Alright, Peter begins here in
1 Peter 3, verse 8, and he says, Finally, be ye all of one mind. Now we're talking about, he's
talking to the brethren, to believers. Be ye all of one mind. Look over at chapter 2, and look
at verse 24. I'm sorry, verse 21. It says, For even here unto where
ye called, He's going to say that again back there in chapter
3. He's going to say that down the
page. And He's going to say, for thereunto
were you called. Now, He says here, Christ, He
says, here's why you were 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, sinless,
spotless, perfect Lamb of God, who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. When you behold Christ the man,
he is God. And He is man. When you behold
Him serving as man in our human nature, He's depending upon the
Father, and He's trusting the Father, and He's receiving all
strength from the Father, promises from the Father. It could be
said from His own Godhead, from Himself. But as a man, He's depending,
He's committing Himself to Him that judges righteously. And
He says, And this is unto the cross now. This is not just dealing
with sinners who reviled Him and men who were saying things
against Him and men that were saying contrary things to Him.
You think about this as a believer in your relationship to men in
this earth. He did this not just when men
reviled Him and men spoke against Him. But now watch, verse 24,
He did this unto the cross, to the obedience of the cross. Who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. That we being dead to sin. This
one suffered bearing the sins of his people in his own body
on the tree, and he trusted the Father to raise him from the
dead. When he bore strict divine justice, when he bore all that
hell could throw against him, when he bore everything that
divine justice demanded, he committed himself unto Him that judgeth
righteously. Now, you're dead to sins if you
died in Him. If He died for you, you're dead
in sin. Dead to sin and sin's dead to
you. You're dead to sin. That we should
live, if we've been raised with Him, we live. That we should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. That's
what He did. We were a sheep going astray,
He said, but now return to the shepherd and bishop of our souls.
Look down at chapter 4 now. I'm sorry, chapter 3, verse 18. This is what we're talking about.
Christ also hath once suffered for sin. Everything he suffered
was due to sin. Everything he suffered was from
sin. Everything he suffered was because
of sin. Everything he suffered was to
put away sin. He suffered for sin. The just,
and he's the just one, we're the unjust. He suffered the just
for the unjust. That he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. Now look down at chapter 4 verse
1. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." See that? With the same mind that Christ
had. For he that suffered in the flesh,
he ceased from sin. Christ is risen now. There's
no sin to plague Him. No sin from sinners. No sin having
bore the sin of His people. He put that away and He's risen. He lives now with the Father. Is that where we live? If that's
where we live, He says, now you be of the same mind. When He
walked this earth, be of the same mind as Christ. Look at
the last verse of chapter 4, verse 19. Wherefore, let them
that suffer according to the will of God, commit, commit."
That's what he did. He committed all to Him that
judges righteously. And he said, now, commit the
keeping of your soul in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator. That's who this One is. He's
the Creator, the God-Man, our Mediator. Now, we hear this saying,
and we use this saying sometimes, well, my mind's made up. My mind's
made up. Is our mind made up by God? Is the Holy Spirit of God made
up our mind? Made us to have, as Brother Jaime
said, a one-track mind. One. Our mind set on one. committed to Him that judgeth
righteously, committed to Him as unto a faithful Creator, committed
to Him as God our Savior, committed to Christ Jesus the Lord our
righteousness, knowing that in Him we're complete, knowing that
in Him we're justified, knowing that in Him we're sanctified,
knowing that in Him We have the mind of Christ so that we know
the wisdom of God and the power of God in saving His people,
knowing that we've been redeemed from all iniquity, brought out
of all bondage, all captivity, made free indeed in Christ. Knowing
this, have this one mind. We're not going back. We're not
going back to it. We're free at last. We've been made free in Christ
and now we're going to walk with Him. We're going to follow Him.
We're going to serve Him. We're going to honor Him. We
don't care if we're out of step with the world. We don't care
if we're out of step with what the world says you ought to be
and need to be and got to be. This is what's needful. We have
Christ. We're going to stick to Him because
He sticks to us and we're going to follow Him. One mind. One
mind. And with one mouth, then, and
one body, glorify God. Let me show you something real
quick. Turn over to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41. When this verse speaks, it's
speaking to first Christ and then it's speaking to His people
in Christ. And He says here, look at verse 15, Behold, I will
make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Look
back up there at verse 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, talking
to one, and ye men of Israel. Plural. This is in Christ Jesus. And what God does here is he
says, I've made you a new sharp threshing instrument. I've made
you not many, not a bunch of different kinds of threshing
instruments. I've made you a new sharp threshing instrument, having
mouths, having teeth. And he says, Paul says, therefore
glorify God with your mouth as one new body, one new threshing
machine that God has made to sound forth the gospel so that
by God's power and God's grace as He goes forth in the heart,
you know what God will do? You know what a thresher does?
A threshing machine, an example of threshing is like corn. We
take that corn and we take the husk off the corn cob. That's a type of sort of a threshing. Well, God, through the Spirit,
you know what He's going to do? As He's made us to glorify Him
with one mind and one mouth, He's going to take the husk He's
going to take the husk of, make the people to see, His people
to see that He's taken the husk of sin off His people when He
took it off them and put it on Christ and Christ bore it away
forever. And He's going to make them to
behold that through the Spirit of God, He's going to subdue
the husk of that old man and make that inner fruit thrive
so that now we can behold Christ and follow Him and walk after
Him and God Himself Glorifying Him with one mouth, using worms
like us, He's going to make, He's going to separate the chaff
from that good fruit, from that good seed. And He's going to
do it. He's going to do it. Stand fast
in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith
of the gospel. Now, how do we do that? Well,
look here in verse 8, 1 Peter 3, 8, having compassion, One
of another. Compassion. Yeah, I guess the
best way to illustrate compassion is this. You and I needed mercy. And we needed grace. We needed
compassion. And that's what God showed us,
even though we were nothing of the sort. And true judgment is
to know, I continue to need His compassion. I continue to need
His mercy, His grace. So then true judgment is to show
mercy. To show mercy rather than judgment.
Have compassion rather than judgment. And He says here to us, have
compassion one another, love as brethren, as brethren. You know, every believer, everybody
who believes God, is born of the same Spirit. And we're children
of God the Father. And we're brothers and sisters
of one another. Everyone born of the same spirit
be turning over to 1st Corinthians chapter 12 We're always Melinda
and I are constantly reminding Emma and Will When they start
wanting to strive with each other Getting their argument about
something. We're constantly reminding them I say this probably to them
more than anything else when I get to having get at odds with
each other Do you know that's your brother? That's your sister. That's your brother. That's your
sister. Well, it's infinitely, eternally,
unchangeably more so with brothers and sisters in Christ. More so. More so. Look at 1 Corinthians
12, 3. Born of the same spirit, Wherefore,
I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus a curse. And that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now we're talking
about as God says a man calls him that. Men can say whatever
they want to with their mouths. We're talking about God looking
on the heart that he's made. No man can do this from the heart.
except God give him a new heart. Now there are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations,
but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations,
but it's the same God which worketh all in all. That ought to give us pause when
we think critically or or in a bad light of our brother or
sister in Christ, they're born of the same Spirit of God that
I'm born of, and we're one in God. If God dwells in me, He
dwells in them. And if He's working in me, He's
working in them. And you know the same thing is
true of you who have not been born of the Spirit of God. You
walk after the same Spirit. We did, every believer did. Ephesians
2. Before God came and called us
by His grace, we were of the same spirit, apart from the Spirit of God.
Look, Ephesians 2, 2. Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. And you know what we were? We
were one with the world. One with the world. How come
God's people are one with each other, and how come this world's
one with each other? We've got two different spirits.
Born of two different spirits. Two different spirits all together.
Verse 3, we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
where by nature the children are wrath even as others. But
God, here's the difference, God rich in mercy, for His great
love, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us together
with Christ, by grace, by grace. So you see, if you ever wonder
why the brethren, why, before you have this spirit, when you
have, somebody does something to you, and it's contrary to
you, and it's reviling you, it's guile towards you, Without this
Spirit of God's grace, you know what? You never even think. It never comes into our mind
whatsoever to be of one mind with Christ. That never comes into our mind.
What comes into our mind is, do back to them what they just
did to us. Say back to them what they just
said about us. They said evil, let's speak evil
about them. They treated us badly, let's
treat them badly. They walk contrary to me, I'll
walk contrary to them. And as believers, we find ourselves
doing that constantly now. Because that same old spirit's
still with us. That same old flesh is still
what it is. It hasn't been born again. It
hasn't been changed. It hasn't been anything done
to it. It is what it is and will be what it will be until it returns
to the dust. The new man that God's made,
is wherein God checks us and brings us to behold. I don't want to be of that mind.
So He says, be of one mind, compassionate. How did Christ deal with you?
How did He deal with you? Well, the next word there in
verse 8, 1 Peter 3, 8, is pitiful. Pitiful. He was full of pity. He was full of pity towards His
people. The Scripture says, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. Kind, tenderhearted, forgiving. That's a good definition of pity.
Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Let's look
over at Matthew 18, just a moment. Matthew 18, verse 21. Peter came to the Lord and he
said, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? Until seven times? And Jesus saith unto him, I say
unto thee until seven times, not unto thee until seven times,
but until seventy times seven, infinitely. Keep forgiving. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened to a certain king which would take account of his servants.
Now listen to this illustration the Lord gives, this parable.
When he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
owed him ten thousand talents. He owed him. That's what you
owe. If you're sitting here today,
you ever believed on Christ? Listen to me. Let me get your
attention. Everybody here, look at me. I
want your eyes on me. Have you ever believed on Christ? Have you ever cast your care
into the hand of Christ, totally, absolutely dependent upon God
Himself to save you? from the conception of the thought
of saving you all the way to the consummation of saving you,
from beginning to end. Trust Him completely, totally
to save you. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever come forth publicly and professed before the world,
I trust Christ, my mind's made up, I'm one with Him. Have you
ever done that? Here's the fact of the matter.
Without Him, you owe a debt that you cannot pay. Now listen, you
owe a debt that you cannot pay. All right, watch this. This man
owed 10,000 talents, but for as much as he had not to pay,
his lord, his king, commanded him to be sold and his wife and
children and all that he had in payment to be made. That's
what we're going to be sold, we're going to be cast away and
we'll eternally never pay the debt that's owed. We'll suffer
eternally and never pay the debt that's owed. He told him, cast
him away. Watch what happened. The servant therefore fell down.
and worshipped Him. You know what worship is? We
think worship is coming in here and you sing a few songs and
you stand up and you sit down and you say a prayer and you
go through the motions. Let me tell you what worship
is. It's falling down at the feet of Christ and begging Him,
save me, I can't save myself. That's worship. He fell down
at His feet and worshipped Him. And what did He do? Watch. Lord,
have patience with me and I'll pay thee all. Then the Lord of
that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him
the debt. He forgave him all the debt. You can't pay the debt and I
can't pay the debt. If we come and bow down to Christ
Ask God to forgive us of all sin. Ask Him to be patient with
us." He loosed him and forgave him the whole debt. He just said,
it's gone. You don't owe me a thing. You
don't owe me a thing. But the same servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence.
Now we're talking about being pitiful. You that have been called
by His grace, being pitiful, being compassionate on others,
knowing that tender-hearted, forgiving, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. This one has been forgiven. He
goes out and he finds one of his fellow servants, which owed
him a hundred pence, not nearly as much as what he owed. And
he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay
me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet, and besought him saying, have patience with me
and I'll pay thee all. He begged him for mercy just
like he begged his king for mercy. And he would not. He wouldn't
forgive him. But went and cast him into prison
so that he should pay the debt. So when the fellow servants saw
what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto
their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he
had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou
also, look here now, shouldest not thou also have had compassion
on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? So likewise
shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts
forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. That's being
compassionate and being pitiful. Remember what God did for you.
What's he done for you? You begged him for mercy, and
he saved you. He saved you. So when somebody
rejoices in the body, we rejoice with them. When they suffer,
we suffer with them. When they turn against us, We
show compassion, mercy, pity. All right, look here now, verse
9. Not rendering evil for evil, 1 Peter 3, 9. Not rendering evil
for evil, railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing
that ye are there unto call that you should inherit a blessing.
Not that if you do this, you're going to get a blessing, but
this was how the blessing was given to you. This is how you
received the blessing. This is what we've been looking
at here. Christ suffered for you. We wouldn't, we were, when
somebody treats you contrary, when asked before, you would
ignore them. They would ignore you, you would ignore back. They
would wrong you, you'd wrong them back. Now, remember this,
we were full of envy and guile toward Christ. We wouldn't come
to Him. He came to where we were. We
were so full of sin and rebellion against Him, we wouldn't approach
God, couldn't approach God. He came to where we were and
took our sin off of us onto Himself and put it away by the sacrifice
of Himself. We wouldn't call on His name.
He came to us and made us know we had a debt we couldn't owe
and graciously drew us to His feet and forgave us of the debt
by giving us faith in Him. So bless one another, contrary.
as He did. Now, look at this simple word. He that will love life, verse
10, see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, his lips
that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, get away
from it, leave it, and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue
it, for 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. This is from Psalm 34, and it's
basically saying to us, this is the spirit of a broken and
contrite heart. Refrain tongue from evil, no
lies, no slander, no gossip, no harsh words, no boasting.
You know, I like to listen to people. When you sit in a restaurant
or something, just listen, what do people talk about? And you
know, this is all we do really. We're always talking about somebody. If we didn't do that, we wouldn't
be talking much. We really wouldn't. Refrain the tongue from evil.
Leave evil and do good. Darkness has no fellowship with
light. A lie has no fellowship with truth. Seek peace and ensue
it. First, between me and God. Seek
ye first the Kingdom of God. Seek Him first. Secondly, between
me and my brethren, seek peace between them. And thirdly, as
much as is in you possible, live peaceably with all men. With
all men. Verse 12, For the eyes of the
Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. This is a heart matter now. Out
of the heart, that's what defiles a man, that which comes out of
the heart. That's where the thoughts and the evil look and the evil
eye, the blasphemy and these things come from the heart. The
Lord's over them. He's over them. He's over the
righteous. He was over us, brethren, before
we knew He was over us. He was looking after us before
we knew He was looking after us. Putting us in Christ before
the world began by His grace. keeping us all the days of our
rebellion by His grace. How much more now that you've
been called by Him and reconciled unto Him, shall not His eyes
be over you? That from the heart desire that
which is right and desire to walk after Him and desire to
honor Him because of the grace He's worked in you. Do you think
that if He's begun that good work in us, do we think He'll
ever take His eye off us? Always. And His prayer Your prayer
is open to Him. He's hearing. We have the ear. You think about it. Think how
much peace you'd have. This might be a bad illustration
for some, but maybe not. Just think of the office. But
if you had a direct line to the President of the United States,
and you could call him up, and whenever you saw anything on
the news, any trouble, anything going on on television that just
gave you, just put you in a tailspin, you could pick up the telephone
and call and say, what's going on? And he'd tell you, He'd speak
peace to you and say, I've got it. We got it. Don't worry about
this at all. We've got this completely, totally
under control. I'll show you how we have this
under control. And he tells you everything that they're doing.
Have it under control. And you'd say, anytime somebody
saw something, they're complaining about something, they're worried
about something, you'd say, hold on a minute. Let me get on the
phone. And you'd call him up and say,
what's going on? Brethren, we have anything we
see on this earth that's putting us into a tailspin. We have this
confidence. We have direct access to God
who holds everything in the hollow of His hand. We can beseech Him
and ask Him, Lord, teach me, show me, comfort me, show me
what's going on. And He'll settle the heart. He'll
settle the heart. All right. The last word, and
let's just end with this. Who is He that will harm you
if you be followers of that which is good? You know what that which
is good is? First of all, it's Him. It's
Him. It's God, our Lord Jesus Christ. That's who it is. He's the good
one. If you follow after Him, under
His wings, under His care. And secondly, it's this simple,
these words that are dropping from His lips that we're reading
here in this text. Who's going to harm you if you
follow after this one? And after that which He said
is good. I want to end with this. Turn to Romans 8. This is what we're talking about.
Romans 8. This is exactly what Peter's
declaring, what Paul said here. Verse 31, What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Is God to justify? Who is he
that condemneth this Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen
again, who's even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Hmm? Is it tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? It's written,
for thy sake. We're killed all the day long.
We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things,
we're more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. For
I'm persuaded. You know what that word persuaded
means? I'm of one mind. My mind's made up. God's made
it up for me. I'm persuaded. Neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Who's going to harm you if you
be followers of that which is good? I don't want. I don't want. We may suffer a
little. We'll look at that next time. But nobody's going to harm
us. Nobody's going to separate us
from Him. We're talking about real harm. Real harm. Nobody's
going to harm us. Amen.