Or, Commendation and Calling in Trying Times
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:17-19
Date: May 8, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
A few things turned my attention to a passage outside of Genesis and caused me to want to speak to you a little different than usual this morning.
It started at Together for the Gospel during John MacArthur’s message. He gave an overview of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. His primary point, built on the key word in those two chapters, was about repentance. Jesus commanded five of the seven to repent from various sinful compromises. Then MacArthur asked, “Have you ever heard of a church repenting?” It was the mic drop moment in the sermon. Some of the other speakers echoed the point over the remaining sessions. It clearly hit a nerve and, conveniently, it was short enough to tweet.
The question, “Have you ever heard of a church repenting?” applies to local churches, not to the Universal Body of Christ. The churches addressed in Revelation were local churches, and MacArthur pitched the question to a room with many pastors representing many flocks. And all I could think of in the moments after the holy hush fell on the group was, “Yes. I have heard of a church repenting.”
That’s you, of course. I say “you” rather than “us,” at least for the moment, because I’m speaking in my role as one of the shepherds, though, I am also one of the sheep. In my role as a shepherd I want to commend you. Beloved, well done in your repentance. As a flock, you receive the Word as from the Lord, you look into it as into a mirror, you confess your sin and embrace Christ’s forgiving and cleansing work. You do this each Lord’s day morning as part of our service, but you are not merely going through the liturgical motions.
I’m aware that not every member of the body is humbled as he ought to be. Some sheep in the flock have gotten their heads stuck in the fence trying to get at the goat food and need to turn back. As a flock we have not arrived. But in many ways we, considered as an assembly, are not the same, and much of that can be traced to repentance. Together we have repented of bitterness, anger, lust, doctrinal pride, division, dualism, and more. I thank God for you. Thanks be to God for such a gift. I commend you for turning from sin to serve the living and true God.
God calls men everywhere to repent. Sinners should repent. Families, led by their father, may need to repent. We’ve already talked about churches repenting. And nations, too, must repent.
It’s easy, at least in one way, for Christians to call The Nation to repent. It’s easy if we approach it as “Us” and “Them.” The “Thems” over there should confess their sin; we can see it so clearly on cable news. It may be easier to see because it’s public, recorded and replayed and retweeted. It may also be easier because it takes the attention off of our sins.
This problem—and it is a problem—led MacArthur to say the following when he repreached a version of his Revelation message back at Grace Community Church.
Why should Christians be calling for our nation to repent when even the church won’t repent?
If Christians do not repent when they sin, their message of repentance may be correct in content and also laughable. What self-righteous hypocrites. If a local church is filled with non-repentant, proud people, then it does not matter how eloquent or brimstone colored the preacher’s tongue is.
But what if Christians do humble themselves before God? What if they do not lie or hide or rationalize or ignore their sin, no matter the size? What if spouses repented, and father repented before their children, friends and fellow church members repented to one another? What then?
This makes your commendation not only an end, but a means to an additional end. Your repentance positions you to be a true blessing to your unbelieving neighbors, near and national. You know the diagnosis (sin) and the treatment (repentance and faith in Christ) and can testify to the healing (in conscience and in relationships). You are an example of “godly grief [that] produces a repentance that leads to sanctification without regret,” and your exhortations are not empty. You can call for repentance from a position of repentance.
Beloved, repentance is the need of the day. It has always been, but it is very inescapable now. Unrighteousness used to be more ashamed of herself, at least in public, now she flaunts herself and tries to take the moral high ground. Our typically conservative political party has squandered its inheritance and has nothing much to conserve. It’s one thing when a liberal candidate wins the presidency by a slight majority, or when the Supreme Court (illegally) rules 5-4 against a creational reality like marriage. But a “conservative” is not a person who glories in telling you that he’s a liar. Are we really going to have to choose between Hillary and Donald? This is almost enough to cause discouragement.
But we don’t need to be sorrowful without rejoicing, or surprised at unrighteousness apparently winning the day, or even surprised when unrighteousness mocks or reviles or fines or imprisons or kills the righteous. Fiery trials, the kind that burn, are not strange (1 Peter 4:12). “If you are insulted for the name of Christ,” called a hater, intolerant, “you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). We are in the right place when the world treats us harshly.
