1 Peter 5:10-11
¹⁰ But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. ¹¹ To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
TRANSCRIPT
We have finished our studies on the book of Acts, and I’m prayerfully considering the next book for our Prayer Meeting. Tonight, I have decided to preach a topical message based on 1 Peter 5:10-11. The apostle Peter had written this epistle of 1 Peter to the dispersed Christians who were facing tremendous hostilities and persecutions due to their Christian faith. So, almost everything written in this book was related to suffering. In a similar fashion, we are also living in a world that is at enmity with us, because of Christ. The world is watching the Christian with a critical eye. Whenever we speak against sin, whether it be the sin of adultery, abortion, homosexualities, worldliness, immoralities and so forth, the world is waiting to attack us.
Whenever we endeavour to live a faithful Christian life, we may have to face injustice, false accusations, malicious gossips and so forth, with the prospect of suffering before us, with the adversity, the Devil, walking and seeking to devour us, how can you and I ever have hope? Although this passage is about the believer facing suffering due to his or her Christian faith, but if God is in absolute control over our lives and if nothing happens by chance or coincidence, but by God’s providence, then everything we face in our lives is permitted by God for a sovereign purpose, including suffering. So this passage is applicable to us, even if the suffering you and I are called to face, may not be directly related to persecutions. Because of our Christian faith, we can still apply this passage.
My friends, the days ahead of us may be filled with much uncertainties, challenges and the issues of life. Maybe even at this very moment, you are already facing some very intense, physical, emotional and spiritual struggles that words cannot express. Your loved one may be suffering a chronic illness, or you yourself may be diagnosed with a terminal illness. Your heart is great with fear because you know your days are numbered.
Recently, when I was in Singapore, I was told that one of the preachers that we are all very familiar with, was diagnosed with fourth stage cancer. I will gather more information and then I will share with you about this person and his situation. How can we fight a good fight of faith in times of suffering? There’s only one way, and we can be victorious, even in the face of adversities. When our eyes are focused on the captain of our souls, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; when our focus is always on his precious word. The title of our message is the Christian’s Confidence in Times of Suffering. Our first point is ‘The Suffering is Real’.
I. The Suffering Is Real
Let us begin with the phrase “after ye have suffered a while”. Here, Peter ackowledged the reality of suffering. Suffering hurts. It is painful. It is difficult. We do not pretend as if there is no suffering or suffering is not real. We do not deny it. Instead, we look straight into the face of trials and difficult times, but at the same time we acknowledge a greater reality that may not be immediately apparent to our eyes, and that is God and His promises.
As it has been often said that trials will either cause a person to run to God, or to run away from Him. Our confidence in times of suffering is not based on our emotions or how we feel. Do you know of anyone that has ever told you that suffering feels good? Most certinaly not. Suffering is most agonising. Perhaps, emotional suffering is the most intense feeling a person can ever experience.
Our confidence is not based on our circumstances. Again, do you know of anyone that will ever tell you that suffering is a pleasant situation? No man in his right frame of mind will ever tell you ‘here comes a terrible situation, and I’m going to love it; I’m going to enjoy every moment of it’. That would be ridiculous. Our confidence is not based on our pretence or our ignorance. Like those positive thinkers and meditation gurus who will tell you ‘Just meditate and tell yourself that the pain is not there. Just imagine in your mind that you are on a beautiful island. Everything is empty. no pain, no sorrow, no tears’. When you open your eyes, your heart’s burn is still dead and his body is still in the grave. Your cancer is still there, and the pain is still there. How can we ever pretend, when reality is staring us straight in the face?
Our confidence is also not based on some wishful thinking. We do not try to explain away the situation with some humanistic ideas or opinion. We do not make empty promises or say things that we do not really understand or know. We do not tell ourselves or the one that is suffering ‘everything will be alright. Things will only get better’. How do we know? On what basis do we say that? For all we know that sickness, that illness, may take this brother to his grave.
Our confidence in times of suffering is only based on one thing: not what we say, not what other people say, but what God says. We acknowledge that suffering is real. It is painful. But we run to the truth of God’s Word, and we cling to God’s promises as we face the trials of life. The answer lies here within this book.
