First Peter, chapter number two. Follow as I read verses 13 through 17, which contains a common subject theme. 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 malice, of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King. Peter has attached this subject of the believer's relationship to human government to a greater overarching theme of our mission to a world. Every believer is called to be God's refractors of himself. And I use that word because we're like a prism. We receive the true light. His glory is in the light. It not only enters into our life, but its purpose is to pass through us revealing to the world the person and work of our redeeming God. This is how God confronts the darkness of the world where we've been placed, our little spot and our little corner in the people around us. Jesus taught that the children of the kingdom, that they are the light of the world. The light we show to the world didn't originate in us. It's a divine light that gave us life, and it now shines through us, offering life to others, as Paul so eloquently works out in Ephesians 5. Peter is saying the same thing that Jesus Christ said when he made that statement, the latter portion of verse nine, that we keep referring and reminding you of, that we should show forth the praises of him who had called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. You are the light of the world. is what Jesus said, and Peter is saying the same thing. Every believer is saved and equipped by God to carry out this mission of showing forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. We, all believers, we are all on a mission. It's a God-given mission. It's the same mission. We all share it. And we must all be guarded against the forces of darkness that are constantly pulling and tugging at our life to entangle us with fleshly lust and thereby hinder us in the mission we're on. We must remain vigilant at all times and keep our life honest, as Peter says, before the world. And to attain this kind of Christian lifestyle of honest living means that we are focused on our spiritual development at all times, and we are striving to be spiritually balanced, mature people. That's honest living as Christians in the world. And we know, as Peter has said, as Christ and Paul and all the apostles, Old Testament, New Testament, it's our good works that will do it. That's how we show the glory of God. It is through shining through us as we do good works. And so when Peter said in this section that we're looking at now, to submit yourselves, It is not said in a vacuum. In order for us to be God's light in the world, we must include our response to human government. We cannot isolate government from what it means to be the light of the world. We bring the glory of God in our good works in response to human government. As Peter had said, honest living among the nations. That's our goal. We do it by the way that we live and carry out our Christian life in obedience to God that it's seen and displayed to the world that they might see and glorify God. Peter states our duty real simply here, submit yourself. In this phrase, the implied you is there, right? You know that, right? When you read it, you submit yourself is what he's saying. It's personal. It's a divine commandment that is given to you personally, every one of you, to me. We are personally responsible. to submit ourselves, submit yourselves. This verb requires an immediate and willing response to our government. No one should force you to submit. This verse speaks of an action of we as believers placing ourselves under the authority of human government. This is our action. This is our duty. It should not have to be forced upon us. And because it's a God-given duty, therefore, we're doing what we're doing over the last few weeks. It must be preached to you, right? It is our duty, so I must preach it to you that it is your duty, and that you obey this duty, submit yourself, that as God's people, you need to grow and understand this commandment that is given to you, which we are attempting to open up for you. through our study of it. So we must know our duty and the nature of our response as it has been given to us. And Peter has also added the extent of our duty in this phrase to every ordinance of man. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. We're submitting to. Personally, we are making that decision, willingly acting upon it to every ordinance. And this word refers to the laws that have been established, which are to be obeyed by its citizens. We mentioned last week that the government does not have the right to forbid us to do what God has told us to do. the right to force us to do what God has forbidden us to do. The government crosses a line and it cannot impose those things upon God's people or restrict God's people. That often has led to martyrdom, where believers have died for their faith. But ordinarily, generally speaking, we are to obey every ordinance of man. Every law that has been established, and there's many laws. There's community and relating to this and that and the other. There's a lot of laws that we live with every day, don't we? And we are to regard them, all of them, no matter what kind of law it is, what area it's imposing its will on us, we need to regard it and respect, as he says, every ordinance of man. And every suggest here, not so much the exact of all, but it's suggesting all the various kinds of laws that are given to us to obey. And there's all different kinds of laws. And these are rules that we are to consider and we are to submit ourselves to. This is the Christian showing his respect to all the rules of man. And in every ordinance of man, that word refers to mankind in general or the human race. We are a part of mankind, are we not? We are unique in that we are members of the kingdom of God, that's for sure. But we are also members of the human race and of human government. We live by it and submit to it as God has given it as an institution to manage and govern societies, the laws, every ordinance of man. These laws have been established by men for mankind. And because we are members of the human race, we are responsible to fully comply whenever possible The Christian ought to be the leaders of examples in this matter. We shouldn't be the last ones dragging our feet to obey. We should be the first out of the gate to obey because that is a commandment from God that he has given to us. Why is Peter continually stressing the details here? It is so that we are not criticized by those who are observing our behavior. That's why. The world's looking for