1 Peter 5. I picked a line out of one of
the verses as a title to the lesson because when it's all
said and done, this is what he's doing. He's showing us how the
Lord cares. The Lord cares. He careth for
you. Alright, let's start here in
verse 5. Likewise, you younger, submit
yourselves to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. And here's the reason. God resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. Now, the word elder here, even
though it has its application to an older person, is still
talking about an elder as the pastor of the church. If you
look it up in the original, the word has to do with the pastor
of the church. In most cases, he is an older
person. And if he's not in age, he certainly
must be in spiritual maturity. He must be the elder. And it could be that Peter here
is not necessarily just talking to all the youth in the church.
He could be talking here to these young men who are experiencing
the call into the ministry and who've just begun to go out and
preach a little bit. And he may be telling them. They
have a little taste of what it is to preach the gospel. And
he's telling them, you be in subjection to your pastor. So it might be that he's addressing
the younger preachers in the church. They're to be in subjection
to the pastor, and they should be glad that they are. I tell
you, every day I give thanks to God that he had a faithful
man who'd been down the road and who was capable of teaching
me some things, even though I didn't listen to everything at the time.
But I still draw from the things that he taught me when I sat
under his ministry, and we ought to be glad that this is God's
design and that he's placed us under a man who's faithful to
teach us. What would I have been sitting under those deceived
men in religion if God had been pleased just to leave me there?
What would I know? I'd be more ignorant now than
I was then. I'd be settled into it. You know,
people get settled into religion and they stay there. You can't
root them out. You can't draw them out. So we're
to be in subjection and be glad that we are and more than ready
to be taught, and if we need to be, even corrected. It's the
natural tendency of a young man to rebel against It is. It's just the natural tendency.
Partly because he's trying to establish himself as a man. I
can remember that when I was just a young man. I wanted to
be a man. I didn't want to be counted with
the boys anymore. I wanted to be acknowledged as
a man. I wanted to make my own way.
I wanted to raise my own family. I wanted to govern my own house. I wanted to be a man. And partly
I think this is what causes a young man to rebel. He's trying to
establish himself as a man. So this is just a natural tendency,
and partly because he's trying. He's a rebel. That's part of it. That natural
tendency in a man is left to himself. He's a rebel. He don't
want to be told what to do. And he wants everything to be
his decision and his way, and he fights for it. And it begins
as a young man. So these are the natural things.
However, the believers are not governed by the natural, but
by the spiritual. And this is what Peter's doing.
I don't have anything in this book for a natural man as far
as making a natural man obedient or trying to make a natural man
into a spiritual man. I don't have anything like that.
I don't even hold the notion that that's even possible. Except
you be born again, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
It takes a new birth and a new nature. So Peter's talking here
to people who know God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. I'm saying that believers are
not under the natural. They're not governed by the natural.
They're governed by the Spirit. And while you're turning over
there to Romans 8, I'm going to quote you something out of
1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. He said, but the natural man,
that's what we're talking about. Natural tendencies in man, the
natural man. He receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Now, if you read that verse carefully,
it's kind of a catch-22. Think about what he's saying
here. He won't receive the very things that God has ordained
For the means for him to know, the means for him to learn, he's
rejected those things. So he can't know these things
because that's how the Spirit imparts these things. That's
the means that God has ordained for him to learn. And he's rejected
those things. He's rejected the Word of God.
He won't settle on that. He's rejected all of these other
things. He's rejected them. He won't
receive the things of the Spirit of God. Now look here in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 5. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. What are the things of the flesh?
What's he talking about? What's he talking about? The
things of the flesh. Well, it's ideas and concepts
of a natural man. It's natural reasoning. Natural
reasoning. It's his emotions which are generated
by twisted understanding. And it's religious principles
and philosophies established by natural men and it's called
in the scripture the rudiments of this world. That is the rudimentary
or basic principles of the world. So these are the things of the
flesh. And they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. They settle for those things.
They walk according to those things. That's how they think.
That's how they understand. That's how they reason. But they
that are after the Spirit, not the same way. These are the things
of the Spirit. Well, what are the things of
the Spirit? Well, the Word of God. the Word of God. You try to get
a natural man to settle on this book. You just try it. You try to sit him down and say,
okay, I'm going to talk to you now, but we're going to stay
in the confines of this book. You won't get two minutes into
your conversation. He'll be telling you what he
thinks and what he feels and what he experienced. He won't
settle for this book. And faith rests. This is the
foundation of faith, right? So one of the things of the Spirit
of God is the Word of God and then the preaching of the gospel.
