We trust that you brought your Bible and that you're ready to go. It's for sure good to have some of you back that have been gone for a while. And it's always good to get into the fall and find that some people that have been traveling and away and now they've returned home. So we're glad to see you here this morning. You have missed a few messages in 1 Peter, but you can see that from the standpoint of progress, we haven't gotten too far. I think at the beginning of the summer we were still in the third chapter and now we're in the fourth chapter, right in the first verse still. Chapter four, and remember that in our last message, which was two weeks ago, we began to talk about the matter of being established in our hardship, the sufferings and the sorrows and the difficulties of chapter four. are very, very important for the believer, dealing primarily in the first part of the chapter with suffering that is undeserved. We talked about the pattern of this undeserved suffering in verse 1 in the first part. Jesus Christ is the pattern, for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh. And then we talked for some time about the principle The principle is, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. We talk first of all about the matter of spiritual preparation, the fact that we are to arm ourselves. Hoplizo is the word there, and it speaks of the hoplite soldier, the very best trained, the very best equipped soldier, the one that is fully prepared to go into battle. And then there must be as well spiritual perception. Your mind must learn to orient to God's thinking. God says my thoughts are not your thoughts. In fact you can be pretty certain that when you think something is so. Then you look in scripture you'll find that's the opposite. Because God's thoughts are not like our thoughts and natural thinking is wrong. We should be thinking God's thoughts even as we meditate upon his word. Now this morning we want to get into the third thing involved in this principle, that of spiritual position. And here is the part of the verse that jumps out at us. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. You probably read that verse and said well that's sure not true of me. I've suffered But I'm not free from sin. I haven't ceased from sin. Actually, the English here gives us the impression that if we suffer, we will, by the suffering, be made to cease from sin. We know it can't mean that. We all suffer to some degree or another. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that we quit sinning. Some say that this verse means that when we die, then we're going to cease from sin. But you'll notice the very next verse makes it very clear that this person isn't dead yet. And yet he has ceased from sin. He's not dead. He's an individual who is still living and will live yet for a while longer. We'll deal with some people that are dead a little bit later. So look at it here. He that hath suffered in the flesh, it says, Now that's the same phrase, the same type of phrase that was used in the first part of the verse. Christ suffered in the flesh. Keep this in mind because it's very important. What kind of suffering are we talking about? When we're talking about the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about suffering He didn't deserve. We're talking about unjust suffering. Suffering that came in spite of the fact that He did not sin. He was sinless. He had no sin in Him, and yet He suffered. He didn't deserve to suffer. There was nothing that could make Jesus Christ deserve the suffering that He endured upon the cross. There was nothing that would make Jesus Christ worthy of the suffering. He did not have to be under the judging hand of Almighty God, because He had lived a perfectly sinless life. In fact, He's the only person that has ever lived who never deserved Suffering. Everyone else deserved to suffer. Because suffering and sin are connected, you see. Suffering came into the world because of sin in the first place. And individuals today suffer, a great many of them, because of sin. But there is also another kind of suffering. For the believer, there is suffering that you don't deserve. Now, if you have sin in your life, obviously, you'll deserve to suffer. But the only thing that would put you into the category of being undeserved suffering would be if you were not sinning, if you did not deserve it, if you did not do something wrong in order to deserve it. And so what it's saying here is that there is a control of the Spirit of God that can keep you from sin. If you're controlled by your old sin nature and you suffer, you deserve it. But if you're controlled by the Spirit of God, if the Spirit of God is in control of your life, if your sins are under the blood, if you're forgiven, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we've ceased from sin. It doesn't mean we're not going to sin again sometime. We will. But you see, if we are walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ, if all our sins are under His precious blood, if Jesus Christ is in control of our life, the world is not going to like it. And the world is going to persecute the individual who is walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ. The result then is suffering, undeserved suffering. You didn't deserve to suffer because you were in fellowship with Jesus Christ at the moment. Kenneth Wiest, the Greek scholar, has some very excellent things to say concerning the Greek text. He says here that the world directs its persecution against those who have ceased from sin. That's the meaning. God broke the power of sin, he goes on to say, for us. So our reaction to unjust suffering should be that of a saint and not a sinner since we in salvation have been released from sin's compelling power. I was reading a book by Dr. Pentecost on our