This is the Sunday evening service at 4th Presbyterian Church in Bethesda for March 22nd, 1987. The night Dr. Narcissirman is entitled Living for Christ, and the scripture reference can be found in 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 13 through 22. There's some to God's word as we continue to study it here in 1 Peter and the 3rd chapter, and we read from verse 10 to verse 18.
Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, who is going to harm you if you're eager to do good, but even if you should suffer for what is right, you're blessed. Do not fear what they fear, do not be frightened, but in your heart set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping it clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their sunder. It is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil, for Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made your life by the spirit. Amen. There are two things that I want to say in preface to this address and sermon this evening. The first is that we are going to a close and first Peter chapter three and there is an almost universal sigh of relief I hear from people who think, well, this is the 21st sermon so far on first Peter. We could do with a little rest. Well, we will go down to the end of chapter three before Easter and we will then start Joseph after Easter. You will be relieved to know and it is not that we will abandon chapters four and five, but we will return to them at some future date. The reality is that probably most people get a little weary at the end of some 25 sermons all on first Peter, so we will we will vary it. The second thing that we say is that we will complete our study of this third chapter and deal with that most difficult of passages. I know that there are those who have anxiously awaited enduring all the remainder of the sermons to get to first Peter chapter three and finding out who the spirits in prison were and what was preached to them who waited patiently in the days of Noah. We will come to it not next week but the week after. By then, perhaps we will have answers to those questions. But we continue this evening to look at that which his guards weren't for us because here the Lord has revealed himself through Peter and the subject that he deals with in these verses is one that all of us here. For what the Savior has taught to his disciple and what Peter now teaches to the church that waits upon him is the manner with which you endure the difficult days and the hard times. For this church is known persecution, it's known the difficulty of facing the onslaught of the enemy. And Peter is determined to provide this company of men and women with the capacity to stand when things are hard and rough and difficult. And the same principles and the same message echoes down those 20 centuries as this mighty apostle Peter speaks to your heart and he speaks to mine. And Peter begins by making certain assertions here in these verses and he begins by saying that the Christian handles hard times and difficult circumstances in a way that is distinct from the world and that there is a Christian behaviour and a Christian life that is difficult and yet is distinct and different as we face the hard realities of hard times. And the scripture are united at this point the greater apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12 and in verses 10 and 17 and 19 through 20 adds to what Peter is saying here and makes clear to the Christian community that their response to difficult moments under hard times is a different one and is a witness in and of itself to the reality of the grace of God in our midst. Now the hard times are not experienced only by Christians but when Christians face the same difficulties that those in the world face their response is different and the way in which we face them is distinct because says the apostle Peter Christians are called to live in such a way and react in such a manner that they will bring glory to Jesus Christ and this is the principle by which we regulate our life that becomes the normative for all that we do that we should bring glory to Jesus Christ and this is what makes us different from the world. We face the same trials we face the same triumphs and reverses the difficulties that come to us and our emotions are battered in precisely the same way as everybody else and our hurts are the same are but our responses are not those that are conditioned by the natural life of the world but in any and every situation we seek sometimes with strength sometimes we feel that we seek to show for the glory of Jesus Christ and this begins to touch us at a place where the world is unable to understand who and what we are for the philosophies of the world and of our generation tell us that our first response is to be true to ourselves and we must be able to do this that and the next thing and we must be honest in showing our tears and our feelings and our hurts and our anguish and all those things are no they may be true there may be a great deal of wisdom in the things that we learn as to we displaying ourselves but our first calling above all else is not the indulgence of self it is the display of Jesus Christ so that his glory shines and that regulates us because it has sought some of the thinking that we have had and the things that we know and the apostle Peter goes on and he said as a consequence there are ways in which we respond that maybe some up as the positive and negative the do's and the do's there are some things that we don't do and there are some things that we do and in our world we are accused of illegalism illegalism that holds us bondage and captive because here we are people we say who are bound by regulations bound by the law no there isn't true when there are matters of morality we say that there are things that display the glory of God and there are things that attack the glory of God and we stand up and we dare to be accounted because we honestly adhere to the things that bring honor to Christ and we attack those things that do not bring honor to him not because we are bound by a legalism but because there are things that resound to his glory and things that detract from him and we don't follow rules simply because rules are there we don't obey the 10 commandments simply because the 10 commandments are there we obey them because we honor the Lord who gave them in Sir doing oh all the world ought to obey them they should be regulative to the