Yielded and Free, Part 2

Turn to Peter’s first epistle. First Peter, we find ourselves
in chapter two. Well, who would have thought
the elections would have gone the way that they did this last
week? And I’m sure that there are many
of you who are discouraged or even downhearted or disturbed
by what took place. And in a very real sense, I didn’t
plan it this way, but in a very real sense, we are where God
would have us to be in this passage. As I said a moment ago, we tasted
part of this passage last week. We delved into it to a degree. And we will proceed further into
it today. Let me set, if I could, the context
for you one more time in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter, as you know, the
opening chapter, as we’ve talked for months now, is all about
salvation. The first half of it tells almost
in detail, unparalleled in the rest of the New Testament, all
of the great themes of salvation dealt with there in the opening
pages of Peter’s epistle, almost from the opening words. And what
Peter follows that with is our response to salvation. What does
God desire of us? As saints who have come to faith
in Jesus Christ, what does our response to this great salvation
look like? And Peter prefigures his first
century Christians response and our response as one of almost
despair at seeing the response expected of us. And so Peter
immediately moves to encourage us near the end of that chapter.
In verse 22, he says, since you have in obedience to the truth
purified your souls for a sincere love of the truth, for a sincere
love of the brethren rather, he doesn’t doubt their salvation
in saying that. They have placed their faith
in Christ. He takes them at face value. And he says that if you
are truly going to fulfill these callings in your life, you’re
going to need the nourishment of God’s Word. And that’s exactly
how he opens chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 1 through 3,
he points us to God’s Word as the source of spiritual nourishment. That’s where we’ll get it. And
as newborn babes, we are to long for that pure milk of God’s Word. But beyond that, Peter advances
this great encouragement beginning in verse 4. The great spiritual
superstructure that God is building, it’s God’s building project.
He’s going to see it through in the end, the end of which
is a testimony to all who see it. That whole theme of a testimony
in the midst of a dark and dying world is an overarching theme
throughout this epistle. Remember, we have seen that these
are Christians who are suffering the greatest persecution that
mankind has ever faced before and since. And Peter says it’s
absolutely imperative that we have a witness, that you live
lives that proclaim Christ to these people. And that is the
overarching theme of first Peter. But it was important, not just
to those first century Christians. It’s important, it’s crucial
for us as well. And as Peter courses through
that, look, if you would, again, in verse Eleven, I urge you as
aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage
war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent
among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander
you as evil doers, they may, because of your good deeds as
they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. We
may come back to that in a moment. But essentially what he says
there, I believe that there’s two different ways of looking
at that. Either in the day of judgment, they are going to say,
you know what? Those Christians that you sent were right. We
glorify you for sending them. We praise God. You know, but
I really think the second way of looking at that is more reasonable. I believe that the way that we
live our lives. In front of the Gentiles, in
front of those nonbelievers is going to produce a day where
they come to faith, not just because of your life. But God’s
going to use it as a testimony as they observe your good deeds
and as they observe your life, there will be a day there may
come a day in your friends lives where they come to know the Lord
Jesus Christ and they glorify God in that. But there’s an equal
and opposite truth as well. There are going to be those who
gnash their teeth at your testimony. They hate your life. They hate
your lifestyle. They hate your priorities. They
hate everything about you and nothing you do or say will change
their minds. And that’s exactly where Peter
takes it in verse 13. He doesn’t exonerate us of the
responsibility of bearing a testimony in our land. If you would, let’s
pick up in verse 13. Where Peter says, submit yourselves,
we pause there, didn’t we? And I pause there again, because
that little phrase right there, that complete sentence, submit
yourselves, carries us through the next, the end of this chapter
and well into the next. Everything to follow hangs underneath
that little command. Submit yourselves. This is something
that we do, something that we’re called upon to do and expected
to do, as we saw last week. Now, if you would submit yourselves
for the Lord’s sake to every human institution. Whether to
a king as one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for
the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right,
for such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence
the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use
your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves
of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the king. That’s about as far as I hope
to get this morning. But let me just take you as you’re
looking there in first Peter to points beyond, because I’ve
said everything hangs on those two words in first Peter, chapter
two, verse 13. Submit yourselves. Hanging underneath
that is the command to servants, the direct application. If Peter
feels the need to go on and basically lay out to particular groups
exactly what is expected. Servants, be submissive to your
masters with all respect, verse 18. Having dealt with that in
the verses that follow chapter three, verse one, in the same
way, you wives be submissive to your own husbands. Hanging
underneath that part of that passage you husbands likewise
He never says comes right out and says be submitted to your
wives Neither does he say neither does Paul say that and in Ephesians
chapter 5 But the thought is there that in a very beautiful
way the husband-wife relationship is one of mutual submission nevertheless
You wives be submissive to your own husbands. You husbands, likewise,
live with your wives in an understanding way. In verse eight, to sum up,
in case he’s missed anybody, let all be harmonious, sympathetic,
brotherly, kind hearted and humble in spirit. We’ll get to those
passages in the weeks to come. We began last week by just acknowledging
that throughout history, there have been some great diversity
in how Christians have responded to earthly government. Christians
have basically operated at two extremes. They’ve tended to put
a hate for human government, a disdain and to repudiate all
earthly government. as inherently evil and therefore
end up being viewed themselves as subversives, this is exactly
what Peter is trying to deal with. This was the mindset of
the Jews in that day. They hated the Roman government.
