to begin.
Open your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Peter.
We're right at the end of chapter 4.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've granted to us, for the life that you have blessed us with.
We ask that you will be with us as we go through this time of study.
We pray that we will be focused on your word and your will, that we might be ready and diligent to apply these things to our lives.
We pray for those who are struggling because of illness, especially those who uh have ongoing diseases or chronic illness.
We pray that you give them strength to overcome the difficult days and endurance for the
things that they cannot overcome.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who may be traveling, allow them to reach their destination safely and return home as well.
Lord, we pray for the nations throughout the world.
pray that there is peace and pray that wisdom reigns in the positions of leadership within nations and countries, especially our own.
Lord, we pray and ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
All this we pray in Jesus'
Amen.
uh
Peter writes, verse 18, now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Where does that come from?
Anybody have a footnote that tells you where that's a quotation from?
That's right, Proverbs chapter 11.
Let's go back over to Proverbs for just a moment.
Proverbs chapter 11, beginning in verse 27.
The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.
As you get into this text, the Proverbs writer is saying, when you fear God, you're going to live a longer life.
For the wicked are cut off as a result of their actions.
Their years are shortened.
The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.
The way of the Lord is strength for the upright, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.
Now,
You'll notice as you go through this, it's position, contrast, position, contrast, position, contrast.
Then notice verse 30, the righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will inhabit the earth.
I'm in Proverbs 10.
We should go over and read Proverbs 11.
That's gonna work better.
You know what?
Proverbs 10 really has application to this too.
I'm going to make the rest of my points on Proverbs 10.
All right.
We're still gonna begin in verse 27.
All right.
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, but trouble will come to him who seeks evil.
By the way.
This section of Proverbs, you're still finding the contrast point to point.
This is what the Proverbs writer is doing.
uh
recompense or will be recompense on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner.
Now notice the way that the Proverbs writer words this in the original language in the Hebrew translated forward and then the way Peter brings it out.
He says, if the righteous will be rewarded or recompensed.
on the earth.
How much more the ungodly and the sinner?
What do you think the reward is under consideration?
If you take it in view of what Peter says about it, what's the reward?
Because when Peter brings that forward, he says, they're scarcely saved.
Thoughts?
could be an idea that I'd be right.
in Corinthians 5, 10, which says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and each one may receive things done in the body according to what he has done, whether
good or bad.
Okay, so when this life is over, 1 Corinthians 5 points out that we are going to give an account, and we are going to receive the results of what we do in this body.
when you step back and consider a righteous person, is a righteous person always perfectly righteous?
Is there ever a time where the things that they do could cause themselves harm or cause themselves to suffer because they made wrong choices and took wrong actions?
Yes, absolutely.
Now.
If the righteous person is recompensed for their actions, but their actions are not always perfectly righteous, then in view of that, here's the wicked person over there.
They're in complete opposition to God.
If God's going that way, they're going that way.
They are.
Absolutely in opposition to everything he stands for.
And here you have the righteous person who's striving diligently to do what's right.
The Proverbs writer is drawing out that the righteous person will be recompensed, will be rewarded on the earth.
The text as given in Proverbs mentions where the reward is.
Where's the reward?
on the earth.
So when you step over, let me tie one other passage into this for us, Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 5.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit what?
The earth.
When you're looking at Proverbs, first thing to understand is there are some Proverbs that are statements of...
uh guarantee, they are 100 % accurate all of the time.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
And there are some Proverbs that are general truths.
In other words, they're not going to always be true in every individual situation, but they're going to be generally true across a wide view of things, across a trend of
humanity, and you're going to see that lived out, though there may be exceptions.
to the rule.
Does every righteous person live an abundant blessed physical possession perspective life?
No.
But does that not mean that God, does that mean that God doesn't bless his righteous people with possessions?
No, it doesn't mean that at all.
All right.
Now, if you understand that the Proverbs writer is giving us a statement that says, listen,
The righteous person is going to receive the reward of his actions.
True or false?
We're all going to receive the rewards of our actions.
True.
Now here's the righteous person.
He has some actions that are bad, some actions that are indifferent, and some actions that are good.
Is there anybody who doesn't?
No, even the worst of people are nice to someone outside of people who have mental disorders that uh they don't tend to last very long in society.
But in general, the people who are murderers have someone that they love.
They have someone that they take care of, someone that they provide for, even though they're a murderer.
So there are actions that they take that are
good in the sense of good towards someone, indifferent, like they get up and they maybe brush their teeth in the morning, that's indifferent, and then evil.
But their direction, their life is evil.
Here's the good person, their life is righteous, their life is towards justice and goodness and mercy and obedience towards God.
But they make some actions, participate in some actions that are wrong.
Here's the person, his actions are wrong and evil and unjust and sometimes he does something purely out of his own selfish motives that is good.
