This morning, I want to speak kind of
a Mother's Day sermon.
Happy Mother's Day, by the way.
On Does Your Conduct Convict the Lost to
Come to Christ?
And we find in Peter's letter to the
suffering Christians, he explains an important role of
our godly behavior and how it can help
in winning the lost to Christ.
Our conduct that the lost see can convince
them of the truth of our message.
That's a very important principle that we need
to remember as Christians.
And Peter, he gives this general principle we're
going to look at in 2 Peter 2,
verse 12, but then he gives a specific
application of it in 1 Peter 3, verses
1 and 2.
So let's read 1 Peter 3, verses 1
and 2.
Then we're going to look at verse 12
and explain that, and then we're going to
go back to the specific example he gives
of this general principle in regards to the
Christian wife seeing her lost husband saved.
So 1 Peter 3, verse 1.
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands,
so that even if some do not obey
the Word...
Do not obey the Word.
2 Peter 2, verses 7 and 8, it
speaks about those who disobey the Word and
he synonymously says there are those who do
not believe.
So I believe this is talking about a
lost husband, not a husband who's a Christian
and has fallen in sin.
So that even if some do not obey
the Word, if your husbands are lost, they
may be won, gained to Christ without a
word in what's used of God in a
mighty way by the conduct of their wives.
Verse 2, when these lost husbands see your
respectful and pure conduct.
Amen.
So we're going to look at that.
Let's pray.
Father, Lord, I thank You for allowing us
to gather here and assemble this morning.
Lord, we know that one of the reasons
You've given Your Word that should happen when
we come together is that we might stir
one another up to love and good works.
And so, Lord, I pray that You would
use this message in some way to specifically
stir people up to good works, to love,
to being exemplary in conduct, in a manner
of life that's worthy of the Gospel.
Lord, that You might use us in a
greater way to win souls and convince the
lost of the reality of the truths that
we have proclaimed to them.
And so, Lord, I just ask, help me
now.
Lord, I'm weak.
In Jesus' name.
So, it's a well-known verse.
It's a very good verse to run to,
especially if you're in a situation where you
have a lost husband who's not a Christian.
And we've had many sisters who have rightly
sought to lay hold of this passage, these
verses in 1 Peter 3, 1 and 2.
And I hope this message will all the
more help them to want to lay hold
of that truth that the conduct of the
Christian is a mighty evangelistic tool in someone
being convicted and coming to believe the message
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So, we see a specific example in 1
Peter 3, 1 and 2.
But I want to look at chapter 2,
verse 12.
Many would argue that this verse teaches the
general principle in verse 3 and 1 of
chapter 3.
Verse 1 and 2 are a specific example
of this general idea that Peter is trying
to convey to these Christians who are in
the midst of trials, suffering at the hands
of unjust bosses, unjust husbands, unjust governments.
So, let's look at verse 12 of chapter
2.
Peter here, verse 11, he's speaking to them
as what we are.
We're sojourners and exiles in this world.
This is not our home.
And he calls us to abstain from the
passions of the flesh that wage war against
your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.
And he gives a reason.
So that when they, the Gentiles, speak against
you as evildoers, so they're slandering us as
if we're evildoers, even though it's not true.
He's not saying that the Christians are being
evildoers, but rather the lost are saying they're
evildoers.
When they speak against you as evildoers, instead
of a response that is one of reviling
them, they may see your good deeds.
And this, something happens, and they glorify God
on the day of visitation.
And that word the, it's not in the
Greek.
It's referring to a day of visitation.
There's some day of visitation that happens, and
what comes out of these individuals' mouths is
glorifying God.
Which either means they acknowledge that He's Lord
as they're perishing, or it means they're acknowledging
out of natural overflow and praise of thanksgiving
for God's salvation in their lives.
So I'm about to put forward that I
believe v.
12 is teaching the same idea that we
find in v.
1-2 of chapter 3, but here, Peter
is speaking in a broader sense.
This isn't just about wives with lost husbands.
You could apply this to all sorts of
situations.
A lost husband with a lost wife.
Lost parents with a lost children.
A saved church with a lost world that's
watching us.
So, Gentiles, let's think of some of these
phrases here.
Keep your conduct.
That word conduct, the manner of life, Peter
uses that eight times in this letter.
And ultimately, the manner of life that he's
pointing to is the example of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
He gives Christ as our example, but Peter
gives all sorts of specifics for different people
in their different situations of life on what
this conduct looks like.
But he says here, keep your conduct among
the Gentiles, the non-Jew honorable.
Later in chapter 4, he speaks about the
Gentiles again in v.
3, For the time has passed that suffices
for doing what the Gentiles want to do.
Gentiles, the non-Jew, you get the idea
what Peter is saying is the lost.
He's not saying that there aren't Jews that
are lost, that our conduct matters before the
Jews.
But the conduct of the Gentiles, these types
of sin, that's often how the Scriptures speak
about the lost.
They're Gentiles.
There are Jews who are Gentiles because they're
not actually Jews truly in the heart, circumcised
of the heart.
