A Christian's Reality Check

Here's the reality, Jake. Your testimony as a committed believer doesn't just surprise the world. There are times when it collides with the world. It is a confrontation with sin, which means that the gospel is a confrontation with sinners. You may remember how it confronted you. And when your new life confronts your old life, your old friends may very well end up becoming your new enemies.

Are you ready for that? Most of the time, people don't appreciate hearing that their behavior is wrong. Have you experienced that? They certainly don't welcome the news that their behavior is categorized as sin. That's an offensive message for people who want to continue in rebellion. Because of that, the gospel is confrontational. The way you live and the gospel you preach stands in contrast to the world. It's often offensive and convicting. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davie encourages you to not be caught off guard if the world resents your faith.

This message is called a Christian's reality check. I came across an article that showed, and we all know this is true, but how the media, movies, television distort reality. And the article said, if you watch carefully, you'll notice a number of things, how the ventilation system of any building is strong enough to hold a person crawling through it. You'll notice that a man will show no pain at all when he's being given a ferocious beating, but then will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds. You'll notice that cars that crash always burst into flames, rather spectacularly. You'll notice that when anyone is involved in a heavily outnumbered martial arts fight, the attackers will patiently wait to attack one at a time. You'll notice that any lock can be easily picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds unless it's the door to a burning building with someone trapped inside.

You'll notice that a woman will always go down into the basement alone at night after hearing a noise. I've wondered why. Don't you? Why?

That's true. You'll notice that the lead actors and actresses in Victorian movies never sweat, even though they're wearing layers of clothing, and they all have white, straight teeth. Obviously, you're watching a distortion of reality. A couple of commercials aired. This article went on to talk about how you know what you see isn't necessarily what's happening. One of them, a convenience store shopper standing at the counter talking on a cell phone, blurts out to the person he's talking to, you're getting robbed. Two clerks hear him say the words, squirt him with pepper spray, zap him with a stun gun, and they obviously jump to the wrong conclusion. In the second commercial, which is, I think, my favorite all-time commercial, a man is preparing a dinner for his wife and himself. He's shown chopping vegetables with a large, sharp knife. While tomato sauce is simmering in a pot on the stove nearby, their white cat jumps up on the counter, knocks the pan of sauce onto the floor, and then slips off the counter and falls and keeps falling into that puddle of tomato sauce.

Just as the man picks up the cat, his wife opens the door and sees him holding the cat, dripping with red sauce in one hand, and a large knife in the other, and she thinks, my husband has finally come to his senses—no, I mean, he's killed the cat. What you think you see isn't necessarily reality, and I think the media certainly plays that very well. You know, one of the challenges in the life of the believer is having a realistic view of the perception of whatever we think is going on as the world watches us and what we think that they should see and what they don't seem to see. In fact, this is life.

Isn't it? This is why preliminary counseling is so helpful. It attempts to remove misconceptions and show reality. This is why you take driver's ed.

Before you're driving on your own, you need to get on the road and see what this is really going to be like. One of the challenges of Christianity is that the perception of what it's going to be like to be a Christian is often different from what actually is reality. In the New Testament letters, in fact, if you read them with that thought in mind, they're filled with what we could call reality checks. This is the Lord essentially saying to his disciples, I don't know what you're expecting, but you need to expect they're going to hate you like they hate me. Peter is concluding his series of applications we've entitled at Christianity 101, and he's delivering to Christians, really, it struck me, these are nothing more than reality checks. Here's what is more than likely going to be the reality of your experience as you live boldly for Christ and serve as his ambassadors in the world. The unbeliever isn't going to respond all the time like you think they're going to respond. They're not going to think about you like you think they ought to think about you, and sometimes you're going to be rather shocked with the way they do. So as we work our way through these next verses in our study through this letter, let me outline these verses in the form of four reality checks.

And let me give you number one first, and then we'll dive in. Reality check number one, don't be shocked by the unbeliever's surprise at you. Don't be shocked by the unbeliever's surprise. Let's back up in 1 Peter 4, and let's go back to verse 3 and kind of get a running start. Peter writes, for the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, that's an idiom for the unbeliever. Notice verse 4, they're going to move on, the latter part, and they malign you. Reality check number two, don't be disheartened by the unbeliever's heartlessness. The world might not stop at surprise, and when your new life confronts your old life, your old friends may very well end up becoming your new enemies.

