1 Peter 2:11-25

Duration: 1hr 12min
1 Peter 2:11‑25
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First Peter chapter 2 and verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works.
Which they shall behold. Glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king is supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness.
But as the servants of God, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. For this is thank worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what is it? What glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?
But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin.
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Neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed, For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
That is so different from most of the rest of the world.
And Christians now have the attitude, Christians just about everywhere have the attitude that we're to get involved in the politics and voting and military and all these things that I belong to the world.
It says in verse 13, verse 11 First, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, they have to remember that we don't belong here. We're not of the world. We belong to another world altogether. The Lord Jesus said if he were of the world, My servants would fight, but my Kingdom is not of this world. My servants would fight if it were. He belongs to another scene. He never.
He never was engaged with trying to set things right down here.
There's many other many instances in that. I'll just turn to one. In Acts chapter five, he was Peter, same wrong, same author of the of the epistle we're looking at.
It says in a second Acts 5.
Verse 25 Then came one, and told them, saying, Behold the men whom ye put in prison.
Are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people as they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold thee have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring.
This man's blood upon us. Now notice Peter's response. Then Peter and the other apostles. The other apostles with Peter answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men.
The authorities that we're to be subject to, as it says in verse 13 of our chapter, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be to the King of Supreme and so on, as long as they do not.
Invade our territory. We're not of this world. We're here to present Christ to those that don't know Him and if the authorities command us or tell us.
To do that we have to obey God rather than men. It's our responsibility to God goes beyond that to men. Otherwise we should submit to the authorities as long as it doesn't infringe upon what the Lord has called us to where pilgrims and strangers here and we might say to someone that was trying to stop us. I remember stopping on the street one day with my PA system going.
And I was, I was preaching to the those in that neighborhood. And the policeman came along and said stop that. And.
I said, just a minute, I'm not quite through. And I kept going. And he said, I said stop it. And he was quite angry. He had been called by some of the neighborhood to tell me to stop. Well, I did stop at that time. But these are illustrations there are even in our country.
It's getting to the point where to pass out Christian literature or to preach the gospel is is going to even be more and more difficult now. A country like like Cuba, they stopped the brethren from meeting together.
00:10:19
I don't know what I would do. It is a difficult thing. We have to pray for them, but we ought to obey God rather than men. And where two or three are gathered together into my name, there am I in the midst of them. And that's what that's what we ought to do. We ought to gather around himself. If that brings persecution to us, so, so be it. We're strangers and pilgrims here. And the the attitude of most American.
Christians, I've said this. I said the real Christians, I find a lot of them in the nursing home where Laverne is, they're real Christians. Say there's, I'd say about 80 to 90% of the Americans who are real good. I'm talking about real believers. They really don't understand what Christianity is all about.
They really don't. They think that we're down here to set the world right. We know we can't do that. We're down here to vote the right man in and all that. The right, I always say. They ask me if I voted. I say yes, I voted once and my man's in and I'm waiting for him to come out. Now that's a good answer. That's a Christian position. But to vote, who are you going to vote for? They're all on some politician.
Well, to mix politics and all that kind of thing with true Christianity, it's not being done any longer, is it? Go ahead. You were going to interrupt me. I just wanted to make a comment that we, we have a Lord to please, don't we?
That's greater than what man has set up.
Really the spirit of the age, the spirit of really the children of Israel was reflects the flesh and that is that they wouldn't submit they wouldn't submit to the government of God. Even I was thinking of enjoyed myself and Jeremiah chapter 41 you know it says that I'll just read it in verse 16. Jeremiah 41 Then took Johann in the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people.
Whom he had recovered from Ishmael, the son of Nathan Ayah from Mispa, after he had slain, get Eliyah the son of a high come even mighty men of war. And the women and children and the eunuchs whom he had brought again from Gibeon. And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chim Ham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt because of the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of them. And so they didn't want to submit. You know, the city of Jerusalem had been taken and.
In chapter 39 of Jeremiah and the Chaldeans, had the Babylonians had set up a king or had set up a governor in that city, and now there was a Gentile power, the Gentiles. The time of the Gentiles had begun and the Jews were going to have to submit to the Gentile power. And they didn't like to be the tale. They wanted to be the head and they wouldn't submit. They wouldn't submit. And there was, they were characterized as a nation of rebellion and insurrection.
