Shameless Suffering for the Gospel

Transcript

GR 1949
04/17/2016
Shameless Suffering for the Gospel
I Peter 4:14-19
Gil Rugh

Alright, we are going in your Bibles to I Peter chapter 4. It is a great privilege we have to be passing on the truth of God. We share the truth. Not only outside our congregation but how important and precious it is to share it within our church family as well. Again I encourage you to be praying. We have so many faithful people that work with our young people from the nursery on up through the ages as they get older, caring for them and building the Word into their lives, being faithful in nurturing them in the truth. We need to be praying for them whether you have kids in these ages or not, we need to be praying for them and the coming generations should the Lord tarry.

Peter is writing to those he is concerned for. Peter is a Jew, one of the original followers of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. The most well-known to us probably along with the Apostle John but during the earthly ministry Peter has a way of speaking up and we get to know him and appreciate him and he is matured greatly. He stumbled at the end of Christ’s earthly ministry but he is restored to fellowship. Through the book of Acts he is the key figure from the beginning of the church right on through to the carrying of the Gospel to the Gentiles in Acts chapter 10 and then with Paul’s conversion in chapter 9 of Acts we will transition to Paul becoming the pre-eminent figure in talking about the spreading of the Gospel out to Gentile parts of the world, not just to Gentiles within the region of Israel but carrying the Gospel to Gentile nations which is a blessing that has come down to us.

Peter is writing to Jewish believers like himself scattered out in the Gentile world and it is a difficult world. It is a world of persecution and opposition. Not only for these Jews because they are Jews and that anti-Semitism has been characteristic of the world since God choose Abraham and his descendants but now these Jews have become believers in the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. So they have, if you will, not only the stigma from the world’s perspective of being Jewish but now they are also the outsiders with an unrecognized religion, Christianity, and even their Jewish families would have turned against them. So Peter writes to encourage them.

He started this letter by reminding them of the blessings that are ours. Back in chapter 1, verse 3 he noted the blessings that have come from God and cause us to praise Him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again.” We want to praise God endlessly for His mercy and grace in saving us and that salvation has been to an ultimate destiny, a living hope brought about through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance that is reserved in heaven. So they look back to the salvation they entered into and forward to the hope they have and the inheritance that is theirs and the glory of God’s presence, the reality now living between those two events can be very difficult.

So he talks to them about verse 6 that “They are now perhaps for a little while being distressed by various trials.” Their faith is undergoing a purifying testing and refining process and even in that they are assured in verse 5 that they are “protected by the power of God through faith in anticipation of the ultimate realization of their salvation.” It is the trials of this present time that weigh upon us and that is true for us as Gentile believers in our day. We praise God for the salvation we have in Christ. We praise God for the hope we have in Christ but we have to live in the present with the hope of the future.

So when you come over to chapter 4 where we are, verses 12 to the end of the chapter verse 12 to 19 Peter has been talking about their suffering and it is intense. He calls it a “fiery ordeal” and they shouldn’t be surprised. Verse 12 of chapter 4: “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you and it comes upon you for your testing.” There is a purpose in it and this is not some strange thing. It is part of God’s plan and that is a comfort. That is an encouragement.

Trials by their very nature are difficult. There are pressure points in our lives and sometimes we get to thinking it must be something wrong with me. Maybe I am not functioning like I should and that’s why my life is difficult. How often I have had people come and talk and you know as we sit here and we look around we see people and it seems people are doing fine. We don’t know what is going on in somebody’s mind and perhaps in their life and people think nobody else is going through what I am going through. And he is reminding these believers they are not unusual and they may be in a portion of the world where the suffering is more intense than in other portions but God is sovereign in this. It is part of His plan and it is a blessing and it is a privilege.

He is talking about suffering primarily that is related to our identification with Christ and the opposition that that brings. There are principles and applications as is true in any kind of trial but Peter is particularly focusing on the trials that are coming to them because they have a clear, strong, bold testimony for Christ in an ungodly world and it is a blessing to suffer in identification with Jesus Christ. Keep on rejoicing at the privilege He has given you to suffer for Christ. Peter could speak from experience.

Come back to the book of Acts chapter 5 and Peter had been imprisoned for preaching the Gospel and experiencing the opposition of Jewish unbelievers and then he is miraculously released but he is re-arrested. They come before the Jewish Council, the Jewish leadership to be questioned, verse 27 of Acts 5 and they tell Peter and those with him. “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in His name and you have filled Jerusalem with His teaching.” What a testimony. What a great testimony that we have filled our city with the message of Jesus Christ. We have carried it to people’s doorsteps, to their homes, we have shared it when we meet them. We have filled the city. What a testimony!

And you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us because part of the testimony that Jesus has to carry to these Jews is, you are guilty, you have rejected your Messiah. You called for Roman leadership to crucify Him. Peter’s answer is simple: “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus” and you will note, there is no giving on the truth of the Gospel. “The God of our fathers” and he is connecting it to their Jewish heritage. “He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God raised up Jesus. So in your opposition to Jesus, your opposition was being displayed toward the God of the fathers “whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the One whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins, and we are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. But when they heard this, they were cut to the quick.” They are pierced in their hearts. That truth is so convicting but it is not convicting in a way that brings them to salvation. It is one of the things that stirs up animosity toward the Gospel when you share it. There is always a response. We desire them to respond and turn from their sin and place their faith in the Savior that we present but sometimes it is just feeling the guilt, the conviction of their sin and their unwillingness to repent. So their response is they want to kill them just like they killed their Messiah. That is where so much opposition is. The more open we are with the faith, the more bold we are with the truth, the more the unbeliever is antagonized by it. These are men who claim to be representing God in their opposition.

So when Gamaliel speaks, brings a little bit of sanity to the meeting of the council they take his advice. They don’t proceed to try to kill them but verse 4: “They took his advice and after calling the apostles in they flogged them;” a very unpleasant experience. They are severely beaten here. “And they ordered them again not to speak in the name of Jesus and they released them and they went on their way (moaning, discouraged, no,) they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. and every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

So Peter on more than one occasion had experienced the very thing he is encouraging them. The intense opposition, the physical suffering and pain that faithfulness to Christ and the message of the Gospel brought and he had rejoiced in that. We won’t go over but later the Apostle Paul in Philippi in Acts chapter 16 they are beaten, they are put in the stocks in the inner prison and what are Paul and Silas doing in the middle of the night? Complaining, asking God what went wrong? They are singing songs.

You know we keep things in perspective. It is the work of the devil when we share the Gospel and we get a negative response saying, “Go away.” And we think oh I must have done something wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so bold. Maybe it wasn’t the right time. You know, maybe we ought to say, “Thank You Lord.” That doesn’t mean I do it improperly. If I am being paid to do a job that doesn’t mean I take my employer’s time and I am going through the business sharing the Gospel, no. You know sometimes I think we take as a closed door and that we are not good at sharing the Gospel because when I share it I usually get opposition. Well maybe the Lord is just using you to sow the seeds. Some sow seeds, some water seeds, some reap. In the reaping there is an exceptional privilege because you see a response but we are all in the same ministry together in that; so the rejoicing that goes with the suffering.

Come back to I Peter 4. It is part of God’s blessing that we should be privileged to be so identified with Christ and the rejection He experienced because we are so clearly identified with Him. Then the warning he comes to remind them, make sure than none of you “suffer as a murderer” in I Peter 4:15 “or a thief, or evil-doer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.”

We want to keep a perspective that as a Christian you can’t push everything over and say well I am suffering as Christian. Yes, I lost my job because of my testimony. Maybe I lost my job because I didn’t do my job. Maybe people are complaining about me because of not doing what I should or doing the wrong thing. So it’s not lack of clarity because “make sure none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief.” You say well that’s a pretty extreme example. This is the obvious, you shouldn’t even have to write it. You should know that as a Christian you shouldn’t murder other people but that’s the point. You use these extreme examples to make the point. We shouldn’t suffer for doing the wrong thing. Well, you know they came after me because of my income tax filing. You know I claimed that I gave more than I really gave. I think they were just picking on me because they are looking for Christians. Well maybe did I give as much as I said I gave for example? Did I have an honest report? Well, they were being picky. Well that’s fine. They are allowed to be picky. You know the police officer gives me a ticket. I was only going 11 miles over the speed limit. Probably saw my bumper sticker with a cross on it, I am sure. You know we have to be honest before the Lord. Not all suffering is suffering related to our testimony for Christ. Part of suffering is part of being in a fallen world but none of us ought to suffer as believers because we do the wrong thing. And when we do, we make the correction as quickly as we can.

