Now, beloved, tonight as we continue our consideration of 1 Peter, we consider 1 Peter 3, verses 10-12, and we want to read together Psalm 34, Psalm 34, and we will also read 1 Peter 3, verses 8-12, but again, for our consideration of verses 10-12 of 1 Peter 3. Psalm 34 as we give our attention to the Word of God. I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, my children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones. Not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems His servants. No one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him. Turning over to 1 Peter chapter 3, beginning at verse 8. A couple of weeks ago we considered verses 8 and 9. In many respects it goes right into now verses 10 through 12. It's a continuation of sorts. Beginning at verse 8. Peter says, Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic. Love as brothers. Be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing. Because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing. 4. Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have seen in our study of 1 Peter, especially in recent sections that we have dealt with, Peter clearly sets forth what Christian conduct is all about. Christian conduct. Boys and girls, how we are to act, how we are to live as Christians, how we are to conduct ourselves before the face of God and before the eyes of a watching world. You see, it matters. It truly matters. And Peter wants the church to know and to exercise the kind of behavior that sets apart one who professes Jesus Christ. That kind of Christian behavior that declares the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Our conduct, beloved, is to declare something. It is to make a speech, if you will. It is to herald something wonderful. The praises of our God who saves us. Peter is talking about the kind of behavior that governs relationships as we have considered submission, where servants submit to their masters, where wives submit to their husbands, where husbands honor the submission of their wives and in turn submit to the needs of their wives. and also where brothers and sisters in Christ submit to one another. And all of this submission as unto the Lord. Peter is talking about Christian conduct that is distinguished by and flows from living in harmony with one another, being sympathetic, loving as brothers, being compassionate and humble. Ultimately, Christian conduct is governed by having the mind of Christ in which the Christian does not, as Peter says, repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but turns the other cheek and blesses instead. Blesses. Sometimes that's a foreign concept to us, isn't it? To bless. You see, this kind of conduct or behavior separates the believer from the unbelieving world. It makes the Christian different from those around him. This kind of good or excellent behavior, as Peter calls it, is consistent with what it means to be a Christian. And it is characteristic of one who is in that covenantal relationship with God. When God established His covenant with His people, the simple rules were obey and enjoy His blessing and life, but disobey and suffer punishment and death. As we were reminded this morning with Adam, Man couldn't do it. Man couldn't do it. He couldn't obey. He couldn't do what God commanded. But Christ did. He did for you and me, and therefore we enjoy God's covenant of grace. And as we enjoy that covenant of grace, we are called to live in response to God's grace. Beloved, in Christ Jesus, covenantal obedience is characterized by fighting against and staying away from evil, that evil from which we have been delivered. Now Peter, you recall, as we consider it in verses 8 and 9, commands the church, he commands all Christians to bless others. Again, instead of repaying evil with evil or insult with insult, according to verse 9. And then in the text for tonight, Peter, as we pointed out a couple of weeks ago, supports his command from Old Testament Scripture, as we read. A portion of Psalm 34, a psalm which has been called a recipe, for covenantal blessing. Is there a blessing from God in this life upon those who are obedient to Him? Absolutely. The Bible speaks of rewards. Of course, as the Catechism says, not rewards of merit, things that we have earned, but rewards of grace. And again, if you read throughout Psalm 34, it's filled with the talk of the blessing of God. Just one phrase in verse 10, Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. John Calvin says, The Spirit of God promises a happy life to none except to the meek and those who endure evil. Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? A happy life and meek and those who endure evils. And he goes on, And we cannot be happy except God prospers our ways and it is the good and the benevolent and not the cruel and inhuman that He will favor. The teaching before us tonight is the Christian's recipe for a life of covenantal blessing. And that recipe includes a pure speech, a godly direction, and a covenantal motive. And before we look at these three points together, before we look at this recipe, we need to notice Peter's general statement that introduces the recipe. He says in verse 10, This is talking about wanting something, desiring to have something, It's talking about desiring the blessing of God. Peter is talking about desiring to enjoy the experience of life, to take pleasure in life. And again, from the context, we know that Peter is speaking to Christians. He's speaking to the church of Jesus Christ. He's talking to those who have been born again of that imperishable seed, those who have been given that principle of new life. Life and good days are a gift from God, And the only way to truly love this life and to enjoy good days in this life is to enjoy that new life in Jesus Christ. These Christians to whom Peter was speaking lived in times of hardship and misery among pagans. Again, sounds contradictory, doesn't it? Loving good life, seeing good days, and on the other hand, times of hardship and misery among pagans. And indeed to the world, it is contradictory. But not for God's people. They were still able to love life and see good days in the Holy Spirit. Because as those who had been born again, those whose hearts were in tune to God and His Word, those who enjoyed covenantal fellowship with God, they enjoyed in this life a taste