That's the message of the Word. That's the message of the book.
And the assembling of the saints together. This is the thing of
the Spirit of God. We assemble ourselves together.
That's always been the way of God. He always dealt with his
people in an assembly, all through the wilderness, all through time,
all the way up to the coming of Christ. And after Christ had
ascended back into glory, they still assembled together. This
is one of the things of the Spirit of God. The people of God get
together and encourage one another and worship God and learn. And
then the rule of under shepherds, he's given to the church pastors. Prophets and apostles are gone. We don't have apostles and prophets
anymore. You've only got two offices that
the Lord gave, that the ascended Christ gave to the church that
are still in force today, evangelists and pastor teachers. But the natural man, he won't
receive that. And then the church itself, which
is the pillar and ground of the truth. Believers are not governed
by the natural, but by the spiritual. Now watch this, Romans 8, 6. The natural man, he follows after
the things of the flesh. The spiritual man, he follows
after the things of the spirit. And to be carnally minded. to
follow after those things of the flesh, to follow after natural
reasoning and that type of thing. To be carnally minded is death.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. That is, it's fiercely opposed
to God. It's actively rebellious toward
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. And I'm going to tell you something
here. You can just substitute those words, it's not subject
to God. Because the law of God is set
forth by the authority of God and set forth by God himself.
And to rebel against the law is to rebel against God. So what
this is saying here is he's not subject to God. Neither indeed
can be. It's an impossibility. Absolute
impossibility. He has to be made a new creature. So then, here's the summation
of what Paul's been saying here. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. You can't do it. You can't generate
faith. You can't generate repentance.
You can't generate all of those things that are freely given
to you by the grace of God. But, he says, verse 9, ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now, if any man had not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. Believers are not left in their
natural blindness and ignorance. And to walk after the Spirit
is to walk in submission. Walk in submission. Submit yourselves
unto the elder. Submit yourselves one to another. It's submission. But what does
submission mean? What does that mean? How does
a man walk in submission? Well, first of all, it means
in God's order of things. God has an order in creation.
He said, wives, be subject to your husbands. Why? Because that's
how God ordained it. That's why. There wasn't a reason. There wasn't a reason. You can
find things to argue about, but I'm just telling you this is
the natural order. This is how God has ordained
things to be, and it's how they're going to be. So he said, wives,
be subject to your husbands. Children, be subject to your
parents. Servants, be subject to your
masters. People out here in the nation,
you that are out here in the nation, you belong to this nation,
be subject to the powers that be. For there is no power except
that of God. So walk in submission. And what
that means is God's order of things. And then secondly, it
means to recognize our own weakness, baseness, and corruption. If
we're going to walk in submission, All you need to do to be humble
before God is realize what you are. Realize the potential of
this flesh. Realize that our baseness and
our weakness and our corruption. And when we do that, we're ready
to receive instruction. You know, if a fellow just knows
he's ignorant, he's ready to listen. He's ready to be taught. You can teach him something. He realizes everything he thought
he knew, it was all wrong and all upside down and sideways.
Now that man is ready to listen. And the Lord says, just keep
on walking that way. Don't get above that. You just
keep right on walking in humility. In Philippians chapter 2 verse
3, Listen to this. He said, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. I wonder how much of that we
practice. Not very much. Not very much. We always got
ourselves up here, and maybe that guy can get on the same
plane, but we ain't going to get under him, are we? I'm as
good as he is. My ideas are as good as his.
Let each esteem other better than themselves. Believers are
to condescend to men of low estate. And after they've condescended
to men of low estate, they're to bear the infirmities of the
weak and be ready to be admonished, be ready to be reproved and corrected,
and to do so in a friendly manner. It's hard to receive friendly
admonition, isn't it? It's not if we're condescending.
It's not if we realize who we really are. One writer said this, it don't
cost anything to listen. Just listen. And then our Lord said this,
He said, when you enter into the house of God, He said, be
more ready to hear than to do what? Offer the sacrifice of
fools. For they think through their
much speaking that God hears them. It's a lot better for a
man. A man in James, he said, of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. Therefore, he
said, you be slow to wrath, quick to hear, quick to listen. Do that. To be a subject, Peter says this,
be clothed with humility. To be a subject, who is subject
requires the garment of humility. Now, he uses the word clothed
here to show our lack of it. That means we need it, we don't
have it. And to teach us that we're not born with it. It's
something that has to be put on. And he also uses the word
clothed to show us our need of it. You know, humility, when
we talk about putting on the garment of humility, be clothed
with humility, we're not talking about a robe to cover our nakedness. Christ did that with the robe
of his righteousness. That covers our nakedness. He
clothed us with the robe of his righteousness. But this clothing
of humility is not to cover our nakedness. It's to adorn us. It's to adorn the believer. So then subjection requires humility. And here's the reason. God resisteth
the proud and giveth grace to the humble. I'm going to tell you something.
