I think you can sing that, can't
you? Good work. My hope and prayer for you and
for me. 1 Peter chapter 3. As you know, we have been looking
at what Peter said was the purpose of him writing this, to show
the true grace of God wherein you stand. Sovereign, saving,
grace of God, electing grace, redeeming grace, keeping grace,
eternal grace, gift of His righteousness, the gift of redeeming grace,
by grace you say. through faith, and that's not
of yourself, even that's the gift of God, by grace. I love
the sound of the word, don't you? True grace. Brother Mack
read from Colossians 1 tonight, which said, after you heard the
word of the gospel, the true gospel of God's grace, and we've
been talking about Peter's been talking about this grace, how
we need grace for everything. And we need to be exhorted. Grace needs to be exhibited,
to adorn the doctrine of God's grace. We need grace through
trials, grace to endure, grace to submit the insubjection that
He told us to be to all, grace for wives Men's subjection to
their husbands, but husbands that love their wives as Christ
loves the church. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.
And tonight, he's writing to us about suffering grace. Grace that is needed to suffer
persecution or suffer for the cause of Christ. It takes great
grace, doesn't it? Great, great. It's fitting that
Peter wrote this, Simon Peter. It's the first epistle, I remind
you, the very first epistle that was written to all the churches.
And Simon Peter wrote it, and he was glad that he was able
to do so. He started out by saying we're
elect, and he started out by saying we're kept by the power
of God. Peter said, I know this, I know this better than anybody
by experience. I was in a boat one day. I wasn't
interested in God, wasn't interested in Christ, wasn't seeking the
Lord, but the Lord came and sought me. He chose me. I was one of
His elect because He called me by His grace, by His power, by
His voice. He called me, me and Philip and
Andrew and James and John. He called us all by His gospel.
And He said, we're kept by the power of God. We've followed
him for three and a half years, and we know by experience that
he kept us every way. And up to this point, he said,
my life has been kept. Peter has been thrown in jail
twice for preaching the gospel. He said, oh, we're kept by the
power of God. And it's fitting that Simon Peter
wrote this about confessing to the Lord and encouraging us,
emboldening us, or trying to give us courage confess him and suffer for his
cause because Peter denied him, remember? Peter knows from experience how
we're cowards by nature. And Peter knew by experience
what a shame it is to deny the Lord. He went out and wept bitterly.
Remember that? The Lord looked at him after he denied him, not
once, not twice, but three times. And he went out and wept bitterly.
Well, the Lord called him back. Remember that? Sitting by the
fire. Peter, do you love Him? Oh, Lord, yes, I do. You know
I love Him. He said, go feed my sheep. He
sent him out. And now the Lord has given him
grace. Has given him courage. And he's gone out. And Peter
wrote this to us. The Lord had him right there.
Peter knows, and this is not to discourage us, every one of
us who read this will be discouraged, we will be ashamed. I am ashamed. I've denied him since I've been
a believer and will deny him again by my silence, by my cowardice
at times. None of us want a confrontation,
none of us like strife, none of us want to be hated, do we? We don't want that, we don't
want this persecution, but our Lord said, you shall be. And it's a mark, it's an evidence
of the truth. Only those who tell the truth
are persecuted. Only those who tell the truth
are an offense to this world, to the people of this world.
An offense, when actually we're the best friend the world could
ever have had. Look at it, 1 Peter 3. He said, remember in verse 13,
he said, who is he that will harm you if you be followers
of that which is good? Remember he exhorts us to not
render evil for evil, but have compassion and not railing for
railing. You're called to be a blessing,
not a curse, but be a blessing. Refrain your tongue from evil,
your lips, don't speak guile, speak the truth, eschew evil,
do good, seek peace, pursue it. Where do you get all this? He
got it from the Lord. He said, blessed are the peacemakers. Our Lord said, don't require
evil with people. Turn the other cheek, didn't
He? And Peter reminded us that when the Lord, and this is the
motive. Our Lord is the motive for everything,
isn't He? This is how Peter writes to us. The motive for all of this is
in confessing Christ is He wasn't ashamed to call us brothers.
For the joy set before him endured the cross. He who endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself." Why? Why do you endure
all that? That's the motive, isn't it?