They felt that they were oppressors and evil and the very thought
of submitting to them was repulsive to them. That’s exactly why they
asked Christ the question, you know, should we render to Caesar
his tax or not? And if Christ was basically between
a rock and a hard place and either way, they were going to get him.
It’s exactly what Peter is dealing with here. But there have been two extremes,
not only to hate human government and refuse submission to it,
but to put too much stock or too much hope in that government,
to think that our future hangs on the success of our American
government or in the quality of the men in office. And it
doesn’t. It doesn’t mean that we can’t
be involved. In fact, I think that’s a great
privilege that we have in this country, a great honor to participate
One of the very marks of freedom. We’re not wrong in participating,
you’re not even wrong in running for office. God help you. What Peter began to wrestle with
in this passage is the answer to the question, is there really
a separation between church and state? We saw last week as we
looked at the history of that, that it is an argument without
merit. It was made improperly. It was
taken completely out of context in the 70s and in the 80s and
turned into this mantra that is repeated often and often and
often enough that now people believe that there is, by God’s
design, to be a separation between church and state and that the
church is not to meddle in the affairs of government. And so
to even bring up, I mean, how do they get to a set of laws
without a set of right and wrong principles is beyond me. But
essentially to interject biblical values and biblical principles
into the argument is akin to a declaration of war, isn’t it? Those are fighting words. To
say, well, the Bible says Or I believe, or I believe that
Scripture clearly says those are hated words in our day, aren’t
they? They are unwelcome. They don’t
want to be influenced. They love the darkness. They
don’t want to be told what God thinks of what they’re doing. And so Peter began to dismantle
this argument and to say we’re not to be those who are viewed
as subversives. We’re not to be subversive in
our government. Neither are we to be totally
uninvolved. We can be thoroughly involved
in the governing process. But first things first, he says.
And the very first word that he told us was to submit ourselves.
And I told you it carries us for another chapter and a half.
It’s a military word implying rank and order. And in essence,
Peter says, get in line. And these earthly governors,
these earthly kings and presidents, Congress, the Senate, the mayor
of your city, the governor of your state, those authorities
are appointed by me. That’s what God says. We took
it in full last week, taking you to Romans chapter 13, we
looked at it, the pattern of Scripture, a pattern rather of
submission in Scripture. That in essence, we’re all called
to be submitted to someone, at least at some point in our lives
for some extended period. It shouldn’t come as that great
of a challenge to us to be subject or subject to someone or something
at some point in time. Part of our calling. The church is subject to Christ,
slaves are subject to their masters, young men are to submit to their
elders in the church, wives to their husbands, Christians submit
to one another. And all of that is based on the
pattern of our own Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, this is the most
profound one of all. That Jesus was in submission
to his earthly parents. That here is God incarnate taking
on human flesh and he was in subjection to his earthly parents. And so this is perhaps the hardest
arena where we are to subject ourselves, that to earthly government.
