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The first English settlement was established in Jamestown, Virginia.
When Brianne and I got married, we spent our honeymoon in southeast Virginia where we were able to see this site.
This is where Pocahontas lived and where she got married and where the first Americans lived.
It's a small piece of land in southeast Virginia. Then 13 years later, what we know today is the
Pilgrims took a ship from England to Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. What is remarkable about these early
Americans is that they left Europe primarily because of the state religion there.
The state mandated how they were to have church, and so they risked their lives traveling across the
Atlantic Ocean in order to worship freely in the new world. When the
Pilgrims arrived in 1620, they established what is known as the Mayflower Compact.
It was a covenant of laws that citizens needed to agree on in order to live in this community.
At Plymouth Rock, the residents were to follow the law that was built entirely on this book, the
Word of God, the Bible. The first citizens of America were just like us, conservative
Christians, not polluted by the world. Later on in 1776, the
United States declared independence from the king in Great Britain, and in 1789, a constitution was written and ratified that relied heavily upon scripture.
The morality that the constitution was built on came from the
Word of God. Maybe more than any country in the history of the world, other than Israel, the
United States has been influenced by the Bible. In fact, even today, there is a
Bible museum in Washington, D .C. Throughout the history of America, the church has been seen as a positive to society.
We do not pay taxes. There's a reason for that. Those who go to church tend to be law -abiding citizens, so the governing authorities historically have seen the
Christian community as essential to the success of the nation. This is shown through the fact that for most of the history of the
United States, the vast majority of Americans have identified as Christian. It is the
Christian influence of America that made America the most peaceful, prosperous, and free nation in the world.
And by the way, the strongest missionary -sending nation in the world.
But in recent decades, we have seen a significant decline in morality in the public square. The United States today as a government and as a society is almost unrecognizable to what it was only 75 years ago, after World War II.
The nation where Christianity was used as the foundation, where Christianity was celebrated, is now seen as the problem.
To hold to Christian values is seen as a negative in the mainstream. Christian morality used to be the dominant force in America, but now it has been replaced with a new morality.
The new morality is seen on signs placed on the side of the road. You've seen this. And all of these sound good, by the way.
I'm going to read these. All of these sound good until you examine them with scripture. In this house, black lives matter.
Women's rights are human rights. No human is illegal. Science is real.
Love is love. Kindness is everything. Now, if you're not really trained in the
Bible, you'd say, that sounds great. But there's a hidden agenda behind every one of those.
This list is deceiving, and it opposes God's word when you understand what they are saying.
So biblical morality and this new secular morality are at odds. The morality of the
Bible is no longer the most dominant force in American society. It has been replaced.
The mainstream has largely embraced this new morality. Walmart has.
Target has. Every professional sports team has. Do the
Minnesota Twins have an abortion night where we fight against abortion? They don't have that.
They have other causes, though, that are contrary to scripture. Just about every mainstream institution has embraced this new morality.
And here's the most frightening part. Even Christian institutions, to a certain extent.
So this country built on the Bible is unrecognizable. And as we ponder the reality of the nation we now live in, what does this mean for Christians?
What it means is that the opposition is already here and only increasing. And this opposition is not content letting you live out your
Christian beliefs. The goal of this new morality is getting the entire society to conform.
And if you don't conform in certain environments, there will be consequences. The end result of a secular religion that does not believe in freedom of religion is that Christians will, over time, be cut off from mainstream society.
This grim reality is what we see. And every
Christian needs to prepare for. We do not know how long it will take to get to this point in full measure.
But that is where we are trending. We already see this in some measure.
The time when it will arrive will be the final seven -year tribulation, as Revelation describes.
According to Revelation 13, verses 16 and 17, Christians will not be able to buy and sell.
You're going to be cut off from mainstream society. You won't be able to go to the grocery store. It's going to get to that point someday.
The Christian community will be officially cut off from mainstream society during the time when the
Antichrist rules the world. The question is, how bad will it get before the end comes?
We don't know. But this is where America and the world are trending.
The Apostles of Jesus understood the reality of what it means to be a Christian.
They understood the reality of persecution. And they addressed this in their writings.
The Apostle Peter addresses persecution in his letter to the believers in Asia Minor that we've been going through. Peter, through the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, told his readers what they needed to hear and how they were to live in this environment of opposition.
This morning, as we continue our sermon series through 1 Peter, we are going to see Peter address the topic of persecution.
So at this time, I encourage you to turn there with me. If you do not have a Bible, we do have the red
Bibles in the pews. This sermon is titled, Standing Against the
World's Wind. Standing Against the World's Wind. And yes,
Bob Seger's song did inspire me, if you're wondering, Against the Wind. And this is part one.
There's going to be three parts to this. We're going to look at the first two points today. There's seven points that we're going to see in 1
Peter 3, verses 8 through 17. And I'm going to begin by reading these verses.
1 Peter 3, verses 8 through 17. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.
For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the
Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the
Lord is against those who do evil. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
But even if you should suffer for righteous sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor
Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense, to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.
Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be
God's will, than for doing evil. Okay, here's our big idea.
We're only gonna do the first two verses, by the way, verses eight and nine this morning. The big idea is this.
Prepare yourselves as Christians to experience opposition from the world.
Prepare yourselves as Christians to experience opposition from the world. And we're gonna see seven disciplines how. And I'm gonna reveal what the first discipline how is in a little bit, but before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we've been.
In the last three weeks, we saw Peter take us through three human institutions.
And within these contexts, Peter instructed us how we are to live as Christians. The first human institution was government.
Christians are to submit to the governing authorities. Christians are to be known as law -abiding citizens.
But on occasions, when the government tells you to do something that goes against God's will, that is when
Christians disobey. The second human institution was the relationship of slaves and masters.
This is comparable to the employer and employee relationship of our day. Employees are to submit to their bosses, even the ones who are difficult.
As one does this, he or she is honoring the Lord's workplace structure.
God is glorified as a worker treats his boss with respect and does not treat him poorly in return as the world so often does with the bosses that treat them poorly.
The third human institution is what we saw one week ago, and that is the most important human relationship, the relationship between husband and wife.
Wives are to submit to their husbands and husbands are to lead their wives in an honorable way. When husbands and wives carry out their responsibilities in marriage, what they both experience is the blessing that comes from that.
Marriage truly is a blessing when done God's way. Now, this leads us to our text that we've already read, but now we're gonna zero in on verse eight to begin, where once again,
Peter writes, finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
He starts off this section by commanding that Christians practice certain virtues.
Peter is writing these instructions to the saints in Asia Minor and to every Christian down through history.
We know that what he is communicating is for the entire Christian community because at the beginning of verse eight, he says, all of you, all of you are to be marked by this.
All of you are to have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
And the first thing he says here is unity of mind. This is where we need to understand a very important truth of scripture that's often misunderstood.
The only legitimate biblical unity in belief and practice is built around the truth of God's word.
Unity is built around the truth. And when I say belief, what
I'm saying is doctrine, what the Bible teaches. And when I say practice, what I'm saying is living out that doctrine.
The apostle Paul wrote about this unity built around the truth in Ephesians four, verses 11 through 16, where he said, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
What Paul just wrote about is what describes a healthy Christian and a healthy church. Every healthy church is built on a sound understanding of the word of God and a sound application of the word.
Sometimes you have churches that are really friendly and really warm, but they don't have doctrine.
Other times you have churches that have doctrine, but it's colder than Wisconsin in January.
You have both of those. We want a blend, right? We want strong doctrine, strong living.
And he's writing this very thing in verse 8. He's telling his readers that they are to be united in their convictions in belief and practice.
They are to show sympathy to one another. They are to show affection to one another. That's what brotherly love means.
They are to have a tender heart and a humble mind. Believers are to show these godly qualities, not only to everyone, but especially to the body of Christ.
That's the focus of the New Testament. There's a special love for believers. In Romans 12, 16, the apostle
Paul wrote, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight. Two verses down in Romans 12, 18, Paul writes, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
On this topic, the reformer Martin Luther once said, peace if possible, truth at all costs.
When these qualities are present in Christians and in churches, what a wonderful reality this is.
Unity and love built around the truth. When the truth is understood and Christians live out the truth by showing love to one another, it is a beautiful sight.
This is what God had planned when he designed what a church is supposed to look like. Now, as I say that unity and love is built around the truth, what if there is compromise within the church?
And at the local level and more broadly speaking, can we have unity?
One thing we know, as I have shown you as your pastor and as you have seen on your own, is that the broader
American church is full of compromise. Much of the American evangelical church,
I believe, has one eye on the Bible and one eye on the world. What does the world think?
We should never be thinking, what does the world think? We should always be thinking, what does God think? And this is where we need to remember
Luther's quote, peace if possible, pursue it. Pursue it, but truth at all costs.
Truth is more important than peace. Some of you know this, but recently
I've written about the compromise among the leadership of a movement that my family has a history in, the
Evangelical Free Church of America. My family's history goes back to World War I, when my great -grandfather came over from Sweden, and this is a
Scandinavian movement. In the middle of the 20th century, the Swedish church and the
Norwegian church joined into what is now the Evangelical Free Church of America. Back in June, the leadership and the churches following the leadership disciplined a pastor's ordination,
Jeff Kleewer from New Jersey. By the way, Jeff is gonna be speaking at our church in May, because he called out the compromise of the liberal drift that he saw, the woke direction that they were taking the movement.
He knew he could not unite with a leadership that introduced godless ideologies to the free church movement, so he called them to repentance.
But sadly, they did not repent. Instead, they went after him and sadly, there's a strained relationship because Pastor Jeff Kleewer knows that unity is only built around the truth.
And when there is serious compromise, there can be no true unity. We can't just say, okay, what's this overlooked at?
If it's serious enough, you cannot just overlook it. The only way there can be true unity restored is if repentance comes first and they get right back on the right track.
This past week, I had a breakfast with another free church pastor, Pastor David Whitney from Maryland, who was on trial to have his ordination disciplined.
David Whitney kept his church open during COVID -19 and the moment the leadership of the
East District found this out, he became a man they kept their eye on. In his own words,
Pastor Whitney has said that what has happened in the free church is a hostile takeover. David Whitney recognizes that he cannot unite with the leadership and he shared with me before the trial the kinds of questions they were going to ask him.
Essentially, they were asking him, can you submit to our leadership? And his answer, because he is a man of integrity, is no, their leadership is out of step with scripture.
And these are not the only two pastors in the free church who are fighting the leftward drift that the leadership has taken the movement.
These pastors cannot lie to themselves and say we can be united with the leadership with where they are taking the movement.
They need to call out what they are doing and they are unable to unite until there is repentance. Until that point, there is a biblical category that's often overlooked, but scripture describes and that is called separation.
Second John, verses 10 and 11 says, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
The most overlooked passage in the Bible, I think. What this means is that Christians don't unite with those pushing false teaching and they don't unite with those pastors who have linked arms with the false teachers.
All the unity is built around the truth. And what is amazing is that there's an amazing unity and love taking place between these brave pastors who are standing on the truth of God's word.
This is not only happening among these pastors, but all over America. As the hostility toward biblical
Christians increases from the outside world and the hostility increases from even within the church, from wolves and compromised leaders, those who are standing on the word of God are experiencing the sweetness of the unity and brotherly affection that comes from believing what the
Bible says and living it out. Our church, Eureka Baptist, has an identity.
We are a church that stands fully on the word of God. We are a church that desires with all of our heart to have both eyes on the
Bible and not care what the world thinks. It is these churches that are ready to face the persecution that Peter is about to talk about in the coming verses.
So prepare yourselves as Christians to experience opposition from the world. The first discipline, how, is by uniting with fellow believers in love.
Uniting with fellow believers in love. Now we're gonna look at one more discipline here.
The second discipline, how, you are to prepare yourselves as Christians to experience opposition from the world is by refusing to respond to evil with evil.
At this point in this text, we see the persecution theme appear in verse nine, where Peter writes, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
Here, Peter focuses on the topic of being mistreated and how to respond to that mistreatment.
This is something we must understand as Christians. The world is going to mistreat you.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 .12, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Jesus said in John 15 verses 18 and 19, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you.
As I showed you in the previous point, those who stand in the word of God will experience inevitable disunity with the world.
And this includes opposition from the world and even worldly Christians.
This past week, Amy Herring sent an article to the
Valley Christian Board. Amy and I are both on the board of Valley Christian. The article was titled this,
Christian Venues Cancel Evangelical Men's Outreach Promise Keepers Over Gender Ideology.
I remember when I was a kid, my father went to Promise Keepers in Minneapolis with a men's group from our church.
This movement was started in 1990 by Bill McCartney. Bill McCartney was the college football coach at Colorado.
In fact, he led them to a national championship in 1990, the year that Promise Keepers was found.
That's a big year. He co -founded this movement and this movement is focused on raising up strong men of God.
It's calling men to be men. It's what we do every month at our men's breakfast. We're calling men to be men.
Fulfill your responsibilities. Be a good husband, be a good father, be a good churchman, be a leader, be who
God created you to be. As the article states, what happens when cancel culture infects the church?
Promise Keepers, an evangelical organization founded in 1990 that holds men's rallies and stadiums nationwide, has seen several scheduled events at churches and other venues canceled in recent months.
As recently as June, Belmont University, a private Christian university in Nashville, canceled a
Promise Keepers event after the National Christian Men's Ministry posted a blog criticizing
LGBTQ Pride Month. The university accused the organization of unnecessarily fanning the flames of culture wars.
The event, which was part of the group's Daring Faith Tour, is one of several events that were later canceled by Christian venues, including
Hope Church in Cordova, Tennessee, and the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston.
Despite Promise Keepers' decades -old legacy challenging Christian men to live out
God's calling, Chairman and CEO Ken Harrison says, much has changed since the 1990s when the group first launched.
This group is not welcome in many places as it once was. So what change is the
CEO talking about? What has changed is that the society around us has become more and more secularized, more and more immoral, and as I have mentioned, the
American church has been influenced by the world. When we went through the seven churches of Revelation, what was so interesting is that just about every church had one thing in common.
There were two or three really good churches that Jesus addressed where he didn't say much, where he didn't give hardly any criticism at all, but there were several churches that let the surrounding culture influence their church.
They became like their culture. This is what we call worldly Christianity.
And so this is what he's highlighting. Much has changed since the days when
Promise Keepers was founded in the 1990s. The teaching of basic biblical principles that were once not even controversial to the secular society because the secular society was influenced by Christianity are now even controversial to people who call themselves
Christians. And what I hope you can see is that the opposition is already here and it is growing.
I don't want to be an alarmist. Who's an alarmist? Someone who cries wolf, right? Someone who says, there's a big problem, and then there's no problem at all.
You don't wanna, you never wanna be an alarmist. But look around you, this is happening. I just gave you an example right there.
It is happening. Compromised people will call true shepherds alarmists, divisive, problematic, right?
Stay away from that guy. Pastor Jeff Cleaver, in a document written against him, was called that.
He was called an alarmist, he was called divisive, he was called neo -fundamentalist. And when
I tell you what is happening out there, I'm giving you real life examples. There is persecution from society and there is persecution from the last place it should come within the church.
Now it's true, right? There are places in the world where there's actually severe persecution.
There's a spectrum when we talk about persecution. Some persecution is martyrdom. Some persecution is you're fired, right?
You lost your job or it might be, I don't want anything to do with you. A friendship is broken up.
People call you all kinds of names, right? But whether it's this or this, it's still persecution.
We read that this morning from the Sermon on the Mount. They will utter all kinds of things falsely on my account.
And I believe this, because I think we're already seeing it. Some of the greatest persecution will come from the broader church and we are already seeing this, as I have shown you.
And it makes you wonder, how far off is Christ's return? Because you know what the
Bible teaches? One of the signs of His return is the apostasy of the church.
Where true Christians, it just becomes a remnant, right? Where the broader
Christianity is actually a false Christianity, largely speaking. And the true Christianity is a smaller group of people.
It becomes kind of a backwoods movement because the mainstream has left the
Bible. It makes you wonder, how far off is His return? We expect the world to call us all kinds of names.
We expect the world to eventually imprison Christians. But it is alarming when the compromised
Christian community opposes those people who are just following the
Bible. But when this opposition comes, how are Christians to respond? Peter once again tells us in verse nine, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.
For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. When we are persecuted, it is tempting to want to get even.
But the Lord tells us to leave it in His hands. That's what Romans 12, verses 17 to 21 says.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is so counter -cultural.
The world wants to get even when you're mistreated. The one who leaves justice in His hands and even does good to his or her persecutors,
Scripture says, is blessed. The Lord has
His favor upon you. He is pleased with you as you stand with Him and endure opposition and do not seek to get even.
He notices His blessing is on your life and you will be rewarded in the age to come.
He also notices your persecutors and He takes note of every evil deed they perform against you and He will repay.
But as I have mentioned, what is remarkable is that He wants you to do good to your persecutors.
It does not mean you cannot call out the evil they are doing, but even in doing this, you should do it with respect.
If you see them, treat them well. When you are not around those opposing your faithfulness to Christ, you and I are to pray for them.
Now what about false teachers who are persecuting true Christians? I quoted 2
John earlier. 2 John tells us not to even greet them, but to expose them.
That's how Jesus treated the Jewish leadership of His day. We should follow that. We should pray for the
Lord to expose their evil deeds, their teaching, their false teaching, and that His justice would come.
And there are some compromised leaders who are helping the false teachers persecute Christians. With this person, we show kindness by praying for his repentance.
Praying that there would be a change of course as 2 Timothy 2 verses 24 through 26 says.
Now your persecutors do not deserve to be treated well. They don't. But the Lord teaches you to do so.
It is a reminder that none of us deserve to be treated well by God because of our former rebellion to Him.
And this is why Peter writes at the end of verse 10, bless, to this you were called. You were called to bless those who don't deserve to be blessed because that describes you and me.
You and I have been forgiven much and therefore should forgive others. Jesus also teaches in the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 verses 44 and 45 to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your
Father who is in heaven. For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
The Lord does good to unbelievers in this world. He provides physically for those who hate
Him. And what an example that is for us as we anticipate persecution in this hostile world.
Generally speaking, we're supposed to treat our persecutors well. We are to treat everyone well, even those who oppose our full commitment to Christ.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for to this you were called.
So prepare yourselves as Christians to experience opposition from the world. And the second discipline how is by refusing to respond to evil with evil.
Now, next Sunday, we're gonna pick up on point three. And point three is such an interesting point because what we're gonna see is that as you are treated poorly, the
Lord not only has blessing for you in the age to come, He even has tangible physical blessing that He shows you in the present to show that His favor is upon you.
Okay, so we're gonna look at that next Sunday and we'll probably look at the fourth, and possibly the fifth point as well next
Sunday. But at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time we've had.
We thank you for the word of God. We thank you that it does not come back void. We thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword.
And it's amazing the word, Lord, can speak to everyone right where they are at. So the word has been spoken.
So my prayer, Lord, is that you would use this in everyone's life right where they are at. Encourage the people in here,
Lord, to walk closer with you, even knowing that they will face opposition, but it is the greatest path.
It is the path of blessing. Remind all of that to us. And so help us to live this out,