Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter
chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. And my text,
the main text this morning is verse 12 of this chapter, which
is a direct quote from the psalm that Brother Jim just read. Where
Peter writes in verse 12, For the eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But
the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Now, the title
of the message you see in the bullet, The Eyes, Ears, and Face
of God. It's an interesting subject,
isn't it? Well, you know, in this chapter,
I want to go back to verse one, and I want to show what's leading
up to this. But Peter, the apostle Peter,
as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, had acknowledged that
God's people, true believers, who stand firm by God's grace
in the truth of Christ, the truth of the gospel, who stand firm
for what is right according to God's word, that we will suffer
through trials from the Lord. Many of the trials are from the
Lord. And we'll suffer persecutions from the unbelieving world. Our
faith will be tested. And as God's children, think
about this, even as God's children, we're to look upon even the persecutions
that come from the unbelieving world as chastisements from our
Heavenly Father. Because the world cannot totally
destroy us. God gives life, only God gives
life and only God takes away life. Now he may, in his purpose,
use wicked men to accomplish that, and of course we see a
great example of that in the death of our Savior. When Peter
stood before him, he says, with wicked hands you crucified the
Lord of Glory, but you only did what God ordained that you would
do. You can read that in Acts chapter
2. God gives life. God takes it away. And if God
is pleased to take our lives for a child of God, what happens? Well, we go to a better life,
a better life with him. That's not just a pipe dream.
That's not just some simple way of looking at life that gives
us comfort. It's truth. Our Lord arose from
the dead and he's the first fruits of all his people. And if God
is pleased that we should remain here on earth for a while, even
through trials and tribulations, troubles, persecutions, we're
assured of His love, His grace, and His protection. We're assured
of this, verse 12, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.
His ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the
Lord is against them that do evil. Now that's what David was
saying in that Psalm. as he was going through a hard
trial, wasn't he? Here's David, the chosen of God,
the man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel
in the hands of a wicked king. And what did he do? He acted
like a madman. That's what he did, wasn't it?
He acted like he was crazy, and they let him go. Somebody said,
well, did David do right in doing that? Well, out of that came
Psalm 34, and that's a blessing, isn't it? That's a blessing. You know, the Christian life,
now I'm not just talking about a religious life. The Christian
life is a life lived under the watchful eye of God. That's what
it is. Continually going to Him as our
Heavenly Father. Frank and I were talking about
that earlier, about Abba Father. That's a special word, isn't
it? Really, technically, only true children of God can use
that term. I know the world does. But they
blaspheme every other word of God, too. Abba Father. So the exhortation that Peter's
giving here in his epistle is for believers to persevere in
the faith as we're preserved and we're instructed by God in
his word and as we're inspired by the Holy Spirit all the time,
depending upon looking to Christ as our only hope, our only salvation,
our only righteousness before God. Looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And when we mess up, which is
a lot of the time, we know we're secure in Him. And in this world,
we as believers, we can find ourselves in some very trying
situations, can't we? Very hard things to go through.
You know, and here in chapter three, now Peter had talked about
dealing with civil authorities, the law of the land, the judges,
the policemen, the sheriffs, all of that. And he tells us
to submit to these authorities because these are positions and
people who've been put in place by God for the good of society.
And I've said this several times, he's not talking about obeying
laws of the land that go against the laws of God. Not talking
about that at all. But here he even goes to a situation
of a believing wife who's married to an unbelieving husband. Even
deals with that situation in the first few verses of this
chapter. A believing wife who's married to an unbelieving husband.
And basically, listen to what he says here. He says, likewise,
talking about this submission. And anytime we talk about marriage
and man and woman today, You know that usually when we talk
about it biblically, which we should, more than we do probably,
that subject is either met with out and out rebellion or it's
a joke to people. But it's no joke, folks. Marriage
is an institution established by God from the very beginning
between one man, one woman. And the main point of marriage
is it's for the good of the human race, it's for the happiness
of the human race. But the main point of it is to
be a picture of Christ and His church. Christ the husband, His
church, His bride. And that's a beautiful thing.
