Well, I hope tonight you realize God is a gracious, loving Heavenly Father, and no matter how far you run, He always is calling you back to Himself. Maybe even tonight, God has already touched your heart and you know you're far away from the Lord. You are not where you ought to be. Well, that's why you've come tonight. God has something special for all of us from His Word. Well, we told you this morning that we're going to start a children's service with our team tonight, so we're going to dismiss the children. All the children, fourth grade and below, that are not in the nursery, we'll make sure to take good care of them. They're actually going to the teen room. And that's kind of ironic, isn't it? Because eventually they will be in the teen room. And so let's make sure you pick up your kids after the service. We've got plenty of children. We don't need yours. Amen to that. So take your Bibles tonight and turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. Now, this week, there's lots of music being provided, lots of music also congregationally. And I want to just remind us again that when we come to God's house and we listen to music, this is not a performance. This is not entertainment. I hope all of us will be engaging in what we're hearing. and that you will listen to the words of the song and meditate on the truths that God is bringing to you through the music. You know, the Bible teaches us in Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Do you realize, folks, that one of the primary ways in the church that we are exhorted to follow God is through our music? And so I hope that when you come to these services, I hope you understand that we're not given a performance. This isn't a show. This is spiritual work taking place, even during the worship, during the time of music, which includes your singing and our singing. And already God has touched us and challenged us about some important things, even in the music tonight. Now, I want to remind you that throughout this week, we're emphasizing some special nights. I hope you see that in your bulletin. In the bulletin, we have listed for you the special emphasis that we are giving this week, and this is just a way for you to invite people to come to the services. Tomorrow night, as was mentioned this morning by Pastor Barber, is Sunday school night. We want all the Sunday school teachers to make sure you're bringing your Sunday school class. Call them. Invite them. Call people who haven't been here in a while. And invite them to come on Sunday school night, which is Monday night. Tuesday night is family night, which I've been told that there's going to be a number of families here from the school that will be represented here on Tuesday night. Some of the children will be singing. And so I hope that you're inviting the school families especially. But if you have any family members that are in the area, I want you to invite them on Tuesday night. Wouldn't it be great if one of your relatives came and maybe they don't know the Lord. They just need to get saved and they come on Tuesday night and they would trust the Lord. That'd be a wonderful blessing. So Tuesday night is family night. Don't forget that. Wednesday night. I like this night because every one of us that work with somebody we ought we ought to invite our co-workers. That's co-worker night. We want to have some visitors on Wednesday night. People who need the Lord. If you're working to bring some of your friends from work, that's a great night to invite them. And of course, we want you to be in your place as well. Then Thursday is neighbor night. and then Friday, the sacred concert. You know, it's a shame how many Christians don't know their neighbors and never told them where they go to church, have never really invited them to church. I hope you'll work to bring somebody on Thursday night. Then also, I want to remind you that Thursday night also we are having at the same time a teen service. And so I know the teenagers are working hard to invite some young people from the area. We'll have a great activity with them and a message from the Word of God for the teenagers as well. The week is going to go by fast. I hope you'll plan to be a part of everything that's going on at your church. This is a great Sunday night crowd, but you know what? There's lots of places to fill up with invite folks to come. There's flyers available. Pick up some of those flyers. Invite folks to come to the services this week. You can't force somebody to come, but you sure can invite them to come. And I found out in my life that if I'm excited about something, most of the time I can get somebody else excited about it. And so, if you'll get excited about bringing folks to the services, I promise you, somebody will come. And what a blessing it would be to have some visitors with us this week. Well, tonight the message is from the great book of 1 Peter. I hope you have your Bibles open and ready to learn from the Word of God. 1 Peter is a wonderful book in the New Testament written by the Apostle Peter. Just to summarize and give a little bit of background, because I'm not a pastor and I can't teach systematically through the book here tonight, we would be here a long time. But to summarize the book, Peter is writing to a group of scattered out believers. They are scattered out because of primarily the persecution that they are facing. The primary theme of this book is suffering and rejoicing and suffering and handling that suffering and the ridicule and mockery that comes when you are a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. So he exhorts them as pilgrims and strangers. He reminds them that they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that they're not supposed to fit in and flirt with the culture, but they're supposed to fight against the culture. And it's a powerful book that has very appropriate application for us in American society today. These people were being discriminated against. These people were being