In Psalm 34, we hear from David, prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus and also a constant reminder to our spiritual lives from the hymn book of Israel. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear it and rejoice. Now magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. David calling to the audience, whoever's listening, let's glorify God. And then he gets autobiographical. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Then he talks about others. They looked to him and were radiant and their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear him and rescues them. I want you to notice the theme in Psalm 34 is the fear of the Lord. The heart of the believer who is fearing the Lord is at issue for the relationship and the benefits described here, the angel of the Lord camping around us. And then the great challenge, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. For to those who fear him, there is no want. Notice he's talking to believers, set apart ones. That's what saint means. And he's telling us to fear the Lord. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Come you children, listen to me. I will teach you. the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days, that he may see good. This is a great method to teach children to hear what he just did. Come here and listen, children, I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. And then he asks a rhetorical question, who is it? who desires life and loves days that he may see good. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. See the avoidance of personal sin, the embrace of personal righteousness, not self-righteousness, but walking before God with God, his character and view. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears, listen, are to their cry. The ears of the Lord are attentive to their prayers is what that means. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. I want you to notice the contrast. The righteous and the wicked, the wise and the fool, the one who fears the Lord and the one who doesn't, and the one whose prayers are heard and the one who has God's face against you, the wicked. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. And we could translate that the righteous one. But the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. But the Lord redeems the soul of his servants and none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned." So many of the great Psalms and in the Psalter on wisdom like this are simple presentations of the righteous path and the wicked path, the wise path and the foolish path, the right way and the wrong way. And I want you to hear Nothing has changed between the age of Israel in which David wrote and the time in which we live and the power of the Holy Spirit and this church age. Nothing has changed about the need for us to fear the Lord. The right relationship that we would have with God. calls us constantly to go before his throne of grace, and when we really consider what that means, that we're in the presence of perfect righteousness with our wickedness, with our sinfulness, even as believers bought with the blood of Jesus Christ, we need to be aware of the contrast. I'll just give you a moment for silent prayer. We'll open in prayer, and then we'll study 1 Peter, beginning in chapter three. Let's pray. Father, we pause to reflect on your grace, to glorify you on the account of who you are and what you've said. We praise you for the privilege we have to think your thoughts after you as we pay attention to your word. Father, we have to confess the poverty of our ideas, the poverty of our perspective. We look at the world around us and put our hands over our mouths and say, what will we do? We look at the loss of freedom of conscience in the United States. a nation founded on the basis of the freedom of conscience. And we see, Father, that as we cut our own legs off from under us, we have nowhere to turn, we have no hope. But Father, your word has taught us, even the Apostle Peter's study tonight taught us that our hope is to be fixed completely on you, on your son's return, on your promises. Let us become adjusted that way tonight. We all need to repent if we've become distracted. We need to turn our attention to direct our concentration back to who you are and what you've said and strengthen us tonight. We ask through your word, we pray it in Jesus name. Amen. We are summarizing first Peter in one, no two messages. We've done a long study on 1 Peter Sunday mornings years ago, which is all available on our archive, but we want to summarize 1 Peter in this study of prayer because of his importance in the body of Christ as the apostle to, as Paul says, to the circumcision, to the Jews. He mentions prayer some in his epistles, and this isn't a synthetic study of the New Testament, so I'm just summarizing Peter's first letter. which actually talks about prayer. All right. As we said in chapter one, we have the emphasis on our salvation because God has given it to us. Therefore, it is a great privilege to us. And therefore, we should, in verses 13 through 16 of chapter one, walk worthy of that high calling, that so great salvation in all its phases. We should, because we're children of God, conduct ourselves in fear of our Father, and therefore walk how He would like us to walk, just as we read in Psalm 34. And there in verses 22 through 25, because of this new birth from the eternal seed of the Word of God, and our therefore eternal life that we have through the new birth, we should live accordingly, and that is to love one another, fervently love one another from the heart. In chapter two we saw, therefore we are to put away sin and long for the pure milk of the word so that we can grow. And we said we made a big deal about the command to long for the pure milk of the word. Just a quick word about the philosophy of ministry here in passing. It's important to note this. We're not coming to the word and saying, well, um, just a cursory casual reading of it. We all know what it means. And so my job is to make you feel it emotionally or that what we're going to do in expository preaching is, um, simply apply it. What we're coming to the text is saying, what does it say? How am I to understand what it means? And then how does that fit with everything God has said so that I know how to live it. We're inductive, in other words. We're coming to the text with an expectation that we're gonna learn something we didn't know before, even if we've read it already. Ever talk to somebody that says, I've already read the Bible? That's a baby, at best. Someone, oh, I've already read that. No, you don't understand. We read and reread. Read the Bible, repeat. That's