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We thank you for salvation and for giving us wisdom and for helping us in these things. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this evening is Ready Always to Give an Answer, Ready Always to Give an Answer. First Peter 3.15 is a really popular verse, but it's often misunderstood because it's often understood out of context. And so I want to really dig into the context of this verse and show you what the Bible is actually saying here when he talks about being ready always to give an answer. So let's back up a couple verses and get the context here. A lot of people take this verse just and isolate it and say, you know, you just kind of always have to be ready to give an answer about anything, about Christianity. And sometimes it can feed into an idea of, well, I'm not really ready to go out soul winning because I'm afraid somebody's going to ask me something and I'm not going to know the answer. Like we're supposed to just be able to answer every opposition from atheists or every opposition from other religions. That's not what God's saying here at all. And so let's actually get the context and see what he is saying. If we back up to verse 12, the Bible reads, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open under their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? And so what the Bible is saying there in verses 12 and 13 is that in general, if you are a godly Christian, God's going to look out for you. God's going to protect you, and he's going to keep people from harming you. He's going to keep you safe and defend you. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, the Bible says, and so forth. So that's what the Bible is saying here. But then in verse 14, it says, But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happier ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. So here's what the Bible is saying. In general, God's going to protect you. In general, Christians are not going to be killed for the cause of Christ. In general, Christians are not going to be thrown in prison for the cause of Christ. But sometimes they will. And if that happens, happier ye, rejoice. Don't be afraid of their terror. If we get persecuted, we're supposed to rejoice. Most of the time, God will protect us so that rarely are people actually killed for the cause of Christ or thrown in prison for the cause of Christ. A lot of times, this is exaggerated. Like oh, you know, back in the early days of Christianity, man, everybody who's a Christian is just pretty much getting executed. That has never happened, okay? Now that sometimes gets exaggerated or people will say that, and a lot of these people that are getting executed, you know, aren't even necessarily really Christians, okay? So the bottom line is that in general, if we actually take the Bible as our authority and study it, we will find that the vast majority of Christians, men of God, Old Testament saints, etc., are actually protected, delivered, and kept safe from being martyred. But there are some exceptions to that, right? Like you've got Stephen being a martyr. You've got a martyr in Revelation named Antipas. You've got James, the brother of John, who is killed in the book of Acts. So of course there are going to be martyrs. What does the Bible say? The Bible says, behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison. Notice he doesn't say everybody's going to prison. Most people are going to get killed. No, no, no. He says the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death and I'll give thee the crown of life. And so the bottom line is that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We're all going to be persecuted. But most Christians are going to be spared from things like prison or death or these really extreme cases where you're actually harmed. Usually the persecution we're going to face is just a matter of maybe people making fun of us, maybe we lose a job, maybe someone discriminates against us in some way, but it's not going to be necessarily just that we're all just getting guillotined or something. And so that is often a little bit exaggerated because when the Bible says all that will have godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, that doesn't necessarily mean imprisonment and death. Even the apostle Paul himself who was in prison many times died a natural death. That's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But in 1 Peter chapter 3 here, that's what he starts out by explaining is that God has his eyes over you, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. God is ready to protect you and keep you safe and nobody's going to harm you. But if they do harm you, if you're one of these exceptions where God actually allows you to be killed for the cause of Christ or something along those lines, hey, that's even a blessing because you're being a martyr for Christ and you're one of the few, the proud, the ones who actually died for the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no shame in that. That's great. So let's keep reading. But if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled 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 me this and fear. Now stop right there and notice that verse number 15 starts with a conjunction but, and not only that, but verse 14 is not even the end of a sentence. Do you see how it's a semicolon there? So the point is that you can't just read verse 15 by itself. It's better to get the whole context if you really want a full understanding of this verse to get the whole sentence. So the whole sentence is, but an if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled but, what's he saying, but rather instead of being terrified, instead of being troubled or being afraid, instead of that, 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. So the first thing I want to point out about this passage is that when the Bible says be ready always to give an answer to every man, that what's the question? If we're supposed to be ready to give an answer, what's the question? Okay, well the question is, why aren't you afraid of being thrown in prison? Why aren't you afraid of being put to death? Because look at the context, it says, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you in light of what? In light of the fact that you're being harmed for the cause of Christ. Because in verse 14 you're being harmed, you're suffering for righteousness sake, but instead of being afraid of their terror, you're ready to give an answer for the hope that you have in that situation. That's the primary context here of this passage. So the questions are along the lines of, you know, why aren't you afraid that you could be killed? Why aren't you afraid that your property will be vandalized? You know, why aren't you afraid that you could be losing your job here? Why doesn't it bother you that people are saying these terrible things about you? Why are you able to sustain this assault and this attack for the cause of Christ? That's what you're being asked. You're going through righteous suffering and people are amazed at the fact that you're not troubled. You're not terrified. You have peace. Why? That's the question. Okay, so that's the first thing I want to point out. But the second important thing that I want to point out is that the answer that we're ready to give needs to be a spiritual answer. That's why the Bible starts out in verse 15 by saying, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you. Now does it say here make sure you do a lot of academic study so that you'll be able to be ready to give this answer? Does it say you must become an expert on every false religion so that you'll be ready to give an answer? Does the Bible say you have to become a scientist so that you can be ready to give an answer? Is that what the Bible says? Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts is a spiritual assignment that you're being given. That's what's going to make you ready to give the answer is to have the Lord God sanctified in your heart. Now what's funny is that the word, you've probably heard of apologetics, right? And in the context of Christianity, apologetics is usually defined as defending the faith. But Christian apologists will often make 1 Peter 3.15 their sort of go-to verse to justify their existence. We've got to always be ready to give an answer because of the fact that the word there answer in Greek is apologia and that's where they're getting the term apologetics in many cases. Now they could be getting it from other places as well. I mean there's Plato's Apology for crying out loud hundreds of years before Christ where he's defending himself. He's giving a defense. I get it. But what I'm saying is that many of these apologetics ministries, 1 Peter 3.15 is like their John 3.16 if you will. This is like their big verse. But if you think about it, a lot of these apologetics ministries or these type of ministries that are all about defending Christianity are sort of missing the point of 1 Peter 3.15 if they're giving some kind of a carnal defense of the faith because in reality the defense needs to be a spiritual defense of the faith. The answer that we give better be a spiritual answer. Why? Because it starts with sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts. Now what does that mean to sanctify the Lord God? Well to sanctify something means to make it holy. Now obviously God is already holy so by sanctifying God we're not making him holy. What that actually means is that we are realizing his holiness. We're making him holy to us in our mind. You know it's sort of like when the Bible talks about justifying God. What does justify mean? It means to declare righteous. Obviously God doesn't need us to declare him righteous but we ought to acknowledge his righteousness and justify the Lord and declare him to be righteous even though he already is. Well we also need to sanctify him meaning acknowledge his holiness, declare his holiness. Okay so what does it mean to be holy though? Because we could just say oh well sanctify that means make holy but we got to know what holy means right? So what is the opposite of holy in the Bible? The opposite of holy is that which is common or profane okay? And so for something to be common it means that it's just everyday run of the mill. That's what common means. Holy is different than that. It's something special. It is something that is set apart and in fact the Bible often used the term sanctify and set apart interchangeably like in Exodus 13 for example. Verses 2 and then you I think you can compare like verses 2 and 12 and it's like one of them says sanctify the other says set apart okay? And so we need to set apart the Lord in our hearts. Understand him to be holy in our hearts right? Basically we need to understand who he is, acknowledge who he is and realize that he is different than any other God. All the gods of the nations are idols the Bible says. They're all fake. They're not real okay? So we need to understand God's uniqueness. The fact that God is set apart from all other so-called gods that the Bible is set apart from all other so-called holy books. And so if someone asks me to give an answer, to give a reason of the hope that is in me, you know why do I know that God is going to take care of me, see me through, that I'm going to be rewarded in heaven? You know why do I have such assurance of that? Actually that assurance comes from the word of God and the Holy Spirit which are both quite spiritual sources right? So the answer is a spiritual answer. I mean if somebody asked me why do I believe the Bible? I'm going to tell them I believe the Bible because the Bible is unlike any other book. I'm going to say because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I'm going to say because God's word has power and cannot be compared to any other so-called holy book. You know that's the kind of answer that I would be ready to give as far as defending the word of God. You know a lot of people want to give a lot of philosophical arguments for the existence of God and a lot of them will even say that you know science can prove that God exists or that science proves that the Bible is true or that history proves that the Bible is true but in reality faith is the substance of things hoped for and faith is the evidence of things not seen. At the end of the day we have to believe that the Bible is true. We have to believe that Jesus died on the cross for us and going out and looking for some kind of a concrete scientific or historical proof of Jesus is a fool's errand because it isn't there because without faith it's impossible to please God and that which is seen doesn't need to be hoped for. We don't have to have faith in something that we've seen. We walk by faith not by sight. And so the answer needs to be a spiritual answer. Now flip over if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter number 6 and while you're turning there I'm going to read for you from 1 Corinthians 2, and I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So the Bible clearly tells us that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men. It should stand in the power of God. Well then guess what? Other people's faith should stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So my faith isn't standing in the wisdom of men. It stands on the power of God. So shouldn't I expect other people's faith to be grounded in the same place? And so therefore why would I go out and try to convert people to Christianity with the wisdom of men? You know saying oh well if we can just get them to understand science. If we can just get them to see the fraud of evolution. If we can just get them to see the fraud of the big bang. But here's the thing about that. People were going to hell long before the big bang and evolution had ever been thought of. People were still going to hell for thousands of years before those things had ever even been invented. But people were like man if we can just get them to see the science it's not going to work. You know or just oh history and we could use history. You know I had someone tell me when I was a young person well you know you've got to be able to defend the Bible and you've got to be able to give an answer to every man that asks you and this person told me they said you know we need to know why we believe the Bible and here was his answer that he thought was the best answer is like well you know the Bible is so historically accurate that if the Bible is right about all the historical stuff then we can have faith that it's right about everything else. You know that's not really a legitimate argument because just because you know somebody could just have a really accurate history book and then tell you to worship Buddha or something and that doesn't you know well I got the history right so let's trust them on Buddha too. It's not really a legitimate argument my friend because in reality if you use anything else to validate the Bible you're making that a higher authority than the Bible. So if you say well science is what validates the Bible then basically science is your final authority and that's why you believe the Bible because your God science told you to believe the Bible or history is your final authority and since your God of history told you to believe the Bible you believe the Bible. No, no, no I believe the Bible because the Bible and he said that's a circular argument but here's the thing I don't care whether people like that or not. I don't expect unsaved people to understand spiritual things. I don't expect people who don't have the Spirit of God to understand a spiritual answer out of the mouth of a person who has sanctified the Lord God in their hearts and realizes the power of God and the holiness of God and understands that God's word said that Jesus died on the cross and was buried and rose again and that's how we know that Jesus died and was buried and rose again. And if you don't believe that you're calling God a liar and if you call God a liar and reject the record that God gave his son in the Bible you go to hell when you die and you say well you know I don't know if that's really going to convince people. You know what that is the method that God has chosen for convincing people because the Bible says that when the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. God's method for getting people saved is preaching and not just me behind a pulpit preaching but also every man woman boy and girl you know who preaches the gospel to every creature out there knocking doors and opening the Bible and preaching the gospel you know going door to door and giving someone the gospel of Jesus Christ is a type of preaching right that every man woman boy and girl can be involved in sharing the gospel preaching the gospel to every creature and when we do we better rely on the word of God to get people saved. You know when I show up at the door I don't want to just get in some philosophical argument with someone I don't want to just get in a scientific argument I'm not trying to get in some kind of a historical argument or archaeological argument with someone that's a good way to just get lost in the weeds and get nowhere right. Now when I have a chance to give someone the gospel I want to use that opportunity to give them the word of God you know I want to take them to Romans 3 23 I want to take them to Romans 6 23 I want to take them to John 3 16 and I want to show them the power of God's word and show them the power of the gospel message the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ his death barrel and resurrection as our payment for sin and show them what the word of God says and let the Holy Spirit work on them through God's word that's going to do something that's going to work okay. Now here's the thing about these you know apologetics ministries is that we don't need them because here's what we need God's institution the local church okay we need churches right and we have thank God thousands and thousands of churches in this world and thousands of great churches that's what we need we need churches doing the work of God but what happens is these people come along and they have what's called a para church ministry where they instead of going through God's institution they set up their own institution some kind of a you know creation research ministries or some kind of a apologetics ministry or whatever and they're just going to dedicate themselves to the full-time defense of Christianity the problem with that is that we don't want to become imbalanced as Christians where we just obsess over one topic you know all of us as Christians we all should know the whole Bible study the whole Bible and we should all be ready to give an answer to every man of the hope that's in us but you say well we can't all be science experts but here's the thing about that is that you know God's not asking us to be a science expert God's not asking us to be a history expert what he wants us to do is to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts you know and if you're reading your Bible and praying and witnessing and singing hymns and you're doing you know you're going to be ready to give that answer okay and it better be a spiritual answer okay now what what kind of an answer are we ready to give well the most important answer that we're ready to get go to Romans chapter 1 Romans chapter 1 is that we want to be ready to preach the gospel right so let's get back to the actual context of 1st Peter chapter 3 so I'm going through trials and tribulations I'm going through suffering and attack and I'm being persecuted and someone asked me why do you have hope why are you so unflappable because remember that's what the Bible actually says in the verse sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready to give an answer 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 hope that says hey I'm not worried I have peace I'm going to get through this that's the context and you know what I had you turn to 1st Timothy 6 I never even read it to you I just wasted your time didn't I I just took you down a dead end street well let me do I'll read it for you now that you're not there it says oh Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called which some professing of earth concerning the faith grace be with thee amen so notice what he says there avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called now does the Bible say be ready to give an answer to every opposition of science falsely so-called because that's what a lot of these apologetics ministries think but what does the Bible actually say it says avoid oppositions of science falsely so-called avoid these profane and vain babblings just avoid this stupid stuff because it's really just a distraction from what really matters which is the gospel of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit of God the Word of God sanctifying the Lord God in your heart this other stuff is not really the key thing so avoid oppositions of science falsely so-called is what the Bible says so you don't have to feel stressed out like oh man I have to learn all this science I have to learn all the history I have to learn every false religion I have to know everything about every wrong belief in order to go soul winning or in order to be effective at witnessing you know sometimes the more you know about those things can actually get in the way if you're not smart enough to stick to the main thing because sometimes the person who doesn't know every heresy and every scientific argument is better at staying on target and staying on point whereas the person who has studied all these things can fall into the trap sometimes of you know wanting to really show people how much you know about that subject but winning an argument a soul does not win okay winning an argument has its place but typically it doesn't get people saved it's preaching the gospel that gets people saved and so typically you know if I'm out soul winning and somebody wants to argue with me about science wants to argue with me about these things I walk away why because I'd rather just walk down the street to the person who actually wants to hear the gospel and the Bible says a man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject you know first admonition second admonition see a sucker because of the fact that you know those can be vain those kind of conversations of just arguing and going back and forth and look I'm all for learning don't don't misunderstand me I'm for learning about science I'm for learning about history I'm for learning about what other religions are out there and what's wrong with them I'm for learning about but here's what I'm saying God's not commanding you to learn about all that though if you like to learn about that stuff then learn about it if you want to study that stuff study it and I think it's good within the local church if there are some people who maybe know science history they know about other religions and things like that within the local church they can serve that need they could answer people's questions they could shine the light on those issues maybe they could make some videos about it or write an article about it or write a book about it for crying out loud but do we really need this separate ministry like instead of a local church this separate little ministry with some guy who's been married to four different women in the last four years or something you know that just he's just dedicated to that we don't necessarily need that do we you know what what we need is the local church and people within the local church might choose to specialize and maybe somebody you know really has an interest in science or maybe there's a guy who works in the secular world as a scientist or as a historian or so and then he can provide insight and bring his knowledge to the table and so forth but at the end of the day that should never be the emphasis which is why it doesn't need its own separate organization because the emphasis should always be on the gospel you know I love to talk about science I love to talk about history I love to talk about other religions but at the end of the day though the thing that I talk about that gets people saved is the gospel you know what I mean so that's got to be what our church is pushing for and because of the fact that one or two people might know about those subjects and be an expert in those subjects that shouldn't put pressure on other people to feel like oh well I can't be effective at presenting the gospel because I don't know the science I don't know the history I don't know that's not even the point you just need to know the Romans road my friend you just need to know salvation you need to know the gospel that's what you need and you need to have the Lord God sanctified in your heart if you love the Lord God with all your heart mind soul and strength and you see him high and lifted up as he is and holy and set apart and different then you're going to be able to give that right answer okay what is the so number one what we've seen what we've learned so far tonight is you know be ready to give an answer what's the question the question is why do you have hope in the face of bad circumstances you're going through persecution you're going through heartache why do you remain untroubled why are you not terrified why do you have hope because I know Christ because I'm saved because I have eternal life right that's the answer and so when the Bible is saying be ready to give an answer what we need to be ready to do in those type of situations where someone asks us is we need to be ready to preach the gospel I mean think about it if I'm going through hard things and someone comes to me and says wow you know how can you handle the pressure right now how are you not terrified right now and you think about the people in the Bible who were thrown in prison you know maybe the jailer might look at them and say how are you singing praises to God at midnight in jail you've been beaten and thrown in the lowest prison and you're singing praises to God at midnight Paul and Silas right Acts chapter 16 that's what we're talking about that's the context well if someone asked me a question along those lines I'm gonna want to give them the gospel because that's the most important thing I could tell them right now because what did the Bible say you know among the unsaved we need to preach Christ crucified not the wisdom of man not the logic of men but rather the power of God the gospel look what the Bible says in Romans chapter 1 verse 15 so as much as in me is because we're talking about what being ready always to give an answer the Bible says in Romans 1 15 so as much as in me is I'm ready to preach the gospel to you there at Rome also for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek so that's what we need to be ready to do is to present the gospel the gospel is the power of God unto salvation that's the real answer that we need to give is the gospel okay that's what's important and so hopefully this takes the pressure off a little bit from thinking that you have to know everything before you go out soul winning well I'm afraid to witness to people because what if they ask a question that I can't answer here's the thing if they ask a question that you can't answer here's what you say I don't know people ask me questions all the time and I'm like I don't know well you're supposed to know everything well nobody knows everything right if somebody asked me a question I don't know I just tell them I don't know and I'm it doesn't bother me you know you you could be very ignorant and maybe you're a brand-new Christian and you don't know much but you know how to be saved you're ready to witness to someone you know and if they ask you a question you don't know you just say I don't know you know it's like it's like when they were asking that they were grilling that that blind man who'd been given his sight by Jesus and he said I don't know but you know I was blind and now I see you know so you know somebody comes at you and they ask you all these deep theological questions or scientific questions I have objections to the Bible or they want to bring up some obscure verse in the Bible just say look I'm not familiar with that but what I do know is John 3 16 you know here's what I do know that salvation is not of works it's by faith here's what I do know Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins he was buried he rose again and he's the only way to heaven neither is there salvation in any other for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved you know you don't have to know everything and look I'm all for learning I'm all for growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but don't feel like you have to be ready to give an answer to every question you could possibly ask be asked no you're supposed to be ready always to give an answer and it's a specific answer right it's an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness severe what's the reason of the hope that is in you the reason is Jesus the reason is I'm saved right that's the reason that's what you need to be ready to give an answer about Christ being your Savior not just be ready to defend every single facet of the Christian faith be ready to fed every doctrine every verse every chapter every book that's not what the Bible is specifically saying in this verse and that's kind of a little bit daunting of an order to give someone but not only that he said this he said in in the book as we're this whole sermons about first Peter 3 15 right getting in in context understanding it so let let me read it to you one more time 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 okay so not only are we supposed to be ready to give an answer about the hope which Christ is our hope Christ in you the hope of glory we're supposed to be ready to give that spiritual answer not a carnal answer because we've sanctified the Lord God in our hearts and the answer is Christ we're ready to give an answer we're ready to preach Christ we're ready to preach the gospel the Bible says we're supposed to do this with meekness and fear now go if you would to Colossians chapter number four Colossians chapter number four is a passage that fits in perfectly with what we were talking about at first Peter three that the two passages are really similar to one another so look at first Peter chapter number three I'm sorry good night Colossians four you knew that though we've already been in first Peter three Colossians four look at verse number two it says continue in prayer and watching the same with Thanksgiving verse three of Colossians four with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds so he's saying hey pray for us so that God would open a door of utterance the word utter simply means to speak if I said that someone uttered words I'm saying that they said words they spoke words an utterance is something that is spoken it's just a fancy word for something that is spoken so when he says pray that God would open and as a door of utterance he's saying pray that God would give us an opportunity to open our mouths and speak that God would give us an opportunity to speak what the mystery of Christ see it that how that's the message Christ the gospel that's the message that saves for which also I'm in bonds he's saying you know I'm in jail because I preach the gospel verse 4 that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak what does verse 4 mean well manifest has to do with being clear open exposed have you ever heard the term manifesto right so when you hear about the manifesto that's usually some kind of an organization and usually they're like communists or terrorists or something the Unabomber or something you know the manifesto is where they're declaring openly this is what our mission is or this is what we believe this is what we're after right so when the Bible says that we ought to make the mystery of Christ manifest what it's saying is we want to make the mystery of Christ clear we want to make it plain want to make it easy to understand we want to make it so that it's not a mystery anymore for people it's not as mysterious they can understand it it's it's clear okay so when we preach the gospel our goal is to make it simple make it clear make it so that people understand the gospel and so we want to speak manifestly we want to speak in riddles and parables and dark sayings we want to just come right out and just say what salvation is say what the gospel is make it super clear that's what Paul's saying he wants people to pray for him that you have the opportunity to preach Christ to make it clear etc then he's giving instructions to the reader in verse 5 walk in wisdom toward them that are without without means they're outside of the faith without the walls of the church right so he says walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time that means taking advantage of the time right or you know let's say I have a coupon and I redeem that coupon what does that mean it means I'm using the coupon so when the Bible says redeeming the time he's saying you know use the time that you have take advantage of the time it just as if you took advantage of a coupon by redeeming that coupon right so he's saying redeem the time walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time why because you're gonna be in heaven for all eternity but how much time do you really have amongst the unsaved you only have this lifetime and our lifetime seems long but in the scheme of things it's like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanished at the way our life is but a vapor and so in this little short time that we have on this earth we want to take advantage of it and redeem the time with respect to those that are outside of the faith those that are not saved so walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time let your speech be all the way with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man now doesn't that remind you of first Peter when he says know how you ought to answer every man and then what did first Peter say be ready to give an answer to every man know how you ought to answer every man so these two passages go together don't they and they're really giving the same advice in many ways because over at first Peter he said give that answer with meekness and fear and then over here he says let your speech be all the way with grace seasoned with salt okay now what is meekness meekness is humility the opposite of meekness is arrogance pride boasting so we don't want to talk down to people we don't want to act like people are stupid we don't want to be rude to people we want to be kind and gentle and not act like they're an idiot because they have wrong beliefs so when we go out to preach the gospel when someone asks us about the gospel we shouldn't act like they're stupid for not knowing what we're telling them or talk down to them or act like we're super smart or be arrogant we should just kindly and gently explain to them the gospel in a way that does not insult their intelligence okay so we don't want to be arrogant we want to be meek we don't want to be puffed up thinking that we're way smarter or something maybe you are way smarter but don't act like it okay act like you respect the person that you're talking to because you ought to respect the person that you talk to you need to be meek and so he says here let your speech be all the way with grace having grace in your speech means be nice to people you know when you're out soul winning don't be rude don't be arrogant don't be all up in people's face don't get aggressive with people be gracious and be kind and be meek you know a lot of people so as when I go so many people they're they're surprised like man I was kind of surprised just how nice you were how diplomatic you were because they hear me up behind the pulpit I'm yelling and beating the pulpit you know you know and then they think I'm just gonna go door-to-door just start just ripping into somebody at their door because they're a false religion or something like that but obviously that would be totally inappropriate you know when we're in church I'm up here preaching to people that are already Christians and I'm up here preaching hard and and rebuking sin and doing all these things but obviously when we go to someone's home that's outside of the faith we're gonna have a much more gentle and meek approach because you know we're on their turf as it were and we're trying to win them over to Christ you know in church obviously yep hard preaching is biblical and and yelling and you know hitting the pulpit and kicking and screaming during preaching yet it's biblical we could go through all the examples in the Bible Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Jesus John the Baptist yes but when it comes to evangelizing though it's about having speech that's gracious toward them that are without what does it mean to be gracious what does it mean to have speech that's always with grace well grace is talking about unmerited favor right that's the definition that we would usually use a go-to definition right we would say you know mercy is basically withholding harsh judgment right and not giving people what they deserve grace is giving people what they don't deserve right that's one way that sometimes these two words are explained you know mercy is when we don't get the what we deserve the punishment and then you know grace is when we get something we don't deserve the free gift of salvation you know we're saved by grace we don't deserve it we haven't earned it what does that mean that means that you know even if somebody is kind of an idiot even if they are a jerk even if they are being stupid or being a bozo you know if we want to win them to Christ we could sometimes look past that and be gentle and be kind and still be able to win that person over to Christ and give that person the gospel so going out and getting in fights with people it really doesn't accomplish anything and look I'm not saying that I've never been guilty of this you know there have been times that I've been out so winning and somebody makes me real mad and I've blown up at somebody before I lost my temper but here's the thing that doesn't mean that was right just because I've done it before now you might think well one time I was with Pastor Anderson and I saw him really blow up at somebody but here's the thing that doesn't mean that that's the way to go soul winning okay because 99% of the time I'm doing it with meekness I'm seasoned with salt but we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God myself included so yeah I've lost my temper I've blown up of people I've chewed people out you know it is what it is but in general we should be kind and not get sucked in to these arguments and by the way whenever I'm out so winning and I get sucked into some argument and get in some big old blow up and some argument people you know I always regret it afterward and just think man that was such a waste of time that was such a waste of my energy like why did I even let that guy suck me in because usually the kind of people that you get in those arguments with they're just a bunch of time wasters anyway that you should have just given them the first and second ammunition and and and moved on but in general we want to be seasoned with salt but but what does it mean to be seasoned with salt well seasoning something with salt makes it easier to eat it makes it more palatable you know my wife is a wonderful cook and she made this wonderful taco soup a couple nights ago and I sat down and it looked great you know everything was there the meat the beans the corn the tomatoes everything was there everything looked perfect it looked so wonderful I took a bite and it was just like yeah what is going on here and I I said honey did you salt this and she's like oh I haven't added any of the seasonings yet so she had forgotten to do any of the seasonings she forgot to do any salt any seasoning and it would I mean it would have hard to get through that whole bowl I mean I could have gotten through it but it wouldn't have been any fun it wouldn't have been easy it would have been difficult so then she added the seasonings and the salt then it tasted amazing then I'm wolfing it down and I had an entire second bowl okay I'm not saying that I should have had that second bowl but I did you know so I I killed the first bowl I killed the second bowl and it was wonderful it was easy to eat it was a pleasure to eat because it was seasoned with salt you take the salt out of the taco soup and it's ruined even if you put the taco seasoning if there's no salt it's not gonna work my friend it must be salted now especially those of us in Arizona we eat things with a lot of salt like before I lived in Arizona I didn't put a lot of salt on my food but ever since after living here for a couple years I just started craving salt and so now I mean my wife literally carries a salt shaker in her purse I'm not even kidding we go to a restaurant she pulls out like her own salt shaker to get like the good stuff you know the good salt and she salts every I mean I was watching my son eat today and he was like he like was salting each bite I'm like whoa buddy but we in Arizona we eat a lot of salt because we sweat so much that we have to replace all the salt that we lose from sweating and so it's just part of being an Arizona person but season with salt why making it easier for people to listen to the gospel by seasoning it with salt look I want my gospel message to be as easy for people to listen to as possible I want to make it enjoyable to listen to I want them to want to listen to enjoy listening and to be able to pay attention and listen and not be thinking well this is a bland gospel presentation this is a bland story this is a bland sermon I don't want my sermon to be bland you know I want them to be seasoned with salt but notice what he doesn't say he does not say let your speech be all the way with grace sugar-coated now that's another way to make things taste good I mean I don't know if this would work or not because I don't really know anything about cooking but I have a feeling that if I would have just put a few spoonfuls of sugar into that taco soup it might have been kind of good I don't know my all my daughters and my wife are saying my this is why I shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen okay but you know sugar can make things taste pretty good too you know I was at a restaurant when I was on the road trip and I saw this thing on the menu and it was like a sweet potato with cinnamon and sugar on it okay and and I'd never heard of such a thing now here's the thing typically when I eat sweet potato it usually it's like sweet potato fries and what are those seasoned with salt right so like you take a sweet potato you fry it up you put salt on it that's good so you could season the sweet potato with salt and it's good but you can also season the sweet potato with sugar okay so this sweet potato it came with like butter cinnamon and sugar and it was so good and I cheated too because like so I ate like most of it but I had a little sweet potato left but I'd eaten all the cinnamon and sugar so then I just took like a little butter off the table stuck it on and then I grabbed a sugar packet and I finished it and it was like a little extra butter a little extra sugar and man was that good so you know you kind of have two options and I'm not now I know you guys hated my idea about a few spoonfuls of sugar in the beans but it probably would I'm not saying it would be good but I'm saying it'd be it probably better than with nothing okay just forget I said it was a bad idea bad illustration cut but the but the point is the point is sweet potatoes that's the point okay you could either assault them or you could sugar them and they're both gonna be good but you know what's not gonna be good is just a plain sweet potato there's a plain old boring sweet potato no butter no salt no sugar nothing that's gonna be a little hard to eat I don't want it okay so here's the thing you know I could if I wanted people to listen to the gospel message I could sugarcoat it and people will eat it up won't they they'll eat up that sugary but here's the thing about the sugar-coated gospel is a lie is false or I could have it seasoned with salt and it's the truth so here's the thing it's okay to make the gospel palatable by delivering it in a gracious way in a meek way and a loving way in a kind way and making it interesting making it entertaining for people making it so that they want to listen to you that's great but what we don't want to do is we don't want to take the other avenue of saying hey let's sugarcoat the message so that people will like it more what would be the example of the sugar coating would be like basically let's hey let's just not talk about hell let's just forget about hell let's not talk about hell it's too negative don't bring up the lake of fire don't bring up hell and damnation don't bring that up you know or at one point the United Methodist Church they took out songs out of the hymnal that talked about the blood too much because they said we don't have a bloody religion you know but here we saying you know what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus and so the cross and the blood of Christ heaven and hell folks these are non-negotiables these are the gospel and and by the way so is telling people that they're a sinner no it's not that they're a sinner it's that we're all sinners I'm a sinner every single one of us sinner but we can't sugarcoat that you know we need to make it clear hey we're all sinners we all deserve hell but the good news is that God loves us Jesus Christ died for us if we believe in Christ we're saved we're forgiven but we don't want to sugarcoat but yes we do want assault you know some people try to act like salt isn't healthy and I'm sure that I'm sure it could be overdone I'm sure it could be overdone in certain people's diets so you know consult your physician or whatever but the point is though that you know if you're going outside and you're doing a lot of activity you need a lot of salt now somebody who's sitting in the air conditioning all day they might not need as much salt but you know we go to these long distance running events and I mean we're like we're like popping like salt pills and people are taking like boiled potatoes and just like dipping them in salt and chewing them up and swallowing them inside you know so I mean they're they're obviously different levels of salt that different people need and obviously it could be overdone I get that but in general salt is good okay the Bible says salt is good case closed so the salt is good salt is not a bad thing okay but I think we could all agree that you know sugar is not necessarily the most healthy thing especially eating too much sugar and that we should probably gravitate away from sugar in our diets and focus more on nutritious food and healthy food and a lot of the reason why a lot of people are overweight and in 2022 is because you know all the sugary drinks and all the sugar okay you guys don't like this line of preaching so let me let me season this with salt a little bit but the but the point is that God wants the message to be preached clearly manifest but it's okay to season it with salt make it nice for people to listen to but what we don't want to do is sugarcoat it and just give them diabetes or something you know with just because we just make the gospel so sweet that it's it's just you know off the charts of the glycemic index and some of these churches their glycemic index would be shocking if we could look at a spiritual glycemic index of some of these liberal churches because they're they're so sweet and you know what here's the thing about things that are sweet things that are sweet are good at first but if you eat too much sweets it makes you sick you know the Bible talks about eating too much honey and puking it up and so if you eat a bunch of sweet stuff you'll get to the point where the thought of anything sweet makes you sick you know again back to the long runs we'll go on these long runs all at the beginning of the run I'll be popping like chocolate peanut butter cups in my mouth just in order to have energy but you get a few hours into that run and anything sugary is just like yeah I just like the thought of it is nasty you don't even want it and you know some of you kids are like oh I could just eat nothing but candy but here's the thing if you ate nothing but candy for like two days you'd you'd you just hate candy and want to eat vegetables because too much sweet makes you sick and these churches that are just so sweet and ooey-gooey sloppy agape just dripping with the syrup eventually it's just sickening that seems like yeah okay so we don't want to sugarcoat the message we want to season it with salt we want to know how to answer every man by graciously kindly meekly lovingly preaching Christ crucified not necessarily getting off in the weeds on some argument about science or history or aliens or other religions or something like that you know it's best if we can stay on point and so I hope that this sermon tonight has helped you to put first Peter 3 15 in its context and when you think of being ready to give an answer to every man you realize that this is talking about people seeing you have peace wondering why you're unflappable unmovable wondering why you're so steadfast wondering why you're willing to endure persecution why because you have Christ because you have eternal life and that you're ready to give that answer and to preach Christ and to share the gospel and to preach the gospel which is the power of God on the salvation not necessarily just argue with someone because you're a super duper expert on apologetics okay let's borrow it's not word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word Lord and we thank you for saving us and and for the free gift of salvation Lord help us to preach about that free gift as many people as we possibly can and Lord God forbid that someone would ever come to us and ask us and we are not prepared to explain the gospel to them Lord help us to go out door-to-door and and and get experience preaching the gospel so that when our buddies and relatives ask us we'll actually have the answer and be ready to give an answer and be ready to preach the gospel in Jesus name we pray amen