II. The Suffering is Temporal
Let us move onto our second point: ‘The Suffering is Temporal’. The Apostle Peter says: “after ye have suffered a while”, which means it will come to an end. When we go through trials and tribulations, we often have this mentality that this thing will last forever. It is never going to end. But any adverse situations in our lives, whatever they may be, they are only for a moment; only for a period of time. They will not last forever.
There will be different seasons and times in life. Times of joy, times of sorrow, times of peace. If you compare the times of suffering with the times of peace, very often, the times of suffering, they are only very brief. They do not last very long. It is inevitable that there would be trouble, but soon, it will be over, truly. Soon, it will come to an end. Who says so? The Word of God says so. Even if you and I were to live a life with an unbroken suffering, which means from beginning to end. Even if we are born the very moment we are into trouble, and that trouble continues to the very last moments on our death beds, it will still come to an end.
Just as James chapter 4 verse 14 says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Can you imagine our lives being likened unto a vapour? Now you see it, then you don’t. Even if we were to live one hundred years, and suffer every moment of it, what is that compared to eternity? Some people are tried more than others, and God has a sovereign purpose for that. Some people are severely tried all the days of their lives, and what is that compared to eternity: It is but for a while. 1 Peter 1 says it in a different way. Verse 6. Let me read for you: “now for a season, if need be.” In other words, if necessary, “ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” or many different kind of temptations. Only if it is necessary.
Seasons come and go. We have Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. The trials of life are just like the seasons of life. It will stay only as long as God has a purpose for it. It will stay only for a while to accomplish God’s purpose. It cannot remain for one minute or one second longer than God would permit it.
If we serve the Lord, we will receive an eternal reward, right? If we serve the Lord and we have to face sufferings, persecutions, difficult times, and we persevere, we will receive a greater reward. All of us understand that. If we compare the suffering we face for Christ’s sake, for the Gospel’s sake, with the eternal glory that awaits us in Heaven, this is how the Bible explains. 2 Corinthians 4:17 says: “For our light affliction,” our suffering becomes light affliction, “which is but for a moment,” it will not last for long, only for that moment God has a purpose for it, “worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”. There’s no comparison. One is temporal, considered “light affliction”, the other is eternal. The glory lasts forever and ever. And it is explained as, or described as “exceedingly [heavy]”.
III. The Suffering is Permitted
Our third point is ‘The Suffering is Permitted’. Look again to verse 10: “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” When we are suffering, it is most comforting to know that someone is watching over us, right? But, the most comforting thing is to know that that someone is God, who has a sovereign purpose. God has determined the purpose, he has also determined the timeframe for our suffering; “after that ye have suffered a while”.
The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. This is the effectual calling of the Almighty God that points to our conversion where he called us unto faith in His only begotten Son. The eternal glory points to the future. Can you ever fathom that the Almighty God has called us in the past, saved us, convicted our hearts, with this future glory in mind. God has determined to be gracious to you and to be gracious to me forever and ever.
Even before the foundation of the world, he has determined that. He has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light; Out of the darkness, into his kingdom of light. “by Christ Jesus” (1 Peter 5:10) means He accomplished that, not by us but by His only begotten Son. Jesus has accomplished it all.
If God has determined us to save us in the past, take a moment and think about this, and He has also determined to save us unto the eternal glory in the future, then what makes us think He will abandon us now, in this moment, as we are going through whatever trials? He saved us in the past, determined. He determined to save us in the eternal glory in the future. Would he abandon us at this very moment? No, certainly not.
We say that God has created the Heavens and the Earth. By His Word, he brought everything into existence. We say we believe in a God that is in control of the entire universe. He’s all-powerful, all-knowing, we are always in His presence. We say we believe in a God that has delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, sent them manna from Heaven every day of their lives; we say we believe in all that, and yet when it comes to our present suffering, we do not believe that God is able to see us through our afflictions. What an irony. What a contradiction, don’t you think?