But now Peter speaks to them and he says, you know, there's a little interval now, the Lord.
Has gone up into the glory. We're waiting for him, as it were, and we're strangers and pilgrims and there's going to be judgment come in second, Peter. It goes over that and says there's going to be an end of all this and the Lord Jesus will reign over all. But he says in the meantime, while we wait in the wilderness scene, the characteristic of the believer ought to be submission. We live in a world not characterized by submission. It's characterized by rebellion.
Subordination, civil disobedience. But the believer, as he walks through this scene and is characterized by the very life of Christ, he submits to the Gentile power and to the power, the authorities that are ordained of God, and he walks in quietness and obedience and submission. And he reflects the life of Christ during this interval just before the Lord Jesus is to come. And so as we read this, we see that he's instructing them in that way.
That they would not identify themselves with the character of the nation in rebellion, but with Christ himself.
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Significance was here.
He didn't say anything about disobeying. He says we ought to obey a higher authority, but to obey God rather than men. So it might seem to them as though we're disobeying their rules. We are obeying a higher authority.
To a higher court. And that's why when they tried to stop the apostles from preaching in the Acts, they appealed to a higher authority because they had had a Commission from the Lord himself to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And no lower court, if I can put it that way, no lower authority could undermine what had been given to them by the Lord himself. But I want to just before we pass on notice this expression we began with.
Strangers and pilgrims turn to Hebrews. It's the other Hebrews. 11 is the other time when you get this expression, and I think we ought not to pass over it.
He's talking about the patriarchs here, and in verse 13 of Hebrews 11, he says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but they but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. It's interesting that this expression is not pilgrims and strangers, but strangers and pilgrims.
God doesn't just list things haphazardly. There's a reason why on both occasions he put strangers before pilgrims because a stranger is one who doesn't belong. And brethren, the first thing we need to realize is has been brought out in these meetings previous. We do not belong to this world. We are a heavenly people. The only thing that connects us with this world is the fact that we're still here physically in this world.
But you and I are a heavenly people. Our citizenship, our Commonwealth is in heaven from whence we wait for the sake look for the Savior. And so the first thing we need to realize is that we are strangers here. We don't belong.
And if we can get a hold of that in our souls, it will give us the character of a Pilgrim or a sojourner, because a Pilgrim or a sojourner is one who's just passing through. Now, let me illustrate it this way as a Canadian citizen, when I stand at an immigration desk, a US immigration desk.
The first question they asked me is what's your citizenship? And I tell them I'm a Canadian. I'm immediately recognized as a stranger. And the next question they ask is how long are you going to be in the United States? Because recognizing that I'm a stranger here, they also recognize that I'm just passing through. And they want me to realize that I'm not welcome to live here under those conditions. I'm only welcome to travel through.
For a certain period of time. And so again, brethren, we need to realize first of all that we're strangers. We don't belong.
And if we realize that, it's going to give us the proper character of those who are just passing through. What would you think if I came into the United States as a Canadian citizen and tried to show up at a polling station on Election Day? Why they laugh at me. They say, why? You have no right. What if I tried to run for political office or even got involved in some of the lobbying and the wranglings of the United States of America and all those kinds of things? Why they run me out of the country. They say you have no business.
You're a Canadian citizen. But suppose I take up, I decide to take up Canadian American citizenship and I apply and I get the proper papers and in due process I become an American citizen. Well, when I show up at the immigration desk now and they see I'm an American citizen coming into the States, they don't ask me how long I'm going to stay because I'm a citizen now. I have the right to live here. And brethren, why is it so often we settle down?
In this world, and we become involved in things that we ought not to become involved in. I say again, it's because we don't realize that we're strangers. We've lost the sense of our heavenly citizenship and we lose the sense of being a Pilgrim.
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Is the same word as foreigners. It's really the same thought. And so a foreigner, like you say, has no right in the politics of a particular country he may be passing through. I think it's good to realize, brethren, the reason why there has been such a swing in Christians to participate in politics is because of a very fundamental change in teaching.
Christian doctrine, sometimes it's been mentioned that it's what is called covenant theology. And in covenant theology, no distinction is made between Israel and the church. They will say that Israel in the Old Testament was the church in the in the New Testament, the church is Israel. And so as you go back to the Old Testament and see faithful men of God like Daniel and like Joseph, they were involved in high positions in.
