Three Practical Gleanings

Introduction: The Inevitability of Christian Suffering and Peter's Purpose

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, July 18, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:30 to the people of God found in those five Roman provinces of the land that we now know as the country of Turkey, then designated as Asia Minor or designated by us as Asia Minor. And we come again tonight to chapter 3, verses 13 through 17, 1 Peter 3 and verse 13. And who is he that will harm you, if you be zealous of that which is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are you.

1:12 And fear not their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man that asks you, A reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing. Now let us pray and ask God to help us, especially as I feel the frustration of looking out

1:59 and seeing visitors who have not been with us for the previous expositions and everything in me wants to say. We come to installment four in our study of these passages and it's void if we don't have the foundation of the previous three. And we are delighted to have visitors with us for installment number four, but when, as a preacher, you feel the pressure of the Word of God coming to us in its own units of thought and its own connectives of thought, it's very, very frustrating to feel that one is not doing justice to installment number four without going back and laying down the truths of the first three installments. So pray with me that God will help me in that felt sense of frustration

2:46 and give us all to know His blessing upon the ministry of the Word. Let us pray.

2:55 Our Father, we do long for that blessed hour of consummation when we shall know, even as we are known, when there will be no more need for consecutive exposition of the Scriptures, no more sense of frustration in the heart of the preacher, nor sense of a lack of orientation among the listeners, but together we shall all behold the face of our Savior, and we shall know by sight and by the direct vision of our blessed Lord what we now only see through a glass darkly. Until you bring that day to pass, may we live in ever-growing awareness of our utter dependence upon your grace

3:43 And so we confess our need for that grace. Minister to us as preacher and hearer alike this night. We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

3:59 Now I want to begin tonight exactly where I began this morning. And I began this morning by saying that to one degree or another, at one time or another, in one way or another, every true Christian will suffer for the sake of Christ. Suffering for the sake of Christ is an inevitable and an indispensable aspect of authentic Christian experience. If you are the real thing in Christ, sooner or later you will suffer for Christ.

4:47 That truth is epitomized in such text as Romans 8, 17 and 2 Timothy 3, 12, and it is the undergirding assumption of the Apostle Peter as he writes this letter. Now in the light of that fact, no Christian can afford the luxury of being willfully ignorant or indifferent to this section of Peter's letter, beginning in verse 13 of chapter 3 and extending all the way through to chapter 5 and verse 11. Well, the main concern of Peter in this section of his letter is to enlighten, to comfort, and to strengthen the people of God in the face of their present and future sufferings for the sake of Christ and in the way of righteousness.

5:40 So what we did last Lord's Day, morning and evening, was attempt to unpack the train of thought laid out for us by Peter under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and seek to understand precisely what Peter sets before us in what I call Suffering 101. It is Peter introducing this concentrated treatment of the subject of suffering, laying out some of the most basic perspectives which the people of God need to grasp if they are to face their sufferings in a way that will glorify God. Then we came back this morning to pick what I call some of the gleanings from this passage.

Three Doctrinal Gleanings from Suffering 101

6:27 We considered this morning three of the doctrinal gleanings, that is, the very basic doctrinal truths that are embedded in this section of the letter that I've called Suffering 101. 1. And we considered from this passage Peter's bold and undeniable affirmation of the deity of Christ, his bold and undeniable affirmation of the centrality of hope in the Christian faith, and his bold and undeniable affirmation of the reasonableness of the Christian faith. Now what we're going to do tonight is to go back through the passage and take from it what I'm calling some practical gleanings from these verses, verses 13 through 17. Now in saying that

7:19 these are practical gleanings, I am not inferring that the doctrines are not practical. All of the doctrines of the Word of God are practical, and all that is truly practical in the distinctively Christian sense has its roots in the doctrines of the Christian faith. All of the doctrines flower out into practice, and all of the Christian practice has its roots in the doctrines. But in terms of the dominant emphasis, it is right that we should think in terms of certain truths being more densely and explicitly doctrinal, and others being more densely and explicitly practical.

