Sermon: Such Good Lives

It is a blessing for me to be with you this morning. And I'm gonna read from God's word first Peter chapter two, verses 11 and 12. Open up God's word with me. Listen now to God's word. First Peter chapter two in verse 11. He writes, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which weighs war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers,

they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word, and as we just sang, we pray that you would speak to us and you do speak to us by the holy scriptures. But send your Holy Spirit, give us that illumination that we would understand and that we would embrace it in a fervent faith. Bless us through your word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, we've been here this weekend for the Philadelphia Conference on reform theology. We always have a theme, and our theme this year has been living as a Christian in an antique Christian world. Why is that our theme? Because that's the deal. And we need to understand what's going on. We need to think biblically about the situation in our world. One of our speakers was a man named Aaron Ren. And Aaron wrote a influential article a couple

of years ago called The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism. And his argument was basically this, that there have been shifts in the relationship of American culture towards the Christian Church and the Christian people. And he argues that up until about 1994, America had been what he calls a positive culture towards Christianity. And what he means is whatever the world itself thought, the American culture thought, the Christians were viewed in the generally favorable light.

If you're running for office and you're a member of a Bible believing church that probably won you votes, even among non-Christians. If you became converted, people might not have really gone with you, but they would say, Hey, that's a virtuous thing. The Christian morals, Hey, those are good morals. That's America up to about 1994. And between 1994 and 2014, those are the dates. He, he, he suggests, uh, you know, but it's kind of advanced further into post Christianity.

And, uh, as Peter Jones, one of our other speaker points out, America really transitioned from a secular, humanistic society to a neopagan society, which is absolutely true. And, and it's a neutral society. You're not gonna pay likely in meaningful ways for being a Christian. You are, but the culture's not gonna reject you because of it. It's not gonna really endorse you either. It's a neutral world with respect to evangelicalism,

but it ren argues, and I think persuasively that right around 2014, that's the year of the Obergfel Supreme Court decision when homosexual marriage was legalized and there became a shift in the public morality. And since then, it's not only because of that, but since then, you're living in a negative culture, a, a culture that is not pleased at all about your Christianity. Let me quote Aaron Ren. He says, we're living in a world today where being known

as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. Christian morality is expressly repudiated. Christian morality is seen as a threat to the public good. Now, many of you're university students and, and if you're on university states, you hear this loud and clear Christian morality is a threat to the public moral order. It is immoral to espouse biblical ethics. Subscribing to Christian moral views, Ren says,

and violating the secular sec secular moral order will bring you negative consequences. Now, that is awfully troubling, but let, let me say that it's also the majority experience of the Christian Church throughout history. Christians have been living in anti-Christian cultures a lot. Uh, they they're doing it now. They've been doing it for centuries. The church of the Apostolic church was very much in an antique Christian culture,

and there is an apostolic model for how we do that. And that model is not leave your blue state and move to my red state, although a lot of people are doing it. Every new member's class we have, we always have a California family, always California. Some of them don't stop in Texas. They may get all the way to the Christian Republic of Carolina. And, uh, and they, and they can't wait to get there. And by the way, I'm, I'm not judging them. They're welcome.

Our church is growing. It's growing a lot of ways, but just with, with cultural Christian migrators, uh, it's definitely happening. And I want to say to you, you do not need to leave your blue state, your whatever or whatever it is, your purple state. We cannot have the Christians move out of the world. One thing that you'll inevitably be disappointed, it is certainly true. It's a different cultural environment. Greenville, South Carolina is the epicenter

of homeschool co-ops. Our homeschool co-ops that my kids went to is so large. We had a varsity tackle football team. And I admit that was great. I was a linebacker's coach. And, uh, I don't think the co-ops in East Lansing probably can field a 50 man varsity football roster. And so things are a little different in terms of the density of Christians and those sorts of things. But you do not have to flee the world in which you live in order to live as a Christian.

