1 Peter 3, I want to read some
verses to you. Brother Baker has been teaching
some in this, and will continue to study in it in the weeks ahead.
So I will not try to take anything from you, Larry. I will just
dig around the surface, and you can get into it when you teach
it. But I want to read some verses
to you, and I won't keep you very long. Stay in one text all
day today. This morning I'll keep you for
just a few minutes. If my voice holds up, then we'll
eat a bite and come back, and I'll finish what I wanted to
say on this passage. But let me read my text first
of all. In 1 Peter 3, verse 8, Finally, be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another, Love, as brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing,
but contrarywise, blessing, knowing that ye are there unto called,
that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and
see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his
lips that they speak no God. Let him turn away from evil and
do good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayer. But
the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is
he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is
good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness'
sake, happy are you. And be not afraid of the terror,
neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you, and do it
with meekness, and do it with fear." Now, Brother Larry has
told us in this epistle that it's written to suffering saints Peter reminds us there in the
fourth chapter, in verse 16, if any man suffer as a Christian. This is written to suffering
Christians. Don't be ashamed if you suffer
as a Christian. Everybody suffers. Since sin
entered this world, everybody suffered. This is not written
to the sufferings of mankind. My, if you wrote a book about
the sufferings of mankind. What's going on in the world
and always has. What a huge book that would be.
And I for one wouldn't want to read it. What a sad book indeed
it would be. But this is written to suffering
saints. It's written to give them advice,
to give them instructions concerning their attitude under suffering.
And they suffer. Christians suffer. He begins
this epistle talking about our faith being tried. If you've
been given faith, the same one who gives you faith is going
to try that faith. And Peter says it like this,
it's tried with fire. When you're going to purify gold
or silver, you put it in the fire. And it reaches a boiling
point. And when it goes to bubbling,
everything in that that's contrary to that gold or silver comes
to the top. They dip it off. That's the way
it's purified. That's the way it is with faith.
The Lord gives you faith and then He tries your faith. And
sometimes He puts you through the fire. His people, He puts
them through the fire. Christians are tried people.
They're tried within. Peter said, don't think it's
strange concerning this fiery trial which is to try you. But
what do we do when a trial comes to the heart? And we're grieved
in our mind. What do we do? Boy, something
strange is happening to me. Why is all these strange things
happening to me? We suffer within. We suffer the
trials of our faith. We suffer sometimes at the hand
of our fellow man. You may have a bad employer.
You've got a bad employer, maybe you need to go work for Carl.
He's a fine fellow to work for. But you may work for a fellow
that's not like Carl. He may give you a rough way to
go. Suffer at the hands of your employer, like slaves used to
do at the hands of their master. All God's children suffer. All
of them suffer. And Peter is right in this epistle,
in these words that I read to you this morning, this text.
And he's writing here to give instructions to the Christian,
to the believer, on what his attitude should be during his
suffering, during his trials, during your afflictions, whatever
they are. Here's what your attitude should
be as a Christian. All of us need this. If we ever
lived in a day where the world looks at believers, the world
looks at Christians, and you know what they often say. Boy,
if that's a Christian. If that's a Christian. And you
know the sad part is, they're often right. We murmur just like
everybody else. We seek to render railing for
railing and accusation against accusation. We're not patient,
we're not kind, we're not loving, as we should be as Christians.
So Peter's not saying that you're going to suffer things as a Christian,
the world's not suffering. No, he said the same things accomplish
in you that's in the world. Everybody's suffering. But what's
our attitude as we suffer? That's what Peter's writing.
Ain't that so, Larry? That's what he's writing about. What's
our attitude going to be when we suffer? Well, here's what
our attitude should be as children of God. These are instructions,
dear child of God, for you this morning. And he begins here in
verse 8, and he says, finally, be ye all of one mind. We're one in Christ. And we should
all have one purpose. We should have one goal. We should
think alike. I'm not talking about cultures. I'm not talking about personal
conviction. I'm talking about letting this mind be in you that
was in Christ. What kind of man was in Christ?
Well, he was in the form of God. But look what he did. He made
himself in fashion as a man. And being found in the form of
a man, he humbled himself unto his Father, became obedient to
his Father, even to the agonizing death of the cross. He honored
his Father in all things. He sought His glory. Let this
man be here. Be conformed to the mind of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Paul say? We have
the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you and we
have that mind of Christ. Having compassion. Having compassion. Oh, what a grace to let your
heart be filled with compassion, to walk through this world with
your heart full of compassion. You remember that leper that
came to the Lord Jesus that time that was full of leprosy. His
nose was rotted off. His ears were falling off. He
smelled awful. His body was wracked with fever.