life. And so, as we're studying this, I want to point out, the thing that causes the growth so that you can maturely do what he's already said, to love God and love your brother, is the word of God. And there's no substitute for it, including my observation of culture and current events and my rendering a judgment on culture and current events from a biblical perspective. That's no substitute for the word of God itself, which is what we're surveying tonight. So put away your sin and long for the word, which means that we all need a constant readjustment, a constant repentance, a constant change from where we start from the flesh to where God would bring us by the Spirit. We come to God in Christ as his disciples, as to living stones, to the cornerstone. And therefore, we are going to make a proclamation in verses 9 and 10, as we said. And as sojourners, foreigners, aliens, we don't want to behave like the world around us. Remember, the early church is Jewish. He's talking to a Jewish readership and saying, don't join in with the Gentiles and their pagan practices. Now this was a real problem in the early churches we understand, and it was a problem before that for the Jews, before the church began in the diaspora to which he's writing, the Christians in that Jewish diaspora. So as sojourners you abstain from the practices of the Gentiles. And then we talked about how you treat people in verses 13 through 17 of chapter two, matters to God in terms of the authority of someone over you, you submit to that authority for God's sake. And how you treat them is a matter between you and the Lord, even more than between you and that individual. And then we talked about the most difficult of all authority structures where you have servants and masters. We're talking about human slavery, the horror of all, listen to it, all civilizations The recent experiences of hundreds of years ago in this country are not special. to the entire world. All civilizations have committed this wickedness, and so it's right here in the Roman system, the Roman circumstance, the Roman world, where the Mediterranean is a Roman lake, under the empire, there in the early generations of the empire, as the church is being written, the Bible is being written, the church is being formed, you have this Roman system of slavery, and people have compared, well, what they did in the United States is different from what they did in Rome, We can talk about those things, but we're talking about, honestly, someone being able to say they purchased you in a slave market and you have to do what they say. And when you really get down to the essence of slavery, what is it? It is the loss of self-determination. It is adults, now children have to obey their parents, biblically, by God's design. Even without the Bible, by God's design and ordination of parents over children, there is an inherent obedience. But it's not slavery. But when you're an adult and someone is calling the shots on where you will live and what you will eat and what you will do for a living and you don't have self-determination, I've personally believed this is one of the key components in what slavery is. Do we have anything like that in the United States today where you as an adult don't have any deliberation over where you'll sleep, what you'll eat, what you'll do for your labor? Is there anything like that? I'm just asking. Think about it. You could also include the loss of the productivity of your labor where someone takes the crop you harvested or the effort that you put forth and they enrich themselves by taking that from you. That's another key component, I think, in slavery. While we're kind of summarizing the perspective you would have, it's a horrible thing to be enslaved. Throughout the New Testament, it's a horrible thing. And if you find yourself in that circumstance, Peter and Paul have instructions because your life Your life is hidden with Christ in God because you are not what you do for a living. You are not what you're where you are in the economic caste system of any society. What you are is a blood bought child of God who for eternity has nothing but inheritance from God, the son who is the heir of all things because you're unified with him. And so that perspective, that eternal perspective equips you and strengthens you for being able to submit to unfair masters. in verses 18 through 20, and then the Lord Jesus becomes the great example. It's such a difficult thing when you have unfair people that you're working for, who are deliberating over what you'll do with your life, and they're calling the shots for you. It's such a difficult thing for you then to go and say, I'm gonna do this for God's sake. So we get the emphasis on Jesus Christ having suffered at the hands of unrighteous men, far worse than any one of us will ever be asked to do, to the point of the death of the cross where he paid for our sins on the cross, you'll never be verbally abused like Jesus was because you'll never be perfectly sinless like Jesus is. You'll never be undeserving like Jesus was, right? And the harsh treatment he received He's your example because he managed it perfectly. He entrusted himself to God who judges righteously, and so you can go through that suffering. This is the topic, I believe, of 1 Peter. The primary topic is almost like 2 Timothy, you are gonna suffer for Jesus if you're getting it right. So let's do it, let's get after it. All right, back to chapter three now. Oops, we were gonna skip that part real quick and go to chapter three. So now we're in first Peter three, our review of our survey is complete. And we are at verses one through seven, where we've moved this, listen to how the apostles do it. Ephesians five and six, Colossians three, and now first Peter chapter three and chapter two, whenever the household relationships are mentioned, they usually get, they get strung together. So we just talked about masters and slaves at the end of chapter two and first Peter. Now he's talking about marriage and he says, likewise, or in the same way. First chapter three, verse one, you have to put, you have to ask questions of the text. Like, why is he saying this next? Why is he not talking about wives and their relationships to their husbands? Because just like the household code in Ephesians five and six and in Colossians three, this is household relationships and they're the toughest ones. The household is where you can't get away. You're stuck with the household. And in Rome, as today, it's an economic stuckness. You are stuck there because you have to live. And you have certain arrangements in your household where you didn't choose it. Back in those days, arranged marriages. Back in those days, slaves and masters. But you also have arrangements that you did choose, but it didn't go like you wanted it to do. You wanted it to go like in our day with, we choose who we marry. We choose where to work. for the most part, these kinds of things. And so we're talking about the most difficult parts of life, because it's the sinful people that you're stuck with. And now we talk about the hardship of wives with unbelieving or reversionistic, if you will, husbands. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives. We want to preach a series on this section of 1 Peter 3, 1 through 6, but we're not. But I just want to remind you that it may occur to you the best thing to do when he's being a knucklehead is to start preaching. Women are made to speak. They're made, they're designed to talk and to form a vocabulary base in the head of a baby. You are marvelously made with such an incredible vocal capability that's much different, much more expanded than men's. And it seems like the best thing you should do when he's missing is to start a sermon. But Peter says that's the opposite of what you should do. It's very counterintuitive. As the husband observes your chase and respectful behavior, that's how you win him over. Your adornment must not be only external, which is like the braiding of hair, wearing of gold jewelry, or putting on dresses. It's not what you might tend to think. It's counterintuitive. Women are into clothes. externals by design. You want to arrange things the way you want to arrange them and you're particular. And I mean that in a very respectful and honoring way and what God made you to be. And I'm convinced that a lot of the things that men do, we do because of women in our lives. We're worried about the appearance of things. Sit down anywhere in the building, anywhere. I'm convinced that the appearance of wives, of women, and men is largely driven by women. Right? Now, what are you talking about? I'm talking about men. We want to be around them. We want them to be around us. So we do what we think is necessary. And if you weren't around ladies and you were in the logging camp, believe me, things would be a lot different. And it's amazing how when a woman shows up, people start taking showers and combing their hair. I'm just saying. what Peter's doing here is counterintuitive. You might think, well, you've like, we're going to say something to fix when somebody's messed up. And my first priority is what I'm going to look like. And maybe you're not like that. And you think that's a very shallow thing. And, and hey, Peter is telling us that we have certain tendencies. So we shouldn't embrace those tendencies. And the Holy Spirit knows that we need to hear this. So Peter wrote it. But you don't want to make it the external. You might think it's the external. And is this not a problem for young girls, for young ladies as they're growing up to think about what they look like and how others are thinking about them? And all the other people can do is see and hear. So we've got to take care of those things first, right? And get the approval of someone or something. Well, the approval you're looking for is in your Heavenly Father. And he says he wants, verse 4, the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. So notice the counterintuitive. You want to speak to fix the thing? Don't speak. You want to make the external appealing to people? No, that's not your priority. It's the character inside as God sees it. Remember what the Lord said to Samuel. God is looking at the inside. Man is looking at the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husbands. So go back to your Bible, go back to the scriptures, and look at the women of the Old Testament, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham. Wait a second. Does Peter believe there was an actual Sarah and an actual Abraham? Of course he does. He believes in Genesis 12. Now the question you want to ask is, does Peter believe in Genesis 11, or Genesis 1, or Genesis 6? Of course he does. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, you've become her children if you do what's right without being frightened by any fear. Ladies, you want to be daughters of Sarah. You copy the one that brought you along. And I know daughters, as we grow up, the relationship with mom becomes an interesting, at times, strained relationship. But we also know that you're just like her. That's how it goes. You take on the characteristics of the one that brought you along. And then sons are the same way with their dads. There gets to be this thing. But then you watch that kid and without dad around, you're like, he's acting just like his dad. And it's how we are. So you want to be a daughter of Sarah. You want to act ladies like Sarah, who submitted to the authority of her husband. And boy, was that a hard thing for her to do. So we're sanctifying marriage in the context of the cross. Remember, Jesus suffered under hardship, slaves and masters, the slave under the unfair master needs to bear up and trust himself into the father and not and not do a bad job and not revile in return and all these things. And now you're in marriage, you don't speak the sermon that you want to preach to your husband ladies, you win them over without a word and you make sure that you're not primarily focused on the externals but the internals because you've got God as your Heavenly Father and now Sarah's your example. All right, now verse 7 is the one verse on husbands and it thrashes us. It beats us to a pulp. That is the theme verse for gentlemanly conduct in Western civilization I believe verse 7 is the justification for the medieval view of chivalry and the knight and the lady and all that we have in beauty in Western culture. I'm not overplaying this. 1 Peter 3, 7 is the verse that most clearly and explicitly exalts womanhood and calls men to break themselves or their tendency to expect women to behave like men. To expect women to behave like women. as a high calling as a desirable thing to put women on a pedestal and actually talk about ladies and not just only females or women. This in Western Civ comes out of First Peter 3.7, which says a couple things. Women are different from men. It's a beautiful difference. There is a strength and weakness differential. And that makes them no less heirs of life with us. And their dad, Their dad isn't listening to us if we're not kind to them, if we're not gentle with them, if we aren't gentlemen. You husbands in the same way live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker, a weaker vessel it says, since she is a woman. So what is the weakness of womanhood? It isn't endurance of pain, men. They are much better at dealing with pain. It's not