moved in miraculous and supernatural ways through the centuries to preserve your word for us, God, that today we're able to read the word of the living God in English and understand it and pursue it and study it and exposit it and exegete it. Oh God, what a blessing you have given us that you did not leave us to ourselves, Lord, to do the best that we knew how to do, but God, you've given us infallible truth, God, and we praise you now. Oh God, I beg you, Father, that you would now give us insight as we look over Peter's shoulder this morning, God, as he was moved along by God, the Holy Spirit, to pin down these words, God, and I pray, God, that you would give us insight into what he had in mind when he wrote these words, God, that we can be your people and that you can be our God. In Jesus Christ's most precious name, amen. God bless you, you may be seated. I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in Gulfport. It's always a joy to be here with you. I'm always surprised when anybody invites me back. I'll just be honest with you. I get invited to a lot of places once, but I'm usually not ever asked to come back. This is many times I've been here and it always amazes me. It's not my fault. The elders have invited me. The song that we sang a while ago about Christ is mine forevermore. Oh, if that was ever a theme for this message, that would be it. But I have sought for a number of years to understand suffering biblically and that why God allows us to suffer, why God calls us out of sin and washes us from our sins and cleanses us and inhabits us and empowers us and blesses us and changes us and then he burns us up. And what that's all about and why terrible, horrible, horrific things happen to some of the most godly people. And there's a lot of noise out there about why people suffer and most of it's wrong. And so I've sought to develop a theology of suffering that would be biblical. My wife and I were blessed to experience a season of suffering that has lasted over 20 years. where we've had one calamity, the doctor told us, he said, you don't get head colds, you have biblical disasters in your family. And I was seeking to understand what that's all about and God dealt with my heart to journey through 1 Peter. The book of 1 Peter is primarily about suffering and why God allows horrific things to happen to the best of the people that he has chosen This was a group of people who had been removed from their homes by Nero and they had become scattered aliens in chapter one. And Peter is reminding them that they're called and chosen of God. And then he gets into really deep theological issues that stagger us in the second and third chapter. So your elders have asked me to come back the first Sunday of July and I'm going to finish this sermon then. But this is part one to examine verses 13 through 17. It took me 54 sermons to go through 1 Peter. And this is, so I'm gonna have to begin in the middle, so to speak. So just please bear with me. But the apostle just finished a very important section of this inspired letter in verse 12 about prayer. And he quoted from Psalm 34 and he said, for the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. and his ears attend to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So Peter was telling us that our prayers will be hindered even if we are saved unless we are pursuing righteousness. Now the word righteousness is used in this context is talking about obedience. So unless we are actively and consciously walking in obedience to that which God has said, Peter says that our prayers are hindered. And in context, the obedience that Peter was referring to was with husbands and wives. Peter commanded believing husbands in 1 Peter 3 verse 7, live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker since she is a woman and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. Peter commanded believing wives in 1 Peter 3, one through six, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also who hoped in God used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husbands just as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. And you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. In other words, there's a way to think And there's a way to live that will either help or hinder our prayers. And from this we can formulate a doctrine, a divine teaching, a biblical truth that we can teach and learn and proclaim with great confidence from these texts. And here's the doctrine. Christians must endeavor to think and live in a way that does not hinder our prayers. And this doctrine has three parts to it. Number one, it is possible that our prayers be hindered even if we're saved. Our prayer life can become clogged and blocked. Number two, what blocks prayer is often the way we think and the way we live, the way we relate to wives or husbands or kids or parents or colleagues or neighbors, even those who have wronged us. And number three, opening the way to prayer to God involves a conscious endeavor. Peter is telling us to do something so that our prayers will not be hindered. And the motivation behind us being of sound judgment and of having a sober spirit is the end of all things is near, he says. He wrote that 2,000 years ago. The end of all things is near. Jesus is soon to come. And he desires that when he bursts the clouds and comes back that he finds us faithful, fruitful, and busy in the work of the Lord. The Bible promises great rewards for those whom the Lord finds like this. And the Bible promises terrifying punishments to those who are not like this. And that knowledge will motivate us. But this doctrine tells us something else. A free, open, real, satisfying life of prayer is not automatic. It just won't happen by accident. A free, open, real, and satisfying life of prayer does not automatically come simply because you were saved. Because it is possible that saved people can still sin. So it matters how we think. It