You made it through. You made it through the first day of classes. And I had the privilege of walking around campus a little bit, even being in a class today, coming to chapel, being in the dining facilities. And I'm so thankful for so many of you that I was able to say hello to. And I just praise the Lord for what God is doing in your lives by bringing you to this place where you can be trained and you'll be sent out from this place to serve the Lord. And I trust literally for the rest of your lives. Would you please take your Bibles tonight and open to the great book of 1 Peter. We're gonna turn to 1 Peter 3 tonight, and I hope that God would use the message to really inspire us, to exhort us that we would be, as Peter tells these people to be, pilgrims and strangers in the world. The apostle Peter is writing this text of scripture to a group of scattered out believers. He is probably writing from Rome to Christians that are scattered out across Asia Minor. And according to chapter one, verse one, to the strangers in these different cities, they have been scattered and they have been dispersed, most probably because of the persecution that they are facing. And really the theme of this book is the theme of suffering. This was not necessarily the typical suffering that the church would face where it was literally an emperor or a king and the actual state and government that was persecuting the church, but rather this was persecution coming from all different sides and all different angles. And so really the theme of the book is the theme of suffering. These Christians were being ridiculed. They were suffering. They were being persecuted because they were followers of Jesus Christ. And I believe the book of 1 Peter reminds us that we must press on. We must not quit. And we must be faithful to God even in a world that is pressing hard against us. And there is great application for us in the time period in which we live. I'm sure you are aware that it is becoming harder and harder in our country and in this society and the culture around us to be a born-again Christian. The world is aggressively attacking true Christianity. We are not just fighting against the world. We are not just fighting against the contemporary culture of our day. But even in the church, the contemporary church of our day, there is great need for real, true pilgrims and strangers to live for Jesus Christ. And I believe in the book of 1 Peter, Peter reminds these people what we need to be reminded of. We need to be faithful pilgrims. You see, this world is not our home. We're just passing through. We are going to a bigger and better place. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the more you understand about God, and the more you understand about our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and being a true follower of Christ, you realize all of this is just temporary. All of this earthly stuff will pass away. But what is done for God and what is done for the heavenlies will last forever. And the Scripture reminds us of this over and over. That we should set our affection on things above. Not on things of the earth. That we are very foolish to be consumed with temporal things rather than eternal things. And this, in essence, is a little bit of the message of the book of 1 Peter. I believe if we were to say there is a theme verse, it would be chapter 3, verse 14, where the Bible says this, 1 Peter 3, verse 14, but, and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. How is it possible that in a culture, in a society that is ridiculing us for our faith, for being a follower of Jesus, how is it possible to actually be happy? Listen, we are not dependent on our circumstances for our joy. Joy comes in the riches of God's grace. We've been singing about that tonight in wonderful hymns. that remind us of what we have in Jesus. We are clothed in His righteousness. In the song, Arise My Soul, Arise, we have great confidence and boldness to come before the Lord because of our salvation. And so it doesn't matter what happens here. It doesn't matter who makes fun of us. It doesn't matter what persecutions we might face. We can rejoice in who our Savior is. And so really this kind of gives us the theme of the book. It's interesting that in chapter four, verse 14, one chapter later in the same numbered verse, we have another statement of that theme. Look at verse 14 of chapter four. 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. I find that in our culture today, in the church today, there are many people looking for a life of ease, a life of comfort, a life with no trouble. And yet Jesus, our Lord, didn't even have a place to lay His head. Are we any greater than our Master? We are going to suffer. We will face persecution. And yet Peter writes this beautiful, wonderful book to a group of persecuted, scattered believers to tell them, don't quit, be faithful, press against the flow of the culture. I don't know how many of you have ever had the chance of going rafting. Whitewater rafting is to some a very extreme event. But actually, if you're going to go down a raging river, the easiest way is on a raft. It's really not that extreme. It's the best way and the easiest way to ride the current of the river. Working at the Wilds Camp and going to other places around the country, I've had the chance to raft often. And it's really a pretty awesome event. You sit in that raft. It's basically a blown up air cushion. And you are basically supposed to just paddle when you're told to paddle. Usually, there's someone in the raft that knows what they're doing. They're called the guide. I've found that