And so there are Gentile Jews.
And Peter in this letter clearly has a
correct view of who the true church is
and who the true Israel is.
So he says, keep your conduct among them
honorable.
And then he has that amazing phrase, the
phrase you always want to stop when there's
a therefore or so that honorable, so that
something happens.
When they speak against you as evildoers, we're
going to have people slander us.
They're going to see in our conduct good
deeds.
They're going to see that we're not really
evildoers and they're going to glorify God on
the day of visitation.
To glorify God, that's what is going to
happen.
Now he says here, when they see your
good deeds, what's it mean?
See.
It means they're watching.
They're observing what we're doing.
And this word see is only used two
times in the Bible, the Greek word.
It's only used two times and it's in
verse 12 and it's in chapter three, verse
one or verse two.
When they see your respectful and pure conduct.
These are the only two verses in the
Scriptures that this Greek word is used.
And so Peter is saying there are people
observing you.
They're watching you.
They're looking at your conduct.
Their eyes are on the Christian.
The world wants to be able to say
Christians are hypocrites.
Right?
The Christian wants to be able to say,
I don't know of anything.
I'm not thereby acquitted.
It is God who will judge me, but
I'm not aware of anything against myself.
Even though they're saying we're evildoers, even though
they're slandering us.
So they're watching us.
They're speaking evil about us.
And then they see good deeds.
And something happens.
The lost glorify God.
They glorify God on a day of visitation.
What's He mean there?
Is this glorifying God natural praise from being
saved?
Or is it their forced acknowledgement?
You know, every knee will bow and confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
I believe it's a natural acknowledgement that comes
from someone who has been saved.
But when does this happen?
It says the day of visitation.
Let's think about that term for a moment.
On a day of visitation.
A day of visitation.
When it says the day of visitation, some
people could read this and their initial thought
is He's talking about judgment day.
It says the day of visitation.
The thing is, as you read 1 and
2 Peter, Peter doesn't refer to judgment day
in that way.
In 2 Peter, he says the day of
judgment and destruction, or he says the day
of the Lord.
So in Peter's mind, he's using some different
terminology when he wants to make it clear
he's referring to the day of final judgment.
So that's one thing to consider here.
Also, Peter in Acts 15-14, it says
related how God first visited the Gentiles.
People like Cornelius, to take from them a
people for His name.
So there he's using this idea that God
visited the Gentiles to take for Himself a
people for His own name, meaning God visited
them to do what?
To save them.
To bring them to the truth.
Luke 1-68, Zacharias said in regards to
Christ's birth that God had visited and redeemed
His people.
That God was visiting His people in the
person of Jesus Christ and Christ is coming
to redeem a people for His own possession.
So this idea of a day of visitation,
Peter himself even uses this idea of being
visited to refer to God coming and saving
someone.
So I would take when it says there
glorified God on a day of visitation, that
a day of visitation is referring to when
God visits them like Cornelius experienced with salvation.
And that's what causes them to naturally now
praise God.
And what led to this, what he says
here is a factor is that they saw
the good deeds and then glorified God.
But something happens between this.
They don't just see the good deeds and
then they believe on Christ.
Something else is going on here that's happening.
Look at a few verses here about what's
happening.
2 Peter 2.15. I'm sorry, not 2
Peter.
1 Peter.
I was hearing the pages turn and I
thought it's not that far away.
Sorry, 1 Peter 2.15. This is a
few verses later after v.
12.
For this is the will of God that
by doing good..." This idea again of conduct.
What happens?
"...by doing good, you should put to silence
the ignorance of foolish people."
So doing good gets people to be quiet
with their accusations against you.
He also says in 3.16, having a
good conscience.
That's the idea of a manner of life.
You've got a good conscience.
Your conduct is pure.
Having a good conscience so that what happens?
When you're slandered, that's the very thing he
mentions in v.
12.
They're going to speak against you as evildoers.
Having a good conscience so that when you
are slandered, those who revile your good behavior,
whether it's a lost spouse, a lost co
-worker, whoever, what happens to them?
As they're reviling your good behavior, they may
be what?
Put to shame.
Something happens.
And their mouths are silenced.
And they're put to shame.
They're ashamed about the accusations that they were
railing on you the Christian.
The words they were saying, their mouth is
now shut.
And Peter's saying, what led this to happen
was your conduct.
That was a massive factor in their mouths
being shut and in them now being ashamed.
Ashamed.
And that's the same idea in 3 with
the wife.
So that even if some do not obey
the Word, they may be one without a
word by the conduct of their wives.
So conduct, the manner of life, is being
used of God to convict these people, to
get them to shut their mouths, to be
ashamed of their sin, and then you're able
to tell them what it says in 1
Peter 2, 6, that whoever believes in Christ
will not be put to shame.
And you tell them that.
That husband who's so convicted over his sin
to his Christian wife.
You tell them, you know what, you're ashamed.
And you should be ashamed of all the
slander and the reviling.
But Christ has come, and if you believe
in Him, you will not be put to
shame.
