In 1 Peter 3, notice with me as we read from verse 15, I'm going to read some other verses in this chapter. But I want to read verse 15. I want to title the message, Sanctify the Lord in Your Heart. This has been my meditation for about two weeks now, thinking about this passage and how that it can apply in my own life. and also how that I can present this to you as a congregation to be able to communicate something that will be a blessing and be a help to you. Notice as Peter writes this letter, of course, these are the words of the Lord. He said, "...but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you of a reason of a hope that is in you with meekness and fear." We're going to look at several thoughts here and several words in these verses, but my main focus this morning is sanctifying the Lord in our heart. What does that mean? How does that apply to you and I? Father, we thank You this morning for the privilege that You've given us again to assemble together. And Lord, we ask this morning Your blessings upon the reading of Your precious Word. We pray this morning, Lord, that You would speak to each of our hearts from Thy holy Word by Thy Holy Spirit. We thank You, Lord, for another day. We thank You, Lord, for loving us. And Lord, now as we come to Your Word, we pray again that You would speak to us, for it is in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. And you may be seated. As we come to this text, he says in verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of a hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Now, this is a wonderful text. I'm sure that you've read it a number of times. Some of you may even have it put to memory. But as we come, this entire chapter is an exhortation to God's people in reference from verses 1 to 7 to marriage. in verses 8 through about 12 or 13 in reference to one another in the church, and also even speaks of our testimony to those that are lost, those that would even speak against us or maybe even persecute us. Now, I have three thoughts I want to give you this morning. And first of all, I want to lay a foundation by introduction, by talking about the purpose of this letter, 1 Peter. Secondly, we're going to consider the sanctifying the Lord in our hearts. And then number three, I'm just going to give you some final thoughts in these verses. But first of all, I want you to notice that as we come here and consider sanctifying the Lord in our hearts, what is the setting of this letter? Turn back with me to chapter 1, and I want you to notice something here. What is the purpose of 1 Peter? Well, it was written to encourage the believers in the first century who were going through persecution. It is a general letter. That is, it's not written to one particular church, but it's written to the people of God. It's written to churches in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. And it's written around 60 A.D. And of course, the writer is Peter. But it's written during the time of the reign of Nero. That kind of puts things in perspective. And Peter eventually suffered as Jesus prophesied in John 21 and verse 18 and 19. The Lord told Peter as a young man how that he would die and how he would be martyred. And the theme as we come to 1 Peter is hope in times of trial. in tribulation. The word suffering, or a similar word, is used about 15 times in this epistle. This epistle is dealing with a believer's response to sufferings and persecutions that would come in our life. He said in verse 1 of 1 Peter 1, he said, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit and obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied." Again, we see here that this letter is written to those that are scattered throughout all these areas. And it's written to the people of God. And it's written that they might be encouraged because each chapter In 1 Peter, all five chapters deal with the subject of sufferings and persecutions that they were going through. Let me give you an example of that. This epistle was born in the atmosphere of suffering shortly before Peter's martyrdom. Notice with me as we look into chapter 1 and verse 6-8. He said, wherein ye greatly rejoice, Though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptation, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Notice as we come to chapter 2. In chapter 2, I'm going to be reading from verse 19. He said, For this is a thank-worthy, if a man for conscience' sake toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, for what glory is it, if when you're buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently, but if when you do well, and suffer for it. You take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. Now notice he gives us an example. He said in verse 21, For even here unto where ye are called, that is called to suffer, Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps who did no sin. Neither was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously." Notice in chapter 3, every chapter is dealing with the sufferings and persecutions that the saints are going through. In chapter 3, Reading from verse 14, he says in verse 14, "'But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord in your hearts.' Verse 16, "'Having a good conscience, that wherein they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conscience in Christ." He goes on to mention Christ's suffering. Notice what it means when we come to chapter 4. In chapter 4, reading in verse 12, I'm just trying to lay a foundation so that when we come to verse 15 of chapter 3, when he says, sanctify the Lord in your heart, we may understand it a little bit better. He says in chapter 4, reading from verse 12, He said, "'Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, and as though some strange thing happen in you, but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. And if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory And of God rest is upon you, on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But 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, If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." Turn with me to chapter 5 and notice with me from verse 8 to verse 10. He said in chapter 5, verse 8, "'Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same affliction Now notice that. The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. So we see that every chapter in 1 Peter is describing in some way, the persecutions and the sufferings and the pain that the saints were going through in the first century under Nero's reign. And what this letter is all about is to encourage them and to show them how to respond to this suffering. As a matter of fact, in chapter 2, reading in verse 9 through 11, he says in verse 11, he said that your strangers and pilgrims And he said, "...abstain from fleshy lusts which war against the soul." A stranger is someone who is away from home, and a pilgrim is someone who is headed home. And there are strangers and pilgrims. Now, I want you to hold on here and turn to one other passage. And I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 6. Now, the epistle that we have at hand was born in the atmosphere of suffering shortly before Peter's martyrdom. He is encouraging, or God is encouraging through Peter, the believers, to endure the sufferings as Jesus Christ endured His sufferings. Now, I read this to you this past week, but in June 2010, it was reported by World Net Daily that 105,000 people are killed every year for their Christian faith. Over the past 10 years, an average 100,000 Christians have been slain annually. Now, I want you to think about that. I've read that report over and over for the last 10, 15 years. Over 100,000 Christians are slain for their faith every year. That is equivalent to one every five minutes. Now, every five minutes in this world, some Christian is dying for their faith. And that's one of the reasons that as we come to the New Testament, we find several verses I'm talking about from Matthew through the book of Revelation that deals with the issue of persecution. There are those that are being persecuted as we meet here this morning. There are those that are being put to death. There are those that are having to hide in order to be able to worship today. You can't hardly get people in America to come to church and be faithful anymore. And they're those dying because they're going to worship in spite of what others may say. And they're literally dying for their faith because they refuse to worship, refuse rather to not worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, even though there are many dying and there are many being persecuted, in various ways. I want you to understand in the verses I'm going to read that there are many forms of persecution. How many believe that? There's many forms of persecution. There is the physical abuse and persecution. We see that in the Bible. We see that in church history. But there are many other forms of persecution. There are those who will persecute with their tongues. That is, treat you with contempt. There are verbal attacks. That is a form of persecution. There is false accusations against believers. That is, a particular form of persecution. There are those that will shun you and avoid you. Have you ever been shunned and avoided because of your faith and your dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ? a form of persecution. We have experienced it in family. We have experienced it in community. And we've even experienced that among those others who profess that they know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And some of you are shaking your head up and down. You can say amen to that. So there is verbal persecution. There is that persecution where people will shun you and void you and stay away from you. Now notice as I read two verses, And I'm going to be reading from Luke 6. I'm going to be reading v. 22 and v. 23. Let me prove to you what I just said to be so. Now, by the way, one writer said, he said the real problem is not why some suffer, but why some don't. Amen? And we know that Calvary, another writer said, Calvary is God's great proof that suffering in the will of God always leads to glory. Why should we expect any less in this world than what our Savior went through? The verbal accusations, the physical abuse, the sufferings that he went through, he said his disciples would experience the same thing. So the bottom line is, if you're going to live for God, there will be certain forms of persecution. You may not have your head removed, but you may be shunned, you may be verbally abused and those kind of things. And Jesus Christ said this is the way that it's going to be in this world. Now notice as we read. He said in verse 22, he said, Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and shall separate. How many of you have ever had this happen? And shall separate you from their company. Can I get an Amen? And then he goes on to say, And shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil. Have you ever had that happen? And then he says, For the Son of Man's sake, rejoice Ye in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." See, there's many forms of persecution. And notice with me now as we turn back to our text in 1 Peter chapter 3. So to give you an introduction to this letter and the purpose for the writing of 1 Peter