You know, I was singing that
song, that last song, and I was thinking about when I was growing
up, I never really liked, well there were times, I did not like
being named Clay. A lot of my schoolmates called
me Clay Dirt. It was like being a boy named
Sue, you know. Kind of forced you to have a
thick skin and got me in a few scuffles too. But after God saved
me, And I learned what it meant that God is the potter and we're
the clay. Then I thought that's a pretty
good title. So, let's go to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2. Verse 11, Dearly beloved, speaking
to believers, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, that
is as strangers and pilgrims in this world. We're strangers. We're pilgrims just passing through
this world. Abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul. having your conduct honest among
the Gentiles, among unbelievers, 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. Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. That is, every law, every godly,
if it's a godly tradition, if it's not against God, submit
yourself to every ordinance of man and do it 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. This is God's will, that with
well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, not using your liberty
for a cloak for the skies of maliciousness, but as the servants
of God. You know, you were the servants
of sin, but you've been made free by Christ. Now you're the
servants of God. We're never not a servant. We're
either the servants of sin or we're the servants of God. But
when you're made free by Christ, you have liberty now. You're
made a servant of God. But he said don't use that liberty
for disguise to be malicious in your dealings with men. Now
here's the sum of our duty right here, verse 17. Honor all men
love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, servants, be
subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good
and gentle, but also to the fraud. Now here's where our text begins,
verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, That's
my title. What glory is it? If when you
be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently.
What glory is that? If when you be 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 hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you 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 bare our sins
in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls."
Now, as servants of God, Believers should live among unbelievers
as servants of God. That's how we should live. Our
duty in verses 17 and 18 is to honor all men, to love the brotherhood,
to fear God, to honor the king, to be subject to masters with
all fear even to the froward, that is to the crooked and the
perverse and the unfair and the wicked. Now, here's our focus. And this
applies to any situation in our lives, to a pastor's ministry,
to believers and their dealings with one another. It applies
to believers in your jobs, in your dealings, our dealings with
our neighbors. This applies to any situation. Verse 19. For
this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully. This is thank-worthy. That means
this is due to grace. This is the token or the proof
of one that's governed by the grace of God. It's thank-worthy. It's worthy of giving thanks
to God because God's work in it. This is God's work. If a
believer for conscience toward God, Your inner man, in that
inward man God's made, the Holy Spirit of God bears witness and
you have a conscience toward God that tells you this is what's
right. This is what God would have me
to do. And so you do it. You endure
grief. It's wrong. You shouldn't be
rebuked and rebuffed and rejected and be persecuted. But you are. It's wrong. but
you endure it and you do it patiently. That's thank-worthy. That's the
grace of God working in the heart of His child. Makes you want
to honor God. Makes you want to set before
wicked men that which God's worked in you. Makes you want to honor
God. Verse 20, 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, you take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God. What glory is it? What praise
is due? If I suffer and I take it patiently,
but yet I'm suffering because I did wrong. I'm suffering because
I did what God would not have me to do. So I'm suffering, I'm
receiving rebuke and rejection and what have you because of
that. But I bear that patiently. Well,
what glory is in that? I'm getting what I deserve. See,
there's no glory in that. It's only acceptable with God
if when we do well and suffer, we take it patiently. Now first
of all, it's thank-worthy. It's due to God's grace and praise
when we suffer wrongfully and we take it patiently. I want
to just give you some examples. You're all familiar with the
story in the Old Testament of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now these men were faithful to
God. These men refused to be influenced
by the world. And that's important. These men
were faithful men. They refused. They would not
read anything, hear anything, behold anything that this world
was promoting and let it turn them from their God. They wouldn't
be sidetracked. They refused to bow to worldly
kings or to worldly gods. These men were faithful to God's
people. Not only faithful to God, they
were faithful to God's people. These men were Men who didn't
divide the brethren, they didn't create some kind of disruption
and cause men to look from the Lord to them or to anything else. Their witness was turning men
from the world to God. These were men who were faithful
men. And so, when they were buffeted
for doing good, men persecuted them for doing good by casting
these three men into a fiery furnace. But they had done right. They
had suffered. They were enduring it because
they were enduring it patiently while they were suffering wrongfully.
And you know what happened? Christ came to them. Christ came
to these men. Christ came to these men. Nebuchadnezzar
was the king, this Babylonian king. And I remind you, these
men were in Babylon doing this. Just like believers today. We
are living in Babylon. They were in Babylon doing this.
Honorable men. And they are thrown into this
fiery furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar said, he looked in there and
he said, didn't we throw three men in there? He said, well,
I see four men in there. And one of them looks like the
Son of God. It was the Son of God. That was
a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God who came down. The angel of God came down. to
protect those three men because they honored God. They suffered
wrongfully and they bore it patiently and they honored God. And so
when they called those three men out, Nebuchadnezzar says
they saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power
whatsoever. nor was a hair of their head
singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire
had passed on them." Can God really do that? That obviously tells us the power
in fire is of God. And if God wants to take away
the law of fire and make it where it don't burn you or singe your
hair or whatever, He can do that. You believe God can do that?
I believe He can. And He did that. And when He
puts you in the fire, and you are suffering wrongfully, and
you are bearing it patiently, Christ will come to you. And
Christ will make it so that fire is not going to hurt you. That
trial will not hurt you at all. It won't affect the garment of
the coat of righteousness He has put on you one bit. It will
make you behold Him all the more. and rejoice in Him and bow to
Him and worship Him all the more. That's what it did to Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar spake and he said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel, the Son of God,
and delivered His servants that trusted in Him and have changed
the King's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve
nor worship any God except their own God. And he made a decree. And he said, there's no other
God that can deliver after this sort. He said, don't ever talk
against their God. There's no other God that can
deliver after this sort. Now these men so honored God
that He brought a heathen king to praise Him because of these
men's actions. Because they so honored God suffering
wrongfully. God brought a heathen king to
glorify God. And not only that, then the king
promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. He gave them a promotion. Well,
there's another example. We have a man named Daniel, a
prophet. Daniel was such an exemplary
servant of God. Again, a man living amongst heathen
kings, a heathen country. He was so exemplary in his service
to God and so honest in his dealings with unbelievers that Darius,
the king, promoted Daniel to be the head. There was three
presidents that were head over all the princes in all the country
and he made Daniel the number one head over those presidents.
It says, Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes
because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king thought
to send him over the whole realm. Now that's faithfulness, brethren.
He was a faithful servant of God. And he was such a faithful
servant of God that the men that hated Daniel and wanted to see
him fall from this powerful position, they knew they were not going
to be able to find any fault with Daniel himself. They knew
they would not be able to charge Daniel with anything. So they
decided the only way we're going to be able to get Daniel is if
we get the king to pass a law, that will go against Daniel's
religion. And so they went to the king and they petitioned
the king to pass a law that said for 30 days, no man could pray
to any god except the king. Well, Daniel is a faithful man.
So what did Daniel do in that 30 days? He prayed to God. He
prayed to God. He did what God said was right.
And so they came back and they told Darius this. And Darius
struggled over this thing because here's his dilemma. He loved
Daniel. He loved Daniel. He knew Daniel
was an honest, faithful man. But he had also passed a law.
And his law had to be upheld or he wouldn't be just. There's
a beautiful picture of the justice of God in that. Here's the dilemma. He loves
his only begotten son. But if he's going to uphold his
law. When sin is found on his son,
his son has got to die. And so, Darius cast Daniel into
a den of lions. He is suffering wrongfully. He
is suffering wrongfully. He had done nothing wrong. This
was a deceitful, wicked law that these men had passed just to
try to entrap Daniel. He had done nothing wrong. And
so, there he is. cast into this lion's den, not
for disobeying God, not for turning men from God, not for causing
disruption among God's people, for doing right, he's cast into
the den of lions. And so God was with him. And
when the king went the next day, Daniel said, My God has sent
His angel and has shut the lion's mouths that they have not hurt
me. For as much as before him innocency was found in me, and
also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." God honored
him. He honored his faithfulness to
God and sent Christ who shut the mouths of those lions. Daniel
laid down, slept all night, woke up the next day and said, I'm
fine. Nothing wrong with me. And so the king, through Daniel's
Faithfulness. The king stated to everybody
that Daniel's God is the living God. Steadfast forever. His kingdom shall not be destroyed. His dominion shall be even until
the end. He delivereth and rescueth and
he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth. Who hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions? He praised God.
You see, if God's working in a man, here's why it's think
worthy. God's working in a man. God's
going to work grace in his heart to make him endure, make him
obedient, first of all, to honor God in his life. Be an exemplary
servant of God in his life so that when he's accused, it'll
be a false accusation. But even then, he'll suffer that
wrong. He'll suffer it. He'll endure
it patiently. because God's working in his
heart and God will see to it. He'll send Christ forth and He'll
comfort that man. He'll protect him in that fiery
trial. He'll bring him through it. And
not only that, He'll bless that man. He'll honor that man's faithfulness
by causing even his accusers to glorify God. Isn't that what
Peter said? You suffer this wrong and you
live honestly among the Gentiles so that they might glorify God
in the day of visitation. When Christ came and He made
it clear He was with this man, those men that were their accusers
said, God's with Him. We see it. He's the true and
living God. And that's what God will do for
His faithful people. He works the faithfulness in
His people and He honors the faithfulness that He worked.
And causes you to be safe in the trial and causes your enemies
to even bless God. Now that's reason to suffer the
wrong, isn't it? Just keep our mouth shut and
suffer it and endure it. Because God's promised that's
what He'll do. Now, that's thank-worthy. Now, there's nothing thank-worthy
about a man who's patient. And he suffers, he keeps his
mouth shut, he's patient. Suffering, being buffeted, but
he's suffering because he's wrong. He's suffering because it's his
own fault. Go with me to Acts chapter 8. This is a man named Simon Magus.
He had a reputation as being a sorcerer. And then he made
a profession. He heard Peter preach and he
made a profession of faith in Christ. He told everybody he
was saved. And listen to this in verse 20. Look at verse 18. When Simon
saw that through laying all of the apostles' hands the Holy
Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this
power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy
Ghost. Now that was wrong. That was
wrong. What he did was wrong. And listen
to the rejection, the rebuff he got. Peter said unto him,
Thy money perish with thee. because thou hast thought that
the gift of God, that free gift of God may be purchased with
money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy
heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this
thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine
heart may be forgiven thee for I perceive that thou art in the
gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Now Peter dealt
pretty strongly with him, didn't he? Now you just imagine. You just imagine Simon Magus,
he goes back to congregation of brethren and he says, oh,
I'm suffering in the fiery furnace right now. I've been thrown in
the lion's den right now because I'm rejected by my pastor, rejected
by my brethren. You know what the brethren would
say to that? You deserve to be rebuffed. Your heart's not right with God.
You're getting exactly what is just. You're getting what should
be done. If you're God's child, you'll
repent and you'll come to God at His feet and beg His mercy.
And thank you brethren for rebuking you. But you see how absurd it
would be for that man to say that he's enduring this patiently
and he's suffering and he's suffering the fiery trial and he's in the
lion's den, when the fact of the matter is, he was wrong. There is no thank-worthiness
in that. God is not in that heart working grace. Paul said your
heart is not right with God. Brethren, use spiritual discernment. You hear folks sometimes, a lot
of times you hear religious folks talking about bearing their cross,
you know, when they are persecuted, when in reality they brought
it on themselves. That is not bearing God's cross.
That is not bearing the cross of Christ at all. There's nothing
thank-worthy about being patient when we're buffeted for our own
faults. But, he says, if when you do well and suffer for it,
you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God for even
here unto where you call. Now, let's see Christ. Let's
see Christ. Here's our motive for suffering
patiently. This is the love that's going
to constrain the believer's heart to suffer patiently, suffering
wrongfully. Verse 22, because Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow
His steps. Now here's the first thing. Who
did no sin? Who did no sin? See, He suffered
wrongfully. He did what He told us to do
here. He did no sin. Our Lord Jesus
Christ at no point in His life ever sinned. You and I are conceived
in sin, not Him. You and I come from our mother's
womb speaking lies. That means we go astray as soon
as we are born, not Him. You can't begin to imagine what
a good child this one would have been for his mother and his father.
You talk about raising a child and saying what a good child
he is. This one right here never did
anything disobedient to his mother and his father. This one right
here was faithful all his days. Neither was guile found in his
mouth. You know what guile is? Guile
is deceit, it's craftiness, it's lies, it's exaggeration. You know, we can't hardly get
through a day without using a little craftiness. a little bit of what
we call little white lies. You can't hardly get through
a day without doing it. He did none of that. His heart was perfect
and out of the abundance of His heart His mouth spoke. So there
was no guile, there was no deceit, there was no sin, there was no
trickery, no craftiness, nothing. He never ever said one thing
when the other was true. Never. Look at verse 23. who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. You know, this shows you right here our sin. This shows
you our sin. We do all these different things
in society trying to correct this side and bring them into
thinking like the other side. And if we could all just do that,
we'd all get along so well. Here's a man who knew no sin
that walked among us. A perfect man that knew no sin
that walked among us. And we reviled this man. This
is the God-man and we reviled Him. We threatened Him. A perfect
man. I mean, His coming into the earth,
all He did was go about healing people. You know, think about
what that did for society. Here you got people that are
lame, that can't contribute to society and the whole society
is having to support them. They're having to help these
people that can't help themselves. And Christ comes along and healed
them and took that burden off of society. You would think that
everybody in society would have said, this is a great man. Nope. This is our sinfulness. We rejected God in human flesh.
See, we're not striving in this world to be righteous. We're not striving to be perfect
and walk before God perfectly. That's not what all the the right,
striving for this right and that right and the other right. That's
not what we're striving for because when the perfect man walked on
this earth, you know what we did? We said, get him out of
here. He's making us look bad. Sinful men called the God of
heaven and earth the prince of life. We called him a devil.
We called him a winebibber. We called him a friend of sinners. Psalm 38, verse 12. This is Christ
speaking. It says, They also that seek
after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my hurt
speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not,
and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I
was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. You talk about a man who suffered
wrongfully, and yet he opened not his mouth. He didn't revile
again. He didn't threaten back. I tell you, the greatest power
this world has ever seen a man manifest. The greatest power. There have been some great things
done in this world that you look at and say, man, that was a powerful
thing. I tell you, the greatest, most
powerful thing that ever was manifest in this life by a man
in this world. The greatest exhibition of power.
He openeth not his mouth. In the face of that reviling,
in the face of this threatening, this one who knew no sin, this
one who could have easily just opened his mouth and said, y'all
all are flat wrong, opened not his mouth. He opened not his mouth. what
he do, verse 23, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. You know when I see these two
things, when I see that he opened not his mouth in the face of
what he suffered, but then he cast all his care into the hand
of God who judges righteously. I just see myself as just being
so sinful, don't you? I see that I can't ever boast
of any righteousness in me. I cannot boast that I've done
what's right. We can't keep our mouth shut. Especially if we think we haven't
done any wrong and we're being condemned. We just can't help
defending ourselves. He didn't. He didn't. He was the servant of God. He
came to serve God and to obey God and to humble himself in
the form of a servant. And you know what a servant does?
A servant trusts God to work it out for you. And he committed
it all to God that judges righteously. When he was facing the awful
weight of sin that he was going to bear for his people, he committed
himself to the just judge. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he suffered And he's suffering wrongfully. He had done no sin.
But he's sweating great drops of blood. He's looking at what
he's fixing to bear, what he's fixing to go to that cross and
bear in the shame of the sin and the justice and the forsaking
of God. And yet, you know what he said?
Not my will, but Thine be done. He committed it to God. That's
faith. That's trusting that God will
do what's right. God will do what's right. What awful suffering
was our substitute suffering as he did this? What was the
suffering he was bearing? Verse 24, "...who his own self
bare our sins in his own body on the tree." They were not his
own sins to begin with. They were not his sins to begin
with. He was not buffeted for his own faults. It was not guile
or deceit in His mouth that He was buffeted for. It was because
He bare our sins in His body on the tree that He was buffeted.
He bare the sins of His people in His body on the tree. That's
why He was buffeted. The righteousness of God required
that He bare our sins before God would buffet Him. And when
He bore our sins, the righteousness of God required that He must
be buffeted because our sins were made His sins. This thing was such an exact
substitution that He owned our sins to be His own sins. So that
however God says it is, is how it is. So that God wasn't just
treating Him as if He had sinned, God was treating him as the one
who had sinned. Though we know he did not sin,
we know he would not sin, but justice is looking at him as
the only one who's committed the crime. So the only one that
could put it away would be him. And that's what he's doing for
his people. This thing was strict justice, brethren. It was righteousness.
And so when he bore that, He bore unyielding perfect righteousness
of God. We serve the righteous just judge. When God beheld iniquity upon
His Son, He spared not His own Son. Would you do that? Would I do
that? No. First of all, I wouldn't give
my daughter to go in amongst a bunch of rapists and criminals
and live amongst them. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't
give my son to do that. And I certainly wouldn't give
him to become the guilty one in place of them. We're not talking
about people that loved We're talking about us who hated God,
who all that come from our heart was just a corruption. Why did He bear that for His
people? Verse 24, that we being dead to sins should live unto
righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were
as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. Christ died unto sin. Christ
died unto sin. Romans 6.10 said He died unto
sin once. You know, we're so used to reading
Scripture and reading over things and, you know, Men get all defensive
and try to make He made him sin sound like it's not what it says.
But we miss scriptures like Romans 6.10 that says, He died unto
sin. That's the only way He could
have died. He knew no sin. What do you think about, I mean,
death? What's death? It's the wages
of sin. The only way Christ could have
died was unto sin, to be made sin. It's the only way he could have
died. But he died unto sin, and when he did, all his people in
him died unto sin. Listen to this. He says there,
verse 24, that we being dead to sins. He says, by his stripes
you were healed. What does that mean? Romans 6.6
says, knowing this, our old man is crucified with Him. You ignore people. This is what
I was trying to get across when I preached that message at Danville
on the blessing of imputation. Ignore traditional Reformers
who say it was as if He was made sin, and it was as if He died
in the sin, and it was as if you died when He died, and it's
as if you're righteous, and it's as if... That's not how God says
it. Paul goes through Romans doing
his dead level best to say it as emphatically as he can in
all of Romans. Our old man is crucified with
Christ. that the body of sin might be
destroyed. That means the body of sin for
everybody he represented is destroyed. Before God, before justice, before
the just judge of heaven and earth, our body of sin has been
destroyed. That henceforth we should not
serve sin. What does it mean to serve sin?
Number one, it means to be guilty. If you are guilty, you are the
servant of sin. Sin is going to have its way
with you. You owe sin. You're guilty. He says, he that's
dead is freed from sin. That means you're justified.
The law has nothing else to say to one of God's sheep. regarding
our sin. He's freed. He's justified. Verse
11 says, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
under sin. Verse 14 of Romans 6 says, Sin
shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the
law but under grace. That's the second thing it means
to be free. It means to not be dominated
in your life by sin anymore. It doesn't mean you can live
a sinless life because you still got an old man of sin, but it
means Christ comes and puts a new man in you and He gives you faith
and you cannot not believe on Christ. He puts love in the heart
and you cannot not love God and your brethren. You cannot do
it. Before, sin had dominion over you and you couldn't do
it. You couldn't believe Christ and you couldn't love. But when
He comes and gives you a new heart, sin doesn't have dominion
over you anymore. Stop believing Christ and you
can't cease loving your brethren. Because that's of God. And what
God does is forever. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. You can't stop doing it. That's
what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. Since we died
unto sin when He died unto sin, all for whom Christ died are
justified. Look now at verse 24. He says,
He died and rose again, that we being dead to sin should live
unto righteousness. Verse 25, For you were a sheep
going astray, but you are now returned, that's by regeneration,
to faith through the gospel. You return unto the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. So brethren, He is telling us,
live unto righteousness. He said, this is what that means.
It means, number one, live unto Christ who is our shepherd. He
is the one that is leading us through this life, so follow
Him. Follow His steps. Live unto Him. What does that
mean? How am I going to know how to
live unto Christ? Go to this book and learn how Christ lived
and follow Christ. You don't go back to Moses and
Sinai and read the Ten Commandments because they won't tell you how.
those things are accomplished. Look to Christ. He tells you,
first off, believe on Me. That's how you fulfill the whole
law of God. And then He tells you how to love and how to live
in love. And you will only learn that
looking to Christ. You won't learn that looking to Moses.
Grace and truth came by who? Jesus Christ. Look to Him. Look
to Him. And secondly, that means this.
It means simply this. Just do what's right. Living
unto righteousness means just do what God says is right. How
am I going to know what God says is right? I'm going to look in
His Word and I'm going to hear Christ tell me what He says is
right. On the Sermon on the Mount, He said, you've heard it said.
This is how it used to be said was right and men embellished
it and turned it into something else. He said, but I say unto
you, there's where you learn what's right. There is where
you learn what is right. Listen to Christ. You follow
Christ and you hear Christ. Resting all in Christ. Just in
Him. So He tells us this, verse 11.
Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they
speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which
they shall behold glorify God the day of visitation. We saw
that. We saw it in Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego and Daniel. God brought
even their enemies to glorify God because God honors those
that honor Him. Now look here, look at the next
thing. He says, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king and supreme or to
governors, them that are sent by Him for the punishment of
evildoers or for the praise of them that do well. Submit yourselves
to them. You know, I was thinking this
morning about, I was just in my mind, I was comparing Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. with the Apostle Paul. And I
was thinking about, you know, I would have to say this, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. never encouraged people to violence. He never did. And I was thinking
when Apostle Paul was dealing with slaves, and he wasn't dealing
with black folks, he was dealing with his fellow countrymen, Jews,
who were slaves to the Romans. And when he dealt with them,
you know what he told them? Submit yourself to your master and live
unto him as being the free man of Christ and be better to him
than any other slave he's got because you're Christ's free
man. But he also told the master something. He said, and you treat
that slave remembering you have a master in heaven that's over
you. But he never told either one
of them to stop doing it. He never did. He never told,
told this is wrong, don't do it anymore. He never did. Though
it was wrong. He never told them that. What
was he doing by not telling them that? He was teaching them to
trust God. Committed to God. Because there
are some things in this life that God is going to have providentially
play out. And when it is time for it to
end, God is going to, He is going to use Men who all they are concerned
about is the world and about injustices in the world, so called,
so called what they are worried about. He is going to use men
like that to end something that is unjust. But he never sends
his people to be the great workers of that. Because you can't do
that and look at Christ and follow Christ and live as an obedient
servant to Christ. You can't do that. I think when
the next election cycle rolls around, about a year before it
rolls around, I'm going to start preaching on these kind of things
so people will be prepared. Because we get so carried away
with that mess, and we've got to stand up and join the world
in saying what's right and what's wrong. Commit it to God. That's what Christ did. committed
to Him. He came to do something. See,
He's making people love one another and do what's right, but He's
not doing it by protesting the wrongs of this world. He's doing
it through this gospel. He's doing it through the cross
work He accomplished and through working in the heart through
this gospel. And He does it in such a way that no amount of
protest can ever accomplish. He makes His people really one. He makes those that are in Christ
to see that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bar nor free,
educated or uneducated, male or female, but we are all one
in Him. And yet at the same time, He tells you, but now while you
are living in this world, if the custom is slavery, don't
run away. If the custom is wearing a hat
and even though you know a man and a woman are one in Christ,
keep wearing the hat. Don't rebel against societal
customs because that's not our fight. We have one weapon. It's the
gospel of Christ. And this weapon will do what
no earthly fleshly weapon will ever do. It works in the heart.
works in the heart, constrained by Christ's love because He's
made you righteous and holy, put away your sin by living unto
God and doing what He did for you, the most selfless act in
history. And He makes His people selfless.
He makes you want to live for your brethren, live for the honor
of God, and so you go through this life submitting to all the
ordinances of man. It may be wrong. They may be unjust. But for the
time sake, commit it to God and do what's right. If you've got
a forward boss who's wicked and perverse, you'd be the best employee
he's got for Christ's sake. Look, for what glory is it? Verse 20, ìIf when youíre buffeted
for your faults, you shall take it patiently, but if when you
do well and suffer, you take it patiently.î Thatís acceptable
with God. ìFor you were called to this
because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we
should follow His steps.î So follow His steps. Amen. Alright, weíre going to remember
the Lordís Table now.