Let's open our Bibles again this
evening to 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Last Sunday
evening, we looked at the first four verses. We looked at several
things about the Christian ministry in these verses. Peter begins
the chapter addressing the elders which are among you, I exhort. And we know that by the word
elders there, he has reference to pastors, to bishops, and overseers
of the flock of God. I want you to notice in verse
one, before we move on to verse five, the elders which are among
you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ. The sufferings of Christ. When
you look at first Peter in every chapter, the way it has been
divided, we see that the apostle made mention of the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sufferings of Christ. That is
the heart of the gospel, isn't it? The death, the sacrificial
death of Jesus Christ, our Lord. When we think about his death,
we think about the fact that his death was a substitutionary
death. He died in the place, in the
stead of his people. And we also recognize it was
a death that satisfied the justice of God. I was looking, if you
turn back just a page or two to the letter of Galatians, the
Apostle Paul began this letter to the churches, which were being
deceived by false teachers, telling them that there's something more
than the death of Christ that saved sinners, the person and
work of Christ, that you also must add the law of Moses and
become subject to the law. But notice in verse three and
four, he said, grace be to you and peace from God the Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins. He gave himself. If you are one
of his children tonight, if you trust in the Lord Jesus, as your
Lord and Savior. If you know Him, He gave Himself. He suffered for your sins. He died in your place and in
your stead. That, in order that He might
deliver us from this present evil world. When we come into
this world, all of us, when we're born into this world, we're born
into the kingdom of darkness, this present evil world. And the Lord Jesus Christ gave
himself, he suffered and died to deliver us out of the kingdom
of darkness. And we are delivered into the
kingdom of God's dear son. We live in a new kingdom, those
of us who have been saved. And we have a new king, a new
ruler, and that king is King Jesus. We're no longer living
under the dominion and power of Satan, who ruled us as an
awful tyrant. Well, let's go back tonight to
1 Peter chapter 5, and we're beginning, or taking up with
verse 5. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5,
he says, likewise, and all we're going to do tonight is to go
through these first verses here, verses 5 through 9. Likewise,
ye younger. Now, he's addressing a different
group of people. If you notice back in the first
verse, it was the elders which are among you that I exhort. And by elders there, he refers,
of course, as I've already said, to the pastors and teachers,
those who were bishops and pastors of the churches. But now he addresses
those as the younger. Likewise, you younger, yea, all
of you, verse five. Now by younger, he doesn't mean
those who are younger in age. That's not the people to whom
he's addressing. Some of them, of course, would
be younger in age, but that's not what he means. And he's not
addressing those who are younger in grace. We know that the Bible
teaches us that when a person is saved, we begin to grow. And we read of newborn babes. desire the sincere milk of the
word. That is, when a person is first
born again of the spirit of God, he's like a babe that's just
born into this world, and the babe needs milk to grow. But then we read in 1 John, John
addresses some as little children. And in my mind, I think of a
progression, don't you? Start off as a newborn babe,
but then little children. And then he goes on to young
men. And eventually he comes in the
same passage, in the same context there, to old men, those that
have grown in grace and knowledge of the Lord. And that should
be the desire of everyone who is heaven born, that we might
grow. We might grow in grace. We might
grow in the knowledge of the Lord. And God has given us means
by which we are to grow. And of course, the greatest of
all means is the Word of God, God's written Word. It's so important
to read the Word, to meditate upon the Word, to hear the Word
of God declared. By younger here, he's not talking
about those who are younger in age or younger in grace, but
he's addressing all of the members of a church. Like if this letter
was written here to the Lincolnwood Baptist Church and we received
it and we began to read it, likewise you younger, it would apply to
everyone. Before he had written especially
to the elders, to the pastors, but now to everyone, to all of
the members of the congregation. Some of the members would be
younger and some would be older. But the point he is making is
that all of the members are to submit to the elder. Notice that. Likewise, you younger
submit yourselves unto the elder. Not the elder in age, but the
elder who is a pastor. This is like I'm thinking of
two verses in the letters which the Apostle Paul wrote. For instance,
in the last chapter of Hebrews, he said, he wrote, obey them
that have the rule over you. Now who's he talking about? He's
not talking about civil rulers, although believers are to be
subject to the powers which be, we know that from Romans chapter
13. But obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves Who are these people? They're
the elders, the pastors. And he goes on there to say,
for they watch for your souls. That's the work of the pastor. He is to watch for the souls
of the flock as they must give an account. One day, as a pastor,
as a preacher, I'm fully aware of this. I'm going to give an
account to God. for the messages that I have
preached, to the message that I have preached to God's people
and to those who are lost. And that's the burden of the
Lord that every pastor has. Sometimes those old prophets,
that's the way they would begin their message, the burden of
the Lord. I remember many, many years ago
reading A complaint a young preacher had, he had about 200 people
in his congregation, and he went to an older pastor who pastored
a church of about 700 or 800 people, and he complained to
the older pastor about the fewness of his flock. And the older pastor
very wisely told him, when you come to give an account, you'll
find that was plenty. You give account for those. and
every pastor, but the exhortation is to the believers to submit. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls,
as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy.
