a whole lot. It was my will and my determination to come over here yesterday evening and turn on the air conditioners. They didn't get turned on till 8 o'clock this morning and they're doing the best they can. Alright, would you turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3.

We had a good meeting in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. We've moved our Minnesota meeting from Mankato to Belle Plaine. Belle Plaine is south and slightly west of the Twin Cities. We meet in the home of Bernie and Paula Wojcik. They've got a real nice place for us to meet. We had a great time visiting with them ahead of time. Very hospitable. and had a good meeting together.

Also heard from another couple in the Twin City areas that wants to begin attending those services. Keep those services in mind. As you pray, remember to pray for our brothers and sisters there in Minnesota. And who knows what the Lord will do there. Maybe eventually a church in the full sense of the word will be established there and God will be pleased to call someone to be a pastor of that congregation. And there will be a witness for the grace of the Lord there in the Twin Cities area.

Certainly, it's a big enough pond to fish from. But then, you know, it just doesn't make any difference how big the pond is. This is a small pond here, but the Lord has managed to get some fish. And the Twin Cities is up there, and maybe there are no more of His fish up there than there are down here. I don't know. but we'll see what happens.

In verse 15 of 1 Peter chapter 3 we read, But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. That one sentence is full of very important stuff. It is something essential, essential in truth to our salvation, essential to our comfort. In your heart, set apart Christ as Lord. I say it is essential, and yet it is equally impossible that it could be done apart from a sovereign work of God and His grace. You see, here is the kicking point between man and God. Here's where the real issue lies. If you will remember that on the way to Damascus, when God, when the Lord Jesus Christ, unhorsed Saul of Tarsus. He said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Is it hard for thee to kick against the goads? Now what he meant by that was in those days before the days of John Deere tractors, everything was pulled, for the most part everything was pulled either by a donkey or by oxen in that area. And to get him to move along down the road, the man would have a stick, a pointed stick, which was called a goad. And they'd goad the animal along. They'd poke him in the flanks to make him move along a little faster. And of course, if that irritated the animal, he would kick back. Of course, one reason that the farmer did not stand right there and just slap him was because if he did so, the animal would kick back and hit him. So he used a long stick and would poke him from afar.

And that way when the animal kicked, there was nothing back there to kick. It was a vain effort. It accomplished nothing. And it had to be frustrating to the animal, but it left the animal with only one way to avoid that goad, that pointed stick, and that is to go in the direction that the goad goaded him. Saul was like that animal, and the Lord was like that farmer that held the goad, the stick, and he kept poking Paul. And Paul kept kicking back. He kicked back, of course, not personally at the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Lord was not there, but his people were, and he sought to destroy this irritating goad behind him by destroying those who spoke of him, who spoke of the goad.

The trouble was, when he kicked, there was nothing there. And it was to no avail. And he could gain no relief from that goad. And that goad rested primarily in this, the essential message of the apostles and all the Lord's preachers since that time, Jesus Christ is Lord.

That really irritated Saul. And if a man understands what that means, he'll irritate any man until God is pleased to change his heart. Peter says, in your hearts. And why does he say in your hearts? Because that's where the issue goes on. In the heart, the heart is the throne room of a man. That's where his will and affections reside. That's where his purpose comes from. So in your hearts, not just in your mouth, anybody can say Jesus is Lord.

That's simple. And lots of people do, but it means nothing. It's so much religious words, just a confession that they were taught ought to be made. In fact, there was one of those televangelists, I remember seeing, of course, this was years ago, because I just can't stand watching those guys. But I remember he was preaching. Every time I'd notice his show on television, they had this huge banner back behind the pulpit that said, Jesus is Lord.

And they would say that, and then they'd stand there and preach that Jesus wants to save you, but you won't let him. They would say that Jesus wants to save America, but he can't do it unless you send money. So you can see the third Jesus as Lord meant nothing whatsoever because the Jesus that they proclaimed to be Lord was unable to accomplish anything unless you did it for him and then turned around and gave him the credit. So Peter is careful here to go to the root of the matter and say, in your hearts you set apart Christ Now, understand that whether or not you ever do this, the fact remains the same, Jesus is Lord. Whether or not you ever acknowledge it, whether or not from your heart you set Him apart as Lord, that does not alter the fact that Jesus is Lord.

You see, God decreed it. In Psalm 110, verse 1, where we read just a few minutes ago, the Lord said, David writing, but he said, Jehovah said to my master, the Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Now, that is an essential Lordship.

You know that you are Lord when your enemies are forced to bow and submit to your will. Now, anybody can be a Lord over the willing. We can easily get those who love us and agree with us to do what we say. And we can rule over those who already agree with us.

But true Lordship is demonstrated in this, when even one's enemies are forced to do what the Lord says to do. because I'll make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So you see, this whole world, most of which does not submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that is, they do not willingly from their hearts set apart Christ as Lord. That does not alter the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord of every man. He's the Lord of everything. God decreed it.

God accomplished it. He not only decreed and promised that it would come to pass, but he accomplished it. In Psalm 2 it says, I have set my King on my holy hill. I've done that. The immediate reference was to David, but the prophetic reference was to Jesus Christ, and he accomplished that when he exalted Jesus Christ into the heavens and gave him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every tongue confess, All the tongues in heaven, earth, and hell will confess that Jesus is Lord. God decreed that it would happen, and he is now bringing that to pass. He has made it so, and he is now causing, one by one, everybody in creation to agree with the fact that Jesus is Lord. Some of them he causes to agree by grace. Sometime within the lifespan that they have in this world, God comes to them, changes their hearts.

They were enemies, but he takes the enmity out of their hearts and puts friendship to Christ in it, a willing heart, and they, like the troops spoken of in Psalm 110, they are willing to follow Christ wherever he goes. And in the book of Revelation, it describes the same people, say, the 144,000, says, of them they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. They call him Lord and they do so from the heart.

But those who will not submit to do it in that fashion will be brought before the Lord Jesus Christ. It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. And at such a time they will appear before the Lord to be judged by him And though they will hate the truth of it, when they see Him, they will be forced to acknowledge that indeed He is Lord. And He will demonstrate His Lordship over them by forcing them to do what they would never do willingly, two things.

Bow to Him. They'd never do that willingly. He'll make them. And this may sound harsh, but it's true. Those who would not submit to them in this life, they will submit to him as he consigns their eternal souls to torment because of their rebellion. And I guarantee you that won't be a free will decision on their part. His enemies will be forced to do his will.

The apostles declared his lordship in Acts chapter 2, the very first full-blown message of the first full-blown preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Peter says, Know ye that this same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made to be Lord and Christ. And this truth is the confession of every saint. They confess it in their hearts. They believe it in their hearts and they are willing to confess it with their mouth. For it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 9, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

We cannot make Christ to be Lord, for it is already so, but we may acknowledge it. We may give our amen to it. Now, what does it mean that Christ is Lord? Look down here at verse 22. 1 Peter 3, verse 22. Who, that is, the Lord Jesus, has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him. When we say that Jesus is Lord, That Christ is Lord, what we mean is this, that all things are subject to Him. All things. That there is not one thing which lives, moves, breathes, or anything apart from His sovereign direction.

Peter makes particular mention of the spirit world. Now we don't know a whole lot about the spirit world, and by the spirit world I mean those created beings which are essentially and wholly made of spirit. Now we are body and spirit, but there are creatures which God made which possess no body. They have no physical form, such as we commonly think of it, but they are made up of spirit. I don't know what spirit he is, but that's what they are. Angels are spiritual beings.

They can take on physical form if God deems it necessary that they may appear to men and deliver messages as they did in ages past. But when he speaks here of angels, authorities, and powers, he's speaking of the angels of the demons, of Satan, and all that spiritual world which is around us. We can't see it. We really, we can't communicate with it. Certainly shouldn't try to communicate with it, but we do know it's there. And this we know about that spiritual world.

It is capable, if God is pleased to allow it, to do things which we can do nothing about, which we cannot change. Often in the New Testament in the time when our Lord was here, as He would go about healing, many times the diseases which He healed were the result of the presence of one of these spiritual beings which had taken possession of the body. Sometimes they could go so far as to take possession of the mind. But some would simply have what we might call a demonic illness.

Their mind was not affected by it. They didn't lose their personality in the process. But nonetheless, here this spirit being, somehow or another, caused illness in them. There was nothing that a man could do about it. No doctor could cure it because it wasn't a disease as we normally think of it, though it looked like those diseases. And then, as I said, there were those where the spirit had taken over the mind, such as that man who lived in the tomb.

So these spiritual beings, whatever they are, are capable, if God allows it, of doing things which you and I cannot resist nor remedy. How wonderful then to read, and this is why Peter puts it in this, states it in this category, that the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, is more powerful than them. He rules over them. and therefore they do nothing without his express permission.

Just like when Satan wanted to trouble Job, it was necessary that he go to God, that he go to the Son of God and ask permission. And God gave him permission and said, Now, all right, you can do this, but you don't do any more than that. You may touch his possessions, but you can't touch him. And so Satan goes and destroys his possessions and his family. And then he comes back and said, Yeah, of course he didn't curse you, God, because you wouldn't let me touch him. He said, All right, you can touch his body.

And God gave him permission. But Satan could never do anything to Job unless God gave him permission. Of course, our God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And Satan can't do anything to you. His minions can't touch you unless God is pleased to allow it for his purposes and for your good.

He rules over all of them. And you can imagine what an awful, awful humiliation this must be for these spiritual beings that are in rebellion against God, particularly Satan. Ever since Satan set foot on this world, it has been his intention to overthrow the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it by overthrowing first man, God's image bearer, and then he tried to overthrow the man, Christ Jesus. And now he is in a position that before he can do anything, he must go and bow before that man, and call him Lord and ask permission.

That must just gall him to no end. He is Lord. He rules in the midst of his enemies. Paul says that he's head over all things for the church. He's the Lord of Providence. What I mean by that, I mean that he is the one that is in control of everything that happens.

We look at the world and there's a lot going on we don't like. And at least I tend to get upset by those things. But then I remember they're happening because my Lord the King has decreed that they should happen. That doesn't mean that we sit by as idle spectators of the world's history. It doesn't mean that we should not exercise whatever freedoms and abilities we have to try to make this world a better place to live in.

But I am confident of this, kings rise and fall by the decree of Jesus Christ. Criminals. do their evil deeds or are caught and punished and dispatched according as Christ determines it. We have sunny days or rainy days according to his will. Things prosper or things fall apart by his command.

We may buy the Wall Street Journal wondering how the economy is doing But whatever we read there is simply a record of what the Lord Jesus Christ has determined will be. That's what we mean when we say He's Lord. He's Lord of providence. He's Lord of creation. We don't know very much of creation, but even what we know of it boggles the mind.

But it says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, upholding all things, by the word of his power. This world keeps spinning because of Christ. It keeps going around the sun because of Christ. The sun keeps burning because Christ says burn. The stars twinkle because he says twinkle.

You believe that? You honestly believe that Jesus is Lord in that sense, to that degree? You see, most people when they say Jesus is Lord, what they actually mean is Jesus ought to be Lord. But they give him a paper crown. He just gets to pretend to be Lord. That's not the way it is. He is Lord. But of all the things of which He is Lord that should attract our attention. This is chief of all. He is Lord of you. He's Lord of every man, woman and child in this world.

He is Lord of you with regard to when you shall be born and when you shall die. Here in the past few weeks I've been out to the cemetery twice. because of a funeral and you got there and you read those tombstones and they give the name and generally speaking they have the day on which that person was born and the day on which they died. And indeed the stone engraver had to wait to find out when that date would be but the Lord knew it. The Lord could right now quite easily chisel out your tombstone For He knows when you were born, He set that date. He knows when you shall die, for He has set that date also.

He's Lord of you. He determined what country you'd be born in, who your parents would be, what kind of life you would have, and above all, and about everyone here ought to bless His name for this, He determined whether or not you'd ever hear His Gospel and believe it. That's how much He is Lord.

Do you know why you sit here this morning? Because He is Lord. You know why you got to hear the Gospel and there are millions who never hear it? There are billions in this world that never even hear the name of Jesus Christ. Why you? Because He is Lord and He determined it would be so. And of the many people who do hear the name of Jesus Christ, it seems, as near as we can tell, not many of them believe Him. Why you? Were you better? Were you smarter? By no means. You believe because He is Lord and He said, believe.

Ask Saul of Tarsus. He knows about the sovereignty of grace because he's doing everything he could to destroy it. God said, this far and no farther. From this point on, you shall not detract from the gospel, but you shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And that's exactly what happened.

He is Lord. Your destiny down to the finest points of it is in the hand of Jesus Christ, your daily schedule, and your eternal welfare. are in the hands of Jesus Christ the Lord. He is Lord. Why then does Peter say, in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord? If it's already true that he is Lord, why does he exhort us to set him apart as Lord? Very simply this, it means from your hearts agree with what God has done in making Jesus Christ to be Lord. Now, you will do as Christ has determined.

There's no question about that. However, you may be in agreement with what happens or you may be in disagreement with it. What Peter is saying is this. In your hearts, in the throne room of your being, you step down. and quit insisting on being your own Lord, you abdicate the throne willingly and purposefully and set Christ there and crown Him Lord of all. You acknowledge what's already true. It is an act of purpose. You can't do this by accident and it's not natural for any of us to feel this way. Everybody wants to be his own king.

As that 19th century poet wrote and later Timothy McVeigh quoted as an act of rebellion, actually, I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. And that's what every one of us believes until God changes our mind. And to set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, is to say, He is the master of my faith. He is the captain of my soul.

This setting apart Jesus Christ as Lord is the first act of faith, the first act of repentance, the first act of obedience. There is no faith, repentance, or obedience without this. To set Him apart as Lord is to see and believe what God has already done, It's the first act of repentance. Indeed, repentance means to change your mind.

And our mind is set against Christ and against His Lordship. And in repentance we turn and crown Him as Lord and say, I'm glad He's Lord. That's the way I want things to be. Is to stop kicking against that goad. That's repentance. And you may speak of obedience, if you will, and people like to line up the commandments and say, if you do these things, you are obedient.

Paul did all those things, but he wasn't obedient until that time when he submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. All the law-keeping that people do without this bowing to Jesus Christ as Lord is nothing but self-righteous disobedience framed in some kind of legalism. There is no obedience to God apart from this setting apart Christ as Lord.

You know why men obey the commandments? Because they, in their self-serving sense of self-lordship, say, yeah, the commandments seem good to me, I'll do them. Or maybe they only go so far as to say, well, there's some kind of reward in keeping them, so from my own will, I'll keep them. Because I think it's a good idea, I'll keep them.

That's not submitting to God. Submitting to God is when we do something because He thinks it's a good idea to do it. And therefore there is no obedience apart from this submission to His Lordship. And this is what I believe is one of the points, one of the main points I wanted to get at in this message.

This business of setting apart Christ as Lord is the most mind-settling thing you'll ever do. Now, every believer's already done this, and yet, I'll tell you, it's a continual warfare, because the flesh never submits to this principle. And if you believe God, you're going to be wrestling with this the rest of your life. And every day, you're going to have to abdicate the throne and set Jesus Christ apart as Lord in your heart.

Because we wake up, it's kind of like you wake up natural. When we wake from our sleep, the first thing, at least with me, I'm just going to, I guess I'll just talk about me. Don't know about you. I'll talk about me. When I arise from sleep, the first thoughts that flood my mind are fleshly ones.

That's just so. That's why Paul says that, you know, every day, he said, I got to beat my body. Every day I've got to bring it into subjection. And so this is a constant warfare. And if we do not purposefully, continually set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts, then we will be in a state of constant turmoil about what we ought to do. For we will sit upon the throne of our hearts, and everyone around us will come as advisors to us to tell us what they think we ought to do, and we're not going to be able to figure out what to do. We're going to have a hard time. Do we please this person? Do we please that person? Do we do this? Here's the easy way out. Get off the throne, quit making decisions, set Christ there, and then ask Him, what should I do? He's the only advisor you need. Only one.

And I know this, as the scriptures say, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Do you think that you could have a will or a desire to know what God would have you do and God wouldn't tell you? Do you think that you could have within you a heart that desires to obey God and God would not so much as bother to let you know what you ought to do? I guarantee you. If you bow before the Lord, the Lord will be glad to tell you what you ought to do. And you will know it with certainty. And it will make sense to you, and you will be willing.

But I'll tell you, so long as you sit on the throne, your life's going to be a mess. You're going to be miserable. I have never suffered, this is the truth of it, I have never suffered while bowing before the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I have suffered much trying to sit there, set apart Christ as the Lord, abdicate the throne, And then he goes and says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. You set apart Christ as Lord, you want to know what's going to happen? Somebody's going to notice. You follow the Lord, somebody will notice.

Now, that's not why we do it, and we don't put on false and pretend shows of following the Lord. We don't go burn up our records in a public display. We don't stick our hair up in a bun. Well, I wouldn't do that anyway, but I mean the women don't do that. We don't put on a certain type of clothes that identifies us with a particular religion. We don't do these outward things that are highly esteemed among men but an abomination to God.

We don't do that and thus make people ask us about the hope that lies within us. But I do guarantee you, if you live your life in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord, without even trying to, you're going to stick out. And somebody's going to ask. And Peter says, you be ready to give them an answer. Ain't nobody ever asked me. Well, think about that a while. I realize we live in a community. Maybe everybody you've come in touch with has already asked you, so you don't get any questions anymore. But you be ready. You've got a great hope to be made like Jesus Christ. Why in the world would you have such a hope? And here's the reason you can tell them.

Verse 18, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. We'll not get into that part of it, but we'll just speak about the fact here. This is where our hope lies. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died in the place of the unrighteous one in order to bring me to God. He was put to death in the body, But by the Spirit of God, he was made alive.

And my hope, the whole of it, the completeness of it, is not in what I have done, but in what he has done. My hope is not in that I am righteous. No, in that declaration, I'm the unrighteous one. He's the righteous one. who died in place of this unrighteous one to bring me to God, not to bring me to heaven, not to bring me to pearly gates and mansions and golden streets, but to bring me to God himself, to be accepted by him, to be fathered by him, to be blessed by him, to be favored by him. And the proof that his death in the body was sufficient to put away my sin was made by the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

Then Peter talks a little bit about Noah, the people in Noah's day, and how eight people in all were saved through water, through the water of wrath, which represented the wrath of God. And he goes on to say this, verse 21, in this water, this water of Noah's flood symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. He says there is a symbolic similarity between the flood of Noah and baptism. And the point at which those two pictures of salvation come together is the water. And the water in both cases signifies the wrath of God and death.

For the wrath of God came upon this world in the days of Noah, and it killed everybody but the eight who were in that ark. And the ark was in the water, the ark was in the flood, it was in the wrath, it was in the death, but they were in the ark. And inasmuch as the ark survived the wrath, so did everybody in it. And they, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives, They, in a sense, suffered the flood just like everybody else did. They went into the wrath, they went into the death, but they were raised from the dead by virtue of being in that ark because the ark survived it. And they come out the other side, not in that old world which is judged, but a new world.

And likewise, when the believer confesses his Lord in baptism, there's the water. What's it represent? The grave, death, wrath. And they go in. And they go in because Christ went in. And they're symbolizing that they went in to death with him when he went in. But Christ came out, and so do they.

And symbolically speaking, they went under the water dead in trespasses and sins, part of the old world, part of the old creation, subject to judgment, they come out clean as a whistle, without sin, into a new world of a new creation. Of course, that's all symbolic. But here's some things about that symbolism, what baptism symbolizes. First of all, According to what this statement says, baptism is first and foremost. The word here, they translate it pledge. That's not the best translation. Just an answer or a response.

It was used in courts when men would be brought before courts and charged with a crime, and then they were asked to make a plea, just like they do in our day. Do you plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against you? And so we are brought before the bar of God's justice, and the whole of the law is brought out against us, and then we are asked, what do you plead, guilty or not guilty? Baptism is the sinner's plea of not guilty by virtue of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Scriptures say always be ready to give an answer, give a reason for the hope that lies in you. He who is baptized says, here is my hope, I'm not guilty, and here is the reason. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. And when he rose again, I rose again. That's my plea, and that's my hope.

And secondly, baptism is the first open declaration of what Peter said we are to do in our hearts. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Okay? The Lord said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Is he Lord? Then what are you going to do? If he's Lord, I'm just going to tell you how it looks from my position. If he is Lord, the question's already answered as to what you shall do.

There need be a turmoil about this issue in the heart of one who confesses Christ and claims to have salvation in him. There's only got to be turmoil about what to do if somebody besides Christ is sitting on the throne. If other authorities other than Christ are being counseled with. But if He and He alone is on the throne, there is but one answer. People can come up with a lot of reasons not to follow the Lord in baptism.

You only need one to do it. The Lord said so, and his word trumps all others. And that one who is baptized is saying in his baptism that from his heart he has set apart Christ as the Lord, and nobody else has the right to rule him. It says baptism saves us. How does it do so?

Well, it doesn't save you by making you clean, because sin is not on the outside, it's on the inside, and the water never touches the inside. If you are without hope and without God in this world, before you're baptized, you'll be the same way afterwards. If you go down in your sins, you go down in the water in your sins, you'll come up in your sins. No, it's just a symbol.

The real salvation comes here. It says it saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It saves you by what it symbolizes. It saves you by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul said, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again. And he said, this is the gospel on which you've taken your stand. This is where you've put your hope.

And furthermore, this death, burial, and resurrection resulted in Jesus Christ being Lord of all. For it says, it saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him. When our Lord raised from the dead and came out of that tomb, that was simply the first step on the way back to the throne. The resurrection that is simply coming out of the tomb is not an isolated individual event that has any significance of its own. It's merely the first part of his ascension to glory, the first step toward the throne, the first evidence from God that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

I was first made to hear the gospel because Jesus is Lord. I was made to believe the gospel because Jesus is Lord. I was made to submit to Christ because Jesus is Lord. And I am preserved and protected from all that could destroy me because Jesus is Lord. I'm awfully glad Jesus is Lord. Oh, so happy about that.

And I hope that in your heart, In your opinion, he is Lord. If he's not Lord, according to your opinion, someday you'll be proven wrong. And to your great loss, you'll be proven wrong. But if by the grace of God, you will submit to him who is Lord and call him Lord, oh, what benefit arises from that? May the Lord grant it to be so. John?