Happy Life: Ancient Recipe(transcript)

Introduction: Peter's Concern for Authentic Christianity

0:04 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 4th, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, as I've already indicated, our study in the Word of God this morning will find us in our consecutive expositions of 1 Peter, at 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 10 through 12. But, as we prepare our hearts and minds to consider this portion of the Word, I would ask you to follow as I read chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, and then I will read the entire paragraph within which our text is found, chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. Chapter 2, verse 11.

0:58 Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, and kind to one another. All of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, and kind to one another.

1:58 All of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, and kind to one another. All of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, and kind to one another. Of attachment to Christ and the manifested pattern of life, the worlding is very, very quick to make it plain that he will not tolerate such inconsistency.

3:17 Furthermore, he'll use that inconsistency as a semblance of a reason to reject the claims of Christ and of the gospel. It is for this reason that the Apostle Peter is also greatly concerned. It is for this reason that the Apostle Peter is also greatly concerned. That there be no phonies among the believers in the five Roman provinces of Asia Minor to whom he writes this letter.

3:45 One of the prominent concerns of Peter's pastoral and apostolic counsel in this letter is the concern that believers live an authentic Christian life before the closest scrutiny of the unconverted, who behold their life pattern. We see this emphasis in the verses I read to you from chapter 2. As Peter writes that they should abstain from fleshly lusts and have their behavior honorable, he said it is with this end in view, that though non-believers accuse them of evil doing, they actually see their good doing, their good works, and they inwardly know that they are authentic Christians regardless of what they're saying. So in the day of God's visitation, whether in grace or judgment, that's not the issue. What was really in there will come out. They will glorify God.

Review: Directives for Interpersonal Relationships and Responding to Evil

4:48 I've seen the real thing. That is the real thing. That is authentic Christianity. Now as he brings to a close this second series of pastoral directives that we might call, Peter's directives for authentic Christianity, as he brings this second series of pastoral directives to a conclusion, and we know that he's doing that from the language of verse 8, finally, not finally with respect to the whole letter, but finally with respect to this section, he is concerned to give this general directive to God's people as they relate to one another, verse 8, God's people as they relate to those who are doing evil to them and speaking evil of them, verse 9, and then he buttresses the exhortation of verses 8 and 9 with this lengthy quote from Psalm 34. Now I hope those who are here will remember that what he does in verse 8 is to give us a very kind of shocking verbal twist where he's been using imperatives, and participles to give his exhortations. Here, when he turns to lay out how the people of God are to relate to one another, he gives us what I call this string of five pearls,

6:17 all as adjectives, describing God's people in their relationship to one another, saying, if you want to be an authentic company of the people of God, anyone should be able to describe you with these five adjectives. You are a like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, humble-minded company of God's people. And then in verse 9, turning again to participles, he recognizes that though by the grace and power of Christ they may grow in those graces that mark their life together, they are yet living before God, for they are unconverted neighbors and work associates and relatives, and that they will receive from them both evil in deed and evil in speech. And so assuming that some are doing evil to them and speaking evil of them, he gives what I call this very unnatural duty in verse 9, not rendering evil for evil, no tit for tatism, or reviling, viling for reviling, but that's not enough, the negative, but contrary-wise blessing, the most unnatural thing in the world. The natural thing is, you hit my shoulder, I hit yours. You stick your tongue out at me,

7:47 I stick mine out a quarter of an inch further. You speak evil of me, I'll give you back in spades. And Peter says, no, no rendering evil for evil, no rendering reviling for reviling, but contrary-wise, to pray and to wish and to desire good upon the very head of those who do evil to you and who slander you and who revile you. You are to bless them.

8:14 You are to have a disposition of heart that does not desire to take into your hands what is in God's hands. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. No evil is to be done for evil, no reviling for reviling, that's the unnatural duty enjoined.

8:35 But then, in the last part of the verse, we have the unnatural duty justified.

8:41 He says you were called to such a life of authenticity. Why should you do this? Notice the text. For hereunto were you called, unto this very thing you were called.

8:55 When God laid hold of you in grace, called you out of darkness into union with His Son, He called you to walk in the way of His Son and in the person of His Son we see embodied this unnatural duty, not rendering evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but contrary wise blessing. He could pray from His cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And furthermore, He says, if you want a reason for this unnatural duty, it's not only that this is that to which you were called, but you were called into such a life that you might inherit blessing. Not a blessing, but blessing.