That's the motive. And he said Christ was reviled. Reviled not again. When he suffered. Chapter 2. We've got to read
that again. It says, verse 23, when he suffered
for righteousness sake, didn't he? He threatened not, but he
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Now remember,
they did not kill our Lord for good works. You remember that?
He stood one day and said, for what good work do you stone him? And they said, we're not stoning
you for a good work because of what you said. We don't like
what you said. I just told you the truth. I
just told you the truth for the glory of God, for your
salvation. So, he committed himself. So, verse 24, "...who his own
self bear our sins in his body on the tree." My, my. that we, being dead in sin, should
live under righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed."
Old Peter wrote this, didn't he? Simon Peter. And he'd had
a few stripes by now, Simon Peter. Been beaten. And he was so happy
that he was able to endure. Because why? Oh, by whose stripes,
Peter said, by his stripes I am healed. So, in verse, chapter 3, verse
14, but now, nobody, few will harm you if you be followers
of that which is good and do that which is right. But, and
if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are you. Blessed, that's what the word
means. And don't be afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.
Read on. But sanctify the Lord God in
your heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. Having a good conscience. that
whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed
and falsely accuse your good conversation or life, conduct,
and speech in Christ. So he says, if you suffer for
righteousness sake. What righteousness? A little
later here he's going to talk about Noah. He's going to use
Noah as an example. And Noah, it says Peter wrote,
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Who's righteous now? You're not going to suffer for
righteousness' sake by talking about man being doing good, doing
good works. You will suffer for righteousness'
sake if you say, all our righteousness are filthy righteous. that the
only righteousness whereby God will accept us, the only righteousness
whereby we can be accepted of God and received into God's holy
heaven is the righteousness of another, the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness imputed us. That
it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but we're
saved according to His mercy through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus alone. His righteousness imputed us,
and His blood shed for the remission of our sin. That is salvation
completely, wholly. That's it. Now, one thing we
can do We do. We'll commend us to God. Nothing we have ever done or
ever will do will commend us to God. No merit in anything
we do. No. Now, if you say that, you
will be persecuted. You, me. And I've gone to church
all these years. And I have given my body to be
burned. And I've talked to people like
this who have literally gotten up in arms at me, and I've seen
their veins pop out on their neck, sweet little old women,
and look at me with such anger and hatred in their face. Like,
you mean to tell me that nothing I've ever done accounts for anything?
That's right. Because if it does, Christ didn't
need to come and die. If righteousness come by the
law, this is how serious it is. If righteousness can be had by
us doing anything, being accepted of God by us doing anything.
Christ died in vain. Why did Christ die? Why did he
come? He came to be made a curse under
the law. He came to deliver us from the curse. He came to be
made a sin-paper. He came to be made sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Now, I've just already gone through the whole thing.
I was going to tell all this when it talks about the hope.
I couldn't wait to get to it. Could you tell that to people?
If they ask you a reason for the hope that is in you, what's
your hope of heaven? This is what I ask everybody. This is
what I ask. What's your hope of eternal life?
What's your hope? Your hope to get to heaven? You
say you believe God, you're a Christian. What is your hope? That's what
I ask of them. If you were asked that, what would you say? I'm
going to save that for a minute, okay? Let's go back to this.
But if you suffer for righteousness' sake, and our Lord said, every
one of God's people will. If you don't, you're being silent. Look at Matthew 5 with me. Our
Lord said this. And He said, A man's enemies
will be those of his own house. And many, if not most of you
in here know what that means, don't you? Some of you are nodding
your heads. You know that. Brothers, sisters,
mothers, fathers, husbands, wives that don't believe this. But
you do, and you stand for it. Now, our Lord said this in Matthew
5, look at it, verse 9. Now, He said, blessed are the
peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers.
We're not troublemakers, we're peacemakers. But remember Elijah? Remember Ahab said of Elijah,
he troubles Israel. And Elijah said, I'm not troubling
Israel. Israel's in trouble because of idolatry, because
of falsehood. He said, I'm trying to tell them
the truth to get them out of trouble. And Paul said this,
and we're going to look at it in a minute. Paul said, I suffer
trouble as an evildoer for telling the truth. He said, all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer that persecution.
