1 Peter 3, and we are going to read the
first seven verses. 1 Peter 3, and verses one to
seven. If any of you people out there
have husbands and wives, you can listen to this with particular
rapt attention. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also
may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives,
while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. whose adorning, let it not be
that outward adorning of plating the hair, and of wearing of gold,
or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price. For after this manner in the
old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves,
being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed
Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as
ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise,
ye husbands, Dwell with them according to knowledge, giving
honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being
heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not
hindered. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. My thoughts this morning have
been clustered predominantly under the theme of the incorruptible
man and that's the title of our thoughts this morning, the incorruptible
man. Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples
during his ministry amongst them something of their nature, their
condition, their heart and their soul, which I think, with a realism,
we might find strange and amazing. Looking at his disciples, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, ye are clean. through the word which
I have spoken unto you. You're clean through the word
that I have spoken unto you. And I declare to you this morning
that what Jesus says of one of his purchased possession, he
says of all. Every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is clean through the word of Christ to them, through the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we value the gospel
as we do. That is why we see its power
and its worth and its consequences in the lives of men and women
when it is preached in truth with faithfulness to it, and
in the power of God the Holy Spirit. When God speaks through
the gospel, he speaks to the hearts of men and women, and
the power of that gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit's
work cleanses those who receive and believe these truths. I repeat what the Lord said to
his disciples, you are clean. That cleanliness is the effect
of an implanting and a forming of pure principles of grace in
our hearts. It is the quickening work of
God the Holy Spirit. It is the sanctifying power of
God the Holy Spirit, who sprinkles our hearts with clean water. And what Titus calls, or Paul
calls to Titus, the washing of regeneration. It is the spotlessly
clean state of all whose hearts are purified, whose hearts are
holy and unblemished by faith in the cleansing blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is our justification by the
righteousness of God by which we are justified from all sin
and made to realize what God has done for us in his eternal
covenant promises and in the blessedness bestowed upon us
eternally in the Lord Jesus Christ. and it is truly and really all
fair and without spot. Song of Solomon, verse seven
of chapter four says, thou art all fair, my love, there is no
spot in thee. It is our being made fit proper,
worthy vessels for His presence, sanctified and cleansed with
the washing of water by the Word. And Paul tells us in Ephesians
chapter five, verse 27, the end of this cleansing, ye are clean
by the word that I have spoken unto you. Paul tells us the end,
the aim, the object of this cleansing, that he might present the church,
his people, it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Clean before God. Think on that. Clean before God. Really, truly, actually, wonderfully
clean. Before I go any further, I want
also to say something more about this. This cleanliness, this
righteousness that has been given to us, this purity, this holiness,
this spotless cleanliness that we possess isn't make-believe. It's not a fairy story. It's not imagination, it's not
let's pretend we are. Sometimes preachers speak of
believers having righteousness imputed to them. And they use
the word imputed in such a way as if it's been put to your account,
but it hasn't actually changed anything. It's just that you're
seen in a different light. God chooses not to see what you
really are. God chooses to look at you as
if you're something different. Their sense seems to be that
we remain sinful, but God looks at us differently. He deals with
us on an as-if basis. He deals with us as if we're
holy. He deals with us as if we're
righteous. Well, that's inadequate. That
doesn't cut the mustard. That's not what the scriptures
say. That makes God two-faced. That
makes him a looking two ways God. A God who knows what's real,
but who pretends it's different. That's not our God. That's not
the testimony of scripture and that's not how you have to think.
You have to realise that if you are one of the Lord's people,
then that which the scripture says about the Lord's people
is yours. Peter and James and John, now
you're clean. Not just because you're an apostle,
because you've got faith, because you're a believer, because you
trust in the efficacy, the powerfulness of the cleansing blood of Jesus
Christ. This isn't a nudge, nudge, wink,
wink kind of gospel that we're preaching here. This is real. God deals with us, God accepts
us, God unites himself to us, not as if we are holy, but because
we are holy. And God sees no sin in his people
because there is no sin in his people. Nor in that spiritual relationship
that we have with him. There is holiness as Christ is
holy. There is perfection as Christ
is perfect. Our sin was laid on Christ, really
laid upon Him. Actually, truly laid upon Him
because Christ was that fit man that carried our sin away. Psalm 103 verse 12 says, as far
as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. I love this gospel. We take these
words and we believe them. One might ask, well what then
of our flesh? What then of the fact that I
feel sin in my life every single day? In fact, when I'm sharp
enough or alert enough to think about it, I feel it every hour
of the day and every minute of the hour. Someone might say, doesn't John
say if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us? Good, good, you know the scriptures. Yes, he does say that indeed. But I remind you that he also
said in the previous verse, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. Last week, I suggested that you
might like to think about the word mercy. Well, this week's
word for reflection is cleansed. Cleansed. Every time you wash
your hands this week, Think that you're cleansed. Every time you
take a shower, think about the fact that you're cleansed. Not in this flesh, that's what
we use the water and the soap for, but in our souls. In that hidden man of the heart. In that new man, in that new
creation. we are as spotless as the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. How are we to understand this?