matters what we believe. And it matters how we live our lives. And if that was not true, there would have been no reason for Peter to go to such length to talk about this. So the name of the game as it pertains to those who have already experienced the miracle of the new birth is righteousness. Because righteousness or obedience is the end result of our belief. The Apostle Paul taught that salvation was a matter of what we believe with our hearts and what we confess with our mouths. When he wrote this in Romans 10 verse nine, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If you've ever wondered why Isis is so interested in getting people to recant Jesus is Lord before they cut heads off, it's because they believe this verse. I wish Christians believed this verse. We're not saved by what we do, we do after we're saved. We're saved by what we believe in and what we trust in and what we confess and therefore what we believe and what we trust in and what we confess matters. You must believe that Jesus is Lord. You must confess with your mouth. You must believe that God raised him physically, literally from the dead. But in the very next verse, the apostle tells us what the results are to that belief and confession. Romans 10 verse 10 says this, for with the heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness. and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. So we are not to simply believe and confess. We are to believe, resulting in righteousness, or obedience, and we are to confess, resulting in salvation, which is new spiritual life. So true, genuine biblical salvation always results in the individual being radically and eternally transformed so that he has both the power and the desire to follow Jesus, to walk in humble and joyful obedience, to bear godly fruit, to love God and the things of God. So obedience or righteousness is the sign or the fruit or the goal or the result of correct belief. There is no such thing as anybody who has truly experienced the miracle of the new birth who does not gladly pursue obedience to that which God has said. The Bible teaches that saved people are to live our lives in such a way that two things are always true, that God is glorified by how we live our lives and that our joy is made full. And Peter says that living like that will always guarantee that our prayers will be helped. And there are no exceptions to this truth because even though his immediate audience is being horribly persecuted, Peter issues these apostolic commands. So what Peter has described so far in this first epistle is what faithfulness to what God has said looks like. He has told us how obedience to God's commandments will make us behave. But as we have discovered all forms of obedience are not the same. There are at least three different kinds of obedience that are possible in a person's life. The first one is forced obedience. If you've ever had children then your children are familiar with this type of obedience. It's called forced obedience. Then there's fearful obedience. If you've ever been to school, you know about fearful obedience. And then there is glad obedience. Forced obedience occurs when there is some power or authority that is exercised over an individual that compels him to obey. such as in school, where the environment is controlled and there are teachers and principals who will administer punishment if the student doesn't obey. Back when they used to be able to spank children, they really did used to be able to spank children in school. And I was one of the children who was spanked. And I thank God. And when I got saved, I wrote a letter to all my coaches and all the people who administered that punishment to me. thanking them for administering that. But the coach had a paddle, it was about that wide, it was about that thick, and he had holes drilled in it so when he moved it, it wouldn't slow down with the air. And I wasn't as big as I am now, and so he grabbed the edge of the desk and the first swat would get you over the desk into the garbage can. Then the other three your cerebral cortex would have a revelation of God. And back then it was about great bubble gum, the nickel kind, that you put about three of them in your mouth and your jaws are out like that and they're so sour and it's so delicious. But we couldn't chew gum in school and so I was disobedient and I got sent to the coach's office once. And after that, there was something happened to me. I was tempted many times to go get some more gum, but something, my feet would freeze, and I would remember the administration of this forced obedience, and I was forced to obey, and it was a way of obedience that was better than disobedience. So, but if you stop and think about it, in this case, the motivation to obey is outside of you. It's external. And that brings glory or praise to the coach or to your mother or to your father or to whoever. Fearful obedience occurs when punishment is promised and the fear of the punishment is greater than any pleasure derived from the rebellion. In my home, we didn't have a democracy. We had a benevolent dictatorship, and I was the head honcho, and so we ran a very tight ship, and so my children were terrified to cross certain lines until they got old enough to grow up, and then they had children of their own, and they hated me for a while there, and then they called me and told me I was the smartest man they ever knew. That's fearful obedience. The result is that many people don't do what they really want to do. And the cause of that restraint is a fear, a repercussion of a fear of exposure, a fear of punishment. And a person motivated by this fear may obey the law. He may remain faithful to his wife, but he does so not out of any genuine love for his city or his wife. but only because the punishment or the publicity is greater than he's willing to risk. So in this case, the fear that he has causes his obedience. And the catalyst by which