sometimes the guide needs a guide. I've been rafting, and the guide was the first one to go out. What do you do when your guide is in the river and you're pulling him in? It's really pretty simple. Kind of lock your leg in there, paddle when you're told to paddle, stop paddling, and when you're in a flat area, splash the other rafts. It's really pretty fun, isn't it? It's an easy way to ride down the river. Oh yes, you may go over some class four or five rapids and somebody might pop out here or there, but it's really the most comfortable way to go down a raging river. But if you've ever rafted as I have, I've noticed that there are some people in the river who are not taking the comfortable ride. These people are called kayakers. I'm sure there are some of you out there who have tried this. I would say this is quite the extreme event. You are by yourself in a very small a simple boat, a kayak, it has a hole in the top, you get yourself in there, I don't know how anybody even fits in that little boat, and you paddle against the flow of the current. As I've talked to some people who would be what I would call extreme kayakers, they actually told me it is definitely the case that kayakers don't want to go down the river, they want to go up the river. They actually paddle against the current. They actually often go up small rapids and small waterfalls. That's what they love to do. And you know what? If you ever see a kayaker, they're not coasting. They're paddling as hard as they possibly can. You know, I've often thought that that is a little bit what it's like to be a child of God, a disciple of Jesus, a true believer in this world. We gotta be a little bit like that kayaker that is aggressively opposing the current of the culture, the spirit of the age. And I believe one of the best things about this university, one of the best things about training here is that we are training a whole army of Christian soldiers, pilgrims, and strangers who can go out into the world and be in the world but not of the world and make a difference for Jesus Christ. And I believe Peter instructs us in this passage about how we, as God's pilgrims, can go against the flow of the current of this culture. I'm sure if you were to talk to your pastors, if you were to talk to a number of staff members, faculty here at the university, we could all tell you testimonies of young people who are being swept away by the current of the culture. The stories could be told all night long of individuals, and sometimes families, and even entire ministries, and sometimes entire denominations are being swept away into the current of this age. And God is calling us to come out from the world. God is calling us to be set apart from the world. And so this is the theme, one of the themes of the book of 1 Peter. And I believe he gives us some powerful truth in chapter three. Notice chapter three, starting in verse 15. We see the theme in verse 14 and he transitions and probably referring to a text in Isaiah chapter eight in verse 13, where the Bible says, but sanctify the Lord of hosts and let him be your fear and let him be your dread. The apostle Peter gives us a powerful command to help us to go against the flow. If we're gonna go against the flow, here's the first command. Here's the first truth that we must apply to our lives. He says in verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Peter uses the same word that we would translate in the New Testament for holiness. It's a word that is also used in chapter one when he says, be ye holy for I am holy. Here we have it in the form of an imperative. Here we have it in a command to us that we would be set apart and specifically that we would be setting a person apart. that we'd be making God, and specifically Jesus, we would make Jesus the Lord of our life. In the oldest text of the New Testament, the words that are used here are the words Lord and Christ. In the King James it's translated, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Only one of them has the definite article with it. Sanctify the Lord or Christ as the Lord of your life. So the idea here is to make Jesus, Christ is the word used here, make Christ the Lord of your life. Make him special. He ought to be special. For he is the one who has saved us and he is the one who is also sanctifying us. Make him sanctified in your life. So the first command here is declare Jesus, declare him as the Lord of your life. You know, many years ago when I became an evangelist, I thought to myself that I need to have a list of sermons on all of the cultural issues. wanna preach on entertainment, wanna preach on appearance, wanna preach on music, wanna preach on all of these different cultural issues. And I think those issues of culture are very important to talk about, but I started to realize that I was missing the most important thing. And the reason why we struggle in areas of culture and the reason why we're pulled into the world so often is because we are not fully surrendered to the Lord. Make Christ the Lord of your life. I think you would all agree with me that at the moment you get saved, You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word Lord meaning master. The word Jesus meaning Savior. The word Christ meaning the promised one, the Messiah. And so each of those names of our Savior are very important. And so in some sense, the moment we get saved, he becomes our Lord. And yet that clearly does not mean that the very day we get saved, the moment we receive Christ, we're born into God's family, that we understand all the implications of what that means for our lives. And this is why every day we need