Reading the Word of God from 1 Peter
2, beginning at verse 11 and concluding with
verse 25.
1 Peter 2, verse 11, it sounds like
the beginning of a wedding, dearly beloved.
I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
having your behavior honest, and you can translate
that word if you want to, beautiful.
Having your behavior beautiful among the Gentiles, that
whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they
may by your good works which they shall
behold glorify God in the day of visitation.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake, whether it be to the
king as supreme or unto governors, as unto
them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of
them that do well.
For so is the will of God that
with well-doing you may put to silence
the ignorance of foolish men, as free and
not using your liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God,
honor the king.
Servants, and this means household slaves, be subject
to your masters with all fear, not only
to the good and gentle, but also to
the perverse.
For this is thankworthy if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it if when you
are buffeted for your faults you shall take
it patiently?
But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God, for even here unto were
ye called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that ye should follow
his steps, who did no sin, neither was
guile found in his mouth, who when he
was reviled reviled not again, when he suffered
he threatened not, but committed himself to him
that judgeth righteously.
Who his own self bore our sins in
his own body on the tree, that we
being dead to sin should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes ye were healed.
For ye were as sheep going astray, but
are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop
or overseer of your souls.
The overall theme of 1 Peter is the
grace of God.
Chapter 5 and verse 12 Peter tells us
this.
The key to this book is hung at
the back door.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as
I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting and
testifying that this is the true grace of
God in which you stand.
Now if there's a true grace of God
there's also a false grace of God, and
one reason why Peter wrote this letter was
to correct this attitude that some of the
people had, that they could be saved by
God's grace and live any way they please.
There are three basic parts to this letter.
In chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 2
verse 10 he talks about God's grace and
salvation.
The whole theme of all of chapter 1,
the first half of chapter 2, is God's
grace and salvation.
In the passage we read today, 2.11
through 3.12, it's God's grace in submission.
You'll notice the emphasis on the word submit.
Verse 13, submit yourselves.
Verse 18, household servants be subject to your
masters.
Chapter 3 verse 1, ye wives be in
subjection to your husbands.
Verse 5, being in subjection unto their own
husbands.
So from 2.11 to 3.12 he
talks about God's grace in submission, because submission
always follows salvation.
Then 3.13 to the end of the
book, the end of the letter, he deals
with God's grace and suffering.
If you'll read this section at your leisure
you'll find over and over again the word
suffer.
Verse 14 chapter 3, if ye suffer for
righteousness sake.
Verse 18, Christ hath once suffered for sins.
Chapter 4, Christ has suffered for us.
He that hath suffered in the flesh.
Down in verse 13, partakers of Christ's suffering.
Over and over again in these last two
chapters it's suffering.
So when you read 1 Peter, you remember
the first part of the book, God's grace
and salvation.
The middle of the book, God's grace and
submission.
And submission is the result of salvation, and
suffering is the result of submission.
The last part of the book, God's grace
and suffering.
Now the result of this submission ought to
be a godly life.
This paragraph that I read emphasizes living a
godly life.
Verse 12, they speak against you as evildoers
that they may buy your good works.
Verse 14, for the punishment of evildoers for
the praise of them that do well.
Verse 15, so is the will of God
that with well-doing you may put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Verse 20, but if when ye do well
and suffer for it, you take it patiently.
So the whole theme here is doing well.
Living what Peter calls a beautiful life.
Verse 12, having your behavior beautiful among the
Gentiles.
The Greek word there is one of the
great words of description of character.
It talks about fineness of life.
It talks about beauty of life, grace of
life, a charm of life.
Some people's lives are very angular, they're very
abrasive, and every time they run up against
you they peel some bark off of you.
Peter's not talking about that.
He's talking about the kind of godly living
that is beautiful and comely and fine and
graceful.
And this of course is the result of
submission.
Now this raises a question, and I think
Peter's answering this question, why in the world
should I bother to live a godly life?
That's a good practical question.
He's talking here about living in a world
that's a difficult world.
Even our Lord Jesus, when he came on
earth, was crucified for living a godly life.
Now why should I live a godly life?
I can compromise if I want to.
No problem.
I can figure out ways of compromising.
I can sneak in and out of the
will of God.
I can rationalize.
So can you.
Perhaps some of us are doing it.
Why should I seek to live a godly
life?
Why have good works?
Why have well-doing?
Why seek to cultivate a beauty of life?