Paul spoke of that in Ephesians chapter five. And he talked about
the wife submitting under her husband as under the Lord. And
of course people hate the word submission because we're just
rebellious by nature. But there's nothing wrong with
that word. The man is appointed by God to be the head of the
household, the authority. Now that doesn't mean he's a
dictator. That doesn't mean he doesn't listen to his wife. Doesn't
mean she's unequal as a human being. And it has nothing to
do with equal pay for work or anything like that. Anybody who
treats a woman wrongly that way, they're not being biblical. A
woman does the same work as a man, she deserves the same pay as
a man. But that has nothing to do with
all that. This is in the marriage relationship as it should reflect
Christ and his church. be for the good of the human
race and so he says likewise you wives be in subjection to
your own husbands that if any obey not the word that is the
husband doesn't obey the word doesn't believe the gospel basically
what he's saying here and of course again he's not telling
a wife here to submit to any command of her husband if his
commands go against the lord's word or anything like that, or
ask her to do something that's undignified and unlawful, that
demeans her and all that. He says, that if any obey not
the word, that they may also without the word be won by the
conversation of the wise, by her conduct. He says in verse
two, while they behold your chaste or pure conversation, your walk,
your attitude, your conduct, coupled with fear, that is your
fear of the Lord, reverence of the Lord. Now he's not saying
that God saves people by just looking at our lives without
the word. What he's saying is if a believing
wife is married to an unbelieving husband, she doesn't need to
nag him even over the gospel. Tell him the truth. and then
let it go. Then just live a life in the
joy and the beauty of Christ. But don't badger him. That's
what he's saying without the word. And it may be, now there's
no guarantee here. It may be that God will use her
godly life to draw that husband to the word. You see what I'm
saying? Maybe there's something to what
she believes. Maybe I ought to look into that. Now again, there's
no guarantee. And he says in verse three, who's
adorning, the wife who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning
of planting of the hair and of wearing of gold and putting on
of appearance. Now he's not telling you ladies not to take care of
your appearance at all. But he's saying here, verse four,
but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is
not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which
is in the sight of God of great price. What he's simply saying
is the spiritual person, The spiritual issue is more important
than the outward appearance. The outward appearance is gonna
go away someday, you know that. And with us men, too. But that
spiritual person is not corruptible. That doesn't mean that we have
a pure, righteous nature in ourselves that cannot sin and cannot be
condemned. What it means, it's not gonna die. The spirit's gonna
live, see? The flesh is gonna die. On some weird thing on the internet,
they've got a, you can go to a, you can put a picture of yourself
in, and it'll show you growing up until you're 80 or 90, and
you can see the difference. I don't know how they know that,
but it's probably not true. But it's not good, is it? It's not good. This body is dead
because of sin. The spirit is life because of
righteousness, and that's Christ. So what he's simply saying is
here is, ladies, if you're married to a nun, just tell him the gospel,
but don't nag him, and just live your life in godly fear, and
be careful to take care of the spiritual you more so than the
physical you. Because that's more important.
I don't care how healthy you are today, death is coming, isn't
it? And that's what he's saying.
And he says in verse five, for after this manner in the old
time of the holy women, now that's sinners saved by grace, also
who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection unto their
own husbands. He mentions Sarah, verse six.
Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, that is not
Lord in the sense that Christ is Lord, but the head of the
home. And you men as heads of home,
you're to talk to your wife and consult your wife and get her
advice and you all come together on this, but you have to make
the decisions. That's basically what it's saying. And as long
as, if you're married to an unbeliever, as long as he'll allow you and
be at peace with you. You know, the rule about dealing
with people, unbelievers in the world is follow peace with all
men and holiness without which no one shall see the Lord. That
holiness is don't compromise the gospel now. Be peaceful,
but don't compromise the gospel. And he says, whose daughters
you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement.
In other words, don't get out of kilter on this. And then he
deals with believing husbands. Here, verse seven, likewise you
husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto
the wife, respecting her, loving her, protecting her, as unto
the weaker vessel. Now that's offensive to, That's
just physically the fact. But you know, people today, they're
having to have it. They just deny, you know. I could stand
up here and tell you now, I'm identifying as a horse. I'm a horse now, you know. And
people say, well, don't call him a he or a him. It's an it.