The Proverbs writer is helping us to understand that we're going to receive a reward on this earth for how we live.
oh
and the righteous person is going to receive a reward and the wicked person is going to receive a reward.
if you fill your life with wickedness, what is the likely recompense that you get back for the evil that you do?
good or bad, unhealthy, encouraging long life or shortening it.
despise wisdom and instruction.
Because stupid shortens life.
Because foolishness and believing that you are the most wise thing and therefore you ought to direct your life is not going to trend you toward success.
True or false, rich people die early sometimes.
True.
True or false, righteous people die early sometimes.
True.
True or false, wicked people who persist in wicked actions tend to die early in a greater number.
Well, if you look at um the numbers for heart disease, alcoholism, and actions that tend towards sexually transmitted diseases, and all of these things that are actions that are
byproducts of living a sinful life, those people trend towards death faster, okay?
Now, as you're examining this,
Peter is trying to help someone frame, if we go back to 1 Peter chapter 5, or chapter 4.
the judgment is coming and the judgment that he has under discussion is not looking all the way down to the end judgment but rather a judgment that is immediate, is at hand, and
is beginning with God's people first.
Now we discussed is that
God's people, national Israel, uh the blood of Abraham, or is that God's people, the Christians, who would go through this judgment and the difficulties of it, but would come
out
on the other side becoming and being more pure, more holy, more righteous, better Christians on the other side than they were on this side of experiencing this judgment
that was coming in an earthly perspective.
Okay?
So, that's the context.
The context is something was going to happen in Peter's day, in the day of the people who lived and read the epistle from Peter, where they were going to say, we are suffering a
judgment from God.
We discussed the potential that could be, especially since it's a Jewish audience, the fall of national Israel.
That could be the persecution that was going to persist from that point forward until the fall of national Israel from both the Jews and the Romans.
And if it's the Christians that are being talked to in this discussion, I think that's what we're looking at.
Peter's telling them and has been telling them since chapter one, you're headed into suffering.
you're going to be persecuted.
The Gentiles are going to persecute you.
The Jews are going to persecute you.
And if you suffer as a Christian, you're not suffering because God doesn't love you.
You're sharing in His glory.
Now as he draws this statement in, if the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
He's looking at this judgment that's A judgment of God, not the day of judgment.
He's looking at a judgment of God and he understands something.
The promise from Habakkuk 2, it gets reiterated in Romans, it gets reiterated elsewhere throughout the New Testament, and it's the promise from the days of the Babylonian
destruction of Jerusalem.
as Habakkuk was being told, I'm going to bring the Chaldeans against Judah.
I'm going to destroy this people.
I'm going to carry them off into captivity, and they are going to languish in Babylonian captivity for 70 years.
Does that sound like a judgment from God?
And Habakkuk is receiving that and said, I don't know how you're going to use a people that are more wicked than your own people to judge your people.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
How can that be right?
And Habakkuk basically says right there at beginning of chapter 2, but I know that you're right and I'm wrong, so I'm going to stand here and wait until you tell me why I'm wrong.
Essentially just step back and wait for the Lord to tell me how I misunderstand this.
And the answer that God returns to Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2 verse 4 is the just shall live by faith.
God's point to Habakkuk, God's point through Peter, God's point in Romans is that God's people are provided for and taken care of through the judgments that come on this earth.
And you see the biblical examples of that.
You see Israel come out of Egypt.
You see...
the righteous ones of Israel go into Babylonian captivity and flourish and return.
You see the remnant come out of those experiences and all the time in the Old Testament prophets you keep seeing this remnant of God's people.
Somehow they go into a judgment, they go through a judgment, they come out of the judgment, and they come out better than they were before they went in.
What's that?
That's the righteous being rewarded on the earth.
That's them living through a judgment from God and instead of it being a judgment that destroys them, it's a judgment that rewards them.
But he says, if the righteous are scarcely saved, if they get through this judgment by the skin of their teeth.
What's going happen to the wicked?
Now, as you look at national Israel, as you look at God's people from an Old Testament perspective,
they were told the same thing that the Christians were.
Over in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus told Israel, those who would hear Him and those who wouldn't, about the fall of Jerusalem.
Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem.
The Church told those who would listen and those who wouldn't time and time and time again about the fact that God was going to judge them for their wickedness.
And Jesus even gave the signs to the early Church through Matthew 24 and other passages saying, when you see this happen, you know what's coming.
And he tells them when you see it, you get down if you're in the field, you don't go back in the house, you leave.
You're in the house top, you don't go down into the house to get stuff, you just go out and you leave.
This is your warning, when you see these signs, you leave.
What's he doing?
He's providing for the reward for the righteous on the earth through this judgment.
He's telling them exactly what to do.
and for all those who will be obedient to God and listen to the warning.
they escape the judgment.
They're rewarded on the earth for hearing God.
