Instructions to the Oppressed, Part 2

1 Peter chapter 3. Not that Trey would do that.
It’s Trey’s anniversary today. Do you know that? Not Trey and
his wife, but Trey as an elder in our church. So we’re thankful
for that. We began last week, not in a
new theme, a new section of Scripture, but the same theme, that of submission
begun in chapter 2, verse 13, where Peter had urged us all
to be subject. And we have unpacked that numerous
times in numerous ways, placing that exhortation as Peter does
in a variety of places, not only with those in the workplace,
but also with those in home. And then in more general fashion,
as he did in weeks past and even leading up to this verse. We
saw Peter’s exhortation there in chapter 3, verse 8 through
12, a general exhortation that we are in a very real way to
be submitted to one another. And there he characterizes that
with a number of exhortations, standards, if you will, elements
of godliness where he says to sum up Let all be harmonious,
sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit.” That’s
what it means to be mutually submitted to one another. And
essentially what frames the transition into this passage is this unspoken
question. If that’s the case, then am I
not going to get walked all over by the people of this world,
even fellow Christians? Am I not going to suffer abuse
if I live in such a way, brotherly, kind-hearted? And it’s that very
unspoken question that frames the transition into the passage
before us. I’m going to try to read the
passage in its entirety because I want you to know, as I said
last week, how to be praying for me for the deep, deep things
of God that we are going to study and take up in the weeks to come.
Pick up with me, if you would, in verse 13 of chapter 3. And who is there to harm you
if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should
suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear
their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ
as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense
to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that
is in you. yet with gentleness and reverence. And keep a good conscience, so
that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile
your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is
better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing
what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. For Christ
also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order
that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the
flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he also went
and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who were
disobedient, who were once disobedient, when the patience of God kept
waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the
ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely
through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism
now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an
appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven
after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected
to him. Just a little light there for
the weeks to come. We began to look at this passage
last week by the repeated acknowledgement that persecution is inevitable.
The first century church was already facing it and they were
due to face only intensified persecution under Nero. We acknowledge
that in very real ways we have already in our own lives faced
varying degrees of persecution, not like the first century church
faced In fact, I likened the persecution we face to a more
subtle variety where we may suffer the loss of friendships or ostracized
from particular groups or loss of certain privileges and honor. I likened it, as I said, to the
persecution not of a robber who has the courage, at least, to
come to you face to face with a weapon, but that of a thief
that of a cowardly thief who comes in the night. We face a
more subtle form of persecution, but it is persecution nonetheless,
and it is expected. One pastor acknowledged that
Christian bashing has become increasingly popular. It is a
favorite pastime among journalists in the liberal media. And we’ve
seen that, haven’t we? We’ve seen their smirks when
pastors fall. We’ve seen their chiding at Christian
standards or when Christians have a glorious day. We’ve seen their dismay. Peter points out here once again
that it is to be expected. Suffering and persecution are
a theme in Peter’s book. Eight times in Peter’s epistle,
the word suffering occurs, and it’s definitely more than any
other letter or epistle in the New Testament. This is, you may
call it, the epistle of suffering. And that suffering is directly
tied to persecution, as we’ve seen. And so the persecution
shouldn’t come as a big surprise to us. It is to be expected. Jesus told us to plan on it.
Paul told us to expect it. Here, Peter points out that it
is in the offing for us as Christians. And so that part of it shouldn’t
surprise us. We should be expecting some kind
of persecution. If we are truly living unto Christ,
we know from the earliest words of Peter’s epistle that we don’t
fit here. We are aliens. We don’t belong.
We don’t fit in. We shouldn’t. But what we began last week is
not an expose on suffering and persecution, because that part
of us shouldn’t surprise us. What we began is an understanding
of how to respond correctly. How do we respond to persecution?
We began last week with these instructions to the oppressed
in discovering five keys to a right response to persecution. Five helpful guides for us. that will assist even us, even
though the persecution is of a different degree or different
kind. Even it will help even us to
respond correctly. We looked at a few of these and
by way of review, I want to go back and look at each of the
three we looked at last week, which will hopefully give us
a right transition into what is remaining. The first key in
a right response to pure persecution we saw was that we are called
to be reasonable. We are exhorted to remember who
we serve. Look again at verse 13. When
Peter says, and who is there to harm you if you prove zealous
for what is good, he had just exhorted us. to goodness. He had just exhorted us to a
unified, brotherly walk among the body, hadn’t he? That we
are to be harmonious. There isn’t supposed to be that
bickering and infighting and factiousness that is so much
a mark of the world and sadly, so much a mark of many churches.