They may do it with joy, not with grief, for that is unprofitable
for you. It's unprofitable for you to
sit under the ministry of a man that you're not in submission
to, that you do not submit to. And then in another place, in
1 Thessalonians 5, he said almost the same thing. And we beseech
you, let's turn there and read that one. 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. First Thessalonians chapter five
and verses 12 and 13. And we beseech you. Isn't that
typical of Paul? An apostle. And we command you. Oh no, oh no. We beseech you. We beseech you. That's Paul was
not a pastor, but he had a pastor's heart. He had a pastor's heart. I know that. He loved the people
that he preached to. We beseech you. Brethren, what
a word of love is that, brethren, members of the same family, children
of God. We beseech you, brethren. To
know them which labor among you. To know them, the pastor, the
bishop, the overseer, know him. Know something about his work
that you may pray for him. Know them which are among you,
labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish
you. and to esteem them very highly
in love." Now notice this, for their work's sake. For their
work's sake. The ministry. That's the work,
isn't it? What is their work? Well, primarily
and first of all, always, it is to feed. It is to feed the
flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made you an overseer. It's to feed the sheep. That was the question, wasn't
it, that the Lord Jesus Christ asked Peter three times. Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? One of the primary qualifications,
of course, for a pastor is that he loved Christ. Lovest thou
me? And when Peter answered in the
affirmative each time, remember what the Lord said, feed my sheep,
feed my lambs. Remember them. Now that's who
Peter is addressing here in this text tonight. Likewise, you younger
submit yourselves unto the elder. But then he just includes everyone,
doesn't he? Yea, all of you be subject one
to another. The whole church, the whole church
family be subject one to another. Not just to submit to the pastor
for his work's sake, but be subject one to another. As you read through the New Testament,
I encourage you, notice how many times in the letters. Now these
letters were all written to local churches, except a few, like
this one here we're looking at tonight, 1 Peter, are those that
were written to individuals like Timothy and Titus, But most of
the letters were written to churches, local churches. And as you read
through those letters, notice how many times the apostles besought
the members of those churches to consider one another, consider
one another. Remember, yea, all of you be subject one
to another. This admonition comes up in many
of the church letters. Let me give us a couple in Philippians
chapter 2 and verse 3 and 4. That church at Philippi that
the apostle was instrumental under God in preaching the gospel
there, he wrote back to them and said, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let
each esteem other better than themselves. The exhortation is
to be in submission one to another. And he goes on, look, not every
man on his own things. And some people, it's gotta be
my way. It's gotta be my way or the highway. No, Paul says,
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others. Consider others, their feelings,
their thoughts, their ideas. Submit one to another. And I
want you to turn to these places in Romans, back to Romans. And Paul was writing to the church
at Rome when he wrote these words, Romans chapter 12, first of all. Verse 16. Be of the same mind,
one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Mind not high things. And then
look in chapter 15, Romans 15, verse 1. We then that are strong
ought, we ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Not every child
of God has the same understanding, the same knowledge, and there
are things which we know that are indifferent. And this falls
under the category of Christian liberty. I've just been reading
through 1 Corinthians and the Apostle Paul deals with that
especially in that letter, doesn't he? And some people, they didn't
have the liberty of conscience to eat meat that had been offered
to an idol. And so Paul said, if you're invited
to a place to eat and you're disposed to go there, then sit
down and eat, don't ask any questions. But if someone tears you, that
meat was offered to an idol. Then for the brother's conscience,
not your conscience, but your brother's conscience, it would
be offensive to him. He doesn't have that same liberty
that you have, doesn't have that same knowledge that you have.