But what you do have to do is be decidedly Christian. The only way for us, and and this is nothing new, let's talk, let's talk to our Chinese Christian friends today. Let's talk to the church in Iran, which is flourishing, which is booming in a, you talk about an anti-Christian culture, Iran, The only way for Christians to thrive and survive and and to, and to be able to raise our children with the blessings that we had in our and,

and on all those things, we must my friends be decidedly Christian. And when you study the New Testament, there is in fact a kind of a playbook. And if you look in Ephesians where Paul deals with this, if you look in Colossians, where, where Paul deals with this, and when you look in one Peter when you deal with this, there is an apostolic playbook. And, uh, one expression of it is the passage that I've read. We talk about three things in the Apostolic playbook

for living as a Christian in an anti-Christian culture. It's got three points. First, you must have a biblical perspective on your relationship to the world. You must think biblically and Christianly about where you are and who you are and what is your relationship to the world. That's the first one. Second one is you must resolutely abstain from from the pleasures of the flesh. And thirdly, if you will commit yourself to Jesus Christ,

his grace will cause you and, and you are to pursue a decidedly Christian lifestyle that cannot fail to be attractive before the watching world. Those are the three things we're gonna look at this morning. Let's look at, uh, uh, verse 11. Peter tells us that you are in a world where you, through your union with Christ in faith are a sojourner and an exile. Now, the previous verses verse nine particularly gives the, the good news of your new relationship with God.

You, you're his chosen people. You're a holy nation. You're a royal priesthood. You're I I I love this language. You, you're his prize possession. God, God, you're, you're the apple of his eye. God. God, you not just that you own him, but he owns you and you have a one. I remember I was converted at age 30. What, what a thing it was to realize that, that I, I had really come home, I I I, I'd become a child of God. That God of the universe loved me. Why I'm a sinner.

Why would he do that? Because Jesus died for me. And the Holy Spirit brought me to saving faith. The gospel was preached. And and by God's grace, I believed and, and I was at home. I had, I have a home in the heavens above my history is leading to an eternity in the blessing of God. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of my life and I will dwell on the house of the Lord forever. That's great news. But there's a corresponding change on the

other side that if you belong to Jesus Christ, you are no longer a citizen of this world. Not really. Oh, you're, you may be a citizen of United States or wherever you may be a resident of Michigan, but you are an alien here. You are a sojourner. You are a pilgrim passing through. You are, Peter uses the word, you are an exile. An exile is a person who, for various reasons is temporarily living in a place that is not his or her home.

And, and, and they are aware of that, and they have a longing to be at home someplace else. We are pilgrim's journeying through this world. It's not just that we're not from here anymore, but we inevitably do not fit into this world. Now, this is taken from Abraham, I'm quite sure in Genesis 23, 4, Abraham describes himself to the Hittites as a stranger, a sojourner and a foreigner among you. And according to the, according to the writer

of Hebrews in Hebrews 11, this was a key aspect of his faith. Christian faith involves this. My home is in heaven. And and you look, I I care about the world. I care about the people. I have relationships. I have an alma mater. I have a team I cheer for and all these things. But it's, it's, it's not my identity anymore. My identity is with the Son of God, with Christ. I I I have, I have the agenda of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ with the transnational

gospel going forth in the salvation of souls. My heart is more in Malawi with convex and his wife than it is in the football stadium. Man, I know you're, feel free to cheer for the Spartans, but, but, but when you're done, you'll go, you'll be, you'll come home and, and you'll be praying about the mission's work in Malawi. 'cause you're, you become a stranger here. You're an exile. And the writer of Hebrew says, you see people who act that way.

They exhibit that they desire a better place than he says. And God has prepared a city for them. God is not ashamed to be their God. We are sojourners, we are exiles in this world. Now, this biblical perspective that we need to understand is going to influence our aspirations, particularly as the church for the impact we can have on culture. We have a desire to impact the culture. And in fact, we've talked about this during our conference this week.

I, I did a seminar on Friday about it, the question of Christ and culture. And in 50 years ago, Reinold Neber wrote the classic book, Christ and Culture, the different strategies. And one of them is Christ, the, the, the church as the transformer of culture. And so the church is in the world, and what we're gonna do is we're going to change the culture. The culture's gonna become Christian by us. And interestingly, the historical figure associated

with Christ, the transformer of culture is John Calvin. It's the Calvinist position. So they say, and that's because God bless Calvin's ministry in Geneva. And he did change the culture of Geneva. Uh, and, uh, but, but when you read Peter, he's gonna go, okay, but you have to have a sober reality that you are strangers and exiles in this world. You know, usually exiles and strangers don't get elected to high office. They're not, they're not brought into the clubs.

They don't run the club. Someone who's a i I I assure you as someone who's moved to the south, that it is not non Southerners who get into the places of co You're, you're an outsider and you feel that you're an outsider. And it happens all over the world. And our opportunity to transform the culture needs to be carefully understood. In light of the alien nature of the church in the world, we will inev DOI writes, we will inevitably find ourselves

actually at odds with the culture. We'll be at odds with our family members. We'll be at odds with our neighbors if they're committed to idolatry and sensuality and drunkenness. We will not be influencers of them apart from God's sovereign grace. I we had this experience in South Florida. I lived in South Florida for five years, and it was five of the, some of, you'll remember the early two thousands when the hurricane

started ramping up. And we were there then. And you'll turn on the weather channel and you'll see there's a hurricane coming outta the Atlantic. And they had those cone diagrams we used. We were, we were the point of the cone like eight times in five years. And you're standing there and waiting for the hurricane to come barreling down. And we became pretty good at it, you know, after a couple of years, you know, a HA category two hurricane.

I mean, we didn't even really bring the dog in for that. I mean, you know, put the trash can in the garage, 90 mile an hour winds, no big deal. And then I think it was 2004 or something, 2006, we had Hurricane Wilma, a category five. It went right over us. And let me tell you, that's another animal. And, uh, our whole neighborhood, we were really buckled up for that one. 150 fallen hour winds in our town, our city. And the first wave comes through,

and then the whole neighborhood came out and to during the eye. And, and it was a semi devastation. In fact, right across the street there was a big tree south Florida's all these northerners. And they plant oak trees, which can't have root systems. And so when the hurricanes come, they just destroy your house. And our right across the street, their house was smooshed by a oak tree. We're like, bummer. We came out after the hurricane, it was the

other house that was smushed. It just went one way. It was the other. And for a week we were, we couldn't get off our block. I mean, there was such devastation we physically could not get off the block. And my wife and I said, this is a real opportunity for us as Christians, and we got to know non-Christian people who we didn't really have a relationship. And so, you know, about halfway through the week, there was about a two week period where we, where we, we,

we had to, we actually had FEMA water, you know, places we had to go to. And so I went to my next door neighbor, who shall we say was not a, a god freeing person. And I said, Hey, Sharon. And I, uh, we thought we'd have a, a, an event at our house, and we'd like to invite the whole neighborhood to come over and just walk down, step over the rubble and come to our house and maybe we'll pray together and we'll, we will sing hymns.

And I'm looking at his body language and I'm offering him this. And, and our thought is, you know, these people have a realization they need God. And he cuts me off. He goes, uh, you know, Padre, uh, we're actually having a gathering that night down to the other end, and we thought maybe you all didn't want to come. They were gonna get blasted out of their minds. And guess what? We did not want to come. And we realized that the nature of this world and of sin

and our alien nature made it a little difficult to transform the culture. I think most importantly, you know, we are living at the end of a generation or so where the evangelical movement believed it was, it was its mission to capture American society. And what's interesting is that that is not the mission that Jesus gave the church. And I do think that we have had un sober views about our ability to control the legislatures

and to win all the elections and to have Christian laws. I I, I support those things. I do not blame Christians who were laboring for those things. I I honor Christians in the public sphere, but what was the mission that Jesus gave the church Go therefore and make disciples. We are here to be witnesses in a, in a hostile world to the, to the, to the love of God in Jesus Christ, to the blood of Jesus, shed so that sinners could be forgiven.

We're we're to bring them into the church, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit. And then we're to be growing spiritually, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded Christ has not, in fact, given the church the mission of redeeming the culture as culture. Now he's given us the mission of being his servants that sinners will be redeemed. That someone like me, I was a 30-year-old grad student,

and I, there was a church, there was a group of people who, for generations and in the heart of Philadelphia had been maintaining a gospel witness. And I, it's a kind of a story for how I got there. Mainly my non-Christian mother nagging me to go to a Presbyterian church so that I could make, I could meet a nice girl, which I did. Uh, but I walked in there, I'll never forget the night, and the Bible was opened and the minister began preaching the word of God

and the power of the Holy Spirit. And I went home that night and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. Uh, because of the goth, the blood of Jesus was proclaimed. And I, I knew the guilt of my sin. I knew what was happening in my life. It was not trending in a good direction. And I met a redeemer. And the mission of the church in a hostile world where we do not fit in, by the way, you're not going to fit in well, our mission, our mission is

to proclaim the gospel, to gather them into the church and then to grow together in Christ. That is the mission of the church. I I was a college professor for three years after my conversion. In fact, I was in Philadelphia getting my degree to, to teach at a college and what was involved in campus evangelism. I I would say to the Christian kids, you know, you're not gonna fit into the culture here. You're strangers and aliens. You can

Sin, but you cannot sin well, you're just not gonna do it. Well, you're, you don't have the whole, you have the Holy Spirit within you. You are a stranger and an alien in this world. This is a location of the church. Well, what then are we to do? Are you saying where we can't have an impact on the culture? I'm not saying that by the way. I'm saying the mission of the church is not cultural takeover. We are, and Peter's going to get to an agenda

where we have a positive influence. But he actually says, the first priority is that you not be influenced by the culture in which you live. Look at verse 11, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which weighs war against your soul. Now, you'll often meet people who, and you'll hear voices that say, Christianity is a positive religion. We, we, we, we don't say no. We we're, we, we're, we're yes people. We we don't say no.

And I wanna say, have you read the Bible? Peter says here, before, there is a positive influence. There is a, a no to the sinful values and the, and the pleasures of the flesh that are aggressively marketed in the world. I I taught my children Psalm one, you know, Psalm one's very interesting because it's the, the Book of Psalms of not only the Bible's hymn book, it's also, it's the, it's, it's it's biblical spirituality.

And the book of the psalm, the whole book of the Psalms begins with what words. Blessed is he who walketh not in the council of the ungodly nor Standeth, not in the, in the, in the way of sinners and sit, if not in the seat of scorners. But his delight is on the word of God. And he meditates on it day and night. Biblical spirituality says, you cannot afford to open yourself up to, to the ideology of the world around you,

to imbibe, to, to participate in the habits of the world around you. As a Christian, you are no longer of the world. You are in the world. And you must say no. And, and that yes no produces two different lifestyles. The, the per the godly, the person who is, is imbibing of the, of the word of God, who's believing it's connected to the Lord. And faith, he's, he's like a tree. What a beautiful image. You become like a tree

and you're gonna bear fruit even in bad. Not that it's not based on your circumstances, it's not whether you're in Michigan or South Carolina or, or Iran or China or wherever. You'll be independent of circumstances because of the Holy Spirit and you're gonna lead a fruitful life. On the other hand, the wicked or not. So they are like chaff. You know what chaff is? They would, they would take the grain and they would throw it into the wind and they would,

and then the wind would blow the chaff away, you know, the insubstantial husks. And the Bible says, if, if you don't say no to the, to the if, if, if you don't say no to the ideologies and the messaging of the world, if, if you don't say no to the lifestyle choices and habits, your life is going to be insubstantial and worse. Your destiny is not going to be with God. Psalm one ends the way of the wicked will perish. And so Peter's no, for Christians who are exiles

and strangers in the world, is in the form of abstention. He says, I I urge you to abstain. Now, why that approach? Well, one reason is because the world is skillfully, in fact, masterfully marketing, sinful pleasure, as if it was not the destructive thing. It is. And you know, this sin is not presented in the culture as something that's going to destroy your soul. It's gonna make you sexy. It's gonna make you happy. It's gonna make people want to be around you.

When you, when you have, you know, the fifth drink in your hand, when you're buying into the sexual non-MS of societies, it, it's going give you a joyful life, uh, of our, so much of our economy is built upon motivating people to imbibe in sin. And what's happening is, as our, as our society becomes more and more pagan, the more the list of things that, that you're supposed to do increases. Aaron Rems talking yesterday

and he says, you know, wasn't that long ago that gambling was like scorned in society. I mean, poor Pete Rose, he couldn't go to the Hall of Fame because he, he bet he, he bet on his own team. He didn't, he didn't bet against the team, he bet on his team. But gambling was boating forbidden. And baseball, now, major league baseball has a, has a marketing arrangement with a gambling poker company. Uh, in fact, I, I was watching TV last night.

