Suffering and Preaching- 1 P..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We are going to continue with our study on the first letter of the Apostle Peter to these Gentile churches. And this evening, by God's grace, I hope that we may be able to address verses 13 through 17 in chapter 3.

So we're going to be focusing our attention on verses 13 through 17 from chapter three in light of verses eight through 12, which we discussed last time. And this time, brothers and sisters, we are going to be reading the new section of the Apostle Peter, which starts in chapter three, verse eight, and goes all the way through chapter four and the end in the end of chapter four in verse 19. That is the section on suffering. The apostle is now going to address these churches in regards to what it pertains to the topic of suffering, because they were going through tribulations, they were being persecuted. And this is this is the second last section of this book.

So let's read together, brothers and sisters, from chapter 3, verse 8, all the way through chapter 4, verse 19, paying much attention to the Word of God with reverent hearts to each one of the words. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whosoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God from a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and power having been subjected to him.

Chapter four. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whosoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, rankiness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to these, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they may lie to you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh, the way people are, they may live in the Spirit the way God does. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-control 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 great 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 might be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome 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? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." Amen. This is the Word of God.

I can't avoid thinking of the difficult passages that are ahead and the many very important truths that the Apostle Peter communicates to the churches in Pontius, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. And by the power of the Spirit, of course, this letter is for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this age. And brothers and sisters, the passage that we're going to be focusing our attention on, as I said, it is from verse 13 through verse 17. And this is somehow the beginning of this section on suffering. I've told you many times that the purpose of this letter, the purpose of the Apostle Peter is to bring encouragement to all of these Gentile churches who were going through tribulation and persecution and sorrows and difficulties, not only spiritual, not only emotional, but even physical tribulations and sorrow and persecution.

Many of them were beaten, as it is the language that was used when we studied the servants of the masters. Many of them were going through serious difficulties. So the apostle is writing all of this letter and now he's entering into the main section of suffering. Now, brothers and sisters, I don't want us, as I've said in the past, that 2000 years might separate us from the reality of persecution and suffering and trials and sorrows. Sometimes we see that persecution and all of these things that the church went through in the first century are so far away from us.

that we live by God's providence in times of peace and that we have the ability to come together as Christians and gather in a place where we have comfort and everything is given to us. But brothers and sisters, we cannot deny that the world is rapidly and unstoppably moving into a direction that every day is more and more against to what biblical Christianity is. The world in which we currently live is moving, brothers and sisters, rapidly into a direction, a wicked direction, that it is opposite and it is contrary to what the Bible says about true Christianity. The biblical Christ, the biblical Christian, it is hated by the type of world in which we are currently living. And as days pass and as years pass, the world is going to become more and more in opposition to what the Bible says.

So, brothers and sisters, Whatever is happening to this world is going to necessarily go against the life of the person who decides to submit his or her life. to whatever is written. It is important, therefore, for us to see ourselves in Scripture and to try to conform our hearts not to what the world says and not even to what Christianity may say, but to what Scripture says, because it's only by admitting our heart and conforming our heart to what the Spirit of God says in Scripture that we can go through whatever difficulties or tribulations or sorrows the Lord may have for us. This is what Apostle Paul says, that if a person desires to live a godly life, if he wills, if he desires to live a godly life in Christ, he will be persecuted. Brothers and sisters, we cannot pretend that the evil system of the world can somehow overlap with the light of Christianity.

We cannot pretend that there is a palatable Christianity or digestible Christianity that goes hand in hand with the world. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible even says that if we are friends with the world, that we are enemies of God. This is what John says in 1 John. So, brothers and sisters, the more that the light of the biblical Christ shines upon The church, the more that the church will be the light and the salt of the world, and the more that the church becomes the light and the salt of the world, the more that the world will hate the church and therefore persecute the church.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is very important, because before the Apostle Peter moves into this exhortation about suffering, as we studied last week, the Apostle gives this very important exhortation about the importance of the Church. about the importance of the local church, about the importance of the community of believers. Because the light of Christ is poured through the Word of God into the covenantal body, into the community of the church. And as I said last week, we live in times of individualism in which you are more comfortable, as the brother says, loving yourself and putting yourself into a box, secluding yourself from the world and anything that is not of your likes. and then living your life in that particular way, while Christianity calls us to be utterly united in the body of Christ.