We’re to be sympathetic. We are to have a deep and abiding
care for one another. We are to weep with those who
weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. It isn’t just sadness
that we experience in that sympathy. We are to be brotherly. We are
to have a stronger relationship with those spiritual brothers
that we own, even than we have in our families with those who
do not know Christ. We are to be kind hearted. We
are to think of others more importantly than ourselves. And finally,
we are to be humble in spirit, which even if that’s all we owned,
that would put an end to all of the bickering. It just exhorted
us to those kinds of good things in our life. And what he asks
us here is, first and foremost, are we zealous for those things?
Do we just kind of passively pursue those things? And as things
come across our plate, we pursue certain things at one point and
others at another. Or are we actively looking for
God to purify our life, to make us more like Christ? This word,
zealous, means that we’re more than just followers of Christ. Anybody who names the name of
Christ is a follower of Christ. But what he calls us to is enthusiasm,
even a fanaticism about the things of Christ. It refers to intensity,
passion. And could we honestly say That
was the question we were faced with last week. Could we honestly
say that we are passionate about the pursuit of goodness in our
lives, the pursuit of Christ likeness, the pursuit of sanctification? Paul, in his letter to Titus,
urged him, and it’s almost an uncomfortable book, isn’t it?
If you’ve studied it, that recurrently through that book, there is this
exhortation to good deeds. And as a former Catholic, you
know, you get nervous. Oh, what was he saying here?
That we’re to somehow earn our way to heaven? No. But good deeds
and zealousness for good deeds is to be a mark of our Christianity
after we come to Christ, the changer of souls. Peter says, if that is so, if
you are truly zealous for what is good, who can really harm
you? God is sovereign. You’re in his
service. Who is there to harm you? And
it’s not Peter is not saying here that if you just live this
way, boy, you’re going to basically put on the spiritual equivalent
of Kevlar and you’re going to have a sail through life untouched
and unscathed by all the evil people of the world. Is that
what Peter’s saying? Not at all. What he’s saying
is not that if you live this perfect life, that somehow you’re
going to be freed from all persecution. What he’s saying is who can really
harm you? The most important part of you,
your soul. They may touch your body. They
may harm you. They may turn you into a social
outcast. But who can really harm you? It’s the same exhortation Paul
gave in Romans 8. If God is for us, who will be
against us? And it’s the same joyful discovery
that the psalmist came across in Psalm 56. In God, whose word
I praise, in God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? That’s
what Peter’s saying. He’s calling us to godly living,
and he’s saying that if we live this life, who is there to harm
us? Nobody. Nobody, really. The second key that we observed
last week is to be assured. Not only be reasonable, but be
assured because the smile of God awaits. This is suffering
for a purpose. This is suffering with God in
view, with God having sifted your particular circumstances
through His good and just fingers that won’t let anything come
your way that He doesn’t design, that in His sovereign goodness
comes to you with the blessing of God. Look at verse 14. Even if… And that if there doesn’t cast
doubt on the suffering that Christians may experience. He’s not saying
that you may not experience it. It’s almost a if and you will. In other words, when you suffer
for the sake of righteousness and if you are truly in pursuit
of righteousness, you will suffer. You will be thought as odd. You
will be ostracized to a degree. You will have those family members
and friends even kind of roll their eyes behind your back at
your standard. If you’re really holding to the
righteousness of Christ, if you’re really pursuing God’s standards,
you will suffer. But even if you do, Peter says
you’re blessed. The word literally there means
to be happy or joyful. It’s the same exhortation we
saw in James 1, verse 2 and 12. Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials. Know ultimately that this came
from God and that there is the blessing of God in it. If we suffer unjustly, whether
it’s simply because of a true profession of the gospel. And
the first thing we saw there was to check ourselves and to
make sure that it’s truly because of the righteousness of Christ
and not just because we’re being obnoxious. There are obnoxious
Christians that suffer rightfully. They went about it all wrong. It’s not the standard that they
stood for. It’s not the cause of Christ
that brought the trouble. It’s the way they went about
it. If you suffer unjustly, whether
it’s because of a true profession, the gospel or in the exercise
of righteousness, if you have to stand for what is right, you’re
going to suffer for it. Being followers of that which
is good and walking in the practice of spiritual duties, those things
