Now may I urge you to turn in
your own Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3. For those who may be visiting
with us when we are in consecutive exposition, we do like to have
people having the Word of God come not only through the ear
gate, but through the eye gate. Over the years I have often said
to the people of God in this place, believe nothing until
you see it with your own eyes. in your own Bibles and then believe
it because you see it in your Bible regardless of who the human
instrument was to help you to see it. Then should that human
instrument eventually deny it, you will still cling to the truth
because it is the truth of the Word of God. Follow then, please,
as I read 1 Peter 3, verses 13 through 17. 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. And fear
not their fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ
as Lord, being ready always to give answer to everyone that
asks 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." in one way or another, to one
degree or another, at one time or another, suffering for the
cause of Christ is an inevitable and an indispensable aspect of
authentic Christian experience. I'm going to repeat that because
I found over the years there's always a number who really don't
begin to listen until about the third or fourth sentence in an
introduction. And because I labor over that
first sentence, and it's not filler, and it's not just warming
me up and hoping it'll warm you up to listening, I want you to
listen with all three ears. You say, I don't have three ears.
Well, that shows you're listening. in one way or another, to one
degree or another, at one time or another, suffering for the
sake of Christ is an inevitable and an indispensable aspect of
authentic Christian experience. To put it more simply, more succinctly,
and perhaps a little more bluntly, If you are the real thing in
Christ, you will eventually suffer for Christ. Now that truth is
explicitly stated in such verses as Romans 8 and verse 17. And if sons, then heirs, heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be glorified together. Or 2 Timothy 3 and
verse 12, yes, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution. Now this being true, if you sitting
here this morning are an authentic a real, a genuine Christian,
then you are or yet will experience some form of suffering for the
sake of your Savior. This being so, no true Christian
sitting here this morning can afford the luxury of being indifferent
or perpetually ignorant. of this section in 1 Peter, beginning
in chapter 3 and verse 13 and going all the way through almost
to the end of the epistle. For in this section, Peter comes
to the heart of his burden for these Christians in Asia Minor
as he writes to them in this letter. In this section, he is
writing to enlighten, to comfort, and strengthen his readers in
the face of present and future suffering and trial. And that
this is his basic theme from here all the way through is clear
when we come to chapter 5 in verse 10. And the God of all
grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have
suffered a little while shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen
you. To him be the dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Now, what I sought to do
last Lord's Day as we came the first time to this section, 1
Peter 3, 13-17, was simply to unpack this passage. It comes to us
in a very tightly knit bundle of divinely inspired ideas and
concepts. And because not only are the
words of scripture inspired and the arrangement of those words
into grammar, but the connection of those words into main clauses
and subordinate clauses and different forms of verbs and participles,
I felt that the only responsible thing to do in seeking to grasp
the meaning of this section was to take morning and evening and
primarily unpack it with very little digression into observation
and application And in that unpacking of the verses, we saw together
that in verse 13, we have the question raised, the introductory
question, who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of
that which is good? Then in verse 14, we have the
possible reaction of the ungodly anticipated. But even if you
should suffer for righteousness sake, blessed! No verbs. He says you must immediately
think of the words of your Lord, and the only beatitude that has
a double blessed is the beatitude pertaining to those who suffer
for righteousness sake. And then in verse 14b through
verse 16, we have the required response of the godly articulated. What is the required response
of the godly? in the face of suffering for
righteousness' sake. Well, they are given directives
that are first of all negative. They are not to fear their fear,
nor be agitated and disturbed. Positively, here's the central
duty, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, And then there
are three accompanying realities that are to be present wherever
the child of God is sanctifying Christ as Lord in his heart,
in the face of suffering for righteousness' sake. There is
to be a constant readiness to give an answer. There is to be
a readiness to give an answer with a right demeanor, with meekness
and fear. and to give an answer in the
context of a godly life, having a good conscience and a good
manner of life in Christ. And then Peter points to this
intended result in all of this. It is that the detractors may
be put to shame. and that their shame might lead
them to consider their own state before God and the claims of
Christ. And then he points to the source
of their power in responding this way. It is in Christ that
they so live and are enabled so to respond. And then he gives
the crowning encouragement in verse 13. By this word of comparison,
it is better, and this word of affirmation, it is the will of
God that ultimately determines both the time and the nature
of their suffering for Christ's sake. Now, in five minutes, that's
a distillation of an hour and 45 minutes of exposition. If
you want to look into the matter further, the tapes are available
from the Trinity pulpit. Now, because I was determined
to open up and explain the meaning of the passage, I had to pass
over much in this passage that I believe is for our edification. And what I want to do this morning
and again this evening is to go back into this passage and
take out of it what I'm going to call gleanings of both doctrinal,
for one or two British friends here, doctrinal, they pronounce
the long I, the doctrinal or the doctrinal, and the practical
observations. We're going to go back and take
some gleanings out of the passage in both a doctrinal and a practical
area. In other words, I'll be doing
this morning what you would find in a typical Puritan sermon.