laughed at. These people were being persecuted for simply believing what they believed and following the Lord Jesus Christ. And isn't that what's happening in America today? Christianity especially has become the faith, or some might call the religion, that many people in our country are hostile against. And you know what? They are getting very aggressive. And the secularists and the people that are trying to push God out of our culture, and especially against Christianity. And folks, I believe there's some appropriate application right here in the book of 1 Peter for those of us that are living in this culture, and we firmly believe what we believe, and we want to be able to face the ridicule, and face the mockery, and face even the persecution that might come our way. Now, this book of the Bible is wonderful. We come to chapter three and verse 14 is probably the theme verse, the theme verse for this book. You might want to circle it or underline it. This is a great theme verse of the book. I'm sure that maybe others might say there's other theme verses, but I believe this is a great theme verse, verse number 14, where it says, but and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled." Glance over to chapter 4. It's interesting. Chapter 3, verse 14. Now chapter 4, verse 14. It says, "...if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified." Two different times He tells us that we can be happy through the suffering. How is it that in American culture today, when we as God's people might be ridiculed and persecuted and mocked and made fun of, how is it that we can still be joyful and be happy? Well, in chapter one, he gives us the primary foundation for that happiness. And you know, our true happiness is not based upon our circumstances. Our true happiness is based upon the cross. It's the hope we have in Jesus Christ. And so really, this book is all about Christ and all about the hope we have in Christ. And if you do have that hope, you can be happy in the midst of trouble. You can be happy in the midst of suffering. And in chapter three, he gives us some very specific details on what principles need to be in our life if we're going to face the ridicule. Now, I am definitely not an adventure seeker. But compared to some, they might call me that. I have had, on occasion, different chances to be involved in what some might call extreme sports. Now, I don't know if you call snow skiing extreme. Some of you might. But just a few weeks ago, my brother and I had the chance of being out in Colorado, and Mike was actually out in Utah with some friends, and we went snow skiing. That's, to most people, a pretty extreme sport. I don't know how many of you have ever had the chance of going whitewater rafting. If you've ever been whitewater rafting, it's somewhat of an extreme event, extreme sport, I guess. But if you really look at it logically, it's a pretty comfortable ride down the river, isn't it? I mean, it's a soft, cushiony raft filled up with air. Usually you're sitting on the side of the raft that has the most air in it, and you kind of bounce up and down. There's nothing really rough about that ride, unless you go in the water. Then it's pretty rough. But usually you're in this boat with several other people, And hopefully somebody that knows what they're doing, that person's called the guide. And they tell you when to paddle, they tell you which side to paddle, and really all you've got to do is follow the instructions. And frankly, it's somewhat of a comfortable ride down the rough, raging river. On occasion, when I've been rafting, I've noticed off to the side of the boat that there was a very brave, courageous, single individual in a small little boat called a kayak. Have you ever been in a kayak? Have you ever seen some of these guys? I mean, that's what I call extreme sport. When they're by themselves, paddling as hard as they can, and believe it or not, many times, they try to actually go up the river. I confirmed this just recently, talking to somebody who had a hobby of kayaking, and he said, oh yeah, this is one of the goals that we have when we hop on the river, is to go against the flow of the river, go upstream, even going up some of the rapids. Boy, that is definitely not the comfortable position, is it? They've got to work hard. They've got to be diligent to go against the flow. You know what, folks? We are living in a culture that has a very aggressive agenda. We are living in a culture that is like a raging river that is pushing us down, and I'm afraid we have a lot of Christians that are taking the comfortable position. I'm afraid we have a lot of even churches that are coasting down the river, and we look back on our lives, and we look back on our ministries, and we wonder, how is it that we got so far away from what we used to be? How is it personally in our families, with our children, with our churches, that we can go so far down the river? I believe part of that could be that we have chosen to take the comfortable position instead of going against the flow. Folks, the title of the message tonight is Going Against the Flow. And I believe it is high time that we get some Christians that are willing to be like that kayaker, who even though they may feel like they're all alone, they're disciplined and they're determined and they're paddling hard to go against the flow of the raging current of this culture. Peter is admonishing these people on these ends, to this end, that they would go against the flow and continue to serve God even when the culture and the current is pushing against them. And these are the principles he gives in chapter number 3. Notice verse 15. He gives three specific basic principles that will help us to go against the flow of the culture. And if you don't put these principles in your life, you'll find yourself coasting down the river and you'll be swept away by the current of this age. By the current of this culture. First of all, he tells us in verse number 15, the very first command, first