to examine our hearts and every day we need to ask ourselves this question, am I fully yielded? Am I fully surrendered? Is God really, and is Jesus really the focus of my life? Really, as you come to chapel each day and each week, as you hear the Word of God preached from this platform, the goal is that you would love Jesus. That you would make Him the Lord of your life. You see, when someone is special, when someone is set apart in our lives, we long to be with them. I have a very special person in my life. Some of you are getting close to that moment where you are gonna either be engaged or get married. I sure hope you would say that about your spouse, your fiance, your future spouse, that she or he is a set apart, sanctified person in your heart. My wife is the only woman in my life that I love. I am a one woman man. That's the way every man ought to be. My wife is special. I don't care if you see me hold her hand walking across campus. I don't care if you see me give her a hug. I don't care if you hear me say I love you to her. She is the most special woman in my life. And because of that, I love to spend time with her. Now, wouldn't it be foolish for us guys to tell our special lady that we love her and then we never spend time with her? I don't think they would believe you guys. They really wouldn't believe you. You see, if she's really special, then you long to spend time with her. Can I just say, To all of you as college students, if God is really special, if Jesus is really special, then don't forsake spending time with him. I am fully aware that in the college schedule, you are incredibly busy. You jumped right in today to a full schedule of classes, and even the rest of this week, you're gonna start to gather how quickly your life is gonna be packed in, how quickly your schedule's gonna be full, and it will be so easy to go day in and day out and forget about the Lord. He's your master, He's your Lord. Are you gonna spend time with Him? Not only do I spend time with someone who's special, but I sacrifice for them. I serve them. I'm willing to do almost anything to make sure my wife knows I love her. I will sacrifice. I'll spend money. I'll buy gifts for her. I will take her to nice places. I love to do that because she is a set-apart person. And I just want to encourage you as you jump into school that you would not forget about serving your master. I do believe this, training for ministry is a part of ministry. But while you are training here, do not forsake a local church. Do not forsake getting involved in ministry. Do not forsake pouring yourself out for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of His name. And I believe those who are gonna be stable and secure in the current of this culture, Those who are not gonna be swept away are those who have placed Jesus as the Lord in their life. Sanctify the Lord God. And notice what it says. It tells us the person of the sanctification and it tells us the place of it. Sanctify the Lord God where? In your heart. Now I want to hasten to say, I do not believe at all that Peter is saying that it doesn't matter what we do on the outside. I think it is assumed in this text and even insinuated in this text and throughout the book of 1 Peter, that the way you believe about Jesus affects your behavior for Jesus. And that if it's in your heart, it will come out of your life. But what we know is this, Proverbs 4.23 says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. And so yes, we live for God from the inside out. Oh, it's possible for you to do all the external deeds of righteousness here, to obey all the rules, obey all the standards and not have a right heart. But it is not possible for you to have a real heart for God where he is on the throne. without proving it with the actions of your life. Sanctify God in your heart. Why? Because we are pilgrims. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world and he deserves our full surrender. So I admonish you tonight, I exhort you tonight to check up on your heart and your life. Have you come to a place in your life where Jesus is set apart? He is set apart as the Lord in your heart. I will warn you. If other things become idols in your life, if God and Christ gets pushed out of your life, and sports reign, or riches reign, or pleasure of other people, or relationships reign, and other things push God out of your life, I will warn you, you are a prime candidate to be swept away into the current of the age. For those who are strong and stable and secure in the ridicule and persecution are those who know who their Lord is. Those who know in whom they have believed. And He is set apart in their hearts. And so Peter tells us the first way to be like that kayaker, the first way to go against the flow, is to declare Him the Lord of our life. And I hope if you have not done that, that you would check up and make sure and put Him on the throne. He deserves to be there. He's our Savior. But Peter moves on in verse 15 and he declares to us as he builds on this truth, And I think in essence, he's saying one of the ways that we make him the Lord, one of the ways we set him apart in our lives is by being prepared to give an answer, by being ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. It's interesting that the word ready, the word prepared, is actually not a verb. And so in the King James translation, we have a word in italics, which is inserted to, and I think properly inserted to help us understand the intention of the text. And that is that we would be preparing ourselves to face the lies of the culture, that we would be preparing ourselves to face the false religion by having an apologetic defense. He uses the word apologia. This is a defense. Sometimes the word would have been used in the courtroom setting in a legal sense, but in this sense, he is talking about the multitude of different questions that could come to these Christians. Remember, their persecution was coming from a myriad of different places, and there would be a myriad and multitude of different questions that would come their way, and they need to be ready to have a defense, a reasoned defense for their faith. And so number one, we ought to defend him or declare him as Lord. Number two, we ought to defend him as Lord. We must be prepared with the truth. Now, I'm very concerned that there are a lot of young people being swept away into false teaching, into worldliness, because they really don't know why they believe what they believe. You see, it's not enough to just say the theology and talk about the doctrine. We must be firmly convinced, we must be confident that it is true because doubting Christians are drifting Christians. And I believe we ought to be firm and solid with not only our theology, but also our practice. We ought to evaluate all the things that are happening in our life and have a reasoned answer, a reasoned defense for our faith. Can I tell you, college students, if this is gonna happen in our lives, if this is gonna happen in your life, it takes some serious time and some serious intensity. Because the word of God gives us the defense. The word of God helps us to see that really, truly Christianity is the most logical, reasonable thing anyone could ever believe. Oh, I'm fully aware there is a limit to apologetics. Not everything can be proven. And yet I do believe that Christianity is the most reasonable faith anyone could ever trust in. If you could prove it all, then it wouldn't be true faith. But I believe faith is based on evidence. There's great evidence for what we believe. And so he tells us here that we ought to be ready to give an answer. Listen, maybe it's time we set aside our devices, and we turn off the TV, and we stop entertaining ourselves, and we get into the Word of God. So we know how to answer. So we know how to face The problems in the false philosophies of the world. Listen, it's not just the world that is full of false philosophies. Do you realize that the church today is full of false philosophies? Are you aware that pragmatism is reigning in the church? The end justifies the means. Let's just do whatever we need to do in order to get more people. That's a false philosophy. We need to have a reasoned defense. We need to know where we stand. We need to know what we believe. Materialism is brought into the church, the love of money. Postmodernism is in the church, which is the idea that really there is no truth and truth is relative. And that's a simple idea of some of what postmodernism would teach. Hedonism is in the church. And these are all false philosophies of the world that are being propagated in our society and that are plaguing us and bombarding us every day. And I haven't even mentioned false religions, cults, and false philosophies. There are so many lies, so many things that are out there to deceive you and to suck you in and to pull you in and to get you to really be a lover of the world and not a pilgrim and a stranger. We must be students of doctrine, students of theology. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. A few years ago I was flying out to California. Maybe we have some students here from California. I love visiting California. It's one of my favorite states because it's one of the most beautiful places to visit. You can literally be up in the mountains. and literally possibly even skiing in the mountains one day and drive just a few hours away and be at the ocean walking in the sand and even some nice weather. It's really an awesome state. They got the big trees, the giant trees, the tall trees. It's an awesome state. I love going out there. This particular trip, I was going out to visit several churches to preach in different places. And I remember on this particular trip, I sat by several people on the airplane which really kind of summarized for me some of the philosophies and teachings that are very prevalent in the world today. I don't know if you've ever had a conversation with someone on an airplane, but they are a captive audience, right? I remember I got on the airplane in Kansas City, Missouri. I was flying through Salt Lake out to San Francisco, and on the first plane, I sat down by this lady. She was probably in her mid-70s. I immediately started talking to her. As you can tell, I like to talk. I was talking to this lady, I was introducing myself, I was asking about her life, and she said, what do you do? I said, I'm a preacher. I'm a Bible preacher. I'm a Baptist preacher. And she said, really? That's usually the response you get when you tell them that you're a preacher. And she turned to me and she said, well, I'm a Catholic. She said, I've been a Catholic for 40 years. And then she got a real serious look on her face and she said this. This is her exact statement. I said, ma'am, I would love to. Would you mind if I took the entire trip? And you know what? She actually listened to me. We had a great conversation. I opened my Bible and I tried to show her some of the truth of the Word of God that would really contradict the doctrines that are taught, the official doctrines of the Catholic Church. And the main one is that they teach that the sacraments are a means of grace. You know, it is interesting that they talk about so many things in the Catholic Church that are nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Purgatory, transubstantiation, confession to priests, and so many things. Praying to Mary. And yet the main problem they have is their teaching on justification. They teach that the sacraments are a means of grace. And so I turned to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, and I said, look what the Bible says, for by grace do you say through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You know, while I was saying those verses, while I was talking to her, she was nodding her head like this. It was almost like she was agreeing with everything that I said. You know what I learned? I learned what I've learned when I've talked to many Catholics. Many of them don't even know what their church teaches. Let's not be so hard on the Catholics. There's a lot of Baptists, there's a lot of Christians who don't know what their church teaches. They don't know what they really believe. You know, the point that I'm making is not that we had a glorious conversion there and that she got saved. I'm just saying that when she asked questions about my faith, then I was ready to give an answer. You know, religion doesn't save anyone. It's a relationship with Jesus that saves you, not religion. And if you don't have a relationship with Christ, you cannot possibly be saved. I got off that airplane after talking to her for about an hour on that trip, and I stepped onto the next airplane, and I sat down by a college exchange student from Pakistan. Guess what religion she was from? You got it, she was a Muslim. Hey, college students, today we better be ready to give an answer. We better be ready to talk about Islam. Do you know anything about it? I think you ought to know a little bit about the false teaching and you need to know a whole lot about the truth. You need to know a little bit about the history of how the faith, the religion started. You know a little bit about the prophet Muhammad. You need to know a little bit about some of the terms that they use, but you need to know exactly what the Bible says. You know, there are still some people who are confused. They think that you can really follow Muhammad or Jesus and you're fine by following either one. And yet the scripture says, neither is there salvation in any other than the name of Jesus. Muhammad is a false prophet. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. And so I tried to kindly and humbly help her to see That she was believing in a false religion. That Allah is not the true God, but Jehovah is. That Muhammad is not the true prophet, but Jesus Christ is. That the Quran is not God's book, but that the word of God is God's book. You know what I learned very quickly? That young college student, probably about 20 years of age, was very well versed in Islam. Can I tell you something? One thing we can learn from the Islamic world is they train their young people how to defend their faith. She had an answer. She had a reason. She had something from the Quran she would say on almost every question I asked her. And she was very strong in her faith. I thought to myself as I was talking to her, I wonder how many college students in our Christian universities would be so well-versed that if somebody was confronting them and bringing up all the challenging questions, they would have an answer. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. And again, the point is not that she got saved. I presented her the gospel. I tried to help her to see that Jesus was the only way, She was very firm that her faith was true and real. And this is why many of them will even die for their faith. They really believe it's true. That's sad, isn't it? It's false religion. We need to be ready to talk. We need to be ready to give an answer, a reasoned defense. It's amazing. I got on the plane coming back and I sat by a lady who was a scientist. Guess what she wanted to talk about? As soon as she found out I was a Christian, She said these words, now, you're not one of those people. I knew where she was going. Now you're not one of those people that actually believes that God created the world in six literal days. I said, yes, ma'am, I am. I absolutely believe the first verse of the Bible. You know, if you can't believe the first verse of the Bible, how can you believe any of it? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You know, whether you are gonna believe in evolution or whether you're gonna believe in creation, either one is a step of faith because nobody was an eyewitness. It's not observable. It's one of the most frustrating things for creationists, for those of us that believe the Bible, is that evolutionists present theirs as a fact, and then they try to push ours away as a fallacy, as folly, when really, whether you believe evolution or creation, you are taking a step of faith. Which one's more reasonable? I believe design demands a designer. and look at the design of the world, look at the design of the human body, look at the design of everything that God has created. And that design demands someone who designed it. And this is the most amazing truth and really foundational to what we believe for we are created by God in his image and yet we have fallen, we are sinners and Adam sinned and so we have sinned and though Adam passed us his sin, the second Adam, Jesus gives us his salvation. And so really the bedrock of our faith is that God created us in his image for his glory and yet we need help to get back into his image. We need help to get back into his glory. And so it's very important that we know how to talk to an evolutionist and that we are firm in our faith that God tells us how we got here. He created us. These are just a few of the issues. And I could go on and on and on. I remember one time I talked to somebody who claimed that they were an open thinker. Have you ever talked to somebody like this? They are an open thinker. They're really open to anything except when you tell them this is the only way. You may talk to an atheist. You may talk to a Buddhist. You may talk to someone from a different type of false religion. It is so important that we are grounded in our faith because the world's philosophies and the world's false religions are pulling on us and challenging us in our faith. And this is one of the great things about being in an intense place of study where you're hearing the Word of God. This is why I think you have made the best choice to come to a Christian college where you can be trained in a biblical worldview so that you can go out into this world and be a pilgrim and a stranger who defends Him as the Lord. So he tells us that we are to be ready to give an answer, to give an apologetic, reasonable defense of our faith. This demands great study and intensity so that we can know what we believe. Can I ask you a question? Are you believing it because your parents taught it to you? Are you believing it because you came from a Christian school? Are you believing it because you grew up in a church? Are you believing it because you are just a student here? Are you convinced and confident that what you believe is true? One of my favorite verses in the Bible is a verse that I see every time I drive away from one of my favorite places in America, the Wilds Camp. If you've ever been there, you leave the camp, and on the back of the camp sign is one of my favorite verses. 2 Timothy 3, 14, where the Bible says, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And one of the greatest statements in that verse is something that often we don't even mention, and it's that little phrase that says, and has been assured of. Can I tell you something? If you are confident that what you believe is absolutely the truth, then you will never forsake it. Doubting Christians are drifting Christians. Maybe you're someone who is struggling through some of these questions. Maybe you're already questioning your faith. Maybe there are some things that you really need to dig down deep and find the answers to. There are good answers. And we need to be ready to give an answer. to everyone that asks us the hope that is in us. And notice how he tells us to do this. Look at the end of verse 15. This is the attitude that we ought to have as we defend our faith. We ought to do it with meekness and fear. We ought to be gracious. We ought to be kind. And most likely the word fear means we ought to live in the fear of God as we defend our faith. The Apostle Peter uses this word fear, and most often he's referring to the fear of God. We ought to do it with graciousness and reverence and awe of our God, for we know he's our Lord and we know what he's taught us, and we ought to be careful to say the words in the right disposition so that we can reach people and stand for God, but don't ever be swept away in the current of the culture. Many years ago, my dad taught me this little formula that will help you and helped me to be gracious and kind with the truth of the word of God. I think it's really helpful to think of it this way. Conviction minus compassion equals contention. You're gonna have conversations like this even here at Bob Jones. where you'll have a significant disagreement with someone. You believe what you believe. You're telling them what you believe is the truth. You believe you have good evidence for it. You're trying to be gracious and kind. But then, there seems to be sometimes with a strong intellectual position, a strong theology position, sometimes there tends to be pride that comes along with that. It's one of the biggest dangers of becoming an intellectual is that you become proud and arrogant and you approach people with your convictions, but you don't have compassion. Conviction minus compassion equals contention. But then the second part of this formula is this. Compassion, let's just love everybody, minus conviction equals compromise. You see, the reality is it's not enough to just love. We have to speak the truth. The Scripture says we speak the truth in love. You have to have a good balance. This takes a humble spirit and an understanding of the truth of the Word of God to approach people with the truth and to defend your faith, but to do it with meekness, to do it with graciousness in fear of God. And then the last part of that formula is really the formula for success, and that is conviction plus compassion equals Christlikeness. That's the way Christ was. That's the way we should be. It is not wrong to speak the truth and to know what you believe and to speak it clearly and boldly, but it is always wrong to create contention, to get angry, to be bitter, to be ungracious, to be proud. Hold your truth. Hold your convictions with compassion and you will be like Jesus. This is the way we ought to be. Why? Because we need to be stable and secure so that we are not drifting down the current of this age. We are pilgrims. We're on a journey. We're passing through. And friendship with the world is enmity with God. So be careful that you are that pilgrim and stranger that God wants you to be. So he tells us here, first, we need to declare him as Lord. Secondly, we need to defend him as Lord. And then notice verse 16, he says this, as he builds on this truth, make God special. And in a sense, he's saying, by being ready always to give an answer, and as you are giving that answer with meekness and fear, make sure you are doing so with a good conscience, verse 16, 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. Number three, I think we ought to demonstrate Him as the Lord. We declare Him as Lord, we defend Him as Lord, and we demonstrate Him as the Lord. You would all agree with me that it is dishonest, it is disingenuous, it is totally hypocritical for us to speak all the truth of Christianity, for us to defend our faith and give a reasoned defense of our faith and not prove it in our life and our lifestyle. And specifically, he says here that in front of an unsaved world, even those very people that are ridiculing us, those very people that persecute us, in front of those people, we need to make sure that we have a good conscience. Your conscience is that inward, moral barometer that helps you to affirm those things that are good and accuse you when you are doing wrong. That is the conscience that needs to be trained and nurtured by the truth of God. And the Scripture says in Acts 24 that we should even exercise our conscience to be void of offense toward God and toward men. For the Scripture speaks of searing our conscience and really ruining our conscience. And maybe you're cold and calloused and you can sit through a message and you can hear preaching and somebody can confront you about sin and it doesn't bother you at all. Maybe your conscience is seared. We will never demonstrate in front of others a proper way of living, a proper Christianity, unless we, first of all, from the inside out, we have a good conscience. You know, probably in this auditorium tonight, there are a lot of you who are covering up something that needs to be dealt with in your life. Your conscience is not clean. Maybe you've sinned against God and others. Maybe there's a confession that needs to be made. Maybe there's a cleansing that ought to occur tonight because of something you're involved in, something you have done, and your conscience is accusing you of the wrong that you have done. You need a good conscience. Why is this so important? Because as you approach people that are persecuting you, and you speak the truth in love, and you try to help them to see who Jesus is, there is great peace and there is great confidence when your conscience is clean. When you know you are right with God, and you know you are right with others, and you just are trying to do what's right, and you're just trying to please God. a good conscience. Maybe there's somebody that you need to go to tonight that you've offended. Maybe there's a sin that you need to deal with in your life. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, 13, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth it and forsaketh it shall find mercy. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aren't you thankful tonight that God will clean your conscience? God will forgive you. There is cleansing. There is fellowship for you. You will never make it in this culture if you are going to cover up and never deal with your conscience. A good conscience. Then he says at the end of verse 16 that one of the ways we demonstrate is not only with our conscience, that inner part of us, living before God right, letting God do the work as we're trained and nurtured by the words of God in the Bible. And our conscience is being cleaned up and we're good before the Lord. Righteous in His sight because of the righteousness of Christ and the sanctification that's happening in our lives. But he tells us in v. 16, there's something else that needs to occur. We need to have a good conscience. But at the end of the verse, he says, we ought to have a good conversation. This is the word that refers to our conduct. We are to be holy in all manner of conversation. And I just need to say tonight, there is nothing that is out of bounds for us to examine in our lives. Everything matters. Whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we do all to the glory of God. Yes, I agree, there are some things that seem to be weightier matters. And there are other things that maybe are not as important. But is there really any choice that we make that refers to our life and our lifestyle that doesn't matter? It all matters because God matters. It all matters because He's our Lord. And we're pilgrims and strangers. And we're to be set apart for His glory. Can I ask you, are you properly evaluating everything that you are doing? The choices that you make can either detract from God's glory or they can build and lift up the glory of God. And so our conversation, our conduct needs to be right before the Lord. And He says in this verse that if you have a good conscience and you have a good conversation, look what He says in the middle of the verse. He says, they speak evil of you as of evildoers. They will be ashamed. They may be ashamed that falsely accused your good conversation in Christ. It's interesting that this is actually most likely referring to a future time when someday, even at the judgment, people will acknowledge that you were living right before the Lord. They will acknowledge the sincerity of your life. We've all heard people say this, well, I'm not going to be a Christian and I'm not going to go to church because there's way too many hypocrites. Well, by God's grace, we will be real and sincere. We will make Him the Lord of our life. We will defend Him with compassion and conviction. We will defend Him and have an apologetic defense for our faith. And in front of other people, we will just simply demonstrate by keeping our heart and conscience clean and right before the Lord and