that fear is put into practice is his own human willpower and discipline to restrain himself based in that fear. And that brings glory to us. But I suggest to you that neither one of those kinds of obedience glorifies God. Now to be sure, both forced and fearful obedience is better than blatant disobedience. But only glad obedience. And obedience, a righteousness that is based in joy, has the ability to bring glory to God. Now why is that? Because both forced and fearful obedience has the wrong motivation. So even though from the outside, both of these kinds of obedience look good, the motivation is all wrong. And so neither one of them honors God. The only kind of obedience that honors God and that displays the inherent worth and value of Jesus Christ is an obedience that is based in a radically transformed nature that now truly loves God and that seeks to please him. One that trusts in what God has promised. A thousand years before Jesus was born, King David wrote this in Psalm 16, verse 11, in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand there are pleasures evermore. Jesus echoed that when he said in John 15, 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full. So there is a joy that belongs to Jesus. It doesn't belong to you or me. This joy is not of this world. It is a supernatural joy, a powerful joy, an eternal joy. This joy is different from any other kind of human happiness that exists. David said this joy was in the very presence of God, so you can't work it up, you can't manufacture this joy, and the phrase the presence of God refers to this righteousness, this obedience, and that means that obedience brings you near to God, while disobedience would place you at a distance from God out of his presence. And David said these pleasures were at God's right hand, which is where Jesus is. who always obeyed his father. So this joy is a gift from God through a strong and real and powerful and obedient relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that this relationship is called salvation because salvation brings us near to God. It empowers us to obey and to follow after Jesus Christ gladly. And we receive this gift of joy the very same way we were saved in the first place, by grace, through faith. But the grace and faith of this gift of joy flows out from an obedience that results from us already being saved. And this is why it must be a glad obedience, an obedience that is based in joy, not an obedience based in either fear or force. So righteousness is obedience and that means that disobedience is unrighteousness or sin. But what exactly are we supposed to obey? We are either obedient or disobedient to what God has said, what he has decreed, what he has commanded, what he expects out of us. So we are either righteous or unrighteous depending on whether we have obeyed or disobeyed God's commandments. Okay. But what are commandments? Well, commandments are mandates or orders given by God. And all commandments have to do with one of two components of human existence, our actions or our disposition. Most of the time when we think about God's commandments, we think about the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20, like, you shall have no other gods before the one and true living God. You shall not make an idol to bow down in worship. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not commit murder, adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness, and you shall not covet. And from these 10 flow out literally thousands of other commandments that pertain to our behavior. And the kinds of commandments that pertain to our behavior almost always limit our behavior. If you've noticed, they restrict what we are allowed to do. All commandments restrict your behavior. So commandments that have to do with our behavior are almost always understood through us refraining from other types of behavior. For example, in Leviticus 18, there are 18 verses that forbid the kinds of sexual behavior that was common with both the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Canaanites. And as you study this along with the rest of the Bible, you come to realize that every single expression of human sexuality is forbidden by God except one. Between one naturally born man and one naturally born female within the confines of holy matrimony. Every other expression of human sexuality is sin. But why is it that the only sexuality that is allowed by God is very narrowly understood? Sexuality is a huge part of who we are. Human sexuality is a very powerful biological as well as an emotional reality. Some would say it's even a spiritual reality. The intensity of the desire of humans to procreate is second only to the intensity of self-preservation. And that is why sexuality is one of the most common areas where people sin. But why would a good and gracious God limit the sexual behavior of human beings so drastically knowing how large an issue it is? Well, we have two choices, that God is a killjoy or that God is very wise. God is either an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy who doesn't want anybody to have any fun, or there is a very wise reason behind such a radical restriction. And if you think that God doesn't want anybody to have any fun, you haven't read the Bible very much. God is more concerned about joy and happiness than you are. God is the happiest being in the universe. You've never known happiness the way God is happy. You've never experienced it a single time in your life. We taste only a taste of what is to come on this earth. That's the best it gets. God is eternally, fully happy all the time. God is more concerned about happiness and joy than any human on earth. God promotes things like joy and pleasure and love and happiness on nearly every page of sacred writ. So it is precisely because sexuality is so important that it is restricted so drastically. It is precisely because human sexuality is so different from