Flock Directives – Part 2

and that very naturally flows
into some directives, if you will, to the flock itself. We’ll consider by way of review
in a moment the things that he said to the leadership, but let’s
go back and let’s consider the passage in its entirety beginning
in verse 1 of chapter 5. Therefore, I exhort the elders
among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings
of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not
under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God,
and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording
it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples
to the flock.” And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive
the unfading crown of glory. You younger men, likewise, be
subject to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves
with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud,
but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you at the
proper time, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares
for you.” We’ve acknowledged that Peter
started by addressing the leadership of the church, and we acknowledge
there that there is a very clear, unmistakable leadership structure
that is given there in Scripture by God. The leadership structure
that we spent weeks uncovering and observing is that the elders
are the leaders of the church. That is the office that Christ
has appointed. That is the office that the apostles
extol as a continuing, perpetual office in the church. It is the
office of the elders. And that’s why Peter, when he
wanted to address the leaders of the church, said, I exhort
the elders among you. And by way of observation, we
said that that is a reminder of the elders to be humble because
they are among the people. There is a very real sense in
which they are over them in a position of authority, but they also are
among them in a very real sense, as we saw. We saw the office
of the church or pardon me, the office rather of spiritual leadership. Look at the work of spiritual
leadership by way of reminder in verse two, he says, shepherd
the flock. And he uses that that image,
that Old Testament image, even from Psalm 23 and so many other
places to say that is the true work of ministry. to oversee
those committed to your care, to watch over their spiritual
needs, to pray for them, to love them, to teach them and nourish
them and care for them. That is the work of spiritual
leadership. It’s not merely taking on a title
and sitting in some kind of cold authority over those beneath
you, as is the attitude of so many. And speaking of attitude,
Peter goes on to detail three specific attitudes that must
be resident there in the body of the eldership. Look further
on in verse 2. He says that we are to be exercising
oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to
the will of God. It isn’t a volunteer organization
necessarily. It’s not like you can come to
me after the church and say, OK, I’ll serve. It must also
be according to the will of God. And Peter and Paul have both
left explicit directions on exactly what the requisites are for the
eldership. You cannot be compelled or voted
in or forced to serve as an elder. It must be voluntarily as long
as it is in concert with the will of God. You must be yielded. Secondly, you must be eager When
Peter says that it cannot be for sordid gain, that is that
love of money and love of gain in all kinds of impure fashions. It can’t be that that motivates
you for ministry. And sadly, there are far too
many, especially those on the TV, that are motivated almost
exclusively by monetary gain. Not for sordid gain, but with
eagerness. There ought to be an eagerness to serve Christ.
Even I can remember a seminary professor said that if you can’t
find a church to pay you, go for free. If need be, pay them. What a great attitude, what a
great approach. Not only should we be yielded
and eager, but we should be exemplary. We should be examples. And that
is exactly what is in contrast there in the last little vignette
there that you see in verse three. When he says, nor yet as lording
it over those allotted to your charge, the attitude there is
one that says, look, I’ll do as I please. You follow the Bible. That’s why he says, proving to
be examples to the flock. Peter doesn’t shy away from it
and neither did Paul. Follow me. Do as I do. Finally, not only the office
and the work, of spiritual leadership, the attitude as we’ve seen, but
the reward of spiritual leadership. And now you say, boy, we’re going
to have a whole bunch of guys at the end of church waiting
in line to sign up because they get a reward. The crown of glory,
the unfading crown of glory. And this sounds too good to be
true. And you ask me, what is it? And
I told you several weeks ago, I don’t think it’s anything that
you don’t get as well. I think that this is the unfading
crown of glory that we all receive in glorification in Christ at
His return. Otherwise, you would have all
kinds of men for all kinds of prurient and impure reasons approaching
and eagerly clamoring for the eldership. I don’t believe that
we get anything that you don’t get. We all know, remember the
hymn, O to grace, how great a debtor. That is how any one of us serves
Christ, right? O to grace, how great a debtor,
daily I’m constrained to be. We serve Christ because we love
Him. More love to Thee, O Christ,
more love to Thee. It’s not because we’re waiting
for some kind of prize at the end. I mean, can you imagine? after God has picked you up out
of the cesspool of life, given you life itself, you’re going
to stand there as you serve Christ through however many years He
gives you on the earth? And then you’re going to arrive
in heaven with your hands out waiting for some kind of remuneration
of some kind? I think what Peter was saying
here is that look, The privilege of being a Christian, the privilege
of serving Christ is there for each one of us. And for the elders,
what a glorious privilege to serve in this capacity. And we,
too, will receive the unfading crown of glory. It’s a beautiful
thought. It’s a humbling thought. And
it’s at that point that Peter turns his attention to the precious
flock. And this is where we pick up from last week. when Peter said, you younger
men likewise. In other words, he has something
to say to the elders, the leaders of the flock, the leaders of
the church. But likewise, he has something to say to the rest
of the flock. You younger men likewise. And he gives this brief command. Very brief. You younger men likewise
be subject to your elders. And we talked about this. Is
it merely the fact that they’re older and that Peter is just
insisting on some kind of reverence and respect of older people?
No. I think that what he’s talking
about is the eldership of the church and that the young men
in the church, if they’re not elders, should be in subjection
to the elders. He’s not saying necessarily that
older women or younger women or older men don’t need to be
subject to the elders. He’s just merely singling out
a group that so often tends to engage in friction producing
discussions among the elder or with the eldership. They are
those who have lofty and grand and glorious ideas. They’re not
bad ideas. We said this last week. These
aren’t bad desires. But they must be in subjection
to the eldership because both need one another. The young men
need the wisdom of the eldership, the stability of the eldership.
The eldership needs the ideas of these young men, the enthusiasm,
the energy, the drive of these young men. The church needs both. Nobody’s exempt from submission
in the church. In fact, in other places, every
class is essentially called to submission in various ways. But the young men draw Peter’s
specific attention here. And Peter is talking about those
who are literally younger than the elders. And the purpose here
isn’t to call them into submission, no matter what the leaders say.
That’s no more proper than insubordination. If leaders give bad and unbiblical
advice and example, they’re not to be followed. They’re to be
approached. They’re to be confronted. They’re
to be shown God’s word. They’re to be challenged. The
elders aren’t over or aloof from God’s word. They too are in submission
to it. If their counsel contradicts
the word of God, they must not be obeyed. We also looked and said that
neither is this verse insisting that leaders are exempt from
direct accountability to the congregation. We live under the
same rules, the same rule of order, the same constitution,
the same scriptures that do you. Nevertheless, he calls the elders
to observe these young men and he calls the young men out by
name. And he says, listen to me, be
subject to your elders. Paul’s insistence was similar. He said, do not lay hands on
a new convert too quickly. Don’t send him into ministry. Don’t ordain him into eldership. Those things often produce dangers. And so he calls these young men
into submission in the church. And I want to pause. And I have
notes and things that we can attend to here as we go, but
I want to just talk from the heart. What does this mean? What
does it look like? We spent some time talking about it last week,
but what does it look like in the church? Are we saying that
no matter what the elders say, the young men need to submit,
they just need to submit and shush, right? Is that what we’re
saying? Not at all. Not at all. What are the elders in authority
over? How do young men in the church
submit? How do they show their submission?
And first of all, let me give an advertisement for membership.
I would say the first and foremost way that a young man or that
anybody really acknowledges his submission to the leadership
in the church is membership. And I want to talk about it for
a minute because really, in our day and age, membership has become
this optional thing at the very best. There are people that flit
around not only for months and months, but for years and years
and years unsubmitted because they are not members of a local
church. That’s why you become members
of a local church, is to submit yourself to the brotherly and
loving care of the eldership. It’s not so that you can vote.
It’s not so that you can be in on the ground floor of the corporation.
It’s not so that you can ply your influence and your pressure
on the church. That’s not it at all. The first
and foremost way that we show our submission to the leadership
of the church is to become members of it. And I’ve told you before,
I believe in a membership with a small m. I don’t believe that
it makes you saved. I don’t think that you lose your
salvation if you don’t become a member. But this is a way of
you saying, look, I believe in Christ. I proclaim Christ. I
want to be part of God’s fellowship. And I love what God has provided
for the church in the Scriptures and the leadership And I want
to follow Christ in this way. I want to follow Christ. I want
to be conformed to Christ. And I want these men to help.
And so what are the elders in authority over? They are in submission, essentially,
to the elders regarding spiritual decisions. Who gets appointed
to the eldership? Discipline matters. Doctrinal
issues. They are in submission. Does
that mean that they can’t raise a question? Not at all. Does
that mean that they can’t challenge the eldership? Not at all. Submission also implies that
I don’t know where anywhere in Scripture where you get this
insistence that everybody has a vote in the church. We’ve talked
about this for weeks on end. And so submission in a very real
sense says, look, we’ll talk about these things. I am going
to give you my opinion as brothers in the church. But ultimately,
the elders have the responsibility to make a decision, and I have
the responsibility to submit to that decision as long as it’s
biblical and it squares with Scripture. What about submission
by faithful attendance? Submission by faithful attendance.
There’s another thing in addition to membership that is almost
it’s we become so casual in the way that we approach church.
It doesn’t matter if I’m there. It doesn’t matter if I go. One of the ways of showing submission
to Christ is yielding to Him in those simple things. What
about worship? And you say, well, maybe I don’t
need it this Sunday. What about other people? What
about nourishing and feeding and caring for them? How do you
know that you wouldn’t have been used to God’s glory in that day? There are many other ways. But
when you begin to examine what are the elders in authority over,
Let’s ask some simple questions. Are the elders in authority?
Can they make a decision over who you marry? No. No. But they can’t admonish you and
rebuke you. If you begin to date a non-believer
or you begin to treat your God-given wife in a shoddy fashion, then
yes, you are called to accountability. What about a job and a career?
Can they tell you what job to take? No, unless it’s illegal
or immoral. And then they will call you and
have you talk through those things on those terms. But they can’t
command you outside of the commands of Scripture of what career to
take. Can’t even command you and compel you to believe a certain
way. We can teach. We can show great
patience with our instruction as we seek to gain your oneness
in doctrine. Let me pause right there. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 1.10. I say this all the time. Maybe
I don’t turn here enough. This is where I get this idea.
I get the idea from Scripture that we are commanded to be on
the same page doctrinally. We are commanded to be one in
those things. Walter Martin, I say this from
time to time, Walter Martin, the Bible Answer Man, used to
say, if two people agree on everything, one of them isn’t thinking. And
it’s an amusing thing. And so I took it and I reworked
it, did some wordsmithing on it. And I came out with this.
If two people don’t agree on everything, maybe neither of
them are thinking. And that seems to be the prevailing
attitude in the church today. Is that this attitude of, well,
let’s just agree to disagree after we’ve had a 15 minute discussion? What happened to really digging
into the Scriptures? What happened to really studying
the issue? You see, the problem is we’re
lazy. We don’t want to know. We don’t want to study. We don’t
want to know what the truth is, because then we’re going to have
to change the way that we live. Here’s where I get this idea,
1 Corinthians 1.10. Now, I exhort you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and
there be no divisions among you, but that you may be made complete
in the same mind, in the same judgment. That tells me that
if I see doctrinal difference among you, I have the obligation
as a shepherd to come and to coach you and to try to teach
you and suggest books to you and passages and to teach from
the pulpit. It also tells me that you have
a moral obligation. That if you see something that
is out of concert with God’s Word, that you must come to Me. And as a brother in Christ, exhort. We’ve taken this so casually. Because we can just leave here
and go down the street, whatever is pleasing to Me. Do I have a right to tell you
thing to wear, how to dress, how to wear your hair? No. But
there are times where cultural rebellion is plainly evident
in the things that we do and the way that we dress. Do I have
a right to tell you what to eat and what to drink? No, but both
can lead to gluttony and great troubles. The elders are in authority
over doctrine in the church. It’s not like we throw out for
a vote on what we want to believe. What is the prevailing wind of
the people, what the people desire? Same thing with discipline in
the church. It’s not like, you know, I can remember being in
a church and boy, I better be careful. It was it was ridiculous
sin. It was blatant and totally disrespectful
to God. That’s all the detail I’m going
to give you on it. And we get to the end of this deal and they
say, well, we have to submit it to a vote of the church. And
I said, what are we voting on? Whether he sinned? We know he
sinned. What are we voting on? Whether
we want to obey Scripture? It says to tell it to the church,
not to ask the church for its permission. You know what is interesting
with regards to submission in the church? The way I look at
it is we have all the makings, listen to me, of a mega church. If it weren’t for one little
thing, And that is a prevailing attitude of practical insubordination. We have had countless scores
of people through our church and typically speaking, it has
been typically young men who, when they didn’t get their way,
would not submit and they left. That’s the simple truth. They
left over communion. They left over divorce and remarriage.