Well he gives us three very wonderful reasons
why we should, and they're so down-to
-earth and practical they could only have come
from a fisherman like the Apostle Peter.
Verse 11, we live a godly life, a
beautiful life, for our own sake.
Verse 12, for the sake of the unsaved.
And then 13 through 25, for the Lord's
sake.
Now it's as practical as you can get.
In verse 11 he says to us, you
should live this kind of a life for
your own sake.
Let's begin with you.
Let's take care of number one, quote-unquote,
for your own sake.
Then having discussed that in verse 11, he
moves on to verse 12 and says, look,
you ought to live a godly life for
the sake of the unsaved.
He calls them the Gentiles.
This doesn't mean that the Jews were better
than or different from.
The term Gentiles back in that day meant
the outside crowd, the unsaved people.
Then he gets to the highest reason of
all, verse 13, submit yourselves for the Lord's
sake.
Then he develops that.
So we'll take these three reasons and think
about them tonight.
Then examine our own lives and see whether
or not we're building a beautiful life.
Verse 11, we should live a beautiful life
for our own sake.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and
pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against
the soul.
What he's saying here is this, because of
the love of God for us, dearly beloved,
because of the work God has for us
to do, we're sojourners and pilgrims, and because
of the battle that we are in, warring
against the soul, if we're going to take
care of ourselves, we had better live a
godly life.
Dearly beloved, when we live a godly life,
we are responding to the love of God.
Did you know that the first person who
is called beloved in the Bible, in the
New Testament, is Jesus Christ?
When Jesus came to the Jordan River and
was baptized, God the Father spoke from heaven
and God the Father said, this is my
beloved son.
Now when I got saved, I was put
into Jesus Christ.
If I'm in Jesus Christ, whatever God the
Father says about him, he says about me.
I'm accepted in the beloved.
And so God looks down upon you and
me tonight who were born again, saved people,
and he says, you are beloved.
Now if I am his beloved son, you
are his beloved sons and daughters, our response
ought to be obedience and submission.
We love because he first loved us.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
The highest motive for obedience is love to
God.
Several times in these letters the Apostle Peter
uses this little word beloved.
2.11, dearly beloved, I beseech you.
Over in 4.12, beloved, think it not
strange concerning the fiery trial that's going to
try you.
When he gets to his second letter, we
call second Peter, chapter 3 in verse 1,
he just falls into this thing over and
over again.
The second epistle, beloved, I now write unto
you.
Down in verse 8, but beloved be not
ignorant.
Verse 14, wherefore beloved be diligent.
Verse 17, ye therefore beloved, seeing that you
know these things.
You see over and over again Peter's saying,
look, you're the recipients of his love.
Now as the recipients of his love, accepted
in Jesus Christ, there's only one way to
live.
That's to abide in his love and obey
his word.
I used to wonder at a little statement
over in Jude.
When I began to study my Bible seriously
and I got to the little letter of
Jude, I thought to myself, what is this
all about?
But verse 21 of the little letter of
Jude, he says this, keep yourselves in the
love of God.
I read that and I said keep yourselves
in the love of God.
So I got another translation.
It said the same thing, keep yourselves in
the love of God.
How does this happen?
Doesn't God love everybody?
You know, if I'm saved, surely I'm in
the love of God.
Well, then you fall in love.
Then you find out, hey, there is a
special, special sphere of relationship in love.
Jude is not saying keep yourself saved.
Jude is not saying keep yourself so that
you please God.
He's including that.
What he's saying is so live your life
that you're in the love of God so
that God can really share his love with
you.
I think that Jesus had the same thing
to say in his upper room discourse.
John chapter 14 verse 21.
He says this, he that has my commandments
and keeps them, that means obeys them, he
it is that loveth me and he that
loveth me shall be loved of my father
and I will love him and will reveal
myself to him.
He's talking here about a deeper relationship.
So we should obey God and live beautiful
lives for our own sake to enjoy God's
love.
Keep yourself in the love of God.
Then he tells us in verse 11 not
only should we enjoy God's love but we
should fulfill God's purpose.
We are sojourners and pilgrims.
We must never forget that.
Far too many Christians are living their daily
lives as though they belong to this world.
Far too many decisions are made with reference
to the values of this world.
Peter said if you want to live a
beautiful life just keep reminding yourself this world
is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
My treasures are light up somewhere beyond the
blue.
The people that Peter was writing to were
going through suffering because of their faith.
Their unsaved friends thought they were crazy.
