Congregation let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering his word I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of 1st Peter We're continuing our exposition of 1st Peter and we find ourselves this morning in chapter 3 So if you could find chapter 3 in your Bibles and look at verses Nine through 12, eight through 12, excuse me, we'll be listening to not eight through 12, but we will be focusing on verses nine through 12. So let's find 1 Peter 3, verses eight through 12. If you're following along in a pew Bible, you could find that on page 1015. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's word this morning. The apostle Peter says, 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. As far the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. And we are grateful for it. Let's ask the Lord once again for help this morning as we sit under his holy word. Father God, you've been good to us this week. You have brought us through difficult times. You have brought us through mundane times. You have brought us through good times. You've showed us a whole panoply of different life circumstances, and yet in the midst of all of them, Father, The reason we can be happy, the reason we can be content is that you hold us in your hand and you will never let us go. And you will transfer us in that hand to that new heavens and new earth where all tears will be wiped away, all pain will be eradicated, all frustration and anger and hate and murder will no more be known among the sons and daughters of Adam. And Father, we long for that day, but in the meantime, we pray that you would help us to make much of what it means to live a happy life as a Christian, not according to the world's definition, but according to that ancient pedigree of divine instruction which comes from the mouth of the Lord. Give help to your servant this morning to unpack your word with clarity and precision. We ask these things in your son's name. Amen. Well, in our passage this morning, Peter gives us what many have referred to as an ancient recipe for a happy life. He says in verses 10 and 11, 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. Now this ancient recipe for happy life actually comes from Psalm 34. And if you look in your Bibles and you have something like a study Bible, you can see in the margin on the right or left, or perhaps in the center column, that it comes from Psalm 34. And it's a curious thing that he is drawing from Psalm 34 for a number of different reasons. But the main reason is this, if you look at the title of Psalm 34, written of course by That sweet psalmist of Israel, King David. You'll notice that he says it was a psalm that was written after the Lord had delivered him from feigning madness before King Achish of Philistia. Now if you zoom out a little bit more and you remember that time during David's life, you'll remember that this was a time of great distress for him. This was a time when a young David was fleeing from Saul. Saul who was seeking to take his life. Why? Because David served as a real and present threat to Saul's kingship. An old man named Samuel had come to a young shepherd boy some years before and had pronounced over him an anointing and a blessing that he would be king in Israel. And that was good news and things seemed to be going well. And then soon after that, he slayed a giant and everybody saw him as the hero. And it just seemed like things were getting better and better and better. But before he knew it, spears were being thrown at his head. He was thrust out into the wilderness. He no longer had the comfort of a warm hay bed in the confines of his home, but he was sleeping in the cold, damp environment of a cave. He was alone. He was cold. He was hungry. He was wondering if the very breath that he was taking in on a cold Israel wilderness Judean night would be his last. And yet, it was in the midst of this season that he pens for us an ancient recipe for a happy life. I find that very interesting. I find that very interesting. Why is it? In fact, I can imagine David having a book signing conference after he just published Psalm 34. And as he's taking questions, one of the journalists raises his hands and said, you know, Mr. David, thank you very much for taking my question. Thank you for the book. Very excited. But I must say, the things that you're telling us about, about how to have a happy life, I happen to notice that you don't seem to be having a very happy life right now. I seem to be noticing that you don't seem to be seeing very good days right now. So how is it, David, that you can tell us how to have a happy life when you don't seem to be having one? I could see David answering in this way. That is precisely why this psalm is a perfect recipe for a happy life, because the legitimacy and the soundness of an ancient recipe for a happy life does not come out in how it works in the good times, It comes out in how it works in the bad times. You see, if a recipe for a happy life can buoy you up in the midst of distress, in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of pain, chronic pain, in the midst of broken relationships, then indeed that is a recipe for a happy life. You see, a love for life and covenant with our God is much more than possessions. It is much more than having everything in order. It is much more than having peace in your interpersonal relationships. Loving life and seeing good days is so bound up with what God has done to save us from our greatest enemies, death, hell, and the grave, and what he has promised to give us on that last day that not one of these temporal setbacks, as grave as they are, can rob us of our joy in our creator. Now, make no mistake. That does not mean that we do not hit the blue note from time to time, for we do. Emotions are powerful