Are you ready for that? The word Peter uses here for malign is a word that could be rendered to heap abuse. It could be laughing at you.

Maybe you remember if you were a believer in high school, the mocking, the laughter. Maybe in the military, the terminology they would use for you, you know, Holy Joe, you know, Father this and that, and maybe in your community at work, you know, you're the one that always gives a little prayer, and that's when they kind of appreciate you, but, you know, they're the snickers behind your back throughout the rest of the year. The word he uses for malign is the original word blasphemato, which gives us our transliterated word blaspheme. When that's used of people doing that to other people, it means to injure the reputation. It means to defame.

It means in our vernacular, they're going to bring you down. And Peter's already referred to this in his letter we've been studying. He talked about earlier unbelievers accusing believers of doing what is wrong when you're just doing what is right, chapter 2, verse 12, of unbelievers speaking maliciously of you, chapter 3, verse 16. And now here again he uses another word that just further unmasks the resentment and the hostility of the world against the Christian, the hatred of the world for Christianity. In fact, it's all turned around so that they represent the Christian who is the one doing the hating. We've got the hate speech because we're just simply describing the gospel, which is confrontational. It is right or wrong. Listen, here's the reality check. Your refusal to participate or approve in their sinful lifestyle becomes to them an indictment, an indictment, and they may end up verbally letting you know how much they hate you for it. See, your refusal to run with them actually provokes resentment in them. As I thought about this progression, you know, we're starting out with the world being surprised and then the world is slandering.

What's that progression look like? How does it sound in our world today? So I kind of prop my feet up and sort of work through several statements. Maybe you've heard a few of them yourself.

It begins with something like, you're not going to go out with us anymore. Come on, live a little, loosen up. You're wound way too tight. What do you mean it's wrong? Are you telling us that we're wrong?

When did you become our judge? Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are to tell us we're wrong? You're ruining our happiness. You're raining on our parade. You're an obstacle in the path. We want to pursue. You're a danger to our way of life. We want you out. And it just started with, you're not going to go with us anymore? So we want to get rid of you. This happened in the first century. Peter's preparing them. It won't be long before Claudius, the Roman emperor, exiles all the believers from the capital city of Rome.

We don't want you here. They lose their positions, their careers. He then confiscates all their property. He removes them.

And it is just 16 years until the next emperor is slaughtering them. Why are people around our world, we're now in 100 countries, there is ongoing active persecution of those who believe the gospel. Why are people so profoundly angry with someone who has a genuine case of Christianity? Why does that guy at work get so upset with you? Why does that woman just, she can't wait for you to show up tomorrow morning because she's going to give you the latest round. I mean, what, you're just trying to do your job.

Why? Follow this, because genuine Christianity becomes a testimony in the world through your life and you become a standard of right and wrong, which every human being already knows because of Paul making that stunning statement, and I'm so glad I often think of it, how he put it, that the law of God is written on every human being's heart. They already know no matter where you go in the world, it's wrong to steal that chicken. It's wrong to lie.

It's wrong to go from one partner to the next. You don't have to prove it. You don't have to say it. You just show up and you become a testimony of that standard, which is already written in your heart, and here then is where I'm leading. Your testimony then reminds them of something they already know is true.

And you just showed up. They don't appreciate being reminded by your very presence. It provokes this unspoken reminder. Now, sometimes they'll keep it to themselves. Sometimes they'll let you in on it about how they feel.

Peter wants you to be prepared. I had a woman last week give me a note, her name's attached here to either the note of the individual. It had been mailed to her and her husband by anonymous neighbors. They from what I can tell live in a nice neighborhood filled with nice people and they're nice people.

Early 70s, my guess, if you're listening and you're 52, forgive me, but I'm guessing. They didn't mean any harm, but for several years they've been including gospel tracts into what they put into children's trick-or-treat bags when they come to their home. The note reads, and I've edited some of the more expressive language out, the word is out that you put fear-mongering filth in my child's Halloween bag. You are a pig. How dare you?