put a target. on your back. Consider it all joy. Be assured. The smile of God awaits. We saw
as our examples, the apostles arrested, suffering abuse there
in the book of Acts. They called the apostles in,
in Acts 5.40, flogged them, ordered them not to speak in the name
of Jesus, and then released them. And what did they do? Go about
forlorn. Oh, I’ve been persecuted. The people in my office don’t
like me. I don’t have any friends because
of Jesus. Is that what they said? No. They went on their way from the
presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered
worthy to suffer for His name? When was the last time you took
that perspective? About family members who don’t want you to
pray at the Thanksgiving dinner? Or don’t want you to talk about
God in their midst? Or who mock you for the book
that you’re reading? When was the last time you took
that perspective? That you have been counted worthy
by the sovereign God of the universe to bear this cross. There was a third key to a right
response to persecution. Not only are we called to be
reasonable and be assured, but thirdly, be composed. Be fearless
in the face of opposition. Look at verse 14 once again.
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness,
you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation. And do not be troubled. There
are those that do not want you to speak about Christ. The devil
doesn’t. The world doesn’t. Your friends
who don’t know Christ don’t want you to. Your family members who
don’t know Christ don’t want you to speak about Christ, and
they will intimidate you into backing you into the corner if
they could. Peter says here, do not give
in. Do not be intimidated. Don’t
be afraid of their threatenings. Don’t be afraid if they threaten
to ostracize you from the group. Especially you young people,
we talked about this last week. It’s peer pressure. That if you
would only just conform to the group. I think I told you this
one time, there is, when I was in college, I made this observation,
we were talking about non-verbal communication, there is this
unwritten rule, and most people abide by it, you know, when you’re
in a public place, I called it restrained public interaction.
If you’re among strangers, the tendency is to minimize the kind
of interaction you have. And there is an equal to that
among the world, especially young people on the college campus.
Keep your spiritual standards to yourself. It doesn’t go away. It’s that way in the workplace.
In fact, we looked at it last week. It’s forbidden in some
places. Do not fear their intimidation,
he says. Be composed. shared with you last week. That
is my regular prayer. Whenever I’m in a difficult situation,
whenever I’m in a difficult meeting or meeting with difficult people,
I just pray for composure. I don’t want to add fuel to the
fire. Ecclesiastes 10.14 Composure allays great offenses. Composure
calls behind you great offense. Do not be troubled. The equivalent
of that or rather the counterpart to that fear that is more inward
is this troubledness which bubbles out to the surface. The sweating,
the forehead, the shaking, the words that come out of your mouth
that were unplanned. Peter says, don’t be like that.
Don’t be like that. Have a settled confidence in
your soul that God is in charge and you’re not going to react.
You’re not going to say something you shouldn’t. That’s the review. And if you
didn’t understand any of that, get the tape and you’ll hear
it much clearer from last week. But with that, let’s go to point
for the fourth key to a right response to persecution. How can we face persecution?
Not only are we to be reasonable, be assured and be composed, but
fourthly, be devoted. This speaks of the submission
that issues forth proclamation. Submission that issues forth
proclamation. If you would look at verse 14
again, which says, but even if you should
suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear
their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ
as Lord in your hearts. This verse took it on the chin
several years ago during this whole so-called lordship salvation
debate. It was discovered that there
are those that really believe that there is a point in time
when you accept Christ as your Savior. And then at a later,
more convenient time in your life, you take Christ as your
Lord also. To me, as I look at it, that’s
the gospel. And when you present the gospel
to somebody, it’s not like you present the Savior one day and
then years down the road, you decide, OK, well, now let’s get
your life cleaned up. Let’s have you submit to Christ
as Lord as well. The gospel is come to Him as
Savior and Lord. But this verse was taken and
taken out of context to suggest that at a later date, you might
want to sanctify Christ as Lord in your life. This is something,
people, that we do every day. Sanctifying Christ as Lord in
our life is something that we do every day when we embrace
His sovereignty, when we embrace His Lordship in our life. When
some new difficulty streams into our life, we have to deal with
that difficulty in an entirely new plane. What we need to do
here, Peter says, is adjust our thinking and act accordingly.
