O great.  This looks like an easy one.
1 Peter 3:18-22

Do you want to know how many times I read this passage this week?  The first 3 hours I spent in my study were not very profitable.  I didn’t get very far at all.  Mark swears that it is all by providence that I keep getting these.  I’m pretty sure that that he isn’t stacking the deck on me.

When Elizabeth found out which passage I was preparing she said to me, “Oh, I’ve been waiting for this one!  The Bible study we did kind of breezed over this one and I wanted to hear a lot more explanation of it.”

Well, there’s a reason they glossed over it.  This is one of those passages that seems to give you more questions than answers.  One minister I consulted said that in these five verses there are seven major interpretive challenges. 

1.What does it mean that Jesus was “made alive in the spirit”?

2.Who are the spirits now in prison?

3.Where is this prison?

4.Where did Jesus preach to these spirits?

5.What did he preach to them?

6.How does Baptism now save you?

7.What does it mean to “appeal to God for a good conscience?”

I don’t know if I will be able to answer all those questions or any others that you may have rising from the text.  I hope to do my best though.  I’m certainly going try and accurately express what the Lord is saying here.  And it is important that we do grasp what is here because this passage is all about one of the most important subjects in the whole Bible.  It’s all about how sinners like us are reconciled to God.

You see, the people to whom Peter needed to be given some reassurance regarding their salvation.  We’ve been talking about suffering.  We’ve been looking at how we are strangers and outcasts in the world.  And when the going gets rough, the owies can make you want to quit.  Peter understood that.  So in this passage he attempts to reassure his readers that the only way to avert God’s wrath and curse is through Christ. 

I think this is something that is good for us to hear too, especially you young people.  A lot of young people today are abandoning the faith.  They are just dropping it because they don’t see the use of it.  But I want to make sure you guys know that eternal life is found no where else.

How can you be sure that Christ is the only way to escape God’s wrath?  Well, the only thing I can say is look to Christ himself. That’s essentially what Peter directs you to do.  Peter points you to the cross, the words he preached, and the sacrament he instituted.

If you want to know how to avert God’s wrath, the best thing to do is to consider the death that Jesus died. 

I. The death Jesus died [18]
That’s the first thing Peter does.  In verse 18 he says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.”

In this verse Peter tells says that Jesus died a vicarious death.  That is to say, he died as a substitute.   The word vicarious just means “substitute.”

Sometimes you will hear it said about a particular father that he is living vicariously through his kid.  As his kid plays sports the father gets way too involved and starts pushing the kid to do more and more.  Maybe he shouts too much at the games and yells at the referee all the time.  When we say he’s living vicariously through his kid, we mean that he is trying to live his sports dreams through his kid.  In other words, his kid’s sports become a substitute for his own.

Here Peter says that the righteous one, Jesus, suffered for (or in the place of) the unrighteous ones, that is us.  So we are to understand that our salvation is complete.  We do not have to fear the judgment of God because Jesus took it upon himself when he died on the cross.

So let me make sure you understand this:  Those nails that pinned Christ to Calvary were supposed to be driven through you.  You were the one who offended God.  You were the one who was supposed to have died.  Christ never did anything to deserve death.  But there on Golgotha he stood in your place.

Now, there are a lot of delusions out there when it comes to this notion of the death of Jesus.  They just don’t get it.  Some people say that Jesus died just to show how great his love for us really is.  But that’s the silliest thing in the world.  If you were sitting on the beach and someone came running down the pier screaming, “I LOVE YOOOUUUUU!” and jumped in the water and drowned himself, would you say that is love?  Of course not. 

Maybe you can try this sometime when you are out on a date with your significant other.  You can say, “Honey, do you know how much I love you?  I love you so much I’m going to shoot myself.”  Oooo!  That’s really pouring on the romance!

Really though.  That’s not what is happening on the cross at all.  Jesus isn’t just showing you his love.  He’s dying in your place.  Yes, he is showing his love for you.  But he is showing that love in that he pushes you out of the way and takes upon himself the full measure of God’s wrath that was due to you for your sin.

And please understand how important this is.  This notion of a vicarious death is very important because it shows us how God’s wrath is satisfied.   Now, because of what Christ has done, you can have communion with God.  You can have eternal life because the debt that you owe has been paid.  The red hot anger of God has been appeased because it was all consumed in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

  You need not fear God’s wrath because of the death that he died.  The proof is in his vicarious atonement.  But if you need more assurance that God’s wrath is averted through Christ, you can look at the message he preached.

II. The message Jesus preached [19-20]
In verses 19-20 we see Jesus as a preacher.  He fulfills his role as a prophet as he preaches to those spirits who are in prison.

Now if you would bear with me a bit.  This part of the passage is a bit tough to wade through.  I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to spare you the alternative interpretations.  If you want them, you can find them in any good study Bible.  I’m going to spare some time and give you what I think is the right interpretation.  [Before I do I’ll just say that my interpretation is in keeping with many other major interpreters.] 

With that said, let’s jump into it.  Again, in verse 19 it says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison.  Now, the question is who are the spirits and what is the prison?  I suggest to you that the spirits were the unbelieving people who existed back in Noah’s day.  And the prison is hell.  So he’s saying, all those people back in Noah’s day are now in hell.  They were destroyed by the flood.  They were swept off the face of the planet, and they are now forever consigned to their place of doom. 

Are we good on that?  Ok.  Now we can move on to our second set of questions, which are probably a little more difficult:  Where and when did Jesus preach to them?  I suggest that it isn’t that Jesus went down into hell after he died and preached, as some believe.  The Bible makes it clear that Jesus’ spirit went directly to heaven after he passed away.  In the gospel of Luke, you remember that Jesus said to the theif on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  So Jesus could not have gone into hell and preached to these souls. 

The construction of this sentence should be taken to mean that Jesus preached back in the days of Noah.  The spirit of Jesus was active back at the time of the flood.  While Noah lived Christ preached through him.  Over in 2 Peter Noah is called a “preacher of righteousness.”  So we have some confirmation on this.

Think about it this way: over the 65-75 years Noah spent building his boat he would have plenty of opportunities presented to answer the question, “Hey Noah, whatcha doing?”  His response could only evoke a sermon, “I’m building a boat.”  “Whatchya doing that for?” “It’s going to rain.”  And you can see Noah pleading with people to repent and find their refuge in God.

But what does our text say?  It says that the people to whom Noah spoke “did not obey” while God was expressing his patience.  The whole time the ark was being built God was holding out his mercy.  He was giving them the opportunity to turn from their wicked ways.  But no.  They wouldn’t do it.  So, in the end, only eight persons, as is says, “were brought safely through the water.”

This is extremely tragic.  Here was Christ making his appeal, but nearly no one listened.  Yet, on the other hand, there is something wildly glorious.  The glorious thing about this is that those eight people who did heed the message did survive!  God was true to his promise.  Those that heard the word of God and put their faith in it, those were the ones who were given the opportunity to live.  Death could have swallowed them up, but it didn’t because they put their faith in what God had said, and they entered the boat.

And though this happened a long, long time ago, it has a lesson for us today.  For I’m standing here today doing the same thing that Noah did.  I’m telling you that there is a flood on the horizon!  Not a flood of water, but a flood of fire.  God has promised that he will judge the world someday.  The Bible tells us that one day Jesus Christ is going to come again.  And when he does there will be another world-wide cleansing.  All the unbelieving people are going to be judged and they will be wiped from the face of the planet. 

That is why you need to listen to the words Christ is preaching to you today.  Jesus is here announcing the same message that he did in Noah’s day.  He’s telling you that the only way you can survive the flood of fire and judgment is by repenting of your unbelief.  Jesus says, “If you want to live, you need to turn from your sins and come to me.”  He is calling to you now to do that.  You may be hearing the tones of my voice, but the words are those of Christ.  And he is telling you that there is only one way to escape the coming wrath.  It is only through faith in him.  No other god will save you.  No other way will provide any sort of safety.  Only by taking refuge in the death that he died will you be safe when he comes again in judgment.

And that is the essence of what we find in the sacrament of Baptism too.

III. The sacrament Jesus instituted [21-22]
In verse 21 Peter says, “Baptism, which corresponds to this salvation of Noah, saves you.” 

Ok.  Let’s pause there.  What does that mean?  Is Peter teaching Baptismal regeneration?  Of course not.  We have to keep in mind that the sacraments are signs that point to other realities.  And sometimes the sign and the thing signified are so closely identified that they are used interchangeably. 

Let me give you a different example.  Let’s switch sacraments for a second.  When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he held up the bread and said, “This is my body.”  Do we believe that the bread is actually the body of Christ?  No.  We believe that Jesus is speaking metaphorically.  Here is a symbol.  It represents his body.  But we can speak of the symbol as if it was the real thing.

The same is done in this passage of 1 Peter regarding baptism.  Baptism saves you in that the reality to which baptism points is effectual in its working.  Baptism symbolizes the new life that comes through the Spirit.  Our old life dies with Christ.  The lifeless sinful nature falls away, even as dirt washes away with water.  And we are raised with Christ to live for him.

The rest of the passage brings out this triumph as well.  It talks about the resurrection and ascension of Christ and his being at the right hand of God, over and above all angels and powers. 

Christ was not able to be kept in the grave.  So you too, being united with him, will not be left in the dungeon of death.  Christ has triumphed over sin, death and the grave. 

That’s what your baptism points to.  And that is why he can say “Baptism saves you.”

Now what should you take away from this?  Take from it the assurance that your baptism brings.  Your baptism is there to be a means of grace to you.  It serves as a reminder of what Christ has done on your behalf.  It is there to assure you that Christ is a sure savior.   

Your baptism isn’t just something that happened in the past.  You are supposed to meditate on the significance of it.  As it says in this passage, it is not about washing dirt off your skin.  It is there to remind you of the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit.  It is to remind you of what faith can do.  That’s what this passage means when it talks about this “appeal to God for a good conscience.”  By faith you look to God for the removal of your guilt and shame.  And your baptism reminds you that Christ does that for those who put their faith in him.

So, if you are struggling with assurance today—and that is a common thing.  Many Christians struggle with having an assurance of their salvation.  Its quite common.  I mean, here we are, we talk about how sinful we are.  And if you even gain a glimpse at how sinful you are, yes, it can be hard to think that God accepts you.  And if you are concentrating on your faith, it’s the same thing.  We have faith that is very small sometimes.  Sometimes that faith doesn’t even seem to be recognizable it is so small.  And you can question if you are really saved. 

But if that’s the case, just remember what Christ is saying in this passage.  Look back at your baptism.  Remember the significance of it.  Remember why Christ instituted this sacrament.  It is there to confirm the abundant grace of God.  It is to be that memorial that reminds you that God’s judgment is averted in Christ.  God, by His Holy Spirit, washes all your sins away.

Conclusion:
As I said before, Peter’s only goal in this passage is to point you to Christ.  His one aim has been to remind you that Christ alone is your assurance when it comes to averting God’s wrath.  I hope that I have accurately done that for you today.  It is my hope that in looking to Christ's death, hearing his preaching, and remembering his sacrament that you know that Christ is the all sufficient savior.
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Some of you know that this last semester I taught a speech class for some of the homeschool students in the area.  As a matter of fact, some of my students are sitting here today.  


1 Peter 3:14-16
At the very beginning of the semester I told them that they were wonderful god-fearing kids because they were taking my speech class.  Just by virtue of their sitting in those chairs God was taking great delight in them.  They thought I was a little looney at first, but they came around quickly.  Once I told them that my class was mandated by God, they began to understand.

You might think that it’s a little pompous to say that.  But as you think about the verses of Scripture that are before us today I hope that you’ll see what I mean.  In this passage we find the Biblical mandate for the discipline of rhetoric, or what we typically call public speaking.  

The passage says that we must be ready “to give a defense for the hope that is within us.”  In other words, we have to be ready to publicly articulate our faith at the drop of a hat. 

You see, there may be times in our lives when we are faced with gospel opportunities.  At some point in your life you might be in a position where you are confronted about your faith.  Someone may ask you a serious question about what you believe.  Or you may find yourself having to give a public testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.  And when that time comes, the Bible says that you need to be able to articulate a sound response. 

So what this passage is telling us is that we need to have gospel eloquence.  We need to be people who are able to communicate to other people what we believe in a coherent way and without a great deal of jibber jabber that’s going to destroy the opportunity.

And if you are going to be ready to do this, you need to do some time to get ready.  You need to spend some time preparing for this confrontation.  And that is why I said that my speech class was mandated by God.  In that class I helped these young people to prepare by giving them some instruction on the key principles of public speaking.

But I want you to understand that what I’m saying here isn’t just a really bad plug for my speech classes.  This has a great deal of significance for you too.  Each of you must be ready for such situations as well.  You may one day be in a position where you need to demonstrate some gospel eloquence.  It may even be in a conversation this afternoon.  So there’s no time to waste in getting ready.

So what I want to do is give you a crash course in public speaking.  Today, you are going to sit in on Mr. Timmons’ Speech class, and we are going to listen to what Peter tells us we must to do to prepare for these conversations.

Peter says that if we are going to be ready for this confrontation with the world we must prepare.  And there are 3 things we need to prepare.  We must prepare our attitude, our answer, and our approach. 

The first thing we must do is prepare our personal disposition.  I’m talking about getting our attitudes in order.

I. Prepare our attitude [14b-15a]
That’s what Peter deals with in the latter half of verse 14 and on into verse 15.  He says, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”

You’ll notice that there’s two parts to this.  There’s your attitude towards your fellow man, and there’s your attitude towards the Lord.  When it comes to your attitude towards mankind, Peter says, “have no fear of them, nor be troubled.” 

When you have to stand up and face the world, that can be a pretty intimidating thing.  As a matter of fact, statistics tell us that having to speak in front of other people in a public setting is the number one fear that people have.  If you go out and ask people, “What is the one thing that you fear most?” most likely the response you will get the most is that they are terrified of having to stand up and speak in front of others.

Now add to that the horror of having to talk about your faith.  You’re all of a sudden faced with the possibility of being thought of as an idiot or as a religious fool.  That’s so unnerving.  And when you’re in that kind of situation, you can be tempted to shy away from what you need to say. 

I know of situations where young people were sitting in college classrooms and their professors who were spouting all sorts of crazy stuff.  I forget who I was talking to, but one person relayed a story about a young lady whose professor on the very first day of class asked, “Which of you actually believes that abortion is wrong?”  She was the only one in the entire class who raised her hand and was willing to speak up.  Others came up to her afterwards and said they were pro-life too.  But they didn’t want to speak up for fear that they may be ridiculed by this professor who was obviously ready to attack and poke fun at any moron who might admit that they were pro-life.

In those situations we need to have our minds straight.  Peter says, “Have no fear of them.”  The one you need to fear is God.  As Jesus even said, “Do not fear him who can kill the body only.  But fear him who can destroy both the body and soul.” 

In those situations you need to remember that you that you are safe in the hands of God.  You don’t need to worry about your reputation.  You don’t need to worry about your life.  Neither do you need to be concerned about any of their rage.  For God is on your side.  The Lord is the one in whom you trust.  Therefore you need not fear them.

That’s the other side of this too.  When it comes to man, your attitude is to be fearless.  But when it comes to God, your attitude is to be fearful.