I don't know. This world's going crazy. If you're born a man, you're
a man. If you're born a woman, you're a woman. But he says here,
the woman's the weaker vessel. She needs the protection of the
man. And as being heirs together of the grace of life. This is
a believing husband and a believing woman. Heirs together of the
grace of life. We're heirs because our salvation
is by grace. Earned for us by Christ. Given
to us by an inheritance. and that your prayers be not
hindered. I heard a preacher preach on
this one time, and he said, see, you're not supposed to pray if
you had a fight with your wife or your husband. No, it's not
what it's saying. It's saying your prayers be hindered. Well,
why are they hindered? You can't get your mind on it.
You got something else clouding the mind that hinders you, and
you need to take care of it. So I hope that's helpful to you,
but look at, Look at verse eight. See, all of this is very practical. It comes right down to earth.
It's not pie-in-the-sky religion. But he's saying this is evidence
of God's grace within. Finally, he says in verse eight,
be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love
as brethren, be pitiful, be cursed. Be pitiful, that doesn't mean
for me or you to be pitiful around people. It means to have pity
upon them. Verse nine, not rendering evil for evil, vengeance belongs
to God, not to us. Railing for railing, but contrary
wise blessing, love your enemies, do good to them despitefully.
This is what he's saying. Knowing that you are there unto
called, that you should inherit a blessing. Now notice this,
you're not gonna earn anything from God on all this, you're
gonna inherit. By God's grace, the blessings
of Christ. So living our lives in the grace
of God, that's what he's talking about. And he gives specifics.
He says, verse 10, for he that will love life and see good days.
Now this is quoted from that psalm that Brother Jim read.
Let him refrain his tongue from evil. You know what gets us into
trouble a lot of times is that old tongue, you know, talking,
saying, speaking, criticizing. That makes for a lot of bad days,
doesn't it? Things we say. James talked about
it. The tongue is set on fire of
hell. Think about that. And he's not
just talking about somebody standing up cussing. Talking about people
who use their tongue in a bad way. Certainly using the tongue
to preach a false gospel is bad, isn't it? But in a believer,
you know, not speaking good things, you know, wise things. Brings
out a lot of bad days, but he says, refrain his tongue from
evil, his lips that they speak, no guile, no dishonesty, hypocrisy. Let him is chew evil. That word
is chew means hate. We have to foster a hate of evil
and do good. Do that which is good in the
sight of the Lord. We're not trying to earn our
salvation here because we can't do that. We're not trying to
establish our own righteousness before God in order to be accepted
because we can't do that. What are we trying to do? We're
trying to thank the Lord for all that he's given us freely
and unconditionally that we didn't earn and didn't deserve. Let
him seek peace and ensue it. Be a person of peace, not war,
quarreling. So all of that. What bolsters
all of this? What gives us the motivation
in all of this? Well, think about our standing
is always in Christ. It never, never changes. I preached
a message several months ago, might have been a year ago, I
don't remember, but talking about Christian living. There's three
words. that you can remember. And you
can parse this in a lot of different ways. But number one is our standing
before God. Walking in this world, realizing
that my standing before God always has been, always will be, in
Christ. And that never changes. Whether
I'm standing up here preaching the gospel to you or if I'm sitting
at my home, watching TV, my standing is in Christ. I'm washed in His
blood, I'm clothed in His righteousness, that never changes, never varies. That's what we are in Christ,
that's our standing before God. God cannot and will not charge
us with our sins. He has charged us with the righteousness
of His Son, that never changes. And then the second word is our
state, our state here on this earth. Now when we start out
being born dead and trespasses and sins, our state is spiritual
death, lost. But that state changes. When? When it pleases the Lord to bring
us under the gospel and give us spiritual life. Now our state
is found sheep. Now we have a new heart. Now
we have a new mind. We believe what we didn't believe.
We love what we didn't love. You see what I'm saying? Now
we see what we didn't see. We see Christ. We see Him as
the author and finisher of our faith. Now we have new motivations,
whereas before it was the bondage of legalism, trying to work our
way. But now it's grace and gratitude
and love. And now we're children of God,
worshiping God, following God. But now there's a third word,
and it's a big one, not because it has more letters than the
rest of them, but because of its implications. Standing never
changed, our state did change, but now we're children of, the
third word is struggle. Because once God changes our
state, From lost to found, the struggle begins and it never
ends until we go to be with Him. Isn't that right? It's called
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And that's what Peter's
talking about here when he gives exhortations to God's people. What are we to do with civil
authority? How do we approach them? What is a believing wife
to do with an unbelieving? What is a believing husband to
do? All of this. And it's bolstered by three things
here. Verse 12, number one, it's bolstered
by the watchful eyes of the Lord over the righteous. The eyes
of the Lord are over the righteous. But you know, God is spirit.
This is speaking metaphorically. God doesn't have eyes and ears
and a face that we can shape, but he's simply saying this. At the eyes of the Lord, God
is watching over his children like a shepherd watches over
his sheep. He cares for his children. God
is watching over us. God's not watching us to see
if He can catch us in a lie or in a sin or messing up. That's
what most preachers kind of imply. I know coming up as a boy, that's
what I thought. Oh, I don't want God to see me
doing this. God sees everything we do. God sees everything we
think. He knows our hearts. It's like I told the fellow who
told me he was sinlessly perfect. And I said, well, go into a church
service, and what if they could flash up on a screen your thoughts
during that service? Would you want everybody to see
them? He says, oh, no, no. I said, well, God sees them. That's not what he's doing. God
watches over us. Now, the first thing we need
to understand about this situation, though, is who are the righteous? God watches over the righteous. God watches everybody. God knows
everybody. Proverbs 15 three says, the eyes
of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
But here he watches over the righteous. Who are the righteous?
You ever thought about that? You know over in Romans chapter
three in verse 10, you know what it says? It says there in that
verse, As it is written, there are none righteous, no not one.
Huh? Verse 11, there's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They're all together
become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Well, if there's none righteous,
no not one, who's God watching over here? Well, what Romans
three is talking about is all of us by nature. That's what we are, but none
of us have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. None of us can measure up. We've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But are there any righteous
people? Well, Romans chapter four tells
us this. It says, for what saith the scripture
in verse three? Abraham believed God. and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham was righteous. And verse
four says, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned, imputed,
accounted of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. That's believers. And he says
in verse six, even as David, the same one who the Holy Spirit
used to write that song, Also describe it, the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without works. There's some righteous people
here on this earth. They have a right standing with
God. Now how did they get there? How
did they get on that standing? How did they arrive there? Wasn't by their works. Wasn't
even by their decision. Wasn't by their baptism. It wasn't
by their church membership and attendance. It was by Jesus Christ
crucified on the cross as our surety, our substitute and our
redeemer. Who are the righteous? They are
sinners saved by grace. And grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God watches over us as his children. Let me read you something of
Psalm 106. This is precious. Or Psalm 103,
rather. Verse six. It says, the Lord execute with
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Talking
about his people here. The Lord made known his ways
unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord
is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. If
you know yourself, if you know yourself as a believer
now, you know the Lord's plenteous in mercy, don't you? I know he
is to me. If it weren't for his mercy,
where would I be? I'd be gone. It says he will
not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. Listen
to this, verse 10 of Psalm 103. He had not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Now it doesn't
say there that he has not dealt with our sins. He dealt with
our sins as they were imputed to Christ. It says he had not
dealt with us after our sins. Down in verse 13 of this Psalm,
like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. The Lord's watching over the
righteous. Am I righteous? How do I know? How can I tell
that? Well, am I looking to Christ and him alone for all righteousness? That's the answer. Because if
you're looking anywhere else, you're not going to find it.
Therefore I can say the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want
he maketh me to lie down in green pastures He restoreth my soul. He watches over the righteous
But back over in first Peter 3 12 the second thing is the
hearing ear of the Lord He says for the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous and his ears are open under their prayers Look at Hebrews chapter 4 with
me I often have people ask me, does the Lord hear the prayer
of an unbeliever? Anybody ask you that? Well, think
about this. The Lord is, as the theologians
say, omniscient. He knows everything. And so he
hears what they say, but he doesn't hear their prayers
like he hears the prayers of his people. His ears are open unto our prayers. That means that God accepts and
receives us. And look at Hebrews 4 and verse
14. Listen to this. Here's the issue. There's basically,
when we talk about prayer, here are the keys. He says, verse
14, here's the first key to prayer. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. The key to prayer is the mediatorial
intercessory work of Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. We pray to God through our Savior
on the merits of his blood and righteousness. We don't pray
to God saying, Lord, I've had a good day and I've earned my
way into your presence today. No. Even at our best day, we
don't earn our way into his presence. Christ is already there in the
presence of the Father for us. And he says in verse 15, for
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are yet without sin. That's the substitutionary work
of Christ, dying on the cross for our sins charged to his account,
bringing forth that everlasting righteousness which God imputes
to us. And verse 16, let us therefore come boldly, confidently unto
the throne of what? Throne of grace. that we may
obtain what? Mercy. And find what? Grace to help in time of need. All true prayer is inspired by
the Holy Spirit, founded upon the merits of Christ, and in
submission to the will of God. The first key is Christ, crucified,
risen from the dead, his blood, his righteousness. The second
key, thy will be done. We pray and we ask God for many
things. Sometimes the answer's yes, sometimes
the answer no. But here's the point. Our Heavenly
Father who watches over us and hears our prayers, He knows what
is best for us in any and every situation. Did you know that? Just like you children, your
parents know what's best for you. Now there's gonna come a time,
you growing up, you think, well I know what's best for me, I
can determine that. Gonna be a little struggle there. But your parents know what's
best. Our God knows what's best for us in every situation. He
watches over us and he hears our prayers. And then thirdly,
here's a stated in a negative, but look here in 1 Peter chapter
three he says, But the face of the Lord is against them that
do evil. Now, that's talking about the
righteous judgment of God. Peter's dealing with suffering
for righteousness sake. And he'll deal with that in the
next few verses. The face of God. Think about
that. Jacob, made the statement back
in Genesis 32 and verse 30. It says, Jacob called the name
of the place Peniel. This is after he wrestled with
the angel and gotten victory. And he said, for I've seen God
face to face, and my life is preserved. You see, back in the
Old Testament, they thought, well, if you saw the face of
God, you would die. And that came from Moses back
in Exodus 33, when the Lord told Moses, you cannot see my face
and live. Do you remember when Moses said,
show me your glory? God said, well, I'll have all
my glory passed before you. And he hid Moses in the cleft
of the rock. Now what does that tell you?
Here's what it tells us. You can only see God's face and
live as you see him revealed in his fullness in Christ. Second Corinthians 4.6, for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God's face is his, it's his glory,
it's his presence. It's that which identifies him
and distinguishes him. And when he told Moses, no man
will see my face and lip, what he's saying in essence is this,
you can't go to God without a mediator. without a savior, without a righteousness,
and live, you'll die. And that's what the wicked and
them that do evil do. They seek God's face, they seek
God's ear, they seek God's presence without Christ, without the blood. Like Cain, he sought God's face,
he sought God's acceptance without the blood, without a righteousness. So what does that tell us? My
friend, you come to God without Christ, you're dead, eternally. To the righteous, God's face
is the face of our heavenly Abba Father. To the wicked, God's
face is the face of a righteous judge who must punish sinners
to whom he imputes sin. Turn to Romans 8 and we'll close
with this. So what I need to know is I'm
going through this life and I suffer many things, suffer sorrow, suffer
trials. There are times of joy and times
of peace, but there's times of sorrow. What I need to know is
this, is God for me or is God against me? Well, look at Romans
chapter eight, verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now we have
a lot of things against us, but they mean nothing if God's for
us, that's what he's saying. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, that's all his
people. How shall he not with him also freely, unconditionally
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God's
dealt with my sins on the cross of Calvary as they were imputed
to his son, and he's given me his righteousness. Verse 34,
who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as he's presented and identified and distinguished
in the word of God, in the gospel of God's redeeming grace in Christ,
his sovereign grace in Christ? All who do, you can be assured
that he's at the right hand of God right now making intercession
for you. Even as we worship, that's what
he's doing. And then Paul goes on to say
nothing. Absolutely nothing that you can think of, nothing that
comes along, nothing you can dream of can separate us from
the love of God in Christ. He watches over us. He hears
our prayer. He's for us in Christ. All right? Okay.