God is holy. God is almighty. God is able. And we need to constantly reorient
our minds around those things and, in essence, to exalt him
anew. When Puritan said it this way,
exalt him in your hearts and give him the honor of all of
his glorious perfections, power, wisdom, goodness, faithfulness. depending on his promises for
defense and assistance against all evils which your enemies
may threaten you. God is empathetic. He knows he
is sovereign, he is allowing these things. And this sanctification
of the Lord doesn’t make the Lord anything that he isn’t already.
It just is a mere acknowledgement in your own hearts that, oh,
God, you are sovereign. You have allowed this. One more contemporary pastor
said it this way. Sanctifying the Lord means not
making him holy. For he is already most holy.
But regarding him as holy, treating him, the idea of him and all
that is his sacredly and in a manner different from that which we
regard all other things and ideas, not only in our outward deeds
and words, but also in our secret hearts where men do not see us. To keep up by every means in
our power, a holy regard of him, that’s what it means to sanctify
the Lord. Because what ends up happening,
people think of it, think of it even in your own lives that
you’ve seen people that have struggled or some difficulty
comes their way and their Christianity is tested and they don’t sanctify
the Lord. They begin to squint their eyes
at God and question what he has allowed in their lives. Another said it this way, they
who sanctify him give him his due. What does the Lord do? Does He
do your thanks and praises only when He gives you some good and
some blessing? Some objective blessing from
heaven? Isn’t He do your gratitude and
thanks even when things are difficult as we so often sing They sanctify him who give him
his due, who treat his claims as real and absolute, who look
away from all other powers, from all imagined resources or grounds
of confidence to him as the origin and center of their existence.
Is that how we live? When difficulty comes our way,
when suffering or persecution come our way, When Christians sanctify Christ
as Lord in their hearts, as we said, they don’t make Him anything
that isn’t already. They merely affirm their submission,
their willingness, their longing to be under His control and instruction
and guidance. And in so doing, they submit
and declare to God their submission to his sovereign majesty. Pardon me. We are called people to remember
not only who we are, but who Christ is. And until we do that,
we’re not ready for step two in this little passage. Until
we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, we’re not ready to
make a defense. I mean, think of it. That’s exactly
what He’s calling us to do here. To be ready to proclaim Christ. But once we have prayerfully
sanctified the Lord and acknowledged His holiness and acknowledged
His sovereignty in our lives, it’s then that we’re ready. And it’s then that we’re going
to be called upon Look at the remainder of the verse. Sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready. This isn’t
a state that we’re occasionally supposed to approach. This is
how we’re supposed to live, people. We’re not supposed to go through
bad periods where, you know what, don’t ask me about Jesus right
now. Don’t ask me about my relationship with Christ right at this moment.
We’re supposed to live in a constant state of readiness to proclaim
Christ as Lord. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your
hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Yet
with gentleness and reverence. We are supposed to be ready to
make a defense. You, if you haven’t already faced
this, will have people from time to time ask you what makes you
tick? Why do you live the way you do?
Why do you work the way that you work? Why are your standards
such as they are? The word there is the word where
we get our word apologetic from, to defend the faith. It’s unfortunate that in the
80s, this kind of became a hobby of a lot of people to bone up
on their apologetics, right? to come really good at apologetics
and almost from an Arminian mindset, argue people if it’s possible
into the kingdom of heaven. And that if we only had enough
in our arsenal, we could just argue people long enough, we
could get them into heaven. And the more the better. And
the better I am at my apologetics, the better. Paul used the word completely
differently from that. That branch of theology that
I alluded to a moment ago, where everybody, you know, I’m not
saying people, I’m not telling you don’t know your Christianity,
don’t know what you believe and why. I’m not telling you not
to memorize Bible verses. I’m just telling you the theology
of it. You’re not going to argue anybody into heaven. You’re not
going to surprise God with a surprise guest. Oh God, look who I won
to Jesus today. Apologetics is the branch of
Christian theology, said one, which has its aim. Pardon me. The reasoned promotion. Here’s where Trey comes in. It is the reasoned promotion
of the Christian faith. It includes both positive arguments
for the truth of Christianity and rebuttals of criticisms leveled
at it. That’s apologetics. And so you
get these people that think that until I’ve got all the answers,
I’m not going to open my mouth for the Lord. Until I’ve been
through all the classes, I really need to go to seminary before
I can be used by the Lord. That’s not the way Paul used
the word. Paul used the word not only informally to talk about
his own ability to answer those who questioned them, But it really
refers to any kind of answer whatsoever. Whether you’re before
a judge or whether it’s informally, what do you say? It’s not what
quote you’ve memorized. It’s not what, you know, big
long outline of argumentation on the existence of God that
you’ve got stored away in your cranium. That’s not at all. What is your answer for Christ?