That’s the essence of what Peter means when he says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”  The Bible talks a lot about the fear of God.  When it does it’s talking about that deep seated reverence for God that you ought to have.  It is that recognition that he is awesome, that he is holy and worthy of honor.  And that’s what this is saying here.  You are to honor Christ as holy.  You are to fear God and see to it that Christ is revered above all things in your life.  You need to recognize that he is the Lord and, and put him distinctly above all other things in your life.  Once you do, then (and only then) will you be ready to speak for the Lord.

If you flip through the Bible you’ll see this happen on a number of occasions.  Before Moses has his confrontation with Pharaoh, what happened?  He was confronted by the Lord in the burning bush.  It was his preparation.  God was getting his attitude in order, reminding him that He was the God who was holy and Lord over all, even Moses’ bumbling tongue.

You may remember when Isaiah was called to be a prophet.  He had that stellar vision of the angels and was overwhelmed by the presence of God.  It was only after that event that he was prepared to confront Israel as a prophet.

I came across another just this week.  It was the calling of Ezekiel.  The book of Ezekiel starts off with this amazing vision of God’s grandeur.  Then God says to Ezekiel, I’m sending you to a people who are not going to listen to you.

How can you speak to a people who are going to hate you and not going to listen to a single word you say?  The only way you can do that is if you have the right attitude.  Having no fear of man and having a great fear of God.

 In a very real sense, when you confront the world, and are called to stand up and speak on behalf of the Lord, you are acting in the role of a prophet.  You are doing the work of a Moses and an Isaiah.  And if that’s going to happen, then you need to be equipped with the same attitude of Moses and Isaiah.

But if you are going to be ready for this kind of confrontation, you must not only prepare your attitude, you must also prepare your answer.

II. Prepare our answer [15b]
That’s what Peter goes on to say in the next part of verse 15.  Peter says you need always to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;”

Or, as your version might say, you must be ready to “answer every man who asks for a reason concerning the hope in you.”

So when someone puts the question to you, you need to have content ready.  This is the moment for your words.

In my speech class, the last speech that we did was a debate.  And one of the distinctive features of the debate was this thing we call “the rebuttal.”  The kids were required to give an answer to the speech that their opponent had just given.  So after Joe gave his speech (Let’s say he talked about why dogs are better than cats), Mary would have to stand up and give an answer.  She would have to articulate why cats are better than dogs (obviously, we feel bad for Marry.  It is a lost cause and she’d probably do better just to remain seated and not say anything.).

And I told my students that they needed to be ready to give these rebuttals.  They needed to study their topics thoroughly.  They couldn’t just go out and do a quick internet search, because they would get burned by their opponent.  They had to look at the issue intently.  They had to study both sides.  They had to try and anticipate what their opponent was going to say.

And that’s exactly what Peter is telling you.  You need to have that sort of readiness with your response.  You need to be anticipating the kinds of things that your friends or family members are going to be asking you.  You need to be studying the faith in an intent manner so that you can give an adequate answer when they ask.

Now, I will say that you won’t be able to anticipate everything.  There are going to be times when you get asked a question that you won’t be able to answer.  And in those times you’ll have to do the humble thing and say, “I don’t know. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”  But you shouldn’t be in a position where you do this all the time.  You need to know something about what you believe and why you believe it so that you can fire these bullets at the appropriate times.

You understand what is Peter trying to prevent here, don’t you?  He doesn’t want you to be caught off guard.  He doesn’t want you to be caught in a situation where you have an opportunity to speak for him and come off as a bumbling idiot.  He wants us to utilize every opportunity possible in the most beneficial way.

I’ll never forget the time my family and I went to Wendy’s and we happened to see one of my co-workers there.  He was eating dinner with one of his buddies and he introduced me to his buddy.  I have the unique privilege of being introduced as “the minister”, and that typically gives rise to one of two responses.  The person slinks back and wants to avoid me or they get excited and want to engage me.  My co-worker’s buddy was the kind who got excited.  He immediately started asking me questions.  He was very up front about it.  His first question was, “Hey, what do you believe?”  I was a caught a little off guard because I was about to bite into my burger, but here was an opportunity.  What was I going to say?  I had at the most 2 minutes.  How could I give an answer?  But I was ready.  My church at the time recited the Apostle’s Creed every Lord’s Day.  We always began the Creed by asking the congregation, “Christian, what is it you believe?”  Here was a guy asking me, “Christian, what is it you believe?”  So, by God’s grace, I was able to take him through the main points of our faith in just a matter of minutes. 

I don’t know if that conversation had a big influence in his life.  Moments later we were both back to eating our burgers.  But at least he had heard.  He had the gospel explained to him and he got at least a bare bones sketch of Christianity.

The point is, I was able to give an answer.  I had belonged to a good church that was dedicated to sound teaching, and they had helped me prepare for that very moment.

Your being here is one step in the right direction.  Your being here at this service is helping you to prepare your answer.  And I want to encourage you to keep at it.  Be in the Word all through the week.  Dedicate yourself to studying the faith.  As you do, you will be able to give an answer when the opportunity presents itself.

But along with our attitudes and our answer, notice that Peter says we need to prepare our approach. 

III. Prepare our approach [16-17]
What Peter says in verse 16 is very important.  It’s something that we often overlook.  He says that when you give this answer, “do it with gentleness and respect.”

Again, this is the one we often overlook.  Especially brainy people like us.  A lot of the times we like to engage the conversation.  We like to jump into the debate.  And we’ll pull out all the stops so that we can win the argument.  But as we do so, we don’t do it with gentleness and respect because it’s not so much about sharing the faith and winning the person over as it is winning the argument.

When we get into the conversation things can become heated.  And perhaps that may be a good thing now and again.  Maybe the conversation will call for some strong language.  That very well might be.  In my speech class I had my students give a speech that was purely emotional.  We called it the passion speech because they had to give a speech that was purely energized with strong feelings.

Sometimes public speaking or interpersonal conversations need some spice to them.  But this isn’t always the case.  I would say that most of the time, when you speak about your faith, it requires a much more mild spirit.

Some of you know Greg Bahnsen.  Greg Bahnsen was perhaps the best apologist of our time.  He used to debate a lot of atheists.  If you ever have a chance to listen to his debates, please do.  They are some of the most informative things in the world.  

But there was a time when he was debating a certain man, and Bahnsen had him cornered.  Everyone knew that he could have slaughtered his opponent, and perhaps even made him look rather silly in the process.  But Bahnsen didn’t do that.  As a matter of fact, he skipped right over that line of argumentation.  After the debate everyone asked him, “Why did you do that?  You could have destroyed him!”  Bahnsen responded by saying yes, he could have thrown his opponent down.  But he wasn’t out there to do that.  He didn’t just want to win the debate or simply defeat his opponent.  What he really wanted was to win the man over to Christ.  And so he chose to go in a direction that was much more gentle.

Most of us are not going to be on a platform doing a debate.  But when we write our friends that letter or when we speak with them on the street, we need to remember what Peter says here.  Don’t dehumanize your opponent and just make it about your answer.  Remember your approach is just as important, and it needs to be like Christ himself.  Remember what the Bible says about him.  He was meek and mild.  So gentle was he that “a bruised reed he would not break, and a faintly burning wick he would not snuff out.”  That’s to be our approach.

And you see why too.  Peter gives us a good reason for this kind of approach.  He says that you need to do this as a means of protecting yourself.  Verse 16 goes on to say that if you do this, “When you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”

You may remember the story about Stephen in the book of Acts.  He was the first martyr of the church.  He was stoned after he gave a great testimony.  As his attackers came to stone him the text says that “his face shown like that of an angel.”  That’s how clear his conscience had been and it was a disgrace to those who came after him.

That’s what Peter is talking about here.  When someone verbally insults you, they will be the ones who will look bad if you have maintained this kind of approach.

Conclusion:
Well, your time in my class has come to an end.  But I want you to remember the some of the keys to the art of divine eloquence.  I have spoken to you today because I want you to be prepared.  I wouldn’t doubt that even before the week is out some of you will have a conversation or two about spiritual things.  Someone will inquire about the things you believe or you will have an opportunity to speak up for the truth. 

I hope that this message has proven beneficial to some degree.  But remember listening to what I have said is not enough.  Every week my public speaking students had to give a speech.  And they couldn’t just walk into class without having done any work beforehand.  They had to think through everything that they were going to say and how they were going to say it long before they stood before the class.

The same is true for you.  Class is now done, but your work has just begun.  As you look to the Lord and seek to fear him, I pray that your answer will be used in tremendous ways.
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"Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?  
But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed."
1 Peter 3:13-14a

About 20 years ago I had the opportunity to go with a youth group on a camping trip.  I was asked to be a mentor for some Junior High age kids for the week.  So it was my responsibility during the week to sit down with this group and talk with them about the things that they were learning in the seminars that they attended.  During one of those talks I began to converse with a girl who had just that week given her life to Christ.  I knew this girl didn’t know much about the faith and I wanted to probe her a bit about her decision.  So I asked her pointedly, “What does it mean that you’ve become a Christian?”  She responded by saying with such heartfelt tenderness that only a little girl can express, “I have to tell you, I know that life’s going to get a lot easier.”

In that moment I looked at the girl and did my best to suppress my laughter.  I was so surprised to hear this kind of answer.  I tried to muster up some sympathy and I said, with all my tactless candor, “I’m sorry to burst your bubble, my dear, but Christ isn’t going to make anything easier for you.  If anything, life’s going to get much more difficult for you now that Christ is in your life.”

This young lady thought that Jesus was going to make life all hunky-dory for her.  It might have been that she was seeing all her friends do the “get-religious” thing and she saw how much fun it could be since we were all having a great time at camp.  Whatever the causes might have been, she thought that Jesus was going to make life nothing but a bed of roses.

If you are here today, I want to make it clear that this is by no means the case.  When Jesus enters your life, life can get very messy.  Life can even become quite difficult. 

Becoming a Christian does not mean getting ahead start on the American dream.  Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that your life is going to perk up or take a turn for the better.  There are certainly many up-sides to being a Christian, but Christianity is not a short cut to “Your Best Life Now.”

And certainly that is the case that we find in the book of first Peter.  This book is dedicated to people who are experiencing hardship.  It contains teaching for people who are being afflicted and hassled for their faith. 

When Christ enters your life, I want you to understand it can really muss up your life quite a bit.  You can be sure that is true for virtually anyone who becomes a Christian in a Muslim dominated country.  Life for them becomes extremely difficult.  They can lose their jobs.  They can lose all their social connections: their friends and families can turn them out—and that would be the nicest thing they could do.  For honor killings are possible in such circumstances too.

Christ is hated by the world.  And because of that sometimes the world ends up hating us.  And that can be most certainly true for us as well.  In this secular and humanistic society, there can be times when we find ourselves ostracized.  We can become the objects of scorn.

Certainly you can see this in the Tebow craze that is going on now.  If you live under a rock and don’t know what’s going on, let me give you a little heads up:  Tebow is a kid that plays for the Denver Broncos.  After a good play he takes the posture of prayer as a way to pay homage to the Lord.  And he has been broiled for it by every newscaster, blog and twitter account. 

But that’s the kind of culture that we live in.  We live in a culture where even a simple little gesture as taking a knee during a football game is vilified.  And so we should find it surprising that we will find ourselves in similar situations.

So the question then becomes for us, “What do we do?”  How do you live in a society where the threat of persecution looms large?  It is not like we can just move away and find another little Christian community to hide in.  God has set us where he has set us and the culture is what it is.  So the question becomes, what do we do? 

Well, in our passage this morning Peter answers that question.  He tells us that we must make it our aim to do good.  As a matter of fact, he says we should be an enthusiast when it comes to doing good.  That’s really what the passage means when it uses the word zealous.  Your version may use the word “eager.”  But the thrust of it is that when it comes to living in an environment that is hostile to the faith you ought to be fanatical when it comes to doing good.

You might say to me, “Well, why in the world should I do that?”  That might sound a bit queer to you because you think, “If I’m being treated ill, why should I go out of my way to do good?” 

Our natural reaction is to jump into the fight.  To us, the best defense is a good offense.  So we think that if they attack us we think we should get right back at them.  You know, there’s nothing like a little “shock and awe” to keep somebody off your back.  If you show them you are a powerhouse, then they are likely not going to mess with you, right?

But that’s not what Peter tells us to do.  He tells us that we must be zealous for good.  And He gives us two very good reasons why we ought to be fanatical do-gooders. 

The first reason is because doing good reduces the possibility of suffering.

I. It reduces the possibility of suffering [13]
Look at verse 13.  He says, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?”

Peter is just using simple logic here.  He says, “The chances of you taking heat are significantly reduced when there is no cause for provocation.”  Most likely, nobody is going to harm you if you are out doing things that are beneficial to the wider community.  If you are out helping your neighbors and showing people you actually care about them, then it’s likely that they are not going to attack you.  They will see you as an assent too important to lose.

Listen, if you are in the woods and you come across a wild animal, chances are that it will leave you alone as long as you do nothing to provoke the animal.  I checked this out with my very own professional woodsman.  I emailed Lyle Becker this week and I asked him that question.  For those of you who don’t know Lyle, Lyle is a fellow who used to attend Providence and now he leads hunts up in Alaska.  He knows a lot about grizzly bears, brown bears, wolves, mountain lions and all sorts of other wildlife. 

Lyle told me that in North America most animals will not pounce upon you if you come across them in the woods.  As long as you give them no reason to be provoked, they will leave you alone.  The only exceptions he mentioned were the Nile Crocodiles, Tigers, and Sasquatch.

But really, when it comes to human life, Peter tells us that it’s much the same.  If you are one who is out doing good with zeal, and you are giving no reason for provocation, then the chances of you being persecuted are going to be diminished. 

But if you are not known as one who is a do-gooder, then don’t expect that things are going to go your way.  Let’s not be surprised that we experience some hardships if we are renown as someone who is a Christian gripe. 

You know that’s a problem we have.  We can be rather cynical.  When the world around us is falling apart, we can be like the talk show host and sit there and make snide comments about every cotton picking thing. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I like a good sarcastic comment when it is appropriate.  I think that it’s good to mock evil from time to time and make fun of things to show the absurdity of it.  But we should never be known as cynical people.  We should always be known for what we are for, more than what we are against.  If we are not known as activists (in the good sense of the word), then we shouldn’t expect that our sufferings should be lightened.

But when people look at our church, our acts should make them think twice before they carry out any evil plans.  When people look at our church, they should think, “I like those Keeners.  They are an honest, hard-working bunch.”  “That Tobias family, they are really hospitable.  It seems like they are friends with everybody.  I mean they are always seems like they are having people over.”  “And those McFaddens, I have to hand it to them.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them break a promise.  Even when they got into a pinch, I knew that I could always rely on them.”

Just keep this in mind.  As a general rule, people are not harmed for acts of kindness.  And if we ever do come to a time where there’s the potential of conflict, then God says we can reduce the possibility of it by being fanatical about doing good.

But you’ll notice that our passage says doing good not only reduces the possibility of suffering, it also enhances the possibility of blessing.

 II. It enhances the possibility of blessing [14a]
Look at verse 14.  It says, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.”