almost any other act that makes sexual sins so devastating. And it is because the ramifications about engaging in sexual expressions are so deeply experienced and bring about such a depth of despair and turmoil as to why God forbids it almost exclusively. So there are two reasons why God tells us not to engage in certain activities. Number one, they do not honor him, which is the main reason. Then number two, they hurt us. The main reason that God forbids certain behaviors is because they do not bring him glory. Those behaviors dishonor God. They belittle his majesty, and that is the biblical definition of sin. Whatever doesn't glorify God, and that's enough. There doesn't have to be any other reason why God forbids certain behavior other than that they dishonor him and rob him of the glory that only belongs to him, but many times, There is another reason why God forbids certain behavior. You see, God loves everyone in the sense that he provides many good and kind and merciful things for us in this life. It is an expression of God's overall love and kindness to all of mankind that gives us nice sunny days and barbecues and children's laughter and comfortable chairs and antibiotics and waterfalls, even though most people sin against God with impunity. So the fact that there is any laughter at all in this broken world, the fact that there is any peace, any joy, any goodness, any kindness shown to any extent to anybody at any time is a testimony of God's general love, his common grace to all of mankind. Now it's true that this general love doesn't save anyone, but the many ways that God demonstrates this common grace is an expression of the fact that to some extent, God loves everyone, even those he has no intention of saving. But God loves his elect even more than this general expression. God loves those he has chosen to save to such an extent that he will invade their lives. He will interrupt their plans. He will forcefully transform their nature so they can be saved. So it is God's overall love for all of mankind that results in such a narrow allowance of human sexuality. Firstly, because these expressions do not bring him any glory. They dishonor and tarnish the vision of Jesus and his church. That is the main reason God restricts our behavior as it pertains to sexuality. But God also tells us no. Because without those restrictions found in the commandments, human beings would annihilate ourselves. Left to ourselves, we would ruin genuine love. We would not only become hard-hearted and diseased, but we would become more and more miserable. You gotta remember, entire civilizations were wiped out by venereal disease before the common grace of God invented penicillin and antibiotics. But there are other commandments that don't have anything to do with our behavior, and they aren't restrictive in nature either. These commandments have to do with our disposition, and they enlarge our capacity, and they don't restrict it. For example, in the very beginning, this is what God said in Deuteronomy 6, verse four and five. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And Jesus underscored the importance of this commandment when he said in Matthew 23, 37 and 38, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. Jesus said that the greatest and foremost commandment of God was not keeping the Sabbath. It was not reading the Bible or praying or keeping ourselves sexually pure. The most important commandment that God ever gave was not telling us to refrain from idols or to honor our parents. In fact, the greatest commandment has nothing to do with any action on our part at all. It has nothing to do with any exercise of our willpower that we can demonstrate or any discipline that we can muster. The foremost commandment has to do with the disposition of our hearts. We are commanded by God to love him. How do you command somebody to love you? Why would God have to order us to love him? Shouldn't love flow out from our hearts naturally? And if you have to command it and coerce it, is it really love? If God is as good and as lovely and as beautiful and as wonderful as the Bible declares, why would he have to threaten us to love him? And the fact that he does this, does this not indicate to us that any love that we might have for God is forced? How do you order or issue a mandate to love? Isn't love a free response of the human heart? And by definition, doesn't love have to be voluntary? And if it isn't voluntary, how is it love? How do you order the human heart to produce love? Would that not constitute forced or fearful obedience? Yeah, it would until you realize that we're fallen. And unless and until God sovereignly and powerfully intervenes in our lives to give us the gift of love for himself, no human being would ever love God. The reality is that nobody loves God on their own. That's a lie. We lost that desire and ability in the fall. So without God granting us a love for himself, nobody could love God. So while we're pondering this, we must also understand that loving God is not optional. We are commanded to love God and God has promised terrible and frightening and eternal punishments to those who will not love him. The Bible says that God casts people into hell because they don't love him. So not only am I ordered to love God, but he has promised eternal damnation to me if I do not. And since that is true, how do I prevent any love that I might could muster up for God not being a love based in fear? Well, it would be fearful obedience if we could muster up a love for God on our own, but we can't. Love for God must come from God. Every son and daughter of Adam are entirely incapable and unwilling of loving God unless and until God graciously gives them that ability. From the moment Adam sinned, loving God became abnormal for anyone. It became completely unnatural for humans to love God. It is strange, odd, and weird for any of us to love God. We should be amazed that any of us loves