I was watching SportsCenter and ESPN now has a gambling app. And, and it used to be like, Hey, don't, that is not wise. And and people will say, well, you know, the Bible doesn't forbid gambling, okay? It forbids greed. If you can gamble without greed, knock yourself out. I, I challenge you to pull that one off. Um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and drugs, marijuana, uh, drugs that are, man, no one's arguing that they're not harmful,

they're pleasurable. And the list goes on and on in our society. And, and Peter says, listen, if you're a Christian in an anti-Christian world, you need to realize that you, you're, you're, you're a citizen of heaven. You, you, your thoughts, you live here, you care about it. You, you, you, you, there's things and you're invested in here, but you realize you're a stranger. You're an exile, and you must say no. You must abstain from sinful pleasures.

And they wage war against your soul. When I was a, a college professor, I was involved in, uh, campus evangelism and that, that's how I ended up going into the ministry. And there was a, a young man who was really one of our prize Christian students, and I loved him dearly, still love him dearly. And he was a wonderful Christian man. And he had, he had non-Christian, he had a non-Christian roommate, and they were living the godless life.

And one time he gave in, you know, they were always there. They were inviting him to the bars to get smashed. And he actually went and he went out with them. He was, you know, he wanted to fit in and he got smashed and he acted badly surprised. He came home the next morning, he was hungover, and his non-Christian roommate comes in and goes, you know, we're all frankly a little embarrassed by you. And he goes, why are you embarrassed of me?

We didn't think that you did that kind of thing. And he's like, I mean, how fair is that? I I just did what you do four times a week. He goes, yeah, but you're supposed to be a Christian, and frankly, you didn't do it. Well, we're to abstain. It wages war with our souls. We have the Holy Spirit within us. We grieve the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews warns us against the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is not gonna come to you

and say, oh, by the way, we're trying to get you to destroy your life. The thing that we're trying to motivate you to do is going to lead to a, a, a divorce or, uh, social habits that will, will keep you from flourishing. You know, David and Bathsheba, you know, no sin did not say to him, you know, David, the rest of two Samuel's gonna be like a train wreck because of what you're about to do in the next 15 minutes. No, the world, the world's deceitful sins deceitful.

And we're so willing to be deceived. And sin will always take you further than you wanted to go. It will always keep you longer than you intended to stay. It will always cost you more than you ever expected that you were going to pay. We need to be wise about the pleasures of sin. Notice that that Peter's concern, not merely with the behavior, but with the desires, the inward orientation there is to be active warfare.

It is going to wage war against you. It wants to destroy you. You must actively wage war with it. This is essential to being a Christian in America today. The writer of Hebrews, I love the writer of Hebrews. I think Jason's preaching Hebrews, and he's probably told you that there's a lot of nautical metaphors in the book of Hebrews. We don't know who the writer of Hebrews is other than the Holy Spirit, but the guy's got some navy influences

and one of his favorite terms of expression, he used the expression of, uh, you know, make sure that you're tied securely. Because if you don't tie your boat securely to the dock, it can slip out. And that word he uses for, for slip out's, a nautical term for that happening. And what happens is you didn't secure it and there's a tide and you come back the next day and where's your boat? Well, your boat's out there and he says, he says, this is what the world's like for you.

If you don't tie yourself securely so, and abstain from, from sinful passions and, and the, and the inward life of it and the pursuit of it. If you're not praying about these things, if you're not coming to church, you're not waging war with the sword of the spirit and the armor of God. You don't even have to try the current of the world. It's just gonna pull you out. In fact, if you just do nothing, if you just fit in,

you're gonna go out to sea. My brother and I were snorkeling in, in Hawaii some years ago when we were young, actually it was many years ago. And it's just an incredible gorgeous bay. And we were so excited. And the tour guy said, oh, oh, by the way, if you go past the reef, you will die. We're like, and he's like, no, no. Like this is a famous current here and in your gear and frankly your shape, if you go past that reef,

we'll search for you and we will find your body on some island out there. And, and I gotta tell you what, I had my eye on that reef the whole time. You live in a world that has a current, it's an outward current. You need to be wise. You must actively abstain from sinful passions. If you're gonna be a Christian in a non-Christian anti-Christian world. What's the third part? Is there a positive aspect of this? You betcha there is. Here's the good news.