In other words, even if man doesn’t regard the good things you are doing, your God will.  If for some reason you do meet up with a sasquatch—you know, one of those rare occasions where someone does pounce on you despite your being on your best behavior.  Even if you do find a person who just wants to lay into you, then don’t worry.  God is still on your side.  The All-Knowing, All-Seeing God is going to take notice of you, and He will see to it that your works are rewarded.  God will bless you for your faithfulness. 

Now you are probably wondering, “What kind of blessing do I get?”  You might be trying to weigh out your options here.  You are thinking, “Is it worth it to undergo this suffering thing?  What kind of blessing are we talking about?”

Well, we are not told in this passage what exactly the blessing is.  We do understand that this is a blessing from God and, as such, it is something that will most certainly satisfy our deepest yearnings.  After all, God is not scant with his blessings.  They are like the clouds of heaven breaking open upon you.  When God blesses he always inundates you with joy unspeakable.

But while we do not have it explicitly stated here, we might find a hint at what this blessing is in a parallel passage.  When Peter says this he might be alluding to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.  You’ll remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

When you undergo persecution for your faith, you are blessed because the kingdom of heaven is yours. 

Do you know what the persecution proves?  It proves that this world, in its current form, is not your home.  When you are reviled and people say all kinds of evil against you, then you are blessed in that you receive a bona fide confirmation that the kingdom of man and the kingdom of the devil is not yours.  Being turned out by the world is a good thing.  It is an affirmation that you belong to the kingdom of God. 

There might be other blessings that accompany the persecution.  But friends, what greater blessing can we have in times of hardship?   I think it has to be pretty nice when our culture tells us, “You don’t belong here.”  Because it helps us to remember that we belong to an eternal kingdom, wherein righteousness dwells.

A number of years ago there were some American journalists working over in the Middle East.  While they were there they were captured by Muslim extremists.  They were treated with the utmost contempt and the conditions of their captivity were quite severe.  Everyday they were reminded that they didn’t belong in that region.  Their extreme conditions and harsh treatment was a reminder that they were foreigners and that theirs was the kingdom of America. 

By God’s grace the reporters were released from their captivity, and they were allowed to return home.  They came back to a land where there is freedom.  They came back to a land where all their needs would be met.  They were given food and clothing.  They were treated with respect and dignity.  They came back to a land where they could enjoy the presence of their families and friends and Americans who possessed the same mindset.  Theirs was the kingdom of America.

That, my friends, is the essence of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.  The one difference is that yours is the kingdom of Heaven, a land that far supersedes anything America can offer.

Conclusion:
May that then be reason sufficient for you to be fanatical about doing good.  Not only will it reduce the possibility of suffering, it will increase the possibility of this kind of blessing.
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If you would, please open your Bibles with me to 1 Peter 3.  We are going to resume our study in 1 Peter, and we’ll be starting into chapter 3 this morning. When you get there you will find the real reason why Mark had Joe Maggelet come and speak to our joint service a few weeks ago.  The passage that you are opening to is that passage that deals with women and their submission to their husbands.  I’m pretty sure that Mark looked ahead and thought, “This isn’t one that will make for good unity among our churches. J”  So he called in Joe.

I doubt that was really on his mind.  But this passage is one that, in theological terms, we call “a real doosie.”  It is a passage of scripture that flies in the face of everything our culture declares to be true. No doubt, if I read and preach it correctly, I will be stepping on some toes.  If I ever run for political office, this will certainly be dug up and become headline news.  I’d be asked all sorts of questions and the world would have a heyday running my name into the mud over what is said here. 

At the very least I expect there to be a number of nasty comments to come to my inbox when I post this on my website.  I’m sure to be called things like a chauvinist, a patriarchal pig, and woman suppresser.  I just know this isn’t going to sit well with a lot of people.

But even among people of our persuasion I’m sure that it is going to be a sensitive issue.  The issue that we’re going to be addressing is a delicate one.  Being that this is the case let us approach the text remembering that it is the holy and inspired word of God.  It is not the whims of a man.  And, as we read the passage, let us do so with all reverence and readiness of faith.

Let us read then, 1 Peter 3.1-6.

Introduction

Maybe it was best that Mark had us take a break from first Peter when we did.  Perhaps Providence had his hand in it all.   I mean, what a great way to start the New Year.  If you are the type that makes New Year’s resolutions, this might be a wonderful place to begin.  You ladies may be saying that you want to start that diet or hit that treadmill.  Or perhaps you’re making your annual vow to read through the Bible in a year.  But how about using this text as the basis of one of your resolutions?  That would be great, wouldn’t it?  The first resolution can go like this, “Resolved, to call my husband ‘lord’ more this year!”

My wife and I have had fun thinking about this text this week.  At different times she would start calling me ‘master’.  And I tell you that has affected me.  Even though it’s all been in jest, it has given me a different perspective on who I am as her husband.  And I want to state that up front.  This message is obviously designed to speak primarily to the ladies.  But I do think that if we grasp what is said here it will affect the men too.  When this principle of submission is practiced rightly—and if you start calling your man ‘lord,’ it will probably affect him greatly.  It’s going to help your man recognize his role as the leader in the home.

But of course, all of it starts here.  It starts with you ladies and understanding your own role. 

Back in the book of Genesis we read that the fall radically skewed the structures of society.  Life in the home was going radically changed.  God said to the woman, “Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you.”  That line is a little difficult to interpret, but when you read it you know that it says life isn’t going to be easy.  Where there was once peace and harmony, there’s now going to be a struggle.  In that line you see that the battle of the sexes commenced right there. 

And the fight of sanctification is drawn up along those lines.  Your aim is to fight against that inclination.  Your job to resist the urge, and—as it says here—to submit yourself to your husband.

And I want to suggest that the way you do this is through humility.  I’m going to be talking about godly womanhood today.  We’re going to be talking about submitting to your husband.  But throughout this message I’m going to be talking about humility too.  It is sort of a secondary theme that you’ll find here today.  For you can’t have submission without humility.  The essence of submission is that of humility.  I mean, it should be obvious that you can’t have submission where you have pride.  An arrogant person doesn’t submit.  So as we talk today, be thinking about that ladies.  And be thinking about how you can make that your New Year’s resolution.  If you want godliness as a woman, then you’ll have to work on this.  Because godly womanhood manifests itself in humble submission.

And as we consider this notion of submitting to your husband, we are going to do so under three headings.  Peter begins by talking about the principle of submission.  Then in verses 3-4 he talks about the practice of submission.  And then he concludes in verses 5-6 by talking about our pattern for submission. 

In the first verse Peter states the principle for us in simple and clear terms. 

 

I. The principle [1-2]

He says, “Wives be subject to your husbands.”  Now the word submit is the same word used regarding the slaves relations to their masters and citizens relations to their civil magistrates in the earlier verses.  And it has the same force.  Wives are to take a position of subordinates and they are to yield to their husbands, even as you yield to the governing officials of your state.

Now the rest of the verse makes it clear that Peter is speaking specifically to those ladies who whose husbands had not been converted.  He goes on to say that your submission as a wife can be used of God to bring about their conversion.

I certainly do not want to gloss over that truth.  This is a wonderful means of evangelism that we ought to take to heart.  But what I want you to note here is that the Lord here commands obedience on the part of you ladies.  It doesn’t matter what the spiritual estate of your husband is either.  If you are married, then you ladies are obligated to fulfill your role as one who is in subjection to your husband.

God is here reminding you that He has established a structural order within the home that is fundamental to society.  He has created man as the head of the household.  And you, as his lady, are to give all due obedience to him. 

Now this is a radical thing that I’m saying.  This isn’t something that is common today.  In the main, marriage is thought of as an equal partnership.  It is considered a radical democracy where he has his vote and she has hers.  But as you see here, that isn’t the case at all.  The home is not a democracy.  It is to be benevolent autocracy.  As they used to say, the man is to be the king of his castle.  He is to be the ruler in his home.  And you ladies are to obey him as you would obey the Lord.

I don’t doubt that some of you even shiver at me using that word.  That word, “obey,” is one we’re supposed to use with children, right?  We’re not to use that in regards to relations between two adults, right?  Oh, but we are!  That’s the essence of submission!  Submitting to your husband means obeying him and yielding to his authority.  It means that when he makes a decision, and you don’t particularly care for it, you consent to follow his will.

And so you see why I say that this passage has to do with humility on the part of you ladies.  This can be a tough nut to swallow, especially given our egalitarian day. 

I don’t think that it is too much for me to say that your typical, mainstream evangelical home doesn’t acknowledge this to be true.  I’m not even talking about the raging forces of feminism that are so prevalent in our culture today. 

If you want to see pride, that is a good place to look.  The feminist movement says, “I don’t care what God has said in his word.  I do not recognize his authority over me. I am a free and autonomous individual.  I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR.”  If you want to understand pride, there it is.  It’s the “What I say is what goes” mentality.  I can get a job.  I can be just as good as a man.  I can exploit myself.  Having this baby is my choice.  You have that picture of the woman in the jumpsuit with the arms rolled up, flexing her muscles and saying, “We can do it.”  There is pride just screaming its autonomy.

And as I said, that prideful feministic spirit that saturates our culture has seeped into most evangelical homes.  So in any given Christian household you’ll see a milder, gentler (but no less stark) form of this egalitarian spirit.  A wife will typically have no problem rebuffing her husband’s decisions.  She may take money and spend it as she pleases.  Or she may simply make use of her time in a certain way without the approval of her spouse.

But this is not the way it is to be.  The principle that is laid down here say that you are to obey your husband in all matters that are biblically lawful.  You are to demonstrate humility by bringing your life under his complete authority.  The finances are his responsibility.  So how the money is spent is his call.  The same is true for the children.  The way you raise them is his to determine.  That’s the way it is for everything else, all the way down to where you spend your Christmas holiday.  Everything that occurs within that house is a decision that is ultimately made by him. 

Now certainly I don’t want you to think that his is a tyrannical dictatership.  A loving husband is going to consult you on all these matters, and he will no doubt delegate a great deal of the decisions regarding household affairs to you.  In other words, he’s going to rule over you with the utmost benevolence.  And I think that is why Peter, right after addressing this issue, turns to the men and addresses their role as a husband.  He knows that it can go to their head.  And so he tempers it with those words.  But the principle still stands:  He has authority over you as your husband, and you are required to obey him.

I might add here that this is something that is supposed to be part and parcel with your wedding vows.  It isn’t something you find much anymore because of the prideful influence of feminism.  But in a Christian wedding the bride will pledge her humble submission to her husband publicly in the service.  When you are married—if it is a distinctly Christian wedding, the minister will ask the bride to be,

"Will you have this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to live after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of marriage?  And will you love him, comfort him, respect him and submit to him even as the church submits to Christ, and forsaking all others keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?    

As I said, you don’t often find this as a part of the wedding service anymore.  And that’s because it takes a great deal of humility to accept this teaching.  Women today do not want to recognize the fact that men have authority over them.  As I said, they want to be autonomous.  They want to be equal in every way and a law unto themselves.

But godly women will accept this teaching.  They will humble themselves before God by submitting themselves to the plain teaching of the Scriptures regarding their role as women.  And, in doing so, they will pledge their undying love for their husbands by yielding to their husband’s authority.

I understand that the details of this need to be fleshed out.  It’s important to ask, “What does submission look like in our day?”  It is, after all, a rather foreign concept to our culture.  I hope that you ladies take time to discuss it among yourselves.  I think that it would be quite beneficial for you older ladies to give some examples on how you have come to apply the principle of submission.  And the younger women would no doubt find it a good place to talk about where they struggle with submission.

I’d like to go into a lot of specifics, but there is one in particular to which Peter directs us.  Peter could have gone in a lot of different directions, but he focuses in on one particular practice.  And that is found in verses 3 and 4.

II. The practice
 Right after he states this principle of humility and submissiveness in verses 1 and 2, he starts talking about a woman’s adornment in verses 3 and 4.  He says that your adornment shouldn’t be consumed with how your hair looks or what you are wearing, but you should be more concerned with meekness and a quiet spirit.

In reading this you might think that Peter is jumping around a bit.  First there’s this submission thing.  Then he leaps over to deal with the dress code.   And you might wonder, what’s the connection?  You might not even think there is a connection.  But don’t be fooled, these two things are very much interrelated.

It all goes back to the notion of humility and being devoted to your husband.  A woman that is devoted to her husband and is lovingly submitting to him isn’t going to be overly consumed with looking all sexy when she is out and about.

This is not to say that she’s going to look like a hag.  Obviously a woman who is submitting to her husband is going to try and look attractive for him.  As a matter of fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if she doesn’t try to look good for him she’s sinning.  We’ll come back to that in a moment.

But Peter’s concern here is that these ladies are trying to bring unwarranted attention to themselves.  The way they did their hair and the clothes that they were wearing were designed to put the spotlight on them.  So when she walks into a room everyone looks at her.  She’s turning heads.  She wants to be the envy of the ladies and she wants to be a turn on for other men.

Now you see how this practice opposes the principle of submission.  What’s she is doing is relinquishing her man’s authority.  She’s trying to show that she’s an individual, and maybe even hint at the fact that she is available.  At the very least she’s giving the impression that she is.

And that, my friends, is pride. 

Some of you might be waiting for me to say how long the skirt can be or how low the blouse can dip.  But I’m not going to do that.  What I want you to notice that this passage is about humility and submission.  And whatever your practice may be when it comes to the way you look when you stand in front of the mirror is to be governed by that notion.  And if it is, then that will certainly affect how you present yourself in public.

Think about the girls today.  When they look into their closet in the morning, are they thinking, “What will help give the impression that I have a meek and quiet spirit?”  Of course not.  The length of their skirts and how tight it fits is governed by their vanity.  The way they do their hair and the amount of make-up they put on is driven by their desire to be noticed.  It’s all about their pride.

That’s not the way it is to be.  Your attire is to be ruled by humility.  Really, that’s all that modesty is.  Modesty is that outward expression of that internal meekness.  Modesty is simply dress that reflects a quiet spirit.  And when that is your gauge, then you don’t need to have specific dictates when it comes to how long, how tight, how much, how low, or how little.

I might add that this is why I think that the other extreme of this debate is so silly.  Without a regard for the context some go so far as to say, “I’m only concerned with inward beauty.”  And they go around refusing anything that has to do with make-up, jewelry, or the styling of one’s hair.  But that’s just as arrogant as well.  It’s all about you and has nothing to do with your husband’s desires.  Such a view doesn’t necessarily reflect humble submission either. 

I’m pretty sure that surveys reveal that 99% of men prefer their wives to be physically attractive.  So recognizing your husband’s authority means looking good for your husband, and that might mean putting on some make-up or picking out something appropriate to wear.

Again, I’m not going to be the fundamentalist preacher and say, “This is the benchmark and if you cross it you’re going to hell.”  You cannot do that.  To do so is to bind one’s conscience unlawfully.  I’m here to tell you that this passage is helping you to put into place a proper practice of submission and humility.   And that submissive humility will point you to, what I might call, elegant modesty.  That is to say you are tastefully attractive.

I think that this is also confirmed by what we find in the last part of our passage for this morning.  In verses 5 and 6 Peter outlines for us the pattern of humble submission. 

He has stated the principle.  He has given some insight into how this ought to be practiced.  And in these verses he points us to the matriarchs of old and how they serve as patterns for you ladies today 

III. The pattern
 He says in verse 5, “For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.”

Here you go.  I think this solves the whole issue regarding the dress code.  You remember that the Bible says that Sarah was a good looking lady.  And in the book of Genesis we see how various men found her quite attractive.  I’m doing some speculating here, but I don’t think that you get recommended to the Pharaoh’s court by doing your best not to look good.  I think it is safe to assume that Sarah wasn’t against being fashionable or applying some perfumes now and then.

What’s more important to notice though, is that she wasn’t attempting to make herself appealing to other men.  Whatever her décor might have been, her demeanor was that of humble submission to her man.  That’s evidenced by the fact that she called her husband “lord.” 

Sarah is a pattern for you in that she acknowledged that her husband had mastery over her.  And the beautiful thing about it was that she wasn’t afraid to declare it publicly.  She recognized that he was the leader of the household and she chose an apt word to describe him and his relationship to her.

Now ladies, if you want to go home today and follow the example of Sarah, you most certainly can do so.  I assure you that this is certainly the way you can make your man feel like a man.  When you sit down to dinner you can say, “Would my lord like some potatoes?”  “Can I get my lord a drink?”  “Is my lord going to take a nap this afternoon?”

I might be jesting a bit, but I do wonder if you are able to do such a thing?  Would it be that awkward?  If it is, perhaps that might be an indication that you have some work to do in this area of submission.  If you cannot openly recognize your husband with that kind of terminology, it might be a sign that you really don’t acknowledge him to be your leader.  It might be a signal that you are not submitting to him to the degree that you ought. 

Elizabeth and I discussed this this week.  I asked her about it and she said that calling me lord would be a little weird.  Not that she doesn’t willingly submit, but because we don’t typically talk this way today.  The word lord is usually reserved for reference to God.  So there might be some semantics why you can’t bring yourself to say it.  But think about it though.  There might be something to it.  It might be that if you can’t call him lord—it might be that it is a sign that you enjoy a bit of autonomy and that you consider yourself superior to Sarah. 

After all, that’s what it means when it says that “you are her children if you do good.”  If you are doing what the Bible commands you to do—if you are demonstrating the kind of humble submission that Sarah did, then you are one of her children. 

We’ve all heard that song, “Father Abraham / Had several sons / Several sons had father Abraham.”  Well, how do you get to be a child of Abraham?  It is by faith in Jesus Christ.  And you show you have faith in Jesus by following his word.

Well, how do you get to be a child of Sarah?  It’s the same way.  By faith in Jesus Christ.  How do you show that faith?  You obey his Word.  So, when you in faith submit to your husband, you show that you are a Christian and a child of Sarah.

But if you can’t deem your husband as your lord, then obviously you are not her child.  You think you are better than Sarah.  You think that Sarah was some Neanderthal or a woman who was suppressed by her man.  But you’ve risen above.  You’ve evolved and cast off the chains of this patriarchal domination.

But let me assure you, my friends, that’s a dangerous place to be.  When Paul says that you are her children if you do what is right, he’s saying that anyone who doesn’t do it is not a Christian.  If you are not submitting to your husband as is taught by the Scripture—if you are not living by faith and receiving the plain teaching of the Bible, then you are outside the faith.

What Paul is saying here is that you show yourself to be a true Christian when you follow Sarah’s example.  You show that true faith lives in you when you submit to your husband.

Conclusion:
Over the last few weeks I’ve had opportunity to talk to some of you about this passage.  We wondered together where the gospel was in this passage.  And I tell you its right here.  You have opportunity to become a child of Sarah.  This passage shows clearly that God is a forgiving God and he willingly receives those who are repentant.  This passage clearly is the antithesis of what you find back in the Garden of Eden.  It shows that there is a way to be reconciled to God and a way to be forgiven of your sins.  It is by becoming a child of Abraham and Sarah.  It is by mimicking their faith.  It is by believing what God has said in his word.

And that is where this passage ends.  I want to be clear.  This passage isn’t so much about submitting to your husband as it is about submitting to God.  Submitting to your husband is just the way you show you are submitting to God.  And that should be your New Year’s resolution.  Resolved, to obey God in all that he says. 

That’s where you will get your meek and quiet spirit.  It isn’t something that comes naturally.  But it begins when you humbly bow before God and say, “Thy will be done.”  It comes when you say, “Lord, I understand that my culture says otherwise and my own heart wants to be a renegade individual.  But I believe that you want me to be otherwise.  You want me to see my husband as my lord and you want me to submit to his leadership.  Help me to follow Sarah’s example and to be her child.”

When you make that sort of confession and make it your aim, then you are well on your way.  Submission to your man won’t be easy, but you will have made great inroads when you’ve made that sort of submission to God.
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1 Peter 2:18-25
Over the holiday I had opportunity to do some traveling.  I joined the thousands of other Americans out on the highways on the greatest travel day of the year.  I thank God that I arrived at my destination safe and sound.  There were a number of incidents that had potential to keep that from happening.  The traffic at times was so dense, you couldn’t help but have a few close calls here and there.

But you know, in situations like that you don’t stop, do you?  You keep going.  I didn’t face any weather in my travels, but the same holds true in those situations.  When the road conditions are less than ideal, you still press on.

I remember one time my wife and I were traveling from St. Louis to Chicago.  Things were looking rather ominous outside.  So we decided to flip on the radio to see what they were saying.  It turns out that some serious storms were rolling into the area.  As a matter of fact, several places around us were warning of tornados.  But that didn’t affect us any.  We just keep on going.

And that’s just what you do when you got to get somewhere.  Whatever the conditions, you push on and make every effort to press through the situation.

I say this because it really sums up what this section of Scripture is all about.  Peter has told us that we are pilgrims, and we are traveling to Zion.  But you know what?  Along our journey we are going to face circumstances that are less than idea.  Sometimes the conditions are not going to be the best.  Nevertheless we have to press on.

Last time Mark talked about the previous passage.  And there you saw that Peter talked about living as a citizen in a world that is less than ideal.  And Peter told you that you were to press on.  Despite things being a little quirky, you needed to continue to submit to the governing authorities.

The passage before us today deals with much the same theme.  The only real difference is that this passage deals with one’s work environment.  Peter addresses servants.  Some of these servants were finding themselves in situations that were less than ideal.  The passage seems to indicate that their masters were oppressive or abusive, perhaps something of a domestic tyrant.  And so Peter writes to tell them that they needed to press on in their duties as Christians.  They needed to continue to submitting to their authorities.

And you can imagine the reaction!  Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Why ever should I submit to this guy?  Peter answers by giving three basic reasons why it is important to do so. 

And even though you might not be a slave, you can listen in here and take note.  We are all under authority.  And a lot of times we find ourselves in a position where we just want to jettison the whole submission thing.  But before you do that, you need to take heed to what it says here about God’s order, pleasure, and example.

Our passage begins with the command, “Servants, be subject to your masters.”  And I want you to understand what it is saying here.  Peter is saying that you need to submit because it is in keeping with God’s order.

I. Because it is in keeping with God’s order [18]
Evidently, some of the servants in Peter’s audience were starting to get a little rambunctious. They were saying that they didn’t need to be subject to their masters now that they were Christians.

Commentators mainly agree that the reason for this was that these servants, having come to Christ, acknowledged the radical difference that now existed between them.  In their minds they were thinking, “I’m a Christian.  I have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and set apart to the service of God.”  And their conclusion was, “Why now do I have to serve this reprobate master of mine?”

It is likely that they thought this mingling was not right.  They might have thought that they who were now spiritual persons didn’t have to subject themselves to these unspiritual people.

But Paul says, “No, no, no.  That’s not right.”  In essence, he says because you are a Christian, you must submit to them.  You are the servant.  They are the master.  And so you owe them all due reverence and obedience.  Even if the guy is warped, you still are obligated to fulfill the duties assigned to you because that’s your role.

What we see happening here is that Peter affirms the order God has established in society.  You see, God has ordained that society be structured according to a certain form of hierarchy.  So there are going to be some who are superiors, and there are going to be others who fill the roles of submission.  And if you find yourself in a position of subservience, then it is your obligation to make sure you revere those God has set over you.  It is your God given duty to ascribe to them all due obedience because that’s the way he made it.

Now, I’m not going to give a dissertation on the slavery here.  If you would like, I have posted something on my blog about that.  The issue does come up every time you come to a passage like this.  However, I’m not going to address it here.  What I want you to notice is that Paul does affirm this structure of authority and societal order.  In essence, through the Apostle God affirms headship within any given culture or civilization.

This is more important for us to talk about today than the whole slavery issue.  Because everywhere we go today we are seeing it challenged and opposed.  As a matter of fact, this is what the whole Occupy Wall Street thing was about.  The occupiers expressed that they wanted radical equality, a pure egalitarianism.  They wanted to usher in a new society where there were no authority structures.  They want an open and leaderless society where unadulterated democracy ruled the day.  They sneered at the fact that there were these Wall Street types who were corporate leaders who were economically prosperous.  It galled them to no end, and they wanted to be rid of such things.

But we are to understand that such a structure is part and parcel with God’s created order, and we are not to try and eradicate those boundaries by acts of revolution. 

What’s more, you need to recognize your personal role.  God has most certainly placed you in a role of submission.  It might be, as these servants Peter was speaking to, that it has to do with your means of living.  If in your workplace you have boss over you, then it is incumbent upon you to submit to their rules and do their bidding.  Even if you do not agree with their personal strategies or tactics, you still got to do what you got to do. Neither does it matter if he has some quirks in his personality that makes him a royal jerk.  As long as what they ask you to do doesn’t violate God’s will, then you are obligated to show deference to them. 

Of course, if you really don’t like it, then you can leave.  But if you are in a situation, perhaps like these servants, where it isn’t feasible to do so, you are required to acquiesce.  And when you do that, you demonstrate regard for the God ordained order He has put in place. 

So submission is required because it is in keeping with God’s orde.  But you’ll notice that it is also require because it is in keeping with God’s pleasure. 

II. Because it is in keeping with God’s pleasure [19-20]
Peter addresses this in the following verses.  In verses 19 and 20 he talks about enduring suffering.  And basically he says, “Hey, I know it is difficult sometimes to deal with your masters.  But let’s be clear, you are still required to do it.  And when you do,” Paul says, “God has regard for you.”  As a matter of fact, he repeats the saying, “It is a gracious thing” two times, once at the beginning of verse 19 and once at the end of verse 20. 

Now, no.  Paul is not saying that it is a desirable thing to take a great deal of grief from whomever it is who is over you.  There is no virtue in that.  What he means is that it is a compliment to you if you are able to endure it with Christian patience.  It is a gracious thing in that it is pleasing to God that you are willing and able to bear the brunt of a raging fool with love and grace.

Now none of us are going to find ourselves in a position like this here.  None of us will be taking literal blows because we have a cruel master.  I believe that this is something unique about the passage here. 

But what if we found ourselves in a position where we were under a bit of unjust scrutiny.  What if one of our authorities (be they a parent or your spouse) treated you with a lack of respect.  Or how about an elder here at this church?  What if one of them just irked you a bit?  How would you react?   Would you clamor and whine?  Would you break out in a rage or go around talking badly about them? 

That’s the way we’d like to act.  Inside we think, “Oh, you want to play that way do you?  If you want to treat me like this, then I will happily reciprocate.”

But that’s not what we are called to do.  We are called to love our enemies—and if we are being treated this way, that’s exactly what the person its—they are our enemy at that point.  And God tells us that we are to bear this with longsuffering and patience.  We are to demonstrate a quite reverence and respect for them.

And when we do that, God is pleased.

You know, nothing pleases a parent more than when their children obey.  But there are certain times when their obedience really brings you a greater amount of pleasure.  When the circumstances are really against them and they are tempted to give in, yet they do what is right, that really brings you joy as a parent.  Seeing them with that kind of composure and the marks of a good character, that really warms your heart as a parent.

That’s what this is saying.  When you are suffering unjustly, and you are tempted to blow off your normal duties and tell this guy off, but yet you demonstrate a spirit of reserve and composure, then that is a gracious thing in God’s eyes.  It pleases him greatly.

Such an attitude might not be noticed by your superior, it will be noticed by your God.  He will see it and he will be delighted to no end at what you are doing.

But in the end, let’s remember that there is a greater reason to demonstrate obedience.  We are to submit because it is in keeping with Christ’s own example.

III. Because it is in keeping with God’s example [21-25]
The majority of this passage tells us this.  You’ll notice verse 21 that it says, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

If anyone had any right to show a little disrespect to his authorities, certainly it would have been Jesus.  If anyone was mistreated, or treated unjustly, it was him.  Despite his perfect love and his undefiled life, he was treated with the utmost contempt.  He was despised. He was beaten.  He was crucified.  

It always impresses me every time I read the trial of Jesus.  Here is Pilate examining Jesus.  Jesus knows it is a kangaroo court of sorts.  He knows there’s no escaping what’s going to happen.  Yet Jesus is perfectly respectful the whole time to Pilate.  He doesn’t raise his voice.  He had every opportunity to tell Pilate exactly what kind a scumbag he was.  But he didn’t do that.  His address did not even demonstrate the slightest touch of sarcasm.  As a matter of fact, at one point he chooses not to say anything at all.

That’s why Peter goes on to say in verse 22, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

That is exactly what we are to do.  He provides the pattern that we are to follow.

But of course, we follow Christ, not just because he was a good example.  He is our savior and redeemer.  That’s what verse 24 makes clear.  It says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

This is talking about his substitutionary death and the effect it has upon our lives right now.  Jesus took the curse of God for our sins upon himself when he was nailed to the cross.  And when we are united to him in faith, our sinful nature dies with him.  The wounds that he bore are our healing in that they free us from the dominion of sin and breaks the remaining power of sin in our lives.

So if you are struggling with submission, what ought you to do?  You go to the cross!  You go to the one who submitted himself to the Father’s will.  You go to the one who submitted to the Roman centurions.

Yes, you heard me correctly.  Jesus submitted to the Roman centurions!  He could have easily spoken one word and the hammer would have frozen in mid swing.  It never would have had a chance to drive the nail into his flesh.  He could have easily called down fire from heaven and torched the Pharisees and Saducees before they delivered him over to Pilate.  But he did not.

As a matter of fact, there is that one scene in the Garden of Gethsemane that I always find intriguing.  Do you remember when the band of guards came to arrest Jesus?  Do you remember how it transpired?  They approached him and asked where Jesus was, and he said, “I am.”  And the Bible says that they fell back.  They were overcome with some kind of power that they just blew over like dominos.  They came up again and said, “We’re looking for Jesus.”  And he said, “I am.” And again, Whoosh, they toppled backwards.  It was obvious that Jesus could have easily dodged the arrest.  But he didn’t.  He allowed them to get up, bind him, and lead him away.  That story is an amazing testimony to Jesus’ submission.

He did that for us and for our salvation.  And in doing so he left us an example.  He shows us the kind of submission that we are to render.  If we cannot get out from under our circumstances by lawful means, and if we are not being made to violate God’s commands, then we must follow his pattern of obedience.