hypocrites all the time. It's looking to point the finger at Christians who say one thing, but they do another thing. And they're looking for that inconsistency to justify their own. And so the goal of our life as Christians in this world, we must not give them that opportunity. And Peter's stressing that reality here. We are God's lights in the world and everywhere we go, our light is meant to be promoting and putting forth the character of God to us. This is God's ordained means for impacting the world. This is how God saves people. It's through the light of our life. They see that light and the life that we have, we find from Paul is transferred. There's a life giving force of the gospel being lived out of us. And people are saved by it. That's how God does it. He doesn't come and stop somewhere in the corner of a community once every year and proclaim the gospel through an angel. He uses his people. We are the light. We are to shine and show forth. And Peter is stressing that we are not to let our life become entangled. We must be guarded concerning our behavior so that our light is not diminished. And we often don't think about that, but it's something that needs to be remembered. You can either strengthen Cause your light to shine brighter through your good works or you can diminish the effectiveness of your light by becoming entangled with the things of the world and not being obedient to the government that is over us. This is Peter's argument for us to think about as the people of God. We are commanded to live this way. It's here in our text then that Peter where he's focusing on our broad response to human government, that he inserts this motivation that we need to think about when he says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. For the Lord's sake. We are to respond for his sake. This phrase is intended to give us a strong argument for why we are ready and willing to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man. What's the motivation for us to do this? What's the argument for us? It is for the sake of the Lord. For this reason, Peter says, we submit to every ordinance of man. So our obedience to human government is attached to the advancement of the Lord's interests in the world. If we choose to disobey, then the interests of the Lord are being hindered by our lack of obedience. For his sake, for the Lord's sake, for his name's sake, He is the Lord Jesus Christ for his namesake, for his glory as we exalt him by doing his will, which he has commanded us to do by being obedient, submissive to authority. We honor him because the reason why we honor those in authority is because we are submitting to his will. His will is being obeyed. And so we see beyond the many failures of those who are in authority over us, or at least we have to, should do that. If all we do is study the failures of those in authority, we are never going to get this thing figured out. And so that's why Peter is saying, for the Lord's sake. So we see beyond the many failures of those who are in authority over us, we don't comply because they're perfect or that the laws all make sense to us. That's not why we comply. The people of God, we submit to every ordinance of man because our Lord requires it of us. And that's who we see above all of this other activity. It is the Lord. And as we do His will in this matter, His light shines more fully through us, both brighter and clearer. This isn't any different than what many other passages of scripture focus on. And I just mentioned one out of Colossians 3, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all. in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So whatever you do, he is to be glorified in those endeavors. Word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so we submit to those in authority because our Lord has told us to yield because our submission honors him who is the supreme authority, the great kurios, the Lord over all, and because our good works reveals the nature of God as we reveal the true light through our good works. That's why we submit. There's so much more here than just, I love freedom. He's going to make a statement about being free here in verse 16, but he puts it into its appropriate place. So Peter reminds us that there are many voices of authority and our response is to be the same, whether it be some governmental authority or another governmental authority or whether it be king or governors as he says here in verse 13 whether it be to the king or in verse 14 to governors these are just appointed leaders under the king We are responsible to submit to them. Their responsibility is to, as Peter tells us here, wouldn't it be great if every government did this? They punish evil doers and bless those who are good. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Were they doing that in Rome? I don't think so. Not very well, anyway. Are they doing that in our own government? Well, generally it's pretty good, but is it perfect? Are there men who have failed to do this above us? Absolutely. So when we hear these statements, we can't assume that he's speaking of just a perfect environment where we do these things. We submit because everybody's punishing evil and promoting good. That's not what's going on, is it? But we do see that there is an accountability to human government, and believe me, they will give an account for their decisions to punish the criminal, the evildoer, the wicked person, and to advance the good people. They are responsible to God for that choice, and the decisions they make, they will not They will not find a way out of their accountability to God. The day of judgment, every one of those in authority will give an account for that position and how they executed it. God wouldn't demand it and not hold them accountable. This is what they should be doing. It definitely wasn't always the case through human history, nor was it true in the time when Peter wrote this. Peter describes the general responsibility here of human government. We know that it has been often perverted. In fact, we have observed in our day, have we not? how that good men are falsely accused and bad men are excused and even promoted. This is happening all around us. The important thing is, does that change your duty to God? Who are you looking at? Humans who are failing you? or are you submitting yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake? Are you hearing him, listening to his voice and what he requires of us? Peter and Paul are not ignorant when they write these statements, these general statements. Paul wasn't ignorant when he wrote Romans 