That's why the apostle, before he moves into this exhortation about suffering, he exalts the importance of the church. And this is something that I wanted to be really and very clear in your mind, brothers and sisters. that in order for the Christian to face hostility, in order for the Christian to face tribulation and sorrows and difficulties, whatever they may be for a particular person, it is necessary that this Christian develops spiritual qualities that can only be developed within the context of the local church. so let me put it clear you are not going to develop love for one another by watching youtube sermons you are not going to develop loving and being connected with one another by being only online. You need the body.

You need people next to you. You need to develop the love of Christ by loving one another. So you see the importance of the local church. So, brothers and sisters, I try to summarize those spiritual qualities in your mind as two simple things that the local church should be utterly united in the mind. and that the local church should be utterly or completely united in the heart.

That is, that we have the mind of Christ, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, and that all of us, by the guidance of the Spirit, by the leading of the Spirit through His Word, develop the humility of Christ and the mind of Christ, seeing ourselves as less than our brothers and sisters, and being servants of our brothers and sisters, and therefore being united in Christ, in the mind, in the truth, according to what is written, And therefore, the next step is to be united in the heart, to have sympathy, that my sorrow is your sorrow, that your joy is my joy, that your difficulties are my difficulties, that your burdens are in my prayers, that your life and everything about you really belongs to the secret prayers of the saints of your local church. Why? Because they are completely united in the heart. Brothers and sisters, I'm speaking language and realities that the contemporary church is completely away from. We are at peace and only coming to church every Sunday and doing particular things as a brother said that we may not doing as a routine.

But sometimes we find peace in doing things as a routine or just simply ticking boxes to appease our conscience. This is self-centered. When you do things to appease your conscience, this is centered in you. But when it's centered in Christ, you do it for Him and you do it for your brothers and sisters. May the Lord keep us and protect us from doing things as a routine and as a repetition with hearts that are cold and dull and indifferent to the things that we are doing.

We will never develop true unity of mind, the mind of Christ, and we will never develop true unity of the heart, having the heart of Christ. Brothers and sisters, this can only be developed within the context of the local church, the people that you see around you, the people that you speak here on Sundays or the Bible study when we come together at any other time during the week, are those people the means, the providential means that God has ordained from eternity past to be next to you, to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. you are not going to become a person that endures tribulation and sorrows by attending your phone and attending your computer and whatever and whatever and trying to replace the role of the local church with all of those things. They may be very true, but they will not have any power within your heart. So this is something very important that we must have clear, that we must have clear as a congregation and as brothers and sisters, if we want to be united as the Lord truly wants us to be united.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is what the apostle was addressing in the previous section. He was concern about the unity of the Lord Jesus Christ or about the unity of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me just tell you that we will never be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We will never advance in holiness, we will never will proclaim the words of the Spirit if we are not neat together, united together as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul says in Ephesians.

Go to Ephesians 4. This is not only the testimony of Peter, but this is the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 saying exactly the same things. In a chapter that probably you've read many times, But I want you to see the importance of what I'm saying in light of the importance of the local church. Paul in Ephesians 4, pay attention to everything that I've said or what the apostle is going to say in light of what I have just said. Chapter 4, brothers and sisters, verse 1, he says in Ephesians, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, this is Paul, urge you to walk in a manner, working or in a way worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the body, unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift." But now go to verse 11. This is grace given to each one of us according to Christ's gift. But now go to verse 11.