things, but what our king has promised us so eclipses the temporal setbacks in this life that we can have a constant bottomless treasure chest of joy from which to draw at the right hand of the king. In fact, David describes this happy life in vibrant HD Technicolor ways in Psalm 23 when he says this, you have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. I want you to think about that for a second. I just want you to think about your past week this week. struggles that you may have endured, the temptations that you may have endured, the discomfort and the disquietude that you may have endured. Was it possible for you as a Christian in the midst of all that anarchy, in the midst of all that, the vicissitudes of life, to have, as it were, a table in the midst of your enemies, in the midst of your circumstances, where peace was served by the hand of the King? Do you know that that, as Christians, is what has been promised to us? Do you know that peace in the midst of turmoil is a privilege of the inheritance that we have as sons and daughters of God? This is something that we can have. This is something that we do have, and yet, it is something that we must work and cultivate to enjoy. Well, this same scenario was the scenario of these hearers in the churches of Asia Minor to which Peter was addressing his letter. They didn't have Saul chasing them, but they certainly had a Saul-like figure chasing them. They were experiencing persecution, ostracization, shame, and humiliation from enemies of the cross, perhaps even members of the state. And like David, they desired a place at this table prepared by God in the presence of their enemies that would see joy uninterrupted overflow from their cups. They needed an ancient recipe for a happy life. And there are many recipes out there today that are proffered by people. Most of them are proffered by charlatans. But what Peter gives us and what the Lord gives us this morning is an irrevocable ancient recipe for a happy life that you can take with you this morning back home and into work on Monday morning. So let's consider it this morning. I wanna consider three ingredients of this ancient recipe for a happy life. And before that, let me just give you a big picture. I think we could boil down what Peter and David are saying to this. A happy life is one that is at peace before the face of the Lord, despite the storm raging round about. So let's let's consider this. And actually, let me say one more thing before we do. I just want to remind you I know it may seem like a cute title, An Ancient Recipe for a Happy Life, and some of you may be wondering, did he go to some church growth conference and now came back with some, no I didn't, this is coming right out of the pages of scripture and I have no intention to give you any man-made mechanisms or wisdom for how to be happy. I wanna draw it from the well of scripture, but I also wanna say this, you actually have this life. Keep that in mind. One of the benefits that Christ has given you is that all that Christ has accomplished and all that Christ is as that new man, that resurrected man, you are. You have been given the privileges and the benefits of the new heavens and the new earth. But you say, I don't feel like I have that sometimes, Josh. Well, I'm convinced that one of the main things that happens when we go into the pit and we refuse to come out, listen, is that we've somehow sidelined the greatness of God's work and calling and promises in our lives. Maybe we've minimized it or we've kind of hermetically sealed it off from the rest of life and we've relegated it just to Sunday morning. Or perhaps, we've inadvertently elevated something else in our life to, listen, greater worth than Christ. And when that happens, and by the way, we're all guilty of it, when we elevate something else in our life, whether it is a person, whether it is a relationship, whether it is a status quo, whether it is a reputation, whether it is your portfolio, whether it is your retirement, whether it is your house or your car or whatever, When that thing goes along the wayside, when that thing loses its luster, we find ourselves in a panic attack. because we've elevated something to a greater level of worth than Jesus Christ. And so I want to seek through the word of God this morning to kind of try to restore joy to its proper place in the Christian life. Happiness to its proper place in the Christian life. And I think Peter gives that to us through these three ingredients. Let's consider these three ingredients of this ancient recipe of a happy life. And the first one is this, and we see this in verses nine and 10. The dominating desire for a happy life. The dominating desire for a happy life. Peter says in verses nine and 10, 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's stop there for a moment. Let's focus on this desire. He says, if anyone desires to love life and see good days. Here we see the first ingredient, if you will, in this ancient recipe. You must constantly remind yourself of the kind of life and the kind of calling that you desire. Let me rephrase that. Let me repeat it. You must constantly remind yourself as you're thinking about how can I have a happy life of what kind of life you desire and what calling in life you have received. Because if you have the wrong life in mind, the kind of life that you want to have, and God hasn't promised it, and you hit failure, you shouldn't ask yourself, why? You should ask yourself, why did I expect something that God never promised to me? And so it is incredibly important that when we look at verse 10, and by the way, we see a promise. And as I always try to remind us in this place, if there could be one characteristic of the active Christian of Grace Covenant Church, it would be this, that as they pour over and scour