After the exposition, you will find the section entitled Observations
and Applications. And so this morning, and God
willing again this evening, observations and applications from this passage. Now remember, this is not the
exposition. That was done last Lord's Day.
And based upon the exposition, that was conscious of giving
due respect to the structure, the grammar, the connections,
this morning we go back and we pick the gleanings in these areas
of the doctrinal and the practical. This morning I want to set before
you the doctrinal gleanings from this passage. And as I begin
to do this, I want to underscore some principles of responsible
biblical interpretation. Some doctrines are set forth
in the scripture in what we would call concentrated formal statements. For example, if I were to ask
you, where in the Bible is there a concentrated formal statement
of the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the dead? What
portion of the Word of God comes to your mind? Well, I hope you're either thinking
1 Corinthians chapter 15, or perhaps a more limited passage,
John chapter 5, passages in which The teaching of the Bible, and
that's what we mean by the doctrine, the teaching of the Bible, the
doctrine of the bodily resurrection is set forth under the guidance
of the Spirit, whoever the particular biblical author was, in a concentrated
and formal way. If I were to say, where do you
have a concentrated, formal statement of the majesty and sovereignty
of God contrasted with dumb idols? Well, I would hope among several
passages you would think immediately of Isaiah chapter 40. There is
a dense, concentrated, almost formal, albeit majestic statement
of the majesty and sovereignty of God contrasted with dumb idols. If I were to say what passage
or passages in the word of God give us a concentrated formal
statement of the judgment of the last day, I hope you would
think, Matthew 25, Revelation 20. All right, so you get the
idea of what I mean when I say some doctrines are set forth
in the Scriptures in a concentrated, formal statement, and if we are
serious about knowing the doctrines of the Bible, those chapters
ought to be ready at hand for us to refer to for our own confirmation
in the faith and for use in our witness to others. However, at
times these doctrines are set forth not in formal, concentrated
statements, but in vivid, concrete illustrations in history and
in biography. God is not giving us a formal
statement of the doctrine. He's given us a vivid picture
of the doctrine fleshed out in human life and human experience.
If you were in the previous hour, almost all of the texts that
Pastor Lamar was using to demonstrate the doctrine of God's all-pervasive
providence, they were taken out of historical situations in which
those doctrines are beautifully and powerfully illustrated. The
absolute sovereignty of God celebrated in a formal statement in Isaiah
40 is amply illustrated in the history of the life of Joseph. So that he can look back over
all of the windings of his life and say, you meant it for evil,
God meant it for good. Or we see the absolute sovereignty
of God illustrated again and again in the life of the prophet
Elijah. God describes in 1st Kings 17 that when he needs to
be fed and he's hiding his servant, God takes ravens, birds of prey,
and moves them to go into the king's kitchen and carry food
and drop it in the hands or in the lap of the prophet. God sovereignly
restrains the disposition of that bird not to eat the food
for himself. and to carry it to his servant. Or we see the absolute sovereignty
of God in the story of the life of Jonah. God prepares a great
fish, and the fish is at the right place at the right time,
and he's hungry at the right time. You can't get a fish that
ain't hungry to bite at anything. And when Jonah's floating by,
the fish is good and hungry, boom, he's got Jonah. But somehow
he got indigestion after three days and he vomits him out. God
makes the fish hungry at the right time, God gives him indigestion
at the right time. Not one word about the sovereignty
of God in formal statement, but you see it in vivid illustration. And then at other times, By unassuming
references, great doctrinal truths are both stated and wonderfully
enforced, and you can pass right over them and miss it. I want
you to turn with me for an example of this, and I haven't lost the
track. This is crucial in terms of what we're going to do with
1 Peter 3 this morning. I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 22. I'm not rambling. I haven't forgotten
where we're going. Just hang in there with me. The
Lord Jesus is in that part of his ministry just before his
crucifixion, when the opposition of the religious leaders reaches
its zenith, and one group after another is seeking to trap him
in his words. And in such a setting, we read
in Matthew 22, verse 23, On that day there came to him Sadducees. They that say there is no resurrection,
one of the tenets of the faith of the Sadducees or the unbelief
or non-faith, no bodily resurrection. They regarded the doctrine of
the resurrection of the body as nonsense. And they come to
Jesus saying, Teacher, Moses said, if a man die having no
children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed to
his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren, and the first
married and died, and having no seed, left his wife likewise
all the way to the seventh, and after them all the woman died.