In government, but it's under dispensational teaching that we distinguish that Israel was an earthly people connected with this world and very involved in what happened in warfare and all that went with it. But when we come to the New Testament, we find that the church is a heavenly people. And we down here, even though I carry an American passport.
Still, I am a citizen of another country, and as acting as a Christian, I pass through, I respect the laws of the land, and I submit myself. But there are times, as Chuck has pointed out, that there may be when the authorities demand something from me that I cannot obey in my submission to the higher authority, which is God. And that's where we have to.
Say we must obey God rather than men. And I agree with what's been said and I think I want to emphasize it, that the Christians position is always submission, never rebellion to authority. Daniels three friends were commended by the highest authority in the Babylonian authority to bow down to that image.
A higher authority had said.
Thou shalt not make any image. Thou shalt not bow down to it. And so they submitted to the higher authority and they took the consequences. They got thrown into the fiery furnace, and God came in and delivered them. But I think that's where we have to be clear in our position as we pass through this world. It's always one of submission, the idea of civil disobedience.
Is not scriptural. Thank God for the liberties we enjoy in this country. But let's keep clear before us our position as strangers and pilgrims. I really believe it's important to see many Christians today are doing what is consistent with the teaching they're getting and covenant theology in getting involved in politics. But it's not the right teaching. That's the point that we need to understand.
And that's not true Christianity. No, I'm just to read a couple verses in Deuteronomy 20. This is to Israel. Now when thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and see his horses and Chariots, and the people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. How many Americans believe that the Lord is with?
Our soldiers.
And not the others.
That's, that's, that's a denial of Christianity. We're not here to kill anyone, unless of course, it's it's, it's it's really, it's a really under misunderstanding of the Bible, isn't it? It's this covenant theology that would say, well, there it is. It says the Lord says he'd be with them. But that's, that's a different dispensation and dispensational truth.
Is being rejected by people like that. And if you don't understand it, you'll miss apply scripture. Bill Prost has written a good little pamphlet. It's just available out there reading. And I think it's it's something that we need to be aware of because we get asked these questions and when they say when we say we don't get involved in politics, they really look down at us and we need to know why we don't get involved in politics. There is a reason why.
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There is a very clear reason why. So you young people be clear in that, in your own soul. It's important. But we had in our in the open meeting, we had those passages where he says we are not of the world now. If we're not of this world, we we're not.
To set aside God's authority in order to obey man's authority.
And that connection you mentioned, how we have another country, we're of another world. And the portion I read earlier in the book of Hebrews, the reason that they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims is because they had another world in view. They looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. They looked for another country. That's why they didn't return to the country that they'd been called out of. They could have, but they looked for another country, a better country.
And brethren, I believe if we lose sight of the fact that we're on our way home to glory, we have a better country, we have a better calling and hope before us than just the betterment of things down here.
But the great difficulty is that the enemy has been successful in undermining the truth of the Lord's coming.
The truth and it's mixed with the rapture. The truth of the rapture has been mixed with the truth of the Lord's appearing and all this kind of thing.
And we lose sight of the fact that we're heading for a better country, brethren, perhaps this morning we're going to exchange this world, being physically in this world for that country where our citizenship is. I'm looking forward to getting on a flight tomorrow and flying back to Canada. Why? Because that's where my home is, that I'm a citizen of Canada. And that's where my wife and family is. And I'm looking forward to it. You say, why do you want to leave the States? Haven't you been comfortable here? We have been comfortable here. We've enjoyed this happy weekend.
But I'm a foreigner in the States. I'm just using that as an illustration. And brethren, and we could just realize that we're foreigners here. Thank God we have many mercies. Thank God we have liberty to meet here today without fear of harassment from the government. We've enjoyed many temporal mercies during this weekend, and we don't want to despise those mercies. But brethren, let's be careful that those things don't cloud the fact that we are looking for a better country.
What we've been seeing here is a passage that Peter has laid down a truth right before he changed his topic. In verse 13 he changes his topic and the topic is about the believers responsibility to other people.
And that topic continues all the way through chapter 4 before he changes his topic in chapter 5. The topic, the theme that the epistle is written about, is about the sufferings of Christians and the sufferings that we will go through while we are here on this scene here below.
