Peter's Exhortation On Preparing For Suffering Series

Faith on Trial

Ready to Answer…

April 17, 2016, a.m. (1Peter 3:13-17) Command Baptist Church

And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness 'sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing, (vs. 13-17)

TEXT: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, (vs. 15).

The day is coming and fast approaching when your faith will be on trial. If you have been in tuned with what is taking place in America, no, North Carolina, you know that we have come to unprecedented days in this country alone. What will you do when you are called into question at work about your faith? What will you do when you are hauled into court answer for ridiculous charges against you for sharing your personal testimony about Jesus Christ with someone?

These are perilous times and troublesome days for the serious minded Christian believer. I’m not speaking to the “go along to get along,” or a “to each his own” kind of Christian this morning. I’m speaking to the serious minded, patron of the Christian faith who knows they have been washed in the blood of Christ and their sins have been forgiven.

I’m speaking to you this morning as your pastor and friend. I’m speaking to you as one serious Christian to serious Christians. I want to speak the truth to you in love and I hope you will receive that truth in love. I owe you the truth and you deserve to hear it.

The media has been lying to you about what is going on in America. They want you to feel guilty because you are a Christian. They want you to bend the rules of the Christian faith to accommodate worldly, unbiblical, nonsensical, ideas. They want you to put your faith on the back burner and tolerate the mores of modern society. If you can do that, you will be accepted by the world and acceptable to them. But, if you continue to stand firm in the faith, you will be opposed and persecuted.

The ungodly media wants you to believe that it is you that is abnormal in society because you go to church, read the Bible, have a living relationship with Jesus Christ, pray, and live for God. They want you to believe that normalcy in America is that of the in-your-face, sexually promiscuous, anti-God, and anti-Christian LGBT community and that you are not only abnormal, but a nuisance to the whole of society. To the liberal media and this ungodly society you are the problem. Am I making myself clear?

The media is the primary method of communication in modern society. 200 years ago in American history, the church was the main form of communication. Nether TV or radio existed in those days. People went to church to find out what was going on in their world. The pastor was in the know about the trends of modern society. Preachers kept their parishioners informed, but that has changed in this century. The church is in decline due to the faithlessness and lack of commitment by its congregations. The liberally biased, anti-God, multi-billion dollar media wants to control the information flow and they are withholding the truth form the American public.

What are you going to do about it? We could just do nothing. Why not just worry about meeting the needs of your household, take care of your family, and let everyone else worry about theirs? Why not just take care of your four and no more and let everything else go? If you can’t do anything about it, why worry about it? Right? Why stir things up and just make them worse for you? Wouldn’t it be better just to accept the inevitable?

Simon Peter wrote this passage to the strangers, “the persecuted church,” who were scattered abroad because of religious persecution. Though it was written 2,000 years ago, the message rings loud and clear America this morning, though most of the church doesn’t know it.

What is it that Simon Peter wants you to know? He wants you to know that if you are a sincere, sold out, surrendered believer to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you can expect some suffering to come your way by the hands of this godless, evil world! Persecution might come to you by being: