Open your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. We'll continue our
study in 1 Peter. 1 Peter 2. And we know that this is a general
epistle. It's written to saints that are
scattered about. in various areas, and Peter's
writing them to encourage them that are going through sufferings
and tribulations and trials for their faith. And today's message is called
Suffering for Christ's sake, Suffering for Christ's sake.
Let's read verses 13 to 21, so we get the context of the verses
we'll be looking at. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king is supreme
or unto governors. as unto them that are sent by
him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that
do well. For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may
put the silence, the ignorance of foolish men, as free and not
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the
servants of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the king. Servants, be subject to your
master with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the forward. For this is thankworthy if a
man's conscience toward God endure great suffering wrongfully. For
what glory is it if when you are buffeted for your faults,
you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For what glory is it when you be buffeted for your faults and
you shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with God.
I put the same verse in twice here. I'm sorry for even here
on to where you called because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Now,
last week, we looked at verses 13 to 16 in this chapter, and
we considered that God's people, his blood washed saints are submissive,
are submissive to the powers that be. And the reason we're
submissive to the powers that be is because we know it's God
who's ordained these powers over us and over all people. It's our Lord who puts presidents
in power and leaders in power. It's all by his sovereign hand
and Knowing that he has ordained them, we are submissive to them
for Christ's sake. And we are both submissive to
them. And yet we are free in Christ
at the same time. So we're submissive and free.
So our condition then is one of liberty and one of subjection. And we think of this in light
of verse 16, where we see the servants of God are free in Christ
and yet submissive to him. Look at verse 16 as free, not
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the
servants of God. We're free from the law in him,
beloved. We're free from the law on him. We're free from the
curse of the law. We're free from the penalty of
the law. We're free from the power of the law of sin. And we've had Christ revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit of God. And what do we do as a result
of that? We submit ourselves to him, don't
we? There was a time when we weren't submitted to Christ.
Now we submit ourselves to him, to him. And we are free in Christ. We're free in Christ. I really
believe I mentioned this last week. We're freer than we even
know. You're absolutely free in Christ. And the believer enjoys
the liberty that we have in him. We enjoy that. But we also guard
against abusing it, don't we? We guard against abusing that
liberty. We don't want to abuse the liberty that we have in Christ.
We don't use this liberty as a license or as an excuse to
sin, do we? No, we act as servants of God,
servants of God when we walk before him as that. Note in verse 17, we have four
different ways in which Christians are to conduct themselves as
free and yet as the servants of God. And this will be the
start of our text. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear
God, honor the king. Now, Peter here is rights by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Very plainly, very plainly
in this verse. And so let's tie this in with
the preceding verse where we We see first that we are to honor
all men to whom honor is due. Honor all men to whom honor is
due. That's officials who are in office, who are over us in
position, rank and authority or circumstance, whether they
be believers or unbelievers, because God has ordained it to
be so. Husbands and wives are to honor
and respect one another. Children are to honor, respect,
and obey their parents. Teachers and officials are to
be honored and held in great esteem. Pastors and elders are
worthy of honor and respect. Government officials, all who
are vested with civil authority, are to be honored. Scripture
says this in Romans 13.7. Render therefore to all their
duty, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom,
fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Love the brotherhood,
it says here in the second portion of verse 17. So it says honor
all men, then it says love the brotherhood. Love the brotherhood. Here before us is the special
family love that all believers have for one another. Beloved,
we're the same body. We're the same spirit. We have
one faith, don't we? And we have one object of our
faith. Who's that? Christ Jesus our Lord. And this
is love the brotherhood, whether we get along with them or not,
whether we've had disputes with them or not, whether something's
happened where we don't no longer fellowship with them as much.
Love the brotherhood. And we do, don't we? We do. We
do. We haven't went anywhere, have
we? We're still here. But we love the brotherhood.
And I know the scriptures stress that so much. Think of this, and I'm gonna
give us an example of two people who had a massive disagreement. Paul and Barnabas, both brothers
and sisters, brothers in Christ, right? Both faithful men of God. And they had such a disagreement.
That as far as we know, they separated and never reconciled
while they were on this earth. But you know what? They have sweet fellowship right
now in glory. Right now, don't they? And they
do. Sweet, sweet fellowship. And it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Brother Tim James told me that
one time. He said, those two aren't arguing anymore. They
don't argue it anymore. They're not disputing anymore.
It's wonderful. So it's wonderful to think that. So love the brotherhood.
Love the brotherhood. Our Lord has taught us to hate
no one, but to love all people, and especially those of the household
of faith. Turn, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians
4, verse 9. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 9. Just a text for us to look at
in light of this. And Paul's writing the Thessalonians,
and he just puts this little verse in here. And the reason
why he says here, there's no need for me to really say this,
is because believers love the brethren. We love the brethren,
don't we? We do. Look what it says here. 1 Thessalonians
4, 9. But as touching brethren of love,
ye need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. God teaches his people. Right? To love one another, doesn't
he? He teaches us to love one another. There was a time when
we didn't love the brethren before we were saved. I remember that. Brother Matt, we've talked about
it. Brother Noah, we've talked about it. There was a time when
we did not want to be around Christians at all. Now, believers
are the people we want to be around. We want to worship our
King. And there was a time when we
didn't want to worship the King because we didn't know him. Oh, my. Oh my, what a change the Holy
Spirit rots in His people when we're born again. And then it
says here, love the brotherhood, and then it goes on to say, fear
God. Fear God. Honor all men, love
the brotherhood, fear God. And this is not a slavish fear. This is not a slavish fear. This
is a reverent fear. This is a reverent fear, having
been taught who God is, that he is absolutely holy and that
he is absolutely righteous. And this is a fear of God that
leaves us in awe, leaves us in awe of who he is because he's
revealed himself to us. And it leaves the believer, it
leaves the believer in amazement in awe of who God is, of who
God is. Just think back, we who are the
redeemed of God, think back when you were in religion, what did
you think of God? When you were lost, what did
you think of God? There was no fear, was there?
There was no fear at all. No, none. Now we have a reverent
fear of who God is. And it leaves us in awe that
he didn't destroy us. Right. When we were dead in trespasses
and sins. But no, he has mercy upon his
people. He's loved his people with an
everlasting love. So this is not a slavish fear
of the wrath and judgment and punishment of God. We used to
fear that, didn't we? We used to fear that used to
fear death. Used to be terrorized to be terrified of death. When
I was little and my grandma died, it took me about six months.
I remember my mom keep telling me, you're not going to die,
Wayne. But I had not having experienced death. When my grandma died,
I thought I was going to die. And so I was I was terrified.
But even as I grew older, I was afraid of dying. Now I know I
know as a believer to to be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord. The sting and fear of death is gone, isn't
it? And what makes us afraid of death when we're not saved?
We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what's
going to happen. So the fear of the wrath and
judgment and punishment of God for our sins as a believer, we
know that all that's being appeased in Christ. And so the fear now
that we have for God is not a fear of wrath or judgment or punishment.
It's a reverent fear, a holy respect of who God is, holy respect
of the living God. And let us not forget that our
God is greatly to be feared and worshiped and praised. The scriptures
declare this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding, Proverbs 9,
10. And then Ephesians 521, the scriptures
declare this submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of
God. Again, that's a reverent fear.
That's a. A fear of all who God is. And we looked at this turn, if
you would, to one chapter over in first Peter, we looked at
this very fear when we studied chapter one and look at verse
17, where it proclaims this. And if you call on on the Father,
who without respect to persons judgeth according to every man's
work. Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." That's a reverent
fear, not a slavish fear. That's a reverent fear. So our
text continues in verse 17. Let's go back to first Peter,
chapter two, verse 17. It continues. It says, honor
the king. Now, back in biblical times, kings were in power. Today, we would say president,
prime minister of a nation, those who hold high office and and
represents authority. And that office and authority
are to be respected and honored, regardless of who the man may
be, because God has put them there because God has put them
there. And we speak respectively, not
so much of the man as of the office or the authority that
he represents. One grace preacher said this,
and I thought I needed to mention this. He said this, it's a sad
commentary on our times when people speak disrespectively
and joke carelessly about leaders and officials, especially of
the highest office of the land. And the reason he said that is
because it's God who ordains those people to be in that position.
And we do these things, as the verse preceding this one said,
we who believe we are born again servants of God, we believe it's
God who has given authority to those who are above us. And then
we live our life serving and worshiping and praising our great
God and king and thanking him for the freedom that we have.
It's him who's given us this freedom. It's him who's allowed
us to live in this country where we can come and freely worship.
It's wonderful. We can gather together every
Sunday and not have to worry about things. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And
it's Him who's given us this freedom that we have in this
country. And also it's Him, it's God who's given us the freedom
that we have in Christ. That we have in Christ. Let's continue. The next verse
in this chapter says this. Verse 18. Servants, be subject
to your master with all fear. not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the forward. Now, the unbelieving Jews had
a notion that because they were the seed of Abraham, they were
not to be servants of any people. And some of the believers in
Christ thought that they should not have to be subject to unbelieving
masters since Christ was their master. And they also had the
idea that they should not have to serve and be obedient to believing
masters because they're brothers and sisters in Christ. And Peter
says that a workman or a servant or a hired man is to be subject
to obey and to serve the person in authority above them with
fear and respect and loyalty, whether he's a brother or an
unbeliever. So obviously these believers had been experiencing
severe trials and tribulations. And we know that from the first
chapter, don't we? And we know this whole book is about suffering
for the sake of Christ, for the cause of Christ. Now turn, if
you would, to Ephesians chapter six. Faith does not do away with
authority, a chain of command and dedicated service. But again,
the unbelieving Jews had the notion that they, or the believing
Jews, I'm sorry, who had been converted, They had a notion
that they should not have to serve anyone. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 verses
5 to 9. Servants be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling
and singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Not with eye
service as man pleases. So we don't serve those above
us. to have them watch us and say,
oh, that's great. We don't do that. We're not man
pleasers. The believer is not a man pleaser.
No, we serve God, don't we? And then we serve those who who
he's he's placed over us for his sake. Vicki and I always
used to say when we were doing our our cleaning business, we
we do our job unto the Lord. We do our job and we work for
other people, but we do our job unto the Lord. And that's what
we're to do. with trembling singless mind
as unto Christ, not with eye service as man pleases, but as
the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to man."
So again, doing whatever position the Lord puts you in, doing it
unto the Lord. knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same. Now he's writing those who have
authority over some of the believers, maybe believing men who have
slaves at that time. And ye masters do the same things
unto them forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also
is in heaven, neither is the respect of persons with them.
So those who have been placed in authority who are believers,
we have to always remember that we have won over us. And I'm
a servant of the Lord. He's our master. He's our master. And that's that's what that's
what we have to believe. We have to remember and we are
to do all things for the glory of God, doing service unto the
Lord. Whether we're at work, we work
as unto the Lord. When we're at home, we live as
unto the Lord. Look at verse 18 again in 1 Peter
2. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the forward. Now notice here in this verse,
it's brought forth here the different personalities of the lost. And even for believers, right?
Look at this, it says, some are gentle and some are forward. We see here the Holy Spirit brings
forth the difference of personalities in lost people. Some are gentle,
which in the Greek means mild. We would say easygoing. Some
people are really easygoing, aren't they? Some people are.
And some are forward, which in the Greek means this, crooked,
unfair, surely. Some people are like that too,
aren't they? So do you see the Holy Spirit has it written? And
that includes all in between too. All people in between. Some are easy to deal with and
less rigid. Some are harder to deal with
and very rigid. And God gives His people grace. He does. He gives us grace to
interact with these different personalities, doesn't He? He
does. We know it. We've experienced
it in our lives. And all these different personalities
are out there in the world. And we need to be content wherever
the Lord puts us. We need to be content wherever
the Lord puts us, be content with the providence of God. And
let us remember it's he who has placed us there. And so we're
at a rest and repose in him, aren't we? But again, what's
the hardest thing for us to do? Rest in Christ. It's the hardest
thing for us to do, just to rest in him. Brother Joe's coming. in July and he's the one who
told me that years and years ago and I've never forgot that. It's the hardest thing for us
to do. Just leave it with the Lord. Just leave it with the
Lord. Let's look at verses 19 and 20.
For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience sake toward God
endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But
if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. So we're to submit to the authorities
that God has ordained and placed over us. And sometimes we are
subject to suffering. And sometimes we're subject to
persecution. And sometimes we endure grief
for what we believe. And sometimes we're mistreated.
But we submit to God, don't we? Resting and trusting and reposing
that He is working out all things for His glory and for our good. Now, sometimes things don't seem
like they're for our good when we're going through them, do
they? They don't sometimes. But I can tell you, I've looked
back on my life and seen things and went, that was for my good.
That was for my good. And sometimes the Lord doesn't
answer our prayers. And sometimes that's for our
good. That's always for our good too, isn't it? But His will is
worked out in our lives as believers. It is. For His glory and for
our good. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Look at verse 11 here. In light
of what we're looking at here about suffering for Christ. Look at this. Matthew 5, verse
11, Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. So these words are particularly
directed to God's elect. And they're here to inform us
that we will not be exempt from reproach. We will not be exempt
from persecution. And these words are here to strengthen
and fortify the Lord's people. This is prophetic, as Christ
Himself is telling His people that they will endure things
in the future. And they'll endure these things
for Christ's sake. And every blood-bought believer has experienced
this, hasn't one? In one way or another. And it
says men revile God's people. which means they deframe. The
Greek word also speaks of undeserved reproach. Undeserved reproach. So the enemies of God's people
will speak very reproachfully of them. And we should not be
surprised because they did this to our master. They did this
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at this, the end of
that verse there, for my sake, for my sake. For His name's sake. For the sake of the Gospel, beloved.
Let us always remember that the servant is not above his master.
The servant is not above his master. We'll look at that text
in a little bit in light of what we're considering here today.
And then notice verse 12 of Matthew chapter 5. The words of the master brings
great comfort to the believer. He tells him, you're going to
suffer persecution. And you're going to suffer it for my sake. Look at the comfort. That the
believer can draw from this next verse in the midst of persecution
or or the midst of being reviled or going through a trial, rejoice
and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And note,
rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Why? Because of the honor put
upon them to be suffering for the cause of Christ. And because
of the glory and happiness that shall follow upon their sufferings. Note the verse continues, for
great is your reward in heaven. Now, this is not of debt. The Lord doesn't owe us nothing,
does he? If we got what we deserve, we'd be in hell. This is not
a debt. This is a grace. And let's remember
that Christ is our reward, right? Christ is our reward. We're not
striving for a bunch of crowns and all that stuff. Christ is
our reward, beloved. Christ and Christ alone. And
why does it say that the reward is great in heaven? Think of
the inheritance that we have in Christ. Think of the inheritance
that we have in Christ. Incorruptible. Undefiled. Reserved for you in heaven. That's a great reward, isn't
it? Oh my! And it's all in Christ. See,
once again, He gets all the glory. It all goes to Him. It all goes
to him. Christ, in all his glory, the
glory of the riches which we have in Christ is the reward
of the inheritance which is in Christ is a great reward because
it's all in him. Turn, if you would, the Genesis
chapter 15, Genesis chapter 15, in light of this, in light of
Christ being our reward. Genesis chapter 15. This is wonderful. Genesis chapter
15. Keep your finger, though, in
Matthew. We're going to go back there. I'm sorry. Keep your finger in Matthew,
though. Genesis 15 1. After these things,
the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in the vision, saying
what? Fear not. Abraham, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward. Christ is the believer. Let's
go back to Matthew 5, verse 12. And it says there, For so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Zechariah, and others, which shows that that which should
befall them was no new and strange thing, beloved. That which was
going to befall upon the disciples and that which falls upon us
is no new thing. No new thing. They persecuted
the prophets. They persecuted us. They persecuted
our Savior. They persecuted us. They persecuted the most eminent
servants of God in the former ages. They're going to persecute
all of us. One way or another the believer
will receive persecution in this life. Let's go back to 2 Peter
chapter 2. Now let's look at verse 21 in
light of what we've considered. For even hereunto were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that ye should follow his steps. Now note the words here, for
even hereunto were ye called. We are called to be servants
of the Most High God. We're called with an effectual
call, an irresistible call. I like to say an invincible call.
You can't stop it. It's all by the Holy Spirit of
God. And he calls us out of darkness, doesn't he? We who believe out
of darkness into the marvelous light of his dear son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are servants of the most high
God. We are fitted by him for service. We're fitted by him for that
which he will have us to do. Again, we're called with a holy,
effectual calling, and the scriptures declare we will suffer for his
sake. And God gives grace, doesn't he, to his people? He gives us
grace in the midst of trials and tribulations. And note the
words in verse 21, because Christ also suffered for us, the sinless
one dying for sinners. And the believer, we look at
this personally and say, that's me. Christ suffered for me. For my sins. For my sins. Christ suffered in the place
of me. In the place of all His people.
To fulfill the law, to satisfy the justice of God. And to make
reconciliation to God for our sins. And He made it to God because
we've sinned against God. It's Him who's offended, isn't
it? It's His law that's been broken. It's His justice that
must be satisfied. And so the sinless one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God incarnated in the flesh, dies and suffers
for us. The believer says, for me. For
me. Note the verse concludes with
this, leaving us an example that she should follow His steps.
And we are called to obedience and godliness and good works
and to bear whatever affliction, trial and suffering may result
from a from our walk. The Lord said this in the world,
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. I've overcome the world. I read in Philippians chapter
one, and I'll have you turn to Matthew chapter 10. In Philippians
1, Paul writes this, only let your conversation be as it become
of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or
else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand
fast in one spirit, in one mind, striving together for the faith
of the gospel. And this is what we do, don't
we? We serve God, striving together for the faith of the gospel,
and nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them
an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that
of God. For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for his sake. To suffer for his sake. Having
the same conflict which he saw in me and now here to be in me. Philippians chapter 1 verses
27 to 30. We look in Matthew chapter 10,
and we're closed here in verses 16 to 24. And our Lord says this,
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye
therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware
of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils. they
will scourge you in the synagogues, and you shall be bought before
governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them
and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be
given you in this in that same hour what you shall speak. For
it is not. For it is not ye that speak,
but the spirit of your father would speak within you. And the
brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father, the
child, and the children shall rise up against their parents
and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. And we know the Lord is the one
who keeps us, doesn't he? He keeps us. But when they persecute
you in this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto
you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the
Son of Man come. The disciple is not above his
master, nor the servant, above his Lord. What a Savior, what
a hope we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.