Good morning. Good to have Sister
Irene back with us. We miss you. Earlene is hurting. I remember her. Alright, let's
ask the Lord's blessing. Father in heaven, thank you so
much. Thank you for this day. Thank
you for everything. Truly, every good and perfect
gift comes down from You, our Father in Heaven. You're so merciful,
so gracious, so loving. Your loving kindness, Your goodness,
and how we thank You. Thank You for this day, the Lord's
Day. You've gathered us together.
You have made us willing on the day of Your power, Your Word. It's written in our hearts, urges
us, exhorts us to meet together to worship. We need this, Lord. We need you. We need to hear
from you. We need to worship you. It's our reasonable service,
but it's our heart's desire that we might worship in our prayer
to God. Ask, O Lord, you enable us today to worship you from
the heart, not with the lips, but the heart. We have innumerable
reasons to worship you, the greatest of which is this, the gospel,
that you've made yourself known to us. You have not done that
with so many. The world doesn't know you, but
we know you by your grace, and we thank you. Thank you. There
are others, Lord, our children and others that don't know thee,
and we ask if it can be pleasing to thee according to your will
that you would reveal yourself to them, all of them. It's not
hard, not difficult, if it's your will, to save every single
one of our children and grandchildren. We ask great things of our great
God, for thou art great. Your works are great. So great
is salvation. And this is a good day and we
thank you for bringing us. Now make us attentive, make us
like little children who receive the word. Give us a hunger and
a thirst for it. Build us up on Christ the rock,
his most holy faith. Faith delivered to the saints,
faith of God's elect. Those who have obtained like
precious faith. Thank you for The word. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for your son. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We give thanks. And Lord, we thank you for answered
prayer. Thank you for. We pray to you
that the blessed to heal and you do. We. We thank you. Ask your hand upon
early that you would raise her up, comfort her. Through all
these trials for all of your people, may we understand that
these things, fiery trials, yet they're under praise, honor,
and glory, thy praise, thy honor, thy glory. May we honor you when
we go through these things, attributing all things to you, knowing your
grace is sufficient. Lord, forgive us of our sins.
Forgive us. Restrain us from evil. Let us present our bodies as
living sacrifices unto Thee. Bless Your Word, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. We begin with verse 11, 1 Peter
2, 11. He says, Dearly beloved, I beseech
you. That's a loving, tender term,
isn't it? Dearly beloved. What a loving, tender appeal
to God's people. This is not just Peter writing,
but it is our Father in heaven. Throughout the Proverbs, don't
you love the Proverbs? And so many times he says, my
son, my son, listen to me, my son, heed my word, my son. Don't you love that? This is
the goodness of God, the word of God, instructions of our Lord
to his children. The goodness of God leads us
to repentance. It's the goodness of God, the
love of God, and the mercy of God that restrains us from evil. He says in verse 11, I beseech
you as strangers and pilgrims that you abstain from fleshly
lusts, which war against the soul. Strangers and pilgrims. God's people are in this world,
but they're not of it. Our Lord said that in his prayer
to the Father. He said that two or three times,
didn't he? He said, they're not of this world, even as I'm not
of this world. He said, I pray not for the world, but I pray
for them. He said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but thou should keep them from it. Keep them
from it. Look at Romans 12. Romans 12. Romans chapter 12. And John,
the apostle, wrote in 1 John, he said, let me read it to you
while you're turning there. 1 John said, Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, and he says this is what the world is all about.
This is all the world. cares for the best of the best
of the and the pride of life is not of the father that's the
word. So look at Romans 12 I beseech you verse 1 I beseech you Paul
uses the same line. Therefore, by the mercies of
God. And you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy. acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed
to this world. Don't look like it, don't act
like it, don't walk with it. There's another scripture our
Lord says, come out from among them, be separate. Our Lord won't.
It says he was holy, harmless, separate from sin. That doesn't
mean we're to separate ourselves literally, physically, you can't
do it. We live there, we work in it, but you can't have fellowship. You can't walk with the world.
Can two walk together except that they agree? How can light
have fellowship with darkness? You say, well, how can we witness
to the world? Well, Paul said that in Ephesians
5, light reproveth. And unless we're doing that, We're being silent. There's only
one way you can walk in the world, and that's be silent. Right? Right? That's just so. So he
says, be not conformed, transform by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. At first Thessalonians 4, he
said, this is the will of God, your sanctification. So back
to our text. Our Lord said that, the world,
this present evil world, all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. And our Lord said of his
people, he prayed, keep them from it. So here in our text,
Peter says, I beseech you as strangers. See that? Strangers and pilgrims. Strangers. That you abstain from
these fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Fight against
them, mortify your members, and so forth. These things war against
our soul. The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do the things
that you would. That which is flesh is flesh.
Flesh wants one thing. How do we deny the flesh? Well,
you don't feed it, and you don't mingle with the world, or else
they're going to... Everything that appeals to your
old man. The believer has nothing that appeals to the world. You're
not going to rub off on that. Nice person. Nice person. So, this is the principle taught
throughout the scriptures. Have your companions, those that
fear God. your associates, your fellowship. You cannot have fellowship with
the world. You can't do it. All right, so he says these things
war against the soul. They do, don't they? It's a constant battle, a struggle,
a fight within everybody. If there's no war, there's no
new creature. There was a time when there was no war, no battle
going on, wasn't there? We're in the world, we're dead
in sin, but yeah, a new creature. All right, notice at the top
of the page, the very top of this King James Bible says, concerning
the duties of subjects, servants, wives, and husbands. See that? And that's what this is all about,
duty. I have no problem with the word duty. All the old writers
use that. Duty means what's required of
you. Is there anything required of
us? Absolutely. Our Lord God doesn't give advice. He gives commands. And our Lord
Jesus Christ gave commands. And His commands are not grievous.
His yoke is easy. His burden is light. The way
of the transgressor is hard. But if you'd be willing and obedient,
our Lord said, you'll lead to the good of the land. You know
that doesn't mean you're going to earn heaven if by your obedience.
Did I have to say that? I just did. I'm not going to
say it again. I might. All right, but that's
what he's dealing with here. And read on. It says, having
your conversation, verse 12, having your conversation, honest
among the Gentiles, upright, honest, 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. The
early church, when Christianity, when Christ came, they accused
Christ of breaking the law. They accused Christ of breaking
the law. He lived perfectly according
to the law. They just didn't know the law. They didn't understand
the law. They pretended to, but they were breaking the law. But
they accused our Lord of breaking the law. He wouldn't break the
law. And our Lord said, they hated
me, they'll hate you. They accused me, they'll accuse
you. And this was the charge against
Christianity. They're a bunch of lawless people.
They don't believe in the law of Moses, and they don't believe
in the laws of the land. That's just not so. It's not
sad. God's people are the most upright,
honest. They're the only ones on this
earth that are upright and honest, that you can really trust. The
only ones. Is that right? That's what our Lord said. They're
the salt of the earth. The world is not worthy of God's
people. So they accused the early church
then, and now even, not so much now, but then, of being lawless,
disobedient children. Now, you remember how this disobedient
citizen, you remember how this all started? It says, Peter says,
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lusts, as he which is holy is holy, be ye holy. Be like your
father, be like your father in this world, like Christ. That's
what it says, be like Christ. And God, you know, we were children
of wrath, even as others. Children of disobedience. But
God. But God puts this new creature
in His people, like Christ, in the image of Christ. And He's
a... He's an honest person. That old
man is dishonest. He's evil. He's sinful. But that
new man is just like Christ. But the world can't see Him.
The world can't. So he says, here's my pastor's
comments on it. Conduct yourselves before your
family, your fellow workers, your neighbors, your friends
in an honest, righteous, and loving manner so that even though
they speak of you as fanatics, radicals, hypocrite, when a real
trial, this is visitation, is put upon you, when God visits
you and them, with affliction, trouble. They must admit they're
different. These people are different. They're glorifying God. They're
not murmuring. They're not complaining. They're
not finding fault. They're not rebelling. They're
not protesting. They're submitting. Submitting. Read on, it says, verse 13, submit. Now remember, Ephesians 5, I
told you to read that, hear that message by my pastor. And I bring
him up all the time, don't I? He being dead yet speaketh, speaketh
to my heart. He was my pastor, still is. And
we talked about submission being the secret of happiness from
Ephesians 5. Submit yourself. Submit to every
ordinance of man. Read on. Every ordinance of man
for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king or supreme,
or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by God for the
punishment of evil doers. Now that's a vital word right
there. God in his mercy and grace has
put us and his people, for the most part, under civil authority
under some laws that came from God's law. What mercy, that we
don't live in a communist country. What great mercy. And this nation
was somewhat founded on the biblical principles, wasn't it? Somewhat
founded. We're certainly getting away
from that. But they did in the beginning call it one nation
under God. and what mercy and what grace. And it says, Submit
yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether
it be to the king or the governors or mayor or whoever it may be.
They're sent by God for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise
of them that do well. Now look down at chapter 3, verse
13. It says, Who is he that will
harm you if you be followers of that which is good? You do
what's right. The police and all the authorities,
the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the punishment of
evil doers in a civilized society. So it says, who will harm you
if you be followers of that which is good? But, look at the next
part. If you suffer for righteousness
sake, Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid
of their terror. Don't be troubled. And down in
verse 16 of chapter 3 it says, having a good conscience, that
is toward God, they speak evil of you as evil-doers. They will
shame and falsely accuse your good conversation. It's better
if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing than
for evil-doing. All right, it goes without saying
that we are not to obey any laws of man that contradict the law
of God. Right? It was Simon Peter himself
who said it not once but twice when the authorities refused
for him to preach and for the people to meet together. He said,
you judge, is it right to obey man or God? He says we ought
to obey God rather than man. The ordinances of God take precedent,
take priority, take preeminence, don't they? And when man's ordinances
go against God's ordinance, we ought to obey God rather than
man. Let me give you a few scenarios. There was a woman who was a clerk
at a courthouse in Kentucky. And two homosexuals came in and
wanted a marriage license. And this woman claimed to be
a believer. She said, I can't do it. They fired her. Got out of that. It was a man
who had a bake shop. He'd bake wedding cakes, like
Margaret used to bake wedding cakes. Homosexual couple came
in and wanted him to bake a wedding cake for them. He claimed to
be a Christian. He said, I can't do it. They
shut his shop down. Would you do it, Martin? We ought to obey God rather than
man. Anything that goes against God's revealed will, we can't
do it. Uh-uh. They say, forsake the
assembly of yourselves together. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. We ought to obey God rather than
man. Right? That's suffering for well-doing. What are we doing here? Is this
well-doing? Is this a good work? Is this God's order? Is this
God's command? Is this what God tells us to
do? Absolutely. It cannot, it will not, be ordered
by the government as to how we can worship our God. Can't do
it. All right. Now, who would have
thought that persecution would come in the manner that it has?
God moves in a mysterious way. Brothers and sisters, it is a
hate crime now to speak out against homosexuality. It's a hate crime now. Should
I stop? I can't do it? I can't do it. This is speaking
of the civil laws that go under the law of God, and we submit
to all authority as unto the Lord. Now, read on. It says in
verse 16, we're free. We're not using our liberty for
a cloak of maliciousness as a servant of God. I don't have to obey
you. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. There's no power,
Romans 13 says, but of God, and he that resisteth, resisteth
the power. We're free, but not using this liberty for a cloak
of maliciousness. You know, we're free from the
law, but if we have liberty, we have it to ourselves. We need
to be conscious of what we're doing around other people. No.
