Summary: Being a Witness of Christ according to the scriptures.

1 Peter 3:8-16

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

One of the first messages that the Lord provided me was entitled “What’s Your Doctrine?” The main thought of that message was this, how can we witness to the lost if we don’t know ourselves what it is that we are trusting to get us into heaven! Often it is a sad fact that most “Christians” live their entire lives without a clear understanding of God and His love towards man. In 1st Peter chapter 3 Peter is letting us know what is expected of those saved of God. Beginning in verse 8 and through verse 17 Peter, through the Holy Ghost, teaches us what we should “Be” for the Lord.

 Be Loving

 Be Pitiful

 Be courteous

 Be not vindictive

 Be confident in your calling.

 Be mindful of your tongue.

 Be aware that the Lord’s eyes and ears are open to His children.

 Be followers of that which is good.

 Be happy in your suffering

 Be not afraid

 Be not troubled.

Be A Witness:

Beginning in verse 15 we see what should be the focus of our Bible study: the believers part of the great commission. Be prepared (Be Ready) to "give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you."

Of all that the Holy Ghost asks us to be, maybe the most important is found in verse 15. If we could only take this verse to heart, apply it to our lives, we may just find ourselves in the will of God. Verse 15 teaches us the foundation for being a witness unto God, which is the very reason He leaves us on this earth after salvation. This is also our role in the “Great Commission” which Jesus gave to all those who are saved.

I have always been afraid of witnessing personally, for I know what I was, I know what I am, and I know that in myself I can do nothing. On the other hand, I am most miserable for I know that I am not in the will of God when I do not witness for Him. In verse 15 of chapter 3 I have found a verse that has inspired me to become a better witness for God that lost souls might come to know Him. With this thought in mind let us look at “Peter’s guide to scriptural witnessing.”

Sanctify the Lord God in you hearts:

Before we can ever be a witness of the blessings of God, and a witness for

God, we must set Him apart in our hearts, for whatever the desire of our heart is that purpose we pursue. The world demands much from each of us, work, bills, life, death, and every form of distraction and temptation but we must not allow the world to fill our hearts, we must keep our hearts sanctified unto the Lord.

 A sanctified Witness (How to please God)

Heb. 13:12,21

Through Christ, we can go without the camp bearing witness of Him and He shall be pleased.

 What goes in, must come out.

Acts 15:8

The Lord knows our hearts, and when right He will bare witness with us through the Holy Ghost.

Illustration:

One day a young minister was being escorted through a coal mine. At the entrance of one of the dim passageways, he spied a beautiful white flower growing out of the black earth. "How can it blossom in such purity and radiance in this dirty mine?" the preacher asked. "Throw some coal dust on it and see for yourself," his guide replied. When he did, he was surprised that the fine, sooty particles slid right off the snowy petals, leaving the plant just as lovely and unstained as before. Its surface was so smooth that the grit and grime could not adhere to it.

Our hearts should have the same characteristic. Just as that flower could not control its habitat, so we cannot help it that we have to live in a world filled with evil. But God’s grace can keep us so clean and unspotted that though we touch every side, it will not cling to us.

If we want the Lord’s full blessing and approval, we must heed the admonition, "...keep thyself pure" (1 Tim 5:22). By the cleansing power of His Word and the sanctifying influence of His Holy Spirit, it is possible for the Christian to remain "clean in a dirty place."

 How to remain Sanctified?

How can we stay white and pure in our hearts when the world is so nasty? How can we, like the flower of the illustration shed the soot of the world’s cares and trials? There is only one way and we must understand that the answer is beyond our ability and comprehension, the answer is found in God’s Word

Eph 5:26-27

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Be A Witness:

“and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you”

Here is the heart of our message and the answer to the empty seats in the house of God. Has it ever occurred to you that an empty seat in the church this day represents an empty seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb? For every soul that we fail to reach, through the witness of God in our lives, a seat in heaven goes un-occupied. Some may say, and live the life, that God knows all that will come and that we have no affect upon their condition, either natural or eternal and that every seat in Heaven will be occupied. I would remind you that the Word of God says that He is not willing that any should perish and that Jesus died for all that would come unto Him.

What prevents us from being a witness to the world of what God has done in our lives? What is the greatest factor, in our lives, that prevent us from being able to covey the love that God has bestowed on us towards others? Most often it is that we do not understand fully just what God has done for us nor do we understand the responsibility that he has given us in the great commission.

Hope, it would seem, is a psychological necessity, if man is to envisage the future at all. Even if there are no rational grounds for it, man still continues to hope. Very naturally such hope, even when it appears to be justified, is transient and illusory; and it is remarkable how often it is qualified by poets and other writers by such epithets as ‘faint’, ‘trembling’, ‘feeble’, ‘desperate’, ‘phantom’ ‘false’. The Bible sometimes uses hope in the conventional sense. The ploughman, for example, should plough in hope (1 Cor. 9:10), for it is the hope of reward that sweetens labour. But for the most part the hope with which the Bible is concerned is something very different; and in comparison with it other hope is scarcely recognized as hope. The majority of secular thinkers in the ancient world did not regard hope as a virtue, but merely as a temporary illusion; and Paul was giving an accurate description of pagans when he said they had no hope (Eph. 2:12; cf. 1 Thes. 4:13), the fundamental reason for this being that they were ‘without God’

The Apostle Peter has instructed us to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us. If I were to ask each person that I met, who claimed to know Christ, "why do you think you will go to heaven?" the answers would be many and widely varying. The Lord has blessed me with a sermon titled "Why do you think you will go to heaven" which uses an opinion poll of Christians and published their answers in the book "The Day America Told the Truth." SEE RESULTS

Responses to "Why do you think you will go to Heaven."

