Instructions to the Oppressed, Part 3

one passage for the last several
weeks. We’ll seek to wrap up at least
this portion of the passage this week. We began by considering,
as you remember, that persecution for the Christian is to be expected.
Just as Peter started the epistle by reminding us that we are aliens
and strangers. We don’t belong here in this
world. We don’t really fit in. We ought not. We shouldn’t be
too surprised when trouble arises, when either social difficulties
arise or even much worse, when we receive the catcalls and verbal
abuse of the world. It can and often has throughout
Christianity and throughout the history of the Christian church
gotten worse at times. Certainly, that is the audience
to whom Peter is writing. That first century church that
was already beginning to feel the effects of the great persecution,
the persecution of Nero, which would get worse and worse and
worse. where Christians would have the
glorious opportunity to give their lives for the faith that
they professed in Christ. It shouldn’t surprise us. And
though, as we’ve said in the weeks past, persecution towards
the modern church is more subtle, it is not a different kind It
is more subtle. It’s more subtle in degree. But
the kind, the hatred behind that persecution is the same. It is
the hatred for Christ. It is the hatred for God and
for holy things. And as I said, the persecution
is more subtle, more subversive. As I said two weeks ago, it is
that of a thief in the night and not as a brazen robber who
comes to you face to face. It is the kind of persecution
where you will face the eye-rolling of a dear friend or someone you
thought was a dear friend, perhaps a loved one, a family member,
who just mocks the standards that you hold to and mocks the
things that you hold dear. All that persecution shouldn’t
surprise us. It is part and parcel of the
Christian walk, is what Peter says. And toward that end, knowing
that his beloved church was already feeling the heat of persecution,
he writes them this passage to encourage them. To give them
tools, as it were, for dealing with persecution in a godly manner. What he gives them is instruction. on a right response to persecution,
if you would. And I’m going to take again this
passage in greater detail. We’ll come to the even more difficult
parts in the weeks to come in verses 19 through 22. But I want
to take it in full, beginning in verse 13. Where Peter said, 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 Jesus 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 once
were 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 had been subjected
to him.” I read that passage in its entirety because I know
that you love watching me squirm as I read it, knowing that with
trepidation I come into those difficult verses 19 through 22
in the weeks to come. Well, I’ve got at least another
couple of weeks in preparation. And I thank you for your prayers
ahead of time, but back to the passage at hand. Back to the
subject at hand, the oppressed, the people of God who always
and everywhere throughout centuries have been and will be persecuted
in various degrees, no doubt, but It is part and parcel of
our calling in Christ to suffer on his behalf. It shouldn’t surprise
us. Jesus said in this world, you
will have tribulation, trouble. And I’ll let other people, as
I said, argue about the various elements of the tribulation,
pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation. The bottom
line is Jesus said we are going to have some. You’re all going
to have a degree of tribulation. We’re all going to have trouble
and difficulty in this world just by virtue of naming the
name of Christ. And so Peter began, as I said,
giving us some keys to right and proper responses on how to
live. We looked at those and we’ll
review just briefly. First of all, Peter said that
we are to be reasonable to remember who it is that we serve. Look
back at verse 13. The first key to responding properly
to persecution is to remember who it is we’re serving. Verse
13 says, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for
what is good? The obvious point is there, he
said, check yourself first and foremost to see if you’re zealous,
passionate for good, for right, for purity, for holiness. In
fact, Peter had just given us a grocery list of things that
we were to aspire to. Look back, if you would, at verse
8 of 1 Peter 3, where Peter urged us to sum up. And by doing so,
he puts the blanket over the church. He had touched on various
elements within the church, the servants. He had touched upon
the wives. He had touched upon the husbands. And now he says in blanket fashion
to sum up, let all. Let all be harmonious, sympathetic,
brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit. And He gives
us good things to aspire to. Good and noble virtues to pursue
in our life. And He says, in essence, are
you zealous? Are you really passionate? Is
there an intense enthusiasm for these things? and the things
of God. And essentially what he says,
if this is so, who can really harm you? What he’s saying there, as we’ve
clarified over the last few weeks, he’s not saying that if you merely
pursue those things, that this is a formula for escaping difficulty
in the world. We just heard the difficulty