It’s easier, ladies, for you ladies to subject yourself to
a loving husband. It’s maybe not so easy for you
to subject yourself to your earthly employers, but you’re still called
to do so. The easiest one of all is for
you young men to submit to your elders in the church. But to submit to earthly government,
that’s tough. It is hard. It begs the question,
what about ungodly leaders? What about leaders that don’t
share my values? I mean, the worst thing of all,
people, would be for us to do as they have done for the last
four years and to print up bumper stickers and to say, I didn’t
vote for her. It doesn’t matter. It’s part of our constitution
that says once the elders have made a decision, regardless of
where their particular opinions stood, when we walk out of the
room, we are together. We made the decision. And that
is exactly the case that Peter presents to us now, that in a
very real way, you did vote for Nancy Pelosi. You had your vote,
your vote counted. And now for the next however
long we are to submit, it’s an interesting thing. And probably
in a sense, even a rebuke that for the last couple of weeks,
we I mean, we sickened over the same ads that you got sickened
of and of the same phone calls that you got tired of. And we
began to almost mock, especially the ones that were so easily
mockable, those of the opposite party. We began to almost mock
them, and then I began to wonder as I’m studying this passage,
so how exactly am I going to make this transition? from mocking
this person to now calling on us to submit to them. And I think
what the Lord is calling us to is just a great degree more graciousness
and a whole lot less hope placed in them as being as guarding
our future, either earthly or otherwise. Our hope doesn’t hang
on them. We trust in a sovereign God who
put them there for a purpose, for a time. Romans 13, every person is to
be in subjection to the governing authorities. I mean, that pretty
much that’s pretty well comprehensive, isn’t it? He doesn’t say local
government, but not this national thing, or he doesn’t say national,
but not this local thing. Every person is to be in subjection
to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except
from God and those which exist are established by God. Well,
that pretty much takes care of it. He goes on and says, therefore,
whoever resists authorities oppose the ordinance of God, it’s God’s
institution. It’s exactly what Peter calls
us to when he says, submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every
human institution, to every created order. It all comes from God. They who have opposed will receive
condemnation upon themselves for rulers are not a cause of
fear for good behavior, but for evil. We’ll come back to that
thought in a few moments. As Christians, we are to submit
ultimately to God’s authority as it structures itself out in
all of these earthly authorities in our lives, whether at home
or in the church or in our fair city. Last week, we began this passage
by considering just this title that I’ve given it. And really,
the title is there woven in through this passage, yielded and free.
We are both. There is, in a sense, a tension
here. It’s not an oxymoron. It’s a tension that Peter uses
to make a point that in a very real way, we are free and in
a very real way, we are to be yielded. And they’re not mutually
exclusive. Last week, we noted that there
is to be a life for the Christian, a life of godly subjection. This isn’t subservience. This
isn’t just a slavish submission of ourselves, you know, without
heart and voice or, you know, feelings. It’s not like that
at all. It is a godly subjection. This
is something that we willingly do in every arena that we’re
called to do it. Last week, we looked at three
at the specific command of godly objections, and here we saw elements
of this subjection. First of all, the divine recipient
who gets the benefit of us submitting. That’s the simple question for
the Lord’s sake. And when you think of what the
Lord Jesus Christ deserves, having paid your penalty for your sin
on the cross, what does He deserve? He deserves everything in us.
And if He asks us to submit to this earthly government, no matter
how knuckleheaded or how odd they may be, is that too much
for the Lord Jesus Christ to ask of you? Peter said, that it’s for the
Lord’s sake, that the Lord Jesus Christ in His role as the Son
is one of the co-sovereigns together with God, the Father and the
Spirit. Together, they sovereignly have unfolded this plan. And
to that we are to be subject. It is for the Lord’s sake. He’s
the one that gets the glory in the end. Secondly, not only the
divine recipient, but the divine delegates. This is the ones these
are the ones rather that we directly submit to. God has delegated
them this authority, this responsibility, and he says to every human institution,
whether to a king. And I believe that what he starts
here and does not finish is a grocery list. Of people that we could
potentially be submitted to, he doesn’t list every position
that has ever been created. potentates and kings and princes
and, you know, what have you, czars and rulers. He doesn’t
do that. I think that what he does here
is use a common earthly term, king, or those that are appointed
by them, whether they’re elected or whether they’re born into
the position or whether they’re appointed by someone. Either
way, whatever earthly government you come in contact with, whatever
earthly government is over you to which you’re born in, just
be subject. Be at peace. Every human institution. God is the one, as our sovereign
King and Lord, who has ordained, as Romans said, the governing
authorities to be under Him. They’re not in charge, really.
They have a delegated authority. They’re not in charge of what
unfolds. They can affect it. God can use them for His own
glorious purpose. But they’re not truly in charge.
