Hello and welcome
to "Books of The Book."
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We are studying the
Books of 1st and 2nd Peter
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with Dr. Tom Shepherd.
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He is a professor of New
Testament Interpretation.
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Dr. Shepherd,
welcome. Thank you.
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If I were to
tell our audience here
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that you are
called the bowtie man,
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I think they would
probably have an idea why.
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Why do they call
you this and why?
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I'm called the bowtie man
'cause that's what I always wear
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when I am at the seminary.
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And if they are looking for,
if somebody is taking a class
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and they say, oh,
you were with Shepherd,
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with Shepherd,
Shepherd, who is he?
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You're having a class with him.
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Oh, he's the guy
that wear bowties."
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Yup, they know who I am
'cause they see me around.
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Actually this particular tie
that I'm wearing is interesting.
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It's from the Horn
Archaeological Museum there.
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And it has the--it's a bowtie
with the Dead Sea Scrolls on it,
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and my wife got it from the--
they have a little store there
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and she bought it
there for my anniversary
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or birthday or
something like that.
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Now I know the
answer to this question,
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but maybe there are some
curious people out there.
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Is this one of the--
are these your bowtie
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is one of those
that clip on here or?
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No, no, I don't-- I
don't wear clip ons.
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I tie them myself.
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When I first did it,
it took me half an hour.
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Okay. To tie the tie.
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But now I can tie the tie
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in about 15
seconds or so. All right.
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Sometimes give demonstrations.
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I won't today for
the audience here,
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but I-- Maybe next time.
Maybe another time, yeah.
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All right, what
we are talking about
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1 Peter and we are
going to be discussing
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from verses
12-19. Of Chapter 4? Yes.
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So what is this last
section of the book all about
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or perhaps if you want--
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you want to do a short review
of what we've been studying?
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Yeah, well, we just have
a graphic here that shows us
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the outline of the book.
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And this graphic we
started with the first section
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establishing
the Household of God
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that was Chapters 1:2-10.
Rebirth that leads to holiness.
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Metaphors of
growth. The house of God.
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All these things dealing with
or focusing and revolving around
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the establishment of
these people and their mindset.
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The second section we have
just finished and that was,
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how Christians are
to live in the world
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that goes from 2:11-4:11.
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And that's about
submission and an upright life.
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Vindication that is to come.
And living like a Christian.
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This leads us to the
last section of the book,
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which is from 4:12-5:11,
facing trouble and each other.
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The first section
we're gonna talk about
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now is the fiery trial,
then relationships in the church
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and then fighting the devil
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in relationship
of God to the devil.
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So the interesting thing is that
this last section of the book
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really parallels the second
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or middle section of
the book quite closely.
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In those sections, they
open with direct address.
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They are followed by
a general exhortation
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that Peter gives to the people,
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then there is
instruction to specific groups
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within the church,
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then there is an
appeal to all believers
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with some
reference to the scriptures,
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and then finally there
is a concluding doxology.
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So the second
section of the book
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and the third
section of the book
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just seem to kind of
lockstep as he is thinking
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the process of how
he'll present his message,
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he walks through these things.
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In 4:12-5:11, this is a
last section of the book.
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The topic of suffering
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appears in each of the
three sections of that--
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of this last part of the
book that doesn't surprised us
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since he is talking
about suffering a lot.
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He also talks about
relationship to God.
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Again, no big
surprise because that's what
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he has been talking
about all these chapters,
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and each subsection
also refers to glory,
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salvation and
blessing for the faithful.
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Again, similar kind of theme
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as we've seen him
talking about before. Okay.
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And where does
Peter begin the section?
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All right, this section
begins with a negative command.
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So we look at
verse-- verse 12 once for.
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He says, "Beloved, do not."
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So you see, here's the--
here's the command. "Do not.
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Do not be
surprised at the fiery trial
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when it comes
upon you to test you,
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as though something
strange were happening to you."
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Now it's actually
reminiscent of James 1:2-4
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where James gives
a positive command
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that you should counted
all joy when you suffer trials.
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Peter describes the
testing quality of trials.
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We've already seen that before.
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But he says, "You
shouldn't think it strange."
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Now there's kind
of an interesting
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parallel to what we
just talked about before
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back in 1 Peter 4:4.
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We found that the
Gentiles think it strange
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that you don't run with
them to their parties anymore,
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but the Christians are
not to think it strange
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when the persecution comes.
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So it says, "Though
the pagans are in the dark
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and the
Christians are in the light."
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See, they think it strange,
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you shouldn't think
it strange, you know.
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This is the expected
thing that's gonna happen
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to a Christian in a sinful world
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that you're gonna face
these kind of problems.
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And why does verse 13 put
suffering and joy together?
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Yeah, just take a look
at that. Shall we read that?
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Well, would you read
those-- that verse, verse 13?
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"But rejoice to the extent
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that you partake of
Christ's sufferings,
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that when His glory is revealed,
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you may also be
glad with exceeding joy."
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Now the present sufferings,
he says are caused for joy now.
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That's a-- that's
pretty hard to take.
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But he says,
"It's a participation
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in the sufferings of Christ."
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I remember
Ellen White said that,
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"There is no higher privilege
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than to suffer with
Christ in this life."
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And that's the kind of
idea that we have here.
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The joy is in being with Jesus
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even when it's in
situation of suffering.
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He does point
forward to the second coming,
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you know, that's going to--
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that's going to come
in and solve all problems.
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But we still have
this interesting paradox
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of joy and suffering co-joined.
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And it just doesn't
seem almost to us like,
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you know, something that
that we should even accept,
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but that's the kind of
idea that he tells us about.
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Let's read verse 14.
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It says, "If you are reproached
for the name of Christ,
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blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory
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and of God rests upon you.
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On their part He is blasphemed,
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but on your part
He is glorified."
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Here seems that
continues that contrast. Yeah.
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Here is reproach. He
talks about reproach.
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The problem of being reviled
people heaping insults on you.
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And he says, "He
puts this together
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with the idea of being blessed."
You know, fortunate or happy.
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And he describes
this experience as
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some kind of experience of rest
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that the Spirit of
God is resting upon you.
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It's as though there
is this incredible storm
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going on around you.
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People are reviling you,
people are reproaching you,
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people are
giving you a harsh time.
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And yet in the
midst of this storm
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there you are at rest.
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There is a famous
story about two painters
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being given the
assignment to make a painting
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that depicted
the concept of peace.
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And one painter painted
this beautiful quiet picture,
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you know, lake and trees
and the beautiful mountains,
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you know, it just like,
oh. It's just, you know, rest.
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The other painter
went a very different way.
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There was this incredible storm
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and you look
anywhere on the canvas
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it was just covered with,
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you know, turmoil and
back and forth and everything.
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He's like, "What does
this have to do with resting?"
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Right in the
center of the picture
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was a mother bird
sitting quietly on her nest
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in the midst of the
storm and this was rest.
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So this is perhaps some of that
kind of picture that we have.
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Now he actually,
he quotes a text,
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he quotes from
Isaiah Chapter 11.
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I wanna look-- us
to look at that text,
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Isaiah 11:1-9.
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Okay, so Isaiah
Chapter 11. Verses 1-9.
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This passage actually
talks about the Messiah,
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the coming of the Messiah
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and we'll see how it
links into our story here.
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Isaiah 11:1-9.
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"There shall come forth a
Rod from the stem of Jesse,
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and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots.
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The Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon Him,
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the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding,
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the Spirit of counsel and might,
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the Spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord.
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His delight is in
the fear of the Lord,
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and He shall not judge
by the sight of His eyes,
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nor decide by the
hearing of His ears,
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but with righteousness
He shall judge the poor
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and decide with equity
for the meek of the earth.
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He shall strike the earth
with the rod of His mouth,
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and with the breath of His
lips He shall slay the wicked.
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Righteousness shall
be the belt of His loins,
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and faithfulness
the belt of His waist.
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'The wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb,
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the leopard shall lie
down with the young goat,
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the calf and the young
lion and the fatling together
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and a little
child shall lead them.
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The cow and the
bear shall graze.
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Their young ones
shall lie down together
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and the lion shall
eat straw like the ox.
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The nursing child shall
play by the cobra's hole,
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and the weaned child shall
put his hand in the viper's den.
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They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain,
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for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord
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as the waters cover the
sea.'" Beautiful, isn't it?
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He describes the
work of the Messiah
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and what He will do.
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And particularly we
notice in verse 2 of Isaiah 11,
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"The Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon Him,
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the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding,
00:11:03.65\00:11:06.20
the Spirit of counsel and might,
00:11:06.23\00:11:07.84
the Spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the Lord."
00:11:07.87\00:11:10.95
And if we go back to Peter,
00:11:10.98\00:11:13.61
we notice in Chapter 4:14,
00:11:13.64\00:11:19.19
it says, "If you're insulted
00:11:19.22\00:11:22.63
for the name of
Christ you are blessed,
00:11:22.66\00:11:24.79
because the Spirit of glory
and of God rests upon you."
00:11:24.82\00:11:30.97
So just as Jesus had
God's spirit resting upon Him,
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when we go through
these experiences of trial,
00:11:35.60\00:11:38.55
He promises to rest
upon us and to help us up.
00:11:38.58\00:11:42.63
My wife and I had a challenging
experience back in 1997.
00:11:42.66\00:11:49.60
We had major job change,
major surgery, my father died,
00:11:49.63\00:11:56.52
major surgery for
another member of the family,
00:11:56.55\00:11:58.78
my wife's grandmother died
all within about six weeks time.
00:11:58.81\00:12:02.93
It was an
incredibly challenging,
00:12:02.96\00:12:06.10
challenging
experience for us to go through.
00:12:06.13\00:12:08.68
And you just wished
for boring normal days,
00:12:08.71\00:12:16.51
that's what my
prayer was, "O Lord,
00:12:16.54\00:12:17.91
just let 1998 be a boring year."
00:12:17.94\00:12:21.65
Everybody else's life around us
00:12:21.68\00:12:23.05
was just going on
normally, you know.
00:12:23.08\00:12:25.15
And you could
be tempted to think
00:12:25.18\00:12:28.14
that normal life was a mirage
and that it didn't really exist.
00:12:28.17\00:12:35.70
But there were two
things that helped us
00:12:35.73\00:12:37.23
particularly through
this very difficult time.
00:12:37.26\00:12:39.59
I remember it quite well.
00:12:39.62\00:12:41.63
It was very precious
friends at Union College,
00:12:41.66\00:12:44.48
just since from the days
when we were at Union College,
00:12:44.51\00:12:47.31
very precious friends.
00:12:47.34\00:12:49.16
And then the
promises of the Bible.
00:12:49.19\00:12:52.00
I remember going
to class one day,
00:12:52.03\00:12:53.40
I didn't talked to
students about this very much,
00:12:53.43\00:12:54.80
but there was a student
00:12:54.83\00:12:56.92
who'd been a student missionary
in Siberia the year before.
00:12:56.95\00:13:00.53
Siberia and he'd the
difficult experience.
00:13:00.56\00:13:04.19
And as I came in the
class he was just there alone,
00:13:04.22\00:13:08.41
just before class began.
00:13:08.44\00:13:10.44
And for some reason
I started talking about
00:13:10.47\00:13:14.24
how my wife and I were
00:13:14.27\00:13:15.94
looking for
promises of the Bible.
00:13:15.97\00:13:18.22
We were writing them down
in this time of turmoil for us.
00:13:18.25\00:13:22.02
And the student said to me,
00:13:22.05\00:13:24.26
"They're not hard
to find, are they?"
00:13:24.29\00:13:27.76
And I said, "No, they are not."
00:13:27.79\00:13:30.41
And it was just
special link that happened
00:13:30.44\00:13:32.06
between the two of us
and we'd both realized
00:13:32.09\00:13:34.48
that we have been through
some challenging experiences.
00:13:34.51\00:13:38.27
And the promises of the Bible
00:13:38.30\00:13:40.40
helped to support
us through that time.
00:13:40.43\00:13:42.05
And it actually bonds you
to other people around you,
00:13:42.08\00:13:45.51
when they have
had that experience,
00:13:45.54\00:13:47.38
you have had that experience
and you could share it together.
00:13:47.41\00:13:49.85
Well, we got some more things
to talk about 1 Peter Chapter 4,
00:13:49.88\00:13:54.04
so we'll be back
after a short break.
00:13:54.07\00:13:56.16