And he came to the Son of God and bowed right down at His feet.
And he said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And you
remember what the Son of God said to him. Remember what he
did. You remember what his attitude was when he looked down at that
man. He was moved with compassion. What moves you? What moves you
as you go through this world? This is what should move the
Christian. Compassion. A heart full of sympathy, affection,
compassion. One to another. And look at this,
love as brethren. We're just one family. We're
put in Christ and we're one family. The family in heaven and the
family upon this earth. Were you in heaven or were you
upon this earth? If you're in Christ, you're in this one family.
The family of God. We're all the children of God
and we're brothers and we're sisters. Who is my mother? Who
is my brother? Those who hear the Word of God
and keep it. Those who believe in me. Those
who know me. Those who are in me. That's who
my brother and I are and my sister. You know something about the
family of God. They're much closer than blood relatives. There's
some of you here this morning, and a lot of you are family.
But you are closer to God's children than you are your own mom and
dad. Ain't that so? That is so. Family. Love one another as brethren. Have the same Father, the same
Heavenly Brother. And look at this. Be pitiful.
Be tender-hearted. Be kind and tender-hearted, forgiving
one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Let your
heart be full of pity. Somebody says, boy, I don't want
pity. I do, don't you? I need pity. I want to be pitied.
When you see me error, pity me. Don't push me down. I don't need
that. I need pity. I need sympathy. And look at
this. Here's something we need. Courteous. Be courteous. Be polite. Don't be hateful and mean and
contrary. Be courteous. Be courteous. I remember Jim Wilson, bless
his heart, most of you knew him. He's been dead now for the last
few years. He was one of the most courteous men I ever seen.
He went out of his way to be courteous. It was just in his
heart. If you ever went anywhere, we took a trip with him to Florida,
and he was one of the friendliest, most courteous men I ever seen.
If you'd go in a shop and you were in a hurry and you just
wanted to run in there and get a sandwich or get some chewing gum or something,
he'd start talking to people. He'd leave there and he'd know
three or four people, what was going on in their life, what
their trouble was, who their children was, what they were
going through. He just liked people. He was so kind and sympathetic
and so courteous. Remember him. Remember Jim. That's
the way Peter said to be. Be courteous. Well, ain't that
a good attitude, huh? Now remember, remember, Peter's
writing to suffering saints. He's writing to saints that were
heavy in their hearts. Saints that were facing the kingdom
of darkness. The devil. Their faith was being
tried. And here's what he said your
attitude should be. It must be. And look what he says here in
verse 9. Look at this. Look in verse 9. Not rendering,
railing for railing, evil for evil, or railing for
railing, but contrary wise, blessing. Blessing. Boy, ain't it easy
when somebody wants to start an argument with you or accuse
you of something. The easiest thing in the world
to do is just accuse right back. If he's going to accuse you of
something, you accuse him right back. Argue with him. Pile you
up a bunch of rocks to throw at him. If you can get the last
word in, that's the easiest thing in the world to do. But you know
the most difficult thing is to do and what it takes grace to
do when somebody rails on you and somebody accuses you? You
know the most gracious thing to do is bless them. Bless them. You say, Bruce, that sounds awful
sissy. That sounds awful passive. No, it's not passive. Blessing
is a positive thing. And you know why we do that?
You know why Peter tells us to do that? Because when we do that,
it mirrors the image of our Father in heaven. Ain't that what the
Lord Jesus told us? Listen to what He said. Love
your enemies. Love your enemies. We have trouble
loving our friends, don't we? Love your enemies. Bless them
that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully
use you and persecute you. Why did He tell us to do that?
That you may be like your Father, which is in heaven. And you know
what He said the Father did? He said the Father causes His
Son to rise on the good and on the evil. You've got an evil
man, and he curses God every day. He hates God. And what does
God do to him? He gives him sunlight to rise
upon him. He warms his head and his body,
causes his garden to grow, sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And Peter said, when you do that,
when you bless and when you love, and when you do good to those
that hate you, you'll be like your father, which isn't him.