written around 60 A.D., written during the reign of Nero, written during a time when the believers were going through much persecution, but it was written to show them how to respond to this persecution. It was written to show them how to handle this and to encourage them. Now, the second thing I want to give to you this morning is the sanctifying of the Lord in our hearts. What does this mean? Well, it means to treat Him as God by honoring Him in our lives, in our hearts and in our lives. Now, what is interesting, let me read verses 14 and 15 together. And I want you to notice this because Peter is alluding to a passage in the Old Testament. In verse 14, he said, But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. That means you're blessed. And he says, And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Then he said in verse 15, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. I wasn't going to turn to this. I do want you to turn. Let me read it again, and I want you to turn with me to Isaiah 8. Look at this. He said, But if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. He's saying on one hand, don't be afraid of those who are opposed to us. And on the other hand, he said, sanctify the Lord in your heart. In other words, if we will sanctify the Lord in our hearts, then we will not be afraid of the terror that may come our way. Notice in Isaiah, Peter is alluding to this chapter. In Isaiah chapter 8, I'm only going to read about two or three verses. But notice, as we come here, I'm going to read verses 12, verse 13, and verse 14. Now, in this chapter, the setting of this chapter is that when Ahaz, the king of Judah, was facing the invading army of the Assyrians, he wanted, obviously, to look somewhere else for help. Israel and Syria, I believe it was, wanted to form a confederacy. In other words, you're going to find somebody that will help you. You get some help. And God is saying, I will help you. God is saying to Judah, He's saying, don't fear them. I will help you. I will be your sanctuary. In other words, Judah had began looking to other nations instead of God. and to form this confederacy and looking for help. Notice as we read in verse 12. He says, "...say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear..." Now here it is. This is what Peter is referring to. "...neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid." He's saying don't be afraid. of the Assyrians as maybe these other nations would be afraid of them. He is saying, don't you be afraid. And then he said in verse 13, sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. See, Peter is referring to these two verses. But notice in verse 14, and He shall be for a sanctuary but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gem, that is a trap, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." He's saying to those that will not trust the Lord, He becomes a stumbling block unto them. But those who will trust Him, He's saying in verse 14, He shall be for a sanctuary. We know what a sanctuary is. A sanctuary is a place of safety and is a place of refuge. We have a bird sanctuary on Dolphin Island. How many have ever been in that? It's a wonderful place to just go in and walk. And not only are the birds protected in there, even the alligators. are protected. This is a sanctuary. Everything in there is protected. And this is what God is saying. God is saying, I will be your sanctuary. You go over there and try to kill a bird and see what happens to you. You'll be in jail for the next 20 years. And God is saying, I will be your protection. He's saying, I will be your refuge. He's saying, I will be your sanctuary. Now notice back with me in 1 Peter. As we come back here, and let's consider this thought here about sanctifying the Lord in our hearts. Now, since you didn't meditate upon this last week, I want you to meditate upon it this coming week. I want you to take the entire chapter, look over it, pray about it, consider this. The word sanctify, we get the word holy and the word saint. They're all associated together. Now notice as we come here, What does it mean to sanctify the Lord in our hearts? He's saying in verse 14, don't be afraid of their terror. And don't be troubled at those that will bring accusations and oppositions against you. He said, don't fear them. He said, I am your sanctuary as in Isaiah. But now He's telling you and I, as well as the first century saints, he sang in verse 15, he said, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Now, I'm going to read the rest of that verse as we get down to our third point, but let's just camp out here for a few moments. Now, to sanctify something means to set it apart. Now, you can't make God holy because He already is holy. But you can treat Him as holy. You can recognize Him to be holy. And to set something apart means to make it holy, to sanctify it, to set it apart, to consecrate it, to make it special, to reverence, to hallow it. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 6 and verse 9, hallowed be thy name, I believe it's the same Greek word that's translated here, if I'm not mistaken. And so, how does Others view God through our lives. Now, I want you to just think about this. We are to sanctify that is set apart. We are to sanctify the Lord in our hearts. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and notice here. In Ephesians chapter 3, we are to exhibit holiness in our lives and in our behavior. God said in 1 Peter 1, 15-16, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And he's quoting Peter from an Old Testament Scripture when he says that, showing us that God wants this whether it be under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. Now, notice with me as we come here to Ephesians 3. The ideal here means to honor, to exalt, to enshrine Him or delight in Him. when we talk about sanctifying the Lord in our hearts. Now, notice as we come here to Ephesians 3, I'm going to be reading two verses from this chapter. The Bible says you can't serve two masters, right? Matthew 6, verse 24. You can't serve two. You're going to love one and hate the other. I mean, that's just the bottom line. So, he's talking about a wholehearted devotion to God. leaving no reservations for anything else, no rival, no competition, allowing God to have our entire hearts. Let me just read here and I'll show you what I'm talking about. In Ephesians 3 and verse 16 and 17, this is Paul's prayer for the church. And he said in verse 16, he said that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by Spirit in the inner man." Now here it is, the verse I'm after, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints. And he goes on to speak of the love of Christ. Notice here, he said, verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." He's talking to Christians. He's talking to the church. He's talking to those that are saved that already have Christ in their hearts. And he's saying, I'm praying now that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. What is he saying? He's saying that Christ may fill a home in your heart. That He may be comfortable there. That He may dwell there. This is more than just believing in God's attributes. Many will say, oh, I know God's holy and all that, but does our life show that He's holy? Have we sanctified Him in our hearts? The Bible said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall what? They shall see God. And when I read these verses and think about this and consider this, our hearts should become a little chapel or a sanctuary for the Lord to dwell in. Now, I want you to just think about this. We are to allow Him to be on the throne. Allow nothing to remove Him from the throne of our hearts. Treat Him as God. Trust in Him as God. Have confidence in Him as God. This is not a mere external existence, but something that penetrates in the hearts and lives of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Act toward Him in obedience. This is one of the ways that we can sanctify the Lord in our hearts, is to be obedient to His Word. Turn with me please to 1 John and notice here. Now, there's an interesting passage in the Old Testament I'll give to you. And Moses was a great Man of God. And still yet in Numbers, and I'm going to use Moses in just a moment in a very good light, but let me just give you this. In Numbers 20, verse 12, and Deuteronomy 32, verse 15, Moses, you remember the first time God says, hit the rock and the water came out, and years later, God says to Moses, He said, now speak to the rock. He said, I want you to sanctify me before the people. Well, Moses, out of anger, the people have provoked him to anger, and he hit the rock. He hit the rock. And the Bible says in those verses I gave you that he did not sanctify the Lord before the people, and his disobedience is called a trespass. In other words, Moses, as great a man as he was, and he was a great man, he sinned against the Lord. He did not sanctify, set apart the Lord before the people at this time. It was a grievous sin. As a matter of fact, it hindered him from going in to the promised land as the children of Israel were making their way in there. Do you realize that we can blaspheme God through our actions? In Romans 2, in verses 24, I'll just say 17 through 29, 2 Samuel 12, 14, David blaspheming the name of the Lord through his sin and through his actions. There's a number of times that this has happened in the Word of God. And we're talking about sanctifying the Lord in our heart. And how do we do that? One way we do that, obviously, is by obedience to His Word. Obedience to His Word. Now, I want to read here in 1 John. And I'm going to begin reading in chapter 3. I'm going to be in chapter 3. And I want you to see here in this passage that the Apostle does not mince words. And I want you to just listen carefully as I read through this. What do we mean by sanctifying the Lord in our hearts? We mean that our hearts should be a little chapel or a sanctuary for the Lord to dwell. He should be at home in our hearts. Amen? And this should be the very mark of a believer, that God is sanctified in their hearts, that there's no rival, there's no competition, We're to treat Him as God. We're to trust in Him as God. We're to have confidence in Him. I'm simply saying to you this morning is that you must ask yourself this question. How do others view God through our lives? When others are looking at our lives, are they seeing a holy and a righteous God when they look at our lives? Or are they seeing some other God or idol or whatever that would be in our life. Now, I want you to notice that as I read from verse 4, and I'm reading this passage to say to you this morning, that a habitual sinning heart is not ruled by the Lord. Okay? Now, we're talking about habitual sins. Those that are repeated day after day after day, you can rest assured that the Lord is not ruling or reigning, and that heart is not sanctified. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. I'm going to read from verse 4 to about verse 10. He says here in this passage, in verse 4, he said, Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law, For sin is transgression of the law. Now, notice the wording. And I believe he's dealing with habitual sins. He says in verse 5, And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth, in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. And he that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinned from the beginning for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God." In other words, he is not living in habitual sins. Those who are living in habitual sins are not saved. Can I get an Amen? They just need to get saved. I've been preaching for the last probably four to six weeks or somewhere around there, at least this year, as we got in this year. I've been preaching, I was telling Brother Justin this last night, I've been preaching from a text. In Acts 3, I can't get this off my mind and it kind of covers all the bases. In Acts 3, 19, 20 and 21, I'm not asking you to turn there, but it covers everything. It says, "...Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive unto the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all of His holy prophets since the world began." You've got repentance and conversion and forgiveness of sins and the coming of Christ, all these things here in these few verses. And the bottom line is that there are many in habitual sins today, and we're not standing here pointing fingers, but the bottom line is that no one can live in habitual sins day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and be a child of God. Because what was it Christ died for? Somebody tell me. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-4. What did He die for? Sins. He died for sins. Well, He died for our sins. And it is absolutely a slap in the face of God to live in perpetual, habitual sins after Christ dying for sins, and we're saying that we've accepted Him and our sins have been forgiven. You see, that's a contradiction. People many times in their lives are contradicting what they say with their mouth. And so he's dealing with I believe habitual sins. He said in verse 9, Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now notice in verse 10, in this, now think about what he's just said in these verses. He's been talking about the children of the devil who live in sin. He's been talking about the children of God who do not live in sin. Verse 10, in this, He said the children of God are manifested. How are the children of God manifested? They are manifested in their righteous living before the Lord. And then he says, "...and the children of the devil." How are the children of the devil manifested? They're living in their sins, their habitual sins. And he goes on to say, "...whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." And he goes on to give some examples here. And by the way, some of the examples is Cain and Abel. I mean, we find that Cain was a man that did not love his brother, and we see the sin in Cain's life, so he uses them as an example. You know what I believe in America? I believe that just as on one side of the spectrum there are those who are trying to work themselves into heaven through different organizations and are very deceived. You understand what I'm talking about? I'm going to talk about one of those organizations tonight, the Jehovah Witnesses. And they're trying to earn their salvation and they're very deceived. I believe on the other side, there are those that say, I'm saved by grace through faith and I'm going to heaven, and there is no fruit in their life. And they're deceived also. And they need to repent. And they need to get saved. And they need to be converted. Because the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is, not going to be, not could be, not may be, but he is a new creature. All things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. I'm just simply saying to you is that when we sanctify the Lord in our hearts, we're talking about there is a difference between the person that is saved and between the person that is lost. Amen? Now, notice with me as we turn back to 1 Peter. Now, let's deal with the subject of the heart just for a moment. In verse 15, he says, sanctify. that is reckoned to treat God as He is holy. And he says here, verse 15, "...sanctify the Lord in your hearts." Do you realize that the word heart is mentioned about 830 times in the Bible? And there's only a few times that it's referring to the physical organ that pumps blood. And we know that the heart of man, spiritually speaking, is talking about the inner man. Look in verse 4 of this same chapter. Notice back with me in verse 4. The word heart comes near to any other word in describing a person. Amen? We use the word all the time. And it makes you what you are and causes you to do what you do. It's the heart. It makes us what we are, and it causes us to do what we do. The Bible speaks of a depraved heart, a converted heart. The Bible talks about the heart many times. In Proverbs 4, verse 23, it says, "...keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Everything about life comes from within. Proverbs 23 and verse 7, for as a man thinketh in his heart, what? So is he. Proverbs 3, verses 5, 6 and 7, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy understanding. God speaks of the heart over and over and over again. Genesis chapter 6, 5, Genesis 8, 21 talks about the depravity and the wickedness of the heart. The Bible said in Matthew 12, 34 and 35 that the tongue is the index of a heart. What is in the heart eventually comes out the mouth. So, I mean, God has a lot to say about the heart. There is the uncircumcised heart in the Old Testament. I mean, even with the nation of Israel back there. Romans 10 and 9 can't be saved without heart salvation. "...that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart." that God has raised Him from the dead. Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27, God says, I'm going to give you a new heart. That has to do with the new birth and conversion. Now notice carefully as we come here, reading in verse 4, He said, speaking to the wise, He said, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. So we're talking about that which is inside. The real you has to do with your heart, and what you do in life comes from what is within you from within our heart. Now, notice in verse 15, he says, Sanctify the Lord in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you for a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, let's come to our third point, and I'm just going to call this some final thoughts. with this chapter. And I want you to see as we go back, and I'm going to read verse 14, verse 15, and in verse 16, I want you to see that to sanctify the Lord in the heart, that it brings peace. It brings happiness, as we just see that word in verse 14. It brings fearlessness. Did you get that? I'm going to show you that in just a moment. It brings preparation. Notice, it prepares our heart to be able to speak to others. It brings gentleness and it also brings reverence. Now notice, what do I mean by that? I'm saying to you that a heart for God is blessed and it brings blessings. He said in verse 14, let's read these again. In verse 14, "...but, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye." How many really believe that? We don't really believe that, do we? The word happy has the ideal of blessing. Did we not read in Luke 6 a moment ago where he said, when you're persecuted, he said, not only rejoice, what was the other thing? He said what? Leap with joy. How many of us do that? Now you think about it. He said leap with joy. He's not talking about being a martyr on purpose. But he is talking about that when these things come our way, don't count them as some strange thing, as in 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. In other words, don't count them as something that's foreign or from outer space or outside the will of God. He says count them as things that are in the perfect will of God. So those who encounter persecution, he's saying this is the will of God and you're going to be blessed for this. See, that's what he's getting at. Would it be verbal persecution? physical persecution. Now, notice this. He said here in verse 14, notice this, But if ye suffer for righteous sake, happy are ye. You ought to underline that. Highlight that. Happy are ye. Do we believe that? And he said, And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Now, this letter is written to encourage Christians are going through trials and tribulations. And there's trials and tribulations in our time. Maybe not on the same level as what Nero was doing here. But there's trials and tribulations. And he said, first of all, I want you to be happy. He's saying, be blessed, rejoice in this. This is a happiness, by the way, that's not based on circumstances. Amen? Because this man that writes this letter is facing martyrdom. It's prophesied. How would you like to have that written down in Scripture? Couldn't get out of that. The Lord said, here's what's going to happen to you, Peter, in the book of John. He said, here's what's going to happen to you. I mean, that's written down. And here's a man that's facing that, and he's saying in these passages, he said, hey, happy are you? And he says, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. That's what he's saying. When I think about this, the Lord Jesus, the night before He died in John 14, verse 1, He told the disciples, He said, let your hearts be not troubled. In Daniel chapter 3 and verse 16 and verse 17, the three Hebrew children, when they were told to bow before idols, they said, we'll not do it. And they said, God is able to save us and deliver us, but if He doesn't, this is where we stand. So their victory was going you know, into the fire. Daniel himself. When the laws were passed, Daniel kept praying in Daniel 6, verse 10 and 11. But what about Moses? Coming back to him again. A good sign. In Hebrews 11, verse 23, verse 27, we find that Moses, the Bible says his parents were not afraid of the king. And the Bible says that Moses was not afraid of the king. In other words, Moses was willing to follow God, and it says he was not afraid. Now, was he done what God told him to do because he could see the invisible God? So he's saying here that happy argue in verse 14, and he says, and be not afraid, because these things are going to come. Now, verse 15. Sanctify the Lord in your hearts and be ready to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you." This is a defense of one's belief and one's faith. This does not mean that you have to be able to quote and know every detail of everything in the Bible. As a matter of fact, I believe part of this defense is in your life anyway. And then the other part of it is in your words. We find all through the Bible that this is true. In Colossians chapter 4, verse 6, we have these words. This lets your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. In Acts chapter 4, when the accusations came against the disciples, they gave their defense. I believe it's the Apostle Paul in Acts 22 and verse 1. He said, here's my defense. That is what he believed. In other words, he's built upon a solid foundation. And he's going to give a defense. The word answer here has the ideal of a defense of one's belief in the eyes of the persecutor. Those that are persecuting and slandering and opposing those who believe, they're eventually going to need some answers. Whenever you are happy and when you are not afraid, alright? And I'm talking about not just physical abuse, but I'm talking about verbal and accusation. Look in verse 16. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, you will be spoken of as evil. There will be those that will speak evil of you, call you evildoers. This will happen. And so when you can be happy and be not afraid, and the reason you are happy, you're blessed, and the reason you're not afraid is because you did sanctify the Lord in your heart. You see, that's the key right there. Not only are we commanded to do it, but once we sanctify the Lord in our hearts, then we will have peace. We will be fearless. We will not be afraid of what men can do to us. You see, that's the reason I'm coming back to these verses again and pointing them out. Sanctify the Lord in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Can you imagine? I think about when Saul, when Saul was persecuting. You remember when they killed Stephen? Can you imagine Saul standing there and watching the boldness in Stephen as they stoned him? And Stephen standing there as Jesus praying for his persecutors? Don't you know that worked him over? Don't you know the Holy Ghost worked him over until that day he met Jesus on the road to Damascus there in Acts chapter 9? Something like that is not going to leave your heart and mind. You are just leading a group of people to put a man to death and he's praying for you. He's looking up into heaven and praying for you and asking God to forgive. You can't forget that. It's like the folks around the cross. You can't forget those things. And those people are eventually going to need an answer. Why? Why are you calm? Why do you have peace in your heart? Why are you not afraid of the things that the people in this world are afraid of? Why? You see, we ought to be able to stand and not be afraid of which way the economy is going. We ought to be able to stand and not be afraid of the accusations and what may come our way. We ought to be able to stand and not be afraid of the things that are coming our way. to be able to stand with this boldness and this peace and this joy. And there are going to be people that are going to need answers. How can you be this way? And he says, be ready to give an answer. In other words, give a defense of the hope that is within us. Notice he uses that word, the hope that is in you. You know, I think about this and I think about Acts 16.25 where Paul and Silas, when they're thrown in prison, they've been beaten. You know what they did? Did they murmur and complain? No. Did they get on the phone and dial 911? No. I mean, what did they do? Did they say, we're going to protest in the streets when we get out of here? No. They began singing and they began praying. They began rejoicing in the Lord and the Lord came to their defense. The Lord was their sanctuary. Why was the Lord their sanctuary? Because they had already, listen, they had already sanctified the Lord in their hearts. They gave the Lord a place in their heart, and so the Lord gave them a place in His kingdom, and He gave them a place of safety and security. Now, look at this again. He says, the latter part of this verse, verse 15, He said, and He talks about the hope that is in you. Notice, and you're to give this answer, first of all, with meekness. That is to be gentle and mild and humble. And then He says, and with fear. Psalms 86.11 if you're taking notes. You know why he says with meekness and fear? We're to always remember when we're talking about the Word of God that we're talking about holy things. We're not talking about the newspaper. We're not talking about a secular book. We're talking about holy things. So this is to be done with reverence. Amen? Anytime we approach anyone with the Word of God, it's to be done meekness, that is with gentleness and mildness, and it is be done with fear. Do you realize in the Bible that fear is the mark of God's people? I'm talking about a healthy fear, a fear of God. The majority in the world today have no fear of God. They have no fear. Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27 are part of the new covenant that God would put His Spirit within them, give them a new heart. There would be a holy, reverence and a holy fear for God. In Psalms 103, verses 11-17, those who fear God are called God's people. In Romans 3.18, the lost ignore God's fear. You know, I see people do things in the world today I'd be afraid to do because they're sinning against a holy and a righteous God. Now, he says here in verse 16, he said in verse 16, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. So we are to be void of offense. Verse 17, For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing." Now notice in verse 18, "...for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, that just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." The only reason I read verse 18 is that we are to bear our suffering for the kingdom's sake as Christ bears His. And I'm simply saying to you this morning that when we sanctify the Lord in our hearts, then the Lord will become a sanctuary that is a place of safety and a place of refuge for us. And we will have peace. We will have true biblical happiness, not based upon happenings and circumstances. We will be fearless. We will be prepared to give an answer when need be. We will be gentle and we will have a reverence toward God and as we speak His words. One last passage, Revelation 3. Revelation 3, notice here. Now let me say this to you in closing. Those who refuse to do this, will be critical of those who try to do this. Can I get an Amen? Those who refuse to sanctify the Lord in their hearts, I'm including those who profess Christ, they will be critical of those who try and desire and hunger for to sanctify the Lord in their hearts. I'll give you an