First Peter chapter three. I have greatly appreciated the ministry of the music this morning, the singing as well as the special piano presentation. Thank you so much for that. The last song we just sang is God Leads Us Along. And we repeated this chorus three times, some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. This is something that Peter understood as he wrote this letter to these believers that were scattered. Some are going through deep waters, some through the flood, some through the fire. But all these believers had gone through the blood. And Peter is writing to them to try to encourage them and minister to the great need they have in their heart at that point, at that time. We have been looking in this third chapter, as Peter has been speaking about the subject of submission, and this began back in chapter two. But in this third chapter, he has been speaking of that, and he came to verse eight, and he said, finally. And like a good preacher, he has gone on for several more verses. instead of just finally. But what he has put after the word finally has been profound, obviously because God inspired him to write it. Or he wouldn't have said that. But what God has given to us in verses eight through the remaining part of the chapter, especially through verse 12, is profound. And actually wonderful life guiding verses. verses that you and I would do well to read regularly and plant them to our memory so that we might practice them. Because sooner or later, we're gonna go through the fire or through the flood, through the waters, through trials, we're gonna have that. And when we do, how are we gonna deal with them? How are we gonna face them? What's gonna be our response to them? And if we are doing what God has called us to do, and being what God called us to be, it will be much easier for us to go through those times, especially when they involve other people. You know, if I could live in this world by myself, my wife and I, we'd probably get along just fine most of the time. But we would have our moments as well. But it's not like that. We have all these other people we have to deal with that are just not perfect like I am. They don't think the way I think. They don't like what I like. They don't do what I do. They don't have the same analogies that I have. And I just have to somehow survive in spite of it. No. God has given us different people in our lives to help mold us and make us into more like Jesus Christ. These people are going through hard times that he's writing to. They have been scattered. God has allowed them to be taken from their homes and scattered into the parts of the world that they didn't want to live, but were forced to live. And all the stuff that goes with that, the changes that go with that. And so we find that Peter's writing to these people. Now, last time we looked, which was a couple of weeks ago, or maybe even three now, I'm not sure. But in our last study in verse eight, we noted five character traits found in a biblical believer. When I preface it, biblical, meaning a believer who is following the guidelines of scripture. There are believers out there that are not biblical. They're flying by the seat of their pants. If what God says for them to do fits them, that's what they're gonna do. But if God tells them to do something that's uncomfortable or not what they want to do, they're not going to do it. But they're praying about it. You know, it's more one thing to pray. It's another thing to do what God tells us to do. And so Peter is writing to these people and he gives them these characteristics, one like mindedness. Secondly, sympathy toward other believers. Third, brotherly love toward other believers. Fourth, compassion toward other believers. And fifth, kindness and friendliness toward other believers. Today, we're gonna look at verse nine to 12. As Peter addresses the character traits that are found in verse eight, in verse nine through 11, he discusses character traits that should not be found in a believer. And he gives us the replacements. So let's begin at verse number eight. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren and be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing you are there unto God that you 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 guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and sue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Father, we ask now you would guide and direct us in our study of your word. Help us to know what it is that you are teaching us out of this passage. May we be open to your teaching and instruction and receptive to it with a desire to obey it. Thank you, Father, for loving us and working with us. Thank you for the counsel you give us from your word, and we ask now that you will guide us through the study of your word. And it's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen. The first thing we see is not rendering, or a biblical Christian should not be vengeful. The word rendering, not rendering. Rendering means to pay back from one's own possession, a choice that we have the power to make. It's something we have that God says, you don't give it away, you keep it. You're stingy with what it is that he says not to render. But we have it. All of us have it. It's there, it's stored up, and we can just dish it out. It's some things in our lives that we don't mind giving out at all. And this is one of them, that humanly speaking, it's just natural for us to want to do it. And he says, not rendering evil for evil. Now we see when we're treated evil or railed upon by others, the natural reaction of the flesh is to give it back in like kind. But the biblical thing is to not render to the one doing us wrong the same wrong or else we become as they are. not rendering evil for evil. The word evil are those things that are troublesome, injurious, wicked, harmful, or destructive. And that could include a lot of various things