phrase of this verse, gives us the principle that we need to put in our lives. It says this, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. The word sanctify here has the idea of being set apart. It's the same Greek word where we translate the word holiness. Holiness is being set apart from sin. In this context, he is telling us that there is a person that ought to be set apart in our hearts, but sanctify or literally set the Lord, set him apart as special in your heart. The place of this surrender is obviously not just our behavior, but it's our heart. For out of the heart are all the issues of life. And so he is telling us in this passage that we ought to declare Him, that's God, as the Lord of our life. Do you realize that the people that are being swept away are people who do not have full surrender to God? People who have idols in their life. People who have misplaced priorities. And God is really not set apart like He ought to be in their lives. So the first principle is, declare Him as the Lord. Now listen, when somebody is special, when somebody is set apart as a special person, there are several things that automatically happen with that person. When I think about this, I think about the most special person in my life, and that's my wife. And guess what? She is so special that I want to be with her. When somebody is special, when somebody is isolated and set apart in that way, you want to spend time with that person. Why is it in American Christianity we are shutting the doors of the church? We ought to want to spend time with God. And yet I believe Idols have crept in. Priorities are wrong. And we are forsaking the most important thing for trivial things. It is amazing to me how many families, even in our fundamental independent Baptist churches, churches just like this one, how many families are taking their children to sporting events while church is going on. And then they wonder why their kids are not fully surrendered to God. You know what, if I had a child and I was living in a community and I would want my kids to be involved in sports, I think that's great. I grew up playing sports. But I'll tell you one thing, if I had a child and I was in a community and they were playing sports, I would walk them with my hand in their hand to the coach and I would say, just so you know, if there's any games on Wednesday night, if there's any games on Sunday morning or Sunday night, or any time that the doors of our church are open, I just want you to know up front that my family is going to go to church before we come to the ballgame. And with my child standing there, I hope the coach's eyes would get real big and he would realize that this family loves God more than sports. You know, it is a shame what is going on in Christianity today and how easily we are taken away from the worship of God. Things are pushing God out. And we think, well, kids don't pick up on that. Surely they're not picking up on that. Oh, yes, they do. Kids are picking up on that. I remember growing up, I know my dad was the pastor, so we really had no excuse not to be at church. But I'll tell you this, I know my dad and mom very, very well, obviously. And whether he was the pastor or not, we weren't missing church for anything. We were at all the activities. We were at all the youth events. We were at all the services. And you know what? I grew up realizing in the Herbster home, there was one thing more important than anything. That was loving God, serving God, obeying God, and fearing God. Now, I don't know what you want your kids to see in your family, but that's what I want my kids to see. That God is the number one priority. And you know what? When somebody is the number one priority, and they're set apart in your heart, you want to spend time with them. Now, I'm kind of preaching to the group that's already here, but I hope you'll plan on being here every night. Why? Because God is special to us. Our relationship with God is special. Trust me, I don't think there's anything special about the Herbster team. But there is something special about God. You ought to love Him so much that you put aside things that you can to worship Him whenever you possibly can. You say, well, I can worship Him at home. Obviously you can. But you know what? This is your local church. This is God's place that He has established for us to join together and unify our voices to praise Him, unify our voices to worship Him and to honor Him in this place. And so when somebody's special, when there's full surrender in our heart, we spend time with them. But there's something else that happens. When somebody has set apart in your life, you also sacrifice for them. You are willing to do almost anything to support them. You are willing to do almost anything, even financially and with your time and with your energy, to make that person successful. To make that person known. You know what? If God is truly set apart in our hearts, like this verse is saying, but sanctify the Lord God in your heart, then surely, we ought to be willing to do anything to make the name of God big. To glorify Him. To expose others to Him. This would mean, obviously, we're willing to give of our finances to the local church. We're willing to give to foreign missions. Nobody should ever have to force us to give. We ought to want to give. Why? Because our God is special to us. And the gospel means something around the world. And so we're willing to give financially. We're willing to serve and minister in the church. You have a place of ministry. You have a place of service. Every Christian ought to be serving God. Not because you feel pressured to do so from the staff of the church ministry, but you ought to want to serve God because of what He has done for you. Matthew 6.33 says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. You know what? I believe that we are watching families and churches and individuals be swept down the river because we have churches full of people that are not fully surrendered to God. I had the wonderful privilege of preaching to groups of teenagers all across this country. And I'll tell you, when I first became an evangelist, I thought, you know what? I'm going to preach on all the teen issues. Because there's a lot of them, aren't there? And especially now, you know, more issues come up every year. I mean, you've got all kinds of technology, all kinds of things, all kinds of entertainment, friendships, dating, all kinds of these things. I thought, you know, I'm just going to preach on all these issues and I'm going to talk about how they need to give their heart to God. And these issues are important and they are important. But as I preach the camps and youth meetings and Christian school chapels, you know what? I can preach on those issues till I'm blue in the face. But the biggest problem we have with teenagers, is the same problem we have with adults. We're not fully surrendered. Teenagers that are struggling in all those teen issues are teenagers that haven't given God everything in their life. They're not fully surrendered. They don't have Him truly sanctified in their heart. And listen, folks, we're going to continue to watch people float down the river. We're going to continue to lose people to the wicked culture until we say, God, You are number one priority. I will have no other gods before me. I will set none of those idols in my life. So is there any idol in your life tonight? Is there anything that has pushed God aside and you have set it apart as special, or that person as special, or some entertainment as special, or some hobby as special, and God is in the second place? God deserves first place. He deserves to be honored. And if we're going to fight against this culture instead of floating down the river, we go against the flow. We must declare Him as the Lord. This happens first when you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You know, it does say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I am fully aware that that does not mean that you understand all the implications of Him being Master of your life at the moment you get saved. But I will say this, you better believe He is the Lord in order to get saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, which means at some point in your life, obviously you are saying, God, You are the Master, You are the Lord. And then the more you grow in Christ, the more you realize, wow, there's a lot of surrender that needs to happen. There's a lot of things I need to give over. Which means tonight, it is impossible to go against the flow of the culture until, first of all, Jesus Christ is your Savior. Until you've believed on Him as your Lord. If you're here tonight, you've never trusted in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross and rose again gloriously for you, for your salvation, for your sanctification. God wants to change you tonight. And the Bible says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And tonight you can be saved. But for those of us that are Christians, let's ask ourselves this question. Are we feeling ourselves being pushed down the river? Are we feeling ourselves being pulled further and further into the things of this world? And could it possibly be that we have an idol in our life? That we are not fully surrendered to God. He says, declare Him as Lord. But notice v. 15. He says something else. We continue in v. 15. To go against the flow, number one, you declare Him as Lord, but number two, you need to be ready to defend Him as Lord. Defend Him as Lord. He says in verse 15, "...and 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." This is a wonderful passage of Scripture. In this verse is used the Greek word apologia, where we get the word apologetics. It's a wonderful passage of Scripture, not only for us to stand against the culture, but it's a wonderful passage even about evangelism. I don't think the primary purpose of this verse is to challenge us to evangelism. I think the primary purpose of this verse is to make us stable and secure like pillars that don't flinch when the world has all kinds of wicked philosophies that they're throwing at us. There is great application here for our witnessing. But you know what, folks, the reason why we need to be ready to give an answer is because when you give an answer for what you believe, then you'll never, ever desert it. You'll never, ever quit. You'll never, ever throw in the towel and say, I don't believe that anymore. No, because you have become convinced you already know what you believe and why you believe it. So he tells us to be ready always to give an answer. You know what folks, there are so many philosophies and teachings and false religions happening in our world today. You better know what you believe. And you better know how to dialogue with people and discuss with people and defend what you believe. I believe in some sense of the word, for maybe even a generation, we have gone away from solid doctrinal teaching and we have a whole generation of Christians that know how to talk the talk, but they don't really know how to defend what they believe. They don't know how to say what true Christianity is. They don't know how to tell people why they believe Jesus is truly God. And I think it's absolutely crucial that if we're going to go against the flow, that we stand like a rock and we defend the true doctrines of the faith. Several years ago, I had a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about. You know, I'm just going to use this illustration to show you that there are lots of people that have lots of questions. And we as God's people have the truth, don't we? We have the truth that can set them free. This is the truth, the Word of God. Sanctify them with Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. We ought to maybe turn the TV off and study our Bibles. Shut down the video games, young person, and learn to defend what you believe. Because this is a serious time period in Christian history where we as God's people need to stand up and speak out and defend the true doctrines of the faith. And defend the Lord Jesus Christ. In this particular trip, I hopped on the airplane in Kansas City, I was flying out to California, and I had an unusual opportunity to sit by many different people. Do you ever witness to people on an airplane? I'll tell you, I'm usually sitting on the aisle, so they're never going to get out until I witness to them. And usually I'm sitting by people and I explain to them what I do. They find out that I'm a preacher. And then so it's obvious that I can ask them about their religious background, about what they believe. And I can't tell you how many amazing conversations I have had on airplanes. But this particular trip, it was unusual. I sat down on the first aircraft from Kansas City to Salt Lake City, and I sat by a lady who was probably in her mid-70s. I started talking to her. She asked me what I did. I told her I was a preacher, that I was going out to teach the Word of God to some teenagers out in California. And she said, well, you're a Baptist, right? And I said, yes, ma'am. I believe the Baptist doctrines. She said, well, I'm a Catholic. Would you mind sharing with me what the difference is between the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church? I said, ma'am, this trip is only an hour long. How much time do you want me to take? There is a big difference, isn't there, between what we believe and what the Catholics believe. And again, I want to remind us all that being a Baptist doesn't get anyone to heaven. We believe Baptistically because we believe the Baptist doctrines that have been passed down through church history, the Baptist teachings and the distinctives of the Baptist church are the most closely aligned with the truth of the Scripture. Be very careful. Don't become a denominational Baptist. Be a doctrinal Baptist. So we're not trying to just defend the Baptist way, we're trying to defend the Bible way. And so I opened my Bible and I started to talk to her about purgatory and transubstantiation and confession to priests and the mass and the sacraments. You know what? Basically, here's, in a nutshell, the truth about the Catholic Church. They're trusting more in tradition than they are in truth. They're following a way of works instead of a way of grace. And they literally teach that if you don't do the sacraments, you don't have the grace of God. The Bible says it's not by works of righteousness, for by grace you save through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works. Listen, folks, I don't care what the Pope says, I care what the Bible says. So don't listen to a pope or a priest or, frankly, even just a preacher. Don't check your brain at the door. You've got to know what God says and defend it to be true. And so I was sharing with this lady and lovingly and kindly trust me, I don't preach to people when I'm talking to them privately. I'm an aggressive person. But I intentionally dial it back, and I just carry on a conversation with them. But I'll tell you what, I walked off that airplane more confident in what I believed. And I shared with her the truth. I don't know if she was a real Christian or not. She even nodded her head, and she said she believed those things. And you know what? There are some true Christians in the Catholic Church. They ought to get out of the Catholic Church. But they're truly believing, they're just confused, and maybe we ought to help them. But I'll tell you what it did, it stabilized me even more, it gave me greater confidence to continue to teach the Word of God, to continue to stand for God in this culture, because I just defended what I believed. The very next aircraft I got on, from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, I believe it was, I sat down by a young lady who was a college student from Pakistan. Guess what religion she was from. She's an exchange student from Pakistan. And I began talking to her, told her I was a Bible preacher, that I was a Christian because I immediately knew that she had to be a Muslim from the Islamic faith. Listen, folks, you better know how to talk to people who believe that. I mean, we hear about it almost every day on the news, right? I mean, Islam is rising all around the world, and we need to know how to distinguish ourselves as Christians from Muslims. There's actually some folks out there that are, quote, Christians, that are combining the two together, and they're calling it Chrislam. Think about that. Let me tell you something, folks. There's no way you can combine a God named Allah and a God named Jehovah. There's a big difference. There's only one God, and it's not Allah. His name is Jehovah. He represents Himself in three persons. There's a big difference between Jesus and Muhammad. We ought to know how to talk to people about the difference. Why is there a difference? What's the difference between the Koran and the Bible? How do we know that the Bible's true and that the Koran is not true? What are some of the reasons why we can be confident in the reliability and sufficiency of the Word of God over any other religious book? These are serious, real questions that we as God's people need to know how to answer. And I'll tell you what will happen is you start to study and research and you start to see there's a strong defense for the Christian faith. Your faith. You'll realize that believing on the Lord is not a leap of faith, it's a logical faith. We can't figure out everything, but we can figure out a lot of it. And we can trust by faith the things that obviously nobody can truly figure out. But I'll tell you what, when you're talking to somebody from a false religion, you better know how to defend what you believe and explain to them the difference between their religion and the true faith. That young lady was very, very strong in her faith. You know, one thing we can learn from Muslims is they teach their children how to defend what they believe. Now, whether we like it or not, there are schools all across the Arab world that are packed full of young people and the classes that they're being taught. They're being taught the Islamic religion. They're being taught how to defend it. They're being taught how to teach it. They're being taught how to discuss, even with Christians, what the difference is. And you know what? It's a shame that we aren't teaching our kids that. How to defend Christianity. And we relegate the training of our children to the local church when it's not the church's responsibility to train our children. We are Christians. We are Christian parents. We are the ones to teach our children. We are responsible to teach them the doctrines of the faith. So that they can defend what they believe. So that they can go out of this world and not get tossed down the river. Floating down the river. That young lady did not get saved, but I tried to help her see the truth. And you know what? I walked off that airplane with greater confidence that what I believed is true. And I'll never, ever quit talking about the truth. I'll never, ever stop defending the true gospel. The very next airplane, and I don't mean to belabor this, but folks, these are the kinds of questions that people are asking today. I got on the airplane and I sat by this lady. It was astonishing. She was a scientist. Can you imagine what discussion we had on that airplane? As a matter of fact, she had a master's degree in molecular biology. As far as brain power goes, she was way above me, that's for sure. a master's degree in molecular biology. And immediately when I told her I was a preacher, I knew that the conversation was going to turn to how did we all get here? What's the origin of life? Did God really create or did we evolve? And you know what, folks, as I started to talk with her in a brief conversation about the origin of life, literally she laughed at me. Especially when I told her that I thought the earth was young. maybe 6,000 to 8,000 years, but not much longer than that. She literally laughed at me. You know, isn't it ironic? I thought she was foolish to say it's billions of years old. She thinks I'm foolish to say it's like 6,000 years old. At some point, you're just going to have to believe what the Bible says. You're going to have to believe God. Because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And we had a conversation about creation and why it's so important. Ultimately, folks, whenever you talk to a scientist about creation, don't forget that creation leads to Christ. And you've got to bring them to truth of the Gospel. You've got to bring them to Jesus Christ. And I share with her the Gospel. And you know what? She thought I was crazy. She thought I was foolish. Nobody believes that, is what she said. And I said, well, you know what? I believe that God is telling me the truth. I believe that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. And you know what, folks? I walked off that airplane feeling very sad in my heart that here's a lady that's so deceived by the evolutionary teachings, the theories of evolution, that she can't even see the truth of Jesus Christ. And I walked off with greater confidence and greater security in my own faith. Do you see why it's so important that you know how to answer people's questions? What if I were to sit by that lady and I'd be hemming and hawing and not know how to help her and not know how to answer her questions and not know how to turn in the Bible and say, this is what God says. I might walk off of there even questioning my faith. And so what I'm saying is we need people that are students of the Bible in our churches. We need people that know their doctrine. What are some of the significant doctrines we need to be able to defend? Obviously, the deity of Christ. That's pretty important. You know, most of the cults and false religions that are in our world today deny the fact that Jesus is God. We ought to know how to defend the fact that Jesus is God and know how to converse with those people. It gives us greater confidence in our faith and better evangelism. What about the sufficiency and reliability of the Word of God? This is absolutely crucial. Is it okay to add to the Bible? Is it okay to subtract? Are there other religious books out there that are just as reliable, just as sufficient as the Word of God? This is a pretty important issue. And I've found that as I talk to people, one of the main things I want to ask them is, what is your source of truth? What is your source of truth? They might say another religious book. And frankly, most people in America today, you know what they'll say? Well, if I can't reason through it, and I can't think through it, and I can't figure it out, then it can't be true. Well, at some point, that's not good enough. Because there's a lot of things that are true that we can't figure out. The source of truth is absolutely important. And our source of truth is not just a book that was made up. It was written by over 40 different authors in several different centuries, and they all agree. That's amazing. That's supernatural. And from cover to cover, it reveals to us Jesus Christ, and it's a wonderful book, and we need to converse with people about the difference between the Bible and any other book, any other religious book. I mentioned creationism. I think that's a very, very important issue in our culture today. We don't need to just say we believe it. We need to know some details. We need to know how to defend it. We know we need to know the scripture. We need to know even some of the historical and scientific evidence so that we can talk to people. What I'm trying to show you, folks, is this takes a lot of work for those of us in this world that are pilgrims and strangers. We're not supposed to fit in and be comfortable and follow the flow of the culture. We're supposed to stand against it. And the way we do that is by knowing what we believe and why we believe it. So let me ask you a question. If I were to come to you tonight and I were to start asking you some questions about what you believe, would you be able to even, number one, tell me what you believe? What do you believe? Number two, would you be able to defend what you believe scripturally? Would you be able to defend it even logically? Would you be able to defend it even maybe historically in some of the things that we've even mentioned tonight? Would these things be on your mind? Or is it just you're a casual Christian that's kind of just floating through and saying, well, yeah, I'm a Christian. Folks, what I'm saying is we need to deepen our faith. We need to deepen our faith or the church is going to continue to float down the culture. And what's sad to me is that not only do we see individuals and families, but now we are seeing literally entire ministries that are caving in on their philosophy, and caving in on even doctrine, and caving in on teaching the true gospel. How does this happen? You know, it's amazing. One of my favorite verses is 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. The Bible says this. Paul was talking to Timothy, young Timothy, and he said, but continue thou. Don't ever forsake this. Remain is the word. Continue. Remain. But continue. Remain in the things which you have learned. And here's the key point. And has been assured of. You know what? I'm firmly convinced that if you will be confident and assured that what you believe is the absolute truth of God, you'll never ever forsake it. You've got to be confident. in what you believe. Maybe tonight you just need to make a decision to be a better student of the Bible. Better student of doctrine. Better student of what you believe. Know how to talk to people. Do some more reading. Do some more studying. Study the Bible. Know how to open the Bible and answer people's questions. And you know what it'll do? It'll help you to go against the flow. And that's what we're supposed to do. Declare Him as Lord. Defend Him as Lord. But notice verse 16. The Bible says this, 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. I think we are all fully aware that it's not enough to just talk the talk. You've got to walk the walk. It's not enough to just say you're surrendered and even defend the Lord. Number three, we've got to demonstrate Him. Demonstrate Him as the Lord. Hey, don't talk about my conduct and don't talk about how I live." Well, that wouldn't have flown very well on Peter's day. In chapter 1, he tells us to be holy as He is holy. In all manner of conversation, is there any issue of culture that we should not evaluate? No. We should evaluate every issue of culture. We should evaluate. Is it in accordance with a true Christian faith? Is it in accordance with the truth of the Word of God? Why is this so important that we're holy in all manner of conversation? Why is it so important that we demonstrate that He is the Lord of our life in every area of our life? It's because that's how we make a difference. You can't make a difference if you're just like everybody else. You make a difference by being different. You make a difference by doing that on purpose in every area of your life. We ought to be different. We're pilgrims and strangers passing through. This world's not our home. I'm just passing through. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. We're supposed to be different. The Bible never teaches us to redeem all the bad things from the culture and bring them into the church and just kind of twist them a little bit. The Bible does not say to redeem the culture. The Bible says to resist the culture. And someday we'll be glad we did. Because we'll be on the other side. And so I want to encourage us tonight to check and make sure there's no hypocrisy in our life. Oh, yeah, I can defend all the theology. I can defend all the Christian faith. Well, look at my marriage and look at my personal life. Look at my family. Look at what I'm allowing in my personal decisions and the choices of life. He says right here, two ideas. Number one, you've got to have a good conscience. He says, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you, they may be ashamed. You realize if you will keep your conscience clean and you'll walk in integrity and character and you'll be that person that has a clean conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men. They may laugh at you. They may mock you. But down deep in their heart, they know you're the real deal. And when they're in trouble. And when they need help, they'll be ashamed that they falsely accused you because down deep in their heart, they know that you're keeping a clean conscience. So let me ask you, do you have a clean conscience toward God and toward men? Simple illustration, sir, if you're at your workplace and all of a sudden you've been telling everybody that you're a Christian and even talking to them about the gospel, and when you get hot and you get upset and you get ticked off, foul language comes out of your mouth. You just demonstrated that there is some sort of hypocrisy right there in your life. You know what you ought to do immediately? Clean your conscience. Don't just pass that and brush it under the rug and say, well, that wasn't that big of a deal. You know what? It is a big deal. You ought to confess it immediately. Say, you know what? I'm a Christian. I just want you to know I'm a Christian. I've been saved by God's grace, but I still struggle. And that was wrong. Will you please forgive me? Let's clean our conscience. Why are we so afraid to just admit it when we're wrong and admit it when we've failed, even to people that we're trying to witness to? You know what is devastating to the work of evangelism when we live hypocritically? It's devastating. So clean up your conscience toward God and toward men. Then he says we ought to have a good conversation. The word conversation is not just referring to our language, even though it would include that, I'm sure. The word conversation has the idea of all of our conduct, everything we