Well, it's clear that these bodies of ours, our flesh, our tangible
bodies, our flesh, our skin, our blood, our bones, they are
sinful. They're fallen. They're decaying. I know that this body is decaying. I feel it as year changes into
year. I feel the weakness coming into
this body. And if you don't yet, you will
soon. These bodies are going in one
direction and one direction only. They were made of clay and they're
going to return to clay. They were made of dust and dust
they will become. These bodies are only going to
the grave. And we will not be free of sin
in these bodies until these bodies drop into the grave. Flesh is
flesh. and it must return to corruption. Indeed we're told in the scripture
that in the flesh dwelleth no good thing. And there's the picture,
there's the balance, there's the contrariness. In our souls
we are clean. pure by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, cleansed, and in our bodies dwells no good thing.
Now, the big mistake that many religions make is that they try
to make this body better than it is. And that is a foolish
thing to do. You're never going to improve
this flesh. And you can't improve what's
perfect. and yet these two fight against
each other. And there's the contention that
is in every believer's experience. Paul writes that he would do
good. but he finds evil present with
him. He delights in the law of God
after the inward man, but he sees another law in his members,
warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity
to the law of sin and death. This is a fight, this is a battle,
this is a wrestling match and it goes on every day. between
that which is cursed and fallen and condemned and that which
is clean and pure and holy. A constant daily warfare between
a man's own body and his soul. the flesh lusting against the
spirit, the spirit lusting against the flesh, and these are contrary,
says Paul, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would. Now what has this got to do with
1 Peter 3? Simply this. Our Christian life, our spiritual
profession, our engagements with this world, the trials that we
face in this world, our calling to good works, they flow from
the gracious effect of Christ being formed in the heart of
a believer. Christ in you. the hope of glory. Christ dwells in us. Christ is
in his people. He dwells in his people just
as much as we dwell in him. He dwells in us. Our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ is an eternal, spiritual, doctrinal revelation. We read
about it in scripture. But it is also personal and it
is also intimate. When we are brought to a knowledge
of the truth, we begin in our experience a relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ that he has had with us from eternity. But we now see who he is and
we are brought into subjection to him. Christ dwells in us. Abide in me, he says, and I in
you. And we do dwell in him. In him
we live and move and have our being. And that relationship
affects the people we are and how we live. A change is affected
in the life of the individual at conversion. They are altered. That's what conversion means.
They're changed. Our motivations are different. Our passions are different. We are not our own any longer. We don't strive to pursue the
lusts of the flesh. And that fact of our change,
our difference, is employed by the sacred writers to encourage
and direct us as to how we are to live. And they're not constraining
us to act against our will, but they are encouraging us to follow
our great example as his children, as one who lives in communion
with him, as the one who is our friend and our father and our
brother. And that one is the Lord Jesus
Christ. We saw that before in the previous
passage where Peter talks about Christ, our great example. Chapter two, verse 21, he says,
for even here unto where ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. So Peter's talking about husbands
and he's talking about wives. And he says to the wives, wives
be in subjection to your husbands. And he says to the husbands,
husbands honor your wives. Wives be in subjection to your
husbands. Because Christ's in you. Husbands,
you honor those women. because Christ's in you. Now,
people might say, oh, we need to bring the law back in. We
need to be clear on this law. What does the law says? Thou
shalt not commit adultery. I did not have sexual relations
with that woman. Subject yourself to him as your
husband that the Lord has given you. Honour that woman that has given
her flower, her best to you and cherish her. Realise what you've
been given together from the Lord. and live with an affection
that isn't ruled over by some legalistic statement, but flows
from the heart out of an understanding what Christ has done for you.
And as your example, you are delighted to follow in his ways. Why should I honor my wife? Because
it's Christ-like to do so. and Christ is in me, and I am
in him. And if your wife makes it hard
for you to honour her, remember the Lord Jesus Christ's example.
He suffered for his bride. And if your husband makes it
hard for you to be in subjection to him, Remember the Lord in
whom you live and who lives in you and remember that he suffered
for you and he calls us to follow him as our example. It is who
we are as the redeemed people of God. His presence in us moderates
our actions, modifies our approaches to this world and motivates our
conduct in our relationships together. I'm going to make three
quick observations and then we're done at this stage of our service. These blessings and graces that
we have from God himself are declared to have come to us at
great price. The first thing I want to say
about these blessings of great price is that they make a change
in the way that we live. True beauty, true beauty is not
in braided hair or in outward appearance. True beauty is meekness
of heart. It is a quiet spirit. It is the
internal graces working out from the inward man, the secret man
of the heart. This one who is the incorruptible
man, the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible, even
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight
of God of great price. Not in our outward appearance,
but in meekness in the way in which we deal with one another.
Meekness is not weakness. Quietness is the fruit of peace
and contentment and such spiritual grace in the life of an individual
is a powerful attraction both inside and outside of the church. we can pretty ourselves up as
much as we like in the flesh. And we can look at that simply
as far as our adoration and ornamentation of our body. Or we can think
about it from a moral perspective, about that which we convey to
the people around about us, that, oh, we are holy, look at the
things we do. or else we can view it as that meekness and
quietness of spirit wherein true beauty lies. And you just need
to be in the company of someone for a little while who knows
something about the grace of God. And if that flows from them,
they're a delight to be with and they're an attraction one
to another. Let me pick that up again. So
powerful is that attraction. That Peter says, husbands may
without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. That's an incredible statement.
Husbands may without the word be won by the conversation of
the wives. Now ordinarily, it is preaching
the gospel that is used as the means of bringing sinners to
a knowledge of the way of salvation. And yet here is evidence of grace
and gracious conduct as a strong pointer to Christ. And I think
that's a lovely thing that Peter has said to us there. I think
that should motivate us in so many levels in our relationships
one with another. Because how we act matters. That first reaction matters. How we deal with one another
matters. And I see no reason to limit
this witness of a meek and peaceable spirit, to limit that witness
simply to husband and wife, because that's what Peter has quoted
here. But children and parents and friends and relatives, they
will all see something of Christ in us. Now some people sneer at that
idea, and I'm going to call a spade a spade here. Some people sneer
at that idea that Christ can be seen in his people. They'll
say things like, well, they didn't see Christ in Christ, so they're
hardly going to see him in you. Well, John chapter 13 verse 35
says, And if they don't, well, at least we'll see it in one
another. And the third point is this. There is a special relationship
between a husband and a wife. a relationship that is closer
than any other in this world, more than parents and children. When two are brought together,
the word of God tells us they become one flesh. And that is
why abusing that relationship is one of the direst actions
and afflictions and assaults that you can make upon that person
who has been joined to you. And choosing the right partner
in life is important. Some of you younger ones will
have to come to this in time. Choosing the right partner in
life is important. Believing partners share the
grace of God with you. And the promises of God and the
prospects that God sets before us are to be enjoyed and experienced
together as a husband and a wife unit, one flesh. Yes, there is a difference in
gifts. Yes, there is a difference in roles and responsibilities,
but our calling is to the same blessedness. And that submission
on the one hand and honour on the other, they complement our
worship together. Now you can come in here You
can come in here and you can stand and you can sing the hymns
and you can say amen to the prayers and you can sit quietly and listen
to everything that I've said. And if your wife knows what kind
of man you are at home, you can kid the rest of us on, but you
can't kid her. And she can't kid you. Such is
the intimacy of that relationship. It speaks of that special bond
between Christ and his church. Brothers and sisters, if Christ
has washed us and made us clean by his precious blood, then let
us live as the people we are. Let us live according to the
privileges that he has given us. We are to honour his name
and we are to be the praise of His accomplishments. These are
precious possessions that we have been given, and these are
blessings that we have to cherish and value in our dealings one
with another. Amen.