1 Peter 2. We're going to read a fairly lengthy portion of Scripture, but that won't hurt us any. We're going to try to look at some of the truths in this Scripture. Do you believe that as a Christian, God would ever command you to do something that would be very, very difficult to do? Did God do that? Let me say this. Would God command you as a Christian to do something that it would be impossible for you to do without His supernatural gifting and enabling to do so? Well, that's really basically the Christian life, isn't it? Because the Christian life is a supernatural life. It is not a life you can live apart from the agency and the operation of the Holy Spirit within you. It's not possible. For me to tell you to live like a Christian without the enabling of the Holy Spirit, I might as well tell you to jump over the moon. You can't do either one. And you can just as likely jump over the moon as live the way that God would have you to live apart from the supernatural empowering and enabling of the Holy Spirit within. That's why you've got to be a Christian. to live like one, don't you? And that's why a lot of people can't live the Christian life because they do not possess the Christian life. They don't have the Holy Spirit living within them. We're going to talk about some things today that are almost dirty words in our culture. But we're going to talk about them because of what the Bible teaches about them. Let's begin in verse 11 of 1 Peter chapter 2. I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which rage war against the soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor or king as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure it? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." And we're going to go into chapter 3. Likewise, why? be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered." Now, we'll stop reading there, and I would like to invite you to keep your Bible open to that portion of the Word of God, and we're going to look at that section of Scripture for a little while this morning and talk about what I believe the Lord is trying to say to us in this portion of God's Word. Now, some of you are already getting nervous. And you're probably getting nervous, some of you, because of that last few verses that I read about wives submitting to their husbands. We're just going to look at it and see what the Word of God says about it. You don't have to be nervous. If you don't like it, you can just go home and pray for me and pray about it or whatever. I'm not going to get upset with you about it. But I just want to talk to you about what the Word of God says about this particular subject. Now, first of all, I think every one of you that are in here that have been born again, You understand that as believers, the Bible makes it very plain that we are to live in submission to God. I think you understand that. The Bible says that we confess Him as Lord. And in confessing Him as Lord, we are acknowledging the fact that we have been called by God out of the world that we live in, into relationship whereby He becomes our Master, and we are to submit to His authority, to His headship, and we are to live in the will of God, seeking to live in submission and surrender to whatever God has purposed and planned for our life. Every one of us, we know that verse, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies to the Lord Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable, which is your reasonable servant. It is reasonable that we who have been given so much by God and receive so much grace, so much mercy, so much kindness, so much love, that we would submit our lives in authority and say, Lord, here I am. I'll do whatever you want me to do and I'll be whatever you want me to be. That is reasonable for God to expect that for those that He has purchased with the blood of His own Son. And I think we all understand that. We all understand that as believers we are to live in submission to the authority and the will and purposes of God. Now, the problem with that is that a lot of times we understand biblical concepts, but we don't understand how to put them into practice. For instance, does it do any good for you and I to understand that we are to live in submission to God if we don't understand how that is to be lived out in our everyday life? I mean, I can go home today, I can get in my car, and I can look over at my wife and say, listen, I am a Christian, I've been called by God, I've received God's grace, and therefore, I'm to live in submission to the will of God. But I can go down through my life knowing that I'm to live in submission to God and never really understand how I am to practically live that out in my everyday experience and my everyday life. Now, first of all, in our culture, the word submission is a dirty word anyway, isn't it? I mean, we believe in independence. Freedom! I'll do what I want to do. I'll be what I want to be. I'll have it my way. Be whatever I choose to be. Live as I choose to live. And I'll make my own path through life. And nobody's going to ever, ever, ever, ever, ever have any authority over me. Can I tell you? If you choose to live your life that way, you're going to be one miserable wretch of a human being. Because I'm telling you, you kids that are in school right now, you can't wait until you graduate and you think, man, when I graduate, nobody's going to tell me what to do. You're going to find out that the day you leave school, there'll be people lined up telling you what to do. I'm 39 years old and people tell me what to do. Everywhere I turn, people tell me what to do. Now, I can do it or I can not do it. But if I don't do it, I'm just biting off heaps of trouble for myself, right? And you need to understand that. Submission is part of life. And if you choose to live without surrendering and submitting in areas of your life, you can do so if you choose to do so, but you are buying pain, trouble, and sorrow for yourself. Friends, don't we understand, we don't seem to understand or believe that the way God said to do it is the best way to do it. And that when God said do it a certain way, He says do it a certain way so that it is for our ultimate good and our ultimate benefit. For instance, Margaret the other night, she was telling me about a young man in school that she has a class with, who essentially, he says he believes, whether he believes it or not, he essentially believes that anybody should be able to do whatever they want to do, no matter what it is. So someone asked him the question in class, well, what if somebody wanted to come and steal your property? Or what if somebody wanted to come and do this or do that? His answer was, well, if that's what they want to do, they ought to be able to do that. Can I tell you, you wouldn't want to live in a world like that. Our culture is getting more and more like that all the time. And that's why it's becoming so unlivable. You don't want to live in a culture where every man is his own God and every man decides for himself what is right and what is wrong and whatever he chooses to do, he can do it and he's answerable to no man. That is anarchy and that is chaos. So God says, no, I have set up a system whereby the evil can be punished and the good can be rewarded, and you are to submit to this system, and in so doing, you'll have a better, happier life, because you submit to doing things the way I say to do them, right? That's what this is all about. So it's like, I'm not going to submit. I hate the word submission. A lot of women, when they get married now, they tell their preacher, now don't you put that word obey in that ceremony, because I'm not saying it. I'm not going to say that. I don't think the ceremony I use particularly uses that word. But I understand that. You know, we've got this whole concept, I'm going to rule my own life and I'm not submitting to anybody. Well, you can do that if you want to, but can I tell you, when you get down to the end of the life, you're going to find out what folly that was to live that way. If you want to shake your fist in the face of the government, shake it all you want, but I'm telling you the government's bigger than you. We're going to talk about that. If you want to go to work tomorrow, and every time the boss tells you to do something, and you want to curse him under your breath, and you want to take something and throw it when he ain't looking and break a window out, or if you want to, when he turns his back, you want to kind of laze off and get paid for work that you're not doing, you can do that, but can I tell you, you're going to reap what you sow. So when God says, when I say, do it this way, I'm saying this for your own good. So submission is not our enemy. It is our friend. And God says, I know you better than you know yourself. I know you and I know your makeup and I know the way you are and I know what sin has done to you. So I'm going to set up some areas in life where you can demonstrate your submission to me. And you demonstrate your submission to me by being submissive in these areas. And if you're submissive in these areas, you'll have a happier, better life and you'll glorify me in the process because you're doing things the way that I want them to be done. So it's one thing to know that we're to be submitted to God. It's another thing to understand how that we're to flesh that out, how that we're to live that out. And the text that we read this morning gives us three areas. Three areas in which we can demonstrate our submission to God by being submissive in these areas. And we're going to look at all three of them briefly this morning. One of them is human government. The other one is in the workplace. And the other one is in the home. And we're going to talk about these three. And just because it's that way in the Scripture, I'm going to leave the home for last, because we always want to leave the best one for last. And I'm just doing that because it's in the Scripture that way. So here's what the Bible says about submission to human government. Now, Americans have it better than any people on the face of this planet that God created. I had a man tell me yesterday that he went to the Ukraine on a trip recently, and he said, I found out by going to the Ukraine that we are a bunch of spoil brats in America, and we have no idea how good we've gotten. We have no idea how many of the other peoples of the earth live. But yet with all of our blessings and all of our advantages, you'd think that there'd be very little complaining, right? But that ain't the way it works, is it? I mean, I don't know a lot about a lot of other peoples, and I've not lived in any generation but my own, but can I tell you, I can't imagine any group of people in the universe ever being more disgruntled and greater at complaining and murmuring than modern day Americans, where the poorest people in our culture would be wealthy in consideration of many cultures around the world. And we don't seem to understand that, and we really don't seem to care. You know, we talk about the fuel situation and I don't like paying $3 for a gallon of gas either. But can I tell you, we have relatives in England paying $8 or $9 a gallon for gas. And there are people in other countries of the world that they put 14 people in a UGO and travel around, right? Because they can't afford the things that we afford. And I'm not saying that we should diminish or deny the fact that God has blessed us and given us a lot. But can I tell you, sometimes we Americans are irresponsible in the way we view the world and the way we view life. And how do we many times take it out? We complain about the government. The government. It's the government. It's the government's fault. The government did this and the government did