It is commonly agreed by those
who are thought to be scholars with regard to dates and times,
with regard to Bible history, that the Apostle Peter wrote
his first epistle in 65 A.D. Let me give you the background. In July of 64 A.D., There was a madman who ruled
the great Roman Empire by the name of Nero. And Nero set a
fire in the city that just almost totally destroyed it. Multitudes
were left homeless because the city was left in utter ashes.
Nero set the fire because he wanted to get rid of the shacks
around the city. and make room for him to build
some palaces, huge, gorgeous palaces that would make his name
an unforgettable name in history. Well, he succeeded in getting
his name unforgettable. But after the fire was set, you've
heard the story of how that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Well,
he didn't really fiddle. The violin hadn't been invented
yet. Nobody developed one. But he was seen standing on the
wall of the palace overlooking the burning city and playing
some kind of an instrument as he watched with delight while
the city of Rome burned. When it was done, of course,
the people were enraged, and most everybody presumed and thought
that Nero was the one who was responsible. He was never charged
with doing so, of course. He was the Roman Emperor. But
historians are very confident that he is the man responsible.
When the people were in anarchy and threatened to overthrow the
Emperor and his cronies who ruled under him, Nero needed a scapegoat. He needed somebody to blame.
And there was a group of people, scattered all through the Roman
Empire and particularly in the city of Rome, who just suited
his purpose. They were thought to be a very
strange religious sect, unlike any other religious sect around.
They were called Christians. They followed a man called Christ,
a man the Jews crucified some years earlier. These religious
zealots met in homes, and they worshiped in homes. Folks held
them under suspicion, because when they met in their homes
to worship this man they called God, Jesus of Nazareth, it was
reported that they ate his body. and drank his blood. And they
were commonly accused of being cannibals because of that. Other
rumors flourished. They greeted one another with
a holy kiss. So lots of things were said,
lots of things. And they were thought to be a
horribly evil group of people, held in suspicion by everyone,
because they didn't walk according to the customs and religion of
the Romans, and they didn't accept any of the gods of the Romans.
as all Roman citizens did. They accepted any gods. As long
as you accept their god, they'll accept yours, and everything
will be fine. So when Nero needed a scapegoat,
he found one ready at hand, and he set about blaming the Christians
for doing it. This is what happened as a result.
They were arrested by the hundreds, hounded and persecuted. You've
heard of the persecutions of God's Saints during Nero's reign?
They were tarred dipped in tar and hung up as torches in his
gardens while he threw a party, burned to death. They were tied
in leather bags and thrown in pools, deep pools, to suffocate
and drown. They were thrown to the lions,
persecuted and tortured and put to death in countless ways. And that's how the Roman persecutions
under Nero were begun. It was during this time that
the Apostle Peter is inspired of God to write this epistle
to God's suffering Saints, we are told in verse 1, scattered
as strangers through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia. Peter wrote this blessed letter
as a letter of encouragement and hope to suffering persecuted
brothers and sisters in Christ. He wanted to encourage them and
to encourage us to endure the things we suffer, particularly
the things that we suffer at the hands of wicked men, because
of our faith in Christ, to endure those things as Christians, knowing
that this, too, is the work of our God. To these things we have
been ordained, to these things we have been called, And unto
us it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake. He calls for us to
be encouraged, to honor God, to live in the midst of a world
of woe and pain and suffering. Suffering that you and I can't
even begin to identify with. We can't imagine what these men
and women went through because they refused to worship the gods
of those around them, because they followed the Son of God
and worshiped him. Peter says, now, you live in
the midst of these things. When I was preparing this message,
as I started reading through these five chapters again, I
thought, forgive my murmuring, forgive my complaining, forgive
my short-tempered, easily lit fuse when things don't go my
way. Peter calls for men and women
who knew something about suffering to do it with patience for the
honor of our God. How can men and women, enduring
such evil, such hardships, such persecutions be expected to take
it patiently? What will inspire them to persevere,
following Christ, worshiping Christ and honoring him? How
can they be comforted in the midst of such things? Peter knew
exactly what was needed. He knew exactly what was needed
He takes down his pen, directed by God the Holy Spirit, and writes
to them about redemption and grace in Christ Jesus, about
the salvation of their souls. Let's read the first nine verses
together, and then I'll just go quickly through these five
chapters and ask you to look at the verses as I call your
attention to them and give you a summary of it. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the saints scattered throughout Pontius,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Dothania. Elect according to
the everlasting love and unalterable purpose and approval of God the
Father. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. grace unto you,
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. whom, having not seen, you love,
in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your fate, even the salvation of your souls." Now, this first
part of the epistle, beginning at chapter 1, verse 1, going
through the middle of chapter 2, down to chapter 2, gives a
beautiful description of God's free, saving grace in Christ
Jesus. Peter is here describing for
us by divine inspiration your salvation, the salvation of your
souls. Multitudes all around us, many
of our own families, live in utter frustration all the time. in utter frustration. They never
find any peace, never find any satisfaction, never find anything
that gives them any lasting contentment, because they live with the awareness
that their lives are utterly meaningless. How much more meaningless could
a thing be than for a man to live all his days to make himself
a multi-millionaire and leave it to kids to fight over. Somebody asked, I heard Brother
Bruce, he told you the other night, somebody died of a very
wealthy man, and somebody asked him, how much did he leave? And
they said he left it all. Left it all. That's what you
leave when you leave here. Everything you've lived for,
name, reputation, honor, a place in time, a place in history,
recognition by others, popularity, wealth, houses, lands, work all
your life zealously to get these things, and then leave it all. That's about as meaningless as
I can imagine life for you. Life is meaningless until you
find meaning for your life in the light of eternity. Until
you find meaning for your life in Jesus Christ the Lord, it
is meaningless. So multitudes live in utter frustration
because their lives are meaningless, and they know it. There's nothing
that is of greater importance than your soul and the salvation
of your soul. So Peter writes to us here about
our salvation, the salvation of our immortal souls. But when
he speaks of the salvation of your souls, he's not just talking
about Your soul, not including all the rest of your life. He's
talking about the whole being of a man. The Lord Jesus Christ
saves the whole man. And when he's done with us, he
calls us to stand before him in the perfection of resurrection,
glory, body, soul, and spirit, in the perfection of his own
perfection as the God-man, our Savior. The salvation of your
souls. It involves the very glory of
God. If the Lord God is pleased to
save you or me by his almighty, free and sovereign grace in Christ,
it will be to show forth the praise of his glory and the greatness
of his grace. God saves sinners for his own
namesake. That's what he said. The salvation
of our souls, then, is the subject of this first part of 1 Peter. Because the salvation of our
souls is of great importance, Peter and spend some time talking
to us about it. This is the thing that motivates
and inspires. This is the thing that comforts
and strengthens God's people in the midst of all difficulty.
You can sit around and talk. I don't know how to say this
without being misunderstood by folks who want to misunderstand.
Man, when you hurt, I want to know, and I want to do what I
can to help. But you come and talk to me,
and I try to play the role of a priest and a counselor and
try to stand between you and God and give you all kinds of
counsel and advice, tell you what you ought to do, ought not
to do. And if you do it all, you don't have anything at all
accomplished for yourself of any permanence. I can't relieve
the trouble. And I can't make you feel better
because of the trouble. I can't do it. Oh, but if God
Almighty will graciously seal to your heart the salvation of
your soul, I promise you, you can endure
anything and endure it with contentment as he graciously assures to you
the salvation of your soul, as he graciously makes you aware
of what he has done for you and is doing for you and will yet
do for you in Christ Jesus. Let's look at how Peter describes
it. In Bible terms, salvation is a radical, radical thing.
In the first verse, he tells us that God's people are strangers. Salvation is such a radical thing
that it makes every sage-sinner a stranger in this world. Religion
makes people strange. I grant that. I grant that. Wherever I go, I run across some
fellows, I think they just got out of the loony bin and they're
headed there. It makes people strange. Grace makes people strangers,
strangers in the world and strangers to the world. Strangers because
the world is strange to us and we're strange to the world. Therefore
the world knoweth us not, John said, because it knew him not.
You see, believers are paradox, they're puzzling. They are people
who acknowledge themselves poor, poor in spirit, poor in faith,
poor in all grace, and yet rich, rich by the grace of God, rich
by the hand of God, rich by the mercy of God. They're happy,
happy in Christ Jesus, rejoicing in him, and yet they continually
are heavy laden, moaning over their sin. They're strong. strong,
made strong by his grace, and yet weak, and they know themselves
to be nothing but weakness. People out in the world, educated
and uneducated, religious and irreligious, they can understand
any form of religion that you set before me, any of it. They
can understand free-willism and they can understand Calvinism.
They can understand Islamism and they can understand Judaism.