The whole point is to consider one another, isn't it? Paul said,
if meat make my brother to offend, think about this. If my eating
meat is going to cause one of the men for whom Christ died
to be offended, Paul said, I'm not going to eat meat for the
rest of my life. What does that speak of? It speaks
of love, doesn't it? Considering one another, and
that's what Peter is dealing with here in this text. Yea,
all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. Be clothed with humility. This
word which is here translated clothed, be clothed, from what
I've read, it appears nowhere else in the New Testament, the
Greek word which is translated here be clothed. And it comes
from a word which means strings or strips or knots. Strings or
strips or knots. Be clothed with humility. And the thought is of aprons. Aprons. We've all seen, I'm sure
in movies at least, these blacksmiths who work around fire and get
the sparks going and flying and everything, they've got on a
leather apron. And you ladies, when you're working
in the kitchen, you tie on an apron. And that's the thought,
not to put on an apron, but to put on humility, to tie humility
on as a child of God. The thought is to be of a humble
mind and to be ready to serve in any capacity. in any capacity,
to take any place, no matter how humble, no matter how menial
the work may seem to some people, put on humility, tie it on, keep
it on. And no matter how humble in which
we might honor God and desire to do that. And the incentive
that the apostle gives here be clothed with humility is the
simple fact, for God resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the
humble. That's the incentive. God resists
the proud, but he gives grace. Now, Peter is quoting from Proverbs
chapter three and verse 34, which reads, surely he scorneth the
scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly. A scorner is
one who thinks of himself better than everyone else, a little
bit above everyone else. Everyone else is a little bit
beneath me. This work in a church, in a congregation,
when there's a work that needs to be done, there's always work
that needs to be done. There's believers who need to
be encouraged. There's sick who need to be visited.
There's a pastor who needs to be upheld in prayer. There's
always need, there's always work in a local church. Don't ever
think of, don't be a scorner and think, well, that works beneath
me. Let someone else do that. Let someone else. It's like,
I heard a man, well, he was in Bible school years ago with us. And we were working, had a work
day at the church out there in Pasadena years ago. And one of
us, we were sitting down taking a break, if I remember right,
and he said, we need to get some of these laymen. Oh, he regretted saying that.
Oh, no. No, we need to do this. You know, it's not get some of
these laymen. That's not a good term to begin
with. We're all members of Christ, but Anyway, he never did, I don't
think, completely live that down. A scorner is one who thinks himself
better than others. This work is beneath me. Get
somebody else to do that. Somebody else. I asked a preacher
one time, here in this church, years ago. I asked him, I said,
brother, would you open the service in prayer, read the scripture,
and lead us in prayer? And he told me this, he said,
David, he said, get one of the younger guys to do that. He said,
I don't need the practice. And I thought, my, my, my. That's
not practice. Reading the word of God, praying,
opening up a service, that's important. That's important. Tie this grace, in other words,
this apron. If you think of this as an apron,
tie this grace of humility. Tie it on and keep it on. And unto the very end, always
be able to say, like the Apostle Paul, I am what I am by the grace
of God. That's the only difference. I
am what I am by the grace of God. All right, let's go on to
verse six. Humble yourself, therefore, under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Now, the mighty hand of God,
it may refer to some affliction, some affliction that comes in
your life. It may refer to some chastisement
that he brings upon you. Humble yourself under the mighty
hand of God. Be careful. Be careful not to
complain, not to murmur. Remember the children of Israel
as they went through the wilderness. We read about this in the Old
Testament. How many times did they murmur
and complain to God? And they complained about Moses,
but ultimately their complaint was about God and God's providence. The mighty hand of God reminds
us of his omnipotence. And we would be foolish, be foolish
to resist God. If God deems to bring some great
affliction in our life, humble yourself under the mighty hand
of God. I was reading again, I brought
this, I wanted to share this with you tonight, but reading
this book again, Men of the Covenant, but, and I'm no, Some of you
probably are much more familiar with the history of England than
I am. But when Oliver Cromwell, they
disposed King Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell was kind of the
main man there in England. And in Scotland, they were given
a certain liberty and they formed really the Presbytery. The Presbyterian
Church was very strong in Scotland. Well, when Charles II was brought
back and installed as a king, Charles II, well, he did everything
he could to impose the Church of England upon the people of
Scotland. And they were men of the covenant.
I think that's the name of this book, Men of the Covenant. For
the most part, Presbyterians, they believed strongly in the
covenant. Our God is a covenant God, and
they had made covenants, and they tried to worship God without
the prayer book and all the liturgy and the formality of the Church
of England. They were persecuted greatly.
They were called covenantals. They were persecuted. This was
in 1650, 1660, give you some time. But this
man by the name of Richard Cameron, he was a, a man who preached
the gospel, and he was a covenanter, and he was persecuted, and he
was killed. He was killed. And what they
would do when they would kill someone, capture someone who
was famous, and he was famous, in fact, he was called the Lion
of the Covenant. That was his title, the Lion
of the Covenant. They would cut off their head
and cut off their hands and take them to Edinburgh and put them
up on a pole to show that they'd been defeated. And this man was
killed in battle and they cut off his head and cut off his
hands and was taking them to Edinburgh. His father, his father,
Alan Cameron, was in the toll booth. He was in prison at this
time. And he was in prison for just
allowing these worshipers to worship on his farm. They couldn't worship in any
town. They had to be out in the countryside. And he was in prison. What did they do? They brought
his son's head and his son's hands to the prison where he
was. They were taking them to Edinburgh
to put on the pole, put on a cross, actually. on the gate. But they took his head and his
hands and they threw them in the cell where this old man was. And they asked him, do you know
them? Do you recognize them? Do you
know them? And he took them upon his knee
and bent over them and kissed them and said, I know them. I know them. They are my sons,
my dear sons. And then, weeping and yet praising,
he went on. This is the reason I wanted to
read this. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. With
those hands and the head of his son in his lap, this is what
he said. It is the Lord. It is the Lord. Good is the will
of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness
and mercy to follow us all our days. That is quite an affliction,
wouldn't you say? Humble yourself under the mighty
hand of God. Someone told me just recently
that a Chinese lady, Christian lady, came to the states. She was able to immigrate to
the states. And her comment was, when she
got here, she said, I didn't think that anyone could be a
Christian and not suffer persecution. We live in a country, and thank
God for the liberties we have, But in so many countries in this
world, God's children are persecuted greatly, just like they were
in the 1600s there in Scotland. Humble yourself. Recognize God's
goodness, God's loving kindness. Remind yourself of the apostles'
words, I reckon. I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Consider those when some
affliction comes upon you. To humble ourselves, we should
meditate on God's greatness and God's goodness to us, as unworthy
as we all are. And I've always, well, not always,
but For many years, when I read this, the mighty hand of God,
I always think of the fact that there's five fingers on our hand.
And I think of the five truths of the sovereign grace of God.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. First of all, total
depravity. Think about that, total depravity. That's what all of us are by
nature. We are totally depraved. That
doesn't mean that we're all as bad as we could be, but it does
mean that when we come into this world, our condition couldn't
be any worse. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. I was talking the other night about
that saint that The Roman church had, I don't know they still
have him or not, but his claim to sainthood was they cut off
his head and he picked up his head and ran for three miles. Charles Spurgeon said, if I could
believe he took the first step, I'd have no trouble believing
that he ran for three miles. And isn't that what sinners are
told to do? You take the first step, God
will take the second. The problem with that is man
doesn't take a step toward God. We love Him because He first
loved us. We choose Him because He first
chose us. We're all by nature totally depraved,
and if God passes us by, we'll die in our sins. And then unconditional election.
God did not choose you for any good that he saw in you because
there was no good. And Christ's limited atonement,
his specific atonement, he died for his church. He loved the
church and gave himself for it. An irresistible grace. Some of you, you have brothers
or sisters or family members, and they've heard the same message
you've heard, and it doesn't mean a thing to them. It means
everything to you. Who makes the difference? Who
makes the difference? God does. What have you that
you have not received? That's what the Apostle Paul
asked. And then, of course, the preservation. He preserves us,
he keeps us. Verse seven, casting all your
care upon him for he careth for you. Peter here quotes a verse
from Psalm 55 and verse 22, but the word in the Psalm there is
burden. That is here translated care,
casting all your burden upon him for he careth for you. And this especially refers to
the cares of the body. Remember what our Lord said,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you. What is he talking
about? Food, clothes, shelter, all these things shall be added
unto you. Cast your care. Don't be over
anxious and over careful for the things of this world. Why?
