Christ Sanctified as Lord in Our Hearts

Please turn with me to first Peter chapter 3. We do have a lot of ground to cover in a Brief amount of time because when you're the speaker right before lunch, you do not come on. Okay. Now I don't want anyone to hear the last few words that you say anyways, so I will not do that.

In fact, somebody told me a last night about a conference a few years ago where Kirk Cameron was speaking. He was the last speaker of the night. He was supposed to go 45 minutes. He went for two hours and.

And I just want I just want to Kirk if he's ever hears this character to realize no one heard the last 90 minutes. He's still talking. What's he talking about? I don't know. I can't hear over my stomach and it's.

Don't do that. Gotta be focused gotta be focused and that's what we will do here as an apologist as a person who gives a defense for the faith first Peter 315 is our verse. It is the the verse of Apologetics it is the verse that well, it's where the very term apologia comes from.

It's found there in in the fruit. Why am I still in Psalms over here? Oh, the Greek suffragette does not contain first Peter. I just thought I would mention that to you right there in case you're wondering where that Greek over there come from.

Well, it's from the Greek suffragette, but that's not really where we want to be. There we go. That's where I want to be. There is the term from which we get apologetics apology on it means a reasoned defense of the faith.

And so every apologist knows how to find verse Peter 315. Because when the folks after the church service come up to you and why do you go bother all those fine? Nice Mormon people and things like that and they wonder why you always want to be in arguments and fights.

Which hopefully isn't what we're known for but frequently is. You have to turn to this text and say well right there we're commanded to be able to give a reasoned defense for the hope that's within us and yet I Learned last year that no matter how many times you may read a text.

There is a danger of familiarity. When you hear a text over and over especially I had the great privilege of being raised in a Christian family. And so I've heard the Word of God being preached from a very young age.

There is a real danger that when you hear a particular text in a particular way. You just come to the conclusion that well You know what it says and your mind just sort of maybe even briefly or for a longer period of time sort of shuts down.

When you are reading it when you see it cited in a book that you're reading when you're hearing someone Speak there's a great danger there that we will not hear what the text is actually saying because we're so convinced we already know.

Now maybe I'm the only one that has that problem, but something tells me there's probably a few other people in the audience. You're going yeah, I've had that experience. You know preachers frequently you'll be preaching through a book and Let's say you encounter a text you've preached before but you really Intently study it and you really want to to make sure that where you've been coming from all along is correct and whole vistas.

Open up in text you had never seen before and I'm not talking about the you know contemplation of the navel type thing and and where you're Trying to get some new type of thing come out of it. And I'm talking about stuff that was right there on the page the whole time.

And you just didn't see the connections maybe with other texts of scripture my experience has been for example In our church we preach verse by verse through books. My fellow older is preaching through Romans in the morning and Jeremiah in the evening and what I preach I'm going through Hebrews, which is some of the most difficult preparation and preaching I've ever done and just simply that in-depth study has provided me with so many connections and and arguments of the early writers in the New Testament that has has Deepened my reading of other texts of scripture as well.

This has happened to me in regards to this text. I have heard many apologists Start with first with first Peter 315, but to be honest with you. I had never heard anyone actually make application and To really exegete the text and so that's what we're going to do in the brief amount of time.

That we have this morning. You know that Peter is writing to a persecuted people. You know that in the beginning of this this chapter. It is taken for granted that the people who will be reading his letter are people who are going to be experiencing persecution and Difficulty for the Christian faith, which means obviously that they were not hiding their Christian faith.

They were people who wanted to speak the truth that Jesus is the Lord that he died and was buried and rose again and so there is a Just a given that there is going to be persecution and Peter's concern is make sure that the persecution you experience is Because of Christ and not because you basically are a jerk now unfortunately, sometimes we get those two things mixed up and we let our jerkiness be the reason that the world hates us and Think that because the world hates our jerkiness that that means that we are somehow suffering for Jesus when in point of fact We are not.

I mentioned last evening the kind of preaching that some people think is street preaching up in Salt Lake City and The result is they get persecuted. All right. I mean sometimes people want to come up and bop them in the nose with the things they said.

But that's not because of Jesus that's because they're jerks and they're acting like it and they're they're proud of it. And they want to be that way. That's Peter says no. No, you do not want that. You do not to sum up first eight all of you be harmonious sympathetic brotherly.

Kind-hearted and humble in spirit not reaching and turning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. This is this is the the exhortation that is being made and no it's to everyone.