And that husband believes on Christ, supernaturally is
born again by the living, abiding Word of
God, and now he glorifies God on that
day that the Lord has visited his household
with salvation.
So that's my present understanding in verse 12.
That it is Peter putting forward a general
principle to the Christians about their conduct being
used by God as a means to convict,
silence, and put to shame the lost world
who is slandering us that they might then
be visited by God and ultimately glorify God
on this day of visitation.
So those who were once slandering us are
now glorifying God.
That's the radical transformation.
The Lord takes a Saul and He's no
longer cursing the Christians and wanting to kill
them, but He's now praising the Lord.
Now, what Peter is not saying is that
we don't use words.
I mean, it's amazing.
Peter says without a word in chapter 3,
verse 1.
They may be one without a word.
But Peter's idea is not that there is
no speaking involved.
He's not saying that a person is born
again by the living, abiding example of a
Christian.
Not at all.
Peter says right before verse 12 in chapter
2, verse 9, he says this, that we
proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light.
So clearly we are proclaiming the truth.
Chapter 1, verse 23.
You are born again, not of perishable seed,
but of imperishable through the living, abiding Word
of God.
So someone is preaching the truth.
The Spirit of God takes the truth of
the Word of God and regenerates someone and
they're born again.
They're made into a new creature.
It doesn't say they're being born again by
someone's example.
That God's using the Word.
But the life is a convicting assurance to
them that the message that has been proclaimed
that they have heard is true.
So, Peter is saying that once they know
your message, it's your conduct that will make
all the difference as a clear sign to
them that you have the truth.
Your conduct will make all the difference.
Just last week, our neighbor Louis, he needed
a quick ride down a couple blocks away.
And so I said, alright, I'll give you
a ride.
And he hopped in the car and he
started to say that the person's house he
was going to, he said, this man, he's
a real Bible scholar.
You know, he really studies the Word of
God.
And then he paused and he said to
me, but you know, by the things he
says, I don't know if that's really true.
And I thought that's right.
James 1.26, whoever does not bridle his
ton, his religion is worthless.
If a man can't control the ton, it
shows his religion is worth absolutely nothing.
And so if that guy's trying to evangelize
my neighbor Louis, it's not going to do
any good.
Because Louis himself can see that the man
is a hypocrite, a play actor.
But the same idea of the conviction that
the Christian's life can be on the unbeliever.
Paul dealt with that in Philippians 1.
And I looked at that years ago.
But he said, as you live a manner
of life worthy of the Gospel in Philippians
1.27-28, he then says it's a
clear sign to them.
You not being frightened by your opponents is
a clear sign to them of their destruction,
but of your salvation and that that comes
from God.
So not being frightened convicts them that we're
really saved.
We actually have a hope.
In the same way, Peter, even as he
looks at Sarah here in chapter 3, there's
a sense he's saying, look, this woman, her
husband sees that she's not living in this
constant fear.
There's a hope and a trust that she
has.
And as he sees that conduct, as she
reveres God, it convicts him.
I don't have that hope that my wife
has.
And it's able to convince him of the
power of the Gospel.
And this message is true.
So once they know your message, your conduct's
going to make all the difference.
In a good way or a bad way.
Another thing we see here, Peter has a
correct view of true Christianity.
Peter understands if you're a Christian, you've been
born again.
Chapter 1, verse 15, He who called you
is holy.
You will also be holy in all your
conduct.
Peter expects that Christians are going to live
different.
They're going to be set apart.
There's a distinction that you will see by
the works of the Christian.
Not the works don't say, but they vindicate
and prove that the faith is genuine.
And that points people to the message that
changed us.
The lost, as he says in chapter 4,
verse 4, with respect to this, when they
don't join you in their drinking parties, they
are surprised.
The lost should be surprised.
I mean, they should see your conduct.
And they should go, wow, this is really
surprising.
I can't believe they're actually being consistent.
I mean, I thought they just didn't cuss
when they were around their family.
But even at work, in the back room,
so to speak, they're still having a pure
speech here.
Or wow, that Christian, he left his phone
out.
You know what?
I wonder, is the guy a hypocrite?
Let me go look at his Internet history.
Wow, there's nothing here that bothers me.
I thought he was going to have all
sorts of filth being looked up on his
phone.
They're surprised.
You know what?
It should be surprising.
God radically changing a person and giving them
a new nature and new desire should be
pretty surprising to a world who knows nothing
but living in sin and eating their sin
like a dog that returns to its vomit.
So they should be surprised.
And this surprise should cause them to either
suppress what they saw or ask.
Or ask.
Look at 3, verse 1 again.
The husband might be won without a word
by the conduct of his wife when they
see, so they're watching respectful and pure conduct.
And you know what might happen?
You know what that husband might do to
that wife?
He might do what 3.15 says.
In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as
holy.
Wives, Christians, always being prepared to make a
defense to anyone who asks you for a
reason for the hope that is in you.
So people are going to ask us for
the reason for the hope that is in
you.
And Peter here uses an example of Sarah
3.5. He says this is how the
holy women who hoped in God used to
adorn themselves.
