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Well, good evening, please open your Bibles to 1st Peter chapter 3 and I'm not even going to tell you what section of 1st Peter. We're up to we're gonna be looking at verses 8 through 12 tonight. You know this week I was Strangely enough.
I was on the internet and I read this posting from a young man who says he's a homosexual. Says boy, am I sorry? I brought up how much I hate Christianity. Just look what it started and I hate fundamentalist Islam as well.
I Can't condone anyone. Who says I'm going to burn in hell and I don't care what name they call God. I thought well, there's a there's a guy who's just really up front with it and not many unbelievers are so Straightforward not many are so honest in their hatred of God.
But let's not kid ourselves. What did Jesus say in John 15? If the world hates you. You know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world.
But I chose you out of the world because of this the world Likes you and thinks you're a pretty nice guy. They hate you. Jesus said if You love me they the world will hate you and we live in a world that claims that the greatest virtue is Tolerance but they've redefined tolerance and this is my own definition so you don't have to write it down a Willingness.
Tolerance is a willingness to deny the existence of truth. Tolerance is a willingness to deny the existence of truth. Why do I say that. Because as soon as you hold up a truth claim and you say this is true.
Then what did I say? You're intolerance. You're intolerant and that's what this young man's issue was. The truth of Christianity was held up to him and he looked at it and saw his sin and he said I hate that now going back to the time of first Peter as We've been going through this we've talked about how Peter's purpose was to give hope in the face of persecution.
Persecution that had begun and was going to get much worse. Was even thinking about it this week in the times of Nero how he Concocted this whole story to get everybody upset at the Christians and then just it was open season on Christians use them as torches.
Use them as entertainment to fight lions, but it didn't start like that it started with Back talking talking badly about Christians. Why. Because they were. They didn't go for the whole Roman God system they weren't going to worship Caesar.
So rumors were spread about them. They killed babies. They did horrible things. I mean that the worst stories you could tell about Christians were just spread out well when the time for violence came there was already sufficient hatred of Christians to make it easy to accomplish that sort of thing and Today, what do we see now?
Stories rumors. Name-calling. You're intolerant. Why why is it? I mean think about what this young man said now knowing full. Well that if he lived in an Islamic his main problem was with he sees and many see here that the United States is Turning into a theocracy.
Okay a Theocracy think about that there are theocracies in this world. Did you know for example? Britain is a theocracy technically speaking. It's a theocracy. Practically speaking I don't think so I did find two theocracies that still exist in the world though one is of course the papacy and The other one I I'm gonna have to think about this for a minute.
It's some mountaintop in Greece that has some kind of weird autonomy. But two actual Christian theocracies other than that we have Islamic theocracies and what happens to homosexuals in Islamic theocracies.
The president of Iran said not too long ago that they don't have any homosexuals there wonder why that is. Because they kill them. Here, what do we do we call them to repentance? We treat them just like we would any other sinner who needs to turn from their sins and receive Christ.
What we do know of a certainty is That the word is out on Christians. They're intolerant. They're judgmental, and they think they have the truth and they want to impose their morality on everyone. That's what the thought of many unbelievers is now.
The fuse is lit. Persecution is coming. The question is when it may not be in our lifetimes. May not be in our children's lifetimes, but it is going to progress and progress and progress. Unless the Lord returns even as we were singing that song tonight.
I thought okay right now. It'd be a good time Lord could come back right now first. Peter chapter 3 Verses 8 to 12. To sum it up to sum up. All of you be harmonious sympathetic brotherly kind-hearted and humble in spirit.
Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing for. The one who desires life to love and see good days.
Must keep his tongue from evil and his 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. Now this evening I want you to see the face of a believer. What does a believer look like? The qualities of Christian. What are the qualities of Christian described to us by Peter so that you might live in such a way to better sense.
The face of God as we're gonna see at the end of this the favor of God that he might look upon you favorably. There are seven directed actions for a Christian in Our text that Peter gives us that we might enjoy the life.
God has given us From the eternal perspective that he intended, you know life isn't necessarily fun. But if we have a hope Fixed in our minds a hope that is in heaven a hope that is kept by the power of God reserved for us by God.
Then whatever comes along in this life we can handle. I was even thinking about that this afternoon when I got the phone call from flow whose car broke down. Our hope is not in the things that we have it's not in the things that are going right.
Not and certainly not in the things that are going wrong. It's not in how much money we have our hope is. That this life is a short period of time that when we pass from this life We're going to have things so much better.
We have been relieved of the worst burden We ever could have been under that of eternal damnation that we deserved. Now what do believers do look at verse 8? He says to sum up. Peter says to sum up. To sum up what?
Everything that he's been urging believers to do. Everything that he has said believers do in the face of persecution. Not when nice things are happening. But even when times are rough when the accusations are coming at you when the pastors are getting hauled off to jail.
When the church is being split whatever is going on. He says back in chapter 2 verses 9 and 10 that we are to be Representatives of God his priests and his proclaimers those who tell of his excellencies.
We're to work on Personal sanctification and to behave well when among unbelievers or Gentiles as he says there in verses 11 and 12 in chapter 2 Christians are to submit to those in authority above us the government your boss your husband and husbands.
You are to live with your wives in an understanding way even if they're unbelievers. All of those things he's summing up everything the entire Christian life. He's going to sum up for us right here first.
Our first action you must be united you must be united again at verse 8 all of you be harmonious. To be harmonious doesn't mean to sing well, although that would be great. Let's just all sing a cappella.
It is to have the same mindset to have to think the same way to be of one mind. And all of you obviously means that it's directed toward believers. How could a group of believers and unbelievers all be of the same mind?
We couldn't be. The Bible makes that clear. Now does that mean even it let's just put it in terms of Bethlehem Bible Church. Are we all going to agree on everything? No. No, you'll never see me wear a pink shirt.
There are some things that we are not going to agree on it's close nice. Now what it means to be harmonious is that whatever our differences are. Whatever kind of different thoughts we might have on some things.
We don't let them divide us. So, how do we do that? How do we we have little different thoughts about this bit of theology or that bit of theology or this song or some new Russian Hymn that we want to introduce to everyone.
How do we? Allow people to have those little things and and still all get along. How do we love one another? How do we act in a harmonious way? Because we we have one thing in common. We all want to mutually submit to the Word of God.
It is the Word that holds us together whatever differences of opinion we have whatever little issues that come up are outweighed by our our Submission and our commitment to the scripture think about it this way.
What kind of impact can a divided a fractured? Church have on the community. What kind of impact we have in terms of gospel witness and. The answer is none. I mean think about it. What if this place was known as a place that was just a civil war every Sunday night?
You know, they they had their little church meeting on Sunday morning, but Sunday night, you know, they came for food and then they you know, the food fight broke out or you know, if this was place was known as the place where hey you want to go to their church meetings because.
They're gonna tear the place up, you know get it on videotape. Go to YouTube. How can God use a church? That is so divided so broken up and maybe even heading in different doctrinal directions. We have you know the group that follows Steve and the group that follows Dave and the group that follows Mike.
The group that follows Lewis and Pradeep and a couple of the deacons to boot, you know, we're all over the place. We don't do that. We follow Christ. We submit to his word. And what would it say about the work of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ if we were divided like that?
What would it say about? The the unity of the body of Christ if we couldn't agree on the big things. That is not a picture of the church. That is not a good witness to the world and That is not what God through Peter has called us to he's called us to harmony to be Single-minded as it were and that can only come about by the work of the Holy Spirit working through the word in the hearts of God's people.
Secondly. You must share one another's burdens. Again Peter says to sum up all of you be harmonious sympathetic and that word sympathetic comes from the Greek word, which means Sympathetic. I mean it's almost exactly the same in the Greek in the English.
It's a transliteration. And think about it in a time of persecution. The sympathy and compassion of believers is a great comfort if someone else Shares your burden if someone else is concerned for you.
If someone sends you an email and says I understand that you're struggling. I Know that you've just had a surgery. I know that Your car just broke down. Is there some way I can serve you? It helps. Can I pray for you.
I Mean who else is going to pray for you if we don't pray for one another who's going to pray for us? Who else can we go to that is going to turn our mind away from our problems and our difficulties. And get us focused back on God.