dealing with nonsense. They deal with us. It's not that they're weaker at dealing with nonsense. We have low tolerance for each other, right? And that's why we don't talk to each other. Just don't say anything on the job. Just do the job. We have low tolerance for nonsense. They have to put up with us. What is it about women that is weaker? It has to be. It has to be. the way we are put together in terms of communication and emotions. It has to be. It has to be that, man, if you are unkind in your speech to her, you think, wow, if someone said that to me, that might hurt a little bit. But to her, it hurts a lot. It's the difference between men and women in terms of the power of our communication on the inner person that is supposed to be, as Peter says, the gentle and quiet spirit that is precious in the sight of God. You don't want to bruise that gentle and quiet spirit. Here, let me illustrate. Guy, you're tired, you've worked hard, got put up with a lot at work, you're frustrated, your blood pressure's up because you had to drive through traffic, whatever. You get home and she has a question and you think it's an obvious question and you shouldn't have to answer this question. So you want to say something just a little bit sarcastic, just a little bit of an edge, just a little bit to say, you know, no, let's not go here. You thought that would have been a sufficient way to kind of move the conversation. I'll still talk about this. I don't want to go there right now. But she heard, I hate you. She heard you are invalid as a human being. You're undesirable as a person to be with me. And I hate you. That's what she heard because you are not thinking about the nature of her character. I'm not saying women are, are eggshells and you can crack them by just looking at them. I'm just saying that what you say really matters. And if you want what you say to God to make it to his throne of grace, Peter says, then you be careful how you treat your wife. Now he's not talking at all about physical abuse. This is obvious. This is not talked about in the scriptures in general, because it's so blatantly obvious. But if how you speak to her is a matter of your concern with God, then how much more is how you treat her physically. Now, You show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered. So that your prayers will not be hindered. This is the first mention of prayer overtly in 1 Peter. If you want God to listen to you and your requests, then you better be careful how you treat his daughter. That's the message. Again, it's the origin, in my view, of the entirety of Western Civ. Well, the whole way women are treated through the scriptures, but here it's explicit, explicitly stated there in the first century that we should be gentlemen. The whole word gentlemen. Remember when gentlemen meant a rich man? Gentlemen versus a commoner. What? No. Gentleman is a man who is an aristocrat in God's kingdom, because he treats his wife gently. And that's the real aristocracy. The idea of the nobility, all that means is that they're supposed to be educated and know what God wants, and so they're doing it because they've been trained. But this is not about class or economic status. You can't be more wealthy than you are in Christ. This is about how you treat one another. All right, so we're moving from sanctified marriage to the great summary, the summary of conduct and it's inside out in verses eight through 12. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit. He paints a picture of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ and says, be like the Lord Jesus. Not returning evil for evil, just like Jesus described in 1 Peter 2. Not returning insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. That means that if someone says something evil to me, reviles me, insults me, I respond with a blessing instead. They say, if you're the Christ, come down off the cross. And I say, forgive them, Father, for they don't know what they're doing. He's telling you to put on Christ and how he was, how he behaved when mistreated. Because the reason that you give a blessing instead is that you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. You are already so far and above in position in Christ, so far and above those who are trying to bring you down. I'm not saying you should be arrogant about your position in Christ, but the reality is that you are a fellow heir with Christ. And He is the heir of all things. So these people that have nothing, who have nothing before them in context, but the lake of fire, you could have a little compassion as they're beating you because of that eternal perspective. Now, I'm not saying it's easy to maintain in the moment. That's why we get together. That's why we spend time in the word. And that's why we spend time in prayer, because I need to have this eternal perspective that I was called for the purpose of inheriting a blessing. These people reviling me have nothing but the lake of fire to look forward to unless by some God given arrangement, you become Patrick in the situation that those who your oppressors become your mission field, and you share Jesus with these people that hate you, and they can become the people who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he goes into Psalm 34. He quotes Psalm 34 at length in verses 15 and 16. The one who desires life to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Don't say things with this that dishonor the creator who gave you this. If you want to enjoy life, if you want to love and see good days, then be careful with what you say. Sins of the tongue. He must turn away from evil and do good. The rejection of personal sin, the embrace of the experiential righteousness of the work of God through you. He must seek peace and pursue it. This is the fruit of the Spirit, by the way, goodness, faithfulness, love, joy, peace. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer. Second mention of prayer in 1 Peter. See why to do Peter and talk about his teaching on prayer, it's just barely feathered in there. But he mentions prayer again, quoting the relationship you have with God. In other words, big picture. God is not interested in what you have to say to him. If you're lifting dirty hands, as we learned in James, cleanse your hands, you sinners. If you pray to God, Old Testament style, and you lift your hands to heaven and say, Oh God, here's my prayer. I'm going to sing this Psalm to you or whatever you're doing in your prayer. You want to make sure the hands are clean. Personal sin is no context for your prayers. And so what do we do about personal sin? How do we get clean? Well, we go to verses in the Bible that address, what about my personal sin and cleansing? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the issue. Your personal sin is going to shut down your prayer life. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, in verse 12, and his ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Please do not make this entire Bible apply to all those unbelievers out there. I'm a believer in Christ. I have the life because I have Christ. I've read 1 John 5.13. I know my position in Christ is settled. I know I'm going to receive the resurrection body. I know that I have been sealed until the day of redemption. I know that the Holy Spirit lives in my heart forever. I know that God's imputed righteousness to me is a settled fact. I know that my identification in Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that the moment I trust in Christ is there forever and ever. I know, I know, I know. And so I don't need to fear the Lord. So I don't need to worry about my sin or my wickedness or my righteousness. Please don't miss that Peter is applying Psalm 34 to you and me, believers in Jesus Christ. Again, some will say, no, he's applying it to Jewish Christians in the Diaspora and the early church. Beloved, we are here because the early church was Jewish, and it was in all the synagogues throughout the Roman Empire. And a few from the synagogues came out and became Christians, and that dispersion of Jews who became Christians is the audience and so we're their heirs. And that is the remnant of Israel in the church. So yes, he is talking to us. So there's your summary of conduct as a consequence of your salvation and the model you have in Jesus Christ, our great shepherd, our great pastor and overseer. In verses 13 through 22, we will suffer in the world and the world is going to suffer worse. verses 13 through 22. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, this is again, generally his topic. You're blessed. Do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled in Isaiah eight, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that's in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you're slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. It is popular in apologetics studies to take one verse out of context, first Peter three 15 and say, see, we have to be ready to give a reason for our hope. That's apologetics because the word to give a reason is apologia. Be ready to give a defense. And so that's what apologetics is. It's from verse 15 of first Peter three. The problem with taking out a context is Peter is talking from beginning to end about bearing up as believers on mission under suffering. Apologetics is going to hurt to give a reason for the joy that's in you, for the hope that's in you, I should say. Yet with gentleness and reverence, keeping a good conscience so that even if they're saying that you're doing wickedness, you know you're not. Your conscience is clean. Now this is what happens. Someone accuses you of something you didn't do, but you might've wanted to. And well, if that's how it is, if they're just going to say I did it, well, I might as well do that because they're calling me that anyway. No. You have to keep a clean conscience to give an answer for the hope that's in you. Because the thing in which you're slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it's better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what's right than for doing what is wrong. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so they might bring us to God. having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through the water corresponding to that bringing only a few who were believers safely through the water. We'll talk about how water touches us thematically in baptism. He says, corresponding to that baptism now saves you not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your identification with Christ is your salvation. And the water on the body reminds you of your clean conscience through the actual washing of redemption. When you believed that's what he's talking about. And this Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him. We just had a mouthful, and I can't really unpack it all. But the context is you're suffering, and you want to keep a good conscience as you suffer, because you know where the world is going. You had a whole coterie of angels in Genesis 6 that were not keeping their first estate, and they are suffering a consequence. And then you had As a consequence of that invasion in Genesis 6, the entire human race was destroyed. So here's what you and I need to do to apply that Genesis 6, 7, 8 context. We need to think about how we tend to look to the left and to the right, to the world around us, and say, what are we supposed to do? What does the world do? What do they think? What do they want? What does the culture have for me? And the truth about every civilization, every culture in the world, in all of world history, every culture since Genesis 3 has been impacted by what the Bible calls the world. You and I belong to a culture. We're in a certain culture here, actually a confluence of multiple cultures across multiple generations. It's a very confusing culture we're in and the time and place that we're in. You're here in a time capsule in this little building, right? We're acting like we really believe the Bible and stuff. All right. The culture that you live in has been bitten by the serpent. It has been influenced by the world. And the question is, where is the poison? And the more the poison works its way through our culture, and the more the culture takes on the world, Satan's system of deception, the more that you get from this culture, the more you're going to be imbibing the poison. That's why evangelicals or conservatives or fundamentalists that are Bible believing are struggling with culture versus the world. We want to just do a wholesale rejection of the culture because it's so impacted by Satan's lies that we don't know how to parse anything. And I'd say that's a good start. Like basically start with that culture is corrupted. So Don't be it. But now as you come with your chemical suit on, you are protected as you start to parse and think through and discern. And that's the calling that we have. But here's what you do with the culture. You think about the culture that Noah was in. Noah and his family couldn't look left and right. They couldn't say, well, I mean, God said, get the ark ready. And then, hey, get inside. I've got all the animals. Load them up. God said that, but the people around are standing around saying, what are you doing? Probably stinks in there, Noah, as the animals are coming inside. What's this all about? You can't go by the culture. All those people died. You could only