In service of God. Verse 17, honor all men. Honor all. Love the brotherhood. It's a sad day in which we live,
and it's proof of the last day, when everybody down to little
children is mocking and making fun of the President of the United
States. That's a sign of the times we
live in. That was unheard of 50 or 60 years ago. It didn't
matter how much you disliked the rulers of the land, you would
not in respect to that office. You may not like the man, but
in respect to that office which God has ordained, you respect
him. Now I remind you who Peter was
living under. Caesar. Caesar. And Nero, Paul's under Nero. By the way, they told him quit
preaching, quit preaching the law. Said quit preaching, can't
do it. Finally they killed him. Happy. Suffered for righteousness. Can't do that. Can't quit preaching.
Bunyan. 2,000 men were objected from
their pulpits back in the 1600s for not signing a government
writ and command. They signed a certain doctrine,
all get in line with what the government has prescribed. 2,000
men said, not going to do it. Kicked out of the churches. We honor the laws of the land
that are not in conflict with the laws of God. Look at chapter
3. Wives being subjected to your
husbands, if any obey not the word, they may without the word
be won by the conversation of the wife. What if the wife tells
her husband, or the husband tells her wife, the unbelieving husband
says, I refuse for you to go worship God today? What's she to do? I ought to obey God rather than
man. You're married to Jesus Christ, not that man, when it
comes to worship of God. Right? So you see, it just goes
without saying. You can't answer every argument
of man, or the Bible would be this big. It goes without saying. There's principles, scriptures
laid down. But we honor, we fear God, we honor the King. Honor
the King. Daniel was thrown in the lion's
den for praying when they told him, don't do it. Right? And when the king came to the
lion's den and said, Oh, Daniel, are you okay? He said, Oh, king. Even though that man put him
in prison, he called him king. Now, that's an honorable man,
isn't it? Oh, king, my God, he was able. He had deliverance. God's people are truly the most honest and honorable and submissive
civilians in the land. They're the best employees. Verse
18, that's what this speaks of, servants. Be subject to your
masters with all fear. Not only fear of who? Them? No,
no. Fear man. Fear toward God. Look at chapter 3 again. It says
that Sarah, verse 6, obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, small l. whose daughters are you, you
are, as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. In other words, you shouldn't
be afraid of your husband. You shouldn't fear any man in
that respect. You fear God. And what you do
is in fear of God and reverence toward God and respect and honor
to God, you're in submission. But if that man tells you or
whoever to dishonor God, you can't do it. You can't do it.
No, no. So it says, servants, be subject
to your masters, not only to the good and the gentle, but
also to the fraud. Thankfully, the Lord often gives
us favor in the sight of the Egyptians. I've had some good
employees down to the path, but I've had some bad ones. I've
had some bad ones, and you have too. Bad men and women. What should
you do? Well, submit. God's people are
company men, you know that? They're company men. I realized
God gave me this job, I work for this company, I serve the
best interest of this company, not my own interest, the interest
of this company, right? That's right. That's the way
God's people are. This is snakeworthy, verse 19. It's the man for conscience
toward God. That's what we do. Endure grief
and suffering wrongfully. What glory is it, verse 20, if
you be buffeted for your faults? You take it patiently. Rebellion and bad attitude and
so forth, you're going to suffer. But that's not thankworthy. But
when you do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, this
is acceptable. This is commendable to God. And
then he uses our Lord as an example, and he says in verse 21, Hereunto
were you called to suffer. You remember Paul wrote the Philippians,
it's given unto you not only to believe, but to what? Suffer. For what? The truth said. For Christ's sake, the cause
of God and truth. So we're going to. Our Lord promised
it. You shall suffer. And He did. He did. As I said, there was
never a law abiding citizen more than the Lord Himself. Do you
know what injustice is? He saw it all. He heard it all.
But his kingdom was not of this world, so he didn't fight for
it. He didn't fight against it. He didn't tell his servants to
rebel against authority. We've got to change this world.
No, no, no. He came to change men's hearts. He came with a
spiritual kingdom in mind. And that's us. We're not fighting
for the rights of man. We're not in all these political
causes. No, our cause is Christ. It is now. It is. No man warreth
and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life. We're in
a war, all right, but it's a spiritual warfare. So we don't, you know,
we're not taken up with the causes in this world. Our Lord was.
But He was law-abiding, law-keeping. And verse 21 says, Christ suffered
for us, leaving us an example. You know, some men don't like
the word example. It came out of false religion,
and that's all they talked about is Christ your example, Christ
your example. Well, I love it. He is my example, isn't he? He's
the pattern, isn't he? I want to be just like him. He's
my example. He's my Lord, he's my substitute,
and he's my example. I don't know how to act. I don't
know how to think. I don't know how to walk. Well, I look to
Him. I not only look to Him for all
my salvation and all my strength and everything, all my instruction,
but I look at Him. I watch Him. I observe Him as to how I ought
to act. Is that good? They say emulation
is the sincerest form of flattery. That's not good. The sincerest
form of love. Emulation is the sincerest form
of love. I've told you, and I don't mind
telling you again, my oldest brother was just a model citizen,
a model son, a believer, and I just loved everything about
him. I wanted to grow up and be just like him. And I used to
watch him as a little boy, and whatever he did, I did. I just
watched him, and I do it. I got to where I would sit at
the chair and sit just like him. walk like him. I wanted to be
just like him in every single way. Well that's, he was my example.
He was a good example. You got a problem with example?
Then you got a problem with God's Word. He's our example. Read on. He did no sin. Neither was guile found in his
mouth. Oh my. Buddy, that describes this world,
doesn't it? Full of sin and guile. Nobody you can trust. Our Lord
was trustworthy. And so are His people. They are. Verse 23, When He was reviled,
He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not. Now here's a wonderful, wonderful line. He committed
himself to him that judges righteously. Our Lord lived as a man for us
under the law. Though he wrote the law, he put
himself under it. Law is bondage, but he put himself
under that law. And he put himself under bad
governments. That's something. But he lived
as a man, lived by faith, and he committed himself, everything,
to Him that judges righteously. And then what did they do to
our Lord? They killed Him. The authorities
killed Him. The government killed Him. Religion
killed Him. Why? Why did he do this? In the purpose and the will of
God to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Our Lord was
made sin. He took on himself, in himself,
the sins of all of God's people to Calvary's tree. Cursed. The
law was a curse. He was under the curse. Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We hung on a tree. They lynched
our Lord. And it was God's will. And we
being dead to sins, now here it is. Here's the motive. What
Christ did for us is our motive to live unto righteousness. By whose stripes they beat him
unmercifully. That's awful. There's one of the Psalms, the
Psalms are quoted more than any scripture. David wrote in inspiration
of the Spirit, he said, I gave my back to the smiters. The Lord
took a back, a man's back, to be whipped, because the law should
have whipped us. God should have Whipped us. He whipped his face. He said,
I gave my back, my cheeks. He took a face to pluck out his
beard. His head. He gave his head that
they might crown him with a crown. But oh, what a crown. Thorns. Adam and Eve, because of sin,
thorns and thistles. Our Lord, as the second Adam
from above, was crowned with thorns. and lived in this world
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, had
a back to be whipped, had cheeks to be plucked, and hands to be
pierced and feet to be pierced, blood to shed for the remission
of our sins. Isn't that merciful? Isn't that
wonderful? By whose stripes you are healed,
the law, the rod of God's wrath and judgment and justice whipped
our Lord in our place and that rod is no more rod, no more wrath,
no more general. And here it is 4, you were a
sheep going astray. You see, dead in trespass and
sin, children of disobedience even as others, children of wrath
even as others, but God, but now, but are now returned unto
the shepherd and bishop of your soul. God's people are his sheep. They're goats and they're sheep.
And sheep must gather to the shepherd. Sheep must feed upon
the shepherd. Sheep must follow their shepherd's
footsteps. They must. They do. They shall. And they shall suffer, just like
him, to the glory of God. Amen. Okay.