Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 8 to 12. That's what we're going to read together in just a moment. And then we're going to study verses 10 to 12 as we finish the second half of a two-part series about unity in the church and how to be a unified church. We've been going through the letter of 1 Peter and In the first part, we uncovered six truths or six applications that, if we put into practice, will foster and nurture our unity as the body of Christ. And there's a final four that we're gonna cover today. These will help us answer the question, how do we live as a unified church? And then even not just how we relate internally, but externally with the world around us. And so if you will, go ahead and stand, and we're gonna read 1 Peter, chapter three, verses eight to 12. I'm gonna pray, and then we'll jump right in. Peter writes, 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 that is god's word to us this morning you may be seated and as you sit i'm gonna pray father Help us please to better understand your will for our lives now through the teaching and preaching of your word. Help me to be a faithful servant, a faithful slave, a faithful steward as 1 Corinthians chapter four verses one and two call church leaders, but invite all Christians to be. the doulos, the bondservant, the slave of Christ, the steward of your mysteries, and being found faithful. Help our people here, my brothers and sisters, to be faithful listeners and recipients of your truth, and then help us all together go out and live it for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. So again, two parts here. The first six, let's do a quick 30-second rundown or a two-minute drill if you wanna call it that. Let me remind you of what the initial keys to unity are. First, we saw that we're to be of one mind. There's to be a doctrinal unity, a mentality, an attitude, right here, together, knitted in our hearts, in the truth. So we don't have unity at the expense of truth, right? We don't say, well, you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe, and let's just sort of willy-nilly, kumbaya, it's all good. We'll all get there. He'll figure it out. There needs to be a centrality of the gospel of Christ, of sound doctrine. We're unified in sound doctrine. So we're to be of one mind. That's what Peter means. It's what Paul means when he says it as well. We're to be sympathetic. That fosters unity in the church. It meant it meant to share the same feelings or like the idea in the letter of Romans mourn with those who mourn rejoice with those who rejoice. I'm feeling your feelings you're feeling my feelings together we're feeling feelings right. Some of the gentlemen in the room myself included we had to face the uncomfortable nature of feeling our feelings but we realized quick that we feel the feels for football and golf and a lot of other things so we're going to feel the feels for the church too. Amen brothers. and then we're to be biased towards the church. This is to do good, especially to the household of faith. There's a bias towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We saw that we're to be compassionate. That fosters unity, and the word means a gut-level sympathy. It was, remember the idea of the prodigal son's father. When he sees him coming back down the driveway, he doesn't say, oh, now you're back, huh, because you blew all your money. Of course you are. no snark, no bitterness, pulls up the tunic, tears down the driveway, throws his arm around his son, and then throws a party. Gut level compassion. We see the same thing in the Good Samaritan, remember that? The religious people step over the beaten up Jewish man, but the Samaritan, even though he's supposed to hate the Jew, says, all right, I'm gonna help him. I have to do something about this. That's the gut level compassion that we're called to, and it fosters unity. We're to be humble at serving one another above ourselves. And then we're to be anti-vengeance, we called it by way of application. It's not reviling for someone's reviling. It's not destroying others who seek to destroy you. It's not firing back careless words or cutthroat deeds or slander or lies the way they do. It's being anti-vengeance, which is hard, isn't it? It was a tough list. But when we put God's word into practice, we end up living out the answer to Christ's prayer in John 17, that we be one as he and the Father are one, his prayer for unity in the church. And unity is fostered with those six things, but there are four more, and none of them are easy. And so Peter gives us an illustration. by way of, of course, his original audience and now us, of what this looks like. It helps bring the Bible to life. And I wanna show you this because I'd be unfaithful to preach this text if I didn't show you where he's borrowing from in verses 10 to 12. So what I want you to do is flip over to Psalm 34. And I wanna show you where he is directly quoting from in 1 Peter chapter three, verses 10 to 12. Specifically in Psalm 34, if you just try to open the middle of your Bible, you'll land there. In verses 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, you see direct quotes. Why does Peter borrow from the Psalms? What is he trying to tell the original audience? What picture does he want in their minds? It's the same picture that I want in your minds as we walk through the text. It's a Psalm of David. And some of you already know where this is going. You look at the heading there and the clues will begin to unravel rather quickly. Taste and see that the Lord is good. But David was going through some things in the background of Psalm 34. You remember that guy named Saul? pursuing David, persecuting David, throwing spears at David, attacking David, trying to kill David. David had already been anointed king at this point in time. He already knew the God of the universe, Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth, had anointed him to be king, and where is he living? In caves. He's on the run from the current king, Saul. With that as the background and Peter borrowing from the Psalms and his audience certainly being aware of Old Testament truths and having been taught them and certainly the Jews in whatever audience would read that letter being well aware of this situation, you and I need to see this is the backdrop, this is how David acted and spoke during one of the hardest times in his life. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Really, David? You're still on the run. You're still in the cave. You're still not king. Really? He saved you? He heard you? You're radiant? The angel of the Lord encamps, verse seven, around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. This is the guy that's supposed to be living in the palace. Say, and let those who fear him rejoice. You've got no lack. You lack no good thing, the true good thing, as long as we're defining good the way God does. The young lions in verse 10 suffer wanton hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come oh children listen to me I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. And then the quote Peter borrows. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good. Well, you want the good life? You want to have many days? You want to see good? Well, live this way. Here's verse 13. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, his ear toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. To cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Now, think of that backdrop. David under intense stress, Saul, a terrible leader, neglecting his initial call from God to lead the people faithfully. He'd become insecure, he'd become angry, he'd become competitive, wickedly so. Unity in the kingdom was dwindling, yet David was what? Righteous. David did what? He praised the Lord. David did what? He considered, oh, I'm living the good life. Even in the cave, it's a good life, because I'm good with my creator, my God. Praise still on his lips. Even when having the opportunity to take Saul's life and take the kingdom into his own hands, he did not repay evil for evil. He did not do what he had the power and the ability to do, but rather he kept doing what God said to do. That's the picture that Peter paints. It's the backdrop to his commands now to the New Testament church. The people of God once more finding themselves with a choice to make. Unify in submission to God's commands as a people set apart for his glory or let the emotions take over, divide from each other and become the evil you and I and the church is being assaulted by. There is a choice here. And four final commands guide our application today. The first one is if you wanna foster unity, both internally and then be a witness externally, you and I need to speak truth. Speaking truth is pivotal. Why do I pull that application from verse 10? Well, Peter says, for whoever desires to love life and see good days, which we do both here and in glory, let him, or you could say also her, keep our tongues from evil and lips from speaking deceit. We speak truth, we live truth, we emphasize truth, and the exhortation here is pretty straightforward. The idea of evil on your lips is the idea here of socially or morally reprehensible language. This is bad conversation. It's evil words and it's lips that speak deceit. The word meaning cunning or underhanded. If you're a believer, it's like taking an axe with your tongue and chopping out the bottom of your fellow believers. It does not foster unity. It does not build up the church and send the church out stronger. It cuts the church down. And he ties it to blessing. Avoiding this type of lifestyle and walking in righteous truth in the way that you talk leads to good days. Now again, you may look at that and think, well, if Peter's telling this to a bunch of Christians who are gonna be persecuted, some have already died and many are going to die, how in the world does that lead to the love of life and seeing good days? Well, there's two important things we need to understand, the earthly side and the eternal side. First, the earthly side. We often define good and the good life the way the world does. but how many understand for the Christian, it could even be a short life, but if you have Christ, it is a good life. You ask any parent in the room right now, including me, what do I want, short life or long life, whatever comes at me, whatever I experience, What do I want more than anything? If my deathbed finds me at 38 or at 98, you ask me what I want. What's the good life? I really don't care about me if I'm good with the Lord. What do I want more than anything? I want my children saved. Just tell me my kids know Christ. Just have them standing around my deathbed, young or old, holding hands, singing hymns, and ushering me into glory. I can go into glory as that little beeping gets slower and slower and pretty soon flatlines. I'm going into glory with peace in my heart. Why? Because my kids are living the good life, they have the good life, and I'm gonna see them again in glory with Christ. We define the good life as believers in Christ. And so when you walk righteously, what does that give you? The assurance to know you are saved. When you see the Holy Spirit's power working in your life, you don't need to worry, insecurity coming, and oh, how do you know you're really saved, and oh, how do you know they're really saved? No, you see the fruit evidenced in Scripture, evidenced in your life, and you say, no, I'm a believer. I'm not perfect, but I'm progressing. I am living the good life. If I go to more, I'm ready to go, and if we go to more, we're ready to go. That's a good life for a believer. But there's another side too, which is the eternal or the eschatological. It's that end times view, the last things view, which hey, as long as I'm faithful, obedient, righteous, obeying God, the best of my ability in grace, blowing it at times, but watching him work in my life, I know that what's to come is even better than what I'm going through right now. No matter how great your good life is here on earth, your best life is still to come. What a joy. Now you and I can know and experience Paul and Silas in the prison still praising God. Now you can know the feeling of Peter and the apostles getting beaten for being faithful preachers of the gospel and saying, hey, woo, high five, we just counted a privilege to be persecuted for what? The name. It's a joy to suffer. Now you can see the peace of God on Stephen's life later in Acts 7 and into chapter 8 when Paul gets saved, but before that, what happens? Well, Stephen gets martyred, and he's at perfect peace, looking up into glory as they stone him. He's ready to go. Why? He's been living the good life. He's ready for his best life. So you speak truth and you walk in truth and we watch our mouths knowing that the way we talk has great power, if you will, regarding our unity here on earth and the way that we are a witness. Jesus warned the Pharisees to watch their words, saying to them in Matthew 12, 34 to 37, you brood of vipers, How can you speak good when you're evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. The evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you'll be justified and by your words you will be condemned. Christian, the way that we speak matters, period. This could be a Romans 10.9 type of speaking. The believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. So what you say is actually related to a confession of faith. So there's the salvific side of the using of your mouth, but there's also the earthly. The reality that you and I and the way that we talk are going to either foster unity or break it down. and we're gonna be judged by the Lord for every careless word. And so a healthy church speaks the truth about one another and to one another in light of what is eternal and focused on unity here on earth. And this would have been incredibly helpful for the original audience who were being persecuted. The world was tearing them down, but they were building each other up. Like Ephesians 4, 15, and 16 reminds us, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who's the head, that's Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, making the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. When we speak the truth and live the truth, we are building up God's church. And so you and I have to ask ourselves, how do we talk to brothers and sisters in Christ? How do we talk about brothers and sisters in Christ? But also, how do we speak in the presence of all types of people? Because our witness is on the line there as well. Lying and undercutting is not to mark the Christian's lifestyle. And there are those sayings that you just wish you heard 30 years sooner, aren't there? One of them that I read this week was that a lie has no legs. This would have been good to know when I was younger. It requires other lies to support it. Tell one lie and you're forced to tell other lies to keep your initial lie standing. Ain't that the truth? The only way to deal with it is to confess the first lie in the first place. Another one that rings true, I'm not sure we remember this enough, but stretching the truth won't make it last any longer. You ever heard that one? It'd be good to remember. More spiritual though, Augustine. When regard for the truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful. What is he saying there in the church? There's an erosion of trust that begins to occur when we stop speaking and living the truth. You might be a little more suspect of me if I don't walk in and speak the truth. I don't know if I can trust you, because you waver when it comes to truth. You're not consistent when it comes to truth. I don't hear you living and speaking the same truth that you tell me to live. I'm really not sure. And so when the regard for truth breaks down, all things begin to remain doubtful. which Peter knows is very dangerous for a church under outward pressure and persecution and then inward assault from the devil himself. So lying, cunning, deceitful whispers behind the back, they all break down unity within the church. A promise broken, a conviction compromised, often lead to a relationship strained. So we want to walk in truth, live truth. It weakens our bond when we don't do those things. It makes us less effective, less united as a family, but not on Peter's watch. and certainly not here on ours today if we can help it. So he ties eternal and earthly blessings to this behavior knowing that they're already saved and they know they're saved. They're not gonna do this stuff to get saved. They're gonna do this because they're saved. And he knows it's gonna foster strength here and now. They'll reap the reward both on earth with the real good life and then the rewards that nothing can steal in glory. Number two, the Christian, to foster unity, is to avoid evil and do good. Avoid evil and do good. Look at verse 11. Let him turn away from evil and do good. I love when the Bible's simple. Tell me how to live, Lord. There it is. turn away from evil and do good. In verse 11, and we'll deal with two more of them, we're going to run into four imperative commands. They are turn away from evil, do good. You'll see it there. And then two more to come, but we've got to kind of work our way there because they're really extra hard. Seek peace and pursue it. We'll get there. But first, Turn away and avoid. It means to avoid something, not passively or sort of, well, I guess I'll avoid that. No, it's an act of hatred towards something. You despise it, you loathe it. In other words, you avoid evil, you hate evil, and this isn't looking outward, it's looking inward, at your sin and my sin, saying, I don't want that. I don't want to think that, I don't want to say that, I don't want to act on that. I'm gonna turn away from evil. And then to do good is the idea of actually manufacturing good deeds. You're gonna do something good actively. It's living and loving like Christ in the way that you serve and interact with other people. Peter's commanding them not to be passive against evil and not to be passive in doing good. As I was studying this week, I began to look at different commentaries and different scholarly works on this text, and I was looking for that balance, you know, the kind of balance you look for when there's a lot of imperatives in the text and you know you gotta get in the pulpit and tell a bunch of people who are sinners just like the preacher, hey, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. People walk out going, man, we got some law today, but good night, where's the gospel? I'm gonna fail at everything he just told me to do. So I'm looking through the text and I'm looking through commentaries. I thought maybe you bring some gospel balance. And so I looked for it. I promise you I did. And almost every commentator to a T basically laid out the case that Peter don't care. He's coming at you. You already know you're saved. You already know. I told you you're a royal priesthood. I told you you have an inheritance laid up. And then I told you, get your minds ready for action in verse 13 of chapter one. He's saying, oh, you already know you're special. Time to live it, special one. I already told you you're righteous, the imputed righteousness of Christ that can't be taken from you. Nothing's gonna steal your salvation, not even persecution. Now, ready to live it? Let's go. Come on, church. That's what he's saying. But one scholar in particular said, when it comes to Peter, he just doesn't have a definition for a passive type of Christianity. And you wonder why. The guy always pulling out the sword. The guy always flying off the handle. He's like a bull in a china shop, right? Just going. Blowing everything apart. The Lord gets a hold of him. Wrangles him in. Remember John 21, the scene on the beach? After Peter denied him, after Peter's flying off the handle all the time, Jesus restores him, commissions him into ministry, and what does he say to him? Simon Peter, do you love me? Take care of my flock. Simon Peter, do you love me? Feed them. Simon Peter, do you love me? Do you even like me? tend to my lambs, take care of my church. And Peter goes out and he loves the church the best and only way he knows how, by reminding them of who they are and then stirring them up to go and do what they're called to do. And so the question really begs, where do we find our motivation to do all these commands? Well, the same place that Peter found it that day on the beach, love for Christ. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, when he was director of the China Inland Mission, was always looking for the right kind of people to head to the mission field to serve the China Inland Mission. On one occasion he met with a group of applicants and he wanted to determine their motivation. He knew that their motivation would be key to them lasting on the mission field. So he asked one, why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary? This kid must have gone to Awana, because here's the response. I want to go because Christ has commanded we go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Definitely had the vest, had the badges, got the awards. It's a great answer, and it's a right answer. Another said, I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ. It's good. Must have watched some John Piper on YouTube telling everyone go, send, or disobey. You're either doing one of the three. Good answer. Hudson Taylor says all of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testing, trials, tribulations, and possibly death. There is only but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing, namely love of Christ. See, Hudson Taylor knew that all the doing and all the rah-rah and all the I'm gonna and even the command to go would eventually fade in the heart of an individual who didn't burn with affection for Christ. You love him, therefore you obey him. I love him, therefore I obey him. His commands aren't burdensome because I love him. What else would I do, what else would you do but determine to be righteous and obey him and when you're not, confess to him and he calls you back into life in him to walk obediently once more. A missionary in Africa was once asked if he really liked what he was doing. I love his response. Do I like this work, he said, no. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonable, refined sensibilities. Must have been British. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. Oh, but as a man to do nothing for Christ, he does not like. God pity him if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to go and we go. Love constrains us. It's love for Christ that helps us commit to the conviction. No matter what I'm going through, no matter how I feel, I'm gonna submit to God's word as the authority over my response because I love you, Jesus. I'm gonna act like you, Jesus. I will despise evil. I'll do good at the expense of my own temptation not to do good. Never at the expense of your will, I will follow you, avoiding evil and doing good. And that's important because we have to, number three, seek peace and pursue it. We've gotta now go into further action. I can't just hate sin and then wanna do some good deeds. I've gotta actually say, okay, I'm gonna look for peace. That's that word, seek peace. I'm gonna look for it, where can I find it? Where can I achieve peace? The Bible does teach that so long as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Sometimes you're gonna look for peace and you won't find any. And sometimes you're gonna try for peace and you won't succeed. Because some people, what? They don't want peace. But you are called to obey this. Seek peace and then pursue it. It'd be so much easier if Peter left it at seek, right? Look, oh there's some, I hope the Lord works. Oh, then he says pursue it. It's an imperative verb. It means to rapidly run over there and do it. Make the peace. Be the peacemaker. Doesn't mean you agree with everything. Doesn't mean you're still gonna kumbaya over everything. Doesn't mean you're gonna like everything. It does mean that you actively seek peace and unity with fellow believers. It does not compromise on truth. but it strives in holiness for peace. Hebrews 12, 14 says it this way, strive for peace with everyone, so now we're even talking people in the church, people outside the church, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So we strive for peace, we speak the truth, and holiness in pleasing the Lord in the way that we live, bringing Him glory. I don't know about you, but avoidance is much easier. Even in the name of peace. You ever make the excuse, well, I don't really want to go there with them. It's going to just stir up a bunch of conflict. And so in the name of peacemaking, you don't even make peace because you say the person's no for them. You presume the conflict, assuming that God's not going to work. Well, you and I ought to remember the command to at least seek it and pursue it. Walking in obedience to the Lord. no matter the uncomfortable conversation, no matter the outcome that's not ideal, even somebody saying that they don't agree with us. that they don't like us, that they'll hear no more of it, you can then in peace say, well, I love you, I've tried, phone's always on, door's always open, I'm gonna go my way in peace, I sure do love you, see you in heaven, if I don't see you before then, let's worship around the throne in unity, but until then, you know where to find me. Even that is still seeking and pursuing, which I know is incredibly uncomfortable for most of us in the room, but we can rest assured we're living the good life. We're being obedient. We're following in the righteous way that God has laid out for us. And most importantly, perhaps of all, during your stay on earth, you look nothing like the world when you operate that way. I look nothing like the world when I operate that way. Isn't peacemaking so rare? Isn't keeping peace so rare? I was looking at one statistic this week put out by Moody Bible Institute. They referenced a study done years ago and it was accurate and true and sobering. Since the beginning of recorded history, the entire world has been at peace less than 8% of the time. In its study, this periodical discovered that of the 3,530 recorded years of history, only 286 years saw peace. We're terrible at this. In excess of 8000 peace treaties were made and broken. So we're not just bad at making peace. We're horrific at keeping peace. We break our promises. We go back on our word for peace. That's the world we live in. So should not the church of God be different. actively seeking peace and laboring as best as we can by the grace of God to keep the peace where it can be found and achieved. Finally Peter highlights probably the most important of all because it's going to be the hardest of all. Number four we are to trust the Lord. We are to trust the Lord. Where am I getting that from? Well, in verse 12, he says, four, which basically takes all that and wants you to say, well, because, or make sure not to miss this. Here's your big why. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. His ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Well, the point is trust the Lord because that's what you're gonna need to do in order to actually believe that God is watching, that he sees you, that he hears you, that he's for you, that he's not blind to what the wicked are doing, and sometimes that's hard, isn't it? Because you're wondering, God, are you seeing this right now? Are you hearing this? Where are you? Are you going to let them get away with that? And we look at the text of God's word and we're reminded, your eyes are on the righteous. I want to be righteous. Your ears are open to my prayer. I want you to hear me. And your face is against those who do evil. Okay, God, you're going to do something about this. I trust you. Peter highlighting here the omniscience and omnipresence of God. He's all-knowing, he knows, he sees, he is present. That's back to Psalm 34, 18 when it says that God is near the brokenhearted, he is present. You ever text that verse to somebody who lost a loved one? Husband or wife or child or someone they care for deeply dies and you send that text, Psalm 34, 18, I'm praying for you, why? Because you wanna remind them in the middle of their pain, they're not alone. God is near, he's not distant, he's not blind to it, he sees it and he's present. Peter does the same thing. What is God's take then? As he listens to the righteous and he hears their prayers regarding the evil worker? What I wanna show you in closing, what God's face against something or someone looks like throughout scripture. The first one I'll read to you, Psalm 34, 16, from the psalm that Peter quotes from, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. To cut off the memory of them from the earth. God doesn't play around. Do you know what was so important to them in the Old Testament? Being remembered. Remember the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, I wonder sometimes, after they were long gone, if they smiled a little bit in glory as people said that. Remembering, yep, they're still remembering, I was faithful. We do that now. We wanna know what people are gonna say about us at our funeral. We tell people what to put on our gravestone. Faithful father, courageous Christian. Maybe you were. But the truth still remains. We want to be remembered. What God says about the evil, I'm cutting your memory off from the earth. You mess with the righteous, you go your way and reject and rebel against me. You come against my people and my plan, your memory will be gone. Proverbs 10, seven says it this way. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. That first portion, the memory of the just is blessed, could be twofold in proverbial words here. The memory of the just is blessed, meaning your memory, The just, the righteous person looks at their life and their memory is blessed. They say, hey, it's been a tough life, but it's been a good life. Lord, I haven't been perfect, but I've been progressing. You have worked in my life. I praise you. I'm ready to find you, meet you. Thank you, Jesus. So you got a good memory about the way you've lived, but also the memory, meaning the remembrance of the just is a blessing. People remember your example, your witness, the way you lived, but the name of the wicked will rot. Ezekiel 39, the prophet Ezekiel declaring on behalf of God to the people of God, what is going to happen to those who stand and say, God said, God told me, thus saith the Lord, here it is, but they're not honoring him, they're not being faithful, they're not representing God faithfully, God doesn't play around with the way that you treat and talk to his people. He says in verse nine of Ezekiel 13, so my hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations, they will have no place in the counsel of my people. So God takes away their ability and their privilege of counseling his people, nor will they be written down in the register of Israel. So they're gone from that, nor will they enter the land of Israel. God not playing around, they're not coming with. That you may know, what? That I am the Lord God. God will ensure one day that all of creation knows He is with, behind, and in front of the righteous. That is a truth that brings trust to your heart and mind. We see God in the Old Testament, God in the New Testament, the same God, immutable and unchanging. Ezekiel 14.8 says the same thing. 