that. And we complain about the government. But now these verses that we read, they tell us something about being submissive to human government. Now notice some of the things that this text teaches. It's beginning in verse 13 of chapter 2. First of all, the Bible said that we are to submit to every human institution. Do you believe that? And I'm going to tell you why in just a minute. So don't leave me and don't get lost. The Bible said we are to submit to every human institution. That means that in our context we're to submit to the local governing authorities, are we not? We are to submit to the state authorities. We're to submit to the federal government. Except in one case. And that is if they were to command us to do something that would violate scripture. If they were to command us to do something or tell us that we couldn't do something, that would be a violation of Scripture. We are obligated by conscience and by our allegiance to Christ. We are obligated to follow Him and to obey Him. But you know as well as I do, a lot of what the government commands us to do, it is not a violation of Scripture. And yet we try to murmur against it and sidestep it anyway, do we not? For instance, We all know the views of modern culture about homosexuality, right? I'm not going to get into what the culture thinks about homosexuality, but I know what God thinks about it. So I go to the scripture and God says it's abominable. If the government passes a law that to get up and preach what the Bible teaches about homosexuality is a hate crime, we are obligated to preach what the Scripture says and let the chips fall where they may, right? That's just the way it is. Our Christian forefathers, many of them went to the stake and were burnt and hung and drowned because they wouldn't cease to preach the Scripture when they were living in a time where the government was trying to thwart the preaching of the Word of God. That's one thing. But that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about when the government passes a law and we are obligated to live by that law. And yet we think somehow, well, I'm a Christian. Jesus is my King. I'm not obligated to submit. Yes, we are. According to Scripture. Now, let me give you the one that we all think about. Paying taxes. I don't like to pay taxes. I really have never met anybody that liked to pay taxes. But according to Scripture, God instituted human government. And in instituting human government, God gave that government the right to raise funds so that they can administer justice and do many of the things... I forget. Excuse me. One of the ladies that works up at the courthouse, I graduated with her, and she called me and wanted to know if I would come and give the show prayer before the meeting of the magistrates one night. And I said, OK, I'll come. I didn't really want to, but I said, OK, I'll come. So I go up there, and all the magistrates come and sit down at their desk, and the county judge comes up and sits down. And lo and behold, I found out that night they were talking about raising taxes. And she told me, now Grover, you can pray and just slip right out. Just go on home, and it won't take you just a few minutes. So that's what I was aiming on doing. But when I found out they were talking about raising taxes, I thought, this might get good. And it did. It was better than anything on TV for three weeks. I'm telling you that. I mean, it got on. People were standing up. They were complaining about raising their taxes. And you know, I don't want my taxes raised. And I know you don't want your taxes raised. But here's what one of the magistrates said. He said, it's funny to me that you want all of the services that the county offers, but you have no idea how they're to be paid for, and you're unwilling to participate in paying for them because you don't want your taxes. Isn't that true? If you step your toe and you need an ambulance, you want them to be there, and you want them there five minutes quicker than they got there, don't you? And you want to know that there's a sheriff and some deputies on duty when there's trouble, somebody can get it. You want all of that. You want the, you like those, you don't like them when you're speeding, but you like those big gray cars, right? Don't you like them? With a big blue license. You like to know that they're around. You like to know that there's someone keeping order. There's someone keeping authority. You like to know they're there. You don't want them to give you a ticket for speeding, but you want to know that they're there so that there's some semblance of order. And if there's trouble. But we don't want to pay for that, do we? And we complain about paying for it. Now, I can't do it so much here. But all those years I've traveled, I could have literally hidden thousands of dollars of money that was given to me, and I refused to do so. A lot of times you go to church and preach, they give you cash. And you find, you know, $300 cash, $200 cash. Pick up an offer and there's a bunch of money and you go home and count it and there's $200 cash. That's not traceable. I could have hidden that money, but you know what I did with every bit of it? I went home and I had a ledger, and I put every bit of it in a ledger. And then I tithed and gave to the Lord on every bit of it. And I had a column over here. I'd make a mark when I tithed on that money that God gave me, and then I made a mark so that we'd know that it was accounted for, so that when I got down to the end of the year, I could be honest in my reporting with the government. You say, why did you do that? Not for the sake of the government, but for the sake of my Lord who commanded me to do it. A guy came to me recently. He said, I'd like to hire you to do this. And he said, I'll pay you a little bit less than you're making now, but I'll pay you cash. I said, no, I can't do that. I can't