Quieting the Critics, Part 1b

In Exodus chapter 17, verse number 8, let me read to you just the first part of this verse. Well, I guess it's the whole verse, really. It says this, then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. That one sentence speaks volumes. It's all about how Amalek attacked Israel, which shows you how the fleshly desires attack you. Exodus 17 doesn't record it, but Deuteronomy 25 does. And you know the story. Moses got Joshua to, first mission of Joshua, by the way, and got Joshua prepared, and he led him out to battle.

And, of course, Moses was up on the hill, and Aaron and Herod were there holding up the rod, which was a representative of the presence and power of God, and how they would pray and commit everything to the Lord, and when his arms fell, Israel was losing, but when the rod went back up, Israel would win. And they defeated Amalek. It's a great, great story. I can't wait to preach it. So, you say, you're preaching it now.

Well, I'm not really preaching it, I'm just giving you a little prelude here. And the fact being is that they defeated Amalek, but they didn't defeat him completely, he'd be back. Evil always comes back. It'll always come back. And I'm reminded of those words in the Gospel of Luke, fourth chapter, after Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, oh, by the way, after the 40 days, at his weakest point is when Satan came. It says in verse number 13, and when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

He departed for a while, but he was going to come back again. I'm just saying that to you because I want you to understand, there's a battle going on here, folks, and you've got to realize that every day you wake up, you've got to be ready for warfare. You've got to be ready to engage the enemy. You've got to be ready to fight for the truth. You've got to be ready to stand strong on the truth, and you've got to be ready to fight against the fleshly lust that trades war against your soul. They're there.

And if you're not careful, they'll bring you down. So, Peter says, I want you to live a godly life. You need to. I want to encourage you to do so. Number one, because you're strangers in this country.

And number two, because you're soldiers engaged in combat. And number three, because it silences the critics.

It silences the critics. He says these words in verse number 12, Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they stand to you as evildoers, they may, on account of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Wow. Keep your behavior honorable, lovely. Keep your behavior attractive. Keep it attractive. Because it's the only way to stop the critics. It's the only way to refute their charges, is to live a pure and spotless life. Paul would say these words in Philippians chapter 2, but sort of parallel with this.

He says, it is God, verse number 13, who was at work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure, do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world. That word innocent is the word harmless. It's a word that means unmixed. Unmixed. It refers to the absence of any foreign substance. Peter would look at it from this standpoint.

He would say that our lifestyle should remain unmixed with the world and fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul, so that our behavior then becomes honorable and lovely and attractive in this world. That's important. He says, keep living for Christ. Because as they observe your good deeds, as they watch you from a distance, on the day of visitation, they will glorify God. What's the day of visitation? Boy, I wish I had time to go into this. Maybe next week. But the day of visitation is that day which God visits man for one of two things, judgment or blessing.

Judgment or blessing. And when God would visit for blessing, listen, it was always about deliverance and salvation. And when God delivered for judgment, of course, His wrath would be poured out against man. And recall way back in Luke chapter 1, verse number 68, it speaks of the fact that in Zechariah's prophecy, he would say, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people. It speaks of the day of visitation. Then in verse number 78, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high shall visit us.

Again, it talks about the day of visitation, when Jesus Christ Himself was going to be born. And what did Christ say in Luke chapter 19, when He said this, when He wept over the city of Jerusalem? If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes, for the day shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.

You see, Christ came in the day of visitation to His incarnation. And because they did not recognize Him as their Messiah, that day of visitation went from a day of blessing to a day of judgment. See that? Well, these people will have God visit them, because they will observe the behavior of you and realize your good deeds are from God, and give glory to His name. And to give glory to God means that you're born again, you're saved. Now, I need to cover something with you, and that is how does all this actually happen?

And I want to give you some principles for guided conduct. Here's the plea, Peter gives it to you in verses 11 and 12, and I want to give you some principles. Some principles, I think, that will help you understand how this actually is going to take place. Number one, and this is so practical.

I sat in my office this week and thought, okay, if I'm going to tell these people that they need to live a guided life, how is it they're going to accomplish that tomorrow at work? How are they going to do this tonight when they go home to their spouse, to their children? Let me give you seven principles.

I think there's seven. If there's not, I'll make one up, okay? All right, number one, a decision to submit.

It all begins with the decision to submit to what Peter has actually said, okay? I will do what Peter says. I will be that stranger. I understand that I'm engaged in combat, and my behavior needs to be honorable and excellent and innocent, unmixed with the things of the world. You need to make a decision that says, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do it for the glory and honor of God. You see, a lot of times we don't live godly because we never make a decision to do so. And so you've got to begin a step, number one, I've got to decide to submit to what Peter says, which really is what God is saying to us.

It begins with a decision to live godly, whether anybody else does or not. Whether anybody else wants to or not. Whether anybody else in the church wants to do it, I'm going to do it. Whether my husband or my wife wants to do it, you know what, I'm going to do it. Let me tell you something, never wait for your spouse to do it.