You should know the neighborhood has its eyes on you. We hear this has gone on for years. No longer exclamation point.

No longer exclamation point. Somebody's upset. I thought it was tragic that in their minds the gospel to them is fear-mongering filth. Where did that fear come from? It came from the law of God written on their heart.

And now this couple is being warned that they're watched because of the danger they evidently represent to children in the neighborhood. How upside down is it? What a heartless response. Sometimes you don't even need to hand out a tract. You just show up. I don't know how many times I've shown up, you know. Somebody apologizes for their French. It's not French.

I know a little French, and it isn't French. I didn't say a word. In his book entitled The Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul tells the story of a time when Billy Graham was invited to play golf with President Gerald Ford and two PGA Tour professionals, and so Sproul writes this. After the round of golf was finished, one of the other pros came up to the golfer, and one of the golfers into force him and said, hey, what was it like playing golf with the President of the United States and Billy Graham? The pro unleashed a torrent of cursing, and in a disgusted manner said, I don't need Billy Graham stuffing his religion down my throat. And he turned on his heels and stormed off. His friend followed him, said nothing, sat on a bench while the pro hits a practice shots, and after a few minutes the pro kind of calmed down, came over and sat down next to his friend and his friend said, so Billy was a little rough on you out there, huh?

The pro sighed and it admitted he never once mentioned religion. I just had a bad round. Imagine Sproul applied, the unbeliever was provoked to anger, and he blamed his round on simply knowing what Billy Graham represented, and that's what came out of his mouth. So when you show up, somebody unleashes, oh, stuff your religion.

All you ask was for a cup of coffee. They know what you represent. I love the way Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer, once put it, and here's a reality check that we can often overlook, Luther writes, the unbeliever sometimes trembles at the rustling of a leaf. He often feels the hound of heaven breathing down his neck. He feels crowded by holiness in the presence even of an imperfect Christian. You crowd people, constrict people, irritate people.

It's a reality check. People can become heartless toward you simply because of what you represent. Don't be disheartened. Be prepared. Don't expect applause. Don't expect anger. Don't lose heart. Take a realistic view at what you represent, and guess what you represent. Let's stop shaving off the harsh edges of the gospel.

It is an offensive understanding. We're talking about life and death. We're talking about sin and forgiveness. We're talking about holiness and grace.

A.W. Tozer used to say often, the gospel is not a suggestion. It's an ultimatum, and in their heart they know that. Take a reality check, beloved, on who you represent, a Savior who became so hated and so envied and so misrepresented and so maligned that eventually the mob screamed for nothing less than his death, and the worst death imaginable. Don't be shocked by the unbeliever's surprise. Don't be disheartened by the unbeliever's heartlessness.

Reality check number three. Don't become callous about the unbeliever's coming day in court. Verse five. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Now the judge isn't mentioned here by name. In this text you go to other passages of Scripture and discover it's the Lord Jesus. God the Father has granted to God the Son, our Lord, the role of judge in the final judgment.

You can read about it in the latter chapters of Revelation. In fact, according to Peter, earlier in chapter three and verse 22, his right to judge is one of the crowning moments of his vindication and exaltation. I think Peter's dropping it in here because any thought by the believer that, you know, we don't care about their slander, we don't care about the abuse, we don't care about that any because, you know what, they're going to get it.

That might be something we might write, that might be how I write the letter of Stephen to the church, don't let it bother you, let it roll off you, they're going to get it one day. Now what Peter does instead is he drops in this idea that there's a reality, there is a horror that leads us to compassion related to the unbeliever's future. In fact, he reminds us here just in that little phrase, Jesus isn't just going to be the final judge, Peter writes, he is ready. In the original construction he paints an awesome picture that Jesus is in continual readiness for that day of judgment.

He's been ready for 2,000 years. Can you imagine that horror of a holy judge? See this is at the heart of disbelief. This is at the heart of defiance against the gospel because if there really is a God and the Son of God is really who He says He is, then that means we're all in big trouble. We're accountable.

That's what Peter says. He writes, they will give an account. He uses an expression that comes out of the legal system. This is the language of a courtroom. You ever been in a courtroom, I don't want to show off hands, ever been in there?

Maybe it's to be in the jury, maybe to pay a speeding ticket, maybe something more serious. But if you have been, and I'm sure many of you have, you know when you walk through those doors there is this ambiance that is solemn and there's a gravitas to it. You know, people aren't clowning around in there.

They even have pews, many of them. People speak in hushed tones. And when the judge enters the courtroom, the command is given, all rise. The honorable judge in his name is given, you watch him in his robe mount those stairs and he sits behind that bench and if you've ever noticed he's higher than anybody else in that courtroom as if to imply he is the final authority. One day the command will be given, John records for us to all of the unbelieving world, those who are, Peter writes here, the living and the dead, all those who will be given that command at that moment of the final and ultimate resurrection, all rise. There will be a resurrection and they will stand before that throne, John describes, and give an account.

Wow. I recently watched a woman being asked to give an account for the death of an elderly man confined in his bed. It wasn't a hospital, it was a rehabilitation center. Several times he called for help, six times as a matter of fact.

She never went to his room. He apparently died when the nurse came, she looked down at him, never took his vitals. Another nurse came in, they stood there by his bedside and laughed over something.

She bent down to turn on an oxygen tank and it didn't work and she didn't even try to fix it or replace it. She was asked about the event. She began to talk about how she had performed CPR and other life-saving measures. She denied that he had often called for help and she was unresponsive. She denied that she had failed to take his vital signs. She denied that she had waited nearly an hour before calling for an ambulance. She denied laughing and joking in his room. She evidently had no idea that there was a camera outside his room. And after she denied all of this, the prosecutor showed her the tape.

And I remember looking at her face there in this video vignette and she sat there dumbfounded in silence, caught. Think about this divine judge for a moment and all who will give an account in their unbelief, he is omnipresent, which means there is no need to call for any witnesses for he was an eyewitness to everything they did. There is no cross-examination about motive or intent because he is omniscient, omnipresent, he's their omniscient, he knows their heart, he knows their motive, he knows not only what they did because he saw it, but why they did it because he knows their mind and thought process in doing it. When you think about what the world is saying to you, it's as if Peter is reminding us don't become callous and uncaring, just think of what it would be like to be judged by the one who is in the state of readiness to judge them. Yes, they're saying terrible things about you, but Jesus is going to have the last word. See, we don't become callous, we become compassionate as we beg our world to be reconciled to God before whom they will one day give an account. Peter doesn't end his comments on the unbeliever's future, he turns the corner, we're going to turn it with him.

One more reality check. Reality check number four for the Christian, don't be forgetful of your future. Verse six, for the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that is now dead. Peter said the gospel has been in the past preached to those who are now dead. You could translate this, the gospel was preached to them during their lifetime and they believed. And you'll be forever immortalized and glorified with the Lord. How do we know that's true? Why would we believe that? Because of the way Peter ends verse six, this happens to be the will of God, I love that.

This just happens to be God's design. All right, let me quickly tie up some loose ends and give three final lessons as we wrap up Christianity 101. First, when your testimony becomes obvious, don't anticipate support, anticipate slander. Expect to be bruised often, but go often to be bandaged by the spirit and encouraged by his word. Secondly, when responding to slander, don't express anger, express compassion. Third, when trusting Christ now, when life isn't so glorious, remember your future. Dio Moody, the great evangelist of the 19th century was often heard to say, one of these days you will read in the newspaper that Dio Moody is dead. Don't believe a word of it.

I will be more alive than I am now. With that message called a Christian's reality check, Stephen concludes his series called Christianity 101. If you'd benefit from listening to the series again, we've posted it to our website. You can also navigate to Stephen's sermon library for First Peter and listen to his full length messages on this section. I want to let you know that this series, Christianity 101, is available as a set of CDs. You'll find it in our online store at WisdomOnline.org. You can also give us a call today. Our number is 86648Bible. That's 86648Bible. Tomorrow Stephen begins a series from First John entitled After Darkness, Light. Join us for that here on Wisdom for the Heart.