All right, let's begin in 1 Peter
3, 7. 1 Peter 3, 7, we looked at likewise
ye wives last week, and now we're going to look at the husbands
here. And 1 Peter 3, 7, just one verse
that we're going to read. Likewise ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace
of life, that your prayers be not hindered." Now, the first
thing that we as men need to realize, and our wives and you
ladies, is that none of us is perfect. And we can't keep this
admonition in spirit and in truth. We can't keep it as the Lord
delivers his word to us, right? We make plenty of mistakes, we
all know that, in all of our dealings. And in the Apostle's
address here to the husband, where we're benefited, what we
need to do is see Christ. We need to look to Christ, because
Christ is the perfect man. He is the perfect husband to
his bride, and we see how he fulfills all things. He fulfills
this word completely and entirely because as a husband, he cherishes
and nourishes and feeds his bride and gives her all things that
are necessary. And the reason why is that she
is an heir with Christ, right? She's going to dwell with Him
for all eternity. Him who is her eternal life with
Him who is eternal life itself. Our Savior He doesn't have eternal
life, He is eternal life, and she's going to dwell with Him
forever. We are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, as
Ephesians 5.30 says, for we are members of His body, of His flesh,
and of His bones. Our title this morning is Likewise
Ye Husbands, and we'll see how Christ provides for His bride
in order for us to learn of Him, to know Him, and we see this
through the care and the love that He has for his bride, and
then that'll translate to our relationships, especially our
relationship with our wives, and even wives with their husbands,
and even you without wives, just the relationships that you have,
especially among fellow believers and those who love the Lord.
We'll have three divisions. We'll see Christ's provision,
we'll consider briefly a vessel of the Lord, and then heirs with
Christ. All right, so Peter continues
now with the husbands, and he says, likewise ye husbands, dwell
with them according to knowledge. And to dwell with the wives according
to knowledge is to dwell with them wisely. It's to dwell with
them wisely. All right, a man who lives with
his wife, he begins to understand that, you know, she has feelings,
and she has dreams, and desires, and thoughts, know, the way things
should be in her mind. And that man who loves his wife,
he's going to take time to seek to know her and to seek to understand
her. And just to understand his wife
that he might know how to provide for her needs. Many men, you
know, they fall all over their wives because they know she likes
something. I remember one time we were standing
in a jewelry store. I think I was having Michelle's
ring cleaned, her engagement ring. And I heard her talking
to the girls, and she had whispered something to them like, oh, I
like that necklace there. I like that little necklace.
And I went over, and I said, did mom say she likes this necklace
right here, that one right there? And they said, yep, it was that
one. And it was in on my heart to come back when she wasn't
around and surprise her with it, because you love your wife,
and you want to do that, which is nice. And you want to be sweet
on her, and care for her, and provide for us. The reality is,
we men are sinners, and so we come up short all the time, and
we fail pretty miserably in these things, but nowhere is the perfection
of these things seen more clearly than in our husband, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and how he deals with his bride. In Deuteronomy
14, 2, it says, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord
thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
unto himself. above all the nations that are
upon the earth. And then in Isaiah 54, 5, we
read, For thy maker is thine husband, and the Lord of hosts
is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God
of the whole earth, shall he be called. So the triune God,
what we understand from the scriptures is that the triune God had a
people whom he set his heart upon for his son, in eternity
past. He chose us before the foundations
of the world. We men, we understand this in
our lives. We choose out a bride. We see a woman that we fall in
love with and that we love and that we want to just make us
the happiest man in the world if she would marry us and be
with us. We understand that it's It's
a particular woman that we've set our heart upon, that we've
asked to marry us, and so it is with the Lord. We're not anything
different from, we're not better than the Lord. The Lord has a
particular bride, a people that he chose out for himself before
the foundation of the world. It says in Ephesians 1-3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, right, and
that's because this covenant, we're talking about a marriage,
and so certainly we understand there's a covenant involved there,
and the covenant that we have has been established for us by
God the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. It's a covenant
of grace, and so all the grace of God is poured out upon us
through the Son, Jesus Christ. And in Ephesians 1-4 it says,
according as the Father hath chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Now when Adam sinned, all the
peoples of the earth were in Adam's loins. We were all in
Adam. That means even the bride that
God chose out for his son Jesus Christ were there in Adam's loins. So when Adam sinned, we all sinned
and the curse came upon every one of us. We all died and the
fellowship that we had with the Father was severed because we
ate that fruit forbidden tree, we broke the law of God and became
dead sinners, severed from the fellowship with God Almighty.
And I like the way Adam says it. There's four words, just
remember. In Adam, all die. In Adam, all die. That's 1 Corinthians
15, 22. In Adam, all die. We all died
in our father Adam. But Christ's love for his bride,
thankfully, never changed. You know, we're very fickle.
We see something we don't like, we get turned off and then, you
know, we don't want anything to do with that person anymore.
But our Lord's love is eternal and lasting. It never ends. And
we ought to be very thankful for that because by nature, we've
done everything we could do to turn him away from us, to have
him look away from us. and not do for us what only He
can do and what we need Him to do. Turn over to Hebrews 13.20.
Hebrews 13.20. We read, Hebrews 13.20, Now the
God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Now this is an eternal everlasting
covenant made in eternity and it's going to continue for all
eternity and the thing is that nothing of that covenant shall
fail. Nothing in that covenant that
God has promised to do for his people is going to fall to the
ground dead without being done. It's going to come to pass. Our
marriage Our marriage to our spouses pictures this covenant
promise here in type, that so long as both parties are alive,
God's not going to separate it. And yet God goes above and beyond
that in that when we were dead sinners, he still fulfilled every
aspect of the covenant for his people. But therefore God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder. But our life will
never end in Christ. He says in 1 John 2.25, and this
is the promise, that he hath promised us even eternal life. And again, 1 John 5.11.12, and
this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So our Lord is providing, as
a husband provides for his bride, he's provided everything for
his bride, for his people. Everything, nothing in that covenant
is going to fall to the ground without being done. As it says
in Hebrews 13, 21, if you're still there, that it's to make
you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you
that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So that there's another
one of those sweet verses where we see that God himself provides
everything necessary for our salvation, that he will make
you perfect unto every good work. Any work that pleases him, he's
going to do that. He's going to work that in us.
He's going to give us the graces that we need to be able to serve
him and bear fruit unto his glory and unto his name. So our God
graciously deals with us now under the new covenant. Not that
it's a new covenant, but it's newly revealed to us. It's been
established in eternity, but he newly reveals it to us now
so that we know him and understand what he's done and rejoice more
and more as we understand what he's accomplished for us, his
people. Turn over to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah
31, and go to verse 31. He says in Jeremiah 31, 31, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I wasn't
husband unto them, saith the Lord. So that old covenant, what
we are to understand is that in the old covenant, God was
dealing with the people that if they held up their end of
the bargain, if they did their part, that he would then do his
part. He would honor the covenant that
he made with them if they could honor their part. If they kept
the law perfectly, then God would be a God to them and everything
would be fine. Now, we know that we can't keep
the covenant. We're imperfect. So in the new
covenant, God is establishing the covenant with himself doing
the work entirely. He's not leaving anything up
to the fickle will of man that is now corrupt and dead and bound
in trespasses and in sins. And that's why it helps us understand
that it's not according to our decision. It's not according
to our will because we know what we are by nature. That none of
us chooses God or seeks after God. We know that when it comes
to the things of God in the flesh, We're weary, we're tired, we
don't want to do the things that are laid out in the word of God,
there's no desire, there's no interest for those things that,
so we know if left to us, we would never seek after God. And
even those that become zealous and very religious, they fail.
If they're being honest, they fail and can't keep the commandments
of God, they can't keep the law of God, so we're completely dependent
on the Lord doing all the work. But in Jeremiah 31, 33 he says, And I will remember their sin
no more. And so what the Lord is saying
is, I will dwell with my people. It's not going to be based on
what they do in the flesh that's going to determine whether I
dwell with them. But as a husband, I will gather my people. And
I'm going to dwell with my people. And I'm going to teach them.
And I'm going to give them that spirit that they need that they
don't have by nature. And I'll give them that heart
so that they do love me and desire to be with me and want to know
me. I'll do that work. So that we see him dwell in with
his people according to knowledge. And that's what Peter said. Husbands,
dwell with your wives according to knowledge. Alright, turn over
to John 14. John 14. And go to verse 16. And we'll see this truth being
fulfilled in the scriptures. John 14, 16. Our Lord, as a faithful husband,
providing everything for his bride, he says, I'll pray the
Father, and he shall give you another comforter that he may
abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you. And our Lord said, if a man loved
me, He will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Thanks be
to God that he's not waiting for us in this natural heart
to love him, but he works that love in his people, he teaches
us, he instructs us, he gives us that heart and that spirit
to want to know him and that love for our Savior and what
he's done. It should be a great comfort
to us because as a husband he dwells with us and he's fulfilling
all that covenant. He's loving us, he's nourishing
us, he's cherishing us, and he's feeding us everything that we
have need of to know him and to walk before him and to bear
fruit unto him. You know, it allows, it enables
us to do that which those admonitions that are in the word by his spirit
working it in us. We don't do it perfectly. And
the Lord's not looking to us to do it perfectly because Christ
has done it perfectly. And you know, it's all been done
in the sun. And so our motive though is Christ,
not to be saved, not to make ourselves more holy, not to sanctify
ourselves, but because he has loved us and because he has saved
us and because he has laid down his life for us, there's a desire,
there's a love for him and we want to serve him and we want
to know him and rejoice in him. He says, but grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ him be
glory both now and forever. Amen. So it's not a command,
not at all, but rather he puts that faith in us. He gives us
everything we need and he grows us patiently, long-sufferingly. He's very patient with us, brethren.
He's very kind to us. And he deals with us very gently
and just leads us along in green pastures in a way that is very
merciful and kind. But you look back over 10 years,
over 20 years, as he settles you under the gospel, you look
back and say, I can't believe how merciful the Lord was to
me in my ignorance and my foolishness and the thoughts that I had back
then and still have now. But you'll see how the Lord grows
you. He settles his people under the gospel with no whipping and
no beating or anything like that. But if you're chasing, you'll
be chasing to the Lord and not I pray, and I'm sure you pray,
not by the pastor trying to force something in the flesh and trying
to make you do things. That's not what we want, and
that's not how the Lord taught me, but he was patient with me
and kind and fed me with that gospel. Next we see our Savior
makes a peaceful home. He establishes peace. In John
14, 27, he says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you, Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And this is an
amazing thing, this piece, because you know what, when the Lord
shows you what you are by nature, you know that you're, you know,
you and me, we're a contentious people by nature. We like to
fight and get into it and we want to battle things out. We're
a contentious people and, you know, The Lord has to save us from
that, because in the flesh, this flesh is enmity against God. It's enmity against Him. It says,
Paul wrote in Romans 8, 5, they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh. And to mind the things of the
flesh is to be carnally minded. And what is the carnal mind?
The carnal mind is death. Because the carnal mind is The
Karma Mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, by nature, we can
be quite contentious and fight things and we know, especially
with our spouses, because we get to know them and we know
the things that set them off and we know just how to say that
word again, you know, and just drop it in there and you know
it's going to do no good. It's not going to bring peace.
the Lord will bring peace. You know, in Proverbs 21 19 it
says, it's better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious
and an angry woman. And Christ isn't going to dwell
with a contentious and angry woman, but he does that. He, he restores us. He heals
us and teaches us patiently because we're all husbands alike, you
know, not just the wives, but we're all that contentious and
angry wife, you know, that, that, If he left us in the flesh, there
would be no peace. So he's going to restore us gently
and teach us and bring us along in the ways of life. Titus 3.5,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ, our Savior. So he gives us this life according
to his eternal covenant promises. Alright, turn over to Ezekiel
36. Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, verse 25 through 27, we'll look at. He
says, So, we see that in the Lord applying His Word. right, spiritually to our hearts
so that we hear it, not in that, he's not feeding or building
up that old carnal heart in this carnal flesh. He's feeding the
spirit which he puts in us. He's feeding that new man that
he's created in us. Verse 26, a new heart also will
I give unto you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you. and
cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments
and do them. And he does this because to be
spiritually minded is life and peace. It's life and peace. So he's not, as a faithful husband,
he's not going to leave us destitute and without the things that we
need to live. He's going to feed us and build
us up and grow us in these things. He's going to give us a spirit
and he's going to establish life and peace so that we have that
fellowship and that communion with God. He's given unto us
all things that pertain unto life and godliness. He's made
Christ wisdom unto us. He's made him righteousness unto
us and sanctification and redemption. He makes Christ to us all these
things so that we have that fellowship with him and we know him and
we grow in him and therefore being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's justified
us, he's done everything necessary that we might stand before holy
God. So husbands, we're in this covenant
of marriage and it's a type of what Christ has done. In Ephesians
5, 31 and 32 it says, for this cause shall a man leave his father
and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall
be one flesh. There's no mama's boys, They
join them to their wife. And this is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And we see how
Christ himself was one with the Father, and how he left the Father
in glory. It's a picture of how Christ
left glory and took upon him the likeness of our sinful flesh,
the likeness of his bride, and became like her, except without
sin. and he did all things for her,
he became poor for our sakes, that we might be rich and have
all the riches and the knowledge and the fellowship and the eternal
inheritance with God, our creator and our maker and who loves us
and did all this for us. So in that same way that a man
leaves his father and mother, we see that picture when Christ
left his throne of glory to do for us what we couldn't do for
ourselves. He remained faithful to the Father.
He fulfilled all righteousness, not for himself, but for his
people. And then when that time came,
and she was bankrupt and unable to stand before God in righteousness
and holiness, he said, put that debt on me. I'll take the whole
thing. So just like a spouse may run
up a debt, but the other spouse says, you know what? I don't
love that, you did it, but put it on me, I'll take care of it.
I'll pay the whole thing, and don't you worry about it anymore."
So that's what Christ did. He faithfully restores all things,
that which he took not away. He does everything for us, and
it's a sweet, sweet picture. Well, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9,
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. Next we'll look at a vessel of
the Lord. A vessel of the Lord. So, again, we as men, we don't
love our wives perfectly the way that we ought to, and they're
very patient and gentle with us and do many kind and very
nice things making all kinds of sacrifices for us and we're
to love our wives and we don't love them perfectly and we don't
take care of them not the way the Lord takes care of us but
he gives us his spirit to dwell in us so that there's a desire
we see how Christ has done everything for us as his bride provided
everything for us and that we needed and so there's a desire
with Christ being the motive Christ is our motive that It's
not for our salvation, it's not to make ourselves more perfect
or improved upon, but because we love him and how he loved
us. And so there's a desire, there
should be a desire, to want to love your wives perfectly and
be faithful and provide for them. So we're motivated by Christ's
love to us. And he says, Peter says in our
text, 1 Peter 3, 7, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them
according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the
weaker vessel. The best remedy for men and women
in this is to remember the tenderness with which the Lord deals with
us. I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I can be pretty
pushy and bold and if I'm not getting the response I'm looking
for from my wife, I might get pushy to the point where she'll
shut down. And it's just being a jerk, just
being an ignorant jerk, because I know that she doesn't respond
well to that kind of pushing. And we need to remember how the
Lord deals with us. He doesn't deal with us like
an ignorant jerk. He knows us. He knows that we're
flesh. He knows that we're but dust.
He knows that we're weak. And so he's tender and kind and
patient to us. And that's how we're to be with
our wives. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4.32,
this is true of the church and it's true of spouses to one another.
Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So we're supposed to be
tender and kind to one another. And in Ephesians 5.25, Paul,
who didn't even have a wife, but given the spirit of Christ,
he understood this and he understood that there's great benefit in
that love between a husband and a wife, because it's a beautiful
picture of Christ loving his bride, loving his wife, loving
the church. And he says, Husbands, love your wives, in Ephesians
5.25, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious
church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord
the Church." And certainly I can testify that the more you invest
in your wife and you're sweet on her, you'll see that reciprocated
back to you. It comes back to you many many
fold just taking that time to do for her what you would have
her do for you and just just be sweet and serve her at times
and and lay down your life for her and your comfort for her
and you'll see that she'll be more willing to and more glad
and happy to do nice things for you too. You take the lead and
do that. Don't wait for her to do it for
you. You take that lead and if you
see there's a coldness, begin with yourself. Begin with what
you can do. You can't change the other person,
but you can do things yourself there. Christ didn't wait for
us. He did it. He came and did what
we needed to be done for us. He saved us. He laid down his
life We even see that when he took that towel and wrapped it
around himself and he washed the feet of his disciples and
he made them clean and he bore the burden of the sin. He sacrificed
himself on the tree before the father baron. The shame and the
curse and the sin of his people put it away. He served his people
in that manner and so we can learn a lot from that in just
being a good example to our husbands but not even as don't do it as
an example do it because you love him because that's why he
did it he did it he's not our just our pattern and our example
he's he loves us and he did it for us he saved us so and he
says for we're members of his body of his flesh and of his
bones for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and
shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh
this is a great mystery but i speak concerning christ in the church
nevertheless Let every one of you in particular so love his
wife even as himself. And the most loving thing that
we can do as husbands for our wives is to have them, our wives
and our children, set under the gospel where it's faithfully
preached. Don't move away to a place where
there's no gospel church. look for jobs or go to school
where there's no gospel church because you're just setting yourself
up for failure, for problems. Go live where there's a gospel
church. You know, you young ladies who believe the Lord and love
Christ, don't get mixed up and involved with a man who doesn't
love the Lord. And you young men who don't have
wives and Don't, don't join yourself to a girl just because she's
cute and pretty and smart. Don't do that. Look for a girl
who loves the Lord. And, you know, if you are with
somebody, you know, if you're dating or you're in that period
and you're with somebody, just pray about these things and the
Lord will show you. He'll instruct you and lead you in the way that
you should go. And if you are married to somebody who's not
a believer, pray and be gentle and patient and kind. sweet,
but get them under the gospel. You know, get them under the
gospel. Don't do what they want to do. Encourage them, pray about
it, and encourage them to bring you and your wife and your children
under the sound of the gospel, because that's the best thing.
That's the way they're washed with the Word. It's the way we're
washed with the Word, and it's the way the Lord instructs us
and teaches us in these things. All right, and finally, Peter
says, likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to
knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel,
and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your
prayers be not hindered. So our God has given to his bride
all the riches of his glory. He's shown to the vessels of
mercy. He's shown these things to vessels
of mercy, which show to us our need for mercy. We see our need
by the Lord, of the Lord doing these things for us according
to his covenant of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. In whom
we have redemption, it says, through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. And it says in
Ephesians 1, 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. So Christ did
everything necessary for his bride. He provided fully. He
continues to provide for his bride faithfully as a faithful
husband, nourishing and cherishing her. And the way we do that more
than anything is by being faithful to encourage them and bring them
to hear the gospel, not moving away for some better job where
there's no gospel church. I mean, if you want to move away,
just I would just encourage you Go where there's a gospel church,
where you're going to be fed and hear the gospel, and you
and your wives and your family can grow up hearing of what Christ
has done for his people, because that's how we're grown, and that's
how we live. So, you know, dwell with your
wives in this manner, the way that Christ dwells with you,
being kind and gentle and tender and faithful in these things.
And where Christ is put first, there will be love and peace
in that house. and that doesn't mean you won't
have fights, it doesn't mean there won't be trouble, but you'll
learn and you'll grow together and you'll see, you know, the
Lord will teach you in your heart, he'll smite you in your heart
and he'll teach you and show each of you the things that you
have need of and rejoice in those things and be patient and love
one another because It's a sweet thing to be with your spouse
and go years and years and years and years together because it's
a sweet thing. It's not greener on the other
side. There's not greener pastures. The most blessed thing is to
be with the wife of your youth and be together and grow together.
It's a sweet thing. So I pray the Lord will bless it to our
hearts and that our motive will be Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you.
For your word, Lord, we know that we're imperfect, Lord, and
that we can't do these things of ourselves. But, Lord, help
us. Teach us and settle us in the
gospel. Settle us under the teaching
of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, let us see how you're tender
and provide all things for us. Give us that desire to be faithful
in service to you, Lord. that we would provide for our
spouses and we would take care of them and ensuring that, you
know, encouraging one another to be under the gospel and not
putting a stumbling block in front of them that discourages
them away from the gospel. We pray that you would do this
for us in our hearts because without you we can do nothing.
We pray this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.