They can understand the Moonies and they can understand Jehovah's
Witnesses. They can understand any form of religion. They can
understand the dues and adults and regulations, but they cannot
understand the grace of God. And they cannot understand the
people of God. They never can figure out what
it is that makes believers tick. They can't figure out why on
earth believers will make sacrifices to support the ministry of the
gospel, when they themselves do without things. I have a dear
friend in heaven. Many of you knew him, Brother
Charlie Payne. He was an elder for years, 13th Street in Ashland.
A man who could have possessed a good bit. He worked for years
managing a large building construction firm. He lived all his life,
raised his family in a small one-story house, probably not
more than a thousand square feet. because he generously supported
the gospel. Folks look at that and laugh. What stupidity. What's he do with his money?
What's he do with that? Well, he could do anything. People
can't understand why on this earth believers, or men and women
who seek to honor God in their lives, in their behavior, in
their deeds, with their possessions, with their time, they seek to
honor God. We are estranged from the world,
and that's the way it's going to be until we leave this world.
Then in verse 2, Peter tells us that salvation is the work
of God Almighty. He begins with the blessed, eternal
work of God the Father, called election. You notice, not only here, but
throughout the New Testament, the writers of the New Testament
never bother to defend any of these things. They never bothered
to. No point in defending the folks
who hate them. No point in trying to prove them to folks who don't
believe them. But all the saints of God, those who wrote the New
Testament, understood that God's people understand and believe
and rejoice in his free grace. They just said, according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father." And nobody misunderstood
him. I'm writing to you who are persecuted
and abused and suffer. I'm writing to you whose hearts
are troubled and heavy laden. And I'm telling you, God Almighty
loved you with everlasting love. He chose you and ordained you
to eternal glory, and he's going to bring you there. He's going
to bring you there. And then he speaks of God's free,
sovereign, irresistible grace through sanctification of the
Spirit. The work of God the Holy Spirit is that work of his sovereign
grace by which he sets you apart from all other men in the time
of his love. He came to you, my brother. He came to you, my sister, at
the appointed time of grace. and he pulled you out of the
world. He called you out of the herd
and marked you as his own by his grace, and graciously, irresistibly
called you to believe on the Son of God." Then he speaks of
redemption. He says, you who are God's elect,
you who are sanctified by the Spirit, you are brought to this
great salvation by the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
has effectually obtained eternal redemption for you by his precious
blood." Well, I think I might go on a
little bit now. I think I might not timble so
much now. And then he speaks of the grace that God's salvation
brings. He tells us that God's grace
brings us both grace and peace. And in verses 3 and 4, he speaks
of this salvation as that which brings forth glory to God, that
which honors God. Somebody asked me, How do you
know what you believe? The gospel of God's grace calls
it honors God. You make this the test by which
you test every form of doctrine there is. Every religious saying
you hear, every religious thought you have, who gets the honor? Does it honor God Almighty, or
does it somehow honor you? And if it honors you, it ain't
of God. That's just all there is to it.
But the salvation described here is that which honors God. Peter
says, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Salvation,
as is described here, gives hope to sinners, just as fully as
it honors the God of all grace and all glory. It gives us a
living hope, a lively hope. Why do you hope
to go to heaven when you die? What's the basis of your hope? It's not a doctrine, and it's
not an experience, and it's not a set of facts. The basis of
my hope is my Redeemer. I have a living hope. Christ
in you is a hope of glory. It is Christ who is our hope.
This hope is based upon and found in God's abundant mercy in Christ
Jesus, the risen Savior. And it's hope for eternity. I thank God for the blessings
of life. I pray continually for grace,
never to presume upon God's goodness, and never to despise the blessings
of life. I thank God for the things daily
he has given me in his good providence. But my hope, now listen to me,
my hope is in no way related to anything in time. When I set my heart on that,
it doesn't have anything to do with this world, or anything
I experience in this world. It is a hope of an inheritance,
an incorruptible inheritance, an undefiled inheritance, an
inheritance that fades not away, an inheritance reserved in heaven
specifically for me. That's the hope he's talking
about, a lively hope in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 5, who are
kept. Who? Who's he talking to? You,
who are kept. Kept in faith, kept in grace,
kept in Christ, kept in the midst of heartache, kept in the midst
of pain. kept peaceful, kept secure, kept
at ease, kept unruffled, to you are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed." God gave
us life and gave us faith, and he's kept us. He's kept us. "'Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me on. But he says it's faith
that keeps us, by grace through faith. He gave you the faith,
and he sustains the faith, and he keeps the faith, and keeps
you through that faith. He holds you, and graciously
holding you causes you to hold him. Kept under a salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. You remember what Paul said in
2 Corinthians 2, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him." And yet he turns right around and
says in the very next verse, but he's revealed them to us
by his Spirit. Well, sort of. He's revealed to us as much as
we can take in, in this mortal state. Oh, but probably there is salvation.
ready to be revealed, reserved in heaven for you. And in the last day, God's going
to reveal it all. Salvation ready to be revealed.
This salvation causes sinners to rejoice in the Lord. In verse
6 we read, wherein you greatly rejoice Though now for a season,
if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations."
Rejoice! Now, wait a minute. You don't
mean to suggest that Peter was telling these folks as they are
watching their father, their husband, light up the sky in a hellish
party for a hellish ruler. You don't mean that those folks
were sitting around laughing. No, I don't mean that. You don't
mean that they didn't weep. No, I don't mean that. You don't
mean that they didn't hurt. Oh, no. I can imagine their hearts
convulsing with pain. But in the midst of convulsing
heartache, believers rejoice in the Lord. And the word means
they are confident in him. They trust in him. We are the
circumcision which rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. We walk before God, trusting
our Redeemer. Verse 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth. What? He didn't say your faith
is precious, he says that elsewhere, not here. He says the trial of
your faith is more precious than gold that perisheth. Those who
have been tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not
seen you loved, and whom now, though you see him not, yet believe
in you, rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Now,
he tells us, yes, that we do rejoice in him. Bless God, this ain't the end
of the story. We rejoice in Christ. Not in experiences, not in circumstances. We rejoice in our Savior and
in his great salvation. Joy even in the midst of heavy
trials. And notice what he tells us about
our trials. Therefore, cease it. All of it. They ain't gonna last long. There's
a need be for them. And when they are over, I don't know how. I have no idea
how. But some have. Some have. They
will make heaven more glorious, more blessed, more delightful
than it could otherwise be for our souls. What is that? Be found in the praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of our Savior. And when they're done, we will
receive the end of our faith, the consummation of it, the completion
of it, the salvation of our souls. And this salvation is that of
which the prophets spoke throughout the Old Testament, he tells us
in verses 10 and 11. In verse 12, he tells us this
salvation that the angels of God desire to look into. This salvation is that which
the angels of God have a keen interest in. They are saved by God, but not
like we are. God reserved them in grace when
the multitudes, one-third of the heavenly host, fell and are
reserved in chains of darkness. But they've never known redemption. They don't know what it is to
be pardoned of sin. They don't know what it is to
be guilty and forgiven, fallen and rescued, cursed and set free. They have no idea what redemption
is. So Paul tells us over in Ephesians chapter 3, they attend
meetings just like this with God's saints. This is why we
sing about redeeming grace, why we talk about it as we declare
the glories of Christ in redemption. Beginning in chapter 1 verse
13, Peter speaks about our response to God's great salvation. If I had been saved by God's
free grace, if you've been saved by God's
great grace, how devoted we ought to be to him. I had been all day begging for forgiveness and thanking
God for it. how devoted we ought to be to
him. He says, Remember, you've been
saved from a meaningless, useless existence. That's what we read in verses
13, 14, and 15. and nobody walking on God's earth
has been saved from a more meaningless, more useless existence than the
man talking to you. Remember, the Holy Lord God,
the God of glory, is your heavenly Father. So it says in verse 16
and 17, act like it. Don't forget who you are and
whose you are. Remember, you've been redeemed
with the precious blood of God's darling son. Jesus Christ himself
loved you and gave himself for you. He brought you out from
under the curse of the law, out from the house of bondman. and
set you free by ransom price, as well as by grace. Then redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb of God, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world for the purpose of redeeming you."
Remember, God sent somebody to preach the gospel to you, to
cause you to hear his And by his word you've been born again. Would you like me to sit down
and talk to you about how few places in this world men and
women hear the gospel? And God sent the gospel to you.