Conclusion:
And this is a wonderful place for us to end.  It is here at the cross of Christ.  For if we are going to submit to any earthly authority, we must begin by submitting ourselves to God.  You were straying sheep, but have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

And here at the cross we understand that God has made a way for us to do that.  That is why Christ had to die.  He died in order to bring us nigh unto God.  And if we are going to respect God’s order, bring him pleasure, or follow his example, then we must first submit ourselves to him at the cross—acknowledging him to be our Lord and Savior.
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We've reached a mile stone in our study of 1 Peter today.  We have finished the first portion of the book and are beginning the last section.  That last section is still 3 ½ chapters, so don’t think that we’re even close to being done.  But we have reached the decisive turning point in our study of this book.  In the chapter and a half that we’ve looked at so far we’ve looked at the section that was primarily doctrinal.  Starting in the verses before us this morning we begin the section that is primarily practical application.  Being that this is so let's begin in earnest by reading 1 Peter 2:11-12.

"Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.  12  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

As we come to our passage today, I hope you catch the extremity of it.  So far in our study of Peter we’ve seen that he has held up a high bar.  A few weeks ago you may remember that we talked about how we were to put away all envy, malice and slander.  We understood there that Peter was dealing not just outward actions, but inward desires—the thoughts and even the motives that govern our hearts.

Here again, as we dive into the main section dealing with our life before God, we should see the standard has not been brought down even one inch.

The passage before us serves as an introduction to the section dealing with application.  As I said earlier, we’ve reached the transition point of the book.  And at the outset of this new section Peter gives something of a general statement that orients us towards all that will follow.   He tells us that we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh and he commands us to keep our conduct honorable.  And in the rest of the book Peter will flesh out what abstaining and acting honorable will be like.  But here, at the very outset, we are to notice that, once again, we are called to a life of extremity.

You may have heard that many Amish communities practice a thing called rumspringa.  It’s that time, typically during their teenage years, where a young Amish person walks away from his Amish-ness for a while.  Up to this point he’s lived a distinct life of separation.  But during rumspringa, he has opportunity to explore the world. 

So when an individual comes of age he will leave his family and enter the mainstream American culture.  He may learn to drive.  He certainly will take up the dress of your ordinary English youth.  He most likely will engage in the typical practices common to American young people, such as playing video games, watching movies, listening to music.  He may even go to the extreme of indulging in the excesses of life, such as sexual promiscuity, drinking, and partying.

It’s believed that this time of “freedom” is good for the young person.  It is thought that after they “sow their wild oats” they will have it all out of their system and they will return to their old Amish life.

As these Amish kids live much of their life set apart from such modern delicacies, they are often quite eager for their rumspringa.  They cannot wait to taste the delights of their new found “freedom.”  They cannot wait to leave off their separated lives and indulge themselves the pleasures of the world.

You might think that the Amish community is way off—way out there, for this rumspringa practice.  But deep down inside you know it is true of yourselves.  Every one of us has the rumpsringa desire in our hearts.  There is a part of us that wants to cast off the distinctly separate life that we are to live and indulge ourselves in a little rumspringa.

But when it comes to the Christian life, we find in our passage today that there is no such thing ever permitted for those of us who wish to be Christians. 

As we look at this passage, I want us to consider then the extreme life that we are called to.  I want you to think about what your duty before God really is, and then consider why it is important that we uphold that lifestyle.

I. What must we do?
Again, our passage calls us to do two things, to abstain from the passions of our flesh and to live honorably before the Gentiles.  Let’s think about what that entails.  First, what does it mean to abstain from the passions of our flesh?

When we talk about abstinence and “passions of the flesh” most likely you’ll immediately think of lust and sexual desire.  Certainly that is included.  And it is one that we can never talk enough about in our present day.  But I want you to understand that it is not limited to that.  This has to do with lust of any kind.  It is much broader in its scope because it has in mind any kind of unholy obsession that we may have. 

You know how your desires tend to fly off the hook, and it can be over something that is all fine and good.  But you just get obsessed with it, and you want it ever so bad.  And it almost becomes a fire within you that keeps flaring up, and you can’t stop thinking about it.  It’s that new cell phone or that video game.  Maybe it’s getting that little addition in your house that you say would make everything just so perfect, and you keep going to the internet to look at it (its under the guise of researching it, of course).  Whatever it is, it is out of your reach at the moment and you salivate over it like a dog salivates over his dinner bowl. 

Peter says that we are to never let the delights of this world so mesmerize us like that.  If we are so spell bound in our covetousness, then you need to know that you have become sidetracked from your chief pleasure in life.  Your greatest delight in life is always to be the Lord Jesus Christ.  All of your other yearnings are to be held in check.  If they exceed this chief priority, then we have greatly erred.

And this is something you need to remember as we approach the Christmas season.  We are on the verge of the year’s grand advertising blitzkrieg.  Most stores operate in the red until the last quarter of the year.  And they pull out all the stops so that you’ll buy their wares.  And they will come dangling every little item right before you.  They want to encourage that spirit.  They want you to glut yourself with their products.  Their whole campaign will be designed tin such a way to best tap into that lust.

But you must understand that that urge—that feverish, pressing thirst for more that is so common to our sinful nature is to be extinguished.  We are not to let it be entertained, not even for a moment.

These passions, these obsessions for the world’s pleasures, must be averted at all costs.  But you say, “How?  How in the world can I do that?”  Well, it’s going to be the work of grace, of course.  That’s why we must rely on Christ.

But I think our text gives us some help too.  I think it contains a real practical hint at how we keep ourselves pure in this regard.  The word that is translated “abstain” actually means “keep yourself away from” or “distance yourself.”  We tend to think of abstinence as just avoiding something; like keeping it just out of our range of touch. We think of it as “hands off.” But the biblical idea of abstinence is getting clean away from it—distancing yourself.

I know that’s the last thing you want to do when it comes to something you really want.  What you want to do is get as close as you can to it.  But God says, get away.  If it is in your mind and you are constantly turning it over, get away from it.  Put your mind on something completely different.  Perhaps the best thing to do is pray.  When you are consumed with earthly things, get some distance by sending your thoughts to heaven.  When you are consumed with yourself, pray for other people—perhaps saints who are in far off countries struggling for survival.

The chief thing to do is to get some distance.

The other thing that we must do is live honorably among the Gentiles.  I’m not going to dwell long on this.  As I said, we are going to flesh that out more in the upcoming weeks as we make our way through the rest of 1 Peter.  And really, I believe that what is said here is just two side of one coin.  I think that Peter is basically repeating himself.  First he states it in a more negative fashion: abstain from the passions of the flesh [“get some distance from the things you covet].  Then he says it in a more positive fashion, “Live honorably among the Gentiles.”  Both are getting at the same idea:  You are to make every effort to live a spotless life.  Blameless!

You might say that this is just a restatement of what he said earlier, “Be perfect, as the Lord your God is perfect.”  That is the summation of this passage. 

But if you would indulge me one moment…Let me just say this about what it means to “live honorably among the Gentiles.”  I have heard that there are some who will not hire anyone who has an ichthus sticker on the back bumper of their car.  They are business minded men and women and they will not hire anyone who claims to be a Christian.  It’s not because they are flaming atheists.  They don’t have any specific vendetta.  It’s just that they’ve seen what a lot of Christians are like.  They won’t get to work on time.  They poke around while they are at work and don’t take their projects seriously.

Now what kind of testimony is that?  That is certainly not living honorably among the Gentiles!  And you see how the “passions of the flesh” are linked to living honorably.  The passions of sloth make lives that are dishonorable.

That is not what we are called to.  We are called to honorable lives—lives that other people will find respectable and praiseworthy.  And that means that we need to put the passions of our flesh in check.

I have so many applications I want to make here, but I’m going to have to tuck them away for now.  We’ll have to deal with them another time.  Let it be enough now for us to say that God calls us to an extreme life.  We must bridle our excessive desires.  We need to get distance between us and them and live honorably among the Gentiles.  That is what we must do.  We must live the extreme life, without a single second of a rumspringa. 

Peter tells us that we must live to the extreme.  But you’ll notice in the passage that he doesn’t leave it at that.  He gives us several reasons why we need to live that way.

II. Why must we do it?
If you need a little motivation to get you on board with this, consider what Peter says about your nationality.

A. The issue of your nationality
At the very beginning of our text for today Peter reminds you that you are a pilgrim and an exile.  He reminds you that you do not belong to the kingdom of sin and Satan.  You belong to God and are a citizen of heaven.  As such, you must be sure to maintain the proper deportment.  Your lifestyle must remain in keeping with your personal background.

Think about the Amish kid again.  Imagine a little Amish boy in all his Amish clothing.  He’s got his blue and black dress, and his little Amish hat on his head.  Now imagine him walking into a bar full of bikers.  You see the boy walk up to the bar and order up a beer.  Then as he swigs it down, he lights up a cigarette, grabs a pool stick and starts flirting with the ladies sitting in a booth. 

Now something in your brain has to be screaming.  I hope you are having a hard time imagining that.  It’s not right.  An Amish kid isn’t supposed to do that.  That is not his environment.  That’s not the kind of lifestyle that you associate with Amish kids.  So long as he is in that bar [for whatever reason, perhaps his buggy broke down] he is a stranger.  And his lifestyle ought to be in keeping with his original ethnicity.

That’s exactly what Peter is talking about here.  You are a spiritual alien.  Your homeland is the realm of angels and of God.  And since this is so, cannot kibitz with sin.  It would be unnatural for you to do so.  So long as you are in this world, you are to stand out like a sore thumb.  Your interests are in the New Jerusalem, and so your lifestyle is to be of a heavenly sort.

You must live this life because of it is in keeping with your nationality.  But it is not just your ethnicity.  You also need to consider the hostility of sin.

B. The issue of sin’s hostility
Our passage here makes it very clear that sin is hostile.  At the end of verse 11 it says that these passions and lusts, “Wage war against your soul.”  It is saying that sin is like an army ready to advance against your spiritual life.  It is the enemy to peace and happiness, and it wishes to lay siege upon your soul. 

You have to understand that you cannot permit sin in your life because it will attack you.  It has the power to weaken and debilitate you spiritually.  And all of you know this is true by experience.  You know the misery it causes you.  You know how it impedes your ability to smile and enjoy life.  Sure it gives the allurement of happiness, but once the fleeting moment of sin is gone you’re left with nothing but the aftertaste of bitterness, discontent, and angst.

 And then that impedes the rest of your spiritual life.  You know how such things keep you from prayer.  The more you are taken up with the delights of the world, the less you are taken up with God.  How many of you can testify to how it impinges upon your ability to listen to a sermon.  You couldn’t tune in because your mind is being assaulted by worries and anger and “what if’s.”

My friends, sin is on a campaign.  It would like nothing more than to breech the fortress of your breast and raise the banner of misery over your heart. 

And that is why you must take heed to Peter’s call, because it is so hostile.

But Peter not only brings up the issue of your nationality and sin’s hostility.  He also mentions the world’s scrutiny.

C. The issue of the world’s scrutiny
Years ago Francis Schaffer wrote a book entitled, “The church before a watching world.”  That is the very notion contained in verse 12.  The world is watching us because, as it says there, “they wish to speak against us.”  That is to say they are watching us because they want to charge us with some sort of wrongdoing.  But we must show them that there is nothing to their charges.  Moreover, the bounty of our good deeds must lead them ultimately to glorify God.

In the early church we see a good example of this.  There was a time when the Roman magistrates charged the Christians with sedition.  They were thought to be traitors because the Christians oftentimes talked about being part of another kingdom.  And the Romans called for their citizenry to report Christians.  But a lot of that didn’t happen because the everyday people around the Roman Empire knew that Christians were not bad people.  They knew that for the most part they were obedient citizens.

Today, we might not face such an extreme case.  But we are certainly still under surveillance.  To be a Christian is to live in a fishbowl.  Everyone is watching. Our neighbors are peeking over the fence at us, watching us through their windows.  Just think, as soon as a prominent minister falls into sin, what happens?  It is headline news.  It is on the front page of every media outlet.  They are just looking for a way to criticize.

But we must show them that there is no credence to their charges.  As they scrutinize the things we do, our purity and our love ought to lead them straight to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Warren Weirsbe tells the story of some missionaries who were trying to minister to a certain tribe.  They were diligent in their efforts to preach and teach.  One day the chief of the tribe came to them and began talking to them.  He eventually said, “We know that you teach about this Jesus and want us to be Christians.  But we also know that you are working with the next village too.  We will wait and see what becomes of them.  If their lives become more righteous and their lifestyle improves, then we will become Christians too.”

That is the way it is more often than not.  And may we take it to heart.  May we be encouraged today to take heed to what Peter has said.  May we see how important it is to live holy lives. 

As I said earlier, over the next few weeks we are going to see what it means to live honorably among the Gentiles, but today may we see just how important it is to do so.  And may we be encouraged to live to the extreme. 

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You all should know that this is a hard hat area.  It would probably be good to put up some caution signs and some orange barrels too.  What’s happened is that as we read this section of scripture, you entered a construction zone. 

The imagery in this passage conjures up thoughts of heavy machinery.  You can almost see the cranes lifting gigantic rocks and the formulation of some large edifice.  Down below you can hear the clank of hammer upon chizzel.  Stones are being hewn out and forged with precision for this new structure that is going up.

Yes, we’ve entered a construction zone.  It’s an odd pit stop.  Our pilgrimage has been moving right along.  We’ve been advancing towards Zion.  But today we pilgrims jump off the expressway in order to take a pit stop.  Our journey takes us here.  Yet though it may not be a place we would normally stop, it is a place where the Lord requires us to come.  It is a place where he gives us true refreshment.

That’s because it is a place where we a taught a great lesson:  We come to find that our journey is one that is not traveled in our own strength.

We are brought to this construction zone because God wants us to see His sovereign activity in our lives.  He wants to remind us that he is the Divine Architect.  He is the unseen engineer of this grand project we call the church.   And every minute detail of this project is being overseen by his mighty power.

And this morning I want you to delight yourself (perhaps refresh yourself) in that.  I want you to consider the sovereign activity of God in your lives.  Or, if I might summarize it for you at the outset, I want us to consider the work, way, and wisdom of the Divine Architect.   

I. His work [5]
When you look at verse 5 you take comfort in the fact that God is working.  He’s working in your life, and he’s doing the work of a mason.  Verse 5 says that you are “living stones” that are “being built up.”  This means that God is not sitting back in a corner watching you like some sort of fish in a fish bowl.  When God first entered you life, he became active in your life.  After the demolition of tearing down the rule of sin in your life he starts working in you to build you up and shape you into just the kind of person he wants. 

Kids, have you ever worked with blocks?  What did you do with those blocks?  You picked them up and you stacked them here and there.  Those blocks didn’t stack themselves, did they?  No.  You had to do it.  You had to do the work.  The blocks weren’t going to come together by their own power.

And that’s exactly what this verse is saying.  You are living stones that are being built up.  That’s Scripture’s way of saying that you are not in charge of your sanctification.  Last week we talked about the goal of the Christian life.  And I laid it on you.  It was my job to lay upon you the full weight of God’s law.  And I hope you felt it.  I hope you walked out of here thinking, boy, that’s going to be tough.

And if that’s the way you felt, then good.  You got the message.  That’s why you need this one.  It’s not being done in your own power, but it is the omnipotent hand of the Holy Spirit that is working.  God is the one who is building you up.  He is the one who is the contractor doing the work to make you into what he wants you to be. 