Practical Gleaning 1: A Description of Every Healthy, Growing Christian

8:05 And so it is in the broad stroke sense of those words that I would, with you tonight, go back through the passage and seek to highlight three practical gleanings from this portion of the Word of God. And the first is this. Consider from this passage what I'm calling a description of what every healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be. A description of what every healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be. As Peter writes the words of this section to give the basic introductory lessons on suffering for righteousness' sake, he is conscious that he is

8:53 not writing to some special class of super-duper advanced saints. Rather, he is writing to the rank and file of all of the people of God represented by the congregations there in Asia Minor. He has described them in the earlier part of this epistle as having a common identity in Christ, as having common possessions in Christ, having a common commitment to a life of obedience to Christ. and in all of the descriptions of the blessings of the people of God in this epistle, especially those that are concentrated in chapter 1 verses 3 through 11,

9:44 and again in chapter 1 verses 18 and following, and then chapter 2 verses 4 through 10, there is no indication that Peter's thinking in terms of various categories of Christians, baby Christians who know and experience little, great advanced saints who have more in Christ and who are qualitatively different from their baby brothers and sisters. whatever existing distinctions there may have been in areas of Christian maturity, Peter writes to all of the people of God assuming that they do indeed have a common identity in Christ,

10:30 common possessions in Christ, and common commitments of obedience to Christ. He can describe all of them in chapter 1 and verse 2 in terms of their spiritual identity as those who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, he can describe all of them in verse 14 as children of obedience. So Peter can assume that because of the dynamics of grace that have been operative in their hearts, the rank and file of God's people are disposed to a life of obedience.

11:20 Possessing all that they possess in common in Christ, He fully expects that they will render obedience to Christ as he, as an apostle of Christ, brings them the word of Christ. He does know that there are slaves in the various churches. He knows that there are wives with unconverted husbands, and he addresses them as distinct groups, but not in terms of having more or less spiritual privilege and standing in Christ. Now, why do I underscore that?

11:58 For the simple reason that when we come to chapter 3 and verses 13 to 17, as Peter is giving instructions as to how they are to respond to suffering for righteousness' sake, he gives us what I'm calling a beautiful composite picture of what every healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be. Notice first of all in this composite picture His description of every Christian as one who is becoming Who can become a zealot of the good Verses 13 and 14 Who is he that will harm you If you be zealous of that which is good

12:47 But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake Blessed are you We saw in our study last week that a literal rendering of these words would be as follows. Who is he that will harm you, if of the good zealots you may become? So he envisions these believers as those who under the blessing of God's grace operative in their hearts will become such as could be described as zealots of that which is good. The good being what he has described in the previous verses, particularly verses 8 through 12.

13:31 The good being a people committed to those five graces in their interaction one with another. The good being a lifestyle in which they do not render evil for evil, nor reviling for reviling, but contrary wise blessing. The good being such as those who refrain their tongues from evil, and their lips that they speak no guile. The good being a pattern of life in which they turn away from evil and do good, seek peace, and pursue it.

14:06 and he envisions the rank and file of God's people as coming into a condition in which they could all be designated as zealots of the good. He does not say, if some of you who are particularly dedicated and consecrated may become zealots of the good, He's writing to all of the saints there in those five provinces and asks the question, who is he that will harm you if of the good zealots you may become? Assuming that they may become, most likely they will become, some have already become, such as could be described as

14:53 zealots of the good. The second feature in this composite picture of what a healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be is that he is living a life of righteousness before the face of the ungodly. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are you, And at whose hands are they suffering for righteousness' sake? At the hands of those who need to be put to shame, who are reviling their manner of life in Christ. Verse 16. Probably such as he's already described in verse 12 of chapter 2.

15:39 having your behavior in a becoming way among the Gentiles, among those who are outside, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers they may by your good works that they behold glorify God in the day of visitation Peter envisions the rank and file of God people living a life of righteousness before the face and under the observing eye of the ungodly. Living a life of such consistent and manifest righteousness that it becomes the very occasion of the opposition of the ungodly. His second feature in putting together this composite picture

16:28 of what a healthy Christian, a growing Christian ought to be and can be, he is not only becoming a zealot of the good, he is living a life of righteousness consistently before the face of the ungodly. Thirdly, he is one who is determined not to be intimidated by the ungodly. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are you and do not fear their fear. Neither be troubled, neither be agitated, neither allow your spirit to become like the troubled sea.

17:08 As we saw last week, that's one of the usage of this word in the Gospels. And so Peter, writing to these believers, believing that they are sons of obedience, that they will take to heart and lay hold of the grace that is in Christ to comply with this directive, Peter expects that these healthy, growing Christians, when faced with the opposition of the ungodly, will face it determined not to be intimidated by the undodly, not to be afraid with the things of which they are afraid, or not to be afraid of them, those who would seek to intimidate you.