do, Do you realize when people watch your family, people ought to recognize there's something different there. You ought to be demonstrating that God is the Lord of your family. They ought to see it in your marriage and how you interrelate with your spouse. They ought to hear it in the way you raise your children. They ought to see it in your choice of entertainment. They ought to see it in the places that you go, in the kinds of things that you allow in your life and in your family. And there's no area of the culture that we shouldn't evaluate and make sure that we are demonstrating that He is our Lord. It's sad to me how many people in our culture today have this idea, well, I'm not going to that church, and I'm not going to church at all because of all the hypocrites. You know what? That's sad. The truth is there are some hypocrites in our churches today, but by God's grace, none of us should be one. Well, look diligently, look hard, and say, Lord, search me, try me, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And you know what? As we demonstrate Him as the Lord, we're confident in what we believe, we're defending Him as Lord. He is the Lord because we've declared Him as Lord, and we do that. We are going against the flow of the culture. We are fighting hard. We're paddling hard. You know what? It's not supposed to be easy. Don't take the comfortable way. Don't take the easy way. Jesus Himself had nowhere to lay His head. It wasn't easy for Jesus. It wasn't easy for the apostles. It wasn't easy for these people He's writing to in Peter's day. And it's not easy for us. But you know what? I think we're watching and we're seeing a lot of people being swept away. Being swept away. Folks, I hope this will be an encouragement to all of us tonight to really evaluate our own lives, our own families. I thank the Lord that for 50 years, your church, has preached and taught the truth. They're stable. They're secure. I am not opposed to change. I'm opposed to compromise. Did you hear that? I am not opposed to change. I am opposed to compromise. We cannot say something for years and years and years and all of a sudden say that our philosophy and our doctrines and our theologies have changed so that we can become pragmatic and we can become humanistic and we can become materialistic in the local church. Listen, folks, I'm not opposed to change. Change is good, but compromise is bad. And your church has stood for the faith. It has stood for true doctrines. And I'll tell you what, I'd rather be in a place that's been around for 50 years and stood true and never changed than be in a place that's doing this. Following the fad. Following the winds of change. Doing whatever attracts people. And folks, I just want to encourage you tonight that it's not just good enough for your church. It needs to be in your life. You need to be stable. You need to be secure. You need to be founded. Why? Because the river is very strong. The current of the culture in this age is pushing very hard. We need to be like that kayaker. Paddle upstream. Be disciplined. Be determined. Go against the flow. Declare Him as Lord. Defend Him as Lord. Demonstrate Him as Lord. 1992, I graduated from high school. Now you know kind of how old I am. In 1992, at my Christian high school, there was about 35 students that graduated. One of them graduated with me, heard all the same chapels, heard all the same messages, was in all the same Bible classes, went away to a secular university, got a philosophy degree. After he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy, went over to Germany and started to work on a doctorate degree in Old Testament theology from the German liberal theologians. If you know anything about German theology, it's not conservative. Comes back to America, shows up at our church. at our Christian school on a homecoming time when a lot of the graduates and alumni return. And I sat down with this young man and I found out that no longer does he believe anything he was taught when he was a child and a teenager. As a matter of fact, he has a PhD in Old Testament theology, but he denies the existence of God. He denies that God created everything. He denies the inspiration of Scripture. And he doesn't really believe anything the Bible teaches. He just thinks it's a wonderful literary book. He sat in my class. He went to all the same services that I went to. How could he get so far away? Now, I understand there's probably a lot of answers to that. But I remember as I sat down with him that day, he said this. He said, Mark, there were so many questions that I had that I never got answers to. Let me tell you something, folks. If you've got questions, ask somebody. There are a lot of good answers. We do what we do. Your church does what it does because they have a strong philosophy. There's reasons behind what they're doing. And if you want to know those reasons asked, there are good answers. There are scriptural, biblical answers. And I know that we could go on and on and talking about some of these. But the point I'm trying to make is that young man is a perfect example and an illustration of what I'm talking about. How can he go through the same stuff and hear all the same things and totally reject it all? He never declared Him as Lord. I would argue He probably isn't a genuine Christian, obviously, if He doesn't believe that God exists. He's not even a real Christian, and yet He went through all of the stuff that I went through. But He got swept away with the current of the age. He got swept away with the culture. Folks, may that not happen to anybody under the sound of my voice. May we be true, honest, about what needs to change in our lives today. Is He the number one priority? Declare Him as Lord. Are you defending Him because you know what you believe and why you believe it? I hope you are. And are you demonstrating in your life that He is the Lord? Simple principles that will help us be pilgrims and strangers and go against the flow of this wicked people.