vacation called The Pattern of Maturity and Dr. Pentecost spends a considerable amount of time explaining that the believer today may sin But he need not sin, because God has broken the power of sin. There's no reason that we have to yield to our old sin nature, even though we do. Nevertheless, God has made provision for us not to do that. So there's a cause and effect here. Here's a believer walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ. He's used 1 John 1, 9, and he's in fellowship. His sins have been confessed. The thing is taken care of. And he's walking along in fellowship with Christ, doing the thing that God wants him to, armed with Christ's mind, having the Scripture in his heart and in his head and in his hands, ready to go. And what happens? The unbeliever doesn't like that kind of a life, particularly unbelievers that have been close to us. And as a result, here comes pressure. Here comes suffering. Suffering in the form of persecution from our old associates. Now you'll see that this whole text here, through verse 6, is talking about this very thing. The pressure that Christians who are in fellowship with Christ get from the unbelieving world who doesn't agree that they ought to live that kind of a life. So when we don't sin, when we cease from a habitual life of sin, they don't like it. And suffering is the inevitable result. This is the argument that we find here in this passage of Scripture. I want you to look over at 2 Timothy 3, a very interesting passage. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 10. It's interesting to see the development in this passage of this very thing. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 10. Look at But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity or love, agape love, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me." Notice his doctrine, what he believed, what he knew from the Spirit of God, from Scripture, his manner of life, this is his behavior, his conduct, his direction of life, or as the Revised Standard Version has it, his aim in life, his faith in Christ, his long suffering, his mental attitude to love, his patience. Here was the life of the Apostle Paul. First of all, his doctrine, you see, and then the way that doctrine affected his life. His life was different. His life was not like those around about him. He was long-suffering. He was patient. He had the right kind of an attitude toward the people that he associated with. He had an aim in life. He knew where he was going. What happens then? Persecution. Affliction. See? And then he concludes from that in verse 12. He says, Yea, surely, absolutely, All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you, my friend, live the kind of life that you should live, you will suffer persecution. You can expect it. I don't think you won't. In fact, I think as we see some of our lives, we have to wonder if we're living godly in Christ Jesus. Because we don't suffer persecution. I don't think that this necessarily means you have to be killed for your faith as some of these people were. I don't think that necessarily you have to be tortured like the Apostle Paul was. Suffering can come in many forms. There's mental anguish that can come. There's rejection that can come. There's lots of ways to suffer. But remember this, there is no way that you can live in a world that is alienated from God and you walk in fellowship without them persecuting you in some way or another. because they do not like what they see. It absolutely causes them to be convicted of their own sin. And if your life, your supernatural way of life by the Spirit of God is being lived, you see the world looks at you and they desire that kind of a life, and yet at the same time they become really antagonistic towards you as a result. So the Apostle Paul says, Yea, and all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Now look back at our text again. See, suffering doesn't release us from the control of sin. But when we live free from the control of sin by the control of the Spirit, we can anticipate that we'll suffer. Now this brings us to a purpose as we get into verse 2. Christ has made provision, in verse 1, We're arming our minds, living in the power of the Spirit, out from under the control of the sin nature, with a purpose that, a purpose clause here, that we live differently. He's given us His Word. He's given us His Spirit. We as believers should be different. We should dare to be different in a world that just runs along with the stream. You see, any old dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a real live one. to move against the current. And you see the Christian is moving against the current of this world if he's living in fellowship of Jesus Christ. See, God left us here on earth with a purpose. God desires that our lives be used by Him as reflectors of His glory. He wants our lives to be conformed to the image of Christ. He wants to show through our lives that a supernatural way of life is possible. as the Spirit of God controls an individual. He knows that the Christian life is superior to the life of the world. And He wants you to live life to the fullest. I always enjoyed that passage in Romans 12 where it says that He wants us a living sacrifice. God doesn't want a bunch of dead Christians. He wants people to be alive and vibrant. And He's given us the Word of God, which is alive and powerful, in order that it might have a life-giving force within us. And the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of life, is given in order that there might be that life of Jesus Christ lived out through our lives. You see? What a fantastic thing we have in the Christian life. The opportunity, literally, to live a supernatural way of life. Jesus Christ wants this. And so He gives here, through Peter, He gives, first of all, a