In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife shall she be of the
seven? For they all had her." Now we've
really got him. We've really got him. Seven people
can say, that's my wife. Who's going to claim her in the
resurrection? If there's such a thing as the resurrection of
the body, who is going to claim this woman in her bodily experience
as their spouse since all seven had her? They think they really
have him. But Jesus answered and said unto
them, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power
of God. In the resurrection, they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven."
In other words, he dispenses with their first so-called problem
by saying, if you only knew the scriptures and the power of God,
you wouldn't have this, quote, problem. And I'm not going to
go into what scriptures they should have known that would
have resolved that issue. with respect to no marriage as
we now know it in heaven. But now he turns to this whole
issue of bodily resurrection itself, but as touching the resurrection
of the dead. Now he's focusing in upon not
the matter of whose wife will she be in the resurrection, but
the issue of bodily resurrection itself. And he's going to tell
them, here is an area where you were ignorant of your Bible.
And if you only read your Bible as you ought, you would not have
this question. But as touching the resurrection
of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you
by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. And when the multitudes heard
it, they were astonished at his teaching. What does Jesus do?
He says, if you never read, and in the parallel passages, it
says that which Moses said, that which is written in Exodus chapter
3, when God appears in the burning bush to Moses, God identifies
himself with these words, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Jacob. Now he says, in reading that
passage, you should know that there's such a thing as bodily
resurrection. Isn't that what he says? Now, how does that verse
prove bodily resurrection? Well, go back and think of the
passage. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have
been dead for a long, long time. And when God appears to Moses
as the living God, He says not, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, but I am. As surely as I exist, I exist
in a living relationship to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he does
not say, I was, nor does he say, I am the God of the souls of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, souls that were now with him, the bodies
in their graves. He says, I am the God of all
that makes Abraham Abraham and Isaac Isaac and Jacob Jacob. I am not the God of the dead,
but of the living. As I commit myself in covenant
grace and faithfulness to my people, I am committed to the
salvation and the preservation of all that makes them who and
what they are. If only you read that passage
as you ought to have read it, you would know there is such
a thing as bodily resurrection. Now, what's the principle? The
principle is that some very vital doctrines are locked up in passages
where, upon a first reading, we would not think that they
were being explicitly stated or even implicitly affirmed. But in passage after passage,
God has given us confirmations and illustrations of basic biblical
doctrines, and we are responsible, as the Lord held them responsible,
to read our Bibles in such a way that by the illumination of the
Spirit, we see those doctrines confirmed and illustrated. Now,
a word of caution. when someone thinks he discovers
novel and bizarre doctrines in obscure passages and seeks to
teach those doctrines that are not found in any explicit, concentrated
statement of the doctrine. illustrated profusely in historical
and biographical parts, that is doing what Peter says the
ignorant and the unlearned do, they twist the scriptures to
their own destruction, although they appear very clever in doing
it. And what I'm proposing to do with you this morning, not
only for immediate edification, But from a pastoral perspective,
to stir you up to read your Bible more reflectively and carefully
is to highlight three basic doctrines that are not novelties, but are
the stuff of the biblical revelation, particularly the New Testament
revelation. And now let's come to those three
doctrinal observations, those three gleamings. First of all,
Behold in this passage, 1 Peter 3, 13-17, behold in this passage
a bold and undeniable affirmation of the deity of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Behold in this passage a bold
and undeniable affirmation of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you say, preacher, what do
you mean by deity? Well, simply this. When we speak
of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, we mean this. All that
makes God, God, Jesus is. Now, you don't need to be a theologian
to grasp that, do you? All that makes God, God, Jesus,
is. Whatever it means when the scripture
says in John 1 14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst. Whatever it meant for Him to
take a true human soul and body to Himself. who had been the
eternal Word who was with God and was himself God. Whatever
it means for him to take to himself a human soul and body, what he
is as God is neither altered, nor diluted, nor diminished or
compromised in any way whatsoever. He takes to himself a true human
soul and body, and as the God-man, he places himself in a posture
of dependence upon his Father, a posture of subordination to
the will of his Father. But he loses nothing of the integrity
of who and what he is as God. And when we speak of the deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are saying, all that makes God,
God Jesus is. Now, you look at the passage
with me and say, where is his deity boldly and undeniably affirmed
in this passage? 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, fear not their
fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ
as Lord." Well, is it that he's called Lord? And can it be that
the title Lord here, as in other places, is a direct reference
to his deity? That may well be, but there is
a more bold and a more undeniable assertion of his deity in this
passage. Well, you say, I'm not sure I
see it. Well, I indicated last week, without taking any time
to open it up, that when Peter wrote these words, and the Spirit
of God was guiding him to write to those scattered saints over
there in Asia Minor, at this point in the back of Peter's
mind, filtering through his mental processes, was a passage from
Isaiah. And though he is not directly
quoting, it is evident that this passage was there. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 8. Here in Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah the prophet has been prophesying
in very unusual circumstances that took in the matter of his
own family, the coming of Assyria to invade and to conquer God's
people. And in that context of prophesying
of the Assyrian invasion, we read in verse 11 of Isaiah 8,
For the Lord spoke thus with me with a strong hand, and instructed
me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Say not
a conspiracy concerning all whereof this people shall say a conspiracy. Now notice the language. Neither
fear their fear, nor be in dread thereof. But if you should suffer
for righteousness' sake, do not fear their fear, nor be dismayed. You see the language? But sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts. What did the prophet Isaiah say?
Jehovah of hosts, him shall you sanctify. Jehovah of hosts, Him
shall you sanctify. Let Him be your fear, let Him
be your dread. When Isaiah prophesied to his
people in the setting of his own calling, and is telling them
not to be afraid of that which causes fear or that which could
be the occasion of fear from the invading Assyrians, he says
it is Jehovah of Hosts who should be the object of your fear, and
he expresses it in this way, you are to sanctify Jehovah of
Hosts. You are to set apart Jehovah
in your own minds and hearts, in his rightful place as the
sovereign Lord of the nations, as the God to whom you owe covenant
love and obedience and trust, and in spite of all the disruptions
that will come as a judgment of God, you are not to be unstrung
and you are not to tremble with carnal fear. You are to sanctify
Jehovah of hosts. And for any Israelite to set
apart in his mind and heart and trust anyone other than Jehovah
of Hosts would be idolatry. It was a call to renewed covenant,
trust, and commitment. Now, think of Peter. Reared as
a strict Jew, from the time he could remember anything, he remembers
Mom and Dad, quoting the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one. and you shall worship the Lord
your God. Serve him with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. The thought of calling upon anyone
as deity other than that one whose name they would not even
pronounce, it was held so sacred. Hear this monotheistic who is
brought to the faith in Christ, is now writing to a group of
Christians way off in the outer fringes of the Roman Empire,
and he tells them that if they should suffer, they must regard
themselves as the blessed ones and when the suffering for righteousness
sake comes, they are not to fear, they are not to be troubled,
they are not to be disturbed and unstrung, but they are to
sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts. You see what Peter's
doing? He is saying that for Him, Jehovah of hosts, is Jesus
manifested in the flesh. That Jesus of Nazareth, whom
He had confessed, you are Son of God, you are Messiah, Flesh
and blood is not revealed unto you, Peter, but my Father who
is in heaven." Peter now unashamedly, with the language of Isaiah 8,
12 in his mind, transfers to Jesus of Nazareth that trust,
that covenant love and commitment that is required of a faithful
Israelite under the old covenant with respect to Jehovah of Hosts. I can't read you. Some of you
are actually falling asleep, and it's grievous to me. I'm
up here working, and I've worked to try to get the truth out of
the Word of God, and it's grievous to see you're not working to
keep awake. But others of you are very much awake, but I can't
read what's going on. Do you see what Peter is doing?
Transferring to Jesus, the same Jesus whom he saw sleeping on
a pillow in the middle of a storm, so bone-weary that he's fast
asleep in the middle of a storm and he has to be shaken to wake
him up. The same Jesus whom Peter saw in the Garden of Gethsemane,
staggering like a drunken man under the weight of the world's
sin. that begins to press in upon
him in dimensions of substitutionary sin bearing that we cannot conceive. And he falls upon the ground
and he prays with intensity and rises and falls and visits them
and goes back. And so intense is his agony that
blood vessels burst and blood mingles with his sweat and falls
down to the ground and stains his garments. That's the Jesus
whom he saw. He saw him there when he was
mocked and when he was beaten. And he saw him when he was impaled
upon a cross. And bless God, he saw him when
he said, go tell his disciples and Peter. And he came and Peter
was part of that group, huddling together with doors locked for
fear of the Jews. And suddenly there appears in
their midst this very same Jesus. And Peter was there on that day,
when as he was speaking to them suddenly he began to levitate,
and enveloped in clouds he was received out of their sight.