You're more valuable than the birds of the air. God feeds them,
God's gonna take care of you. And oh, when we read he cares
for you, remember that scripture, he that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Verses eight and nine, be sober,
be vigilant. This is the second time in this
letter And Peter wrote, be sober, in verse 13 of chapter one, he
said, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. And here
again, he writes, be sober. Peter was of the opinion like
most good teachers are, repetition is the best teacher. We need
to hear something over and over and over. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour. Every Christian recognizes that
we have a real adversary, not just the flesh, not just the
world, but also Satan himself is our adversary. He is the believer's
enemy who is opposed to those Remember, we were at one time
under his rule. And the Lord, the strong man
came and delivered us out of his control, out of his power. Satan looks upon all believers
as enemies. He comes sometimes, now here
it says he comes as a roaring lion. We know from the scripture,
sometimes he comes as an angel of light. He comes with a Bible. He comes with a Bible, he's a
preacher of righteousness. But it's not Christ's righteousness
he preaches, it's man's righteousness. But in this place, he's presented
as a roaring lion. I would imagine all of us, I
thought about the fact, as I looked at this verse, I've seen film,
I'm sure you have as well, when lions are hunting. When they're
hunting and there's those animals out, you know how they hunt,
they stalk them. They're very wise. Lions are. But they're not roaring. When
they're hunting like that, they're not roaring because that would
scare off, of course, their prey. No. Here, Satan is presented
to us as a roaring lion. And I believe that this has to
do with persecution. That is, he would cause a believer
to fear, to fear what's coming. As I mentioned, persecution in
other countries a few minutes ago, sometimes we realize that
this may come to our country, very likely will. Hate speech. One of the Scandinavian countries,
I heard this just this past week on the news, one of the Scandinavian
countries charged a woman who had actually been in politics
there. And what she did, she posted
a verse of scripture on her social media, whatever she used, and
they arrested her for hate speech. You say, well, that'll never
happen here. Don't be too sure of that. Don't be too sure of
that, because people are willing to give up. our First Amendment, aren't they?
Free speech, freedom of religion. All those are precious things,
men who've shed their blood for us to enjoy these things. But
don't think it can't come here. I've read in Canada, they already
have those laws. And I want you to notice the
word may. May. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he, it doesn't say can devour, does it? Now he could devour
any one of us. He has that power, but it is
whom he may devour. You see, he's got to get God's
permission, doesn't he? We learned that from the book
of Job. Satan could not touch Job or anything that was Job's
without God's permission. Let me close with these thoughts.
I have three truths about afflictions. From verse nine, whom resist
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are
accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Number
one, afflictions are common to believers in this world. The
devil would have the afflicted one to question his acceptance
with Christ and God's love because of his suffering. That's one
of Satan's ploys. When a believer begins to suffer
afflictions, many times he's tempted to question, well, If
I really was a believer, if I really was a child of God, could I be
suffering this? Could I experience these afflictions? Wouldn't God keep me from this? Afflictions are common to believers
in this world. Number two, afflictions have
never kept any believer out of heaven. Afflictions have never
kept any believer out of heaven. Surely we should see that what
we experience, others have had to deal with and triumphed through
God's grace. And number three, afflictions,
afflictions will only help us to learn that God's grace is
sufficient. It really is, no matter what
the affliction is. That's what God told Paul, wasn't
it? That thorn in the flesh, my grace, is sufficient. And afflictions just help us
to learn that's true. Sometimes when you think about
afflictions, and many times people worry about things that never
come to pass, never come to pass. And yet people worry about them.
But God's grace is always sufficient, no matter what he brings into
our lives as his children. You know, we've seen that, haven't
we? We've seen that. As a pastor, I've seen people
suffer in many ways. But I've also seen that God's
grace has been sufficient. They didn't give up. They didn't
quit. They persevered. Let us sing
a verse of a hymn, David.