And one time he said, am I to become your enemy for telling
you the truth? No. The natural man is enmity
against the truth. Look at that. Matthew 5, our
Lord said in verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers. They shall
be called the children of God. But we don't cry peace, peace
when there is no peace, do we? We're not going to comfort somebody
in a false profession. No, no. We dare not say peace
to somebody where God has not spoken peace. We dare not say
peace to somebody who doesn't have peace, but by one way. What's
that? What's one peace? How do we make
peace with God? One way. By the blood of His
cross. How many times do you hear it said, these preachers
go to the dying bed of somebody and say of some fellow or woman,
they made their peace with God? How many times? Buddy, you stand at the dying
bed of a believer and you know what they'll say about peace
with God? They'll say, Christ made my peace with God. He marked
the end of that man. The end of that man is peace.
Why? Because he has peace with God
one way. And this is a good conscience.
And boy, am I really getting ahead of myself. This is a good
conscience. It's all right. You just can't
wait. Verse 10, blessed are they, blessed,
happy. This is where Peter got this.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Whose
righteousness? His. That's what David wrote in Psalm
71, didn't he? All the way through there, those
of you who know it, he said, I'll make mention of thy righteousness
and thine only. Oh, blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake. His righteousness. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say, Oh, men are evil against
you falsely for my sake. And that's what they do to us. They make up things. Rejoice, he said. Rejoice. Be exceedingly glad. It's hard
to rejoice under persecution and people calling you false,
saying false things about you, making up lies about you, bearing
false witness against you. That's hard to endure. And our
Lord said, rejoice. I did that to me. I did it to me. Be exceedingly
glad. Look at Matthew 10. Matthew 10.
Our Lord said this not only to His but to all who are his disciples."
Look at this, Matthew 10, 25, 24. Are you his disciple? Are you
a disciple? Sure you are. The disciple is not above his
master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the
disciple that he be as his master, the servant as his lord. If they
call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call him of his household? Fear them not, therefore. There
is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. Our Lord is
going to reveal all this. religious hypocrisy someday.
What I tell you, verse 27, in darkness speak in the light.
What you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetop. Fear not them
that kill the body. They are not able to kill the
soul. Rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and
body and hell. Go on down to verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But Whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. I am come to set a man at variance,
at odds, against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross,
that's persecution for the truth, for Christ, and followeth after
me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it. He that loseth his life for my
sake shall find it." Now, as I said, Peter is not writing
this to discourage us, but to rather encourage us. The word
courage is found in that word, encourage, give courage. Do you
need courage? We lack courage. So this is written
not to discourage us, but to encourage us, to embolden us,
to give us strength. And Peter wrote over in the last
chapter of this book, this first epistle, he said, after you've
suffered a while, the Lord is going to make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. So he says in verse 14 of our
text, If you suffer for righteousness sake, for the cause of Christ,
the cause of God and truth, happy are you. Blessed. Blessed are
you. Look at chapter 4. Look at verse
14. Chapter 4, verse 14. If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you. With a spirit
of glory. And if God rests upon you, on
their part, he's evil spoken of. On your part, he's glorified. Let none of you suffer as a murderer,
as a thief, as an evildoer, as a busybody and other men of matters.
Yet, if any man suffer as a Christian, that means a whole lot more than
just living a moral life. A Christian means a disciple
of and a confessor of and one who testifies of the Christ. A witness for him. Don't be ashamed. Let him glorify God on this behalf.
Look quickly at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul went to this
town of Thessalonica to preach the gospel. And the people, the
Lord blessed his preaching. And oh my, did the Jews ever
raise a ruckus. It was a riot. And Paul barely
got out of town. But the people, they suffered. The people at this time suffered
greatly. Persecution. And Paul wrote them
back. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Verse 2, Grace unto you and peace. Verse 3, We are bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, as His meat is fitting, because
your faith groweth exceedingly. The charity and love of every
one of you all toward each other abounded. That's what Peter's
been exhorting us to, isn't it? So we ourselves glory in you
and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your
persecutions and tribulations that you endure. This is a manifest,
a clear token, an evidence of the righteous judgment of God
that you're one of God's people. Like our Lord said, all that,
that every disciple is like his Lord will be hated for the truth. that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. It's a righteous
thing with God to recompense tribulation and then trouble
you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us." Rest with us. Look at, very quickly, 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Now Paul told us in
Philippians 1, he said this. He said, it's not only given
to us on behalf of Christ to believe. He said, this is a gift to believe,
but it's a gift to suffer. He said, to have the same conflict
you see in me. Paul was in prison when he wrote
that. And he said, you're going to suffer the same
persecution if you speak out. 2 Timothy, and this is to encourage
us. Paul was writing to a young man
named Timothy who was obviously very timid, very shy, maybe a
little fearful. And he said in chapter 1, 2 Timothy
1, he said, verse 7, God hath not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power, of love, of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. What gospel, Paul?