Murder, thief, evil-doer, the broad word. All kinds of wrong doing. Troublesome meddler is the most difficult word here because it is a unique word. It doesn’t appear in Greek any other time before this. It doesn’t appear anywhere else in the New Testament. And it only appears three times in subsequent years here. So it is pretty much troublesome meddler, someone who is literally overseeing other people’s business if you are just going to take the parts of the word. Overseeing other people’s affairs – meddling. And those three other texts to come in later Christian context have to do with meddling in things that are not one’s business. You know just because I am a believer doesn’t mean I ought to be meddling in everything. I am called to a specific task.

You know Peter was arrested but not for advocating overthrow of the Roman Emperor, not for meddling in the political process and trying to promote rebellion to get a political situation as more favorable to Christians. He was being in trouble for proclaiming the Gospel and it’s with religious Jewish leaders who didn’t like that message. They aren’t doing anything to unsettle the Roman authority and Roman rule and in text around the time of this early church you have testimony writers these so called Christians they follow Christ they have crucified but there is nothing particularly subversive except they won’t join in the worship of the emperor or when it comes to that line they draw.

Many Christians ought to be careful about getting in things that are not really what God says the church ought to be doing. I think the political process is one of that. We need to be very careful. I am mentioning this but we are in that political season now and we do have rights and so it’s not that we are advocating overthrow of the government but we don’t need to stir trouble up where we don’t need it. We want to present the Gospel to people whether they are political conservatives or political liberals we want to present the Gospel in every kind of context, to every kind of people. We need to be careful what we meddle in and that would be true of our jobs. We are not here to try to change the morality of our government, quite frankly. We are here to present the Gospel that will change lives. So we don’t want to be meddling in things that are not our business. We want to make sure we stay on track Biblically.

One thing that helped clarify things many years when our church was sued for church discipline. Both sides agreed that as long as we were doing what the Bible said we had the freedom to do that and so those representing those suing us were constantly, they had combed through material from us, my messages to say, “Were you doing it here? Did you follow the Bible here? You say you follow the Bible and stick with the Bible and I thought that was good. It pushed us under pressure to say we had to do this because the Bible requires it and we could say with Peter, “We must obey God rather than men.” So we don’t want to be meddling in things that we just maybe have personal opinions on.

I am not saying you can’t have personal opinions; you can’t be involved in the political process. I think you need to be very careful about connecting it to your Christianity and our testimony for Christ. Well I am for this candidate because I think he is more consistent with Biblical principles. I just think we need to be careful.

“If anyone suffers as a Christian do not be ashamed.” Do not be ashamed. Maybe I ought to take you back to 2 Thessalonians before we completely leave this being a meddler. You know we are all nosey people, sometimes we are noisy people but we are also nosey. You know there is something about liking to hear and know.

I mean I can’t believe since I am not on social media how many people seem to be interested in knowing things about other people or telling things about themselves to other people. It is amazing.

Look at 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6: “Now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life, not according to the tradition you received from us. You know how you ought to follow our example. We didn’t act in an undisciplined manner.” And that would include working diligently to provide for the needs that you have in your family and he goes on.

Then down in verse 11: “We hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.” It is not the same word we have in Peter but the same idea. You end up talking about things you shouldn’t be talking about; that kind of idea. In I Timothy 5:13 Paul cautions certain women to be careful about that. So it would tie to that same idea.

But if we suffer as Christians we are not to be ashamed. Well yes, he’s a Christian, she’s a Christian. Oh yes, given the opportunity they will talk to you about the Bible. They will be asking where you are going to spend eternity as if it was their business. It is amazing that you can talk about so many things but yes, we would like to talk about that. I want to be sensitive to the setting, the situation. I want to realize there are certain places it may not be appropriate. I wouldn’t want people necessarily interrupting, you know my job, to come and tell me why I ought to convert to Islam. Right now I have work to do but that doesn’t mean there aren’t appropriate times to do it. If you suffer for being a believer, your testimony for Christ, don’t be ashamed.

You know it is amazing. We are ashamed. We do get embarrassed. We are all like that and you know we begin to think, what will they think, what will they think of me and then we try to paper it over. Well maybe it’s not appropriate to bring it up and so we don’t speak even when there would be nothing inappropriate about speaking about it. We are talking about their religious beliefs or something like that you know, well if I bring in they will probably you know, not going to like that. Well if we are talking about it I can share mine. You can do it appropriately.