And then you have all those who say, don't believe in that Jesus guy.
Not only are we going to endure through the difficulty of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, we're going to be victorious because there's a Messiah coming and he's going to reign on
David's throne in literal Jerusalem for a thousand years.
So I'm not leaving Jerusalem.
Hey look, the Roman army's gone.
See, I told you.
And what do they do?
Stay put.
And about 18 months later, the Roman army comes back.
And that time, they don't stop until every stone of the temple is not left upon another.
Now that is a prime example of on the earth, if the righteous are scarcely saved,
what will happen to the wicked.
Because here are the righteous, they're living out, they're adhering to the commands, the judgments, the warnings, the wisdom of God.
Which means they have insight into things the wicked don't have insight into.
They don't have to have miraculous insight into it.
You put a person who's going to listen to God up against a person with the same amount of knowledge who only listens to himself, and I know which one's wiser.
because one of them listens to God.
Now, he says, therefore, verse 19, let those who suffer according to the will of God, wait a minute, suffer according to what?
The will of God.
Those who suffer according to the will of God, He's dealing with going through an earthly judgment.
Was it God's will that that judgment come?
Yes.
And yet, are God's people suffering through it?
Yes.
So he says, therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator.
Peters, as you're going through this suffering.
Don't let it shake you.
Don't let it turn the direction of your life.
Rather, stop trying to be in control.
and commit yourself and your soul to God's hands.
Did famine come on the land in Abraham's day where Abraham lived?
Yes.
Did God see him through it?
Did he come out greater and stronger and with more possessions, more riches after it than before it?
Every time.
So as Peter is speaking to these first century Christians, writing to them, he's telling them, trust God.
Do what he says.
Commit your soul to him in doing good.
Don't allow the circumstances that you will go through in this life, the suffering that you will go through in this life, cause you to become jaded to the good that you can do in
this life.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
So, Paul's a great example of this.
One that most of us gratefully will never have to go through the same extent of suffering that he did.
But, to be clear, God told him day one, you're going to suffer for my name.
But you're also going to be an instrument to save the Gentiles.
So Paul.
m
goes to Jerusalem.
Before Paul is arrested in Jerusalem, why was he traveling to Jerusalem?
What had he been doing on that third missionary journey as he prepared to come back to Jerusalem?
Mm-hmm.
1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 2.
On the first day of the week, lay by in stores you've been prospered, that there be no collection when I come.
The I there is not the Lord.
It was Paul.
They had committed, we read about in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 9, they had committed to collecting funds for the poor Jews and Christians in Jerusalem and in Judea
who were going through famine and difficulties as a result of things that were not under their control.
And yet these individuals in Judea are sending out missionaries to help.
the Gentiles hear the gospel and Paul says, if they're sending you the gospel, couldn't you send back money to help them?
So Paul is taking this third missionary journey, he's collecting these funds and then he's going back to Jerusalem with alms to help the poor.
What does he get in recompense from his own nation?
He gets arrested.
He gets thrown in prison.
He nearly gets beaten to death by the Romans.
Until they find out he's a Roman.
And then, not only is he in prison, he's in prison for years.
And then he finally gets shipped off to Rome.
And on the way he's shipwrecked.
And then he gets to Rome and he's put in prison again.
All of that because he was doing what?
Doing good for his own nation.
Now would it have been easy for Paul sitting in prison to say, know what, this doing good thing just doesn't work out.
I think I'm gonna try a different way in life.
I'm gonna live for myself.
When you look at Demas, what is it that Paul wrote about Demas in 2 Timothy?
That he has forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Peter is writing to these Christians and saying, don't you let the judgment you will live through change your perspective on eternity and change your motivation and your commitment
to doing good.
He says, do these things rather to a faithful creator.
How can you be faithful?
Look at all the things I'm suffering.
because he's never departed.
You're not suffering by yourself.
And furthermore, look at what he sent his son to suffer for you.
All the things we suffer, all the things we'll go through in this life, all the things we may endure, does any of it compare to the suffering of Christ?
No.
I only get till 7.31.
You're about 10 minutes early.
All right.
The teachers in the classes are going to go, what?
What's going on?
All right.
The elders who are among you, there's a shift in thought here, chapter five, verse one.
The elders who are among you I exhort.
I who am a fellow elder.
What do we know about Peter if he's a fellow elder?
that he's an elder, number one.
What else do we know?
That he's married.
How do we know that?
All right, he had a mother-in-law that was healed by Jesus, so that's another passage that confirms it, but what was one of the qualifications for being an elder?
Puzzle of one wife.
There's also the text that tells us that Peter went about and his wife traveled with him as he journeyed, and he was supported by the church.
The elders who are among you I exhort.
He writes a special exhortation to these elders.
those who are present and with the congregations, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, shepherd
the flock of God which is among you." Now, we've talked about there's a slight shift in what he's saying and how he's writing it, but bear in mind
There's not a general shift of his theme because he just said, I am a witness of the what of Christ.
the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory.