The gospel of God who has saved us. God who has called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works. according to his
own purpose and grace given us in Christ before the world began. Be a partaker of afflictions.
Tell it. Look at chapter 2. Chapter 2,
verse 9, Paul said, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer. Now verse 12, though, he says,
if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he'll
deny us. Isn't that what the Lord said
to us in Matthew 5? Matthew 10. Chapter 3, look at
chapter 3, verse 12. Yea, all and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So there you have
it. So back in our text, he says
if and if, like he said in verse 17, if it's the will of God,
It may not be the will of God for us in our generation to suffer
any real physical or dangerous bodily harm or persecution
for the gospel's sake. But it might. But it may not. He says if it's the will of God,
fine. I keep thinking that... I think it would just be wonderful.
I feel so ashamed. I'd love to be able to lay my
life down for him, wouldn't you? There was a man named Thomas
Kremner. Thomas Kremner, who was a preacher
of the gospel. And back when there was great
persecution of the church, people being killed, burned at the stake,
several of his friends, his preachers, And they came to him and threatened
his life. And he recanted. He agreed that he would not preach
it anymore. And they made him sign a confession
that he would not preach the truth anymore. And he signed
that. And it killed him. And later on, it slew him so
badly. His conscience smote him so badly.
that he recanted his recantation. He told them, I can't do this.
So they tied him at the stake. Tied his body up at the stake.
And he's preaching from that stake. He said, don't tie my
hand up, my right hand. Don't tie it up. Leave it free,
please. Because he said, I want to put this hand in the fire,
this hand that signed that document. I want it to burn. This hand
is an offense to me, and I want it to burn first. And he was
preaching the gospel the whole time he was being burned. He
put that hand in that fire, and it just shriveled up and burned.
And all the witnesses say he never uttered a peep, never uttered
a cry for preaching the truth. Have a great cloud of witnesses
like that. Take great grace, wouldn't it? Same grace, same
God. Same truth, God of all grace
will give you grace. His grace is sufficient. If you
suffer, old Thomas Cranmer counted it a great honor and a privilege
that he could recant his recantation, that he could put his hand in
that fire. Happy are ye. Don't be afraid
of their terror. Verse 14, Be not afraid of their terror, neither
be troubled. Verse 15, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
What's that mean? Well, with the heart man believeth,
not the head. You will not confess what you
just believe in your head. You won't lay down your life
for what you believe in your head. But if you believe in your heart,
you will. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
Remember, Peter said, I can't help but speak the things we've
seen in her. They said, don't speak in this
name again. He said, I can't. I've got to. That's my Lord. That's my Savior. That's my God. Sanctify the Lord
God in your heart. Sanctify means to hallow. I had
so many Scriptures I wanted to turn to. You know, the word sanctify
means set apart, doesn't it? You know, the Gospel we believe,
the God we confess is different than the God of this world. And
when we tell it, like when Paul went to Athens, they said to
him, what a strange God you believe. Nobody believes this God like
you all believe down there. Strange doctrine, strange God. Our God set apart is different.
Let me just read this to you. You can go with me. You can turn
anywhere. You can put your finger down
and find a place where it sanctifies God, sets the God of the Bible
apart from the God of this world. Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. It's closed with majesty. It's
closed with strength. The Lord reigneth. The world
is established. It cannot be moved. His throne
is established of old. Thou art from everlasting. Everlasting. Thou art God. Psalm 94, O Lord
God to whom vengeance belongs. O God to whom vengeance belongs.
Show thyself. Lift up thyself. Thou judge of
the earth. Render a reward to the proud.
Look down at Psalm 95. Verse 2, let us come before His
presence with thanksgiving, make a joyful noise unto Him with
song. The Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places
of the earth, the strength of the hills as He is, the sea as
He is. He made it. His hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the
Lord, our Maker. He is our God. Psalm 99, look
at this. The Lord reigneth. Let the people
tremble. Verse 2, The Lord is great in
Zion. He is high above all the people.