That husband sees his wife hoping in God.
And he goes to his wife one day.
Rather than suppressing, he says, honey, tell me
the reason for that hope that's within you.
And now that woman can use all the
words in the world she wants to.
Her husband's opening the door saying let's have
a conversation about it.
The life, the hope in God, put him
to silence.
He stopped slandering her.
He was ashamed of his conduct and his
treatment.
And he says to her, what's the reason
for the hope?
That's what we're talking about.
And in all situations of the Christian life,
it's not just the wife with the lost
husband.
It's the husband with the lost wife.
It's the parents with the lost children.
The last thing I want to be to
my children is a hypocrite.
Where I come in here and I present
myself in some way and I go out
there and I'm another person.
So, Peter too is speaking to believers who
are facing suffering, persecution, fiery trials, and it's
like Peter expects that God's given us the
strength, and as he says in his second
letter, the divine power necessary to do all
of these things.
So Peter has a view of Christianity that
the power is available for God to give
you the day-by-day help to live
this out.
This is not some task that is impossible
to consistently strive to live out.
Our conduct in the midst of suffering is
a vital time to shine as opposed to
when all is normal and all is easy.
So we don't want to be like Romans
2.21 says.
Those who teach others, do you not teach
yourselves why you preach against stealing?
Do you steal?
Or Matthew 23.
Don't observe what those Pharisees tell you.
Observe whatever they tell you, but don't do
the works.
They had the issue.
They preach, but they do not practice.
So, maybe just a few brief things here
about what specific conduct Peter is referring to.
Verse 21 of chapter 2, for this you've
been called because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example, so that you might
follow in His steps.
What type of conduct is a manner worthy
of the Gospel?
A conduct of imitating the Person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, loving as He has loved,
imitating Him.
But Peter says in this letter, 2.13,
submit to every human institution.
2.18, submit to unjust masters who are
harsh.
2.23, have no deceit in your mouth.
2.23 speaks of Jesus was reviled.
That means verbal and physical abuse was heaped
upon Him.
And He didn't revile in return.
With men in the Old Testament like Moses,
they did revile in return.
And God dealt with them for doing that.
Jesus didn't seek to get even.
Someone mentioned an example years ago and it's
always stood out to me.
They mentioned they were driving their car, someone
cut them off.
And then they felt they started to drive
close to the guy trying to make a
point.
Trying to get even.
And it convicted them.
That's not the Christian conduct to win the
lost.
Right?
That doesn't work.
So they stopped.
Jesus didn't threaten.
Do we respond in a way to give
our enemies anxiety that we might get back
at them at some point?
You were on me, so I'm going to
try to give you some anxiety.
I'm wanting you to have a little anxiety
for the next couple of weeks.
I might try to get back at you.
He didn't do that.
Imagine the wife who does that to the
lost husband.
Not going to be helpful.
They didn't repay evil for evil, but on
the contrary, they blessed.
They didn't join in the drunken worldly parties.
They were not grumbling, 4.9 speaks of.
As elders, we were not domineering over those
in our charge.
We're being examples.
That's some of the practical conduct that Peter
deals with in this letter.
And all of it falls under the main
head of seeking to follow and imitate the
example of Jesus Christ.
And that conduct puts the person to shame
who is reviling us.
At least it can.
So, Peter says in 2.11, we're waging
war against the passions of our flesh that
wage war against our soul.
Well, another way to look at it is
this.
You abstaining from the passions of the flesh
which wage war against your soul is not
just you waging war for your own soul,
but waging war for others' souls.
You see, this isn't just about me and
I'm waging war.
No, I want the lost people's souls to
be won and gained for Christ.
And so when he says in 1 Peter
1.9, obtaining the outcome of your faith,
the salvation of your souls, there's a final
salvation the Christian is pressing on towards.
We're wanting to take as many people as
we can with us.
And so we're proclaiming to them the excellencies
of Jesus Christ.
But then a big differentiating factor is our
lives are a convicting example that shames them,
silences them as they see our good deeds,
and it causes them to ask us for
the reason of the hope within.
And we tell them about Jesus Christ that
if you believe on Him, you will not
be put to shame.
And they believe on Christ.
They have a day of visitation.
They're supernaturally born again by the Word of
God through the Spirit of God using the
Word of God.
And now they glorify and praise the Lord.
And so the Lord is glorified not just
in the conduct of our life, not just
in the fact that we didn't sin and
give into the passions of the flesh, but
the Lord's glorified in that there have been
people who've been bought by His blood who
we've been the means of seeing them come
to Christ and be saved.
So it's not just I'm trying not to
be captured.
We're trying to set free the capture.
Okay, so that was kind of the first
part.
Now the second part.
The first part was putting forward that there
is a general principle that Peter puts forward
in verse 12 about the conduct of our
life being used by God as a big
difference maker in someone seeing the message we
already proclaimed.
They're living in such a way, that message
has got to be true.
And he gives a specific example in 1
Peter 3, 1 to 2.
And that is with this woman who's a
Christian and her husband is lost.