If you do, you might not ever get it done. All right, at least we're together tonight. You know, when you get to heaven, God's not going to say, you know, I wish your spouse would have walked with the Lord, because I know you would have walked with the Lord. He's not going to say that. It's going to be you without your spouse. It's you and you alone. So do it, whether they do or not. It's like, you know, going to church. Well, you know, my husband doesn't want to go to church, so I guess I won't go to church.

What kind of decision is that? That decision is, well, you know, I guess if he wants to live ungodly, I guess I will too. That's the decision you're making, right? You say, you know what, honey, you don't want to go to church, that's okay. I'm going to church because I love the Lord. I'm going to worship the Lord. I'm going to sing praises to His name. I'm going to honor Him. You can dishonor Him, but I'm going to honor Him. That's what you do, right? There needs to be a decision that says, you know what, I'm going to submit to what God says.

Number two, there needs to be a determination to succeed. You know, a lot of people get on the bandwagon and quit real quick, real quick. But there needs to be a determination to succeed. Let me give you a verse.

There are several of them, but let me give this one to you. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 3. Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Paul gives the same analogy of a soldier, because we're involved in combat. He says, suffer with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. For no soldier on the surface entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life. That is, he doesn't get so wrapped up in the things of life that he forgets what he's supposed to be doing as a soldier. He doesn't get so wrapped up in the things of life that he gets sidetracked from his mission.

There must be a determination to succeed. Christ did it this way when he talks about salvation in Luke chapter 14. He says, for which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Which one of you are going to set out to build a building and then not finish it because you forgot to count the cost? And there it sits. People come by and say, wow, man, I can't believe you didn't finish. What's wrong with you? Didn't you think this thing through? Didn't you know what you were doing? How can you quit? You see, there needs to be a determination from the very beginning that says, you know what?

I will work through this all the way till Jesus comes again. Because you know what's going to happen? You'll quit. The first obstacle that comes, the first problem that arises, the first trial that besets me, I'm going to quit.

Say, it's too hard. I can't do it. The fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul are too hard for me. I'm just going to wait till tomorrow to start it up again. And you won't. A decision to submit to what has been said, a determination to succeed, and number three, a desire to satisfy your God.

Back in that verse in 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul says this, No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Who enlisted Timothy as a soldier? Well, Christ did. You see, he wants to please his commanding officer. You see, at the heart of our drive needs to be a desire to satisfy God. We have to learn to stop satisfying somebody else. We've got to learn to stop trying to please everybody else. Paul said in Galatians 1 10, If I seek to please men, I cease to find favor with God.

We've got a lot of man pleasers in the church. We've got a lot of people who want to please our boss or please somebody else. At the expense of pleasing Christ. Listen, our mission needs to please God. He's our commanding officer. He is our Lord. He's our King. He's our Maker. If a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Isn't that what the Bible says?

So we've got to seek to please the Lord. We've got to decide to submit. We've got to determine to succeed. And we must have at the core of our being a desire to satisfy God and God alone. Number four, there needs to be a departure from sin. Listen, and sinners. There needs to be a departure from sin and sinners. Christ is saying in Matthew chapter 5, If your right hand offends you, cut it off. If your right eye offends you, pluck it out. Why? Why? Do we literally go around cutting off our hands and our arms, our legs and poking at our eyes?

No. He says, look, you do whatever you got to do to make sure you don't sin. Take drastic measures. Depart from sin. Paul would say, flee idolatry. He would say, flee immorality. He would say, flee youthful lust. Run away from those things. I love what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 7. He said this in verse number 26, And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

Isn't that good? The one who wants to please God will escape her, will depart from her, will run from her. But the sinner, he'll let her capture him. Depart from sin and sinners. You say, well, how am I going to do that? Everybody, I'm around the sinner. Listen, we just got to be careful who we hang out with, right? Ecclesiastes 9.18, one sinner destroys much good. 1 Corinthians, excuse me. Yeah, 1 Corinthians 5 verses 6 says, One little leaven leavens the whole lump. Proverbs chapter 13, verse number 20 says, He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

You know, we hang around some pretty raunchy people sometimes. Now listen, I'll be the first to admit that we're all raunchy to some degree.

But the bottom line is, is that bad company does corrupt good morals. You got to be careful who you hang around with, right? Because if you're not careful, they'll take you down the wrong path. They'll lead you down the wrong road. There needs to be a departure from sin and from those who will lead us into sin. Number five, discipline yourself. Discipline yourself. You know, we live in a world that emphasizes self-fulfillment and self-indulgence. So self-discipline becomes a naughty word. But there needs to be the discipline of self.

You know, I forget who said it, but he said it well. The alternative to discipline is disaster. One man said it this way, Discipline is the virtue which consists in mastering the appetites and passions, especially the sensual ones. That's discipline. Folks, you know, we need to get some discipline. Went to McDonald's the other day. I go to McDonald's a lot. I got a lot of kids. My kids love McDonald's. I hate McDonald's. I've eaten so many hamburgers, I think my whole life was just nothing but a big cheeseburger.