They left over our principles. They left over the eldership.
They left over worship and music. They left over doctrine. Some
left for no reason at all. They never came and said a single
word. They just left. And there were
others who weren’t even members. They never could submit. They
never would. The Constitution was too long. It was too deep.
It was too detailed. And they never would submit. So we would be a mega church
if it weren’t for that. Young men are called into submission
in the church and the elders don’t. It’s not like they have
this run amok attitude. Our Constitution spells it out
so clearly. We spent so much time on this
element. When you join the church, this
is for those of you that are considering it. This is not part
of the class. You’re not exempt from the membership class. This
is just extra for free. One of the things that you agree
to is to honor and obey within the bounds of Scripture all superiors,
whether in family, church or state. You know what? If I call
you to submit, if Scripture calls you to submit to your earthly
boss, is it unreasonable that you should submit to the elders
of the church? Speaking of the officers in the
church, the Constitution says this, Jesus Christ is alone the
head of His church. That is true. There is no elder
that I know of that denies that, except some of the ones on the
TV. Jesus Christ is alone the head of his church, but he has
ordained that individual churches should be governed by himself
through officers whom he appoints. Who are endowed by his spirit
with the gifts and graces needed to accomplish their work, and
the Constitution goes on and it says that part of the requirements
for church membership is that they be in submission to the
appointed rule of the church. One of the privileges. And see,
if you don’t join the church for this reason, don’t join the
church, don’t join the church. One of the privileges of membership
is the reception of the committed oversight and care of the pastors
of the church. If you don’t care to be cared
for, if you don’t want to be loved and nurtured Christ word,
Don’t join the church. Certainly don’t join this church. And what about this authority?
I told you last week somebody challenged our doctrinal or our
Constitution, you know, that it was too heavy. And we found
26 specific places where the elders are called into accountability
in our Constitution. But this is I mean, granted,
we were part of writing this, but this is good stuff. I believe
that it expresses the biblical ideal of leadership in the church. Listen to what it says about
the authority of the elders. Because the authority of the
elders of the church is a human authority exercised in the house
of God, it has both high prerogatives and important limitations. Listen to this. Elders are answerable
to God for the exercise of their authority. Elders are obligated
to discharge all the duties specified by God in the scriptures. When
they exercise this authority by requiring obedience to themselves,
they must seek to gain the consciences of God’s people through the ministry
of the Word. In other words, they’ve got to
teach you what we’re trying to do. If we’re changing directions,
if we’re implementing policy, we must go to the Word and we
must teach you. We must seek to gain your consciences. There should be never a situation
where we say, Chief Indian, do as I say. That’s not biblical
leadership. Listen to this. The authority
of the elders is limited to the sphere of the local church. I
can’t tell you what kind of artwork to hang on your walls of your
home. Thus, they will not require punishments for sin beyond those
of biblical church discipline. They will not invade the biblically
defined spheres of other divinely ordained human authorities. In
other words, I’m not going to come tell a son to disobey his
father. I’m not going to tell a wife
to divorce her husband. So when we’re called to submission
in the church, People, it is a reasonable call. It is a reasonable
request, a reasonable command, really, that Peter gives here
to the young men. Secondly, not only be submitted
to the leadership and that’s all. I said it was review, but
that was all new stuff under the heading of review. I said there were three timeless
instructions to the flock of God. Not only be submitted to
the leadership, but be humble toward one another. And you would
wipe out completely all problems in the church if we would just
have this deference for one another, if we would just be humble towards
one another. Look, if you would, at verse
five, you younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders and
all of you. Is there anybody exempt from
that? He says, look, everybody in the
church, and I believe that he absolutely means the elders,
too. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.
And I told you what I believe the illustration is there. There’s
numerous places in Scripture that call us to humility. But
I think what was foremost in Peter’s mind was that image of
a slave’s apron that was donned by none other than the Lord Jesus
Himself. When He stood up at the Passover
dinner and began to wash the disciples’ feet, that’s the kind
of humility, self-serving humility that He calls each of us to.