They think it's strange, said Peter, that you
aren't running with them to the same old
places doing the same old dirty things you
used to do.
But I'll tell you why you aren't doing
that, Peter tells us.
You are sojourners and pilgrims.
You are resident aliens.
Your passport reads heaven.
Now the unsaved world lives for this world
and lives on this world.
We Christians don't live on this world though
we are a part of this globe.
We've been called from this world.
And I want you to know something, a
hundred years from now the approval of this
world won't mean a thing.
But whether or not we live to please
Jesus Christ is going to mean something.
And so we live a life for our
own sake, to enjoy God's love and to
fulfill God's purpose as sojourners and pilgrims.
We're like Abraham.
We pitch our tent, we build our altar,
and we dig our well.
And God moves us along.
We pitch our tent, we build our altar,
we dig our well.
That's all.
Abraham didn't build a house.
Now I'm speaking in spiritual language.
I'm not saying it's wrong to own a
house.
What I'm saying is he lived as though
nothing in this world really counted.
A lot was just the opposite.
A lot had to move into Sodom and
live for Sodom and get the approval of
Sodom and the wealth of Sodom and all
of it burned up.
Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the
soul.
We should live a beautiful life for our
own sake to enjoy God's love and to
fulfill God's purpose and to succeed in God's
victory.
I don't know about you, but we're fighting
a battle.
Fleshly lusts that war against the soul.
And some of you say, well Pastor, we're
a little older now.
These things don't bother us.
I would remind you that David was not
a college student when he committed adultery.
And Noah was not enrolling in daycare center
when he got drunk.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall.
We're involved in a battle.
Not only are we sojourners, but we are
soldiers.
And the word he uses is abstain.
Some folks don't like that word.
Some folks say now as Christians we should
be tolerant and we should just have a
sort of a balance in our life.
Just enough sin to please the world and
just enough holiness.
He says no, that's not the way we
do it.
We abstain.
Now he doesn't name things here.
He didn't give us a list of things
from which to abstain.
He says those things that cultivate fleshly lusts,
stay away from them.
Just abstain.
Jesus said if your right hand makes you
to sin, cut it off.
Don't wrap your knuckles, just cut it off.
Now he's talking spiritually of course.
He's saying when something in my life makes
it easy for me to sin, get rid
of it.
And so I should live a beautiful life
and you should live a beautiful life for
our own sake.
That we might be victorious soldiers, that we
might be sojourners and pilgrims, that we might
enjoy the love of God.
But he moves in verse 12 to another
reason.
He says not only does my conduct affect
my own soul, but my conduct affects other
people.
Having your behavior beautiful among the unsaved, that
whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they
may by your good works which they shall
behold glorify God in the day of visitation.
Now what's the day of visitation?
There are those who say the day of
visitation means when God comes in judgment.
But I don't think the unsaved people are
going to glorify God in the day of
judgment.
Now they are going to have to acknowledge
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father.
Every knee is going to bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
I think this day of visitation is what
Jesus talked about when he wept over the
city of Jerusalem.
He said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would
I have gathered you together, but you knew
not the time of your visitation.
What is this visitation?
You know what I think Peter's saying here?
He's saying Christians, you've got neighbors who lie
about you.
You've got men and women at work who
lie about you.
There are people who are undercutting your reputation.
They are speaking evil of you.
Your first tendency is to fight back.
Say all right, I can fight fire with
fire.
He said don't do that.
Just keep on living a good life.
Keep on doing good works.
Keep on living a beautiful godly life.
Because one of these days God's going to
visit those people and they're going to get
saved.
And they're going to get saved because of
your witness and then they're going to come
and glorify God because of the life that
you live.
Now I've experienced that.
You've experienced it, I'm sure.
There are people we have prayed for and
witnessed to and they've criticized us, they've laughed
at us, they have done things against us
and it would have been so easy for
us to say, hang it on your nose.
But you kept on praying, kept on loving,
kept on living a godly life and one
day those people got saved.
God used your witness and they came and
said, you know what, we want to thank
you for the life that you live.
We want to thank you for your consistency,
for your prayers.
We don't know how you ever put up
with us, but we want to thank you
for it.
That's what Peter's talking about.
We should live a godly life, not only
for our sake, but for the sake of
the lost.
You see, the lost world's watching us.
Oh, you see, nobody watches me.
Don't kid yourself.
They're watching us.
They know what we're doing.
They're listening to us.
They know what we're saying.
They're watching for inconsistencies.
