1 Peter chapter 5. Let's begin at verse 1. We're going to read down through verse 7. We're going to be particularly looking tonight at verses 5, 6, and 7. We're returning to our study of 1 Peter, and we've got a couple of more messages, I think, out of this great epistle. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." God give us grace as we look at this passage of Scripture, and may He give us His own view of it. Peter, I think in the last part of this letter, is going to be giving us something of his own personal testimony about how the Lord dealt with him as a believer. and really struck him, but in order to make him useful. Peter is one of the, of course, that preached at Pentecost, Acts chapter two, 3,000 came to faith in Jesus Christ. So he was an instrument of God's glory. But in order for him to be an instrument of God's glory, the Lord had to deal with him. and dealt with him about pride. We'll see that as we go along, but I see some of these incidents that we know about from scripture in this particular passage that we're looking at tonight. Now, of course, it begins verse five, likewise. Likewise, and so that obviously, when you see a word like that, it's meant to take you back to what has transpired before. And of course, the section that I read to you and that we looked at a couple of weeks ago was a section having to do with elders. And though it does not mention that a qualification of an elder is that he be humble, the whole description we're left with is this one who does exercise oversight is meant to be an example to the flock. And I believe it's an example of humility because verse 4, when the chief shepherd appears. In other words, the elder is a shepherd, but he's not the chief shepherd. He's under the chief shepherd. He's a man under authority. And so that issue, it seems to me, of rightful authority runs through this whole section. In fact, I think it runs through the whole book. If you remember, one of the themes of 1 Peter is kind of wrapped around a word in the Greek that's hupotasso, you remember that? And it has to do with the idea of subjection. It's actually a military word that has to do with rank and sort of being under authority, taking your rank. and not moving out of that, right? But being under authority. Our God is an ordered God. He shows us discipline and order and how things ought to go. There's nothing about God that is not orderly. We can go back to Genesis 1 and the creation, how very orderly that creation was. One thing that followed another and that prepared the whole for the creation of man and woman to come into the garden. Very orderly, very disciplined we might say, and that's the world that he's made. Now, we of course mess that up. We are undisciplined, we're proud, often disobedient, and so disorder happens because of that, because of sin. But God himself is orderly. And so he's, when he speaks to his people, this idea of an order and rank and subjection to authority just fills first Peter. And it's, it's one of the leading themes. We might say it, the book, the book, began, at least in chapter two, picking up the idea of being subject to civil authorities. In God's mind, the civil authorities have a rank that is over citizens. And so he began there. He spoke to slaves and their attitude toward their masters. In our day, we could probably look at that in terms of employee-employer relationships. He spoke to wives and how they're to submit to their husbands, husbands treating wives with respect and honor and dignity. And then Christians in chapter three, to subject themselves to God, even when they are opposed and the unbeliever comes against them. They are to be, under God's authority, under control, so that when they do speak against you as an evildoer, they really have nothing to say. They don't have darts that will latch on to your character and your mindset because you're under authority, you see. You're not just sort of out there on your own. and how to respond then to the unbeliever who might disagree with you, but by your manner might be able to say, well, what is the reason that when I come against you so hard, you respond in gentleness and kindness? And there's the reason, see, that you can give for the hope that is within you. So it's a fear of God. It's an understanding that God is is over us as believers and there's a sort of rank and authority. And as the letter goes on, of course, he's going to call them to an attitude that they must have even if suffering endures and if it gets worse, which he predicts actually in chapter four. And so it's a very practical letter written to these first-generation Christians who he knows are going to experience trouble in the world. And that's been the plight, you might say, of Christians down through the years. And we've enjoyed relative peace in our land. That may not necessarily go on. And so this letter, I think is a word for our times about subjection. Now this, he begins with this describing this, the grace of humility. That's the title of tonight. This humility that is to be exercised by everyone. He begins with the young. And then he goes to everyone. And that's kind of the order in humbling ourselves before God. So the first point I want to make is just in chapter, I'm sorry, chapter five, verse five, is he speaks to the young ones. And I've called this the young ones. I didn't say men, I said young ones, that would be men or women. that you notice in chapter 4 or verse 4, when the chief shepherd appears, you, that is the elders, will receive the unfading crown of glory. And as I thought about this, I thought, there's a crown for young people. There's a crown for young ones. There's a glory that the Lord attaches to young people, but he says where that crown is gonna be worn is in your subjection to those who are older. It's the humility that you exercise toward those who are older. That's God's way. That's God's order. He gives you parents You know, the parents are to raise the children in fear and admonition of the Lord. There's an order there, there's a discipline, a training that has to happen. And that doesn't stop when you become a teenager or even in your 20s and that, Humility really is going to be running all through your life, but he particularly focuses, he particularly drives this toward young people. You know, think about the day in which we live. I don't know that there are going to be often commercials, what you might see on social media, that's going to reemphasize for you what God expects and what God commands of you. You won't hear that. What you will hear is, go your own way, do your own thing, live for yourself. Your parents, okay, but you know, they're sort of old, they're kind of out of it, they don't really know a whole lot. We've got to go our own way and do our own thing. But God's way is actually very different. God's way says the best thing for you is to learn to be under authority. To learn to be, and there's a freedom in that, really. There's a freedom of living life the way that it's meant to be lived under authority. I've found this even just recently that I think it's a real temptation of young people And I want to say particularly if you're converted, you come to Christ and you begin to learn things, you begin to put into practice the Christian life, and there is a real tendency to think, Okay, I'm looking at the world. I'm looking at the way things have gone. These older Christians, they've sort of messed things up, but we're gonna be the difference. We're gonna be the future of the church. We're gonna make sure things go well. And there can be a sort of, well, it's pride. There's an arrogance. And all through the Bible, what the Lord says to young people is get ready. Get ready, it's good to bear the yoke when you're young. And that's a, what is a yoke? Well, it's an implement of training, of coming side by side with someone who is older and learning the steps of the Christian life, learning from someone who's actually been there before and has no doubt experienced many of the experiences that you have and will have. and can offer you wisdom and guidance and instruction. And of course whoever the older is needs to do that with gentleness and tenderness and care and respect for the younger, but that's the way God has determined that he's going to build up his church. The older ministering to the younger, Titus chapter 2 speaks of the of men doing that for young men and older women doing that for younger women in order for them to grow and mature and be trained, so to speak, in the faith. Lamentations 3, it's good to bear the yoke when you're young. And that yoke really is a sort of training mechanism for training of God's people. And so it's interesting to me that he sort of carves out in this whole section about humility and pride and speaks first of all to those who are younger and tells them be subject to the elders. I think the context would be the elders in your church, but the broader context is probably elders in general, you know, those who are older than you. God's way is really quite different from the world. And what God has determined the way that he wants things, the blessed life, the joyful life, is a life that really is lived in under authority. That's just God's way. We kind of understand, or the world's view of freedom is very different from that. The world views freedom as the absence of restraint. God sees freedom as walking in the paths that he's laid out for us. He said, that's freedom. The freedom to obey is an amazing freedom that a human being can have. And so he calls out young people. But then immediately he includes all of us. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. quoting there Proverbs 3, 34 and it's quoted probably half a dozen times throughout the Bible. James 4 speaks about the opposition of God to the proud. I want to come back to that. But the first thing, It's interesting in it, the language that Peter uses here. And I don't think it's an accident that he would say it the way he does. He says, clothe yourselves. In other words, he's saying, put on this apparel, put on this uniform, we might say, of really of a servant. Now where would Peter have, do you think, have found that image? What do you think was in Peter's mind as he's telling folks, clothe yourself with humility? It's almost the same wording. In fact, it's almost exactly the same kind of wording that is used in John chapter 13 when Jesus gets up from the table and he wraps the towel around his waist. He literally ties the apron. That's the Greek here. When it says, clothe yourselves, it's actually putting on the towel of a servant and tying it so that it doesn't fall off. because when you get to being a servant, you want to have your hands free, you want to have your legs free, you want to be able to work, and that's what Jesus did. He took off the outer garment and probably hiked up his robe and hitched it under his belt, and he took on the apparel of a servant, and I think it must have emblazoned itself upon Peter's mind and his memory for the rest of his life. That night was an amazing night, wasn't it? I mean, the Lord's Supper, you had the foot washing, the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the kangaroo trial, the arrest in the garden, the prayer in the garden. I mean, it was just one thing after another that must have emblazoned itself upon those disciples' minds for their whole lives. And this is one thing that Peter remembers. And he's giving that message to all of us that what God has called us to is to clothe ourselves to put on the apparel of humility and not just a sort of ornament. It's not a sort of a fake, you know, kind of appearance of humility. No, it is real humility that shows itself in acts of service. Jesus didn't just put on the thing and say, doesn't this look nice, guys? I'm pretending to be a servant. No, no. He put it on and went to work. He went to work washing those disciples' feet. And we know that that work that he did that night was simply emblematic of the whole work of his life. His coming into the world, Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2, was a great condescension. He took the form of a servant. It was his whole life's work to be humble and to be a servant. And he says then to all of us, take on that role. Be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Tie on the apron, so to speak, of humility toward one another. That's where humility actually works its way out in relationships with one another. That's where pride shows itself too. That's where we're gonna go next. But clothe yourselves as Jesus did, not simply in John 13, where it was visible, but really all of his life. And we could look at Philippians chapter two, Verses 5 to 10 that speaks about Jesus humbling and taking those stair steps down that led to the cross. You see, that's the Christian life. We learned about that in the J-curve, you know, down is up in the Christian life. Humility is honored in the Christian life. And so he goes on then to speak, well, let me put your finger here and turn over to Isaiah chapter 66. It's in what you might say is sort of part two of Isaiah, the gospel part of Isaiah that begins in chapter 40. And this is toward the end of the book, chapter 66, verse 1. Thus says the Lord, Yahweh, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?" Now we have to understand the context here. Isaiah had been speaking to the people, preaching to them his gospel of repentance, and predicting what was going to happen if they did not repent. And the response of the Jews, most of them, was to say, it can never happen to us. I mean, we're God's people. We're the chosen race. We got the temple. We're the people, right? We're God's own chosen race. There's no way that he could come against us like that. And this is part of what the Lord's response is. He could have said, you speak to me of the temple? What's the house that you would build for me? Well, what's the place of my rest? Do you think that somehow I'm going to be resting in you? No, it's the other way around. You will find your rest in me. All these things, everything that you can see, all these things, my hand is made and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. but this is the one to whom I will look. And it's the look there is not simply looking, it's ministering, it's coming close to, it's showing myself to, I'm gonna look to these people. You might hear like a turn of phrase, look to that. In other words, pay your attention to that, right? That's the idea. This is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble, and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." What is contrition? What does it mean to be contrite? Yeah, it has the notion of when you come and read God's book, and if you read God's book under the power of the Holy Spirit, you are often going to be brought up short in this book. It's gonna show you who you are. And the Lord looks to the one who reads the book that way, who reads the book to say, Lord, show me. Show me yourself. Show me me. You see? And he says, this is the one I'm gonna look to. It's quite foreign from the way we think. We think, well, God's gonna look at me because I'm doing great things. I'm obeying God. And certainly he looks at that, right? But he looks to the one who is humble, who when he comes to God's word and he reads God's word, he reads it humbly and he