And when he's going to show us a responsibility to other people, he wants to lay down the truth that we have the higher authorities that our brothers have been talking about. He wants to lay down the truth that we are from another world, not from here, and that we have another home. And there is one that is above the responsibility that we have to other peoples here on this earth. And if you turn over to chapter 4 where I read, I finished with verse 11.
Read the words in verse 12 together in chapter 4, verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning fiery trials when it has come to tempt numbers to test you as though some strange thing happened unto you. He is saying we are all in the same boat. I'm a fisherman and I like to use examples of fishing and we are all in the same boat. Don't think it's strange when it happens to you. You're not going to say, Oh my Lord, why did this apartment see it happened? Nobody else.
Because I want to tell you there is elders and other ones that have gone through as many fiery trials have you had and I've had and there's going to be a lot more and we're going to go through them. And there's no strange thing. We're all in that same boat. So let's get it straight. We've got one that is higher, one that is above US1 That knows our our affirmities. And his teachings in this little epistle is about the sufferings. And he's trying to lay down this truth right before he switches the topic to our responsibility, other people to let us know.
That going into this other topic, we have one that is above all others and He is there for us through the sufferings. That's why he touches on little topics before he goes into the vicarious sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 21 Through the end of the chapter, it is about the Lord that suffered first. How else can we be taught if we cannot look at the sufferings of Christ first before He talks to us about our sufferings individually?
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We have to remember that in those times, governments were Pagan. We live in a country where Christian principles has had a large influence and thankfully we have a lot of liberty in this country. But when there's Pagan governments, Sunday was not a special day to them and it's not in Muslim countries today either. So to meet on the Lord's Day.
They'd have to do it at night when they were free and so there comes times when there's going to be suffering, let's say.
Reality in the world that we live suffering and even Christ as you were mentioning.
Suffered for us, leaving us an example. We're going to have to suffer, brethren, This world is not our home. This place is under the power of the enemy. Satan is the God and Prince of this world and we're not going to go through unscathed. We're going to have to suffer. But I think it is really beautiful to see this question of submission. It runs through the epistle submission to.
Every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake, even the Lord Jesus, showed that submission.
Was it just that Pilate condemned him to death? Absolutely. The worst travesty of justice that was ever committed.
Did he submit to that? Yes, he did. He did not open his mouth in his own defense.
What an example for us, brethren, and the blessing that resulted from him submitting.
Committing himself to him that judges righteously.
Things are going to happen in our lives that are not right. Are we going to be able to take it? That's the question. And if we submit and commit ourselves to him that judges righteously, the blessing is going to be tremendous, brethren. But just notice in a brief way, I'd like to mention it, brethren, in chapter three he goes on, he says verse one. Likewise, ye wives, being subjection to your own husbands.
There's the question of submission, verse 5. After this manner, in the old times, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands. There's God-given authority in the home sphere. Then towards the end of that chapter it speaks of the Lord Jesus and the end of verse 21.
Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God.
Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Not wonderful to realize that the Lord Jesus is there at God's right hand and behind the scenes He is there in every authority is subject to Him.
Then you go over to the fifth chapter and the talking about those who are elders in the assembly sphere, and he says to in verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yeah, all of you be subject 1 to another. Have that spirit of submission to the authority that God has said in whatever sphere it may be.
I think it is beautiful to see it in this epistle.
Verse 11, where we started the 1St 2 words are dearly beloved. Those two words introduced the.
Exhortations of this letter prior to this verse we have in the first chapter up until chapter 2 and verse 10 we have the teaching that Peter is giving us and to connect it with what we had yesterday. Going back to chapter one and verse three, it says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a living.
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Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We were by the working of God.
Brought from the position that we had previously been in into a living relationship through, as we had yesterday, the working of the Word of God to produce new life in US and to the living stone, the Lord Jesus and ourselves being brought as living stones into that spiritual house.
The picture that Peter is presenting to us in the first chapter and up until this point.
In the Old Testament view of it is takes us from the Passover. We have in chapter one the precious blood that is shed and it takes the Passover and applies it. And then we have in picture form in Peter when he's bringing the stage, if you will, setting the picture for us. He brings us through the Red Sea and in the Red Sea we have the enemies.
Conquered, we have a deliverer who has delivered us from the power.
