Well, God's word has already been very sweet and precious to me and the songs and the readings that we've heard. I've been greatly encouraged. I trust that you have been as well. We are continuing in our worship this morning by taking time to gather around God's word and to hear from him. First Peter and chapter number two is where we are in our studies. We have worked up through verse number 12 of chapter number 2. There's a few things there that are important as Peter moves forward. We don't want to forget what he's just said here. But with some of those things in mind, he goes on in verse 13. And I'd like to read this next section, verses 13 through 17. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with well-doing You 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 brethren, fear God, honor the king. And our new section here, we'll begin to get into it a little bit this morning in verses 13 and 14. But before Peter instructs us as God's children on our relationship to human government, he just didn't go there from nowhere. He went there on a journey of information and truth to get here, which is by the work of the Spirit of God working through him. Peter instructs us as God's people on our relationship to human government that we're all subjected to. Peter has said some very important things about our relationship to the world we live in already. We are to live as strangers and pilgrims in the world, and we are to abstain from lusts that appeal to our fleshly nature. We must not allow our soul to become entangled with the things of this world. We must not love the world we live in. And yet, Peter reminds us that we are on a mission We have an assignment given to us as God's people, as long as we live in the world, no matter when we live in the world, no matter where we live in the world, no matter what our circumstances are, where we live in the world. Peter has emphasized the importance of our always, as we live out our life in this world, we're always to be living by faith, we're always to be obedient children, we're always to be being God's holy people, and we're always to be loving one another with a pure heart, fervently. And we're always to have an insatiable appetite for God's word, like babies crying for milk. And we're always to be worshipers. And we're always to be living out our Christian life in the world as light. Living in a dark and spiritually dark world that is engulfed with darkness. This is where we live. And this is where we spend the entirety of our Christian life in the flesh is here in the world. We must not be of the world, even though we live in the world. And the only hope for the world that we live in is to know the one true light that brings eternal life to the soul. And God in his wisdom has designed a plan for the world to be confronted with him, the true light. And Peter, like all the writers of the New Testament, beginning with Jesus, declares that every child of God is or becomes his light bearer in the world. A light bearer that reveals through our good works the virtues of our God to that portion of the world where he has placed us. We all have a little portion of the world where we live as lightbearers. And this is God's plan for bringing his people, his elect children to himself. We all were once dead in our sins. We all needed someone to show us the truth. And I was reminded as I was thinking this out this week, how many of us have come this path generationally in terms of somewhere back in our lineage, a grandparent or a great grandparent, was brought to faith in Christ, and they began to teach their children, and their children taught their children, and their children taught their children, and you are now a recipient of that. But it began, the light began somewhere in your lineage, and it's now being passed on family to family, generation to generation. God works that way. through families in a very mysterious way. But not everyone has been given that privilege. Some are first generation Christians. But it doesn't matter. We who have been raised by generations of Christians, we ought to have no less gratitude to God than the one who's come out of gross sin and been saved. because God has chosen to reveal himself to us through family after family after family. And we rejoice in that great gift that God has revealed the light to those who once sat in darkness. And once God has saved us, It doesn't matter whether we're first generation or eighth generation of Christians. We were included in his plan to show who he is, that he is the only one who has the true plan of eternal redemption. And we do that by being light bearers, essentially living well, doing good works in the world. Last Sunday I ran out of some time as we came to the end some very important references. I want to at least read a couple of these because they emphasize the fact Peter is still emphasizing the issue the matter of Christians living in the world and how we are to show forth the praises of him who saved us in the world. and how we are to live a life, he says in verse 12, having our conversation honest among the nations of the world. So he is focused on believers living out their life in the world. So it's only natural that eventually he comes to the matter of government, right? The world is structured with government. How is the Christian to live in this world dealing with government? But before we get there, I want to read a couple of other references that stress this reality of being light in the world. Look at Paul in Romans chapter 13. Paul, writing almost half of the New Testament, spends a lot of time on this subject. that was initiated by Jesus when he refers to his children as being the light of the world. In Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse 11, Paul writes to the church at Rome, and that knowing the time, be conscious, aware, knowing the time that now it is high time. We've arrived, it's time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, as people of the day. not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. but let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust thereof. So he takes what Peter has said, he gives us a little bit more information, kind of dresses it up for us to see some more important truths. But the fact is this, we live as light bearers in the world, and we must never lose sight of that. And there's a tension that exists with us. We're told to abstain from, we're told not to love. And yet we're told not to abandon the world. We're told to be concerned to the degree that we are light bearers of God in the world. and that we guard our lives so that we do not allow our life to rob us of that influence of being light bearers in the world. Living honestly, as Peter said, that is, remember, it denotes beauty and symmetry of the Christian