Please turn your Bibles with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. If you're using the New King James pew Bibles provided for you, you'll find that on page 1078. We're going to start the reading at verse eight, and we're going to go through verse 18. I'm switching things up. I know that's maybe not everybody likes when I do that. However, as I was wrestling with this, it's just too good. There's times where you just have to slow down because the honey's so sweet. So we're going to look at verses 8 through 18, and we're going to slow down and specifically consider verse 18 this morning. So look with me at God's Word. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, loving as brothers. Be tenderhearted. Be courteous. not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain 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 prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Well, in the reading of God's word there, let's pray together. God, we thank you that your word is true. Every jot, Every tittle, every yod and a yota. And Father, we thank you that your word does not return void. And so Father, we pray that as we have read your word, that your Holy Spirit might attend to the preaching of it as well. Lord, we pray that you would open our eyes, that we might be enlightened and actually see. Lord, we may be hard in our heart. where we may have calluses that have grown and prevented us to love you. Lord, we pray that you would cut those calluses off. Lord, we pray that you would use this time for the building up of your people, for your glory, in Jesus's name, amen. We come to one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. Next week we'll get into one of the most, people go on all sorts of wonky ways, but there's some beautiful truth in verse 18 that we need to slow down because we taste and see that the Lord is good here, because we see His love displayed for us. But we've been out of 1 Peter for a while, and so I want to kind of put us back in the context, verses 8 through 12. Notice, Peter has been telling us that we are sojourners, we're pilgrims, we're to live our lives according to his household laws, right? If you're a wife, you behave this way. If you're a general Christian in the society, you behave this way. If you're a household slave, you behave this way. If you're a husband, you behave this way. This is how the operation of God's household is supposed to look like. or to be walking in his ways, living lives that are being sanctified. And notice he tells us to put away reviling, malice, slander, evil, and treachery. He gives us, in verses 8 through 12, the permission to not play tit for tat. We don't have to revile for reviling. We don't have to get into the world's system of, he hurt me, so I'm going to hurt him back. They did this sin against me, so I'm going to escalate things even further. We don't have to settle the score. We don't have to get even, because God has shown us a better way, the way of Christ. We follow in His steps, even though He was reviled, he did not revile in return. And so because of this, we have confidence in Christ. Let him turn away, verse 11, let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. Why are we able to turn away from evil? Why are we able to seek and pursue peace? Because of verse 12. Because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. Because His ears are open to the righteous prayer. So we don't need to play tit for tat, because we know that God is judging. We know we don't have to settle the score. We know we don't have to get even, because we know that God is the judge, and His face is against those who are doing evil. So we can leave it to the Lord. We do not have to avenge ourselves. And so the world gets turned upside down in verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. So don't be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. Do you see? And we think of this in our normal way in verse 14. The normal way we would think is if you're suffering, if you're doing something and it's causing you harm, you must be in the wrong. But the Lord here is saying no. Now, if you're suffering because you're walking in the way of Christ, you're walking in the narrow way, and it's good. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Are we being persecuted? Are we suffering for, notice a very important phrase, for righteousness' sake. If that's true in our lives, then we're blessed. Then we're blessed. We don't have to fear. We don't have to be troubled. God takes those shackles off of us. We can live our lives knowing that the great shepherd, the sheep is leading us in this path. And because of this type of confidence, because we know that this is how God is dealing with us, Peter's writing to the people in modern day Turkey. And some of these people are going to be put in chains. Some of them are going to be tortured. Some of them are going to be ripped apart from their families. Some of them are going to be even killed. It's only a matter of a few years, a few decades between when Peter writes this letter and when the emperor starts coming down hard on the people, on the Christians in this area. And they're going to be able to give an answer for the hope that they have. Because even in their suffering, they don't have to lose their hope. But there's a problem here. And this is where I really want to lean into, because if you notice something in verse 12, there's a problem that we might just glaze over. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. And likewise in verse 14, that we are blessed if we suffer for righteousness' sake. How's that line up with verse 11 though? There seems to be an internal possible quandary or difficulty here, because in verse 11, it said, let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. Does that not sound like an admonition? Stop doing evil, stop being enemies, and instead go and pursue peace. So how do you get the transition between verse 11 and verse 12? Let him turn away from evil and do good, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. How do you get there? Peter is admonishing them. You are not to keep on doing evil. Oh, and by the way, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. But how are they righteous? How? How can they say that they're righteous? How could I say that I'm righteous? How can you say that you're righteous? No, there's none righteous. No, not one. How do we suffer for righteousness sake when we know what our own lives look like? And some of us might kind of gloss over our sins and marginalize things and minimize things. But this is or no better than what God looked on in Genesis chapter 6, what Elder Turner read for us this morning. Did you catch that, Genesis 6-5? Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Or do I get the right to think that I'm righteous? Or do you get the right to think that you could stand before a perfectly righteous and holy God? Wouldn't it be the height of pride to stand before the God who knows every single thing you have ever thought, said, or done, even the idle words? and to stand before Him and say, I'm righteous. I'm spotless. You got to accept me, God, because I'm the righteous one. We can't do that. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He's described in Genesis 6, 9 as righteous and spotless. And yet even after the flood, what do we find Noah passing out drunk in his tent at home? And if we're honest again, he suffered for 120 years building the ark, being ridiculed, being faithful, preaching that God's wrath was about to come, and yet people not listening, that God decided to save him and eight souls. Him, his wife, his sons, and their wives. And if we were to put up our righteousness next to Noah's, it would be like a match next to a torch. How could I or how could you be found persecuted, as verse 14 says, suffering for righteousness sake? I come to verse 12 and I know it's supposed to give me, initially, at the end of the day, a sense of comfort, but when I look at verse 12, and I see, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers, and I compare that to the mirror of my life, I think about when I get angry with my children, or I get annoyed with Olivia, or I get selfish, lazy, or I eat too much, I know that I don't have righteousness enough. to know that God's face is going to be upon me. And I think if you were to look at what he told the Christians to do, and you think about your own life, you would recognize, no, no, we fall short of the standard of righteousness. God tells us to be harmonious with one another. And yet we are often contentious. God tells us to be, in first Peter, we talked about this just a few weeks ago, to be sympathetic. Yeah, how easy it is to close off our hearts to people. God tells us to show brotherly love towards one another. And how often do we treat each other as strangers? And if we are treating each other as like brothers, it's like that brother you don't ever want to invite to Christmas. He tells us to be compassionate. To have our insides moved out of love for each other, and instead we often, just like the missionaries asked us to pray for them, right? They notice when people come and they ring on the doorbell, they ring the bell at the gate. It's easy for them, instead of being compassionate towards those who are seeking their attention, to think of them as, you're stopping me from the work I need to get done. How often do we treat each other like that? We're told that we need to have humility and that we're so often filled with pride. So how can we be those who are suffering for righteousness sake? How could we be those who know that the eyes of the Lord are upon us and that his face isn't against us? This is a hard reality, and this is a heavy and a thick sermon, and I know it may be difficult for you, but we need to face reality. None of us are righteous. Not a single one of us. If we were to stand before God on the judgment day based on our thoughts, our works, our deeds, our our person, we would get the righteous judgment of God. And we could not stand before a God who knows every single little thing about us and say somehow he was unjust for condemning us. No, I'm unrighteous. Sure, there are things in my pre-Christian life that the Lord, by his grace, we've put to death certain sins. As we get into chapter four next time, we're going to see that there are sins. We're told that the Gentiles walk