says, Lord, show me. show me myself, show me yourself, give me clear views of who you are." And when we see him, we'll be contrite. It's like this view that of an amazing being that we don't deserve to be in the same breath with. And yet he shows himself to us. He who is humble, contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. I'm reading a book right now. I actually read it. I'm going back to read it again because it's so good. It's Michael Reeves. It's on the fear of God. And the title of it is Rejoice and Tremble. And that's what it means to fear God, is to know Him, right? And when we know Him, and when we know what He has done for us in the forgiveness of our sins, and giving us His own perfect righteousness, we rejoice. But because it's Him who's doing it, and we know Him, who He is, we tremble as well. And the only word that really can do justice to both of those things, rejoicing and trembling, is fear. And for the Christian, it's not a bad fear. It's a holy fear. But it's fear. It's trembling. You see, the fear of God. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. So this is, we clothe ourselves by God's grace with that attitude. I was reading somewhere where someone was asking the question, what is necessary for a minister of the gospel? And they said, humility, humility, humility. And I think that's true of a Christian. Humility, humility. If you know God, Well, how can we be proud in the presence of God? It just doesn't fit, does it? And we might say, as well, what Peter then does is quote that off-quoted verse in the Bible, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He opposes the proud. That word opposes is a very strong word. It's a word that could be used with two armies that are lining up in opposition to each other. I think about, I'm a football fan, so I think about, you know, when the play is just about to begin and there's a line of scrimmage, you got these offensive, big behemoth offensive linemen and there's defensive linemen on the other side and their muscles are twitching and they just can't wait to whack each other and go to war. It's war. And this is the language that God himself uses with the proud. Now, remember something. Peter is writing not to the world. He's writing to Christians. He's writing to professing Christians. And he's not saying, this is what goes on outside. He's saying, no, this is in God's people. God opposes the proud. but he gives grace to the humble. God is dead set opposed to the proud. It's a war. Now, when James says it, it looks a little differently in James chapter four. It's almost as though in James that the proud man is going after the world. God's over here and his back is turned to God. He's completely satisfied. He's committing spiritual adultery. But in the same, it really is the same. To be at war with God is to be an idolater. It is, let's think about this a little bit, what is idolatry anyway? It, false gods, it's, and it really, it comes out of the human heart that wants I want what I want. I want to be satisfied. I want things to go my way. And so, I'm going to look for the created things to give me what I want. and the whole range of things, whether that's my job, or whether that's my family, or whether that's my status in the world, could be my status in the church, what people think of me, you see, that drives idolatry. We can make an idol out of anything. And most of the time, for Christians, it's good things. God's given you a family. He's given you children. But it's very easy for those children to become what makes me who I am. Moms can do that. Dads can do that. That they get their sense of who they are for how their children are doing. It happens. Idolatry is this slippery slope sort of thing. It comes on us. John Calvin said that the heart of man is an idol factory. We churn them out. It's like, you ever played that game of Wacky Gator? It's like, there's one idol, boom, and then another one, boom, another one, boom. That's the story of our lives, the story of my life. is putting pride to death in a whole number of ways. I'll just mention one at the early part of it. Getting a little joke, making myself feel better at someone's expense, someone that I love. That's wicked. It's wicked. And yet, that's how pride works. in taking the ordinary things of life, and rather than saying, God, you are my God, I find my satisfaction, my purpose and reason for living in you, I go to these other things, and this is what I want. This is what will make me satisfied or happy. I think we can do that with the gospel even. The gospel which satisfies our deepest longings with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but we can sort of internalize the gospel so much that it does not change us. See, the gospel is meant to change us. It satisfies, but that's not the only thing. It turns us then out of ourselves into the lives of others. And it's God or the gospel makes us God-oriented. not self-oriented. And I think that's a problem even in the Christian world. I've seen it where the emphasis is on how the gospel makes me feel. And again, we have to be careful there because the gospel satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart. But God's purpose in sending his son into the world was not simply to make us happy. It was meant to glorify Him. It was meant to turn our wicked, proud hearts to find our rest, find our comfort, find our joy in Him. and it's going to naturally work itself out with other people. You see, that's how pride works. Pride works in exalting myself over other people, worrying about what they think. What the gospel does is turn that around and makes me a servant to others. enables me to actually love someone else, expecting nothing in return, because I already have it, you see, from the gospel. And it makes me go out rather than turn inward, which is what sin and pride does. Humility is a giving grace. It's a receiving grace, but it's also a giving grace. We receive from Him, He humbles us, He gives us His own perfect righteousness, and now we want to give that to others. We want to serve in the way that the Lord Jesus Christ did. Does that make sense? God is at war with that pride. Now remember, Peter's writing this. How did Peter learn that lesson? And I don't think he learned it all at once. I think there are two places where we get a hint in the scriptures of how the Lord dealt with Peter. One, we've just talked about in John chapter 13. Remember that at the foot washing where Peter was reluctant to let Jesus wash his feet. He said, oh no, you'll not wash my feet. And you remember Jesus, if I don't wash, if I don't wash you, you've got nothing to do with me. Well, then wash me whole. You know, that was Peter just. And then later on, you remember, Jesus said, I'm going away. I'm going away. This is gonna, the betrayer is gonna come. The devil will have his, you know, time of darkness. I'm going away. And remember what Peter said? I'll fight to the death. These others, they may run and hide, but not me, not me. And Jesus said, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. Before the rooster crows. Do you think, when you think about this, in the first century, they didn't have alarm clocks. How did people get up in the morning? Rooster. Every day of Peter's life from then on was a memory, every single day. Think the next time when your alarm clock goes off, tell yourself, the Lord wants me to deal with my pride today. The Lord wants me to make me a humble servant today when that alarm clock goes off. That's your rooster crowing. Peter got that lesson. I say, got it. He had to learn it again. You remember Galatians chapter 2, where Paul had to rebuke him because he was treating the Jews and the Gentiles differently? That's fear of man. That's pride. That's how pride, one of the ways that pride shows itself is in the fear of man. I care more about what these people think than what God thinks. And Paul had to rebuke him to his face. I think publicly rebuke him. So Peter knows something about dealing with his pride. The Lord dealt with him and dealt with him and dealt with him about that and made him a useful, made him someone who could write this letter to these young believers and say, look, I know something of what I'm talking about. I know how deadly pride is. I know how it shows itself in all sorts of different ways. I think it's kind of showing itself even today in our world with the things that have happened. And I see and talk to Christians. They seem agitated. They seem anxious. They seem fearful. And it's like the response is, we gotta do something. Maybe so, but the main thing we need to do is to see what God thinks. What does God think of us? I've told you before, I think the Lord sent a prophet to the American church years ago in Francis Schaeffer. And he said, the idolatry of the American church is there after personal peace. They're after satisfaction. They're not satisfied with me. They want what I can give them. And I think that's probably true, the American church. I think we ought to look at ourselves that way. Is that what I'm about? That I just want the good things that God has for me? Am I willing and do I Am I taken up with who He is? I don't think our problem these days is necessarily a lack of activity. I think our problem is worship. It's who we worship and how we worship, giving Him the honor and the glory that's due to His name. You remember Jeremiah chapter nine? And verse 23 and 24, I'm gonna read it so I don't mess it up. Jeremiah chapter nine. Got to move on. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. What he's doing is saying, I can do this. I can do this. Self-sufficiency. But let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me. That seems kind of, that seems kind of, Yeah, very simple and almost ho-hum. Come on, Lord, give me something to do. You know, that's what we want. We want to be able to do something. We want to bring some glory to ourselves. But the Lord says, no, what you really need to do is know me. You need to know me better. You need to understand and know me. And a lot of these other things, I think they will happen. But we need a reformation in the knowledge and the worship and the glory that is God alone. And to pray, I think it will show in how we pray and what we think about prayer. That's the thing that's kind of troubled me a bit. Our first response has been more, what can we do? Rather than, oh Lord, what are you doing? What are you thinking? What would you have me to think and do and so forth? That he understands and knows Me, me. That's why I think our problem is more of a worship problem than it is anything else, is knowing Him and giving Him the worship that is due to His name. Do you remember, I think, what Moses, maybe Moses' shining moment? and the whole Exodus story and the whole panorama. You remember after the golden calf incident where the Lord just used human terms, I've had it up to here with these folks. Do you remember that? And he said, I'll give you the promised land, okay? I promise that and I'll give you the promised land, but I'm not gonna go with you. You remember that? And remember what Moses said? Moses said, Lord, if you don't go with us, we don't wanna go. I sometimes wonder, if the Lord sort of gave us a thing here and if he said, make a bargain with you, he said, I'm gonna take your country away, but I'm gonna give you more of myself. What would we say to that? What would we say? Would we take that bargain? We would be like the man in Matthew that found the treasure hidden in a field, sold all that he had, because he wanted that treasure. He wanted him. He wanted more of him, you see. That's humility. That's saying, Lord, you can have it all as long as I have you, you see. I think that was Moses' finest hour. And you know what happened after that? The Lord showed him His glory. The Lord is no stingy giver. He wants His people to know Him, to worship Him, and then He gives to them. more of himself. There's more of him to know for all of us. More and more and more. How do we receive? Humbly. Humbly. We come to the throne and we say, Lord, I'm nothing. I can't do anything. I'm speechless. He gives and gives and gives. That's his way. That's not the last thing, though, that he says, because here again, here's the character of God. He says, humble yourselves, therefore, okay, don't make me do it. Don't make me humble you. It's like he's saying, you humble yourself. The Lord lays weights, I think, on people because we won't humble ourselves. And so he's gonna weight us down. to humble us. And so he says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Whenever things go against us, But let's not be too quick to look to the second causes. You know what I mean by that? To the things that people do. Because if we understand our Bibles rightly, we know that everything that happens, every detail in the whole world is under the hand of God. It's the sovereign hand of God. And so what Peter is saying, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Don't try to get out from under it too quickly. Humble yourself so that at the proper time, whose time is that? That's his. That's his time. Maybe the end of the world time, right? At the proper time, His time, He may exalt you. And I love this, casting all your anxieties on Him. That casting is like, it's a word used that you're gonna throw the blanket over a horse and get ready to ride him. You throw that blanket, you just cast it. That's what we do with our cares, our anxieties, our fears. Just throw them on the Lord, just cast them. all the way. Why? Because He cares for you. One other incident from Peter's life. You remember he denied the Lord and then what happened? Do you remember? He's out in the courtyard and around the fire and the little servant girl. You're one of them, aren't you? even cursed, you know, with an oath at one point. And then, do you remember what happened next? He looked. He looked at Jesus and Jesus looked at him. Now, what do you think that look was? Do you think that look was stern faced? Oh, Peter, you're really disappointing me now. I think it was a look of love. I think it was the look that said, Peter, I love you. I'm not gonna stop loving you. And that broke his heart. I'm convinced that Jesus' look was a look that said, I love you. You belong to me. And he went out, wept. He didn't kill himself though, did he? whip. He was a believer. He's a believer all along. And yet the Lord has got to work him, deal with him, change him, show him his pride. make him to be a humble servant of the Lord. And he's going to do that with every one of his people. He's going to do it in different ways, but he's going to do that. Everyone. Young people, he's going to do that. If he loves you, he's going to do that. He's going to discipline you. He's going to show you pride. And he's going to do that for all of us. All of us, every one of us, he'll do it. Why? Because he cares. He cares. If you don't care, you don't do anything, right? He cares. And so he's going to do that for his people. I love that. Casting all your anxieties on him. Boy, we got a lot of them, don't we? And he says, just throw them all. Throw them all. Anxiety is about health. Anxiety is about national situations, anxieties about reconciling with people, anxieties in family relationships, any and everything. Just pray, cast them on Him because He cares for you.