life, a well-balanced, well-developing Christian life. This is how we are to live in the world. so that we might have an impact upon them. I'll read one more. There were a number of them, but one more out of Ephesians I think is important. In chapter number five, as we follow Peter's thinking here from the importance of the believer's life in the world, There's a tension there between his resisting as well as his interest in showing and living out his faith before them. He doesn't abandon the world. He wants to go into the world, wherever that corner of his world is, and he wants to be a light bearer. In Ephesians chapter 5, And beginning in verse number seven, Paul is working through relationships. And here he's taking the believer. Chapter four was about a relationship in body life. And here in chapter five, he begins to move into the realm of the believer in the world like Peter does. And he writes in verse 7, be not ye therefore partakers with them. And he's talking about those who are living ungodly lives. Don't be partakers with them, for that was your life. You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Therefore, walk as children of light. Again, the emphasis. And here, some of you may remember some several years ago when we were in this text, for the fruit of the spirit. And here, in connection to the light, it's almost like Paul is teaching us the radiance, the rays of God's light as it enters into our life. We are like prisms. that refract the light, and here he is saying the most influential light upon the world that we can refract upon them is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. These are the things that will have an impact upon the world. And we are proving, living out, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. As they observe our life, they're able to know what is acceptable. We're showing, we're convincing them, proving to them what is valuable to God, what matters to Him. The lost person in darkness is not necessarily gonna figure this out. apart from God's light bearers. That's his design. That's his plan. So we are to prove what is acceptable unto the Lord, and we are to go through the world with, what does he say, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. But we're to reprove those dark works. How do we do that? For it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light, wherefore he saith, He is crying out, as it were, through the light of our life to the world that is around us. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly. How important it is that we live our life in the world properly. Remembering that we are light bearers, we are refracting the light where God has placed us. This is God's plan. And going back to 1 Peter and chapter number 2, Peter has exhorted us to show forth and to having our conversation honest among the Gentiles. And all of this is saying that we as Christians, as we live our life in this world, we must always remember we are the light of the world. What benefit is it to be the light of the world and we're constantly hiding from it? We cannot be afraid of the world. They ought to be afraid of us. Because we are not ashamed of what God has called us and made us to be. And there needs to be courage and faith. And we need to teach our children this as well. And it's here that Peter piggybacks this next section to what he's been teaching up to this point. And here he comes with saying all of this information to this declaration. It doesn't even lead into it. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Brethren, if you're going to be light in the world, if you're going to have your conversation honest among the Gentiles, if you're going to be able to show forth the praises of him who's called you out of darkness into light, then you must also be willing and committed to this. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. The truths that are recorded here in this section, verses 13 through 17, where Peter is dealing with human government, this is not something that is, it depends on conditions. We have to have favorable conditions before we obey this exhortation. That's not what's being said here. It's important that we recognize and accept the fact that what was said 2,000 years ago by Peter to believers at that time is still true today. It's important for us to know and to understand God's institution of human government. And I say it that way because it is important for us to recognize that's what it is. It's God's institution. Human government. Government simply identifies a system of laws and rules. There is an established authority. In our country, we have a constitution that we use as our guiding light of human government. At least that's what the intentions were originally. for managing society. There needs to be some kind of mechanism for managing society. Can you imagine society without government? Obviously, the form of government, there's a wide range to that, both in design and application. And we know that some forms of human government are very oppressive Yet human history definitely indicates that even a bad government like Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians is better than no government. And God can work in that. In fact, that's his plan. To show the greatness of himself in the midst of the darkness. I believe it's important, this morning I want to at least give a basic definition and comment on God's institutions. There are three institutions that God has established. Human government is one. We have marriage, we have the concept of the church, which is a little bit broader, but I want to mention these and give a few comments to these because when we consider the matter of marriage and the matter of the church as God's institutions and we get to the subject of human government, we don't suddenly drop to a lower level of God's institutions. It is God's institution. We need to understand its importance in God's plan and design for humanity. Well, marriage is probably the one we recognize, all of us, as the first institution that we find God establishing in the book of Genesis. He designed that humans would consist of two and only two genders. There are males and there are females, nothing else exists. with God. Humans might try to create a third, but there's no such thing. There's two genders. He designed us to be sexual beings, and marriage is the institution for our pleasure and for producing an offspring that would continue to replace us, replenish the earth. In Hebrews chapter 13, where we find the word marriage mentioned, it is a word that refers to the uniting together, and it has the idea of a festival, a celebration, where vows are taken and two are joined together. There's this great occasion. That's what a marriage is. That's what's happening. Indeed, it's something