You, you, you, you belong to God. You're a child of God. You fit in with the people of God, which is a wonderful thing. You have a home and a destiny in heaven, just like Psalm 23 says. But you need to abstain from sinful desires and pleasures. But if you will consecrate your life, here's my message. The way for us to be Christians in an anti-Christian world is to be decidedly Christian, to be Christians who have consecrated our lives of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Peter says, if you do that, he will enable you to lead a lifestyle that will be attractive to the watching world. We are by the grace of God in Christ, we are to commit ourselves to and pursue a gracious, attractive decidedly Christian lifestyle. Look at verse 12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

See, this is our influence on the surrounding watching world, uh, by the title of my sermon is Such Good Lives. I think that's the ESVI originally memorized this verse in the e in the NIV Live, such good lives among the pagans. And the word actually can be translated lead such an attractive life among the pagans. It it can be translated lead such a beautiful life among the pagans that they, even though they slander you,

they notice it. No, by the way, notice that Peter assumes that we've not left the society. It's among the pagans that we do this. Edmond Clowny says, A Christian's fellowship with God must and will produce observable conduct that is admirable in its integrity and its consistency. And it's this lifestyle that we, we actually do it for Christ. Christ actually does it in us, but the effect it has upon the world is unavoidable to it.

Now, this word, uh, for honorable, again, attractive, beautiful. I think the passage that connects maybe most to is, is Galatians 5 22. The fruit of the Spirit. You know, what a thing it would be if, if we, and this is Christianity decided Christianity, that, that we're, we're, we're, we're, we're committed to the means of grace. We're devote of the apostles teaching. We're at church, we're praying, we're living under the Lord Jesus Christ.

And guess what the holy Spirit's doing? He he's putting grace into our lives. And we're to be cultivating that grace as an activity. We're gonna pursue kindness, love, joy, peace, kindness, graciousness, patience, long suffering, self-control. These things are to be seen in, in, in and through our lives. And so, for instance, a Christian is to be kind to other people there, there's something wrong with a mean Christian.

Something, something questionable about that to be a Christians have union with Christ and faith. And you think of the kindness of the Lord Jesus, I think of when the, the woman t adultery is brought to him and they wanna stone her. And, and Jesus treats her with compassion. The woman by the well, Jesus dealing Nicodemus Jesus confronts them, but he's kind to them. He's generous to them. We're, we're, we're to treat people kindly we're to cultivate social grace

and politeness and how we deal people. Why? Because the love of God constrains us. We see them as image bearers, not just as rivals and competitors and annoyances. And people who watch us should notice that we have the capacity for joy. You know, one of the things that we should have compassion on the world is there's a reason why the depression rate is what it is. And the suicide rate is what it is. It ain't working.

Now how's the social experiment going? It's crashing down and there's misery and suffering and we're to have compassion on it. We're, we're to be able to shed tears. But we're also to be able to laugh and to enjoy friendship without having to get blasted in order to do it. And see, the world notices this something's going on with you. And they may not wanna talk about it, but they see something attractive and beautiful in a Christian life.

Dan Dorian writes, there's a beauty in the way that some godly women always seem to have a friendly meal for the hungry and a soft bed for the weary. There is a beauty in the life affirming response that so many Christian couples have when they learn that their expected baby is going to have down syndrome. It's just normal Christianity, a life that's that's poured out to Jesus Christ. And his grace is at work in us. And Peter says, do you realize how attractive that's going

to be before the watching world? And he says, it's really important because in an anti-Christian culture, you're going to be slandered Verse 12, when they speak against you as evil doers. You know, America's a culture where foreigners aren't often treated well and there's jokes made about them and there's slurs and they're, they're they're treated unfairly. Well, guess what? We're on the receiving of the end of that in the world and the world.

Did you notice that the, the secular media is not playing nice with you. You have people around you who've never met you, who assume that you're a Bible thumping hypocrite. Isn't that nice? And all the TV shows and movies, I got news for you. The Evangelical Christian is not the compassion broad hearted person. It's the narrow-minded person who, who leads a petty unhappy life and makes everyone miserable. That's the depiction of the Christian.