But I went to McDonald's the other day and I said, You know, I understand you guys aren't going to supersize your meals anymore. They said, That's right. And I said, You know, how come you guys are going to do that? I've got a big family. So when we supersize the fries, we can split the fries. But if you don't supersize the fries, I've got to buy two fries. So for you not to supersize it anymore, it's going to hurt my family. It's going to cost me lots of money. So I want to know why you aren't going to supersize it anymore.

You know what she said to me? She said, Because society cannot discipline itself. I said, What? She said, No, they can't discipline themselves. They eat too much. So we have to force them to discipline themselves. I said, Well, can't they just say no? And she said, No, they can't. And you know, that's the truth. We live in an undisciplined society. A self-indulgent, self-fulfillment society. It's all about me. It's all about my lust. It's all about what I can get. And if anybody's going to be a stranger and an alien in this world, it's got to be somebody with some discipline.

Somebody who says no. As Paul would say in 1 Timothy 4, 7, 8, Discipline yourself unto godliness. Train yourself to be godly. I mean, discipline is a word with sweat. And you know, for the most part, we don't like to sweat. You know, we wish we would smell good all the time. But you know what? To discipline yourself means, it's the word, where we get our English word, gymnasium. So discipline has the smell of sweat behind it. So if you're going to live for the Lord, you're going to have to be a sweaty Christian.

That means you're going to have to do a lot of sweating to discipline your life. To say no to this. The discipline of mortification. The discipline of solitude. The discipline of prayer. The discipline of Bible study. The discipline of church attendance. The discipline of getting up. The discipline of going to bed. The discipline of saying no at the proper time. Saying yes at the proper time. And there needs to be the discipline of ourselves. Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 9, I beat my body into subjection, lest I be disqualified from the ministry.

Wow. Discipline. The discipline of yourself. Six. Devotion to the Scripture. Devotion to the Scripture. Peter said it well in 1 Peter 1, 22. What did he say? Since you have an obedience to the truth, purify your souls for sincere love for the brethren. Firmly love one another from the heart. The purity of your souls comes from obedience to the truth. There needs to be a devotion to the Scriptures. A devotion to the memorization of the Scriptures. A devotion to the meditation on the Scriptures. We need to be people of the book.

We need to be people of the Word. We need to spend time with God in His Word. Memorizing His Word. Reading His Word. Studying His Word. Telling people about His Word. A devotion to the Scriptures. Remember Acts 2, 42? The early church, they committed themselves steadfastly, devoutly to the apostles' teaching. It was number one on their list.

They were devoted to the Word of God. And lastly, and most importantly, dependence on God's Spirit. So you might think here, wow, this is a lot of things I gotta do to make it happen. Let me tell you something.

It's both you and the Lord. God's gonna give you the power. What does it say in 2 Timothy 1, verse number 7? God's not giving us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. What was the fruit of the Spirit? Self-control, right? People say, well, I just can't control my passions. Yes, you can. No, I can't. Yes, you can. No, I just can't control them. Well, let me tell you something.

The Spirit of God says what? The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. That's what it says. So if you got the Spirit, you have the opportunity to control yourself. Now, if you don't have the Spirit, I'll agree with you. You cannot control your passions. So we have another problem. You're not born again. You gotta get saved. You gotta have Christ in your life, right? Well, we have to stop giving people excuses. And say, listen, this is what Paul said. God has given us a spirit of self-discipline. See, discipline should mark the Christian.

We should not live undisciplined lives. We, of all people, should be the most disciplined people on the face of the earth. We should never be late because we discipline our time, right? We should be on time, not late. We should know what we should be doing. We should know how to live our lives because we're focused on living a disciplined life. And this is where prayer comes in, where we depend upon God's Spirit. We say, Lord, we can't do this ourselves. I can't make this happen, Lord. I can't get up to discipline myself.

Lord, you gotta get me up. You gotta get me up. I told you before, you know, some people tell me, you know, I'm not a morning person. And I say, ask God to change you. But they don't want to ask God to change them because they like their sleep. See? They don't want to get up. And I say, well, ask God to change you. Well, I guess I could do that. Well, wouldn't I have a long way to go? Ask God to change me. Hmm, that might work. Let me tell you something.

If you ask God to get you up, guess what? You're getting up. He's gonna get you up. And then, you know, he gets you up, and what do you do? You roll back over and sleep again. You know? It's like, come on, folks. God did what you said, and you roll back over and go to sleep again. And we need to depend upon God's spirit to do what only God himself can do. Paul would say in Galatians 3, verse number 3, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit that you now try to perfect yourself in the flesh.

Having begun the spiritual pilgrimage by dependence upon the spirit of God, are you now trying to work it all out by yourself? You can't do that. You need the spirit of God. You need God's spirit. You need to walk in the spirit, as Paul said in Galatians 5, so you don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And that's what God says, and those are the principles for godly conduct.