It's not just the elders of the church. What we have in first Peter three is for everyone who is in this room who names the name of Christ? We live in a post-christian society. We live in a society where I don't understand it fully myself.

But in the ten years since 9 -11, it has become politically incorrect to Question someone reading the Quran but politically correct questioning one read the Bible. I'm not really sure how that happened.

I'm not really sure what the exact mechanics were. But that's the situation that we face and so we are going to have that kind of opposition. How then do we respond to it? What is the responsibility for each one and Peter draws from the Old Testament?

He noticed the lengthy citation. This is the new American standard on the this side of the screen and So for those of you who are younger have grown up in the cyber generation. Peter wasn't yelling all of that just because it's in Loud.

I can't hear. That's the only problem. That's the only drawback of the new American standard trying to use it for cut and paste on a blog is just worthless because if you Quote the Old Testament sections you have to go back and change it all back to something else or why are you yelling at me?

That it is good to know when you have Old Testament citations. Unfortunately that that way of doing it just isn't the best way to do it anymore. But you have the moral exhortations from the Old Testament coming forth and then you have these words 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 being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you To give an account the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience.

So 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 should suffer for doing what is right and for doing what?

Is wrong? Now what I want to do in just a few moments. We have is to focus your attention on what it means to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts and To get past sort of the surface level Examination of this text.

We have to recognize that that Peter is Drawing from the Old Testament text Repeatedly even notice look at look at verse 14 there on the screen and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled is in capitalized form and so that is again a citation coming out of The Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint the the Greek translation of the Bible that his readers would have in their hands or here read in the congregation of the church and So he's saying look just as there was persecution in the past.

There will be persecution now we stand in the grand line of the people of God and Then we have this command but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always being ready to make a defense now before we can make the defense and That's always where the emphasis goes.

It is. Okay, you're making a defense a reason defense, you know, I Finally stopped and asked myself the question not that long ago What does it mean to sanctify? Christ as Lord and So I look over at the Greek text and it's literally but Lord the Messiah Christos, you know is the Greek word, but A little concerned that in our theological vocabulary Christ has become Jesus's last name and it's not It's a title.

It's Jesus the Messiah and If we want to use Christ, okay, but we always have to keep in mind what that meant to these individuals so but Korean Lord the Messiah Sanctify in your hearts, that's what the text says, but what does it mean?

This is a command not just for the elders of the church. This is a command not just for people in quote-unquote Apologetic ministry because I've never been able to find apologetic ministry in the New Testament.

Specifically, I mean the elders the church is supposed to be able to refute the gainsayers and things like that. Okay this is for every believer and Notice the end of the verse is so that so you may give that reason defense to whom?

To those who ask you. For a reason for the whole that is within. That seems to indicate that it is given on Peter's part. That's something about what you this an incredible impact on your life. That people are gonna see it they're not gonna see it but they're gonna go you're different and Not only this is you're different.

They're gonna see that you have a hope that they don't have and as a result They're going to come they're gonna go. What's with you? Why do you respond to tragedy? Different people around. I Mean I was just I was just hearing.

That's a New Yorkers on high alert. They're running around looking for three men and with credible evidence the possibility of a dirty bomb. Wow. Now how do people respond to that and if I live in New York City and I don't have any hope of eternal life I'm I'm looking to go in someplace else.

There are so many reasons for fear and anxiety today and yet as Christians Jesus tells us That's not how he wants his followers to behave because there's a reason because we have a Heavenly Father and he cares for his people and we are in his hand and nothing can touch our lives that he is not allowed there for a purpose and we have a completely different view of the world and If we live consistently with that That's going to show us.

So there's something About this sanctifying Christ is Lord. Let's think about the word Lord first, shall we? That term putty us. It's in the accusative here putty on that term. Remember what is what is Peter quoting from he's quoting from what's called the Greek Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament and The word Yahweh which we slaughter in English as Jehovah.

The word Yahweh was rendered in the Greek Septuagint by the word Kodios or Lord. That's why in your Old Testament's your English Old Testament's most of them today. And they follow a tradition one that I don't really think we should follow but I don't get to make these decisions.

Instead of having the name Yahweh which appears thousands of times in the Old Testament. We put Lord in all caps. If you look at it the O and the R that they are capitalized form, but they're a little bit smaller and font.

That's how you know that the underlying Hebrew term is yod-heh-wa-heh. Yahweh the name of God in the Old Testament and so These individuals be reading a version of the Bible a translation of the Bible.