do that. Because the Bible said I'm to submit to every human institution. And why? for the Lord's sake. I pay taxes for the Lord's sake. I submit to human government for the Lord's sake. Because of what he's done for me. The grace that he's shown for me. Now notice what the Bible says about this. We are to submit to every human institution regardless of the nature of that institution. Now, does that verse say that we are to submit to the government if the government is a representative democracy? In that context, it talks about the emperor and the king. Now, once again, we Americans, we've got all the answers, don't we? And we look at our form of government, which has been a blessing and been a great boon to our nation and our people for over 200 and some years. But can I tell you, Paul or Peter, when he was writing this, he was writing to people that were under the authority of the Roman Emperor, and he didn't say, all right, if your government is a representative form of government, submit to the government. He said, no, submit to the Emperor or to the governor that had been sent by the Emperor, because that governor has a function. And I'll show you why that's important in a minute. So we can't look at the government and say, all right, the government's good or the government's bad. I'll submit if it's good, and I won't submit if it's bad. According to Scripture, if we were not a representative democracy or republic, if we were run by a monarchy, we would be just as obligated to submit to the monarch as we would to the leaders that God has placed over us. says that we're to submit, even regardless of the nature of the institution, and we're to submit, why? Because it's God's will. Everybody's always wanting to know, what's God's will? Well, here's part of God's will. That we submit to human government. That we submit to the authority of the government that God has placed over us. Verse 15, for this is the will of God. And why is it the will of God? Because it's a powerful testimony. Notice what's said in verse 15, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Now, it's really a lot today like it was in the day when Peter wrote this, because you know what it was like then? Christians were viewed as this fanatical cult that was a threat to the culture and a threat to stability. And remember in the book of Acts, as you'd read about how they would talk about the Christians, they would call them a sect. Or they would say that this bunch that has turned the world upside down, they've come here too. They viewed Christians as a bunch of fanatical, maniacal people that couldn't be trusted, that were to be feared. And that rapport had got all over the empire. So what Peter is saying is, listen, You submit to the government and live in such a way by submitting to the government that your lives would put to silence the ignorance of foolish people who lie about the nature of true Christianity. Can I tell you, I'm not, you know me, I'm not political much, I don't talk about it much, I don't want us to ever politicize our church, but can I tell you, I think every Christian should be the best citizen he could be. The best citizen. Our life should be beyond reproach. Listen, if they ever take me out there and burn me on Columbia Avenue, let it be because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not because of the way I've lived or the way I've behaved. Because our lives should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people who say those Christians are a threat. They're a threat. As a matter of fact, they should say those Christians are a blessing to our nation. A blessing to our culture. And thank God they're not all gone. That's the way it ought to be. That's why I said it's a powerful testimony that we submit to human government. Because it puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Notice what it goes on to say, we're not to abuse our liberty. He says this, he said, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Now we talk about, I'm free in Jesus Christ. He's my King. But what he's saying is, listen, yes, you have freedom in Christ, but that doesn't mean that you're not obligated to submit to the human institution. that God has placed over you. Don't use your liberty as an opportunity for evil. Don't say, oh, I'm free in Jesus Christ, so I don't have to pay taxes. That is not true. And I've met people that are like that. In my years of traveling, I met a preacher one time. I was talking about him to a guy the other day. I met a preacher one time out in Missouri. He hadn't paid taxes in years. He refused to pay taxes. His home was like an armory. He had guns everywhere. His home, his property was like a fortress. And he lived with this paranoia. And he said, man, the government, one day they're going to come get me. They're going to come get me. Well, it's a wonder they hadn't done come got him. I said, you don't pay taxes? He goes, no. I said, what do you do with the Bible? Oh, you know. And he began to explain away what the Bible said. And he was one of these people, these conspiracy theorists. You know, there's always a conspiracy, there's always this and there's always that. And they're out to get me and I'm not going to do this and I'm not going to do that. And can I tell you, our freedom in Christ does not give us liberty to not submit to human institutions that God has placed over us. We're to live as servants of God. In other words, we live with the knowledge that I'm God's servant, but being God's servant, that obligates me to the culture that I live in and the nation. And then the Bible says, honor everyone. And it says, honor the emperor. Most of us fail terribly on that, don't we? Man, you know, wouldn't you love to be the president, have all the good things that are said about him said about you? Now, most of us, probably a lot of us in this room, we're halfway happy with the president we've got now, but we weren't happy with the one before. But according to Scripture, we were just as much to honor him as to honor this one. Terrific, isn't it? Now, go to Romans 13, and we'll see why, and I'll move on. Look at verse 1, Romans 13. Let every person be subject to the governing authority. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Now there's the whole issue, isn't it? Can anybody become king unless God makes him king? Can any government stand or fall were it not by the providential action of God? No. So, we understand living in this country that God, whether we like it or not, whether we agree with everything they do or not, God has chosen to set this government up over us. I can't change the government. If I don't like it and I disagree with it, I can pray. and I can participate in the processes, but I am still to submit to the government unless they command me to do something that would violate Scripture or violate conscience. Until then, I'm to submit to the government because God, in His providence, has set the government up. It's a God. So I can't say, I don't like it, so that doesn't apply to me. God says, it doesn't matter whether you like it or not, I'll put it there. So submit. That's what the Bible says. You say, I don't like it. Well, then take it up with the Bible. That's what the Bible says. He said this, Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those that resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a tarry to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good." That's a great line. The government that God has placed is God's servant for your good. Now, you say, I don't know about that. We've all criticized and people have criticized the government's inability to deal with the hurricane situation down south. But can I tell you, can you imagine what it would have been like had there been no government? What if there were no roads? What if there had been no 82nd Airborne to go down there and stop the looting and the raping and the killing? It's God's minister for our good. And yes, it's imperfect like all human things are imperfect. And it fails and systems break down and fall down. But can you imagine what it would be like if it wasn't there? Can you imagine if they had to go out to the countryside and raise an army? Listen, it ain't like it was in 1776. You can't get a bunch of clowns out of the woods anymore and go fight a war. What is delight? It's God's minister for our good. And that's why it says this, But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. We submit for the sake of conscience, not just because we're afraid of what will happen if we don't submit. Notice what he said, for the same reason you also pay taxes. The authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Governor Fletcher walks in this room, whether I'm a Democrat or Republican, or whatever I am, I'm standing up. If Bill Clinton walks in this room, I'm standing up. And I was convicted as the Lord began to deal with me about this, about how little respect I've had. oftentimes for human government, and how I murmured against it. We want all of its benefits, but not the responsibilities, don't we? That's the way it always works. So he says, first of all, demonstrate your submission to God by your submission to human government. The next one, real quickly. Demonstrate your submission to God by your submission in the workplace. Now, This is harder than the other one. Because the government is an impersonal thing, isn't it? But when you think of work, you've got a man or a woman's face that comes into your mind, don't you? So he says, yes, submit to human... Demonstrate your submission to God by your submission to human government, but also demonstrate your submission by God by your submission in the workplace. But this is much harder than the other. The government many times is an impersonal thing. But the workplace, it's about people, isn't it? People that we know, people that we have to relate to, people that we have to get along with. Now notice what he says in verse 18 of chapter 2. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. He says, submit to your masters and respect them. Isn't that convicting? The person that God has placed over you in your workplace, we are to submit to them and we are to respect them. Respect them for their position. If they don't have good character, respect them for their position in spite of their lacking character. And then he said this, he said, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. There are some people it's easy to submit to. There are some people, it's just rough, isn't it? I had a supervisor one time at a place I worked. His greatest early morning joy was to come into the grocery store and see all that you hadn't done because you just got there three minutes ago. And then to chew you out. He would cuss other people. I guess because I was a preacher, he wouldn't cuss me, but he would just get mean and nasty with me. So I felt honored. But he would just cuss other people. You know, I found out later that he was having a lot of marital trouble. He and his wife eventually split up. And I think he was bringing all that from home and just bringing it to work. And I was the first clown with a Houchins tag on that he could get to. So you let me have it every morning. I mean, you walk in the door five minutes. Why isn't that done? Why? I said, I just got here five minutes ago, sir. Just got here five minutes ago. I'll do it. But not all your bosses are going to be the kind you jump up on Monday morning and say, hallelujah, it's time to go to work. Not all of them are like that. But we're just as obligated to one as we are to the other, according to Scripture. And notice how the Lord puts this. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. We suffer unjustly at the hands of our employer or our supervisor, and we suffer it, and we suffer it in a gracious way because we're mindful of God. This is an opportunity to glorify God. This is what God told me to do. This is the way God told me to respond. And I'm going to respond this way, even though this is a difficult person to work for, I want to respond this way with respect and obedience and submission, because God has done so much for me, and He's put me in this position, and He's put this person over me, and now I have an opportunity to honor God by the way I respond to this supervisor. That's good preaching and hard living, isn't it? I know, because I have to deal with it too. I'm a human being. But that's the truth. That's Scripture. He said, what credit is it if you sin and are beaten for it? Now, none of you are going to get beaten at work tomorrow when you do wrong. What he's saying, is that any real thing if you do wrong and you suffer for it? Is that any great thing if you take it patiently and go, I did wrong and I deserve this, so I'm going to take this patiently? What about when you do good and you still suffer? The Bible said this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. It honors God. It pleases God. It glorifies God. And the Bible said that we've been called because our Lord, who did no sin, suffered at the hands of men, didn't He? One more area, and this is the part I know you were looking forward to. in the workplace, submission to human government, and submission in the home. Now, before you ladies get your feathers up, which happens many times the minute you read one of these verses about submission, understand that according to Scripture, we are to submit to one another. That's in the book of Ephesians. We are to submit to one another. According to Scripture, I'm to submit to the Lord And in submitting to the Lord, I am also to be submitted to my family, to love my family, to serve my family, to minister to my family, and my wife is to be submitted to me. Now, can I tell you? That's just in the Bible. And there's nothing any more unattractive than a woman who wants to be a man. Unless it's a man who wants to be a woman. Both of them are pretty horrendous. It's unattractive. Now, notice the way the Lord wise, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey. Do you say be subject if they're the best Christian at church? No. You submit to your husband, even though he may not obey the Word. Because by submitting to your husband, even though he may not obey the Word, you are testifying to him of God's grace and God's work in your heart, and you may very well win your husband to Christ by your behavior and by your life without preaching a sermon to him all the time. That's the way to do it. You know, Kim will tell you, nagging don't move Grover. Just something about me, and I guess it's true of every human being about the sinful nature, when you nag me about something, there's just something that rises up inside of me and says, I am not going to do it. You've all probably heard the story when we first got married, how I would leave the caps off of things. She just drove her crazy. You know how when you get married, you've just got to adjust to live with a whole different person from a different background? And I'd get up in the morning, I'd use a deodorant, I'd leave the caps and leave a cap off of this and a cap off of that every day. I wish you'd quit leaving them caps off. They just drive me crazy every day. I've got to go in that bathroom, pick all those caps up, put them all back on. I wait and just on and on and on and on and on. And I thought, man, it's just a plastic cap. So here's what I've done one morning. I always got up before her. So I got up and I went through the whole house and I got every plastic cap in the whole house. And when she woke up, there was a big mountain of plastic caps in the bathroom on the vanity. Now, I don't recommend you do that. But can I tell you, that was the end of our discussions about the plastic caps. And I've got to confess, when she quit hammering me about it, I started putting the cap back on every once in a while just because she was being so nice about it. We're all kind of like that, aren't we? So, you know, a lady whose husband's not saved, if you go home and say, well, Brother Grover said this, he ain't wanting to hear what Brother Grover said. Well, boy, you should have been there today. Oh, Grover preached about hell, and that's where you're going, buddy. Do you think you're going to win your husband like that? Do you think that is going to win your husband? But I'll tell you what, if you will love Him and honor Him and respect Him and live a consistent, godly, Christ-honoring life, it may take a while, but that will be the message He will not be able to deny. And that's what the Scripture is talking about here. Rise. And can I tell you, you husbands that love this wife, be subject to your husbands. Look down at verse 7. Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. How much time do we as men take to really understand our wives and their needs and to seek to serve them and to put them first? See, in most of my 19 years this week of preaching, In most of my 19 years of preaching, my experiences with men who said that their wife was a bear to live with and she was just impossible, she wouldn't submit in any area, usually it was because he was such a wretch. That she had no confidence in him. And she had no respect for him. I mean, listen, fellas, if you ain't took a bath in three weeks, no wonder she don't want to have nothing to do with you. And if you come home and your nightly ritual is the worship of the remote control, and you never speak, you never communicate, you never talk, you never go anywhere she wants to go, you never share any time with her, pay attention to her, listen to her, minister to her, you never say, honey, what can I do to make things easier for you? If you never do that, can I tell you, no wonder she has trouble respecting you and following your leadership. You know why? Because she's not too convinced that you're following the Lord because you're so unlike Him. The more you are like Christ, the more your wife will honor you and desire to be a blessing to you. And understand this, ladies, when the Lord tells the wife to submit to her husband, He is not saying that you are a second-class member of the family, and He's not saying that you're a second-class member of the church. It grieves my heart. A lot of churches I've went in over the years, the ladies are just kind of like all beaten down. And I think that that's because of the wrong understanding of this Scripture. They think, well, the man's this and the man's that, and I'm just here to be seen and not to be heard. Tell us, what would our churches be without the ladies? Most of them wouldn't even exist. You are not a second-class Christian. What God is saying is that the role of the man and the role of the woman is unique. The woman can't be the man, and the man can't be a woman. By the way, do you suppose that's why God made it that every kid should have a mama and a daddy? Because mama can't be daddy, and daddy can't be mama, and they need both? So we say, no, Fred and Jerry, who are partners, are going to adopt a kid and raise it. And he'll be a twisted, messed up kid. That's as nice as I can say that. I could say it a lot meaner, but that's as nice as I can say it. Because God knows what He's doing. Now here's the thing. I'm submitted to God. But is anybody going to believe it if I'm not submitted to the government? I mean, if I get up here Sunday and I brag, I don't pay taxes and I'm not going to pay taxes, everyone of you will go home and say, well, he ain't obeying God. He ain't submitted to God. If I get up and I brag about, well, you know, I went to work yesterday and I hid behind the dumpster all day long and played cards with my buddies and I didn't hit a lick all day long. And then I will say, I'm submitted to God. No, you're going to go, he ain't submitted to God. Because he's not submitted in the area of his workplace. Men, you ladies and men too, if I stand up and you know that I'm just mean to Kim, untimed, Don't honor her. That's what it says. Honor your wife. Honor your wife. Value her. Esteem her very highly as a treasure given to you by God. Can I tell you? She won't be gone five minutes until you wish you had honored her. And when you stand by that casket and look at that woman that raised your kids and washed your clothes and ministered to you when you were sick and cooked your meals, when you stand over that casket and look at her dead body and you go back home to that lifeless, empty, lonely house, you will say, I wish I had known what a treasure I had. If I don't honor her, Does it do any good for me to get up and talk about my submission to God? And if she does not respect me, and if she's not willing to follow my leadership as I follow Christ, will it do any good for her to go in the meeting back here and say, Oh, I'm submitted to God. And every one of you knows that she's just here because she had to come. She didn't want to come. See how it lives out. See, sometimes we put everything way up here at pie in the sky. I'm submitted to God, but what does it mean? How do you live it out? Now, as I began with, there's nothing easy about this, is it? There's nothing easy about it. It's not even possible without the grace of God. I'm going to tell you, it's so easy. You know this if you're married. Isn't it so easy? to be the most hurtful to the person you love the most. Isn't it so easy? I told Kim last night, we were all alone, the kids were at the big demolition derby. We met some, my father will hear this because he listens to these CDs. We bumped into some people last night and I said, my kids, my redneck children are at a demolition derby with their redneck grandfather. We all just laughed about it. He don't mind me calling him that because he knows he's one of them. And we were all alone last night. We were sitting there in the house and it was just real quiet. And I was sitting there thinking. And I was thinking about her. And I was thinking about how empty my life would be if she wasn't there. But how often I get so caught up in the pressures of life that I don't appreciate her. And I don't show her how much I love her. And isn't it sad that life is like that? That we get so wrapped up and we focus on the things that don't matter, that we ignore the things that do matter. You want to demonstrate that you're submitted to God? Do what the government tells you. Unless they tell you to disobey Scripture or sin against your conscience, do what the government tells you. You say, I can't afford to pay my taxes. Can I tell you if God told you to pay them, He'll provide the means for you to pay them? Live in submission in your workplace. Glorify God. Realize that the way you behave at work and the way you respond to your supervisor either adorns and makes the gospel look beautiful or it makes it look terrible. Can I tell you? The greatest test of your spiritual life will be in your home with your family, with your husband and with your wife. And we demonstrate our submission to God by our submission in the home life. Practical, isn't it? Not pie in the sky. Right down there on the ground where you can grab a hold of it. You know what it's like? It's like putting the pads on, putting your helmet on, and going out in the mud and grinding it out. That's a lot of life. A lot of life is not lived on a spiritual mountaintop. It's lived in the trenches. Every day, getting up and doing what you know is right to do when you don't feel like doing it. And over a lifetime, you bear testimony of God's grace and God's power and God's goodness in your heart. Christian life is not a hundred-yard dash. Samaritan. Run it well. That's right.