13 about the same idea about human government. And so it is for this reason we are not only told what our duty is and the extent of our duty, but the reason why we must submit ourselves is for the Lord's sake. If we lose sight of that, it's going to be very difficult to live under authority that's failed and not doing the right thing according to their appointed responsibility. It's interesting that Paul in Ephesians 5 uses that same word here that we understand as more of a military word where soldiers took an oath, took a sacrament to Caesar that when they entered the legions of the Roman military that they would willingly place themselves under the authority of those who had been placed over them. They made that vow of commitment, they would do it. That's the word that Peter uses here that Paul used regarding marriage, concerning the wife. Wives, he says in Ephesians 5, 20, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. So there again, wives, no one's going to convince you that men are perfect. They're not. They're flawed. They're going to make a lot of mistakes. You don't submit to your husband because he's perfect. He's always making the right decisions. You make your vow to God. that you will place yourself in a position as he has placed you in the marriage. So women were encouraged by Paul, you can't just focus on your husband, you have to focus on the Lord who gave you this requirement, this commandment to submit to your husbands. And so in verse 15, we find this is the will of God that we as people submit ourselves to every ordinance of man, for so is the will of God. This is God's will. We would assume that from what we've just read. but now he's putting it before us visually so that we can make no mistake here about what is God's will. For so is the will of God. And all of us have a desire to, as children of God, we have a desire to be obedient to God. That's an innate desire. We want to obey him. If we don't have that desire, then we're not his. His children want to obey Him. We struggle with it, but we always want to improve and get better in our obedience. And this is the will of God. that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." With well-doing. How do we silence the criticisms that are out there floating around, the harsh tone against Christianity? How do we change the spirit and the disposition of our neighbors or people we work with? How do we do that? Good works. Right? By well-doing. You silence them. It's interesting, this picture's putting a muzzle on something. They are brought to a place of being muzzled. How, what did it? Your sarcasm, your arguing? No. Doing good. This is how we overcome evil. Two scriptures are moving toward the end here, but I want you to look at... First, look at Matthew 5, 44. I want you to see this statement, and then we'll go to Paul in Romans chapter 12. Matthew chapter 5, we know that this is the context of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is giving us all of the things that we need to know about the kingdom, about kingdom children, how to identify them, how they live, what they look like. That's what we find in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. So we're in that context. And he began, remember, in chapter 5, with the Beatitudes, and he made a statement there, and he expands on it here again in verse 44 of chapter five. He says, but I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. We read these, we believe them, but are we ready to practice them as we should? I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. What a thing to attach to that. Show yourself to be the children of God. This is how God's children behave in the world. Look at how Paul develops this in Romans, in chapter number 12, quickly if you would, Romans in chapter 12. Beginning in verse number 17, and here he's in this place of application of all of the great doctrines that he's taught in the first 11 chapters, Here he's applying these things, how truth ought to impact the Christian, knowing about your justification, knowing about imputation, knowing about righteousness. How do these things change you? How do they impact your life? And so he's discussing these things beginning in chapter 12 all the way to the end of the letter. But I want you to draw just a portion here for a moment that relates to what we're talking about specifically, beginning in verse number 17 to the end of that chapter, verse 12, we are told to recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest, and here he uses the idea of what Peter's talking about, living honestly. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Produce those things. Give to them to see what is honest before all men. And if it's possible, as much as lies within you, live peaceably with all men. Do everything you can on your part. Don't pull the plug too quickly. Do everything you can to live peaceably with all men. Oh, you who are dearly beloved of God. Verse 19, avenge not yourselves. but rather give place unto wrath. Don't try to get even to those who have injured you. As it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, now quoting a little more from Jesus here, therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head." A little graphic image, isn't it, of just overwhelming and consuming them? How? By what he says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. The power of Christianity to change the world is not with a sword, it's when God in this world. There's a time for war. Those things don't exist. I'm talking about we, God's children, living in his kingdom, advancing his interests in the world. We do not conquer by getting even or by paying back, by injuring others who've injured us. We do the opposite. and we are to overcome evil with good. There's something in the statement of Jesus that I want to make our last closing thoughts about. When Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, in that verse we read just a moment ago, that we are to pray for them. This is such an important concept that we need to be careful we don't overlook what's being said to us when we are dealing with the forces of evil that work against us. Pray for them. Pray for them. Look at 1 Timothy in chapter number two. 1 Timothy chapter two. Paul is writing to this, one of the elders, one of the preaching elders in the church at Ephesus, which was Timothy. And he speaks to him about liturgy, right? About when you come together and you're worshiping and you're, you're engaged in the worship of God. That the one thing that he stresses here that we often overlook, and I confess we