their Bibles, they are looking for promises. They are looking for promises, concrete promises, given to them by God, through Jesus Christ, by the help of the Spirit, with the promise of eternity echoing in every verb and syntax of the sentence, looking for promises and trying to flesh out in my life, where is that promise? How do I experience it? That's what marks the Christian of grace covenant church. I think it should mark every Christian. But one of the things we do when we look at our Bibles is we say, where is a promise that God has given to me and how does it work? I wanna know. And what are the blessings that accrue from that promise and where are they in my life? This is something that we should be looking for. So I want you to notice that this promise of desiring to love life and see good days is distinct from how a non-Christian understands life. And this distinction makes all the difference in the world. This distinction fuels the desire of the Christian to love life. So let's look at this distinction and ask the question, why do Christians love life? Why do they desire to love life and see good days? I would submit to you two reasons, okay? And the first reason is this. because the kind of life that we inherit is eternal. Now here's what I want everybody to do, whether you have your cell phone or your Bible, I want you to take 1 Peter 3, verses 9 and 10, and then I want you to turn over, some of you may not have to do it, to 1 Peter 1, 4, because I want to ask the question, what kind of life is Peter referring to here? Some commentators had said that as he goes into verse 10 and he's talking about, hey, you desire to love life and see good days, is he just talking about life from now until death? So life in the now time? Or is he talking about eternal life? Those seem to be the two options that are given to us. Well, I'm gonna give you a third option that I think is exactly what Peter was getting at. What kind of life is he getting at? I want you to be looking at both verses or both sections. First Peter, chapter three, verse nine and 10, and then first Peter, chapter one, verse four. We're going to start with first Peter three, nine and 10. I want you to notice in verse nine, he says, do not repay evil for evil reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for to this you were called. We talked about this two weeks ago. You were called to bless that you may obtain a blessing now. How many times have you heard Christians use the word blessing and you're like, that really sounded good and I feel warm and tingly inside, but I really have no idea what he means by blessing, right? Okay, what does Peter mean here by blessing? It seems to me incredibly important because whatever it is, it's something that we're going to what, according to verse nine, obtain. So we are called to be a blessing so that we can obtain, or called to be a blessing so that we can obtain a blessing. I submit to you that the definition of blessing in verse nine is life in verse 10. What is the first word that you see in verse 10? For. That is a purpose clause, which means that what Peter is doing is he is expanding upon and elucidating on the concept of blessing in verse 9 by talking about life in verse 10. So whoever desires to love life and see good days. So the blessing that you're going to inherit is life. So at this point, it kind of sounds like of our two options, is it life here or is it life in heaven? Kind of sounds like it's life in heaven. But now I want you to go to 1 Peter 1, verse 4, and we're gonna tease out this definition. I'm going to start at verse three and read through four verse Peter one, three and four. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you." Well, you notice two things. We are born again, that is our regeneration, our conversion, okay, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance. Now, I want you to notice something. This noun, inheritance, You see the exact same word in 1 Peter 3, verse nine. You don't see it in your ESVs. I'm gonna give you a technicolor translation here. In 1 Peter 3, nine, when it says you're called to obtain a blessing, that word is the verbal form of inheritance in 1 Peter 1, four, which means that it's literally saying that you might inherit a blessing. So Peter in verse Peter 3, nine and 10 is connecting the concept of inheritance to what he has already said in 1 Peter 1.4, okay? So what does that mean? That means that the blessing that we inherit, yes, is the new heavens and the new earth, but notice in 1 Peter 1.3, he says, you have been born again through the resurrection to a living hope to an inheritance. What does that mean? You've already begun to experience your inheritance, and yet the fullness of that inheritance will come in the new heavens and the new earth. What do we see here? The New Testament doctrine of the already and the not yet. Your inheritance has already begun. You are an inheritor of this gift. And yet the fullness of that inheritance will not come until the new heavens and the new earth. So coming back to the question, what life is Peter speaking of in 1 Peter 3, verse 10? The answer is the life that began at your conversion and goes all the way into the new heavens and the new earth. So he is not talking about an ancient recipe that will find its realization only in the new heavens and the new earth. He's talking about things that you do that will result in blessing in this life and the life to come. Now, here's the last thing I wanna say into this head. The reason why we love life is because we do not believe that at the end of this life there is a period. We believe at the end of this life there is a comma. And that has tremendous power for helping us desire life and see good days, why? Because the best is yet to come. I just wanna focus on that and spend some