Come over to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is Paul’s last letter and he is in prison when he is writing. His final imprisonment that will culminate with his execution and he is confident of that because as you are aware at the end of his letter he says the process that will culminate in my execution is already under way. So he doesn’t express the same hope that he had in an earlier imprisonment that he thought the Lord was going to have him released. But he has an exhortation to Timothy, verse 8. In verse 7 he says “God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power, love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner but join with me in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God.” Interesting here, one of Paul’s closest, a younger associate in his life he has to challenge him, be careful of sliding into timidity. Verse 6: “Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you.” That is sort of what we were talking about earlier. Back to those early days of your conversion and the fire and the enthusiasm and the boldness you had with the Gospel. Stir that up, Timothy. That spirit of timidity, cowardness doesn’t come from the Lord. As we depend upon Him and trust Him He gives us the spirit of power, love, discipline to go forward and do what we should even in the face of that which can be intimidating. Don’t be ashamed of the testimony of Christ. It has to be taken as a rebuke in its own way. Paul loves Timothy.

You have to tell someone. Let me stop and think about it. Think over the last three months. How many people have you talked to about Jesus Christ and told the Gospel to? Am I ashamed of Him? Am I reluctant to be identified with Him? Am I unprepared? How often we walk away as we reflect on a conversation we had to think, boy that was a perfect opportunity. What was I thinking? I could have said something there. You know but it gets pushed in the background of our lives and afterwards it is difficult to go back and redo that situation. At least we can learn from it and say I am going to be ready.

I hope you read the article in our newsletter today on that. Maybe beginning today you can be praying for opportunities to speak and to let the Lord make us sensitive to those opportunities and we go out prepared. That is part of what my day is about, looking for someone to speak to.

Down in verse 12 Paul says to Timothy, still in 2 Timothy: “For this reason I also suffer these things but I am not ashamed.” I am suffering but I am suffering because of my testimony for Christ and I am not ashamed of that. I am not embarrassed. Paul is not sitting here feeling boy you know, my enemies are going to say, “See, he failed. The God he serves doesn’t have much power.” I am not ashamed at all.

Down in verse 16: “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains.” You know why? The previous verse, “All who are in Asia turned away from me including Phygelus and Hermogenes.” You know I don’t know if it is a good time to get identified with Paul in an imprisonment there you could end up as a fellow prisoner. Onesiphorus, he came to refresh me. He wasn’t ashamed of my chains. He wasn’t ashamed to be identified with me as a prisoner of the Lord.

So chapter 2 will open up: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 3 of chapter 2: “Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier.” Don’t get entangled with the activities of this life which keep you from being a good soldier.

Come back to Peter. This is the theme; these men that led the way in the early years of the church. You say, oh boy wouldn’t it have been exciting to be a part of that? Remember John Mark bailed on the first missionary journey. It is easy to read history and say, “Wow, I would like to have been part of that.” But you know where the Lord has placed us in our time in history so we can continue the testimony, continue the boldness. You know He didn’t put me back then. He put me today but the exhortation of what I am to be and how I am to go about my ministry. Think of the number of believers we have in this city of Lincoln. It is small compared to the number of unbelievers but what a force. If every true believer in this city is about making the Gospel known would it take that long to saturate the city with the Gospel? We would be going over again, we would be overlapping. This is the same message I heard from someone else two days ago. You are the fourth person who has talked to me about that. We are happy to be identified with Christ. “We glorify, in 1 Peter 4:16 God in His name.” If it brings suffering, it brings all that it brings.

Verse 17: “It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.” And you know it sort of takes us back. It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. I had thought we escaped judgment. In one sense we do, that ultimate condemning judgment that will fall upon the unbeliever but what God is doing in preparation for the judgment He is going to bring on a lost world is that refining judgment of His people as with trial, persecution, opposition does. It is a refining process. It is a building process. It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.

This fits with what Peter said back in verse 7 of this chapter. “The end of all things is near.” The end of all things is near and we must be even more diligent. If this was true was Peter wrote this how near is it to us now, 2,000 years later? And the more bold. You know it wasn’t that the world was more open to the Gospel in those days necessarily it was the people that went out, went out with a boldness, a costly boldness. It cost them their lives. Peter is going to die for his testimony. Paul will die for his testimony. We act like, well that was different in those days; if I could have been with Paul, if I could have been with Peter. Not everybody was flocking to be with them. We read in 2 Timothy Paul said, “All who are from Asia abandoned me.” Then later in that later you will find one of his closest associates bailed on him, having loved this present world. It was not easy. It was costly.