That's a good attitude to have. And look what he says in chapter
2 and verse 21. Look at this. For even here unto
were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example that we should follow His steps. Here's advice. Here's advice. Bless. Love. and pray for, and do good to
those who hate you and persecute you, because you'll mirror the
image of your Father, you'll be walking after the example
the Lord Jesus left you, and you'll have confidence that you're
Christian. Because what's a Christian called
to do? Suffer. Suffer. Did you realize what
the Lord called you to when He called you and saved you? I thought,
boy, he's called me just to rejoice and to be happy. It's just cloud
nine from here on out. I never had any idea that he
called me to maintain such a gracious and loving attitude, even towards
those who hated you and shamed you and persecuted you. But that's
what he says. That's good advice. That's good
instruction for a Christian. And look what he says in verse
10 and verse 11. Here's some good instruction. I tell you, I want to enjoy life.
This is a sorry life, to be honest with you. It is. And there's
all kinds of trouble. And we can get so sad that we
can get down. But I tell you, I want, and this
may sound silly, but I want to be happy. Don't you? I've been
sad so long and discouraged so long. You get tired of that attitude
after a while. I want to have some good days.
Ain't that what he said? He that will love life and see
good days. How can a man do that? Well,
I'll tell you how you're not going to do it. I'll tell you
the most miserable man in this world is the man who goes with
a grudge in his heart and a chip on his shoulder. Somebody's done
something to him. Somebody's looked at him cross-eyed
or spoke a harsh word to him, and he's holding that grudge
in his heart. Somebody told me yesterday. Oh, somebody. We went
up to some friends of ours yesterday at the graduation. And they were
telling me about these men who sat in the congregation and wouldn't
even speak to each other. They go to church together and
won't even shake hands, won't speak to each other. holding
a grudge in their heart. You know something about those
fellows? They're not seeing good days. They're not loving life. They're miserable. I was thinking
about that old song that George Strait sings. Remember that old
song? I don't know exactly how it goes,
but it says something like, I hate my job. I hate my life. If it wasn't for my kids, I'd
hate my ex-wife. I hate everything. And you know
something about him? He's miserable. He wrote it about
this fellow sitting on a bar stool, didn't he? Drowning his
misery in his beer. Why? Why? He wasn't seeking peace. Wasn't
pursuing peace. Let these things get in his heart,
these grudges, and held them there and harbored them. And
they just eat him alive. And he said, I'm miserable. I'm
miserable. Everything's happening bad to
me and I'm miserable. I tell you, if you want a good life
and you want to seek good days, Peter said, seek peace. Pursue
it. That's not being passive. That's
an active thing, isn't it? I tell you, I'd rather live
that way, brothers and sisters, and suffer some wrong, and have to swallow your pride, than to live with bitterness
in your heart and just let it eat you up and be miserable.
He that will love life and see good days, let him reframe his
tongue from evil." Oh my goodness. Just go around talking. Just
go around spreading rumors. Go around accusing people of
things. You're going to be miserable. You're going to be miserable.
Reframe your tongue from evil and your lips that it speak no
God. Don't speak bad about even the
devil if you can have it. Very term-a-fowl. Remember that lady, she was an
old grandmother, and everybody said, boy, that woman, I've never
heard her speak a word about anybody. And somebody asked her
one day, said, Granny, I've never heard you say a negative word
about anybody. I earnestly believe that you don't have a bad thing
to say about the devil himself. And she said, One thing you'll
have to say about him, he's consistent. He's consistent. Ain't that wonderful
to be around somebody like that? And you know people like that?
I tell you, they've got some tranquility in their hearts.
I ain't got a bad thing to say about anybody. Well, your pastor
hasn't got there yet. He hasn't got there yet. I'm preaching this to me. If
you don't need this to me, look here in verse 12. Here's some
more instruction. Here's some things to help them.
Here's some things to help us. I don't care if we're suffering
in our hearts. Or if we're suffering at the
hands of someone else. Whatever our sufferings may be.
Of what extent we may be suffering. These things will happen. And
look at this. Here's something else. Here's
some good instructions. Look at this in verse 12. Here's
something to remember. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. Ain't that wonderful? You know
what that's telling us. That's telling us that our Lord
is omnipresent. He's everywhere with everybody
at one time. Wherever you are, He's there. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. All the righteous But there's
some here in Newcastle, there's some in Tennessee, there's some
in Mexico. The righteous are all over this
world. The Lord's got people everywhere. You mean He's there
too? He's everywhere. What did David say? He said,
Lord, if I send them to heaven... Well, how did he begin that Psalm
139? Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? Is there anywhere I can go?"