Where Yahweh is called Kodios. It's an exalted term. It is it is the Sun's Trinitarian name that is in the New Testament a document written by experiential Trinitarians. They had heard the father speaking from heaven.

They had walked with the son. They were now involved by the Holy Spirit. Normally the father is identified as God and normally the son is identified as Kodios as Lord. There are a few exceptions here there and everywhere, but that's the general rule no one can say that Jesus is Lord Jesus Kodios except by the Holy Spirit and So you have this Lord and clearly, this is the Messiah and So the Messiah is being sanctified as Kodios in our hearts.

Well keeping that very high view of Kodios in mind. What does it mean to sanctify we automatically hear that word we think of sanctification. We start thinking positional sanctification and experiential sanctification.

This is God's will for you your sanctification and being made holy etc. Etc. That's obviously not what is in mind here. This is something that we are commanded to do and you would think that for most of us.

Well, the first things we'd want to know is if the Bible commands me to do something I need to know something about what the commandment involves. And I had never thought about it. I mean I I guess as I read it.

Oh Yeah. Treat the Messiah as Lord. Well, okay. Especially in the realm of your hearts the very center of your being that which that which determines. This is you know, we would we would normally the West would think this is the mind.

It's the seat of emotion yes, but it's not the fluffy, you know little heart, you know Valentine type thing. The heart is the seat of one's being. So what is decided there what is done there will determine everything else?

So in our hearts in our in the most innermost being that we have not just as an external thought. But as an ordering principle within ourselves we are commanded to set apart and treat as holy the Messiah as Kudios.

Now we might be helped in understanding this by recognizing That there is a Old Testament background to this. So if you'll turn with me back to Isaiah chapter 8 or I'll just put on screen small to see there.

Think with me for a second about Isaiah 7 8 9 7 8 9. May I challenge? The believers in the audience. You know, there's all sorts of Bible study methodologies and things like that out there. Not only the memorization of God's Word.

But knowing what the books are about knowing an outline of 1st Corinthians Galatians Romans. Those are awesome tools to help you in your study of God's Word. And If we look at Isaiah and sometimes it's very difficult in the prophets because they're not necessarily Organized in a way that would be very easy to automatically do this when we think of Isaiah chapter 7.

What's the first thing that pops in your mind from Isaiah chapter 7 you think of? Emmanuel. God with us a Virgin Shall bring forth this one called Emmanuel. And if you think of Isaiah chapter 9 and what do we have in Isaiah chapter 9?

We have this one. A child Will be born to us. A son will be given to us. Is His name. Has this government be upon his shoulders and he has a series of names. Wonderful counselor. Mighty God everlasting father prince of peace.

So we have Emmanuel in Isaiah 7. We have mighty God in Isaiah 9 and Sandwiched between we have Isaiah 8 and notice what we have here. Then it will sweep on into Judah. This is talking about the coming of the of the Assyrians and will overflow and pass through will reach even to the neck and the Spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land.

Oh Emmanuel here's Emmanuel and There was a there was a a literal fulfillment in history. Concerning a king and the time frame with the Assyrians coming up. There's a there's immediate fulfillment. But almost every messianic prophecy has an immediate fulfillment and a greater fulfillment of the one who is to come.

So here is Emmanuel in chapter 8 continuing on from chapter 7 and Then we have this discussion of a believing remnant be broken. Oh peoples and be shattered and give ear all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves yet be shattered. Gird yourselves yet be shattered. Devise a plan and it will be thwarted. State of proposal but it will not stand for. And I'm not sure why the numeric standard did this.

God is with us Emmanuel. There it is again. For thus Yahweh spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people. At this point in time in history. The Jews were trying to get the Egyptians to help them and turned out to be a really bad thing to do.

Do not walk in the way of this people saying you are not to say it is a conspiracy regard to all that this people call a conspiracy and You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. That's what Peter quoted in verse 14 of chapter 3 right before verse 15.

So we know this is where he's driving this one. That's right where he quotes. So he wants us to be thinking about this text. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. Sound familiar. It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should sanctify.

Sanctify. So this is exactly what Peter is drawing from. He's drawing from right here in Isaiah 8 and He's saying it is Yahweh of hosts, but he says It's Jesus. You should set the Messiah apart as Yahweh as Kurios in your hearts.

You should regard him as holy. And he shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. Then he shall become a sanctuary. But to both the house of Israel a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over. Mmm, sounds like a lot of people in the early church.