Now, he's already said that glory is attached to suffering, which means he has also suffered, okay?
But as he writes to these elders, as he exhorts these elders, he is exhorting them because they're
congregations, their flocks are headed into suffering.
When a group of people, we'll use Israel coming out of Egypt as an example.
When a group of people are following someone and the scenario they keep finding themselves in is worse than the scenario they left, at least in their mind.
What tends to happen to the leaders that they're following?
Say again?
They get replaced.
ah Hey, we were following you, but everywhere we go, it's worse than where we were.
Maybe we should replace you.
Now, sometimes it's just perspective, right?
When they were standing there at the edge of the promised land and God tells them to go in and they start grumbling and moaning and complaining and crying all night long in their
tents because they hear there's giants in the land, was their situation actually worse than it was in Egypt?
No.
But did they perceive it to be worse?
Yes.
And they determine, you know, what would be best is if we just kill Moses and go back to Egypt.
Why don't we just get rid of this guy?
Not the first time they've thought that, by the way.
Not the first time they've considered getting rid of Moses and returning to Egypt.
But as they're there in a better situation than they were when they were in Egypt, but in a position where they looked at it and thought it was worse than when they were in Egypt,
they considered displacing leadership and turning the other direction.
So Peter's just spent four chapters telling them, you're going into suffering, you're going into suffering, you're going into suffering, you're going into suffering.
Now he's writing to the elders who are shepherding them through the suffering.
because these shepherds are going to have to watch their flock suffer.
One of the things about leadership, one of the things about guiding a group of people or a congregation in this scenario.
is you'll have to watch them suffer.
and have the vision to see what the other side looks like.
and you'll have to help them through the suffering without losing heart.
because otherwise, what will the sheep do in the midst of suffering?
Scatter and turn back.
The only way the sheep get through the suffering to the reward is if they follow the shepherd.
So Peter's writing to the shepherds.
He says, the shepherd, the elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory, that will be
revealed.
Shepherd the flock.
Do not allow the flock to guide itself.
Do not leave it to the flock to protect itself.
Do not leave it to the flock to direct itself.
Do not leave it to the flock to feed itself.
You're the shepherd.
You shepherd the flock.
He says, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly.
Flock goes into suffering.
Persecutions arise.
And someone decided they would accept the position of being an elder because, well, there was some pay involved.
And they needed the money, so they accepted the position.
Suffering comes.
Hardship comes.
Does that elder stick around?
No.
Why did he take it?
Because of the money.
When the suffering starts, you think the pay stays?
Doubtful.
Not if the suffering's real.
So when the pay's gone, where's the elder?
Gone too.
Now is it wrong therefore to pay elders?
No, not at all.
Well, there better not be an elder that says yes because of the pay.
There better not be an elder that says yes because the church is willing to support them.
There better be an elder who does so not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly.
Peter's addressing the historical problem which we've talked about in our Sunday class dealing with elders about the shepherds in Israel in Ezekiel's day.
They were shepherds because of what they could consume off of the sheep.
What they could get out of the sheep, not because they cared for the sheep.
And God says, do that to my flock and I will recompense you.
So Peter says, rather, shepherd willingly, serving as overseers.
Notice that serving part.
That serving means there's service going on.
But he says, serving as overseers.
not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you.
These are not your whipping boys that you call at your beck and call that you do or you demand and they do.
These are sheep and you're their shepherd.
You're their servant and yet you're their protector.
He says, not as lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
elders are to be the picture of what the Christians ought to be.
uh
And in most congregations, the elders are the picture of what the congregation is.
and maybe some advanced level of what they should be to either the congregation's benefit or detriment.
You have a congregation with elders that run an eldership like a board of directors of a corporation and they meet and they make decisions and they pass down decisions to the
employees and they tell the people this is what we're in for.
We're going to make sure that we're profitable.
you're going to have a congregation that acts that way.
You have a congregation with elders that serve the congregation and serve the work and serve the ministry and consider their actions to be the example that they set for the
flock.
you're going to see that lived out in the lives of the Christians that followed.
Peter says, and when the chief shepherd appears, sorry, appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Is there a reward for elders that is not available to others?
Interesting question.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews chapter 13.
Verse 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account.
Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Maybe I'll ask it another way.
Is there accountability that elders have that others don't have?
Yes.
then is there a reward for faithful service for a higher level of accountability that elders have that others don't have?
Yes, because if we go back to the passage from Corinthians, we will all receive according to what we have done in this life.
say, Aaron, how is that reward manifested in eternity?
I have no idea.
Do they get extra square footage in their mansion?
Don't know.
Are they on the nicer street?
They're all gold, but what, you know, don't know.
All right.
Thank you for your attention.