overlook, I overlook, is this call to include in our prayers, prayer, for those who lead our government, those who we are under authority to, and we must obey that we are to be actively praying for them. That's a personal thing, but it's also a church thing. And he states it very clearly here. Listen to these words in verse one. A few verses here, he says, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now he's not talking about, we gotta find a list of every human in the world and start praying for all the humans. He's talking about all kinds of people in this world. We do not isolate one group from another group and he expands on it for kings. We are to pray for those in authority that are over us. It's very easy to develop a really bad attitude toward those who are really lousy at leading. And not only lousy, pervert leadership to their own advantage. You want to temper that spirit of frustration? Pray for them. Pray for them. for kings and for all that are in authority that, and here's a motivation for why we need to do this, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved. Have you ever thought about some of the worst people that we see in front of us as politicians Maybe one of God's. They're waiting for the light to come, to shine upon them through some witness in life that will call out to them. God's in the business of saving kings. Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar would be a good example of that. So we pray for all men. will have all men to be saved and for them to come unto the knowledge of the truth." What a wonderful place that is to see and hear the call of the gospel upon their life because some believer has been shining brightly in their midst and they hear the call and they respond to the call of the truth. It's a part of God's plan. For there is just one God and one mediator between God and man, and it's that man, Christ Jesus. There is no other way for them to find life eternally apart from God's plan. Pray for them. gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not a teacher to the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men everywhere lifting up holy hands, this is not so much the action, but lifting up a pureness in their own life to God. I will that therefore men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, praying without wrath and doubting. So God has called us to this task. We recognize government's very flawed, broken. Even the best on the earth is still flawed and broken. And so one of the important things that we can do as Christians, as we deal with authorities over us that's flawed and broken, is not simply just to criticize, but pray. Pray. God is using the prayers of his people all the time to advance his will. You believe that? Or you wouldn't pray? We pray for lost people. Why? We want God to intervene. Paul is telling Timothy, God's interested in the salvation of all people, all kinds of human beings, including kings, and those in authority over your life. I'll close with Paul, who gives himself as an example here. Go back to the book of Philippians chapter one, a prison letter that Paul is writing, Yep, he's in prison, and he's not far from dying a martyr's death. What's his attitude? How does he approach this? Well, he encourages them not to be overly burdened and stressed over the matter that he's in prison. He goes on to say here in chapter 1, verse 12, he says, I want you to know that you should understand, brethren, that the things which happeneth unto me, these things taking place, the idea being communicated here, what seems like things, haphazard things, disjointed things that are happening, oh, to the contrary. Right? These things that have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. I'm in prison for the sake of the gospel. I'm suffering here, so don't be overly burdened for what I'm going through. It's for the sake of the gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace. In all the palace. and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord are waxing confident by my bonds and are much more boldly to speak the word without fear." Where? In the palace. The gospel has entered the palace. I like even how he says it here at the end of the Verse 21, when he's giving his closing remarks here, his salutations. In verse 21, he encourages the church to salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me, where are you Paul? I'm in prison. The brethren which are with me, All the saints that are with me salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. Isn't that remarkable? This great emperor who hates Christianity, throwing him to the lions and setting him on fire. God has invaded his household with the light. And that light is called out to men in that palace to come to the light and you can have the light of life as well. And so God is at work in the darkest places. And the only, one of the most important things we have to do is we have to constantly remind ourselves that whatever trial or tribulation that falls out to us, that we can trust in the sovereign purposes of our God, and for His sake and for His name's sake, we will do that which glorifies Him in the midst of our trial, whatever that is. We will exalt Him. How? By being obedient. by doing his will. That's how his light permeates the darkness. And that's how the light changes the world. It changed the Roman government within a couple of hundred years. It had switched from hating Christianity to making it a national religion. That's the power of Christianity in Rome. So we have reason to be faithful to the mission that God has given us. For the Lord's sake, we will submit and we will yield to human government. We seek to advance his glory in the midst of whatever is required of us. And we must be committed to doing good works in order to do that. And a part of those good works And as we struggle, pray. Pray. Pray for those in authority. Pray for their salvation. What? That guy saved? Yes, pray for their salvation. God saves kings and governors and all kinds of rulers. Let us pray. That will temper our spirit and keep us from developing any disposition of resentment and bitterness, even hatred for those who are in authority over us. They fail. That's not news. We know they fail. What we need to be committed to is in the spite of their failure, that we keep our eyes fastened on the Lord. We submit for his sake. Father, thank you for these moments that we can contemplate again this duty that you have required of us as your people. And I pray that you would, through these lessons and studies of these statements of Paul and Peter,