to celebrate. It's something to participate in and to exalt as God's plan, God's design. He made the institution of marriage. And this is a basic human right and privilege for all humans. Although Christianity takes marriage to a higher level of experience and purpose, we know that to be true. But we must teach and promote God's plan for marriage as it's described in his word. We don't let the world redefine it. We need to say to the church, to God's people, what Christian marriage looks like, how God designed it. We teach it to our children. And we must use our own marriage as light to the world. God intended that our marriage would teach and preach to the world. that has lost the true sense and value of this institution that God has designed. This is God's institution. And as Christians, we must be familiar with its design and purpose so that we might conform ourselves to God's will concerning the institution of marriage. The other second institution that God has designed for us For his glory and for our benefit, especially his own people, the whole humans in general, humans normally, generally, they gravitate toward a social structure. Humans learn to live together and form a social construct. Humans from the very beginning, and there were villages and towns and cities, human life. came together functioning as a society, as a union or a community that lives together and supports one another. Have you driven up and down the streets of Springfield and all the little strip malls and you wonder, how does that all work? And you hear the leaders of Springfield, we gotta keep our money in Springfield, right? We are a community, a society. This is normal, this is not abnormal. God has made us to be these kinds of creatures who function in this manner. And we can see how God established a family in the beginning and eventually there were tribes of families and then a congregation of tribes. All of that happened in the Old Testament as we study it right at the beginning. In the book of Genesis and Exodus, God's plan evolved through Christ. And when he established the New Testament congregation, the church, this institution has been set up for God's people. The church becomes a spiritual society for us. It's for our benefit and we advance God's purpose on the earth concerning humanity. And when you take the time to study Paul's commitment to this subject in his letters, Paul uses six metaphors to describe the church so that we can appreciate it to a greater degree. This is God's institution, this idea of a community. This is God's doing. Paul describes the church as fellow citizens. which simply refers to a community of people who have things in common. And that's the church. We have things in common. We are strangers and pilgrims. We have God in common. We have Christ in common. We have the Spirit in common. We have all these things in common. That's what forms our society as a people in the earth. We are family, Paul says, brothers, sisters with a common father. We are a holy temple, as Paul and Peter refer to. We make the house of God. When we come together, we are formed into a holy temple. We are called a body, meaning that we draw life and give life to one another. We grow together into the likeness of Christ, unto the full measure of Christ, as Paul said. We are a flock like sheep that need to be fed and watered and protected. And we are the bride of Christ who today are continually being washed and prepared for the great marriage to Christ. This is God's institution, the church. He established it. It's important that we understand its purpose and place in the world. We are to honor it. as God has designed it. Today it's something greatly misunderstood and misrepresented when we think of the church. There's a lot of ignorance about the church. The benefits of this institution is for us who are members of this church that God has set up as his institution in the world. and he gives us rules, he gives us laws to direct us, he gives us purpose and defines our purpose as we live in this world. That's an important institution. And the third one, and Peter has touched on the first one in chapter two, One on marriage he's going to touch on in chapter 3. Here he touches on human government, the institution of human government. In verses 13 through 17, no one particular kind is mentioned here. He doesn't say, you know, one kind is better than another kind. He's not saying that, though we as humans might prefer one over the other. There are four obvious reasons. Peter does not express a preference here. Peter is focused on our response to the government we live under, whatever that is. There are many variables among Christians who've been reading these instructions for 2,000 years. Think of all the people all over the world, Christians for 2,000 years have all been reading this. And they've had to figure out how to apply it. where they are in their situation, whatever country it is, whatever kind of culture they're a part of, they have to take this and apply it, and we are responsible to do the same. Not only the institution of marriage we must figure out, not only the institution of God's congregation in his church as it has become in the New Testament, we need to know and understand those things, but government is God's institution. and we need to understand it as well. As pilgrims and strangers, we are still citizens under an earthly government. Well, we are also citizens of a spiritual kingdom, are we not? We live by a much higher standard than any citizen of an earthly government. If you could take the documents of the kingdom of heaven and compare them to the documents of the world, there is no comparison. Ours is a much higher kind of document with a higher standard. We don't need the documents of the world to dictate how we ought to live. We will excel those documents of the world. Because we live by the documents of the kingdom of God, and it's a much higher standard. But at the same time, we live in the world, and we are under human government. So, what is our responsibility to human government? That's where Peter's going to take us, and we will study it over the next couple of weeks. Maybe not. There may be a little time in between here before I get back to this, but we will get back to this. Can I insert a little bit of information? I remember reading many years ago in the life of John Calvin, and he was preaching. In fact, I believe it was through the book of Ephesians that he was preaching to his people. And persecution came and John Calvin was forced out of the pulpit for a period of four years. When he came back, guess where he started? Right where he left off. He didn't say, oh, let's start something new. He picked up right exactly where he left off. So my commitment is I will pick up when that moment comes right where