Now, the verse it reads, maybe one without
a word by the conduct of their lives.
Well, the word there is not there in
the Greek, in the original language.
So some would say that you could take
from that, that Peter isn't just thinking about
the conduct of the Christian woman, specifically how
that relates to her husband.
But some would draw out that Peter's actually,
whether they're right or not, that Peter's actually
saying Christian women as a whole, their conduct
is a testimony to all lost men.
And obviously that's true anyways, because that's the
broader thing Peter's dealing with.
But the wife of the husband, that woman
is the main thing that husband's going to
see.
And so obviously the most convicting example a
wife can be is to her own husband.
Does her testimony before the whole world and
other husbands matter?
Absolutely.
But I think Peter's main thing here is
the wife specific to her own personal husband.
So because he established in verse 12 a
more general idea, obviously this isn't just one
specific situation.
You could change out these terms and the
conduct that Peter mentions to put a husband
who has a lost wife, et cetera.
Peter's main thing is he's concerned about the
Christian community as a whole.
And here he gives this encouragement to a
wife specifically.
And you could see his heart wanting to
encourage the women.
You know, the woman's in a situation where
she's submitting to the authority and the control
and the orders of a husband who's probably
not living in an understanding way.
He might even be reviling her.
And Peter is coming along and encouraging her
in her conduct that it's not in vain.
It's not in vain even if the husband
never gets converted, God gets glorified.
You see, Peter's bigger thing is not just
do they get saved?
Peter's bigger thing is God being praised.
So let's think for a moment just about
women in the Bible.
You know, it's a Mother's Day and women
can be very influential in a positive or
a negative way.
And I'm gonna read through a quick list
of some positive examples and some negative examples.
Proverbs 14, one is maybe a good starting
point.
The wisest of women builds her house, but
folly with her own hands tears it down.
So the woman has the ability to either
build up or to tear down.
He doesn't give a middle ground there.
So let's think of some women in the
Bible.
One man's wife was in the religious community.
She was fleeing a city about to be
under judgment.
And in her heart of hearts, she loved
the world.
She loved her sin.
And Lot's wife looked back and perished turning
into a pillar of salt.
So that's a negative example.
Here, a positive is a wife can be
like Abigail and save their lost, drunk husband
from causing his own death.
Now, he shortly thereafter died and David married
Abigail.
But the point is she used wisdom.
She protected her husband.
She showed respect to him to some degree.
Here, a negative example is wives can manipulate
and entice their husbands as Samson's wife did.
Judges 14, you only hate me.
You do not love me.
Manipulative language to get their own way, to
get that riddle out of Samson.
She wasn't looking out for her husband's good.
Some wives say, as Deuteronomy 13, six says,
let us go and serve other gods.
Sadly, Solomon faced that.
Proverbs 27, 15 says a continual dripping on
a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are
alike.
They're similar.
How, how are they similar?
To restrain the quarreling wife is to restrain
the wind.
Meaning you can't restrain the wind or to
grasp oil in one's right hand.
You can't do it.
Wives, they could be good at home defense.
Judges four, Jael, the wife of Heber took
a tent peg or took a hammer in
her hand.
And then she went softly to him and
drove the peg into his temple of his
head.
And then she killed the intruder.
Maybe that's a bad example, but wives can
encourage their husbands when they're in despair, not
thinking correctly.
Judges 13, Manoah said to his wife, we
shall surely die for we have seen God.
He's just, some would say he's in despair.
Maybe something's wrong with his response there.
His wife said to him, honey, if the
Lord had meant to kill us, He would
have not accepted a burnt offering and a
grain offering at our hands.
So the wife helps him to think correctly
here.
God's not going to strike us dead.
He wouldn't have done that thing earlier.
So the wife is encouraging the husband.
Titus 2, 5, what a verse.
Just talks about being pure, working at home,
submissive to their own husbands.
And it gives a reason that the word
of God may not be reviled.
I can revile the word of God by
how I conduct my life.
Peter doesn't want us doing that.
He wants our conduct, not reviling the word
of God, but holding the word of God
in high esteem where the world sees this
isn't just something we preach.
It's something we live.
But the most amazing thing, one of the
most amazing things the Bible says about the
wife is right here in 1 Peter 3.
It says that the woman can win her
husband without a word by her conduct.
That's incredible.
You can win someone.
I mean, there's a lot of things that
I don't have the ability to win.
I don't have the ability to gain.
It's out of my reach.
And Peter is saying another soul coming to
Christ, that's not an impossibility.
Even a lost person who's reviling you, that's
not an impossibility.
There's a lot of encouragement there.
This person can be won as opposed to
not being won.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 19, he
uses the same word that I might win
more of them.
You see, Paul lived a life wanting to
win people.
While you do what you do, while your
witness and testimony of your life is the
way it is, one of the factors is
you're wanting to win souls to Christ.
Ultimately, you're wanting to do what's very precious
in God's eyes.
Right, it's all about the Lord.