9:36 That you might inherit as the free gift of God's grace, yet further blessing from God as you live out a life of blessing, even blessing your enemies. You've been called into such a life, and in the way of that life, God unfolds even greater blessing upon His own. Now that is a brief review, and now we come to verses 10 through 12, and then we come to verses 10 through 12, beginning with the little word for. Peter now is going to answer, as it were, a question that was raised by his readers.

The Ancient Recipe for a Happy Life: Introduction to Psalm 34

10:13 It's as though his readers would say, Peter, why pursue the graces of like-mindedness, of sympathy, brotherly love, tender-heartedness, humble-minded in relationship to my brothers and sisters in Christ? Why commit myself in the strength of Christ, and out of love to Christ, to seek to perform this unnatural duty of not rendering evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but contrary wise blessing? Yes, you've told us we were called to this, and in the way of fulfilling that calling, greater blessing. But Peter, can you give us a more fulsome, a more expansive, biblical rationale for all of this?

10:57 Peter says, yes, I'll be glad to accommodate you. And I will accommodate you, by referring you to Psalm 34, and to that which David found in his own experience. David found a way in which one could so live as to love life, to see good days, to live with the confidence that God's eye was upon him in favor, and God's ear was ever open and bent to hear their cries. Is that reason enough to entice you more fully into living such a life in the strength of Christ?

11:35 And in these verses quoted from Psalm 34, one of the old commentators said, what we have in reality is an ancient recipe for a happy life. I like that. Sometimes what I read in the commentators doesn't stick, but that is stuck. I hope it has as much stickability with you.

11:54 Would you like an ancient, well-proven recipe for a happy life? You say, uh-oh. While we went off to the conference, Pastor must have gone to a seminar on the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. He's actually entitling the sermon, An Ancient Recipe for a Happy Life.

12:15 Yeah, yeah. I'm hiding behind that old commentator, because he's hiding behind the text. For he that would love life and see good days. I didn't write it.

12:29 The Holy Ghost through Peter wrote it. And the Holy Ghost wrote it through Peter, taking his clue from David, and taking some liberties under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He even changed some of the wording of the original Hebrew text and the Greek text. It was the working Bible of Peter and others at that time.

12:50 And he sets before us a formula for a kind of life that's worth loving. A life made up of units of days that are good. And so what we have here, that as the biblical basis for these directives of verses 8 and 9, is indeed an ancient recipe for a happy life. Now in opening up the text, I can do no better than to use the headings that I found in Edmund Hebert, who has been a constant exegetical companion throughout this entire series.

Outline: The Dominating Desire, Demanding Activities, and Divine Response

13:23 And he says the text breaks down under these very three natural headings. The dominating desire. He that would love life and see good days. The demanding activities.

13:35 Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. And then the divine response.

13:46 First of all, to the one pursuing that life. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears unto their supplication. And the divine response to all others. The face of the Lord is upon them that do evil.

14:00 See why I said I couldn't do any better than to borrow his outline. So rather than strain my brain and waste time to come up with a better outline, I spent my time working on the nuts and bolts and the meat and the bones of the sermon. So we take up the text under those headings. First of all, the dominating desire.

The Dominating Desire: Loving Life and Seeing Good Days

14:19 As Peter brings forward a Biblical rationale for this kind of authentic Christian life in which God's people are marked by those five adjectives. Marked by this unparalleled, marked by this unnatural response to evil done to them and railing against them. Recognizing that this is the life to which they were called. And it puts them in the way of further blessing.

14:47 The Spirit of God wants us to know that there is even more Biblical substance beneath the pursuit of such a life. And it is described, first of all, in terms of the dominating desire. The dominating desire. We could render this part of the text as follows.

15:05 For he that is continually desiring to be loving life, the one continually desiring to be loving life and to see good days. Peter, under the guidance of the Spirit, took liberties with the original text. And some of the commentators do exegetical backflips trying to say, well, Peter didn't really alter the text. No.

15:35 Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, which was the unique province of an apostle, he could take the text of Scripture and alter it to give the mind of God to his people. And Peter is saying, for anyone who has a continual desire to be loving life, I have a formula for a life that is worth loving. And the use of this word, he that would, or he that is continually, or the one continually desiring to be loving, the way I can best describe it is in common current sports jargon. Peter says, the one who's focused upon loving life.