This is what the Spirit of God has done for the church. And God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. These are the ministries of the church. For which purpose? Verse 12.

to equip the saints, that is you if you're in Christ, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all, not some, not the pastors, not the elders, not the deacons, but we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed and thrown by the waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, in deceitful schemes. Rather, instead of doing those things, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. he has used the word mature already now he's speaking about growing up in every way into him that is christ who is the head into christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which is equipped that is each one of you when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it beats he'll set up in love Each member of the body foundational of vital importance for the growth of the church, for the growth of the church in conformity to the person of Jesus Christ. So it is impossible, brothers and sisters, to be mature in the faith. If a person is not within the context of the local body, if a person is not within the context of the local community, it is biblically impossible to say that that person is mature, spiritually speaking.

That person is immature. It doesn't matter how many years they have been walking in the faith. That person is not mature in the faith. This has been my concern with my soul and with all of us. And I've been asking to the Lord, then how can I grow in maturity before you, O Lord?

And He gives that answer to us. In Hebrews, if you go to Hebrews, then because here the apostle spoke about maturity of each one of the members of the body. And then he answers that question for us in Hebrews 5. The author of Hebrews 5 is speaking about his spiritual maturity, his spiritual growth for the individual and therefore for the church. He says something very important in verse 12.

Hebrews 5, verse 12, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. The oracles of God is the Word of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk, is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child, spiritually speaking. But solid food is for the mature. You pay attention to what he said in Ephesians 4, right?

That joined together, we grow up in salvation. We grow up mature. But solid food is for the mature. Who are the mature? for those who have their powers of discernment trained by the constant or by constant practice to distinguish good from evil, training the spiritual senses.

by constant practice can only happen within the context of the local church, brothers and sisters. How are we going to win our victories, our personal victories over sin? How are we going to grow individually in conformity to Jesus Christ? How are we going to face the many troubles and the many difficulties of our lives in our own strength and with our own wisdom, in our own flesh, in our own wisdom? That's how we do it naturally.

But the Bible calls us to do it, as Paul will say it in Romans 8, walking in the Spirit. And that can happen only within the context of the church. That's why, brothers and sisters, Before moving into suffering, the Apostle Peter is giving this exhortation to the Church. And not only that, but I don't want to go any further, but in chapter 5, once he has given the exhortation to suffering, then he speaks to the elders of the Church. Because then it's the elders of the Church, the ones that are to provide the Word of God that matures people into conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is to be like the person of Jesus Christ.

Then if we have the mind of Christ, if we have the heart of Christ, then we are going to have, brothers and sisters, the life of Christ. We will live like the Savior lived. We will speak like the Savior spoke. We will think like the Savior thought. And we will love like He did.

And the way that He loved is by laying His life, is by giving His life. And this is what brotherly love is in the Bible. It's giving the life for the brothers and sisters. It's serving the church. It's being together for the sake of the one who saved us.

the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle has made three points before in the previous section, and he said that we have the ability to do those things. So when someone reviles us or when someone says something to us, then we have Christ within us. The one who did not revile in return is working within us so that when we are reviled, we will not revile in return. that when something happened to us, He uses the word, do not repay evil for evil.

Then we have the attitude of the Savior Christ working in us, in these earthen vessels, not to repay evil for evil. The life of the Christian, the life of the one who has been saved by grace through faith is a life of righteousness. And He loves righteousness, not because by loving righteousness we get acceptance before the Lord, But because we want to, out of gratitude, please the one who saved us. This is now how he moves, brothers and sisters, into verse 13. It is important for you, my beloved brothers and sisters, beloved souls of Christ, that you understand always this dichotomy, as I called it last week, of this controversy that exists in existence between that which is of God and that which is of the devil, that which is the kingdom of Christ and that which is the kingdom of darkness.

that which is the kingdom of God, and that which is the kingdom of the devil. This is the dichotomy that exists everywhere, outside of you and, before glory, within you. Within you there is still a war of the flesh, which is Adam, and Christ, which is light. Within you there is still a war of darkness and light, of death and life, not only within you but also outside of you. And as long as that battle, that dichotomy, that controversy between God's way and God's kingdom and the devil's kingdom or Satan's kingdom continue until glory, there is going to be suffering for the Christian.

