And we're back to
"Books of The Book."
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We are studying the
Books of 1 and 2 Peter,
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but right now we
are at the last Chapter
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or Chapter 4 at the last verses
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and we're
talking about suffering.
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And, Dr. Shepherd,
why does Peter bring up
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another way of
suffering in verses 15 and 16?
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All right, so we should--we
should read those verses again.
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So everybody's clear
as what he is saying.
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In verse 15, it says,
"But let none of you suffer
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as a murderer or a thief or
an evildoer or as a meddler.
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Yet if anyone
suffers as a Christian,
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let him not be ashamed,
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but let him
glorify God in that name."
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All right, so he says, it's
good to suffer as a Christian,
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but it's not good to
suffer as thief or murderer
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or something like that,
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that something that
Christians should not do.
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It's part of his emphasis
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on Christian
character and lifestyle
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that he has been emphasizing
all through the book.
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Don't do this, do this instead,
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you know, don't
follow the pagan way,
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follow the Christian way.
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If you live like the pagan,
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it's gonna bring
reproach on the Christian faith.
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So society around them
was pressing in on them,
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but they were to
stand true and he said,
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and they're
going to persecute you
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and try to bring shame on you.
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He said, "But you
mustn't be ashamed."
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He says, "You should
glorify God in this name."
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The name is Christian.
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And it's one of
the first places,
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you know, the
Antioch was the first place
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they were called Christians.
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But the term
Christian isn't used
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a lot of times in
the New Testament.
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This is one of the
places where it shows up. Okay.
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Verse 17, "For the
time has come for judgment
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to begin at the house of God.
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And if it begins with us first,
what will be the end of those
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who do not obey
the Gospel of God?"
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Now, how does this verse here
support these previous verses?
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Okay, so he has been
talking about suffering
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as a Christian being persecuted
by the pagans then he says,
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"Don't do the wrong way,
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don't be suffering as a murderer
or a thief or anything."
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And of course,
that's out of step
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with God's valuation, God's law.
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You shouldn't follow that path.
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You should follow
the Christian path.
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And then he says, "God is
going to judge the world."
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We have already talked about
judgment before several times.
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But here he, you know,
continues this discussion.
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It is time for judgment to
begin at the household of God.
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And of course,
the household of God
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is his whole metaphor
for the church, isn't it?
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That he has been
using all through this book.
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We are His
children, He is our Father,
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He has built this
into a spiritual house
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to offer sacrifices to Him.
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And so now he
says, and guess what?
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That's where
judgment is going to begin.
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Now in the process what
he's alluding to very strongly
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is to Ezekiel 9:1-6.
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So we need to read
that passage in Ezekiel
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just to get the
context of Peter's ideas.
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Ezekiel 9:1-6.
Okay, and he says.
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"Then He called out in my
hearing with a loud voice,
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saying, 'Let those who have
charge over the city draw near,
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each with a deadly
weapon in his hand.'
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And suddenly six men came from
the direction of the upper gate,
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which faces north, each
with his battle-ax in his hand.
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One man among them
was clothed with linen
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and had a writer's
inkhorn at his side.
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They went in and stood
beside the bronze altar.
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Now the glory of
the God of Israel
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had gone up from the cherub,
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where it had been to
the threshold of the temple.
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And He came to the
man clothed with linen,
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who had the
writer's inkhorn at his side.
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And the Lord said to him,
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'Go through the
midst of the city,
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through the midst of Jerusalem,
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and put a mark on
the foreheads of the men
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who sigh and cry
over all the abominations
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that are done within it.'
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Go to the others
He said in my hearing.
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'Go after him
through the city and kill.
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Do not let your eye
spare, nor have any pity.
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Utterly slay old and young men,
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maidens and little
children and women,
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but do not come near
anyone on whom is the mark
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and begin at My sanctuary.'
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So they began with the elders
who were before the temple.
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Then He said to
them, 'Defile the temple,
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and fill the courts
with the slain. Go out.'
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And they went out
and killed in the city.
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So it was, that while
they were killing them,
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I was left alone; and I
fell on my face and cried out,
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and said, 'Ah, Lord God.
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Will You destroy all
the remnant of Israel
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in pouring out
Your fury on Jerusalem?'
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Then He said to me,
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'The iniquity of the
house of Israel and Judah
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is exceedingly great, and
the land is full of bloodshed,
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and the city full of
perversity, for they say,
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'The Lord has forsaken the land,
and the Lord does not see.'"