in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Sure, those things might not mark our lives anymore. They did mark my life when I was in the Navy, I'll tell you that. But yet if I still, and I think if you're anything like me, are smug pride, lack of love, materialism, gluttony, sinful anger, slothfulness, how frequently do they still mark our lives, contention with one another, living at odds rather than in harmony? So what hope do we have? Ephesians chapter 2 verse 5 says we were like dead men walking. How could we ever claim it? By ourselves we have no hope, no answer, no righteousness. And then verse 18 comes. For Christ also suffered. once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Christ, the Messiah, the seed of David, the seed of Abraham, The promised seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent, the anointed one of the tribe of Judah, came. Jesus was a real man. He had a real body. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a real life, and he suffered. Christ also suffered. Theologians talk about Jesus' suffering, particularly in His passive obedience, when He willingly subjected Himself to an unjust trial, to being mocked, ridiculed, reviled, beaten, scourged, and ultimately crucified. Jesus endured that suffering, but notice, for Christ also suffered once. One time. Jesus didn't have to suffer again, and again, and again, and again. There's no need to repeat Jesus' suffering. It was a sacrifice once and for all. Perfect and spotless was the Lamb who went to Calvary for us. And this is why when He breathed His last, He said, it is finished. Because He had come and done the work that the Father had sent for Him. Because Jesus didn't just die on the cross to give us a model of suffering. But what did Jesus do? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Why did He suffer? Notice four sins. Jesus shed His blood upon that cross that we may be washed in that blood. that the price of our sin, of our disobedience might be paid. Do you see, I have real sin, I have real iniquity, I have real transgressions of the law, and so do you. But Jesus paid for that debt. When we say that God forgives us of our sins, it's not that God suspends His justice, and He just goes, oh, okay, you sinned, but that's, it's not too bad, I'll just ignore it. No, His, your sin, my sin, was so bad that God had to demonstrate His own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God satisfied His justice, His demand for righteousness on the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for our sins. This is what, again, theologians call substitutionary atonement. The just for the unjust. Jesus was unlike us in moral composition. He was like us in every other way. He got hungry. He needed to sleep. He was weary. But Jesus, unlike us, was righteous. Jesus was tempted. Oh, he was tempted like us in every single way. And yet he never sinned. Jesus had no spot, no blemish, no wrong, no transgression of the law, finally one who could fulfill what he had given in the Garden of Eden with the covenant of works. Not a single one of us would have done better than Adam or better than Noah, but Jesus did. But Jesus did. Jesus is the just one. The word there for just, we may get it mixed up because this is how English works, but just there is the exact same word for righteousness. It's the exact same word. The righteous for the unrighteous. Jesus was and is the righteous one. He never forsook God as his God. He never committed idolatry. Not ever once did He take His Father's name in vain. He fulfilled the Sabbath every single week with worship and mercy. He never disobeyed those in authority over Him. He showed them the rightful honor that was due to them. Jesus never committed murder or adultery outwardly. But here's the thing, he never committed these sins either internally. Because Jesus is the one who even taught us on the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard it said written unto you, you shall not murder. But I say unto you, that if you hate somebody, you say unto Raka, you fool, you've already committed murder in your heart. Jesus never did it. Jesus said, you've heard it said unto you, you shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you, if you look lustfully after a woman with your eyes, you've already committed adultery in your heart. Jesus never sinned in the adultery or murder outwardly or even inwardly. See the inclinations and the thoughts of Jesus's heart were always righteous all the time. I think that's something we have to just be honest with ourselves. The story of a Puritan pastor, he was preaching a sermon and he went to the back of the church and was shaking people's hands as they were leaving. And one lady came up and she said, you're the most righteous man I've ever met. And he said, Madam, if you could look into my soul, you would spit in my face. Not so with Christ. There's no spot, no wrinkle, no unrighteousness. no lacking of conformity to the law of God. He never stole. He never let a false word come from his lips. He never looked at somebody else's stuff and wished he had it himself. I can't say that for a single one of these commandments for myself. I've never loved the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. None of us ever have. Or if we're honest, we've never loved our neighbor as ourselves perfectly either. But Jesus did. But Jesus did. That's the whole point of verse 18, the just for the unjust. We are categorically lawbreakers, but Jesus is the perfect law keeper. We are sinners. We are unjust. We are unrighteous. But Jesus Christ is the righteous one. And maybe you're like, OK, hold on, Brian, you seem to be laying this on rather thick here. Yeah, I am, because I need you to see the depths of what this is saying. Because if you come to verse 18 and you say, Brian, it just seems like you're being a little too hard. I want to reserve a little bit of righteousness for me. Then you are not found in verse 18. If Jesus Christ is not the only righteous one and you want to think of yourself as righteous, you remove yourself from the application of verse 18. And if that's the case, then Jesus Christ did not suffer for you. So I need to ask you, how do you identify yourself? As just or as unjust? As righteous? or as one who's needing righteousness. Because see, Jesus didn't just suffer for our sins, just for the unjust, but it was for a purpose. Did you catch it? The third phrase of verse 18, that he might bring us to God. You don't get to just stroll into Buckingham Palace and meet the king at whatever whim you want. You've got to be formally introduced. Somebody's got to lead you there. Somebody's got to be able, with authority, take you into the throne room. And you ain't going to go, we're really informal in our American culture, You're not going to get into the throne room wearing your jeans and a t-shirt, especially if you've been running around all day working in them. The guards are going to stop you at the door. That's the picture that Isaiah gives us of when we want to come into God's throne room and we think we're wearing our best clothes, It's as if our good deeds were even filthy rags. We're not going to get to the king like that. We've got to be given new clothes and brought by somebody better than ourselves. And that's what Jesus does, that he might bring us to God. And how do we know this is true? The last phrase. being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. There's two parts here. There's two parts of what happens. Jesus, the just one, dies for the sins of the unjust ones. That happened, historically. This is why we confess that Jesus lived And he suffered under Pontius Pilate. And he died. And he was buried. That's the first part of it. He died for our sins. But notice he was not just put to death in the flesh, but... made alive by the Spirit, and He rose again from the dead on the third day. Paul says that He was put to death for our sins, but He was raised for our justification. What is that justification? See, it's not just good enough that your sins are put away from you, because the problem is, the very next morning when you wake up, what are you going to do? If you're like me, you're probably going to sin. We would be lacking. We still couldn't come. But He was raised again by the Spirit so that we might be declared righteous. We live this life as Christians in this difficult state where we are, as Luther said, simul justus et peccator. We are simultaneously at the same time justified and sinners. We struggle with our sin. We live in the already, not yet. We struggle every day, mortifying sins, putting the old man to death, realizing that's out of line with the law of Christ and we don't want those things. And yet the things that we do not want to do, yet we still do. O wretched men that we are, what hope do we have? Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. Because we were never brought before the throne of God by our own works, but it was by the works of Jesus. He was raised from the dead and we have received an alien righteousness. The righteousness that we have, the justice that we have is not our own, but it's given to us, imputed to us by Jesus. Guaranteed by the Spirit at the resurrection. So what is your hope? What is your hope? How will you give a defense, an answer for the hope that you have when suffering comes? Is it gonna be, well, I think I'm good enough. Rather than the sister who sustains the Christian soul, is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what we're going to be celebrating in a few minutes. Because see, at the heart of Christianity is Christ. There's Christ who suffered for our sins. Christ who is just, who suffered for us the unjust, that he might bring He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, that you might live with God forever. This is the hope of the gospel. This is the good news. Do you believe it? Let's pray. God, we come to you this morning and we can't Act like somehow we're good enough or righteous enough. But you are good, and you are righteous. Lord, you've taught us to walk with you. And you've shown us grace. And you've given us a righteousness that's not ours. You've made us spotless by the blood of Jesus. So Lord, this morning we freely confess to you our sins. And Lord, we pray that you would please wash us in the blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, and renew in us the hope of the resurrection. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.