My friends, He is the God of all grace, which means God possesses all grace. He’s the source of all grace. Not only the Salvation grace that we need at the point of our conversion, but whatever grace we need in our lives; whatever grace we need to go through a trial. No matter how difficult, how painful it is, God has enough grace, sufficient grace, to help us obediently go through our trials. We need God’s grace at every moment of our lives. There will never be a moment you and I do not need His grace. We need God’s grace to resist the temptations of life. Remember, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13 says: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Often times, when we look at this verse, we only think about the word ‘escape’; that God will open up a path so that we may flee from the trouble or escape the suffering, right? But we forget the following phrase says this: “that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). In other words, God’s way of escape is not from the trouble, is not out of the trouble, but through the trouble. God will allow us to go through the trouble, but at the same time will give us the grace to see us through.
We need God’s grace to resist the Devil, who walketh about like a roaring lion, “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Every Christian is called to be a soldier. At the point of our conversion, you and I are engaged in a spiritual battle. We must bear in mind, it is a spiritual warfare. Some may have to fight the same spiritual warfare every day of his or her life. Some others may be called to fight a totally different spiritual battle. And we may be caught off guard. Ephesians 6 verse 12 says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Whether it is in the global, political, social and religious arena, whether it is a value system of this lost culture or the philosophy of this evil world system, or whether it is the most vile or wicked immoralities of this perverse generation, which one of us can say ‘I can stand against the wiles of the Devil’.
All Christians, young and old, would have to fight this spiritual battle. Do you think your child will stand a chance to fight against the wiles of the Devil? Not for a moment, based on our own strength. None of us can ever do that. But the God of all grace, He will give us, not just the strength, not just the ability but also the victory.
We need God’s grace to effectively serve him. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 3 verse 7: “Whereof I was made a minister”; Paul was made a minister. He was called to be a minister by the Lord Jesus Christ. “according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.” God has given him the grace that he may serve in the vocation in the office that God has called him into, as a minister. That was what Paul was trying to say.
I know all of us here love the church. We want to serve the Lord. We want to glorify Him. But, without God’s grace, we will not be able to do anything for Him. We will always feel so inadequate, so lacking, so unworthy. We will not find joy in serving Him. Without God’s grace, we may still be preaching, we may still be teaching the children at Sunday Schools, we may still be chairing in the worship services, playing the piano or organ, singing in the choir, but everything will be empty and meaningless, because there will be no power.
With God’s grace comes the power. Without God’s grace, it will also be without God’s power. That is why everything will be empty and meaningless. Indeed, afflictions and troubles will come. But God will say to us, like the way he said to the Apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12 verse 9). That was the only reason why Paul was able to say “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4 verse 13).
IV. The Suffering is For A Purpose’
Finally, our fourth point is ‘The Suffering is For A Purpose’. So suffering is real, suffering is temporal, suffering is permitted by God, and suffering is for a purpose. God’s divine purpose is for our own good: To make us perfect, stablish, strengthened, settle you. The word ‘perfect’ can mean to mend, like the mending of a fishing net. Perhaps no one understands this term better than Peter because he was once a fisherman. Fishermen would have to mend the fishing nets. When affliction comes, we can be so broken that we need God to mend our lives; to restore our lives, so the speak.
To ‘stablish’ means to confirm. We are weak. we are feeble. We need God to make us stand on our own two feet. We all understand what it means to strengthen, but the word ‘settle’ is an architectural term, like the laying of a foundation. And this foundation must be strong and steadfast. In other words, God allows trials, sufferings, into our lives and He gives us the grace – His grace – to go through the trials. Why? To make us strong; to make us perfect, stablished, strengthened and settled.
Like I often gave this illustration of a teacher who put a huge rock in front of his disciples house and the teacher said to the student ‘push the rock’. The rock was extremely huge and extremely heavy, and he could not even move an inch. And yet, the teacher said, ‘push the rock’. The student kept pushing and pushing with all his strength, and day after day he kept pushing and pushing but nothing seemed to change. The rock still remained where it was. Finally, in desperation, he said to the teacher, ‘every day I have pushed the rock with all my strength, but it is meaningless. The rock did not even move an inch. Not even one mm, perhaps’. Finally, the teacher said to him, ‘I said push the rock and I did not say move the rock. Now look at your muscles’. By then, the man realised he had built up his physical muscles through the exercise of pushing the rock.
My friends, I do not know what huge rocks have come into your life. But in a similar fashion, those rock of trials will build up our spiritual muscles; not physical muscles, spiritual muscles. Some of the most trying circumstances may still be there. We may use all our strength to deal with the complications, the troubles in our families, in our marriage lives, in our own individual lives. We may use all our strength to use, to struggle through, with our children, in our work places, in the church, in the mission works. No matter how hard we try to fix the situation, nothing seems to change. The situation and circumstances may not change, but one thing for sure would change: and that is the individual who is going through the trials; through the trials which God of all grace has made us perfect, stablished, strengthened and settled. Through the trials, He has built up in us spiritual stamina, strength, understanding and maturity, not only to endure future trials, but to help others as they go through their trials in life.
Do you think God does not know what is happening in your life? He knows everything about us, better than we know ourselves. Jesus says even the hairs on your head are all numbered.
Tonight, if we truly understand that suffering is real, suffering is temporal, suffering is permitted by God – if it comes into our lives, God must have a sovereign purpose for it. And if God has a sovereign purpose for it, He has told us tonight that it is for our own good to make us perfect, stablished, strengthened and settle us. With that understanding, all of us would say this in verse 11. Look at verse 11 with us as we end this message. All of us would then say: “To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:11). Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank thee for enabling us to consider this portion of scriptures. Indeed, thy word is true. Thy word is perfect. Thy promises will always come to pass. We need thy instruction as we live our days on this Earth. There will be trials and sufferings. It is inevitable. But our God is in control. Nothing happens by chance or coincidence, but by thy providence, including suffering. How should we respond? We must understand that it is real. We do not pretend there is no trials or suffering is not real. We do not deny the reality, but yet, we acknowledge a greater reality: and that is God and his promises. We know that suffering is temporal, even if it were to last for the rest of our lives, it is only for a moment – only for a while. As thy word has said, our lives are but like vapours: appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. We believe that suffering is permitted by thee because thou art sovereign, thou are in control of all things, and thou has a purpose, and that divine purpose is for our own good: that thou may make us perfect, stablished, strengthened and settled, that we may be strong in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thee thanks for this privilege and opportunity to consider this portion of scriptures. Help us to remember. Help us to apply it in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
SERMON OUTLINE
- I. The Suffering Is Real
- II. The Suffering is Temporal
- III. The Suffering is Permitted
- IV. The Suffering is For A Purpose’
THE BOOK OF 1 PETERThe Blessed ResurrectionThe Blessed Resurrection1 Peter 1:1-5
Message 1: Make Sure Your SalvationMessage 1: Make Sure Your Salvation1 Peter 1:1-9
The Essential Truths of Our SalvationThe Essential Truths of Our Salvation1 Peter 1:3-5
The Blessings of SalvationThe Blessings of Salvation1 Peter 1:3-9
Message 3: Using The Right BibleMessage 3: Using The Right Bible1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Message 2: Are You Growing In Your Spiritual Life?Message 2: Are You Growing In Your Spiritual Life?1 Peter 2:1-12
The Chosen People of GodThe Chosen People of God1 Peter 2:9-10
Message 4: Submission To AuthoritiesMessage 4: Submission To Authorities1 Peter 2:9-25
Message 5: Be Prepared To SufferMessage 5: Be Prepared To Suffer1 Peter 3:8-18
Suffer For Righteousness’ SakeSuffer For Righteousness’ Sake1 Peter 3:13-17
Living in the End TimesLiving in the End Times1 Peter 4:7-11
Message 6: Be Indoctrinated With God’s WordMessage 6: Be Indoctrinated With God’s Word1 Peter 5:1-4
Message 7: Know Your EnemyMessage 7: Know Your Enemy1 Peter 5:1-11
Be Sober and VigilantBe Sober and Vigilant1 Peter 5:8-9
Our Confidence in Times of SufferingOur Confidence in Times of Suffering1 Peter 5:10-11
The Christian’s Confidence in Time of SufferingThe Christian’s Confidence in Time of Suffering1 Peter 5:10-11