But one of the things you see God
doing where you recognize your conduct is not
in vain, is that God can use this
to bring that soul to the truth, to
be the big difference maker in the message
they've already heard about the excellencies of Jesus
Christ that they've rejected, but they see the
consistent, habitual, continual conduct of your life.
They're put to shame, silenced, and they ask
for a reason for the hope that you
have.
So a lot could be said here about
verses three and four and five on the
conduct that Peter calls these women to specifically.
But just briefly here, what does it look
like if you're a Christian woman and your
husband is not saved?
He says, verse one, obviously he says be
subject.
So he talks about submission, submitting to his
authority.
That's how God's designed it, right?
The roles were equal in personhood, man and
woman, but were not equal in roles.
God has designed different roles for the man
and a different role for the woman.
And the woman is submitting to the man.
And so this Christian woman is submitting to
a lost husband who's most likely not living
with her in an understanding way.
He's not submitting to him unto sin because
he calls her to what type of conduct?
Peter says here when they see your pure
conduct, verse two.
So obviously this doesn't in any way mean
submitting to do something that is sinful.
But they're watching and they see this pure
conduct, this submission.
That's one of the factors here.
Another is respect.
When they see you're respectful in pure conduct.
Now that word respectful, it means fear.
Some people would argue that it's talking about
when they see your fear of God.
I know John Piper believes that.
Whether it does or it doesn't, obviously they're
seeing a reverence of God.
But there's other verses that talk about the
wife respecting her husband.
I tend to lean here that this fear
he's speaking of here is this idea of
the wife's respectful conduct towards her husband is
what he is saying.
Respect.
Think about respect.
One husband wrote this.
There's a husband who got converted.
He said, when my wife's friends voiced negative
opinions about me, she never joined in.
And when other men sought to be consoling,
she refused to open herself emotionally to them.
She showed me respect when I did not
deserve it.
And that pure conduct, that respect was a
factor in this individual coming to receive the
knowledge of the truth.
A gentle and quiet spirit he mentions here.
He says, do not let your adorning be
external.
The braiding of hair and the putting on
of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear.
So obviously he's not saying you can't braid
your hair or he'd be saying that you
can't wear clothing.
And obviously he's not saying you don't ever
use words when he says without a word.
But the emphasis here is what?
Verse four, let your adorning, let the focus
of what you're wearing not be the external,
but the hidden person of the heart.
With the imperishable beauty of a gentle and
a quiet spirit.
A gentle, there we have it, a gentle
and a quiet spirit.
And what's God think about it?
Because who cares what the world thinks about
it, right?
We're not looking to the world's approval.
Which in God's sight, is very precious.
What a reminder, this is precious to God.
The world isn't going to say it's precious.
Peter says the precious blood of Christ.
Does the world say the blood of Christ
is precious?
No, Christians say the blood of Christ is
precious.
And Christians are saying this type of conduct
is precious in God's sight.
And if he bought me with the precious
blood of Christ, I want to live in
a way that's precious in God's sight.
One who's been bought by the blood of
his only son, whom he sent to be
our redeemer and pay our price of redemption,
to pay our ransom and let us go
free.
So a gentle and quiet spirit.
The word gentle is the word for meek.
The idea is being lowly, considerate, not self
-assertive.
Not self-assertive.
And there's a biography I read a pastor
a hundred years ago.
And this example came to mind.
This is what he said about his wife.
This is an example of a woman not
being self-assertive.
If there happened to be on our table,
one thing better than the other, one type
of food better than the other type of
food, she would modestly, but cheerfully and earnestly
resist all opportunity to partake of the better
food until she ascertained that there was enough
for us both.
You say that's really subtle.
Well, don't subtle things make a big impact,
right?
Subtle things right there.
I mean, you go reverse that situation.
He got the lost husband and the wife,
it's like give me half of the steak.
Is that really a right you wanna fight
for there?
Is his soul more important than the belly's
appetite?
Little things like that God used.
I mean, why did it get in this
guy's biography?
Because it stood out about the character of
his wife.
So this meekness, it's not being self-assertive.
This quiet spirit.
Quiet spirit means possessing an inward, calm, quiet,
tranquil, peaceful, at rest.
This is a woman in the midst of
trials and she's at rest.
Remember, the husband might ask his wife, what's
the reason for the hope?
He sees she's not over there in anxiety
and fear.
Habitually, she might have fear, but it's not
the pattern.
And he asked for the reason for the
hope.
You see, he sees there's something there that
she has.
She's not anxious and loud all of the
time.
Look, she's not always speaking before her husband
speaks.
There's something bigger here about a quiet spirit.
There's this sense of respect and honoring the
husband.
Where you're not just quick to speak, where
people might, whether you're leading the family or
not, they might get the perspective you are
by the way you speak and handle yourself
publicly.
And then that looks bad with people's perception
of your husband.
This quiet spirit does not mean the woman
is not bold.
She's obviously fearless.
Doesn't mean she's not going to speak up
and tell the truth with emphasis of what
Christ has done.
But Peter, obviously, he's dealing with all women
here.
He just dealt specifically with the conduct of
women who have lost husbands.
But Peter's warning us, don't let your primary
focus, sisters, be about external adorning.
It's not all about the external.
That's not the main emphasis for the Christian.
It's rather the internal.
And Peter here, he even appeals to history.
He says here, verse five, for this is
how the holy women who hoped in God
used to adorn themselves.
Peter's saying the same style of heart thousands
of years ago is still in style today.
The way they used to adorn the heart,
that's still how you adorn the heart today.
Now he gives this example of Sarah calling
her husband Lord.
Obviously, that idea of Lord, that was in
the culture, that was a term they used.
We don't use that term now.
You might say something like sir, or something
more than that, but most people, they're not
going to call their husband Lord.
That would be odd, right?
But there's a sense of respect.
And it's interesting the example that Peter refers
to.
Some would argue it's in Genesis 18.
And Genesis 18 does not necessarily look like
Sarah was being a really good example of
a woman who did not fear anything that
is frightening.
And Tim did a whole sermon on this
called Thank God for Sarah.
You should listen to it.
It was I think eight years ago.
But I think part of the point is
this.
Peter refers to an example of Sarah and
he puts emphasis on the one thing she
did right in that whole situation.
And that was what?
When she was caught there, the Lord said,
did you laugh?
And she lied.
She called her husband Lord.
That was right.
And what does that indicate?
What was the natural response of this woman
when put on the spot?
How did she regard her husband?
She just said Lord.
Her natural response was to speak well of
her husband.
And so I think that's part of what
Peter's emphasizing here.
He's looking at an example of a woman
who did do something right in that situation.
She called her husband Lord.
She showed him respect.
That was the natural overflow of her heart
in that situation.
You know, Peter's basically saying Proverbs 31 30
here in another way.
Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.
But a woman who fears the Lord is
to be praised.
A woman who fears God is to be
praised.
You're not going to win a lost husband's
soul with a focus on external.
You know, it's so easy to put excessive
time into the outward, to stare at the
mirror on the wall rather than the mirror
of God's Word.
It's so easy to want to fix the
outward blemishes and we forget the internal blemishes
of the heart.
And obviously, social media has made this so
much more of a focus because you can
have your own profile picture.
People get to see how you look.
There's just a focus.
And then you get all these comments, you
look so pretty, and everyone's praising you publicly
about the external.
We want to be praising people primarily about
the internal.
I'm not saying don't encourage someone.
But let's focus on the internal.
That's what God puts His focus on.
Man looks at the outward appearance.
God is looking at the heart.
He's caring for the heart.
Imagine encouraging that sister, wow, I saw your
incredible example where you resisted asking for a
piece of that steak at dinner.
I mean, I saw that drool coming out
of your face and you just said no!
Because you didn't want your lost husband there.
You thought he might have snapped at you
there because he loves his meat.
Who knows?
We need to have our eyes on what's
pleasing to God.
Which in God's sight is very precious.
Very precious.
Breaking very costly ointment to pour on Christ's
head is precious in God's eyes.
The world and religious people, they don't look
at that as precious.
Now one thing to think about here is
this.
How on earth is a wife living like
a godly Christian, how is that convicting conduct
to a lost husband?
Doesn't the lost husband look at godly Christians
and say that's old school?
Doesn't he mock that?
You know what?
I think this shows something.
Peter recognizes.
He recognizes mankind is made in the image
of God.
Men, whether lost, they could be as lost
as they could be, but they know what
it's like when someone shows them respect and
submission.
It doesn't matter how lost you are.
When someone shows you respect, when they're submitting
to you, they're agreeing with your ideas, and
they're saying let's do it, that speaks in
volumes.
Even to the lost person, it's compelling.
A gentle and quiet spirit.
We were watching some bluegrass band.
There's this family in Branson.
They have this bluegrass band and there's this
interview being done.
And in the interview, there's one of the
girls from this Christian bluegrass band, and then
there was another woman in the interview.
And one, you could tell, the focus was
on the external.
There was a stiffness there, a self-awareness
of being on camera.
And then you had this girl from the
bluegrass band.
She was just quiet, gentle.
She wasn't focused on the external.
And you know what people in the comments
were saying?
They were commenting and saying, that girl is
life material.
That's the lost world.
The lost world can watch that interview and
see this one might be, as they say,
more fun at the party.
But this one is wife material.
Even the lost world recognizes that.
They acknowledge that.
They're compelled by that.
They know what wife material is and it
finds its roots in submission and how God
has designed us.
The truths of Christianity.
So, we've got 1053.
So I'm gonna wrap this up.
Look, it's gotta be said, Peter is not
guaranteeing 100% that the lost spouse always
gets saved, right?
That's not in the text.
It's a possibility.
But again, as I said earlier, what is
a guarantee is God will get glory.
God will get honor and praise as you
abstain from passions of the flesh and wage
war for your own soul.
Hopefully, that lost person is gonna come along
and see the truth.
And Peter says here, verse three, he says,
so that even if some do not obey
the Word, it's an interesting language, even if
some, meaning it seems Peter's idea is the
majority in the church have a saved spouse.