The Lord said, no. He said, if I send them to heaven, you're
there. Well, that makes sense, doesn't it? But He said, if I
make my bed in hell, they put me in the grave, He's there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth where nobody else
even goes, even there, His hand will lead me and His right hand
shall guide me. Oh, such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. The Lord's everywhere. Wherever
you are, dear soul, He's there. But this word means more than
that, because when Peter says, the eye of the Lord are over
the righteous, it means also that the Lord is omniscient.
Omniscient. He knows everything. His eyes
see everything that's going on. He knows where you're at, and
He knows what's going on in your heart. He sees it. Back to that Psalm 139, David
said this, Lord, you have searched me and you've known me. Ain't that a wonderful thought?
You've searched me out. You know the motives of my heart.
You know my intents. You know what thoughts I have
while I'm having them. the words that's in my mouth
before I speak them. You know them. He knows all about
me. Thou hast searched me and known
me. Thou knowest my down settings,
and you know my uprisings, and you know my thoughts aforeall. And listen to this. He can pass
us. Thou can passest my path and
my lying down, and you're acquainted with how many of my ways? All
my ways. Every one of them. You know them
all. He's marked out your ways. Has He not? When I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, He knows it beforehand, because
He's marked out that path. He knows the way that I take.
There is not a word in my tongue, but you know it altogether. You
have enclosed me behind and before, and you've laid your hand upon
me, your gracious hand. Your loving, kind, and tender
hand, You've laid it upon me." What did David say? Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. Not only when I'm walking through
the valley of the shadow of death, He's with me. When I go through
the waters, He's with me. To the end of the earth, He's
with me, but He knows me. Dear child of God, there's nothing
this morning that you're suffering, that you're going through, and
you may not be able to tell anybody about it. It may be these heart
sufferings, which is the worst of all. He knows it. He knows
it. And I love what he says here.
Look what he says. Instead of rendering evil for
evil, and railing for railing, and argument and trying to get
the last word, look what he says. His ears are open unto their
cry. Instead of telling somebody off,
tell the Lord. Tell the Lord. His ears are opened
to their cry. We have a God who hears prayer.
We have a faithful high priest that in your heart and your spirit,
everything is naked and open. And yet he sympathizes with you.
He can feel your infirmity. And he says, you come to me.
I'm on the throne of grace. You bring it to me in prayer.
And you'll find grace to help you and mercy in the time of
your need. He doesn't call us to suffer
and then say, do the best you can. He says, I'm watching everything
you do. I'm present with you. I see everything
that's going on. I see what the devil's doing
to you. He couldn't do that if I didn't let him. I gave him
permission to do that. Don't you think I know that?
I know that. I saw that look that person gave
you. I heard what they accused you of. Here's what you should
do. Remember, bring it to me. Cast
your cares upon me. My ears are open to your prayers,
your prayer. I tell you what, if you take
it to Him, you'd be amazed how much more easier it would be
to bury. You'll be amazed and astounded
at the grace and strength He'll give you when you take it to
Him in prayer. His ears are open to their prayers. And look at the last portion
of verse 13. I tell you, brothers and sisters, one of the motives for not rendering
Rell and Pharrell and argue with people and get in a fight with
them. One of the good motives for just
blessing them and loving them is this. They've got enough trouble
as it is. They've got enough trouble as
it is. Look at what he said. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. Why should I call on with my
little frowns They've got enough trouble, Steve. The Lord's frowning
at them. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. I'll recompense. I'll take up
your cause. You be good to them. You smile
at them because I'm frowning at them. Don't you avenge yourself, dear
child of God. Don't you plead your own cause.
There's no cause to do that. Let Him take up your cause. And
I tell you, when He does it, when He does it, they've got
trouble enough. They've got trouble enough. If
the Lord has set His face against a man, that man's in enough trouble
as it is. Don't you cause him any more trouble. It's going
to be the best life that man knows if God's face is against
him. And look here in verse 13. Here's
our normal. Here's our normal experience.
Here's what's normal for me, and I bet it's normal for you.
Look at this. Peter was speaking here mainly
of what we suffer at the hands of others. He said in verse 13,
but who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that
which is good? I have suffered very little persecution
because I did what was right, and I did good. I never one time
had my employer to write me up because I was early for work.