17:56 And then he brings another feature in this picture of the growing healthy Christian. He is committed to giving Christ his rightful place in his heart, at all times, no matter what the cost to him may be. When he writes that which we saw last week is the central and the foundational duty in the face of opposition, namely, verse 15, to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. Peter fully expects that these believers will say, yes, that is my privilege, my duty, my responsibility, I am committed to giving Christ his rightful place in my heart at all times, no matter what the cost may be.

18:48 Rather than opposition, rather than intimidation, uprooting the Christian from his fundamental commitments to Christ, it drives him deeper into those commitments. As we saw in the exposition, Peter is not saying, you have all accepted Christ as your Savior. Now when trouble comes and things get hot, accept him as your Lord. That's not what this passage is teaching.

19:14 Peter's already made it plain that these are a people who have purified their souls in their obedience to the truth. They have been begotten again unto a life of obedience, unto a life of universal holiness. And what he is saying is when opposition comes from the ungodly, in a fresh and in a concentrated way, give to Christ in a new and deepened sense of commitment His place in your hearts. Sanctify Him, set Him apart in that place in your affections, in your submission, in your trust that is rightfully His.

19:56 And Peter expects that this will mark these believers. He describes then these healthy, growing believers in terms of a commitment to give Christ his rightful place in the heart at all times, no matter what the cost may be. And then there is a fifth feature. As he puts together this composite picture, and it is this.

20:21 This Christian, who is healthy and growing, seeks to be in constant readiness to give a humble, gracious, reasoned response concerning his faith. We saw in the exposition that after this imperative that is the foundational duty, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, Peter then describes these accompanying realities. And the first is ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you yet with meekness and with fear. And when he writes that, again, he expects that the rank and file among them, wives with unconverted husbands, slaves with unreasonable masters, the full spectrum of those in these various groupings of the people of God, that they would, by the grace of God, do exactly what he tells them to do.

21:21 that they would be in a constant state of readiness to give a humble, reasoned response concerning their faith. Here described as a reasonable response to questions concerning the hope that is in them. He does not say that this is only for the intellectual, only those with an outgoing, gregarious, bold personality. He expects this to be true of all of the people of God.

21:53 Now he brings in a sixth feature as he puts together this composite picture, and I'm describing it this way. His life is unmistakably orientated to the future. His life is unmistakably orientated to the future. Now for those of you who've patiently heard me say oriented for years, I apologize. I checked it in my dictionary and realized I've been wrong all these times when I've talked about being oriented to the future.

22:24 You're orientated. And so I'm determined to correct that verbal glitch. His life is unmistakably orientated to the future. And where do we see that?

22:37 We see it again in verse 15, that as Christ is sanctified as Lord, this first accompaniment is this constant readiness to give answer to every man that asks a reason concerning the hope that is in you. And as we saw in our study last week and we underscored again this morning, it is clear that in the lives of these believers, ordinary humble believers, this fixation upon the future, called here the hope that is in you, This expectation of all that God has promised to do in Christ for his people, that this is a burning reality to the ordinary rank and file child of God among those to whom Peter writes.

23:29 Peter assumes that their lives are unmistakably orientated to the future. And then he puts another feature into this composite picture. Number seven, Peter assumes that the ordinary, the healthy, the growing Christian will be one who seeks to maintain a conscience void of offense to God and to man. Verse 16, having a good conscience.

24:02 Sanctify Christ as Lord in constant readiness to give answer, a defense, an apology as a reasonable response to the question. But do it constantly. A present participle constantly possessing, having a good conscience. Again, he's assuming that these to whom the letter comes will hear the directive, and by the grace of God will apply themselves to be such as could be described as in constant possession of a good conscience.

24:42 That is a conscience void of offense to God and to man, keeping short accounts in our dealings with God, keeping clear accounts in our dealings with our fellow men, possessing at all times and in all circumstances a good conscience. And then the eighth feature in this composite picture is he lives a consistently good life in the grace and strength of Christ. See how he describes it at the end of verse 16. Having a good conscience that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ.

25:27 We had occasion to note in opening up this phrase last Lord's Day, to put to shame those who revile, those who abuse you, for your good in Christ manner of life. It is a good in Christ manner of life. It is their union with Christ that is the source of the way they live. But they live what can be called is a good life.

