We turn to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 4. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin. That is, he who suffers in the flesh as a believer does so because he's living in an upright way, isn't joining those who live in sin. That he no longer should live with the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, or if you will, the barbarians, pagans, when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banqueteens, and abominable idolatries, wherein they, speaking of their former friends and acquaintances, think it strange that ye run not, if you will, still with them through the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To whom be praise and dominion forever and ever, amen. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on their part he is glorified. Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. And now begins our text, for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful creator. As far as the reading of the apostolic and inspired word. Our text runs from 17 through 19 of 1 Peter 4 as stated. It is in the context of labeling believers as Christians that any man suffer as a Christian. The title is applied to believers in the scriptures only in two different places. The one place you find it is in the book of Acts in Antioch of Syria, where they were first called Christians. Having come from Jerusalem, confessing that Jesus was the promised Messiah. That's the Hebrew. The Greek would be the Christ. And they kept saying that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He was the Christ. And people began to, with reproach and mocking, say, you guys are always talking about Jesus as the Christ, you Christians. meant it as an insult in some ways. But they took that name upon themselves and said they would do it as an honor. And then you have the word also in the verse just prior to our text. Reminds me of the Heidelberg Catechism. Question answer 32, which asks this, and why art thou called a Christian? Jesus has the title of Christ. Why art thou called a Christian? Why is that a proper, first of all, why is that a proper title for believers? Why? Do we not consider that a presumption? Because that title means we are royal. It's really the highest of all titles. Jesus is the Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the high priest and the great prophet. He is royal. So when we say we're Christians, we say we are related to royalty. Oh really, are you related to royalty? While you people think a lot about yourself, Is it not a presumptuous presumption? Why do we have the right to that title? And the Catechism says, because we also have been anointed with His Holy Spirit. He gives us the right to that title. But there's also another perspective on that question, and that's this. And this takes us more to our text. And why, pray tell, art thou You, over there, and you sitting there, called a Christian. Are you called a Christian? Are you known as a Christian? Not simply in church, and because you've been baptized, and well, he, she, says she's a Christian, she's been baptized, goes to church, but because they see there's something different about you and me as we interact with them and make our way through the world, and how we behave and talk, because that's how Christians are judged, you know. There are billions and billions are part of Christian churches, Catholic churches, over a billion members all by itself. They're all Christians. The world says, many people call themselves Christians. We have enough knowledge to know what the Bible requires of these people. Are they walking the talk? Do they behave as Christians in their language, in their interests? relate and react and respond to people. That's the question. Are we open about with whom we are identified? If we are, in the end, you're going to pay a certain price for that. That's what the apostle is getting at as well. Because reproach comes with practicing biblical Christianity, just who do you people think you are? A cut above all the rest of us, I suppose. It starts there, and then in time, it intensifies. Are we willing, beloved, to count the cost, to be open about our faith? Whose we are, and committed to the apostolic word, how Christians are to behave. not other species of Christianity, so you can ignore this word. Beginning on the Lord's Day, you have a Sunday morning wonderful. I went to church. The lions and the tigers play in the afternoon, and that's where I'm going to be. Oh, I suppose you don't do that, huh? I think you're a cut above all the rest of us, aren't you? Trying to remind us of our own holiness, is that what you're at? Are we willing, beloved, to live in accordance with the apostolic word and count the cost and it's only going to intensify. I found in my browser you see all this what's going on in the world and the political arena and then the liberal news media and there was in my browser this reference to well it had to do actually post-Charlie Kirk, someone on a campus trying to continue his work to some extent, and a student saying that, you're racist. What do you mean I'm racist? Very simple. You're white, you're male, and you're a Christian. And it was that last designation that carried the day. Not simply you're white and male, They had white male professors teaching this rubbish. Point is, you're a Christian, and that makes you a racist white male and a threat to our society. And really, it's those of that Christian vintage that have to be silenced. And if you're not silenced, we will remove you. Don't think that spirit's not there, and it's growing, beloved. Let's understand that. The day's come. Are we willing, beloved, to walk and to run that race and to be identified with him according to the words of this book, the apostolic word, a word you find in 1 Peter and a word that first century Christians were to apply to their life and to live accordingly in a distinct way. when and if and when they did. There was a price to pay as we read. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which are going to try you. With that in mind, we turn to this passage. If the righteous be scarcely saved. Just wanted to take one of the phrases. And in some ways that's the, Most interesting phrase, how to explain that. But you'll notice that in the theme on the bulletin, there are three little dots following, because that's only part of the theme. The theme is really the whole of 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? And in some ways, that phrase is the emphasis of the text. If the righteous be scarcely saved, where do you think the ungodly and the sinner is going to appear? If the righteous be scarcely saved, saved via, by means in the way of present judgments, Accomplished at great cost. Maybe I could have said at a severe price, severe cost. An encouragement to persevere, that's what verse 19 is. Commit the keeping of your souls to him in well-doing. Come what may. What the apostle is doing in our text is setting forth how it is that Christ Jesus accomplishes the salvation of his people. Notice the word accomplishes. I did not say secures the salvation of his people. He secured the salvation of his people on the cross by the payment of his blood. And that's a sure and a certain salvation. Those for whom he died. But I said, the apostle is setting forth how Christ accomplishes this salvation he has secured. How he works out that salvation and calls that salvation, if you will, into evidence in confession and obedience to the gospel. The gospel has everything to do with the accomplishment of our salvation, calling it into evidence, both as confession and life. But what the text is making plain is that throughout history, Christ has accomplished that salvation of his people and his church difficult, trying, testing, demanding, costly ways. One might, as I say, severe ways. That's where that word judgment comes in. Perhaps it'd be easier to understand if the King James had said, for the time has come that judgments must begin at the house of God. He's not speaking here of the final judgment. And all coming before the throne of Christ, when the world is at an end, and you have the sheep and the goats, and he's saying when the final judgment is, then first the sheep will be tried, if you will, and assessed, and then the goats. Even if that's true, that's not what is being set forth here. or that even in life he's assessing us first, and then those who are not believers, though our life is being assessed here, of course. He's talking about judgments, calamities, catastrophes, famines, and fires, and floods, and fevers, diseases, and things people call accidents, according to the scripture is not an accident, someone in this treacherous weather running headlong into some eye and a family loses its life, but even that according to the will of God, no to suffer according to the will of God, the judgments that God sends, and they're the fruit, of course, of the sin of our first parents. And these are judgments that, in the end, bring injury, damage, and even death. That's according to the will of God. And the thing about judgments of God is they don't distinguish between believer and unbeliever. So that we, as it were, are in a land of Goshen, And there's a section of the plagues that never fall upon Israel, you know, according to that history. They just fall upon the Egyptians and their unbelief and their ungodliness. And so we are spared these calamities and death by these judgments and the sufferings and so on. And believers are never informed. The cancer you have is of a terminal sort or something along those lines. We know very well that's not true. We also are the recipients of those judgments and suffer the severity of them in so many different ways and the severity of them sometimes can call questions in the mind of the believer. If I am his child and he is my God and my father, and he puts this on me and mine, and this is love, and this is wisdom, and I and we are not spared these things. That's, you see, what those early New Testament Christians were dealing with. They once had been pagans, and they were suffering in the Mediterranean world judgments. There were all kinds of earthquakes, and buildings collapsed, and families perished, or they had a little one, the little one would die. You know, I mean, infant mortality back then, and even in the 1800s, yet before advancement of medicine, go to the old cemeteries, and there's the names of little ones, and mothers as well, leaving families behind. The judgments of God, and this is good, and this is wise, and this is loving, Father, we were pagans, and we saw those things as