They are underneath him. They are over the people. And
so, in a sense, they are in charge. They have authority over you.
And therefore, not only God’s glory, but for the public good.
Remember, we said that they have the role of restraining order
and providing order in a society, restraining evil. That’s the
purpose of this earthly government. And in a lot of ways, you can
use that as a test of what good government is. But in the final
analysis, you’re still called to be subject to that. I want to move on to point three,
the divine purpose, as we saw last week, and we touched upon
this and closed rather rapidly, so I’ll pick up here and then
we’ll press on to new ground. We’re looking at the specific
command of godly subjection there in verse 13 and following. Essentially, at the elements
of godly subjection, what is it made of? We looked at the
divine recipient. That’s who gets the glory in
the end, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. We looked at the divine delegates,
and now we want to look at the divine purpose. Why? What does
God have vested in earthly government? What is what’s the big deal about
submitting ourselves to them? Verse 15. For such, and I take
that to mean everything that hangs in verse 13 and 14, everything
fits in right there. Submitting yourselves for the
Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king and on and
on and on. For such is the will of God. That’s what God wants.
I mean, does he need to give us all kinds of additional detail?
This is what God desires. That should be enough. Such is the will of God that
by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
This word we saw last week, it’s a graphic word. It means to muzzle
or gag. To stop them even in mid-sentence
Put a sock in their mouth. That’s what you do by doing right
by submitting to them. You take away this entire argument
that you are a subversive, that you are anti-government. The same word was used of Jesus
silencing the storm. It points to the thought of gagging
or stopping someone’s mouth. to render that person incapable
of speech. It literally stops them from
talking. Remember, when David sinned,
one of the gravest consequences of his sin, as Nathan said, you
have given the enemy cause to blaspheme. We want to stop that. We don’t want to give them any
more fodder. We don’t want to give them any more reason to
crow and to speak against our Savior. And here is the opportunity
that we have to correct this this gross caricature that unbelievers
have of Christianity, that we’re against government, that we’re
so pro God that we’re over here in government and all the rest
of the people are over there. No. We’re part of the society. We love it when they pass laws
that restrain evil in our society. We love it when they exercise
their authority and when they deal with criminals. We love
that. We’re thankful for that. That’s
what keeps society going. In essence, this command here
is an echo of 1 Peter 2.12. Look at that verse. Keep your
behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing
in which they slander you as evil doers, they may on account
of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day
of visitation. You want to stop their mouth. This ignorance that’s pointed
to here is it isn’t just a lack of knowledge. It indicates a
willful, hostile rejection of the truth. They are anti-Christian. They are anti-God. What this points to is a lack
of spiritual perception that the apostle goes on to characterize
as foolish. It’s senseless. I mean, when
you lay out their argument, it’s absurd. One said it this way, their ignorance
is of the ignorance of the state and lifestyle of believers, which
may be the occasion of their speaking evil of them and or
their ignorance of God and His ways. They do not know God themselves
and they are most ready to reproach and slander those that do. That’s
simple. And you know it from your own
experience, right? The Christian. lives a life of submission. He fulfills God’s will because
he takes away the critics, the fuel for the critics fire. He
takes away his ammunition. He takes away his argument. And
he places himself beneath God’s design. It’s what God wants. There’s a second point here in
this section that I want to look at. I want to move to looking
at the life of godly subjection. We saw the specific command of
godly subjection there in verse 13 through 15. I want to look
at the guiding principle of godly subjection. What is the guiding
principle? What Peter does here is just synthesize it to a point
where, look, this is the general principle and he lays it out
in simple terms for us. Act as free men. And do not use
your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves
of God. Well, now there is a complete
contradiction, Peter. You can’t be on the one hand
free and on the other hand, a bond slave. Those things are mutually
exclusive, Peter. Get out your dictionary. It’s
an interesting thing here of this passage, though there is
no verb here, depending on what translation you’re reading, where
it says act or behave or conduct yourself as free men. There is
no verb. It just says, as free men. And what it does is resume, in
a sense, the argument that was advanced for the first time in
verse 13. Remember, I told you everything
hangs underneath that. Everything hangs under that word
submit. Submit yourselves. That’s the
command. Submit yourselves as free men. What? That’s what it says. It’s exactly
what it says. Submit yourselves as free men.
Ultimately, you know that you have been set free from the law’s
penalty. You’ve been set free from the
condemnation of sin. You’ve been set free from Satan’s
bondage. You’ve been set free from the
world’s control of you and your thoughts. You’ve been set free
from death’s power. But Peter says, wait a second,
be careful. Don’t use this spiritual freedom
as a covering, a cloak, a blanket, a costume, if you will. Don’t
dress up in this argument of freedom and say that you don’t
have to obey because you’re free. It won’t fly. Not with Peter,
not with Paul, not with God. Don’t use your freedom as a covering
for evil. He doesn’t doubt that we’re free.
He says, as free men, you have been freed in the most grand
and glorious way that any human being can ever be released. You’ve
been freed. You are free. But this freedom is never, ever
supposed to be a license for self-indulgence and for sinful
life, for subversiveness and for evil behavior. This thought is is one that the
church really has wrestled with throughout its history, hasn’t
it? You know, just even a little bit of church history. It isn’t
just that it was going on in the first century of the church,
the early church. It is perpetuated over time and
it continues to this day. Some people thought that it meant
this freedom, meant complete emancipation from any moral restraint
that the government would put on you. And so for that reason,
Paul repeats this exhortation a number of different times in
a number of different ways. Galatians 5, 13. You were called
to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Romans 6, 18, you having been
freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. There again
is this conundrum, this seeming contradiction. He goes on to
explain it. You know what? Look, I’m keeping
the cookies on the lower shelf for a reason that’s in the Greek. I’m kidding, he says in verse
19, I’m speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your
flesh. He says, you know what? I know this is I know it’s I know it’s
a hard thing. I know it seems contradictory.
I know that I’m speaking in human terms because of the weakness
of your flesh for just as you presented yourselves Your members
are slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness.
So now present your members as slaves to righteousness. And that’s the word that Peter
uses here, slaves, bond slaves. The word bond slave defined the
lowest level of servitude in the Greek and the Roman world.
But for believers, it describes a joyous freedom. that we have
in Christ, to be servants of Christ, to do what’s right instead
of what’s wrong. Freedom in Christ in no way allows believers to abuse or
to disregard the standards of conduct that God has in the world. As one pastor shared, he said,
it’s only true happiness Both of kings and their subjects to
be God’s subjects. That’s the freedom that we enjoy.
We are free to obey. We are free to submit to God.
It is the glory of the angels to be his ministering spirits,
and the more that we attain to the faculty of serving him cheerfully
and diligently, the more we find this spiritual liberty and the
more joy we have in it. It is the most comfortable and
most gainful service of all. There was this element in the
first century church that has carried itself through the last
20 centuries or so. The element called escapism was
the ancients idea for it. This idea of liberty that excluded
them from obedience to the laws of the land. And it’s dismantled
here in Peter’s argument. It’s dismantled by the insistence,
the exhortation to service of God. Christian freedom, in a
sense, rests not on an escape from service, but in a change
of masters. It’s not that you’re free in
the sense of you’ve got nobody over you at all now. You have
a change of masters. The devil is no longer your master.
God is. God is your master. We looked at the specific command
of godly subjection and the guiding principle of godly subjection. And before Peter gets too specific
and makes all of us uncomfortable at various weeks to come. What he wants to do is paint
a broad picture. So what does this look like in life? And in
a sense, he makes a summary argument of everything that he’s talked
about before. He really doesn’t introduce much in the way of
new material here. This is all just a summary statement.
Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, right?
If you look back at the first two chapters of everything that
I’ve talked about, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear
God, honor the king. Pretty simple. Honor all men. Well, that’s easy, right? Well, maybe not so easy. As you
begin to think in your own mind of what that would mean, honor
all people, even dishonorable people, even rude people, rude
drivers, rude behavior, obnoxious neighbors, arrogant bosses, arrogant
friends. Honor all men. It’s what he says, all men, all
people are to be honored, not necessarily with the same degree
of honor. And as one said, the wise Christian
will know what degree or kind of observance is due to Caesar,
to a master, to a husband and a wife. I bring this up, not at all.