God. It ought to startle us. It should flabbergast us that we could love God because loving God is only by permission. No human can manufacture a love for God. It does not originate from inside any person and nobody can work it up. According to 1 John 4,19, love for God is a gift from God. But then it gets even worse for us because in John 14 and 15, Jesus linked all of our obedience to all of God's commandments to our love for God. When he said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus says here that by me keeping and me obeying God's commandments that that is the result of, it is the product of me loving Jesus. So my obedience to those commands that involve action on my part proves that what I say about my love for Jesus is true. And that means that obedience is the outward and the visible and the tangible proof of my love for Jesus Christ. So even though I'm not always successful, the fact that I am willing to struggle against the various lusts of my flesh and strive to obey God's commandments proves that I love Jesus, that I value Jesus, that I see Jesus as the treasure of the universe. Okay, got that. But how do I make myself love God, Brother Blair, in the first place? How can I suddenly turn on the switch that will allow me to obey the command to love the God of the universe? How can my very unpredictable heart begin to love God? In his mercy, God has chosen the most unusual way of all. It's called suffering. and not just any kind of suffering. It isn't that an increase of pain or agony brings about a love for God. No, simply hurting doesn't make anybody love God. But Peter talked about a special kind of suffering that does have this effect on us. Here's what the apostle called it. He called it suffering for the sake of righteousness. Suffering for the sake of, suffering for the purpose of, suffering for the cause of righteousness for the sake of obedience. Here's what he said, 1 Peter 3, verses 13 through 16. 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. Are you kidding me? The guy's got a whip and he's beating the stew out of me and I'm not supposed to be troubled? That's what Peter says. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to anyone, everyone who asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, Those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Now Peter says something here that's almost ridiculous. It simply makes no sense to the natural mind. God, the Holy Spirit, moved along this man who walked on water with Jesus to say, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. So there is a version of suffering that has as its end goal righteousness or obedience. And Peter says that it is for the sake of this righteousness that we suffer. In other words, this form of suffering brings us into right standing with God. This form of suffering transforms us and brings about an obedience in us. And the way that it is worded here in the original Greek tells us that this righteousness, this right standing with God, this obedience is a product of or a result of our suffering. But what is also curious about this is that Peter doesn't specify what righteousness or obedience he's talking about. He doesn't limit this righteousness or this obedience to simply the commandments that require action on our part. So this is all inclusive. The righteousness that Peter is referring to here is the product of this kind of suffering, has to do with all of God's commandments, even those that pertain to the disposition of our hearts. So in that sense, this kind of suffering will produce in us an all-inclusive obedience, a comprehensive righteousness about the command to love God. the command to enjoy God, the command to find our complete satisfaction in God, as well as the many, many commands to do certain things or to refrain from doing other things. And this is why the apostle tells us we are blessed. when we suffer like this. Now, most of the time we sense that we are blessed by God when we get a raise on the job, or when we are able by God's mercy to buy something that we need or want, or when we are healed from a terrible disease, or when we're delivered from a terrible and painful situation. But Peter says here that we are blessed, meaning we are favored by God, meaning we are in a good place with Jesus when we suffer for the sake of righteousness. but that also explains why the apostle didn't use words like endure here. No, he used the word blessed. Peter said, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're blessed. So this is not talking about a suffering that we need to close our eyes and grit our teeth and hope we can outlast or endure. This is not a suffering that the only way we are blessed is after it's over with. This is a suffering that should elicit a praise from us toward God, a thanksgiving to God. In other words, we're better off having suffered like this. We are more obedient, more righteous, closer to God, in more of a right standing with God. Things become more focused in our eyes precisely because of this suffering that would not have been had we not suffered. These are strange words. Now, most of my journey as a Christian, when this passage has been read or studied, the teacher or preacher has gone past this as fast as possible. And I think there are a few reasons for that. But the main reason is because nobody wants to suffer in the first place. The line for receiving spiritual gifts is real long. The line to receive material blessings will go down the aisle, out the front door, and around the block. But the line to receive suffering is almost non-existent. But the second reason is because very few people actually understand God's purpose behind why genuine believers suffer in the first place. There is very little teaching about suffering in general. And what little teaching is out there is mainly about how we can avoid suffering or get out of it as soon as possible. But I want you to please turn with me to read what the Apostle Paul wrote about this. In your Bibles, Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. I want your eyes to look at this with me so you can think I'm not making this stuff up. This is radical theology. Philippians chapter 3, beginning with verse 8. Philippians chapter 3, beginning with verse 8. I love that sound when pages are turning. I tell everybody in my church, if you've got an iPad, you have to get the app that when you turn, it makes that noise like the pages are turning. I always love to hear pages turning. You want to read this for yourself. Here's what Paul said, Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or already become perfect, but I press on. so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now look what he says. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal this also to you. How you reckon God's gonna reveal this to you if you have a different opinion about what the purpose of suffering? Maybe by you suffering. Now, I know this is a lot to grasp, but it echoes exactly what Peter is talking about, so we need to try to grasp it. And I have found that the best way to grasp deep and profound truths is to take them one bite at a time. Look at verse eight again. More than that, I count all things to be what? Loss in view of what? The surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. Now the all things that Paul is talking about here, the things he counted to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus are not his many sins and transgressions. Paul is not talking about the wicked things that God had forgiven him for in this passage. The things that Paul counts as nothing but loss are all the things that Paul had accomplished in his life before he was gloriously saved by Jesus. And he lists them back in verses five and six. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As to the law, I was a Pharisee. As to zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness, which is in the law, I was found blameless. The good things that Paul had accomplished, he says, now I count all things as loss. In other words, Paul was talking about all the things that God had blessed him with. All of his religious and spiritual accomplishments, all of his efforts at studying and learning the Bible, his zeal at protecting Pharisaical Judaism from this new upstart religion that before he was saved, he viewed to be a radical departure from the truth and a heresy. We must understand that Paul persecuted the church. He had men and women killed. He made children to be orphans and did as much as he could to destroy Christianity, not because he was an atheist. It's not because he didn't believe in God. It's not because he saw religion as the enemy of the state or the opiate of the people. Paul did great damage to the church because he loved God. Because he was defending his warped understanding of the 39 books of the Old Testament. And Paul said that he counted all of his accomplishments as rubbish. Now that's an interesting Greek word, and it has to do with rotted human excrement. So because of the surpassing value of, it's the word skubalon, in case you wanna know it. That's skubalon. So because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus, Paul counted not his sins, but he counted all of his human accomplishments before Jesus, things that most people would consider to be blessings from God. has rotted human excrement. It's easy to cast away your darkness of your soul before you were saved. It's easy to call that something that's terrible that you don't want. What about all the things that you had? Paul said, I count the loss of all of them for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. That's a level of dedication that goes beyond the average person. Why was that? The issue at stake here, the situation that God has worked to deliver him out of was a wrong understanding of righteousness. Paul said that I may gain Christ and may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. So in order to come into the truth concerning righteousness, Paul had suffered. And he suffered the loss of the very things that most people would consider to be good things and things worthy of praise. And this tells us that this suffering was not a punishment for his many sins. It wasn't divine retribution for his unwillingness to repent or his refusal to believe. This suffering was God's mercy. bringing Paul into a correct understanding of righteousness. So Paul's suffering was exactly what Peter said, suffering for the sake of righteousness. And just like Peter, Paul said he was blessed for having suffered like this. He was better off for having suffered. His life with Jesus was made more favorable because he had suffered. In other words, Paul's suffering was not something for which we should offer him condolences, but something for which we should desire to have as well. But to what end was this suffering for the sake of righteousness? Four things. Paul said that he suffered the loss of all things so that he could, number one, know Him. Number two, that he could know or experience the power of Christ's resurrection. Number three, that he could know or experience the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. And number four, that he could be conformed to Christ's death. But to what end? What would be the goal of knowing or experiencing those four things? Paul said, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. which is simply another way of saying that Paul desired to remain faithful to the end so that what is promised to all believers could be his. But who among us would not want to know or experience Jesus Christ? Who among us would not want to know or experience the power of Jesus's resurrection? Again, the line to desire those two things is very long, but without the last two, we simply would never experience the first two. Without God being good to grant us the ability to know or experience