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All right, well, it's
quite an amazing story,
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isn't it there in Ezekiel?
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And you notice that there are
several things that go on here.
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He has this executioners
come to him in his vision.
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And he also has a
man with a writing case.
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He sends the man out with
the writing case to go out
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and they're supposed
to put a mark on people
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who are crying
over the abominations
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of the land and of Jerusalem.
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And they go out and they
put a mark on their forehead,
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these people who
are faithful to God
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and showing it by their weeping.
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Then the executioners
go and they start to kill.
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They notice
those who have a mark
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and those who don't have a mark.
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Now, of course, we know
in the Book of Revelation,
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we have something
called the Seal of God.
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And the Seal of God marks people
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as His servants
and protects them.
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And those without the
Seal of God will perish,
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you know, at the end of time.
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So here is Peter linking
into Ezekiel's message as well
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just like we get over
in the Book of Revelation.
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And he links into this message
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and points out that
there's a protecting mark.
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And so judgment is going to
begin with the household of God.
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Begins with us and
then it goes out from there.
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And he says, well, if the--
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he quotes from
Proverbs 11:31 and he says,
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"Well, if the righteous
person hardly is saved,
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then what's going to
happen to the wicked."
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You know, there's no--there's
not gonna be space for them.
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So he has been
talking about Christians
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that they need to do
good deeds and not bad deeds.
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And then he supports us
with the message of judgment.
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He says, "Look, if you
don't follow the message of God
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you will be
marked for destruction,
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you have to follow-- you
can't just play with God.
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You have to have
your faith has to lineup
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with what He has been teaching
you all through this book."
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So now we are
finishing Chapter 4,
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but how does that he
conclude the section?
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Then he comes to verse 19.
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And then he says,
"Therefore that those who suffer
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according to God's
will entrust their souls
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to a faithful
creator while doing good."
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Now in this verse
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there are three
interlocking ideas, okay.
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Three interlocking ideas.
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Suffering, suffering
according to the will of God.
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And we've talked
about that already.
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It's not God's
will for us to suffer.
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It's God's will
for us to do good.
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And if we suffer
as a result, okay,
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that's better than doing bad.
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So suffering
according to the will of God.
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He talks about
entrusting your soul,
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entrusting your soul
to the faithful creator.
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And then he
talks about doing good.
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Now of these
ideas the will of God
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we've seen already it's
been throughout the book.
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It's a theme that
runs through this book,
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it focuses on the
idea always of doing good.
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It's usually linked up
with concepts of suffering
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or people around you
or the pagans around you
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giving you a difficult time.
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In 1 Peter 2:15 he
says, "That if you do good,
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doing the will of God
you'll shut the mouths
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of ignorant people
who are trying to say
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bad things about you."
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In 3:17, "It's better to do good
and suffer than to do evil."
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In 4:1-2, "Suffering persecution
for living a Christian life
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in according to
with the will of God.
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The Christians purpose is
to live for the will of God
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and not for human passions."
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And then our
passage here verse 19
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where you're
suffering and you're doing good.
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So the will of God is always
tied up with this, doing good,
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doing the right thing and
as a result you will suffer.
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God does not want
His people to suffer,
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but He does want them
to do the right thing.
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And sometimes we have to
have the courage to face off
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against the evil and
not let it out or take us.
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Second then he
talks about suffering
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and entrusting ourselves
to the faithful creator.
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I wanna talk about
that just a bit more,
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but let me talk
about the third point
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and that is doing
good throughout the book.
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Christians are called
to a high moral way of life
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that expresses Christian ideals
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to all around
them, to all the world.
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It is not enough simply
to entrust one's life to God,
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one must let him workout
his goodwill in the life.
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We must do good.
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We must be about our Father's
business to encourage others.
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But I want to
come back to this idea
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of the concept of
the faithful creator.
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You wonder when he talks about
this experience of suffering
00:10:02.49\00:10:07.65
and he says, "Entrust your
life to God," that make sense.
00:10:07.68\00:10:12.06
You've heard that
kind of idea before
00:10:12.09\00:10:14.20
and it seems to go along with,
00:10:14.23\00:10:16.46
you know, the
whole theme of the book.
00:10:16.49\00:10:18.67
But this is one
of the few places
00:10:18.70\00:10:20.50
where in the book where he
makes reference to creation.
00:10:20.53\00:10:24.97
And he says, "You
are supposed to entrust--
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entrust yourself to
a faithful creator."
00:10:29.57\00:10:35.60
Now, why to a-- why
this reference to creation?
00:10:35.63\00:10:39.30
Well, he likes to
talk about eschatology.
00:10:39.33\00:10:42.62
You know, he
talks about the end.
00:10:42.65\00:10:44.02
He talks about the
Revelation of Jesus Christ.
00:10:44.05\00:10:45.42
He talks about how
God is going to save you.
00:10:45.45\00:10:47.40
How things are gonna be good,
00:10:47.43\00:10:48.80
He's got an imperishable
inheritance for you,
00:10:48.83\00:10:50.32
all things are gonna--
00:10:50.35\00:10:51.72
he really focuses
on that a great deal.
00:10:51.75\00:10:54.82
But once in a while
he pulls back the curtain
00:10:54.85\00:10:56.90
and talks all the way
back to the beginning.
00:10:56.93\00:10:59.49
You know, he talks
about this idea of creation.
00:10:59.52\00:11:02.50
It's kind of like
these big bookends.
00:11:02.53\00:11:05.00
God made the world, He
was the faithful creator
00:11:05.03\00:11:08.18
and He is going to
bring the world to an end.
00:11:08.21\00:11:09.92
He'll take care of
you from beginning to end.
00:11:09.95\00:11:13.11
That's kind of
the picture you get.
00:11:13.14\00:11:14.93
But there is
something we need to notice
00:11:14.96\00:11:16.45
about this idea of
faithful creator as well.
00:11:16.48\00:11:20.44
There are some people that
present the idea of evolution
00:11:20.47\00:11:23.41
as the way that
God created the world.
00:11:23.44\00:11:24.88
They called theistic evolution.
00:11:24.91\00:11:27.00
That God created life at
the beginning of the world
00:11:27.03\00:11:29.71
and then He let it develop
through long billions of years
00:11:29.74\00:11:33.96
from little
molecules of little microbes,
00:11:33.99\00:11:38.27
you know, and then it
built up and eventually came up
00:11:38.30\00:11:40.40
and then
eventually became people.
00:11:40.43\00:11:42.22
And the process involved lots
of death and lots of suffering,
00:11:42.25\00:11:46.72
lots of tooth and nail and
the survival of the fittest.
00:11:46.75\00:11:50.71
Yeah. Now if that's the picture
of creation that Peter had.
00:11:50.74\00:11:57.09
And he said, "O, give
yourself to the Creator."
00:11:57.12\00:12:02.11
It would give
them no comfort at all.
00:12:02.14\00:12:05.53
Consequently, we can say that
00:12:05.56\00:12:08.37
Peter did not have
that view of creation.
00:12:08.40\00:12:11.79
Peter's view of
creation was not,
00:12:11.82\00:12:14.09
you know, something coming up
00:12:14.12\00:12:15.78
through long billions
of years working overtime,
00:12:15.81\00:12:19.26
survival of the
fittest tooth and claw,
00:12:19.29\00:12:21.71
lots and lots of
death and suffering, no.
00:12:21.74\00:12:25.52
Peter's view of creation,
00:12:25.55\00:12:27.51
the faithful creator is
He who spoke and it was.
00:12:27.54\00:12:31.04
He expressed His
word and there it was.
00:12:31.07\00:12:33.35
He made the world
just simply from free out,
00:12:33.38\00:12:36.72
just He spoke and the
world came into existence.
00:12:36.75\00:12:40.59
And so it was a faithful creator
who set the world in place
00:12:40.62\00:12:46.79
and began it and, so
they can entrust their lives.
00:12:46.82\00:12:51.73
This principle
that shows us that
00:12:51.76\00:12:56.13
Peter rejects those kinds
of ideas that later come on
00:12:56.16\00:13:00.14
and teaches
evolutionary kind of concept.
00:13:00.17\00:13:02.95
So it's really a beautiful
passage about suffering,
00:13:02.98\00:13:05.64
passage wonderful linkage into
creation and God's faithfulness.
00:13:05.67\00:13:11.80
Dr. Shepherd,
thank you once again.
00:13:11.83\00:13:13.20
I think we've run out of time.
00:13:13.23\00:13:14.73
And if we did have more time,
00:13:14.76\00:13:16.43
I think I'd ask you
to help us or teach us
00:13:16.46\00:13:18.98
how to undo a tie and
do it back again. Okay.
00:13:19.01\00:13:21.41
But maybe next time.
00:13:21.44\00:13:22.81
Well, thank you
once again, friends.
00:13:22.84\00:13:24.21
God bless you till next time.
00:13:24.24\00:13:25.61