the judgments of the gods. And then came the gospel, and we confessed that the one whom you're preaching is the one true God, and Jesus whom he has sent is Lord and Savior, and he governs and rules all things, even the judgments. And so we have believed, made our confession, and wouldn't you know it, the next earthquake struck, buildings collapsed, and there were Christians who died. Has God forgotten to be kind? Is he angry with us? Are we still under judgment, wrath? Is that what? And added, and by the way, to understand the question, I'll make it personal, I have a father-in-law, you know his name, a man of faith. He's lost one child, he's lost two children, now he's lost a third child, two teenagers, the one his youngest daughter, the love of his life, if you will, and that Narthex out there was the funeral or the funeral reception of his second son, third child. After that, I recall so sharply sitting down and he looked me in the eye and said, Ken, sometimes it's hard to pray thy will be done. He did not say, I'm not going to pray thy will be done anymore. You know him better than that. I will continue to pray thy will be done but sometimes it's hard demanding to do that. It takes all the faith, if you will, that I have to submit myself to this will of God too. Beloved, go with me to the Garden of Gethsemane What did the Son of Man pray there? If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He struggled with it, if you will. Is there not any other way, God, than this way? Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. and he drank the cup and God be thanked. Or the judgments that fall upon this world and we suffer with them as well would be wraths of God, wouldn't they? It's because of that great sacrifice when he submitted himself to the will of God for our sake. That severe will that our salvation was accomplished and one becomes a believer and then the deaths that are the result of the calamities aren't from death to death or from this life to the abyss but they are death that takes to glory awaiting the resurrection day and the Lord can say to us I have done you no injustice I have taken your loved one away, be it a child, be it a wife and a mother of seven children, if you know who I'm talking about. And still, he, she, they are in glory. And I have accomplished my goodwill and done you no injustice. And this is not judgment of wrath, but this is in the end for your sake. And the benefit of the gathering of my church That's what the apostle is getting at. That's what those early New Testament Christians struggled with. And he's giving answer to that, you see. That he says, you have to understand that when the judgments fall, and even you're persecuted for righteousness sake, because that's what they said, we have these judgments that fall. We're still suffering death as a result of these judgments that fall. And then you add to that persecution, So our becoming Christians hasn't alleviated our suffering. Our becoming Christians has intensified our sufferings. Is there a good purpose in this at all? Can there be? And the apostle is answering. For the time has come that judgments must begin at the house of God. When he says begin, he doesn't mean first. that which is called the house of God received the judgment, and then the world received the judgment. The meaning of the Greek is this, that the time has come that the judgments have primarily the house of God in mind. They fall upon believer and unbeliever, church and world, but they fall primarily with the believer in mind. They certainly fall upon the unbeliever with a certain judgment upon them, call their sins to remembrance, if you will, and they're under wrath. But primarily, he's saying, I send them with the salvation of my people in mind. That's what the word beginning is, primarily, starting with them, for their sakes, primarily. Speaks here of the house of God. That's the instituted church. And so a church is made of believers and unbelievers, but it's where the gospel is, and because there are believers there, the gospel is there with them, and it's been entrusted to the care of the church. That's to whom the Lord God has entrusted the gospel. He's entrusted it to the house of God, to the church institute. A mixture of carnal and spiritual, like the parable, the kingdom of heaven is wheat and It's going to be that till the end of the world. But he has the house of God, but he has primarily in that house of God those believers in mind to whom he has entrusted the gospel. And the judgments fall with respect to the gospel and the spread of the gospel and the preservation of the gospel without which there is not salvation. These first century Christians, beloved, would not have been saved if they had not heard the gospel. Someone had to bring to them the gospel. And then in accordance with that gospel, the spirit would work their salvation. And the judgments in the end, the apostle is saying, serve the preservation of that gospel and even the spread of that gospel as it's been entrusted to the house of God, to the church institute where there are believers found. Salvation. And he underscores that, or I should say scripture underscores that in many ways. But I want to demonstrate that from Revelation chapter six. Begins, I saw the Lamb open the one of the seals. Heard, as it