1 60.00% I’m basically a good person

2 15.00% I’ve done the best that I could

3 10.00% Believe in God

4 8.00% I Go to church

5 5.00% I obey the ten commandments

6 2.00% I don’t know?

Of all the answers given none included the belief in the Gospel, Jesus Christ, the blood, or being born again, the only way this Word of God says we can claim any salvation! Those of us who have the truth, and know the truth, are obligated by the same Word to tell others and guide them according to the Holy Scriptures, be ready to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you.

A Blessed Hope!

Titus 2:13

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Saved by Hope!

Romans 8:24-25

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Hope of the Resurrection!

1 Corinthians 15:19-20

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Hope of our Calling!

Ephesians 4:4

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

Hope of Eternal Life!

Titus 1:2

2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

1. Be ready to give an answer to every man as to the hope that is within you: How to have Assurance?

 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

2. Proof of Salvation: II Corinthians 5:17

 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 1 John 3:14

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

3. Answer with Scripture, not your opinion: Matt. 4

 Jesus tempted in the wilderness answered with the Word of God.

4. Answer through the Holy Ghost?

John 14:26

 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Hopeful Illustrations:

A few years ago the psychology department of Duke University carried on an interesting experiment. They wanted to see how long rats could swim. In one container they placed a rat for whom there was no possibility of escape. He swam a few moments and then ducked his head to drown. In the other container they made the hope of escape possible for the rat. The rat swam for several hours before finally drowning. The conclusion of the experiment was just the opposite of our common conclusion. We usually say, "As long as there is life, there is hope." The Duke experiment proved, "As long as there is hope, there is life."

 Bruster & Dale, How to Encourage Others

Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.

 Gilbert Beenken

In Meekness and Fear:

The key to being a successful witness of God’s mercy and grace is found in the last of our text verse. Having our hearts sanctified and knowing our doctrine are vital to witnessing, but we must witness in the right spirit before God will bless and use us. To often we go about in our own spirit and the Holy Spirit can not shine, and without Him we are of little use. Peter says that we must go in the spirit of meekness and fear. Meekness and fear do not indicate weakness nor cowardice but instead both are Biblical traits that are the sign of the devoted Christian.

Blessed are the Meek:

Mark 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

We like to think blessed are the strong, the shrewd, those who stand up for their rights, those who refuse to be taken advantage of, those who always look out for slights, those who strike it rich and make it a success. We have a tendency to put high value on self- assertion. The natural standpoint is that a strong person is one who not only does what he wills but also bends others to do his will. The Biblical concept of meekness, however, is different. Meekness in the Greek is used to describe an animal which has been trained by its master. Wild and unruly animals are worthless but when trained they become meek, that is teachable and quiet. If we remember this background of the term we will see that meekness is strength under the control of God and that gentleness is true power.

One of the meekest men in history was John the Baptist. He was such a powerful figure that Josephus, the great Jewish historian, reports many years later when John’s name was mentioned people still trembled at the thought of him. Jesus’ eulogy of John was that he was "greater than any man born of woman." Yet when he saw the Christ, instead of giving a speech about his own great accomplishments, he sent his disciples to Jesus telling them, "He must increase but I must decrease." When asked who he was, he simply said, "I am nobody. I am to be heard, not to be seen. I am just a voice." Did you ever notice that David never describes his victory of Goliath in all of the psalms? We live in a time of superlatives -- the greatest evangelist, the greatest preacher, the greatest theologian, the greatest actor -- we desire dignity, position. We want some title and to be addressed properly. No wonder Christ cannot be seen. Paul called himself "the least of all the apostles." Where is our pride? Where is our meekness?

Romans 12:3

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Holy fear

1 Peter 3:15

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

The fear that Peter is speaking of does not take the form of cowardice, nor apprehension but rather the word translated here means “In Reverence.”

I am speaking of the Holy Fear of God.

This comes from the believer’s apprehension of the living God. According to Luther, the natural man cannot fear God perfectly; according to Rudolf Otto, he is ‘quite unable even to shudder grauen) or feel horror in the real sense of the word’. Holy fear, on the other hand, is God-given, enabling men to reverence God’s authority,

 obey his commandments and hate and shun all form of evil (Je. 32:40; cf. Gn. 22:12; Heb. 5:7).

 It is, moreover, the beginning (or principle) of wisdom (Ps. 111:10);

 the secret of uprightness (Pr. 8:13);

 a feature of the people in whom God delights (Ps. 147:11);

 and the whole duty of man (Ec. 12:13).

 It is also one of the divine qualifications of the Messiah (Is. 11:2-3).

In the NT generally, however, emphasis is laid on God as loving and forgiving, the One who through Christ gives to men the spirit of sonship (Rom. 8:15), and enables them boldly to face up to life (2 Tim. 1:6-7) and death (Heb. 2:15) without fear. Nevertheless, a reverent fear remains; for the awesomeness of God has not changed, and there is a day of judgment to be met (2 Cor. 5:10f.). Godly fear stimulates the believer to seek holiness (2 Cor. 7:1), and is reflected in his attitude towards his fellow-Christians (Eph. 5:21).

Do you want to see the lost come to Christ? Do you witness to the lost? Are you following God’s instruction and His commission by telling all you come in contact with about the love of God? Are you following God’s plan for scriptural witnessing?

Have You:

1. Sanctified the Lord in your heart?

2. Are you ready always to give an answer of the hope that is in you?

3. Are you witnessing in meekness and fear?

John 12:30

30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.