Of Satan, the world and the flesh. And the consequence then brings us into the wilderness.
With a bright and blessed, great and precious promises are given to us, as they were to Israel when it left Egypt and started on its journey to the land of promise. And Peter's epistle is the earthly side of truth, in contrast to Paul's which take up the heavenly side. And in Peter we see ourselves taking that journey to.
Enjoy and enter into the land of our promises. And so we're we're on the way.
And what we have now in the exhortations.
Is those things which we need to know and need to act on in order to make it safely across the desert to the land of our promise. One of the chief things we have to have is the what we see in this epistle concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. In all 5 chapters his sufferings are brought before us, and in this chapter later down in Mr. Darby's translation, he set before us as a model.
Or in King James it says example. The Lord Jesus is presented to us here as the perfect model for the path that we have to take. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, it was a desert to his soul, but he passed through it as a man.
And in Luke's gospel particularly, we see the Lord Jesus taking the journey.
That we're on now because of this being born again. We enter into that journey and the Lord Jesus is presented to us, particularly in Luke as the perfect model for the pathway through the journey. He didn't enter into Adams world or was in was in the world then, but he he didn't enter into the condition of things in which Adam was founded in innocence, but the Lord Jesus entered into a condition of things where sin reigns.
And where Satan had his power and he walked as a man should walk through it to the other end of such a journey. And the Lord Jesus, and I want to emphasize this, brethren, because we spent a lot of time talking about, and not wrongly so, submission.
But the bigger picture of it and Peter is this.
God makes us take this journey.
In his governmental ways with us. And the greatest point of submission for all of us is first and foremost submission to the government of God in our own personal lives. And all these examples that are given to us are based upon that as an underlying truth. Do I submit to government? Yes, but I submit to the higher authority even in that, and that is to God's authority.
Every chapter has to do with suffering and there was suffering for the children of Israel and just to take a moment to see the picture of it and connect it with the Lord Jesus. If you go back to Numbers chapter 14, I believe it is before they started on this, really got into the journey through the wilderness. They went up into the land of promise and they were there 40 days.
00:40:21
And they came back.
And the purposes of God, His desire for them was to go right into the land. And if you go to Hebrews 11 and you see the examples of faith given in the life of Moses, the desert, the wilderness, Peters epistle is totally missing with respect to Moses. They had the Passover and they enter in immediately in what's given there into Canaan.
But.
The spies went up and they were up there 40 days and they got a taste of the land. They got to see it, they got to see the promises of it, they got to enjoy it. Every one of us who belonged to the Lord Jesus here this morning have a taste of the land.
Some more, some less.
But then they went back, and in Caleb and Joshua's case, there was faith to interim immediately, but for the rest, there was a working still of unbelief in their hearts. And the Lord said to them, for every day that you got to see the land, you're going to spend a year in the wilderness.
And many of us are in our lives, in fact, all of us in some measure, I believe in our lives, have to pass through the wilderness experience.
That we might practically learn the truths instead of just saying, well, let's get right into the land. We are in the world, we're in the wilderness and we're in the land altogether really. But in the picture that Peter gives us, we're, we're in the wilderness part of the journey. And brethren, all of us in one sense or another are having to learn the government of God in our lives.
And we are learning the wilderness experience, even though we enjoy.
The land to take what's said here in this 11Th and 12Th verses, there's two things brought out initially and immediately. The 1St is what is it? It says in verse 11, abstain from freshly lost which war against the salt. All of us are going to leave this building sometime today. And the number one difficulty in the wilderness experience is not going to be government. It's not going to be our neighbor. It's not going to be our brethren.
It's going to be the right inside us.
We're going to walk out of this room with flesh in US, and it's the greatest enemy of our souls in the wilderness path through which we have to experience.
But the model, the example, the perfect pattern even in that we might say, well, the Lord Jesus, he didn't have the flesh in him, so he didn't have that.
Not that's not the point, brethren. The perfect example is to go back to the manna we need every day, and that is the Lord Jesus as that man passing through this world. He's the he's the manna. He's the food we have. Are you tempted? Yes, you're going to be. If not, when you leave this building, what is the answer to it? You go back to Luke's Gospel, chapter 4 and you read the temptations through which the Lord passed yesterday. We were talking about the Word of God.
In all three temptations, what did he use?
It is written. It is written. He's the perfect example of what is necessary to pass through temptation.
Just much more that could be said, but just this one more point and stop to give room for others and that is.
How can you ever deal with temptation?
Say this.
The foundation Peter's given you. You have the life of Christ.
And Satan has no entry point to that life.
And if I am walking in that life by the power of the Spirit, there is no point of entrance.
00:45:04
By Satan to draw one out of that path and to have a point to get at. It's the flesh, it's the old man, it's that which was to put aside. It is not understanding the truth of deliverance is given in Romans and so on that are hindrances. They're hindrances, yes, they're things to learn, yes, but the Lord Jesus is the perfect pattern and God says you have that life.
You have what you need to resist.
That old flesh that wars against the soul. And so we have to feed on the Lord as that manna. We have to just Brother Armstead Barry, Many, many years ago I was in a meeting like this when I was the same age as the young people that were here. And I was flabbergasted really, but appreciated. Ever since there was an old man. He'd been on the journey for 60 or 70 years in faith. And he said, brethren, I read the Gospels every day.
I read in the gospels every day.
I thought, oh, he'd be in Malachi or Micah or some fine point of Ezekiel at that point in his life. But no. Every one of us, whether we're 5 or 50 or 95, we have to have the man up.
And when he got into the Gospels, he was particularly feeding on the manna. You need whatever your age. I need that word, living word for my soul today. That is that which will preserve me from first of all, what's without, which is what's? What's was within which is given 1St, and then that which is without the conversation among the Gentiles.
I have to say this.
I'm going to get into trouble by saying it, but I have to say it. Kids were playing in the they were in the car and they said that daddy.
What we're supposed to do, what you tell us to do, Right. We're supposed to obey you, right? Yes. Yes.
Well.
Answer me this. I have trouble with this. That sign at the side of the road says 60 miles an hour.
And your speedometer reads 70.
Aren't you supposed to do what that sign says?
Answer the question.
Guilty.
It's a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious.
We're all sinners.
Never you never need a radar if you were more attentive to the speedometer. I recently retook because I'm older my exam for extension of my drivers license and I just I came to one point below what one more point against me and then she wouldn't have given me my driver's license and one of the reasons was because.
When I came to a stop sign I didn't stop completely and one time I was having my car fixed.
Is supposed to stop completely. By the way, I know a brother. He just coasts through the intersection. He never stops unless there's traffic. Anyway, I was sitting outside waiting for my car to get fixed and I said I'm going to look at this intersection and there were police cars and all kinds of not just regular cars, they would just come to the corner and then keep going.
Are you guilty?
Sure, we're guilty of doing those things so.
I, when I leave the nursing home, I, I don't even look at the car speedometer and I'm traveling and it's 70 miles an hour. And right away I, I reduce it and go down to 55, which is where I'm supposed to be. But I didn't do that on purpose. I just wasn't aware of how fast I was going. But there's, there's a lot of things of that nature.
In our lives and we are examples to our children.
And how? How are we doing?
Earlier during our meeting, the brother.
Read a short passage and prayed about some that are falling away. And in our teachings here today and in what we just got done here in a little bit ago is that we remain steadfast.
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Steadfast through the times of suffering and through our scene here below through a journey remaining steadfast for our Lord.
And that is what is taught by Peter in the epistle, that we remain steadfast, but we have to have one thing.
That we can look unto. We have to have in view. And that is the hope that lies ahead. We have to be able to look at a resurrected.
Savior, a resurrected Redeemer, one that has purchased this and rose from the grave. And we have a hope that lies ahead, don't we? An eternal hope that maintains us and helps us to sustain through this journey. Here below, we have to be able to look up.
Faith always has an option and a hope before it, and in Hebrews Chapter 11 again we find that those who gave up present advantage, even to the point of suffering in various ways, did it because they had something better in view. When the children of Israel were very shortly in the wilderness, they began to murmur and complain because they looked at the present circumstance and they looked back toward Egypt. Thank God they never got back there. In their hearts they returned into Egypt.
But thank God, positionally, they never got back. But you and I, if we return into Egypt in our hearts, we're going to settle down. We're going to get discouraged. And what was the remedy in the 15th chapter of Exodus? Well, the Lord told Moses to tell the people to turn around. They were looking in the wrong direction. And when they turned around and looked out over the wilderness, what did they see? They saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud. And with that, before their souls, they could press on.