I never had him to get mad at me one time because I did him
a good day's work for a day's pay. I went over this morning,
I had some paper ready to blow over my neighbor's yard. It was
my paper, so I went and picked it up. He didn't come out the
door cussing me that I went and got my paper out of his yard. When you go to the bank, did
you ever have to tell her to give you $20 too much money?
And you backed up and said, Lady, I'm sorry you gave me too much
money. And she gave you a frown because of it. That usually don't
happen, does it? Who is He that will harm you
if you be followers of that which is good? Very seldom. Most people
will respect you if you're a truthful person, if you're an honest person,
if you're a sincere person. Thank God that we're living still
in the time, as bad as it is, where the nation in general still
lacks some honesty and integrity. That's generally the way it is.
But Peter stops in verse 14, and he probably remembers some
things in his own experience. And he said, wait a minute. Wait
a minute. He said, there are some exceptions.
But if you suffer for righteousness' sake, And you know, he probably
began to remember. I remember back there, he said,
when me and John had an opportunity to preach, and we was preaching
Christ that He raised from the dead, and they got so mad at
us, they whipped the dickens out of us. They whipped us. Ah, he said, well, wait a minute,
you might suffer. You might suffer for righteousness' sake. Usually
you won't, but there are some exceptions. The Lord's people have suffered
at the hands of other people. Cain slew his brother Abel. He
suffered. David suffered at the hands of
Saul. Paul, the apostle, suffered at the hands of the Jews, and
they hated our Master without a cause. They hated him. You
may suffer, Paul said. But look what he said, if you
suffer for righteousness' sake. Notice this. Notice this, if
you suffer for Christ's sake, if you suffer for conscience
towards God's sake, if you suffer for the truth's sake, if you
suffer as a Christian, notice what he said, happy are you. Happy are you. It's not just
suffering, you see, it's the cause for which you suffer. Why
are you suffering? Because you're a Christian. That's
why you suffer. And Peter didn't say, you should
be happy. Try to be happy. But he said,
you are happy. And when we know that we're suffering
for the cause of Christ, we're suffering for righteousness sake,
when we truly understand that, we are happy. What better cause
could you suffer for than the cause of Christ? You know of
a more just cause to suffer? You know of a more glorious person
to suffer on behalf of than Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior? Now,
if you suffer as a Christian, you are happy. You are happy. When they took Peter and John
into that council that day, and they whipped them and shamed
them, pulled their shirts off their back, tied them up and
whipped them till blood came out of their back. Some of those
Sanhedrin judges, counselors were sniggering under their breath.
We'll show them. These two unschooled, unlearned,
ignorant Galileans. Who do they think they are? Shame
them! Pull their shirts off and we'll
show them a thing or two. And boy, they laid stripes on
their back. Threw their shirts under their chests and said,
get out of here. And if you ever speak in His name again, we'll
do you worse next time. And there they stood out on the
street, and everybody walking out past them, sniggering on
their breath. Boy, they finally showed you two unschooled fellas.
Why don't you go back up to Galilee now? They shamed them. But you
know what their attitude was. They departed from that council
rejoicing. They were happy. Why? That they
were counted worthy to suffer shame. for His sake. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
if you suffer for Christ's sake, for righteousness' sake, you're
happy. You're happy. And Peter says here in the last
portion of verse 14, and I'll close with this, and we'll take
this back up tonight, this afternoon, if you want to come back. If
you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are you And look
at this, don't be afraid of what they're afraid of. Don't be afraid
of their terror, what terrorizes them. Don't be troubled. That's the meaning of that verse.
What these people did, what the Sanhedrin did, and what some
of these Jews did, they sat around and made up things. They sat
around and thought, now how can we terrorize these Christians?
What can we do to make them afraid? Then they thought to themselves,
well, what would make me afraid? This is what they did during
the Spanish Inquisition back there in the 1500s or 1600s or
whenever it was. The Catholicism got together
with the authorities of Spain and they said, we're going to
persecute Christians. They're interfering with our
theology. They're spreading the rumors that we're wrong, and
you're justified by faith alone in Christ. We have one rule,
it's the Word of God, and we want to stop this, so what are
we going to do? And they sat down, they got their committees
together, and sat down and said, let's terrorize them. Well, how
are we going to terrorize them? Well, one fellow thought this.
