As we continue our journey through the Bible, Pastor McGee offers a deep and thoughtful analysis of 1 Peter 4. He sheds light on how suffering and trials are not mere happenstances but integral parts of the Christian journey that prepare believers for the glory of Christ’s return. Through personal anecdotes and listener letters, this episode emphasizes the importance of rejoicing in trials, underscoring that faith can indeed flourish under pressure.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Through the Bible. We’re in the New Testament book of 1 Peter 4, beginning at verse 12. Our message from Dr. J. Vernon McGee is important, particularly for those who are suffering or going through difficult times. So climb aboard. As the Bible bus takes off, you can find your seat. And while you do that, I want to share a couple of letters from our fellow passengers. First, we hear from a listener in Roseville, California, named Vahe, who writes this. I’m an immigrant to the USA from Beirut, Lebanon. I started listening to Dr. McGee when I was in my 20s. My father gave me his tapes to listen to. I didn’t enjoy them. I was going through a divorce, had a baby on my lap, and my ex was nowhere to be found. These were hard times, but I kept on listening, and then I walked away for many years. Fast forward, and now I have been listening to the Bible bus for 18 plus years. I love the Bible bus. I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing could shake that ground rooted in His blood. Sadly, I lost my dad just before the pandemic of COVID. He had dementia. He never recognized anyone around him nor remembered anyone, including his wife. They had been married for 40 years. But he always sang hymns and prayed out loud in the name of Jesus. One day, sitting next to him, a couple of weeks before he passed away, I looked into his eyes and asked him, Dad, how is heaven? He closed his eyes, raised his hands, and said, I’m standing by the gate waiting to open. When I enter the gates, I’m going to shout hallelujah. He was there, I know. I felt his words deep in my bones. There is heaven. There is Jesus. My dad did not forget him, even with his dementia. God bless the work that your team does everywhere. And for the Bible bus, please use this small donation to glorify his name till we meet with our Lord. Well, what a great encouragement that is. Thank you, Vahe. Thanks for sharing your meaningful and really beautiful story. Here’s a note. This is from a listener in Burundi. For many years, I was lost in the world of drug addiction. It started with casual use to fit in and have fun, but it quickly became a prison. I was trapped in a cycle of using, craving more and sinking deeper into darkness. I hurt the people I loved and lost almost everything. My job, my relationships, my sense of purpose. I tried rehab several times, but nothing seemed to work. I felt completely hopeless, convinced that I could never change. Then, by listening to this program, my life has changed. Jesus has set me free from drugs. He not only saved me from addiction, but he gave me a purpose, a new life filled with peace, joy, and hope. I now share my story with others struggling, letting them know that no one is too far gone for Jesus to rescue. Be blessed. And let me repeat that. No one, no one is too far gone for Jesus to rescue. Isn’t that great truth? Well, if you’d like to continue praising God for his faithfulness in reaching the lost and then celebrate with other listeners as they find their salvation in Jesus Christ, then you need to join our world prayer team. Sign up at ttb.org where we can send you a daily email with specific prayer prompts and terrific stories of God’s goodness in listeners’ lives worldwide. Again, that’s ttb.org forward slash pray or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help. You can also catch up with the team on our app. Now let’s pray for one another as we study his word. Heavenly Father, would you bless us today as we gather and commit this time to you? And Lord, as we learn, help us to become more like Jesus. Please open our hearts and then quiet our minds from all the distractions around us and give us the ability to focus only on you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Here’s our study of 1 Peter chapter 4 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our friends, we’re still in this fourth chapter of 1 Peter that is so important. We begin today at verse 13 of chapter 4. He’s talking here about the suffering of God’s children, and it was something that was already beginning to break upon the Christians in the Roman Empire. Nero had come to the throne, and they are, therefore, to expect trials. It had already broken out in Rome, but it spread to where these Christians were, which I believe that he has identified them in Asia Minor. And he says, “…beloved, think it not strange…” concerning the fiery trial, which is to test you, and actually that ought to be which is testing you. That is, it was going on then as though some strange thing was happening to you. These believers were already being tested by suffering, and actually suffering is not something that’s accidental. It’s normal Christian experience. He says, don’t think it’s strange because this is the normal experience of believers. And that now, he says, you can rejoice in them. Notice verse 13. But rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Now, they’re to rejoice in what? The fiery trial, which is to test you. And it’s going to be normal Christian experience, by the way. Someone has put it this way. God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain, but God hath promised strength from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love. And that is a very lovely way of expressing it. Now, someone has put it in a little different language, an unknown writer, and the language of Scripture is used. That is the fiery trial. And we saw last time that David spoke of the fact that he was testing us and testing David. And it was like putting silver in the furnace to purify. And you find that thought going all the way through Scripture. And Peter now has mentioned this fiery trial several times. Simon Peter knew what it was. He was crucified. Finally, he was a martyr, and David certainly knew what it was to be put in the furnace. Now, David was being punished for his own sin, and that’s the reason you never hear him whimper or cry out. He just asked for one thing, and that is that he’d not lose his fellowship with the Lord. “…restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” He wanted fellowship with God. And God took him to the woodshed. And in my book, he whipped him in an inch of his life. And the poor man, I think the Lord whipped him enough. But David never complained. Now, will you listen to this? This is a little poem that I think expresses it in the best way I know how to. “‘Out from the mine and the darkness, out from the damp and the mole, out from the fiery furnace cometh each grain of gold.’ crushed into atoms and level, down to the umless dust, with never a heart to pity, with never a hand to trust. Molten and hammered and beaten, seemeth it ne’er to be done. Oh, for such fiery trial, what hath the poor gold done? Oh, t’were a mercy to leave it, down in the damp and the mold. If this is the glory of living, then better be dross than gold.” under the press and the roller, into the jaws of the mint, stamped with the emblem of freedom, with never a flaw or a dent. Oh, what a joy the refining, out of the damp and the mold, and stamped with a glorious image, oh, beautiful coin of gold. So God has a purpose. But rejoice, he says, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Now, this is very important, I think, for us to see. We’re to rejoice in trials. Why? Because suffering prepares us for the coming of Christ. And that’s the same thing that Paul said over in Romans 8, 17. Paul put it like this. He says, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Now, I think we need to face up to it today. There’s no shortcut to living the Christian life. There’s no easy way. And the thought is, as we expressed it the other day, it was a quotation, a Christian life is a banquet because that’s what he’s invited us to, the table of salvation. It’s a banquet, but it’s not a picnic. And we are to suffer for him and with him. And this will all come out at his coming someday. And that’s the reason I make it very clear. I’d be embarrassed to sit down with Paul in the glory and be on the same level of him, because he suffered. And Simon Peter, we can criticize him today, but I tell you, we’re going to look up to him when we get to heaven. Because, my friend, the Word of God makes it very clear That this is the way to live the Christian life and suffering is what develops you. We heard so much today about husband-wife relations and everything has to be smooth and lovely in the home. My friends, I don’t agree with that at all. Death’s going to come. And I know of nothing that drew my wife and me together like the death of our first little one. We sat there in that hospital room and just wept together and prayed together. And that is still just a sacred spot in our lives today. Did something for us. May I say it to you? And believe me, we wanted that little one. Now, let me move on. Verse 14, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. Now, that is strange language. I don’t care whether it’s in the Greek or the English. If you’re reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you. You ought to rejoice in it. For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. That’s a token again that you’re a child of God. The greatest proof that you’re a child of God is that today you can endure suffering. And if you are being carried around on a silver platter with a silver spoon in your mouth, you must not be God’s child because that’s not the way he does it. Now, will you notice the spirit of glory and God resteth upon you. On their part, he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he’s glorified. You can glorify God, whatever comes. They said during the San Francisco earthquake that there was a The wonderful Christian lady there. And she came out and everybody else was crying and some of them praying for the first time in their lives. And she came out and she was singing praises to God. And somebody came to her, what do you mean singing praises to God at a time like this? She says, I thank God that I have a God that’s strong enough to shake this little earth. Amen. May I say to you, there are very few of us here in California that praise God during the time of an earthquake. Now, let’s move on here. He says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other man’s