I’ll probably regret even bringing it up. I don’t bring it up to
try to suggest that there is in this church a dress code at
all, at all. I love to wear a tie. I don’t
mind a tie. My only comment has been over
time, what kind of honor would you give to the president of
the United States if he was inviting you to dinner at the White House
tonight? How would you dress? How would you dress? And the wise Christian is going
to know how to behave. The wise Christian is going to
know what kind of honor to render to everybody, but everybody gets
some. Just because of the virtue of
the fact that they’re human, that God created them. They are
part of the same order as you. Every person was created in God’s
image and therefore, regardless of race, regardless of age, they
are in some respect, in some degree, do honor and respect
from you. Christians can’t afford to discriminate
against people. We can’t afford to discriminate
against different nationalities, different races, people of different
economic status. We are to give the proper honor
due to every person as being one of God’s children, part of
God’s creation. One pastor said, we are not to
entertain despising and disdainful thoughts of any, however insignificant
they may seem. And there are some that seem
very insignificant. We are to observe and respect
the smallest good that is any. I can remember learning that.
I think it was even junior high. You know, where you had to we
had to do this role play thing, you know, in the class and you
had to find something good to say about somebody. I mean, try
that with junior higher sometimes. You’ve got to find something
good to say about somebody. And what a great pattern to get
into. What is something positive to say about my brother? How
do I see God operating in his life? What is God doing in her
life? What is something positive that
I can acknowledge? I remember years ago, I taught
a class, a little class on how to… What was it? How to remember? No. It was how to remember people’s
names when you greet them. And one of the surest ways is
when you greet them, you repeat their name, right? You repeat
their name and then you say, ah, my cousin Joe, his name is
Joe. Of course. And then you say,
Joe, you look and what you’re supposed to do is pin some positive
thought to that. And then as you part, you shake
his hand again and say, Joe, great to meet you. Great to meet
my uncle’s namesake. And you repeat it. And by the
time you meet him again, you pretty much have their name cemented.
But it’s this positive thought of them, some positive observation. I love your hair. I love your
haircut. Love your tie. That’s a handsome
bald head you got going, whatever it takes. We are not to trample on people.
There may be, as one pastor said, some work of grace there that
you know not of. The name of God may be written
upon the soul that you tread upon. It may be a soul that Christ
thought so much of as to give his precious blood. Despise it
not. He says that in some degree,
every person ever created is owed honor by you. You are to
treat them as a precious child of God, whether they have placed
their faith in Christ or not. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. I told you this is repetition.
This is just a summary of what he said before. Look at chapter
1, verse 22. Since you have, in obedience
to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren,
fervently love one another from the heart. It’s a repetition.
He’s just summarizing everything that he’s taught before. Christian
brethren are united by what one pastor called the threefold cord. Our bodies, They all came from
the same man named Adam and his wife Eve. Our souls all came
from the same God. But the new life that we enjoy
unites us more than any of those other two. And that is what we
derived from his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the salvation
that we enjoy. And when you think of your earthly
families, if they’re not believers, when you think of your best friend,
if they don’t know Christ, It can’t even compare to the relationship
that we have with one another because of what Christ has done
for us, because of who we are in Christ. And when it says to
love the brotherhood, that should be the easiest thing that we
ever did. And it’s the hardest. We make it out to be the hardest.
Love the brotherhood, love those for whom Christ has died and
for whom he has imparted his life. It isn’t necessarily. It certainly
isn’t the only place in Scripture that this occurs. Jesus said
it was a new commandment, not new in the sense that no biblical
verse had ever uttered these words, certainly the Jews were
called upon to love one another. But Jesus says we’re to do it
in a new way. We’re to love one another with
a new intensity, fervently, as Peter said at the outset. We
are to so love one another that it is to be this grand beacon
of light that shines in this city. They should know that we
love one another by how we tolerate one another and put up with one
another and look over little habits and shortcomings and how we care for one another. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God. That’s just a repetition of 1
Peter 1.17, isn’t it? We spent several weeks on that
one passage. If you address as father the
one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, he’s not
doubting their salvation. He’s not doubting their profession
of faith in Christ. He’s saying if it’s true, if
you say this, then one, if this is true, then the other must
be true as well. If you address his father, the
one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves
in fear. That doesn’t mean that you’re
supposed to run and cower behind the bed. It means that you’re
supposed to live reverently, live a life that reveres God,
live a life that acknowledges God in all that you do. One pastor
described it this way, the fear here recommended is a holy self
suspicion and a fear of offending God. The more a Christian believes
and loves and rejoices in the love of God, the more unwillingly,
surely he is to displease him. And if in danger of displeasing
him, the more afraid he is of it. And on the other side, this
fear of being the true principle of wary and holy conversation,
fleeing sin and the occasions of sin, the temptations to it
is as a watch or guard that keeps out the enemies of the soul.
