Bobby Dagnel: kind of theodicies, and theodicy is a field of theology that seeks to reconcile this issue of God's justice and suffering and evil in the world and how they coexist at the same time with one another. My experience from a pastoral perspective is that none of those explanations suffice as long as I'm still in my trial. as long as I'm still experiencing pain as long as I'm still suffering when it does not disappear in the time that I wish it would then there is no theodicy there is no explanation that I'm willing to accept by that I mean that most of us have little bandwidth with. For God may be working in the process of suffering, God working in ways that are beyond our imagination. The only thing that seems to be acceptable to most of us is that it must be reconciled in a way that I can understand it and more especially in a way that makes my pain disappear so I think the larger question in a topic such as this is do I do I truly allow God to be God is my God a God of infinite capacity is my God a God that I'm going to limit to my finite understanding as I said this is a group group of people to whom Paul is, Peter rather, is writing, of people that are going through trial and hardship. And we've really seen a redundancy here of this, of their persecution by an unbelieving culture around them, the trials, and perhaps they're wondering and speculating in their own minds, have we followed the wrong one? Is Jesus just another false Christ that has come along? worth my time and my while and my effort to keep following this one Jesus. Well, the value I believe in these verses we're looking at today, the value of this summary statement, and this is what Peter is really doing. He's really offering a summation here of everything he's already been talking about in the previous four chapters, four and a half chapters. But I find great value in it because what he is doing for us in these verses that remain is that he's really offering to us as a faith community, as believers and followers of Christ, he's really offering to his readers then and to us now a remedial course in suffering. As to our understanding of suffering, the source of suffering, the remedy for suffering, and really a perspective, an appropriate biblical outlook on how we reconcile the suffering and the hardships that we deal with in life. How do we reconcile that with this God that we know to be all-powerful and all-loving? Now, the first thing that I would offer as of first importance is notice there, and we're just going to pick it up there in verse 8, really the second clause, back to his first statement, his first admonition there in that first clause of verse 8. This is really offered in the light of what he says in that second clause in verse 8. But the first thing that I would offer to us in this framing of our understanding of suffering, to have an appropriate biblical outlook, perspective on life, is to understand the source of our suffering. Now, in that second clause, he says your adversary, and he identifies the devil, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring line seeking someone to devour. Now, remember, he's already been describing in the previous chapters, he's made them aware or keeps bringing to the forefront what they are already keenly aware of, that they're going of persecution it's creating questions doubts uncertainties it's just the one that we should be pursuing and following after look look what it is creating and bringing about in in our lives and now then paul says i or peter says i know our human nature is that when you're going through persecution and trials we tend to demonize the individuals that are causing this if I'm being persecuted I tend to look at that person and I think that they are the problem Paul says it's Peter says that it is something much larger than that they're just being used you need to understand that you have an adversary that the devil is the source of your suffering and those that maybe are causing your suffering he is just those are just being used by the devil Now we have elsewhere in scripture, Job chapter 1 verse 7 I think is the first instance where we see this imagery of this like a roaring lion, this idea of a lion chasing after its prey.
Bobby Dagnel: That's the first time we see the devil being portrayed and being pursuant. That the devil wants to wreak havoc, that the devil wants to corrupt. the devil longs to destroy that which is created in the image of god peter says this this is your this is the true source this is your true adversary and the fact that you and i as believers that we have an adversary that means that there's very real possibilities that we may not get the outcome that we would desire in our faith journey it may not always be that straight and narrow path that we would desire that would take us to the place where god would have us to be that this adversary is going to be to be constantly seeking you out that's why the apostle paul would remind us in ephesians chapter chapter 6 and verse 12. He says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It's not the person that you have deemed as being the source of your problems. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of the darkness, of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. places. And so both Paul and Peter would have us keenly aware that there are malevolent forces, evil forces that influence individuals to persecute and to make miserable believers in their faith journey. Again, I speak from my pastoral experience, is that when it comes to this idea of Satan, this idea of the devil. There seems to be, in the Western church especially, there seems to be these two extremes that individuals drift to, that believers drift toward. On this issue of evil and the devil, one extreme is to soft pedal the idea of the devil. They diminish the the devil into this kind of non-entity, this kind of Halloween character. You know, we, we, we have in our mind, uh, this idea of some character in a, in a red shiny suit and a, you know, there's fork tail and a pitchfork in, in hand. That's one extreme. Now the other ditch, the other extreme that I've seen in the Western church is, is to demonize everything. It's to see a, to see a demon, see the boogie, see a boogie bear behind every bush, everything in life that isn't baptized by the church, every book, every movie, every new hit record, everything that is outside the purview of my fearful, cloistered little world that I've created for myself is deemed as evil and wicked, as Now, of course, the wise approach, wisdom is somewhere in between the two.
