Turn with me to the book of 1
Peter. We've been going through the
book of 1 Peter verse by verse. We're now in chapter 3. Peter's
been telling the believer how to conduct himself in this present
evil world. Now this world exhibits somewhat
of morality and things. They've been taught these things. They're actually taught these
things. All men are taught these things
in their conscience. But they don't follow their conscience.
They suppress their conscience. And they've been taught these
things in the law of God. And there's enough law preaching
in the world to where men and women know by the law what's
right and what's wrong, what's condemned and what's not. But
Peter here is teaching believers. He's teaching enlightened men.
He's teaching men who've been born again. And here in 1 Peter
3. And he's telling us to live our
lives in such a way as to benefit those around us and the church
of which we are by faith members. And so far, we've talked about
civil authority and how the believer looks on civil authority and
how he's to act toward civil authority. We're to understand
that this is God's minister. God uses. He's the one who founded
these things. He's the one who ordained these
things. And to transgress against civil authority is simply to
transgress against the minister of God, those things which God
has ordained. We're to respect these men and
honor these men and obey them as they are ordained of God as
ministers to us for good. And we've talked about parental
authority. The single most influential thing
accepting the gospel is the influence which parents have upon their
children. You know, in the book of Proverbs,
in chapter 22, verse 6, it says, train up a child in the way he
should go. You train him in the way, the
way of grace. We train him in the way of Christ.
Christ is the way. We train our children up in the
way that they should go. And when he's old, he will not
depart from it. That is, that way will not depart
from his mind. Now, he might not follow the
way, but he'll know the way. You'll know the way. And it is as important for your
child to recognize your authority as a parent's as it is for them
to recognize the authority of the nation in which we live.
It's very important. Peter talked about servants and
masters. He talked about all of these
things, civil authority. And he talked about parental
authority. And he's talked to us about servants
and masters, or in our country, employers and employees. We're
to honor one another. If we're an employee, we're to
honor our employer. He is our employer. And if I'm
an employer and I have employees, I'm to honor them. I wouldn't
be much of an employer without employees. I need them as much
as they need me. We're to honor them that we work
for. and for those who work for us. And then we talked about
husbands and wives. The wife's duty to her husband,
her effect on him, her life and how God uses it to affect him
and his life and how God uses those things in return to affect
her. And there's lots of things that God uses in our daily lives
that affects those around us. Things that we don't even think
about. We think about the major things. We think about the preaching
of the gospel. We think about gathering to worship.
But there's hundreds and hundreds of things, little things that
go on every day in God's providence that he uses. He uses in the
lives of chosen sinners to bring them to hear the gospel. It's
like pieces of a big puzzle, and you can't look at any one
thing. I mean, you drop a thousand-piece
puzzle on the ground, pick up one piece, you can't tell me
what the picture is going to be. Looking at that single piece,
you have to see all the pieces put together. But I'm telling
you, the Lord uses all these things. He works all things together. He meshes them all together and
uses all those things. And we're to never get the idea that our life is of no consequence
to others. It's very much a consequence.
And this meek and quiet spirit we're exhorted to have is of
great price in the eyes of God. Now, down here in verses 8 through
13, 1 Peter chapter 3, the apostle begins to sum up what he's been
teaching us. And he tells us in verse 8, he
said, finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of
another, love as brethren, be pitiful, and be courteous. Now, let's begin with this. Be
ye of one mind, of one mind. Whatever difference there might
be in your gender, in your age, in your position in life, your
situation, your citizenship, your marriage status. There's
all kinds of differences in these things. But whatever they are,
as believers, we're all to have the same mind. The same mind. And this is talking about our
judgment with respect to the doctrines and ordinances of the
church. We're of one mind. Well, you
say hardly anybody agrees on anything in this world. That's
not what I'm saying. I'm saying believers, believers
are of one mind. They're of one mind. Now, Paul
calls this over in Ephesians chapter 4, and you might want
to look over there and just kind of follow me. I'm going to go
through some of the things that he sets forth over there. But
he said we're endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. And that's what we're doing.