16:18 You guys involved in sports, you know when they interview someone between important games and what do you plan to do with game five coming up? Well, we've got to stay focused. We've got to stay focused. And what they mean by that is, we've got to cut out all secondary and tertiary issues, got to keep our minds on what we need to do to win the next game.

16:39 Peter is saying, the one who is focused. And focused upon what? The text says, he that is focused, he that is willing to be loving life. Now, what in the world does that mean, to be loving life?

16:54 It means to have the kind of life that is worth loving. And the word he used for love means to love with intelligence and with purpose. And he that would love life with open eyes, considering all that life really is and all that life holds before the face of God and with reference to myself, with reference to time, with reference to eternity. He that would love life, not he that would love mere existence.

17:28 There's all the difference between mere existence and life. Hell is eternal existence. It's not eternal life. There's a difference.

17:40 And Peter says, taking his clue from Psalm 34, do you want to know why I'm setting before you this kind of life? Would you have godly incentives in the strength of Christ to live such a life? Here is my rationale. This dominating desire which I trust all of you the people of God have as he writes to them is, I'm going to set before you the kind of life that is worth loving.

18:08 The kind of life which if lived will enable you to love life with a passion. He that would love life. And then he says, and to see good days. To experience life as comprised of units of days that are good.

18:29 Good as defined by God. Good in relationship to a life worth living and a life worth loving. Now in the context of Psalm 34 and in the context of 1 Peter it obviously does not mean a life without clouds and without thorns. It obviously does not mean that.

18:53 Remember what Peter has already said in chapter 1 in verse 6 wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be you've put to grief in manifold trials. He's already assumed that they are receiving evil. That some are speaking evil of them. Doing evil to them.

19:14 He's going to go on in this chapter in chapter 3 and say verse 14 even if you should suffer for righteousness sake. In chapter 4 he's going to tell them whatever heat you've already experienced there's more heat coming. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you. Think back to Psalm 34.

19:36 Think of the context of Psalm 34 when David writes about seeing good days. Here's a man in a cave away from family seemingly cut off from the promise of God that he's going to be king in Israel. He's being chased around the wilderness of Judea like a mad dog by Saul. And he says I've experienced such good days.

20:02 Come on in the cave you kids. Come ye children and I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. You want to know the good days I'm having? Come and sit down and I'll tell you.

20:12 I don't know about you but I get the goose bumps when I read something like that. That's what David is saying. How's it going David? And you expect some mournful tale.

20:22 Oh well. He says oh these are good days. These are good days. Now you see that's entirely contrary to the mentality of 1999 America.

20:34 I don't watch a lot of television. I try to watch very discriminately not only the programs I watch but the commercials that I allow my eyes to see. But I have seen and maybe you have seen that beer commercial in which there's a bunch of buddies who've gone off for a fishing trip and it's the end of the day and they're sitting on a porch. Some of you have seen that and they've got their feet up on the railing and the sun is going down and there's some coals over which they've placed the fish they caught that day.

21:06 And one says to another it doesn't get any better than this. That's the world's idea of a good day. David is in a cave with the riffraff of Jerusalem gathered around him. And you say to him David how things going?

21:31 He said it's been a good day. It's been a good day. We're going to find out why he could say it's a good day. He tells us in Psalm 34 and we're told here in this passage quoted by Peter.

21:41 But do you long for good days as God defines good days? To have such a view of life and of reality that if you were in David's setting you could say hey I've experienced such a measure of good days I want to tell you how to know good days. Think of Paul and Silas. There in a prison feed in the stocks backs laid open with wounds.

22:13 You come to them and say how's it doing guys? They say it's been a good day. So good that we're singing Psalms of praise to God at midnight. Would you really love life?

22:28 And would you really see good days? Now does that strike a note in you? I hope it does. And I believe the reason David originally penned those words by the guidance of the Spirit and Peter quotes them is that every single one of us by nature desires his own happiness.

22:49 You can no more deny that than you can deny your existence. From the time you unconsciously cried for your mother's breast or the bottle to this very hour every one of us by nature desires passionately his own highest happiness and good. And is that reality embedded in the soul of man to which the word of God is appealing here and saying do you want God's formula for a life worth loving and for days that are truly good even in the midst of suffering in the midst of people bad mouthing you and doing evil to you. Peter says the formula I've set before you is the formula that will bring about a life worth living and truly good. Now having considered this dominating desire described in the text now we come to what Mr. Hebert calls the demanding activities.