John Bunyan, who knew some about suffering, wrote:
Carnal men cannot endure to hear [about God’s righteousness]; because it quite excludes them, as such, from a share in the kingdom of heaven. To this, again, the Christian stands and backs what he says by the Word of God. The game begins, and the men of the world are thoughtful how they may remove such troublesome fellows out of the way. But because the Christians love their neighbors, and will not let them thus easily die in their sins, therefore they contend with them, both by reasonings, writings, sermons, and books of gospel divinity; and stand to what they say. The world, again, are very angry with these sayings…for that by them they are concluded to be persons that are without repentance, and the hope of eternal life. Here again, the carnal world judges that these people are proud, self-willed, pragmatical, contentious, self-conceited, and so unsufferable people. (Seasonable Counsel, or, Advice to Sufferers, 712)
We also need not be surprised at cultural difficulty because God disciplines those He loves through the unbelieving culture. Writing to believers throughout the Roman Empire, Peter said:
For it is time for judgment to being at the household of God. (1 Peter 4:17a)
In context this is a threat but also an encouragement. It clearly threatens since the verse continues:
and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And
If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? (1 Peter 4:17b-18)
God hates sin. He takes sin seriously. He judges sin. And He starts with the church, the household of God .
Related to this, you may have noticed a liturgical change last Sunday and earlier in today’s service. For as long as we’ve made a corporate prayer of confession I have confessed our sin as part of this nation and then as part of the Church/church, not always limited to our local body. I followed that order to move from furthest out to closer in. We may not be, indeed hopefully are not, sinning in as egregious ways as our unbelieving neighbors. We are connected to their sin, but not always sinning like them. I decided that I would change the order in light of 1 Peter 4. It’s a better (though not binding) statement. We confess our sins first, then acknowledge that we are part of groups of sinners. This, by the way, is a good practice for husbands and fathers. Start by repenting from your sins; take the log out of your eye first.
But back to Peter’s argument, the threat is for those who will not repent. That’s part of obeying the gospel , repenting and believing. It is not much different from chapter 5, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
But it is a comfort to the humble, an encouragement to the repentant. When we suffer as Christians in a culture/state/nation opposed to the will of God, when they are, as 1 Peter 4:4 describes, “surprised when we do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign” and charge us with hate speech, what should we do?
This is our calling :
I want to argue that repenting from our sin is the key to transformation in individuals, families, churches, and even nations. Those who repent are those who are humble and those whom God will exalt at the proper time. Cultural reformation may not happen even if we continue to repent, but it cannot happen if we won’t.
Those who repent are those who realize they deserve judgment and those who rejoice that Christ took judgment and those prepared to follow Christ’s example of suffering. Those who repent are those who submit to God’s will relating to sin and those ready to submit to God’s will related to suffering and those ready to do good anyway.
This is why your commendation is so crucial to any hope for those around us. You are light, hated for your hunger and thirst for righteousness, and God says, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled” (1 Peter 3:14). Be zealous for what is good (3:13). Let all the good you do be revile-able (3:16). Entrust your soul to a faithful Creator while doing good .
This is the only time in the New Testament that this title, faithful Creator , is used for God, even though His work of creation is frequently mentioned. It stresses that He is capable of our care. The power that created the universe is at His disposal in our sufferings, and to help us do good.
When we talk about cultivating a Trinitarian community of worshipping, maturing disciples who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord over all the world, we are talking about the fruit of repentance. When we look at the state of the Church in the West, and as we watch absolutely non-sensical things happen in our government, it may seem disheartening. When we remember that we are sojourners and exiles (1 Peter 1:1; 2:11), that this world is not our home, and wonder how that relates to life now. It fits in Christ and we get to Christ by repentance from sin and faith in the gospel.
What good will we do? When we talk about engaging or changing the culture, we are talking about challenging their gods. The cultural battle is a battle of cultus, of worship, and repentance before the god. They want us to repent, too, before their gods. Every people have a god, and every god demands repentance. We are not calling them to something they don’t understand how to do, but their gods have deceived them. We have a better God. He calls us to repent and turn from death to life.
Church, you are here. You are doing well. You are to be commended for naming your sins and turning away from them. Excel still more. Repentance is what our culture needs, and we must go first.
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7–11)