25:57 Not a perfect life, not a sinless life, but a consistently good life. And Peter is unashamed to assume that in writing to these believers this will be true of them. so that when opposition comes and when persecution comes and when suffering for righteousness sake comes, that these ordinary rank and file believers will be such as could be legitimately described as living a good life in the grace and in the strength of Christ. Now I've used the term a composite picture all the way along, and does that register with you?

Self-Examination: Comparing Your Life to the Composite Picture

26:38 Have you heard the terminology before? you hear that a certain crime has been committed, and the police are going to try to find if there are any witnesses, and they find two or three people who saw the perpetrator. And so they take them down to the police station, and they have a resident artist who has a special ability in this area or has knowledge of the stuff that I imagine much of it's done with computers now, and they try to put together the various features that will in some way resemble the perpetrator as seen by the witnesses. We'll start with the face.

27:17 Is it oval? Is it square? Does he have a protruding jaw, retracting jaw? And then they get a shape of a face.

27:25 And then a hairline. And then the eyes. And by putting together the various features, they have a composite picture that represents the reality of who the criminal is, and then they will widely distribute it and expect people to look at the picture and see if they see someone who matches.

27:45 Now what I want you to do, and what I've sought to do, and what I'm seeking to do even as I preach to you, is to look at this composite picture of a healthy, growing Christian, as such can be, and ought to be, and ask, is there much similarity between this composite picture and you?

28:13 Someone looking at this picture saying, this is a growing, healthy Christian, as he ought to be and can be by the grace of God. He is becoming a zealot of the good. He is living a life of righteousness before the face of the ungodly. He is determined not to be intimidated by the ungodly.

28:38 He is committed to giving Christ his rightful place no matter what the cost. He seeks to be in constant readiness to give a humble, reasoned response concerning his faith. His life is unmistakably orientated to the future. He seeks to maintain a conscience void of offense to God and man.

28:59 He lives a consistently good life in the grace and strength of Christ. Let me ask before Almighty God, in the light of the fact that He knows us all together, can you say, by God's grace, at least to some degree, that's a picture of my life, of who I am. If someone were to take that picture and go around looking for someone mirrored in that image by God's grace, they just might think that I'm the perfect. Now I ask you, if not, where not?

29:48 Where is there some feature that is radically different or patently absent?

29:57 Where is there some feature that is radically different or patently absent? is it that no one would ever begin to think of you as a zealot of that which is good? But, oh, you're not a zealot of the bad and of the evil, but you are concerned about the good only when it's convenient. You're not prepared to subject yourself to disciplines essential to becoming a zealot for the good.

30:33 it? Why aren't you a zealot for the good? Is the good not worthy of your zeal? Is the good an unworthy goal to pursue for the glory of Christ, the honor of his name? Or perhaps it's in that second feature. You are not living a life of consistent righteousness before the face of the ungodly. You'd never be persecuted for righteousness' sake. There's not enough consistent righteousness to sting the conscience of the unconverted people you work with.

31:10 You can compromise by snickering at their dirty joke. You can compromise by entering into business practices that are shady and marginal. You're not living the kind of right-angled life of righteousness that stings and stabs the conscience of the ungodly.

31:33 This feature is missing, or maybe it is the third. You are not determined that nothing will intimidate you from the path of commitment to Christ and His Word. The frown of the ungodly even the thought of His frown will budge you from a strict life of obedience to Christ Or perhaps Christ is nudged from his rightful place by the slightest of pressures You go down through. You can do as well as I can do going back down through those features and saying, What is there in my life that is radically different from those features or patently absent?

32:18 And ask God by His grace, O God, work in me those things that will make me fit the picture of a healthy, growing Christian. Now I've taken the time to do this because again, as I said this morning, one of the tasks of a pastor is to try to guide you as to how to use your own Bible in your own reading of the Bible. And if you were reading this passage, not only should you bend your mind to understand the flow of thought regarding the explicit subject of suffering, but when you see so many little phrases describing a healthy, growing Christian, you ought to say, Lord, whether I suffer now or then, this much is clear.

33:05 I ought to be this kind of a man, this kind of a woman. Oh, God, make me this kind of a man by Your grace. Make me this kind of a woman because, oh God, I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And, oh Lord, help me so to abide in Him that I will bear much fruit, even the fruit of likeness to Christ.

33:28 Because at the end of the day, apart from those things that need some alteration given who he is, this composite picture is really a picture of a consistent Christ-like life.

Practical Gleaning 2: A Prescription for Becoming a Well-Informed Christian

33:46 Now then, having looked at this first practical gleaning, what I have called a description of what every healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be, Notice with me, secondly, a prescription for every child of God to seek to become a well-informed Christian. A prescription for every child of God to seek to become a well-informed Christian. Remember what we saw when we examined the words, ready always, literally, towards a defense or an answer to everyone asking you a reason concerning the hope that is in you.

34:36 The key words are defense and answer. Answer in the form of a reasoned and an intelligent response, again, as we saw in another connection last Lord's Day and more fully this morning. Now, to be in readiness to do this means more than closing our eyes and emoting about the joy and blessing of being a child of God. We are to be ready at all times to give answer to everyone in the form of a reasonable explanation of our hope.

35:15 Among all the commentators that I consulted in preparation for these studies in this section, nothing moved me more with respect to this very issue than this paragraph from the commentary on 1 Peter by a man named Lily, L-I-L-L-I-E. He has the phrase, the hope that is in you, and now he's going to expound it, its nature, its ground, its object, and its influences. Tell another how you too, like those around you, were until now living without hope in the world, with no hope toward God, no hope for a dying hour, no hope for eternity. then speak to others of our God and Savior

36:01 and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope. Open to them the glorious mystery of His person and work and death and resurrection and His ascension to the Father's right hand and future return as the judge of the living and the dead and King of all the earth. Explain to Him moreover your own personal interest in all this through your living union by faith with the Son of God, the world's Redeemer, and the consequent indwelling and gracious witness of His Spirit with your spirit, that you also are now children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs indeed, and joint heirs with Christ. Oh, what must be the value of the inheritance which has been bequeathed by the Almighty Father to the Son of His love?

36:50 Go on then to explain that it is this hope that enables you to bear without passion or murmuring the world's wrong, its slander and its insults, and which, like that divine form in the seven times heated furnace of Babylon, still shines victorious in its brightness, even through the fires of martyrdom. Finally, with this account of the hope that is in you, you may go on for the sake of the inquirer to contrast your hope in all these respects with such hopes as he himself entertains, so limited in their scope, so insecure in their foundation, so uncertain the fulfillment, so inoperative for good on his moral and spiritual being, and so devoid of anything of hope for eternity.

37:44 If we're to do this, to give answer in the form of a reasoned explanation of our hope, then we have got to be well-informed Christians. I am not saying because Peter's not saying we've all got to be competent professional theologians. You ought to be as competent a theologian as grace and pains and the stewardship of all your other responsibilities will allow you to become. But Peter's writing to rank and file ordinary Christians, wives with unconverted husbands, slaves with irascible, unreasonable masters, and everything else in between.

38:29 And he says to all of them, ready always to give an answer of defense in terms of a reason of the hope that is in you. And surely that means that we must seek to master the basic themes of the Bible. You don't need to know a word of Greek or Hebrew to master the basic themes of the Bible. God as creator of heaven and earth and of all men.

39:01 God as the sovereign Lord of His world and the judge of all His creatures. Sin as that horrible, foul, moral disease that entered through our first father, Adam. Redemption in Jesus Christ, in the objective work that He accomplished on behalf of sinners. We've got to master these basic themes of the Bible if we're going to give a defense in the form of a reasonable explanation of the hope that is in us.

39:34 We've got to grasp the basic Bible storyline. We've got to know that our Bibles are something more than a random collection of various snippets of biographical, historical, doctrinal, and devotional materials thrown together somehow or other. No, we've got to grasp something of the basic storyline of the Bible. What is all of this history that we're reading now?

40:01 Do you sit when you hear the reading from Judges and say, Ah, God is painstakingly preserving this wretched nation that seems determined to cast itself into the oblivion of apostasy. God is committed to fulfill His promise made way back in the Garden of Eden that a seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent while in the process his heel would be bruised. And somehow that's connected with his promise that through this man Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And as that promise is finding fulfillment and the nation is established and all kinds of promises begin to cluster around the nation and its history,

40:47 do you sit and say this is but one chapter of the bigger story what God is doing to prepare the world that in the fullness of the time he might send forth his son made of a woman made under the law that he might redeem those that are under the law if we're going to give a defense an answer in the form of a reasoned response then surely the average Christian is under responsibility to master the basic themes of the Bible, the basic storyline of the Bible, to memorize the key verses of the Bible that epitomize these truths, to memorize them, to store them up in the mind