time on it a little bit this morning and help you think through how it affects how you approach this life How does the fact that the best is yet to come, that life is eternal, and that's the kind of life that I desire, that's the kind of life that I love, it's not relegated to how many toys and treasures and portfolios and reputations I could stack up on this earth before I die, but it spills into the new heavens and the new earth. What does that mean? How does that contribute to my loving of life and seeing good days? I'll tell you why. It means that you can say with absolute certainty, the pain I'm experiencing right now, the heartache I'm experiencing right now, the mess that is at work right now, the boss that I'm dealing with right now, the interpersonal relationships that are just a toxic quagmire right now, there's coming a day when they will cease and be no more. That is what the life of a Christian renders him or her in the now time is I know that it'll come to an end. This is not an endless cycle of discouragement. This is not an endless cycle of pain. There's coming a day when he'll wipe away tears and he will fix my body racked with pain and he will take away those negative emotions and he will give me eternal bliss. That is why we desire life and to see good days. But here's the second reason. Here's the second reason why we desire to love life and see good days. We were called and therefore equipped for this. This is incredibly important. Verse nine, reviling with a blessing. Why? You were called to this. We've already looked at that two weeks ago. It's the call to give them better than they give you. It's the call to leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord and not fall into the temptation to get your pound of flesh. It's a call to remember who you are. Peter says you were called to this as a new creation in Christ. And can I just say, this is the fourth time in the book of Peter that he has used this language of calling. Okay, you don't have to go there, but in chapter one, verse 15, he says, God has called you to be holy. In chapter two, verse nine, he has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And then in chapter two, verse 21, he has called you to endure suffering just as Christ endured suffering and left you an example. These are all the things that you've been called to. Now, how does that make life worth living? I'm gonna tell you why. You are not out of your element as a Christian when you experience fiery trials. You have been equipped, you have been equipped to handle it. In fact, not just equipped like, hey, give me the instruments, give me the tools, give me the uniform that I need. Not just in that way, but your nature has been equipped. You naturally desire the things that a Christian desires, like heaven, like obedience to Jesus Christ, like loving the church. You, through the work of the Spirit, have been given these things, so you are not out of your element. Suffering, you've been called to it. That's why Peter's gonna say in his second epistle, hey, when fiery trials come, don't think it's some strange thing that's happening to you. If they crucified your Lord and Savior to the cross, what do you think they're gonna do to you? You've been called to this. And if you've been called to this, you will be equipped for this. You are not left without help or without instruction. The story is told, I believe it's a true story, of a band of Nazi soldiers, there was about 50 of them, that were left in a field at the end of World War II. After the Third Reich had fallen, Hitler was dead, the United Front had come in and they were starting to pick up the pieces. But this band of Nazi soldiers was in a field all alone. And they didn't know what to do. And one soldier came to the general and said, sir, what do we do? He's like, I don't know. I don't know what to do because I don't have orders. I don't have instructions. My fear has fallen and I don't know what to do. We have a leader, dear congregation, that will never fall. We have a leader that will never fall. And not only that, but we have a leader that with his scepter and his right hand from heaven instructs and guides and leads us through his word. His Word is an eternal source of instruction and encouragement for the child of God. The grass withers and the flower falls. National leaders rise and fall. Popularity comes and goes, but the Word of God stands forever. He has called you to live this life, and He has put a Bible in your hands so that you can know how to do it. Can I just say that that's why, and I hope that you've been experiencing this in home groups, In our home group discussion on Friday night, as we were talking about the sermon that Jim Neuheiser preached on 1 Samuel, we spent a lot of our time thinking about how we can and cannot use the story of Hannah to comfort those who are barren, or to comfort those who are single and want a husband or a wife, or to comfort those who, you know, whatever. And the whole point of the exercise was, hey, how about we use the Bible in trying to help people? And for some, it seems like a foreign idea. Well, if I want help, I just go to, you know, ask whatever column in the editorial, or Dr. Phil, or Oprah, or whatever. But the word of God has given us everything we need to know, according to 2 Peter 1, for life and godliness. So my question this morning is, if you've been called to this life as a Christian, and then you experience something in life where you're like, I just don't know what to do. It is the world that says, I don't know what to do, and I've got all these conflicting opinions of wisdom from the world, which one do I choose? We don't have to do that as Christians. As Christians, we have the word of God, and I'm not saying it's just as simple as, okay, adultery, you just go to here and