And what a glorious work he is doing too!  Verse 5 goes on to tell you exactly what God is doing.   It says he’s making us into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  What does that mean?  It means we are becoming a united, spirit filled people who worship and serve the Lord. 

We are spirit filled because we are a spiritual house.  The spiritual house in the old testament was the temple.  That’s where God dwelt.  And we the church have had the Spirit fill us so that we are the place God resides.

And not only are we being filled with the spirit, but we are being unified.  Think about how all those stones in the temple came together to make one building.  And it is interesting that in when the temple was under construction, they were not allowed to chisel the stones on the temple mount.  Every one had to be formed while it was down in the quarry.  Then they were brought up and fitted right into place.  It’s an amazing though, if you think about it.  But that’s what God is doing with us!  Each of us is a brick, hewn from the quarry of sin and death.  And we are being brought together by the skillful craftsmanship of God’s good hand.

I mean, think about it.  How else could you get such a rag-tag band of people to come together?  Each of us has a completely different background.  Some of us have radically different interests and personalities.  How else could just this group come together and find unity?  I’ll tell you how:  It’s by the operation of the Holy Spirit.

On top of that we are becoming more and more holy and dedicated to the service of God.  That’s what it means to be a holy priesthood.  The priests were men who were expected to be more virtuous than the rest of the nation of Israel.  They had special commands, over and above the rest of the nation, by which they were to abide.  What’s more is that they were not given any land to cultivate.  Their lives were to be dedicated to the service of God and him alone.

That’s what we are to be doing.  Our lives are to be exemplary.  Our holiness is to exceed the rest of the world’s.  And that’s what God is doing in our lives!

Above all, we are to engage in the worship of God!  It says here that God is working on us so that we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  No, its not the bloody sacrifices.  Its’ the spiritual sacrifices.  It’s the laying aside of our sins and our paying tribute to Christ in worship and in life.

And do you know what the best part of this is?  God is doing it all!  He’s making it all happen!  I don’t want you to forget that.  It’s not up to us to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and make it all happen.  God is the one who is making us into the priests.  God is the one who is making us holy.  God is the one making us to offer spiritual sacrifices.  The work is his doing.  All we have to do is be who God is making us to be.

My friends, let us rejoice that the divine architect is at work.  And let us be glad that his work is also being done in his way.

II. His way [4]
Whenever a building project starts, it always has to follow the blue prints.  The building has to be constructed according to the Architects drawings.   There isn’t to be any deviation.  Everything must be done his way.

And that is exactly what you see in this passage.  If you skip back one verse, you see the way God accomplishes his work in your life.  The way you are built up is by faith in the person and work of Christ. 

Verse 4 starts off by saying, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious you yourselves as living stones are being built up.”  Let’s strip away some of the modifiers to get to the nugget of the sentence.  It says, “as you come to him…you are being built up.”  In other words, the way you get built up by God is by coming to him.

Now when it talks about coming to him, I want you to understand that it is talking about your faith in him.   For instance, Jesus says in Matthew, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden.”  Are we supposed to literally go to him?  No.  It’s a metaphor.  He wants you to come to him in faith.  He’s talking about believing in him.  You are to come to him in faith.  You are to trust him, fear him and he rest in the fact that he will give us salvation.

The idea is the same here in Peter’s epistle.  The only difference is that we have already come to him that initial time for salvation.  Here the idea is that of continuing faith.  We are to be constantly relying upon the person and work of Christ and resting in the promises of the gospel.  That’s what the rest of the sentence is about:  Christ is the living stone, that is, the source of life.  The one who has life in and of himself.  And He is the redeemer—the one who was rejected by men (and killed), yet was chosen by God and honored by being raised up on the third day as the victor over sin and death.

You have in this one sentence the whole gospel.  A Peter stresses that as you come to Christ—as you rest in him as our Savior, and believe the gospel, God changes us and builds us up in the faith.

In sum, what you are to come away with is this:  The Bible tells us that you are not only justified by faith in Christ, but you are sanctified by faith in Christ too.

And I tell you, this is one of the revolutionary things about Reformed theology.  I know it was for me.  And I know many people who have expressed the same idea.  As a matter of fact I had opportunity to talk with a fellow about it just this last week. 

Each week I have been going to the prison with Joe Magellet.  We’re in the process of setting up some college level theology classes for them.  This week we were going to interview the candidates for the class.  As I sat down with one fellow he began talking about how when he first came to Christ he was caught up in the Word faith movement (the name-it-and-claim it people).  After being in those circles for a while he began to become disenchanted because things weren’t coming about like they were supposed to.  He would name and claim, but the claims were not coming.  Like I said, after a while he became quite disenchanted with it.  For all his effort, his life wasn’t changing.

That’s when he started studying more Reformed teachings.  And he came to find that it wasn’t up to him and it wasn’t by his power that things would change.  It was up to God.  And the gospel call to him was simply to rest in what Christ has done and trust Christ’s mighty life-giving power.

It’s so freeing to know that all that is required of us is simple trust in the claims of the gospel.  I have often said that Calvin was my second savior.  I, of course, don’t mean that in a literal sense.  Calvin is nothing.  But the concept that is developed in the Calvinistic schema is so freeing.  To know that it isn’t by works and that my sanctification is not depended upon my pitiful efforts is so freeing. 

You can rest in knowing that it isn’t up to you to make myself more holy.   It ought to be a great relief to know that our salvation is all by faith and all by grace.

 All God requires us to do is believe the claims of the gospel.  That is the way the divine architect has ordained it.  As we cleave to the living stone, he builds us up.

But let us not stop there.  God is not only doing his work in his way, but he is doing it according to his great wisdom as well

III. His wisdom [6-8]
Verses 6-8 go on to tell us this.  In these verses we see the totality of God’s plan.  God, in his infinite wisdom and before the world began, ordained exactly how it would all play out. 

The first thing we see is that, in his wisdom, He ordained that Christ would come.  That’s what verse 6 means when it says that “a stone in Zion would be laid.”  Christ is the stone and by his incarnation, he would come to Zion and live among us. 

But the wisdom of God also saw fit to have him rejected.  The irony of God’s plan of redemption would be that he would display his sovereign power over the free acts of men.  They treated Christ with the utmost cruelty.  Of their own free will they took him and crucified him.  Yet despite their evil intent, God ruled and overruled their actions.  Certainly He was not the author of their evil.  Nevertheless they were ordained by him and used it for His grand purpose. 

This is one of those mysteries of the Bible.  How is it that God can sovereignty govern all  things and their actions, yet men be free?  How is it that the evil acts of men can be ordained of God, yet he is not the author of them?  I don’t want you to think that I can explain it.  I certainly can’t.  I can’t do anything beyond state the mere fact of it.  All we can say is that God had most certainly decreed it and his wisdom prevailed.

The wisdom of God is expressed in one other way in this passage.  And this might be the hardest concept for us to grapple with.  In his wisdom the Lord ordained that some would be left in their sins and eventually go to hell.  That’s what verse 8 means when it says, “They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” 

Yes, you heard correctly.  They were destined to disobey the word.  From the beginning of time, God chose to bring some men into a state of salvation.  But the flip side of that is that he skipped over a lot of people.  And in so doing he chose not to save them.  He chose to leave them in a state of sin and damnation.

In theology, this is what we call the doctrine of reprobation.  It is the idea that there are some in the world who are destined to go to hell.

Some people think that this is a terrible thing.  But I want you to remember what it tells us.  It reminds us that God is in complete control.  History is not the random occurrence of events.  And as Peter speaks to these saints who were on the verge of being cruelly treated for their faith or presently being persecuted, it would have been a great comfort to know that nothing occurred without his say so. 

We can do the same.  We can take comfort in the fact that the divine architect is glorified both in belief and unbelief.  He is soverieng in our obedience or our disobedience. 

This doctrine of reprobation might not be too palatable for some people, but it is the truth of Scripture.  And it is a doctrine which ought to give us comfort.  For it reminds us that God’s wisdom can never be thwarted.  And through all ages God prevails in the lives of men.

Conclusion:
Dear pilgrims, you’ve come to this construction zone.  And hopefully you are refreshed with what you have seen:  That your God is soverign over all the affairs of your life.  The divine architect is working.  He is working in your life.  He is working to build you up and make you to be what you ought to be.  He is active in all the affairs of men.  And all he asks of you is that you rest in the sweetness of his Son and the unfolding wisdom of his plan.

  

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John Bunyan entitled his famous work, “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  We’ve talked a good deal about what it means to be a pilgrim as a Christian.  But I do not want you to forget the fact that Pilgrim’s are to be making progress.

Bunyan acknowledges the fact that each of us is on a journey.  We are making our way to the promised land.  We are going to the Celestial City.  But our journey is not so much one of distance as it is character.  The progress of a Christian is the shaping of his character, the advancement of spiritual maturity.

This point is driven home in Bunyan’s tale in a beautiful way.  At one point in the story Christian comes to a house where he is fitted out with the apparel of a Christian.  He is given a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness.  His feet are fitted with the readiness of the gospel and in his hand is put a sword and shield. 

This armor would be tested right away.  Upon leaving the house he promptly met up with the great dragon Appolyon.  And on coming to the ferocious beast Christian found himself terrified.  He trembled at its rage and feared that he would be overcome by the fiendish monster.  His initial thought was to turn back and run.  But he realized that if he did turn he would surely be dead for he had no means of protection on his back.  The armor that he wore did not cover his back.  The only strategy that it safeguarded was a forward progression. 

The point that Bunyan was making was the point the Bible makes with the armor of God:  We must always be on the advance.  We are called to maturity and there is no turning back.  At every point  we must charge ahead and face the attack head on.

And that is the same point that Peter makes in this passage.  Peter tells us that Pilgrims are to make progress.  We are to always be advancing in the faith.  There is not to be any stagnation.  We must always be moving towards maturity and gaining greater ground in our Christian walk.

So today I want to talk about the Pilgrim’s Progress.  Our progress.  I want us to consider what Peter says regarding the goal of our progress and the grounds for our progress in the faith.

The first question that comes to mind regards our goal.  For what are we to be shooting?  What is it we are to be aiming for as Christians? 

I. When it comes to progressing in the faith, what is to be our goal?
Peter talks about this in the first two verses, and he renders our goal in both a negative and positive way.

  A. Negatively
On the negative side Peter says that our aim should be to “Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” 

If I might summarize it, your aim ought to be to cleanse your motives.   Every item listed here deals, not mainly with overt, external actions, but with the intentions  and motives of your heart. 

For instance, malice is wanting someone’s harm or downfall.  In other words, you want this guy to suffer some sort of setback.  But you all know that you don’t just walk up to someone and punch them in the nose or take him out.  No, you know that you can’t do that.  You know you have to be more crafty than that and hide it a little.  So normally, it means wrapping their undoing in the garb of doing something nice for them.

So kids, here’s an example of Malice.  You walk in the house and say to your little brother that you’ve just raked a big pile of leaves for him to play in the back yard.  And your brother can’t believe it?  He thinks, “That’s so nice!  That’s great!”  And he’s so happy, he can’t wait to get out there and jump in it.  As he runs out that door you just smile because as you raked up the leaves, you raked up all the sticks and thorn bushes into the pile too.  He’s been on your nerves all day long, and now he’s going to get it.

Now that’s malice: It’s wanting someone to be hurt.  It’s wanting someone to suffer, but you go about getting it in a way that actually looks like you are helping.  So basically malice is all about the intentions of the heart. 

The same is true for envy.  Envy is something that happens in your heart.  It’s that jealousy you experience because someone else has what you want, and you don’t want them to have it because you can’t have it. 

You young people know what this is, don’t you?  When your brother or sister has a toy, all of a sudden you want that toy don’t you?  So you start fighting over it.  And when mom comes in she takes it away.  And you’re happy now because your brother or sister doesn’t have it.  That’s envy.  And envy is something that occurs deep down inside your heart.

The same could said for deceit and slander.  When you lie (deceit) it’s because deep down inside you don’t want people to know the truth.  And slander is saying something about someone to someone else.  And why do you do that?  It’s because, down inside, you want to see them cut down.  It doesn’t matter if what you say is true or not.  You pass on that little tid-bit of information.  You don’t want to see them get the promotion, elected as an elder, or receive special attention from the friend you are talking to.

So Peter says that our goal as Christians is to take all these impure motives and put them away.  Your main objective is to discard them and have nothing but the purest and best of intentions all the time.

Now I really like what Peter is doing here, because this is a congregation that needs to hear this kind of thing.  We all have our sins, for sure.  But from what I’ve seen, we’re not involved in a lot of gross sins.  There’s very little murder going on here.  I don’t know of any of you who are rapists.  And I would suggest that we don’t have a lot of overt sins in general.  No one to my understanding is a flagrant sinner.  But there are people in this congregation that are jealous.  You come to church with a smile on your face, but on the inside you are just brimming with discontent.  And I’m sure you would never say anything to someone’s face that would provoke them.  But in hushed voices and behind closed doors you are not afraid to vent your views about good old so & so. 

And my friends, you need to put that away.  Right now, there are people who are taking their Halloween decorations, putting them in a box and throwing them in a closet or in the attic.  And that’s exactly what you need to do with your hypocrisy, your envy and your gossip. 

If you want to advance in your walk with the Lord, then the place you need to begin is deep within your very own heart.  Peter says that as Christians our aim ought to be discarding the ill intentions and impure motives that lurk in our hearts.

But if you look at the second verse, you’ll see that he states the goal in a more positive light.

  B. Positively
He says, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that you may grow up unto salvation.” 

We as Christians are to have an insatiable hunger for the Word of God.  Because it is by the Word of God that we are made more holy and more obedient. 

Think about the imagery that is being used here.  That’s where the real meaning of the verse is.  Elizabeth and I have a wonderful little baby in the house now.  And this little girl is fantastic.  We’ve been really blessed with this one because she is what you would call a “good baby.”  By that I think you know what I mean.  During the day she’s quite easy going.  She hardly ever cries and she does a fantastic job of sleeping at night for being only 3-4 months old.  But there are times when she gets herself in a real tizzy.  When she wakes up in the morning, she’s hungry!  And she lets us know it!  She can’t wait to get to that bottle.  When you come into the room shaking that thing, she knows exactly what is going on.  And you can see her starting to get excited, sometimes she’ll even start fussing because she knows its right there.  Then when she gets it in her mouth, she just sucks and sucks on it because she wants it so bad.

Then when you go to burp her, and pull it out of her mouth, she really gets mad.  She’s normally a very good baby.  She’s usually all smiles.  But when you pull that thing out, boy does she get upset.  She immediately breaks into the most pitiful cry you ever heard.  And she won’t’ stop until you put it back in her mouth.

And Peter uses this imagery of intense longing to say that this is the kind of craving you should have for this book.  This is to be what we are shooting for.  Our goal ought to be that our strongest desire is for the truth of the Scriptures.  Our deepest yearning is to be getting to church so we can find out what God wants us to believe and do.

And the reason for this is because it is by this book that we come to grow up unto salvation.  It is through regular contact with the Scriptures that we grow in the faith.