Or what do we strive to be in one mind about? That the church
is one body with Christ, and Christ is the head. One body,
one head. We're in one mind about that.
Believers are. They understand that. His body, the church, His people,
He's one with them. We understand that. I understand
that I have no hope of salvation whatsoever except as God has
chosen me and put me in His Son and appropriated His Son for
my salvation. Chose Him and ordained Him to
accomplish what I couldn't do. We're of one mind about that,
aren't we? We're one body. Christ is the head. And whenever
it says Christ is the head, he's not talking about a human head.
He's talking about our federal head. As Adam was the federal
head of all humanity, Christ is the head of his church. He's
the federal head. God chose us in Christ, blessed
us in Christ, predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, appointed Christ as our representative,
as our federal head and surety, and he did all of these things
before the world began. He is our head. We're one mind
about that. And when Christ was made flesh
and dwelt among us, he manifested that union. God who is everywhere
present, God who knows all things and who spans time itself. There's no such thing as time
with God. Now, listen to me. This God,
this invisible God who's everywhere present, all at the same time,
abode himself in human flesh, took to himself human. This is
the God-man. Jesus Christ was God. Isn't that
what Paul said over there? I think it's in Romans 9, Romans
10. He said, He's God over all, blessed
forever. Jesus Christ was God. This is
God come into the flesh. Let me read you some verses from
over here in 2 Timothy chapter 1. You don't have to turn over
there because I quote this to you all the time. He said, God
has saved us. and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now watch this. But is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior. These things are,
this union that took place, this invisible union that took place
by the ordination of God before the foundation of the world was
manifested when that baby was born from Mary's womb. This is God coming into the flesh.
And this is what Paul is saying, this salvation, this grace, this
truth. All of these things that's been
given to us of God was manifested in that baby. It's manifested
in that person, Jesus Christ. And when Christ become a servant
under the law and obeyed that law, we obeyed it. Because we're
one with Him. We're in Him. Chosen in Him. Put in Him. Our life is hid with
Christ in God. And when he stood before that
holy law of God and lived a perfect life before the holy law of God,
we lived that life. He become obedient unto death,
and in this obedience he wrought for his church a perfect righteousness.
And when He stood before the holy and just God, He appeared
there in union with His church. No other way that you can say
Christ was made a curse for us except by way of that union,
and the sinner stood before God in Christ. And when God looked
on Him, He looked on us. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again. for our justification. So the
church is one body, and Christ is their federal head. And listen
to these scriptures. And I could go on and on and
on with the scriptures, but over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
he's talking about the resurrection of Christ and how all of these
things would just be vain if he wasn't raised from the dead.
And he begins to sum that up, and he said, as in Adam, therefore
all die. Even so, in Christ shall all
be made alive. And so there is but one body,
and there is but one spirit, Paul tells us now in Ephesians
4. He goes on to tell us there's one body, and we're all in one
mind about that, and there's one spirit, and we're all in
one mind about that. They're just one spirit. The
spirit is the author of Scripture. He's the revealer of the gospel.
He's the begatting power behind the gospel. Paul said, when my
gospel came to you Thessalonians, it came not in word only, but
it came in power and in the Holy Ghost. He's the begatting power
behind the gospel or in the gospel. He's the convincer of all who
repent and believe. I can't convince you. I can tell
you the truth, but I can't convince you. I can tell you the truth
about sin, but I can't convince you that you're a sinner. I can
tell you about the righteousness of God, but I can't convince
you of the righteousness. I can tell you about the justification
that's ours in Christ, but I can't convince you of it. The Holy
Spirit can, and He does. There's just one Spirit. And
He does not teach His people different truths through different
motives, different ideas, and different concepts about Himself
and about the Father. He does not inspire men to write
one thing and then teach another. They're one spirit. And he does
not work by dreams and visions. He does not speak in some kind
of unintelligible gibberish. He does not work in a fashion
which glorifies himself. Now, I'm going to tell you something
about these so-called spirit-filled churches and churches who all
they ever talk about is the spirit, the power of the spirit, the
Holy Spirit. Have you got the spirit yet?