were, the noise of thunder. Come and see. The seven-sealed book. The one who opens it is the Lion of Judah's tribe, but he appears as a lamb because it's the blood of the sacrifice of his cross that's given him the right to determine the course of New Testament history. Who's worthy to determine the course of New Testament history to the salvation of those in every nation, tribe, and tongue, to their gathering, to the gathering of the church of the living God? Who has the right, the power to direct history in that way and not in the way of the devil for just condemnation and the victory of unrighteousness? Worthy is the Lamb. The Lamb, the Lion of Judah's tribe, having made the sacrifice, has the right now control history to his own purpose, saving purpose. Come and see. Notice the white horse, the first seal. That's the gospel. That's the primary horse in some ways, you see. Behold a white horse. He that sat on him had a bow. The crown was given unto him. He went forth conquering and to conquer. And that doesn't mean simply to defeat his enemies. but he meant to overcome the hearts of enemies, like Saul of Tarsus, to conquer him by his love and make an enemy a friend and a preacher of the gospel, or, if you will, one who displays the fruits of the gospel, a witness to the gospel. But especially the preaching of the gospel, the white horse going forth, conquering and to conquer. That's the whole purpose why New Testament history has been extended, isn't it? Because there is a people whom Christ died in every nation, tribe, and tongue who must be gathered, who must hear the gospel. How will they do that? This church, the house of God given it, must have time to do that. And then you have the other horses that follow, the red horse. Come and see another horse, red, taking away peace, representing war. A third seal, opening that, and there's the black horse, social tensions, the rich and the poor, the aristocrats and the servants, always that social tension working in society with all kinds of consequences. And then the fourth seal, pale horse, death, the grave, says hell but the grave, and all these diseases and the results of all these calamities and catastrophes and all the rest, all in the service preaching of the gospel which means the preservation of the house of God, of the church of Christ in the whole of New Testament history. And that's what has occurred. I said early in the sermon, began, it was in Antioch of Syria that Believers were first called Christians. Why were there Christians way up there in Antioch of Syria? Because right after Christ's crucifixion, those who were believers gathered and stayed in Jerusalem. And the Sanhedrin went after them like a wolf in the fold and began to persecute them. Saul of Tarsus, being of course the instigator number one, But as a result, the Christians moved out. They spread, trying to stamp out the fire, the sparks fled. And they ended up in Antioch of Syria, and brought with them the name of Jesus, who is the promised Messiah, and began a Christian church up there. Persecution serving the spread of the gospel. But so does that red horse, that war. I'm gonna take you to the days of the Reformation. No, I'm gonna take you to Rome itself, first century, first of all. Irony. There was an animosity towards Christianity that soon rose up in the Empire of Rome, as you well know. You've heard the stories of the persecutions of Christians given to the lions and crucified on crosses, and the Apostle Peter speaks of it as well. But it's interesting that for all the animosity of Rome and its power, it did not stamp Christianity out. In large measure, that was because Rome could not focus all of its energy and animosity upon this new Christian faith, along with Jewry, which they put all as one. They wanted to get rid of Jews. Christians are just a sect of the Jews. Let's get rid of all of them together. They didn't accomplish that because their attention was divided in north, in the north country, in the first century. I think maybe they're teaching our high school students this in church history at Covenant. Barbarians, related to whom our ancestors, ironically, as pagans, served the spread of the gospel and the preservation of the gospel because they had been displaced by Julius Caesar and other generals, and now they were making a comeback, you see, and they were getting back at their, they wanted their old ancestral lands back and there was a tremendous push from the north and Rome had to send legion after legion of soldiers north just to protect its northern borders. It could not focus simply on exterminating, extinguishing the fires of the Christian faith. War served its preservation. Same thing in the Reformation. Whether you know your church history or not, Same thing in the Reformation. If you know your church history, you'll know that the Seljuk Turks in the 1500s were making inroads from the East with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and were getting into Hungary, what's now known as Romania, and threatening to overrun the whole of Europe. And the Pope and the bishops and the Roman Catholic magistrates knew that. and they knew they could not withstand the threat of the Turks from the east without the help of Protestant princes with their men joining them. So they couldn't simply extinguish