I can use Geneva as an example again.  Just by looking at her you can see that she hasn’t missed too many meals.  The girl is only 4 months old and she’s starting to outgrow the 3-6 month clothes.  Now that wouldn’t happen if we skimped on her feedings.  She couldn’t grow up if she didn’t have the proper nutrition. 

The same is true for your soul.  If you want to grow in the faith then you need to feed on the nutrients that God has provided you.  You need to crave the Scriptures and seek to satisfy your soul with them.  This is to be one of your highest priorities.

A Quick Excursus for Practical application
Before I go on to the next point, I want to give you a tip on how to develop this craving.  That is what Peter is telling you to do.  You are to crave it.  But how do you make yourself crave it?  I believe that the passage gives us some practical advice on how this is done.  The way this passage is constructed in the original language is quite unique.  It is actually quite difficult to translate into English accurately.  Literally, it reads something like this “Putting away all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk.” 

Though it doesn’t come out well in the English, the idea is that our craving for the Word of God is dependent upon our putting away the evil intentions of your heart.  That is to say, as you put away these impure motives, you will be more able to crave the word of God. 

To put it another way:  If you let your heart be clogged with all these vices that he mentions here, then you won’t be able to crave Scripture like you should.

At the beginning of the year I began a new diet.  I became convicted that I was consuming too much sugar.  So I cut way back on how much sugar I was consuming, and I started eating more fruits and vegetables.  And after a while I found that something quite interesting happened.  The fruits and vegetables actually started tasting better.  Because I cut out that load of sugar, my pallet could more readily sense the flavors of the fruits and vegetables.  But lately, I’ve fallen off in my little food regiment.  And you know what?  I am finding that the fruits and vegetables don’t taste as good as they did.  And as a result, I don’t seek them as much as I did.

That’s exactly what is being said here in this passage.  If you let these vices clutter up your heart, you will not have the hunger that you ought to have for the word of God.  If you cut these vices from your life, your spiritual pallet will be freer to seek the truth contained in Scripture.

That is what you are to be striving for.  You are to make it your aim to cleanse the intentions of your heart, and by doing so, create within yourself a strong desire the word of God. 

I know that was a bit of an excursus, but I thought I would bring that out and just emphasize how important it is to be seeking to purify your inward desires.  But let’s now move on.

After Peter states what our goal is he gives us a reason why we should make that your aim.  And he says that the grounds for your progress in the faith is found in your own experience.

II. What is the proper grounds for our progress?
He says in verse three that you should do this, “if indeed you tasted that the Lord is good.” 

In other words, each and every person who has personally become acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ will want to do this because Jesus is so appealing.  If you have experienced his grace and forgiveness, you know you can’t help yourself.  You won’t be able to stop yourself. 

His grace is so magnificent.  His person and presence is so tantalizing to the spiritual pallet that you are forcefully drawn to him. 

A while ago the potato chip company Pringles had a commercial that said, “I bet you can’t eat just one.”  It was a pretty audacious claim.  They were so confident in their chips and how good they were they were willing to make the claim that one just wasn’t enough.  If you ate just one chip, there was no doubt in their minds that you would be back for more. 

That’s the claim right here.  If you have tasted that the Lord is good—If you have had a real and personal encounter with the saving work of Jesus Christ, if you have embraced his atoning sacrifice with true faith, if you have had your own soul resurrected from its spiritual deadness, and if you have witnessed his providential activity in your own life where he has preserved, protected and pitied you—then there is no possible way that you can go on savoring sin in your life. 

Of course, if you have not tasted the Lord—that is to say, if you have not made a personal application of Christ’s mediation to your life or truly put your faith in him or had your heart changed by his Spirit, then you won’t have this automatic draw.  You could care less about the Bible and see no real need to make any headway in putting off sin. 

This verse speaks to the fact that there are some within the church that are false professors.  They may profess Christ, but they do not really possess him in their heart of hearts.  Some people will come into the church and become members, but they really have no real spiritual acquaintance with Christ.

And you will hear people talk this way sometimes.  You will hear someone who has left the church say, “I tried that.”  At some point in their life they “did the church thing.”  They tried religion.  But they found it unpalatable.  They couldn’t stand it, so they left the church.

But the truth is, they never really tasted Christ.  And these people might make a show of piety.  But the piety that they have was driven by their own carnal desires, and not by their familiarity with the gospel.  That kind of person never had a true and vital union with him.  They may have tasted the church.  They may have “tried religion.”  But they never had any real acquaintance with Jesus Christ.  I tell you, if you try religion without ever having really tasted the sweetness of the gospel (or never really savored Christ), then there’s every reason to leave the church!  That would be the most distasteful thing in the world!  I tell you, there is nothing really all that palatable about the church.  The church is going to disappoint you and mere formalized “religion” is not a turn on at all.

But Christ is!

And if you have truly been united to Christ by faith and do have that relational bond with him, then he is exceedingly sweet to your soul and sin is exceedingly distasteful.  And if this has happened, then you will savor him.  And that taste will so entice you that it will create within you a burning desire for more.

And here is where you need to examine yourself.  You need to ask yourself if you have become so acquainted with him.  Are you feeding upon him?  Is his grace a delight to your soul?  Do you crave him and savor him as the only one who can satisfy the thirst of your soul? 

Better yet, ask yourself this, “Does he impel me to seek righteousness?  Am I driven to the Scripture by the thought of him and because of what he means to me?”  If that is not true, then you have not really tasted Christ.  If from time to time you do not lift up a prayer and say, “Lord, show me my sin and help me be rid of it,” then you are not really a Christian. 

And my only recommendation to you is that you truly seek to partake of him in a living and active way.  For the goodness of Christ is a delectable thing.  It’s something you cannot get enough of and it provides you with the greatest delight.

Whenever we have deserts at our house, it is a wonderful thing.  This time of year is always good because we may have a slice of pumpkin pie or apple crisp.  And its so sweet that when we get done, I’ll sit there wiping up the plate so that there’s not a crumb left.  And the whole time I’m running my finger through the remaining morsels, I’m thinking how much I’d like another sliver of it.  Finally, my wife will say, “Would you like another piece, dear?”  And I’ll say, with a great deal of self control, “sure.”  Then, when we are done we’ll start cleaning up the dishes.  And I’ll take my plate into the kitchen.  And while everyone else is busy in the other room, I’ll nab another little bite out of the dish. 

It’s just so good, that I can’t get enough.

My friends, that is the way it is with Christ.  Even if you only get a little taste—and really, that’s all we’ll ever get this side of heaven!  But even if it is just a droplet upon your tongue, it will be enough to whet your appetite and make you inclined towards more.

Conclusion:
In the book “The Miracles of Missions” it was recounted that a missionary to the South Seas was once approached by a crippled man.  Disease had greatly afflicted him so that he lost the function of the lower part of his legs and hands.  He had to walk upon his knees and use his arms to drag himself wherever he went.  Yet, when the missionary came by the lame man rose up and went to meet him.  And upon coming to him he shouted, “Welcome, servant of God, who brought light to this dark island!”  The two men began to engage in conversation regarding the lame man’s experience.  And the missionary was quite impressed with the lame man’s knowledge of the faith.  He asked, “You have become quite well acquainted with the things of the Lord.  Where did you obtain all this knowledge?  I do not remember ever seeing you at the settlements where I preached.  And besides, your hands and feet have been eaten off by disease and you have to walk upon your knees!”  The lame man answered, “As the people return from your services, I sit by the road and beg from them as they pass by for a bit of the Word.  One will give me one piece and another will give me another piece.  I gather them together in my heart and think over what I thus obtain, praying to God to make me know and understand.”

Though this man could not go very far due to his condition, he was able to make a great deal of progress in the faith.  He had tasted of Christ, and so he craved any crumb or scrap of Scripture that he could get.  And such morsels so fed him that his life could turn the eye of a missionary.

May Christ so enthrall us that we crave His Word with the same fervor and strive with the same zeal for purity in heart.

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The passage we are looking at this morning deals with what is perhaps the greatest of all the themes of the Bible.  It is the theme of God’s love. 

When you read the Bible, I believe this subject sticks out more than any other.  Certainly, a lot of passages talk about God’s wrath and how he can become inflamed with anger.  We read many passages dealing with his holiness too.  As you turn the pages of Scripture, you can’t help but see that quite clearly.  However, these themes pale in comparison to the theme of God’s love.  This thesis presides over all the others.  For in the Bible you cannot help but see how God pursues his wayward people tenaciously and passionately.

Perhaps this topic is so prevalent in Scripture because so many are prone to doubt it.  I believe that it needs to be at the forefront of the Scriptures because it is so necessary for us to understand.  When we come to be persuaded that God really loves, then we are more ready to love him in return.  Trusting him follows right on the heals of having the assurance of his great love for us.

This last week my daughter and I went for a walk in the woods.  It is something we do somewhat frequently, but this time was a little different.  It was at night.  As we marched through the trails in the darkness, I thought about how much my daughter trusted me.  She was not afraid in the slightest bit to be out there in that creepy place.  She was not afraid that I would do anything to her while we were out there.  She had full confidence that she could follow me anywhere because she knew that I loved her.

The Lord wants us to have this sort of confidence: that we can trust him through anything and follow him anywhere.  So in this passage our Lord confirms his love.  He shows us just how great his love for us so that we may sweetly rest in it. 

In order to reassure us of his love the Lord talks first about the sheer extravagance of it.  The first mention of God’s love is found in the last half of verse 5, and it says that God’s love has been “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” 

I. Its profuse extravagance

You might not notice it at first glance, but we understand how profuse God’s love is by those words “poured out.”  This word literally means “to spill” or “to run out greedily.” 

Now you can spill something and it is not all that big of a deal.  If you are almost done with your soda and you accidently knock it over, that’s not going to be much to worry about.  But if that soda “runs out greedily” then that is something completely different.  You get the idea that it is the jumbo size that you ordered and you haven’t even had the chance to take a sip of it yet.  Now it is all over your lap, running down your legs onto the seat and creating a huge puddle on the floor.

This is the same word used in the book of Acts when it talks about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  You know when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles it wasn’t as if God was using a dropper.  The Spirit is described as coming down in an overflowing manner, much like a torrent and it filled the room where the disciples were.  The funny thing about that passage is that the disciples were gathered in the upper room when the Spirit was poured out.  Then without any sort of transition the disciples are outside preaching to all the people who were gathered in Jerusalem.  It is almost as if the title wave of the Spirit came gushing down from heaven in such incredible deluge that they disciples were carried outside by the overflow of it.  You might have seen in pictures of a flood where a car is hit with a wall of water and then carried down the street by the overwhelming volume of water.  That’s what seems to be described in Acts chapter 2.

And that is exactly the same way God’s love is described here in this passage.  There is no shortage of God’s love.  God is not holding anything back.  His love comes down into our hearts in a lavish overwhelming manner!  The extravagance almost sounds sloppy because it reminds you of a child with the garden hose.  He just lets it all come gushing out. 

I’m glad that God’s word describes His love like this here because a lot of people don’t have that kind of view of it.  Some people (maybe you are one?) tend to think that God is up in heaven with a clip board taking an inventory of our lives and then rewarding with a pinch or two.  Or maybe we compare it to our own lives and how we always have a tendency to be a little stingy.  I know how we guys are.  When we want to show our wife  how much we love her, we will go and buy her some flowers.  And we can’t wait to walk in that door and overwhelm her with a nice bouquet of flowers.  But what do we do when we get to the store?  We look for the cheapest arrangement.  We look and say, “$15 for a dozen measly roses?  That’s ridiculous!”  So you go over and start looking at the carnations.

God doesn’t operate like that.  His love is never stingy, but always excessive.

Tim Keller is a PCA pastor in New York, and he has recently written a book based on the parable of the prodigal son.  The title of his book is Prodigal God.  The term prodigal means reckless, wasteful and absorbed with excess.  And it is characteristic of the first son who takes his inheritance and goes and spends everything in a wildly extravagant lifestyle.  Keller makes the point though that the father figure in that parable is just as excessive with his love.  He spends his days looking for the son, waiting for him to come back.  Then when he sees him far off in the distance he runs to him.  He does one of the most undignified things, hiking up his garments and sprints through the village thoroughway, right where everyone could see him.  Upon reaching the debauched child he showers him with kisses.  He lavishes his love, and puts a ring on his finger and a robe on his back.  Then he calls for the fattened calf to be killed and prepared.  The party he puts together on behalf of this child is almost wasteful in and of itself because he spares no expense.

He is the Prodigal God, and he wants you to know just how profuse his love for you is.

I’m sure you will agree that if we stopped here you would have sufficient evidence of how great God’s love is.  But, if the truth be told, we are not even scratching the surface yet.  We can’t know the depth of his love until we consider who exactly he loves!  And if you look at what this passage says, you see that it has some of the most unlikely objects.

II. Its unlikely objects

This passage uses 4 words to describe us, and the picture it paints is not a pretty one.  You’ve all heard the expression, “He’s got a face that only a mother could love.”  Well, when you consider what this passage says about us, you wonder, “How could anyone love us, let alone God.”

The first word that we come across is the word “weak.”  The KJV is perhaps a little more accurate as it describes us as being “without strength.”  The idea is that of being impotent.  The word is typically used to describe sick people, or people who are infirm.  In Acts 4 it is used to describe a man who is paralyzed!  These are all people who are so weak they can’t do anything.

What does it mean that we are weak?  For what do we not have any strength?  What is in view is our moral inability.  When it comes to pleasing God we do not have any power to do anything that pleases Him.  We are completely impotent—we are like an ethical paralytic! 

The Bible uses this language to describe how depraved we are in a number of places.  The best reference is in Jeremiah 7:9.  In my version it says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.”  Some other versions say, desperately wicked.  The New International version says beyond cure.  In other words, there is no remedy because the illness is so far gone.  Today we might say it is stage 4 cancer, the deadliest and most severe.

If we think we are good, or have some goodness deep down inside somewhere, we are only kidding ourselves.  That’s why Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all things.  We lie to ourselves and make ourselves out to be more upright than we are and say that we can please God, at least to some degree.

That’s not what the bible says though.  When it comes to pleasing God we are completely impotent. 

The next word that the Bible uses to describe those God loves is ungodly.

Rob and I have been going through Jerry Bridges book, Respectable Sins, a book that deals with the sins we find acceptable.  Before getting into the different sins though, Bridges talks about ungodliness.  He says that we typically think ungodly people are people who extreme sinners.  You know, the kind who are murderers and rapists; people who are open blasphemers and God deniers.  Bridges says that is not necessarily so.  He says a person can be a nice, respectable citizen and still be an ungodly person.

Ungodliness has to do with living your life with little or no thought of God, his will, his glory, or of your constant dependence upon him.  That’s how we were (and are!).  Tell me, how often is God on your mind?  How often do you think about him or pray to him?  I’m sure that the thought of being in his constant presence is relatively rare. 

It is funny if you think about it.  God loves the ungodly.  God loves those who are facing the complete opposite direction.

The next word that is mentioned is found in verse 8.  It is the word sinners.  What is descriptive here?  It is that we are chiefly characterized by that which God finds most offensive.  We have a corrupt nature that we have inherited from Adam.  So we are slaves to sin and under the dominion of sin.  The power of sin is constantly at work so that everything we do is tainted with sin. 

It is a lot like one of those old smokestacks that you would find on an old factory.  It is black within and without.  And all that comes billowing out of it is nothing but the darkest, most putrid smoke.  You look at that smokestack and find it repulsive.  You don’t want to go anywhere near it, let alone have a loving, personal relationship with it.

That’s what God does though.  He loves impotent, ungodly sinners.  The last word that he uses is the word enemies.

The idea here is that of open hostility.  It is not just a rejection of God (what might be seen in the word sinner).  An enemy does more than reject his opponent.  He does more than despise him.  He attacks him.

This is perhaps the ugliest of all the terms used so far.  You could say He goes and saves the worst for last.  The think is that most people don’t see it this way.  To put our relationship with God in these terms, will make a lot of people object.  Nobody thinks that they are God’s enemy.  Everybody thinks the world of God, don’t they?  He’s the big guy in the sky.  If you ask them everybody is always on good terms with God.

The truth of the matter is that the exact opposite is true.  If we could get our hands on God, we’d kill him.  It is as simple as that.  All you have to do is look at what we did to Jesus when he came to earth.  What did we do with him?  We attacked him.  We whipped and beat him.  We crucified him.  We killed him.  We proved that we were God’s enemies.

You see.  God doesn’t love the lovely.  If he did, he wouldn’t love any of us.  He might love the angels and the creation, but he would not even lay an eye on us.  Yet, the love that he loves us with is that grand. 

You might say that the test of true love is what you are willing to love.  I said earlier, mothers are able to love a lot more than most people, aren’t they?  You could be as ugly as sin, and the only person who would love you would be your mother.

Well, the Bible says that we are as ugly as sin. And if our mother could see us as God does, she wouldn’t love us.  But God sees us just how ugly we are and he still loves us.

Hopefully by now you are beginning to see something of how great God’s love for you is.  His love is extravagant and it comes to the most unlikely people.  But we will not really understand how much God loves us if we do not consider the cross.  For the cross is the ultimate proof of his love for us. 

III. Its proof
In verse 8 it says, ‘God demonstrates (or proves) his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

What the Lord shows us here is that his love is not just talk.  His love is more than words.

A woman may question whether or not her husband lovers her.  She might ask him, “Do you love me?”  He can talk about how much he loves her all he wants.  He can describe it in the most eloquent ways, but if he doesn’t ever get out of his Lazyboy and show her that he loves her, what he has is not real love. We all know that talk is cheap.  If he never proves his love, be it by helping with the dishes or going out and getting a job, she will know that he doesn’t really love her. 

We all know that dying for someone is the highest expression of love.  As a matter of fact, Jesus says in the gospel of John, no greater love has anyone than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.  It doesn’t matter if it is the guy in the fox hole who dives on a grenade or the father who takes the place of his child in an execution, those are the chief expressions of love.

The difference here though is that Christ died for those who were unlovable by nature.  Verse 7 points this out.  It says, “Romans 5:7  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.”  In other words, people don’t usually have this kind of love where they are willing to give up their lives for someone.  What’s more is that even in those rare occasions where someone does die for someone else, it is typically for someone who is close to them and it is someone who is worth dying for.  They are outwardly what you might call a “good person.”  They aren’t a profligate of some kind.

Christ’s death is the ultimate expression of love because he died to save those who were in no way appealing to him.  The fact of the matter is, he died to make them appealing!  That’s what it means that Christ died “for us.”  That’s the Bible’s way of saying He gave his life as an atoning sacrifice.  And the rest of the passage fleshes that out:  He died that we might be “saved”.  He died that we might be “reconciled.”  He died that we may be “justified.”  All of these words are pointing to the fact that his death was for the purpose of cleaning up the unclean.

But can you imagine dying for someone Osama bin Laden?  How about a serial rapist?  Would you say to the executioner who is ready to administer the lethal injection, “Wait!  Don’t put the needle in him.  I want to take his place.  I want you to inject the serum into my veins instead.”

I could go on and make the illustration more graphic.  But I would assume even the thought of giving your life for such a person is repulsive to you.  Yet, that is exactly what God did for you.  Christ went to the cross and died in your place.

Conclusion:
Surely, the expanse of God’s love could not have been shown in any greater way.  And when we behold all that is said of God’s love in this passage, we can’t help but confess that it most certainly is an amazing love.

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A gentleman was traveling through England doing a tour of the country.  It was long before automobiles had come on the scene, and he was traveling by a stage coach.  From time to time he would sit atop the coach with the driver.  Once, while he was doing so, he noticed that one of the horses seemed to be shirking his part of the work.  So he said to the driver, “that horse does not seem to pull his share.  The driver replied, “No sir.  He doesn’t pull an inch.”  To this the traveler asked, “Then why do you keep him?”  The driver responded by saying, “This is a four horse drawn coach and he counts as one of them.”

In other words, it was all for show.  This horse was just a pretender.  He may have been part of the team, but he wasn’t fulfilling his calling. 

There is a bit of hypocrisy in that isn’t there?  Something just isn’t right.  There was disconnect—and inconsistency from what he was and what he was doing.

I find in that story something quite instructive for us.  It is often the case that people in the church resemble that horse.  There are a lot of people who come to confess Christ—they come into the church and wish to be part of that team—but when it comes to how they live, it doesn’t match up.  There is a huge inconsistency.  Instead of fulfilling their calling, they shirk their duties before God and coast along as they please.

It is that disconnect that I wish to address today.  We as Christians must recognize that we cannot lead such a double life.  Our job is to press on in the faith, living a robust life of obedience.

Peter tells us as much in this passage.  In verse 17 Peter tells us that we are to “conduct ourselves with fear.”  That is to say, our lives are to be characterized by the reverence for God and loving obedience to his commands.

 And we must do this because our piety, doctrine and salvation demand it.

The temptation we face is to follow our culture in the way they live.  We are immersed in a world that embraces a certain ethical system.   But Peter tells us that we should be on guard against mixing the two.  He says that we can’t be a hybrid of Christian and worldling.  We must be conscious about living a consistently Christian life.  One reason why is because your piety demands it.

I. We must fear God because our piety demands it
Let me read you this verse in a little more abbreviated manner.  The verse starts out by saying, “If you call on him as Father…conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

Now what is this saying?  What were these people doing?  They were being very pious, weren’t they?  They were calling upon God.  That is to say, they were praying to him.  They were invoking his name and engaging in acts of worship, offering up their petitions and supplications.  And we commend them for that.  That’s a great thing.  This is part of what it means to be a Christian.  Part of what pious people do is pray.

But Peter says, “If you are going to pray to God, well then you need to live for God too.  Otherwise you are not being consistent.”  If your piety is only in your lips and not in the rest of your life, then it’s really no piety at all.

A converted cowboy rendered it like this: He said, “Lots of folks that would really like to do right think that serving the Lord means shouting themselves hoarse praising His name.  Now, I’ll tell you how I look at that.  I am working for Jim.  But if I would do nothing but sit around the house here telling what a good fellow Jim is, and singing songs to him, he would not stand for it.  However, if I buckle on my straps and hustle among the hills and see that Jim’s herd is all right, not suffering for water and feed, or being driven off the range and branded by cow thieves, then I am serving Jim as he wants to be served.” 

That’s exactly the way we ought to see our relationship with God.  You can’t just come in here and sing some songs and invoke God’s name and then walk out of here and live as you please.  That is the most absurd thing in the world.

I would even suggest that it’s a rather raunchy thing to do to God.  It is rather presumptuous to come boldly before the throne of grace and tick off your list of the things you want, and then walk away and live as you please.

How would you like it if your kids came up to you and handed you a list of all the things they want from the store, and then walked out on you and never did a single thing you asked them to do.  Really, think about it.  This is what a lot of people do when it comes to their Christian life.  They are like a child that comes up to their father and says, “Dear daddy, you are so wonderful.  You make me so happy.  I’m so fond of you.  Can you get me a bike, and a new dollie, and a set of new tea cups?  Thank you daddy.  I love you.  You are so great.”  They ask for all these things, but they never make their bed or wash the dishes.  They never take the trash out or clean up their toys.  Other than coming to their father to ask for their every desire, they have absolutely no regard for him.

So you see that’s no piety at all.  If you are going to come to God in prayer and present your supplications to him, then you need to give God his due reverence with the rest of your life too.  You need to be consistent because your piety demands it.

But it’s not only because your piety demands it.  The fear of God needs to characterize our lives because our doctrine demands it too.

II. We must fear God because our doctrine demands itYou know why we are such sticklers when it comes to doctrine?  There is perhaps no other church around here that is as picky as us Reformed people are when it comes to the doctrine of God.  We get very uptight about our doctrine.  But do you know why we are so persnickety about such things?  Of course, the main reason is because it’s God.  We want to understand him rightly.  But there’s another reason.  One of the main reasons we are so particular about doctrine is because our doctrine determines the way we live. 

What we believe will affect what we do.  If you embrace certain truths, then your life will be shaped in a certain way.

Last time we were together we learned about the holiness of God.  Now if you believe that God is holy and cannot stand the presence of sin, then that is going to affect your life, isn’t it?  If you understand that God is holy, then you’ll recognize that you need to find some way to get right with him.  He is too pure and he cannot tolerate the least sin. 

I have spoken with people and they do not have a right view of God’s holiness.  And when they come to understand holiness, they will say that if that is true then no one can go to heaven in and of themselves.  And I say, “You’re right!”  That’s why Christ is so essential!  Only he can take away your guilt and make you holy before the Lord.

So doctrine is very important.  It shapes the way you life. 

And in this passage we find another doctrine that is very important to understand.  In verse 17 it says that God is an impartial God who judges each person according to his deeds.

In other words, God never overlooks our wrongs. 

Of course, that’s not what most people today believe.  Most people believe that God is some Grandfather that never takes account of any wrong we do.  There is this twisted belief that God is so loving that he could never judge anyone for their sin.  And this belief affects the way people live.  They go on about their days indulging their flesh all they want.

But you need to recognize that this isn’t so.  God does judge sin.  And if you are here today and you’ve thought that God would never do that, then you need to think again.

And even if you are one who has come to Christ, I want you to recognize what this is saying.  A lot of so called Christians are guilty of this and need to take this to heart.  We have such easy believism today.  It is rampant in the church.  You think that once you come to Jesus all your sins are taken care of and God doesn’t judge them anymore.

This isn’t true.  It is true that once you’ve come to Christ you will not face judgment that leads to condemnation.  You cannot be damned because that judgment has been dealt with on the cross.  But we will continue to be judged.  Christians can be judged by their Heavenly Father in that they will be disciplined for their misdeeds.

Those of us who are fathers do this all the time, do we not?  When our kids start squabbling and acting out, what do we do?  We come in there and we act like a judge, don’t we?  And our kids turn into little lawyers, ready to prosecute the case.  Jonny says, “She started it!”  And little Suzie says, “But he took my dollie.”  They start making their case against each other because they know you are there to be the judge, jury and executioner!

Now when we get to the bottom of it all we divvy out the punishments, don’t we? And whoever is in the wrong gets disciplined.

We will never condemn our kids, but we will discipline them.  Because we love them.

And that’s exactly what God does.  The only difference is that he is the perfect judge.  He never shows partiality like we often do. 

And that’s what we need to remember.  Just because we are his children, we shouldn’t think that we can do anything we want.  We believe that God is our father, but we also believe that he is a father who is fair and holy.  And so we should expect that God will discipline us when we sin against him. 

And if we are experiencing some difficulties in life, we should take some time to examine our lives.  If you ever find yourself in a miserable state, then you might want to ask God if there’s anything in your life that you need to correct.  It might not always be the case that your particular affliction is due to something you’ve done wrong.  But, on the other hand, it might very well be.  God might be using a particular providence to bring you to your senses.  He may very well be disciplining you for the way you are living.

I wish I could tell some stories and give you some examples of this, but I must move on.  Just know for now that your doctrine, just as much as your piety, demands that you live with reverent fear.

And know that your salvation demands it as well.

III. We must fear God because our salvation demands it
Peter tells you that you should conduct yourself with fear.  And he says in verse 18 you should do so because you know something.  You know that you’ve been saved.  And in particular, you know how you were saved.

You were saved by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  That’s what he is getting at when he talks about being ransomed by the precious blood of the lamb.  To be ransomed means that you were purchased by means of a payment.  This was a word often associated with the slave trade.  You would have a slave who would be purchased and then become the property of another.

Here it is saying that a price was paid for you.  And that price was not measured with gold or silver.  This is where the imagery of the lamb comes in.  It is referring back to the Old Testament’s practice of sacrificing lambs, shedding their blood to signify the death that was due to you for sin.

In essence Peter says, how can you not give God his due homage when he has shed the blood of his own son on your behalf?

But not only do you know how you were saved, but you know what you were saved from!

Peter says you were ransomed from “the futile ways you inherited from your forefathers.”  In other words, before you came to Christ your life was characterized by emptiness.  You lived your life and you lived it how you pleased, but it was all meaningless.  It wasn’t until you came to Christ that you felt like you had purpose and meaning in your life.

Now Peter says, how can you return to that former way of life?  Why would you want to return to the vanity and futility of that life?  You’ve been rescued from all that pointless living and given so much more.

And on top of all that, think about who you were saved by.

I do not have time to go into all that is said in verses 20-21.  As I’ve said before, Peter knows how to pack a lot in a couple of sentences.  But in these two verses he gives a complete summary of Christ’s person and work.  He was “foreknown before the foundation of the world.”  In other words, he is the eternal Son of God who has always existed and does not have a beginning like we do.  But he is also the one who was “manifested in the last times”, that’s talking about his incarnation—that humiliating act where he put on moral flesh. 

Then, of course, he was raised from the dead.  In this act He proved himself to be the Son of God and went to take his seat on high.  And in doing so he gave you hope for eternal life, that where he is, you will one day be.  All this is said of Christ to remind you of how much he loved you.

A mother once asked her child, “How much do you love me?”  The little child was at first puzzled on how he should answer such a question.  As he thought, he gazed out his window to the cloudless night.  Then he said, “I love you all the way to the stars and back again.”

Do you think the mother was charmed?  Of course she would have been.  Which one of you wouldn’t be?  But this is nothing compared to the love of Jesus.  God’s love for you reached from the stars of heaven down to this earth, and then back again.

When you think about Christ, the one by whom you were saved, how could you not be moved to love him in return with reverent fear?  I say that you salvation demands it.  It would be so inconsistent if you didn’t.

Conclusion:
I forget the team, but I remember hearing how there was a professional basketball team that was required to put on professional dress when they traveled to an away game.  Before they boarded the plane they had to have a suit and tie.  They were even required to carry briefcases.  There wasn’t anything in the briefcases, maybe some magazines to read on the plane, but nothing significant.

Why did the coach require that?  It was all about consistency. 

He knew that the way they played on the basketball court would be determined by everything that led up to the game.  He wanted them to have precision as they played and demonstrate the fact that they were professional athletes.  So he required them to wear the proper attire and act with the same degree of professionalism before hand.

We are called to do the same.  The way our lives play out in the world ought to be consistent with every other part of our lives.  If we dress ourselves in the garb of piety, then we ought to reflect that piety in the way we live.  If we carry a certain doctrine, our live must demonstrate the fact that we do.  And our lives should be harmonize with the great salvation we enjoy.

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