listen to what God says as the first and foremost and the highest, and then let the culture be assessed by what God said. In Noah's case, the entirety of the culture was completely absorbed with the world, Satan's system of deception. Notice the cultural, the words I'm using. Culture is the way we think, the ideas, the desires, the language, all the things, that's culture. We live in it. The world is Satan's system of deception that has infiltrated the cultures. By Noah's day, there's nothing left in the culture but the world. So he started anew, God started over. And so you have to think in terms of this present darkness and the suffering that you're in, and then the fate of the world as demonstrated in Noah's day to understand how to live under this suffering. Because it's so easy to just say, well, I'm not going to suffer then. I'm just going to have to go with the culture. Because swimming across the current or against the current hurts. If I just don't fight the current, oh, that's so much easier. Relief. Temporary relief. But no, you're supposed to get on the ark. And that's the big point, as we survey, that Peter's making there in the difficult part of chapter 3. Then we move to chapter 4. And he says, therefore, live for Christ among the Gentiles. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, he's recapitulating what he's done, arm yourselves also with the same purpose. You're going to suffer, so get after it. Because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. You're not joining the culture and it's, I should say, the world as it's influenced the culture. You're in the world, but not of it. You're in this culture, but you're not consumed by its imbibing of the world. So you join with Christ and you arm yourself with the same purpose. He's outside of the world. He's opposed to the world's influence on the culture. And he is therefore able to save us. So we arm ourselves with the same purpose. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. See, you can't get what to want from looking around. What does everybody want? You have to go with what God wants. That's the whole point of thy will be done. Our survey of prayer is to figure out what God wants and then ask him for it. The time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, that's over-eating really, over-drinking, over-eating, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. You could join in the lust of the flesh and the Gentiles, and you could have already gone to full completion in debauchery. And all this, these, the world around you are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you. The culture scoffs at you in as much as it's been consumed by the deception of the world. The culture is corrupted. And so they revile you because you don't run with them. but they will give account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead." See, Peter's telling these people to stay the course, and if they get pushback and it hurts, they're getting it right. It's hard. It hurts. Jesus suffered for you, and you arm yourself with the same purpose. Verse 6, "'For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. This is a message of the mission. You are living for Christ and preaching the gospel to those who are spiritually dead so that they can become spiritually alive through the preaching of the gospel. So all that he's been saying about suffering, have you noticed he feathers in the mission as he feathers in the concept of suffering, as he's talked about the assumption of prayer? He's got all these themes going on, but the summary, is you have a mission to accomplish in this world, and it is not to join the world, it is to save it. And that's a heavy load for you and I to bear, especially since the world doesn't want to be saved. The culture, I mean, the people in the world. What do you do with this? You are the lifeguard who is called to go save the drowning victim who tries to beat you to death while you're dragging them into the shallows. That's what we're doing. That's how Peter is describing our relationship to suffering in this world on mission. In verses seven through 11, as you're looking outward to the work, you have to look inward to one another and care for each other. We're supposed to be a net. Paul says that our hearts are to be knit together in love. I think that forms the net to catch some. As many as God will let us. The end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. The third mention of prayer. You need to be sober, not always a clown. Doesn't mean that we're always dowry either. It just means that we're serious because we're living in short time and you have a mission to accomplish. The ticker, the timer's running. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint, as each one has received a special gift. Employ it, serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. New American Standards says special gift because they're trying to show that this is about your spiritual giftedness. It's not that if you got money, or some sort of raise or something that you're supposed to distribute it to everyone. He's not talking about that, he's talking about your spiritual gift. Something much more valuable than just money. Whoever speaks is to do so, now this is the spiritual gift section, the speaker is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who's serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. We end on a doxology and talking about how we treat one another. I want you to notice it started with above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. And it ended with the way you use your spiritual gifts in the building up of one another. And I've said this many times in 1 Corinthians 13. The big love passage in 1 Corinthians 13 is in the middle of the even bigger spiritual gifts passage, 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14. And the reason it's in there is because without love, your spiritual gifts are worthless because your spiritual gifts are special enablements for you to love one another. There's no greater love that a pastor can show for his flock than to teach them God's word. Because that's my giftedness. That's what I've been given the gift to do. And it's the thing you need the most. That's why I do what I do. It's love. Not for me, love for you. And honestly, it's love for the Word because I do. Now, in verses 12 through 19 of 1 Peter 4, we're going to suffer according to God's will. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal. Now he goes back to the fact that you're going to hurt. because that's the topic in first Peter. At the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening. Well, well, well, why are bad things happening? I've been praying, I've been in the word, I've got an appetite for it. Yes, you got on the roller coaster and it's going up the hill. That's how it works. The next thing, it's a great ride, but it's got a challenge to it. but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation." When you get to see Jesus Christ for the first time, that needs to be an ecstatic moment, because you suffered for him, because you walked in dependence upon the Spirit that he'd given you, because you abided in Christ. You abode in Christ, I guess is how we'd say that. If you're reviled for the name of Christ, You're blessed because the spirit of glory in God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, thief, or evildoer, or troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, there he uses it. The word Christian. Don't let anyone ever tell you from their postmodern, post-conservative, pretend evangelical perspective. I sound kind of scoffing on these people. Don't ever let someone tell you, well, I don't call myself a Christian. You know, I'm part of a big church, we call ourselves Christ followers. Peter calls you Christians. Little Christ, it's a diminutive in Greek of Christ. And that's what he's been saying all along Jesus suffered in this mission, you have your role in the mission, you're going to suffer along with him. If anyone suffers as a little Christ, he is not to be ashamed, but as a glorified God in this name, which name in the name of Christian of being a little Christ. In other words, you don't ever want to sin or be a criminal and say, oh, I'm being arrested because of God, because of the spiritual life. No, you're being arrested because of your wickedness, because you're bad choices, because there are consequences to bad choices. What we're talking about, Peter is clarifying, is that when you suffer for the sake of the gospel. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Again, brings you back to your perspective on what's going on around you. You really can't look at the world and find out how to live. You have to look at the word, and then you know so that you can tell the world. There's one direction that your communication really needs to be going in as far as how to get what we really need. The world has nothing for you. And if it's with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner in Proverbs 11? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what's right. So this is a major and important section for us to process the fact that getting it right with God is going to be suffering for the sake of Christ in the gospel. Now chapter five. In verses one through five, we'll talk about the local church, the way the elder men are and the younger followers are supposed to live. And the elders he's talking about are the office of elder of first Timothy three and Titus one. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ. So he's an apostle and a partaker also of the glory that's to be revealed. Here's the command to the elder. shepherd, poimaino, poimaino to tend a flock, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, episcopeo, to be an overseer, both the elder and the shepherd and the overseer, all three are the same person. Not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness. Nor yet is lording it over those allotted to your charge. I get strident. I sound authoritative. I was just told by Peter that those who speak should speak the utterances of God. But do I lord it over the flock? It's an interesting question. I think I don't. I think I present myself as accountable and submissive to God and therefore to one another. But I'm very aware of this instruction, not lording over the flock, not lording over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. Where did I ever hear already? Think about this with me. I look up here. Where did I already hear a shepherd as an example in first Peter? Anybody remember? Where do we hear about a shepherd who is our example in 1 Peter? I think the key section of 1 Peter is 1 Peter 2, verses 20 through 25, where the example is the great shepherd who is Jesus Christ. And he's back here again. You've got to be examples. So the shepherds, the pastors, are little Christs, like we just heard. All Christians are little Christs. We're supposed to be carrying forth his example. So we prove to be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd, there he is again, Who's the senior pastor of Preston City Bible Church? Jesus. When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Now, that's the elder. Now what about the younger? It's interesting how he pairs those. You younger men likewise be subject to the elders, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble in Proverbs 334. What is God opposed to? Arrogance, pride. What does he give grace to? Humility, the recognition that God is God, I'm not, and I'm under him, I'm submitting to him. And therefore we submit to one another. And then in verses six through 11, we'll talk about what the Christian stance of humility gets you. What does humility get you? What does the word of God through the apostle Peter, God breathed written down word for word, letter for letter for you. What does it get you to be humble? Well, according to the world, it gets you to be a doormat. It gets you to be kicked in the teeth. If you're presenting your chin, the world is going to punch it. That's what humility gets you, according to the world, because Satan is lying to you. But in the scriptures, humility has a wonderful promise. Therefore, command, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. The command is humble yourselves. What that means is that you figure out that you're not God and you put yourself under him. It's a great freeing moment to let all that weight that you're carrying of how you have to be in control of you. Let it go. Stop being the captain of your soul. You aren't. Recognize it. So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you at the proper time. Did you hear that? Humble yourselves under God so that he can promote you. He's not interested in promoting you while you are stepping up on your little baby stool trying to get up where you can get. He has magnificent heights to bring us to. Magnificent heights. But if we're too busy, currying our own favor, getting our own promotion, then God is not interested. So you humble yourselves under his hand. It's like you jump in his elevator to go where he wants to take you instead of climbing your little three step staircase. And that's self promotion versus God's promotion. I got a pop quiz pop quiz here. First question a pop quiz. How do you get God's promotion? What do you have to do? What do you have to do to get God's promotion? You, what