them all and then hope to hold Europe against the flood of war from the east. And so the Reformation itself was preserved with the translations of the scripture and the preaching of the true gospel as the energy and the focus Holy Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Empire was deflected because of the distraction from coming in from the east. And so preservation of the gospel due to war. Time would fail me, I suppose, to go on. I'll give you one more instance, though, because the war has served not only the defense of those who have maintained, confessed, and preached the gospel, because the nation where they were preaching it, its attention was deflected to those threatening the nation itself, but has served the spread of the gospel. World War II, the British Army was tasked with removing the Japanese armies from Myanmar, known as Burma, but once Burma, now Myanmar. And they had to go into the jungles drive out the Japanese. And that's when the British Army, where the soldiers got into places in the north of Myanmar, far to the north, where they ran into tribes of headhunters who had the shrunken skulls of their neighboring tribes as decorations. But the Japanese had come. And they dealt with those tribes with a brutal viciousness. and slaughter, rape, taking their children and mangling their children. There was an animosity. When the British Army came, those tribes joined with the British Army to thrust out the Japanese and rejoiced in that and called the British soldiers their friends. In that British Army were evangelical believers, young men of an evangelical background. Oh, even knew about Calvinism. When they got out of the war, at the end of the war, in five years' time, five years later, they were back in those jungles with the gospel. They had met these people. They came with the gospel, they were welcomed. And the Lord used the preaching of the gospel there for the conversion of these headhunters who became then Christians and who were at peace at tribes. And I bring this up because when Titus, Brother Titus had his conference in which we are involved, far south, Yangon, it was men from that area converted under that preaching as a result of World War II who came down and mixed with those who were in the conference and profited from it. God using judgments in the interest of the spread of the gospel, in the preservation of the gospel. And sometimes death comes along with it. But in the end, he takes his own to glory as he keeps the gospel going so that there might be those who save. So when they die, that's not to the abyss, but it's to everlasting glory. And it's then urgent, beloved, that there is this perseverance that serves the preaching of the gospel. It also serves in the purging of a Christian church of times. Persecution, for instance, we know that, I suppose we could know that from experience, but we know that from the gospel record itself. For instance, you read in Matthew 13, with respect to the sower who went forth to sow the seed, that some falls on the shallow soil. And it springs up quickly, but in the heat of the day it withers and bears no fruit. And Christ describes that this way. He that received the seed into the shallow soil with the stones is the same as he that heareth the word and with joy receiveth it, yet he hath not rooted himself. He's not rooted in Christ. He endureth for a while, but when the tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended and he leaves. And you have a purging of the church. Confess to Christ, they join the church, then they have to bear reproach and count the cost. And I didn't become a Christian to have to count this cost, to bear this reproach. I came just to have peace and tranquility and prosperity, and now I'm bearing reproach and troubles are multiplying. I'm out of here. I'm going back to the world. And there's a purging of the church. Think of Demas, who hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. And he knew as long as I'm with Paul, I'm going to suffer for the faith. There's always animosity against his preaching. And he was preparing for the gospel ministry. How much the church was spared that he was offended finally and left because of the threat of the persecution and the reproach. But also beloved, the purifying of ourselves. The sanctifying of ourselves. When are we close to God? When do we assault Him in prayer, as it were, with an earnestness and a supplication when all is going well and I'm self-sufficient and I can do it on my own, you know? I have no real needs in health or food or well-being. Our tables are heaped with turkeys and chickens, aren't they? And ham, what more could you want? And then comes news. A loved one has this disease or a member of the church with this affliction. And then our priorities change, don't they, in a spiritual way. How we need the Lord. We can't do this on our own. There's nothing this world can offer or do to alleviate this. There's only one Lord. Thou art the one and there is a purifying and a strengthening and a seeking the kingdom first and letting the other things be added to us. Beloved, let's hope one does not have to wait to become old and be divested of material things and know he's dying and now suddenly we become serious and kingdom minded and heavenly minded. in the way of trial and testing and severity sometimes, is when we know we must seek the Lord, and seeking him, find him. How urgent it is, then, we continue to understand this and persevere, and that's underscored, really, by Paul, by Peter, when he says, for the time has come that judgments must come primarily with the house of God in mind and if these judgments first begin with us and affect us and the Lord is so severe even with those whom he loves sometimes you marvel the Lord says here, the will of God, the Lord brought this upon us or some loved one, member of the church. He could be that severe whom he loves? If he can be that severe in dealing with those whom he loves, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear, do you suppose, who continues in one's unbelief and sin? You think that one is going to escape? Or as Psalm 73 said, their eyes stand out for fatness, they have nothing to fear, they live their life, they die, and it's all yay and amen. You really think so? What do you think their end is going to be? Who will not submit to the will of Christ? Underscores, you see, the seriousness of sin, both of unbelief and of ungodliness, if he's that severe even with those whom he loves, then don't imagine, beloved, that those who turn their backs on him, reject the gospel, are going to escape. And don't think that I either. If I'm just quiet about my Christianity, I'll just fly under the radar and escape all this stigmatism and all this suffering. that I'm going to escape either. Persevere. Persevere. Because in the end, though the righteous are scarcely saved, they are the ones who are saved. And that's a righteousness that has no justification but with living uprightly, who identify themselves as those who are saved and are willing to identify themselves as those who have been transformed and saved. And then the apostle underscores what he has said in verse 17 by 18. If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? And the first one, what shall the end be of those that obey not the gospel? Turn their backs on the gospel. Don't need the gospel. Go back to paganism. You think you're going to escape? Not going to escape. That's where judgment is, of wrath. But now this righteous scarcely That does not mean, beloved, that God has a difficult time in saving the righteous and almost, if you will, fails, but just manages to be able to save the righteous. That has more to do, it has to do with the cost involved and the severe way in which that is accomplished. And that's true with respect to our being saved and His saving us. As I said, our being saved, accomplished in the way of living as a Christian, openly as a Christian, and then receiving the tests and trials and demands of life as they may be, and even reproach and persecution, and still persevering in godliness, living as a Christian. That's difficult. Why should I bring upon myself reproach and scorn and even threats to my life? I can escape all that just by hiding my Christianity and who I am in the world. And that's why, beloved, and the devil knows that, And he tempts us and he knows our weaknesses and he goes after us with our doubts and our fears and our foolishness. And we'll never persevere, will we? Apart from grace. It takes a grace and an amazing grace and a continual supply of grace and the gospel preaching to sometimes reprove and rebuke us but also to encourage us and to direct us in that way. Scarcely saved by the power of grace, you see. or we would be lost, left to ourselves. But it also applies to God in a certain way, at what we cost him. From a certain point of view, his everything. We cost God so much, beloved, that I'm convinced the devil didn't think it was possible that once Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, that Their posterity couldn't possibly be saved in righteousness. They may be in heaven, but that's an insult and assault on God's righteousness. Can't possibly save us by his power and simply let all that sin and rebellion and fornication go by. Who's going to serve that sentence? They haven't served their sentence. What are they doing here? Where's thy righteousness? That's his assault. Always his assault against God when he's in heaven in the Old Testament. What are they doing here? and he's defaming God's righteousness. You're here and you underscore God's claims he's unrighteous. Can't possibly save these people in any righteous way. Never dreaming that he would give up his own son and his own son, his only begotten be willing to undergo the wrath of his father. Who could have thought such a thing? We cost beloved God that much and he was willing to pay that price for us and our children and our children's children. And if we cost that much in the payment of our sins that we might be accounted righteous, where do you think the ungodly and the sinner is going to appear? You think there's any salvation outside of Christ? You think you can be saved without listening to the gospel and believing the gospel with a wholehearted faith and clinging to Christ? Think again. There is no salvation. There's one only name under heaven by which a man may be saved. And I say that, beloved, because it's as simple as that in our society right now. What defines biblical Christianity? There's all kinds of species of Christianity out there. And so many of them are going apostate. Do