That's the world in which you and I live. They are not playing nice. And you know what? This is not a new phenomenon. The, the, the Roman world in which the apostles lived and witnessed was engaged in an, in heavy slander against the church. When you read the church fathers in the second century and the third century, why were, why did the people fill the coliseum and love it while Christians were being torn apart? 'cause they were getting what they deserved

and they had all kinds of slander against them. And in 1 75 was the great persecution in Leone. 1 77, part of that was 1 75 was a thousand year anniversary of the Roman Empire. That's pretty of Rome. It's pretty impressive. They had an empire wide celebration, thousand of the millennium of Rome. The whole culture has spent huge amounts of money. And guess who wouldn't participate? The Christians. The the Christians. Why?

Because they weren't willing to bow to the idol of Caesar and say Kaiser Es. And 'cause of course that's the, that's because it's idolatry. They wouldn't worship the idol. The we, there's some things that we, they, they, we couldn't, they can't do. We can't do them. By the way, there's things that you can't say as a Christian and the idol of the new sexual morality, that's the idol of our age. And no, no, there's things that you can't affirm and,

and you go, well, they'll persecute me if I won't. Welcome to the Christianity. You can't bow at the idol because it's gonna cost you career things and, and, and be a and live as a Christian. And that's where they were. And the empire was indignant towards the Christians. And then Peter says, they're gonna slander you. They actually taught that infant baptism was the drowning of babies. It's in the early ap. It's actually a pretty pro infant baptism argument

that the Caesars were, were accusing them of drowning their babies and of eating them. And some of the early church apologists had to go, you know, we're actually not eating our babies. Uh, we're not drowning them. It's called baptism. TAUs said that they are hated because of their vices sway. Tony says, Christians are a class of people animated by novel and dangerous superstition. And there anti-Christian world is saying

that about nice Jason Opolis and the people in his church. Yes, they are. What are you to do? Lead such good lives, to lead authentically Christian lives with the grace of a living savior who pours outta spirit that the people who actually run into you go, you know, I I would never have guessed it. That's kind of like an attractive lifestyle. That's a beautiful, did you see the way that husband and wife interact with each other?

I've never seen anything like that before in my life. That is to be our emphasis. Now what you see in Ephesians, you see it in Colossians, you see it in one Peter, is that this is lived out largely in our relationships. Every one of them gives this council and then proceeds to the house code. It's called Christians in their civil obedience. Christian wives and husbands and marriage, Christian parents and children, Christian slaves and masters.

And I'm not gonna go through all the details of them, but we just embrace the Bible. We just consecrate our lives to the Bible. And the Bible says, honor Caesar, let's verse 13, be subject to the Lord's sake for every human institution. Whether the emperor, supreme or the governor said about them were to be good, were to be good, respectful citizens. And so Chris, and, and boy in this world of of hate and the vil, everyone's vilifying each other.

And you know, if the other party has the President, then we, we reviled him. I actually, in a previously press presidency, I had to, I had to admonish my session when praying about the president. You have to be respectful because he is instituted by God. So that pastoral prayer in the evening or ruling elder pray, and you know that prayer where you called him that no good rascal scoundrel. That's not godly Christianity.

You can pray for God to convert 'em. I think you did that today. But we're to be respectful. And they're to say, you know, those Christians, they, they're out of power, but they show respect. And uh, Tertullian said, check the tax books. See who's paying their taxes? It's the Christians. Why? Because Jesus commanded us to render to Caesar. And, and they, the early church had made an argument. We're actually the, we're, we're the best soldiers,

by the way, Americas, you purge the Christians outta your military, you're gonna miss them. You're gonna miss them. That's happening right now, uh, in, in America. And, and there's Christian marriage. And Peter has some classic teaching on Christian marriage in chapter three. But what an opportunity is, as we live among the pagans, which, and I I don't say this with scorn, certainly not glee, but that it's not able to do marriage, right?

Is not able to do marriage. And there you are on the block, and I know you're sinners, but the wives treats your husband with respect. And the husband is a spiritual nurturer. And there's biblical godliness. And if you don't think the world is not freaked out by that, you're gonna find out that they are. And you will have the experience of someone coming to you going, can I talk to you about how it is that you and your wife have this servant hearted

relationship on the college campus? It's a dating relationship that's fundamentally different and it's attractive. You're, you're, you're not exploiting each other. You're serving one another and, and, and you know, you're able to do things other than sex and have, and Have fun doing them. What's going on with you? I remember as a non-Christian, that very issue shook me up before my conversion. The parents and children, Christians in the workplace,

a decidedly Christian biblical life is beautiful, is beautiful. And Peter says, yes, here's where our evangelism actually happens. He says this, that they will see the attractiveness of your life and they will glorify God on the day of his visitation through your good deeds. He's not saying we convert people only through lifestyle attractiveness. He means that they, they, they, they're willing to hear the gospel. They're willing to come to church

'cause of what they saw in your life. And they hear that there is a loving God and his son died on the cross for their sins. Oh, if maybe you're not a Christian here, you're, you're here today. Here's our message. God loved the world and there is a forgiveness of sin through the, the, the, the sacrificial death of Jesus. And there's a new life in the Holy Spirit. We dearly hope you see some of God's grace in us, and we'd like you to join us.

Well, let me conclude with two Marys, who I think about quite a lot and I love them. One of them is one of my great hees. Her name is Mary of Bethlehem. She is the mother of our Lord. And I think of her when the angel Gabriel, I often think of this in ministry, the angel Gabriel gives her rather shocking news. Oh, we got the virgin birth coming. You're this teenage unwed girl in conservative Bethlehem and conservative Nazareth,

and you're gonna get pregnant outta wedlock, but it's gonna be the Holy Spirit. It's gonna be the virgin birth of the Messiah. And she's reeling it. And, and the words she said are words that I want to commend to you as we live before God. I I she must have been kneeling. And she says, behold the handmaiden of the Lord my friends, we have to, the only way for us to be Christians in an anti-Christian world is for us to repeat her words and say, Lord, behold,

I consecrate myself. Jesus died for me. I want to live for him. I don't wanna play games with a phony Christian life. I don't want one half of my heart in the world. And the other half, IIII, I behold the, the bond servant as a boy, the bond servant of the Lord, behold the handmade of the Lord. We've got to commit. A, a nominal Christianity will become no Christianity. We, we cannot afford it. We've never been able to afford it.

The other Mary is Mary of Bethany. And you say, how can I have a beautiful lifestyle? I'm so messed up. I'm just getting it together. Well, what did Mary of Bethany do shortly before Jesus arrest, she took her alabaster jar and she broke it and she poured at his feet and she worshiped him. She had communion with Jesus. And she, she, she used her hair to wipe his feet and that intimate pouring out of her life to Jesus.

And I like to think of, of Mary's home after Jesus left, because what would've been left behind, but the aroma of his grace, the aroma of Jesus was in her hair. You know, we come to church 'cause we need to hear God's word because we, we wanted to give public worship. We we wanna play to win and, and we need to be in church. But we come here to for Jesus and we pour out our lives. And you know what happens when the word

of God's preached in this church and you sing these lovely songs and you pray together, the fragrance of Jesus begins to stick to you. And by his grace, now you're to be working towards this. But by his grace, your life will be more and more beautiful. It will be more and more attractive. My friends, we are not going to win America with policies. Oh, I much prefer godly policies. Thank God for Christians working in the public square.

We're praying for you. We are not going to win Christianity America with policy, but with people. The, the early church had this huge effect by being Christian because they were Christian people. And like Mary, the aroma of Christ was in their hair. Uh, we're not going to win the culture war such as it is. We're not going to beat the, uh, the anti-Christian culture through controversy, but through conduct. Let your live such good lives, such beautiful lives

among the Pagans that even when they're trying to slander, they have to go. You know, it's kind of lovely. And here's the good news. The light of Jesus is shining. Do you realize the light of Jesus is shining in Michigan in 2024? Why? Because he is raining. He is with his church and the light is shining on you. And what does Jesus say to you? You are the light of the world live such good lives among the pagans. Peter says, what Jesus says that they may see

your lovely life, Christ, lovely life in and through you, and they will give glory to God as a result, father in heaven, I I thank you for the clear teaching of your word. It's not very complicated. But Father, it is true and compelling. And so would you cause us to remember what you have said to us today? And I pray for this congregation. I pray, Lord, for university students here at Michigan State and they're in an anti-Christian world.

But Lord, what if the fragrance of Christ is in their hair? Well, Lord, you will cause them to have that influence. Give us mercy for the world. Give us compassion. Preserve us from the sins of the world. But Father, shine your light on us, that we might be your light shining in the darkness of the world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.