example. Take an undisciplined man or a slawful man. Someone who refuses to just be responsible in life. Maybe he's lazy, he's lawful, he's undisciplined or whatever. You know what he'll do? He'll always be offended. He'll always be critical. He'll always be trying to defend himself. Can I get an amen? In other words, a man that's not doing what he's supposed to be doing, just in life in general, And he knows that, then he'll always be offended and trying to defend himself. In the same way, those who refuse to sanctify the Lord in their hearts will always be looking for faults in other people. They'll always want to be critical. Let's say there are those in this sanctuary here, this congregation, you desire to walk before the Lord. You desire to sanctify Him in your hearts. Those who don't want to will find ways to criticize you. Now, notice as we come to a close, I'm going to be reading one verse in Revelation 3. This is written to the church of Laodicea. And let me just remind you, whatever you think of Laodicea, it is written to a church. It is written to a church. It's written to the people of God. Okay, so I want to remind you of that. We use verse 20 as a verse to invite people to salvation, and that's fine. But this invitation is to the church. It's to the church. Notice carefully as we come here in our last verse and close. He said in verse 20, now this is after telling the church that they need help. This is after telling the church that they need to buy of the Lord, in verse 18, gold tried in the fire. That they need white raiment. They needed to be clothed and the shame of their nakedness would not appear. They need to anoint their eyes. Then he said in verse 20, and I want you to think about this verse as well, He said, Behold, I stand at the door. Talking to the church. Now, if you're lost this morning, He's talking to you too. But He's talking to Christians as well. He said, Behold. You know what that means in the Greek? Behold means looky here. Fix your eyes upon that. He said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if any man hear my voice and open the door..." Now look at this, he said, "...I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me." A lost man or a lost woman, a lost boy or girl could take that verse and say, Lord, I want to be saved. I want to be born again. And yes, that verse can be used. But that verse can also be used as a believer. You can take that verse and fix their eyes upon the Lord and have communion with the Lord and open the door of their hearts and invite the Lord. As we've been talking about, sanctify the Lord in our hearts. You know, you've heard me tell this story probably eight or ten times in the last fifteen years, I went, and forgive me if I repeat myself too much, but I went to a little state park several years ago. It's since we've lived here. We've been here 22 years, so it's been probably 15 years plus. And it's up near Birmingham. It's called Tanny Hill. I love that little state park. It's at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It makes me feel like I'm at home. And I went up, and my wife and daughter, I went up for a couple of days, and they come up and we spent another two or three days together. But I went up for two or three days by myself to pray and to fast and seek the Lord on some things. And I would leave I would leave the camper and start into the woods, and somebody had carved this verse out on a stump. It was a stump, the tree had been cut off, and this verse was carved out. And right as the path where I would start into the woods to climb this, I call it a mountain, but I guess it was a huge hill, whatever it was. And that verse is there. And I would stop and sit down for about 20 minutes and just look at that verse and analyze it and think about it. And then I'd go on up and spend about three or four hours with the Lord up on top of that mountain. And that was so meaningful to me. I believe that God put that there for me. I was going there to seek the Lord. I was going there to pray. And I believe God had somebody to go out there and write that in that tree for me. And so that I would just stop and have to meditate on that verse. But let me say to you, saints, as I've meditated upon 1 Peter 3.15 this week and this verse as well, let's sanctify the Lord in our hearts. Let no rival come into our hearts. Let's treat Him as God. Let's treat Him as He is very holy because He is a holy and righteous God. Even when we speak of Him to others, let's speak in a manner that they know that God is holy. When others look at our lives, that they can see that we have sanctified the Lord in our hearts. Let's come and pray this morning as we close. Dear Lord, we thank You this morning for loving us. Dear God, we thank You for the Scriptures. We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank You this morning for the sweet Holy Spirit. Lord, I just pray that each one in this assembly, as Lord, is thinking along the lines that I am. And Lord, we do desire to sanctify You in our hearts. And Lord, we just pray this morning Lord, You help us to do that. We pray, Lord, that You fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray that our lives would reflect Your holiness and Your truth. We thank You for the blood that Jesus Christ shed at Calvary's cross, the salvation that is a free gift. We thank You for that. And Lord, out of our reasonable service, Lord, that we may sanctify You in our hearts. Lord, help us to do that. Help us to understand it. God, we thank You for this day. We thank You for this time and this privilege that You've given us to assemble together once again for it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray.