Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

June 5, 2011

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

LOCATION

Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2^nd Floor

150 Washington Street

Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553

Telephone: 615-513-4464

Schedule of Services

Sunday 10 AM Bible Class

Sunday 11 AM Morning Service

Thursday 7 PM Midweek Service

For Righteousness Sake

1 Peter 3: 14-17

The word “for righteousness sake” includes three things.  First, Christ said it means “for my sake” (Matthew 5: 10-11; 10: 18, 39).  Our text has to do with suffering for Christ himself (1 Peter 2: 7-8; 4: 14).  Secondly, the Lord Jesus said it means “for the gospels sake” (Mark 10:29).   Our text also has to do with the gospel we speak (1 Peter 3: 15).  Thirdly, “For righteousness sake” means “well doing.”  The new life, new motive, and new conduct of the believer is because Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit of God.  Our text speaks of our “well doing” (I Peter 3: 17).  Believers can expect to suffer for righteousness sake: for Christ himself, for our gospel and for well-doing.  These words of instruction in our text are not merely the words of a man, or a set of rules we adopt, they are the soul-strengthening words of the Holy Spirit in our hearts in times of suffering.

For the Sake of Christ

The Lord Jesus said that if we suffer for his sake be exceeding glad for the kingdom of God is yours (Matthew 5: 10-12).  Be glad because the Spirit of God rests on you (1 Peter 4: 14).  It is a high honor to suffer for the sake of Christ (Acts 5:41).  Through suffering, God grows us in grace as his love is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5: 3-5).  So if we suffer for the sake of Christ—“be not afraid, neither be troubled but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts (1 Peter 3: 14). Be not afraid of that which your persecutors are afraid, nor troubled at the things that trouble them (1 Peter 3: 14-15).  Instead, fear God and he shall be for a sanctuary—a refuge, a hiding place, protection and strength to you that fear him (Isaiah 8: 12-13).  God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ—this cannot be undone.  The Holy Spirit blows where it will so our Comforter cannot be stopped from comforting our hearts in the midst of suffering.  Our consolation shall abound by Christ (2 Corinthians 1: 5).  God is the never-ending source and object of our happiness, blessing and comfort beyond the fear of change. 

For the Sake of the Gospel

We believe and speak that which is right—according to God’s word—not because we are trying to be different, or contentious, but because God is OUR Savior, our Father, Christ is our Master, we have been made one with him and we owe all to him.  We speak of representation, finding comfort in the truth that in Adam all died, because Christ is the last Adam so that what Christ did all those he represented did.  All he represented shall be born anew of the incorruptible Seed.  We speak of sovereign grace because God is right to choose whom he will and pass by whom he will.  No man deserves any favor from God but by his grace he shall save a multitude.  We speak of the finished work of Christ because it is God who justifies his elect in righteousness.  God did not pass by our sins but laid them on Christ and he accomplished our justification.  We cannot speak enough of Christ’s finished work.  We speak of invincible grace because it is God the Holy Spirit who gives life, faith, repentance and receives all the glory for calling us. 

The gospel is offensive because the gospel declares man dead and unrighteous; it declares salvation is opposite to man’s carnal reasoning; the gospel excludes all boasting of men.  Therefore, believers can expect persecution from men for the sake of the gospel of righteousness. 

For Well-Doing

Saints have been sanctified from both the irreligious and the religious of this world.  The chief endeavor of the unregenerate man is to silence his convicting conscience. He may try to hide among the trees of God’s planting in his fig leaves or he may try to silence his conscience with distractions of pleasure, or business, running from scene-to-scene, avoiding everything that reminds him of God or his responsibility to submit to God.  Whichever the case, when he meets one who by God’s sanctifying work is full of well-doing: one who rests robed in the righteousness of Christ, one who speaks of the righteousness of God, one who’s one delight is to walk and worship in God’s righteousness alone, it awakes his conscience. He persecutes and tries to silence the one who is making his conscience scream (Galatians 4: 29; 1 Peter 4:4).

But and If Ye Suffer Be Happy

Whether you suffer for Christ your Righteousness, for the gospel of righteousness, or for walking after that which Christ says is right, still, sanctify the Lord himself in your hearts, be ready to answer every man with the gospel of Christ and keep worshipping and walking in Christ your Righteousness, for it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil doing (1 Peter 3: 16-17; Colossians 1: 27-28).

Men shall be ashamed in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2: 12)—either in the day of God’s invincible grace in this life or in the Day of Judgment.  They shall be ashamed when they behold Christ himself; they will be ashamed when they behold that everything you spoke in your doctrine was true; and they will be ashamed when they behold that all your well-doing was to simply keep you out of the way that they might see Christ, instead of you.