They want to use you, they want to
use me as a weapon to fight against
somebody else who witnesses to them.
The unsaved world watches believers and they have
every right to watch us.
After all, we're witnesses.
After all, we're lights.
Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven.
That's what verse 12 says, that whereas they
speak against you as evildoers, they may because
of your good works in the day of
visitation glorify God.
We have every right for them to watch
us.
We're the salt of the earth.
We have every right.
We're a city set on a hill.
In fact, one of the best ways to
win people to Christ is let them watch
us.
Let them listen to what we say.
There are things I've done.
Then we shouldn't do them.
I recall when I first became a Christian
back when I was a teenager and we
had some very dear friends.
They are still dear friends, although I haven't
seen them for years.
But I know they pray for me regularly
and they prayed for me when I was
saved.
If it hadn't been for their faithful prayers,
I don't know what would have happened.
But after I became a Christian, they tried
to guide me in the Christian life.
And I had certain things in my life
that I didn't think were too wrong, but
they were concerned about the direction I was
going in.
So they prayed about it and God dealt
with me and we got rid of those
things.
And they said to me, you know, one
thing you've got to remember, it may not
hurt you, but it might hurt somebody else.
And I said, oh, but that's a kind
of a narrow way to live.
I mean, do I have to determine my
life by what it will do to some
unsaved person?
They said, yes, because the winning of a
lost soul to Christ means much more than
the pleasure of our own lives.
That's true.
I'm glad I learned that early.
I haven't always practiced it, God knows, but
I'm glad I learned it early.
We should live a beautiful life, not only
for our sake, but for the sake of
the lost.
Now, sometimes the lost honestly accused the Christians.
I remember Abraham went down to Egypt and
he lied and he got spanked for it.
And Pharaoh said, what kind of a person
are you?
Same thing happened to Isaac.
Same thing happened to Jacob.
David, after David had sinned, the prophet said
to him, because of your sin, you have
made God's name to stink among the heathen.
More harm is done by a good person
doing bad than by a bad person doing
bad.
And you and I have got to be
very careful because unsafe people are listening to
us and watching us.
They know if we pay our bills.
They know whether or not we take care
of our property.
They know what kind of work we do
in the office.
They know.
And they use it as an excuse not
to trust the Lord.
Think of how embarrassed we would be standing
before the judgment seat of Christ to discover
that instead of being witnesses, we've been excuses
for unsaved people.
Live a beautiful life for the sake of
the unsaved.
But the great reason, and here we wrap
it up, verses 13 through 25, for the
Lord's sake, submit yourselves to every ordinance of
man for the Lord's sake.
Now Peter says that these ordinances are ordinances
of man.
Paul in Romans 13 says they're ordinances of
God, and both are true.
He's talking here about serving the Lord.
Why should we do what we do?
To serve the Lord.
And yet there are Christians who look for
ways to sneak around the law.
I confess to you that all of us
have been tempted at one time or another
to sneak around the law, and he says
you don't do it.
In verses 13 through 17, he talks about
the will of God.
Now what's the will of God?
That I submit myself to every ordinance.
You say, but Pastor, suppose the ordinance is
contrary to the Bible.
Well, Peter answers that back in the book
of Acts.
He says we ought to obey God rather
than man.
If the city of Chicago passed an ordinance
against my preaching the word of God, I'd
preach the word of God, because they have
no right to pass that kind of an
ordinance.
He's talking here about the will of God.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake, whether it be to the
king.
Now we don't have kings today.
We have a president.
Governors, we have those.
People who are sent to punish evildoers for
the praise of them that do well.
Sometimes you think that's backwards, don't you?
Sometimes in the city of Chicago, you wonder
if they aren't praising those who are evildoers
and criticizing those who do well, but they're
supposed to do it the other way around.
Why?
For this is the will of God.
What's the will of God?
With well-doing, you may muzzle the ignorance
of foolish men.
Somebody came to Socrates one day and said,
did you hear what so-and-so is
saying about you?
Yes.
What are you going to do?
I am so going to live that nobody
will believe it.
That's what Peter is saying.
Friend of mine, if you start running around
putting out every fire that somebody starts, you
better get a lot of fire extinguishers and
you better find somebody to subsidize you while
you're doing it.
Peter says, it's the will of God that
you live a godly life and that silences
the mouth of the accusers.
By the way, there are some people who,
if they were praising me, I would be
afraid.
I'm glad they're accusing me.
