1 Peter chapter 2, and I want to
begin reading in verse 18. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 18.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, and not
only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward, the
harsh. For this is thanksworthy, if
a man for conscience towards God and dear grief, suffering
wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently?
But if when you do well and suffer for it and take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were you called
Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that we should follow His steps. Who did no sin, neither was any
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 bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye are healed. For you were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Peter was exhorting these servants
to be obedient to their masters. And when you see this word servant
in Paul's epistles and here in this epistle, it literally means
slaves. He was exhorting these slaves
to be obedient to those who owned them, to their masters. The Apostle
Paul did the very same thing. I want you to hold our text and
turn back over to your left to Colossians. Chapter 3. This is here in Colossians chapter
3. The Apostle Paul spoke about
masters and their slaves. It's been estimated that in the
New Testament times, in the Roman Empire, one-fourth of the world's
population was in slavery. And many of these slaves had
believed the gospel. The Lord had saved them by His
grace. And rather than rebelling against
their masters and bringing a reproach on the name of Christianity,
the apostles write to these slaves that they're to submit to their
masters and work for them and respect them even though they
owned them. And he gave them a motive for
doing that. Look here in Colossians chapter
3 and verse 22. Slaves, obey in all things your
masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do
it heartedly, as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Knowing that
of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for you serve the Lord's Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall
receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect
of persons with him, with God. And look what he says in chapter
4 and verse 1. Masters, give unto your servants
that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a master
in heaven. So he writes here to these slaves
and tells them to don't rebel against your masters. Love your
masters and work for your masters. If you be buffeted for your faults,
you've got nothing to glory of. But if when you do wrong, if
when you do right, and you have a harsh master, and he treats
you harshly, and you take it with patience, this is acceptable
to God. This is thanksworthy to God. And he said even here when you
suffer wrongfully. Peter said if you suffer wrongfully.
He took it for granted that there were masters who were very cruel.
who would whip and mentally and physically abuse their slaves. So he said, yes, it's wrong. Was it right for masters to treat
their slaves like animals? You know, it wasn't right. It
wasn't right. What went on in our nation up
until the mid-1800s or so, what went on in Great Britain and
many parts of the world, Men may take and try to justify it,
but when you mentally abuse somebody, when you physically abuse somebody,
you cannot go to the Bible to try to justify it. The Bible
never did forbid slavery, but it regulated slavery. It told
the slave to honor his master, and it told the master not even
to threaten his slave. Render to them that which is
just and right. And that's what Peter's writing
to these poor slaves. Live to Christ. You serve Christ
by serving your Master. And the motive he gave was keep
your conscience clear with God. You do it for conscience sake. And then here back in our text,
back in verse 21, He tells them that if they suffer wrongfully,
that this is their calling. Look what He says in verse 21
of our text in 1 Peter. For even here unto were you called,
you were called to this end, called to suffer for the name
and glory of Jesus Christ. And as they suffered, they could
know that they were following the footsteps of their master. He set them an example. For even
year and two were you called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps."
If any of these slaves grew discouraged in their suffering wrongfully,
and they began to complain that they were being treated harshly,
Peter gives them Christ for their example. Was there anybody that
ever suffered like Jesus our Lord and Savior? Sometimes they may have suffered
because they did wrong. Their master never did wrong,
and yet he suffered. He who was sinless, he who was
holy, never deserved the mistreatment that he suffered. He was reviled
and suffered unjustly at the hands of men. And how did He
react? He opened not His mouth, didn't
He? He opened not His mouth. Verse 23, when He was reviled,
He reviled not again. Peter here in verse 24 gives
them the ultimate motive for their humble obedience. He, His
own self, bear our sins in His own body upon the tree. And chapter 3 and verse 18 says
that He suffered for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Whatever these believing slaves were suffering unjustly, it was
nothing compared to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ who
had already suffered. And He suffered for them, not
their goodness, He didn't suffer because they were good. He suffered
for their sins. Their sins against God. When I first looked at this passage
here this week, I thought Peter was going to take this opportunity
and preach the gospel to these slaves. But then I read just
a little closer, and what he's saying here is this. This gospel
of substitution is so practical. that we bring it right down into
our everyday life. The gospel of substitution is
our life and it's our living. It's the motive for everything
we do. And we suck strength from that
to do everything that we do. How am I supposed to be a slave? and sometimes suffer unjustly,
wrongfully, and harshly, and yet submit to the man that owns
me." Well, use your motive and use your strength to do it. Christ
bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The Apostle Paul
said this for himself. He said, this is the very way
I live my life. This is where I pull my strength
from. Listen to it in Galatians 2.20.
The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of
the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. He said
I can do all things by looking to Him who gave Himself for me. Who bore my sins in His own body
on the tree. I wonder how you and I would
live. I wonder how we could live if
we lived every day in the faith of this one verse, Christ bear
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins
should live unto righteousness. How could I hate anybody in the
light of such love for my soul? How could I? How could I hold
a grudge against anyone since the dear Savior removed all grudges
that heaven had against me? How could I not forgive any offenses
since Jesus poured out His blood that God could forgive me? How
could I live with a hard heart in the light of Jesus, given
His tender hands to be pierced and His feet to be pierced and
His tender heart to be pierced? How could I live with such indifference
to Christ and His cause in this world since He with great zeal
laid down His life for me? See the motive in this, the motive
that He gives to them. And the older I get and the more
I learn and the more I experience, the more I realize that the only
way to get along in this world and the only way to live with
any contentment and assurance is to live in the faith of Christ
my substitute, Christ bearing my sins in His own body on the
tree. I can't face the breaking of
a cup without Him, but I can face death itself with Christ
my substitute who gave Himself for my sins. I found nothing
more instructive, I found nothing more encouraging, I found nothing
more heartwood than Christ and Him crucified. A sinless substitute. And let's look at it right quickly
as Peter tells us about it here. It's so wonderful just to think
about a sinless substitute, a sinless sacrifice. And look what he says
about him here in verse 22. The first thing he says is this,
who did no sin. Boy, that draws your attention,
doesn't it? who did no sin. Solomon said all have sin, didn't
he? There's not a just man upon this earth that doeth good and
sinneth not. David said man at his best state
is altogether vanity. John said if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves. Paul said, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. But this is one exception to
that rule, and that's Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. He
did no sin, and there was no guile found in His mouth. There
was no guile found in His mouth, brothers and sisters, because
there's no guile found in His heart. He had no sin, and He
had no guile. The Bible says that God is of
two pure eyes to behold evil and He cannot look upon sin. But He could look upon Jesus
Christ and He could look upon Him with all searching eyes and
delight in Him. And you know why? Because He
had no sin. There was no sin in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is my beloved Son in whom
my soul is well pleased. I tell you, when He looks upon
us, He looks upon us in Christ, doesn't He? That's the only place
God will accept us and look upon us with pleased eyes. If He looks upon us without being
in Christ, I tell you, He would abhor us. His eyes are too pure. But you know, when He looks upon
His Son, He sees nothing but absolute holiness and purity. And he delights to look upon
him, his son. He's separate from sinners, the
Bible says. He's holy, harmless, undefiled. And Peter, who knew him probably
better than any other mortal in this world, made this statement
concerning him, he did no sin. And John, who leaned upon his
breast and was loved of the Lord Jesus, John said, in him is no
sin. And you know heaven testifies
of Him? Brother Larry quoted it this
morning. I love that passage too, Larry. When the angel from
heaven told Mary that holy thing which shall be born, that's heaven's
testimony of Him. You know even devils testify
of Him. You know what devils say of Him
when He's going to cast them out? We know you, who you are,
the Holy One of God. Pilate said this of him, I find
no fault in him. Pilate's wife said, have nothing
to do with that just man. Everybody testifies of him, heaven
and hell and the mighty and the humble of this earth. Those who
loved him and those who hated him acknowledge this thing about
him, no sin. No sin. Only man ever born of
a woman that had no sin. That's how unique he is. Jesus,
the Son of God, no sin. He did no sin. He was born of a woman who was
a sinner. I sometimes read these commentaries
and it amazes me sometimes even the Protestant commentaries who
still call Mary the Virgin. You go over to Acts chapter 1
where the 120 was in the upper room waiting for the coming of
the Holy Ghost, and they say the Virgin Mary was among them.
She wasn't a virgin then. She was a virgin when our Lord
was conceived in her womb, absolutely. But you know something? She was
a sinner then. She was a sinner by nature, just
like everybody else. Her mother and her father wasn't
born sinless, and neither was she. She was a sinner just like
you and just like me. And Jesus was born of her, this
sinful fallen woman, and yet He wasn't fallen Himself. That's
the miracle of the virgin birthism. One man said, it doesn't matter
if you believe in the virgin birth or not. Oh, it's critical.
We'd never stand for that, would we? This is the way He was kept
from her defilement. from being born a sinner like
the rest of us. The Holy Ghost came upon her
and it protected him from her fallen nature and he was born
that holy thing. He was 100% man with this distinction,
no sin. He had a human body And he had
a human soul, and everything that made that body and soul
up was essential to him as a human being. Everything that makes
you what you are as a human belonged to him. He's a real human being,
born of a woman, with this distinction. No sin. No sin. He lived in this world for 33
and a half years, and he lived among sinners. Everybody he came
in contact with was a sinner. Everybody that spoke to him,
everybody he spoke to, everybody he laid eyes on was a sinner.
His parents were sinners. His mother, his brothers and
sisters were sinners. His neighbors were sinners. Those
he worked around were sinners. He associated with sinners. He received sinners. He ate with
sinners. And yet he had no sin himself.
Ain't that amazing? He did no sin. If you're around sinners long
enough and you take them to be your bosom friends, they're apt
to entice you to sin somewhere and somehow in some way. Even
your best friends can do it sometime. Sarah enticed Abraham to take
Hagar to be his concubine and have a baby by him. Then Abraham
turned right around and enticed her to lie for him. Even friends
can entice you to sin. If you're around a multitude,
as our Savior was, they can entice you and influence you to sin.
But Jesus was around multitudes of people, and yet He did no
sin. And if you suffer at the hands
of man long enough, and those sufferings are deep enough, you're
out after a while to lose your patience. and them cause you
to sin. The Bible says Moses was an exceeding
meek man, but boy they tried his patience, didn't they? And
finally he lost his temper and he told them off and gave them
a piece of his mind and reviled them and called them rebels and
sinners and he sinned against God. But here Jesus of Nazareth
was around multitudes of righteous people and ungodly people, and
they never did entice him to sin. They never did try his patience
to the point that he lost his patience and sinned. He never
did. He did no sin. And whoever suffered at the hands
of his fellow man, like our Lord did, whoever was so reviled and
defamed and tested by those who loved him and those who didn't.
They called him a liar. They said he has a devil. They
said he deceives people. They said he blasphemes God.
And yet, what was his response to such charges? He opened not
his mouth. When they stripped him naked
and put a crown of thorns on his head and mocked him, what
was his response? He was led as a sheep before
her shears is done. When the soldiers put a whip
to his back and made deep the furrows, when they plucked the
hairs from his face, what was his response? When they drove
the spike through his hands and his feet, And when they hung
Him naked in shame upon the cross, and when they spit upon Him,
and their spittle ran down His face and His body, what was His
response? He opened not His mouth. When He was reviled, He reviled
not again. And when He suffered, He threatened
not. Not in His heart, not in His
thought, and not with His lips. He had no sin. No sin. We have it on record that in
His birth, He was holy. In His life, He did no sin. And
in His death, He was the just for the unjust. He had no sin. He did no sin. Why is this crucial? Why is it so essential? Why do
we insist on this and we never yield on this? That He was holy
and just from His birth to His last breath? Because Jesus Christ
is our substitute. And as our substitute, He must
be holy. He cannot be like us with a fallen
nature. He must not be a sinner. Listen
to Leviticus 22, 21, and this is the theme of all the sacrifices
they offer. Whosoever offers a sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord, or a free will offering, it shall
be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. That's the rule. Every sacrifice
had to be examined and had to be without spot and blemish.
And what did Peter say of our Redeemer? He was as a lamb without
spot and without blemish. A sinless substitute. And we get right down here to
this passage in verse 24. And boy, it gets right down to
the nitty gritty. We have the holy and this just
man without spot and blemish. And what does verse 24 say about
him? Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree. That's substitutionism. That's
substitution. He bare our own sins in his body. Let's look at this verse closely.
Three things about this. He bore our sins in His own body.
First thing that must take place in substitution is the transfer
of sins. The transfer of sins. I was reading a commentary the
other day and one commentator said it's not possible that one
man's sins can be transferred to another man. With man that's
impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. I take this to be literally. He bare our sins in His own body. I take that to be a reality. How did those sins get there,
therefore? The Bible tells us, doesn't it? All we like sheep
have gone astray, and God hath laid on Him the iniquity of us
all. How did our sins get on the person
and into the body of Jesus Christ? God took them from us and put
them upon Him in His body. I'll tell you one thing, if He
leaves them on us, we die. They'll wait us down to hell.
We cannot, if God marks one iniquity against us, stand before His
throne. So He takes them from us and
He puts them upon His Son. Sometimes, I want you to put
this down and at your leisure, I want you to read Leviticus
chapter 16. If you want to see a beautiful
picture of the transfer of sins, it's the Day of Atonement. And
Moses is instructed and instructs Aaron to take these two goats
and he's to cast lots on these goats. upon whom the lot fell,
he was to kill that goat and take its blood into the most
holy place and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. And then after
he did that, he was to come and take the live goat and put both
of his hands upon the head of that goat. And the Bible says
transferring the iniquities of the children of Israel upon the
head of that goat. And then He led the goat by a
fit man out in the wilderness where it never could find its
way back to the camp again. And what that is picturing to
us only in time actually happened at the cross. God transferred
the sins of everyone who would ever believe on Jesus Christ
to the saving of their soul And He bore them in His own body
upon the tree. Transfer. There has to be a transfer
of sin. You and I are here this morning.
We could truly say this. Before we sinned our first sin,
and just when we sinned our last sin, 2,000 years ago, those sins
were transferred to our substitute upon a cross. Transfer. Secondly,
what must take place then is suffering. We find that here
in 1 Peter 3.18. Christ suffered for our sins,
the just for the unjust. The just for the unjust. Suffering. Sometimes read Psalms chapter
40 and Psalms chapter 69. And those Psalms are speaking
concerning Jesus Christ. It's Him speaking Himself. Listen
to what he says in Psalms chapter 40 and verse 12. Enumerable evils
have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart fails me. He experienced
the heaviness of sin and he says my iniquities. How could that be since we just
read that He did no sin? They weren't His sins. They had
become His sins because He took the sins of His people and made
them His own. And now He says they're heavy,
they're too heavy for Me. They're too heavy for Me. In
Psalm 69 and chapter chapter 69 and verse 5 listen to this
this is christ speaking too if you read that psalms you see
many times in there that he's speaking he says oh god thou
knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee and
that word sins there means guilt my guilt is not hid from thee
and listen to the very next verse of this Let not them that wait
on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for My sake. That's not David talking. That's
Christ talking. Let not those that seek Thee
be confounded or disgraced for My sake, O Lord, because for
Your sake I have borne reproach and shame has covered My face. Christ bore the shame of sin. He bore the guilt of sin. He
bore the punishment of sin. Where did He bear that at? Peter
said in His own body on the tree. He bore the heaviness of it.
He bore the guilt of it. He bore the shame of it. He bore
the punishment of it. He suffered for our sins. Three and a half hours upon the
cross of Calvary. He bore the penalty of sin. And you know something? Men suffer
for all eternity in hell for their sins, and it won't satisfy
justice. But Jesus Christ was so full
of merit and worth, He was so holy, that upon that cross in
three hours and a half, He satisfied the demands of God's law on the
behalf of His people. Suffering. Suffering. This is the third thing that
we must insist upon when we talk about substitution. The transfer
of sin, suffering for sin, and satisfaction rendered to justice,
to all God's demands. Don't tell us about a substitute
who suffered, and yet justice requires it at the hands of those
for whom he suffered. I don't believe in no such thing.
Our court system would never allow that. If the ransom is
paid, if the debt has been paid, what God requires has been paid,
if justice is satisfied, which it is in the sufferings and death
and blood of Jesus Christ, then those for whom He suffered must
go free. They must be redeemed. Our God
is not just. And that's an awful thing to
even think, isn't it? Satisfaction. Isaiah chapter
53 verse 11, God shall see of the travail of his soul, his
heaviness, his agony, his pain, and shall be satisfied. He's satisfied. The court of
heaven is satisfied with the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. and our humanity upon the cross. When he says it's finished, it
was finished. It was finished. Why did he say it was finished?
Because Justice whispered to his heart, I'm satisfied. Justice laid down her bloody
sword and said, I'll never smite again. I'm satisfied. Is this your demands, justice? Have I met them fully? You have. Then it's finished. It's finished. I tell you, that's the best good
news I've ever heard in my life. For a poor, dumb, ignorant hillbilly
who spent all of his teenage years trying to find some way
to atone for his sin. Some way to straighten out the
mess that I'd made. Some way to have God to be my
friend. And I tell you, when I found
out, when I found out that God wasn't angry with me anymore,
that for Christ's sake, He would accept me and be a father to
me, I tell you, that's the best news I ever heard in my life.
God is satisfied. God is not angry any longer. His Son is satisfied. He bore
our sins in His own body upon the tree. Isn't that good news? I tell
you, that's good news for the guilty, boy. That's good news
for sinners. People that are just content
with a little water sprinkled on them, or content to read a
verse every night, or content to attend meetings on occasion,
they may not need this. But boy, if you're a real sinner,
if you're a real sinner and you need God's mercy, this is good
news. What's the effects of this? Look
back over in Peter again and look in chapter 2 and verse 24.
Here's the effects. "...who his own self bare our
sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins..." I can't understand this completely.
I'll be honest with you and I don't profess to be able to explain
this very well. But I know that it works. I know
this works. The very instant you believe
in Jesus Christ to the saving of your soul, you're dead to
sin. Sin loses its dominion over you. He bore our sins. He suffered
for our sins. He atoned for our sins that now
we being dead to sin. The instant we believe in Jesus
Christ, our substitute, all our guilt is gone. There is no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. He has it right now and
shall never come into condemnation. He's freed from that. And He's freed from sin's dominion. We struggle against our sins.
Didn't we struggle against our sins? We tried to conquer our
sins. Tried to conquer, tried to rule over our sins. And we
couldn't. We just couldn't. They were too
strong for us, weren't they? We couldn't break the power until
we believed the gospel of substitution and sin's dominion was broken. Paul said, we thank God that
you were the servants of sin, that you believed from your That
form of doctrine, the gospel which was delivered you. Being
then made free from sin. And down in verse 14 he says
it plainly. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Not after you look into Christ. It loses its grip. It loses its power. We had a young lady here one
time that got caught up in open sin. And I talked to her about
it, and she said, Well, Bruce, you just don't know how weak
I am. I'm a weak person. And I said, Young lady, I know
something about you. You're not only weak, you're
lost. You're lost. The unbeliever is
bound by his sins, and he can't quit his sinning. The blasphemer
can't quit his blasphemy. The drunk can't quit getting
drunk. The fornicator can't quit from fornication until he looks
to Jesus Christ. And the instant he does that,
he is dead to sin. The dominion, those chains that
bound him are loose. And that's the truth. I don't
know how that works. I just know it works. I tell you, I spent my teenage
years fighting with my sins, trying to reign over my sins.
And I never could until I saw Him bleeding on a tree through
the eye of faith. And that loosed the chains of
my sins. So long I laid bound in sins,
fetters unbroken, no hope could I see. But then I spied a bloody
stained cross, the fetters gave way, and my soul went free."
That's the way Charles said it would be. Look into Christ and to Him crucified. It will not kill the struggle
that we have with sins. But I tell you what it will do.
It will remove the dominion. It breaks the power of counseled
sins and sets the prisoners free. Why must we be dead to sin? Well,
Peter answers that in the very next phrase. Look what he says.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body, transferred
to him, became his own, he suffered and died and atoned. that we,
being dead to sin's guilt and dominion, should live unto righteousness. We have to be dead to sin's dominion
that we may live unto righteousness. As long as sin has dominion over
us, we can't love God. We can't walk with Him. We can't
delight in His law. We can't love His gospel. It'll
be the awfulest burden in the world just to try it. But when we're dead to sins,
then we can live to God and enjoy Him and delight in Him. Somebody
say, Bruce, I've tried with all my might to do it. With all my
heart I've tried to do it. And I just can't do it. Well,
that's our problem, isn't it? It doesn't come to our might.
It doesn't come to the power of our wills. How does it come? By looking to Jesus Christ, our
substitute. Seeing Him through the eyes of
our understanding. And I tell you, when we see Him,
when we believe in Him, we become dead to sin. And then it changes
our whole outlook. It changes the whole heart. It
gives a new heart. And then we can live and walk
with God. and delight in Him. Aren't you
amazed at yourself? Aren't you amazed at yourself?
I'm amazed at myself. I'm amazed that I can delight
to sit down and read His Word. That amazes me. If I'd had to
do that a few years ago, that would have been awful. That would
have been a torment on my mind. Sit here and read. Read His Word. Come to public worship. and saying
lift up my heart to Him? Well, I couldn't have done that
for nothing. Aren't you amazed at yourself?
And now you just want to live for His glory, don't you? You
want to serve Him. That's your delight. Lord, whatever
comes, whatever goes, just let me know You. Just let me serve
You. That's what I want to do. You're dead to sins and now you
live unto righteousness. And the only way it comes is
through looking to Him who bore our sins in His own body on the
tree. By whose stripes we are healed.