41:33 so that they are ready upon the lips as part of our reason, our rational response. And it wouldn't hurt to read and be acquainted with some of the basic, simple, elementary works on apologetics, how to answer some of the major objections to the Christian faith, why it is that we believe we are not following cunningly devised fables in embracing the Christian faith, surely all of that, if not explicit, is implicit in Peter's injunction, ready always to give answer to everyone, to seek to be prepared across a broad spectrum

42:19 of any who would ask a reason of the hope that is in us. And I want to speak especially to you young people because God has been creating in many of you a hunger and a thirst and a seriousness about spiritual things. And I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to become more knowledgeable concerning the basic outline of Ephesians than you are about the present averages of Mike Piazza and Derek Jeter.

42:52 Some of you, every Monday, could tell the present batting averages of Piazza and Jeter. But if you had a gun to your head, you couldn't give a basic outline of the book of Ephesians. Now that should not be. That should not be.

43:08 Some of you are more knowledgeable as to where McGuire and Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. are in the home run derby than you are of the basic structure of the Gospel of Mark. And that should not be. If you're really serious about becoming a healthy, useful Christian, then you've got to start making acquisitions of the stuff of the Bible.

43:35 It can't be done for you. No Christian school can impart it to you. No home schooling curriculum can impart it to you. That can all just glance over your head.

43:46 I remember as a young believer, having been absorbed with an idolatrous attachment to sports through many of the formative years of the early teenage years, and then God saved me as a senior in high school. And I can remember with nobody telling me to do it, making an internal vow for at least a year that I would take no part in organized sports till I could get myself off my addiction to sports.

44:16 And as far as I remember, I no longer gave a hoot about the averages of the guys on the Brooklyn Dodgers back when they were in Brooklyn. That's how old I am. And Ebbets Field was where they played.

44:32 And Carl Forello could throw in ropes from center field or right field and without a bounce, nail him at the plate. And I've seen him do it. I even saw Ted Williams hit. I mean, I'm an old man.

44:46 Not in Abbott's Field, but in old Yankee Stadium. But God broke the tyranny of idolatry to sports.

44:55 And what a joy it used to be as a young Christian to sit at the dining room table when the food was cleared off. And with the old Strong's Concordance that I still use in preparing sermons to sit and trace out the words repentance and faith and mercy and the basic truths of the Bible. I had nobody tutoring me, nobody telling me that's what I ought to do. There was that instinctive sense, if I'm going to give a reasoned response to my classmates, what in the world has happened to you, Al? You've gone freaky bananas. I wanted with my Bible to give a reasoned response of the hope that was in me. And I know it's possible, and that's

45:44 why I urge you young people and plead with you, stop playing games. Nobody will care in five years what Piazza and Jeter's averages are, but there'll be some people to care if You become one who's ready to give answer in the form of a reasoned response for the hope that is emerging in you. You'll never have a more convenient time than now. You say, oh, I'm so busy.

46:15 You've got it easy. You don't know what busyness is. Your burdens are the lightest now. Your responsibility is the fewest.

46:24 And I urge you, in the light of this text, if Peter can expect, as an apostle writing to ordinary believers, who had the same standing in Christ, the same privileges in Christ, but they didn't have the same means to grow that we have. They would have to talk to one another and say, well, let's hope we can remember what was read in our last church service in that letter from the apostle Peter. before copies were made and distributed. They didn't have a Bible to pull off their nightstand.

47:00 They didn't have a whole array of good books to read that will take a person through basic biblical doctrine. Lovely books like Sinclair Ferguson's Let's Study Mark that my wife and I are using in our own devotions. Beautiful in its simplicity. Helpful in grasping the message of Mark.

47:20 Understanding the structure of Mark. If Peter could expect these humble, ordinary believers to be in constant readiness by the grace of God to give answer to everyone that would ask a reason concerning the hope that was in them then surely it is not unreasonable to expect that we should become well Christians not to have the knowledge that puffs up but to have the knowledge that will enable us to give answer in the form of a rational explanation of the hope that is in us. But then I want briefly to focus upon a third practical gleaning from this passage. Not only does it contain a

Practical Gleaning 3: The Necessity for Life and Lip to Agree

48:10 description of what every healthy, growing Christian ought to be and can be, a prescription for every child of God to seek to become a well-informed Christian. Thirdly, the passage contains a declaration of the necessity for life and lip to agree in every child of God. a declaration of the necessity for life and lip to agree in every child of God. Again, as Peter gives counsel to the Christians in Asia Minor with respect to how they are to react when they suffer for righteousness' sake, it is clear that this readiness for verbal witness is part of his instruction.

48:58 The words ready always toward an answer to everyone who is asking you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, unmistakably points to the witness of the lips. There's no way you can give answer, give a defense, as we saw in our study this morning. That's a verbal, or at least it would have to be written, generally speaking, a verbal response, a verbal answer, a verbal apologia, a verbal defense. And surely, though that's not the imperative in the passage, the imperative, the only imperative is sanctify Christ as Lord.

49:36 These other things are what I described in the exposition as accompanying realities. They hang on to and are clustered around the central duty. Nonetheless, we cannot avoid that it is the will of God revealed through an apostle of Christ that God's people be in readiness with their lips to speak of their faith. There is no such thing as a completely, totally, perpetually silent Christian.

50:05 Even if his lips must be his fingers in his hands, as it is to those on the right of me and to the left of you, it will be a witness expressed in words. However, without in any way backing off from that which is plain in the text, however, Peter is most anxious to underscore that the verbal witness is to be couched in the context of a validating life.

50:37 Verbal witness must be couched in the context of a validating life. Verbal witness, validating life. The life is not a validating life, it's that there's no verbal witness. The verbal witness is worse than useless when it's not couched in a validating life.

50:59 It simply gives occasion of the enemies of God to blaspheme. Now how do we know that is so? Look at the passage. Before he says, ready to give answer in the form of a reasonable explanation of your hope, How does he describe these people?

51:20 Verse 13, who is he that will harm you if of the good you are zealots, or if of the good you may become zealots? those whom he describes as ready to give an answer in the form of a reasonable explanation of their hope, he's assuming that they are or are becoming zealots of the good. Furthermore, in the context, he says, but if you should suffer not for your blabbering, But for righteousness' sake, it points to the fact that they are suffering for the stinging impact of their consistently righteous life.

52:12 A life that is right by the standard of God as to what is right and what is wrong. Furthermore, he describes them in verse 16 as those who are in constant possession of a good conscience. When they sin against God, they confess it. When they sin against men, they confess it, even unregenerate, unconverted men.

52:39 When they wrong them, they sin against them. They're prepared to make the issue right. And furthermore, they are described as those who are reviled for their good manner of life in Christ. So here's this one accompanying reality, ready always to give answer.

53:03 But there are at least three or four explicit references to the validating life. Now in terms of this passage, the weight of Peter's emphasis falls upon the validating life. And though it is one of the most critical passages in the New Testament with regard to the verbal witness of the ordinary child of God, can't you see how plain God's making the issue? It's as though God is saying, whatever I have to say to you about your verbal witness, it must be couched in the validating life.

53:38 You must be zealots of the good. You must be those whose consistent life of righteousness is stinging the conscience and exposing the shoddy lifestyle of the unconverted. You must be such as continually walk in possession of a good conscience, and it must be your good manner of life in Christ. The word good, agathos, used three times.

54:06 And then you have a verb that takes that word agathos and joins it to the word to do. It's those who are do-gooders.

The Relationship Between Life and Lip in Witness

54:17 Peter's making the emphasis very clear. He's declaring the necessity for life and lip to agree in every child of God. Now there's the tragic error under which some hide moral cowardice. And it's this.

54:36 Well, I'm just not one to talk about my faith. I'll just live out my faith. You see, part of living out your faith in obedience to Christ is speaking about your attachment to Christ. Christ said, Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and with the holy angels.

55:00 He that confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. There's no such thing as a perpetually, deliberately silent Christian. Sooner or later, God will give opportunities, we must seize opportunities to verbalize our attachment to Christ. Having said that, and in no way overlooking or seeking to neutralize the biblical passages that point in that direction, the great emphasis of this passage and of the entire New Testament is that our lives must validate what we communicate with our lips.

55:42 And that relationship of life and lip, let me try to explain more fully this way. When opportunities are given or taken to give a verbal witness early in our contact with people, all of our subsequent interaction should validate what we've said with our lips and lead those to whom we have spoken to desire to hear more. If early in the contact we have opportunity to speak with our lips, subsequent interaction should validate, explain, exegete more fully everything we've said with our lips, and awaken desire to hear more.