matters. And he puts murder right down with gossiping and criticizing others. He makes no distinction at all. And Paul does the same thing. You know, Paul and Peter agreed on everything. And so did Paul and James. They are all preaching the same gospel that produces the same kind of a life. And therefore, we ought not to be suffering for our own sins. May I say to you, God never tests you with sin. God never tests you with evil. He’ll never do that. James made that clear to us. Now, that is exactly what Peter is saying here. Let none of you suffer as a murderer. Yet, if any man suffers a Christian, that is, a child of God, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf. Now, this poor boy, I read his letter, and it’s in prison. Well, my heart goes out to that young fellow because he’s being punished today. But may I say to you, he is suffering because of his own sin. And he can’t glorify the fact that he’s in prison today. But he can glorify the Lord and witness for him which he’s doing. Now, will you notice verse 17? For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. Now, that’s a tremendous statement that he gives here. Believers are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And he makes that very clear to us over in 2 Corinthians, for instance. You have in the fifth chapter, and I believe it’s verse 10. I probably ought to turn and read that. We are told here, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, that’s this we, Christians. that everyone may receive the things done in his body. That is, while you’re living down here, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. We all must come before the judgment seat of Christ. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? If God is going to bring you and me up before the judgment seat, now, he’s paid the penalty for our sins. But suppose that we’ve lived a life that has not brought glory to him, that we have not glorified God in our lives down here. My friend, we’re to be judged there. And if God’s going to judge his own, I tell you, what about the lost world out there that wouldn’t hear the gospel, would not obey the gospel of God? Now, verse 18, “…and if the righteous scarcely be saved,” that is, We just barely made it. The righteous are only saved by the death of Christ and their faith in Christ. That’s the only way we ever got saved. We just barely made it, friends. When I look back at my life and during the time of my recuperation, my wife and I went back and talked about our past life. And we really got acquainted. I kidded her. I said, my, I’m just now coming to know you. And I think maybe we ought to get married now that I know you. But I said to her, When I look back at my life, the way I started off, got on the wrong track, wrong foot. Why, it’s nothing but a miracle that God ever saved me. I just scarcely made it. And you remember John Wesley. He spoke of himself as a brand plucked from the burning. You see, John Wesley, when he came to this country, and I’ve told this little story before, I have it in a biography of John Wesley. And when he came to this country, he was not saved. He was not a Christian. He made the statement, I came to America to convert Indians, but who’s going to convert John Wesley? And he met at the governor’s court in Georgia, one of the noblemen of Great Britain, one of the lords that had been sent over to administer that area. And he was a very wealthy man with a name, and he’d married a beautiful young wife. Well, here’s John Wesley at that court. And you know what happened. That young woman and that young man began to eye each other. And John Wesley must have fallen in love with her. He wanted her to leave and go with him out and live among the Indians. He thought he was a Christian and a missionary. And the story is told of how she sent him back to England. She said, John, this won’t work. I’ll love you and I’ll always love you. But God has called you to do something for him. She was a Christian. And she sent him back to England. And they said that he started to get on the gangplank three times and started to walk back. And she motioned him to go. And he went back to England. One night walking down Aldersgate, he went upstairs and he heard this man speaking on Galatians. And he could write later in his journal, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust Christ, Christ alone for my salvation. And that was given to me an assurance there that he had forgiven me of my sins. Now, if the righteous scarcely be saved, a brand plucked from the burning, what Paul says, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? If you’re listening to me today and not a Christian, if Vernon McGee just barely made it, and I only made it but trust in Christ, how do you think you’re going to make it? May I say to you, not but one hope, and you can just scarcely be saved. And that is only one way. The Lord Jesus said, I’m the way. Now he says, verse 19, Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Now this is the thing that those that have really suffered know what it is to commit themselves. Actually, This is the same thing again that Paul talked about. He says, I know whom I believe, and I’m persuaded he’s able to keep my deposit. That is, that which I’ve committed unto him. What’s he committed unto him? Well, some people think that’s the gospel he committed to Paul. All