And the two men in white apparel said, You men of Galilee, why
stand you gazing up into heaven? This saying, Jesus who is taken
up from you shall so come in like manner. For Peter, there
is no thought that he's become an idolater. When he says, sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts, he does so without any reservations
because he has come to the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is none
other than God incarnate. And therefore, he unashamedly
adds to the faith of these young believers this fresh affirmation
of the full deity of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And furthermore, in this very
passage, when he comes toward the end of this first section
that we called last week, Suffering 101, He uses that little phrase, in
Christ, 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. And here he is pointing to the
glorious doctrine of union with Christ. And he is saying that
all of those believers in those five Roman provinces of Asia
Minor, that they are, though in Asia Minor, They are in Christ. They have a union with Christ
that from Christ's standpoint is His ability to unite Himself
to sinners in a living bond of shared life, so that wherever
they are, He is. And conversely, It is the ability
of Christ to communicate the fullness of life and power to
all of his people in all places at the same time. Who but one
possessed of an infinite fullness of deity can communicate himself
to his people out there and everywhere they may be and continue to communicate
all that they need to live in the face of opposition in such
a way That we can describe them as living out a good manner of
life, not in their own resolve, not in their own strength, but
in Christ. That he can communicate all of
that grace to them and yet lose nothing of his own inherent power
and dignity and the plenitude of all the sufficiency that is
in him. The scripture says that in Christ
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you see, you have what our
dear friend Jack Seton calls, Pastor Seton, these are the little
throwaways. And we need to look for God's
throwaways when he is underscoring for us some of these precious
truths of his word. And the question that comes then
is who led Peter to such convictions? Well, according to Matthew 16,
it was Jesus himself who confirms Peter's confession, you are the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And we come back to one
of the old dictums, if Jesus then is not God, he is not good,
because he encouraged Peter to be an idolater. He encouraged
Thomas to be an idolater. When Thomas fell at his feet
and said, my Lord and my God, My God, my Lord. What did Jesus
say? Oh, Thomas, I appreciate your
enthusiasm, but to call me Lord and God as a Jew, knowing the
significance of those words, Thomas, don't you know there
is but one God, Jehovah? And I'm the leader of the Jehovah's
Witnesses, and I've come from heaven to tell you, you're only
to worship Jehovah. Don't worship me. I'm a lesser
God made by Jehovah, back before the creation of the world. The
doctrine of the Jehovah's Witnesses is nothing but blasphemy. Jesus
did not discourage Thomas. He said, blessed are you, because
having seen, you've believed. Believed what? You believe that
I am who I am. Yea, blessed are those who have
not seen, believe, believe what? That I am whom you have seen
me and acknowledge me to be, Thomas, Lord and God. But now I must hasten to look
at the second doctrinal truth that is illustrated in this passage. And I'm expressing it this way.
Behold, in this passage, not only a bold and undeniable affirmation
of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, But behold in this passage
a bold and undeniable affirmation of the centrality of hope in
the Christian faith. A bold and undeniable affirmation
of the centrality of hope in the Christian faith. Look at
the text. As we saw in our study last week, When the apostle gives
the main directive, it's the only imperative verb in this
passage, verse 15, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord. And what is the first accompaniment
of that sanctifying Christ as Lord? Ready always to give answer
to every man that asks you a reason concerning what? The hope that
is in you. Now, according to the passage,
what constitutes the focus of the unbelievers' question? What
is it in the believers, in the midst of facing suffering and
opposition, that precipitates the question? Whether it's a
needling question, whether it's an irritated question, whether
it's a sincere question, what is it that triggers the question? Is it the source of their joy
in the face of opposition? Does Peter say, ready always
to give to every man who asks you a reason concerning the joy
you have in the face of opposition? When we read the New Testament,
we find that those who suffered were filled with joy and with
the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God is not eating
and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. They counted it a privilege and
were joyful that they were able to suffer for his name, but it's
not joy. Is it the source of their power
to respond as they were responding? Peter's assuming that they are
not rendering evil for evil. They are not rendering reviling
for reviling, but contrary-wise, they, like their Lord, are even
blessing their enemies. They're turning away from evil
and doing good, seeking peace and pursuing it. That's the kind
of life, by God's grace, they are living. Surely, the question
will be, where do you get the power to respond as you do to
the kind of treatment we're giving you? That's not what the text
isolates, not the source of their joy in the face of opposition,
not the source of their power to respond as they do, nor the
source of their courage When you see women and perhaps young
people suffering for righteousness' sake, and they are doing what
Peter commanded them in the language of Isaiah 8, they are not afraid
of their fear. They are not troubled and agitated
and disturbed. The question is not, what is
the source of your courage? The text says you're to respond
to the question that focuses on the hope that is in you. What does that tell us? I say
it is a bold and undeniable affirmation of the centrality of hope in
the Christian faith. You say, but Pastor Martin, what
is hope? Hope is all we expect from God
in the future, based on the person and work of Christ, and promised
in the Word of God. That's what hope is. Hope is
not the way we use it. I'll see you tomorrow. I have
a good will and wish that what you say will be true. That's
not the Bible concept of hope. The Bible concept of hope is
nothing less than all we expect from God in the future based
on the person and work of Christ and promised in the Word of God.