56:29 Conversely, when opportunities are given to live before people for a time, prior to a judicious opportunity to bear verbal witness, our lives should be constantly preparing the ears of those who watch us to receive our witness as credible.

56:50 That's the relationship of life and lift in the life of the healthy Christian, and that's the relationship that Peter underscores in this passage. A vital, practical lesson of the Christian life. That life and lip must agree, or our witness will be of no effect. We'll simply give the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme.

57:18 Ah, another one of those Jesus freaks. He talks, he hands out his tracks, but I saw him there. I saw his eyeballs when that shaped dame walked down the aisle in the office. He was looking right where the rest of us were looking.

57:34 And down the tooth goes the entire witness. Until you're ready to stand before those men in the office and say, hey guys, I ogled like the rest of you. That was sin and I've asked my God to forgive me. Will you forgive me?

57:50 Ah, that's right.

57:53 Say what you want. Pass out your tracks. Once you do, eyes are going to be zeroed in on you expecting a life that's different. And they have every reason to expect it will be different.

58:07 You've said with your lips you're saved by a supernatural Savior, with a supernatural salvation.

58:14 Now they have every reason to expect to see something radically different about you. And your life must validate your lips or keep your lips shut and don't add to your condemnation by giving occasion of the enemies of God to blaspheme.

58:35 Conversely, you can live for a hundred years before people. You may live a consistent life, but your life will never, never communicate how their sins can be forgiven through the substitutionary curse-bearing of the Son of God. your life will never expound to them Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures he was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures your life will never tell them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ repent and believe the gospel we must seek verbally by means of tract and literature

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

59:20 to communicate the substance of the gospel. But as we do, and as lip is engaged, may it be in the context of the validating life. Well, that's what I wanted to give you of the gleanings of the practical lessons from this passage. And God willing, and God giving me the courage and giving us all the patience, we're going to plunge into that most difficult passage next Lord's Day morning.

59:50 And you've all been wondering, what's Pastor Martin going to do with the spirits in prison and baptism saves us? Not the putting of the way, the filth of the flesh, but the answer. May I urge you, as you think about that passage, read the first part and the last part, and you'll get the heart of what Peter's saying. And then you'll be more patient if we just don't try to unravel all of the central part.

60:16 Remember what he's doing. He's speaking to suffering Christians and he wants to instruct them. He wants to encourage them. He wants to nerve them to press on.

60:26 And in this opening section, he gives many principles to help them. And now he comes to Christ himself and says, Christ also suffered. And in his suffering, he has accomplished your salvation. And his suffering has led to glorification.

60:44 the end of the paragraph who is at the right hand of God principalities and powers made subject to him you sufferers in Asia Minor remembering your suffering Lord who is now in glory and now in triumph press on you are in fellowship and union and communion with the Christ who suffered but is now in triumph let's pray together

61:14 Our Father, we thank you again for this portion of your word in which we have been privileged to think and meditate over these past two Lord's days. and we do earnestly pray that according to your own promise that you would write your law upon our hearts, that you would write this portion of your word upon the fleshy tables of all of our hearts, that we may by your grace live in the light of it, that we may more and more be conformed to every line of principle and directive, that we may lay hold of every promise of your grace, we do ask that in Christ we may so live before an onlooking world throughout the

62:04 coming week, that our lives may be a validation of the gospel, that you would give us opportunities to speak of the hope that is in us. Oh, our Father, make us more bold and more winsome, make us more prepared to give answer to everyone who asks a reason of the hope that is in us. And then help us by your grace to have lives that more and more reflect these very features that Peter describes of those saints in Asia Minor, that we by your grace may have lives that constantly validate the witness of our lips. Seal then these truths to our hearts Be with your people As each one in his or her

62:52 Respective sphere of stewardships And responsibilities Seeks to live according to your word And to your glory Make us all our Father Light and salt In all of our contacts With the unconverted Throughout this coming week Use us we pray For the spread of your truth in our wicked and perverse generation. Continue, our Father, to be patient with those who've come to another Lord's Day, either indifferent to your claims, or if not indifferent, still, tarrying, still lingering back and not closing with your offers of mercy in Christ. O Father, we pray that you would not cut them off in their sin and unbelief,

63:39 but continue to stretch out your hands in grace and in mercy. Hear then our prayers and dismiss us with your blessing we plead, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.