Good morning. If you would stand on your feet, turning your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter three. 1 Peter chapter three. Four verses, 13, 14, 15, five verses, 16, 17. And I would ask my dear friend, Cal, if you would read those verses to us, please. 1 Peter 3, verses 13 through 17. Hear the word of the Lord. Chapter 13, I mean, verse 13. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. And keep a good conscience, though, that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you did not leave us to wander aimlessly through this life, struggling to do the best that we know how to do based upon our own interpretation, our own ways, our own wisdom, our own knowledge. But Lord, you gave us your holy word and you visited us, oh God, with truth, divine truth, inerrant truth, perfect truth, that we may adjust ourselves to fit with it. that we may be transformed because of it. Father, I pray that you will perform that miracle in our midst this morning, that we will be touched and that we will be moved to be transformed in your presence now. In Jesus Christ's most precious name, amen. You may be seated. To the glory of God. I'm always amazed when people ask me to come back. I'm not used to that. I thank you. You've been very kind to bear with my ranting. The church in Gulfport sends you greetings. They did not really wanna let me go. They're wondering if something is going on. And I said, no, it's just love. They just haven't heard me enough to know not to invite me back. but this is the continuation. I preached in 1 Peter for about 55 Sundays. This is number 36. The one I preached a month ago was number 35, so I'm not really covering the epistle very well in two sermons, but I'm gonna do my best to condense this down because this book, like the book of Job, is a book about why God lets people suffer, why God lets his own children suffer, why God doesn't stop the pain to those that he has chosen, to those that he has washed, to those that he has saved. So to a believer, the issue of suffering is one of the most confusing issues that we face. Why does God, who is both omnipotent and good, allow suffering to the people that he loves the most? Sometimes horrific suffering. Why does he allow his own children to hurt and to be persecuted and to endure agony? That's baffled many people throughout the centuries. It is the seminal issue with atheists. If God is good and God is all-powerful, then why is there evil? He must not either be good or he must not be all-powerful or God must not be. in order for there to be evil in the world. And many Christians shy away from this book and this subject because of this issue. Many people have abandoned Christianity because they can't handle the issue of God allowing good and holy people to die and be tortured and not be delivered. And I would suggest that if you're not able to handle the issue of suffering from a biblical standpoint, you may want to consider Hinduism or Buddhism or some other false religion because the Bible is filled with godly people suffering. The epistle of 1 Peter tells us why. And we may not like the answer, but it does answer the question. So when tragedy and sorrow and pain and trouble and sickness and persecution come in, many people think that God is angry with them and that they've somehow failed God and that they're never really sure why. They never really know why God's mad at them. They just know that obviously they've done something wrong and they've let God down. And there is this mystery that surrounds the issue of suffering that gives rise to so much bad teaching and false teaching about why God allows or even causes suffering to come into the lives of his own children. When you combine that with the reality that far too many people of the modern church don't know the Bible very well, they don't study the Bible very well, then you can understand this great confusion that seems to be permeating in our culture. Now, I will agree with you that not all suffering is the same. Having the battery in your car die might be construed as suffering in some minds, but it's really not the same thing as having your child murdered. Not getting a promotion on the job may hurt, but I would suggest that being beaten for your faith hurts even more. Getting the flu is not on par with having all of your worldly possessions confiscated and your family driven from their homes. But hurting is hurting and we really shouldn't spend too much time comparing the level or the intensity of our own individual suffering. Suffice it to say that human beings on this earth go through very hard and difficult times. And many of those difficulties are what we would call unfair. And some would be classified as deadly. But it isn't as though God has not addressed this subject clearly, repeatedly. So even though many people either don't know or they don't like what God has spoken infallibly about the issue of suffering, we must agree that God has not been silent. God has been faithful to give us not merely a few vague passages, but entire books like the book of Job and 1 Peter that were written specifically to answer the question, if I am saved and I am loved by God, then why does he allow me to hurt so badly? Why doesn't God stop it? Why doesn't God just make it to where it isn't so hard? So as we examine this passage in 1 Peter this morning, I want us to remember that the immediate audience to whom this apostle is writing are suffering terrible things at that very moment that Peter wrote this. These people were not sitting in church on Sunday morning listening to a sermon. They have been driven from their homes. They have had all of their worldly possessions stolen from them. They have, in every respect, become scattered aliens, he called them in chapter one. And according to history, Roman history, not Jewish history, but Roman history, the Roman legions of Nero had grabbed the little babies by their ankles