of the life to come. Seeing good days is talking about enjoying the covenantal blessing of God. In the Old Testament, For the nation of Israel, we know that the blessings of covenant faithfulness included the prosperity of the land flowing with milk and honey. They enjoyed the prosperity of Canaan, which was a picture of true heavenly prosperity. But here, Peter is talking about the blessing of spiritual good days. Days of enjoying the prosperity of faith. The prosperity of faith, which includes experiencing the love of God and harmony with God. It includes experiencing love of one another. It includes the days when the fruits of faith are evidence. We're not talking about earthly prosperity where there is heaping up treasures on earth. But we're talking about heaping up treasures in heaven. Of course, we know that the blessings of God include His provision for our daily needs. But today, when the Christian thinks of earthly prosperity, we are to think of being content with what God has given to us. God gave life. And life as it comes from Him is very good. And we know as we learned this morning again, sin messed up. It tries to destroy life. But for those who believe in Jesus Christ, who enjoy that gracious covenantal union with God through Christ and desire to love life and enjoy the blessings of good days, for those, Peter says, follow the recipe for a life of covenantal blessing. And that recipe that he is talking about is a demonstration of the fruits of new life. A demonstration of being reconciled to and living in harmony with God. And the first ingredient is to have a pure speech. Verse 10 of the text says, For whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. Right away, it's clear that Peter is supporting his command in verse 9 when he says, Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. And then he goes on to say, Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. We know all too well that the tongue and the words that it produces, which then pass over the lips and to the ears of another. It can be very dangerous. Boys and girls, you know that. Maybe you've said something nasty to someone else or someone has said something nasty to you and either your feelings were hurt or you hurt their feelings. And shame on us, but sometimes we intend to hurt the feelings of others with our words. We intend to stab them just a little bit just so they might know where we're coming from. Our words are dangerous. In fact, without the proper restraint, the tongue is a deadly instrument. It is untamable, as James says. He says in chapter 3, he compares the unbridled or untamed tongue to a little spark. We all know that one little spark can set a whole forest on fire. He said the tongue is full of deadly poison. This is heavy stuff to be talking in that way about a little part of the body. Words that roll off the tongue past the lips can sting and bite and hurt. The tongue brings out the thoughts of the heart in words. You can tell if one's heart is filled with love or hate or with truth or deceit by what they say or by what they write. The book of Proverbs has much to say about the tongue and the lips with regard to both the wise man and the fool. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calls for blows. A fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul. That's just a small taste of what the writer of Proverbs says in chapters 15-21. See, Peter is saying, do not follow the path of the wicked with an untamed tongue. Refrain, keep away from, avoid or resist performing evil with the tongue. Beloved, it takes work. It takes forethought. It takes the strength of the Lord. But Peter is saying, don't curse or swear. Don't take God's name in vain. Don't gossip about others or tear others down verbally. Peter also says, don't speak deceitfully. That is, don't speak that which is false. Don't mislead others. Don't tell lies. Don't be deceitful. Instead, he's commanding pure speech. Well, what is that? What is he commanding? Again, verse 9, Blessing instead. Beloved, we need to ask ourselves that very question. Are we blessing others? Actively blessing others with our speech to them or about them. Follow the wise men of Proverbs. Use your tongue knowledgeably and rightly. Give well-thought-out answers and advice. Let your speech be pleasant and sweet, seasoned with salt, Building up, strengthening, encouraging others, and most of all, praising God. Proverbs 21, verse 23 says, Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. Beloved, the tongue is like a world of evil that, without the proper restraint, it corrupts and destroys the speaker and the listener. One little wrong word out of your mouth can do untold damage to another. Therefore, not only are we responsible for what we say, but we are responsible too for its effect upon those who hear us. And this is a reminder for those who enjoy that covenantal relationship with God. Really, it's a reminder to obey His commandments. You shall not worship or serve other gods. You shall not take God's name in vain. Honor your father and mother. And boys and girls and young people, this includes your speech to your mother and father, but also about them. When you're not with them, when you're with your friends. As well as about all those in authority over you. How do you speak about your parents and your teachers and your coaches and others who are in authority over you? How do you speak about them? And you see, young people, you are to hold each other accountable. You are to hold each other accountable with regard to what you say and how you say it about your father and mother and those in authority. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The church is that community of believers who are born again to a living hope in Jesus Christ. Christians are new creatures in Christ. And therefore, their speech must also be new. It must be transformed from that old way of life. In other words, we are not to use the language of the world. Of course, we know that there's common phraseology, there's common things that we say, but there may very well be statements that the world uses that believers have absolutely no business using in their vocabulary. And we are called to be discerning. Again, Peter commands the bride of Christ to live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic. Love as brothers. Be compassionate and humble. That's how we are to live with each other, brothers and sisters in Christ. An impure speech can destroy all of this. The Christian's recipe for a life of covenantal blessing includes the ingredient of a pure speech, but it also includes a godly direction. Verse 11 says, He must turn from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. Peter is saying, stay away from. Avoid evil. There is no blessing in evil. Actively work and fight to avoid it. Certainly don't look for evil. And if evil is in your path, he is literally saying, go out of your path to keep away from it. Again, young people, if you find yourselves in a situation of temptation or a situation of evil. You are not to go headlong into it thinking, I can handle this because not one of us is strong enough. You are to remove yourself. Ask God for the strength to remove yourself. Go out of your path to keep away from it. But this, of course, is consistent with the rules of God's covenant, isn't it? God promises blessing for obedience but punishment for not obeying and to follow or participate in evil is to disobey God. So Peter says, stay away from it. and the reason that you are to turn away from evil is in order that you may, well, not do nothing, but do the very opposite, to do good. As James says, faith without works is dead. You and I, as children of God, are called to do something, to do good. Evil is talking about all that is not of faith and that which is not from the love of God, that which is not according to His law and not to His glory. And good here is the opposite. Good is that which flows from the love of God. It is done through the power of faith in Jesus Christ. It is that which is morally good and is profitable to others. Peter is admonishing the church to walk in the way of sanctification, to fight the old man within and the evils and the temptations of the world on the outside. But also, he says, the Christian is to seek peace and pursue it. We are to diligently look and search for peace with others, and when we find it, we must try to grab onto it and make it our own. Again, this is consistent with harmony and being sympathetic and brotherly love and compassion and humility and not returning evil and insults but giving a blessing instead. However, there is no peace with others unless there is first true peace with God. And that's where true peace begins. And it's not because we seek out that peace. It's because God made the first move, remember? It's because God chose to establish that peace with His people through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ, congregation, is a sign of the sword to the enemies of Christ. But that very same cross is a sign of peace to the brothers and sisters of Christ. Of course, we know that many in our day especially think of peace only as being the absence of war in this world and getting along and being tolerant with each other. But true peace comes from heaven. True peace is that freedom that comes into our lives through the work of God's Spirit. Freedom from sin and shame. That sin and shame which causes enmity with God. And only when the Holy Spirit works the peace of God in our hearts where we then desire to have it, and peace with God then leads to peace with our neighbors. Proverbs 16, verse 7 says, When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Congregation, when we do not keep our tongues from evil and when we do not turn away from evil, then not only is our relationship with God disturbed, but our relationships with each other are disturbed too. We cannot have peace with each other unless we have peace with God and there is no peace with God unless we are delivered from evil. And those who are indeed God's people are called to be at peace, servants with their masters, husbands and wives, and especially as brothers and sisters in Christ. Godly submission promotes peace. And this too is a sign of sonship. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Having a godly direction means to strive to do good and to promote peace in the name of Jesus. You know, as we look at these ingredients, these first two of a pure speech and a godly direction, the danger, like always, is to think that there is some sort of legalism involved. That if I do this or that, then God has to bless me. He doesn't have a choice. That I can earn God's blessing. But that's not the case. That's not what Peter is teaching us. And earlier when we quoted from John Calvin, when he was talking about the good, he was not talking about those who merit something. This is the behavior of those who have already received God's blessing. Remember, Peter is speaking to the church. Those who are born again. Those who are protected by the power of God through faith. Chapter 1, verse 5. Those who are living stones. Chapter 2, verse 5. This is the character of those who are blessed in Christ and who are governed by the work of the Holy Spirit who then leads them to do these things so that they might enjoy that life of covenantal blessing. These ingredients of that recipe are evidence of God's grace poured out upon the child of God. David the psalmist and Peter echoing him are talking about God's people doing those things that only those who are governed by that new life in the Spirit only they can do. But there is a motive to all this. The last ingredient that Peter talks about is a covenantal motive. This is like frosting on the cake of that covenantal relationship where the Lord says, I will be your God and you shall be My people. Verse 12, For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now we know, of course, that God is Spirit. And therefore he doesn't literally have eyes and ears and a face in the way that we think of it. But David and Peter use these human features so we might know just how personal God is. He is not some far-off angry deity as some would have us to believe. Oh, indeed, he's a just God, but he's a very personal, a loving God to his people. And these features that Peter talks about represent God's presence. Paul says that in Him we live and move and have our being. Christians live in the presence of God. And therefore, that's our motive. Do we need any better motive? Our motive for a pure speech and a godly direction are because the Lord is near and because He lives with His people. Now, the eyes of the Lord. The eyes of the Lord are talking about His