The whole orientation of hope is future. Paul states this clearly
in Romans 8, 24 and 25. He says in that critical passage,
he said, in hope where we say hope is so central that it's
described as the very climate and atmosphere in which we were
saved. In hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope
for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it. Here is an enduring faith that
waits for what? For all that we've been led to
expect from God in the future based on the person and work
of Christ and promise to us in the Word of God. And Peter's
assuming, and this is critical, and God has raked my heart over
with this truth in preparation last week and again for today.
Peter's assuming that as these relatively young believers are
interacting with the ungodly and living so consistently and
such authentic, radical Christian lives that they're suffering
for righteousness' sake, that as they suffer and as they give
expression to who and what they are, It comes through again and
again. This world is not our home. Peter
had identified them in the opening words of his epistle with language
that resonated in their experience. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the elect sojourners, Those who are not residents, they are
temporary, I'm sorry, they are not permanent residents, they
are temporary residents, they are aliens. And right from the
outset, that's how we identified them, as elect sojourners. not sojourners in the five Roman
provinces materially and physically and literally, but spiritually. They are God's chosen sojourners. They were once earth dwellers
with a title to this earth and all that it stands for. But when
God in grace laid hold of them, He made them strangers to this
present world and set their heart upon a world to come and filled
them with hope, so much so that when he comes to verse 3 he says,
Blessed be God who has begotten us again unto what? Unto a living
hope! The very end of our divine begetting
is unto this hope. Then when he gives his first
imperative in chapter 1, what is it? Verse 13, Wherefore, girding
up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly
on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. You see, this matter of hope
was not something that came near and suddenly got discovered when
they're on the deathbed and they know that this world is no longer
going to be their oyster. That's where hope for many American
Christians just begins to come in to the horizon and the crosshairs
of how they live. Shame on us. Shame on us. Shame on us. Peter assumes that
for these Christians, hope was central to their Christian experience. Hope would leak out as the unconverted
heard them speak to one another. Think of those slaves that Peter
had instructed in the earlier chapter Think of those wives
earlier in chapter 3 who had unconverted husbands. They overhear
this wife speaking to another Christian, and she says, Yes,
it's rough at home. My husband is a charl. He has
nothing to do with God and even decency, but heaven is in my
eye, and it won't be long before I see my Savior face to face,
and it will be worth it all when I see Jesus. And there's that
slave with that unreasonable master. And by the grace of God,
that slave is seeking to be an exemplary servant and live out
his life before God. And that unreasonable master
overhears him speaking to one of his fellow slaves and says,
yes, it's rough, but, but. A few more breaths, a few more
whacks on the back, a few more frowns and cusses from my master.
And then I'll see my true master. And I'll hear him say, well done.
Hope, hope, hope, what is hope? That expectation of all that
God has stored up for us in the future based on the person and
work of Christ and promised in the Word of God. I say this passage
is a bold, undeniable affirmation that hope is central to the Christian
faith. I wonder, I wonder, I only ask
the question, I wonder, How much unconverted people can interact
with us in the neighborhood, in the shop, in the workplace,
in our own homes? I wonder if they'd ever get the
idea that we are living in hope. that hope is the dominant perspective
as we think of the future, not our retirement, not the next
vacation, not the next new car, not the next this or that that
has anything to do with this present life, but the next thing
to come, and the voice of the archangel and the trump of God
sound, and the returning Lord comes in clouds of glory, and
we are caught up together to be with him. Did Peter have his
Lord's words in mind? I wonder. I believe he did earlier
when he said, but in if you should suffer for righteousness sake,
Makarioi, blessed. That's all he said. No verb.