The Demanding Activities: Not a Formula for Conversion

24:00 Now as we come to these verses remember these are not verses telling you how to enter into life how to attain the forgiveness of sins and enter the kingdom. This is not the formula for conversion. He's writing to people whom he described in chapter 1 as those who heard the gospel with the spirit of God attending the preaching. They are described in chapter 1 as those who have purified their souls in obedience to the truth.

24:32 He's described them as having been born again by the living seed of the word of God. He describes them in chapter 2 as those who are continually coming to Christ as those who have been called out of darkness into marvelous light. He's writing to people who are in a state of grace by the grace of God working through the gospel sovereignly imparting divine life leading them to repentance and faith. I don't know how to state it more plainly.

25:00 This is not an answer to the question what must I do to be saved? Peter's answering the question why ought I to live such a life? And what is the nature of the blessing that is in store for those who by the grace of God live this way? Well he's going to answer us now in these demanding activities.

The Demanding Activities: Five Imperatives for Blessing

25:23 Now I want to say a word about the structure here as you look at your Bibles you will notice that these verses are printed in the form of poetry. That's because in Psalm 34 they are Hebrew poetry. And most of you know that in Hebrew poetry you have parallelism. You have a statement and a second statement that will contrast with it amplify, enlarge upon it and the second often throws light upon the first or is more fully understood in the light of the first, etc.

25:53 And this is Hebrew poetry and we might expound it accordingly. But what would have struck the first person who opened up the parchment sent by Peter and would have looked at the text with a view to reading it the next time God's people gathered together what would have struck him is not so much the structure of the Hebrew poetry but the five aorist imperatives five words, all imperatives every one ending with the letters when we transliterate them into English A-T-O I've got a couple sets of eyes that aren't on me folks, I'm not here talking to myself I labor to get the word into your heart but it won't get there unless it gets to your ears and seldom will it get to anybody's ears if I don't have their eyes. I don't ask that as a matter of personal pride I'm God's servant standing there standing under the word please, please, please don't dishonor Christ's word. Five verbs all ending with A-T-O and I labor to try to bring it over into five English words to give you the sense that someone would feel the minute they opened up the manuscript and began to read it those five imperatives would jump out and when whoever would read the letter to the assembly would read it those sitting here, they would hear

27:21 Pausato, Eclimato, Poiesato Zetesato, Diosato five times Ato, Ato, Ato, Ato, Ato and you would go away saying what were the five Atos? The same way the reader would have been impressed with Peter's use of the five adjectives to describe what I call that five-pearled necklace of graces to adorn the life of God's people in their relationship to one another anyone reading and listening to that letter read would be struck with these five aorist imperatives for you Greek students third-person singular aorist imperatives he is saying by the guidance of the Spirit would you live a life worth loving and see good days here is the demanding set of activities and if the five adjectives can be likened to five pearls that are to adorn the neck of God's people as they relate to one another these five imperatives are the stones that pave the path into additional blessing from God would you be in the path that brings additional blessing from God here are the five stones that must be laid in the path on which you walk now what are they? very quickly look at the text the first is he that would love life and see good days

28:48 let him refrain his tongue and his lips the verb refrain has reference to the activity of the tongue and also to the lips let him refrain his tongue from evil and the verb understood and let him refrain his lips that they speak no guile the first stone laid in the path of the way of additional blessing from God has to do with the organ of speech tongue and lips the verb is a vigorous verb it means to hold something back you are to hold back the tongue from evil and the word evil is anything base or degrading in nature it can refer to something profane or slanderous or merely unprofitable speech in the context for remember context what would evil what would evil tongues do? tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue

30:17 tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue bridled upon this unruly member called the tongue. Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. What is guile? It means saying one thing while meaning another in order to lead someone astray.

30:51 And sadly, we've had grievous examples of guile in the highest office of the land. Staring into the camera with conviction and pointed finger. I never had blah blah with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

31:11 Saying one thing, technically true in terms of what he thought, calculated to lead a nation astray.

31:19 That's guile.

31:22 He said, you want to be in the path that brings and continually unfolds a life worth loving and days that are truly good? Not only must you refrain. Refrain your tongue from evil, but your lips that they speak no guile. Your yes is yes.

31:43 Your no is no.

31:47 When you greet someone and shake their hand and say, it's good to see you, brother. It's good to see you, my sister. When inwardly, you don't mean that. You're guilty of guile.

The Demanding Activities: Turn from Evil and Do Good

32:02 You want to be in the path of blessing? Refrain the tongue from evil. Retrain the lips from speaking guile. Now, to respect the Hebrew poetry, we'll take two and three together.

32:13 Look at the text. Let him turn away from evil and do good. The meaning of the word to turn away is the picture of a boulder in the highway. And you're driving at 60 miles an hour.

32:27 You come around the bend. The boulder's there. You swerve to miss it. You take an evasive action.

32:33 Perhaps you're walking down the street and you see on the sidewalk the local gang of bullies. And you walk over the other side. You swerve. You turn aside.

32:42 You take evasive action. I hope you do. I hope you've got sense enough to do it. You're not going to take them all on by yourself.

32:47 Maybe you've got some bigger guys on your side. And then you go walking down. But otherwise, you do evasive action. That's the sense of the verb.

32:54 Let him turn away. Let him engage in the evasive action in the presence of evil. Same word again. What is base?

33:03 What is degrading? Anything contrary to the word of God. In the context. The moment you're tempted to be indifferent to wearing your five-pearl necklace.

33:15 Why bother to labor at cultivating the graces of one-mindedness? Of sympathy. Loving as brothers. Tender-heartedness.

33:28 Humble-mindedness. It's difficult given my remaining sin and the sin of my brethren. Why back off? Because to do so would be evil.

33:37 You must turn away. From that impediment to cutting a straight course in the cultivation of those graces. And when you are tempted to return evil for evil. And reviling for reviling.

33:52 Or you are tempted to say, well, I've done that much, but I'm not going to pray God's blessing on them. That's going. That's evil. That's evil.

33:58 Anything contrary to the word of God. Then when you are tempted to it, we must turn away from evil. But that's not enough. And do good.

34:08 This is the point. The positive side of the previous imperative. Not enough to evade and turn away from evil. There must be the active pursuit of that which is good.

34:18 The same word used in verse 10. He that would love life and see good days. If you want to see good days, then fill your days with good. Pretty simple formula, isn't it?

34:30 How can you expect to fill your days with evil and then see good days? You fill your days with good. And you will see good. And here again is the emblematic.

34:41 The emphasis of the word of God is not enough to deal with the negative. Isaiah says, cease to do evil. Learn to do well. And in what is a very helpful parallel text, Romans 12, 9, the apostle says, abhor that which is evil.

34:57 And that Greek word is a vigorous word. Detested. Treat it like an abominable thing worthy of being vomited out. Abhor that which is evil.

35:08 But that's not enough. He says, cleave to that which is good. And the word cleave is the very word used in 1 Corinthians 6. He that is joined to a harlot is one flesh with a harlot.

35:22 What is the cleaving of sexual intimacy? God says, that's the way you're to be with good. Abhor the evil. Cleave to the good.

35:32 Hold it with a desperate.

35:38 You see, it is the devil's lie that to have a life worth loving and to see good days, you've got to turn away from good and cleave to that. That is evil. Wasn't that his lie in the garden? God said to Adam and Eve, I know you love life.

35:56 You want to see good. Here's the way of a life worth loving and the way of the good life. Of all the trees of the garden, you may freely eat, but that tree in the midst of the garden, you shall not eat of it. From the day you eat, you'll die.

36:11 Good days will end. A life worth loving will end the day you choose evil. God was saying in essence to Adam and Eve, Abhor the evil, avoid that tree. Cleave to the good of all the trees you may freely eat.

36:29 The devil came and said, No, the only way to have a life worth loving and to see really good days is to choose evil. God doth know in the day you eat, that is, do evil, your eyes will be opened, you'll receive good.

36:49 Do you see it? That's his ancient lie. He's been telling it for thousands of years. And he'll whisper it in the ear of the most mature Christian.

36:59 Let alone some of you naive young people who still think, still think, some of you, thank God you're the minority, but there's still some of you who think, Mom and Dad and Pastor and these old fuddy-duddies, they really don't know where it's at.

37:19 What are you dangling out there? Of the devil's bait, that's worth loving. The good days are out there when I can bust the traces of Mom and Dad's do's and don'ts and no's. When I can get away from curfews and rules, regulations and church and all the nonsense.