Then he talks in verses 16 through 20
about the approval of God, 18 through 20
about the approval of God.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all
fear.
There were 60 million slaves in the Roman
Empire and these were educated people.
They were prisoners of war who were captured
in other countries.
They could take shorthand.
They could read four or five languages.
They were brilliant people, many of them, and
here they were, slaves in some household, and
they got to be saved.
They were Christians.
And Peter writes to these slaves.
He says, look, I know you're slaves.
He says, don't rebel.
Don't make a bunch of posters.
Don't go burn the bank down.
You household slaves, you be subject to your
own masters with all fear, not only to
the good and gentle, but also to those
who are hard to get along with.
Now, maybe you're not a slave.
You may feel like one.
You say, there's somebody in my office who's
so hard to get along with.
Somebody in my apartment, it's just impossible to
live with.
Maybe somebody in your family who's impossible to
live with.
He says, you be subject.
Now, why?
Verse 19, this is thank worthy.
You know what that word is in the
original language, grace?
You have the same thing down in verse
20.
This is acceptable.
It's the word grace.
Let's read it that way.
For this is grace.
If a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully, it doesn't take any grace
to suffer rightfully.
If I open my big mouth and I
say the wrong thing and I get into
trouble, I can't say, oh, Lord, I'm suffering
for your sake.
I'm suffering because of my stupidity.
Some Christians never learn the difference between the
offense of the cross and being an offensive
Christian.
What glory is it if when you're buffeted
for your fault, you shall take it patiently?
Anybody can do that.
But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is
grace.
You see, what he's saying is not only
is it the will of God for us
to live a beautiful life for the Lord's
sake, but it is the approval of God.
God says, I'm going to give you grace.
We sang, oh, to grace, how great a
debtor.
Verses 21 through 25, he brings it to
the pinnacle.
He's been saying to me in verse 11,
I should live a beautiful life for my
sake.
I'm the object of God's love.
I'm a pilgrim and a sojourner.
I'm a warrior fighting against the flesh.
In verse 12, I should live a beautiful
life for the sake of the unsaved.
They're watching and listening and God will visit
them someday and our good works will help
to win them.
And then in 13 through 25, he's saying
we should live a beautiful life for the
Lord's sake.
It's the will of God.
It's the grace of God.
And 21 through 25, it's the example of
God.
Our Lord Jesus gives us the example of
how to suffer reproach when we're doing what's
right.
It always amazes me when a Christian comes
and says, Pastor, I've got a problem.
What's your problem?
Oh, I work in this office.
I work harder than anybody else.
I keep better papers.
I am more accurate.
I'm trying to serve God in my office
and I've had nothing but trouble.
And my reply sometimes is, and what did
you expect?
I had a friend who got fired because
he worked too hard.
He was working here in the city of
Chicago.
He was a ministerial student and he was
going through college and he was working in
this warehouse.
And he, the boss came to him one
day, the foreman came and said, look, you're
showing up the rest of the guys.
Now we start our work.
And then when nobody's watching, we kind of
sneak off.
He said, I can't do that.
I'm a Christian.
He was fired.
I don't think he suffered for it.
What do we do?
Well, he tells us what we do.
Even here unto where you call, call to
what?
Call to suffer.
Later on, Peter is going to say, don't
think it's strange when God allows the furnace
to get turned on.
That's not strange.
Expect it.
There's a brand of theology going around today
that says, if you live a godly life,
you'll never have any problems.
My Bible says, yea, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus are going to
suffer persecution.
He tells us here that this is the
way you were saved.
You were saved and I was saved because
of a person who was willing to suffer
unjustly.
Look at it.
Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example that you should follow his steps.
You schoolteachers ought to learn what that word
example is.
It was an educational term back in Peter's
day.
It's the word for a copy book.
Back in Peter's day when the kids went
to school, they were taught how to write
and they copied it from the top of
their book.
I've seen over here in the historical society,
I have seen the old copy books they
used to have.
There would be an alphabet across the top
and you'd write it in there.
That's what this word is.
I had an awful time learning how to
write.
I began to print in 7th grade and
I haven't written since.
My printing is not much better than my
writing, but at least I can read it.
But we had to learn how to write
by copying and they gave us a whole
long list of A's and so we copied
them.
That's what Jesus did.
Jesus said, now when you read Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, you're seeing what you ought
to copy.
Notice how I dealt with my enemies.
Notice how I dealt with people who opposed
me and do what I did.
He left us a copy book that we
should follow his steps.