you know what they don't want to say? That there's only one name under heaven by which a man may be saved. Oh, he's one name, but you know there's other names too. Virgin Mary, or this Mohammed, they're good people too. You know, some Islam and the Buddhists. I mean, we as Christians must be large hearted. And if you as a people say there's only one name, well, then you're biased and you're prejudiced and you're bigots. So you're saying all the rest are lost? Would you dare say that on a college campus? So you're saying, if you're not a believing Christian, the rest of us are lost. How do you think the Apostle Paul would have answered? How do you think the Apostle Peter would have answered? Yes, brother, all who are outside of Christ confess not his name, and plead upon the mercy of God, and his name will perish. Repent or perish. It's as simple as that, the simple gospel, and it is an offense today, not only to the world, but to a whole growing faction of apostatizing Christianity. And we, beloved, according to the apostolic word, must remain true, if you will, to biblical Truth 101. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only way, truth, and life. There is no other outside of him. Perish, repent, or believe. And if that brings suffering, and reproach, and persecution, so be it. Because it brings that to us. Beloved, we're in good company, aren't we? We're in company of those with whom the apostle in Hebrews says, of whom the world is not worthy, who are precious in the name of God. And so, there is this encouragement. Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. And the emphasis of that last verse is well-doing. continue in well-doing, living as a Christian, displaying the marks of the Christian faith, letting the world know who you are openly, without shame, without trying to hide it, and fly under the radar, as it were. I'll be like Nicodemus, I'll come in the cover of night. I'll confess him, you know, at home. Don't even know if I go to church every Sunday, they might think I'm that kind of a Christian. I'll confess with my door locked and my window shades pulled. And nobody will really know I'm that kind of a Christian. But I am in my heart, you know. I do get my TV on and I do watch the services. No, beloved, not that kind of a Christian. Well-doing begins on the first day of the weak in the interest of the well-being of our souls and faith in the call to godliness and open about that. Doesn't mean we're proud of peeping our horn. Don't have to do that. All you have to do is live according to the word of God. And then during the week, the pilgrimage of which we sang, can be living as pilgrims and strangers in obedience to who our Lord has opened in our conversation in our faith, where what we will join in, what we will not join in, and they soon pick it up, who we are, whom we confess, and even being willing to speak about to others about this Lord Jesus. We must learn to do that, I'm convinced, more and more, as others are open about it, who have just been converted. They're very open about it. That's why we rejoice in those just converted. They can't keep it to themselves, but our tendency is to be quiet about it. We have to learn to be open about it. Whatever it brings, continue the Apostle doing that. And a man may say, but I'm weak. And if I do that and they single me out, I might deny my Lord. So best I not call my attention to myself. Apostle says, commit your soul to God as a faithful creator. He is the Almighty after all. From whom do you think you received your faith? It's a new creature. He has made you a new Adam, if you will, and a new Eve with a new man in you. That's a creation work. He's your creator. And if he's the creator, he knows how to keep you. He is the almighty. As he made the world, let there be. He will say concerning you, let there be. And when he has said something beloved, it cannot be extinguished. None can pluck any man from his hand. Continue and commit your soul to him. as unto a faithful creator with his almighty power, he knows how to keep his own, will confess the name of the Lord Jesus in accordance with the apostolic gospel and word. Beloved, I go back to the opening question. Why art thou called a Christian? Art thou called a Christian? Are you known as a Christian? And are you joyful about that? And consider the title an honor, because it means I am related to the firstborn of creation. and of the royal seed that's been given me, however poor I am in myself, been given to me by a marvelous grace. Conclude, beloved, with these words from that well-known hymn and anthem, Amazing Grace, this stanza. Through many dangers, trials, and snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace, will lead me home. You believe that, don't you? Then walk by faith. He is faithful. Amen. Our Father, we thank thee for thy word, the gospel, preserved in our own midst, as we have heard it this evening. The words of the apostles themselves, who are willing to suffer for Christ's sake. The apostle Peter, who once denied his Lord, And then the Spirit worked in the way of repentance and gave him the courage to be crucified to end his life even as his Lord. Give us, we pray, the courage and know the grace will be there according to the time of need. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.