Transcript

ANNOUNCER: 1 Peter 5 describes a crown of glory that will not fade away. Who is going to be eligible to receive that crown? Welcome to Grace in Focus. We are glad that you are joining us today, friend. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. It’s a great time to be considering attending our national annual conference coming up in May, May the 18th through the 21st. Look for the details at our website, faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s discussion closing out our first Peter series, here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro. 

BOB: David, we’ve come to the end of the book, 1 Peter, chapter 5, and it breaks down into the first four verses, our admonitions to elders, because he’s writing to local churches, and he’s talking about the elders and local churches. Then in verses 5, 6, and 7, he’s got admonitions to young men, which are the polar opposite of elders. Elders are older men who are specifically chosen to rule in local churches. Now we’ve got the younger men or younger people, if it’s referring to all people, and then verses 8 and 9 would be a warning about the wiles of the devil, right? 

DAVID: Resisting Satan is what I have here. 

BOB: And then the rest of the book versus 10 to the end is the conclusion. Okay, so let’s go through one through four. “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.” He’s referring the fact that he was present at the crucifixion, but he was also present at the Mount of Transfiguration. 

DAVID: Right, he was an eyewitness to all of those incredible events in Jesus’ life. His death, His burial, and then, like you say, at the transfiguration, he saw the resurrected Christ in all. 

BOB: But only three of the twelve were present at the Mount of Transfiguration. Just Peter, James, and John.  And he was one. And then 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.” It’s okay for elders to be paid, and today’s churches most churches, they have a teaching elder, they call a pastor. It’s okay for him to be paid, but his purpose in serving is not primarily to be paid, certainly not for dishonest gain. 

DAVID: You don’t do it for the money. 

BOB: Right, but you’re doing it eagerly. “Nor as being lords over those entrusted to you.” Sometimes you have people who just delight in the fact that they’re in a power position.

DAVID: Well, I call them drunk with power, and they want to stay drunk. 

BOB: “But being examples to the flock,” so all the elders should be examples in their behavior. “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.” 

DAVID: By the way, there’s lots of crowns in the New Testament, and it’s a great study of, which crown do you get for what action you take? Here, elders who serve well are given a crown of glory, meaning status. So you serve for status. I thought that’s interesting. 

BOB: Yeah, and this also goes back to 4:13. The degree we suffer, we’re glorified together. So then in 5 through 7, he’s talking about exhortation to young men or to young people. What does he say to them? 

DAVID: The thing that they don’t want to do, young people don’t. 

BOB: What? 

DAVID: Submit yourselves to the elders. The elders or the older folks, they are wiser. And what he’s saying, submit yourself. They’ve been through it. You haven’t. Notice it also says, “be clothed with humility.” How easy is that for a young person, especially in our culture? 

BOB: And he says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Which is also found, of course, in James 4:4. 

DAVID: And Proverbs 3:34 as well. 

BOB: Both of those are quotes from the Proverbs 3 passage. “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.” This is like Galatians 6:9. We’re going to be exalted at the Judgment Seat of Christ, if we humble ourselves. 

DAVID: And stay humble. In other words, “in due time” means wait on His timing. Don’t expect glorification on your time. 

BOB: In fact, in Matthew 16 verses 24-28 talks about that we’re to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. And we’ve got to lay down our lives, our psuche, in order to win our psuche. And he talks about the salvation of the psuche. He says, the Son of Man is coming with the glory of His Father. And then He will recompense to each according to his works. And Walvoord in his commentary on that section says, what the Lord is teaching there is that suffering precedes glory. And he said, Peter had it wrong. Peter says, God forbid it, Lord, that you should die. Because Peter thought we’re going to get glory now. And Walvoord says, no, no, suffering precedes glory. That’s the same point Peter’s making here. He will exalt us in due time, but there’s going to be suffering before that. 

DAVID: Yeah, so that humbling is important. And also, I love verse seven, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” He’s concerned for you. 

BOB: And this should be a constant bringing our cares before Him, our anxieties. 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment. But years ago, Zane Hodges wrote the Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true. And GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the Biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now. Secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content.

BOB: And then he says in verses eight and nine, it’s a warning about the wiles of the devil. “Be sober,” 

DAVID: Self-controlled. 

BOB: And “be vigilant.” 

DAVID: Alert. 

BOB: So we’re looking for the attacks that are coming from the evil one. “Because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom you may devour.” He wants to get Christians off of the path of suffering for Christ, off of the path of following Christ. “Resist him,” Peter says, “steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” So we’re to resist the devil, knowing that the sufferings we experience are suffering by believers around the world. 