it goes there, gluttony, you go to this text, but I am saying the Lord has given us broad principles through his word to know how to work through any situation in life. We've been called to this. That's the second reason why we love life. Well, if this is the life that you desire to love and the good days you desire to see, then here's the question. What will it look like in real time? What does that life that you desire to love and the good days of which you desire to see, what does it look like in real time? Well, that's what we're gonna consider secondly under the demanding activities of a happy life in verses 10b through 11. And here we see, The second ingredient, and I'm just going to take it from Romans 14, 16, because I think Paul says it perfectly. Second ingredient for happy life is this, do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. What do I mean by that? Gerhard de Vos once said that the Holy Spirit is the atmosphere of heaven. And the Spirit is within you. So the good blessing of heavenly realities within you should shine through you as a prism, okay? So if you claim to be an inheritor of those heavenly blessings, then when people look at you here on earth, they should see those heavenly blessings and the hope of those heavenly blessings, because by the way, Peter said we were caused to be born again in chapter one, verse four, to a living hope. a living, which means that we're living it out. It's daily fleshing itself out in our lives. Those heavenly realities should shine through us as a prism, and Peter gives us in chapter three, verse 10 and 11, three particular prisms through which that those heavenly realities shine. They are your lips, your feet, and your pursuit of peace. Let's consider them in turn. First off, he says in 10b, Or 10, for whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Out of the overflow of the heart, our Lord says, the mouth speaks. What is in your heart comes out in who you are. And you know what? There is just so much negativity in the world and it seems as if it's only getting worse. And I know my father said that of his generation and his father said that of his generation. And we need to remember the words of Kohelet. Don't think that these are the worst days and all days before were the golden age. Every age is pretty wicked. And if you believe as Most reformed people do, it's only going to get worse. But you know that it's the tongue, it's the tongue that contributes to that negativity. While it's true that misery loves company, it's also true that people don't generally want to stay miserable. They may have their misery boasting sessions, but they certainly don't want to stay with those people all the time. I try to avoid negative people, and you know why? It's not because I don't like them, necessarily. It's because I've got enough negativity in my own heart that I don't need help from other people to draw it out. And while there are many things in this world that are wrong, make no mistake, as shot through as this world is with evil and depravity, as that old hymn says, it is still my father's world. It is still my Father's world filled with people made in my Father's image. And if they are made in God's image, guess what? This is crazy. There is something in even non-believers that bears a resemblance to the character of God. Have you ever thought about that? I find that extremely helpful for me as a natural grumbler and complainer to think about. Because even in non-believers, if they're made in the image of God, and if you believe as we do that that image has not been totally effaced by sin, that there are still vestiges, if you will, of God's character shining through them, then guess what? You could find something in them. You could find something in them to praise. And how much more for Christians? who have been made, recreated in the image of Christ. Can we not find something in them that with our lips, instead of speaking evil, instead of speaking deceit, we could build them up with our lips. You know, as a Christian, I wanna try to find out what that good is in that non-believer, I wanna try to find out what that good is in that Christian, and I wanna try to build them up with that as much as I can, even if it comes down to correction. There have been men and even women in my life who have corrected me, brothers and sisters in the Lord, who love the Lord, who are mature, that have corrected me, that after they rebuked me and corrected me, I just wanted to go up and give them a hug. Have you ever experienced someone like that? People who, if I could give a general strategy of what they do, here's the correction that they wanna give you, and they're gonna hem it in behind and before with what? Encouragement. They're gonna speak words of affirmation to you. They're going to do precisely what the Bible talks about when it talks about seeing the image of God in man, and they're gonna ask themselves the question, what can I find in this person that is good? In this Christian brother or sister, what are the areas in their life where the Lord is sanctifying them and where they are having victory and where they are glorifying the Lord? I wanna find those things. I wanna build them up with that. Hit the note that needs to be corrected and then come around on the other side and affirm them again. Those are the kind of people that, guess what? I want to be around those people. I don't want to be around the people that want to strip before and behind and just come with the rebuke. Those are kind of like the Debbie Downers, right? Who wants to be around a Debbie Downer? We want to be around the people who are going to seek to build us up even if it comes to correction. It's always good to get a little dose of the Proverbs. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him. He refreshes the soul of his masters. Dear grace, with your lips, can I just exhort you, all of us this morning, to be intentional and self-conscious about using our lips not to speak deceit, not to speak evil, but to build people up. How will this contribute to a happy life? The one who desires to love life and see good days will desire to refresh souls with their words. And you know what happens when you do that? you will be more endearing to people. You will be more endearing to people. And if you're more endearing to people, they will care more about what you have to say. And then guess what? Those words of affirmation will serve as appetizers and hors d'oeuvres to the truth of the gospel. That's why we want to endear people to ourselves with our words. So the first prism through which the reality of these heavenly blessings that we possess as inheritors shines through the prism of our lips, but then secondly, it shines through the prism of our feet. Look at verse 11. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. I'm just gonna focus on verse 11. Let him turn from evil and do good. This is really just one idea. If you're at all familiar with Hebrew poetry, which by the way, I know none of you care, but this is exciting to me, they got from Ugarit. Ugarit had a feature or a component of poetry called parallelism. And in Hebrew parallelism, they were copying it from the Ugaritians, you say one idea with two concepts. Okay, you say it in two different ways, and that's what he's saying here in verse 11. Let him turn from evil and do good. Do good by turning away from evil and doing the good. This is a second prism through which the reality of heavenly blessings can shine through us. We run into the sweet blessings of obedience. This is evasive action that Peter is getting at here. Turn away from evil, violently turn away from evil. And this is so simple, like we read it, turn away from evil and do good. Okay, check, let's move on. But I wonder, I wonder if we've integrated the simple nature of it into our hearts. You know, evil comes in many shapes and sizes. There's blatant evil like murder and adultery and theft, but remember, and you not telling you anything you don't know, evil never starts with the outward action, but always begins in the what? The heart. Evil desire gives birth to sin, sin gives birth to death, et cetera. So while guile and foolishness may be evil, do you consider that what you engage in may also turn into evil and how it might turn into evil? All of us would say that physical adultery is heinous and evil, but where does it start? It starts in the heart. You know where it starts, men, you know. It's that second glance. And that second glance turns into a venue for coveting. And then coveting turns into a venue for imaginations. And then imaginations may turn into a venue for, I've got to see these images, whether that's looking at more women or looking at the internet. And then after a while, this is how sin works. It just evolves and evolves and evolves. And those images aren't enough. You need something you can touch. And so you enter into an adulterous relationship and death enters. So what does that mean for us? It means that we need to not only take seriously these flagrant acts of evil, but we need to be aware of the schemes of the devil and know that our hearts need to be guarded in our innermost being even from the whiff of evil, even from the temptation of evil. Let me put it this way. If you think that you are strong enough to endure temptation, here's what you're doing. You are going to the highest hill imaginable, getting in a semi-tractor trailer, putting it in neutral, and just letting it coast down the hill. You know that all that temptation and sin needs is momentum. That's all sin needs. And the moment you give it momentum, you have set yourself on a course of destruction that is very hard to pull away from. With the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, you can, but why make life harder than it needs to be? For the child of God, we do not, and listen, young people, listen to me. We do not say, how close can I get to sin before it burns me? We say, how quickly can I run away even from the whiff of evil before it gets its hooks into my soul? It is never enough, though, to run away from evil. We must run to something else. We must run to Christ. And this is why Paul says, put off sin and put on what? Christ. So how does turning away from evil and doing good contribute to a happy life? I'm gonna tell you right now, there is nothing sweeter than the sanctuary of a clear conscience. All the temporal pleasures of the world cannot compare to the sanctuary of a clear conscience in Christ. When your feet run into evil, you become a paranoid fugitive of the consequences. What does that mean? Well, is my wife gonna find out? Is my husband gonna find out? Is my boss gonna find out? And so you start hiding things. And what comes with hiding things? Deceit and lies. And this is how sin works. It just compounds itself more and more and more to keep people from finding out. You don't want anyone to find out. You become deceitful and you're burying yourself further and further in evil. Your conscience won't let you sleep at night. Friends, that is no way to live. And through Christ, we don't have to live that way. The happy life is the one that not only turns from evil and runs to good, but even if you do run into evil, and here's the key, you immediately and openly confess it, and what do you receive? Forgiveness. That is the mark of a Christian's happy life, is that even when they do fall into sin, even when they have done that second glance and it's gone three steps down the parameter, if you will, of sinful fleshly desires, you can still find forgiveness. And that's what David boasted of in Psalm 32. Blessed is the one whose transgression is what? Forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. You know what the Hebrew word blessed means? Happy. Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven. So this is the second prism through which our inherited life of heavenly blessing shines to those around us is that we run from evil. and into good, but then finally this last prism is pursue peace. Let him seek peace and pursue it. The happy life seeks to imitate on the outside the peace that he has with God in the inside. What does that mean? It means that, it's very simple, if you have been forgiven that great debt of transgression from God, That if you were to stack up everything that you've done against God, it would be a mountain peak that went into the heavens, and yet God has destroyed that mountain through the work of Jesus Christ. When you turn to your brother, or your sister, or your husband, or your children, or your coworker, or anyone who listens, seeks to be reconciled with you and have peace with you. to the degree that you do not reflect with them what God has reflected to you by forgiving you, you're gonna have a lopsided conscience, aren't you? The truth of the gospel is not going to clearly shine through you because you are one that wants to receive and receive and receive the grace of the gospel, but not give the grace of the gospel as God has called you to do. person who has inherited these heavenly blessings and who desires to love life and see good days is ready and willing to forgive and pursue peace with one another. But now finally, what is the divine incentive to a happy life? Here we see our third and final ingredient. It is a life of obedience. A life of obedience can expect the tender care and open ear of a loving father. He says in verse 12, 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. The child of God revels in the omnipresence of his creator. What does that mean? We've read about it in Psalm 39. We've reflected on it through our hymns this morning. Make it as simple as I possibly can. Young people, adults, everyone, everything you do is bare and open before the God with whom you have to do. You may externally have obedience to your mother and your father, but when you're sitting like this with a mean mug on your face and your heart, God sees that. He knows. He knows. And the child of God, who wants to love life and see good days, lives his or her life quorum Deo, before the face of God. And you know what it says here? That in doing that, the eyes of the Lord are on His people. I chase that phrase through the Old Testament, and in 90% of its usages in the Old Testament, when it says the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, it refers to His paternal, tender care. He is there to care for you. He's there to show goodness and kindness to you. Think about it for a minute. With all that God has on his schedule and his Google calendar, if you will, for the week, upholding galaxies and universes and maintaining the atom that the naked eye cannot see and all the things that he has to uphold and do and keep going, he yet has time to cast his tender eyes of affection upon you. This is the God whom we love, and not only that, but he is attentive to our prayers. His ears are open to you. But then he says the face of the Lord is upon those, literally in the Greek, who do evil. This is not with a blessing, not with view to a blessing, but with a view to venting his wrath. What's interesting is he's quoting, Peter is, he's quoting from David here. In Psalm 34, verse 16, and what's interesting is, Peter didn't quote the whole verse. The whole verse in Psalm 34, 16 says, the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, and he will cut them off from the face of the earth. Why did Peter cut that out? Why did he cut out, and he will cut them off from the face of the earth? Because the offer of the gospel is still available to those who will turn from their sins and find refuge in Jesus Christ. And so Peter is telling you now, you unbeliever, The face of God is against you. His wrath is for you. There is no blessing, no redemptive blessing of God's gaze upon you, but only wrath. While God sees the righteous and hears their prayer, He is at the same time looking at the evildoers. They may think to hide themselves in the wicked course and counsels of their actions, in darkness and in the shadow of death, but even there, God, the one seen, confronts them still, gazing direct and full on all their ways and their most secret as yet unuttered devices. They would feign turn their backs on God, but God's face is always toward them. And what more is needed to ensure their ultimate destruction than meanwhile to guard the righteous from their assaults? This is truly an awful word from the Lord, unbelievers. God's wrath is against you. And yet if you would put down your weapons of fighting and you would turn from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you would not only be saved, but you would join this happy band of sojourners who with joy in their heart and anticipation of seeing good days, marches to that celestial city. Let's pray. Father God, we pray that we would hear these words of instruction this morning, that you would help us to love life and see good days. This desire comes only from you. And Father, for those of us this morning who are struggling to desire to love life and see good days, would you help us? Would you help us to recognize that our life is eternal? Would you help us to recognize that we've been called to this? Would you help us to recognize that turning from evil and using our lips as a prism of heavenly blessings and pursuing peace is what marks the child of God? And may we find peace and joy and happiness and contentment in it. We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen.