The title of the message this
morning is Free Servants. Free Servants. If you look there
at verse 16 of 1 Peter chapter 2, he says, as free. Now look at the end of the verse.
As the servants of God. Believers are altogether God's
free men. Altogether free. and altogether
God's servants. In Romans 6, in verse 18, the
Scripture says, being then made free from sin, ye became the
servants of righteousness. In verse 22 of that chapter,
it says, but now being made free from sin and become servants
to God, You have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting
life. Peter begins here in verse 11
and he says, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims. What makes a believer in the
middle of this world a stranger? What makes a believer to be in
this world but not of this world? What makes us to be pilgrims
just passing through this world? Well, let's look at a little
bit of what we saw last week. Back up at verse 9. Verse 9. You are a chosen generation. The word Hebrew, that's what
every believer is, is a Hebrew. A Hebrew, a true Hebrew. And
the word means from beyond. before time, God chose, God the
Father chose you in Christ. You are His. You who are born
of the Spirit are chosen of God in Christ, whom He chose, foreordained
to eternal life in Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings,
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and predestinated unto
the adoption, which means that because God is sovereign to do
so, He crossed the path of you who believe with the truth of
the gospel. And you were regenerated by the Spirit of God, actually
born into the generation of God. So you're a chosen generation,
a chosen generation. And when time is no more, He
chose us before time, He called us in time, and when time is
no more, this Hebrew people, people from beyond will still
remain as everlasting, as eternal as God who chose us and called
us and made us His chosen generation. That's not so with this whole
world. It's just not so with this whole world. It says here,
a royal priesthood. In Christ our King, in Christ
our High Priest, we've been consecrated to God by His blood. And because
He's entered into the holiest of holies and sat down upon His
throne in glory, He's taken us there with Him and He's given
us liberty. by consecrating us by His blood
and anointing us with His Holy Spirit, so that we as a royal
priesthood, a priesthood of kings, a kingdom of priests, can enter
in to His throne of grace in the holiest of holies made without
hands. We don't worship in temples made
with hands. We didn't make the temple in
whom Christ abides. He did by His Spirit. And we
don't worship Him in temples made with hand. We worship Him
in spirit and in truth by His grace. And so then we can enter
into His presence. We have liberty, liberty, freedom
to enter in, to enter in. We offer up sacrifices and praises
of prayer and worship to our God. And they're accepted of
God by Jesus Christ. And then he says there in verse
9, a holy nation of peculiar people. Really and truly, really
and truly, the holy nation, the holy Israel of God, made up of
His holy people, His royal priesthood makes up this spiritual holy
nation that is His, a holy nation. God's own treasure, His peculiar
people, His preserved, protected, provided for people, special
people. And it says here, verse 9, that
you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light. Everything we've been
saying here, everything we've looked at here that we are, that
we are. A chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Everything we are is
due entirely without us. It's due entirely
to anything and everything but us. It's due to the grace of
God. The grace of the Father who chose
us, the grace of the Son who redeemed us, the grace of the
Spirit who regenerated us. We are what we are by the grace
of God. Everything. And so, we're called
to show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of
this darkness that we are and that we were by nature and that
into His light. We don't have anybody to praise
but Him. Anybody to praise but Him. And
so, in our lives, in all that we do and say, we show forth
the praises of Him who has called us. We truly... The child is like its father. The child, like begets like. And when a person's born of God,
they're going to be like the one of whom they've been born. We show forth the praises, the
virtues of Him who hath called us. Alright, now, look at verse
10. And we remember this, which in
time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
From eternity past, from whenever the Lord chose His people and
gave them to Christ, they were always and have always been represented
in Christ our surety. They were people in Christ's
surety. You remember 430 years before
God ever formed that nation Israel, that political nation Israel,
he said to Abraham everything, told Abraham everything about
them and where they would be and bondage and how he would
deliver them. Well, that's what he did with his son. He told
his son, showed his son, gave them to his son, created them
in his son. They were before, we were before
he made anything in God's purpose and will and his purpose of grace. But in our experience, when we
were born in this world, we weren't His people. We were not a people. We were children of wrath even
as others, hating God and hating one another, living for ourselves
and totally contrary to God, opposite to God, not a people.