with others, and by living out a proper Christian lifestyle, that we would be right before the Lord and that we would demonstrate in the eyes of others what true Christianity is. Look at chapter 2, and I want you to see a parallel verse to this. A parallel verse to chapter 3 and verse 16 is chapter 2 and verse 12. It's interesting that this is actually the positive response of people while they are living on the earth. In chapter 3 verse 16 is the negative response or the final response. They've waited too long to respond and they will finally be ashamed. But it's actually interesting in chapter 2 verse 12 that there's a possibility that people will see your conversation, and as he says in v. 12, they will give glory to God in the day of visitation. Look at v. 12, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may be by your good works which they shall behold, Glorify God in the day of visitation. I believe this is a reference to people who actually will get saved they will actually see your life and hear your words and hear your defense of the faith and It'll be proven by your life and your lifestyle that you're genuine and they will be in heaven and give God glory because of your sincere Christian faith And so I exhort you tonight as pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul We are on a journey. This world is not our home. We are going to a bigger and better place. Do not cling on to the things of this world. Be willing to be different. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Oh, there's a great burden on my heart because such potential in this room to go out into this world and make a difference, but you can't make a difference unless you're different. You can't change the essence of the world if you add more of the same. You are God's child. You are a pilgrim. You're on a journey. Put Him on the throne. Declare Him the Lord of your life. Give a ready defense. Defend Him as the Lord with meekness and fear. Demonstrate Him as the Lord. Many years ago, when I graduated from high school, I graduated with a young man who, at least at the time, claimed to be a true believer. Shortly after graduation, he enrolled in a secular university and studied philosophy, and immediately his heart was being pulled away by the false teachings of the world. He was one of those guys that loved to talk about theology in high school. He asked all the questions to the Bible teachers, and yet there was really never a genuine, true faith in his heart. He got swept into the culture. Do you realize that after he graduated from that school of philosophy, he enrolled in a German seminary? If you know anything about German theologians, most often they're not very conservative. And he actually was trained in theology. He now has a PhD in Old Testament, and he is literally an atheist, humanist, evolutionist. He is basically teaching the Bible today as a literary book, but definitely not the Word of God. He got swept away. That's an extreme example of, I believe, a true unbeliever. You never really trusted in the Lord. And yet those stories could be told of so many who have had every privilege, who have had all the teaching, who have heard the truth, and yet they are consistently being pulled into the ways of the world. Listen, we're not supposed to be riding the comfort following all the fads and fashions of the world. We are God's people on a mission. We are pilgrims and strangers. We're like that kayaker going against the flow. It's not a good thing to fit in and flirt with the world. It's not a good thing to follow all the ways of the world. That's not a good thing. I encourage you tonight to examine your life. Are you a genuine pilgrim? Are you saved? And if you are saved, is He set apart? Is He the Lord? Have you declared Him? Full surrender. Put Him on the throne. Are you giving a defense? Are you ready to defend your faith? Maybe some of you tonight, you just need to pray that God would teach you and train you to know more about your faith. To know more about how to defend your faith. And really, one of the great things about being here is so many helpful resources. Faculty, and books, and lessons that you'll be learning while you're here. Maybe some of you tonight need to confess something that's on your conscience. Something that's in your conduct that is really not befitting a pilgrim. And I encourage you to take the admonition that Peter gives here in this text. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give an answer. And demonstrate in front of this world that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Let's go against the flow. Let's be who God wants us to be. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Father, tonight we thank you for this clear text of scripture. We do feel the pressure, the pressure to conform to the world, the pressure to compromise our values. God, we acknowledge to you tonight that we desperately need wisdom from above. We need discernment. God, I pray that you would give us wisdom to know where we can change and where we should change and where we should never change. God, help us not to compromise truth, principles of your word. I pray that we would be careful to be your people, pilgrims and strangers in this world. Lord, I pray that you would grip our hearts tonight. Pray that you would confront and convict young people here tonight, college students, adults, faculty, staff, Christians in this room, that you would convict of sin, convict of a seared conscience, convict of laziness to know our faith and defend our faith, convict us of a lack of surrender to you, And I pray that we will be your people in this world.