in this matter of evil. Unfortunately, believers are going to be treated evil by others, even by other believers. I wish I didn't have to say that, but it's true. It's life. Some of you have experienced that. I shared with you in the beginning of the change that one Sunday morning and then after church is over, we struggle through that service, get through it, hobble through it, I guess you could say. And I head out over to that person's house to try to deal with them and bring about some sort of reconciliation. It's not fun, but it has to be done. Bible says that we are not to render evil for evil, whether it comes from an unbeliever or another ill-guided believer. We're not to render railing for railing. The word railing is a verbal attack by another person. They just rail on you. That's where that phrase comes from. It's harsh, abusive language toward the person disliked. Unfortunately for some Christians, God the Holy Spirit is not in control of their tongue. And again, it's one of those things we hope we never have to deal with. When we do, when we are the object of that from someone who professes to be a believer, we can deal with it more from an unbeliever than we do from believers. And when it comes our way, it's just crushing. It just breaks your heart. The first thing you say to yourself is what did I do wrong? Have I done something wrong to them? Have I sinned against them? Have I been in the wrong place or something that it's brought this about? Then you search your heart and you look and you pray and God says, hey, there's nothing wrong here with you. You have done nothing wrong. Then you get mad. How dare they talk to me that way? And then you're ready to go and Render evil for evil, railing for railing. No. Peter says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. That's what you do not do is attack back. And that's hard because our natural tendency is to defend ourselves at all costs because they're not going to talk to me that way. But they just did. And we want to be careful that we don't in turn do the same to them and then we become no better than they are. So Peter says, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise. The biblical Christians should behave in a Christ like manner. Christian believers should not be vengeful. They should behave in a Christ-like manner. The word but, it's a conjunction, and it's used to contradict what was just before it. I really would like to go with you, but, and you know, there's gonna be a reason why you can't go. Now, I'm not saying that's wrong, but it contradicts. And so this is what we find here. Chuck and I go back and forth over this word. He thinks it's a great word. I think it's a horrible word. So we always have fun over that one. I'll say, see there, Chuck, that's a good one. See there, Chuck, that's where it's a bad one. But nonetheless, it's a word that changes what was just said for something you're about to say. And usually what is about to be said is the opposite of what was just said. So Peter says, okay, now I don't want you rendering evil for evil. I don't want you to render railing for railing, but here's what I do want you to do. He says, contrary wise, or on the contrary, the other side of the coin, the alternative, I want you to render blessing. Eulogia, it's a Greek word, which means to eulogize. Whoa, that's totally different from evil and railing, isn't it? To present a eulogy, it's the opposite of evil and railing. Instead of repaying evil and railing with evil and railing, we repay them with that which is supernatural. So why'd you say that? Because it's a response that only God can give. It's a response that only God can give. Left to myself, I'm going to render railing for railing. Left to myself, I'm apt to render evil for evil. But God says, I don't want you doing that. Here's what I want you to do. Here's the opposite. Here's how you handle this situation. Here's how you handle this person. And only God can enable the believer to do contrary wise. But it's a commandment of scripture. I have several verses for you. Proverbs 20, 22, say not thou I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee. Proverbs 24, 29, say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me. I will render to the man according to his work. Romans 12, 17 through 19 recompense no man evil for evil. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. And I would say there, and this is not inspired by the way, if you can't peaceably live with them, then live without them. Live without them. 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, or if wrath comes upon you, don't embrace it, just let it go on by. For if it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. God says, if someone does evil to you, if someone rails upon you, let me have them. Let me take care of them. Don't take it into your own hands because you're gonna make a mess of it. It's not easy to be silent when you're under attack. It's not easy to be silent when someone attacks you or your character or your testimony. When you're striving and trying so hard to do what's right and live with the Lord and be obedient to the scripture and along comes somebody who finds some silly thought with you, something they're going to blow out of proportion and make a big issue when it's not an issue. And it's much easier to attack them than just to keep your mouth shut. and let God take care of it. But Peter says to these people, listen, I know you're going through hard times. I know life's not easy. I know you're dealing with some of these masters that are unreasonable and they say nasty things about you and they make fun of your God and your Christianity, but I want you to not repay them in kind. I want you to eulogize them. I want you to thank them for giving you a place to live. Oh, I know it's a shack and it's full of rats, but it's a roof over your head. And I want you to thank them for giving you food to