He sent the gospel to me. Would you like to stop and pause
for a little bit about how many You have sat beside, at various
times in your own experience as a believer, who heard the
same message preached, you heard preached, and they still haven't
believed. But God sent his word to you
in the power of his Spirit, and caused you to believe. Remember,
we are living stones in a living temple. of which Jesus Christ
is the foundation stone. And we're built on him and joined
to him. At your leisure, read chapter
2, verses 5 through 12. But I want to begin at verse
10 and remind you of what the Lord God has done for you. Let
me remind you. And may these things motivate
and inspire your heart. He says in verse 10, you had not obtained mercy, but
now you are the recipients of mercy. He says in verse 9, he saved
you to show forth the praises of him who called you. Again
in verse 9, he tells you that you are God's peculiar people. That doesn't mean odd people,
that means you are distinctly You're specially his. You're
his sheltered, embraced, protected, distinct people. And he's made
you to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a nation of priests
under God, a royal priesthood, a priesthood of kings. Many women
who, by Christ Jesus, have been made priests and kings. Many women who rule, who rule
by the Spirit of God ruling in them over their own passions
and over their circumstances. Many women who rule, being ruled
by grace. And the priest, having direct
access to God Almighty, no need for a mediator except him who
is God Almighty. And we now are priests who offer
up sacrifices, verse 5, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Sacrifices. What's that talking
about? Hold your hands there and turn
to Ecclesiastes 9. Let me show you. Our prayers,
yes. Our songs of praise, yes. Our
praise, yes. Our acts of worship, yes. Our
deeds of charity, yes. Our deeds of devotion to God
and to one another, yes. But more than that, he's talking
about men and women who continually offer up their lives as living
sacrifices unto I call you now, right now, to
offer yourself a living sacrifice to God, and I make you this promise. He accepts the sacrifice. He accepts the sacrifice. Look
at Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7. Go thy way, eat thy bread with
joy. drink thy wine with a merry heart."
What's that got to do with serving God? Everything under the sun,
if you're a believer. For God now accepts thy works. He accepts the sacrifice you
give. Now, back here in 1 Peter, beginning at verse 13 of chapter
2, we're actually thankful I want
to live for Christ, I want to honor God. I just don't know
how. I don't know what I ought to
do, what I ought not to do. You who are believers, no question,
you want to honor God. You want to live for Christ,
no question. But I know this, too. It is our
nature to want laws and rules and regulations. And preachers
are good at giving them, and churches are good at enforcing
them. We want lists. Now, I started doing this. I checked that one off, checked
that one off. Before I'm getting better, I
checked that one off, and checked that one off. by which we can
measure our success. God doesn't give us such. Rather,
he gives us a principle of grace by which to live, a principle
of grace that ought to and does regulate the lives of God's people. It's called submission. Submission. It's contrary to every fiber
of our beings by nature, because we're plowed arrogant, stubborn
people, every last one of us, every one of us, proud, arrogant,
stubborn people, determined to have our way unless God prevents
it. That's our nature. Now, he teaches
us how to submit. In verses 13 through 17, Peter
writes to these believers persecuted by Nero, and says,
honor the king. Be subject to the ordinance of
God. Honor the king. Honor the king. Those governors
over you, honor them. To honor the king is to love
your brethren and fear God. They all go together. Read the
passage. They all go together. You see,
the king has been set over you by God's hand. It doesn't matter
who he is. It doesn't matter what form of
government you are under. It doesn't matter whether you
live in a free society in the United States like it was in
1776 or like it is in 2004. Honor the government and submit. When the time comes that you
are commanded of government to do things contrary to the revelation
of God, you must serve God and not men, but except where the
government speaks that which is contrary clearly to the word
of God, not to your opinion, you are to obey the law. Then
he says, work well for the fellow that
I realize he's talking here in verses 18 and 19 about servants
and masters, and we don't have any of those today. Not in our
society, anyway. And Peter is not by any stretch
of the imagination condoning the barbaric, inhuman, godless
practice of slavery that was common throughout the world in
his day and continued to be right up until modern times. But he
is using that practice and says to you and I in our relationships
in life, you honor your master, you honor your employer, honor
him, even the bad ones. Isn't it interesting? He said
the evil as well as the good. Those who are perverse and those
who are not. Well, I've got an excuse for not doing things I
ought to do on the job. They don't pay me like they ought
to. Go back and talk to these fellows. They don't give you
the kind of benefits they ought to give you. Go back and talk
to these fellows. They don't do it. He's not talking to you
about they, he's talking to you about you. And God's people ought
to be the most responsible, most dependable, most loyal, most
productive, most thrifty of all employees in any place where
men and women are employed to work. And that's what these verses
are about. Then in verse 20, through 25, Peter urges us to endure afflictions,
suffering, even suffering from wicked men. I can't help but
think about Shimei cussing David. David said he couldn't do it
if the Lord hadn't said cuss me. Leave him alone. See what
God does with this thing. Endure patiently. That which
you suffer from godless, wicked men, remembering that your Savior
suffered much more for you. God's called you to do this for
his name's sake. Now you honor God as your Savior
did. You haven't begun to endure what
he did. Chapter 3. Grace teaches us to honor God
in our homes, submitting to one another. He tells wives to submit
to their husbands as unto the Lord, using the very same language
that Paul uses, constructed differently. He says You made us obey your
husbands like Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, because God
has made him the head of the house. He's responsible to be
the head of the house. Oh, but I'm not married to a
believer. Peter speaks specifically to that. He said, you honor your
husband. You honor your husband, no matter
who he is. No matter what he does, you honor your husband,
no matter what kind of rascal he is. and adorn yourself with
a meek and quiet spirit. I don't mean and I don't suggest
that women are to endure physical danger to themselves. Peter is
saying here, you who are married to those who believe not, it
just might be God's for you to influence them for good, to hear
the gospel you've experienced in heaven by a meek and quiet
spirit." Now, when he says, Let your adorning not be with braiding
and plaiting of hair and gold and apparel and all that stuff,
he's not saying, Ladies, don't fix your hair, don't wear makeup,
and don't get dressed up pretty. Like I said, religion produces
some fools, and folks act like it all the time. No, look as
pretty as you can. Look the best you can, all the
time. But don't let your concern be mostly about outward kind
of things, but about honoring God in your heart and in your
life. And then you men, you submit
to your wives. Well, how can it be both ways?
You submit to her needs. as the weaker vessel, preferring
her needs to your own, preferring her desires to your own, recognizing
she's the weaker vessel. And then grace teaches us to
live together in the church as brethren, submitting our own
wills and preferences to one another. Chapter 3, verses 8
through 12. The church of God ought to be
the one place in this world of woe where God's saints find nothing
to hurt them. It ought to be a blessed habitation
of peace, a household of faith and grace, in which every person
is treated with pity, kindness, and courtesy, in which none should
ever experience or fear experiencing gossip, slander, reproach, ill
thought, or abuse of any kind. Then in chapter 3, verses 13
through 19, or chapter 3, verse 13 through chapter 4, verse 9,
he teaches us to suffer well. When you are called to suffer,
whatever you're called to suffer in the providence of God, do
it well. Sanctify the Lord God in your
heart, verse 15. And if you sanctify your God
in your heart, you'll do it well. Be ready always to give a reason
for the hope that's in you. Constantly have your heart fixed
on Christ, and don't forget what I told you about what he's done
for you. And remember that your Redeemer suffered much more.
Remember this too. He who suffered All that he suffered
for you, he who died on your behalf at Calvary to redeem your
soul, now sits upon the throne of glory, and he is king over
principality and power. All hell is subject to him, and
all men too, and he rules them with absolute authority according
to his great love for you. Then beginning in chapter 4 verse
12, Peter tells us not to think this
is strange, the things we suffer in this world, and not to complain
about it, but rejoice, verse 13, because now you are partakers
of Christ's sufferings. And when his glory shall be revealed, Heaven will make up for it in
abundance. Then beginning in chapter 5,
he tells us how to serve God in his house. I find it interesting. Peter moves from suffering, alchondra,
all of this. I try so hard. I live in an ivory
palace, I know I do. I just, I stay back here in my
office all the time and I seldom ever run into folks I have to
butt heads with. I just, I don't have to go through
what you men do because you take care of me. I don't have to face
the things you ladies face in your places because I'm provided
for by your generosity. But I have been there and I try
to remember what you have to endure every day as I try to
preach to you and prepare to preach to you. And Peter moves
from the things that you suffer at yonder into the house of God,
as if to say, now let's not have any of it in here. You who are
pastors, feed God's church, lead his sheep, guide them, take care
of them, protect them, set an example before them of faith
and faithfulness. And you who are younger, you
submit one to another, live together in peace for the glory of God.
And he urges us to do these things that we might ourselves ever
remind ourselves and one another of God's boundless, sure grace
in Christ Jesus, keeping our hearts fixed upon eternity, fixed upon our redeemer. And by these things pushing out
of our minds everything that would cause us to murmur and
gripe and complain. Look at verse 10, chapter 5. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory, what a way to speak of
his calling, called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus
who after that you have suffered a while. Make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. Soon he's going to make you perfect.
Now may he establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Now may God bless that to the
salvation.