Let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy.
Verse 5, Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool, for
He is holy. Verse 9, Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy. How is our God set apart from
the God of this world? How is our God set apart from
the God that men preach the false god today? Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God of hope. That's where you start. You know
that, don't you? What's the beginning of wisdom?
The fear of God. Why do we fear God? Because God
is holy. That's not being said today. People don't know that God is
that. You know Him in your heart. You know that He's holy. You
fear. David said, Unite my heart to
fear thy name. You fear to even use His name,
except in reference and respect, don't you? You've sanctified
God in your own heart. You know who He is. You know
how He is. You know how He saves sinners.
You know salvation is up for the Lord. Well, let me go on.
This is our hope. Verse 15, he says, sanctify the
Lord God in your heart, out of the heart of the issues of life,
and with the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and
you will. The first thing you say about
God tells me, tells others what you believe about God and whether
or not you know God. What is God like? If you ask
every believer, every true saint, they will tell you, the first
thing they will tell you is holy. Our children know that, don't
they? All right? You know that, don't
you? And you know why Christ had to
come, because God's holy. Verse 15, Be ready always to
give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope
that is in you, with meekness and fear. Now, you know, everyone
is not going to ask you. Years ago I said this, that give
them an answer when they ask you. Well, you very seldom ask,
are you? People are not asking anymore.
They don't care. So, what do we do? Wait on them to ask? No. But
if they do, be ready, but we need to be looking for opportunities
to tell the truth. Why? Why is Peter telling us
to to confess our Lord. Why are we told that? Why is
our Lord telling us to confess? Why should we confess that? So we can be proud of the fact
that we do? Oh, no. But for the glory of God. And
because of what He did for us. Out of love and gratitude to
Him. And you want people to know Him. People are dying. People that don't know this truth
are perishing. And if you love them, if you really love their
soul, you'll tell them the truth. Because they don't believe this.
They're lost. And if you have it, if you have the truth, you've
got to tell them. That's why. Not so we can be
proud of our confession. Oh, no. But be ready to give every man
a reason of the hope that is in you. What is our hope? What
is your hope? Could you give a passage of Scripture that tells
your hope? Could you? You know, that's why these old
Psalms are so good, you know, because it's a shame if we can't
give a passage of Scripture. But if you can't, we just sung
a song that you know by heart. Here's what you can tell. If
you can't remember it, just start singing it to somebody. My hope
is built on nothing less. This is the gospel. My hope is
built, my hope of heaven, my hope of salvation is built on
nothing less than Jesus Christ's blood and his righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest praying, but holy weeping. On the Lord Jesus Christ's name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground. Who are you
trusting, brother? Your works? Your church? Your
profession? Your baptism? That's a sinking sand. All other
ground is sinking sand. You could witness on that, couldn't
you? Huh? Listen to this. His oath. His covenant. His blood. Support
me, that's my hope of heaven and the overwhelming flood, the
flood of my sins. When all around my soul gives
way, He is all my hope and stay, yes, on Christ the Son. Could
you witness with that song? Could you tell somebody? Oh,
when He comes with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found. Could you praise from that? Like
Noah, may I be found in Christ like Noah. Only those in Christ
are going to be saved in that day, like in that ark. Brother,
do you know what that ark means? Brother and Adam. No, I don't. Well, let me tell you. That ark
is Christ. Could you not preach from that?
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before
the throne. Could you preach from that? On
Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Yes, all other ground is sinking
sand. That's my hope. Is that your
hope? He's all my hope and study. Sure
you could. That's why we keep singing these
songs. And do it, he says, with meekness
and fear. Verse 15. This is important.
With meekness. You ever run across these soul
winners that beat you over the head, you know, that just get
so proud and arrogant? Have you run across them? Are
you saved, brother? You've seen them at home. Are you saved, brother? Well,
I am. You ain't nothing but a self-righteous
hypocrite. You're just proud of yourself.
You're not proud of the Lord. You're not boasting in His righteousness.