the fellowship of Christ's sufferings and being made conformable to his death, we will never know or experience Jesus in fullness and we will never know or experience the power of Christ's resurrection because the first two brings about the last two. But based on what is being taught in the modern church, the line to receive this kind of suffering for the sake of righteousness, which will produce in us a deep and powerful knowledge of Jesus Christ, which will produce in us the power of Christ's resurrection, is almost non-existent. And yet Paul actually prayed for these things. He asked for them. He sought them. He volunteered for them. These hardships didn't just happen to him. They weren't some random accident or product of chance or fate. God didn't merely push this kind of suffering onto him for no reason. Paul desired this. Why? Because he saw the benefit of it. So he earnestly desired to experience this. Now this is almost beyond comprehension. A man who had accomplished in life what most people could only dream of, sincerely ask God to take it all away. Why? In view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. How does a person get like this? How does an individual become a person who would earnestly desire that God would strip him of all his worldly accomplishments so that he could possess Jesus to that extent? I would suggest it's suffering for the sake of righteousness. And that means that this kind of suffering, this kind of suffering for the sake of righteousness is to be desired. It is to be prayed for. It is something we should sincerely request. Not because we simply want to hurt, not because we're gluttons for punishment, not so that we can wallow in our misery, not because we are brave or courageous or so that we can prove to everybody how spiritual we are. Why? One reason, the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. It either is or it is not surpassing in value. Now all of this should work to make sense as to why Peter asks a seemingly silly question in verse 13. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? What? You gotta remember who he's talking to. These people, they were refugees in every sense of the word. They've lost all their worldly possessions because they were serving God. There are several groups of people who would love to harm these scattered aliens to whom the apostle addresses this epistle. There are the unbelieving Jews, there are the pagan Romans, both of whom would gladly do the believers harm. So why is Peter asking this kind of question? I mean, the very fact that the people he's talking to have been forcefully removed from their homes and are now refugees, doesn't that reality answer the question itself? Has Peter forgotten how these people have become displaced? We have to remember that the reason why Nero has forcefully removed these people from their businesses and their homes was because they were trying to live the Christian life. So the fact that these people were already zealous for what is good is the reason they're suffering right now. So why is Peter asking this question? Peter is focusing on what is really happening to these people. Because Peter knows that since God is absolutely sovereign over everything all the time, that evil men could not touch these believers unless God had sovereignly allowed it. And if their heavenly Father who loves them with an everlasting love has voluntarily stepped aside and has allowed evil men to touch his elect, then there is a very good and a very wise and a very beneficial reason behind it, and that reason, my beloved, is righteousness. The fact that Nero has been allowed by God to drive these people from their homes and make them to be scattered throughout very dangerous pagan lands tells the apostle that God is at work in their lives to bring about a great transformation. God has allowed evil men to do great harm to God's people so they can become obedient. Peter says in 1 Peter 3, 14 through 16, 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, but do what? 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 in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you were slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Now, this doesn't sound like the language that helpless victims use. This sounds like the language that people who are being used by God in evangelism use. This doesn't sound like people who are sitting down waiting to be slaughtered. This sounds like people who are faithful and fruitful and busy in the work of the Lord. This sounds like the language that people use when they are in the safest place in all the world, the hands of God. People use language like this who are being transformed into the image of Christ. So this is the language of sanctification, not simply martyrdom. This is the language of growing in respect to salvation. not annihilation. This is not the language of being a sheep led to the slaughter. This is the language that people use who are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. People don't talk like this who are simply trying to outlast their tormentors and hold on until Jesus rescues them. People talk like this who are actively being used by God to help expand the kingdom of God, one converted soul at a time. And the reason that I know that to be true is because of what Peter said in the very next verse, verse 17. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. And when I come back, I'll get into that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you and praise you for your word. We praise you, God. that Peter wrote these words down 2,000 years ago, not just for them, but for us as well. Help us to ponder these words. Help us to apply these words. Help us to comprehend them. Help us to believe them and trust them, Father, even though they're very radical to us. Help us, O God, to hold on to the truth and believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. In Jesus' name, amen.