He hasn’t told us anything new here at all. All he’s doing is
summarizing everything that he’s told us before. Honor all men. love the brotherhood, fear God,
honor the king. And with that, he’s right back
at verse 13 where we started. Most think that he at least had
in the back of his mind Proverbs 24, 21. My son, fear the Lord
and the king. They’re not mutually exclusive.
They cannot be if God put this man in his position that he is
God’s servant. Fear God. And the king, Charles
Bridges. If there’s any, well, not one
book, but there is a book that ought to be on every Christian’s
shelf, and that is Charles Bridges book on Proverbs. I mean, just
absolutely the best book on Proverbs there is. He said regarding Proverbs
24. Our Lord and his apostles have
linked together the throne of supremacy in heaven and the throne
of his majesty on earth. They saw what Proverbs 24, 1
was saying, that we can mutually fear God and the king. We can
reverence both. The one principle is the spring
of the other. Disloyalty has often been a libel
upon godliness. That’s exactly what Peter’s dealing
with, remember? But the Christian is loyal because he is godly
subjection to the powers that be is repeated and inculcated
and revolt is visited with the most heavy condemnation. God
is to be served in the first place and obedience is to be
given to the king only in subordination to God and not in those things
which are contrary to the will of God. You see, people get nervous
when you say you’re to be in subjection to the governing authorities.
But my boss just told me to commit a crime. But this earthly government is
commanding me to do something that God’s word says that we’re
not to. Well, there’s where you draw your line and there’s where,
if need be, you pay your penalty. The simple axiom here is that
we are to obey earthly authority so long as they don’t command
us to do what God’s word forbids or forbid us to do what God commands
is exactly where Daniel broke rank. He said, look, I’m going
to be a good foot soldier, right? I’m going to be a good servant
of yours. Just don’t tell me not to pray. Because when you
tell me not to pray, you just you just. You made me break rank. And he pays the penalty, if need
be. And I’ll tell you, we because
of our independent mindedness, right? We hate this. We naturally don’t like this
idea of submission. The popular cry said one is a
voice of sovereignty. A voice for the people, right?
I mean, think of the spheres where this plays itself out.
Wives at home. Is there a hotter topic in our
society today? I mean, walk into your average
liberal conversation and suggest this. You know, wives are to
be subject to their husbands. What do you think of that? Try
it at Starbucks. That’s a great place to do it.
Make sure you got backup. Employee unions, right? We can’t trust our earthly bosses.
So we’ve got to have a union to go to war with them and fight
with them about every little thing that we have to deal with. Right.
Populist movements and culture. Right. Grassroots movements that
seem to mitigate against everything that society does. Anarchy in
motion. And you even have it in the church.
I mean, try this thought that, you know what, we don’t need
to vote on everything in the church. There are some things
that we can just we can just move forward on and that you
can elders can exercise their leadership on and the people
can give them their loving support. Peter comes full circle, we’re
right back to where we started, verse 13. Submit yourselves for
the Lord’s sake to every human institution. When a Christian said one pastor,
When a Christian walks unreprovably, his enemies have nowhere to fasten
their teeth. But they are forced to gnaw on
their own malignant tongues as it secures the godly in his way
to stop the lying mouths of foolish men. So it is as painful to them
to be stopped in this way as muzzling is to beasts. And it
punishes their malice. People, we don’t hope for the
evil. We don’t want them literally
to chew on their tongue. We would rather that they see
your good works and end up coming to Christ and therefore glorify
God in the day of His visitation. But if need be, we submit and
in our humble submission to earthly government, if we end up making
them chew their tongues and gnash their teeth, such it is. Such it is. Let’s examine our
hearts. Lord God, we are humbled. We’re humbled at the turn that
our country has taken. Yet we we take comfort in the
fact that you as a sovereign God have steered it and provided
perhaps for even our own judgment or chastening. And so, Father,
we pray that You would make us fervent in praying for these,
even that we would be reluctant to side with on almost any issue. Give us cause to support them
in any way that we can, to pray for them, to be obedient, to
be supporters of the laws of the land where they do not come
into conflict with Yours. Help us to so glorify You, Lord,
that Some of those who watch us may come to faith in our own
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
towards us and for the salvation that we have in Christ. We ask
your blessing on our day in Jesus name. Amen.