Just blessed. Think of the words of the Savior
that you've heard as men who had heard him or heard his apostles
preached unto you. And we are told that there is
clear evidence that the Beatitudes and the stuff of the Sermon on
the Mount was one of the dominant elements of the oral tradition
before it even found embodiment in our present documents. He
says, blessed, you're the blessed ones. And when Christ is pronouncing
blessing upon those who suffer for righteousness sake, what's
the focus? Blessed are you when men revile
you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake. for great is your reward where? In heaven. In heaven. Hope, hope, hope, hope. The Lord says to the persecuted
ones, fix your eye upon the prize. Great is your reward in heaven
for so persecuted they, the prophets that were before you. But then
I must hasten to look at one other doctrinal gleaning in this
passage. Not only are we to see in the
passage an undeniable affirmation of the deity of Christ, an undeniable
affirmation of the centrality of hope in the Christian faith,
but consider in this passage a bold and undeniable affirmation
of the reasonableness of the Christian faith. Again, back
to the passage. When Peter identifies that first
accompaniment of sanctifying Christ as Lord, he does so with
these words, ready always to give answer to every man that
asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. There
is to be in every believer who is sanctifying Christ as Lord
in his heart giving him his rightful place of unrivaled affection,
his rightful place of unquestioned obedience, his rightful place
of undiminished trust, that's to sanctify Christ as Lord in
our hearts, there's to be a readiness to do what? A readiness at all
times, with respect to everyone, to give what Peter identifies
with two very significant words. He said, ready always to give
answer, apologia, from which we get our English word apologetics,
an apology, an answer, or a defense, and then he uses the word that
asks you a reason, a logos, a rational account of something. And by
the use of these two words, apologia and logos, Peter is boldly and
undeniably asserting the reasonableness of the Christian faith. We can
give what can be called an apology an apologia, a defense, an answer
with respect to our hope. And we can give it in the form
of a reason, a rational account. Now here we're not left to speculation
as to whether that's what these words mean. Turn to Acts chapter
22. We're going to just look briefly
at an excerpt of someone giving his apologia. his apology, his
defense. In Acts chapter 22 and verse
1, we find the Apostle Paul, Brethren and fathers, hear, and
here's our word, hear the defense, hear the apology which I now
make unto you. And when they heard that he spoke
unto them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet. And
he said, And then we read the account of Paul's apology. And
what is it? In great measure, it is a well-ordered,
clearly structured, factual account of how God dealt with him in
sovereign grace and mercy to reveal himself in Jesus Christ. Paul does not make his defense
by saying, if only you felt what I felt, it'd be wonderful. as
though somehow the Christian faith is something that puts
you up in orbit beyond the realm of rational discourse and the
only way someone can get in touch with you is to be shot up in
a rocket of some undefinable experience and you find yourselves
locked together in orbit above the stratosphere of mere human
thought. Now that's the way some people
view the Christian faith. Paul says, I'm going to give
my apology. And he gives a rational, clear,
structured, well-ordered response to these in whose presence he
is seeking to bear witness. He does the same in 1 Corinthians
9, in verse 3, in a section dealing with the subject of Christian
liberty. And Paul is going to use himself as an example of
someone who's willing to forego lawful liberties for higher ends. And in verse 3 he says, my defense,
my apologia, my defense to them that examine me is this. And
then you read his defense, and he uses questions to make you
think, to get your mind on his side on the issue. Have we no
right to eat and drink? Answer, well of course you do.
That's right, Paul, you do. All right, next question. Have
we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the
rest of the apostles and the brethren of our Lord and even
the first pope, Cephas? Oh, yes, you've got a right to
do that. What's he doing? His defense, his apology is a
closely reasoned argument with a specific end in view, and he's
seeking to carry the Corinthians to that end in his apology. For the verb form of this word
apology, apologeomai, turn to Acts 26, verses 1 and 2. This is very interesting, because
of what happens at the end of this making of an apology. This
is not the apology noun, this is making an apology, the verb. Acts chapter 26, verses 1 and
2. And Agrippus said unto Paul,
You are permitted to speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched
forth his hand, and made his defense. He made an oratorical
gesture. Isn't it interesting the Spirit
of God underscores that? Some people want preachers to
tie their hands behind their back and just talk like a robot. Well, apparently the Apostle
Paul didn't buy that. He stretched forth his hand.
That doesn't say wave them all over the place, but he did stretch
it forth. And he made his apology, he made his defense. I think
myself happy King Agrippa that I am, here we are, to make my
defense. And then you read his defense.