contrast. What we were and what we are. How we used to live, and then how we should live. In Matthew 7, you remember, Christ spoke of the fact that there's a broad way. A broad way that leads to destruction. There's a narrow way that leads to life eternal. The broad way, there's a whole lot of people going that way. Many there be that go that way. Then there is also that narrow way, and few, comparatively few, there are that find that. See? There's a contrast all the way through Scripture, given between the broad way and the narrow way, between the life that we used to live and the life that now we should live. And so it says in verse 2 that He, with a purpose that He, that is the believer now, should no longer, or literally no more, you see, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. What you were in the past you no longer are. No more should you live a certain way. Now the word for live here is one of nine words for live in the Greek. There's the word zao as an example from which we get our word zoology. And the word zao speaks of the mechanics of life, the function of life. Then there also is the word bio. That's a word from which we get our word biology. And the word biology speaks of the pattern of life. And that's the word that's used here. The pattern of your life has changed. It used to be you followed the pattern of the old life. Now you're to follow a new pattern, the pattern of the new life. You no longer should live or pattern your life the rest of the time in the flesh, the rest of the time that you have alive. The word here for time is chronos, which is the word from which we get our word chronology. And it speaks of life as a series of events. It speaks of the events of a man's lifespan. And so, you've become a believer. Now you see, no more. No more should you pattern your life in the way that you used to, the rest of your life. So, with a purpose that, He should no more pattern the events of this lifespan after the lusts of men, which is what you were, but to the will of God. No longer doing the will of the Gentiles, as we'll see in a moment. No longer doing the things that the world does. No longer living the way they live. No longer thinking the way they're thinking. But rather, living according to God's will. Do you know what God's will is? I'll tell you. He's revealed it right here in the Word. He's given us His will. I know what God's will is in direct proportion to knowing His Word. If I don't know His Word, I may not know His will. That's why constantly we want to be studying. I wonder why we go into such great detail in finding the key thoughts in each of these verses. I'll tell you why. You need to know God's will so you know how to live. I'm not going to tell you what to do and what not to do. I'm going to give you the principles of the word of God. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you what God has to say in the subject. Then you can conclude. Do you want to follow the will of God or do you want to follow the will of men? You have to decide. Are you going to follow that which God's word teaches or are you going to follow your own way? That's the thing that we have to do. That's why we teach. That's why we spend the time that we do in a passage of scripture such as this. You see there's a way to live and there's a way not to live. By the way, the way to live is according to the will of God and that's where happiness is. That's where the real thrill of life is. And that's of course where the whole matter of reward in heaven is bound up. Then there's a way not to live. And it can either be a way that looks bad to people or it may look good to people. But if you walk in the flesh, then you're doing the wrong thing. You're living according to the flesh. Some people walk in the flesh by doing all kinds of good things in the flesh. Some people do it by doing all kinds of bad things in the flesh. But both of them are bad in God's sight. God wants you to live according to His will. When He tells you to do something, He expects you to jump. So you're not to live the rest of your lifespan in the will of men, but rather the will of God. The two ways of life are diametrically opposed to each other. So you can just ask yourself this morning, are you involved in doing God's will? Or are you involved in doing the will of men? The thing that the world wants you to do. Sometimes it's a good test as to whether or not you're cruising along pretty easy, where you work, where you live. If everybody thinks you're an okay guy, everything's fine, in order, you just may check yourself out. You may be pleasing them instead of pleasing God. Remember those in the book of Acts that said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Live a life pleasing to God, not a life just pleasing to men. So Peter is saying here, you as a believer have no business living in the same way as an unbeliever. Now the same contrast is over in Ephesians 4. I want you to look at that this morning because it's very, very important. Ephesians chapter 4. He's forbidding them here now to do something. Telling there's something you shouldn't do. This I say therefore, verse 17, Ephesians 4, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. It tells you how they walk. In the vanity, the metaiotes of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. that ye put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore? Putting away lying, etc., etc., and it goes into some specific detail. See, these Ephesian believers were still living, some of them, the way they used to live. They were still doing the things that they should not do. And in the light of all of those first chapters, in regard to the beauty and the glory and the holiness of our position in Jesus Christ, the argument is that because of that, here's the way you ought to live. You ought to be different. I challenge you today. My friends, we here, as far as believers are concerned in this world, are to live a life that is different. from the world round about. We're told not to conform, not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's what God wants from believers. You know, we get such foggy thinking because of the sales pitch that the world has put out. You know, the world has Madison Avenue on their side, and they advertise And they brainwash us into thinking that certain concepts are true. And you know, as a result, the thing that happens is there's a deterioration over a period of time. As people get away from the Word of God, there becomes a deterioration. Things that used to shock you, no longer shock you. You know that's true. Why? You've been sold a bill of goods. You know, you take for an example, the scriptural teaching concerning homosexuality. And because of what the scripture teaches, men have a right to be shocked by this vile sin. But you want to know something? It's becoming commonplace today. It's becoming accepted. Some people say it's a sickness. God says it's not a sickness. It's a sin! Other people say it's normal. It's not normal. It may be natural, Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. It's certainly not normal. God says it's not. God did not create man for that purpose. And God forbids it. And God checks it out and He says it's wrong, wrong, wrong. And here's why. Because of it we ought to be shocked. We're not shocked anymore. Why? We've been brainwashed. We've been duped. That's only one example of many, many things that are involved. You need to learn how to think all over again. Why? Because your thinking is influenced by the things you read, by the things you see on television, by the things that people say at work, and you need to learn to think God's thoughts and see life from God's point of view. If you fail to do that, then your thinking will become warped. And as a result, your life will become warped, and you'll be doing the things that God doesn't want you to. God wants us to be different. So then comes a criticism. Back to 1 Peter 4. First of all, the contrast. What you were, what you should be. Not the lusts of men, but the will of God. That ought to be the purpose and design in your life. Notice then, for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. In the past, it speaks of the fact that this is a closed issue. The tenth of the verb here indicates it's a closed thing. You're looking back on an accomplished fact, something that did take place, but now has been closed off and is no longer. Old things passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Old associations and affections and amusements and attitudes, allurements and attractions, these things have passed away. And all things have become new. Then the words suffice. The unbeliever had sufficient time In the past, to see the folly of his sin, the emptiness of sin. To rot something means to work it out to the end. And what did they rot in the past? They rot the will of the Gentiles. They rot the desire of the Gentiles. And here's what those desires were. Lasciviousness or sensuality. Lusts. Look at it in verse 3. Lusts. Fulfilling the desires. Just doing your thing. Excessive wine this word is made up of two Greek words, which means to bubble or to overflow and Wine to overflow the wine it meant drunkenness Revelings that's a word for carousing wild furious drinking parties Sometimes it would be done even in the name of religion in the Philae cult and then banqueting these were Drinking parties, the equivalent of our cocktail party today. Abominable idolatries. These were illicit, illegal forms of worship which involved sex orgies. This is the kind of life they live. This is the desire deep down within the Gentiles. This is the thing that drives them. Now they may not be involved to any great degree, but they may be involved to the fullest. And apparently these people were involved in all of these things, lasciviousness and lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. These were things that these people had done. They were involved in the Philae cult. They were involved in all of the immoral religious systems that were in that particular time. They were doing their thing. They were just doing the thing that they wanted to do. And then what does it say? Wherein they think it strange. They think it's strange. They think it's surprising, alarming, that she run not with them to the same excess of riot. Now that's an interesting phrase, because they're actually looking at you and they're saying, man, you can't have any fun. You can't have any fun at all. Wherein, in what thing they, the old crowd, think it strange, surprising, astonishing, foreign to them, you see, is the concept. If you do what you're doing, if you just keep going to church and reading your Bible, that must be awfully dull. See? Why, it's foreign to them. They don't know anything about that kind of a life. And they think they're having fun. They're fooled by Satan into thinking that what they're doing is really giving them a good time. and they're surprised that you don't run with the same degree of riot. The word here for excess is a word that was used for the overflowing of a bank into a slough. This was the idea that was here. And then the word riot is just the opposite of the word save. Just exactly the opposite. In fact, it is the word save with a negative in front of it. It means to not save. And our word abandonment today or debauchery would be a good word in place. So what does it say here? In which thing? The old crowd, the people you used to run with, think it astonishing that you no longer run in company with the revelers. to the same slew of abandonment and debauchery. So what do they do? They speak evil of you. That's what they do. They