And you know who this reminds me of? It’s the man who was born
blind in John chapter 9. One of my favorite stories in
all of Scripture. Favorite because it reminds me that it was Jesus
that went looking for him, right? Jesus goes looking
for everybody. John 9. Turn over to John 9.
Let’s look at this for a minute. John 9. The Pharisees hear about
this deal and they’re not real pleased. And so they go hunting
the man whose blindness was healed. And in verse 13, look there.
They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind.
Now, it was the Sabbath on the day which Jesus made the clay
and opened his eyes, and that was the issue. If it hadn’t been
the Sabbath, this thing would pass almost without notice. But
heaven forbid, Jesus broke their precious law. And the Pharisees
who were also asking him again how he received his sight, and
he said to them, he applied clay to my eyes and I washed and I
see. Now, that stung. Because they wanted some kind
of, it would have been easier if they said that this was a
physician or, you know, this really rocked the Pharisees world. And so the Pharisees begin to
gnash their teeth. Ultimately, he goes away. They
hunt down his parents. His parents basically do the
equivalent of a punt. They said, look, we don’t want
to get kicked out of the synagogue. Go ask the boy. He’s of age.
If he runs afoul of the pharisaical law, kick him out. I mean, dear
parents, these were. So a second time, look at verse
24, they called the man who had been blind and they said to him,
give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.
He then answered, whether he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing
I do know, though I was blind, now I see. There’s your answer. There’s your apologetics. I mean,
this isn’t a man with all the answers in the world. This isn’t
a man who’d gone to seminary. He’d only been able to see now
for, what, half an hour. So they said to him, what did
he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them,
I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear
it again? You don’t want to become his
disciples too, do you? And I don’t believe the man is trying to
be irritating. He’s trying to understand the
situation. They reviled him and said, you are you are his disciple,
but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to
Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know where he’s from. The
man answered and said to them, well, here is an amazing thing.
That you don’t know where he’s from, and yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God
fearing and does his well, his will, he hears him. Since the
beginning of time, I mean, listen to this guy go on. He starts
to preach. They asked him a simple question
and now he’s preaching since the beginning of time, it’s never
been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. This isn’t
a man who had been trained and schooled. in years of eloquence. This isn’t a man who had been
given years and years of theological instruction. This is a man who
had a face-to-face encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is his testimony. And people, you’re not called
to be experts. You’re called to tell what God
has done. He saved me. He took me out of
the gutter, out of the pit, as we read in that precious psalm
this morning. It isn’t just endurance, said
one, through the blessing of sufferings that believers are
to submit to. There is also the opportunity
to defend the truth when they are being persecuted. Christians
must be ready to make a defense of the faith to give an account
for why they live and believe the way they do always. which
indicates believers need for constant preparedness and readiness
to respond. People, we need to know what
we believe and why. We need to be able to articulate
that to others, especially when those around you abuse you and
those who are near you mock you. They’re watching. God may win. God may win through the words
that you say. He’s not asking you to have all
the answers in the world. But as you suffer, as you face
difficulty, sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord in your
life. And in that moment, you will be ready. What do we testify to? He says, sanctify Christ as Lord
in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone
who asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you. What
is the hope that is in you? Because for a lot of people,
they hope that they make it through 2007. They hope that they get
the promotion. They hope that things turn out
better for them. They hope that they make it to
a ripe old age. That is not the Christian hope.