But now, we've been called, we've been shown great mercy to know
we're the people of God. the people of God. Now that's
not, that's all to His grace and His mercy. All to His grace
and His mercy. Now, do you see why here we're
called, Peter says, beloved. Not just in a term of endearment
from Peter, though it was, but truly be loved, loved before
by God. and truly made by His grace to
be strangers and pilgrims. Strangers and pilgrims. Well,
he says here now in verse 11, here's the instruction, abstain
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. You see, we're
still creatures of flesh. We still have our flesh with
us and we're still have to endure with these motions of sins that
are in our members. That's just so. That's just so. If you really will think and
look at Romans 6 when he says there, but being made free from
sin. and become the servants of God,
you have your fruit unto holiness and everlasting life." Paul's
really not, he's not talking about fruit unto, like working
from the fruit out to holiness, he's working from the fruit inward.
Holiness has to do with the heart. It has to do with a new man,
a new spirit, by the Spirit of God, whose praise and glory is
of God. The fruit thereof is from that inward working of the
Spirit, whose praise and glory is God. And everything else is
of us, that old lustful flesh. I want you to turn over to James
chapter 3. And that flesh, it really... These lusts that he's talking
about, they don't do anything to help us. They don't do anything
to help us. They only serve to war against
our spiritual peace, our inward peace. That's all they do. That's
all they do. In James 3 verse 14, If you have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, this is what we're talking about, from
the inside out, that's what we're talking about. Bitter strife
and envy in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from
above, but it's earthy, it's sensual, it's devilish. For where
envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil word. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Look at that first
verse. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come
they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? In the Scripture, the works of
the flesh are always called the works of the flesh. And fruit is always called the
fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. Capital
S. The fruit of the Holy Spirit. Trace the effects. Trace the
fruit to its cause. And if you're born of the Holy
Spirit, count out at the feet of the cause, at the feet of
the fountain. That's what we're learning here. The flesh is mortified one way. Look at Colossians chapter 3.
The flesh is mortified through the Spirit of God one way. Only one way. I know that the flesh, let me
talk about the flesh hears the exhortation, mortify the deeds
of the flesh through the Spirit. And the flesh, just the flesh,
starts trying to mortify the deeds and gets prouder and prouder
and prouder that the deeds have been mortified. But that's not
mortification of the flesh. That inward pride and pride and
pride that these deeds have been mortified is just more flesh. More flesh. But when the flesh
is mortified, made dead, made to be regarded as dead, made
to be regarded as nothing, as not contributing, as not a part,
not something that's... When it's truly made to be disregarded
and it's done through the Spirit this way, this way right here.
You know this is so. If we think about it, we know
this is so because this is why God's ordained for us to come
and hear the Gospel declared, while He's given us His Word
to read, while He's given us spiritual songs to sing, while
He's given us one another to help each other in redirecting
our sight, our sight. Because this is when we find
that the flesh is It falls behind us. It becomes things we don't
think about. When? Right here, Colossians
3, verse 1. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affections. We're talking
about inward things, aren't we? We're affections. That's our
inward most desire, our inward most longing, our inward most
thought. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth, for ye are dead. and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Paul
put it this way, "...put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." Peter says in our text, 1 Peter
2.12, he says, 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 in the day of visitation. And I just started looking at
that light. And every one of you started looking at that light.
If we all have unbelieving friends, unbelieving family, unbelieving
neighbors, unbelieving co-workers, if we are risen with Christ and
we have set our affection on things above and we go through
our daily affairs, in the midst of all the responsibilities
we have. If we have our affections set
on Christ, it might just be that by God's grace, He'll make them
look where we're looking. He'll make them look where we're
looking. It's just curiosity that makes a person want to know,
what is it that gives you the peace you have? individually and together as
the body of Christ, as His body. Remember what Paul told the Philippians?
He said, only let your conversation, your conduct, be as becometh
the gospel of Christ. Whether I come and see you or
I'm absent, I'll hear of your affairs. that you stand fast
in one spirit, one mind, striving together, working together for
the faith of the gospel. Because what is it, the believer,
what is it, brethren, that we desire the most? What do you
desire most? Is it not for God to be glorified? For Him to receive glory? For Him to receive all the honor,
all the praise, all the glory? Peter says a little later that
God in all things might be glorified through Jesus Christ. Because
to Him really is the praise. And to Him is the dominion. And
to Him it is forever and ever. You remember Abraham and his
herdsmen and Lot and his herdsmen. Abraham is Lot's uncle. Lot's his nephew. And they have
their herdsmen out watching the cow. They get into a feud about
something, arguing about something. Do you remember what Abraham
did? He said, look at all the land
that's here, Lot. You can take whatever you want.
If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. If you go to
the left, I'll go to the right. Dust is not worth fighting over. Dust is not worth fighting over.
And everything that's not born of the Spirit of God is dust.
Me and you and everything is just dust. Not with fleshly wisdom,
but by His grace. conduct ourselves in simplicity,
singleness for Christ, singleness of heart for Christ, for the
glory of God, setting forth this glorious Savior. Now, Peter is
going to give us several examples as we go through the epistle.
We're going to start with this one. Give honor to where honor
is due. Look at verse 13. Submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be
to the king as supreme, to us that be the president, 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. That is,
from the president all the way down to the governors, down to
the police officers, obey the law of the land, every ordinance
of man. civil government, all the civil
rulers. Look over at Romans 13. They're
put there, ordained of God for our good, for our peace. Romans
13. Ordained of God. Look, Romans
13.1. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers. Submit. That's what it means.
Be in submission. For there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. You might not agree with their
politics. They might be totally against you and contrary to you.
They are put there by God, put there by God for our good. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. You do something in opposition to
a police officer, the police officer's gonna win. You can
fight the law, but the law's gonna win. It's gonna win. What
he's saying. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid
of the power, and do that which is good, and thou shalt have
praise of the same? For he's the minister of God
to thee for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid. Got reason to be afraid. For
he that beareth not the sword, for he beareth not the sword
in vain. For he's the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. As a believer who's going to
obey the law of the land, aren't you proud of that? Aren't you
glad for that? God's protecting you and me.
through these powers that He's put in place. He's protecting
His people. Wherefore ye must needs be subject,
not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. Always keep
coming back to that inward man, don't we? That holy character,
that holy nature, that holy spirit born of God. For for this cause
pay ye tribute also For they are God's ministers, attending
continually upon this very thing. God's going to use them to protect
us, and He's going to use us to support them. But God's given
power to everybody to do what He's given us to do, them and
others. Render therefore to all their
dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom,
fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe no man anything but
to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled
the law." Look back at our text now in verse 15. For so is the
will of God. Now why are we living like this?
In subjection to the King, to the governors, and to all those
that are sent of Him. Why are we in subjection to them?
Verse 15. For so is the will of God. that with well-doing you may
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free. Not using your liberty for a
cloak of maliciousness. That maliciousness is a heart
thing. It's a heart thing. Not using liberty as a cloak
for maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Every believer
born of God's Spirit is free. Free from the curse of God's
law, because Christ was made a curse for us. Free from the
condemnation, because Christ was cut off in our room instead.
Free from the dominion of sin. from the dominion of sin. We
are now ruled by the Spirit of God, led of the Spirit. Led of the Spirit. As many as
walk after the Spirit. Why do we walk after the Spirit?
Because we're led of the Spirit. Led of the Spirit. Sin shall
not have dominion over you because you're not under the law but
under grace. Led of the Spirit. And pretty soon, real soon, when
Christ comes again, we're going to be free from the presence
of sin. We're going to put off these
bodies of death and not even have the presence of it in our
members. We are free. If Christ shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. You are free. Free. So we wear this robe of liberty
that we have as the servants of God who are free now. True freedom. We've been taken
out of bondage that we thought was service and really made free
to enter into His presence with liberty, with freedom, robed
in His garment of righteousness so that we truly can worship
Him in spirit and truth. So that we truly are not of this
world, not of its religion, not of its bondage, not of its sin,
not of Adam. We are of God. And we use this
robe as a, wear it as liberty, but not as a robe or a cloak
or a disguise to be malicious. Because we're full of malice.
It's tax time. It's tax time. Well, I'm not of this earth. I'm not of this world. I'm of
God's holy nation. I am walking under the banner,
under the flag of Christ my Ensign, the Lord Jesus Christ. So then,
you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to give this nation,
Uncle Sam, what is due to Uncle Sam. You know why? Because I'm not of this nation. I live in it, but I'm not of
it. I'm born of God. Born of God. So we give to Him what is His
due. Do you remember when the scribes
and the Pharisees sent spies to Christ to tangle Him up in
His words? They sent spies to him asking
him, is it lawful for us? They said, we know you're a teacher
come from God, you teach right things, you're no respecter of
persons. Now what is lawful? Should we give unto Caesar or
not? Now Christ, Jesus the Lord, is
the free, willing, bond-servant of the Father. There He stands,
the free man. The free, willing servant of
the Father. There stands the one who is the
King. The King who puts Caesar where
Caesar is. There stands the one who gave
the skill to the coinsmith who put Caesar's image in his superscription
upon the penny that he told to bring to him so he could look
at it. And you know what he answered him? He said, render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things which
be God's. And you know what he did with
that? Listen to this. And they could not take hold
of His words before the people. And they marveled at His answer.
And they held their peace. You know what Peter is telling
us? Verse 15, For so is the will of God, that with well-doing
ye may put to silence the ignorance of men. You don't load their
gun for them, so they can shoot it at you. And secondly, and
they marveled at him. They walked away actually thinking,
huh. Isn't that what Peter's saying
here? That they which behold your good works may glorify God
in the day of visitation. If God visits them in the spirit
of His grace and regenerating grace and truly draws them to
Himself, He may just cause them to marvel at this. But regardless,
it'll shut their mouth. It'll shut their mouth and give
them nothing to boast in. Nothing to boast in. God's holy
nation are peaceful people. A peaceful people. You know,
we like our king. He's the king of Salem. He's
the king of peace. And we like him. We can serve
truly Peacefully he said my kingdom is not of this world if it were
of this world He said my servants would fight that I should not
be to be delivered to the Jews It's not of this world not of
this world Pilate said don't you not know that I have the
power to deliver thee to these Jews or I have the power to set
you free and he said Pilate you wouldn't have any power if it
wasn't given from you given to you from above and Now look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Let me end with this. I want
you to see a few things here. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul
asked this question. It's a good question. He said,
Do you look on things after the outward appearance? Verse 3, For though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You know, one of the most unbecoming
things is protesting against the powers and laws of the land
in the name of God. That's just out and out unbecoming.
I don't know which I like less, a free will preacher or a politician
is trying to push his agenda in the name of God. All of this clamor, all of this
protest, all of this debate that we behold in government and politics,
you know what it is? It's a tool to distract you. It's a tool to distract you.
I told you this Thursday night, I'll tell you again. God is not
going to do things the way man would have things done. Moses
was second to inherit the throne, to be the Caesar in Egypt. And he's going to be the man
God uses to bring his Israel out of Egypt. You know what man would have
done if man would have known that? I truly believe that. We would have, we left in our
plans, we would have done everything we could to get him, fight our
way to get him into that office of being the Caesar. That is
not how God did it. God took him out to the back
side of a desert and before it was over with, he turned Egypt
and the people he came to deliver against him. They said after
about the second or third plague, Moses, just go on and leave us
alone. Caesar's now making our work harder. He's not giving
us all the tools we need to work to make bricks, and he's making
us make more bricks, and this is because of you. Why don't
you just leave us alone? And he used the lamb, and he
used the staff to bring them out of there, and out of all
that he brought out of there. They continued to clamor and
protest and debate all through that wilderness they went through.
He delivered two of those original millions into the land of Canaan. And he used a staff and a voice
to do it. Thus saith the Lord. That's what
he used. What's going to pull down the
middle wall between sexes and races? between classes, between... Is it going to be political unrest?
Is it going to be political protest? Is it going to be political debate?
Let the partured strive with the partured. The one thing that's
going to break down the middle of the wall of partition and
make His people one is this, there is neither Jew or Gentile,
bond or free, male or female, for you are one in Christ Jesus
and His holy nation. The people from beyond, the people
who are strangers and pilgrims in this world, they know that.
They know that. They know that. And so Peter
says, put on the whole armor of God. Paul said, put on the
whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. And for we wrestle not against
flesh and blood. We don't wrestle against principalities.
when I wrestle against powers, but against principalities, against
powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. He's not talking about
men. I talk about kings in high places and governors and corrupt. I've lived a long time in two
different states, Louisiana and New Jersey. Both of them corrupt.
Both of them corrupt. I don't know which one's more
corrupt than the other. I'll tell you what, Louisiana might
have New Jersey beat. They impeached the governor for
fraud. And after he came out of prison,
they reelected him. That's all right. It's all right. Served God's purpose. Served
his purpose. Take the whole armor of God.
We're God's free men, so let's serve Him. God's no respecter
of persons. He's no respecter of persons.
And God's people are no respecter of persons. But it's not showing
a respecter of persons to give honor to whom honors do, tribute
to whom tributes do, custom to whom customs do. That's serving
God. It's serving God. Look at verse
17. Honor all love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. And Paul said this, not with
our service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ
doing the will of God from the heart. Holiness is a matter of
the heart. It's a matter of motive. It's
a matter of character. It's a matter of a new man, of
the Spirit of God. We know this. We know that of
the Lord, We shall receive the reward of the inheritance. As
somebody said, everybody's just paying taxes on what belongs
to us right now. That's all. Taking care of it. Taking care of it. We'll receive
the reward of Christ. Of Christ. For that's who we
serve. We serve the Lord Christ. Amen.