DAVID: Yeah. I think it’s interesting too that Peter mentions that the devil walks about. That’s from Job. In the book of Job, Satan’s walking around the earth. And he’s, quote, seeking to devour. And, you know, that whole situation with the Lord. He goes to the Lord and says, Lord, says, what about Job? 

BOB: Yeah, he says, I’ve been all around and I see this Job. Let me attack him. So the Lord’s like, okay, fine. But you can’t attack him personally. So he attacks all of his crops and all of his flocks. 

DAVID: Essentially everything that he owns. 

BOB: And even his children. Exactly. But he says, but don’t touch him. Then he says, what about, let me touch Job’s body. So then he attacks him with the boils and it’s like, that’s what Satan is doing. It’s not just Job, the Satan wants to attack. It’s any righteous person and Job wasn’t just a believer. Job was a righteous believer. 

DAVID: Well, and he’s a, Satan’s accusation is, oh, Job is only following you because he’s prosperous. Let me take everything away. Let’s see what he does. 

BOB: And then he still follows. 

DAVID: And he still follows. So Satan’s plans were destroyed. 

BOB: And James says, remember the patience of Job in James chapter five. And so what we have here is this reference to the fact that God cares for us and that we have this roaring lion, but He is going to protect us from the roaring lion as long as we are looking to our Savior. 

DAVID: Exactly. Keep the correct perspective. I think that word perspective is a big deal.

BOB: It is. Then in verses 10 to the end, we have the conclusion of the book. “But may the God of all grace,” I love that. 

DAVID: I love it too. 

BOB: “Who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.” That’s a calling to have a full experience of His glory. 

DAVID: It’s a call to share in Christ’s glory. it’s amazing. 

BOB: And notice it’s “after you have suffered a while.” 

DAVID: After you have suffered. 

BOB: So in other words, the believer who goes through suffering and perseveres in that is going to have that full-orbed experience of eternal life. “Perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” So it’s Jesus’s glory and dominion and we can share in that. This is the same idea the author of Hebrews have in Hebrews 1:9, that we are going to be his companions. And he will have the oil of gladness to the fullest extent. But we can share in that. 

DAVID: And that sharing is what Peter has been calling throughout this whole book  the salvation of the psuche. 

BOB: And then he said, “By Sylvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.” So 1 Peter is talking about a standing firm. Now the ending of 2 Peter chapter 3:14-18 is also about standing firm. 

But let’s summarize what we’ve seen David in 1 Peter. It’s all about the salvation of the psuche, the salvation of the self, the inner self. 

DAVID: Right. And I wrote down, this is Zane’s lesson of the book of 1 Peter, “As Christ won glory through suffering, so do we through our suffering. If we triumph in it, as he did, we save ourselves.” I love that summary of the book of 1 Peter. 

BOB: I do too. And it’s important to recognize we don’t save our souls from eternal condemnation by suffering for Christ, which is what Tom Schreiner said in his commentary on 1 and 2 Peter and Jude on page 37. We know we are saving our fullness of life by suffering for Christ. 

DAVID: You’re right. And that is so important for us to keep that, once again, that perspective of that eternal sharing of Christ’s glory through suffering. 

BOB: So when we are teaching new believers, part of our teaching new believers, is to let them know that there will be suffering that comes with following Christ and that people will mock you and people will criticize you and people will speak evil of you. That’s in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 4, “speaking evil of you.” If you don’t participate in their drinking games, if you don’t participate in their immorality, if you don’t laugh at their dirty jokes, they’re going to speak evil of you either directly to your face or behind your back. And so it’s a blessed thing if we experience suffering for Christ and all believers should be steeled for that and prepared for that because we long to hear Him say those blessed words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Isn’t that great? 

DAVID: Those are the words you want to hear. 

BOB: Amen. Well, thanks so much David and thank you all and remember, let’s keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: We would love to know where you are when you are listening to us. Please take a short minute to send us the call letters of this station and the city where you are listening and how many times a week you listen. Thank you. You will be helping us with our stewardship. Send it to radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. We are so thankful for our financial partners who keep us on the air. Every gift is tax deductible and very much appreciated. If you’d like to find out how you can give, go to faithalone.org. On our website, we have a church tracker. It’s an easy to use map that will help you locate those other free grace churches that might be in your area. So come visit us at the website and take advantage of our free church tracker. It’s at faithalone.org.

Now friend we do thank you for being with us all this week on Grace in Focus. Come back and join us again next week and in the meantime we hope you have a great weekend and let’s keep grace in focus.