He said, I'll tell you how we can terrorize them. Let's get
a big pot, a huge pot, and fill it full of oil. and set a fire
on it and get it to boil. Then we'll throw them down in
that oil. We'll let them down with a rope in that oil. I know
that would scare me to death." That's what he said. If it would
scare me to death, it would scare them too. Another one said, I've
got an idea how we can terrorize them, and this would sure scare
me. Let's make this gadget, let's make this machine that will stretch
a body. We'll put a body on it, and we'll
tie his hands to one end, we'll tie his legs to another one,
and we'll start cranking the wheel, and he'll pull him apart.
Boy, that will terrorize. That will scare me to death.
So it sure will scare them. They came up with all kinds of
ways to terrorize believers, the children of God. You remember Nebuchadnezzar? Remember what he did to terrorize
people? He said, I'm going to make me
an image, and I want people to bow down to that image. And if
they don't, I'm going to put some terror in them. Well, what
are you going to do about Nebuchadnezzar? Well, he said, I'm going to think
about it for a few days and think what I can do. I'm going to think
of the most terrible thing that would scare me to death." And
he said, I know what would scare me, a huge furnace. And if somebody
threw me in a furnace that would melt steel, that would scare
me to death. That's what I want, he said.
I want to terrorize people. Well, they asked the counselors
one day of another king, the king of Persia, they said, They
said to those counselors, you want to terrorize people? Yes,
we do. What would you do? Well, they said, we'd throw people
into lions. That's what we'd do. Let the lions eat them. Boy,
that would scare people. But in all of this terror that
fallen men come up with to scare Christians and to terrorize them, there were a few that said, we're
not afraid of your terror. Those things that make you afraid
have no effect upon us. I know, Nebuchadnezzar, you're
scared to death of that fiery furnace. But we don't hesitate
to go in there because our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from it. Daniel, if you don't quit praying
to your God, we're going to throw you in a den of lions. I'm not
afraid of those lions. I know you are. You're scared
to death. I'm not afraid of those lions.
Isn't there grace to live by and grace to suffer by like that,
brothers and sisters? They had one old man, Thotse's
Book of Martyrs. I think his name was Vladimir.
I'm not for sure, but it seems like I remember his name. But
he was an old, old disciple of the Lord. He served the Lord
for years, so faithful. And they told him this, that
we're going to burn you, but we don't really want to. We want
you to recant. We want you to deny Christ, and
we'll spare you. We're going to burn you. We done
got the kindling around the post. We got the chains and the ropes
ready for you. But if you'll just recant, and
we're going to put you back in jail for a night and let you
think about it. They called him back up and said, are you ready
to recant? If you don't, we're going to burn you. And you know
what dear old Adamer said, You know what that old, old disciple
of the Lord said? He said, I'm not afraid that
far. That's all you can do with me is burn the body. And every,
here's what he said, every moment that you delay, you delay my
entrance into the kingdom of my Lord and my Savior. Why would
you be afraid of what man is afraid of? You don't have to
be brothers and sisters. No matter what you're suffering,
dear child of God, if it's within or if it's without, if you suffer
at the hands of fallen angels or you suffer at the hands of
fallen men, if it's your faith that's tried, if it's the Lord
that's put you through the fire, you don't have to fear. Bury
it lovingly. Bury it patiently. Bury it graciously. That's the Christian's attitude. Well, if you want to stay around,
I've got two more things that I want to deal with after we
come back from eating. In verse 15, sanctify the Lord. Boy, here's something that will
happen. Set Him apart. Let Him be your fear. Let Him
be your dread. And don't forget your hope. Don't forget your
hope. Alright. Father, we thank You. We bless Your holy and gracious
Name. You're wise. You're good. You're
kind to us, we're most unworthy, most unprofitable. We're careful
to come in the name and through the merits of our great mediator
that you've set upon your right hand. Our righteousness, our
wisdom, our redemption, everything that we need, our Father you've
put in Him. And you'll accept us and receive
us through Him. And therefore we come to you,
to the holiest of holies. addressing You as our Father
through Him. Forgive us our sins, how we sinned
even this morning. Sin is mixed with all we do.
Thank You for the fountain that's open for sin and for uncleanness. Thank You for Your Word. Bless
it to our hearts. Give us grace, Lord, to apply
it. Thank You for this food that these dear ladies have prepared
for us. As we receive it, may it be for
our health. As we fellowship and talk one
with another for a few minutes, may our conversation be seasoned
with grace. May we help one another. And
Lord, prepare our hearts as we return again in a few minutes
to worship you in this public place. In our Savior's name,
amen.