1 Peter chapter 5 says, The elders which are among
you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea,
all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with
humility. For God resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober,
be vigilant. because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ,
by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you
perfect, establish strength and settle you. To him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanius, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye
stand. The church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son.
Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you,
all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Now, Peter comes to the end of
his first epistle, and he writes to the church there to submit the flock, to submit to
the elders. He exhorts the elders. Now, you know, one of the things Or
I would say that the basis of all sin is a rebellion against
authority. That was Adam's sin. As the scripture says, the woman
was deceived by Satan. But Adam, seeing what the woman
had done and thinking to himself that he would be advantaged by
taking this because he had that consideration of rebellion in
his heart. Now, therefore, down through the ages,
man has sought to rebel against authority. I mean, that's really
the law and order is sent forth into the earth by the Lord because
of that very thing. If there was no natural rebellion
in men, there wouldn't need to be a sheriff. I mean, there wouldn't
need to be a jail. You know, there wouldn't need
to be any of those things. But it's in man's heart to go against. the law of God, and the law of
man, because the law of man actually is the law of God, not directly,
but in the sense that God has given laws to men, and he has
sent forth those to enforce those laws. This is the arm of God
to control the rebellion of men. And so, And he exhorts these
elders, he says, the elders among you I exhort, who am also an
elder. And he exhorts them to feed the
flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof,
not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind. This is a direct exhortation
to those who have been put in offices of leadership not to
be rebels, but to be submissive. See, everyone, you know, Bob
Dylan, who has a checkered life, no doubt, he wrote a song, he's
written several songs, and actually pretty good songs, but one of
them that he wrote was, You Gotta Serve Somebody. And he said,
it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve
somebody. And so it is that the Lord has
called on all of us to be servants one of the other. While there
may be places of leadership that the Lord has established, places
of authority. I mean, we have a president,
and the president has authority. But at the same time, the president
is the servant of the people. He's not his own thing. And sometimes, sadly, down through
the ages, those who are called to be elders, those who've been
put in positions of leadership, have lost sight of that fact.
And they have become not submissive to those whom they have been
sent to minister to, but they have thought that they were somehow
lords and directors of the Lord's heritage. And he says, don't
do that. He says, feed the flock which
is among you, taking oversight thereof, not by constraint. You're not called to constrain
people, neither by constraint, nor are you to be constrained. That is under like doing this,
not wanting to do this. Do this willingly. You know,
if a man who's called to the office of elder among the people
of God, if he does not do that willingly, then he's not doing
it rightly. And the only way that you can
do it willingly is to be willing to be a servant to those to whom
you come, not to think that they are your servants. Now that's
a sad thing that somebody would get into that position, but I've
seen it happen. that men get into these places
and think that other people are their servants, rather than them
being the servants of those to whom the Lord has sent them.
He said, not by constraint, but willingly not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind. Now, money itself is not filthy. It's useful. God gave it to us
for a purpose. But when men use it in a fashion
or have desire after it in a fashion that is not proper, then it becomes
filthy. And just like he warned, he told
the women in the earlier chapter here about adorning themselves
not with gold and costly array and broided hair and all of these
things. but with a meek and a quiet spirit. So too is the same thing that
he's saying here. He's not saying to the women
in that case that they should never have any of these things,
but that's not to be their thing that they're going after. That's
not the thing that their whole life is built around that. And
so when a man would take an office or have a place
of leadership or service to the people of God for the purpose
of gaining money, then that is filthy lucre unto him. It's a
thing that's below us. It has no bearing on a man serving
the people of God. And we all know the excesses
of that that we see in some of these high-powered evangelist-type
people and preachers on the radio and TV and stuff. They've lost
sight of that. And money has become the be-all
and end-all of what they're doing, and they're constantly talking
about it and going forth, and that becomes filthy lucre, because
it becomes a thing that's outside the realm of what it's meant
to be. And so he says, feed the flock of God, which is among
you, not which you are over, although you take the oversight
thereof, but the flock, you are part of the flock. See, those
who are in place of leadership are part of the flock. Neither
as being lords over God's heritage. Belongs to Him. The church is
His. And those whom He is pleased
to call into these positions, they are His servants. You know, if we ever have an
idea in our mind that we don't want to be the servant of our
brethren. We all need to remember to look
unto the Lord, because he was the greatest servant that ever
lived. He served us. He had no reason to serve us. There's no compelling reason
for the Lord Jesus Christ to become the servant of men, but
he did. You and I, we are compelled to
be servants one of another because he commanded us to. Nobody commanded
God to do anything. Nobody could. Some people look
at the commands of God as if God himself is subject to those
commands. God is subject to no command. He's subject unto himself. He
talked about free will, you want to have free will, the Lord has
free will. I mean, he does according to
his will, in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
earth. And he said, there is none that can stay my hand. Not a one. So being examples to the flock,
that's what those who are the servants of God, those whom the
Lord has called, or to be examples, even as Jesus Christ was an example
to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Now he's not saying here, as some have tried to say, that
he's saying to these elders, you're gonna get a specific crown. Everybody else is gonna be over
here and they're gonna get little crowns, but you're gonna get
this big crown. That's not it at all. He's saying just like
all of God's people. See, we all serve the Lord for
the same reason, because he's the Lord. And all of God's people
will receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And that,
what greater thing do we have? Remember the parable that the
Lord gave about the workers in the vineyard. I mean, he gave
that, you know, remember one of the apostles had asked him,
well, Lord, you know, what will we have, you know, when, I mean,
when we are in your kingdom, what's going to be for us? And
that was when he gave that parable. of the workers in the vineyard.
And the parable is, of course, that he paid those that came
at the last hour of the day the same thing that he paid the ones
that came the first. Because we don't serve him for
reward, but we don't serve him without reward. See, he gives
reward to his people. A crown of glory, it fadeth not
away. What more would we want? I mean, why would we want jet
planes and fancy houses and all these things when He has given
us a greater reward than that? That's what He's saying here
is, you know, keep that in mind. You're not serving for these
things. You're not walking. And we learn
a lesson, all of us. You know, what is it that we're
serving the Lord for? Is it because we're wanting to
gain something? Or is it that we desire to serve
Him? And he will not have his people to serve him without reward,
but we don't serve him for reward. We receive that, which he's pleased
to give. And likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Now, he uses this word elder. is actually the same word that
he uses up here when he's talking about the elders, those that
have been given places of leadership. And I might add this, that I
think a lot of times, churches get too enamored about the offices
that are in the church, and they exalt these places. And they're not meant to be.
I mean, the position is that one who would be given by the
grace of God a gift to come and teach and preach the word of
God, surely, and lead as an example of the flock, I mean, surely
as someone to be respected is what he says here, but that's
not the reason that the elder is to serve, is to get respect.
But by the grace of God, as we understand what it is that the
Lord has given us, we do have that. We do consider that. But he uses this word elder here
in contrast to the younger. Now, what I was gonna say about
that is this. It has always been among the
Jews that those who were put in places of leadership were
elder men, because the consideration was that they had gained some
wisdom. And that's what Paul says, don't
set apart a man unto an elder who's a novice, somebody who's
still wet behind the ears. That doesn't mean that they can't
be useful, because he says to the young men, You know, John
does that young men to be strong in the Lord and to set forth
an example. But the elder, we are as, I think
it's in the Proverbs where it speaks about giving reverence
to the hoary head, that is a man with the white head. Why? Because he is representative
of the fact that God has placed him in the earth and has taught
him some things. You remember the parable, or
no, it wasn't a parable, but it was the account of Elisha
when he was coming back from Elijah being taken up into the
clouds, and he's coming back across the river And he comes up on these little kids
over there, and they mock him. And he's an elderly man at the
time. And they mocked him, and he called
a bear out of the woods. And the bear came and mauled
those children. Now a lot of people have puzzled
over that. Well, what in the world was going on there? Well,
here's the thing. See, they were disrespecting
the man sent from God. And in doing so, they disrespected
God. And so in disrespecting those
who are up in years, we are disrespecting the fact that God has placed
elderly people among us that we might learn from them. See,
young people think they know I remember when I was coming
along, the younger, again, Bob Dylan wrote a song, he said,
I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. Because
as older that you get, the more you realize how little that you
actually do know. And that's an humbling thing.
And it can't, it's not something that a young man can learn. You
know, it's only something he can observe, and he might think
it's foolish, but then as the Lord brings him to that place,
he realizes, well, you know, that's a fact. Because the older
you get, the more you realize how really insignificant you
are in the world. And what you know doesn't amount
to anything, really. whatsoever. But yet, the Lord,
he does counsel us, the younger, to submit themselves to the elder,
when the elders speak. You know, there used to be, when
I was growing up, it used to be kind of a principle that was
set forth that children should be seen and not heard. And somewhere
along the line, we lost that idea. And children more or less
run amok now, and people are sometimes afraid to, you know,
suppress them. But it's all part of this thing
here. Likewise, you younger submit
to the elder. There must be, fathers must teach
their children respect, to respect them. Because in doing so, he
teaches them to fear God. When a father is strong in his
home and he sets forth a standard and a discipline to his children,
he teaches his children that there is an authority and that
there is a place of authority in the Lord. And likewise ye
younger, submit yourselves to the elders, yea, let all of you
be subject one to another. There it is. Clothed with humility. Now you know that's, God resisteth
the proud, giveth grace to the humble. You know, oftentimes,
when the subject, as we've spoken of, of wives submitting themselves
to the husband, that seems to be a terrible thing in the minds,
and it is. You know, when a person thinks
about the word submit, that's not something we like. But see,
brethren, we're to submit ourselves one to another. Just as a wife
submits herself to her husband, and a husband submits himself
to the wife. We're submissive to one another.
And so it doesn't mean what the world tries to make it out to
be, but it's a beautiful thing. Humble yourselves before one
another. Be clothed with humility, for
God resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the humble. Because
that's an evidence of the grace of God, humility. Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time. That's where it all comes back
to. I mean, we're humble to one another because, not necessarily
because we want to be humble before one another, but we want
to be humble before God. And God says, be humble before
one another. And so that's our motivation. That he may exalt you in due
time according to his purpose. casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. And that is that place, and this
is something I believe that comes with age as the Lord is pleased
to teach men and to bring them along the way. They learn to
trust. Paul said, I have learned in
whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. He didn't start
off that way. I mean, a young man can't be
content, can he? He's wantin' more and he's lookin'
at all these things. But Paul said, I have learned
to be content. And he has learned to be humble.
Only by experience do these things come, as the Lord is pleased
to work in us, both the will and the do of His good pleasure.
But as we cast all of our care on Him, we come to that place
of realizing the reason we do that is because he cares for
us. See, as he teaches us, he teaches us that very fact. He
cares more for us than we care for ourselves. And we can see
that in the fact that he came and he died for us. Be sober. Be vigilant. because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour. Let us never forget that the
powers of darkness would destroy us. Now I have said and I do
believe that if there were no powers of darkness, that we would
still be walking in darkness because that's our nature. So
we don't have to have the devil to cause us sin. The devil never
caused anybody to sin. He deceived Eve, but he didn't
cause Adam to sin. Adam sinned because he decided
to do it. And so we can't blame anybody.
You know, Flip Wilson used to say, the devil made me do it.
Well, the devil never makes anybody do anything. But he does go about
seeking to destroy those whom he can. He seeks, as it says
here, it goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And we would be in that number
were it not for the mercy of God. And therefore, he is our
enemy. Because he would destroy you.
He will set up kingdoms and things before your eyes, even as he
did before the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, see, I'll give you all
these things if you'll just fall down and worship me. And he will
do that. And He will devour those whom
He can. But you see, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. And He knows how to deliver the
godly out of temptation. Oh, what a glorious God He is.
And whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. There is no temptation that hath taken you, but such
as is common to man. There are afflictions and troubles
that are universal the world over. You know, a lot of times
we get thinking, man, I'm having a hard time. My knee's been bothering
me. And I think a lot about my sore
knee. But then I think about, well,
you know, there's people that's way worse off than I am. There's
people that have suffered many things because that's just the
nature of life. And so we're not to be overcome
with whatever the sorrow or trouble or heartache that comes to us.
We're not to be overcome with these things because God will
give us a way that we might escape these things. To Him be glory. But the God of all, I missed
a verse here, but the God of all grace who hath called us
unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered
a while, make you perfect, establish strength, and settle you. It
is through the sufferings of God's people that he is pleased
to establish us. That's part of growing in grace.
See, the man that has no troubles, he never learns to deal with
trouble. but the Lord gives us trouble, that he might teach
us to deal with trouble, and the way he teaches us to deal
with trouble is casting all our care on him, because we can't
do it. See, you got all these psychiatrists
and people like that running around out here trying to tell
people how to solve their problems, and they can't do it. You know,
I mean, it might work for a while, but it's not going to solve the
problem, because the problem is rebellion against God, and
only the Spirit of God can work an understanding of that in a
man's heart, and bring him to that place where he establishes
and strengthens and settles us in the truth of God. To him be
glory and dominion forever and ever. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. It's all to the glory of God.
Why'd God create the world? For His glory. Why does God do
anything in the world for His glory? Why did He send Jesus
Christ into the world to die for sinners for His glory? And
so all things to Him be glory and honor, dominion, and ever.
forever and ever. And then he closes, of course,
the book here with the exhortation, a faithful brother, as I suppose
I've written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the
true grace of God wherein you stand. And Sylvanus evidently
was the penman who wrote the book. And the church that is
at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you. I thought
that was interesting that he mentioned that. You know, Babylon
in scripture is an ungodly kingdom. But yet he says here there's
a church in Babylon. He has a people in every kindred,
tribe, and tongue in the face of the earth. And he said we're
all elected together. We're chosen as one. We're in
Christ. All of the people of God are
in Christ. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of love. Peace be with you all that are
in Christ Jesus. Oh that we might love one another
with pure hearts fervently, because that's what we're called to do.
And to be glad when we come into one another's presence as brethren,
because it is a great blessing of the Lord. And as he teaches
us and establishes us and gives us understanding, these things
become more precious to us the older that we get. Because we
come to see more clearly his love for us and his purpose for
us. And it's not in satisfying ourselves,
but in bringing glory to him. And may he establish these things
in our hearts. Somebody have a question or a
comment? Of course, any time that we would think of humility
or service one to the other, our mind and heart would always
go back to that which Christ has done for us. No greater servant
ever lived. He said, he that is greatest
in the kingdom of God is the servant of all. And he is the
greatest in the kingdom of God. And he is the servant of all.
And he girded himself, the one whose body And blood was represented by
that very supper that he gave to his disciples. He girded himself
with a towel and he washed the feet of his disciples. And you know how, what great show of service to
his children that he would hold back nothing from them, but he'd
give us all. that he had. And that's what
we remember here when we come to take the bread and the wine