and smashed their heads against tree trunks, calling upon the Christian parents to recant so they could stop the slaughter. And yet the apostle was moved along by God the Holy Spirit to instruct these suffering saints on how to suffer correctly, how to suffer well, how to suffer to the glory of God. Now many people in our day get into a real bad place with God because they view suffering to not be equitable. Many who suffer would feel a little bit better if at least they didn't have to look at all the other people out there that don't seem to be suffering at all. But especially when times are dark, it seems that those who suffer can name specific people who seem to be just waltzing through life with little or no care. And it is this inherent inequality of who suffers and how much that causes all sorts of other problems like bitterness and jealousy and the desire for vengeance. Maybe these things have visited you in your home. In fact, this problem is so common that God addressed it several times in his word. For example, turn with me to Psalm 37, if you would, and read what God the Holy Spirit moved along King David to write down about a thousand years before Peter wrote this. King David wrote, do not fret because of evildoers, do not be envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him and he will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It leads only to evildoing. for evildoers will be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land, yet a little while, and the wicked man will be no more. And you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees his day coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart. Their bows will be broken. Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless. and their inheritance will be forever. They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish, and the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures. They vanish like smoke, they vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives. For those blessed by him will inherit the land, but those cursed by him will be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord and he delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the one who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends and his descendants are a blessing. Depart from evil and do good so you will abide forever for the Lord loves justice. and does not forsake his godly ones. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged. Wait for the Lord. Keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil, that he passed away, and lo, he was no more. I sought for him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright. For the man of peace will have posterity, but transgressors will be altogether destroyed. "'The posterity of the wicked will be cut off, "'but the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. "'He is their strength in time of trouble. "'The Lord helps them and delivers them. "'He delivers them from the wicked and saves them "'because they take refuge in Him.'" And they read this for a thousand years, and they said, this is wonderful. Then why are we hurting so bad? Where is God? Where is this promise? It looks like we're going downhill. It looks like we're losing. Now we must realize that our sinful nature doesn't need any help responding to offense. The arsenal of flesh is well supplied with counterattacks like bitterness and despair, biting anger, self-pity, and resentment. And we all have a special gift at becoming very creative in responses to the affronts and the insults that are hurled at us by other people. All the while we can usually justify ourselves as to why we do it. But what the flesh cannot do in response to being attacked is to bless the attacker. The flesh cannot trade goodness for evil. It cannot elicit love for persecution. And yet that is exactly what the Apostle Peter commands from us in this passage. Read it again with me, 1 Peter chapter three, look at verses eight through 12. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. For you will call for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For the one who desires life to love and to see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. You see, when the gospel collides with sinful hearts, Peter assures us that some believers will respond with things like reviling and hateful words and hateful deeds. And nobody has to teach us how to do this. We don't act this way because we're trained to act this way or even told to act this way, but because acting this way is in us. to begin with, it is part of what being fallen means. Us responding to somebody reviling us, especially to our face, by reviling back at them doesn't take a knowledge of God's word or membership in a church or an infilling of the Holy Spirit or a new nature. It doesn't take any strength or courage to act like that. Any old sinner who knows nothing of God or nothing of God's Word can act like that and they do. But how should we respond when we are reviled so that Christ looks magnificent? by doing what no lost person can do, by acting in a way that proves that we are filled, that proves that we have been forgiven, that proves that we are members of Christ's body, and that proves that we really believe that the Bible is true, and proves that we really believe that our treasure is in heaven and not on this earth. The Apostle Peter was moved along by God the Holy Spirit to tell us that the Christian's response to reviling is fearless resilience and untouchable settledness in the soul that comes from a very strange command that Peter gives us in 1 Peter 3 verse 15. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. And I would suggest that it's different when we do that in church on Sunday morning or even in Bible study or even when we're fellowshipping together. But when you are, when the government comes to your door and confiscates your business illegally and takes your bank account and drives you from your land and you are in every sense a refugee because you are a Christian, Peter tells them at that time, Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. We all see refugees in the evening news. We see the camps, we see the Red Cross, we see the armies surrounding them and the fences they put up and they have the medical tents where they do medical surgery and they have the water and the food and the clothing and they have these long lines of these pitiful people that have lost everything standing in line. When is the last time you heard of anybody walking through a refugee camp telling people, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts? Peter did. So in 1 Peter 3 verse 14, the apostle teaches that genuine believers do not fear those who attack us. He said this, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. What is he talking about? That's all we are. I mean, we don't even like to get a letter from the IRS, right? Armies come to your door to take you away. That's what happened to these people. And Peter says, don't fear them, fear the Lord. We are told to fear God who is able to trace the contours of our deepest hope in Christ-like gentleness and reverence. And this is why Peter says, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. And that means that Christians are not desperate to defend themselves. Now you stop and think the last time you were persecuted, especially to your face. I've been shot at. I've had beer bottles broken and the glass stuck to my neck. I've been thrown out of homes. I've been physically beat up. I've been attacked. And the first thing that popped into my mind was not about being gentle or reverent. I wanted to lay hands on them in the Old Testament way. to stop them primarily, right? And yet Peter says, always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence. When? In Bible study? No, when they're persecuting you. With every waking moment, true Christians stand ready to exalt the glory of God. And this is simply not a response that the world expects. And so in their shame for having brought about our persecution, it may be that some of them will come to see the glory that we enjoy and share in the blessing for which we hope. Look at verse 16. And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. So the way I respond to unfair treatment at the hands of a government with arms and guns and tanks, the way I respond to them is what Peter is talking about there. Because the Christian has to ask himself this question, how did they have the power to lay their hand upon me? My father who loves me, who controls the universe has allowed this. We must realize that the Christian's hope is a steel taproot in the soul, and the Bible teaches that suffering actually produces this kind of hope. Read what the Apostle Paul was moved along in Romans 8 with me. Turn to Romans 8, 19 through 25. I wanna show you, I want your eyes to see this so you don't think I'm trying to create some weird doctrine in your mind. Romans 8, verse 19 through 25. Romans chapter 8 verse 19 through 25, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Now, some hardships are simply embedded into the crust of life in a fallen world. These are what theologians call common sufferings that are shared by all of mankind, whether they're lost or saved, like sickness and disappointments and personal cruelties and death, which drives all of us to the only anchor who is strong enough to hold us. But beyond those common types of suffering, genuine Christians often face very peculiar hardships. and difficulties that are caused by the very hope that we cling to. The lost pagan world rewards hope in Christ with persecutions and insults and reviling and resentment and dismissal and sometimes even martyrdom. Nevertheless, through the Christian's hope may itself be the very cause of our hardships, this does not bring the root to disgrace. It actually proves the strength of God in our lives. The glorious spectacle, hope, that sustains us through any trial looks very peculiar to a world filled with ideas and beliefs that simply cannot withstand even the everyday trials. And this is why Peter tells all believers always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. We must always be ready because the world requires an explanation for the spectacle of strong, solid, invincible Christian hope. Because the firmness of the Christian hope is not only the deepest comfort in our own trials, but it is also a powerful testimony to a world filled with weak and rotted roots. For example, when we pray the Lord's Prayer, the very first petition that we make is our Father who is in heaven, what's the next thing? Hallowed be your name, right? And this tells us that the very first priority in the heart of Jesus is the name or the reputation or the glory of his father. And by telling us not to pray like the heathens, by telling us not to use meaningless repetition in our prayers, and by instructing us to pray then in this way, Jesus made hallowing God's name to be the very first priority of his followers. So we pray first and foremost, Father, cause your name to be hallowed, cause your reputation to be sanctified, cause your glory to be known and understood and enjoyed in the church and all over the world. Work, Lord, with sovereign power to bring hearts to the place where they will hallow your name. That's how Jesus taught us to pray, right? And the word hallow that Jesus used in Matthew 6 is the very same Greek word that Peter used in verse 15 when he told us to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. So when the apostle instructs us to sanctify Jesus as Lord, he is actually telling us to hallow Christ as Lord in our hearts because Jesus is God with us. Jesus and the Father are one. They are of the same essence or the same substance. So hallowing the name of God the Father, as Matthew recorded, and sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts, as Peter wrote, is the same thing. But what exactly does it mean for Peter to tell us to hallow or sanctify Christ as Lord? It means to regard Jesus as the holiest being in the universe. It means to regard Jesus as unique and one of a kind without peer or rival in purity and rectitude and goodness. So we are told that when suffering comes to our door, we are not to merely hang on hoping that we will survive. The Bible doesn't teach that anywhere. The Bible says that at that very moment, we are to put Jesus in a category all by himself in our hearts. We are to regard Jesus as being in the highest place. We are to see Jesus as the greatest value, the most supreme treasure in the universe. We are to afford Jesus at the very hour of our suffering the greatest degree of admiration because he is the most cherished prize and the one you esteem and honor and love the most out of all the persons and all of the possessions in all of the world. And one of the ways the world can see that this is real in us is when they take all of our earthly possessions away from us and we're still praising the Lord with all of our hearts. And strangely, Peter gets very specific here. When suffering comes our way, we are to especially admire Jesus's Lordship. So when we are mistreated by evil men, we are told here to stand in awe of Jesus' absolute lordship over the entire universe, over the men who are imposing their will upon us at that moment, the men who are imprisoning us, the men who are stealing from us, the men who are beating us, and we too are to admire Jesus as Lord of the universe at that moment. That's what Peter taught in his epistle. Read the passage in its proper context with me. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good, Peter asks. What are you talking about, Peter? The only reason we're in this jam is because we were Christians. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're blessed. Well, I declare when I'm persecuted, I don't feel blessed. Do you? Nobody knows. Do you feel blessed when you're persecuted? It's not a trick question. No, okay, I just wonder if I was in the right church. Do not fear their intimidation, that's exactly what we do, we fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled. That's all we are doing, right? But what? Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence, and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you were slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Evidently, I don't know, I went to public school. Evidently, it's more important to God that some of these persecutors get saved than it is that you keep your stuff. Evidently. Clearly, Peter is not talking about how we should act in church on Sunday morning. Peter's talking about how we are to behave ourselves when unjust suffering comes our way. And at that moment, Peter says we are to bow before Jesus's sovereign rule, we are to tremble with joy and gladness at the majesty of the Lord, who said this in Isaiah 44, thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God beside me, who is like me, let him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let him recount it to me in order from the time that I established the ancient nation and let them declare them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God beside me or is there any rock that I know of? So hallowing or sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts is the kind of honoring that you give to a great and wonderful and righteous king. So Peter says when suffering comes, sanctify Christ as Lord as king. But what in the world does hallowing or sanctifying Christ as Lord have to do with other concerns like being zealous for doing what is good, suffering if necessary for righteousness sake, being fearless and gentle and reverent, and giving a defense of our hope. And the answer is found in verses 14 and 15. Do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. In other words, sanctifying Jesus as Lord in your heart in the moment of suffering is the alternative to fearing man. So Peter is saying don't fear man, sanctify Jesus. And that means that there is something about godly fearlessness before the threats of people that brings great honor to Jesus as Lord of the universe. Now why is that? Why and how does godly fearlessness sanctify Jesus Christ? And the answer is in verse 15. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. So Peter says, sanctify Jesus as Lord in your hearts. How? By being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Sanctify Christ in your hearts by giving a credible defense of your hope to the very people who are inflicting suffering upon you. But how is Christ sanctified or hallowed through a good defense of our hope? And the answer seems to be that Jesus is that hope. Jesus is the very ground of our hope. He is the ultimate goal of that hope. And so when our hope looks strong and real and powerful, especially when we suffer, our hope makes Jesus the ground and Jesus the goal look magnificent. So Jesus is hallowed and he is sanctified and he is honored when we show that our hope in him is absolutely unshakable, especially when we are hurting, especially when we suffer unjustly. Now, look, I realize that most people are gonna reject what I say out of hand, and they're gonna say, come on, Brother Blair, I don't wanna suffer like this in order to make Jesus look magnificent. I would just rather Jesus deliver me out of suffering, and then I can praise him for being strong like that, and I'm with you. I pray and hope that none of us will ever have to go through these kinds of trials. I pray that God will move and keep us safe and prosperous and healthy and happy and secure and that none of us will go through this. But Peter did. And the people that Peter Shepard did, And people all over the world right now, this morning, are going through this. And they love God as much or more than we do. and God has allowed us to be relatively safe and maybe we get talked about and that's about as bad as it gets in America and they get their farms taken from them and their children are taken from them and their wives are sold into slavery and their finances are confiscated and they are beaten and they love Jesus as much as we do. And these people love God, and they didn't wanna suffer like that either. But they did. And so God the Holy Spirit moved along a man who walked on water with Jesus to write this down. And it's now in the Bible. And it's in the Bible because if God chooses to glorify himself through our suffering, we will know how to behave in that hour. It is my personal opinion, and I hope I'm wrong, This reprieve, this 240 year reprieve, this oddity called liberty in the United States where we have basically been safe and secure as the church is about over. It's running its course and we're gonna now experience the same thing that Christians have experienced for 2,000 years in this country when it becomes against the law in the United States to be a practicing Christian. and then all the dead wood will leave the church. Won't that be great? And only the genuine believer will stay. Hallelujah, revival. And it gets about that quiet when I say things like that. But I want you to mark it in your hearts today that this has nothing to do with being brave or courageous. Psyching ourselves up so we can be tough doesn't bring glory to God. This has to do with average and ordinary people who have experienced the miracle of the new birth having a rock solid hope in the absolute sovereignty of God and whatever God causes or whatever God allows is working together with all the other things that God has either caused or allowed so that two things will always be true with us. That God will be glorified and our joy will be made full, hallelujah. and that includes our suffering. So Jesus Christ being hallowed or sanctified as Lord in our hearts as evil men are allowed by our good God to inflict horrific and unfair suffering upon us so that the very people who hurt us may see our great and unshakable hope and have a real and tangible demonstration that Jesus is better than anything that this world can give to us and he is better than anything this world can take away from us. Hallelujah. So when Peter says do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, the way this godly fearlessness sanctifies Christ as Lord is because godly fearlessness shows that our hope is unshakable. Fearlessness in the face of suffering is a clear testimony that our hope is real. And since Jesus is both the ground and the goal of our hope, this radical fearlessness honors him, it sanctifies him, it hallows him because it demonstrates the uniqueness of Jesus and the infinite value that Jesus is. So what we need to understand is that this entire passage is about unshakable hope and the way that this hope helps us to hallow or sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in our hearts. So the primary issue in what Peter says here is sanctifying or hallowing or honoring Jesus as Lord in our hearts and the secondary issue is the hope that Jesus's sovereign lordship gives to us with all of its effects that proves the supremacy of the infinite worth of Jesus to a lost and a dying world. So suffering like this with unshakable hope and through this hope sanctifying Jesus as the absolute Lord over the universe is really all about evangelism. Us demonstrating this godly fearlessness in the face of terrible suffering gives great credibility to the gospel that we preach. That is why Peter said we are to demonstrate this unshakable hope with gentleness and reverence. So more than being set free, more than having our pain and agony lifted, Christians pray for souls to be saved. So even as we are persecuted and reviled, we respond with both gentleness and reverence, knowing that if God had not had mercy on us, we very well might have been the ones inflicting the suffering on the Christians. Now look again at verse 16. And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. There are at least two different ways we can understand what Peter is saying here. One is negative and the other is positive. First, we are to maintain our trust and hope in God even when we are being slandered so that our hope and fearlessness may sanctify Jesus as Lord. But then also we are not to yield to the temptation to lose hope due to the enormity of our suffering and one feeds into the other. So not as we sit safely in church this morning, but at the very moment when our good behavior in Christ is being slandered, we do not respond to their attacks by using the carnal weapons of the lost world. When the Bible says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, I think he was speaking to modern 21st century Christians. Because I'm trying to find somewhere in the Bible that when Christians were slandered, they boycotted Roman stores. When they saw their culture being dismantled, that they wrote letters to the Roman emperor complaining. Or they engaged in boycotts or marches down Main Street. I'm trying to find that anywhere in the Bible. And I'm having a hard time, maybe you can help me. But I found them praying. And I found them going to these leaders and preaching the gospel to them. I did find that. The Bible teaches us that since God is absolutely sovereign over everything all the time, these people would not be able to slander us unless God had allowed it. And if our father who loves us has allowed evil men to slander our faith and hope and trust in God, then the promise of a God who cannot lie is that he is busy working this bad thing together with everything else that he has sovereignly allowed or caused. for the greater good of the glory of God and ultimately the fullness of our joy as well. And no, I'm not talking about being a conscientious objector. And no, I'm not talking about pacifism. Neither one of those are taught in the Bible either. And this is why I tell you that deep and profound truths that are hard to teach and hard to grasp, like the absolute sovereignty of God, are not issues that concern theologians. They are very common, very practical, very down to earth, very useful when the trials of life come our way and when suffering comes to our door. This amazing fearlessness in the face of certain punishment at the hands of evil men is not based in blind superstition or some ancient myth about some divine being. It is a rock solid hope in the integrity and veracity of sacred scripture and faith that when Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, he was not kidding. Hallelujah. So bear with me as I bring all of this together for you this morning. There's four, at least four main, I tried to condense it down. There's four main points about how our unshakable hope and sanctifying Jesus Christ as Lord comes together. Okay, number one, Christ is sanctified. In other words, he's valued as Lord by a fearless hope, a hope without fear. Number two, Christ is sanctified or valued as Lord by a well defended hope. Number three, Christ is sanctified or valued as Lord by a gentle or reverent hope. And number four, Christ is sanctified or valued as Lord by an active and zealous hope. In other words, the two cords that tie up the contents of this passage and hold them together is number one, the cord of Christ's infinite value, and number two, the cord of our hope in him. Now please don't miss the main point in all these details. The main point is that Jesus Christ is sanctified in our hearts when he is central in our hope. And those are just words until it becomes real in the face of suffering. And nothing illustrates that better than when God allows us to suffer. And so when we get up in the morning and we think, today the ultimate purpose of my life is to hallow the name of God, hallowed be your name, so the main reason I exist is to show the value of Jesus to others, especially when my faith and my hope in him are reviled. When you say that, will the next feeling that rises in your heart be one of a burden or one of relief? Does the destiny that we have to live for the hallowing of Christ's name in a hostile world feel like a terrible weight or is it wings? And this is the very core of what I consider to be biblical Christianity. This is the underlying purpose for all that God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit has done in our lives, to make our obedience to God a glad obedience. Not a fearful obedience, I talked about this last time, not a forced obedience, but a glad obedience. And I will tell you that if you don't get this, you have missed the main reason why God saved you in the first place. Now I realize that this flies in the face of a generation that has grown up on a me first diet with teachings that promote the inherent worth and value of man. But this is Bible and this is why it's so strange to the world. We must understand that there are many competing religions in the world today. But the one that promotes man at the expense of God is the main competitor with biblical Christianity here in America. Because biblical Christianity is always Christ-exalting at the expense of man, while the man-made religion, the feel-good crowd, is always self-exalting at the expense of Jesus Christ. And the feel-good pop-psychology religion of the false prophets of our day looks at what Peter says here as a terrible burden. But Peter saw it, and he personally experienced it, as relief and wings. The Christianity that Peter describes in this passage is very Christ-exalting and not self-exalting at all. It's very different, for example, from the writings of a woman named Virginia Satter. You may know her. She wrote an essay called My Declaration of Self-Esteem. And she says this, among other things, quote, I am me. In all the world there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone chose it. I own me and therefore I can engineer me. I am me and therefore I am okay." Unquote. Now the Apostle Peter says that the way to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord is to hope in him. So the exquisite beauty of biblical Christianity and what sets it apart from all the other man-made religions and human philosophies is that Christianity alone offers a savior whose glory and weightiness are demonstration and upheld by unworthy sinners trusting in it. We must always remember that biblical Christianity does not call us first to work for God, but to hope in God's work for us. And that hope is always first. And that hope is the main thing. Jesus Christ is hallowed in us when we hope in him. So when you wake up in the morning and remember that your destiny is to hallow the name of God, we must also remember that Jesus is hallowed first and mostly by our hoping in him rather than in our doing for him. He is hallowed first and foremost by our trusting him to help us with our day. He is hallowed first and most by our childlike confidence that he will keep his promises, that he's not a liar. The infinite value of Jesus Christ is exhibited first and most not by back-breaking toil, but by us trembling and putting all of our hope in him. So biblical Christianity is always first and most wings not weight. On the other hand, if I believed in that other religion of Virginia Satter, that I alone choose everything that comes out of me, that I can invent new things within me, that I own me and that I can engineer me, if I believed in that religion, I would go into total despair with the excruciating weight that that false teaching puts upon me to clear my own conscience, to forgive my own sin, to find my own meaning, to uphold my own cause, to carry my own burdens, to protect my own life, to overcome my own fears, to heal my own wounds, to secure my own future, and to comfort myself in my own death. What a crushing weight this false religion puts on the backs of those who are deceived by it. And the only redemption offered in this religion, the pitiful ceremony of standing in front of the damning mirror, trying to convince myself, you're okay, you're okay, you're okay. It's truly a very hard way to live. But it is even a harder way to die. So don't miss the main point. Biblical Christianity is a Christ exalting truth. And Jesus is exalted best by being trusted. He is hallowed in us primarily by our hoping in him. And that is very good news indeed. So what have we all learned from the Apostle Peter today? Four ways to understand this hope. Number one, we have learned that Jesus is sanctified or valued as Lord by a fearless hope. Peter said, do not fear their intimidation, do not be troubled. So we are told over and over and over again to put all of our hope in the promises of God, because this hope is the foundation of godly fearlessness, especially when we suffer. Number two, we have also learned that Jesus is sanctified or valued as Lord over all things by a well defended hope. The apostle Peter said, Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Jesus is not honored by a groundless hope. If someone says to me, why do you hope in Christ for forgiveness and for help and for eternal joy? And I answer back, well, I don't know. Not really any good reason. I just heard it in church and I grew up with it. Or, well, it seemed like a good gamble. Or everybody's got religion and I decided to choose Christianity. If I answer like that, then Jesus is not sanctified in my heart. He is not hallowed. He is not honored. In fact, answering one of life's most important questions like that proves to everybody who knows me that Jesus is the biggest fraud in the universe. And whoever trusts in him is an idiot. Christians say Jesus is our hope all the time. We say it, we sing it, we pray it, we teach it, it's on our bumper sticker, it's on our ball caps, but if we don't know why he is our hope, we are of all men most to be pitied. I tell you that Jesus is not honored by a groundless hope, but a well defended, well thought out hope. Number three, we also learn that Jesus is sanctified or valued as Lord by a gentle, and a reverent hope. Peter said, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. Now we've all noticed in politicians and in some preachers and teachers and maybe even in ourselves that sometimes the less sure you are of your point, then the more strident and loud you become in defending it. I was taught in college that if you have the law on your side, you argue the law. If you have the facts on your side, you argue the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, you pound the table and shout and call people names. So when people are shouting and calling you names, it's because they haven't thought out what they supposedly believe. And when you do that, that means you haven't thought out what you believe. The Bible tells us that frequently the prophets and Jesus himself lifted up their voices and cried out the truth with great conviction. So there is a blessed serenity that comes with a deep, well-grounded, and settled conviction. And it is that kind of hope that sanctifies Jesus as Lord in our hearts. There is a calmness and a tranquility that hallows the name of Jesus by demonstrating his great rock solid stability in our lives. Finally, number four, we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts by an active and a zealous hope. At the beginning and the ending of this passage, Peter calls us to be zealous for good deeds, even if it means suffering. 1 Peter 3.13, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? And 1 Peter 3.16, your good behavior in Christ. And then 1 Peter 3.17, for it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. Now you simply cannot read the Bible with any degree of honesty and come away with the notion that God wants any of us to ever be passive or inactive. Maximum joy is never obtained through laziness and empty days. When we bank our hope on Jesus and joyfully turn our future over to him, he doesn't go to work instead of us, he goes to work inside of us. Jesus does not give us freedom from good deeds, he gives us freedom in good deeds. So in the same way that he takes the sting out of death, so too he takes the futility out of our labor. He calls us in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast. immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. So our labor is never futile. The God of the universe stands behind it, and God is in our labor. He is over it, he inspires it, he sustains it, and he will reward it. Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light. Therefore, we are to be zealous for good deeds. We are to be actively engaged in doing good because that is the way we experience most of Christ's sufferings and find the most satisfaction in him. So an active and zealous hope proves the value of Jesus. Dear friends, the great central heartbeat of biblical Christianity is that Jesus Christ, the Savior and Lord is exalted and he is hallowed and he is sanctified by the happy hope that his people put in him. And he shines all the brighter when our hope is fearless and well defended and when it is gentle and active and when it is zealous for good deeds. And it is true that if you do this, you will incur more suffering in this world than if you do not do it. But if you do not do it, you will never know the value and the worth of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Oh God, have mercy upon us. Help us, God, to sanctify Jesus as Lord in our hearts. Help us not to fear what men may do to us. Help us not to be intimidated by what we see going on around us, but help us to sanctify the Lord as Christ is Lord in our hearts and let us always be ready to give an answer to the hope that lies within us with gentleness and reverence. In Jesus' name, amen.