If you would, and you wanna follow
along, please turn to 1 Peter chapter three. 1 Peter chapter three. I'm just gonna read two verses, verses
15 and verse 16. but sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts. 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 of evildoers, they may be
ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. So I'm gonna stop right there. And my title is this. Be ready. Be ready. I was gonna say good advice and
direction from Peter the Apostle, but it's not advice, it's instruction. And before we go into this, I
do want to specify to whom Peter is writing, and it gives me a
chance to read this. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect. I like saying that word, it's
okay. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
Through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and the
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace
be multiplied. Now there's many a sermon in
those two verses, but that's not what we're here for. But
here's the point. Peter's writing this to believers,
okay? He's writing this primarily,
primarily he was writing it to the Jews that were scattered
abroad. But please understand this, he was writing it to New
Testament believers, Jews or not. I believe wholeheartedly
that the twain have been made one new man. So I'm not gonna
put a distinction between a Jewish New Testament believer and a
Gentile New Testament believer. Because I believe certainly,
the scripture says, that has been removed. And you can take
that however you want, because that's what the book says. But
this is the point, this book, this epistle was not written
to deacons, to bishops, to preachers, to pastors, or evangelists. This
book was written to the saints. It did say elect through sanctification
of the spirit and obedience, talking about believers. Now, that's my point. These words
that Peter wrote here are for each and every single one of
us. Now deacons and elders and pastors are not left out. Because
guess what? They're part of the elect that
believe. These words are for every New
Testament believer. I just want to make that clear.
So hear the words of the Apostle Peter. Be ready, be ready. He starts off with this, but
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Set apart God. You understand? I'm gonna get
to it. God is in you. Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? But there is a setting
apart in your body of the flesh and the spirit. and the believer
is to be well aware of this. But you set apart God as totally
holy and complete. We're not making him holy. We're
not setting him apart. He is our sanctification. However,
we know him, and I love how he wrote this, as Lord God. You know what that is? Supreme
deity. the one who rules and who is
God. He put both words in there. I
like that, I do. Because the world wants to have
a God, but they don't want him to be supreme. They wanna have
a God who'll do what they tell him. Or he'll only do what you
let him. You understand, that's not who
Peter's writing about. He's writing about the Lord God. Now, set
that one apart in your heart. Put him in your mind, put him
in your mind. Focus on him, be concerned with
him and his word. Don't treat him like you treat
everything else. Something to be used and then
discarded when you're not paying attention. That's what the world
does. Oh, they're nice and holy and
friendly and loving on Sunday, but go to business meetings with
them on Monday and see what happens. I'm not gonna get into business
men because I don't like them. So that's just me. They're not
any different than anyone else. Set apart the Lord God in your
heart. Don't worry about anybody else's
heart here. This is about you. This is about
me. Sanctify him in your heart. Sanctify
him in my heart is what I gotta do. I'm not here to sanctify
them in your heart, I can't do it. But in your hearts, he says,
in your innermost being, the seat and the center of your intellect,
of your affection, and even of your emotions, be concerned with the Lord God. Because as a saint, you belong
to him. And as the Lord God, he belongs
to you. You understand? He is our Lord
God. And I can say it, I believe with
full confidence, he is my Lord God. And I hope he is your Lord
God. Because if he's not the supreme
deity, the Lord God, you don't know him. You don't know him. Think upon him. Sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts and. Here's the two words. Well, three,
be ready. He says always, always. But be ready. That's what I wanna
talk about this morning. Be ready. What's that mean? Well, very simply, it means to
be ready. Be prepared is another word if
you want. Be prepared, be ready. Expect
it. Watch. We're told to watch. So watch and be ready. Because
I want you to be ready. And I want to be ready. What
Peter carries on with here. And that's all, that's all I'm
saying here, is to be ready. You understand? We're not saying,
Because that's not too bad, if you would think about it. Peter
didn't say, be pious always. That's good because I can't do
it. Be you godly. I am godly in Jesus Christ, but
me personally is not so much. Just be prepared to be ready
always. And he does say this. to give
an answer to every man that asks of you. Now I'll go into that
in just a little bit because I want to do this. How can I
be ready? How can you be ready? That's
a good question. How do I be prepared? Well, I
got three things for you. Listen, study, and learn. That's three things I got for
you. Listen, study, and learn. First of all, listen to God's
word preached by God's men. Paul wrote it. Had to think of
his name for a minute, I lost it. I hate it when I do that.
He said, how beautiful are the feet. Of what? Those that preach
the gospel of peace. And bring glad tidings of good
things. You understand? Listening to
the gospel is a good thing. If it's the gospel. I mean, that's
a given. Well, in this day and age, it's
not a given. It's not. Unfortunately, the gospel is
basically unknown to the world outside. They think they're preaching
the gospel, they'll go on television and tell everybody they need
more money so they can preach the gospel, but somehow, I remember
Henry Mahan said this 30 years ago, or 35, they never quite
ever get around to actually preaching the gospel. So you wanna make sure it is
the gospel being preached. The gospel of the Lord God. The supreme deity. Jesus Christ
is not asking any sinner anywhere for any help whatsoever. So if they're out there telling
you, you have to do this, you might as well turn off the TV.
It has to be the gospel. If you have an assembly, assemble. Assemble. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together. And he did say it, as the manner
of some is. Because it's important. There's
no way to learn if you can't listen. And in order to listen, you have
to have someone to hear. Don't forsake the assembly. Go
to other places if possible. But to hear his gospel proclaimed. The work of Jesus Christ in the
salvation of the sinner is a glorious thing to hear. It is, it is. Because from beginning
to end, it is all of God. It's all of his grace, it's all
by his mercy, and it's all through his love. Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. What, no, he came to save his
people who are sinners. That's a glorious message. And the next thing I wanna tell
you about listening, use what God has given you. And this might be a strange thing,
because I am actually gonna say this. Use what God has given
you, the internet. We were talking about it last
week. The gospel is out there. I mean, this is a time like no
other. I remember when I was first in
the faith, 1982. That was many years ago. And I got cassette tapes. Now if there's some kid watching
on TV, you don't even know what one is, that's okay. It is a
magnetic tape where I could write to someone, to Henry Mahan in
this case, and they would send me tapes in the mail and I would
play them on a cassette player and I would hear the gospel of
God. And rejoice, that's exactly right.
And share them with people. My wife Deborah, Walter here,
you understand. The truth of God has never been
bound, and it never will be bound. Now I will be the first one to
tell you, there's a lot of stuff on the internet not to listen
to. But you understand, that's the whole point. You got to know
the gospel. But it's good to listen to the
gospel. And I don't say there's nothing wrong, we will send you
a CD if you want. We're on the television right
now, which is still very strange to me. but you use what God has
given you. We have a website, sgchapel.com. We have a YouTube page. It's
under SG Chapel, Sovereign Grace Chapel. We're on Sermon Audio
and there are many people on Sermon Audio, good preachers. Seek them out. Hear the words
of God preached from other men. Endeavor, try to hear the gospel
preached. I fully believe the gospel will
help you to be ready. To be ready. The second thing,
study the word of God. Study the scriptures. What does it say about the Bereans?
They searched the scriptures to see if these things be so
that Paul and others had preached them. I have no problem with
anyone looking up 1 Peter 3. Please, while you're at it, look
up Romans 9. Look up Romans 6, Romans 7, Romans 8, John 6, John
5, John, you look at anything you want in the scriptures. I
am totally fine with that. Study to show yourself approved,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Yes, it is work. It's work. I can tell you this
for a fact. Some verses come easier than
others. Well, that verse comes pretty
easy. The understanding part of it's
the problem. Again, I will say this. Use what
God has given you. You understand, I have more electronic
devices than I need. I have a smartphone that sometimes
kind of makes me feel dumb. I have a tablet, which is wireless
at my house. I have a computer at my house
that is wired to the internet. And on all three of those things,
I have a Bible program. Walter was talking the other
day, a couple weeks ago, I thought about this, and you said you
got out your concordance and was using it. I haven't used
a concordance in, I don't know, about five years. Because every
one of those Bible programs that I have on my phone, on my tablet,
and on my computer, they have a search function that works
just exactly like a concordance, and it's not as bulky for me.
And I cut and paste, and I do whatever I can to save myself
some time. But use that. Now I'm not for
taking paper any day of the week. I've got notes written all through
this thing. But you are to study the word of God. Because his word, his scriptures,
will help you be ready. If you lack understanding, ask. Increase our faith. Because sometimes the problem,
well, always problems with us, but sometimes the problem is
not believing what you read. I will admit to that. Thank God
it doesn't happen very often now, but I have been taught that
if I approach the scriptures with a preconceived notion, that
affects what I read. I'll admit to it. I'm not proud of it, I'm ashamed
of it, and I've been trying not to do it. Take the word of God
for what it says. Because it says exactly what
God means. Holy men of old moved with fear,
moved by the inspiration of the spirit of God to write this down. And if you don't understand it,
I understand that. But that's your problem. That's
my problem. There's nothing wrong with the
scripture. Study them. Ask God for guidance. What did our Lord Jesus Christ
do for those fellas on the road to Emmaus? Then opened he their
hearts. Those hearts that you're supposed
to sanctify to the Lord God. To the understanding, he opened
their understanding of what? The scriptures, the scriptures.
See, that's one way you can sort of tell who's preaching the gospel. If they're reading the scripture,
and if they're preaching from the scriptures, you got a better
chance. Because God's men will. Study the word of God. His word
will help you to be ready. Now the third thing I said, learn. Now I'm gonna tell you, sometimes
that's the toughest one. Ponder upon the gospel. Contemplate the gospel that you've
heard. I started to use Tim James' word,
mull on it. You understand? Let it work in your mind. Let
it work in your mind. Ask Jesus Christ to increase
your faith. Why? For wisdom and understanding. Because this is not a mere intellectual
exercise. And this is not something, now,
there's nothing wrong with taking a Bible class if you got somebody
that could actually teach one. Now that's a whole nother thing.
That's a whole nother problem. But this is not an intellectual
exercise. This is actually learning of
Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5 and 6 it says, it
is the spirit that beareth witness. Why? Because the spirit, now
this is the same Holy Spirit that's in you, that's in me. If I believe that he has given
us and he is in us, A living entity. I don't know how other
to say it. God is in you. In the spirit
of God. Because the spirit is truth. Wait a minute, I thought Jesus
Christ is truth. Yes. These three are one. Father,
Son, and Spirit. If Jesus Christ is truth, the
Father's the truth. The Spirit is the truth. And
the Spirit, it's the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit
is truth. Peter says it here. Desire the
sincere milk of the word. Why? Why? That you may grow thereby. Learn. Learn. Grow in the grace and the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the last thing I'll give
you about this, learning, well, is Jesus said it. I'm not gonna
turn there, but it's in Matthew 11 and verse 29. He says, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. I thought about this when I was
driving up here. I've heard people talk about
this verse saying, take my yoke upon you. And they act like you're
supposed to go to Jesus and take the yoke from him and put it
on yourself. That's not what he's saying.
You understand? The only reason, and the only
way you can learn of him is if his yoke is upon you. If his
yoke's not on you, you're not gonna learn a thing. The only reason his yokes upon
you is he put it on you. He give it to you. He put it
on you. What's he saying? You take it. You understand? You can rebel. We've talked about this before.
You can rebel against God. But if you take it and you accept
it, and you hold on to that yoke, that yoke goes across your neck.
That's the way they have it. That's what the illustration
is. It's a yoke, like an ox's yoke. If you take it, you will
learn of him. You will learn. You know why? Because his spirit bears witness
with your spirit. Amen. Take my yoke upon you. You take it. You understand? His yoke's easy, his burden's
light. But it's there. You know why? Because he put that yoke upon
you if you're one of his. And you know why? So you'll learn. What's a yoke for with oxen?
They go this way, you pull on it this way, they go this way.
You mean God directs our steps? Oh yes, I hope he does. I don't want to, you know, man
proposes but God disposes. What's that mean? You do what
you think you want and God does what he knows he wants. And here's another thing I will
tell you. I thought about this. Learning something new of him,
of Jesus Christ, learning something new of Jesus Christ makes you
happy. You understand, it makes you
happy. Even when you stop and you figure out that this ain't
new. It's just new to you. And guess what? It still makes
you happy. It still makes you happy. You
know why? Because blessed, I'm gonna say
it, blessed is the man whom the Lord Jesus Christ has yoked. Because you're gonna learn of
him. and learning of him will help
you to be ready. Now, tell me that, well, I do
all that, and I still don't feel ready. Welcome to the club. Welcome to the club. And this
is the beautiful thing here. Peter didn't say, he didn't write,
that you had to feel you were ready. He just says be ready.
Peter didn't even write, you have to think you're ready. He
said, be ready. Because there's a fourth thing,
I left it out on purpose. Listen, study, and learn, okay? Here's the last thing. Trust
Jesus Christ. Lean on him. Lean on him. Uncertainty is always in us. Because here's the thing, I liken
it to what Earl used to say about the Lord's table we're gonna
have here later. If you think you're worthy, you're
not. Okay, if you think you're ready, you're probably not. Nobody's ever ready for this. I heard a fellow on the way up
here saying, he asked somebody, he said, did you ever quit preaching?
And the guy said, I don't know what he said, you couldn't hear
it. He said, I've quit preaching, I don't know how many times,
but I have to be here. I know the feeling. There's sometimes
you don't feel ready. But bless God, his holy name,
trust his son, and you'll be ready, you'll be ready. And it
does say to give an answer. To every man that asks the reason
of the hope that's in you, and I do like this, it's give an
answer. It doesn't say you have to give
a sermon. It doesn't have to say you have
to give a theological definition. It doesn't say you have to give
a doctrinal thesis. It's just give an answer. There
may be a place, I think there is a place for a doctoral thesis
and theological definitions. I still don't know if it's Facebook.
But Peter writes to be ready to give an answer. And notice
very carefully, it is an answer. An answer. There's only one answer. There's the answer. It is singular,
I look to make sure. What's the answer? Ha, wrong
question. Question is, who is the answer? And the answer is Jesus Christ,
the Lord God. He is the particular and the
singular answer to the question of the hope that lies in you.
That's the only one answer. Now, also notice you are answering
someone who asks. Now, all may not ask you exactly the way Peter wrote it
here. They may not ask you of the hope that is in you. You
may get questions like I get. What is wrong with you? Why do you go so far away to
church? Why do you not get upset with
the world and the way it is? The answer to all those questions
is this. I know who's in charge. I believe Jesus Christ. I come
to hear Jesus Christ preached here. As far as what's wrong with me,
the list is too long to go into, but there's nothing wrong with
the Lord God, Jesus Christ. He is my answer. And I can tell you this, they won't really see that there's
a hope in you, But they may see that you are different. And they
might use the word odd. It's been known to happen. But
here's the answer. You can tell them, I do have
a hope, singular. I do have an answer, singular.
I do have a hope, singular. And guess what? It's the same
answer is the same hope. Our Lord Jesus Christ, what does
it say? In you, in you. The world doesn't understand,
period. Because the hope in you is a person, Jesus Christ himself. He is the riches of the glory
of this mystery. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I believe Christ is a perfectly
acceptable answer. Don't expect the world to believe
you. Don't expect the world to understand you. But you do know
the answer, because the answer is Jesus Christ. God manifests
in the flesh. The Lord God, the sovereign deity. He can tell people, Jesus Christ
saved me. Jesus Christ gave me life when
I had none. Jesus Christ has made me to understand
his will and his way in this world right now. And he does say, we are to answer
with meekness and fear. Now that doesn't mean you don't
speak boldly. That means the meekness is toward
your contribution, my contribution. You understand? You answer Jesus
Christ high and man low. Our fear's of the Lord. Our meekness
is about ourselves. We give unto God, the Lord God,
all of the glory and there is no boasting. That's the meekness. Last thing, don't expect your
answer to them to be to them joy unspeakable and full of glory. Peter says it. Having a good
conscience that where us they speak evil of you as of evil
doers. You can answer them, and you
can answer them perfectly. But if your voice is the only
voice they hear, they're just gonna speak evil of you. That doesn't relieve you of the
responsibility to be ready to give an answer. But don't be
surprised when they don't like your answer. Why? Because men hate Jesus Christ. And in particular, and specifically,
men hate the Lord God, Jesus Christ. They might have a real
fond memory or thought of a Jesus Christ, but not the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord God. Because man hates, what is it? A good conversation in Christ. It's not that men hate good conversation,
or a good manner of life, or a good manner walk, but they
hate a good walk in Jesus Christ. That's what that is. You understand? And that's because they hate
Christ. And Christ, marvel not when they hate you, they hated
me before they hated you. But be ready. Be ready to give
an answer. Be ready to speak of Jesus Christ. Be ready for he is the hope that
is in you. Be ready for he is the word who
is with God and was God. Be ready because he is the voice
of God, the Father. And when he speaks, now not me,
not you, not anyone else, when he speaks, The dead live, amen. The dead live. Be ready, Jesus
Christ is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. Be
ready, Jesus Christ, this Jesus Christ is made known to his saints. Learn of me. Sanctify through
the spirit unto obedience because Jesus Christ is the mystery.
among the Gentiles, to whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. What's the next three words Paul
wrote? Whom we preach. Whom we answer to every man's
question. because Jesus Christ is your
answer. Jesus Christ is our answer. Jesus Christ is the answer of
the hope that lies in you. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Son, our Lord, in whom you have given us all
things, love, grace, mercy, kindness,
life, knowledge. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we pray.