And brethren, if we lose sight of, as Bill said, of what is ahead, if we lose sight of the glory, we're going to get discouraged in this wilderness world. If we only look at present circumstances, we're going to murmur and complain. But the difficulty is, and I'm afraid there's a great deal of teaching afoot today, even in Christian circles, that would teach us to settle down here and look for ease and comfort and better things down here.
When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said all day that will live godly in Christ, Jesus shall suffer persecution. I just want to say a word about persecution. It's not that we go out and look for opportunities to suffer.
But in the measure in which you and I walk as strangers and pilgrims and in the heavenly character of a believer, and reflects something of Christ in our life, there will be plenty of opportunities to suffer. But you say, well, I've never had to suffer the way Paul did. Paul said in every city, bonds and afflictions. You say, I've never had to suffer like that. I've never had to suffer the way some of our brethren are suffering this very day.
In other countries. But could I just suggest that in the measure in which you and I.
Live for Christ and walk us heavenly citizens. There are two ways we will suffer. We may suffer physically. Many of our brethren even today, as I say, are suffering physically for their testimony for Christ. But if we're not called on to suffer physically, brethren, we will suffer in the measure of reproach.
Because this world still hates Christ. There's still a reproach connected with following not a popular Christ. Brethren, the heart of this world, and don't fool yourself with all the culture of this world, the heart of this world has not changed toward Christ. If Christ came back today in loneliness and grace the way He came the first time, they'd nail him to a cross again if they could. Thank God He isn't coming back in that way. He'll come back.
In power and glory, wearing many diadems and assert his rights. But the heart of this world toward the person of Christ has not changed. And the heart of this world toward a Christian who lives godly, you'll find hasn't changed. Either you will suffer, or maybe they won't take you in North America and throw you in prison. Maybe they won't beat you up or stone you or rough you up on the street for preaching the gospel or giving out a gospel track. But there will be a reproach. You'll feel a reproach connected with it. Now, brethren.
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As a heavenly people, are we looking for acceptance in this world? The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they've hated me, they will hate you also. They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.
But are we trying to fit in, brethren? Are we trying to just slip through without the reproach and persecution, suffering that is promised to a true godly Christian? And that Christ suffered and left us an example. He left us an example that we should follow in his steps. And what's that example? That if we walk through this world in the proper character of a believer, of a follower of Christ, we are going to suffer no less than he did.
Like to connect the will of God with what we're talking about in chapter one and it's verse three, it says the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have begotten us again unto a living hope. There's five who are kept by the power of God through faith. Those things we enjoy that we are called of God to a living hope that we are.
Kept by God to take us all the way safely to the end of the journey. But it's important in the matter of suffering to also recognize that it is also according to the will of God. Notice our chapter and it says in verse 13, I'm just going to get praises out of the verses. You can see where I'm at for the Lord's sake.
Verse 15 It is the will of God.
Verse 19 for conscience toward God.
Verse 21 For Christ also suffered.
The point, brethren, is that it is according to the governmental ways of God for our good, and all things are working for our good, that there be suffering.
In his ways with us, the Lord Jesus as a man suffered and he suffered according to the will of God. He suffered as a righteous man in an unrighteous world and a lot of the suffering in Peter is connected with that. Righteousness suffers today and consequently. And God also sees when there's a needs be due to unbelief in our hearts, that he brings suffering into our lives to teach us something that is good.
So while I may accept, if you will, suffering from fellow man.
But when I get sick, do I say thanks Lord?
It's according to the will of God that I do so if I see difficulty and it comes into the life of one of my children and their suffering connected with it.
Do I say it's according to the will of God and accept it in his hand?
Many of the greater trials of life are not from with situations from the world and without as much as that is there.
And as much as the world hates Christ, he also the world hates Christ displayed in US.
But the pattern is the Lord Jesus own life and how he dealt with suffering that he experienced personally.
And there's one more thing just to emphasize connected with it. When Peter's exhorting, he's he says brother and love one another, love one another with a pure heart, fervently one of the great helps we can be to one another.
In the journey through the wilderness is an unfeigned love for each other is a heart that goes out to one another and says, brother, we're on the journey together and I know you're suffering and my heart goes out to you. And Peter emphasizes that he he wants and the Lord Jesus valued it.