eat. I know it's the crumbs left after they get done eating, but at least it's something that keeps you alive. I want you to eulogize them. I want you to find something nice that you can say to them in return for the nasty stuff they are saying or doing to you. Biblical Christianity does not become vengeful. Instead, it behaves in a Christ-like manner. Now notice, Peter says, listen, I'm telling you this because, verse nine, the last part, knowing that ye are thereunto called, this is what God's called you to do because you should inherit a blessing. Ah, that's a good word. That's a motivator. Biblical Christianity is motivated by scriptural promises, by scriptural promises, by faith. Well, I know this is what I feel like doing, and this is what everybody's telling me to do. But on those other side, the Bible's telling me to do this. And it's telling me if I will do what it says to do, God will honor me. Therefore, I choose to do what the Bible says in spite of all the counsel I'm getting from everybody else, I'm gonna do what the scripture has commanded me to do. Because I know when I'm obedient to the scripture, it's going to bring God's blessing on my life. Now that's not a hard decision to make. I mean, you didn't have a problem making that decision the day that God saved you. It was either heaven or hell. You could keep doing what you were doing, but you're going to go to hell. God says, I want to save you. I want to give you a home in heaven, but you've got to turn from your sin. You've got to repent. You've got to put your faith and trust in my son's finished work. You've got to believe on me. It wasn't a hard choice to make. We gladly did that. Why? Because it came with a blessing. The blessing of keeping us out of the lake of fire. Well, the same is true here. Peter says, I know it's tough and I know it's hard what I'm asking you to do, but I want you to know there is a blessing in store and you know it. The phrase knowing means it's remembering what we already know. Remembering that we are called to love our enemies for the sake of their soul. while we hate their sin. And because I love someone who's treating me wrongfully does not mean I condone their wrongdoing. It means I'm looking beyond the wrong they're doing to me and saying that person has an eternal soul and they're either going to go to heaven or hell. If they're not saved, they need to be saved. If they're already saved, they need to realize the relationship with Jesus they're missing out on. And if I give them back what they've given to me, I'm just reinforcing what they're doing. And they're going to say, see there, I was right in what I did. But if I don't do that, if I don't respond, if I don't render them evil for evil, if I don't render them railing for railing, but instead I try to be nice to them, I try to value them, I try to let them know that I care for them, I eulogize them, it just blows them away. And they don't know what to do. Well, normally it'll make them more angry. That's normally what'll happen. And they'll get more nasty and they'll continue their attack. But the longer God gives me the ability to eulogize and love them, the less their power will be on me and cause them to see how wrong they are. But it's only something that God can do. So biblical Christianity will be motivated by scriptural promises. And notice we are remembering We will be blessed of the Lord when we are obedient to the scripture. The phrase you should inherit a blessing. The word inherit means to receive from another that which they have. Which they give to us freely. God has a blessing to give. He says listen, I've got this blessing for you man. I want to give it to you. I'm excited about giving it to you. It's mine. I'm going to freely give you this blessing if If, and the blessing is that which is good from God. Fourth, in verse 10, for he that will love life and see good days. Biblical Christians want the good life. Wait a minute, now that's carnal, really? Might be for you, it's not for me. Biblical Christians want the good life. You see, it's not wrong to want the good things God has to give to his children. God says, I've got good things to give you. Matthew 7, 11, if ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that, what? Ask him, ask him. Your heavenly father has so much to give to those who ask him. It's nothing wrong in wanting the good life that God has for us. So he says, for he that will love life or delight in the life that we have. Are you delighting in the life that you have right now? I know it may be hard. I thought maybe there's some challenges you're going through. Maybe some health issues or relational or financial. Whatever it may be, some issues you're going through and it's hard. It is not easy getting out of bed every day. It's not easy facing those things that you have, but can you when all is said and done, can you say thank you Lord for the life that I have? I know right now it's hard. But I've had a lot of good days. So I can't really complain. And I know you'll see me through this day. And I want you to know I appreciate your being with me today. He that will love life and he that will see good days. Or enjoy being alive every day because of the good that we experienced from God's blessings on us. I find it hard for the believer who says I don't have anything to be thankful for. What? Are you a believer? Well, of course I am. Well, that's the first one. You're not going to hell. I mean, what better thing could you be thankful for? I mean, that's the top of the list. You can't get any better than that. Everything else after that is lesser important. Is your heart beating? Well, of course I'd be dead. Well, there you go. Is the blood flowing through your veins? Yes. Is your brain functioning? Maybe? Yeah, about about 50%. We'll praise the Lord for the 50%. My point is there are so many things that we can be thankful for that too often we take for granted. We get in the expectant category. I expect this from the Lord. I expect God to do this. I expect this to be in my life. Listen, God deals with us according to his grace and his mercy. And everything we have and are is because of the goodness of Almighty God. And the beauty of it is. We may be going through some of the worst times in our life right now. But we know it's not going to last forever. One day. It will be over and then the joy of being with the Lord and having a changed glorified body. It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It's just us looking to the future and being thankful for what we have now and what God has done for us. Now he that will love life and see good days. If he's going to do that, notice what he says. If you're going to love life and see good days, there's some things you have to do. First of all, in verse 10, you have to guard your mouth. We have to guard our mouth, refrain his tongue from evil. The word refrain means to curb. Literally to cause to cease. implying again that our natural inclination and custom is to speak evil. As believers, we need to guard our tongue and let God take care of the other person's tongue. Too often, I want to take care of your tongue and forget about mine. We are to refrain our tongue from evil, We are to refrain our lips that they speak no guile. The word guile is deception meant to lead another person astray. I'll give just a few ideas here. Gossip. Why do people gossip? Because they want to influence people badly about somebody else. Gossip. False statements. making a statement about somebody or something that we haven't fact checked yet. We haven't gotten all the information. We're going with one side of the story and not getting the other when there are two sides to the story. And we're not getting but one side and we're making false statements because we didn't get all the information. There's a social media that I won't mention, all of you know what I'm talking about, that's bad for that. And too often, people embrace what's said on that social media as truth, and it's far from being truthful. We must be careful. Sharing another person's failures with someone other than the person who failed. Let me, I wanna tell you about so-and-so, so you can pray for them better. and we just begin to tell of all the nasty stuff that this person is or has done. Number one, that's wrong. Number two, it's gossip. We're to refrain our lips from speaking guile. were to curb our lips from speaking guile. Again, it's a natural tendency to do what should not be done. If we're going to see good life and good days, we must guard our mouth. Secondly, we must guard our behavior. Verse 11 we are to eschew evil. The word eschew is not a word we use in 21st century vocabulary. It means deliberately stay away or run from. We're to tuck tail and run from evil. We're to run from it. Evil is the same word that was in point one, B2. We are to eschew evil and in its place, we are to do good. We're to behave or give out good. Good is the opposite of evil. It's that which is useful. excellent, distinguished, upright, honorable. Not gonna be a problem in giving out good. We don't have to be embarrassed in giving out good. We don't have to come back and eat our words if they were good words. Somebody comes and says, did you say such and such about somebody? Well, yeah, I did. Man, that was awfully nice of you to say that about him. Yeah, it really was. No, we don't do that. But we are people who choose not to go down the path that the world's going, but instead take the opposite path, which is 180 degrees away from the world and the direction that it's going. We are to guard our mouth, we're to guard our behavior, and third, if we're gonna love life and see good days, we must be a peace lover, a peace lover. Peace is the word harmony. Peace is the tranquil state of the mind, assured of one's own salvation through Christ, fearing nothing from God and consequently content with one's earthly lot, whatever it may be. And that's from the Complete Word Study Dictionary. Seek peace or look for it. Earnestly try to find it. When someone does us evil, we try to find a way to bring peace. Now, we're not gonna compromise truth, and we're not gonna condone sinful behavior. But on the other side, if it's gonna create a greater problem to attack back that behavior, we're just gonna move the other direction. If they want to behave like that, if they want to lay on the floor and kick their feet and stomp and cry and scream and yell, say all those nasty things, help yourself. I'm going over here. We get away from it. We're just not going to be involved in that. We try to seek peace. And sometimes seeking peace requires some difficult measures. Matthew 18 lays down the first step in seeking peace. And it's not easy. It's hard, but it's what God has commanded believers to do. And we cannot take biblical actions until we first of all take the first step of Matthew chapter 18. And so we find here we are to seek peace, we're to earnestly pursue it, we're to ensue peace, pursue it with our whole heart, make it a high priority for our actions. What should be the goal of my life? Peace with God, peace with other believers and peace with the sinful people. And as much as within me live peaceably with all men, to do what I can to be right and do right. And only God can give us the wisdom. So Peter says for the person that will seek the good life and see good days. And then he talks about this good life in verse number 12. He says, first of all, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. The scripturally obedient Christian has God's attention. Listen, if you are striving not, you don't have to be perfect here, OK? Perfection is just not something we're gonna reach in this life. But if you're striving to be all that God would have you to be, you have God's attention. His eyes are over the righteous. The word over means His eyes are positioned upon