Get us focused back on his word on the inheritance that he has promised us. Who else can really identify? With the struggles that we're going through if you are not ready and willing to bear the burdens of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Where would you send them? Who are you gonna send your brothers and sisters? They say I'm struggling with this. I'm having great difficulty with this person. I don't know what to do with that situation.
Well, I Wish I could help you, but I'll tell you what. There's a psychologist down there and Where are you gonna send him? Do you have any friends that you could talk to? Is your mom available? We're here to serve one another.
We're to be sympathetic toward one another. Do you have no time for struggling Christians? But you have no problem asking one of them to help you. Do you live on a one-way street when it comes to serving the body of Christ?
They can serve you but you won't serve them on the other hand. Would you rather share the joys and blessings the good things? With someone else other than believers, why wouldn't you want to be with believers during those happy times?
I mean you can come to them in times of trouble, but what a great joy it is to tell your I mean. Well, imagine this somebody you've been praying for a long period of time get saved. Are you gonna tell I?
Just had an email the other day yesterday as a matter of fact from someone I've known for years and Her 95 year old grandmother had just passed away now. She had been trying to witness to this woman for years and years and years.
In fact, she wrote that her son Evan must be 910 something like that had preached the gospel to her grandmother on a number of occasions and her grandmother was Lutheran to the core and didn't want to hear anything about the gospel because she was baptized and she was good to go.
And she said She went to see her grandmother that last time in the hospital and she thinks she thinks that her grandmother received Christ. Who would you want to tell that kind of news to right before your grandmother died?
Who would you want to tell you could tell somebody else in your family who doesn't love Christ? So you could say listen, my grandmother just died and I think before she died she received Christ. That's a great encouragement.
Now, of course, this is our attitude toward believers. We want to be sympathetic. But if you want to help unbelievers, you've got to be ready to bear their burdens as well. You can certainly sympathize.
Why can you sympathize with an unbeliever? We weren't we used to be unbelievers. We recognize all the struggles all the difficult Difficulties that they go through even sometimes getting our tongues tied.
We know the problems that they have in life. And so what we do when we cancel them. Say hey, I know what it's like. I Was there and then you say well, I don't have those problems anymore. Well, why not?
Because my life is radically changed. I have a hope I know where I'm going. I know what God wants for me. The best most loving thing you could do is point them to the scripture whether they're. Whatever their issue is whatever their sin issue is.
They need to hear the gospel. They need to hear about the hope that is in the cross of Christ. Don't be a cut-rate Psychologist a discount shrink just listening to their problems. Dispensing your own little advice take them to the Word of God.
They might say well, that's just the Bible. What good is that for me? It's everything. It is everything. Thirdly you must love others. We're say it again to sum up all of you be harmonious sympathetic brotherly.
This is the second time he's used this word it is a form of Philadelphia. He used it in 1st Peter 1 22 for a sincere love of the brethren again that word Philadelphia. John Calvin says this that where God is known as a father there and only there brotherhood really exists.
That's the only true brotherhood there is because it's it's not conditional. It is not conditional when you love somebody in the church. It is not conditional. You are a Closer than a brother you have been brought into God's family and there's a special bond that nothing can break.
For the children of God there is a delight in serving and fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ. This is family. How our love for one another should reflect the love that God has poured out on us.
He has given us everything and we need to be willing to serve and to love in the same way that God has loved us. Fourthly. You must be compassionate. You must be compassionate. Again to sum up all of you be harmonious sympathetic brotherly and it says kind-hearted literally.
This was a fun one. Literally, it means the nobler entrails. Yeah, it is an ancient picture for that the seed of affection. It is the heart as we would think of it now. It's the guts of the matter. When we hear of and what does it mean?
Well when we hear of difficult circumstances even persecution halfway around the world when we hear of missionaries burned alive Christians being hauled off to jail. It ought to be literally gut-wrenching.
We ought to be able to feel in a visceral way the suffering of others and Be moved to action. I mean, it's one thing we just go. Oh, that's horrible. I feel terrible about it. Well the very least you could pray now imagine this just as just to.
To put in perspective how I think sometimes we we respond to things. Imagine this that God saw mankind saw mankind fall unable to save himself and Bound for hell and in response. He says That's really sad.
That's a tough break. Jesus himself is the compassion of God in action. God is kind-hearted. We need to be kind-hearted. Jesus wept. One of my favorite verses to memorize was Jesus wept. John John 11 31 to 36, you know when I was a new believer and I just thought I'd be you know, so cool.
Oh, I'm memorizing scripture John 11 35. John 11 31 to 36, of course, this is the the story of Lazarus Mary and Martha verse 31 then the Jews who were with her in the house and. And Consoling her when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out.
They followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore when Mary came where Jesus was she saw him and fell at his feet saying to him Lord If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping. He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled and said where have you laid him. They said to him Lord come and see. Jesus wept so the Jews were saying see how he loved him now.
There's a lot going on here and I can't really go through all of it. But the tears of Jesus were not out of sorrow for Lazarus. In fact, I think it's safe to argue. They weren't really out of sorrow for Martha or Mary either.
And Jesus as we all know had delayed going there for several days and he knew that Lazarus was not only dead. But that he was going to bring him back from the dead now he may have been sad for some of the emotions and some of the trauma that Mary and Martha were going through but MacArthur notes That his sadness was really out of grief for a fallen world in sin caused sorrow and death.
Because some of those people that were there weeping were actually paid to weep. I don't know if you've been to any kind of an Asian culture when somebody dies, but I remember Going once when I in my former occupation.
There was a probably I think he was like maybe 90 years old 90-year-old Korean man who had been literally Just shrunk to almost nothing by cancer over a number of years and The way the women were crying.
You'd have thought he was five and you know had a heart attack or something like that they were carrying on like and I I mean I almost want to if I could have I would have left the room because there it was just so loud and they were just carrying on and.
And and it's into this culture that or this kind of mindset where they just weep and they wail and they were in this case Making a big show of their sorrow. And see even the Jews were saying see how he loved him because they thought he was really moved with compassion over the death of Lazarus.
And that wasn't the case. He knew he was bringing him back to life. He was saddened by what he saw. He was saddened by the impact that sin has on this fallen world. But he had compassion he came here.
Why? To seek and save that which was lost. He came as God's remedy for sin. Compassion therefore is a Mark of a believer. Why. Because if we are Children of our Father in heaven, then we have his spiritual as it were DNA.
It's built into us to have compassion if we don't have compassion here. Here's a just a concept that is foreign to the Bible a Christian without compassion. A Christian who is not deeply moved by the sorrow and the sadness of others.
A Christian who does not have an empathetic worldview who cannot feel and sympathize and Long to help those who are suffering. Fifthly. You must be humble. You must be humble. He goes on after the other ones.
He says brotherly kind-hearted and humble in spirit. One writer says humility is arguably the most essential all-encompassing virtue of the Christian life. Remember shortly after I got saved a friend was coming over and he was discipling me and after he would leave I Always loved great as I faithfulness and and my son and I you know.
It would my son started bragging or whatever. I would sing. I would change the words to great as thy humbleness, you know when he when he started getting a little out of line he thought it was great fun, so he'd sing it to you, but Humility is a very important virtue.
Why. Because it it it shows that we understand what God has done for us if we think somehow that we're good. That we're above the fray then we have missed the whole point of salvation. Hebert says this it is the opposite.
Being humble is the opposite of haughty and high-minded. Humility does not brag about and push self it rejoices over the successes of others. You ever met somebody that just cannot be happy when someone else is doing well, it's not because they're a humble person.
It's because they hate the set the the the success of others. They want to be in the spotlight and they can't take it when somebody else is in the spotlight. What causes humility. What brings about humility.
A right view of ourselves. Understanding who we really are. Reflecting on what God has done for us. Where we would be if it were not for the grace of God. Now why would a person who? Understands that who understands what humility is seek to advance himself as someone worthy of note.
Why would somebody do that they the answer is they wouldn't. Why would you push yourself forward and say here I am. If you really understood who you were what? Demonstrates humility. What shows that. One of the things that might show it is the ability to rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
Being able to rejoice when somebody comes alongside you and says you know what I just I just Won $10 ,000 on who wants to be a millionaire. I just got a new car. I Just got a promotion. I just got engaged.
I just found out we're gonna have a baby. Now we think well I could rejoice in all those things. Some are easier than others. But for people who you know when somebody comes along and says great things are happening in my life.
And they go. I don't really want to talk about that. There's a certain amount of jealousy and what is jealousy. Jealousy is a lack of humility. It is saying listen. I don't like the fact that good things are happening to you because they're not happening to me, and it's all really about me.
You must be humble. You must have a right understanding of who you are and rejoice when someone else does well you must also Respond well to your adversaries your enemies. Does that sound familiar. You must love your enemies might say.
We're gonna see a few different aspects of that first you must exhibit self-control. When confronted by your adversaries look at verse 9. Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult now. Why do I say that take self-control because what is the natural reflex?
I mean, it's like a tennis match somebody knocks evil over the net and you knock it right back at him. That's what we want to do. That's our reflex. When he writes they're not returning. Returning is to recompense to pay back.
Whether in a good or bad sense. To render in this case basically we could just say it is to give as good as you're getting. You want to give them exactly what they gave you? And it is also a present act of participle meaning that it is an ongoing prohibition.
You are never Allowed to return evil for evil. Characteristically you should avoid it permanently now. You say well gee that's not really fair because these unbelievers are assaulting me. They're saying this about me.
They're doing that to me. You don't really understand. Well. Here's what I understand unbelievers act like. On believers and when you respond the same way that they're treating you what are you acting like an Unbeliever.
We are not to join them in their evil. Doing evil is any action without a good motive taken against another. An Insult is any kind of verbal abuse. You say verbal abuse. I I read that and I thought how many times do I hear?
From believers, you know, you don't understand. She's verbally abusive. He's verbally abusive. I do understand I Understand perfectly, but there is no justification for returning evil. There is no justification for returning insults.
It has been well said. I think elder Lewis pastor Lewis says this frequently if you want to wrestle With a pig what happens. You get dirty and the pig likes it. I mean you are going into the unbelievers home court and you're saying bring it on.
I want to be just like you. Let's get down in the mud. You are putting the unbeliever completely at ease now think about that for just a minute. You are putting him completely at ease. Why. Because this is what he's used to this is how he lives and you're saying you know what I'm gonna be exactly like you.
What happens if you do something differently. What happens if you don't hit that insult back over the net. They don't know what to do. They they're just gonna be perplexed if you don't try to get even with an unbeliever.
You just completely throwing them off their game. They don't know how to respond to that. And what does that give you it gives you an opportunity? You do that long enough you repeat that over and over again, and you are going to get the opportunity to present the gospel to that person.
If they say something to you if they insult you restrain your tongue. And you might say well, you don't understand. I have a temper. I come from a long line of bad tempers. I'm Irish. I am fill-in-the-blank.
I whatever your reason is I can't Help myself, I can't stop myself repeat after me. Galatians 5 22 and 23 the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and I'll add the end in there self-control.
The answer is if you have the Spirit of God abiding in you you can control yourself. But it takes effort it takes work. Sanctification is work. If it was easy it would just be boom sanctified. It's not easy.
You're gonna like this next one. You must eulogize your adversaries. You're like oh, I'd love to do that. I love to go to their funeral and just preach away. Look at verse 9. Instead of doing those things instead of hitting the insults and the evil back over the net give a blessing instead.
Now I chose the word eulogize because that's the Greek root word is is the same thing. And it means to speak well of. Now we associate it with funerals. But you don't have to wait till their funeral to say something nice about them instead of fighting fire with fire.
You are commanded to speak well of others. Even to praise them to say nice things back to them. They throw the insult at you. You say something nice about them. Sometimes that might take a lot of work.
You know, did you ever have to say something good about someone and you were like, I'm stumped. I don't know what to say. Work at it. But the idea is to demonstrate unconditional love. Conditional love is you know, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you.
And what did Jesus say? We heard it this morning. There's nothing in that. Unconditional love is they're vile to you. They are evil to you. They are insulting to you and you're kind. Gentle and loving toward them.
They attack you but instead of counterattacking. You say nice things about them. Maybe you even forgive them. You express gratitude for them. And can I say that that could be very very helpful if you're dealing with a family member.
How about this? How about praying for them? Evangelizing them. Someone even asked this one this morning, but what if I Don't want to say something nice to them. What if I don't feel? Like loving my enemies being nice to my adversaries.
What if I don't feel like it? What if I really don't want to? Listen carefully. Feelings Is a worldly concept. Feelings is how unbelievers live. Feelings is why they're miserable. Feelings have nothing to do with it.
It's obedience. It is obedience to God. We don't go in our feelings if we do that we're living no differently than unbelievers are. To die is gain and to live is Christ when we put our feelings first.
We are not showing the work of God in our lives. We have to put aside our feelings. We have to suppress our feelings. Our feelings are irrelevant entirely. You must remember that you have been forgiven much.
Look at again in verse 9. For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. You say wait a second. Hold on. Where does it say that you must remember that you've been forgiven much?
Okay, good fair enough. If you are a Christian, let me just Kind of walk down this road here. If you are a Christian you have been called, correct? Correct. One writer says Brownson says Christians bless others not in order that they should inherit a blessing but because it is God's will and their duty and That duty follows from the fact that God has made them inheritors of his.
Blessing your blessing is assured. As I said before it's reserved for you in heaven. You know where you're going and Because of that blessing you have been charged with an obligation. The purpose you have been given the purpose of blessing others.
Now, of course the greatest good you can possibly give to anybody that you could possibly speak to anyone is the gospel. Now like I said earlier you don't know when someone is going to get saved. I have many unbelieving family members.
We don't know and I'm certain that there were people praying for me for a long time before I got saved. You don't know when God is going to save someone as much like The widow and the unjust judge. We just keep pleading with God.
We keep pleading with God and pleading with God and God is just he will do what's right. He will save. Not in every case, but we never give up. Think about that 95 years old. You must remember that you have been forgiven much.
How much did you please God before salvation? Zero. Everything you did was an affront to him and he forgave you everything and with that comes a burden. You must also be optimistic. Optimistic. Look at verse 10 for the one who desires life.
To love and see good days. To be optimistic in this case. It's simply to trust in God. Life will be filled with good and bad events. But when you trust the Lord. Entirely your days on earth will all be good or will they be bad?
They're all good. This description is from Psalm 34. The psalmist wrote the one who desires life to love and see good days. Well. Do unbelievers desire life to love and see good days? The answer is ultimately no.
They don't desire life. They don't desire eternal life. They don't desire to love God and they're not going to have good days because life is going to be a roller coaster. It was kind of amazing to read what some of the things that Bill Gates said this week about money you just go.
Here's a guy who has billions and billions of dollars and and then he says, you know, capitalism doesn't really work. I'm gonna well. Okay, that's your opinion. Now that you're you're in that but I've got another note this week got a lot of notes this week.
But one from another friend who's on the West Coast in chemotherapy. His wife sent this note. Said that the nurses and doctors who are treating him are delighted to have him as a patient. Why. Because he walks in there to get chemotherapy and to have the surgery done and he is laughing and telling jokes the whole time.
How could he do that? You know think about if you work. I just heard a nurse the other day talking about how she wanted to go to this chemotherapy thing. But she heard it's a real grind because you know you're dealing with people that are on the verge of death and they're dying and their whole lives are misery.
And here's a guy who walks in to get this treatment and he's laughing telling jokes making it all the doctors and nurses happy. Why. Because he knows where he's going and what's gonna happen when they say Nick, I don't understand how you can be so joyful.
How could you be so happy? You know, what is happening to you is gonna be painful. It's gonna be prolonged and you might not make it and he says to live is Christ die is game. It is only someone whose hope is in the next world who can live through the difficulties of this world with joy.
To keep this sense of joy and optimism you must a couple of little notes here sanctify your speech. Why do you need to sanctify your speech? We'll look at 10b must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit.
Now is there never an excuse for insults and returning evil for evil, but what happens to a believer? If you allow your tongue to get the better of you. Are you joyful? Are you happy? Do you have good days?
It says there No. You've pushed the spirit away from you. You've brought misery to yourself because you've dishonored God and You've created a chasm between you and the person you said those things to there is nothing.
I mean we could we could walk through James we can walk through what Jesus said in Mark. It is the tongue that defiles you it is the tongue that causes you more grief. The things that you say to people cause you More problems than anything else in this life.
You must sanctify your speech. You must also seek God. Verse 11 he must turn away from evil and do good. Christians are to flee iniquity. Flee iniquity run from it not think about it not kind of. Get our hands involved in it or our feet wet or whatever.
We're to flee iniquity instead do what? Perform acts pleasing to God. We are to seek to please him. We are his. We've been bought with a price. And finally we are to seek peace. Verse 11. He must seek peace and pursue it in and the idea here is that of a hunter.
Just turning over every possible rock looking in every hole. Looking for peace seeking it with all men as much as it depends on you as Paul wrote. And in all of this We have something that is without equal.
In all these things that seem like sometimes they're difficult. We have something that is without equal access to a loving and caring father. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer.
Now God's eyes are on the righteous. On believers and that indicates what that he has eyes that they're blue that he's six feet tall. No, it just means that we have God's tender Watchful attentive care that he is constantly watching us and note here.
Also, it says his ears are attentive to our pleading and that's the kind of prayer that it's talking about here. It's that sort of intercessive pleading prayer. Commentator Hebert says it is though God bows down to catch the faintest prayer.
Addressed to him by his children that he's so involved that he's so attentive to his children. That he longs to see what they're doing that he's paying close attention that he's watching over them taking care of them.
And then he listens to their prayers. Now in contrast to the attentiveness that God lavishes on his children much like Psalm 1 for our text tells us Psalm 1 for puts it this way the wicked are not so and they don't have these promises.
They don't have the kind of Attention and kind of care that's lavished on the children of God. In fact our text says. But the face of the Lord is Against those who do evil he remains there what their friend or their enemy their enemy.
He is opposed to those who do evil and the wording here makes it clear that it is in their DNA. Those who do not love God those who are unbelievers everything that they do is evil in God's sight. Now here's a comforting thought as children of God as Believers our enemies are his enemies.
He is watching them he is watching those who do these things to you he's marking their sinfulness and Ultimately should have come to that he will judge them. But Think about this to talk about praying for them with God all things are possible with regard to salvation.
And he can turn the heart of his enemies and your enemies to himself. How much better would it be to have someone say someone who despised you someone who? Cast insults in all manner of Evil activity at you to see that person come to faith in Christ and then to come to you and say When I was an unbeliever I treated you unmercifully can you forgive me.
Now here's a scary thought every unbeliever. Every single unbeliever that you run into is a potential enemy. Just as that young man who says he's a homosexual and hates anyone that wants to tell him the truth.
Anyone who's going to tell him that he's bound for hell unless he receives Christ. Unbelievers hate God and when they find out that you love God, there's a strong possibility. It's going to affect your relationship with them.
They're not gonna like you but our calling in the face of persecution potential persecution. Whatever is to be faithful to God. We must be united. We must share one another's burdens. We must love others.
We must be compassionate be humble respond well to your adversaries be Optimistic and if you're optimistic if you're living this life like you love it like you can't wait for the next one. But you're going to enjoy every single moment while you're here by the grace of God.
You will sanctify your speech seek God or seek good and Seek peace. Let's pray our Father in heaven. What a great joy it is to know that you have Fixed your eyes as it were upon us. That you've been down to hear our prayers Lord that you have lavished your tender care as a perfect father upon us.
Lord, would you strengthen each of us? To think of our enemies as potential brothers and sisters in Christ to think of them as those we ought to pray for those we ought to give our Unconditional love to Father that we might even rejoice in seeing the opportunity to preach the gospel to them.
Lord, would you even gives us the opportunity to see enemies turn to you? That you might take out their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh just as you have done for us. Father, would you make us those who would never return evil for evil or insult for insult?
Would you bring about a great unity here at Bethlehem Bible Church that we might have a greater impact on the unbelieving world around us. Would you let us never shrink from proclaiming your truth? Would you let us never stray over?
The small things that could become divisions. Father, would you just Work on us here that we might love one another as we ought to truly as brothers and sisters in Christ. That we might rejoice with those to whom you grant magnificent blessings and Come alongside those who are in times of difficulty.
Would you give us a compassion for those who are hurting that we might? Encourage them love them strengthen them and point them back to you in your word Father would you change each of us conform each of us into the image of your son?
That we might please you in all that we do and think in Christ name we pray.