Bobby Dagnel: With an understanding that there are malevolent forces that are work, principalities and powers that are working in this world, in the lives of people, in the lives of institutions. institutions, that these are working against the will of God, the purposes of God, that Satan seeks to corrupt and to destroy that which is created in the image of God. But make no mistake.
Bobby Dagnel: Listen, if you leave with anything, leave with this today. It is not the will of God that we fail. It is not the will of God that we fall short. That is the desire of the devil. That is the desire of Satan. And it is the power of the devil that is working in the lives of those that would persecute the church and bring harm to the church just as it is the power of God working in us as believers to be victorious in the faith journey. So I think that is a foundational thing when asking this question of why doesn't God do something.
Bobby Dagnel: let's understand the source of our suffering that it is not God but rather it is our adversary the devil which brings us to this second thing and that is the solution of our serving our suffering going back to that first clause in in verse 8 he says be of sober spirit and be on the alert.
Bobby Dagnel: I'd underscore those. Be sober in spirit. That's really a continuation. It's really kind of a crossover that sharing a meaning and definition of self-control in the life of the believer. Be of sober spirit and be on the alert. First clause in verse nine.
Bobby Dagnel: so resist him firm in your faith now the admonitions that he's offering there to us in verse 8 and verse 9 are really just a continuation it's really an application if you will I think verses 8 and 9 are an application of the admonition that he made back in verse 7 of chapter 4 where he says the end of all things is that is near therefore be of sound judgment sober spirit for the purpose of prayer now what what i would have us to notice is that these verbs are active they're in the active voice these are not the passive voice verbs that are in the passive voice in the new New Testament this means that there are outside forces acting upon us we're passive and outside forces are acting upon us but no these are active voice that these are things that we are to do these are determinations that we make in our mind to be of sound judgment to be sober-minded this means that God has given to me the capacity to make choices and decisions that would resist the a wickedness that Satan would desire to impose upon me and to corrupt the life that I'm seeking to live. So really there's a twofold responsibility for us when it comes to the source of deliverance. He says, be of sober spirit, verse eight, be of sober spirit and be on the alert. and awaken them. This means to live with the sense of alertness, being aware of the world in which we find ourselves seeking to be a unique and distinctive people. We've got to be aware of the world around us, that there are forces, malevolent forces, principalities and powers that are working around us. And listen, it's in the routines of everyday life. it's not waiting on the individual to come across the horizon that's wearing a red suit and has horns and a and a pitchfork he said our stand for christ is listen don't go to sleep on just on just the natural flow the monotony of everyday life this is how satan works is just in the routine intersections of our of our everyday life be alert hurt. Stay on the ready. You know, in my working with student athletes, football players the past 40 years, last 15 at Texas Tech, one of the things I often said to our players is that, you know, in regard to life outside of our football facility is you need to have your head on a swivel. This is something I would tell my kids too, my teenage children. I say, you got to keep your head on a swivel. I know you're going to go to the places that the crowd is going, but you've got to have your head on a swivel.
Bobby Dagnel: You have to have a 360 degree awareness of what is happening around you. Because when you go to these places and things start to go south, you've got to be awakened. You've got to be alert. You've got to be mindful.
Bobby Dagnel: mindful when things start going south in those arenas of life you've got to be able to ask yourself is this going to have a is this going to have a good conclusion is this going to help me to get to where I want to be or is it going to detract from that and if it's something that's going to detract from that if it's going to be a negative outcome I've got to have the sensibility and the the clarity and the sober mindedness and the decision making processes to extract myself from that situation. That's what Peter is saying here. Be sober minded. It's part of our responsibility. But he, he also says here, notice verse nine, he says, resist the devil and be firm that is be fixed be established in who you are in Christ Jesus be established in your identity as a follower of Christ that this is the immovable reality to which I have committed my life I'm going to be firm fixed established in this and it's only as I have that That identity is only as I'm fixed in my identity and knowing who I am that I can stand firm, resist the devil. Now, again, look at the passage.
Bobby Dagnel: When Peter is saying to resist the devil and to be firm, this isn't just putting more strength in your belief, but rather it's drawing strength for what you believe drawing strength from what you believe see the source in defeating evil it's not my willpower it's not by my my determination it's It's not by my guts and my own fortitude.
Bobby Dagnel: But rather, if evil is to be overcome, it's going to be because of the content of what I believe. It's going to be because of the content of the gospel. Because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. and so it's as we embrace these responsibilities it's then that that when we are on the alert it's then when we resist and we stand firm in our faith it brings us to a third thing that certainly should be an encouragement to the to us in this understanding of suffering And that is the similarity of our suffering. The similarity of our life experiences. I oftentimes use that illustration if I passed out a piece of paper here and asked you to place a hash mark on the left side for your date of birth. Another hash mark out here for your date of death.
Bobby Dagnel: and we start making hash marks for every significant event, every trial, every tribulation, and I rounded all those up, reality is there probably wouldn't be much of a stone's throw difference between the hardships and the trials that we're going to experience in life.
Bobby Dagnel: Peter says it this way. He says, knowing that, verse 9 there, 2nd clause, same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. I think this is significant. I find it encouraging because our tendency is when we face trials and tribulations, hardship in life. And listen, I'm talking about real suffering. I'm talking about a kind of suffering and hardship that some here cannot even fathom sitting in this room. It will be a degree of pain at some point life that you simply cannot imagine sitting here. And so when that happens, what are you going to do? How are you going to respond? Because the tendency is, is when we face hardship, we isolate ourselves, pull the covers over our head, pull down the blinds, lock the door. We wallow in that misery. And our brain begins to think that I'm the only one that's going through, I'm the only one that has ever experienced this kind of pain.
Bobby Dagnel: That's the natural response. What Peter is asking for is a supernatural response. And that when you're going through hardships and trials and tribulations, that when you're in the midst of that, that you understand that you are a part of a body of believers, brothers and sisters that are experienced, have experienced, are experiencing, will experience. the very same thing that you're dealing with right now. There's nothing new under the sun, the wisdom writer would say. The rain falls on the just and the unjust.
Bobby Dagnel: Sun shines on the good and the evil. There's nothing unique about my pain and my experience. And so a biblical response, a biblical understanding is going to be reflected in my life would I understand that in the midst in that context in the midst of those circumstances that would seek to overwhelm me I'm a I'm a part of holding the rope for other believers I'm a part of the fabric of the body of Christ and by holding on to that rope in this in this tug of war of life that would seek to pull people away from the Lord because of their circumstances this tug of war that seeks to pull people away from the Lord and his church.
Bobby Dagnel: No, even in my pain, I've got to stand my ground firm as a witness because as I'm holding on to the rope, it's both for me and it's for others, that it might be an encouragement to those around me. whenever i preach on a sermon of this nature about surf suffering and trials in life i've kind of committed myself again and again telling the story of norman lockett norman lockett was a man in my church elderly man came to me when he had been not a good prognosis on his cancer and they had given him like six months to live he ended up living three years but he came and after he came from the doctor he came to my office And he said, Pastor, he said, this is what's happening. This is what the doctor says is going to happen in six months. And he was one of my Sunday school teachers at First Baptist Church in Lubbock. And Norman told me, he said, I want you to know I'm going to do everything I can to be in church on Sunday.
Bobby Dagnel: I'm committed to teaching my Sunday school class. And if I have the energy while I'm going through all of this, going through these treatments, he said, I'll be in church as well. But he said that all depends on my energy levels because I am committed to teaching my class And he said I plan on being in church also Because I know people are watching It wasn't about him He said I know people are going to be and he was a pillar in our church known by by every age group He said, I know people know where I sit in church, and I know they'll be looking to where I sit.
Bobby Dagnel: And they're going to be watching me, and they're going to be making determinations about me, and they're going to be curious about how is my faith informing my life? How is he holding up as he deals with all this? and I just want to bear testimony in my life of how a person of faith deals with the adversities that are inevitable in life. In the midst of his pain, he was holding the rope for others that he knew in our church were going through the same thing or would go through the same thing. Now, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet-Russian dissident, spent a large part of his life in Soviet Siberia in a prison. The conditions were cruel, was harsh, just the things that he endured. a point where I was just going to give up. I was despairing. It was hopeless. He said, it was just horrific, the sufferings that were being endured. And I knew that if I quit working, he said, I knew the guards would beat me to death. He said, so to expedite the process, I decided that what I was going to do one day is when we were on that line shoveling, And I decided that what I was going to do, I was just going to stop and lean on my shovel. And I knew that they would beat me to death and hopefully it wouldn't take long. He said the next day he was on that line shoveling and the moment arrived and he said, I just stuck my shovel in the ground and I stopped and looked down. he said at that moment he said there was a gentleman a couple of people down another prisoner who was also a Christian and said he reached across and drew a cross in the dirt and quickly marked it out.
Bobby Dagnel: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in hindsight, pointed to that moment and said, it energized me. It inspired my spirit.
Bobby Dagnel: That here was a brother in similar circumstances, the same circumstance. And by that simple act, he reminded me of who I am in Christ Jesus and the hope that is mine.