is an axiom for a Christian. In fact, I believe the more that
you pursue those things, the more persecution you’re going
to face. Well, then which one is it, Pastor? How can you say
that and still say that we’re going to somehow be unharmed? We looked at this. The bottom
line is here, it is our soul that is in view. We will face
difficulty. We will face persecution. We
might face heartache in this life. But ultimately, what Peter
is saying there, they cannot touch our souls. They cannot
really harm us, the important part of us. The body they may
kill, remember, as the hymn goes. The psalmist said it well when
he said, In God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? And
the first order of business in dealing with persecution of this
sort is to remember who we serve. To remember who it is, that sovereign,
almighty God of the universe that sifts everything that comes
our way through His precious and loving hands. Not only are
we called to be reasonable, but secondly, we were called to be
assured. To be assured that the smile
of God waits. Look at verse 14. Peter says,
and it’s almost from the world standpoint, this is absurd. Even
if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are
blessed. That’s one of those conundrums that only a Christian
can understand. Only a Christian can understand
that somehow suffering is a blessing of God. Literally there, just like in
James, it says to be happy, to be joyful, count it all joy. My brethren, when you encounter
various trials, blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. Only
a Christian can take that perspective. Only a Christian can take that
perspective because only a Christian knows that God awaits on the
other side. That God sifted this through
His hands, gave it to us and has a purpose for it. Thirdly,
not only are we called in dealing with oppression and persecution,
not only are we called to be reasonable and to be assured,
but thirdly, we are called to be composed. Fearless in the
face of opposition. We were reminded in verse 14,
even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you
are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation. And do not
be troubled. Often, we’ve seen in the Christian
walk, not rarely, often in the Christian walk, we will meet
up with intimidation. Especially young people, as you
first come to Christ, as you first begin to walk with Christ,
you will have those non-believing friends chide your Christianity. They want to intimidate you out
of your walk with Christ. They don’t want you walking with
Christ. They can’t stand the light. And
as far as you reflecting it, they would do anything. but to
have that. And if they can intimidate you
into hiding your testimony, if they can intimidate you into
countering your testimony with a bad lifestyle, if they can
intimidate you into partaking with them in evil deeds, so be
it. Peter said, don’t be afraid of
them and their threatenings. Don’t be intimidated by them.
Don’t overrule your convictions. Don’t give up on your standards.
Don’t ignore this knowledge that you have of right and proper
behavior. Don’t do it. We’re called to
composure. We’re called to that solidity
of mind that knows what it is we believe and why. and knows
that we are not there to provoke them necessarily, but knowing
that our lives will provoke them. Not only are we not to be intimidated,
we’re not to be troubled. Intimidation is inward. That
trouble speaks of an outward eruption because of that inward
fear. What Peter speaks of here is
not to say that any and all fear for the Christian is inherently
bad, but this is an inordinate fear. This is a debilitating
fear. This is a fear that stops you
in your tracks and causes your testimony to cease. It’s contrary to faith. It hinders
your duty in Christ. Christians, repeatedly throughout
Scripture are called to courage in the face of fear. There’s a fourth point, and we
consider this last Lord’s Day. Not only are we to be reasonable,
to be assured and to be composed, but fourthly, we are to be devoted. We are to be devoted. And here
this speaks of a submission that issues forth proclamation. It
is submission unto proclamation. Look again at verse 15, where
Peter issues this next key, if you will, to right response to
persecution. 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,
as we saw last week, sanctifying the Lord in your hearts does
not make the Lord anything that he isn’t already. It is merely
an acknowledgement, an understanding. It is an elevation in your hearts. It is an acceptance of God as
being holy and almighty and sovereign in your life. It is an adjusting
of our thinking accordingly. God knows. God is sovereign. And what Peter says is that sanctifying
the Lord in your life is exalting Him in your hearts, giving Him
the honor that is due His name. One pastor, I remind, said it
this way, that sanctifying the Lord God means not so much 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. Not only in our outward
deeds and words, but in our secret hearts where men do not see us. Keep up, by every means in our
power, a holy regard of Him. This sanctifying Christ as Lord
in your hearts is to give Christ what is due, to acknowledge that
He is in control, that He is the Lord, that we are submitted to Him.
And only once we are, only once we are in that frame, having
elevated Christ and accepted Him for where He is and for who
He is, only then are we ready to make a defense. Remember,
this is devotion unto proclamation. There’s a point to our devotion.
It’s not just to sit in our room and to worship Christ in secret
all day long. It is to acknowledge Christ where
He is and to go and to speak. Always being ready to make a
defense. That word where we get our English equivalent of apologetic
from to go and make a defense of the faith to tell what it
is we believe and to talk about the hope that is within us. We
saw last week, that’s what the world lacks, isn’t it? They lack
a relationship with Christ, that much we know. They lack a pure
and holy life, that much we know. But deep at the core of their
being, what they know that they really lack is hope. Everything
is hopeless to them. Everything is bleak. As Paul
said in the conclusion of 1 Corinthians, If it’s like them, if it’s really
true that there is no resurrection, let us eat, drink and be merry
for tomorrow we die. That is the world’s perspective.
There is no hope. That’s what they want to hear
from us. It’s not just toughing it out.
It’s not just having a right perspective of Christ, but it’s
having a right perspective of Christ so that in that moment,
Somebody says, how can you go through all this? How can you
suffer the loss of friendships? How can you suffer the loss of
privilege? How can you suffer the loss of
promotions at work because of your Christianity? If that really
is the case, how can you go through all this? And still rejoice. What they want to know about
is where did you get this hope? How do I get this hope? And so
that when we open our mouths, it is to be with gentleness and
reverence. God isn’t the big guy. He is the Lord God Almighty. He isn’t just Jesus. He is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we speak, we speak in
glowing, reverent terms about Christ. This gospel testimony is the
perfect balance. It’s not wishy-washy. It’s not
God dishonoring. It is reverent. It is a reverent
proclamation of the only one that can help a lost soul. It
is the Lord Jesus Christ. This meekness speaks of not an
unwillingness to speak to them about Christ. That’s not meekness. That’s cowardice. Meekness is
going to tell them what they need to hear, but gently so.
Gently. It’s not obnoxious. It’s not
arrogant. It’s not harsh. It doesn’t ram the gospel down
their throats, as it were. It comes to them as to a lost
soul. As a one who was just like them. And comes with open hands. with the gospel message, the
good news of Christ and what He’s done on behalf of sinners. There’s a fifth key to a right
response to persecution. Not only are we called to be
reasonable, to be assured, to be composed and to be subject
or to be devoted. Finally, fifthly, And in preparation
for the Lord’s table, we are to be clean. We are to be clean,
we are to be innocent in that which we are accused. Look at
verse 16, where Peter says, 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. And I want you
to note that he doesn’t say get a good conscience. He says, keep
a good conscience. He is speaking to Christians
who have already had their conscience purified by Christ. Their past
sins are forgiven. Their conscience has been restored
to its full and right and proper function in the heart and life. that it is so easy to damage
the conscience? It’s so easy for the conscience
to function improperly? What is the conscience? Let’s
take a few moments and just think about the conscience. It has
been called the early warning system of the soul, where it
rings the alarm bell of right and wrong. And when you begin
to move or act, and you may be already in the act of something,
and the alarm bell begins to ring that, no, this isn’t good.
This isn’t right. And we are called in Scripture
to cultivate a healthy conscience. We’ll talk about how in a minute.
The one thing that a Christian does not want is either a dull
conscience or an overactive conscience. We’ll talk about both of those
in a moment. As we said, the conscience is
the early warning system for the soul. It is a natural faculty
which belongs to all people. You don’t have to be a Christian
to have a conscience. All people have a conscience.
Remember, that’s what Paul said in Romans 1. They know the difference
between right and wrong deep down in their hearts. This conscience
pronounces upon the character of actions, both their own and
those of others. This conscience can be over scrupulous. It can be blunted. It can be
seared and it can be neglected. One pastor said of the conscience
that it is man’s moral intuition. It is his moral self in the act
of passing judgment upon his own state. upon his emotions,
upon his thoughts, upon his words and actions, past, present and
future. It is both positive and negative.
It approves and condemns. And so your conscience can, as
it were, give you a pat on the back. Another described the conscience
functioning in this manner. He said the conscience entreats
us to do what we believe is right and restrains us from doing what
we believe is wrong. It is a human faculty that judges
our actions and thoughts by the light of the highest standard
that we perceive. And so it has a standard. One pastor said it this way.
This is a fascinating thought. The conscience has no light of
its own. It’s like a skylight. It lets
light in, but it doesn’t issue forth any light of its own. Because of that, Puritan Richard
Sibbes, in a very lengthy discussion of the conscience, likened the
conscience to a courtroom. It functions in the courtroom
as a recorder noting all the evidence against us. It functions
as the prosecutor presenting the case against us. And that’s
why so many people, like to keep as busy as they can and like
to keep as much noise and activity going so that they don’t have
to listen to the conscience. They don’t want to hear the case
against them. It functions as the defense attorney
as well, defending us in our innocence. And that can be both
rightly or wrongly defended. It functions also as a witness
testifying against us. One said, the conscience is privy
to all of our secret thoughts and motives. It is therefore
a more accurate and more formidable witness in the soul’s courtroom
than any external observer. That’s why when anybody ever
says anything bad about you, you know, you have a reasonable
approach to that is to say, I know a lot worse than you do. The conscience also functions
as the judge in the soul, the one who pronounces guilt or innocence.
And so the conscience, the conscience is a very fearful thing. It is within us. It is innate,
but it is infantile. It has an awareness of right
or wrong, and it can either be fed all kinds of nonsense or
fed the pure word of God and built up. It is supposed to be
nourished and developed. It can be, though, misinformed. And it is possible to be wrongly
convicted. And so when Peter says, keep
a good conscience, he’s talking about the quality of the conscience
that dwells within you, not just about the fact that you try on
your own power to avoid any and all sin and to keep your conscience
free. The conscience said one, can
be informed by tradition as well as truth. In other words, your
conscience can begin to function by a standard that is extra biblical
or even unbiblical. And your conscience is telling
you this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong when God said,
no, it isn’t. And that affects the quality
of the conscience as well. A good and active conscience
is a good thing if the convictions are biblically derived. If the conscience is not biblically
derived, the conscience can wreak havoc on your life. I’ll come back to that thought
in a moment. One pastor said of the good,
active conscience, that the conscience reacts to the convictions of
the mind and therefore can be encouraged and sharpened in accordance
with God’s Word. To master biblical truth is crucial
so that the conscience is completely informed and judges right. When Peter says, keep a good
conscience, he’s saying as much that we are to imbibe the pure
Word of God and to feed our conscience on the pure Word of God as He
is, saying that we are to live a holy life. The conscience affirms right
behavior and condemns sinful behavior. We’ve just seen that.
But the conscience, as we’ve seen, is not infallible. The conscience can get off track.
It can be wrongly influenced. It is not the voice of God. It is not the echo of God’s moral
law. Not inherently. One pastor described
it in these terms. He said it is a human faculty
which adjudicates upon human action by the light of the highest
standard that a person perceives. The problem is that all human
nature has been affected by sin, right? And that means that our perception
of a standard can be tainted. The function of the conscience
can be tainted. And the only way around that
is to return to the Word of God and to feast on the Word of God
and to let the Word of God restore our right standard so that our
conscience may function properly. said one, the conscience can
never be accorded the position of the ultimate judge of one’s
behavior. It is possible that the conscience
may excuse one for that which God will not excuse. And conversely,
it is equally possible that the conscience may condemn a person
for that which God allows. The final judge is God, isn’t
it? But the closest thing, the way to cultivate a healthy, sound
conscience is to feast on God’s word, to constantly nourish ourselves
in God’s word. And only then can we begin to
develop a good conscience and then having developed a good
conscience to respond to that conscience. The conscience of Matthew Henry
is good when it does its office well. When it is kept pure and
uncorrupt, clear from guilt, then it will justify you even
though men accuse you. And that is Peter’s point. Don’t listen to them. Don’t let
them give their tirades upon your life. Don’t let them judge
you for what you do or don’t do. Listen to the pure word of God
and let conscience be your guide. Another pastor said it this way,
a believer is to live with a clear conscience so that the weight
of guilt won’t burden him when he’s faced with hostile criticism. However, if he doesn’t have a
passion for doing good and serving Christ as Lord, he will know
the heavy weight of a deserved guilt. A defiled conscience can’t
be at ease or withstand the onslaught of trials. But a clear conscience
will help a believer not to be anxious or troubled in his trials.
You know what this is? This is battle readiness, people.
This is battle readiness. And we have been spiritually
prepared and we march out and our consciences are good and
healthy and sound. And we live according to the
standards of God’s word and not according to what the world wants
us or does not want us to do. Because the world can invent
standards of their own and say that in order to achieve salvation
or if you were only more like this, if you only wore your hairstyle
in this fashion or you only lived your life according to our standards, How do we offend our consciences?
We can offend our consciences and our consciences can be defiled
by being legalized. By giving in to extra biblical
prohibitions of others. That’s as much to taint and to
have a bad conscience as to have no standard at all. That is to
place above God’s word and God’s standards, the standards of mere
men. Also, we taint our conscience
by giving into or falling into something that God’s Word says
is sin. And this is where Peter also,
this is where he was urging us, keep a good conscience. Don’t
fall into sin. If there’s slandering in this,
don’t give in. There’s another way to damage
the conscience. The third way of offending our
conscience, not only being legalized or giving in to sin, but third,
by a careless exercise of your liberty. It may be a matter of
conscience, it may be a freedom for us in Christ, but to use
and abuse that in a wrong way and to damage another Paul said
in Romans 14, do not let what is good for you. Pardon me. Do
not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. In other words, don’t let the
way that you exercise your liberty, whatever it is, be spoken of
as evil because you misused it. You abused it. You didn’t take
care of your brother. You didn’t watch for his conscience. And in abusing that thing, Whatever
it is, you damaged your conscience. Peter goes on and he says, keep
a good conscience. Why? So that in the thing in
which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior.
These are strong words. And no doubt, if you’re a Christian,
if you have walked a week with the Lord, you have suffered some
of this kind of abuse. Slander, that evil speaking,
that verbal abuse, reviling just speaks of threatening or insults
or verbal mistreatment, and it is part and parcel of your calling
as a Christian. You are going to experience it.
That is going to be the vein of trouble that you experience
more often than not. But Peter says that if we will
only keep a good conscience, to not be legalized, to not give
in to sin, to not abuse our liberties, if we will only keep a good conscience,
that those who slander us and revile us eventually will be
put to shame. How? How? Essentially, it’s the same point.