We're seeing Jesus in this text this is exactly where Paul went remember the same terminology he uses and A snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem many will stumble up stumble over them. Then they will fall and be broken.

They will even be snared and caught the scandal of the crucified Messiah and Isaiah 8 Bind up the testimony seal the law among my disciples and I will wait for Yahweh who is hiding his face in the house of Jacob, I will even look eagerly for him behold.

I In the children whom Yahweh has given for me Hebrews 2 13 quoted of Jesus again Are for signs and wonders in Israel from the job from Yahweh of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion all the New Testament Writers the writer to the Hebrews Paul Peter.

They're all pulling from this very text in various places in the New Testament and making application to the fulfillment of God's plans to a remnant people and That that's being fulfilled in the Christian Church.

And so there is our background. There's our background. So keeping that in mind. What does it mean to treat as holy the Messiah. To treat him to sanctify him as couriers. This is a command if you came here this morning and hopefully part of your your prayer.

Your desire as you came through the door. Hopefully this is your your desire as you go to any to any place. Especially the meeting of the church where the Word of God is to be open. Our prayer should be Lord.

I desire to be an obedient servant. I'm coming into your presence. I wish to hear from you. I wish to have your spirit expose me. To convict me and I want to be obedient to what your word says. I Have a real pet peeve.

When it comes to the terminology of much of evangelicalism, I I was at a conference once in Chicago. This was many moons ago. I had hair and Norm Geisler liked me and As he was speaking this and I was just about to speak on the Roman Catholic Doctrine of Mary and they had a praise man and They got up and they they did their thing.

But before they did their thing the person sort of in charge of stuff said so we're gonna before the speaker comes. We're gonna have some worship. I wasn't happy about that. I couldn't help but say something about it.

That's just. But you see in our church things worship, but the central act of worship Is when the Word of God is over and his truth is presented to his people. That's where we present ourselves Before God to be instructed as obedient servants, that is the central act of worship.

Sometimes people come to our church. I go boy you guys Aren't very fancy about stuff. We're old-time Puritans. You want to see what the Puritans look like? Come on by. But part of the reason for that is it's sort of keep it simple stupid.

If the central act of worship is the proclamation word of God then everything else should lead to it. Not shorten it not get in the way. And we need to be focused upon that presentation. And so if our desire coming here today Was to be obedient to this command then as we walk out of this place today as you even go into lunch here in a few minutes and Hopefully you don't forget what I was talking about but are pondering it and thinking about.

How are you gonna fulfill this? What does it mean for you where you are in your life? Whatever it is you do? To sanctify. To treat as holy The Messiah as quiddias Lord. That is the Christian confession Jesus is Lord Lord of all of life.

There is no such thing. I know it is a popular teaching. I consider it an abject heresy. There are people who will tell you that Jesus will be your Savior without being your Lord. There is no schizophrenic Jesus.

There is no Jesus who is Savior who is not Lord and we are commanded to Treat him as holy. This is something we are to do. May I suggest that what it means is this. First of all, we need to recognize who the Messiah is.

You'd recognize he is the fulfillment of all of the promises given to the fathers in the ages past. We are to recognize that he is courteous that he is Lord. The second person divine Godhead. Identified as Yahweh by many of the writers of the New Testament.

Took on human flesh. We need to recognize who he was but then Recognizing that fact means nothing if we do not treat that fact as holy in our hearts because you see your heart is the central aspect of your being and What you treat as holy there cannot help but have a massive impact Upon the rest of your life how you speak how you act how you respond to tragedy persecution and difficulty to death itself.

If you Set upon the throne of your heart the central aspect of your being the thing that that determines all of your priorities. What Really has meaning for you. And we all know how to determine what really has meaning for us when you start daydreaming.

What do you daydream about? Is it that? Retirement home that boat that car. What takes up that element of our life very frequently reflects? What we're really thinking about and what is really central and what we are treating as holy In our hearts when we Purposefully Reverentially in love each and every day say I am the servant of the Lord Christ and I am going to treat him as holy in all of my existence this day in How I do my work.

In how I respond to my wife and my children. In How I respond to what's going on in the world how I think about the world. I Want to be the servant of Christ. I confess him to be courteous. That is setting him apart and Treating him as holy in our hearts.

That's what results in people coming up to us and saying you don't respond like others. I've seen you faced with difficulty and tragedy while other people are cursing or crying or they're in despair. You are not why and the whole exhortation of this text.

I Hate to tell this to my fellow apologists, but the apologetic part is the minority element of the text the positive element the central element of this text is the command. And it's not something you do once at a conference.

It is something you have to do each and every day sometimes for some of us more than once a day. To make that purposeful decision to treat the Messiah as courteous in our hearts and when we do and Opportunity then comes then we are to always be ready not just when we feel like.

Not just when it's convenient, but to always be ready that does not mean by the way. It does not mean that Every single moment of the day is the appropriate time to whip out the Bible and start Bible bashing.

There needs to be wisdom. But what it does mean is that when those divine opportunities are presented to us. How many of us how many of us. Have let them pass by. Because the fear of men obvious examples of this I can think of.

Is the fact that a large majority of evangelicals are afraid of Muslims? We're afraid and when the opportunity comes for witness. How many people close their mouths because well I Don't really feel prepared.

I don't know but if we're really honest. There's there's fear. They might get violent. Well, I suppose you're standing on a street in Saudi Arabia, that's Pakistan Afghanistan. If the guy's got an AK -47 in his hand that is a possibility.

But there are a billion Muslims in the world. And the vast majority of them do not want to kill him, but the vast majority do not. And in fact the vast majority of them have a very ready willingness to talk about Jesus because they think they believe in Jesus.

They've just never met the real one. And they really need somebody. Who would actually have the guts to tell them about the real one? But see if we are afraid if we have not prepared ourselves. Then we won't be ready.

We won't always be ready to give that answer and Certainly we should respond differently to tragedy than the Muslim does because we have an intercessor in the presence of God. Our surety has gone through the veil into the Holy of Holies.

We have an anchor that a steadfast anchor in the holy place that they don't have. And that means we should respond differently and we have a message a glorious message. But you see the always being ready to give that apologetic that reasoned defense it flows from Obedience to the first part of this text.

That is obedience to having set Christ apart. Proclaimed him to be holy in our hearts. That's the sanctifying thing for us as well to set him apart as holy means we do not see ourselves as The center of our being of the center of our purpose.

That is one of the great tragedies of The shallow evangelicalism that fills our land when you build massive monuments to man and And fill them to the brim with people and Then you refuse to proclaim the whole gospel to them.

You don't talk to them about sin. You don't talk to them about God's wrath. Instead you placate them. You desensitize them you convince them that God is Perfectly fine with where they are in their sin and their selfishness and their self-righteousness.

And then you smear some religiosity over the top. You have made them twice a son of hell as yourself and people who have been given that not half a gospel. Have no concept of what it means. To set Christ apart as holy because they've never been challenged on the fact that they set themselves apart as The most important thing in their experience we have lost in our society.

And we have lost in the church part of the language of the Bible. What I mean by that is God's described as king. We don't have kings. We kicked ours out didn't we? We Americans did but they also had servants.

Slaves. And that terminology is used in Scripture and there's a reason it's used and we don't like those terms but you see To sanctify to treat us holy the Messiah as Lord means I Can't be the one that I see is the most important.

I have to recognize myself as a redeemed Servant. I have been bought with a price. My life is no longer my own. If I recognize that if I live in light of it each and every day and I have to be reminded of it.

That's why you that's why the Bible tells us do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. We are so short-memoried Times. I've known the Lord for many decades now Lord saved me at a very young age, and I'm thankful for that.

But how many times have I learned these things and then forgot? Only to rediscover it again over and over and over again, so my prayer for us today is That we will take seriously what this text says and we will obey this command and we will ask the Lord Lord.

What does it mean in my life where I am where you've put me? To obey this command. To treat the Messiah in a holy fashion to set him apart in my heart as Kurios, I'm not Lord. I'm not in charge. He is what does that mean in my life?

What does that mean in my work and my family my prayer is that we will think on this? And we will ask the Lord to give us guidance to give us understanding to make application. Because that is the only way we will then have the foundation upon which To properly in a biblical fashion give an answer for the hope that is within us yet With gentleness and reverence first and foremost toward God Toward his truth and toward those who ask us a reason for the hope that is within us.

Let us pray together indeed our gracious heavenly father. We thank you for your word that you have preserved for us and its commands That you have given to us that are not burdens. They are the very source of life.

You have given us guidance That we might understand how we might live in a way that is pleasing to you that we might Demonstrate our love so we thank you for your word And we would ask you would help us to make application that we would know how to set the Messiah apart.

To treat him as holy in our hearts to treat him as Lord. Make us to be obedient servants always looking for your honor and glory praying Christ.