There is going to be tribulation for the Christian. there is going to be sorrow for the Christian, not only sorrow that may be inflicted by someone outside, but sorrow that comes from our sin, sorrow and trials that come from our own flesh and our own circumstances. But the Apostle focuses on the sorrow and the tribulation that comes from the outsider. Now, brothers and sisters, our prayer Our prayer should be that not only this local body, but that the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ, day by day, grows in conformity to Christ and that indeed becomes the salt and the light of the world. You know, there is a sense in which the wickedness of the world, it is due to the powerless state of the church.

in which we are not the salt anymore, we are not the light anymore. We lack power to call the things that are evil as evil, not because they go contrary to society, but because the Lord calls them as evil. So we're moving into a society that calls that which is good of the Lord evil and that which is evil of Satan as good. And this is the type of world, so this dichotomy, this controversy will always be and will always exist until glory. But the Apostle Peter wants us to receive encouragement, brothers and sisters.

Keep your mind with me, because now here in verse 13, the Apostle is going to provide encouragement for all of these churches. and also for us in time of this suffering and in times of that tribulation and in times of that persecution. The first thing that the apostle is going to do, not only in this section, but through the section, is that he is going to speak to us about the power that the persecutor has on the Christian. The power that those who persecute Christians path on Christians. And the way that the apostle puts it is just with a very simple rhetorical question.

He says in verse 13, now. Who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? He says, now, who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? That is a rhetorical question, brothers and sisters. And this is not so much speaking about if there is someone out there that can harm us, but it's rather speaking about the power that they may have on us If they are going to persecute us or if they are going to do something on us and the answer to that rhetorical question is that they have no power.

that they absolutely have no power to damage or to harm any one of us. And what I'm saying that I'm not saying that they do not have the ability to come and punch us in the face or to inflict some pain, some type of pain on us. But rather, it is that that which the Lord has accomplished and that which the Lord has obtained and secured for us, positionally places in a place that no one, not even the devil or those who are moved by the devil himself, can remove us or take us or affect us. That is, brothers and sisters, that our eternal position before God is so secure and is so glorious that even the damage that the persecutor can cause to our flesh and to our bodies is not even compared to it. And therefore, the Apostle can conclude that with a rhetorical question.

Who is out there to harm you? The answer is no one. This is what Apostle Paul said in Romans 8. Go to Romans 8, because in extended language, the same Apostle, by the inspiration of the Spirit, concludes a similar thing in Romans chapter 8. Romans 8, verse 31.

Now pay attention to these words and to what Apostle says here, brothers and sisters, because he is going to move from our legal position before God to the nature of persecution. Verse 31, he says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who has raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Pay attention to this. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword... Now, I want you to see how the apostle escalates from that persecution, which is emotional and spiritual, it happens in the spiritual world, and then he moves into death. He moves from tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword. Speaking of a weapon to kill us.

As it is written, he continues in verse 36, For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Not in all these things. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. That is, through all of those things we are conquerors in Christ.

Verse 38, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And this is glorious, brothers and sisters, because that means that it does not matter what happens to our flesh. It does not matter what happens to our physical bodies. Our legal and spiritual position in Christ is of such value that the Apostle Peter can say that, who is out there to harm you? Who is the one that is going to persecute you?

Who is the one that is threatening with killing you? But brothers and sisters, this certainty only comes or this this this peace can only come by having faith in that what the Lord has said about these things is actually true, because brothers and sisters, it's easy in our flesh to actually be afraid of the things that may happen to our flesh, that may happen to us in the physical world, in the physical bodies in the physical world of each one of us. Brothers and sisters, when the eyes of the Christian are removed by the power of the Spirit from the things that are passing away, even our bodies, and are placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then He becomes the source of our peace and our rest and even the strength that the Christian needs. to endure tribulation and difficulties and trials. That's why in the first century and in the second century they were literally given their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you think that the Lord only willed that heart to be for them? He willed that to be the heart of every Christian until the Lord Jesus Christ comes. So we should never allow this controversy of the universe or existence between the flesh and evil and the church to never overlap, because the Lord says that that which is of the devil is of the devil and that which is of God and it is of God. Now, so He continues, brothers and sisters, because now He does not only speaks about the power that persecutors may have. But even He comes and says, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, even if your body can be afflicted, even if you're going to be beaten, even if you're going to be persecuted, even if you're going to suffer for righteousness sake, He gives us a promise and He says, you will be blessed.

These are not the words of the Apostle Peter, brothers and sisters. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that even if Christians are indeed to go through tribulations and difficulties, and if you suffer for righteousness sake, that this is for a blessing, that you will be blessed. This is what the Lord says in Matthew chapter 5. Go to Matthew chapter 5.

When our Lord Jesus Christ is given this discourse of this sermon on the mountains, people call it He says something that it is, of course, what the Spirit brought to the mind of Peter, because it is, brothers and sisters, in Matthew chapter 5, in verse 10, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to give instructions to his church and to his people. Brothers and sisters, the Lord, in verse 10, chapter 5, verse 10, He says, "...blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and alter all kind of evil against you falsely on my account. Right?

On Christ's account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great, not on the earth, not in this world, but in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you, brothers and sisters, as we continue..." Now pay attention to me, please. "...

as we continue to open our eyes every day, and see things in our lives and to derive value of those things, as we continue living our lives and opening our eyes and living our lives and deriving value from our work, from the things that we have, from the family that we have, from the things that we have, as we continue to derive an ultimate value from those things, then we will never be able to fully place our treasure in heaven. Everything that the Lord has given us and blessed us with is to be seen, assessed, loved and apprehended in light of eternity, in light of the things that are to come. But as soon as we continue to open our eyes and to derive ultimate value from how much money we have in our bank account, what type of house we have, how many cars we have, how many... kids I have, how educated they are, or whatever you may have in your mind, as we continue to derive ultimate value from those things, then our heart is going to be powerless to place our soul in eternity. And we are going to be powerless to live the lives in this present age that the Bible calls us to live.

And we are going to continue living an overlap between the things of the world and the things that we label as Christians. It is the Christian, the soul of the Christian. Brothers and sisters, this is not only for the third century. We are supposed to be willing to give our lives for the one who gave his life for us. And that is not only romantic talk.

This should be a reality within our hearts. How are we going to do it? We cannot. We need the power of the spirit and we need one another within the context of the church. That is the reward.

You see, it is an eternal reward. So the apostle says, do they have power to do something to you? No, you are to fear the one who is able to take your life and to destroy your soul this very night, that it is God. But do not fear those who do not have the power to destroy your soul and to send your soul to heaven or to hell. We are to fear the One who created everything, and it is Him, the One that promised a reward for that type of enduring.

But I want, brothers and sisters, you to be and see with your eyes, back to our passage, the response, the response of the heart of the Christian, because this is the important Point of the Apostle. After he has said with this rhetorical question, who has this ability to harm you? And then he has spoken about the reward that we have, that we will be blessed. He says, have no fear of them, nor be troubled. That is that when you're being persecuted, that is that when someone is threatening you to take your life, that is when someone is threatening you to do some harm to you.

The Bible calls us not to fear, not to be troubled. And as I see it in my flesh, that is completely. Impossible. That it is completely impossible. Just think that they may do something to me or to those who I love and that there is not going to be trouble nor fear on me.

But the apostle is going to give us the answer. The opposite of having fear in the flesh is given to us in verse 15, and that is connected with the word but. But, the but means on the other hand, or contrary to that. So we are not to have fear, nor to be troubled. But, this is the instruction to the Christian brothers and sisters, in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy.

In your hearts, honor the Lord Jesus Christ as holy. That is, sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart as holy. That means, brothers and sisters, that Jesus Christ is to be enthroned in our hearts as the Lord and as the King of everything. That there should not be anything in our hearts that has the lordship and the authority and the position of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, that the heart of the Christian is utterly devoted and given to the lordship and to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How am I going to respond in a way that is almost unnatural to persecution? Because if I think about persecution, what naturally comes to my mind is fear and trouble in the soul of a person. But how can a Christian respond in a way that seems to be unnatural? Well, by going to supernatural means, and that is by abiding in the person of Jesus Christ. That is by making Jesus Christ The Lord, indeed, of the heart and the soul of that person, that is making sure that in the affections, in the deepest place of your heart, there is nothing that is taking and robbing the position that the Savior deserves.

That requires continuous examining of yourself. You see, the Word of God is a two-edged sword that discerns the things of your heart, of your soul. So, the Word of God helps you to discern the things that you have in your heart. And not only that, by the grace of God, you have been empowered through the Spirit to act upon it. And in the language of the Apostle Paul, this is to put sin to death.

that Christ may increase, and that you may decrease, that Christ-likeness may grow within you, and that your old self, whatever your name is, may die, so then your spiritual name will be given by Christ. and not by you, brothers and sisters. It is a change of the fear of the temporal things that are passing away by reverential fear of the One who indeed has the power to take your soul and to give you life, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only way that you can understand what comes after, because there's a very important word that comes after the Apostle has said, but in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy. And then he's going to say, always, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you or that is in you.

Brothers and sisters, this is what Peter says. that Christians are always to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within them. Always, not most of the time, not every morning or from Monday to Friday, but Always the Christian is always to be ready, to be prepared, to give a defense for a hope that is within us. Now, brothers and sisters, this is not speaking about an intellectual readiness of the mind in which Christians absorb information about their faith and then they are able to provide an answer to those who ask. But rather, when Jesus Christ is enthroned in the heart of the Christian, when Jesus Christ has preeminence in everything in the life of the Christian, the life of that Christian entirely, or as the old English will say, the conversation of that Christian, the whole being of that Christian will always be in accordance to the ways of Christ.

So that every time that we open our mouth and more than that, every time that we act before unbelievers or those who persecute us, we will not be acting like we will do in the flesh, but we will be acting as Christ will do by the power of the spirit. That's why he connects the answer of the hope that is within us, which is not an intellectual hope. It is as simple as He saved me when I did not deserve. He gave His life when I did not deserve. And now I know that by His grace, I will be brought to His presence at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what Peter has said in chapter 1 verse 13, set your hope fully. at the grace that will be brought to you when at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, this grace that was to be yours proclaimed by the apostle or the prophets of the Old Testament, this grace Gentiles that was to be yours. The grace that you have salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, is not an intellectual ability to provide an answer for a particular aspect, but rather it is the power of Christ operating and working within us, not only to speak in love, but also to act in love. And this is corroborated, if that word exists, with what comes after. Pay attention to what it says.

Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet, Do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience. That it is, brothers and sisters, that the answer that we give or the response that we give to those who persecute us, it is not only manifested in our mouth with accuracy, according to the faith, but it's also manifested in the heart. It is Christ completely. working within us to defend the hope that is in us, given to us by Christ.

You might remember Jude, the book of Jude. Jude was going to write, he was writing this letter to the church and he said, Beloved, I was very diligent to write about our common salvation, the common salvation that we have in Christ. I was going to write about this common salvation that we have, but... I was going to do that, but after that I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. He's speaking to the whole church.

He said, my beloved brothers and sisters, I was going to write about this salvation that you have in the person of Jesus Christ. But because of the attacks of the outsiders to our faith, because of the attacks of the insiders to our faith, because of the attacks of the world to our faith, I found it necessary to write to you, not only to the one, to the scholar, to the theologian or to the pastor, to write to you all. to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And brothers and sisters, the faith of Christ, the faith of the Savior is not defended with wisdom of men, is not defended with articulations and with doctrines and with great things of human intellect, but it is having the attitude of Christ towards the one that is persecuting you. Imagine the one that comes to you and is demanding of you a response and you open your mouth and you clearly give the truth, but you do it with a spirit of pride and you do it with a spirit of lack of love.