The same image in John chapter 13. Peter knew that kind of clothing.
He knew it as a fisherman, but there was no example that could
have surpassed that of Christ taking on the slave’s apron,
tying it in a knot around him. That’s what the word means. And
when he calls us here to clothe yourselves with humility, he
says, tie the knot. Grab up that garment and tie
the knot. Put it on. Serve one another
in humility. One pastor said of this humility,
he said that it is the grace and humility whereby a Christian
has a low estimate of himself flowing from the sense of his
own sinfulness. Boy, are we forgetful. Aren’t
we? Alright, it’s just me. Boy, am
I forgetful. I forget so easily the wretch
that I was and the hopelessness that I faced the damnation that
really was righteously standing in front of me. Just desserts. And then, all of a sudden, for
nothing good in me, Christ came and saved me. We’re forgetful. We’re so forgetful. Suddenly, we begin to think that
there’s something in us The God in us got a good deal, right? Boy, isn’t he happy to have me
on his team. The grace and humility whereby
a Christian has a low estimate of himself flowing from the sense
of his own sinfulness and of the undeserved goodness of God
by which he is inclined to prefer others before himself, not desiring
more esteem from others than God allows him to have, and accepts
humbly chastisements from God as far less than what he deserves. This is the prime ornament of
Christians, which they should tie about themselves and delight
to wear.” See, now the world is going to
tell you you’re goofy. The world is going to say, this
humility, that’s an unbecoming thing. We don’t like humble people
in our day and age, do we? We like them proud. We like them
bombastic. We like them, you know, overbearing. But to call us to humility, that’s
just something that society isn’t going to applaud, is it? How smooth the church would run,
wouldn’t it? If believers were to recognize
constantly that they are sinners, fellow sinners, They wouldn’t
be so prone to react to others in, quote unquote, being offended. I like the way one pastor said
it, that humility is the oil that allows relationships in
the church to run smoothly and frankly, in some relationships,
in some individuals, the oil has run dry, hasn’t it? Why does Peter say this? Why
does Peter turn his attention to the entire church now when
he says, all of you, clothe yourselves in humility towards one another.
And I believe in doing so. He calls us to humble service.
Get outside of your own mindset, your own priorities, your own
things and serve other people. Put your attention on them. Why? Peter gives us the grand principle.
God is opposed to the proud. But he gives grace to the humble.
That’s the principle that he cites. He says it’s for your
own good to get out of your own skull and out of your own issues
and out of your own priorities and desires. Go serve someone
else. Put your attention on them. Because
God is opposed to the proud. One pastor said it this way,
the haughty are the friends of the world for the world promises
to satisfy their pride, which God does not do. The lowly or
the humble realize that they have nothing and they are happy
to receive God’s grace, which God richly satisfies their souls. See, what happens is pride essentially
cuts you off from God. It cuts you off from the blessings
that God wants to give. Humility draws it in. Pride,
one said, calls out God’s armies. That’s essentially the language
of this passage. You pick a fight with God when
you act proudly. Isn’t that a frightening thought? I mean, can you imagine reaching
up? I mean, imagine the big bully, the one that you really have
to stand on your tippy toes and tap him on the shoulder. Imagine
standing on your tippy toes and tapping on God’s. Picking a fight
with God. God is opposed to the proud,
that’s what that means. It means that we essentially
challenge God to a battle. Pride calls out God’s armies.
No wonder, therefore, that pride goes before destruction. Want to pick a fight with God? I can remember telling our college
young people from time to time, it’s typically a young person
that will say this. Because if we have gray hair,
we know from first hand experience that it doesn’t work so well.
But I would have these college young people say to me from time
to time, I only learn lessons the hard way. Okay. I’ll see you in a month. Because
God has the means to teach you the hard way every time. Every
time. God is opposed to the proud.
God doesn’t turn His back when you tap on His shoulder and pick
a fight with God. If you want to challenge God
to show you the hard way, you got it. And you’ll get it. but he also gives grace to the
humble. One gracious Puritan said it
this way, that man was made for simple, childlike dependence
on God. Anything else is dishonoring
to God and certainly opposed, therefore, to our true happiness.
Now, pride, whatever form it takes, is essentially a glorifying
of self and necessarily, therefore, an attempt to be free and independent
of God. That’s what pride is. But God, when He sees one of
His precious saints humbling Himself before Him, gives grace. He gives grace to endure the
difficulty, whatever difficulty they’re facing. But God gives
grace in that moment. Point three. And it is by way
of transition that Peter says this. Clothe yourselves with
humility towards one another. Verse five, for God is opposed
to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves,
therefore. I mean, it’s a simple equation. Humble yourselves. Verse six,
under the mighty hand of God, and that is the third timeless
instruction. Not only are we to be submitted
to the leadership of the church and be humble toward one another,
but ultimately we are to be subject before God. The word there doesn’t merely
mean that we are to humble ourselves, but we are to allow ourselves
to be humbled by circumstances and by things around us. In other
words, accept these humiliations, which in our society would be
a dirty word. Accept your humiliations, which
the circumstance of the time brings so frequently upon Christians. That’s how one said it. Accept
it. Don’t buck against it. Don’t
constantly be fighting the circumstances, the situations in which God has
sovereignly placed you. How do you know that isn’t for
your own good, for His glory in your midst as He develops
you in Christ? You know, this is a fascinating
passage, a parallel in James. It’s the same basic thought. It’s the same basic thought.
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Everyone who humbles
himself will be exalted. James 4.11. Now, the fascinating thing about
that is the context in which you find that statement. The context in James is simply this. What
is the source of your quarrels and conflicts among you? You
see, what Peter is alluding to here in 1 Peter 5 is the avoidance
of all this church strife and church splits and church friction. What James says is, let me tell
you what I see. It’s already going on when James
writes. It’s already erupted. They’re
already at each other’s throats. And he says, what is the source
of the conflicts and quarrels among you? Is not the source
your pleasures which wage war in your members? You lost and
you do not have. That’s exactly what we said earlier,
right? You didn’t get your way. They didn’t sing the song that
you wanted to sing. You didn’t become the leader
that you wanted to be. You didn’t get the position.
You didn’t get the authority. Whatever it is, You lust and
you do not have, so you commit murder. Deep down in your heart,
that’s what’s in your heart. You’re envious and cannot obtain,
so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do
not ask. You do not ask and do not receive because you ask with
wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Now,
James gets even more graphic than that. But the ultimate principle
there is everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. God’s
going to see to it. It’s kind of like a spiritual
version of limbo, right? Nobody’s going to come marching
into heaven with some big head and some kind of ego. He who
humbles himself will be exalted. Richard Baxter, that great Puritan,
said one time, the church greatness consists of being of great service
to the church. And so the desire of the true
Christian must be to do good and to give of himself and all
that he has in the service of others. Let us seek the grace
of humility every day. None, no grace, he says, is so
beautiful, however much despised by the world. No grace is such
an evidence of saving faith and true conversion to God. No grace
is so often commended by the Lord Jesus Himself. Be humble. Whoever exalts himself
will be humbled. And how do we do that? John Gill
spelled it out. You do that by entertaining too
high of an opinion about yourself. That God needs you. That God
can’t do this without you. That boy, if I leave, this church
will certainly fold. By boasting of your gifts. By
thinking that you’re preferable over others. By thinking of your
gifts as if you had not received them. Boy, what a fascinating
thought that is. by assuming or eagerly coveting
titles of honor among men, or honor that does not belong to
you, or abusing what honor you do have. Those are all marks
of puffing yourself up, exalting yourself. And he goes on. He says, that kind of man shall
be abased or humbled by God or men or both. They shall lose
the honor they have while he who humbles himself by entertaining
low thoughts of himself, a humble opinion of himself, behaving
modestly among men, not being elated with his gifts, but acknowledging
that they are due only to the grace and goodness of God, and
using them in a humble manner for the advantage of others,
not coveting honor from men or lifted up by pride for what is
conferred on him, Turn, if you would, for the sake of time. There’s
a passage in Isaiah, Isaiah 14, so often referred to as the fall
of Satan, right? And it is exactly this thought.