I want you to look back into 1 Peter. Look at 1 Peter 2. In 1 Peter 2, he made the same
exact point. And he does it twice in these
few verses. Verse 12, 1 Peter 2, verse 12,
keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. Why? So that
in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, on
account of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God
in the day of visitation. Remember, when we looked at that,
I see that this is a a previously ungodly, slanderous person who
comes to Christ and eventually says, Lord. Lord, I slandered
them, but look at them. They’re a child of the king. Verse 13, Peter goes on and makes
this point again. Submit yourself for the Lord’s
sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one
in authority or to governors sent by him for the punishment
of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such
is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance
of foolish men. So, Our right living. Our living according to God’s
standard in view of a good conscience can do one of three things. It
can either be used by God to bring them to Christ, in which
case they glorify God in the end. It can be used to silence
the ignorance of foolish men where they just literally have
to shut their mouths. Or in the passage before us,
they may just be put to shame. And it’s not altogether unlike
that second one, silencing the ignorance of foolish men. Matthew Henry in his commentary
urged here when he said, look well to your conscience and to
your conversation, to your lifestyle, he says. And then, even though
men speak evil of you and falsely accuse you as evildoers, you
will clear yourselves and bring them to shame. A good conscience
and a good conversation are the best means to secure a good name. These give a solid reputation
and a lasting one. False accusation generally turns
to the accuser’s shame by discovering at last that the accuser’s indiscretion,
injustice, falsehood and uncharitableness. He says that in the end, they’re
seen for what they are. They speak of you as evildoers. And yet, if you live as Christ
would have you to live, as your testimony becomes more and more
known, it begins to confute and refute their complaints. And
ultimately, it makes them ashamed when it finally is seen that
their accusations of you are false. They have nothing to charge
against you except that you are a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A good conscience, a pure conscience
gives you peace, doesn’t it? And it vindicates you even though
they say what they will. It vindicates you before God
that you are living as God would have you to. Pure conscience here, people
can withstand. It can endure whatever abusive
speech comes your way, whatever insulting speech the world sends
your way. The people who engage in that
kind of mistreatment of obedient believers with the aim of putting
them down and defeating them in some fashion, ultimately backfires,
doesn’t it? And it blows up in their face. And to all this assistance that Peter
gives us for handling oppression, all of these five keys that we
are to be reasonable and be assured and be composed and be devoted
and be clean, to all of these, Peter gives a grand purpose. He says in verse 17, for it is
better. It is better if God should will
it so. I mean, do we even need to hear
the rest of it? With that little phrase right there, doesn’t that
do it for the Christian? You know it does. It is better
if God should will it so. For us, that’s enough. But Peter
goes on. He says, it’s better if God should
will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than
for doing what is wrong. Everybody suffers is what he
says. Everybody suffers. You’re either going to suffer
for doing what is wrong, and that is axiomatic, guaranteed
you will reap what you sow. Those who do wrong will suffer. And yet, those who do right suffer
as well. What Peter says is, it’s an easy
choice. You’re going to suffer in this
world. You’re going to suffer in this life. You’re going to
suffer in the afterlife. For doing wrong, it’s better
if God should will it so whatever comes from God’s hand comes to
you from a good and gracious God who purposed it. Puritan
Thomas Watson said it this way. Afflictions work for good as
they make way for glory. Not that we merit glory, but
they prepare for it. Just as plowing prepares the
earth for crop, so afflictions prepare and make us ready for
glory. What Peter argues here is for
patience. and submission, just like he’s
done with all of these other points. Patience and submission
in their sufferings, in the catcalls that you receive at work, in
the broken relationship that you had to lay on the altar.
It was either him or Christ. For those family members that
mock you, Peter says, be patient. Be patient in these sufferings.
These things should be a comfort to you. And utilize these keys when you’re
faced with oppression. Remember who you serve. Remember
that the smile of God awaits. Be fearless in the face of opposition.
Let your submission issue forth in proclamation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And by all means, be innocent
in the thing in which you are accused. Let’s examine our hearts
as we prepare for the Lord’s table. Oh, Lord God, we see how intensely practical
Your Word is as you call us, Father, to a right response to
opposition and even oppression and persecution. Lord, even though
we don’t face what the first century church faced, what the
great martyrs of the church have faced, Lord, the persecution
is merely at the current time of a different degree, not of
a different kind. We know that they hate you. And
because we love Christ, we know that they will hate us too. Lord,
grant us a right response. Grant that we might proclaim
Christ and live as You would have us to live. Be glorified
in us, even in the midst of great persecution. May it all be to
Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Let’s turn to 496. 496, Kind
and Merciful God. Sing verses 1 through 3. Kind and merciful God we have
seen