You're not boasting in His Word. You're not boasting in the cross
of Christ. You're boasting in your profession
of faith. You've run across many. Don't
do that with meekness. Meekness is not weakness. Be bold as a lion. Moses went
in before Pharaoh. and boldness and dogmatism and
being as bold as a lion doesn't mean you don't love. My father-in-law
was one of the greatest witnesses I've ever known. He brought more
people to hear the gospel than anybody I know. Everybody worked
for him. Everybody that worked for him
came to hear the gospel. Isn't that right? Everybody. And he was a gruff,
he had a bold voice when he whispered it like this. And when he talked
to you in a normal voice, it was loud. But, buddy, he was
so passionate for the truth, and he wanted people to believe
it so much that he just talked like... He wasn't mad at you. He wasn't angry. If he didn't
love you and wasn't concerned for you, he wouldn't be talking
to you. But it's urgent. It's urgent. If you really believe
it, be passionate about it. Right? You know, meekness is not weakness,
but it's humility. It's considering your own self.
It's also being conscious of that person before you. Paul
was so compassionate toward the Pharisees because he was one.
Paul was so understanding and long-suffering with the Pharisees
because he was one. And after they'd beaten him and
hated him, wanted him dead, he'd stop and say, he'd call them
brothers. I want to be like that, don't
you? Paul, he wrote Romans 9, and there's not a more powerful
passage description in all the Bible, not a clearer passage,
and one that men hate. People hate Romans 9. How does
it start? He said, I say the truth in Christ.
My conscience bear me witness. I lie not, lie not. I can wish
myself a curse for my brethren, but I'm not going to compromise
the truth. I'm not going to cut corners.
I'm not going to pare it down. I'm going to tell you the truth.
Jacob has he loved. Esau has he hated. It's not of
him that willeth, for him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he
will he hardeneth. What do you say to these things? I'm quoting
Romans 9. Shall the potter of clay say
to him that formed it, why have you made me thus? He hath no
hands. But he started that out in meekness
and in love and concern. I said, I could wish myself were
cursed from Christ with my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
But I'm not going to compromise the truth, and I'm going to say
it as bold as I know how. If they don't believe it, they're
going to go to hell. Right? And fear. Do it with meekness
and fear. Fear being fearing God. Fearing that arrogance and that
pride. Fearing a main spirit. But fearing
not to tell the truth. Fearing. Not telling the truth. In verse 16, I close,
it says, having a good conscience. A good conscience. Of which we'll
speak more about that later on, down in verse 21. A good conscience.
But Paul one time, he said this several
times, he said, you fully know my doctrine. He didn't keep a
secret. Everybody knew what he would
do. He said, my manner, my method, my way of life, my motive, my
purpose, didn't he? He said to the Corinthians, he
said, we're not as many which corrupt the Word of God or deal
deceitfully. But as of God, in the sight of
God and in sincerity, we preach Christ. Paul said, you know good
and well we're not corrupt. We're not doing this for money.
We're not doing it for fame. We're not doing it for anything,
any reason but for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
He said you know that. That's a good conscience. That's
a good conscience. I've got a good conscience. Good conscience. And they'll
speak evil of you as evil doers. That's what Paul said and Peter.
They were all killed. All of them. Peter was crucified. Paul was beheaded. All of them. All of them. The most lovely
men to ever walk the planet, because they looked like Christ.
Meek, gentle, peacemakers, but bold as lies. I told them the
world is not worthy. Oh, John. My name's Paul. Your name's John. May God give
us the grace to be a Paul and a John. John. Thomas. Got good names, don't
we? Deborah. Biblical name. Mary. Mary. May the Lord give us grace, grace. All right. Stand quick. Our Father in heaven, Lord, forgive
us, forgive us, forgive us. We are poor witnesses. We are poor testimony. We have denied the Peter or worse, Lord, forgive
us, we pray. And Lord, through Thy Word and
by Thy grace, give us boldness and courage, we pray. But these
things have to be settled in our hearts. You have to be just
sanctified in our heart. O Lord, may our affection be
set on Thee more than our own blood can. May we love Thee and
Thy glory and Thy truth and Thy Son more than ourselves, more
than our own lives, willing to lay down our lives. O Lord, help
us, we pray. Help us, we pray, and may we
do it for Thy glory and honor, for Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. My, my. O Lord, help us, we pray. Forgive us. Help us. Establish
strength and settle us. Encourage us, we pray. Embolden
us. Let us exhort one another so
much more as we see the day approaching. O Lord, make this church and
every member of it a witness of Thy great grace and glory.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.