If Peter or Paul would show up here in our city I think we would soon have turmoil. We might say, “Well we had things going sort of comfortable. They’ve got everybody in an uproar.” Well the Gospel is making an impact. It is either offending and hardening in their opposition or by the grace of God it is softening and drawing them. We can’t have a strong Gospel ministry without getting some kind of response.

It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. This is the refining judgment of His people. “Count it all joy my brethren when you fall into various trials,” because this is what is refining our faith, purifying our faith, strengthening our faith. It begins with the household of God. That is God’s family, God’s people. The church is God’s household. So beginning among God’s people in preparing them for His coming, this refining process. The closer we get to the coming of the Lord the more we ought to expect it.

“If it begins with us first what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the Gospel of God?” A logical, clear question. If God is going to refine His people with suffering and persecution and trial and it is unpleasant for us what would it be like for those who don’t belong to God? His judgment on them will not be to refine them it; will be to crush them and ultimately destroy them in hell. So the trials we are going through are refining.

Back up just before Peter a little bit to the book of Hebrews. James is before Peter and then you will be in Hebrews. Chapter 12 and these were Jewish believers also, remember from our study of Hebrews were growing weary in being faithful with the Gospel and he reminds them. Back in chapter 10, verse 32. This would connect with what we talked about earlier today in our study of the church at Ephesus. “Remember the former days after being you endured a great conflict of suffering being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations.” Verse 35: “Don’t throw away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” And those who turned back were evidence they had no saving faith. They shrink back to destruction. Go back, remember the beginning. Nothing was too great a price to pay. It doesn’t matter what people thought. It doesn’t matter they say. It doesn’t matter if I ever have anything and they had paid the price. This is part of God’s plan in refining.

Then you come over to chapter 12. You understand where this is going. In verse 3: “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.” The Savior is the model. We desire to be like Him and the result and the impact of the truth that He presented was they crucified Him. “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure.” And if you don’t have discipline you don’t belong to Him. This is what is going on.

It ought to encourage us in our boldness. We ought to be experts. One thing that every believer in this church ought to be an expert in is sharing the Gospel, just like that. It is the Gospel that saved you, right? Well I am not gifted as an evangelist. You may not see the people saved that an evangelist sees but that’s different from saying you are an expert in presenting the Gospel. If we are not good at that, if I can’t present the Gospel to someone clearly, simply, concisely, I ought to go home and say “If nothing else happens this week by the end of this week I am going to be able to – and as I always tell you, “Do it out loud, not just in your mind.” There is a place for that but listen to yourself. You hear your voice coming back into your own ears. Where will you spend eternity? Do you know how you can have your sins forgiven? Can you pick up with key verses and take them through the Gospel? Practice it, do it, back and forth. When you are just doing something stop what you are doing and go right into the Gospel. Be careful where you are. If you are at a crosswalk downtown finish going across the street but you get the point.

Come back to I Peter 4; a number of other passages on that refining process. Then he is going to quote from Proverbs 11:31 to reinforce what God is doing. “And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?” The point is we are going through difficulties, through trials, through sufferings. Paul told those early believers on his first missionary journey in Acts chapter 14, verse 22: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

You understand that this present time of our life is a time of trial. It is just going to be that. Now we can thank God we live during a time when we don’t have the fear of being tortured and killed for our faith in our country. There are other parts of the world where that is not the case where Christians are being exterminated but that should not make us soft and comfortable. How much less excuse we have for not being bold with the Gospel. Well, I thought I might be embarrassed, I thought they might not like me. There are people sharing the Gospel today in our world at the cost of their own lives and we are glad that we have a comfortable easy Christianity? I am not saying we are out there to try to stir up trouble. We are out there to try to present the Gospel and we would pray for rulers and leaders who would continue to provide an environment for us as Paul told Timothy that we could continue to present the Gospel. Take advantage of it. The danger is when we get a comfortable environment we back off from what the comfortable environment, by that I mean non-overt persecution setting. We become less bold with the Gospel. It ought to be just the opposite, shouldn’t it? There is not going to be anybody arrest me for sharing the Gospel. There is not going to be anybody to imprison me in our country. There is not going to be anyone who is going to meet before the judge as Paul sitting in prison awaiting execution. There is not going to be anyone to crucify me upside down as Peter will eventually experience. In that sense we have nothing to fear.