37:40 It's out there. I know it's out there. I can't wait to drink in the life worth loving and the days that are truly good. My dear, precious young person, in the name, in the name of God and of his truth, listen to his word.

37:58 Would you have a life worth loving and see good days? They come in the way of abhorring the evil, cleaving to the good. God is not a celestial killjoy.

38:15 It's the devil who tells you he is.

38:22 Believe him who is the truth. Validate if he is the truth by going to a cross and dying under the wrath of God in the scorn, and spittle and the jeering of man to show you that God is no celestial killjoy.

38:42 He knows that he made you to love life. He knows that he made you to see good days. But he's telling you the way to have a life worth loving and to know good days is not the way spawned by the devil's lie.

39:02 It is the way that God has given us. In a psalm written by a man being chased around the wilderness like a criminal, gathered with the riffraff of Israel, and says, it's been a good day. I'm living a life worth loving because he was turning away from evil and he was doing good. Then the last two imperatives, four and five, are put together.

The Demanding Activities: Seek Peace and Pursue It

39:32 Let him seek peace and pursue it. Let him seek and pursue peace. Now again, the words seek and pursue are vigorous words. Peter uses the word seek again in chapter 5, verse 8.

39:49 Your adversary, the devil, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Now when a prowling lion hasn't had a kill for a few days and is hungry, he doesn't go about just lazily looking, saying, oh, there's something over there, I might get it, something over there. You've seen the National Geographic films. When a lion's on a kill, he's a determined creature.

40:12 Seeking! That's a word used. It's a beautiful use of it in Luke chapter 2 when Joseph and Mary discovered Jesus wasn't with them. And it says they went back to Jerusalem seeking him.

40:26 You get the feel of the word?

40:29 In preparation and thinking of that word, I couldn't help but think of an incident very recent in our own family life. After Heidi and Gordon Landon went back to Michigan less than two weeks ago, Gordon took Landon to an air show in a nearby airfield. There were approximately 5,000 cars parked for this air show. And Gordon's dad was with him, quite an elderly man.

40:57 And after the air show, they went back to find the dad's car that they had used to get there. And Gordon said to his dad, you keep an eye on Landon, I think your car is over here. They were looking in the wrong place. So Gordon found the car and went back then to his dad.

41:13 And Landon wasn't there. He said, dad, where's Landon? He said, well, I thought you were watching him.

41:19 Can you enter in to what my son-in-law must have felt when their only son,

41:24 little seven-year-old guy,

41:27 might have been lost in a sea of 5,000 cars and all kinds of people? And as Gordon described what he did over those next moments, frantically searching for his son,

41:42 our text says, you want to be in the way of blessing? You want to see that next stone paved in that way of blessing? Then you seek peace. Seek it like the devil seeks his prey.

41:56 Like Mary and Joseph sought their son. Seek it like my son-in-law sought my grandson. You seek it. But then the next verb is even more vigorous.

42:07 And pursue it. Pursue it. Dioko. This is the word most frequently translated in the New Testament for persecute.

42:16 Now what do you do when you're persecuting someone? Put your eyes on them, track them down. They get out of sight, you go after them. You hide underground, you go down to get them.

42:23 It's the picture of your seeking peace and you're about to lay hold of it. And it's like my grandmother said to me as a boy. She said, now, Albert, if you can ever put salt on the tail of a bird, you'll be able to catch it. And I believed her.

42:39 And I used to run around on our vacation, her backyard, with a salt shaker. And I'd go, and you know what would happen. And I'd come in and say, but Grandma, I can't get the salt on its tail. She said, well, if you do, you'll be able to catch it.

42:56 And in my naivety, I believed, and they would sit inside and see Albert running around after a bird with a salt shaker and laugh their heads off. Well, sometimes peace among brethren is like the bird.

43:11 And what this text says is when it flies away, you go after it. And when it flies, you go after it. And when it flies some more, you go after it with a zeal to track it down and to lay hold of it. That's what he says.

43:28 Would you have a life worth loving and see good days as God describes them? Then the last two stones in that path are the stones of seeking and pursuing peace. And here again we have two parallel texts, Romans 12 and verse 18, as much as in you, Liar, as much as in you, Liar, live peaceably with all men. In Hebrews 12, 14, the same vigorous verb, follow after peace with all men and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.