make up stories about you. They say, oh, he's a square. Or better yet, he's a triangle. A triangle is a square with something missing. And they say, you know, really, this guy has really gone off. He's a lunatic. Why, he's become a religious nut. And they laughed, and they scoffed, and then more and more they began to bring social pressure upon these individuals. More and more they began to publicly mock them. And then of course, as we'll find out later, the persecutions of Nero came in. Just about the time that this was written, and Peter had this in mind, he knew it was coming. And Nero then made it illegal to be a Christian. As a result, he drove the people underground that were Christians, because they were dragging them out into the Colosseum. And some of these people, you see, that had been their old friends, said, you know, what are you doing, Joe? Well, I don't tell anybody, but I'm going to church. Ah, then he'd go get the police, see? And they'd drag him out, and they'd take them, and they'd kill them. They'd put them right in the arena with the lions, and allow the lions to kill them. What a tragic picture that happened in that early church. And yet, get this my friend, God even had a purpose in this. And that's the marvelous thing about it. So you have to look a little further. You have to see the consequences in verse 5 and 6. It says, Who shall give account to them that is ready to judge the quick and the dead? These people are going to give an account to God. God is holding himself ready, literally, to judge the quick, the living, and the dead. Doesn't make any difference whether a person lives or dies. If he dies and Christ has not yet come, he's not yet stood before the white throne judgment, he will stand before the great white throne judgment. And he'll be condemned. He'll be damned. He'll be sent into a Christless eternity. Yes, the Bible says more about hell than it does about heaven. And if you're here today and an unbeliever, You should be warned. You may have scoffed at religion in the past. You may have scoffed at Christianity. You may have looked at those, and secretly perhaps you've admired those that are Christians, and yet you yourself have not yet made that decision. You will stand some day before that white throne judgment, and you will be judged. You'll be judged on the basis of what you do with Jesus Christ. That's the issue that will face you in that day. They'll be judged. For the believer, there's going to be reward. But there'll be condemnation. for the unbeliever. So verse 5 says that God is standing ready, ready to judge both the living and the dead. And then in verse 6 it says, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead. That is, the believers who heard the gospel and they trusted Christ, they were dead in trespasses and sins, now they've trusted Christ and some of them now are dead. Some of them were no longer alive. And yet, God said that I allowed this. I allowed this to happen with a real purpose in mind. Here were people who were lost in the darkness of sin and as a result of the preaching of the gospel. By the way, that word preaching is a completely different word than the word up in the third chapter where it spoke of preaching to the spirits. Different word entirely. This one means to preach the gospel. The gospel was preached. To those people, as a result, they broke out of their old sinful ways. They broke out from the crowd. They dared to be different. And now some of them were physically dead. Some of them had died for their faith in this persecution. Some had died of natural causes. But is the case closed? No. Death does not finish it. Death is only a parenthesis. Because there's something else. Notice then the purpose clause. With the purpose that, They might be judged according to men in the flesh. These believers had been evaluated by men in the flesh. What did the men evaluate them? How did they evaluate them? You're crazy! You're nuts! You're out of your mind. Why in the world would you believe such a thing as this Jesus Christ coming down to earth and giving his life for you and then rising from the dead and then as a result you've got to live like he lived. You've got to live and quit doing all these things that we think are fun. What's the matter with you? You're crazy. That's their evaluation. But you see there's a testimony that is born as a result. People have a tendency, society has a tendency, to embrace that which they reject. There's a segment of society that when it reacts against something, then there's a segment of it that will embrace it. And there were people that were being saved as a result of the preaching of the gospel to these people, as a result of the fact that some of them were facing persecution. The statement is that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And the more Christians they would kill, the more seeds they would plant, and the more believers would come as a result. People would see the way they died. You know, there were men that would testify, I couldn't buy the way the Christians were living, but I could not gainsay the way they were dying. And that's what made believers out of some of those people in the ancient world. There were some that were led to Christ because of the life of believers. There were some that were led to Christ because of the death of believers. But the point is, God wants people saved. You see? He wants people brought to Him. And these people had a testimony to bear, even in the midst of suffering. So He says that they might be evaluated according to men in the flesh, but that they might live according to God in the Spirit. When it comes to our physical existence, men evaluate us. When it comes to our spiritual existence, God evaluates. And what a difference that makes, that they may live according to God in the Spirit. One