seeing, obviously. God looks upon, over, and around the righteous and therefore protects them. His ears means that He hears and therefore responds to the prayers of His people. But may we also be reminded, beloved, that God does see and He does hear everything we do and everything we say. So as well, we must ask ourselves the questions, are the things that I do and the things that I say are they things that I want God to see, that I want Him to hear. The righteous is talking about God's people who are engrafted into Jesus Christ by true faith and therefore have been given His perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness. The righteous are those who have been justified by grace through faith. See, beloved, what we have here is a beautiful picture of a loving Father with His eyes focused on His child and all that concerns this child. And this father, as it were, bends down and the child speaks directly into his ear. As we do sometimes, dads, when we want to give our children our undivided attention, they want to tell us something, we let them speak in our ears so we don't miss a word. The father listens earnestly and is eager to answer his child and come to his aid. This is our Heavenly Father. And as the Catechism teaches us in the very last question and answer of the High Library Catechism with regard to the word Amen, God has more desire to answer the prayers of His children than we desire to have them answered. But there's also a stern warning here for those who do evil. God's face is against those who do evil. Face here also represents the presence of God. Only with regard to those who do evil, God turns His back on them. One of the benediction blessings that we hear as we did this morning is the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The face of the Lord turned toward you means blessing. But His face turned against you means no blessing. you see the warning here is twofold first of all for god's people when you do evil god may remove his blessing from you for a time in order to chastise you and to lead you back to him remember what god's word says in hebrews 12 for whom the lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives but our comfort is that he he will never eternally leave or forsake his children. But the second warning is for those pagans among whom Christians are living. The wicked world. God's warning to them is keep your hands off of the righteous because the Lord protects them in a special way and you, the wicked, prepare for the Lord's angry judgment upon your disobedient wickedness. Beloved, the recipe for a life of covenantal blessing includes is the ingredients of a pure speech, a godly direction, and a covenantal motive. These will result in the enjoyment of God's blessing and in the confession, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Now in the theme we said this is the Christian's recipe, but that's really not correct. This is God's recipe. And this life of covenantal blessing is just a small foretaste of the blessed life to come for those who believe in Jesus Christ. If you ask any person in the world if they would like a happy and blessed life, I'm sure that all would say yes. They would be kind of crazy to say no. No doubt the majority would say yes. The problem is that the world has no idea what that means or where it comes from. To the world, that means health and wealth and prosperity with no adversity. And if we're honest, we will say that we would like these things too, right? That's only natural. But the believer knows that a truly happy and blessed life involves that covenant relationship with God and it involves covenant obedience to God. The world doesn't have a clue where to find true blessing and happiness so they are looking in all the wrong places. Still others who know of God, they've heard of God, they believe to their destruction that they can make their lives good and profitable and enjoyable and fun without God. but the truth for them is that their lives are nothing but vanity. True blessing and happiness for this life and the life to come can only be found in one place. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Beloved, there is nothing wrong with desiring to love life and having God's blessing for good days, but the recipe isn't complete without Jesus Christ and His redeeming work applied to your life. And the recipe is only complete in Him. You see, only when you are in Him can there be a pure speech and a godly direction. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no covenantal relationship with God and therefore no life of covenantal blessing. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no life, period. Only death. so then are you enjoying that life of covenantal blessing with God through Christ? If you are, then in the power of the Holy Spirit, the ingredients of that recipe will be clear, evidenced in your pure tongue, in your godly direction, and in your desire to walk in the presence of the face of God, all by God's grace and in the power of His Spirit. In Jesus Christ, this is how a believer truly loves life. and enjoys good days. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, as we consider the command of Your Word with regard to Christian conduct, may we truly understand, O Lord, that these things to which You call us, this life of obedience to which You call us, It's to be a life of thankful obedience. It's not a life of obedience that in any way earns a position with you, for that position has been earned by the perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. And also, Father, help us to understand as we consider the call to obedience and sometimes wonder how in the world we can fulfill it, that again we might know that we cannot in our own strength, but yet you give us the strength of your Spirit to lead us and guide us, to correct us when we need it, to give us the strength that we need, to admonish us, to encourage us. Father, we pray that our conduct might be pleasing to you, that it might be a witness and a testimony to this world of your saving grace in our lives. And indeed, we might truly give you thanksgiving and praise through all that we think and say and do. we praise you Father that you never leave us or forsake us that you are with us every moment of every day of our lives both now and forever in the name of Jesus Christ we pray these things Amen