The reason that that whole scenario came about was that Satan puffed
himself up. He exalted himself. And God dealt
with it. And God will deal with it every
time. Essentially what Peter urges
here, he uses military terminology. When he says, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God. That word humble, it’s
a military term that essentially means get in line. Get back in
line, soldier. Throw down your weapons and stop
your rebellion. The submission that he calls
us to is to God’s grace, to accept with meekness and with humility
the course that God lays out for us. And so often those things
have very practical implications in our lives. If God has called
you to a place and to a situation, stay there and work through to
the best of your ability. One pastor said, no element of
submission is more needful than submission to His will in providence. Not with a sullenness, because
we must, but true submission of the heart as of a child to
the act of a father whose wisdom and love he trusts perfectly.
Is that your attitude towards God? Is He really a trustworthy God
to you? Many of those to whom Peter writes
were discontented with God’s providential actings in the world
in regard to their situation in life, their wealth, their
rank. Hence comes envying and grudging, malignity and strife. Ultimately. People in church,
their problem isn’t even with you. Ultimately, their problem
is with God. They’re angry with God. They’re
bitter. They’re frustrated. And they’re going to take it
out on you. You just happen to be a target. That’s why Scripture
encourages us not to take it so personally when people erupt.
Ultimately, they’re angry at God. I love this passage. I love the way it says that I’m
not going to have time to unfold it completely. Humble yourselves,
therefore, under the mighty hand of God. What a beautiful image. It’s no phrase isn’t found anywhere
else in Scripture, the mighty pardoning anywhere else in the
New Testament. The mighty hand of God, you know, picturing God
as this great big being, but it is found repeatedly in the
Old Testament and almost always found in relation to the deliverance
from Egypt. The idea is that God’s mighty
hand is on the destiny of His people, you included. That God
actually has your best interest at heart and God has placed you
in situations and circumstances and He has things coming into
your lives all by His design. And all He asks you to do is
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, to faithfully accept what guidance
He gives you. See, we as believers in Christ,
we can’t resent the experiences of the life that we live. We
can’t rebel against those crises that come into our life, because
we know ultimately that the mighty hand of God is behind them all. That He has a purpose, a design
on them, as we’ve seen throughout the epistle, right? Suffering
has its purpose. Exodus 3.19, pardon me, let me
skip into Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 3.24, O Lord, you
begun to show your servant your greatness, your strong hand.
For what God is there in heaven or earth who can do such works
and mighty acts as yours? And then you begin to get this
repeating theme of the mighty hand of God. Whatever humbling process that
God was taking Israelites through is no different, really, than
whatever humbling process and circumstances He’s placed in
your life. Or he’s placed you in, literally. Just as Peter exhorts the believers
of the first century who are facing just hellish persecution
to not react improperly to those circumstances, he says the same
thing to you. Behave in a God honoring way,
be submissive to the discipline that God is exercising in your
life. And that’s why he says, casting
all your anxiety on him. The verb there indicates something
that we do and it’s done. We take it out of our hands and
we put it on him. What comes to mind is Matthew
six, doesn’t it? Do not be worried about your
life as to what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink or for your
body what you’ll put on. It’s not life more important
than food and the body more than clothing. But if God clothes
the grass of the field, verse 30, which is alive today and
tomorrow is thrown in the furnace, will He not clothe you, you of
little faith? Do not worry then. What should
we eat? What should we drink? What should
we wear? It reminds me exactly of that passage. We are to cast
our anxiety for our earthly circumstances on Him who sifted them through
His mighty and loving fingers. People were called to be submitted
to the leadership of the church. It’s by God’s design. We’re called
to be humble towards one another. We’re absolutely called to be
subject under the mighty hand of a loving God. Let’s examine
our hearts before him. Our merciful King. Some passages we take and we
look at so academically and. With this one, Lord, we cannot
help but pause. To express our gratitude and
humble ourselves before you and thank you that you are a loving
God, You had our best interest at heart when You sent our Savior
to pay our penalty on the cross and to call us to You. Father, we thank You and we praise
You for the salvation that we’ve come to know. We thank You for
the privilege to serve You in all that we do. We thank You
for the church and for the leadership that You’ve placed in it, for
the structure, for the care that The elders
give to the church the oversight of souls. Father, we thank you
for one another and for the privilege to walk humbly together, to care
for one another and love one another and serve one another.
Father, we thank you that we do it all under the watchful
eye of Almighty God. Be glorified, God, we pray. in how we do church. We thank
you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.