Who did no sin.
Neither was guile found in his mouth.
We're told here who the person of our
salvation is, the Lord Jesus Christ.
A sinless person, a suffering person.
He's the only one who could save us.
Now suppose he had not suffered unjustly.
He couldn't save us.
Peter seems to be saying here, don't follow
the example of the world.
Follow the example of Jesus Christ.
He is the person of our salvation.
He tells us in verse 23 how he
did this.
Who when he was reviled, reviled not again.
When he suffered, he threatened not.
Now you and I don't threaten outwardly.
We don't say, boy, I'll get you.
Maybe we do.
But deep inside sometimes we say, I'll pay
you back.
In fact, there are some people who will
spend the rest of their adult lives paying
back their parents.
Mother or dad or somebody did something they
shouldn't do and so they spend the rest
of their adult lives paying them back.
Never hurt their parents.
They only hurt themselves.
Jesus did not revile.
When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed
himself to him that judges righteously.
I didn't realize until the other day that
that word committed means he kept committing himself,
not just once.
We have the idea that in the garden,
our Lord once and for all said, Lord,
here I am.
He did.
But at every step of the way, he
kept committing himself to God.
When they slapped him in the face, he
committed himself to God.
When they pulled out his beard, he committed
himself to God.
When they mocked him with a robe and
with a scepter of a reed, he committed
himself to God.
How was he able to pray, Father, forgive
them?
He committed himself to God.
You see, you and I think that because
we walked an aisle or did something, it's
once and for all settled.
Oh, no.
While they're lying about us, we commit ourselves
to God.
While they are abusing and accusing us, we're
committing ourselves to God.
The person of our salvation, Jesus Christ, the
price of our salvation, verse 24, who his
own self bore our sins in his own
body.
You know, if nothing else should inspire us
to live a godly life, it's right there.
He was willing to take my sins in
his own body on the cross.
Where?
On the tree.
That's the place of our salvation.
Not the Jordan River.
Your baptism didn't save you.
Not Mount Sinai.
The law didn't save you.
The tree.
What's the purpose of our salvation?
That we, being dead to sin, should live
unto righteousness.
That's what he's been talking about.
Well-doing.
Living a beautiful life.
Doing well.
Doing patiently what God calls us to do.
By whose stripes ye were healed.
Peter seems to suggest here that people before
they're saved are sick.
Spiritually sick.
Morally sick.
And because of Christ's death on the cross,
they were healed.
For ye were a sheep going astray.
But now.
Now.
You've got to take your concordance someday and
trace the but nows in the Bible.
Very interesting.
He's saying in times past, here's the way
you lived.
But now you have returned unto the shepherd
and the overseer of your souls.
Now if he is your shepherd, follow him.
If he is your overseer, obey him.
So the big question is not what am
I doing?
The big question is why am I doing
it?
Why are you in the job you're in?
Are you in the job that you're in
for your sake?
For the sake of the lost and for
the Lord's sake?
Why are you living where you're living or
moving where you're moving?
Is it for your sake?
Will it help you spiritually?
Is it for the sake of the lost?
Is it for the Lord's sake?
The question is not what am I doing?
It's why am I doing it?
And most of us can rationalize.
We have excuses and we have arguments and
we can slice them very thin.
And God still looks at our hearts and
he says, alright, do you want my approval
or don't you?
Will you submit or won't you?
Now if you'll submit, I'll be your shepherd
and I'll guide you.
I'll be your overseer and I'll take care
of you.
If you won't submit, you've got to take
the consequences.
So to put into one simple sentence all
he's been saying in these 14 verses is
this, surrender or else.
That's what it boils down to.
For my sake, for the lost world's sake,
for the Lord's sake, surrender.
Submit to the shepherd and to the bishop
of our souls.
Gracious Father, I pray that some word from
your word tonight will start us thinking, perhaps
even arouse resentment that we'll face something in
our lives that needs to be dealt with.
Lord, we like to talk about surrender and
sing about surrender, but when it comes to
that place where life touches our motives, sometimes
we resist.
And so, Father, we do want to be
submissive.
We want to be submissive to you as
the Lord.
We want to be used in your will.
Oh, Father, we fear more than anything else
living a life outside of your will just
to please ourselves.
And so guide us and help us to
take whatever steps are necessary to be submissive
to your will.
For in submission we find fulfillment.
In finding our master we find our freedom,
our fulfillment.
Oh, may it be so with each of
us tonight.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.