They will blaspheme the name of the Lord and Savior just because of your attitude and because of that spirit within you. That's why the apostle focuses then in the internal person. He says, do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience. just like the conscience of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 that he said, I do not justify myself by my conscience is clean. The one that justifies me is the Lord Jesus Christ, but my conscience is clean.

He was trying to align his ways to the ways of Christ and to live lives according to the Savior. That's why he uses these powerful words, brothers and sisters, so that when, if you continue in verse 16, please read it there, having a good conscience, so that when, he doesn't say if, but he says, when you are slander, those who revile your good behavior in whom in Christ might be put to shame. Brothers and sisters, the evil doer, the unrighteous, the unbeliever, the one who is in Adam, that is persecutor of the faith, that is persecutor of the church, that is persecutor of Christians, will eventually bring slander unto us. And the way to shout or to put those people to to shame or to silence those people. It is not by only giving the right answer to a question that they may have.

They are not interested in receiving a right answer. The way that the persecutor is put to shame is by Christ-like behavior. It is by Christ's likeness in the core. It is by Christ's likeness within the soul of that person. It is not by only uttering a correct doctrine or a correct response to a particular question that they may have.

And only that can happen when Jesus Christ is enthroned in the heart of men. That cannot happen with how extended our library is. That cannot happen with how many lectures we've listened to, or how many things we've studied, or how many persons or people we follow and we know what they know. This happens by following a person, and that person is Christ. That person is the Lord Jesus Christ, as He's revealed to us in Scripture.

We are to be blessed by all the truth that is available to us and all the many things that are available to us. But the person that the church is to be following is the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when persecution comes, when trials come, then we cannot be Nelson or any one of us to them, but we can be the Lord Jesus Christ unto them. And this is why the apostle gives us the final encouragement in verse 17. After speaking about having this behavior that is in Christ that puts to shame these people, he gives us the comfort, brothers and sisters, of the sovereignty of God, of the sovereignty of God. in our sufferings.

So he says, for it is better to suffer for doing good. That is, it is better for the Christian to suffer by being Christlike. It is better for the Christian to suffer speaking and acting like the person of Jesus Christ than for doing evil. And he says that sometimes the suffering of the Christian from doing good, it is the will of God, that God may will for us to suffer even and continue to suffer, even if we are Christ to them. If the Lord God, Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, willed that His Son would be crushed upon the cross, if He willed that His Son might be slandered, and that His soul might be reviled by sinful people, Then he may also will that his people may go through this type of suffering.

But we know, brothers and sisters, that is completely in the hands of the Lord, that is completely in the sovereignty of the Lord. And that which is due to us or that which is for us to do, it is to be Christ even unto our persecutors. Now, brothers and sisters, how are we going to do these things? Because it is so easy to live our lives according to what is written when all the variables and all the things in our lives are in place. It is somehow, and of course, by logic, it is easier for us to be a good Christian and a good brother and a good sister and a good person in the Lord when all the variables and the circumstances, at least according to our understanding, are in the place that we want them to be.

But sometimes when circumstances with variables, when situations are moved and are taken away, and then they are shaken a little bit, the true you comes out. The true heart comes out. The true faith that you have comes out. Your true profession comes out. How are we going to face those things that are not even a reality for us?

That happens brothers and sisters by learning how to love one another within the context of the church, how to put up with one another. I think this is the word that you have just to put up with one another within the context of the local church, that it is sharpening one another within the context of the church, that it is to arriving to truth within the context of the local church, that is by loving one another, by interceding one another within the context of the church, because that not only develops practice and train, as we read in Hebrews 5, verse 12, but also, brothers, that develops in us the heart of Christ. And the heart of Christ is the heart that is indeed always ready to give an answer from the hope that is given to the church with gentleness, with respect, and with a good conscience, saying, My Lord, my God, here I have finished the work that you entrusted me. No sin was found in my hands. No deceit was found in my mouth.

Perfection only was that which ruled every one of the seconds of my days. And for that reason, I was the worthy servant or the worthy lamb that went to the cross and died for your people. Brothers and sisters, that Christ may shine in our earthen vessels and not ourselves. Amen. Amen.