Now, if that's what he's implying, why would
that be an encouragement?
Obviously, a lot of people tend to marry
a Christian and that's why they have a
saved spouse.
But this is here, in a way, the
beginning thrust of Christianity.
I imagine a lot of these people had
already been married when they got converted.
And yet, Peter says, even if some do
not obey the Word, what could the encouragement
maybe be that you could pull out of
there?
It could be the fact that it's only
some because others have already been converted.
Because of this conduct being the difference maker
that these people saw that ultimately won them
to believe on the truth.
Another thing here in closing, is Peter expecting
perfection out of the wife?
No, he's not.
Again, he refers to Sarah here.
Sarah was not by any means an example
of perfection.
So you don't want to set the standard
too high, but you don't want to go
too low.
She habitually sought to be a woman who
hoped in God and feared the Lord.
Let's see here.
How do you live like this?
There's all this conduct here.
Well, again, you've got to read the whole
letter.
And you get to chapter 4.
And you basically have, as some say, chapter
4 is Peter's Romans 6, basically.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, meaning
Christ died, arm yourselves with the same way
of thinking or with the thought as it's
rendered.
What thought?
The thought that whoever has suffered in the
flesh has ceased from sin.
The idea there is the Christian has died.
They're a new man.
Their old man has been crucified with Christ.
They're no longer enslaved to sin.
So how can I live out all of
these realities?
Because I'm a new man in Christ.
That's why I can live the rest of
my time for the will of God.
Or 2 Peter 1, he says we're partakers
of the divine nature.
So we've been changed by God.
His divine power has granted us to all
things pertaining to life and godliness.
So the power is here to live this
out.
Don't say there's not the power.
There absolutely is the power.
So what does the lost world see in
your manner of life?
Right?
What do they see?
What in your own life is behavior or
conduct that negatively affects your witness?
It could be conduct online, in person, wherever.
Your lack of godliness may be the very
reason you lack influence upon those you are
around.
So are you saying that we should be
worried about the lost, what they see?
I'm saying you should be worried about what
God sees and God cares what the lost
see because you're bearing His name.
You have His name tag on you.
Don't shame your heavenly master with how you
conduct yourself because it will reflect the head.
And obviously this conduct is not referring to
some one-time act, but a continual, consistent
witness.
When we are hypocritical, let us not fail
to admit it, but come clean and have
an honest confession to the lost who witnessed
our hypocrisy.
If it goes unacknowledged, it will only cause
them to think we are numb to it
and insensitive.
They won't know.
Again, it's simple.
I sin against my children, I don't not
tell them about it.
I tell them.
I confess it.
I don't want them to perceive that that
hypocrisy is something I'm blind to.
You've got to be transparent.
So, think of it, brethren.
The hope expressed here, the lost can be
won.
The lost can be won.
Absolutely, we've got to preach the excellencies of
Jesus Christ.
We've got to be proclaiming the Word of
God, that the Spirit of God would take
that Word, visit a person, and cause them
to be born again by the living, abiding
Word of God.
But Peter doesn't just say that's all you
do.
Peter points at our conduct and our manner
of life.
And he says it can be a clear
sign to people.
It can put them to shame.
It can get them to shut their mouths.
You're able to win them over.
That can be the difference maker.
There might be some hypocrisy that's hindering your
witness.
It's being a difference maker in the negative
way.
It's turning them away from seeing the truth.
And look, whether someone is a hypocrite or
not, if you're lost, you can't blame them.
If you reject the truth, your blood's going
to be on your own head, as we
looked at a couple of weeks ago as
I looked at the watchman.
You know in that watchman sermon, there's a
great emphasis on our responsibility to speak.
Here, there's a great emphasis on your responsibility
to live and conduct your manner in a
life that is worthy of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
So this strategy, it worked 2,000 years
ago, it will work today.
And we need to believe the Lord.
Don't lose heart.
If you're a sister here and you have
a lost husband, don't lose heart.
Keep pressing on, trusting the Lord.
God's able to use this.
Let's pray.
Father, Lord, I thank You that Your Word
time and time again reminds us that the
things we do are not in vain, that
they're not without a purpose.
Lord, You do not have us floating around
doing things without a purpose.
And Lord, we do want You to be
glorified in the maximum way that You can
out of our lives.
Lord, I pray that You would save.
Father, would You save people, Lord, who we
have sought to conduct ourselves in a God
-honoring way before.
Lord, despite our failures, despite our fears, despite
our inconsistencies, Lord, we're appealing to Your mercy.
We're appealing to You, not wishing that any
should perish.
We're asking that You would come down and
save the lost.
Lord, that You would send Your Holy Spirit
that it activate the Word of God and
that these people would be born again into
a living hope.
Please, Lord, that their souls could be one.
Lord, have mercy.
Please, Father, we want, Lord, we're longing for
people to come to the truth.
Lord, that's what we want them to be
convinced about is the truth.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Okay, well, we'll have a break if you're
visiting.
We have a 25-minute break.
We're going to take the Lord's Supper, so
we might start earlier than 1130.