And it's a powerful, closely reasoned argument, aiming at
a given direction. And when it comes to its conclusion,
look at verse 24. And as he thus made his defense,
his apology, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're mad. You're out of your tree. Your
much learning is turning you mad. Paul said, I am not mad,
most excellent Festus, but speak forth words of truth and soberness. For the king knows of these things
unto whom I speak freely. For I'm persuaded that none of
these things is hidden from him. For this thing has not been done
in the corner. And then he goes on the offensive
again. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? Ah, don't answer. I know that you believe. And
Agrippa said unto Paul with but little persuasion, you would
fain make me a Christian." You see, though the truth was beginning
to get under the skin of Festus, and he tries to blow the thing
away by saying, ah, these are the ravings of a madman, Paul
says, no, no, my defense has not been the ravings of a madman. Words of soberness, words of
truth, and then it's evident the way they had fashioned upon
King Agrippa that they had been an effective apology. So what's the point in this?
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart, ready always to give apology,
a reason of the hope that is in you. Now granted these things
constitute, that constitute our hope are revealed, not invented
by us, not discovered by us. They are revealed, and they are
embodied in the Scriptures, and they are subjectively revealed
by the power of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God's people.
But they are not made of the stuff of mindless irrational
myths and fables. Peter could say, we had not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the coming
of our Lord Jesus. But his coming had a preview
in what we saw in the Mount of Transfiguration. And then he
gives that historical fact. Furthermore, when you open up
the book of Acts, the writer of the book of Acts, whom we
believe to be Luke, says the former treatise I made, O Theophilus,
concerning all the things that Jesus both began to do and to
teach. And when you turn to the book
of Luke, He says, others have tried to put down in some form
the things that have happened, but after careful and painstaking
research, I give my account. This is an apology, in a sense,
the whole Gospel of Luke is Luke's apology, his reason, structured,
well-researched account of the life, the ministry, the death,
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now, more could be said,
but let me just pause to say, because of this truth, that the
Christian faith is a reasonable faith. If you're sitting here
and you're not a Christian, I want to ask you a question. What good
reason do you have to reject a Christian faith? Have you ever
even examined it? Or have you treated it, oh, this
is just some kind of emotional crutch for weak people, people
that have got cancer in the family, or things are rough and they
need something to lean upon, but I'm self-sufficient. Is that
why you've dismissed the Christian faith? My friend, listen, don't
dismiss the Christian faith without considering the reasonableness
of that faith. It is a reasonable faith that
can be rationally stated. The great issues that pertain
to your salvation can be rationally stated before you. You are God's
creature. You are accountable to God. You
are a sinner. You deserve judgment. God loved
the world and sent his only begotten son. He lived the life you should
live, died the death you deserve to die. He was raised from the
dead. He was taken to the right hand
of his father. He now issues from his throne
in the word of the gospel a promise. If you will turn from your sin
and trust in him, he will forgive you and cleanse you and take
you as his child and keep you and at last take you home to
heaven with all of his redeemed ones. And dear people of God,
If the Christian faith is a reasonable and a rational faith, then it
is not in your interest as a Christian to be a stable Christian, as
we'll see tonight, to be ignorant of the great pillars of your
faith, to be ignorant of the connections of the basic storyline
of the Bible and how it hangs together and is a beautiful mosaic
of God's self-disclosure in redemptive love and mercy. Well, our time
is gone, and looking back over these gleanings that we have
taken from this passage, I trust that you sitting here this morning
will have a new appreciation of how good God is to give us
a Bible so rich. Yes, it has its formal, concentrated
statements of its great truths and doctrines. It has its vivid
historical and biographical illustrations, but the stuff that constitutes
the faith of God's people is by and large particularly in
the epistles. It is just there as the very
air and fabric of all that is revealed in these wonderful letters
inspired by the Spirit of God. And I trust that this morning
you will find your heart reaching out and embracing with that God
has revealed who Christ is, he is really the God-man, that he
has in grace and mercy set before his people the hope of all that
God has promised to his people, and that we as his people do
not need to be bullied into some kind of timidity that we have
followed just old wives' fables in staking all that we hope for
time and eternity upon God's revelation in the gospel. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these truths to our hearts, and I would ask you to pray that
God would help us and bless us as we come back to the passage
tonight, God willing, and we look at three very practical
observations from this same portion of the Word of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank you for
your Holy Word and pray that your Holy Spirit would write
its truth upon our hearts. We do thank you for that which
you have given to us, even in this portion that we have studied
together today. We do pray for those who have
not given serious consideration to the truth as it is in Christ,
that you will challenge them to examine the documents of the
New Testament We pray, our Father, that your people will be more
and more well-grounded and established in the truth of the deity of
their Savior, the certainty of their hope, and we pray that
more and more we may live as a people, as a people marked
by that hope. Seal your word to our hearts,
we pray, and dismiss us with your blessing resting upon us.
In Jesus' name, amen.