The last thing a believer wants is to find the sovereign God
on his opposing end. Huh? If God resists you, men can resist
you and you can get past that. But if God resists you, you're
resisted. You're resisted. And the last
thing a believer wants is to find the sovereign God on his
opposing side. And if God sets himself in a
place of resistance, all our forward progress comes
to a halt. If God resists a man, he can't
do anything about it. Pharaoh swelled up in pride.
God resisted him. And there wasn't anything he
could do about it. Nothing he could do about it. Nebuchadnezzar,
he got all puffed up in pride. God let him go out and eat like
a beast for a while and live like a beast for a while. Satan
puffed himself up before God and God cast him out into everlasting
darkness. God resisted the proud. He gave
a grace to the humble. All right, 1 Peter 5, verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore,
for this reason, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time. Whatever is done in us, for us,
or with us, we want God to be the author of it. After you've been the author
of some things, you don't want to do that anymore. You want
God to be in it. If he's going to do something
with me, I hope he does it, not me. I've learned to trust him. And whatever's done in us, for
us, or with us, we want him to be the author of it, the source
of it, and the power of it. So let me then take my place
as clay in the potter's hands. That's what he's saying. You
know what he told Paul? He said, my grace is sufficient.
And here's why. Because my strength, he said,
is made perfect in weakness. I didn't choose you because you
was great. I chose you because you were
nothing. And in your weakness, my power is going to be manifested
and not yours. God's wisdom is manifested in
our ignorance. Believers are no longer under
the school of natural thinking which wants to take things into
their own hands. That's what the natural man,
he wants to have a part in it. He just, I'm a builder by nature
and I've learned things over a long period of time. I grew
up with it. When I get a younger man on the
job, he's got ideas and things that he wants to try, and I try
to suppress him down because I've already done those things
and found out they don't work. And you learn after a while,
and this is the way to do it. And so you follow and you do
it that way. But a man, he wants to take things
in his own hands. And I'll watch a young man do
something for a minute. I just can't stand it anymore.
I'll take it away from him. Just do it myself. I know he's
either going to get hurt or he's going to do it wrong and I'm
going to have to do it anyway. That's the natural tendency of
a man. He wants to take everything into his own hands until he learns
the perfection of the Lord. Until he learns what this thing
is all about with the Lord. And then he wants to take his
hands off. He fights himself the rest of his life trying to
get his hands and his mind and his stuff out of the way. and
let God do what He will. Believers are men and women rescued
from themselves, from this world, and from the deceitful rule of
Satan. Believers are men and women who've
been delivered from the power of darkness, delivered from an
ignorance of God and the glory of His character. And believers
are men and women whose lives God has intervened, and they
know their inability. And they know something of His
ability. They know their weakness and
His strength and their ignorance and His wisdom. And they know
something about their poverty and His riches. And they want
God to rule over them. They want God to rule over them.
That's their desire. I don't desire to rule anything.
I want Him to rule. Let Him, let God be true in every
man's life. Will be done. Isn't that how
we're taught to pray? Not my will, but thy will. And they want to submit to Him
and submit to His will. And they know in that day that
they will be exalted with His Son and in His Son and be sons
of God. Alright, 1 Peter 5, 7. Now, we're
going through all this suffering and we're going through this
thing of trying to clothe ourselves in humility and trying to bend
ourselves to the will of God. And that generates all kinds
of care. All kinds of care. And we get
worried about this and worried about that and upset about this
and upset about that. And He tells us here in verse
7, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. And I tell you, if you ever get
a hold of that, that would be the softest pillow you ever laid
your head on. He careth for you. If He didn't,
He wouldn't have sent you a preacher. If He didn't, He wouldn't have
given you a revelation of Christ. If He didn't, He wouldn't have
broke you. He wouldn't have revealed sin to you. And He wouldn't have
revealed the grace of God to you. Eternal life is to know
God by way of the person and work of the Son. I'm not here
trying to get folks to join something or promise something or make
some kind of decision. You'll make a decision if God,
in the day of His power, makes you willing. You'll make the
decision. What I'm trying to do is point
men and women to Christ, to tell Him who He is, to tell them what
He did, why He came, where He's at. Appoint Him to Christ, the
Son of Man, the hope of glory, the one mediator between God
and men. And to tell you all of these
things, He came to manifest the name of God. None other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And
to tell men about God's redemptive will, it's to save a people He
chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. and to tell them all these things.