society in which we live our but we as believers obey them because we honor God and make known Christ and if that is the first purpose of our life we are not in some new and enslaving legalism we seek obedience to his world and we begin to ask ourselves the question how is it that we are able to do this how do we show forth the glory of God how do we in the circumstances of our life make known that that Jesus is displayed by our responses I think there are two things that this passage of scripture teaches us about that the first of them is this how do we do it we become convinced of our vocation it's very simple what is our vocation it is that we should show forth that we are called by God knowing that he are there unto call says the Apostle Peter our vocation is to live for Christ but for us not for joy and prosperity and happiness and all the things that we accumulate as part of our life and our desire we don't live for those things that we sometimes think that we do we live for Christ this is our vocation this is the high calling that God has given to you and to me and it doesn't matter whether you're ten years old or whether you're ninety nine years old the calling is the same to live for Jesus Christ and to show forth his glory to the world this is your calling some of you may think that you're called to be doctors and electricians and nurses and this is and that's and some of us may think that we're called to be elders ruling and teaching our deacons serving or any of those things are we're all called in the secondary sense to those things we are first of us all of us call to show forth his glory and to live for Jesus Christ and if you don't know that that's your calling if you don't know with a certainty that that is a part of you that your vocation is to live for God and the rest of your life is spending working out how you might live for him you've got it wrong because here is the dignity then given to our work and our labourers he enables us to live for his glory and it makes the reality that one profession is no better than another oh we tend to think that they are you know we tend to think that there are heights and debts of profession and but if we reach this high goal of being the president of Exxon there is some sense of success in being different from being one who has raised a family at home a mother of children who's never done anything else except that and yet we praise God for that high calling for here is the vocation it's to show forth Jesus Christ where you are and what you do is simply the means by which you show him and his reality and so it robs us of all this worldly and earthly prestige of thinking one is a president and one is a vice president and one is simply the clerk that keeps the book straight there are none of those things when the Christian vocation is this it is to show Jesus wherever and however you can in your life that's what you live for that's what you spend your time doing well what is involved in that well in this passage the apostle Peter tells us that we do it first of all by knowing that we are called by God the summons of God to you and to me when we begin Christians is not simply to escape hell it's to live for him it's not just a negative avoidance of flames and sulfur and all those and possibly horrible things in hell it is that we should inherit eternal life for we have moved from life to death notice the things that Paul talks about we are not self-made we are called by God and to the fellowship of the sun into the peace we've got and to the liberty of the spirit what are we called to these are all positive things that are part of the calling of God that you and I have a fellowship with Jesus Christ so that he becomes real and that we know him do you know him do you know him with an intimacy that every day you get up and you want to speak to this sin son of God that he might address your soul do you know the peace that he brings that amidst all the trials of the world that seem to batter at you and all the problems that seem to come across your desk or knock at your door so much so that you want to pull all the clothes on the bed over your head some mornings and think I'll skip it today you've had those feelings we all have but you know the peace that takes you through that's what it is to know that your vocation is means that you are called by God that's what it is to have a specifically Christian calling Peter goes on and he gives examples so that we will be able to learn to glorify the name of Jesus Christ let me take a little digression here short age aggression because there is something very important that the apostle Peter tells us he is teaching us in the specific example of what it is to stand for Christ at a place where we are being reviled by the world and the names of scorn being heaped upon us and this the most difficult of all circumstances to deal with Christians are one that they will face this the abuse of the world and the scripture is full of it because the world is under the control of the evil one that will always attack the name of Jesus Christ able was hated by came and as a result the first murder is recorded because there was an assault or reviling against the name and the mark of God in able such that came rose up and he hated it and he killed even his brother Joseph was resented by his brothers to such an extent that they contrived to sell him as a slave into the service of the Pharaoh of Egypt David was persecuted by Paul and driven into exile because he was a man in whom we are told the Lord delighted Jesus himself was warning his people not if men will persecute you and revive you but when the world will persecute and revive you will have yourself assaulted it is a foregone conclusion that you'll be scorned and we begin to ask ourselves as our light flickered as our salt lost its ability to be salty in the world because the opposition seems to bear us down we can stand only when we are known as those who are called by God first and foremost in every situation not to give into who we are and to our first feelings and our thoughts but that the name of Jesus Christ should be on us and there are circumstances in school and in home where we have to ask ourselves is the response that we make such that honors Christ
and that's hard for us because we want to be true to ourselves and to display all the things that our efforts are but do we honor Christ says Peter to this church struggling amidst this terrible Roman society that is persecuting it your first call is to show Jesus Christ in your life and through your life not simply to have your own way but to show him and then says the apostle there is a second thing that we learned and it's this it is that in showing Jesus Christ to the world we inherit a blessing there are three things that I want very quickly and briefly to point out to you from this passage about the fact that we inherit a blessing from Jesus Christ the first thing is this that as Christians it is part of our inheritance indeed to gain this blessing God wants to have it it is promised to us that if we were lift up the name of Jesus Christ we will be blessed and so there is an inheritance that when we do it but when we stand for him even though it's hard we will be blessed God's purpose is to bless us and not to curse us and not to see us left without his presence and his power so that becomes part of our life assurance that God has purposed to bless us if we will honor the Lord Jesus Christ but the second thing is this as the apostle Peter makes clear in these verses that it needs to be the desire of the Christian to be blessed do you put yourself where God will bless you do you sit out the blessing of God do you go after it where you know it is because this is what he has asked of us in order that says the apostle what one of the aims of our life is that we want to be blessed one of the motivations for our Christian living is that we should know the blessing of God one of my friends a strong Baptist in Britain used to tell me that he could even become a Presbyterian if he thought God would ever bless the Presbyterians he never did give up being a Baptist but at least there was hope for him at that point but his chief desire was the blessing of God not the name of a denomination his chief desire was to know the blessing of God and my friends that's what you and I have to have it's not the God will simply meet every need that we have but that we want this one thing that he will bless us do you go where his blessing is where the anointing of his spirit where the outpouring of his love where the mark of his graces do you put yourself there or do you say that's for somebody else do you prepare yourself to receive that blessing do you say I would have my heart open that God might pour it in because that's what you're called to be and to do oh we want blessing then put yourself where God is blessing seek it out open your hearts to it Peter quotes from the 34th Psalm as he speaks here and as we read together and the purpose of the Psalmist in Psalm 34 was to speak of the deliverance of the Lord and to urge those who listened that they too might taste of the goodness of God answers the apostle as a consequence you are careful to stand apart from where God will not bless you you remember Psalm 2 the tells of the place of the sinner who stands first in this place as scoffers and sits with those who revile and then as a third part of his own life begins to revile with those who revile the name of God here is the progression downwards we stand and we listen and then we begin to sit and inhabit and then we join with the society that wants to turn down the values of God my friend we are distinct from that that's the negative side we say are we are not like that we are rather like a tree that is planted by the river and water that brings forth fruit in each season and it root also will not wither cries that Psalmist I don't sit with a scoffer sits don't stand in this place of a scornful and do those things because ultimately you will join with them and your advice and your word will be united with the that is part of no part of that don't place yourself where God isn't going to bless you brother go where he is put yourself where he will bless you not where he want oh there are people who say how you know I can take the name of Jesus with me I can go anywhere and God will bless me oh it's possible but if you seek out the merkeous places to pay and test that you can be sure you go there on your own because all too often we search that out in our own strength I've told you before of the discovery of diaries of a great and famous British Prime Minister it has convinced me forever that I will never keep a written diary ever because this great man was Prime Minister for all ever so many years of the turn of the century his name was William Gladstone some of you may have heard of him in passing he was a great Prime Minister at the height of the British Empire and a great evangelical believer who would go out at night seeking the lost woman the prostitutes on the streets of London and take them home to the Prime Minister's residence and then tell them of the name of Jesus Christ and everybody said this man was gracious he goes where the poor and the common of the hurting and the broken are and then you open your diaries and you see this man was hurting so badly he didn't know what motive it was but drove him to do these things he put himself in the way of temptation deliberately and fell many times God didn't bless that you don't go where you're weakest you don't put yourself where you're must to be tempted you don't search out the place of your own weakness and inhabit it you go where God will bless you and you'll strengthen you and yet you know there's something very human about us it's almost like a boom around we want to go back to the place of our weakest failure and try again and yet there are times when that won't work for us and we know only defeat don't do that go where God will bless you not where you have faced the defeat of the past he will bring you the victory in his own good time well the last thing that we read and that we learn in this passage concerns the very nature of the blessing what is it abundance no prosperity no none of these things it is the presence of the living God that he will abide with you forever and his peace will sustain you and his grace of all of you that's the promise of God that he will never leave you no forsaken that's blessing go where that is go where there is presences and where it is to be found strongly go where his pieces and where it may be inhabited abide in that let him abide in you let's pray heavenly Father we thank you that you are the living Lord we thank you that your grace is upon us and your peace sufficient to sustain us bless us now we pray you as before you humbly we come seeking to make known our petitions our prayers and our praises in Jesus name