If God begins this refining process with His own people who have been saved by His grace this is part of His purifying. What is going to become of the godless man and sinner who doesn’t belong to Him, who hasn’t been born in to His family, become a partaker the divine nature? There is no newness now to be strengthened and refined and purified. There is only the sin that must be judged and ultimately judged with the greatest severity, the godless man, the sinner. You know who they are? What will become of the godless man and the sinner, the end of verse 18? Back up to the end of verse 17. It is those who do not obey the Gospel. If you don’t believe in the Son you don’t obey the truth of the Gospel in John 3:36. They don’t respond in obedience to the command of God to believe in His Son. They are godless, they are sinners. Well, I don’t know if you should call them godless. Do you believe the Gospel? Well if you don’t believe the Gospel you are godless. Well I have my own worship. We have our own views. Well from the God of the Bible’s perspective if you don’t believe the Gospel you are godless, a sinner.

“Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” And that is our concern. We are going to do what is right. A statement of Bob Jones, Sr. many years ago, “Do right, do right.” That’s what we are about. We want to do what is right and I have entrusted my soul to the Creator. That is a great way to put it because He is the One who is sovereign over all. He brought the creation into existence and He has determined its outcome and I can entrust my soul to Him. He is a faithful creator and if it is His will that I suffer for my testimony for Him, so be it. The main concern we have is to do what is right. It’s not so difficult but we do slide in.

Sometimes we joke and some of you have joked about what it is like when someone asks you, “What church do you go to? I go in Indian Hills. Oh, yes, I’ve heard about that church. You know we think well sometimes I wish they wouldn’t ask me that. Maybe it opens a door. They say they have heard something about it. You probably heard a variety of things and there are a number of things people say about the church but you know the most important thing about us, have you heard that? You know what is the one thing you ought to know? That I go to that church because – tell them what the Gospel is. Tell them the one thing. You know rather than it being a negative it can be a positive. I don’t doubt there is slander out there. There are lies, there are things said maliciously and not that we are perfect but the things they basically criticize for are to try to discredit, undermine.

Are we ashamed? What do we do? We believe the Scripture. What do we build into our young people’s lives? Well, they indoctrinate. Of course we do. We want to build the truth into their lives. We want them to learn the Scriptures which are able to make them wise unto salvation from the earliest years. We ought to be proud to be identified with Christ, with the ministry He is doing with one another. Simplifies and clarifies our life doesn’t it? You know all these things well what if this, what if that? Maybe this, we say well we have entrusted out souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. In other words when we do what is right. We leave it in the hands of God, what He chooses to do with us. I have been privileged to preach the Gospel for 50 years and I have never been arrested for it, imprisoned for it, tortured for it, threatened with death for it. Others have died for it. We as a church have had the privilege of sharing God’s truth for many years with the worst persecution is maybe people be telling lies about us but that shouldn’t intimidate us. We want to be bold with the Gospel.

Peter writes this to suffering Christians. Right now we live in a context we don’t have to suffer so right here, this is only half of Sunday morning. If each one said we are going to be bold with the Gospel, going to be praying that God will bring across my path someone who must hear the Gospel this week, think of how many people are going to hear the Gospel this week. Multiply that over the next month and there will be unbelievers across my path. I will be ready and looking and trust God to enable me to make the opportunity by His grace and by the work of His Spirit to give them the Gospel. I will be ready to see how God will use us and multiply that out.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your Word. Thank You for those individuals You raised up at the foundational time of the church. When You called the church into existence in those early years of struggle, battle, conflict, persecution, suffering, death. One like Stephen early on stoned for his testimony but bold with his testimony. Lord may we be building a testimony of boldness and clarity with the Gospel that these young people that we had before us this evening will see in us, demonstrated in us, exemplified in us, a love for Christ, a boldness with Your truth, a readiness with the Gospel talking with families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers not losing perspective on what could be the most important event of our day, an opportunity to tell someone else about Jesus Christ. We pray for the week before us. Lord, so many of our contacts through the week will be with those who need to hear the Gospel. May they hear it from us. Use us to that end we pray in Christ’s name, amen.