15.7, Jeremiah 21.10, Jeremiah 44.11, all passages as they begin to list, and I could have gone another 40 minutes in this one just unpacking this reality for you. God's face against someone or something means judgment in action. He lets no one, church, off the cross. The hook. This is an important truth right now. If I had one sermon to preach to brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, this is the sermon I'd preach. If I had one sermon to preach in America and what's to come for us, this is the sermon I would preach. God is not blind. None of what's happening is lost on Yahweh. He will avenge. He will reward. The question for us is will we walk in obedience? In the New Testament, James 4-6 and 1 Peter 5-5 both quote from the Old Testament declaring that God is opposed to the proud and he gives grace, exaltation, favor to the humble. He will honor you in your humility. He will protect and vindicate his church. And all of this brings great comfort to the soul of the afflicted, wondering, does my faithfulness matter? Does my effort by grace to behave in a godly manner even matter? Is it worth it? It is. Jesus is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. He will reward you for your faithfulness, both perhaps in this life with the good life that really matters, and most assuredly in the next life, which will be, if you're a believer, your best life. You live with that in mind. And then you and I can say, oh, whatever suffering, whatever mistreatment I endure, my great defender draweth near, the great equalizer himself will vindicate on my behalf. He will do his part, I must do mine. I will walk righteous and obedient, my God will defend me. That's the backdrop that Peter points back to in David's life. It's the call for the church there at that time, and it's still the call that rings in our ears today. who are called to righteousness. And that's Peter's intent here, to stir up commitment, to endure in righteousness, in words and actions. You remember back in Psalm 34, we started there. David's response to Saul's attacks. He chose to obey God, it wasn't easy, but in the end, even he experienced vindication for his righteous ways. Even to the point of Saul confessing that he had been wrong. The Bible captures this moment in 1 Samuel 24, 16 to 19 after David again had had the chance to kill Saul in a cave while he was relieving himself. He chose to obey God's command not to touch the Lord's anointed and then basically held up that little cloth saying, look, Saul, I could've but I didn't. You think I'm trying, I'm not. I'm trying to be obedient. I'm trying to be righteous. I'm not trying to kill you. I'm not trying to take your kingdom. It is Yahweh who anoints, Yahweh who determines where I'll be and where you'll be. I'm just trying to obey. Look, I'm honoring you. I'm loving you. I'm simply also trying to obey him in the process. Do you see it now, Saul? Saul's response. As he looks up at that cave opening and David standing there with a piece of his robe in his hand says, is this your voice my son David? You are more righteous than I for you have repaid me good whereas I've repaid you evil. So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. Church, the story didn't end there for Saul and David. It didn't end there for the believers in Peter's time. It certainly is not over for us. We're not out of the woods. Our children are not out of the woods. We are sojourners passing through a world that is growing darker and darker. Saul and David would have more conflict. Saul really never figured it out in the end. Just a wicked, evil man who would not submit to the Lord and eventually was removed. David, in righteousness, even though he was imperfect, even though he blew it a whole lot of ways from Sunday, the Lord still called him what? A man after his own heart. Because he longed to be righteous. He longed to obey. And so as a sojourner passing through this world, the question for us now, who would we rather be? The prideful reviler who takes judgment into our own hands? Or the humble who, though hurting, will one day very soon be exalted? Let me pray for you. Father, Your word always returns as we pray it will, filled with truth, filled with challenges, filled with clarity and commands to obey. So we thank you, Jesus, for the cross. We thank you for you giving us a new life, for the power of the Spirit working actively, daily, second by second within us. We need you to live out these applications. It is hard to watch what's happening in our world right now. and not become the evil we're seeking to eradicate. It's hard in the church so often to not fire back against those who fire at us. It's hard in the church to not undercut the undercutter, to not go after the compromiser, to not blow everything apart in our emotions. And so please help us, we need you. make us a unified church, a strong church, an active church, both internally in unity, but externally with our witness, being those who guard the tongue, who don't see all these as burdensome law-keeping commands, but rather the result of burning affection for you, Jesus, that because we love you, we wanna obey you. Based on what your word teaches now, I declare personally and corporately with our church and for our church, we trust you. We really do. Even when we fail, even when it's hard, we trust you and we will trust you to vindicate, to be our great defender and the great equalizer. For now, please help us to obey you and be your righteous people in Jesus name. Amen.