It’s Difficult to Be Saved • 1 Peter 4:12-19

42:44 Teaching begins

Notes

We’ve come to the main statement Peter makes in his first epistle: It’s hard to get saved, but it’s worth it.

I’ve done some difficult things in my life, but Christianity is the most difficult by far. Have you ever thought that? It’s not easy.

It takes a lot of time. You have to learn and practice skills. You have setbacks. Things go the wrong way for a while.

You get discouraged.
Why follow Jesus?
Because your Creator loves you.
We’re reading in 1 Peter 4 from verse 12.

1. The Christian life is difficult because it is sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

A. This does not refer to Jesus suffering for our sins. Only He could die in our place.

B. It’s the suffering He experienced being a righteous man serving God in a wicked and sinful world.

C. In the Beatitudes Jesus talked about the righteous person who would be persecuted and what that righteousness looks like.

1. That righteous person knows there is nothing he can do to save himself before God. He doesn’t try to justify himself.

2. He acknowledges that his sin against God is the real problem with himself and not anything else.

3. The righteous one submits himself completely to God. He is meek.

4. This righteous person is only satisfied, in all this world, with righteousness from God.

5. And the righteous doesn’t condemn anyone, but leaves all judgment to God, and shows mercy and forgiveness.

6. The righteous is pure and loves purity, and doesn’t pursue filth like dogs who return to eat their own vomit.

7. The righteous makes peace through the blood of Jesus Christ, because only when a person is right with God can he be at peace with anyone on earth.

D. The world is hostile to this because Jesus excludes any other saviour or system.

1. He alone reveals who God is, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

2. The world pushes back and says, that’s not true. We identify and solve our own problems. We don’t need or want God.

2. Peter’s commands us how we are to deal with this suffering, and that’s difficult, too.

A. Realise that Jesus’ suffering belongs in your life. 

1. Literally, stop being surprised as though some strange thing were happening to you. “What is this suffering doing here? It doesn’t belong in my life!” Yes, now it does.

2. Jesus’ sufferings are a fiery trial to try you. Not in the sense of a test that you pass or fail. But it’s the sense of refining, that your faith in Jesus may be purified and freed from all unwanted material. Your faith in Jesus is more valuable than gold that perishes. But gold is not valuable while it’s in a rock. The gold has to be separated from the rock, so you melt it with fiery heat and let the slag float to the top, and scrape it off. No fiery trial, no refined gold. If you don’t share in Jesus’ suffering, your faith stays immature and incomplete.

B. Peter also commands to rejoice in your sufferings. That’s difficult, too, isn’t it?

1. Rejoice now, because you know that you are adding to your glory in the future. With every suffering you can say, “My glory when Christ is revealed is getting better and better!”

2. More than that, you are proven to be authentic, v. 14. Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” The same Holy Spirit of God, who was upon the prophets and was upon Jesus, is upon you. You are really from God. That’s a blessing, but it’s difficult.

3. It’s difficult to be unashamed for Christ.

A. Peter says let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Jesus is none of those things. He wasn’t a busybody, sticking His nose in where He wasn’t wanted. When people asked Him to leave, He left. He didn’t try to win arguments and overstay His welcome. These are all things to be ashamed about. You are wrong.

B. But people will try to make you ashamed of Christ, like you were doing something wrong and hurtful to follow Christ. And Peter commands, stop being ashamed of being a Christian.

1. “Christian” is a derogatory name that was made up by unbelievers in Antioch. It’s slang, like “Jesus freak” was in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Before that, in the 1700’s people called John Wesley and George Whitefield “Methodists” because they were disciplined and systematic in how they followed Jesus. It was supposed to be an insult, and they wore it like a badge of honour, and the name stuck and became respectable in the end. The Methodist revival radically changed England for the better, and also laid the foundation of the United States.

2. You are not to accept shame because someone does not approve of Jesus. You are to be courageous in your God, and do what is right, and make the name Christian worthy of respect. You glorify God by doing right. We’ll expand on this in a minute.

4. It’s difficult to pass the judgment of God.

A. It is true that when you become a Christian, you pass out of judgment. John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”You will stand in the judgment of life and death. You are going to heaven, not the lake of fire that burns forever.

B. At the same time you find that judgment has already begun in your life.

1. You are constantly experiencing judgment about your thoughts, speech, and actions. That was right, that was wrong.

2. 1Corinthians 3 tells us we are all going through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

3. The foundation in your life should be the Lord Jesus Christ. He won’t burn. You are building your life on Him. Are you using wood, hay, stubble? These are things that are unacceptable to God. Resisting Jesus, resisting the Holy Spirit, wilful ignorance of God. The actions that come from that opposition to God will burn in the judgment. Or are you using gold, silver, precious stones? Costly because it is acceptable to God: humility, prayer, submission, doing the will of God, which is eternal. Fire is going to discover the value of each of our lives. Whatever survives the fire is your eternal reward. If it all burns, then you are still saved, yet so as through fire.

C. What you realise is, it’s difficult to be saved. I don’t have the heart, I don’t have what it takes. You should feel that way. The purpose of this judgment is to prepare you for the judgment to come. It continually humbles you, it makes you helpless and dependent on Jesus, you submit yourself to Him.

D. The wicked and the godless have no clue what is in store. They don’t care now, but they should. It’s all leading up to that day that no man can escape. They will not stand in the judgment.

5. How do you deal with all this difficulty? You entrust yourself to God, and you persevere in doing what is right

A. If you trust in Jesus then He is working in your life to make you righteous like Him. That will mean suffering in this life as you resemble Jesus. Suffering with Jesus belongs in your life.

B. Peter says entrust your soul to your faithful Creator in doing good.

1. He made you. He knows what you are like; He knew you before He made the world. You are His beloved. You thought I forgot that word, didn’t you? Because He loves you, He is not going to lose you. It’s not acceptable to lose one.

2. Entrust your soul is like deposit your money in the bank for safekeeping. Remember Jesus said, don’t lay up treasures on earth, lay them up in heaven? You can use your money for eternal purposes. You can take it with you. Here it is, lay up your life in heaven. Invest your life, action by action, lay up your whole life in heaven so it’s waiting for you when you get there.

3. This is what Peter heard Jesus say from the cross: Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. I deposit My spirit with You for safekeeping.

4. You do good so that people learn, Christians are really good. We despise them, but somehow they are the only ones doing good in this world. You glorify God by doing good to others.

C. If this sounds difficult, that’s because it is. Y

1. You can’t save yourself, figure out what’s wrong with you and try to fix it. You’ll always be wrong, just like all the people who are trying to fix themselves. Whatever they do, they do not come to Jesus and submit to Him. Their diagnosis is always wrong, their solutions are like buckets with holes in them. Can’t hold water.

2. You can’t do what’s right. You don’t have enough in order to save yourself. It’s not only difficult. It’s impossible to be saved.

D. You come to Jesus. That’s the right way. Let Him judge you. His Holy Spirit will show you what you need. His word is specific to tell you what you need to do today, tomorrow, right to the end. He does the difficult job of saving you.

Let’s pray.