44:06 I must bring in the qualifying word of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 10, 34. He said, do not think that I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but to cast a sword.

44:18 And there is a whole biblical doctrine of the non-peaceful relationships that come in allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm aware of that doctrine. I live with the reality of it. I have blood relatives with whom I do not have the measure of peace that I desperately desire.

44:44 But my Lord takes full responsibility for that sword.

44:49 And there can even be among brethren, implacable brethren, whom you pursue with a disposition to reconciliation and their disposition is no.

45:03 People who leave churches and will never even meet with you and have the decency to talk to you. They'll tell you what their gripe is. But feel free to speak their gripe all over the Christian public wherever they get an ear.

45:16 But what our disposition must be of one of even yet pursuing them. Communicate when we can. Let them know that our hearts are toward them and that there is no barrier in our disposition toward righteous reconciliation. Towards righteous reconciliation.

45:36 You want to have a life worth loving and see good days? Here's the path. Five massive stones laid in the path. Originally quarried out of the experience of David and put in Psalm 34.

45:52 Shaped a little differently. Alterating a word here or there and bringing them over and Peter lays them out before all of the believers in the five provinces of Asia Minor. Undergoing opposition and disappointment and feeling the pressure that came from their attachment to Christ. And he says, after telling them, here are the graces to mark your relation to one another.

46:17 Here's how you're to relate to those who oppose you. And if you need any further incentive, I set before you this wonderful path to additional blessing. He that would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

The Divine Response: God's Loving Care for the Righteous

46:39 Let him seek peace and pursue it. Now we come thirdly, and briefly, having considered the dominating desire, the demanding activities. Now look at the divine response. The divine response.

46:52 First to the child of God who's walking that path and then to the evildoer. Look at the response.

47:00 For, verse 12, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are unto their supplication. But the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil. Now in a real sense, this part of the passage gives flesh and blood to what is the heart of a life worth loving and truly good days. These words describe God's response to the persecuted child of God who's determined to respond in God's way to opposition.

47:34 And God says two things will be true of him. His response to the believer's determination to walk this path is first, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication. What's that mean? It means that they are the objects of God's constant, loving, intimate, and paternal concern and care.

47:59 Here's a couple with a little one. The man has to go off to something. He says to his wife, sweetheart, while I'm gone, keep your eye on our child. What's he mean?

48:09 He means let your whole person be turned in loving, concerned, protective attention to that child. Keep your eye upon him. The eye being an index of the soul, and the soul being, as it were, the monitor of the concern and activity of the whole person. And now, Peter says, quoting from David, who in the midst of very adverse circumstances describes the life worth loving and the good life as this kind of life, a life in which you know that the eyes, plural, of the Lord are upon the righteous with all that God has to do to keep His universe in order out to the farthest galaxy, down to the subatomic particles in your body. This God's eyes will be constantly upon you. Beautiful image. You will be the object of His constant, paternal love and care.

49:14 You will be the object of all that He is, says God, turned toward you in loving, paternal favor and compassion. And furthermore, as you're in circumstances as David was, and as you Christians there in Asia Minor are, and as many of us are, in circumstances that cause you to feel deeply your need, and the word for prayer, one of the three or four major words for prayer, and its particular nuance is it's the prayer born of a sense of need, often translated supplication. We are told that His ears, plural, are unto their supplications. It's the picture of a tender mother who bends over to listen to the slightest intimation that the child is in distress. Now do you begin to see what the life worth loving is and what the good life is? It all has to do with the nature of your relationship to God. The nature of your relationship to God.

50:21 David says the good life, the life worth loving is the life in which you have the kind of relationship to the living God of heaven and earth in which you can be confident that no matter where you are and what your circumstances are and what is being done to you and what is going on around you, the eyes of the Lord are upon you in love and concern and favor. And furthermore, His ears are unto your supplication. This is indeed, a life worth loving. These are indeed good days.

50:55 My father sees. My father cares. My father hears. My cry for help.

51:02 One of the commentators expressed it beautifully and I want to just read this paragraph to you. What a picture of condescending majesty and love. Behold, he who inhabits eternity and spreads out to heaven is a tent to dwell in with unswerving in most loving regards watches over the humble. The saint follows him in every step of his pilgrimage, marks every good purpose and aspiration of his heart, as well as all the outward perils and temptations that he faces.

51:35 The eyes of the Lord, his God are upon him from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him as they are ever within sight. So, so also within hearing. His ears are unto their prayer.

51:56 He waits to hear, bows down his ear to listen and no cry of distress, no spontaneous cry of filial faith and hope, no inward sigh, even of bruised and weary and longing soul fails to find entrance there. Oh, the blessedness of those for whom the almighty and omnipresent God thus cares. I am poor and needy, gathered for you. But I am pure, touching all of you.

52:26 I shall be blessed by this life. If you have not yet prayed, or if you have not yet done this, or if you have not yet assumed to be a Christ, I can say this to you in the divine love as I said to Peter, he said, one of his saints, yet the Lord, thinks upon me. You see that is the life worth loving and the life marked by good days. It is the life lived in that kind of confidence of God's fatherly care, his eye upon us, and of his hearing ear.

52:53 And if that's not enough as the way of authentic Christian experience, cultivating those five graces of our interpersonal relationship, by the grace of God not rendering evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but contrary wise blessing, then I really wonder, have you ever tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Remember that early in Psalm 34? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.

53:25 And the one who has tasted, the one who has trusted, is the one who knows there's no greater good in life than to know, my Father watches over me and my Father hears me. I live before His face. I live in communion with Him. And all because of His grace and kindness to me in the Lord Jesus.

The Divine Response: God's Wrath Against Evildoers

53:48 But then I must hasten to just speak very, very briefly on God's response to those described in the last part of the text, the face of the Lord is upon them. The word is, the preposition is not against, it is upon them. As the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous with a view to giving them His fatherly care, so the face of the Lord, all that God is in Himself, His face is...

54:23 is upon them that do evil. Not with a view to blessing, but with a view to venting His righteous and holy wrath unless they repent. And isn't it interesting that Peter didn't quote the whole of verse 16 from Psalm 34. I'm sure he knew it.

54:46 I'm sure he could have looked it up if he needed to. But he stopped short. The last part of that verse is this, the face of the Lord is against, against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Peter stopped short of that because the day of grace was still open and the offers of mercy still go out to sinners.

55:10 Sinners who are believing the devil's lie, that to find the life worth loving and to know true good days, you must do evil. And God extends His mercy in the call of the gospel, saying, turn from your folly, turn from your notions and the devil's prescription and recipe for the good life and throw down your weapons of rebellion and go and plead for mercy and grace in the way of God's appointment. Come around full circle to where we began this morning. Here is an ancient recipe for a happy life.

55:51 Reread Psalm 34 and read that happy man in the cave. Many troubles. He says the Lord delivers him out of them all, but He continues to have them and continues to be delivered. And again and again in Psalm 34, David underscores the blessedness of having a God who hears his prayer and a God whom he knows cares for him.

56:15 Hence, he can tell us and lecture to us about a life worth loving and what truly good days are. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is counter-cultural, but this, this is authentic Christianity. This is authentic Christianity. May God give you grace.

56:35 May God give me grace to think again and again of the five pearls with which we are to adorn ourselves in our life together and to think of those five stones that are the path to additional blessing from our God as by His grace we are enabled to walk in that way. On the contrary, there's something truly awful in the bed of God. In the bare simplicity of the general announcement that while God sees the righteous and listens to their prayer, He is at the same time looking at evildoers. They may think to hide themselves in their wicked courses and counsels in darkness and in the shadow of death, but even there, God, though unseen, confronts them still, gazing direct and full on all their ways and their most secret as yet unuttered devices. They would fain turn their backs on God, but God's face is always toward them. God's face is always toward them. And what more is needed to ensure their ultimate destruction and meanwhile to guard the righteous from their assaults?

57:41 This is truly an awful word from the mouth of God. And then this writer quotes from Amos, I will set my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. May God help you. If God's eyes are upon you, His face upon you, with a view to your destruction, that you would flee from the wrath to come and find refuge in the Lord Jesus and come join this happy band and on to heaven go where there are joys celestial forever.

Conclusion: A Counter-Cultural Recipe for Authentic Christianity

58:16 Let's pray.

58:20 Our Father, we thank You for this portion of Your Word. Thank You for every experience through which You brought Your servant David that he might write the words that Peter then, then picks up and gives to Your church for all the centuries of its life on earth. And how we pray that You would write this portion of Your Word upon all of our hearts and may it bear abundant fruit to Your glory and to our profit. We plead in Jesus' name.

58:52 Amen.