thing that the persecutors could never touch was the spiritual life of the individual. Did you hear that? They could never touch that. Remember what Christ said? Don't fear those that kill the body and after that they're done. After that there's nothing they can do. But rather fear him who has power to destroy both body and soul in hell. Really the one that we ought to reverence and trust is the one who has the power to do something after death. Now men can pull a trigger and shoot a man and kill him because he's a Christian. But that's it. That's all he can do. There is nothing more that he can do. But God can do a whole lot more after death. Tragedy is that some people think suicide is the way out, only to discover that there is such a thing as a life after death. And that life after death is that where they have to face Almighty God. And boy, if they want honesty, they'll get it in that day when they stand before God. Because God is going to tell it like it is. Now, what then would this passage teach us? You ought to be living a life that's different, even if it means persecution. And if there are those around about you that are bugging you because you're a Christian, that are persecuting you, that are maligning you, that are speaking evil of you, that are doing all kinds of wrong things, relax. God will take care of them. No problem. You keep right on living a testimony. Why? Because God wants to show to the world a superior way of life. You see, there's a lot of miserable Christians around who are not willing to face up to obedience to that which God's Word teaches. And as a result, they're living an inferior way of life. And the world looks at them and they say, ha, I never did think Christianity worked and he's a living proof of it. And that's a tragedy. But thank God there are people who are concerned about walking daily in obedience to the Word of God. Not in their own strength, but in the power of the Spirit of God. And as they walk in obedience, as they allow the Spirit of God to control, as they keep short accounts by the use of 1 John 1, 9. keeping in fellowship with Jesus Christ moment by moment, day by day. As they do that, my friend, and get this, the world looks on and they may hate you for it, but as a result, some will be saved. And I say, my friend, it's worth it. It's worth it. You know what I want to be? I want to be just a great big reflector of the glory of Jesus Christ. I want to be so polished that none of Paul's steel is seen. None of Paul's steel, but just a piece of glass that can reflect his glory. He's the sun, I want to be the moon. I want his glory to be reflected, to give a light in the darkness of this world. That's what Christ meant when he said, you are the lights of the world. He'd said, I am the light of the world, but you are the reflectors of my light. So let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. The good works that are produced by the Spirit of God through your life. And that's made very clear in John 15. As you abide in Him, you produce those good works that He's talking about. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. And what do they do? Glorify the Father which is in heaven. You're the reflector. the reflector of His glory. What kind of a reflection do you send forth? Oh, if there's self in your life, if there are things in your life that are wrong, if there are wrong attitudes and wrong actions, if you're living with a life of longing to have your foot back in the world and doing the things that you used to do, if that's the kind of life you live, you're a poor reflector of His glory. and Christ is belittled as a result. But on the other hand, you can be a person who reflects truly the image of Jesus Christ to the world. As they see your life, they know that there's a superior way of life available to them. I trust this morning that as your heart is open to this passage of Scripture, As you realize that God gave you the gospel with a purpose. With a purpose, my friend. He preached the gospel to you. He brought that gospel to you with a purpose that the world could see. A superior way of life. How far short we fall of that. But if you tonight, today, will just simply allow Jesus Christ to take control of you. If you know of something in your life that has caused a barrier between you and the Lord, right now you can confess it, and He'll forgive it, and He'll cleanse you, and He'll fill you with His Spirit, and He'll control you, and allow your life to be a reflection of His glory. It may mean the loss of some friends. I think of some of our dear young people here this morning, throughout these summer months, and you've heard the Word of God proclaimed. Christ has done some real things in your heart. You may go back to your school, and if you live the kind of life you should live, there may be the loss of friends. There may be the loss of position. There may be all kinds of forms of persecution that will come. But listen, my friend. We ought to be living our life with eternity's values in view. Take the long look. Don't just look at the perishable. Look at the permanent and realize that God has laid up for us treasure in heaven. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Let's pray. Father, this is a difficult passage of scripture and yet just filled with blessing. Oh, there's so much there. And Lord, we are so prone not to be listening to what you say. We have our own ideas and we've got the concept that we want to do things a certain way We try to work things out in the flesh and only find that there's failure, failure, failure. Grant now, Father, that even now our hearts will be turned to you. We'll realize that we may suffer undeservedly as we're in fellowship with you. But nevertheless, we'll have a reward in heaven. Thank you for this. We'll praise you in Christ's name. Amen.