And all this kind of stuff. Anybody who keeps talking about
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit don't know the
Holy Spirit. When He's come, He will not call
attention to Himself. He will not. If you're someplace
and all they're doing is calling your attention to the Holy Spirit,
get out of there. When He's come, He won't do that.
He will not glorify Himself. Christ said, He'll take of the
things of mine and show them unto you. Now you find a place
where the revelation of Christ is and where a man is preaching
Christ and people are hearing what he's preaching. And they're
taking to heart what He's preaching. The Holy Spirit's in that place. Just one Spirit. And He doesn't
work through all that mess. He works through the gospel of
which He is the author. And He takes of the things of
Christ and He shows them unto thee. Paul said, our sufficiency is
of God who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit. I'm totally dependent.
Now, I've studied, and I've read the old writers, and I still
do. I read books. I read what men
preach in our day. I listen to them. You know, I
study these things, but my dependency 100% is on the Holy Spirit of
God. If He doesn't take what I tell
you and open your heart for you to see it and convince you that
it is the truth, nothing going to change in your life. Nothing. And believers are of one mind
concerning the Spirit of God. They pray that the Spirit of
God will attend the services, attend the preaching, attend
the songs, attend the prayers. And then He tells us this, we're
in one mind about our calling, because there's just one calling.
There's not a bunch of different callings, there's just one calling.
One hope of our calling, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. No hope in aisle walking. Our
whole generation, they gear everything they do to get people down an
aisle. Well, when you get them down here, all you did is change
geography. You went from that end of the
church to this end of the church. Nothing else has changed. There's
no hope in aisle walking. There's no hope in decision making. You wake up one morning and the
doctor says you've got cancer. Well, I decided I ain't going
to have cancer. You can decide all you want to,
you still have cancer. Huh? Is that right? And you can decide all these
things. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Your
decision doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It's God's decision
that matters. There's no hope in aisle walking.
There's no hope in decision making. There's no hope in signing a
pledge card. My soul, I can't believe people
do that. Come down the aisle. Here, sign
this card. Repeat after me. I'm not joining
the Boy Scouts. Why do I do these things? Why
do men do it? Because we're ignorant. That's
why. All hope is in Christ, and every
believer is in agreement about that. We're all in one mind concerning
these things. And we're all in one mind concerning
the Lord. Who sits on the throne? Christ. Huh? Anybody here disagree with
that? He raised us up with Him and
He sat down at the right hand of God. He sits on the throne
of Zion. He's Zion's king. God made Him
king of Zion. King over the church. King over
the world. for the church. We're in one mind about these
things. The Scripture says, none of us leave it to himself, and
no man doth it to himself. He may think he does. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore die,
we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. And I'm going to tell you something.
We might be vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. We might
be vessels of wrath being tolerated and used for a season to serve
Jacob. Or we might be vessels of mercy
aforeprepared unto glory being carried back to the fold, being
called by His grace. But whatever we are, we are in
His hands and under His reign to do with as He pleases. There's
just one Lord. Doesn't care who you are or what
you do. There's just one Lord. And there's just one faith, Paul
said. Faith is believing God. Faith is receiving God's testimony
concerning His Son and embracing Him and entering into His rest. That's the only kind of faith
there is. There's just one baptism. I was
talking to a young man not too long ago, and he was telling
me, kept asking me, questions, just little subtle questions,
trying to find out what I believed. He said, I guess we disagree
on baptism. And I said, well, I don't know
if we disagree or not. I said, but baptism means immersion. That's what the word means. If
we're going to talk about sprinkling, we don't need to call it baptism.
We need to call it sprinkling. Whenever there was something
sprinkled in the scriptures, They use the word sprinkling,
so don't go back and tell me, oh, that's the old English word
for baptism. No, I beg your pardon. The old
English use the same word we do, sprinkle. Took a little water
and sprinkled. Huh? Read it. You can read it in there. It
goes all the way back thousands of years, clear back into the
book of Leviticus. They sprinkled. But don't try
to turn baptism into sprinkling. Baptism means immersion. John
waded out into the water and took those men and buried them
down into the water. He didn't take them out there
and sprinkle their water on them. He could have done that in Jerusalem. That's just one baptism. Believers
are in the same mind about that, are we not? That's our confession. We confess our faith. We was
buried with Christ. Even so, we're raised with Him.
That's what that baptism tells. That's what it confesses. God
didn't sprinkle Christ in His death. He buried Him. He buried
Him in a tomb. And then He said we're in one
mind about God and the Father of all, who's above all, through
all, and in you all. He's the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Believers are not in several
minds when it comes to God the Father. He chose us in Christ. He's the wellspring of all the
blessings. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father
of lights. Where'd it come from? Comes down
from above, from the Father of lights. He chose us in Christ. He's the wellspring of all of
our blessings. Every good and perfect gift comes
down from Him. And Peter said, be of one mind.
That's what believers do. We're all of one mind about these
things. That's why I'm up here this morning
teaching you, showing you in the Scriptures what these things
are. And we're of one mind. And being in one mind, we're
to have compassion on one another. Because we're in one mind about
the fallen state of man. We're in one mind about the depravity
of man. We know something about that.
Our eyes have been opened. The Holy Spirit has convinced
us of sin, and we know what it is. The Holy Spirit has convinced
us of the righteousness of Christ, and we understand what it is.
We know experientially something about the grace of God. And knowing
these things, we're to be compassionate. Compassionate. It's our knowledge and experience
of these things that enables us to love as brethren. How does a brother love that's
different from how false religion loves? What's the difference? You go down there, they'll talk
about love. We love our brethren. You come
over here, and I'm telling you, love your brethren. We read the
Bible, it says love your brethren. Well, how's this love, how's
this brotherly love different from that love? Well, believers love one another
for Christ's sake. You couldn't love me on my own
very long. Sooner or later, it'd leak out
what I really am. You wouldn't like me much anymore.
But you can love me for Christ's sake. You can love me for Christ's
sake. Our love's not a reaction to
something we see in our brother, but how we see him in the grace
of God. How do you see yourself? Do you
see yourself righteous before God on your own, wise before
God? No, no. No, you see yourself
saved in Christ, righteous in Christ, justified in Christ.
Well, I ought to look at you the same way. I ought to look
at you the same way. And I'll tell you something else
about this love. Not only do believers love one another for
Christ's sake, but they love freely. They don't expect anything
in return. I love him, but I tell you, he
pops off every time I say something to him. Let him pop. Let him
pop. Love him for Christ's sake. Love
him freely. How many times have you popped
off to a guy? He didn't burn you to a cinder,
did he? We love the same way, freely.
Really, don't expect anything in return. And then we're to
love without limitations. Peter said, OK, I'm going to
forgive my brother. How many times I have to forgive
him? He said, seven times? He said, no, seven times 70.
Every time. Every time. We love without limitations. And we're to be pitiful. Peter
said, be pitiful, courteous. How pitiful must we all appear
in our nature in this flesh before God. Oh, my soul, how pitiful. We're all in one mind here. We've
all experienced God's pity on us, so it shouldn't be too big
a task for us to be pitiful, should it? Be compassionate to Him. All
right, 1 Peter 3, verse 9. Not rendering evil for evil or
railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing that you
are there unto called that you should inherit a blessing. A
police officer I once knew, I used to work for him. He was in the
construction business and I built houses and run his work for him,
oversaw his work. Later on, he always wanted to
be in law enforcement, and he joined the sheriff's department,
and they sent him off to the academy, and he went through
training, and he was telling me about it. And he said they
taught him that if a man resisted, then you quit talking to him
in a normal tone of voice, and you raise your voice. And if
he doubled up his fist, you pull out your club. And if he pulled
a knife, you pull a gun. You one-up everything he does.
You one-up on him. One-up on him. And I don't doubt
that that's needed in law enforcement. But the opposite is true in the
Christian religion. The very opposite is true. The
Bible said, a soft answer turneth away wrath. I'm not to get louder
than he is. I'm lowering my voice now. A
soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."
It just stirs it up. And I tell you this, you're not
going to teach or tell an enraged man anything until he calms down. You know, it might be macho to
rail back at a man. but it's of no spiritual benefit
to him whatsoever or to you. And God said he's caused this
situation to come through for a blessing for you, for a blessing. If we exercise a mild and quiet
spirit, that rather than bringing about a division and a loss,
it might be turned into an occasion for a blessing. Verse 10, For
he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his
tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Now
brethren, the tongue is the most unruly member of the body, a
man's tongue. Oh, my soul. He said it has the
poison of asps. When he's talking about the very
nature of sin over in Romans 3, you go through there and read
it and see if I'm not telling you the truth. You read down
through there, he said, the poison of asps is under our lips. James said, we put bits in horses'
mouths and thereby turn their whole bodies. Great sailing vessels. driven by fierce winds or turned
by a little tiny hammer. But the tongue is a fire, he
said. It's a world of iniquity, and
though its size is small, it can defile the whole body, the
tongue. The tongue can no man tame, he
said, and out of the same mouth proceed blessings and curses.
And by the same mouth, bless we God, and curse we men. These
things, he said, ought not to be. This ought not to be. Guard that tongue. Guard that
tongue. Oh, how quick, how quick it is. I Peter 3.11. Let him ensue evil. That is, flee from it like you
would a viper. You're going over there and you're
picking blackberries, and you look down, and here's a big old
cottonmouth. It's mouth wide open. It's ready
to nail you. Flee from it. Flee from it. That's what ensue means. When
he said ensue evil, he means flee it. Get away from it. Turn
away from it, understanding its danger, and shun it as if it
were contagious. Avoid it as if it were poison.
Let him ensue evil and do good. Let him speak peace and ensue
it. Now, if you ensue something,
it means to follow it. To follow it. Turn away from
evil. Follow after peace. That's what
he's saying here. Verse 12. And this is why I titled
the lesson this morning, The Lord's Looking. He's looking. For the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Our Lord said
to His disciples, And there was some others gathered around there. He said, it were better for you
to put a millstone about your neck and throw it into the deepest
part of the sea than to offend one of my little ones. It's better for you. Why? Because
his eyes is over the righteous, and his ears attend their cries. You mothers, you've had little
babies. You've had them in there. You just throw them in there
and forget they're in there and go on about your business. No.
No. Every few minutes you're in there
looking in the door. Got that ear tuned, somebody
comes along and turns the TV up, you turn it back down. Your
ear's open to its Christ. His eyes are over the righteous,
not the self-righteous, but for those for whom Christ was made
righteousness, and who are made the righteousness of God in Him.
And He knows what goes on at all times. And His ears are open
to their prayers. He hears them. Oh, I tell you,
if we just believe that, His ears are open to your prayers. Verse 13, all of these things,
if these things be so, who is He that will harm you? if you
be followers of that which is good. Who's going to harm you?
And I tell you, the most comforting thing to a believer is to know
that his Lord is present with him and watching over him at
all times because he knows without him he can do nothing. Now, we're to do all these things,
but we're to do those things understanding who we are and
who He is. and that He's for us. Paul said,
we're going to say these things. He said, I'll tell you what you're
going to say. If God be for us, who can be against us?