And I'm trying to tell folks where he is, exalted at the right
hand of God, already accepted, already received the inheritance. This is an anchor, Paul said,
that goes beyond the veil, entered into heaven itself. And everything that God has done
is for the salvation of sinners, and all that truly know Him trust
Him. And the more you know Him, the
better you know Him, the more you trust Him. You can't help
it. And they look to Him, and they
cast all their cares on Him. And they do so with the understanding
that He cares for them. He cares for them. You know, if he didn't, he wouldn't
have made provision for you, would he? He wouldn't have made
provision for you. If he didn't, he wouldn't have
intervened in your life. He'd just let you go. I went
to school with folks, and we were all a bunch of rebels, every
one of us. And you know, I still speak with some of them on Facebook,
and they're still rebels. Hadn't changed one bit. Hadn't
changed one bit. 60 years old now. Still living
like they did when they was 22. If He didn't care for us, He
wouldn't have intervened in our lives. If He didn't care for you, He wouldn't
have called you out of darkness or given you eyes to see the
glory of God in Christ. cast all of our care on Him.
Alright, look here at verse 8, 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour. I know that Satan is the butt
of jokes, to Hollywood, and most men used to have a black entertainer
on there, and he'd always say, the devil made me do it. He's
just the butt of jokes. When they talk about Satan and
talk about that type of thing, it's just a, it's in jest. But I cannot imagine a greater
or more serious similitude than that of a roaring lion, which
Peter attaches to our adversary. You think about it. I was watching,
I like to watch these documentaries and things, and I was watching
a thing in Africa, and it was about lions, and it showed this
big lion. I have no idea what they weigh,
500, 600 pounds or more. But you think about a little
house cat. and what they can do, and then you try to imagine
that cat weighing 600 pounds. That thing grabbed a deer, which
is nothing but just pure muscle, and he just, I mean, in a bite,
killed that deer and threw it down like it was just nothing,
and picked it up in his mouth and walked away with it. Satan
said, our adversary, the devil, walketh about like a roaring
lion. A lion on the prowl, a lion looking
for its prey. I cannot imagine a greater or
more serious similitude than what he gives us here with this
roaring lion engaged to hunt its prey. And every false prophet
is called his minister. He's part of the pride. He's the father of all self-righteous
hypocrites, and every unregenerate man is said to walk according
to the prince of the power of the air. And God's ministers
are advised to instruct those that oppose themselves in meekness,
hoping that God will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth, and that they might recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil. Now listen. Who are taken captive. at His will. That's a serious
adversary. And Satan's deceitful power led
a third of the heavenly host to be cast out into chains of
everlasting darkness. His confrontation with the human
species was just one time and caused the ruin of all men. And
I'd be afraid to even venture a guess of how many nations,
families, and churches who are now under his spell. He's a serious adversary, a serious
adversary. And he said, you be sober. You
have your wits about you. You be vigilant. That means to
be cautious and watchful, alert, because Satan, this adversary,
He's on the prowl, and he's seeking whom he may devour. Verse 9,
whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. How in the world can a believer
resist such an enemy? By faith. That's the only way. By faith. Trusting in Christ. Faith in Christ who alone is
able to chain the old dragon. He can chain him. He can walk
up to our arch enemy and wheel and put the chain around his
neck and hold him in his hand. We resist him in the faith and
we resist him in truth. The chief weapon of Satan is
lies. His weapons are absolutely useless
against the truth. He can send a man in here and
he can talk all kinds of lies and start spreading his lies
and things he's convinced of. We know the truth. And it has
no effect on us. No effect on us. His weapons
are useless against the truth. And we can resist Him in the
Spirit. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of revelation and
knowledge of Christ. And to walk in the Spirit is
to walk in the light of Christ. So we resist Him. And that's
what He tells us. This roaring lion, your adversary,
be sober. He's active. He's here. He's
all around you. He's in the world. I tell you,
if you begin to study this thing and begin to see some things
about it, you will be astounded. about what kind of power he exercises
in this world. But you can resist him. You can
resist him in the faith, trusting in Christ, knowing who's protecting
you and who's preserving you. You ain't no match for him, but
Christ is. Christ is, and in the spirit,
which gives us the knowledge and revelation of Christ. Thank
you.