And showed it.
The disciples that he took the journey with in the last 3 1/2 years of his life, He valued their love as we can, as as it was, and they were lavished every day of their life with his love for them as they took. If you will, ye are they which have continued with me, he says to them. And if there's any one thing we can be to be a help to one another as we together.
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You know you can't.
Thinking of it earlier, we talked about separations and all those things. Imagine if some of the children of Israel said, well, we'll go off and finish the journey by ourselves.
Yeah, that doesn't work.
That doesn't work. We need to stay together, to take the journey together and to show the love in a practical sense, one to the other that the Lord showed as part of our help to to take us to the end.
You mentioned it's Luke 2228, and I believe that it's emphasized to see what the new translation says, though I'm saying that from memory, ye are they which have persevered with me. Just think not, not just continued. You could say, well, they just kind of lagged behind, but ye are they which have persevered with me in my temptations.
What a statement from the blessed Lord.
Epistle to James James Road count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations chapter one verse two. He did not pen the words counted all joy if you fall into divers temptations. Did he have various trials that we have that goes back to the same thought about we're all in the same boat. Don't think it's strange and I know that the topics there are trials and different things, but here we have a passage, don't we, that we are all going to pass through.
Sufferings. But we have that beautiful hope that lies ahead of us to guide us through these sufferings on this scene here below.
I'd like to mention one first.
In the fourth chapter of Peter, First Peter.
13th verse.
But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ suffering.
That when His glory shall be revealed, he may be glad also with exceeding joy.
There's another thread that you might look at through this chapter. It's.
Good works. Notice that, brethren, in verse 12.
Whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they might by may, by your good works they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
That's first Peter 2.
And then verse 14 at the end says for the praise of them that do well.
Verse 15 Foresaw is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Verse.
20 What glory is it when you be buffeted for your faults? You take it patiently, but if ye. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you shall take it patiently. This is acceptable unto God. So let's there might be suffering because of a refusal of.
Recognition of the Lord Jesus in our lives.
By people that we are passing amongst. But let's go a step further, brethren, and be occupied with, well doing. There's a lot to be occupied with and I just want to encourage the younger folks as well as we who are older to be occupied with doing good works. We're not saved by good works, but we are saved to work good works.
And it's what the way that people recognize believers in the Lord Jesus is by that means. So be occupied. If you think, well, what can I do? Ask the Lord. There's a lot of things that young people can do to be occupied with gospel work. I really want to encourage you to get involved in it because it's a blessing to your own soul not to be self-centered thinking of yourself.
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Think of doing something for others. It'll be a blessing to you.
That's connected with and just go back to what comment that Brother Jeff made yesterday with respect to good works and verse nine. It says your chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you might show forth the praises or you can notice the new translation, the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness unto his marvelous light that is.
The Lord Jesus life here on earth as a man passing through the wilderness was characterized by going about doing good works, and now he's called a nation of people to himself who also are to reflect his character in the world.
And so when a Christian goes about doing good works and properly associates that with his identity as part of that peculiar people, the people of God, then it's a showing forth of the excellencies of the one who is the living stone. And consequently it is to his glory. If it's done in the right way, it is to his glory, and it is.
A Kingly.
Royal priesthood service for him to this world and it's a wonderful and blessed privilege. And so Peter then, as Bob shows these verses brings out the different examples of doing that showing forth in that way the excellencies of him Christ.
You've spoken of boils down to living in view of eternity, doesn't it View in view of another world. I'll just quickly tell this little story that I've enjoyed and I thought of it during this meeting as we spoke of these things. John Wesley, who gave up so much to serve the Lord and preach the gospel. He was passing one of the great Manor houses of England and he stopped to admire the grounds of that house and the gardener offered to show him through the grounds and some of the.
Parts of that beautiful home. And when the tour was over, he said to the gardener, he said I too have a liking for these things, but there is another world and brethren, there is another world. And whether it's our good works, whether it's suffering, whether it's submission, whatever it is, I believe what sets things in the proper perspective is to live in view of the fact that there is another world that you and I already belong to.
In Paul's ministry, we're already seated there.
In Peters ministry, we're in the wilderness on our way there. But brethren, if we lose view of that sight of that, we're not going to confess that we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
So.