do you have to do to get God's promotion? Everyone else knows. Everyone online knows. What do we have to do to get God's promotion? See, what you want to do is listen. In 1 Peter 5, verse 6, he says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time. I'll ask you again, what must I do to get God's promotion? What do I have to do? You have to humble yourself under God's hand. Is there any other method or route to God's promotion? Is there any other way to get exalted? No, this is the only way. What about all the other options? They're not the way. So this is Christian humility. And then, because this will be a concern for us, because it's a step on faith, because we feel like we're On shaky ground because we can't see God, is he really going to promote me? Casting all your cares on him for he cares for you. You're supposed to tell him, there's another prayer reference. You're supposed to tell him this is a concern. God, I see a way to promote myself, but you've said that there are concerns about that method. And so I'm going to humble myself under your hand. Doesn't mean we don't make steps. It doesn't mean we don't make choices. It means that you don't violate God's standards to make self-promoting choices. Like the standard of not being self-promoting, for example. And so this is your stance of humility that God cares for you and so you keep throwing it on him. I've heard 1 Peter 5-7 preached out of context in a general sense and it has no power to just tell you to cast all your cares on God for he cares for you because it's not what he's talking about. Peter is talking about when you young men Or all of us in humility say, I'm not going to promote myself because I'm trusting in God that we tell him about it. And we say, God, I'm trusting you. And I'm worried about this particular issue of exaltation. I have ambition. You've made me with ambition. I'm placing this concern on you because I'm here to serve you because my life is hidden with Christ and God because for me to live is Christ. In verse 8, be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. What is a devoured person look like? In the scriptures, it's someone who has disbelieved God in trusting the message of the world, the lies of the evil one. but resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him. be dominion forever and ever, amen. Notice the dominion, the dominion of God in a universe in which Satan is holding sway over the nations today. The dominion of God contradicting the enticements of the roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We conclude the letter of 1 Peter in verses 12 through 14, through Silvanus, our faithful brother, that would also be Silas, Paul's associate. It's funny how these second tier guys that work for the apostles all work with all the apostles. Our faithful brother, for so I regard him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. I once heard the proposal that we stop using the word free grace because some free grace proponents have gotten confused about the exegesis of the gospel of John and some other things. And that's my belief. I believe there are free grace people that are really confused in terms of exegesis. They'll say that the gospel is not that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead. They'll say it's something else. So the idea has been, well, because you have people that are confused and think they know everything, but they know some things that aren't so, that we shouldn't use free grace anymore. And I think that, no, we have the redundancy of free grace, for example, in Romans 6. But it is the true grace of God. Now, what is the true grace of God that he's been saying? That you and I have an exaltation, we have a glory, we have an expectation of glorification at the conclusion of a life, a temporary phase of suffering for Christ and the work of the gospel. That's the message, that's the true grace of God. That you have hope, you have the expectation, you have that eschatological promise and focus, and it enables you to suffer here and now. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. John Mark, my son Mark. This is the man that was, they grabbed hold of his clothes and he ran away naked. I think. This is probably the man who they used his mother's upper room for all the Christian meetings, John Mark. This is the writer of the Gospel of Mark under the apostleship of the Apostle Peter. This is the man that went with Paul and Barnabas and turned away on the first missionary journey and stuck Paul with too much luggage or whatever. and abandoned the mission in the middle and Paul had a big falling out with Barnabas. This man that Peter took under his wing and Barnabas took under his wing and gave us the gospel of Mark. Greet one another with a holy kiss or a kiss of love. Peace be to all of you who are in Christ. That is 1st Peter. Now what did we learn about prayer in here? We learned that your prayers are hindered through personal sin, like the sin of a husband being unkind or ungentle with his wife, that when you mistreat your wife, that brings a consequence with your father in terms of your prayer. That's the first thing we learned about prayer. We learned that God is listening to the prayers of the righteous, but he's turned his face against the wicked in Psalm 34. We learned that regarding the concern we have for exaltation, for our life to matter, for us to make our mark, for this young man problem or young woman problem of what am I doing with my life? You cast that care on God as you humble yourself under his mighty hand. I didn't say you do nothing. I didn't say you're passive and you're waiting for the Holy Spirit to Quaker you into his service. You're humbling yourself and disregarding you and temporal concerns and focusing on the work that God has for you and you're trusting him as you step out in faith and do his work and you're expecting him to exalt you at the proper time. Our Father, we thank you for the eternal life we've enjoyed tonight by thinking through the message of the Apostle Peter, how his summary of Christian suffering and the pattern of Jesus Christ relates to our prayer life, it's all over the place, that we would have our prayers answered because we're praying in accordance with your revealed will, that we're not praying to you in a context of disobedience as the rest of the world is in disobedience, but in abstaining from the lust of the Gentiles, we would walk worthy and have our prayers answered. Father, it's such an easy calculation, fellowship with you or the lust of the flesh, the lust of the world. Father, help us to constantly Have that calculation in front of us when temptation comes. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.