It’s a misunderstanding of the word. The word there is a settled
confidence in the soul, an assurance that God is in control. And that’s
what they ask you to testify to. What makes you tick? Why
are you so confident? You’re facing all this abuse,
all this harassment. It is the settled confidence
in the soul that looks forward to the fulfillment of a promise.
That’s hope. That’s the Christian hope. One
person defined it in this term. He said, hope is that species
of trust which gives the mind a firm persuasion that all promises
and expectations shall be fully realized. In fact, I will tell
you this, only Christians have it. Only Christians have hope. That’s what the Bible says. Those
without faith in Jesus Christ are characterized as having no
hope. Ephesians 2.12 First Thessalonians
4.13. That kind of hopelessness talks
about those. One person characterized it in
these terms. It’s like being out on a ship without a sail,
without a rudder, without an oar on a stormy sea and a starless
night. That’s what it means to be without
hope. And even though the core and
focus of a believer’s life is God, Particularly, the Lord Jesus
Christ is where our hope comes, isn’t it? Scripture talks about it in these
terms. It is the hope of the glory of God, the hope of righteousness,
the hope of salvation, the hope of eternal life. But all that
points to an eternal state of glorification with Jesus Christ,
doesn’t it? That hope is communicated to
us through the gospel. It is the gift of God. It is a direct result of God’s
effectual calling, says Ephesians 1, 18 and 4, 4. People, I’m telling you, the
world doesn’t really care what church you go to. They don’t
care what Bible you read. They don’t care what denomination
you are. They don’t even really care or
need to know how you came to Christ. What they need to know
is why are you so hopeful? Why do you, of all people, have
hope? And people, when you begin to
open your mouth and share about the hope that is within you,
and it’s only there because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what
He’s done in your life, and that only Christians possess it. Do this with gentleness and reverence. That little phrase speaks not
only of our attitude towards men, but also God. And it is
the perfect balance, isn’t it? Haven’t you heard gospel presentations
that are just… You hear them and you just wince
because they’re just downright irreverent. They refer to God
as the big guy. It’s not the big guy. It is the perfect balance. It’s
not wishy-washy. God isn’t dishonored in it. It’s
not irreverent. You speak of God in glorious
terms. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God Almighty. He is the
Creator of the world. But in doing so, you’re meek. One Puritan said it this way,
meekness in relation to men in opposition to passion and that
intemperate zeal. Your confession of faith must
be one with courage, but yet with a spirit of weakness and
a fear of reverence, a fear or reverence in relation to God,
which where it prevails, overcomes the fierceness of men’s spirits
and makes them speak modestly of the things of God and give
due respect to men. God doesn’t want us to be obnoxious
or arrogant or harsh. He doesn’t want us or need us
ramming the gospel down people’s throats. He wants us ready. And when we’re ready, when we’ve
sanctified Christ, when we’ve embraced the suffering that comes
from God’s sovereign hand, we’re ready. And when they ask us to
give an account of the hope that is within us, we do so with reverence
and with gentleness. Ralph Wardlaw, another Puritan,
said it this way, This reverence is a self distrust. It is tenderness
of conscience. It is vigilance against temptation. It is the reverence which scripture
opposes. It is taking heed lest we fall. It is a constant apprehension
of the deceitfulness of the heart and the insidiousness and power
of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection
which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God
and the Savior. Peter says, don’t be flippant.
Don’t be casual about it. Speak of God as you should in
glorious and glowing terms. Speak of Him as the Lord of your
life. The Lord of all the universe.
and proclaim hope to the lost. That’s what Peter says. That’s
what it’s about. We’ll take up point five next
week. Let’s pray. Our Lord God, we pause and bow
before You. And Lord, we acknowledge that
we have each faced persecution certainly a milder sort than
the first century Christians’ faith. But if these words were
true and right for them, they’re true and right for us. Lord,
we long to respond better next time. We long to respond as those
devoted and subject to Almighty God who eagerly look forward
to submitting in such a way that
we are ready to proclaim Christ. Lord, you know those who you’ve
marked out and prepared beforehand and whose hearts and lives you’re
working on, who have begun to acknowledge that they are hopeless.
Lord, make us sensitive. Make us ready. so that when we
open our mouth, we proclaim Christ in all His glory. Be glorified,
I pray, Lord, in the lives of your saints. It’s in Jesus’ name
that we pray. Amen.