we leave off today. So, what is our responsibility to human government? First, we acknowledge that God established government as an institution for the benefit and preservation of humanity, even though human governments are ungodly. We have to embrace that. If you don't embrace that, you're gonna have a problem living under authority of human government. You must embrace it as an institution of God. Now there are, we'll mention a few limitations and things that we need to consider as we apply this, but right now Peter's not getting into that. He's just establishing the fact that this is an institution that we must submit to. So we are instructed to behave as we read through Peter's comments here and some of Paul's. We are instructed to behave in such a manner that our testimony will not conflict with God's purpose of always being the same. Having your conversation honest among the nations. That is always God's purpose for us. No matter where we live, We have the same mission always. Now, remember when Peter wrote these words? He and the people of this period of time, the time that he's writing to them, they lived under the Roman government and the present emperor was Nero. The persecution of Christianity was intensifying. It had been going on for a couple of decades, but it was getting more intense. And Peter, like many others, would soon become a martyr for his faith. In two to three years after Peter wrote this letter, he would die. He barely finishes the second letter, and there's about a year before his death. unwilling to denounce his loyalty to his Lord and King, Jesus Christ, he would die. But Peter is going to teach us a much more about the subject of suffering in these conditions. And we know from history and from this teaching of the scripture, sometimes our light shines the brightest just before it's extinguished. We've all handled and read certain books about martyrs. We come away impacted, deeply influenced. Peter's writing to saints living with this possibility in mind. But even in death, we must be ready to show forth the virtues of him who's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Even in death, we must be honest as we live out our life before the nations. So whatever is required of us, this institution that God has established, we must submit to it. Even if it's evil, as it was in this period under Nero. When we read the stories of martyrs, including the first recorded martyr of the church in Acts chapter seven, Stephen, who is a deacon, one of the seven men, we read of his death in Acts 7 at the end of that chapter, and his eyes are fastened on God's glory as stones are pounding his body and his lips proclaim the gospel as he died. That's living and dying as lightbearers. regardless of the conditions that we must be subjected to. We, I've always stood amazed at the Christ, of course, our great example of dying with Father, forgive them upon his lips. That is not an uncommon thing to read that came out of the lips of those who were ready to die in the flames. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I remember reading how often parts of Psalm 23 was being spoken and declared as they were in the moments of their death, these saints of God. And how often you hear these words spoken, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And even now you preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies. There is the flames are leaping upon their body, they able to say that kind of thing. preparing a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, even to the last moment of the last day, knowing that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Human government Very flawed. Often very evil and ungodly. What's Peter's exhortation? Submit. Submit. Because it is a divine institution established by God, which Paul will emphasize as well. The phrase that we will look at when God gives us the time to gather together again with you is that first phrase, which ought to leave a deep imprint on our minds. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Here's the argument. Here's the reason why. It's for the Lord's sake. that we will do this. So we will explore that and some of Paul's statements on this matter It's a good timing for us. We have enjoyed in this country some wonderful years of history as a nation. We have been granted great freedoms without oppression. These are blessings that are just immense, and we wonder, will they continue? We see oppression already begin to be expressed against Christianity, even in our own country. So it's a good time for us to think these things through. You wanna get my blood boiling? Talk politics, right? I mean, there are things going on that just, they get me all worked up if I let them. Because we see evil abounding and we, as righteous people, we are troubled by that. And if we are at a crossroads, possibly in our own human history, as we move toward an election and make choices, what will be the outcome? What will happen in the next four years? But here's what I know. It doesn't change this truth. Whether it's a he or a she, doesn't matter. Doesn't change this truth. We have a responsibility to respond to the institution of God in a proper way for the Lord's sake, so that we might continue to advance the light as light bearers, regardless of the condition of the world. That's why we look at amazement at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the life of Daniel, don't we? What courage, what boldness they possessed And they submitted, Daniel was a man who submitted to the authority of his king over him in so many ways, over and over and over again, so that he would not hinder the message that God was communicating through him. And God definitely revealed the virtues of his nature through those men who stood strong during those days, and may God give us the courage. When we get into this, I want us to have the courage not to fear the world, don't fear what might happen in the next months or years, that we would go on continuing to be the light bearers, to show forth the praises of our God to the world where he has placed us. You can't do the whole world, but he's given you a part of the world. And it's there that you are to shine and be the light. May God give us the wisdom to understand this and the grace to apply it. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truths that show up as we labor through it page by page, verse by verse. I'm not sure we would necessarily choose this subject, to preach on for a few weeks on a Sunday service, but you have said it before us. And so for that reason, we are going to honor your word and we are going to explore these things and be challenged by them, by the truths that you set before us through your apostle. Thank you for your word on this matter. In Christ's name we pray, amen.