Bobby Dagnel: When you suffer, and it's inevitable, no one gets out of this. When you suffer, you're not alone someone has been there before you and you can draw inspiration from that truth which brings me to the final thing and that is the salvation of our suffering we know that salvation is a word that means deliverance redeeming made new again end. So Peter says, after you have suffered for a little while, and I'd mark that down, I like that. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you so be mindful in our suffering that God is accomplishing a salvation there is a plan of salvation that God has that is being accomplished and listen when we talk about salvation tragically in the western church we have defined salvation as being me missing hell and making it to heaven when really the new testament our our biblical understanding of salvation is something that that is comprehensive in nature and scale and scope that all of creation longs for the day of redemption paul says in in romans the salvation god is accomplishing it's it's not just dealing with the temptation of sin overcoming the power of sin but it's also about renewal it's about about restoration of the entire created order of which we're a part. So in the midst of our suffering, God is accomplishing so much more than we could ever imagine. And what we're going through, he says, listen, it's just a little while. It's just a little while.
Bobby Dagnel: the ultimate glorification to which peter is pointing the apostle paul all of scripture points everything else and we're talking about the eternal weight of glory everything else this side of of that glory everything this side of of heaven scriptures testify it's oh it's just a just a little while there's a deliberate contrast to between just a little while and his eternal glory in Christ Jesus that that's intentional he wants us to see the the contrast Paul would say the same thing in writing his second letter to the church at Corinth he says in chapter 4 and verse 17 he says for our our momentary light light affliction. That's pretty descriptive. He says our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Now, Paul and Peter, neither one. They're not diminishing our pain. pain he's not saying oh church you're just so soft what a bunch of whiners how weak-minded can you possibly be paul peter neither one they are not diminishing the reality of our pain our pain is real suffering is real hardship trials these are very real but he's framing it in a different perspective he said i want you to understand that compared to the eternal weight whatever level of pain, whatever degree of pain you're dealing with in your life. Listen, I want you to be encouraged because it's just a little while. It's just a little while.
Bobby Dagnel: It may be a condition, a malady, a disorder, a disease that you deal with or your loved one deals with. for the remainder of your life. But you know what? That's still just a little while.
Bobby Dagnel: If that's your next 50 years of existence, dealing with it, still just a little while. But he says in this little while, God is working, God is doing something. in verse 10 that what God will do in this he says he himself will perfect notice he just stacks these things up and these are things that will sustain you in your moment of of trial of the desire to maybe give in and give up this is what God is going to do he will perfect he will strengthen he will confirm he will establish you in that moment when you're being tested by By the adversary. Now the promise of verse 10, it's a conditional promise. It's based upon verses 8 and 9.
Bobby Dagnel: The promises in verse 10 become reality when we are sober in spirit, when we are on the alert, when we resist him, when we are firm in our faith. and as he says in verse 12 when we stand firm in it as we endure we persevere what james would write in james chapter 1 verse 2 through 4 he said consider it all joy my brothers and sisters when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing James and Peter both are reminding us that it's only as we endure. It's as we persevere through these trials. We start stacking things up.
Bobby Dagnel: We endure. We persevere through these trials that are being imposed upon us by this adversary. And as we endure, well, then we see the purposes of God being accomplished. Accomplished.
Bobby Dagnel: Being a part of this great salvation that he is accomplishing. I don't know if you've read M. Scott Peck's book, the good little book, The Road Less Traveled. First line in that book says, life is hard. Isn't it something how so often in these books, just a little simple statement like that seems so profound to our ears? It's the first line of the book, life is hard. It is. But what God has given to us is an action plan.
Bobby Dagnel: you know jesus was doing the same thing in the sermon on the on the mount back in matthew chapter five that litany of comparisons and contrasts between the new and the old you've heard it said eye for an eye tooth for a tooth but i say to you verse 39 do not show opposition against an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other toward him also if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak also whoever forces you to go one mile go with him too he's saying instead of being a victim here's a proactive plan to be a victim a victor over your circumstances now we can take an ancient analogy like that that Jesus is you using. But listen, life's always going to slap us. At some point, life is going to slap you in the face. At some point, life is going to take from you what you would like to keep. At some point, life is going to take you down a road that you have no interest in going down. But here's an action plan. Here's a proactive response where you don't have to be slaves. You to your circumstances. Life is hard. Then why doesn't God do something? He has.
Bobby Dagnel: He has entered into our suffering through Christ Jesus. God has done something. And we must stand firm in it until it is accomplished. in its fullest expression let's pray together our father how grateful we are for the encouragement of these words whether it's the suffering we have faced already or the suffering that is to come lord how grateful we are that we can face these circumstances with a victor's mindset set, a victor's perspective, knowing that as we stand firm, that as we endure and persevere in these trials and circumstances of life, that the adversary would seek to bring against us. It's on the other side of this as we endure, that we experience the fullness of what you have in store for us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. And as we stand, let me close us with this word in verse 12. Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, for so I regard him, I have written to you, briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. And this departing