right, I’ll go along with that. But I think the deep meaning there is, Paul says, I came to Christ and just committed everything to him. I made a deposit. What things were gained to me, I counted loss. And what was lost became gain to me. In order that, he said, I might win Christ. Well, he had about eight different things that he was trusting for his salvation. He says, well, that all became dung. I flushed that down. I trusted that no longer. And I only had one way. And that was Christ. I trusted him. And that’s what he means here. He says, commit the keeping of their souls to him. Have you really trusted him? I’m sure that many of you have a safety deposit, Bob. And in that safety deposit box, you keep your valuables. And you go to sleep at night and you don’t worry about it at all. And friends, I went to sleep last night and I didn’t worry about Vernon McGee’s soul. Do you know why? You say, well, it’s not very much and it wouldn’t be worth putting in a safety deposit box. And you’re right. But I went to sleep last night in peace because he’s taken care of all of that. I’ve made my deposit with him and I trust him today. Have you made a deposit with him? Have you committed your soul to him? If you’ve done that, even when trouble comes to you and the dark day comes and you’re called to go down through the valley. May I say to you, you can do it knowing that he’ll take care of you. Let me read this to you again. God hath not promised skies always blue. flowers strewn pathways all our lives through. God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. God hath not promised we shall not know toil and temptation, trouble and woe. He hath not told us we shall not bear many a burden, many a care. God hath not promised smooth roads and wide, swift, easy travel, needing no guide, never a mountain rocky and steep, never a river turbid and deep, but God hath promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love. And that was written by Annie Johnson Flint. Have you made your deposit? Have you committed your soul unto him? This is a wonderful section of the Word of God. Now we come to chapter 5, and we’ll just get our foot in the door today. And here, suffering and the second coming of Christ. are brought together. What is the relation of suffering in the second coming of Christ? What does it do for us? Well, two things, at least I’ve divided it in two sections. In the first four verses, it produces service and hope. And verses 5 through 14, it produces humility and patience. Now, the second coming of Christ, if you really believe it, if you hold that, the imminent coming of Christ, that’s in your plans, that’s in your program for the future. And every Christian ought to put that in your plan and your program. We say that we ought to plan, have a life plan and all that sort of thing. Well, where does the second coming of Christ, when he comes to take you out of the world, Then when he brings you back with him, when he comes down here to reign, is that in your program today? Or is that some ethereal, ephemeral thing that’s hanging out there in space like a will-o’-wisp that has really no meaning in your life at all? It’s not just a doctrine. It’s something that enters into our life. And friends, there’s nothing that’ll buoy you up in time of trouble and suffering that Not only a knowledge, not only a belief, but the reality of the second coming of Christ. I’m going to see him someday. I’m going to come into his presence. Well, we’re going to see that next time in chapter 5. And we do expect to conclude 1 Peter. Now, somebody says, where do you go to 2 Peter? No. We go back to the Old Testament and it will be the little prophecy of Amos. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s true. We’re going to see Jesus someday. I can’t think of a better way to end our study. Dr. McGee read two poems today, and many listeners have asked about them. One is God Hath Not Promised by Annie Johnson Flint, and then the other is In the Crucible. You can find them both over at ttb.org. Also at ttb.org, you’ll find our Bible Companion for 1 Peter. It includes links to hear Dr. McGee’s teaching, a terrific synopsis of his lessons, and some great reflection questions as well. The Bible Companions are one of my favorite tools that we offer. Download them anytime for free over at ttb.org, or if you’d like to purchase a copy in softcover, you can also order that at ttb.org, or just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. And when you’re in touch, would you let us know how you listen to Through the Bible? Is it by our app? Is it online? Is it with a BibleBust flash drive? Or maybe your favorite Christian radio station, YouTube? Let us know. We would love that information. In part because it really helps us to be good stewards as we seek to properly use the resources that God has so faithfully provided from listeners like you. Now as we go, I want to invite you to join me this weekend for Dr. McGee’s Sunday Sermon, The Proper Posture of Prayer. Join us in our app or visit ttb.org to listen online or view a list of local radio stations that carry it. Our study of 1 Peter continues next time. I’m Steve Schwetz inviting you to grab a friend and hop aboard as the Bible bus rolls along.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 01 :
We’re grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.