you. You don't have to walk around, even when you're going through really hard times and say, God, are you aware of what's going on? He's very aware. He's got his focus on you. Why? Because you're seeking to do right. His eyes are over the righteous. And then secondly, his ears are open to their prayers. He's listening so as to answer the prayers of the righteous. So if I have God's attention and I have his ears and he's listening to me and watching me and protecting me and desiring to answer my prayers, what more could I ask for? Really think about it. That's the key to everything. Why would I want to go in a different direction? Why would I want to pay evil for evil and railing for railing? Yeah, but preacher, it's hard to be nice to that person that's being so ugly. I know that. Been there, done that, I understand that. But God says, this is my way. This is how it's to be done. And when you do it my way, I will be looking at you and I will be listening to you. That's the good life. But he doesn't end there. He says, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. His ears are open to the prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God stands in opposition to those who refuse to obey his commands concerning their behavior. You can go ahead and do what you want to do. You can be nasty if you want to. You can give somebody back evil for evil and railing for railing if you want to. But I'm going to tell you what, God's standing against you, against you. That's scary. I don't ever want the day to come when God stands against me. I want to always know that his eyes are upon me and his ears are hearing my prayers because God stands against them over And against the word, his eyes are over the righteous and his face is against those who do evil. It's the same Greek word. It's the same Greek word, which means he's got his focus on them. So we don't have to worry about it. God knows what's going on. That's evil in the world. He's watching it. He's very careful. He's got his attention on it. God's attention is on the obedient believer to bless when his attention is on the person who does evil to remove the blessing. The choice is up to us. Do I want his blessing or do I want him to remove his blessing? It's scary. It's scary when you choose not to heed the commandments of the Lord and go your own way. God has allowed me to be involved in a ministry. I'm not in it anymore, but I was involved in a ministry for 15 years of doing men's ministry. Teaching men. And we would have two 13 week sessions a year. A new group every 13 weeks. And I would teach out of the Scripture the things that it was a three hour class that we did on Monday nights. And I would teach these men and it was so interesting to watch the men that would come in that really wanted to do right. Really wanted to follow the Lord and most of them came in with a lot of baggage, a lot of baggage. But to see God cut the strings of those bags and drop them off and they'd give him to God and see God begin to change their lives as they were going from being evil and wrong to desiring to be obedient. And to watch God change them. It was just thrilling to see that happen. But unfortunately, there would be some there. They go through the motions. And leave worse than they came in, because they had now had 13 weeks of biblical teaching that they weren't willing to follow. So that made him worse. And to hear the reports down the road of their lives and the ruin that came to their lives. I've counseled couples the same way. Some really nasty, nasty situations. But to see God heal marriages that wanted it because both were willing to let God change them. And then to see some that weren't healed because one or both didn't want change. Why am I saying all that? Every one of us here today is making a choice. Don't just assume because you come to church and you don't do this and you don't do that, but you do this and you do that, that everything is OK. It's not. It's where you get down to the nitty gritty of living for the Lord and doing those things that God commands us that are hard. But he gives us the ability to do nonetheless. Why? Because we want the good life. We want God's best. We're not happy with second best. We want his best. And when we're willing to do that and not sacrifice what God has for us, that's when we will be able to say to God, be the glory. Great things he hath done. May God help us to be that way all the time. Lord, I pray today for myself. I am a weak individual. My tendency is to go away from you to not obey your word. to do my own thing, my own way, forgive me for having that tendency, forgive me when I do. I want to obey you. I want to follow you. I want to have your good life. I want to have the life that you want for me. I know the good life doesn't always mean great things happening. There are many believers that live the good life that have pain and suffering every day. There are many believers, God, that have had the good life that had terminal illness and it took their life. But yet it was the good life because it was the life you had for them. It was what you wanted with their life and it brought your goodness and your mercy even in the hard times. And so help us Lord to want your blessings, your goodness upon us. Help us to be willing to follow you and your word. Give us the strength to do so, the wisdom to see the need, and the ability to do it. As we leave here today, Lord, protect us, keep us safe. May we be a good testimony for you this week. If you bring us across the path of an unsaved person, you give us opportunity to share the gospel, may we do so gladly. But help us, Lord, to be faithful. Thank you for what you're doing, what you have done, And we look forward to what you're going to do. And I pray your blessing on every family represented here today, every home. May you dwell in that home and be the light of that family. And we'll thank you in Jesus name. Amen.